WZBC 90.3 FM Newton

Ochs wrote "I Ain't Marching Any More" as American involvement in the Vietnam War was beginning to grow. The song criticizes all of American military history from the perspective of a weary soldier who has been present at every single war since the War of 1812.

Mark Dimondstein: Rising Concern Trump’s Slowing Down U.S. Mail Delivery to Gain Election Advantage; Sylvia Albert: Trump Attempts to Omit Immigrants in Census Count for Apportionment of Congressional Seats; Chase Iron Eyes: Sioux Demand Return of Sacred Lands That Their Prophecy Says Will Bring Global Healing; Bob Nixon: This Week’s Under-reported News Summary.

More thoughtful attention to the “how” of re-opening is necessary, but for that, you’d need to listen to people who actually know—and care—rather than constantly handing the mike to Mr. “It Is What It Is.”

Hedges explains why this perilous moment in America with the pandemic and Trumpism will be looked back upon fondly, compared to what the future holds. He also shares how he sees little hope in Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, which he believes have no substantive solutions for the social inequality and other institutional problems that spawned Donald Trump and his white neo-fascist movement. Hedges is also concerned that America is spiraling down into the type of ethno-political violence he personally witnessed in Yugoslavia during that country's civil war in the 1990s.

Federal Judge George Daniels issued two nationwide injunctions temporarily blocking the Trump Administrations public charge rules after attorneys successfully argued that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the public charge rules lethal to immigrant communities by chilling the use of healthcare and other benefits. An injunction issued against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prevents DHS from enforcing, applying, implementing, or treating as effective the public charge rule for any period during which there is a declared national health emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Immigrants, oftentimes serving as essential workers combating the spread of the coronavirus need not make a Sophies Choice between accessing health care, food stamps and or other public benefits or their applications for visas. Judge Daniels ruling effects the lives of millions of hardworking immigrants and their access to social services.

The original article is posted at americamagazine.org/faith/2020/04/23/what-forgotten-black-nun-can-teach-us-about-racism-and-covid-19 . "OSP" stands for Oblate Sisters of Providence, which in 1832 was an all-black order of nuns dedicated to teaching and nursing. In that year a cholera epidemic was raging through Europe and major US cities, and it hit Archbishop James Whitfield in Baltimore. A renegade subordinate chose Sister Mary Anthony Duchemin, OSP (rather than the all-white Sisters of Charity) to nurse him back to health. She faithfully did so. Soon after, she died in the course of nursing Whitfield's housekeeper. Meanwhile, Whitfield was committed to white supremacy and segregation. When he later died, his will gave $1000 to the slaveholding Carmelites, $500 to the Sisters of Charity, and $100 to the OSP whose nursing had saved his life. This Archbishop's successor was an actual slaveholder. The article concludes that we have a long way to go.

This week we feature a conversation with one of the truly great investigative journalists of our time, Max Blumenthal. To guarantee his independence as a journalist he founded the Grayzone Project (thegrayzone.com), which allowed him to cut ties with the controlling corporate media. Because of that, his reporting is less exposed in main stream media, which too often refuses to accurately cover such areas as Venezuela, Syria, and of course Palestine. His books include The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza (2015), Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party (2009), Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel (2013), and The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump (2019). So here is the intrepid Max Blumenthal in conversation with Michael Spath of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace.

We welcome back Coleen Rowley for a wide-ranging discussion. She is a retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel who testified about the FBI’s pre 9-11 lapses as a whistle-blower in 2002 to staffers of the Joint Intelligence Committee's Inquiry; the Senate Judiciary Committee; and to investigators of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice. Along with two other whistle-blowers, she was selected that year as Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year.” Coleen Rowley has been a terrific activist and advocate for peace and justice ever since.

From his own experience within the highest levels of government, Alperovitz demolishes the standard myths that the atomic bomb destruction of Hiroshima "saved lives" or "ended the war." All of the generals were shocked when Truman decided to do it. They had broken the Japanese code and were able to read Japan's secret reports to its military brass, making it clear that it had already lost its part of the war and was preparing terms for surrender. The US soon accepted those terms.

Gowans describes how Israel was first created as an extension of 19th century European colonialism and functions today as a means of power projection for the United States. The U.S. seeks to dominate the Arab world, and Israel has demonstrated its value in weakening Arab forces that seek self-determination. Gowans traces the history, from the early marriage between the racist and pessimistic ideas shared by Zionists and European imperialists alike, to the U.S. desire today to keep the Arab nation divided and off-balance. Please note that this program does not agree with the racist views of Theodore Herzl or the European imperialists, referenced in the interview, who helped in the creation of Israel.