The Persistence of White Supremacy in the US

Margaret Kimberley is an Editor and Senior Columnist at the Black Agenda Report, which publishes news, commentary and analysis from the black left. She is author of the book, "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," which is an eye-opening and very well researched volume published by Steerforth Press in February 2020. She contributed to the anthology, "In Defense of Julian Assange," which includes essays by over three dozen other well-known figures including Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and Matt Taibbi. Margaret is also on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, which seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement.

I have been reading Margaret's work since the Obama years, when the Black Agenda Report came to my attention as a source for principled critique of US society and politics, no matter who is president. The writers there were not afraid to call Obama to account for his misdeeds both domestically and overseas, and their truth-telling has continued unabated to the present. I had the great pleasure of meeting Margaret in person in Manhattan in August 2018, and a transcript of our conversation appears in my book, "Roadtripping at the End of the World."

This podcast was recorded on April 24th, 2020. We discussed her book, "Prejudential," US foreign policy, the 2020 elections, Russiagate, how the COVID-19 virus is disproportionally affecting Black Americans, and the historic opportunity for fundamental change that is presenting itself during the current crisis.

Margaret Kimberley's "Freedom Rider" columns https://blackagendareport.com/author/Margaret%20Kimberley,%20BAR%20senior%20columnist

Black Agenda Report https://blackagendareport.com/

"Prejudential: Black Americans & the Presidency" http://steerforth.com/titles/prejudential/written+by-margaret+kimberley?feature=cover

My review: "230+ Years of White Supremacy: 'Prejudential: Black America & the Presidents'” https://macskamoksha.com/2020/02/prejudential

"In Defense of Julian Assange" https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/in-defense-of-julian-assange/

Previous interview: "The Myth of the USA’s “greatness” – A conversation with Margaret Kimberley" https://macskamoksha.com/product/roadtripping-at-the-end-of-the-world-paperback

My book, "Roadtripping at the End of the World" https://macskamoksha.com/product/roadtripping-at-the-end-of-the-world-paperback

RADIO FREE SUNROOT: Podcasting by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume https://radiofreesunroot.com

KOLLIBRI'S BLOG: Weekly essays, plus photography & more https://www.macskamoksha.com

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Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of many novels including The Dandelion Insurrection and The Way Between and other novels. She is also the editor of Nonviolence News, a free weekly newsletter.

I first discovered Rivera's writing on Counterpunch and began following her on social media. A couple years back, when I asked her if I could mail her a copy of my most recent book, "The Failures of Farming & the Neccesity of Wildtending," she graciously offered to send me one of her own books. I chose "The Dandelion Insurrection," which I found so compelling that I couldn't put it down once I started it, and ended up spending an entire day reading.

I will admit that I have been skeptical of "non-violence" as an approach. This dates back to my time in Portland, Oregon, in the early 2000s, when the big protests against the upcoming Iraq War were going on. There, some of the prominent non-violence activists I knew struck me as close-minded, uptight, and unrealistic. Disagreements often came up as to whether property destruction constituted violence, which I felt tended to fetishize property, and by extension to shield class and capital from criticism. Additionally, some non-violent proponents tended to conflate violence and illegality, as if Gandhi and King and others had not purposefully engaged in illegal actions when appropriate.

The most frustrating moment came for me when some of the folks from that crowd got upset that people were using chalk on sidewalks and walls to express antiwar messages. In Portland, chalking is not even illegal; this I knew for certain from a local lawyer who provided letters to chalk activists that they could show to police if challenged. And chalking is not destructive; in rainy Oregon, it'll soon be gone. That was a breaking point for me, and I pretty much ignored the non-violent crowd after that for years to come.

But when I started getting into Rivera Sun's work, I came to understand that non-violence does not at all have to be about prissiness or passivity. To the contrary, it can be loud, bold, active, engaging and quite effective. I found myself re-inspired, and that was a happy feeling.

I interviewed Rivera on March 11, 2020, and we covered a lot of ground. By the end of this interview, I hope that you, too, will be excited about non-violence.

Rivera Sun https://www.riverasun.com

Non-Violence News https://nonviolencenews.org/

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As the Western Watersheds Project’s Biodiversity Director, biologist Katie Fite has monitored more public ground than arguably any other single person in the Western United States. Her work has repeatedly set her against the anti-environmental bureaucrats at the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.

She is currently Director of Public Lands at Wildlands Defense, an Idaho-based organization that is dedicated to protecting and improving the ecological and aesthetic qualities of the wildlands and wildlife communities of the western United States for present and future generations. Wildlands Defense engages in legal and administrative advocacy, scientific research, and wildland and wildlife monitoring, and also by supporting and empowering active public engagement.

Katie and I talked on March 9th, 2020, and took a deep dive into what is known as "welfare ranching." What's that? Well, the sepia-toned myth of the self-reliant cowboy is just that--a myth. In reality, the cattle industry of the western US recieves big subsidies from the federal and state governments, at taxpayer expense. The big losers in this scam are native wildlife and natural ecosystems. It's a tragedy that's been unfolding for centuries and that has only gotten worse in recent years. It's well past time to remove all cows and sheep from public lands, full stop.

Wildlands Defense http://wildlandsdefense.org/

The Latest BLM Hoodwinkery: "Fuel Breaks" in the Great Basin https://macskamoksha.com/2020/02/fire-breaks-in-the-great-basin

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Basin and Range Watch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to conserve the deserts of Nevada and California and to educate the public about the diversity of life, cultures, and history of the desert, as well as sustainable local renewable energy alternatives. They seek to protect desert wildlands and species, groundwater resources, dark night skies, culturally important landscapes, local ways of life, and more.

A major focus is the current push by federal and state agencies to open up undisturbed habitat and public lands in the desert to energy development. They say: "Our goal is to identify the problems of energy sprawl and find solutions that will preserve our natural ecosystems and open spaces. We specialize in ground-truthing proposed project sites and reporting our findings to the public so that everyone is well-informed about how to comment during agency review periods. We pioneered citizen science monitoring of energy projects in the desert. We support energy efficiency, better rooftop solar policy, and distributed generation/storage alternatives, as well as planning for wise energy and land use following the principles of science and conservation biology."

In this episode, I talked to the founders of Basin & Range Watch, Laura Cunningham & Kevin Emmerich.

Laura Cunningham has a Bachelor's degree in paleontology from the University of California at Berkeley, where she also studied zoology, botany, herpetology, and natural resource management. Additionally, she undertook graduate study at the University of California, Santa Cruz in Science Communication. She is also a talented artist who has published two illustrated books: A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California (Heyday), and a children's book: The Bay Area Through Time.

Kevin Emmerich is a former National Park ranger and field biologist. He has focused on desert conservation and land-use issues for many years.

The three of us spoke on the phone on March 8th. We talked about the many issues with large-scale green energy projects in the deserts of the southwest, and also about common sense, locally-based alternatives. This was the second time I interviewed them together; a transcript of the first one, in 2015, appears in my book, "Roadtripping at the End of the World." Their message--that green energy ain't always green--deserves far, far more attention than it gets.

links: Basin & Range Watch https://www.basinandrangewatch.org/

"Your Money or Your Life: Can We Afford to Work for Peanuts?" https://macskamoksha.com/2015/03/your-money-or-your-life-can-we-afford-to-work-for-peanuts

Roadtripping at the End of the World: https://macskamoksha.com/product/roadtripping-at-the-end-of-the-world-paperback

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Episode Two: "In Defense of Prairie Dogs" with guest Deanna Meyer.

Deanna Meyer is a long time environmental activist. Born and raised in Colorado, she gained a deep appreciation for the land and its living communities but came to recognize that everyone she loved was under attack. In 2015, she began her fight on behalf of prairie dog colonies along the Front Range when she launched a campaign to protect a large prairie dog colony from extermination in Castle Rock. She has been campaigning and advocating for numerous colonies and prairie communities ever since and intends to do whatever it takes to save this keystone species and the communities they support.

Deanna is the executive director of Prairie Protection Colorado, which advocates for prairie dogs by drawing attention to the mass exterminations of prairie dog colonies along the Front Range, and by organizing and resisting the destruction of the last remaining prairie communities. PPC organizes on-the-ground and works ​​​​with local governments, the media and legal channels to cast a web of protection over the last remaining prairie dog colonies.

I first made contact with Deanna in November 2017 when researching an article entitled, "Slaughter in Colorado Highlights the Prairie Dog’s Plight," which was about the extermination of a colony in Longmont Colorado by a construction company.

We spoke on March 4, 2020, and the topics we covered included Prairie Protection Colorado's mission, the ecology of prairie dogs, the crimes against nature of the state of Colorado and the federal government, and the big picture of US American culture and its war on the environment.

Prairie Protection Colorado https://prairieprotectioncolorado.org/

"Slaughter in Colorado Highlights the Prairie Dog’s Plight" https://macskamoksha.com/2017/11/prairie-dogs-plight

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Cindy Sheehan is an anti-war activist and anti-imperialist rabble-rouser. She became politically active after her son, Casey, a soldier, was killed in Iraq in April 2005. Shortly thereafter she formed Gold Star Families for Peace, made up of other families who opposed US militarism. She became nationally-known in August of 2005 after establishing a protest camp near President George W. Bush’s ranch in Texas. Hundreds of people participated in the protest, which was called “Camp Casey” after Sheehan’s son. At this time, the media nicknamed her “Peace Mom.”

Sheehan has run for office three times, including against Congressman Nancy Pelosi. She rejects the US American political duopoly and is a member of the Peace and Freedom Party. In 2018, she formed the Women’s March On the Pentagon, which has been organizing an annual protest against war and imperialism at the Pentagon in Washington DC. She has been arrested multiple times.

Sheehan has authored eight books including “Dear President Bush,” “The Obama Files: Chronicles of an Award-Winning War Criminal” and “Myth America:10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution!”

She also publishes a blog and produces a podcast at Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox, with new content every week.

In our conversation, recorded on March 3rd, 2020, we talked about antiwar activism, US imperialism, the futility of electoral politics, the environmental crimes of the US military, how propaganda supports war, how political organizing is affected by technology and social media, and other topics. It was a real honor to speak with her.

Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox: https://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/

March On the Pentagon: https://marchonpentagon.com/