As neoliberalism tightens its grip

June 24

GUEST: Aldo Madariaga, assistant professor of political science at the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago de Chile, associate researcher of the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, and author of "Neoliberal Resilience," talks about the dangers to democracy that this economic system poses. 

Neoliberal Resilience | Princeton University Press

Aldo put together the pieces of neoliberalism for our listeners. It is an evolving concept, like a boa constrictor always tightening its grip. One might call it Capitalism, but it is more than that. Neoliberalism knows no boundaries when it comes to making a profit. It is the triumph of philosophy over our more common emotions like empathy and the need for justice. 

How societies get taken over by neoliberalism is a worthwhile exploration. So to is the end result of such societies. When the very rich take over all decision making, there is usually a revolt from the workers. That revolt is often co-opted by the billionaire class, that ends up funding racist demagogues as a way to hold onto their riches. Perhaps our fears of Trump are misdirected. It is leaders like Clinton and Obama who have actually paved the way for the collapse of our democracy. 

Trump is replaceable, but our broken system is not. When enough people lose faith, our government will fall, along with both its corporate run political parties. I think we came much closer to that point on January 6. And that seminal moment will come again, as neoliberalism tightens its grip a little bit more. 

Human beings yearning for freedom

June 17

GUEST: Raz, artist, researcher and recent Palestinian immigrant to the US, talks about her family's history in the West Bank and Jordan, as well as the new links she has established with local human rights organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and Mideast Crisis. 
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGbOxHAhwo

Raz gives a good speech, full of reason as well as emotion. Why should Palestinians in their diaspora be scattered to the ends of the earth because Jewish supremacists insist on having the Holy Land all to themselves? Haven't the people of the world decided that apartheid is a crime? That the settlement of land occupied by a foreign country during war is illegal? And when will Palestinians be counted as human beings with the same rights as everyone else?

Politically, Raz has come to join local organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace - Hudson Valley and Middle East Crisis. Recently she spoke at a Black Lives rally, comparing the racism that exists in the US to racism in Palestine. She described the many similarities of the struggle, from police violence to economic oppression. And she asked the question that we have all been wondering about. Will America's waking up to racial injustice here at home spread to their perceptions about Palestine? For the first time, advocating for Palestinian rights is not being seen as antisemitic, but as a human yearning for freedom. 

https://hudsonvalleybds.org/

https://mideastcrisis.org/

https://jvphudsonvalley.blogspot.com

He never uttered the word apartheid

For anyone familiar with Israel's treatment of Palestinians, there isn't really much new. The Israeli Army is bulldozing houses in the West Bank so that more Jewish settlers can move in. This "ethnic cleansing" is done so that new immigrants from Brooklyn with the right religion can replace Palestinians. 

Then there are the attacks on mosques using teargas and rubber bullets. There are the shootings and crippling of protesters determined to save their farms and homes. Or the beating and incarceration of children. We have seen it all before, like an old documentary film on Kristallnacht. 

The people of Gaza have endured much more: the genocidal attack on their schools, hospitals, power plants, and sewage systems. Israeli military assaults on Gaza always kill lots of children, hundreds in fact. The ultimate aim of the Israeli Army is extermination, and each new bloodbath tests the boundaries of what Israel can get away with.

What is new about Israel's murderous behavior is that more Americans are finally becoming aware of our country's role in perpetuating this carnage. The US protects Israel from the condemnation of the rest of the world at the UN. When it comes to more bombs, missiles and planes, the US is always there to arm and fund the monstrous Israeli war machine. And most of our Congress is simply paid off by the Israel Lobby. Our "progressive" Rep. Delgado, for example, rakes in $30,000 per year from the Lobby and has never uttered the word apartheid. 

Fred

Imbecilic tweets from the most dangerous man in the world

June 10

GUEST: Luma Nichol, writer, LGBTQI activist and Co-founder of the United Front Against Fascism (UFAF) that was organized to counter White Aryan Resistance, the Populist Party, and Aryan Nations in the Northwest, talks about today's anarchist movement.

Are today’s anarchists movement builders?

What if when the fascists come, there is nobody in the streets to fight back? That is not a question that you will find in our neoliberal media, which never wants our activism to go beyond the safe confines of our voting booths. Let the two party system and our Constitution deal with the far right when it raises its ugly head. 

Of course, history is full of examples of what happens when countries leave the protection of democracy up to their corrupt politicians and far right military. The January 6 assault on Congress is a case in point. The assault was planned and promoted by Trump and the Republican Party. And all efforts to protect the Congress were delayed by some top generals at the Pentagon. It was a dry run of an American coupe, only nobody in our media will describe it that way. 

Most lacking was any response in the streets by a unified antifascist movement, determined to protect our democracy from being overrun. Luma and I talked about how right wing racists were defeated in the Northwest. The Nazis and the Aryan Nation were met by even larger crowds of antiracist protesters, and their drive to organize in this region of the country was finally defeated. 

After orchestrating any number of coups in foreign countries, the US seems to be completely ignorant about how democracies get overthrown. Had key members of Congress been captured, Trump would have declared martial law and called on the US military to restore order. The vote count would never have been completed, and we would still be getting imbecilic tweets from the most dangerous man in the world. 

Arguably our most redeeming quality

June 3

GUESTS: Anna Shah, attorney and co-founder of Vaccine Appointment Assistance and Heidi Harrison, community activist and advocate, talk about obstacles to getting COVID shots into low income communities. 

Less likely to get the vaccine in low-income communities

Anna, Heidi and I talked about access to COVID 19 vaccine and why communities of color were initially left out. We covered the usual reasons, less internet connection and less free time or flexibility at work to get a shot. 

Of course, we looked at distrust in African American neighborhoods too. Blacks have a long history of being used in less than ethical studies. Why would this be any different?

We didn't cover conspiracy theories about an overreaching government or a profit obsessed pharmaceutical industry. Anna and Heidi both focused on what was more destructive to the health of minority populations. And the conspiracy theories they encountered there were based on a documented history of being treated like guinea pigs by white scientists in the past. 

We also left out the fact that both Anna and Heidi identify as people of color themselves. Neither saw their volunteer work as racially motivated, but as human response to those in danger. Perhaps our current plague reinforces that life affirming will to serve others in time of need, arguably our most redeeming quality. When COVID has passed, we should all sit down and read The Plague by Albert Camus.
 

What militarism and greed have done

 

May 27

GUEST: Mike Ferner, journalist, author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq, and former president of Veterans For Peace, talks about the identity crisis facing the American Empire.

Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq

Talking to Mike Ferner reminded me of the unusual group of people to which we both belonged. We had both ended up in the US military at exactly the wrong time. All through my training as a radio operator, news kept coming back that this one or that one had been killed. It was like being in a cancer ward. Of course, a radio operator in Viet Nam was the first platoon member to be shot in an ambush. Not only did you have an antenna on your back, but you also were the only contact the platoon had to the outside world. Radio operators got chewed up so fast that the Army was desperate to train more. 

In a twist of fate, I ended up at an Army camp near the DMZ in Korea. Mike became a hospital corpsman in a stateside Navy hospital. Even from those vantage points we came to understand the carnage and the destruction that the US military was bringing to a Third World country. We both ended our military careers certain that our country was headed in the wrong direction when it came to its brutal and wanton assault on Viet Nam. 

In the years that followed my supposed "service" in the US Army, I came to generalize. I studied the Korean War and concluded the US invasion and occupation of that country was another monstrous war crime that killed millions of civilians. By the time of US military interventions in Central America and later the Middle East, I saw my country as an empire, ever willing to murder any number of foreign people for geopolitical advantage and economic gain. 

The US empire depends on a majority of American people believing in its benevolent intentions. That is why many of us who have experienced US occupations and wars abroad have spent the rest of our lives speaking out. We are in a unique position to use the credibility and the high esteem that veterans are given in the US empire to point out its utter moral bankruptcy. 

And we can expose the Orwellian irony of our country's supposed wars for democracy and human rights. Our empire eliminates democracy, as empires have always done. Our empire crushes human rights, as all empires must do to impose their military will on subjugated peoples yearning to be free. Veterans have seen it firsthand, and if there is anything that we can do to expiate the guilt of our own "service" to the empire, it is to let our fellow citizens know what militarism and greed have done to our beloved country. 

Fairy tale worlds, like Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

May 20

GUEST: Ron Jacobs, writer for Counterpunch Magazine and author of Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies, talks about his latest article on Blinken-Biden foreign policy, entitled "Biden, Blinken and DOD."

Biden, Blinken and DOD

How is it that US citizens are so completely unaware of their own empire? 

The British were always proud of the fact that the "sun never set" on English soil. But most of our fellow Americans simply don't know the extent of US occupied territory. The less educated they are, the more likely that their sons and daughters have fought in some Third World country, and have come home to share their PTSD nightmares. 

But even the educated are clueless about what the US really does with all its economic and military power. That's because if you have learned the extent of US dominance, you have also been taught the propaganda of why we have left so many countries torn and blasted. 

Lesson number one is that any bad outcome (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Haiti, Somalia and so many more) were just good intentions gone astray. Invasions were always done for the benefit of the people. Maybe it was to bring education and freedom to women. Or to restore democracy to an oppressed population. All pure bullshit by the way. How can educated people be so stupid?

Lesson number two is that all bad outcomes (like killing  2 - 3 million Vietnamese) will be turned into noble failures by our educational system and our media. Many war torn countries will be judged "not ready for democracy," after all that red white and blue sacrifice. You would think that those war torn nations would show a little gratitude. 

Lesson number three. The weapons industry, the oil industry, the mining companies, etc. have nothing to do with America's serial invasions of other countries. No respectable media outlet would ever even hint at the basic truth that endless wars bring endless profits, and that US imperialism is mostly motivated by the greed of the very richest of our citizens. 

So ignorance is learned from a finely tuned propaganda machine. One that puts us in a fairy tale world, like Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.