RAMZY BAROUD – Politics Not As Usual: Is This the Age of American Fascism?

Regardless of the outcome of the American presidential primaries, or even the result of the general elections next November, a frightening phenomenon is under way. The US has decidedly moved to the Right, in fact the Ultra-Right; class differences are more pronounced than ever before, thanks to decades of neoliberal policies, the kind of capitalism that has concentrated the wealth …

As European Women Stream to ISIS, This Reformed Extremist Is Offering Them a Different Path

Yasmin Mulbocus clutches her hijab as she sees images on TV of young women returning home from Syria. She hears them talk about how they escaped from the clutches of ISIS. Mulbocus sees herself in them—her former self. This 40-year-old mother of three with piercing black eyes, who speaks at what seems like a thousand words a minute, who elicits …

Smart Show (goharrison) with Cary Harrison – 03.07.16

Guest 1: Arun Kundnani is the author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror and a lecturer at New York University. Sarah Lazare reports for AlterNet in “The FBI Has a New Plan to Spy on High School Students Across the Country,” that: “Under new guidelines, the FBI is instructing high schools across the country to report students who criticize government policies and ‘western corruption’ as potential future terrorists, warning that ‘anarchist extremists’ are in the same category as ISIS and young people who are poor, immigrants or travel to ‘suspicious’ countries are more likely to commit horrific violence.
“Based on the widely unpopular British ‘anti-terror’ mass surveillance program, the FBI’s ‘Preventing Violent Extremism in Schools’ guidelines [PDF], released in January, are almost certainly designed to single out and target Muslim-American communities. However, in its caution to avoid the appearance of discrimination, the agency identifies risk factors that are so broad and vague that virtually any young person could be deemed dangerous and worthy of surveillance, especially if she is socio-economically marginalized or politically outspoken.

“This overwhelming threat is then used to justify a massive surveillance apparatus, wherein educators and pupils function as extensions of the FBI by watching and informing on each other.”

He said today: “The document aims to encourage schools to monitor their students more carefully for signs of radicalization but its definition of radicalization is vague. Drawing on the junk science of radicalization models, the document dangerously blurs the distinction between legitimate ideological expression and violent criminal actions.

“In practice, schools seeking to implement this document will end up monitoring Muslim students disproportionately. Muslims who access religious or political material will be seen as suspicious, even though there is no reason to think such material indicates a likelihood of terrorism.”

Guest 2: Dr. Francis Boyle – Talking about Zika Virus man-made as a GMO. Francis Anthony Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois with degrees from the University of Chicago, magna cum laude from Harvard Law , and further Ph.Ds. from Harvard University.

Guest 3: Tracy Rosenberg, author of Pacifica in Exile Newsletter. In an unsigned blast, former Pacifica IED Margy Wilkinson attacked her colleagues on the national board who assisted her in taking over national leadership in 2014 (including several she called “workables” in her notepad) accusing them of “grabbing KPFA’s money” and “redirecting it”.

The board’s 11-5 vote that the bequest had been redirected incorrectly to KPFA’s exclusive use by Wilkinson was taken on October 29th. Taking advantage of the board’s penchant for confidentiality, Wilkinson characterized the contents of the 60-pages of related documents no one besides the board is being allowed to see for more than a week.

Wilkinson, PNB treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert, and LA-based KPFA listener rep Jose-Luis Fuentes bitterly fought the release of the documentation on Thursday night to the local station boards. Wilkinson secretly set up a duplicate nonprofit foundation in California using Pacifica’s mission statement to acquire Pacifica’s broadcasting licenses under her sole control “should Pacifica go bankrupt”.

Wilkinson ends her screed with the comment that members of the slate opposed to her own Siegel/Brazon faction “Members of the UCR slate have long championed replacing unionized staff with volunteer-produced programming”.

Wilkinson in a last-minute maneuver on her very last day as Pacifica’s director appointed slate-mate Leslie Radford, an unqualified community college instructor, as KPFK’s general manager. Radford has been aggressively replacing unionized staff with volunteer-produced programming in LA and created the biggest labor crisis for Pacifica in 16 years, with more than 20 different grievances being arbitrated with the SAG-AFTRA union, including withheld seniority pay, pension deposits and union dues totaling more than $100,000 by Wilkinson as Pacifica’s IED.

Melting Pot host/producer Michael Barnes became the 4th KPFK show host to quit on air Friday night saying “he was done with the place and how badly it was being managed”.

The cognitive dissonance indicates that Wilkinson herself does not have a consistent set of beliefs about how Pacifica should be run, only a willingness to do whatever she believes necessary for her own faction to remain in power until she is able to un-hook KPFA’s broadcasting license for her own company.

Continuing on that theme, PNB treasurer Brian Edwards-Tiekert claimed that “financial stability has been recovered at KPFA due to windfall income” and electioneered for Wilkinson’s re-election.

The hit piece ended with a plea for loyal Siegel/Brazonites to attempt to shut down this Pacifica In Exile publication by filing complaints with the email service, as the faction prefers the only information provided to members about the foundation’s governance come from them. Everything else is labeled a “conspiracy theory”.

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 …

Dr. Glen T. Martin – Hillary, Bernie, and the World Federalist Vision: Whom Should We Support?

There are people who think it would be great to have a women in the White House. But not all women embody the traits that we often associate with women. For example, psychologist Carol Gilligan, in her ground-breaking book In a Different Voice, argues that women emphasize relationships, caring, social cooperation, and harmony much more than men. [1] This may well …

Leid Stories – 02.04.16

President Obama on Islam, Terrorism, Race and the American Way
In a highly publicized speech he delivered yesterday at the Islamic Society of Baltimore—his first visit to a U.S. mosque as head of state—President Barack Obama ostensibly was playing the role of Domestic Peacemaker in Chief, calling for religious tolerance and a rekindling of the Jeffersonian/Founding Fathers’ commitment to religious freedom for all Americans.
Lawdy, Lawdy, so wrong in so many ways, says Leid Stories of Obama’s speech.

Hillary Clinton Brags About Getting Her Marching Orders From The CFR

For those who may be unaware, the Council on Foreign Relations is essentially a sister organization to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, one of the primary Anglo-American policy developers, and functions as one of the most effective direct control mechanisms in the world in regards to government-based decisions and governmental policy. It is from the RIIA and the CFR, …

Jim Hightower – While soldiers who go to war risk death, the big corporations that go to war reap perpetual profits.

War is hell. Unless, of course, you happen to be a global corporate peddler of rockets, drones, bombs, and all the other hellish weaponry of military conflict. In that case, war is manna from hell. So bring it on. Indeed, it seems as if Beelzebub himself is in charge these days, with U.S. military forces enmeshed in at least 135 countries in …

SALMAN SHAHEEN – The World Hates Trump – And The US Needs To Know

EVERYONE knows what Donald Trump thinks about the world. How he wants to build a wall to keep out the Mexicans, who he views largely as drug traffickers and rapists. How he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US. Extreme wealth, power and the platform afforded him by the US presidential race have beamed what would otherwise have …

Deepa Kumar – It’s Not Just Hate Crimes: Islamophobia Is the Outgrowth of a Deeply Racist System

2015 was a horrific year for Muslims. Even CNN [3] noted that it “has been one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history.” The previous highpoint was 2010 during the so-called Ground Zero Mosque controversy when there were 53 attacks on mosques. In 2015 there were 63 incidents. What explains the rise of anti-Muslim racism almost a decade-and-a-half after the events …