Shows
LA ProgressiveHow Charlie Kirk Echoes Horst WesselTrump friend-turned-foe Conway has enraged the MAGA right by charging on X, “They may not want to hear it, and it may incense them, but the parallels between what the Nazis did then [with Wessel], and what Trump and MAGA are doing today [with Kirk], are striking, chilling – and as any expert on authoritarianism will tell you, straight out of the same toxic, but dog-eared, playbook.”In a conversation with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive, emeritus professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, KY, Berry Craig explains why th...
2025-09-2334 min
LA ProgressiveCollateral Damage: The Global Health Crisis War Leaves BehindAndrea Mazzarino, the co-founder of Brown University’s Costs of War Project joins Dick and Sharon to discuss the consequences of war rarely discussed. While conventional casualty figures focus on battlefield deaths, Andrea Mazzarino asserts that the indirect toll—the number who die or suffer due to illness, malnutrition, disrupted infrastructure, lack of healthcare, mental trauma, and disability is significantly higher. Shockingly, of over one million lives lost, at least 800,000 are traced to these secondary effects. Mazzarino, who is also an activist and social worker, is the co-editor of the new book War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the...
2025-07-1715 min
LA ProgressiveWhite Christian Nationalism - Trump's Most Loyal BaseThe rapid rise of a pugilistic and politicized white evangelicalism occurred in direct tandem with the virulent reaction to the advances of the midcentury civil rights movement. Peter Laarman a retired minister who formerly led Progressive Christians Uniting in Los Angeles joins Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to discuss how white christian nationalism was sparked by the same elements that promote predatory capitalism.To read the full article that launched this conversation, click here:https://www.laprogressive.com/science-and-religion/dangerous-white-christiansIf you appreciate the discussions here, please like, share and subscribe:
2025-07-1025 min
LA ProgressiveJeff Mackler: A Revolutionary Voice from the MarginsIn a political landscape increasingly defined by polarization and corporate influence, Jeff Mackler stands as a principled voice for revolutionary socialism. As the national secretary of Socialist Action, a Trotskyist political organization, Mackler has spent decades fighting capitalism, imperialism, and environmental destruction—often from far outside the mainstream. His is a politics rooted not in triangulation or compromise, but in unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and the working class.Jeff Macker joins Sharon Kyle and Dick Price of the LA Progressive as they discuss his political activism and the future of the United States as it turns de...
2025-07-0326 min
LA ProgressiveBreaking the Cycle: Why White People Must Help Dismantle Racism to Save American DemocracyFrank Joyce and Elizabeth Woodson joined Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to talk about the role that white people MUST play in creating democracy for all. They are both dedicated to dismantling racism. When speaking of herself and Frank, Elizabeth said, “We are not of the same gender or generation. But we have two things in common. We are both white as defined by the racial categories entrenched long ago to sustain white male power. And we’re both dedicated to confronting and repairing the harms of whiteness, settler colonialism, enslavement, segregation and other aspects of the endu...
2025-06-2643 min
LA ProgressiveFrom PBS to KBLA: Tavis Smiley’s MissionFrom his early days as a commentator on BET to his groundbreaking role as the first African American to host signature talk programs on both NPR (The Tavis Smiley Show) and PBS (Tavis Smiley), he has consistently used his platform to uplift stories that are too often ignored—those rooted in the Black experience, in the struggle for justice, and in the enduring quest for dignity. Tavis Smiley spent time chatting with Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive. They talked a little about his past, his present and his plans for the future. Tavis Smiley keeps and real all th...
2025-06-1849 min
LA ProgressiveTeaching Real History: Why Complexity, Not Myth, Builds Informed CitizensAcross the country, classrooms are under pressure—politically, ideologically, and pedagogically. One quiet but powerful force distorting how young people understand the world is reductionist reasoning and erasure of marginalized perspectives in the teaching of history.Dick Price and Sharon Kyle invited Nora Lester Murad to discuss her first hand knowlege of the erasure of Palestinians in Israel. Nora is the author of the award-winning young adult novel, Ida in the Middle. A story about a Palestinian-American girl who eats a magic olive that takes her to the life she might have had in her parents’ village near...
2025-06-1236 min
LA ProgressiveAuthoritarianism, Historical Amnesia, and the War on EducationCulture is the primary battlefield authoritarians use to establish a foothold in the public imagination, where fear is normalized, dissent is demonized, and history is rewritten to serve the interests of power. In our conversation with Henry Giroux, a regular writer for the LA Progressive, Dick and I learn more about the ways of authoritarians who thrive on ignorance, historical amnesia and the brutal aesthetics of cruelty, all the while normalizing their cruelty as common sense. Our conversation was sparked after we read an article on this topic that Henry Giroux wrote and submitted to the LA...
2025-06-0533 min
LA ProgressiveCan California Dems Win Back Latino VotersAfter the disastrous November election, we have not seen the emergence of a Democratic Party agenda or any effort that clearly goes to the heart of the Latino community.During the fall’s Presidential elections, Latino voters across the country expressed their concerns with the status quo by reluctantly voting for the Democratic incumbent or aggressively and spitefully voting for her unqualified opponent. The core of their message seemed to be that the Latino community has not received its due attention.In this conversation, Dick Price and Sharon Kyle explore this reality with Latino policy op...
2025-05-2837 min
LA ProgressiveAmerica’s Addiction to War: A Lieutenant Colonel Reflects 40 Years LaterForty years ago. Bill Astor was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In this conversation with Dick Price, himself a Vietnam Veteran, the two military veterans reflect on two decades of military service and their participation in a system deeply embedded in America’s military-industrial complex. While Bill Astor never directly engaged in violence, he critically examines the paradoxes of serving in an institution that preaches peace through overwhelming firepower. Drawing on his experiences and historical scholarship, he critiques America's reliance on military force as a default solution to global problems—from Vietnam to Iraq to G...
2025-05-2227 min
LA ProgressiveIs Donald Trump Bullying America's Judicial BranchIs Donald Trump Bullying Judges and Law Firms? Has he taken a page from Hitler’s playbook?It appears that Trump is bullying America's legal system. Nine of America’s largest and most powerful law firms have surrendered to President Donald Trump’s illegal threats. They demeaned themselves by agreeing to provide an astonishing $940 million in free legal services to causes chosen by Trump and the firms while also agreeing to discontinue their DEI policies. Fortunately, other firms refused and are fighting back. Trump bullied the legal system by following Hitler's playbook. The most ominous parallel is to Naz...
2025-05-1521 min
LA ProgressiveFBI Arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan Sparks National UproarOn April 25th, the FBI arrested Hannah Dugan, a circuit court judge who serves on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. She was taken away in handcuffs, a highly unusual maneuver–specifically, Judge Dugan was handcuffed and arrested by FBI agents at the courthouse where she presides, during court hours. The arrest was conducted publicly within the courthouse premises. She was led out in handcuffs, a move that has drawn criticism from legal professionals and observers who questioned the necessity and manner of the arrest.Because this arrest is raising ire in the legal community, we as...
2025-05-0217 min
LA ProgressiveJohn Kiriakou SpeaksFormer CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kiriakou, engaged in a great conversation with Dick and Sharon a while back. We are republishing it here. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program. In this discussion with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive, John covers a wide range of topics. John also has given Dick and Sharon pe...
2025-04-2550 min
LA ProgressiveA Conversation About USAIDThe United States Agency for International Development (USAID) played a vital role in U.S. foreign relations for over six decades. What began as a Cold War instrument to allegedly "curb communism" through economic development grew into a global agency addressing some of the world's most pressing challenges. This support was not met without criticism or opposition, as was recently reported here at the LA Progressive. But, like almost anything, USAID was a complex organization. It also provided essential support services and supplies across the globe by supporting development, healthcare, reducing poverty, and responding to emergencies.This...
2025-04-1823 min
LA ProgressiveThe Presidents and the PeopleStephen Rohde offers a review of Corey Brettschneider’s engaging new book The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It. Brettschneider offers lucid and revealing profiles of five presidents - John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon - who “stoked the fire of a constitutional crisis” and “wielded the nation’s most powerful office to undermine a core aspect of democracy.” Given the “fragile pillars of American democracy,” Brettschneider believes each of these presidents stands “as a conspicuous example of the damage a single president can do.”For...
2025-04-1244 min
LA ProgressiveWith Trump Waging War Against Black People, Where Are Our Muhammad Ali's?Author and longtime journalist, Desi Cortez, joins Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive to discuss the role of Black professional athletes in the fight for civil liberties and civil rights, particularly when the Black community is under fire. Speaking of recent actions taken by the Trump administration, Cortez says, “The alarms are blaring. The sirens are wailing. The enemy isn’t just at the gate—it has the keys to the kingdom.And yet, Black America’s most powerful, most visible athletes—the ones who have built empires from the very culture this country tries to e...
2025-03-1341 min
LA ProgressiveConsiglieres in Black RobesThought leader, writer, lecturer and political activist, Stephen Rohde joins Sharon Kyle and Dick Price of the LA Progressive to discuss the perils we find ourselves facing with the current supremem court. Rohde maintains that throughout his rise to power, Trump has recruited obedient enablers to do his bidding. He says that Trump’s henchmen have compliantly cleared the way for him to lie, steal, and conspire to get whatever he wants. The three, Stephen, Dick and Sharon discuss whether there is evidence to suggest that Trump has enlisted the six conservative Republican justices on the United St...
2025-03-0528 min
LA ProgressiveFormer Green Party Candidate Makes a Big MoveDr. Butch Ware, Dr. Jill Stein's 2024 running mate on the Green Party presidential ticket, has announced his candidacy for another office. With a rich background in academia and community organizing, Dr. Ware brings a unique perspective to the campaign. Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive spent time with Dr. Ware discussing his vision.https://butchware4gov.com/Click here for more stories from the LA ProgressiveThe LA Progressive can be found on all social media platforms. You’ll find them here: https://linktr.ee/laprogressive Get full access to LA...
2025-02-2630 min
LA ProgressiveAre We Witnessing the Weaponization of Government?Georgetown Law Professor and thought leader Michele Goodwin joined Dick and Sharon of the LA Progressive to discuss the impact of Donald Trump's immunity case and its impact on his accountability as president of the United States. In a piece Ms. Goodwin penned for Ms. Magazine titled "Reflecting on Trump’s Immunity Win Before the Supreme Court as He Strips Security Details From Former Government Officials Under Threat," she discusses the Supreme Court Case, Trump v. United States, and specifically the dissent offered by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who, along with Justice Elena Kagan, opposed th...
2025-02-1920 min
LA ProgressiveFormer Colin Powell Chief of Staff Ret. Col Lawrence Wilkerson Speaks Frankly on Pete Hegseth, Race and MoreColonel (Ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson, a seasoned military officer and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has long been known for his candid and often critical views on U.S. foreign policy. His analysis of the Trump administration and his concerns about the leadership in the Department of Defense, particularly regarding Pete Hegseth’s role, provides a crucial perspective on the direction of U.S. military strategy. Wilkerson’s experience, wisdom, and deep understanding of military operations make his insights both trustworthy and necessary for evaluating current defense policy.With decades of service in the...
2025-02-1236 min
LA ProgressiveGrammy 2025 Supports DEI and Takes on TrumpThe Grammy Awards are more than a music event; they’re a cultural touchstone with the power to challenge the status quo, promote equity, and redefine who gets to be celebrated in the global music industry. By embracing DEI, the Grammys can help shift cultural attitudes toward greater inclusivity and fairness—not just in music but across society at large. With that in mind, Mario Solis-Marich, a Latino opinion leader with an extensive background in political and community relations, radio, television, and social media joins Sharon Kyle, publisher of the LA Progressive to discuss DEI and the Grammy Awards 2025.
2025-02-0628 min
LA ProgressiveThe Spiritual Death of a NationTo be alive spiritually means that one is concerned with more than personal survival. Unlike a beast of the wild whose daily concerns are limited only to what can be foraged or killed for consumption to survive to repeat the cycle. A type of survival of the fittest existence. But a person who has spiritual life is in relationship with God or at least appreciates that there is something bigger and better beyond the individual and what can be experienced with the senses. There is a realization that physical life presents opportunities to connect with unseen positive forces that...
2025-01-2731 min
LA ProgressiveCode Pink's Medea Benjamin Urges Pro-Palestinian Activists to Remain VigilantAs President Biden greenlights another $8 billion in weapons to Israel in his last days in office and Secretary Blinken gives a parting New York Times interview in which he denies that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, many pro-Palestine activists are anxiously counting down the days until “Genocide Joe” and his crew exit the White House. But what will Pro-Palestine Activists have to contend with under the Trump presidency? To read Medea Benjamin’s full article click here:https://www.laprogressive.com/foreign-policy/threats-face-pro-palestine-activistsTo access thousands of articles on the LA Progre...
2025-01-1717 min
LA ProgressiveA Convicted Felon Can Be President. Could a Sexual Predator Become Secretary of Defense ?We open this podcast acknowledging the tragic wildfires in Southern California. The LA Progressive operates just a few short miles away from Pasadena, CA. Our thoughts and prayers (yes, we pray) are with all of the members of our community who have been impacted by the tragedy.On January 14 at 9:30 a.m., the Fox News commentator and Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth is scheduled to be questioned by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in a confirmation hearing on President-elect Trump’s nomination for him to be Secretary of Defense.Former U.S. Ar...
2025-01-1223 min
LA ProgressiveNew Nuclear Weapons ?New Nuclear Weapons? Not for the U.S. Dick Price of the LA Progressive has a conversation with Bill Astor about our nuclear arsonal.It's always the right time to stop building more weapons of mass destruction To prevent the apocalyptic consequences of yet another nuclear arms race, the US should act to decrease “investments” in new nuclear weapons while cutting current arsenals by negotiating and enacting new arms reduction treaties. Together, the US and Russia already possess ten thousand nuclear warheads, enough to destroy life on earth and several other earth-sized planets. We need desperately to dive...
2025-01-0429 min
LA ProgressiveMarianne Williamson Running to Head the DNCThe main executive leadership of the Democratic Party is the Democratic National Committee (DNC). It is generally responsible for the affairs of the Democratic Party including planning how to support Democratic Party candidates running for local, state, and federal office across the nation. The election to choose the next chairperson of the DNC is anticipated to take place on February 1, 2025. But, before the February election, one must first become a candidate.Former 2024 presidential candidate, Marianne Williamson, has written a letter to the members of the DNC announcing her desire to serve the party as chair of the...
2024-12-2731 min
LA ProgressiveVijay Prashad on the Fall of AssadAs the rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Syria Liberation Committee) seized Damascus, Syria’s capital, on December 7, 2024, the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad boarded a flight to Moscow, Russia. It was the end of the rule of the Assad family that began when Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000) became president in 1971, and continued through his son Bashar from 2000—a 53-year period of rule. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which seized Damascus, was formed out of the remnants of the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (Front for the Conquest of Syria) in 2017, and led by its emir Abu Jaber Shaykh and...
2024-12-2045 min
LA ProgressiveWill Trump Try to Stay In Office Beyond 2028If we have learned anything about Donald Trump over the past decade, it’s that even his most outlandish threats against democracy should be taken seriously. This applies not only to his promises to exact revenge and retribution on his political opponents and critics, but also to his expressed interest in serving a third term (or more) as president.Trump has been musing about serving three terms for a long time. In a 2018 fundraiser with donors at Mar-a-Lago, he praised Chinese President XI Jinping for being elected president for life, calling Xi “great,” and suggesting, “Maybe we’ll have to...
2024-12-1524 min
LA ProgressiveNeoliberalism’s Plague: The Erosion of Conscience in EducationHenry Giroux joins Dick and Sharon in a conversation about neoliberalism and its impact on education. Henry believes that for decades, neoliberalism—a predatory form of capitalism—has waged a relentless war on the welfare state, dismantled the public sphere, and eroded the common good. Disguised in the rhetoric of freedom, it elevates market logic to the status of a governing ideology, insisting that every aspect of society must conform to the demands of economic activity. In practice, neoliberalism concentrates wealth in the hands of a financial elite while celebrating unrestrained self-interest, extreme individualism, deregulation, and privatization. It reduces citi...
2024-12-0737 min
LA ProgressiveTrump Reminds Us That Hate SellsBernie Sanders and others in the political class believe that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class and that, as a result, the working class has abandoned the party. Then, Trump duped the working class by appealing to hate, the most primal of instincts. Which resulted in many working-class voters joining Trump. For reasons that do not make sense since, unless one looks deeper, the working class has been taken for a ride. Bill Blum, Sharon Kyle, and Dick Price dive into a conversation looking for the deeper explanation for the working-class alliance with Donald Trump. ...
2024-11-2828 min
LA ProgressiveLust for White Privilege Killed the Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is dead. The Republican Party is dead too. It died a while back, but nobody knew it because before anybody could check its pulse, a collection of crazies assumed its identity and rallied behind The Great Orange Father. But everybody knew the Democratic Party died because on election day, after a flamboyant, dramatic swoon, it crashed to the ground — says Mark Fancher, attorney and contributor to the LA Progressive. This conversation between Mark Fancher, Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive took place shortly after the November 5, 2024 election but has been a reality for qu...
2024-11-2224 min
LA ProgressiveCharisse Burden-Stelly on Racial CapitalismCharisse Burden-Stelly is a critical Black Studies scholar of political theory, political economy, intellectual history, and political and historical sociology. Her research pursues three complementary lines of inquiry. The first interrogates the transnational entanglements of U.S. capitalist racism, anticommunism, and antiblack racial oppression. The second excavates twentieth-century Black anticapitalist intellectual thought, theory, and praxis. Burden-Stelly’s third area of focus examines theories and discourses of economic development in the African diaspora.Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive sat down with Burden-Stelly to discuss racial-capitalism, a concept that grounds the history of capitalism in the extraction of so...
2024-11-1423 min
LA ProgressiveDick and Sharon Discuss Election ResultsIt’s the day after election day, USA 2024, and Dick and Sharon are weary. They’re weary of the pervasive misogyny coloring the current political landscape—a hue that now stains even the nation’s highest offices. They’re sick of the unapologetic, gendered vitriol aimed at figures like Vice President Kamala Harris, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Dick longs for a bygone political era that might have provoked scandalized gasps and swift reprimands for what has become normalized today. Sharon wonders if the bygone era that Dick seems to remember ever existed at all.
2024-11-0727 min
LA ProgressiveMarianne Williamson on the Party ApparatusMarianne Williamson ran for president of the United States in 2020 and 2024. In this interview with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive, Marianne speaks frankly about her experiences on the campaign trail but more specifically, with the DNC.Please subscribe and share.For more information, go to https://www.laprogressive.com Get full access to LA Progressive at laprogressive.substack.com/subscribe
2024-10-2944 min
LA ProgressiveIs Voting for Kamala Harris Pragmatism or Cowardice?Although I, like all rational people, would love to be spared another four years of Trump misery, I realize that spiritual warfare cannot be waged without injury, or at least inconvenience. Those are the words of attorney, writer, and guest of this podcast, Mark Fancher In writing his latest piece in the LA Progressive, Mark makes it clear that there are times when compromise is not an option. He expounds upon this position by evoking the notion of spiritual warefare.The full article we discuss in this podcast can be found here:
2024-10-2338 min
LA ProgressivePaulo Freire and the Necessity of Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Book BanningPaulo Freire and the Necessity of Critical Pedagogy is the topic of this discussion with Henry G"Today, as education comes under attack by neoliberal and authoritarian regimes worldwide, Paulo Freire's ideas are more vital than ever," says Henry Giroux a professor who currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. Paulo Freire, the radical Brazilian educator, would have turned 103 on September 19, 2025. Freire was not merely an academic; he was a revolutionary, a f...
2024-10-1741 min
LA ProgressiveHow To Talk to Someone with Different Political ViewsThese days, it's almost impossible to have a civil conversation with anyone of a different political view. But contrary to what you might believe, learning to talk to someone who holds deeply ingrained opinions that differ from yours without the conversation quickly devolving into an argument or nasty fight is possible, but it takes time and possibly training. That is the topic of the conversation that prompted this article. I spent some time with Robert Jensen, author of "It's Debatable: Speaking Authentically about Tough Topics," because his book provides a way to have more in-depth and me...
2024-10-0444 min
LA ProgressiveThe U.S. Supreme Court Has Supercharged America's Gun ViolenceFormer judge Bill Blum chats with the LA Progressive about the ways in which the Supreme Court has supercharged the nation’s gun violence epidemic. He tells Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive that the Supreme Court has left our schools, streets and communities soaked in blood. He says we'd be wrong if we justed pointed the blame at the National Rifle Association and their lackeys in the Republican Party. Raise another finger. You can read Bill Blum's article here:https://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-justice/american-way-of-death...
2024-09-2224 min
LA ProgressiveHenry Giroux Explains How Liberal Education Strengthens DemocracyHenry Giroux is an American-Canadian scholar and cultural critic. One of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States, he is best known for his pioneering work in public pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, higher education, media studies, and critical theory. Henry Giroux sits with Dick Price and Sharon Kyle of the LA Progressive and explains how liberal education strengthens democracy. You can read the article Henry wrote on this same topic here:https://www.laprogressive.com/education-reform/critical-pedagogy-in-dark-times ...
2024-09-1536 min
LA ProgressiveJohn Kiriakou talks about serving time after being convicted under the Espionage ActToday, John Kiriakou is an author and a journalist but not long ago, he was a CIA counterterrorism officer and a senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was in this roll that John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act – a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program. You can find John's writings at http://ConsortiumNews.com, http://johnkiriakou.substack.com and https://www.laprogressive.com/author/john-kiriakou
2024-09-0850 min
LA ProgressiveProf Richard Wolff: Why Racism is Essential in CapitalismProfessor Richard Wolff sheds light on the role that racism has played as an essential tool for maintaining the capitalist order. Says Wolff, "U.S. capitalism solved its instability problem by making cyclical downturns afflict chiefly a minority subpart of the whole working class." He explains how and why this "feature" has served to keep us all locked in to the inefficient, contradictory system.Dick Price and Sharon Kyle publish the digital magazine LAProgressive.com. The discussion has here with Rick Wolff stems from an article Rick wrote that was published by the LA Progressive. That...
2024-08-3154 min
LA ProgressiveEconomist Prof Richard Wolff Explains CapitalismRick Wolff has a written new book, "Understanding Capitalism". Professor Richard D. Wolff has written this book in an effort to provide clear and concise answers to questions that thousands have asked him over and over as he engaged in speaking engagements across this country. Richard D. Wolff is a professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, in New York. Wolff’s weekly show, “Economic Update,” is syndicated by more than 100 radio stations and goes to millions via se...
2024-08-2547 min
LA ProgressiveCornel West - Building a Party, a Campaign, and a MovementCornel West, the public intellectual, author, and professor, announced his bid for the presidency of the United States and selected Dr. Melina Abdullah as his running mate long before Kamala Harris took on the mantel. Mainstream media tends to focus exclusively on the Democratic and Republican candidates while ignoring the other parties. This conversation with Dr West addresses the focus of his campaign which, according to West, is more than a campaign -- it's a movement. Get full access to LA Progressive at laprogressive.substack.com/subscribe
2024-08-171h 00
LA ProgressiveMillions Spent on Netanyahu’s Trip to Washington, DCSecurity for war criminal Netanyahu was more extensive than what was provided for 32 heads of state for the recent NATO anniversary in Washington, D.C.The U.S. Congress invited the war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, thereby solidifying the complicity of the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government in the genocide of Gaza.Incredibly, the security arrangements for one person, Benjamin Netanyahu, surpass those implemented for 32 heads of state during the recent NATO anniversary in Washington, D.C.
2024-08-1023 min
LA ProgressiveWhite Men Clinging to Power: More Than a Biden ProblemWhat is it about white men, especially older white men, finding it so hard to surrender the spotlight, pass the torch, and stand down?Joe Biden did the right thing. Finally. But it took Nancy Pelosi's hammer and tongs—and the eventual capitulation of his consiglieri, Ricchetti and Donilon, to get him to do it.Biden is hardly alone. A 78-year-old egomaniacal Donald Trump can't get out of the way, either. Bernie Sanders turns 83 next month. Chuck Grassley turns 91 in September. The entire U.S. Senate amounts to a mostly male geriatric society. When...
2024-08-0231 min
LA ProgressiveAmerican Ballet Theatre and DEIThe American Ballet Theatre (ABT) honored my uncle, Leopold Allen at two events in New York City. ABT said, "As we come to the end of Pride Month, we want to pay tribute to a member of our community who made way for a more inclusive world in ballet and beyond.A legend, a light, a trailblazer—✨Leopold Allen✨, ABT’s first resident Hair and Makeup Supervisor, was a fixture in the Company for over 10 years, working closely with many ABT icons including Susan Jaffe, Alessandra Ferri, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. An artist of the highest caliber...
2024-08-0214 min
LA ProgressiveWant Kamala Harris to Beat Trump? Register Young Voters Now!Now that President Biden has voluntarily chosen to drop out of the presidential race and has also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. The game has changed.Almost immediately upon hearing the news, close to 45,000 Black women participated in a call that helped raise a record $81 million for the Harris campaign in less than 24 hours. All of this new energy could attract a bunch of new voters.Every year, approximately 4 million Americans reach the voting age. This means that approximately 16 million people will have the opportunity to vote in the presidential election for the first time...
2024-07-2306 min
LA ProgressiveDaria Roithmayr Explains Intractable RacismLaw Professor Daria Roithmayr has spent her career trying to understand the unyielding persistence of racism in the United States. She found a clue when she discovered, by happenstance, a book that discussed how Microsoft established dominance by not playing by the rules, what followed for Roithmayr was deep research that resulted in her book, Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock in What Advantage.To read the entire article, go to:https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/intractable-nature-of-racism-explained Get full access to LA Progressive at laprogressive.substack.com/subscribe
2024-07-2127 min
LA ProgressiveWar-induced Starvation Causes More Death than Direct ViolenceThe LA Progressive chats with Andrea Mazzarino, co-founder of Brown University's Costs of War Project.In a piece written by Mazzarino and published by the LA Progressive, Mazzarino makes the case that war-induced hunger and insufficient medical care indirectly kills more civilians than direct violence. She says that many war stories end with hunger wreaking havoc on large portions of a population causing significant loss of life.Andrea Mazzarino, the co-editor of the book War and Health: The Medical Consequences of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, makes that case that armed conflict di...
2024-07-1817 min
LA ProgressiveThe John Roberts Blueprint for Imperial PresidencyThe Supreme Court chief justice’s decision on Trump’s immunity puts the myth of his institutionalism out of its misery, once and for all.Roberts’ opinion will have more dire consequences, as it “invents an atextual, ahistorical, and unjustifiable immunity that puts the President above the law.” Get full access to LA Progressive at laprogressive.substack.com/subscribe
2024-07-1216 min
LA ProgressiveWhat Is a Superdelegate and Will It Help the Democrats with Joe BidenIs undecipherable political language and a complicated electoral process destroying democracy? Some might argue that these complexities are unavoidable, but the more cynical among us suspect this is by design.Every four years, the airwaves across the United States are bombarded with election lingo. We're flooded with a language that disappears the day after the general election. Words like primary election, ballot box, electoral college, instant runoff, caucus, Super Tuesday, superdelegate, precinct, and dozens more roll off the tongues of pundits as if everybody is fluent in this language. The truth is, most of us...
2024-07-0914 min
LA ProgressiveGuantanamo Bay Still Holds 9/11 PrisonersGuantanamo Bay prison is still operational. And YES, the United States is still imprisoning post-9/11 suspects who have been there for decades.The former UN Special Rapporteur, Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, sat down with me to talk about something most of us had no idea was still an issue: there are still prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, even though more than half of them have been told that they can leave.Fionnuala concluded her term as UN Special Rapporteur last year. In that role, she had the unenviable responsibility of observing th...
2024-07-0524 min
LA ProgressiveActor Mike Farrell on the Death PenaltyActor and human rights advocate Mike Farrell spent time with the LA Progressive discussing the death penalty. Mike has devoted his life to overturning the death penalty. While not the founder, Mike has been the president of Death Penalty Focus since the early 1990s. According to Farrell, the organization was founded simply because, at the time, California was in a situation where the United States Supreme Court had ruled that the death penalty violated the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.For more information, go to:
2024-07-0530 min
LA ProgressiveWhy Are Black Men Supporting Donald Trump?Black Democratic politicians who flip parties after they are elected by Democrats and later join the MAGA Republicans are betraying their voters in a cynical, power-hungry and hazardous game of bait-and-switch. These dangerous political games come at an equally hazardous time for Black people, precisely when the Republican Party is the most racist and hostile it has ever been to Black lives and aspirations. Get full access to LA Progressive at laprogressive.substack.com/subscribe
2024-06-0235 min