Author Archives: Margaret Kimberley

NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was clear from the outset. Beginning in the 2016 pre-season, he declared that he would not stand during the playing of the national anthem. He would instead “take a knee” and he did so to protest the police killing of over 300 black people every year. In the summer of 2016, Alton Sterling was murdered one day and Philando Castille the next. Both killings took place on camera and Kaepernick began to speak up. He didn’t shrink and didn’t hesitate in denouncing the everyday carnage in this country. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Continue reading →

In recent days a foolish controversy has swirled regarding president Donald Trump. At issue is whether or not he can be labeled a white supremacist. There is no need for conjecture on this point. He most certainly is a white supremacist. But asking the question is utterly useless in a country whose very founding was a white supremacist project. Racist structures impact every facet of life in this country. Race determines where we go to school, live, work, or even if one is employed at all. Continue reading →

Recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida reveal a great deal about the United States and how little it does for its people. Of course, hurricane winds destroy material things and injure and kill humans. But natural disasters also destroy the myths of American democracy, exceptionalism and greatness. Continue reading →

Even most leftish white Americans like to think that their country is good and its institutions are fair and equitable. According to this wishful thinking human rights abuses only happen in faraway places and injustices here are resolved by reining in a few bad apples. The facts say otherwise and prove that the United States is consistently one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The cruelty of its prison system extends far beyond headlines of a few well known villains like David Clarke and Joe Arpaio. Continue reading →

The scoundrels and misleaders in the Democratic Party are leaving no stone unturned in their effort to escape responsibility for their ignominious defeats. There is no evidence of the Russian government “hacking” the election. Instead evidence points to a leak at the Democratic National Committee which revealed the gory details of their corruption and incompetence. Continue reading →

American workers have been completely crushed by capitalism. That is the goal of the capitalists after all, but working people in this country have fallen further and faster because they are without any political friends and because they declare allegiance to a compromised political party. The evidence can be seen in the vote against union representation at the Renault-Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi. Additional proof of the assault can be seen in the decision by the state of Wisconsin to promise electronics giant Foxconn $3 billion in subsidies to create 3,000 jobs. Continue reading →

Black Americans have never enjoyed the rights and the freedoms that their country claims to value. Academic freedom is just one of many concepts believed to be inviolate but which proves to be elusive when black people attempt to exercise it. Black academics are openly harassed, physically threatened and in constant danger of losing their jobs if they make any white person angry. This dynamic is especially problematic in an era when universities care more about raising money and staying in the good graces of the ruling classes than they do about education. Continue reading →

The proof that America is not a democracy is quite obvious. Academic studies and our own common sense tell us that this nation is ruled of, for and by wealthy individuals and corporate interests. One of their most tenaciously held prerequisites is the ability to decide who does and doesn’t run for office, and the presidency is their most prized possession of all. Continue reading →

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea, has the right to test and develop as many weapons as it likes. It doesn’t need another country’s permission to enhance its arsenal and, given America’s history of aggression, it is wise to do so. Any country deemed an enemy of the United States that doesn’t have a strong defense is in danger of ending up like Iraq or Libya, invaded or destroyed by other means. Continue reading →

Democratic party leaders are up to their old tricks. They have lost at every level of government across the country because they fail to give voters reasons to support them. This seemingly inexplicable behavior is quite deliberate. Giving the people what they want endangers their relations with wealthy individuals, corporations and big banks. Because they can no longer fool all of the people all of the time they have returned to a more open and obvious move to the right. Continue reading →

There has been worldwide condemnation of Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The anger is warranted but it must also be said that the accord was more deal making and public relations than an attack on carbon production and global warming. Climate change is definitely not a hoax or a “con job” as Trump has said in the past. There is so much consensus from scientists on the issue that there is little to debate. Arguments about economic harm are the real con job. American industries can survive quite well and even find new profit centers as they move toward green energy solutions. But the substance of the climate accord is far less significant than we are led to believe. Continue reading →

President Trump’s dismissal of FBI director James Comey is certainly a topic worthy of discussion and debate. In typical Trump fashion, his amateurish administration has given a variety of contradictory rationales for the action. While there may be confusion about what precipitated the decision, there should be no confusion about the FBI’s long history of persecuting black people in this country. Continue reading →

The Democratic Party is in a death spiral that it cannot escape. The debacle continues with members of Congress singing lyrics, “Hey Hey Hey Good-bye,” from an old song. The juvenile display showed that they are up to their old tricks. They are again counting on Republican unpopularity to regain power. They have no intention of doing anything proactively that would energize their rank and file and reverse their string of defeats. Continue reading →

The charge that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election is presented as fact in the corporate media and by the Democratic Party. Their collusion accomplishes two goals at once. The imperial project which has long sought to weaken Russia is given legitimacy. The Democrats divert attention from years of electoral failure which culminated in Donald Trump’s victory. Democratic Party rank and file members seethe about Vladimir Putin’s alleged misdeeds when they ought to ask their leadership hard questions. Continue reading →

In 2016, Donald Trump turned the political world upside down, and not just because his victory prevailed against conventional wisdom. Trump claimed to want a new direction in foreign policy. Gone would be the trade deals that sent American workers on a race to an endless bottom. He said that he wanted a new relationship with Russia and felt that the two countries might become partners in a war against terrorism. This terrorism resulted from the United States reliance on jihadists in order to effect regime change. While Hillary Clinton was an openly provocative war hawk, Trump gave an impression of wanting change. Continue reading →

What good are Democrats if they act just like Republicans? What good are black elected officials if they harm black people? These questions are not mere thought experiments for the people of Baltimore, Maryland. It is a reality they must face after their Democratic mayor consigned the working poor in that city to a bleak economic future. Continue reading →

The Democratic Party is going all out with its charge of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. In doing so they achieve two very important goals. First, they distract their voters from asking why Hillary Clinton lost and why they are perennial losers at every level of government across the country. Secondly, they can wage war by other means as they attempt to exact regime change in Russia. That is the desired endgame as they attempt to crush the sovereignty and independence of that resource-rich nation which spans Eurasia. Continue reading →

There is still no evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election. What substitutes for proof is nothing but an endless loop of corporate media repetition. The Democratic Party has plenty of reason to whip up hysteria in an effort to divert attention from its endless electoral debacles. Continue reading →

If there is evidence that the Russian Federation took some action that propelled Donald Trump to victory it has yet to be revealed. One wouldn’t know that from the daily Russophobic hysteria presented in the corporate media and the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton tried to make Vladimir Putin an issue in the election but it didn’t help her at all. She often compared Putin to Adolph Hitler and labeled Trump his puppet but the charges didn’t prevent the political upset from taking place. Continue reading →

Humanity is in desperate need of individuals and organizations to speak up for their right to live free from the threat of state violence. Instead we have a human rights industrial complex which speaks for the powerful and tells lies in order to justify their aggressions. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are at the top of this infamous list. They have a pattern and practice of giving cover for regime change schemes hatched by the United States, NATO partners and gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia. Continue reading →

Resistance is the new watch word for millions of people who oppose Donald Trump and his administration. This is a positive development against a president who made such open appeals to white American supremacy and the 21st century iterations of manifest destiny. Continue reading →

The trope of supporting the Democratic Party as the lesser of two evils has proven to be a huge failure. Barack Obama epitomized the foolishness of this political choice. As Black Agenda Report pointed out he was not less evil than Republican presidents. He was just the more effective evil. As the first black president and with the Democrats’ undeserved reputation as the party of justice and peace, he was able to get away with more evildoing than any other president in recent memory. Continue reading →

There are many indications of the deep systemic crisis now confronting America and the world. The fact that Donald Trump was elected president when neither his party nor any of the elites wanted him is just one piece of evidence. The bizarre passivity from Democrats after their party’s colossal failure is another. These people who are loath to point out the extent of the Democrats’ disintegration do little else but repeat the many reasons they don’t like Trump. Increasingly they use Russophobia and what was once the language of the right wing to do it. Continue reading →

The word contradiction explains much of what seems inexplicable as Donald Trump prepares to take office. It may seem strange that progressives are quoting the CIA with great enthusiasm or that Fox news host Sean Hannity is lionizing Julian Assange. These events are logical at the moment when the system is cracking under its own weight. The contradictions have become quite acute. Continue reading →

It is no coincidence that anti-Russian propaganda is being ramped up at the same moment the Syrian government is poised to retake its country from terrorists. Barack Obama and the rest of the war party are left to sputter nonsensical statements because their grand plan to realize the neocon Project for a New American Century is in very big trouble. Continue reading →

The need to organize against various oppressions is ever present across the United States. But the South is the region which illustrates most clearly the need for black people to assert their political and human rights. It is the innermost part of the belly of the beast. Continue reading →

Black Americans were lost and politically helpless before Election Day in 2016. Having a black Democrat in the presidency hid a multitude of sins. As a group we have lost jobs, the little wealth we had, and literally our lives and freedom from the police state. Donald Trump’s election just made what was already true crystal clear. Continue reading →

The word “underclass” means poor black people and they are responsible for their own condition. So sayeth white America’s go-to black man, Henry Louis Gates. In fact they are poor because they have no jobs, or low wage jobs, or are churned in and out of the mass incarceration complex and are, therefore, condemned to future joblessness. Oh yes, and racism diminishes their odds of getting a good education or being hired at all or living where they want regardless of income. Continue reading →

American and NATO aggressions must be opposed wherever they surface in the world. That statement ought to be the starting point for anyone calling themselves left, progressive, or antiwar. Of course the aggressors always use a ruse to diminish resistance to their wars of terror. In Syria and elsewhere, they claim to support freedom fighters, the moderate opposition and any other designation that helps hide imperialist intervention. They label their target as a tyrant, a butcher, or a modern day Hitler who commits unspeakable acts against his own populace. The need to silence opposition is obvious and creating the image of a monster is the most reliable means of securing that result. Continue reading →