Black Agenda Radio – 6.27.16

This is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. Your hosts are Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey, here they are with a weekly hour of African American political thought and action.

– The Great Britain will begin the process of leaving the European Union, after an historic referendum, last week. Capitalists all over the planet are upset. We spoke with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar with the Black Radical Organizing Committee, and asked: “Why are rich people on both sides of the Atlantic so worried about BREXIT.

– In what looked like well-organized political theater, 51 diplomats in the U.S. State Department acted more like employees of the Pentagon, this month. They sent an orchestrated message through the departments complaint channels, calling on the U.S. to launch a bombing campaign against the government of Syria. Meanwhile, U.S. war planes came to the defense of al Qaida terrorists who are under attack by Russian air forces. Sara Flounders, of UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition, says the State Department letter-signers are risking war with Russia to save U.S.-backed jihadists in Syria.

– The prosecution against the cops involved in the killing of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, is batting zero. A judge last week acquitted a police officer of depraved heart murder charges in Grays death. Carl Dix, of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, spoke to us outside the courtroom.

– Bernie Sanders has conceded that he won’t be the Democratic presidential candidate – and, lots of his supporters are in mourning. But Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best-known political prisoner, says activists must look “Beyond Bernie.”

– Some temporary employment agencies exclude Black job applicants. Instead, they send Latino workers to fill jobs for their clients. Alva Ayala is an attorney for the Workers Law Office, in Chicago. His firm has sued six temporary employment agencies and many of their clients for refusing to hire Blacks. Ayala says temp agencies do the employers’ dirty work, providing companies with the most insecure and easily exploitable workers.

Visit the BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday.

RON JACOBS – Homophobes Don’t Have Any Religion Other Than Homophobia

What pisses me off about the ongoing fallout from the massacre in Orlando is this: non-Muslims who hate LBGT folks are pretending that their homophobia and its presence in the entire social system in the US is somehow not responsible for these murders and/or is somehow different from the homophobia of the killer because he has a Muslim name. Tangential …

Leid Stories – 0 for 2, Baltimore Prosecutor Tries Third Time for A Conviction in Freddie Gray Case; Remembering Muhammad Ali – 06.06.16

Lawyers for Caesar Goodson, the Baltimore police officer facing the most serious charges in the death of Freddie Gray on April 12 last year, are in court today challenging the admissibility of key evidence. Goodson goes on trial tomorrow on charges of depraved-heart murder, three counts of manslaughter, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. While in Goodson’s custody, the indictment says, Gray suffered irreparable—and, eventually, fatal—injuries to his spine.

Attorney Alton H. Maddox Jr. disassembles State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Moseby’s handling of the case, which yielded an acquittal for Officer Edward Nero two weeks ago in a nonjury trial, and a mistrial last December in the case of Officer William Porter.

Leid Stories pays tribute to the world-renowned boxer and humanitarian Muhammad Ali, who died June 3 at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he was being treated for respiratory complications associated with his 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74 years old.

Neal Gabler – Why Hating the Media Could Make the Difference in November

As the political pundits keep reminding us, this might be called the “hate” election. Both major parties’ presumptive nominees, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, have historically high net unfavorable ratings – so high that voters are said to be casting their ballots against a candidate rather than in favor of one. The question seems to be: Whom do you hate …

Kiese Laymon – I’ll be so proud when my daughter is president and runs a corrupt oligarchy

Iwant my black American daughter to be president of the United States when she grows up – and to evade, at all costs, the question of whether a president of the United States of America can be morally just. I want her to wear boring outfits and pay white people to march in front of cameras after the debates and …

Mike Lofgren – How Washington’s New Rich Live

In 1927, H.L. Mencken rode by train through the Pennsylvania coal country. The houses he saw along the way were so hideous, at least in his eyes, that he was moved to pen his famous essay, “The Libido for the Ugly.” Mencken was writing about towns inhabited by coal miners and railroad brakemen, but what would he say if he …

Leid Stories – 01.12.16

Justice on Hold: Maryland Court Delays Cop’s Trial in Freddie Gray Case
“Attorney at War” Alton H. Maddox Jr., dissects yesterday’s ruling by Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals postponing the trial of a Baltimore police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Officer Caesar J. Goodson Jr., the driver of a police transport van in which Freddie Gray suffered neck and spinal-cord injuries that killed him on April 19, 2015, was scheduled to go on trial yesterday. But the appeals court halted the trial, saying it needed time to review the hearing judge’s decision to allow prosecutors to call as a witness against Goodson fellow officer William Porter. Porter, the first of six officers indicted in Freddie Gray’s death, was the first to go on trial; a mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a verdict. Maddox had predicted the outcome of Porter’s trial. He explains the “legal back door” that the prosecutors’ failing legal strategy has left open in this controversial case.

Leid Stories – 01.11.16

In Ferguson, Detroit and Baltimore, the Ongoing Battle for Justice
Leid Stories focuses on three developing stories with something in common: a quest for justice. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri today files a lawsuit against the Ferguson-Florissant School District’s at-large electoral system, saying it dilutes the voting strength of African Americans in the district and violates federal law. In Detroit, about 60 public schools are closed today, the result of a sickout by teachers over pay, working conditions and substandard support for the state’s largest school district.

Leid Stories – 01.08.16

It’s the First ‘Free Your Mind Friday’ for the New Year!

Here we are, at the end of the first broadcast week for the new year, and already inundated with things to talk about in our “Free Your Mind Friday” open forum. Call in (888-874-4888) and share your thoughts, opinions and analysis of current events—or other significant news and issues worthy of further discussion and debate.

Kali Holloway – The Shocking, Unacceptable Levels of Hunger and Homelessness in American Cities

The U.S. Conference of Mayors today released its 2015 Hunger and Homelessness Survey, which gathered information on 22 cities around the country between Sept. 1, 2014, and Aug. 31, 2015. The cities reported on are led by mayors who serve on the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness. A number of important findings emerged from the …