Florida’s Palm Beach County braces for its annual “burn season,” which begins each year in October and runs for six months at least through March to as late as May.  The Florida sugar industry begins its harvest season for 400,000 acres (625 square miles) of sugarcane fields.  Assuming a six-month burn season, this means there were approximately 43 fires per day in 2019.  During the burning, walls of fire rise from 30 to 40 feet in the air, and then create smoke plumes reaching over a half-mile high, stretching as much as 26 miles from the actual burn sites, around four small Black and Latino communities in Palm Beach south of Lake Okeechobee — Belle Glade, Pahokee, South Bay and Canal Point.  Hendry, Glade and Martin counties are also targets.  This is all designated as part of the “Hazard Zone.” Continue reading

It is important to realize we have had two parties of the millionaires governing the United States since its founding. People have always had to pick between which of the millionaire parties we should choose from when neither put the people's interests first. Some people have found a successful third way that builds people's power. Those in the Green Party view popular movements and third-party candidates (who cannot win elections in this rigged system) working together to change the direction of the country. We would rather vote for what we want and not get it in an election but use our vote to build a national consensus for the changes we need. That is a better alternative than voting for what we do not want, i.e. "a certifiable, lying, murdering war criminal" and a racist mass incarcerator, and getting it. Continue reading

“The Washington Post created Propaganda or Not, Propornot, a secretive group which labeled Black Agenda Report and others as Russian assets in 2016.” It is Democrats and the technology companies which support them that are doing most of the censoring that is identified with fascist societies.  Continue reading

Last week, I wrote about what is needed in this moment and urged people to look more deeply, beyond the Biden-Trump spectacle, to understand where we are as a country and what we must do to change course. I cited the work of Gabriel Rockhill. Read his three recent articles in Counterpunch and the fourth in the series here at Black Agenda Report for an enhanced understanding of how we got here and what we are up against. Continue reading

In the past month, we’ve seen a small flood of open letters from environmental leaders and long-time leaders on the left (Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, and others), and articles, all with the same basic message: “Vote for Biden in 2020, Fight Him Later.” It’s hard to argue with them. Donald Trump needs to go. Sure, we’ll need to challenge Joe Biden to do the right thing if he wins. The signers are all too aware that Biden’s campaign platform and troubling record as senator promise another Democratic administration dedicated to war and Wall Street. Continue reading

The Long Haul After all these months and 210,000 deaths, you’d think I’d be used to it all, but I’m not. It doesn’t seem even a little normal yet. I’m still full of absences, missing so much I used to take for granted: hugs and handshakes, rooms crowded for funerals and weddings, potluck dinners and house parties. I miss browsing the stacks at the library and the racks at the thrift shop. I miss going to our Unitarian Universalist congregation and the robust community connection we enjoyed every Sunday. Continue reading

The reoccupation of the Executive Branch by the Democrats will not bring any change in U.S. behavior in the global South For the people of the world the real fascism of anti-democratic, brutal regimes supported by the U.S., murderous sanctions, and right-wing coups will continue unabated. The "left" rationalization for collaborating with the neoliberal wing of the Democrat Party is premised on the argument that a win for the national Democrat candidate translates into better possible policy outcomes for the "people" and nation. More importantly though, they assert, Trump's defeat will alter the rightist trajectory of U.S. politics away from what they refer to as Trump's neofascist inclinations.   Continue reading

The Republicans lie about the harm they do to the planet, and the Democrats lie and pretend they're not doing the very same things.  In recent weeks a combination of drought and record breaking heat have accelerated wildfire season to historic levels of devastation. More than 4.6 million acres have burned in the states of California, Oregon and Washington. Skies are colored orange and red, the air is unbreathable, lives have been lost and entire towns have been destroyed. Continue reading

Most people can probably understand why Greens are outraged at having our sandcastle kicked over; our candidates selectively struck from the ballot at the last minute by pernicious legal attacks. We think it's pretty clear that there is a question of equal treatment and application of the law here, but we are not surprised. For Greens, the obstacles to ballot access are just one more in a long list of duopoly tactics to suppress minor parties and retain total oligarchic control of our nation. Continue reading

By David Sutliff AtiasSeptember 8, 2020 In this post we’re going to address that worn out excuse for not voting Green: it’s a waste of your vote. But before you go on, if you haven’t read the first part of this called How Much Do You Hate Trump? you should check that out first. Because if you read that first then my first point will make much more sense. Voting for what you believe in is NEVER a waste of your vote. It is what voting and elections are supposed to be about. In fact, I argue that this concept of voting for what you actually want instead of against what you don’t want is the only thing that makes voting worthwhile. Continue reading