The Gary Null Show – 01.18.16

William Pepper is a New York attorney best known for representing Martin Luther King’s accused assassin, James Earl Ray, to prove his innocence. Dr. King had reached out to William in 1967 regarding an essay he had written for Ramparts magazine concerning Vietnamese victims of American napalm missions and was present at Dr. King’s famous Riverside Church speech.

William was the citizens chairman for Robert Kennedy’s run for the Senate in Westchester Country and also a counsel for Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan arguing for a second shooter. Subsequently he has been active in the 911 Truth Movement and advocating that war crimes be brought against former president George Bush. William has received degrees from Columbia, a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts and his JD from Boston College. He has written a couple books on MLK and his forthcoming book “The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr” will be released by the anniversary of MLK’s assassination on April 4th

Black Agenda Radio – 01.18.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– President Obama’s State of the Union address, last week, marked the start of the Twilight of his presidency. We spoke with South Carolina activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray, editor of the book, “Killing Trayvons: An Anthologoy of American Violence.” Gray says Obama is still a skilled performer.

– In his State of the Union Address, Obama said that no country in the world dares to threaten the United States. But, if nobody is threatening the U.S., then why is America making war against so many people. We put that question to Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report.

– Cynthia McKinney ran against President Obama on the Green Party ticket in 2008. The former six-term congresswoman from Georgia recently earned her Phd for Leadership and Change, from Antioch College. McKinney wrote her dissertation on the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez. She appeared recently on peace activist David Swanson’s Talk Nation radio program, and was asked if there was any real difference between Obama and George Bush’s policies towards Venezuela.

– The poor island nation of Haiti is scheduled to hold another round of elections on January 24th. The problem is, almost nobody wants the vote to happen except the candidate for the ruling party, backed by the United States. The first round of elections, held last year, were widely viewed as rigged. However, the United States is demanding that the presidential vote go ahead, without fixing the process. Jake Johnston, a researcher for the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, says Haitians refuse to tolerate another fraudulent election.

– The Democratic Republic of Congo will hold elections, later this year, although it is not clear if President Joseph Kabila will run for a third term. At least six million Congolese have died as a result of invasions of the country by U.S. allies Uganda and Rwanda, and now the U.S. is fomenting regime change in neighboring Burundi. According to Kambale Musavuli, of Friends of Congo, the U.S. has conspired against the Congo for more than a century.

Resistance Radio – Brian Ertz – 01.17.16

Brian Ertz is board president of Wildlands Defense. He has spent the last decade resisting this culture’s depraved relationship to the natural world via grassroots organizing, national media initiatives, administrative and legislative policy advocacy, and in support of a variety of litigation efforts aimed at preserving a wide variety of landscapes and wildlife species in the West. Today we talk about the armed right wing occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

A Just Cause – Spotlight on Capitol Hill & Congressman Darrell Issa – 01.17.16

The host Cliff Stewart, Lisa Stewart and Lamont Banks will be shining a Spotlight on Congressman Darrell Issa, who represents the people of California’s 49th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, a seat he has held since 2001.

The Vinyl Experience – 01.15.16

VE 288 1/15/16 For David Bowie

Nina Simone: Wild Is The Wind
Flaming Lips featuring Neon Indian: Is David Bowie Dying?
They Might Be Giants: Au Contraire
Veruca Salt: With David Bowie
The Brian Jonestown Massacre: (David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six
Tori Amos: Not David Bowie
Bongwater: David Bowie Wants Ideas
Gary Le Strange: Outsider
Flight Of The Conchords: Bowie
Seu Jorge: Rebel Rebel
Iggy Pop: China Girl
Blondie: Heroes
Barbara Striesand: Life On Mars
David Bowie: Across The Universe

Alternative Visions – China Unwinding Stock Bubble and Its Contagion Effects – 01.15.16

Jack Rasmus continues analysis of China’s unwinding stock bubble and explains how it is connected to China currency devaluation, slowing real economy, and currency speculators in Hong Kong markets. How currency devaluation exacerbates stock decline and vice versa and how real economic slowing in China, now no more than 5% GDP annual growth, interacts with the other forces. China’s revolving bubbles, from property markets to entrusted loans and WMPS, to stock markets is explained. China’s $1trillion capital flight in 2015 and government policy makers spending of $500 billion to prop up stocks and currencies. How China’s massive credit-debt and liquidity buildup since 2009 is behind it all. And behind that the rise of shadow banks and the new global finance capital elite. Jack concludes with exploration of possible contagion effects from China’s continuing bubble unwind—on US corporate profits, stock investor contagion, on emerging market economies, and the parallel bubble deflation in global oil prices that continues. Jack concludes the global economy is moving faster now toward another financial crisis and global recession, which will be precipitated, he predicts, by China and then centered in emerging market economies. US and other advanced economies are far less prepared or able to contain the next crisis. (For deeper analysis, see Jack’s chapter 6 on China in his new book, ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’, January 2016, available from his blog at jackrasmus.com and on Amazon.)