Speaking Truth to Empire w/Dan Yaseen (February 2020 Edition)

https://soundcloud.com/speaking-truth-to-empire/200219-speaking-truth-to-empire-miko-peled

On “Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Miko Peled an Israeli-American peace activist and author. He grew up in a Zionist family, his grandfather was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence and his father was a general in the Israeli Army.

Miko has dedicated his life to writing, speaking and activism focused on transforming the racist Zionist regime in Palestine into one democratic state with equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians. Topic of discussion includes the so called ‘deal of the century’ announced by Trump and Netanyahu. He blogs at: www.mikopeled.com

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"Respect the Office?" Absurd! (SOAPBOX PODCAST w/ Guest Margaret Kimberley)

February 19, 2020

Guest: Margaret Kimberley

Topic: Black America and the U.S. Presidents

This week, Cindy chats with writer Margaret Kimberley about her latest book: Prejudential, Black America and the Presidents about the tragic legacy of U.S. presidents and their relationships to blacks. From slavery to Jim Crow, to the "New" Jim Crow of the prison industrial complex, not one president has a positive record on this question.

Cindy and Margaret also discuss the bizarre reverence and preoccupation the people in the US have with the Rogue's Gallery of racists and murderers that have infested the Oval Office and reject the claim that "even if you don't like the current president, you have to 'respect the office.'" B.S.!

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION OF MARGARET'S GREAT OFFERING TO TRUTH AND THIS IMPORTANT TOPIC

“This book is an effort to shed light on the truth. . . . To the extent that our leaders embody aspects of who we are as a people, studying how each president has participated in our nation’s complicated and often shameful treatment of black people is as good a place as any to start.”  — Margaret Kimberley from the Preface

"Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our own peril!" — Cornel West, author of Race Matters
 

PREJUDENTIAL is a concise, authoritative exploration of America’s relationship with race and black Americans through the lens of the presidents who have been elected to represent all of its people. 

Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have left their legacies as slaveholders, bigots, and inciters of racial violence, but were the ones generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans—such as Lincoln, FDR, and Clinton—really much better? And what of all the presidents whose relationship with black America is not even considered in the pages of most history books? Over the course of 45 chapters—one for each president—Margaret Kimberley enlightens and informs readers about the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country. By casting sunlight on an aspect of American history that is largely overlooked, Prejudential aims to increase awareness in a manner that will facilitate discussion and understanding. 

 

Check out Margaret's latest column for Black Agenda Report: 

Freedom Rider: Bloomberg is worse than Trump

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Socialism in Brief by Cindy Sheehan

Socialism for the Ill-informed

by

Cindy Sheehan

"I've stayed away from calling myself a socialist because I didn't want to spend half my life explaining that I didn't believe in the Soviet Union or concentration camps."

Bernie Sanders, Boston Globe, 1981

Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital.

V.I. Lenin, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (1913)

 

I do not shy away from calling myself a socialist but, I came by my avowed socialism organically. When I ran against Nancy Pelosi in 2008 with a platform of ending US Empire and using the freed-up budget to fund programs like free education, healthcare, and housing, etc, I realized that if my platform were implemented, our country would be heading towards a social democracy.

Gradually, though, I realized that mere reforms (even though mostly positive) would be near impossible within the system of capitalism. As a US history major, I could see all the times that mere reforms always collapsed over time with the constant erosion of laws passed by the capitalist US lawmakers, or just plain violence of the "captains of industry" against workers and other oppressed populations. Besides, the US has a lot of bad karma to make up for with its near extermination of the indigenous populations and a war that killed almost a million to abolish the evil institution of forced slavery which never should have existed in the first place---yet, we are supposed to trust the establishment to reform itself? I began to see that socialism was true change from the bottom-up through the power of the working-class that could transform an oppressive society (Czarist Russia; Batista Cuba) into communities that took care of its people after seizing power from mis-leaders and overcoming exploitation.

Now, the Democrat and Republican parties and their toadies in the corporate media are fear-mongering over the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, being a "socialist" or "commie," even though Sanders has gone out of his own way to disabuse people of that misconception of his politics.

For example, on February 9, Sanders was on Meet the Press, and had this to say about the commentator's charge that he (Sanders) is being perceived as a communist: 

"We got a president of the United States who's cozying up to the autocrat, Putin, who says nice things about Kim Jong-un. You know, so you want to talk about cozying up to communists around the world -- it ain't me, it is Donald Trump."
~Bernie Sanders, Meet the Press - February 9, 2020

Sanders revealed himself as a red-baiting, McCarthy-ite establishment Democrat, a la Pelosi or Clinton, but people still think he's a "commie?" Read on. 

Never to forget that Sanders called the heroic Hugo Chávez a "dead, communist dictator," during his campaign in 2015 and recently, and erroneously, labeled the successor to Chávez, Nicolas Maduro, a "vicious tyrant." Whatever one thinks about Sanders, love, hate, or indifferent; to do any of these because you think he is a "commie" is just plain ridiculous. Sanders is no member of the proletariat and regularly and aggressively seeks membership into one of the most exclusive and tyrannical clubs in the world: The U.S. Senate.

The question arises how shall we label Sanders if not a "commie?" 

Is he a "socialist," "democratic socialist," "social democrat," or just plain Democrat Imperialist? Let's examine these ideologies and draw a conclusion.

Communism/Socialism: 

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" Karl Marx.

As an organic Marxist who has now been able to study some in a more directed manner, I look at the root word in each of the "isms" we are looking at. The root word of "communism" is "community." Communism is a system where people's needs are fulfilled from a place where the workers own the means of production and the means to distribute goods and services (obtained during the socialist phase). It is a classless society where the people also have control over their own destinies and the welfare of their communities, but usually under a socially managed economy.

The communist country of Cuba gets some misguided bad p.r. here in the U.S., but even with decades of a barbaric U.S. blockade of Cuba, it provides free education, health care, and other goods and services to its people, but each community also has a strong committee that helps determine those needs and distribution. Without the blockade, Cuba could be one of those worker's paradises that we hear about, except that its valiant struggle against U.S. imperialism has seen many shortages, but the people of Cuba are always victorious and survive. Plus, they are happy, for the most part. Depression is almost unheard of and drug abuse is nil in a society which we are told is "repressive" and "brutal." 

The root word of socialism is "society," which seems larger than a community, but its all semantics, yes? I have seen "community" added to things as large as the world and "society" to describe something as small as a gardener's club.

I have never seen Sanders advocate for anything approaching a classless society, or worker's paradise, or even the workers owning the means of production and distribution; so to call Sanders a "commie," or "socialist," is very definitely shallow and ignorant.

Usually under socialism individuals can still own property. But industrial production, or the chief means of generating wealth, is communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government. There is a distinction between private property and public commons in socialism, but under communism there is not that distinction.

Democratic Socialism: 

"‘Democratic Socialist’ Is Just a Synonym for New Deal Liberal" Bernie Sanders himself distancing himself from the "socialist" label on CNN.

It's hard to define this because there is an organization called Democratic Socialists. For the most part, these have been like Papandreou of Greece who pushed harsh austerity there. Here in the US, they admit that their energy is devoted to "left-wing" democrats, even though, they too allegedly advocate for worker control and democratically elected representatives. There is not one federally elected Democrat who isn't also an imperialist to one degree or the other, so to advocate the election of Democrats is to advocate for imperialism, in my opinion. Sanders would be more of a D.S., than socialist or communist, but, yeah, he doesn't advocate for worker control or democratic elections---witness his 2016 capitulation to the evil Hillary Clinton and his constant Russia-baiting to blame Trump's victory on Putin without condemning the DNC's treachery against him.

Here, in the U.S. the Democratic Socialists of America lean more heavily on the Democrat part and this is from their own website: 

No, we are not a separate party (from the Dems). Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party. We work with those movements to strengthen the party’s left wing, represented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In a 2015 speech at Georgetown University, Sanders further exposed his pro-capitalist/D.S. sentiments by stating: "He explained that democratic socialism is not tied to Marxism or the abolition of capitalism but rather describes a program of extensive social benefits, funded by broad-based taxes. (Not by ending the immoral subsidies to the war machine--author's note)."
 

Social Democracy or the Nordic Model: 

If Sanders was close to any "socialist" philosophy, it would be this model. Social democracy is a political, social and economic philosophy that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented economy. Social democracy does not seek to abolish or replace capitalism.

The problem with this model working here in the U.S. is that the U.S. is an imperialist state that dumps most of its resources into actively murdering people around the world, or maintaining a vast empire of military bases and troops that commit global carnage. No Nordic country that has great social programs and services maintains anywhere near the scale of this kind of militarism and, thus, are able to use their resources for the betterment of society. 

Since Sanders is a friend of the military industrial complex, he can talk about these wonderful social programs all he wants, but it's just talk. He has voted for nearly every gross military budget and war funding since he began his tenure in the U.S. Congress. He defends and supports the F-35 program in Vermont to bring "jobs," yet doesn't listen to some of his constituency who are adamantly opposed to supporting a boondoggle of an aircraft that's only purpose is to kill. 

In 2006, I pledged that I would never again support a pro-war/imperialist candidate, no matter their political affiliation. In a bid to "look tough" and reassure the establishment of his slavish devotion to Empire, Bernie Sanders recently told this to the New York Slimes in a candidate interview:

Question (Times): Would you consider military force to pre-empt an Iranian or North Korean nuclear or missile test?

Answer (Sanders): Yes.

Not only is preemptive military strike an international war crime, true socialism is not imperialist. Period.

Capitalism:

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. 

Look at my root word theory---the root word of capitalism is "capital," so the most important thing in capitalism is amassing as much capital as possible by any means necessary: war, exploitation of the workers, environmental devastation and exploitation--then environmental capitalism (i.e. Green New Deal proposed by some Democrats), the murder of labor leaders all over the world; the murder/ouster of political leaders (i.e. Evo Morales of Bolivia) all over the world, predatory banking policies; predatory micro-loans; the predatory sickness industry (ie, the Cancer-Industrial-Complex), etc. 

Imperialism is the dying gasp of capitalism and used to open new markets and attain monopoly control over resources like water and oil.

Democrat Imperialist:

The above is a designation that I just made up. It's a member of the Democrat party, like Sanders, that just held ridiculous impeachment hearings against Trump for things other than what the U.S. government does best: commit war crimes and crimes against humanity around the world.

It's a Democrat, like Sanders, that even though he says he doesn't want the U.S. to send troops to places like Venezuela, he condemns its democratically elected leaders, and by extension, the people who elected them.

It's a Democrat, like Sanders, who voted against Bush invading Iraq, but voted for every war funding bill that comes their way. It's a Democrat, like Sanders, who co-sponsored resolutions calling for Muammar Qaddafi to "step down" from power in Libya, as if the U.S. Senate has anything to do with who's in power in Libya? Sanders loves to cite "human rights abuses" in other countries, but never addresses the human rights abuses right here in the U.S. and with its military arm abroad.

A Democrat Imperialist, like Sanders, supports the use of drones to murder people abroad. 

I can see many leftists being drawn in not by Bernie Sanders so much himself, as they know his flaws and shortcomings, but they think that there is some "hope" (bullshit word used liberally during the Obama campaign and look where that got us) in the energy of his followers.

As someone who has paid a lot of attention to the Sanders' phenomena over the past five-years, I have to say that I look at the excitement over Sanders like the excitement over Obama---then Obama got elected and smashed all the hope that he raised, particularly among black youth. Even if Sanders does transcend his own party, gets the nomination, and is elected, if we are honest with ourselves, will he be able to pass any of his reforms without becoming a dictator? I will get some response to this article in the form of "No, Sanders is not perfect, but we have to get him elected and then hold his feet to the fire."

Really? Get the hell out of here with the "hold his feet to the fire," bullcrap. Many told me that about Obama, then when we tried to "hold his feed to the fire" I was told to "give him a chance," then I was shunned by the same people who should have been on Obama's case about upholding his campaign promises. Again, voters are projecting their good values on a Democrat candidate who doesn't deserve the support, in my opinion.


The Sanders energy was huge in 2016 going into the convention and many of his delegates and supporters said that they would not vote for Hillary Clinton, until she got the nomination and until Sanders campaigned for her and told his people to vote for her. To me, if he were legit, he would have gone back to being an independent and taken that energy with him instead of allowing it to be dissipated back into the vicious Democrat party. I saw a stat that 90% of Sanders voters (many of the rest voted for Trump) seamlessly went to Clinton for the general mostly because they had formed an unearned trust in their candidate and he led them astray like a bad shepherd.

The Sanders movement is like a tsunami that has swept the nation twice now, but will thin out and go down the drain, again this year. Why? Because it's a confused movement predicated on a façade of progressive thought. Even though many people in his party are against him, they know he is a reliable vote and a reliable supporter of Democrat Imperialists from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama and like a good dog, he can be beaten, but will come back licking their hands for love and validation.

Yes, I will agree that perhaps some of the disaffected Sanders voters that didn't cave along with Sanders to the monster Clinton inched a little closer to the left, or true socialism,  but we cannot keep relying on crumbs, the clock is ticking: the nuclear clock is seconds away from annihilation and catastrophic climate change is not getting better. 

Social programs like healthcare, education, housing, and a clean environment are humans rights for all, but so is peace and a right to self-determination of all the peoples--which socialism supports, but Sanders (and other so-called leading DemSocs do not) clearly does not.

So, love Sanders, hate him, puzzle over him (like me), or whatever your feelings for him, please don't call him a "commie,"socialist," or "antiwar." If he really were any of those things, he'd have my support, because he wouldn't be a member of the left-wing of the War Party.

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Weird Week in Review (SOAPBOX PODCAST FEBRUARY 9, 2020)

 February 9, 2020

Guest: Don DeBar

Topic: Political analysis of Weird U.S. Politricks

This week, Cindy chats with alternative media host and producer, Don DeBar about the past week that was jam-packed with political weirdness.

From the cluster-fudge in Iowa to the debacle of impeachment with the sandwich filling of the State of the Union, it appears that both major political parties connected to war and Wall Street are out of control.

Please listen to Cindy and Don's analysis of this

Circus of the Absurd.

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Open Letter to Neo-liberal Election Tyrants by Cindy Sheehan

Dear Neo-liberal Election Tyrants,


This is in response to your recent:

 

An Open Letter to the Green Party About 2020 Election Strategy (L.A. Progressive; January 25, 2020)

 

There is so much to "unpack" so to speak in this excrement-soaked, yet condescending article written by apparent neo-liberal Democrats to "help" form the 2020 electoral strategy of the US Green Party. By the way, did anyone from this autonomous party which is recognized in most, if not all, US states ask for your idiotic opinion in the first place? Or, maybe you all just decided to come out of your Vote Blue No Matter Who Cotillion for a bit to hobnob with the electoral rabble?

 

In full disclosure, I am not a Green (member of the socialist Peace and Freedom Party), so my response to you Tyrants who wrote/signed this letter comes from the perspective of a person who is profoundly interested in true/grassroots democracy, not the version that is being pushed by you all.

 

Your demand that the Greens stand down in "swing states" is so inherently anti-democratic, that in a true democracy, it would be considered treasonous. Of course, in our current failed state, you all seem to consider it Patriotic to stick your Blue noses in where they were not welcome.

 

Your contention that there is a difference between Trump and Clinton is somewhat true. Many believe that a Clinton presidency would have meant MORE war and MORE corruption, and MORE environmental degradation, not less. Of course, there is much verifiable evidence to back up these claims. Clinton has supported every U.S. imperialist war that ever came her way and as her tenure as Secretary of State, she engineered the coup of a legitimately elected government in Honduras and the complete destruction and debilitation of Libya (among many such crimes). The Clinton Foundation has taken more money from oppressive regimes and sown more destruction than could have been dreamed of by any organized crime boss. Of course, Clinton, Inc. are the very epitome of "organized crime," as they went flying by in Jeffrey Epstein's "Lolita Express."

 

For you all to even hint that Clinton would have been a better choice is ludicrous. In my opinion, people who voted for Jill Stein (the 2016 Green POTUS nominee) in "Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan" and not for Trump or Clinton did not "cost" Ms. War Criminal the election, at all. After eight years of a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top and other neo-liberal policies of the Obama regime that saw the war machine grow dramatically and US imperialism blossom like a metastatic cancer, Democrats LOST those states. Honestly, Stein got a little over 1% of the vote nationally in 2016 and if the Democrats couldn't nominate someone that could overcome that small percentage and beat the ridiculous game show host that entered the race on a lark, no wonder they and you pathetic sycophants are searching everywhere for an answer that doesn't point a laser focus right back on them.

 

Also, it appears that you authors/signers of the above referenced letter support the monster Hillary Clinton! I cannot really say enough about her evilness and this alone makes me question the credibility and the motives of you neo-liberals responsible for this dreck.

 

You rely on those tired and already debunked canards of blaming the Greens for 2000 and 2016 and not the system of rigged voting machines, winner-take-all, massive amounts of campaign money, or any of the other Electoral Industrial Complex bullshit that have been designed from the beginning to keep the people's voices out and put either a Trump or Clinton up on top. 

 

Even the upcoming 2020 looming freak-show is pitting worker against worker in ways that further divide us instead of uniting us behind a platform of social activism that could actually have a positive impact like the courageous protests in France or Iraq, for example.

 

You Election Tyrants from this Green "strategy" claptrap seem to believe that the Democrat half of the War Party owns my, or anyone's vote. When, as a matter of FACT, voting for any Democrat or Republican is voting for more murder and more oppression, but you appear to feel that a vote for someone other than the pitiful Democrat nominee is somehow disordered. 

 

Nothing is going to change at all, for the better, if anyone keeps hanging on to the failed strategies of the past, and your outlined strategy not only reeks of rotten hubris, but has proven time, and time, and time, again to be a bad one that hurts people. Can you not see this from your positions of privilege or ivory towers? Do you only care about a political party that shits all over peace, the planet, and all the people? 

 

In trying to silence opposition voices and steering votes to the champions of imperialism and capitalism, you have become the problem.

 

Signed

Cindy Sheehan

 

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SPEAKING TRUTH TO EMPIRE W/DAN YASEEN (JANUARY 2020 EDITION

 JANUARY 2020

https://soundcloud.com/speaking-truth-to-empire/200115-speaking-truth-to-empire-medea-benjamin

 
On “Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange. Topics of discussion include worsening U.S. – Iranian crisis and the fallout from Trump’s ill-advised murder of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Medea is a human rights advocate, an author and a peace & justice activist. She has worked for social justice and human rights in Asia, the Americas, and Africa for over 30 years.

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Soapbox Special Edition: From Iran with Journalist Marzieh Hashemi (Soapbox Podcast 1/9/2020)

January 9, 2020

Breaking from Iran with journalist Marzieh Hashemi

For this Special Edition of The Soapbox, Cindy connects

with PressTv journalist Marzieh Hashemi.

 Marzieh is US-born now living in Iran and she is a journalist with PressTv. Last year, Marzieh was kidnapped by the FBI while visiting her family in the US. She was illegally detained without charges but, with her human and religious rights routinely violated. Eight days after her abduction, she was released.

Cindy and Marzieh chat about the current situation in Iran--this is a very important discussion for those who are seeking real news.

FURTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist

08 Jan 2020

Freedom Rider: Iran and the Need for Black Activism

Black Americans, as perpetual targets of US lies and attacks, should be the first to reject Washington’s rationales for war with Iran.

“The days of outspoken progressives in the Congressional Black Caucus are long gone.”

Even the most disparaging Donald Trump critic, such as this columnist, can still be shocked by the president’s rash behavior and inexplicable decision making. Such was the case when Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Quds general Qassem Soleimani and Abd Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. 

The drone attack in Baghdad killed the two men and eight others. The United States was well aware that Soleimani was on a diplomatic mission. His goal was to start an Iraqi brokered peace process between Iran and Saudi Arabia. But he was set up by the U.S. and Israel like the victim of a mafia hit job. Of course, U.S. foreign policy is always very gangsterish.

The mood in the nation has been grim ever since this story broke. Fears of World War III and terror attacks came to mind for most people. Anti-war groups had struggled to gather large numbers of people but within two days more than 80 actions took place in 38 states. That achievement should be tempered by memories of 2003, when hundreds of thousands protested the invasion of Iraq, but quieted their stance in order to get a pro-war Democrat elected in 2004. In 2008 they lost all common sense when a smooth talker was successfully marketed as a peace candidate.

“Soleimani was set up like the victim of a mafia hit job.”

The corporate media parrot every word coming from the Trump White House and State Department. People who never heard of Soleimani are now convinced that he killed American soldiers. Of course the claim is a lie as is every statement emanating from what Iranians refer to as the Great Satan.

And what of black America in this moment? We have been reduced to producing social media memes begging Iran not to harm us. We harken back to the seizure of the United States embassy in Teheran and the decision to free the black hostages in 1979. Ayatollah Khomenei correctly stated , “...blacks for a long time have lived under oppression and pressure in America.”

For most of American history black people could be counted on to oppose United States war making abroad. If no one else spoke up in defense of countries declared enemies, we would. Posturing about strategic interests, the Cold War or the War on Terror brought sneers and disbelief even as the rest of the country swallowed lies and supported aggression.

“If no one else spoke up in defense of countries declared enemies, we would.”

But that was before a black secretary of state, Colin Powell, told very big lies and made the case for the invasion of Iraq. The black face in the high place had credibility no white man would have. Otherwise intelligent people suddenly made excuses for conduct they would never have accepted in the past.

Even worse, a black man would be president. When Barack Obama destroyed Libya and killed its leader, the people who once spoke up in protest were suddenly silent.
Donald Trump has no such support. He is seen as an existential threat to black people and is dismissed and despised. But the damage has been done and black politics has been effectively neutered. The days of outspoken progressives in the Congressional Black Caucus are long gone and we are left with useless drivel about Trump asking permission to go to war. 

If he did ask he would in all likelihood get an answer in the affirmative. CBC members and other traitorous Democrats fall back on claims that they want to assert constitutional authority. But they also gave Trump an additional $730 billion for the military and refused to end the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) which was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks. It is still the pretext for invasions and occupations and Democrats didn’t fight Republicans to end it. Of course they won’t fight what they support themselves. 
“
CBC members and other traitorous Democrats gave Trump an additional $730 billion for the military.”

It is heartening that thousands of people turned out on short notice to demand that the U.S. cease its aggressions against Iran and finally leave Iraq. But the absence of fundamental opposition to American aggression leaves that movement prone to repeating the mistakes of the past.
The enemies of peace are many and powerful. The corporate media work hand in hand with the duopoly to convince Americans that war is peace and freedom is slavery. Black misleaders and well paid pundits are supported at every turn while truth tellers struggle to be heard. CBC members are rightly afraid of facing well funded opponents if they end up in Zionist lobby crosshairs. 

The people must be independent of all these forces. The common sense forged by the common experience of oppression must be resurrected. If no one else reacts with revulsion and anger at the next Trump act of aggression, we must. We can’t wait for the CBC or others designated as leaders. When Ayatollah Khomeini freed the black hostages we all applauded and with good reason. We knew he was telling the truth about our history. If we are going to remember anything about Iran let it be that moment.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.  
COMMENTS?

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U.S. Imperial Wars

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CINDY SHEEHAN ON PRESSTV
Youtube has blocked PressTv, so this content is unfortunately no longer available

  

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The Soapbox looks Back and Forward with Caleb Maupin (Soapbox Podcast January 5, 2020)

January 7, 2020

Guest: Caleb Maupin

Topic: Imperialism in 2019 and Prospects for 2020

This week Cindy chats with RT journalist Caleb Maupin about US foreign policy, especially in the Middle East and Caleb analyzes the impeachment debacle.

Unfortunately, a few hours after the interview was finished, the US assassinated Iranian General Soleimani while he was on a diplomatic mission in Iraq.

THE SOAPBOX STATEMENT ON THE ASSASSINATION:

First of all, we send our deepest condolences to the family of Qassem Soleimani and the people of Iran and our sincerest apologies that the nation we live in has decided to assassinate him (and others) in a blatant attack which should be prosecuted at the highest levels of international law. 

We also stand in solidarity with the people of Iran who are in the streets protesting this current crime by the hundreds of thousands. 

We’d also like to honor the memory of General Soleimani and the many sacrifices he made fighting US-led or fomented terrorism in the Middle East. Although we oppose war, we also recognize the right of the people to resist violence and occupation and we oppose 

US imperialist mis-adventurism and violence most of all.

Since Soleimani was in Iraq to help Iraqis battle terrorism when he was murdered, we’d also like to show our solidarity with the people of Iraq who have been resisting US imperialism for many decades. 

We join our voices with theirs to demand a full and rapid withdrawal of US troops, independent mercenaries, and all CIA operatives from their country. The government of Iraq must listen to the voices of its people and not the demands of the bully-nation that has been destroying it for profit.

As we are already seeing the stock of “defense” contractors skyrocket along with the price of oil, March on the Pentagon also strongly condemns the ghoulish profiteers and oppose any further carnage on their behalf.

Iran has long been the “cherry on top” for the neoconservative US/Israeli imperial project, and only the people of the world, united in solidarity against this newest outrage, can stop the disaster looming on the horizon. 

*****

LINK TO CALEB'S NEW BOOK:

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