June 4
GUEST: Omar Ocampo, researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author of the IPS study “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers,” talks about the implications of a neoliberal endgame for the American Empire.Billionaire Bonanza 2020
We will soon see what happens when a society becomes so unequal that millions come out to march in the streets.
Black lives matter to more white people than ever before. There was that time in the early 1960s when young people of all ages risked their lives during Freedom Summer. They traveled from all over the US to some of the most racists states, all in the name of civil rights. Many were threatened and a few died for the liberation of Black Americans from Jim Crow subjugation.
These current marches are somewhat different. Nor are they the race riots of the late 1960s when African Americans rose up in rage against their oppressors. These demonstrations are much more peaceful, apart from the police riots we see in all the major cities. They are also integrated, with youths of all colors agreeing that the time has come to stop police brutality and murder.
The youth of American seem to agree on socialism as well. A government run by the very rich grinds down all but the few. All but the very richest. So maybe young Blacks and whites understand that there is a common enemy, and that is the kleptocracy our homeland has become. One might say that it is a rebellion against the fascist police, but that may be missing the real point of the revolution. The police are brutal because the elites want them that way. How else to keep robbing the vast majority? If elections can't stop this call for social justice and equality, why it must come down to that "thin blue line" of state terrorists to save the day. This may soon be the class war that many of us have talked about, and even named our radio shows after. It is a dangerous time, for Trump might just be that billionaire supported fascist who ends our long and troubled experiment in democracy.
