That "thin blue line" of state terrorists

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.

Common thread to our twin disasters

May 28

GUEST: Dr. Oliver Fein, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Chair of the Board of the NY Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, talks about how COVID has changed the national healthcare debate.

PNHP NY Metro Chapter

There is a common thread to our twin disasters of racism and COVID. The state has failed to protect its citizens, or at least the 99% of them. The rich elite got a great deal of the stimulus money, as we knew they would. Our doctors went without protective clothing and masks. Our nursing homes became extermination centers due to lack of testing and substandard conditions.

And as always, Blacks are paying a much higher price. The state keeps itself in power by using racism to divide us. Trump and the Republican Party are just continuing the last hundred years of Jim Crow oppression, and it is tearing the country apart. The Democratic Party isn't much better. They are all talk while they get fat on the corporate gravy train. Look at our own Rep. Delgado. With ties to Wall Street corporations, he has resisted calls for a Green New Deal, for universal healthcare, and for a foreign policy based on respect for human rights. His "foreign policy" aide is an apologist for Israel,  who interned for an Israeli funded propaganda organization in the West Bank.

People like Dr. Fein, of course, are on the front lines in advocating for a fair and affordable healthcare program for everyone. The same program that every other developed country in the world already has. And the only reason we can't have healthcare for all is because the big insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street buy up our politicians like Rep. Delgado and Governor Cuomo to make sure their obscene profits keep rolling in.

Sometimes there is the heady feeling that we could throw all the bums out. That we could join together and march from city to city and from state to state, demanding that the corporations take their knee off our necks, and let us breath. We could then put an end to racism and corporatism and embrace our multicolored future.

We will march in the street, as brothers and sisters

May 21

GUEST: Cody O'Rourke, human rights activist in the West Bank and coordinator of communications for the Good Shepherd Collective, talks about his organizations commitment to exposing apartheid and ending the occupation of Palestine. 

Good Shepherd Collective

Cody and the Good Shepherd Collective are trying to get Americans to understand what it is like living in a racist police state. That work should be getting easier now that the vail of police good intentions towards Black people has been ripped off. We all see how African Americans are subjected to violence and discrimination during every day of their lives. Black communities have been under served and over policed for more than a century, condemning their children and grandchildren to grow up as second class citizens.

This caste system is what lies ahead for Palestinians, once the State of Israel has claimed all of the Holy Land for its own. Palestinians will get substandard schools, underfunded medical facilities and job discrimination. Moreover, they will continually be targeted by the police for extrajudicial killings in the streets and in their homes. They will live the life of perpetual bondage to fear and depravation.

Their children will be arrested, beaten, tortured and made to confess to crimes that they didn't commit. That is if their children survive the arrest. Each time a Black child leaves the house, there is distinct possibility that he or she won't be coming back.

Black Americans and Palestinians have so much in common. They have both suffered from the same state racism and hatred. They have both watched as corrupt and despicable national leaders have targeted them for political advantage. They both have at times rebelled, demanding equal rights and equality in a repressive society that offers little of either.

One day perhaps we will all rise up and overthrow these corrupt and racist leaders in Israel and the United States. Someday we will march in the street, as brothers and sisters, to reclaim our democracy for we the people. Until that time we salute the resistance, and organize.

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?

Using hatred for political power

April 23

GUEST: Shannon Wong, activist and director of the Lower Hudson Valley Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, talks about the role of racism in the attempts to sabotage recent bail reform legislation.

Is Bail Reform a Bust?

Shannon is a tenacious fighter. She takes little steps, but is always moving forward. We quickly got into the specifics of bail reform, what was being repealed, and why the issue is so important to all of us.

It comes down to a racist system, with prosecutors and the police often tipping the scales when it comes to a fair trial. The bail reform movement doesn't really get into why a racist system is allowed to function in a free society. Just like the early Civil Rights champions wanted the courts to back up Black students' rights to attend schools and colleges. Jim Crow was attacked piecemeal, one decision at a time.

It was left to visionaries like Malcom X and MLK to present the whole. Black people are second class citizens in a country that they had a good part in building. Their ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and enslaved for the wealth of white owners. After the Civil War supposedly "emancipated" African Americans, they were faced with another century or more of vicious Jim Crow persecution.

Can we stick to bail reform? Or are we misleading our fellow citizens about what the true issue is? Shannon is working on bail reform because changes there will affect many Black prisoners right now. But she doesn't pretend that the battle will be won on one issue. A society based on racism and militarism must come to terms with how to change. We must understand what in our history created this racist relationship, and we must come together to overthrow those in government who use hatred for political power.