Black Agenda Radio Commentaries

Stacey Abrams thinks all she has to do is show up unapologetically black with dreads and ride the black girl magic to the governor's mansion this year and the white house soon after, without the bother of telling voters her actual stands on issues. It's a general Democratic disease this year, with Lucy McBath and a gang of other 2018 Democrats doing the same, counting on a vote blue no matter who wave. Will it work for them? If they win, will it work for us? Probably not.

When Republicans are out and out warmongers the Democrats are utterly silent on war and peace, and peace parties banned from the ballot in many states, what should those who stand against empire be doing?

Sam Pollard's Maynard Jackson documentary currently on Netflix is lazy black history denuded of black politics in the service of black elites.

Florida's Andrew Gillum and Georgia's Stacey Abrams are within striking distance of the governors' mansions in their respective states. The black political class is demanding unity behind them, without any means of holding anyone's feet to the fire. Have we learned anything in the last decade?

Two Thirds of "Progressive" Democratic Congressional Candidates Are Silent on Foreign Policy. Why? Don't They Trust Democratic Voters?

John McCain was a bloodstained bribe taking, lying war criminal and politician who constructed a myth of himself as outsider and war hero. Lifting him up justifies and sanctifies the empire of capital. Soon they'll be naming parks and schools after him.

Success has a thousand mothers, but not failure. Everybody has an explanation for why Ocasio-Cortez won in NYC. But nobody is offring reasons why Cori Bush failed in St. Louis. Here's why....

Democrats supported the record FY 2019 Pentagon budget two to one. The progressive caucus voted for it 36 to 28, and all but 8 of 44 black caucus went for it too. It's official: the resistance is really the assistance.

If you grew up in the US you were taught that Uncle Sam and the Brits defeated Nazi Germany in WW2. The fact is, the USSR took most of the casualties -- 27 million dead -- and did most of the fighting that ended the Nazi threat to humanity. There's a reason the hammer and sickle was hoisted over Berlin in May 1945, not the stars and stripes or the Union Jack.

Everybody claims to be an organizer nowadays. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez offered up some clarity when she explained on Daniel Denvir's The Dig podcast that her campaign was based upon shoe leather canvass and street heat to extract names and contact info, social media and SMS directed at the contacts, and 120,000 phone calls. Not robocalls. Phone calls.

At this pivotal moment in the nation's history, an opposition political party ought to be hard at work delivering its message, building and expanding its base, communicating with activists and the public. The Green Party isn't doing any of these things. They elect some new leadership this weekend. Will the Green Party save itself?

Since the Warren court of the 1950s Republicans have declared their intent to pack US courts with rabid right wingers. In sixty-odd years Democrats have never put forth a strategy to stop them. In 2005 and 2006 John Kerry and Barack Obama led Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They failed to meaningfully oppose the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, or to make Federalist Society influence upon judicial selection an issue. This is their court too.

On Magical Thinking VS Sober Analysis of the Ocasio-Cortez Victory in NY

the Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez victory in NYC proves once again that we CAN elect progressives to public office from time to time. But what then? The left has no institutions with whi9ch to hold them accountable.

Democrats Fight Trump, the Man, But Not His Austerity and Militarism