A good start in their enlightenment

May 14

GUEST: Tunde Ebho, South African student and member of the Africa Team of the Black Alliance for Peace, talks about his work on connecting U.S. foreign interventions and the domestic war on African people and other oppressed groups. 

US Out of Africa! Shut Down AFRICOM

Most white liberals don't like to discuss warmongering by the Democratic Party. Whipping up anti-Russian propaganda, and championing military interventions in Libya, Venezuela, and Ukraine simply don't count when white liberals talk about imperialism.

Obama's "pivot" to China is treated in similar terms. Democrats praise him for withdrawing from the Middle East, rather than condemn him for a new escalation of the Cold War.

Tunde brings a refreshing view of the US Empire by focusing on its disastrous effect on Africa. Most white liberals ignore this continent altogether. Our mainstream media talks about China's "inroads" into the continent, as if only Western imperialists belong there. But the real story is the many US military bases in Africa, the many wars being planned and orchestrated by the Pentagon, and the appalling loss of life that has followed US military encroachment there.

Once white liberals can stop drinking the cool-aid of US benevolent interventions in the Third World, they might see how our country has laid waste to the continent of Africa for commercial gain and global dominance. A good start in their enlightenment would be the reading articles in the Black Alliance For Peace.

Time to read that declaration again

May 7

GUEST: Larry Wittner, political activist, author, and prominent American historian, talks about how wealth inequality and militarism make a country's citizens less happy and less willing to work together for the common good.

World’s major military and economic powers lack happiness

Larry Wittner taught at Vassar College in the late 1960s and has been active in peace and justice campaigns ever since.

I have always wondered about the "pursuit of happiness" phrase in the Declaration of Independence. Was it thrown in to round out the more important rights that all of a country's citizens should be granted? And what if a state does things that make the majority unhappy? Is that a valid grievance changing our form of government?

I feel that a large majority of our country is not happy with our government's distribution of wealth. Close to 90% of US citizens have wanted to tax the very wealthy more, and that polling result has remained remarkably consistent over the last two decades. Is it an indictment of our form of government that the will of the majority is so consistently denied? And denied simply because the very rich have bribed most of our "elected" leaders in both parties?

Time to read that declaration again. What are the rights of citizens when their pursuit of happiness is denied by the kleptocracy that has come to be our form of government? 

The world's Death Star of oppression

April 30

GUEST: Jasmine Rand, civil rights activist and attorney for the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice, talks about using the law to overcome racism in the criminal justice system.

Getting killed by police is a leading cause of death for young black men in America

Jasmine didn't speak like a lawyer, but like a grieving parent. I thought we would be talking about how to combat racism using the laws we have, including the right of families to sue for damages. We did cover that to some extent, of course. But most of our discussion was about racism. Why are Black families always left to themselves to achieve justice after a loved one is shot by police? What is money compared to having to live in a country that makes you and your family a potential victim based on skin color?

Why is my country such a killer? Why are some psychopaths armed to the teeth and allowed to roam our streets or protest inside our state capitals? Why do we send young men abroad to do the same in some Third World country? Is it our structure of government, a sort of decayed democracy run by the very rich, and plagued with a white underclass driven to racial hatred? 

And will the biological plague that is upon us lead to more racial targeting? Will Americans end up hating the entire rest of the world, like the Romans trying to hold onto their crumbling empire? How did a country that was a beacon of liberty 200 years ago become the world's Death Star of oppression?