It is “ridiculous” to believe that the Russians somehow tipped the November election to Donald Trump. “What was Hillary Clinton offering,” asked Sara Flounders, of UNAC, the United National Anti-War Coalition. “She was promising, ‘You’re going to have more of the same for the next eight years,’ plus all kinds of military threats. And, they also moved farther to the Right. That was rejected.” UNAC is gearing up for its yearly conference, June 16 to 18, in Richmond, Virginia, under the theme: The Need for an Independent Path. “We don’t place a bit of confidence in the Republicans or Democrats,” said Flounders. “They both represent Wall Street and corporate power.”

UNAC Advocates “Independent Path” to Peace

The U.S. attack on a Syrian air base last week was designed to “prolong the war” and ultimately “destroy secular government in the Arab world,” said Margaret Kimberley, an editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report. The claim that Syria used chemical weapons against civilians is bogus, said Kimberley, speaking on Sputnik radio. The U.S.-backed Islamic jihadists stand to benefit most. “It’s interesting that these attacks always occur at some moment that is very opportune for them,” she said.  President Trump hopes to increase his approval levels and ward off Democratic attacks. “Because he’s been accused of being under Putin’s influence, carrying out an attack against a Russian ally gives him some protection from those charges.”

Margaret Kimberley

Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya discuss building a solidarity economy at Cooperation Jackson - from the project's roots in Black history in the American South and worker cooperatives in the Basque Country, to the radical work of transforming our economies, our politics, and our selves for the benefit of all.

Kali and Ajamu are edited and contributed to to the new collection "Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi" from Daraja Press.

Reclaiming democracy and rebuilding politics at Cooperation Jackson.

Trump national security advisor John Bolton “is simply a militarist,” said Phyllis Bennis, director of the New International Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, in Washington. “He has never seen an international challenge, an international crisis, that did not require direct US military intervention to solve it.” Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are heading up the administration’s negotiations with North Korea.

Bolton, the Reflexive Bomber

A record US war budget was approved last week. Democrats voted 2 to 1 for Trump's military parade, his space force, and the expansion of the US empire of a thousand bases around the world. The resistance is really the assistance.

When the Resistance Is Really The Assistance

The recent two-week lockdown of Pennsylvania’s prison system was based on scientifically baseless claims that contraband drugs created a health crisis for prison employees, according to Kris Henderson, of the Amistad Law Project. Most drugs don’t enter prison through mail to inmates, said Henderson, but are smuggled in by prison staff.

Bogus Excuse for PA Prison Lockdown

Recent interviews about Russia.

Larry King on privatization and mortality after communism. [1:14]
Andrew Cockburn on the political uses of a new Red Scare. [28:49]
Peter Pomerantsev on watching Vladimir Putin's television. [1:05:28]
Sean Guillory on hard times facing the Russian left. [1:47:20]
Tony Wood on Putin's hand in post-Soviet Russian politics. [2:39:43]
China Mieville on what Russia 1917 can teach the pre-revolutionary world. [3:25:06]

Margaret Kimberley

Black Agenda Radio

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