22 December 2016 — Black Agenda Report
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
Before judges and state officials aborted it, the attempted recount initiated by Green Party candidate Jill Stein revealed and confirmed specific patterns of widespread interstate electoral tampering in the presidential election just past that zero in on black and brown communities. The craven need of Hillary and the Dems to blame the Russians for their loss proves that they own the current broken and rigged US electoral system just as much Republicans.
The Democratic and Republican Paths to Fascism
by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
The masks have come off, revealing the face of fascism among the Democrats. With War Fascism supreme in one party, and White Supremacist Fascism at the helm in the other (also warlike) party, it appears that “the winner of the 2016 election was the bipartisan, multi-ethnic War Party.” The Left can’t “game” this situation, or fool with the CIA. “For Black and brown folks and white progressives, there can be no alliance with either faction.”
Freedom Rider: Syria, Russia and American Desperation
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Legions of people will protest Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Democratic rank and file “are anxious about racism, immigration, Islamophobia, judicial appointees and voter suppression,” but their leaders have a different agenda. War Democrats and Republicans care only about maintaining imperialism — through lies and repression. The bipartisan War Party is desperate to continue its regime change policies and foil improved relations with Russia.
Go to DC to Fight for Black Self-Determination – Not for Clinton and the CIA
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Black folks who should be shouting defiance to racists from both parties will instead hurl insults at Vladimir Putin and join hands with the CIA and war profiteers next month, in Washington. However, there will be another presence in DC. The Black is Back Coalition “will declare to the world its intention to fight for Black self-determination in every aspect of life, ‘despite the rise of Donald Trump and his version of white nationalism.’”
US Imperialism is at a Dead End, But Why?
by Danny Haiphong
Imperialism is stuck in a rut, and can’t get out. “Every time the imperialist system attempts to expand economically, the sheer impoverishment of the exploited classes ensures that such maneuvers will lead to a loss in the overall rate of profit.” War used to be the answer, but no more: “US imperialism’s expansion of the war apparatus no longer brings economic tranquility. Rather, war is just another agent of chaos and crisis.”
Oh, what a night…by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Our poet shares a scene from a late nite NYC subway ride home from this years National Writers Union holiday party.
Under Amazon’s CIA Cloud: The Washington Post
by Norman Solomon
When the national political “newspaper of record” is owned by a business partner of the CIA, every word on its pages should be suspect. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is in financial bed with a cloak and dagger agency that tells lies for living, yet the public is expected to believe his newspaper. Bezos’ technicians at Amazon are building information “clouds” for the CIA — while his reporters discharge clouds of disinformation at the Post.
U.S. Corporate Media: Liar, Liar, with Pants on Fire
by Ron West
Among the multiplying fables and fake news eagerly disseminated by U.S. corporate media is the claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the alleged hacking of U.S. Democrats. Sources within U.S. intelligence agencies are cited. Why anyone would believe anything out of a U.S. spook’s mouth is a mystery. The major U.S. media are so heavily infiltrated with spies, they are totally discredited, too.
Don’t believe the Russia hype: Who profits from the new Red Scare?
by our friends at This Is Hell Radio
It’s an old habit for us. We inflated the threat of Russia for years and years to justify spending untold billions on the military, and that went away when the Soviet Union fell apart. But now it’s back and once again we’re saying not only do the Russians have forces to invade Western Europe, but they thought of a new wrinkle – through their fiendish cyber-cunning, they changed the course of US politics and elected Donald Trump. It’s completely insane.
Journalist Andrew Cockburn examines the recent hype around Russia as existential threat to world security and American democracy, and finds dubious intelligence and a servile media pushing conflict in service of a failed political campaign in need of a scapegoat, and a bloated military in need of a target to justify its budget.
Andrew wrote the cover story The New Red Scare in the December issue of Harper’s.
Journalist Andrew Cockburn examines the recent hype around Russia as existential threat to world security and American democracy, and finds dubious intelligence and a servile media pushing conflict in service of a failed political campaign in need of a scapegoat, and a bloated military in need of a target to justify its budget.
Andrew wrote the cover story The New Red Scare in the December issue of Harper’s.
Haitians Say “No” to the Imperialists and Their “Banana Man”
by Èzili Dantò
Five years ago, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton imposed a criminal right-wing regime on the militarily occupied people of Haiti. Now the U.S. and its allies have rigged yet another Haitian presidential election. “The CIA and US government have been busy creating new gangsters, terrorists and drug dealers in Haiti, as they’ve done in Jamaica, Syria, Venezuela and Libya to serve U.S. goals and interests.”
Sundiata Acoli – “They are Determined to Bury Him Alive”
by Michael Z. Muhammad
He will turn 80 in January, but a New Jersey parole board wants to keep Sundiati Acoli in prison another 15 years. Just two years ago, a panel of judges ordered the parole board to “expeditiously set conditions” for the release of the former Black Panther, arrested with Assata Shakur in the death of a New Jersey state policeman in 1973. He has been eligible for parole for almost a quarter century.
What Should Reparations for Slavery Entail?
by Ama Biney
In the light of the former British Prime Minister’s dismissal of reparations, activists must push the debate further by detailing what reparations should entail. Fundamental to a reparations program must be the fact that we transform the system of capitalism which slavery gave birth to. We must initiate a “trans-Atlantic dialogue on reparations, as well as creating progressive
Black Agenda Radio for Week of Dec 19, 2016
Cop Unions Try to Gut Newark Review Board
Haitians Protest Theft of Election — Again
East Aleppo Liberated from U.S.-Backed Jihadists
Honoring Activists While They Still Live
The New Dark Age 