Black Agenda Radio – 11.13.17

Download this episode (right click and save) Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: a Black radical candidate explains how you can run a winning political campaign, even if you lose the election; and first, they stole the people’s right to vote, in Detroit, …

Flu Vaccine Effectiveness in Question

Flu season is rapidly approaching and, with it, constant reminders to get vaccinated. This despite the fact that mounting research suggests this approach to flu prevention may be ill advised for long-term health, and doesn’t actually work in the first place. In January 2015, U.S. government officials admitted that, in most years, flu shots are, at best, 50 to 60 …

50 Billionaires Receive $6.3 Million in Federal Farm Subsidies

Think federal farm subsidies only help out struggling family farmers? Think again. Fifty members of the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans—banking tycoon David Rockefeller Sr., Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, stockbroker Charles Schwab and dozens of other billionaires—received at least $6.3 million in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2014, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis. And these fat cats likely received even …

Peter Moskowski – The Billionaire Shit List, #20: Sergey Brin

Income inequality is at an all time high. The world’s 80 richest people have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent. By 2016, Oxfam International predicts the richest one percent of people will own more than every other human on the planet. Billionaires, however, are not a necessary part of our great economy. They are, in fact, a giant vacuum sucking wealth from …

Yessenia Funes – Hero or Coward: Could Skipping My Student Loan Payments Start a Revolution?

Every college semester, I filled out my financial aid application, hoping I would receive more grants than loans. Either way, my fate was sealed: I was a college student in the United States, so debt was inevitable. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Education are for 2012–13, my second year in college. That year, tuition, room, and board …

Interview with Elizabeth Henderson – Author, Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture – 08.20.15

Elizabeth Henderson farmed at Peacework Farm in Wayne County, New York, producing organically grown vegetables for the fresh market for over 30 years. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), co-chairs the Policy Committee, and represents the NOFA Interstate Council on the Board of the Agricultural Justice Project. For 20 years, from 1993 – 2013, she chaired the Agricultural Development Board in Wayne County and took an active role in creating the Farming and Farmland Protection Plan for the county. In 2001, the organic industry honored her with one of the first “Spirit of Organic awards, in 2007, Abundance Co-op honored her with the “Cooperating for Communities” award and in 2009 NOFA-NY honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award and then a Golden Carrot in 2013. In 2014 Eco-Farm presented her with their “Advocate of Social Justice Award, the Justie.” Her writings on organic agriculture appear in The Natural Farmer and other publications, and she is the lead author of Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (Chelsea Green, 2007). She also wrote A Food Book for a Sustainable Harvest for the members of Peacework Organic Community Supported Agriculture (aka GVOCSA) in its twenty seventh year in 2015.

Fracking Linked to Increased Infant Mortality in Alarming New Study By Reynard Loki

A new study has linked fracking to a higher incidence in infant mortality, perinatal mortality, low-weight births, premature births and cancer in infants and children. Funded by the Pittsburgh Foundation and written by Joe Mangano, co-founder and president of the Radiation and Public Health Project [3], a nonprofit educational and scientific organization that studies the relationship between low-level, nuclear radiation and public …

The Empire Lies: How to Fight Western Propaganda – Andre Vltchek

First they manufacture monstrous lies, and then they tell us that we should be objective!  Is love objective; is passion? Are dreams defendable, logically and philosophically? When a house is attacked by brigands, when a village is overran by gangsters, when smoke, fire and cries for help are coming from every corner, should we award ourselves with the luxury of …

Living the High Life After Congress

As the latest chapter in the curious saga of Congressman Aaron “Fly Me” Schock recently came to an end, there was an unintentionally, darkly comic moment. It happened just after the Downton Abbey fanboy announced his resignation from the House of Representatives. In an interview, his father, Dr. Richard Schock, told a Chicago TV station, “Ten years from now, whatever he’s doing, he’ll …

The IMF Proposes “Global Wealth Confiscation”. The Appropriation of Household Savings

As first reported by Forbes, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report.  The report paints a dire picture for high-debt nations that fail to aggressively “mobilize domestic revenue,” which is code for “aggressively tax its citizens.”  It goes on to build a case for drastic measures and recommends a series of escalating income and …