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During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just Those Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico!
Images of the Day:
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned — Trump Played Golf While Puerto Rice Suffers! — Roland Sheppard
Notes of a Vietnam era naval aviator and historian concerning the Burns-Novick documentary: The most significant non-event, the one action that could have changed history but laid the groundwork for both the French and American wars over there was ignored in the Burns-Novick documentary. The setting was at Versailles and it is not a secret but its effect was so devastating that American, historians, generals, politicians and commentators are loathe to confront it to this day. Decades after our 1975 departure, four prominent “hawks” who campaigned forcefully and publicly for our intervention, (Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, Clark Clifford, McGeorge Bundy) quietly confessed that they had been wrong. That they conceded that “The Doves Were Right” is not mentioned in Burns-Novick. — Frank Nelson
“Except for the small revolutionary groups which exist in all countries, the whole world was determined upon preventing revolution in Spain. In particular, the Communist Party, with Soviet Russia behind it, had thrown its whole weight against the revolution. It was the Communist thesis that revolution at this stage would be fatal and that what was to be aimed at in Spain was not workers’ control, but bourgeois democracy. It hardly needs pointing out why ‘liberal’ capitalist opinion took the same line.” ― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
Videos of the Day:
This Week in Russiagate: Facebook and Black Lives Matter The response to reports of Russian-linked Facebook ads reveals the disdain by elite pundits and lawmakers to dissenting voices like Black Lives Matter, says Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report
Trump Pushes Coal and Wants the Public to Pay For It Mary Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, says Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry’s new proposal would change U.S. energy landscape for the worse
U.S.:
Vulture Capitalists Circle Above Puerto Rico Prey By Bill Moyers
Eight Months in Office — Over three months at his golf resort: Donald Trump spends 67th day at his golf resort while Puerto Rico struggles with hurricane devastation Islanders are struggling to subsist as they grapple with food and medicine shortages (3 days ago Headline) While Puerto Rico’s infrastructure lies in tatters and food and medicine shortages endanger survivors on the hurricane-stricken island, Donald Trump appears to have been busy practicising his favourite pastime. By Maya Oppenheim
Kaepernick, Patriotism, and the Perversion of Protest In the opening pages of his Symbolic Uses of Politics, sociologist Murray Edelman writes, “Political forms thus come to symbolize what large masses of men need to believe about the state to reassure themselves.” by Jason Hirthler
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: an activist with the Black Alliance for Peace urges anti-war and environmental groups to make their movements look more like the people of planet Earth; and, the chairman of the Jericho Movement talks about the plight of America’s aging political prisoners — in particular, the attack on former Black Panther Herman Bell.
The media is full of discussion, nowadays, about racist behavior, but not much attention is paid to the actual material conditions of Black life in the United States. Black Agenda Report contributor Danny Haiphong recently wrote an article on the precarious financial state of Black families. It’s titled, “Black America: The Wealth-less Community.”
Peace and environmental activists came together for an historic conference in Washington DC, to explore ways to strengthen collaboration between the two movements. One of those on hand was Rev. Lukata Mjumbe, a Black minister in Irvington, New Jersey, and veteran human rights and environmental justice activist. Rev. Mjumbe is on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.
The Jericho Movement does its best to represent the interests and welfare of political prisoners in the United States. The Jericho Movement’s list is shrinking, not because the U.S. isn’t creating new political prisoners, but because activists incarcerated in the Sixties and Seventies are dying off. The surviving imprisoned radicals still catch hell from prison guards. Sixty-nine year old former Black Panther Herman Bell was seriously injured when he was attacked by New York State prison guards, last month. Black Agenda Radio producer Kyle Fraser spoke with the chairman of the National Jericho Movement, Jihad Abdulmumit.
The news on corporate media is largely fake or non-existent, but there are a few broadcast outlets that serve the people’s information needs. One of them is WMXP radio, in Greenville, South Carolina, which is run by the folks at Greenville’s Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination. Veteran people’s lawyer and activist Efia Nwangaza is the Center’s executive director.
And that’s it for this edition of Black Agenda Radio.
Environment:
Cancer, thyroid problems plague West Michigan dump neighbors. In the 1960s, Wolverine used the 76-acre undeveloped land as a dump site for hazardous sludge waste generated by its former tannery in Rockford, where the company treated pigskin with Scotchgard, a fabric protector that repels water and stains. Grand Rapids Press, Michigan.
Trapped in the mountains, Puerto Ricans don’t see help, or a way out. In parts of Utuado, landslides have ruined homes and roads. Many people have little food or water. Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria, residents are getting desperate. Washington Post.
Where are the drones that could be saving Puerto Rico? We’re now decades into the age of unmanned aviation and the technology is clearly here. It’s the cash and the government motivation that are lacking. Wired.
Public interest groups decry EPA’s utility-friendly move on coal ash. A last-minute notification from the EPA left opponents with almost no time to weigh in on the disposal of a coal-power byproduct laced with toxics and tied to spills that have cost billions of dollars to clean up. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri.
New ozone pollution rules take effect over objections from Trump’s team. New ozone pollution rules are taking effect that are aimed at reducing medical costs and saving lives. But those regulations are the same ones that the Trump administration had wanted to rewrite and to delay. Forbes.
Egypt’s Nile River in jeopardy from dam in Ethiopia. Even without the Grand Renaissance Dam, the United Nations estimates Egypt will face “absolute water scarcity” by 2025 for reasons largely of its own making. USA Today. Stuart Rankin
Earth may be close to ‘threshold of catastrophe.’ The amount of carbon dioxide that humans will have released into the atmosphere by 2100 may be enough to trigger a sixth mass extinction, a new study suggests. LiveScience.
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Scientists find new source of radioactivity from Fukushima disaster Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated—in sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean. . . . Cesium has a long half-life and persists in the environment. In their analyses of the beaches, the scientists detected not only cesium-137, which may have come from the Dai-ichi plant or from nuclear weapons tested in the 1950s and1960s, but also cesium-134, a radioactive form of cesium that can only come only from the 2011 Fukushima accident.
Labor:
Economy:
3 Greedy Ways Corporations Are Cheating America While the middle class bought the work-ethic fairy tales, corporations reaped the benefits of tax cuts. Corporate cheating goes beyond federal tax reporting, as big companies have used various forms of deception to keep taking from America, especially with a complicit corporate media unwilling to report the facts about their behavior. By Paul Buchheit
World:
Catalonia prepares for mass strike The Catalan masses are gearing up for a massive strike movement today, as key unions commit to a nationwide ‘stoppage’ after facing brutal repression by the Spanish state during the referendum on Sunday. The referendum movement is developing a radical, working-class character under pressure from below, putting a Catalan Republic on the agenda. This is opening up a crisis with the potential to topple the Spanish regime. By Jorge Martin 
Spain in Crisis: Stock market crash over Catalonia chaos — ‘WORST outcome for Madrid’ SPAIN’s stock market came under pressure on Monday after Catalans voted in favour of independence, intensifying a political crisis in one of the eurozone’s best functioning economies. Spain’s government borrowing costs also surged, while the euro drifted lower against the dollar as investors weighed fallout from the violent police crackdown on Catalans on Sunday. This morning local officials announced 90 per cent of those who voted in the contested referendum on Sunday, which Madrid deemed illegal, called for independence from Spain. Around 2.26 million people took part in the ballot, despite police violence, representing around 42.3 per cent of Catalonia’s 5.34 million voters. By Ida Akerstedt
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
How Many Times Can the President Be Called “Unfit” Before It Undermines Confidence in America?
Quotes of the Day:
