Black Agenda Radio – 6.06.16

Welcome, this is Black Agenda Radio, the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford with my co-host, Nellie Bailey., here is a weekly hour of African American political thought and action

– Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says Black people have no stake in the Republican or Democratic parties. McKinney was the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2008. She has since earned her PhD in Leadership and Change. We asked McKinney if she has ever seen anything like the current disarray in both major parties this election season?

– Political activists from around the nation are planning to be in Philadelphia, in late July, for the Democratic National convention. Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a native Philadelphian, a member of the Black Radical Organizing Committee, and one of the organizers of last January’s national conference on the Black Radical Tradition. Dr. Monteiro says this is the most “consequential” election season in, perhaps, a century.

– Rev. Edward Pinkney is serving a sentence of 30 months to ten years in prison for allegedly tampering with a voter petition in his hometown of Benton Harbor, Michigan. The mostly Black city has long been under the thumb of the Whirlpool Corporation. Rev. Pinkney spoke to Prison Radio on how he became a political prisoner.

– Studies show that Black girls are suspended or expelled from school at six times the rate of white girls. Education Week magazine spoke with researchers on the causes of these wildly disproportionate punishments. Adrienne Dixson, a professor of Critical Race Theory at the University Illinois.

– The United States seems to be closer to its long time goal of overthrowing the left wing government in Venezuela. The Venezuelans say Washington is gearing up for a military intervention. Utrice Leid, host of Leid Stories, on the Progressive Radio Network, recently interviewed Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

Be sure to visit us at BlackAgendaReport.com, where you’ll find a new and provocative issue, each Wednesday. That’s www.BlackAgendaReport.com. It’s the place for news, commentary and analysis, from the Black Left.

Leid Stories – Election 2016: The ‘Inevitability’ of Trump and Clinton, and Other Self-Fulfilling Political Prophesies – 05.09.16

They’re distrusted, even hated, by significant numbers of voters, but Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton inevitably will be the standard bearers of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively, say the sycophantic media that created them, and one of them will lead us.

Leid Stories discusses another self-fulfilling prophesy: We’ll help it all happen.

Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman – Why Can’t the Nation & the Left Deal With Election Theft?

There are two things we all need to know about the upcoming 2016 election:
1. Millions of likely Democratic voters have already been stripped from the voter rolls in critical states like Ohio. The key reporting on this has been done by the great Greg Palast, who has shown that a computer program coordinated by the Republican secretary of state of Kansas is being used in some two dozen states to steal from a substantial percentage of the citizenry their right to vote. The raw numbers are high enough that they could have a significant impact on the presidential, US Senate, House and many other elections this fall. The ACLU has now sued Jon Husted, Ohio’s secretary of state, over the stripping of two million citizens from Ohio’s voter rolls.

Leid Stories – Election 2016: Wisconsin Primaries [Once Again] Exposes Dirty Party Politricks – 04.06.16

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the duopoly’s erstwhile “frontrunners” in yesterday’s Wisconsin primaries, both got trounced—Trump, by Ted Cruz, with 48.2-35.1 percent of the Republican vote; Clinton, by Bernie Sanders’ 56.6 percent of the Democratic vote to her 43.1 percent of the vote.

Experts and the media are busily dissecting the political upsets, attributing them to a wide range of factors, from personal appeal to campaign strategy and issues they championed. But there is little, if any, discussion about what the Wisconsin primaries really proved—that, once again, the system proved the process is rigged.

Leid Stories – Election 2016: Super Tuesday Fallout: WWBD? – 03.16.16

No surprise, really, in how things turned out yesterday–Donald Trump triumphed in three of five states, Florida, Illinois and North Carolina; Marco Rubio lost his own state and ended his campaign; Ted Cruz remained win less but is hoping to capture Rubio’s supporters in a long shot bid to remain in the race; and John Kasich scored his first victory, his home state of Ohio.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton bested her lone opponent, Bernie Sanders, in four states—Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina—with the final vote in Missouri too close to call.

As Leid Stories said yesterday, Super Tuesday “more than likely will cause a whittling of the GOP’s four-man slate, and on the Democratic side, a locked lead on being the nominee.” With Clinton appearing to have that locked lead on the Democratic nomination, the question becomes: “What Will Bernie Do?”

Leid Stories – Election 2016: Super Tuesday to Further Narrow Both Field and Focus – 03.15.16

It’s Super Tuesday (the third for this election cycle), and Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are in make-or-break primaries in delegate-rich Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. Results by the end of the day more than likely will cause a whittling of the GOP’s four-man slate, and on the Democratic side, a locked lead on being the nominee. Leid Stories continues yesterday’s discussion on what this all means to and for the rest of us.

Leid Stories – 03.08.16

Election 2016: The Duopoly’s Self-Inflicted Wounds Are A Timely Gift

The 2016 presidential primaries continue apace, with contests in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi today that will put Democratic and Republican frontrunners even closer to their goal of winning nomination. But there’s trouble—big trouble—in both camps that largely are self-inflicted wounds and the consequences of a fundamentally undemocratic process. The duopoly’s crisis is a gift we’ve been waiting for, says Leid Stories, and we should make the most of it.