by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christy “must have reasoned that nobody important would stand in the way of whatever he wanted to do to Atlantic City.” He’s stolen the residents right to vote, and is preparing to privatize the fire department. But top Democrats want to privatize the city’s water, too – and the local United-HERE union leader agrees. Black, Latino and poor people have no rights – and few allies – in corporate-ruled America.

by Frank X Murphy

by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner

by Danny Haiphong

by Kali Akuno

by Bryan K. Bullock

by Kali Holloway

by Ann Garrison

by Dan Glazebrook

U.S. Demands Global Respect, But Disrespects Its Own Black Citizens

President Obama’s polices, “both foreign and domestic, are the same as any leader of the Empire,” said South Carolina activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray, editor ofKilling Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence. U.S. corporate media “cried” about Iran forcing U.S. sailors to put their hands up, but the sailors “were given a greater amount of deference and respect than Tamir Rice got from the police, and that Michael Brown got from the police,” said Gray. “It seemed that Iran respected America’s sailors’ rights more than America and American police departments respect the rights of Black people” in the U.S.

Obama Most Aggressive Imperial President

Over the last seven years, Barack Obama has “asserted imperialist power more than any other president,” said Black Agenda Report senior columnist Margaret Kimberley. “Reagan tried to kill [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi, but then said, Oh, never mind; Obama actually did it,” said Kimberley. “Other presidents thought about trying to take out the Syrian president, but it was the Democrat, Obama, who tried to make that a reality.” Obama has “left no stone unturned in attacking the rest of the world.”

Obama Set Venezuela Up for Subversion

The “deceptive nature of President Obama” fooled lots of world leaders into thinking his tenure would be different, said Cynthia McKinney, the former six-term congresswoman from Georgia and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate. “During the campaign, candidate Obama was Abraham Lincoln, he was Franklin Roosevelt, he was John Kennedy, he was Martin Luther King Jr., he was all of those personalities we revere,” said McKinney, whose PhD dissertation was on the late Venezuelan leader Hugo
Chavez. “I think the openness with which people received President Obama was abused, and allowed the nefarious polices” of U.S. subversion of Venezuela’s government.

Haitians Say No to Another Rigged Election

Another round of Haitian elections is scheduled for January 24, despite opposition from nearly everyone except the ruling party and its U.S. backers. Irregularities marred almost half the ballot sheets in the first round of elections. “It’s not just opposition politicians who are formally against this process, but also a wide range of human rights organizations, diaspora organizations, religious leaders, etc.,” said Jake Johnston, a researcher for the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research.

U.S. Continues Legacy of Oppression in Congo

The United States is trying to influence upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, luring student activists with offers of money. Washington is always up to no good in the Congo, according to Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo. “The United States was the first country to recognize Congo as the personal property of [Belgian King] Leopold in the late 1800s,” said Musavuli. “The United States backed the killing of Patrice Lumumba, the first elected prime minister of the Congo. They supported a dictator who was imposed on the Congolese people for 32 years,” and “they supported an invasion of the Congo by Rwanda and Uganda that has taken the lives of millions of Congolese.”