Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Do Americans Have No Shame?

There are many shameful things about this country but hypocrisy about its history is one of the worst. According to one researcher the United States intervened in elections around the world at least 80 times between 1946 and 2000. If the Russian government did interfere in the 2016 elections it is certainly no worse than than this country.

That was the subject of my latest column in Black Agenda Report. As always I followed up with my weekly Don DeBar conversation.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Obama and Clinton Brought Slavery to Libya

Such is the legacy of our first black president. Libya helped African migrants earn a living, but that was before Muammar Gaddafi ended up in Obama and Clinton cross hairs. Now these same people are being enslaved by the jihadists the United States, NATO and gulf monarch Arab states brought to power. Read my Black Agenda Report column here and listen to my weekly conversation with Don DeBar here. Don and I didn't just discuss Libya. Our conversation veered off a bit and we talked about other issues regarding U.S. policy in Africa. Sometimes digression is a good thing.

Goal of U.S. Foreign Policy is to Prolong the War in Syria

I was interviewed by Sputnik news last week as "a member of the Hands Off Syria Coalition." They added an article along with audio presented on April 9th. Read the article here.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Trump Joins Democrats in the War Party

In retrospect I see that it was inevitable. Whatever Trump meant by changing a relationship with Russia could not withstand the imperatives of the military industrial complex, the neocons, the deep state and the war party. The war party is an integral part of the duopoly and led by the likes of Hillary Clinton has become a requirement for accepted discourse in the democratic party.

Black Agenda Report features work from three of our team on this issue. Glen Ford, Danny Haiphong and yours truly all weigh in on the dangers that America poses to life on earth. As always I discussed this issue with Don DeBar.

Interview with Radio Sputnik "Goal of U.S. Foreign Policy is to Prolong War in Syria"

Yesterday I was fortunate to speak with Radio Sputnik. I was invited as a member of the Hands Off Syria Coalition coordinating committee. Unfortunately my references to HOSC were edited out but I think the 5 minute long interview sums up my feelings about Syria pretty well.

I don't know if Trump was ever serious about having a different relationship with Russia and eschewing regime change plots. Even if he was, the continuing charges of Russian influence, the congressional hearings and threats of impeachment have had the desired impact. Less than one week after saying that regime change was not a goal in Syria his administration now picks up the Obama mantra "Assad must go." He did not eschew American intervention altogether. The plan was to partition Syria into zones of influence and continue the practice of destroying secular Arab regimes by other means.

Now the U.S. is in direct conflict with Russia. And we are living in very dangerous times.

USA: Arrests made during NYC anti-war protest

We had to protest Trump's attack on Syria. Several hundred people gathered with less than 24 hours notice.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: When Black Misleaders Act Like Republicans

I'm going to admit I had no idea who was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. I found out last week but not for a good reason. Catherine Pugh is the mayor and I learned her name after she vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage in that city. It is currently $8.75 per hour and the city council voted to raise it to $15.00 over a five year period.

She did so by parroting a favorite republican talking point which claims that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. There is no proof of this. She also pleaded poverty, that is to say that paying municipal workers more money would increase the budget deficit. But Baltimore gives tax breaks to big business and that certainly takes money out of the treasury. She said nothing about changing that drain on public funds.

I could go on, but Pugh is just one of the black misleaders, the people who use the rest of us to become errand boys and girls for the democratic party. They get elected office and other high positions and do absolutely nothing that benefits the masses of black people. They lead us to poverty and to political confusion and we must fight them before we fight anyone else.

You can read my analysis in Black Agenda Report and listen to my weekly interview with Don DeBar. By the way, Pugh's act was so awful that BAR had to do a double beat down. Danny Haiphong also weighed in on this issue.

Vladimir Putin and Climate Change

I respect Vladimir Putin for many reasons. I have defended him from the lies told by imperialist politicians and the corporate media. The war party, which is made up of democrats and republicans, wants regime change in Russia. Simply put, the crumbling empire can't sustain itself without controlling this enormous energy rich country which spans two continents. Russia has been turned into an enemy because it insists on exercising its rights as a sovereign nation. It has also stepped back into the breach and foiled America's regime change plot in Syria. That is one of the reasons it is being condemned daily and blamed for the democratic party's self-inflicted wounds.

Having said all of that, I must say that I was extremely disappointed to read Putin's recent remarks on climate change. In the past he did acknowledge that humans were impacting the climate and correctly called the situation a dangerous crisis. But a few days ago he said that climate change was irreversible and besides not caused by humans and what the hell, a melting arctic will give Russia new economic opportunities.

Of course human CO2 production is responsible for dead coral reefs and blistering heat and methane gas bubbles threatening to explode in Russia itself. But it is also important to point out that the world has reached this point because other world leaders feel as Putin does. They may talk a good game but every so-called climate agreement results in sleight of hand and more global warming.

At Black Agenda Report we have been writing about this hypocrisy for a long time. See here, here and here too. Barack Obama marketed himself as an environmentalist, but he made sure that the Copenhagen and Paris agreements gave rich nations the right to keep spewing fossil fuels. What good is a climate change agreement that allows temperatures to keep rising? The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and India have all managed to give the appearance of lowering CO2 emissions when they have done just the opposite.

I call Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau the Obama Clone because he is also a photogenic errand boy for the 1%. Under Trudeau Canada has failed to meet even the weak emissions reductions targets set by his conservative predecessor. And yes, when Trump announced he was going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, the phony progressive Trudeau showed his true colors and called it a good thing.

We may defend or condemn world leaders for particular reasons but in the end few of them make decisions based on the interests of humanity. Those who do are the true revolutionaries.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Is Trump the DNC Hacker?

I have said many times that I don't believe the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Democrats are flogging this horse in order to make the case for a 21st century cold war and to divert attention from their electoral failures.

I did not realize that Nigel Farage met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London a few weeks ago. An observant reader pointed this out to me. I have connected my own dots and concluded that Donald Trump and or his associates hacked the Democratic National Committee. I also think they did it without any help from Russia. That is the subject of my Black Agenda Report column which you can read here and my weekly convo with Don DeBar which you can listen to here.

14 Black, Latino teenage girls missing in Washington DC in 2 weeks

I spoke about the missing children in a Presstv interview.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: When America Interfered in a Russian Election and Hillary Returns

The democrats breathlessly claim that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump and that Vladimir Putin ordered this interference personally and that the alleged meddling is and I quote, "An act of war." The democratic party is in a death spiral of failure and a crisis of legitimacy. Blaming Russia kills two birds with one stone. They continue their ratcheting up of the 21st century cold war and distract attention from their pathetic state.

But I argue that even if this account is accurate, and I doubt it, the Russian government only did what the Clinton administration carried out in 1996. In that year a group of political consultants affiliated with Clinton fixer Dick Morris worked to help Boris Yeltsin be re-elected. Yeltsin's poll numbers were well behind those of his communist party rival. The American helpers went to Moscow and manipulated the process to keep Yeltsin and the oligarchs in power. Act of war? Well, its a good thing the Russians didn't feel that way. I dissected this sorry episode in my column in the March 15th issue of Black Agenda Report. I also discussed it with my Don DeBar in CPR News that week.

This week I analyzed the troubling prospect of Hillary Clinton's refusal to disappear. She is back in campaign mode. It is obvious that she must be smacked down but she still runs the democratic party and no one seems willing to hammer a stake into her heart. Hillary Returns is my column and I discussed it with Don DeBar here.

Guest on Edward Rhymes "Rhymes Reasons"

Check Out Current Events Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with DrRhymes on BlogTalkRadio with Rhymes Media Group on BlogTalkRadio

I had a great conversation with Edward Rhymes tonight. We talked about my recent Black Agenda Report columns. A good use of your time.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Trump and Russia, the Perfect Lie

I don't believe that the Russian government interfered in the election. But the story won't die because the corporate media, and democrats and republicans in the war party won't let it. Two birds are killed with this stone. The imperialists get to make the case for hegemony by making Russians out to be the villains and democrats distract their passive rank and file from demanding answers about the electoral debacle.

Read my Black Agenda Report column here and listen to my weekly discussion with Don DeBar here.

Radio Sputnik "Democrats Seek to Delegitimize Trump to Distract Attention from Their Failures"

That is what I said in a Sputnik news interview. They wrote an article too. Very nice of them. You can read it here.

Lynne Stewart at 2015 UNAC Conference

I co-chaired the panel Free All Political Prisoner at the 2015 UNAC conference. Lynne Stewart was among the speakers. This is a treasured memory.

Lynne Stewart

Lynne Stewart passed away this evening at the age of 77. She was an indefatigable defender of human rights, a superior trial attorney who fought for clients others wouldn't defend. So the government put her in jail at the age of 70 after she was diagnosed with cancer.

She was granted compassionate release on December 31, 2013. I joined with hundreds of others to welcome her home at Laguardia airport the next day. Ralph Poynter, her devoted husband, worked tirelessly on her release.

This photo was taken at the 2015 United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) conference in Secaucus, New Jersey. I was co-chairing a panel on political prisoners and Lynne was one of our speakers. And Ralph of course was always at her side.

If you don't know Lynne's story you read Glen Ford's words on the occasion of her 74th birthday in 2013. Chris Hedges also gives good background on her case here.

My condolences to Ralph, her children and grand children and to all who loved her.

Radio Sputnik Interview

Today I was interviewed on Radio Sputnik. I talked about my last Black Agenda Report column, Liberals Expose Themselves. I explain why resisting the democrats is as important as resisting Trump. After all their corruption, arrogance and incompetence put him in office. This is a good use of eight minutes of your time.

J20 Resist

I spoke at the J20 protest on inauguration day in Washington. Here is a very brief snippet of my words.

It was a very powerful day. See my January 22nd post for more details about that amazing day.

Margaret Kimberly of Black Agenda Report - "Trump isn't our friend - but neither are the democrats - both want war & profit @DisruptJ20 pic.twitter.com/pXUFx5awZ5

— #J20 ☭ RESIST (@j20resist) January 20, 2017

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Liberals Expose Themselves

Liberals love the status quo more than they love anything else. What little ideology they have is love for the bourgeoisie and they support democratic politicians based on imagery more than principles. They don't want to fight the corrupt system that democratic politicians depend on and support. They can love war if a democratic president loves war, and they hate the left more than they hate the right.

I analyzed this issue in my Black Agenda Report column, Liberals Expose Themselves and then discussed it with Don DeBar. Listen to our conversation here. The so-called resistance to Trump is a joke, because the resistance should have started with the democratic party, the biggest obstacle to progressive change in this country.

You Have No Rights the Customs and Border Patrol Need Respect

Ever since Donald Trump ordered a travel ban against citizens of seven Muslim countries, there have been reports of heightened enforcement against undocumented immigrants and of international travelers who have a right to be in the country.

Just this weekend two stories received media attention. An Australian writer named Mem Fox was detained for two hours in Los Angeles despite having a valid visa. A French academic named Henry Rousso was detained for ten hours in Houston and was on the verge of being deported. Only swift action from American colleagues allowed him entry. There will be more and more stories like these as the Trump administration unleashes an attack on immigrants. But we can't forget that these incidents aren't new.

In 2010 I wrote about Customs and Border Patrol agents patrolling cities and towns in upstate New York for my Black Agenda Report column. They have authority to act anywhere within 100 miles of the border. Speaking of borders, the U.S./Canadian border appears to be particularly troublesome. A Muslim American writer and her family were detained there in 2013 after returning from a wedding. All were citizens, all had valid passports. But Muslims, so who cares? That same year a white Dutchman was refused entry because he had visited Muslim nations and packed a raincoat. (They actually asked him about the raincoat.)

A very troubling story emerged several days ago when passengers on a Delta airlines flight from San Francisco to New York were required to present I.D. upon disembarking from their plane. CPB claimed that a person scheduled for deportation might have been on the flight, but that raises many questions. Doesn't the airline know who is onboard? Isn't there a manifest? I wonder if such a person even existed or if this is a new way to introduce constant surveillance over our lives.

Customs and Border Patrol(CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now feel that "the shackles have been taken off" as the Trump administration makes clear that all undocumented people are in effect scheduled for deportation. The Obama administration deported more people, at least 2.5 million than any other president. Asylum seekers from African countries were given special and unwanted attention as their claims were routinely denied.

Donald Trump won the presidency in large part because he vowed to build a wall on the Mexican border. The CPB and ICE are obviously anxious to go about the business of targeting people for removal and like all law enforcement they have no concerns for civil liberties. In fact, we have no rights at all at airport customs. It is treated as a legal no mans land and unless a targeted person has outside help like Henry Rousso, he or she is doomed to face whatever treatment the CBP wants to mete out.

The situation will be worse for legal and undocumented immigrants and for international travelers too. But this situation did not spring fully formed from Donald Trump's head. There is a long history of fascistic behaviors at these police agencies and no one was ever safe from them. All an air traveler need do is claim a feeling of unease near a Muslim fellow traveler and voila... The Muslim is kicked off the plane. And yes this happened before Trump. Continuity is the watch word on this and every other Trump policy.