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Nicolas J.S. Davies: U.N. Now Engaged in Afghan Negotiations to End America’s Longest War; Marge Baker: Voter Suppression Opponents Enlist Support from Major U.S. Corporations; Mark Colville: Last of Kings Bay Plowshares Anti-Nuclear Weapons Protesters Receives 21-Month Prison Sentence; Bob Nixon: This Week’s Under-reported News Summary.

When reporting on a wished-for social good, like universal healthcare or improved infrastructure, the “cost to taxpayers” is presented as central; “raising taxes” is a synonym for increasing hardship on working people, and unironically offered as the reason those same people can’t have nice things, like healthcare and infrastructure. Meanwhile, corporations like Zoom, Amazon and Netflix are super-successful, exemplary—what magic do they have to earn themselves such fortune?—and, oh yeah, they pay zero or near zero federal tax on their profits. ...

Today we discuss Planetary Boundaries, nine environmental systems identified by scientists as essential to Earth’s ability to sustain life and the limits to how far out of equilibrium we can push those systems before facing large-scale, irreversible environmental changes to our planet.

After a long, amazingly productive life, one of our true heroes, Ramsey Clark, died on April 11. He was 93. Phil recalls some of his own work, as a lawyer, with Clark on some hard cases. He recalls one in Tanzania. Besides serving as LBJ's Attorney General, Clark worked hard representing the little guy, and often won. Clark has also campaigned fiercely against the US colonial wars against Vietnam and other humble lands. We had to omit the 2015 interview Phil promised, but you can find it at radio4all.net/index.php/program/108376 . Later this morning we'll hear an archival edition of TUC Radio. TUC recorded his San Francisco speech in 2002.

From Abunimah's Electronic Intifada article: When AOC won an upset primary victory in June 2018, it came as a breath of fresh air for supporters of Palestinian rights. The month before she unseated a senior member of the Democratic Party, she had expressed her solidarity with unarmed Palestinians being gunned down by Israeli snipers as they protested in the besieged Gaza Strip. Her subsequent shift to the right, including her embrace of the Israel lobby and echoing of its propaganda, could be linked to reports that she may mount a primary challenge against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. ... None of that would make AOC remarkable, but no one should mistake her for a courageous champion of human rights, especially those of Palestinians. When such a prominent member of the new progressives as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez falls victim to the Israeli lobby and begins to mouth their false narrative, it is more than disappointing, it is devastating.

Rabbi David Mivasair of Independent Jewish Voice (IJVcanada.org, the equivalent of JVC in the US) provides some background on the events of the New Democratic Party (NDP) convention concerning a resolution calling for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. [Resolution 4-10-20]. This was passed by 85% of NDP delegates ... once it got around the entrenched NDP gatekeepers. He also discusses the growing threat to public discussion posed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), including in Hamilton, and why it needs to be opposed. (This is the group that tries to label any criticism of Israel "antisemitic.")

Rebroadcast in memory of Ramsey Clark Former U.S. attorney general and longtime human rights lawyer Ramsey Clark died on April 10, 2021 at the age of 93. He served as attorney general from 1967 to 1969. After leaving office, Clark became a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy. “The world is the most dangerous place it’s ever been because of what our country has done, and is doing” he said. Maria recorded him in San Francisco on October 12, 2002. – He said that when George Bush declared his war on terrorism he made the most lawless step in the history of the United States.