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Leid Stories – 03.07.16

Untied Tongue: Trump Speaks American Ugly With A French Accent

Democrats Troll Flint: Misery Serves As A Political Backdrop

Donald Trump, the frontrunner among Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential race, has an admirer in Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right, trenchantly racist National Front party in France. Gilbert Mercier, editor in chief of News Junkie Post, draws parallels between the ascendancy and growing appeal of Trump and that of LePen.

At the urging of Hillary Clinton, Sunday night’s CNN-hosted Democratic “debate” with fellow contender Bernie Sanders was held in the beleaguered city of Flint, Michigan, which remains mired in a public-health disaster as the city concedes responsibility for exposing tens of thousands of residents to lead poisoning and bacterial infections from its water system. Abayomi Azikiwe, a Detroit organizer for the Workers World Party and editor in chief of the Pan-African Newswire, says Flint served as a convenient political backdrop, but substantive issues affecting its residents went missing.

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New Rate Survey of 500 U.S. Water Systems Finds Private Water Providers Charge 58% More

In the largest U.S. water rate survey of its kind, Food & Water Watch today released a comprehensive review of the 500 largest U.S. community water systems that found that large, for-profit privately owned systems charge 58 percent morethan large publicly owned systems. An overwhelming majority of U.S. water customers—87 percent—receive their water from a publicly owned, not-for-profit service provider. The …

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Sarah Leonard, Bhaskar Sunkara – Why Our Generation’s Best Chance Is Socialism

Every election season is a time of bemoaning why millennials won’t vote for politicians boldly committed to picking at the edges of their problems. Consider a snapshot of the situation young people face: the unemployment rate for workers under age 25 is 18.1 percent; unemployment for black people who have not graduated from high school is 82.5 percent; the people …

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Black Agenda Radio – 02.15.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– Michigan Governor Rick Synder has agreed to testify before a House committee investigating the poisoning of Flint, Michigan. The committee will also hear from Flint’s former emergency financial manager; the regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and, Gina McCarthy, the head of the EPA. We spoke with Black Agenda Report editor Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who blew the whistle on the EPA’s complicity in the poisoning of South African vanadium miners. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo said Michigan’s Governor and the rest of the officials should be asked the “Watergate question.”

– The assault against the people of Flint began with a crime against democracy, when Michigan’s governor appointed emergency financial managers to run all of the state’s heavily Black cities, effectively disenfranchising half of Michigan’s African American population. In Newark, New Jersey, the People’s Organization for Progress, POP, demonstrated in solidarity with the people of Flint. POP chairman Larry Hamm says the people of Flint need their clean water and their democratic rights restored.

– In May of this year, Janine, Debbie and Janet Africa will once again be eligible for parole, after serving 37 years in prison for allegedly killing a Philadelphia policeman. The three women are part of the Move 9. The other Move members face even more time in prison. The draconian sentences stem, not from the 1985 bombing of the Move house by Philadelphia police, but a 1978 confrontation in which a cop was fatally shot. Move spokesperson Ramona Africa recounts the events.

– Alicia Garza, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, has joined forces with advocates for Black women’s reproductive rights. Garza held a joint press conference with La’Tasha Mayes, founder of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, and Monica Simpson, director of the Trust Black Women Partnership. They denounced anti-abortionist forces for trying to co-op the language of the Black movement. Alicia Garza spoke first, followed by Ms. Mayes and Ms. Simpson.

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ELIZA A. WEBB – Hillary Clinton’s Populist Charade

At the 5th Democratic debate Thursday night, Hillary Clinton repeatedly attempted to cloak herself in the cape of a populist hero, claiming she has stood up, time and time again, for those Americans “left behind and left out.” In her own words: “[I’ve got a] record of having fought for racial justice, having fought for kids rights, having fought the …

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Chris Hedges – Flint’s Crisis Is About More Than Water

What is in the mind of someone who knowingly poisons children and impairs their lives? Why did the politicians, regulators and bureaucrats who knew the water in Flint, Mich.,was toxic lie about the danger for months? What does it say about a society that is ruled by, and refuses to punish, those who willfully destroy the lives of children? The crisis …

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Less than 30% of Congress Admits to Vaccinating Their OWN KIDS!!!

http://vaxtruth.org/2015/02/nbc-congress-poll/In a story released yesterday, NBC “News” reports on the results of their poll to United States Congressmen and Congresswomen. NBC asked our nation’s leaders, “Are your kids vaccinated?” Here are the results of the poll: Out of 434 members of the House of Representatives, 121 responded affirmatively, indicating “Yes. My children are vaccinated.” That’s less than 30% – 27.65% to be …

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This Is What Happens To Humans When They Are Exposed To Too Much Lead

In his State of the State address Tuesday night, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder apologized for his handling of the Flint water crisis, which has left tens of thousands of residents without drinkable water. “To you, the people of Flint, I say tonight as I have before, I’m sorry and I will fix it,” Snyder said near the beginning of his …

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Leid Stories – 01.27.16

Dirty Water, Dirty Politics: An Update on the Crisis in Flint

Hell in Haiti: Hillary Clinton’s Other Presidential Election

In August 2014, Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan, told Leid Stories that tens of thousands of residents of the cash-strapped city of Flint, Michigan, were being exposed to lead-poisoned and bacteria-infected water because the city, under state-imposed emergency management and ordered to cut operating costs, had switched its water supply from Detroit’s water system and instead was drawing its water from the extremely polluted Flint River. Guyette uncovered not only the public-health catastrophe, but efforts by public and elected officials to cover it up. He updates the story since his report a week ago.

Hillary Clinton is actually involved in two presidential elections—one in the United States and the other in Haiti, where her hand-picked president, Michel Martelly, is at the center of political chaos and escalating violence that last week led the country’s electoral council to cancel national elections. Kim Ives, editor of Haïti Liberté, has been reporting on Haiti for Leid Stories. He files an on-site report on the current situation, and explains the continuing legacy of the Clinton connection to Haiti’s chaos.

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Black Agenda Radio – 01.25.16

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– Dr. Anthony Monteiro was one of the organizers of a conference on the Black Radical Tradition, earlier this month, at Philadelphia’s Temple University, the school were Dr. Monteiro taught African American studies until he was fired for his radical activities. We asked Monteiro if the conference accomplished what the organizers expected?

– Who is ultimately responsible for poisoning the water in majority Black Flint, Michigan? Black Agenda Report editor and columnist Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo says the blame stretches all the way to the White House. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo blew the whistle on racism and corporate corruption when she worked for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. She says what happened to Flint, Michigan, goes far beyond environmental racism.

– Flint, Michigan’s water problems began when the State seized power from the local government. Atlantic City, New Jersey, is also facing a State takeover and the privatization of its water supply. BAR executive editor Glen Ford reports.

– The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement is circulating a petition, charging the United States with genocide against Black people. Movement president Herdosia Bentum says the petitions will be presented to the United Nations, which is holding hearings in Jackson, Mississippi, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC. The Uhuru movement has set up encampments in each of the cities. Herdosia Bentum explains.

– Five years ago, Carl Dix and Dr. Cornel West co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, which has been confronting the Mass Black Incarceration State, ever since. Dix says the Network is holding conferences in key cities to map out plans for the next phase of struggle.