Julian Assange is their nemesis

June 27

GUEST: Joe Emersberger is a Canadain based commentator who writes primarily for FAIR.org, the Canary, and Counterpunch, and previously for Telesur English, talks about Julian Assange, Venezuela and our government's attempts to limit freedom of the press.

President Moreno's betrayal of Assange

What a twisted tale the state tells about its war crimes abroad. In fact, U.S. exceptionalism has risen so high as to become our state religion. We invade other countries all in the name of "freedom," and are ever willing to drop bombs on them to "protect" their human rights. We killed over two million Vietnamese just to free them from the scourge of Communism.

For a state religion to work, all the writers, commentators and political leaders have to be on the same page. Those intellectuals who refuse to go along have to pay a heavy price, like Danial Ellsberg, Chelsie Manning and Julian Assange. The truths they reveal are just too damaging to the carefully constructed narrative.

In fact, how else would the U.S. population go along with invading dozens of countries and killing tens of thousands of people in the rest of the world? Now that the American Empire is in full battle mode, using its vast economic as well as military superiority to punish other nations, its distortion of reality becomes even more important. That is why people like Assange and Manning face long prison terms and torture for their crimes against the empire.

Julian Assange comes closest to the ideal of a completely free society. He has spent his career reporting on what the rich and powerful have really done to the rest of us. And he has proof in their emails and secret papers. The kleptocracies of the Western world are built on subterfuge and deceit; Julian Assange is their nemesis and has to be destroyed.

Joe Emersberger uses his writing skills to pierce the narrative of the aggressor states. In a world of conspiracy theories, he carefully documents the lies and treachery of the empire's leaders. As our freedom of the press is eroded, his position becomes more tenuous. Truth tellers will all have a price on their heads.

Defending Julian Assange is defending everyone's right to speak truth to power.

Not completely controlled by the major corporations

June 20

GUEST: Howie Hawkins, long time organizer for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and former Green Party candidate for NY Governor, talks about imperialism and why all the Democratic presidential hopefuls mostly avoid US militarism.

Green Party 2020

Howie is always a breath of fresh air. For years, th Green Party has been advocating for all the issues that the insurgent progressives have just now put front and center. And that is a good thing. In fact third parties have always influenced US politics in the same way.

There are still differences. The Democratic Party can't really get to Medicare for all because of the money it accepts from Big Pharma and the insurance companies. The party never gets around to challenging the "defense" budget because the defense contractors are so generous. And reforming Wall Street and the big banks? Or implementing a Green New Deal that will cut greenhouse gasses by enough to avert catastrophic global warming?

The existence of a Green Party keeps real reform alive. The flourishing of a Green Party exerts more and more pressure to reform the corporate bound Democrats. The party also sets the vision for a democracy not completely controlled by the major corporations. 

What savage capitalism has done to our species

June 13

GUEST: Susan Smith, former talk show host for "From Ferguson to Palestine," Director of Operations for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, member of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, and of the Community of Living Traditions, a residential community of Muslims, Jews, and Christians at the Stony Point Center, talks about the importance of the International Sanctuary Declaration.

Another Way to Keep Families Together

I was slow to see the value of the sanctuary movement. Strange, because I had worked very hard for the sanctuary of Central American refugees in the 1980's. The difference? I think I was using the movement during the Reagan years to highlight the suffering of Latin America at the hands of the giant military colossus to the north. The U.S. funded and trained the death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala, and refugees were able to tell these stories.

This sanctuary movement is different. It is the beginning of huge waves of desperate people trying to survive global warming and militarization, both caused by of U.S. policies. In fact the industrialized countries of the world will be filled with desperate refugees, all because there is no place else to go.

This sanctuary movement erases boarders and challenges the neoliberal practices that creates such chaos. We are all one people now, trying to survive what savage capitalism has done to our species. 

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

Israel is a rogue nation which repeatedly violates international law,  UN resolutions, and the human rights of Palestinians and Bedouins.   This outlaw and criminal  behavior  would not be possible without the  support of the United States and our taxpayer dollars ( $3.8 billion per year).  Since 1967 Israel has demolished 55,000 Palestinian homes - in 1948 Israel demolished 60,000 homes and terrorized  850,000 Palestinians into abandoning their land and homes.  Since 1967 the Israeli army (IDF) has militarily occupied  Gaza and the West Bank, and imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza,  intentionally causing shortages of food, water, electricity, and medical supplies.  This  year peaceful, non-violent  border protests by desperate Palestinians  were met with Israeli army sniper fire that killed over 200 Palestinians  including journalists,  medics, and  disabled demonstrators  in wheelchairs - IDF snipers  severely wounded  more than 20,000 protesters! 

With the relentless, violent and illegal theft of occupied Palestinian lands, homes, and farms  to build apartheid, Jewish only settlements  there are now over 500,000 Jewish settlers occupying over 200 settlements, outposts, and neighborhoods.   Israel has been condemned widely by the international community for it’s brutal ethnic cleansing and creation of an apartheid state where only Jews have full citizenship and rights.  

The non-violent BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions)  movement is attempting to pressure Israel to end it’s military occupation, secure equal rights for all (Jews and Arabs), and to allow Palestinians to return to their  stolen lands.  A boycott ended South African apartheid - hopefully, BDS will end Israeli apartheid. 

Eli Kassirer

Sorry, kids

June 6

GUEST: Andi Novick, political activist, lawyer, and local farmer, answers all the questions we might have about legally growing and using cannabis, this once forbidden product.

Ask your legislators to support small cannabis farmers

Andi, like most thinking people, has always been skeptical of the government's assertions about cannabis. It was said in the 1960's that some day big business would realize that it could make a killing selling weed and it would be made legal. That day has come.

The battle now is to make sure that local growers and small farmers make up the majority of suppliers. Organizing and speaking out is a way to make that happen.

I funny thing happened on the way to legalization. We discovered our nation's racism. We became more away of the evils of big business. And we took a hard look at whether cannabis is actually good for us. Andi made a good point. Like any potent drug, kids should not be using it to get high. Sorry, kids.

Last night I had the strangest dream.

Last night I had the strangest dream. My country had turned into a Christian nation, and everybody who wasn't part of the church, lost most of their rights. 

Suddenly, only Christians could drive on our nation's major highways. Only Christians could buy property. Our legal system had split into two forms of justice, one for Christians and one for the nonbelievers. In fact, nonbelievers were put under military justice, with few rights and long prison terms for being another religion. Even their children were routinely rounded up and sent to jail.

Some of the prisons for the nonbelievers were immense open air camps behind barbed wire. Christians could shoot into such camps at will, often killing men, women and children. Their fields were destroyed and we cut their food supply to keep them all at the brink of starvation. We didn't let them fish in international waters and routinely shot at their boats. Life for millions of non-Christians was made short and brutish, a sort of punishment for not being of the right faith. 

A funny thing had happened to my Christianity. I knew my religion was full of wise teachings, but I couldn't remember any of them. Now my beliefs were nothing but love for my country and hatred for all non-Christians. I didn't allow anyone to challenge my beliefs either. To me, anyone who questioned what my country had become were simply anti-Christians. 

Last night I dreamed my country had turned into Israel. 

Fred Nagel

Ashamed that we haven't done more

May 30

GUEST: Alan Davis, President of The Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund, Director of the WhyNot Initiative supporting social change, and founder of Conservatree Paper Company, the leading distributor of recycled paper, talks about the Patriotic Millionaires and their plan to create economic fairness instead of worker exploitation.

Patriotic Millionaires 

Some millionaires don't run out to fund rightwing candidates to give them bigger tax cuts. Some don't create charter schools to defund the nation's public education. Some don't try to privatize mail delivery to wreck the US Postal Service.

Alan Davis is a multimillionaire who talks about our tax system, exposing its role in grinding the rest of us into perpetual poverty. It is not a story you will hear in most of the U.S. media, or on NPR. We like to think of our country as the land of opportunity. Yet, a look at the divide between the rich and poor, we find that the U.S. has the worst record of all the industrialized countries.

Alan makes us ashamed that we haven't done more to fight for economic justice.