Black Agenda Radio - 11.07.16

Welcome, to the radio program that brings you News, Commentary and Analysis, from the Black Left. Cooperation Jackson, an organization made up of activists rooted in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement that, for a brief time, controlled City Hall in Jackson, Mississippi, continues to build institutions for Black self-determination in the region. Kali Akuno is a spokesperson for Cooperation Jackson. He says their current big project is to get ownership of a high-tech, 3-D Fabrication production facility. They call it the “Fab Lab.” Health insurance costs are going through the roof, as the dwindling number of private insurance companies that participate in the ObamaCare program raise rates and lower services in states across the country. Folks shouldn’t be surprised, according to Dr. John Geyman, Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. Dr. Geyman is am noted author, and recently published an article that said Obama’s Affordable Care Act is imploding, and beyond repair. That should have been expected, since the legislation was never designed to keep health care costs down. Professor John Geyman, speaking from Seattle.In Detroit, parents, educators and activists came together for a “Community Conversation on the Crisis in the Schools,” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The gathering was organized to address the question: “Who Created the School Crisis, and How Are We Responding To it?” Detroit has the second-largest concentration of charter schools in the country, right behind New Orleans. The city’s educational crisis began with the state takeover of the public schools, in the 1990s, and dramatically worsened after Michigan imposed emergency financial managers over the system. One of those on the panel was Dr. Thomas Pedroni, professor of Curriculum Studies at Wayne State University. The opposition to Venezuela’s Socialist government last year captured the country’s legislature, and is now attempting to seize the executive branch by hook or by crook. Opposition politicians tell foreign media that Venezuelans are starving due to government mismanagement and the collapse of world oil prices,and the U.S. corporate press reports that, as Truth. We spoke with Maria Paez Victor, a Venezuelan-born sociologist living in Toronto, Canada, who recently wrote an article titled, “Hating Venezuela.” We asked Dr. Victor, Who are these people who hate Venezuela so much and spread disinformation about its Socialist government?