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Are Claims the US is Sabotaging Venezuela’s Economy Far Fetched?

As US-backed opposition groups take to the streets of Venezuela, following previously failed US-backed uprisings to effect regime change in the South American nation, Western analysts are particularly optimistic about the chances of success now considering the teetering state of Venezuela’s economy. The UK Independent in an article titled, “Venezuela accuses US of plotting coup as Washington warns of ‘imminent …

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BENJAMIN E. ZELLER – WHY KAEPERNICK’S REFUSAL TO STAND IS AN ACT OF RELIGIOUS DISSENT

This past Friday night, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made the audacious choice to remain seated during the playing of the national anthem as a form of political protest against police violence and racism in America. The response against him has been swift, angry, and in many cases ugly. A series of commentators—mostly in the athletic and political spheres—lined up to rebuke him. …

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Justin Raimondo – Kosovo: Hillary Clinton’s Legacy of Terror

The “liberation” of Kosovo unleashed radical Islamism in Europe Kosovo is Clinton Country: a 10-foot-high statue of Bill overlooks “Bill Clinton Boulevard” in the capital city of Pristina. Hillary is also memorialized in what has become the crime capital of Europe: right off the street named for her husband is a store named “Hillary,” featuring women’s clothing modeled after the putative Democratic party nominee for President. …

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Black Agenda Radio – 02.08.16

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

– DeRay McKesson, the Twitter communicator who was a charter school supporter in Minneapolis before he joined the movement for justice, in Ferguson, Missouri, is running for mayor of Baltimore, as a Democrat. McKesson’s Campaign Zero organization met twice with Hillary Clinton, and he has developed a close relationship with the national Democratic Party. Black Maryland state lawmaker Jill Scott, who once ran for mayor herself and is considered the most radical politician in Baltimore, calls DeRay McKesson’s campaign “ridiculous,” and explains why she’s not going to run for City Hall, this year.

– Lynne Stewart, the people’s lawyer who served 28 months in federal prison for the crime of zealously defending her client, and her husband Ralph Poynter, the veteran human rights activist and educator, want to make sure that the incipient new movement for justice keep up the fight to free all political prisoners. We spoke with the couple, in Brooklyn, New York.

– A congressional committee has been holding hearings on the catastrophe in Flint, Michigan, the majority Black city whose water was poisoned under the control of an appointed emergency financial manager. Dr. Cynthia McKinney, the former six term congresswoman from Georgia and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate, was active in congressional hearings on the Katrina disaster back in 2005. McKinney is now in Bengladesh, teaching a course in political science and leadership, the discipline in which she earned her PhD. We asked Dr. McKinney if she thinks the current hearings will succeed in holding powerful people and government agencies accountable for what happened in Flint.

– Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, who became president of Haiti in an election racked with fraud and foreign interference in 2010, left office this past weekend, when his term expired. He’s being replaced by a transitional government appointed by the country’s Parliament, which came into office in elections in August that were also fraudulent, in the eyes of most Haitians. These were followed by presidential elections in October that were widely believed to be rigged, and the cancellation of a run-off election that had been scheduled for last month, due to massive protests. Jerome Franz is a Haitian community activist, now living in Miami. He says most Haitians still support the Fanmi Lavalas party of former president Jean Bertrand-Aristide, who was ousted in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004. We spoke to Jerome Franz shortly before the new interim Haiti government was announced.

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Boyan Atzev – Food Sovereignty: This is What Anarchy Looks Like

“This is what democracy looks like” goes the popular protest chant.  However, it’s not democracy that captures the imagination, provides answers, and drives today’s resistance  movement.  Something much more interesting has been taking place during protests, forums and intentional communities. In his book The New Left the anthropologist David Graeber states that anarchy has become the logical and probably last hope of …

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LINDA PENTZ GUNTER – Climate Deniers are More Dangerous Than Trump and More Deadly Than ISIS

So Rep. Lamar Smith (D-Tx.) finally got his NOAA emails.  What he really should get is a jail sentence for crimes against humanity.  He, and the other climate deniers like him who hold positions of power, are arguably more dangerous than Donald Trump and more deadly than ISIS. It is true that the presidential campaign of Donald Trump feels frighteningly …

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Leid Stories – 12.17.15

Mistrial in Freddie Gray Case in Baltimore; Chicago Cop Faces Murder Charges in 16-Shot Killing
Leid Stories returns to its series on killer cops with major updates on two cases—the death last April of Freddie Gray, 25, a week after suffering severe spinal injuries while being transported to a Baltimore police stationhouse after a contentious arrest, and the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Oct. 20 last year by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.
A Baltimore judge declared a mistrial yesterday in the case against Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in Gray’s death and the first to be tried, after a jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked in deciding four charges against him. In Chicago, Officer Van Dyke yesterday formally was charged with six counts of murder
“The People’s Attorney General” Alton H. Maddox Jr., who had predicted that Porter would walk because of tactical and legal errors by the prosecutor, discusses legal problems with both cases.

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CAN LOTS OF VITAMIN D SHIELD PEOPLE FROM HIV?

High doses of vitamin D may be an effective way to for people to fight infections like HIV-1. “Vitamin D may be a simple, cost-effective intervention, particularly in resource-poor settings, to reduce HIV-1 risk and disease progression,” researchers write in a new study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For the study, researchers looked at two …

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Andre Vltchek – The Saudi Prince And Two Tons of Narcotics

Saudi Prince Abdulmohsen bin Walid bin Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was obviously not fully satisfied with his life. A private jet, several luxury cars and a mansion were not enough to make him feel a truly fulfilled and respected member of the Gulf ruling “elites”. Others had more, like those double-decker Airbus 380’s, or tremendous duplexes overlooking Karbala. Perhaps …