Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 22, 2017
23 May 2017
🖨️ Print Article

U.S. Healthcare is Profiteered to Death

Only a single payer system can bring U.S. health care into the 21st century, said Dr. Susan Rogers, of Physicians for a National Health Program. Private insurance corporations drain society of health care resources. “If you look at a large hospital, I bet they’ve got more billing clerks than they do nurses, per patient,” said Rogers. “That tells you where the money is going; it’s not going to health care, it’s going to billing.”

The Democrats’ Formula for Losing Elections

The Democrats “know what they need to do to get out the vote,” said Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report. “They need to raise wages, stop the student loan debt, and protect people’s homes. But none of these things are acceptable to their patrons” among the 1 percent,” said Kimberley, who recently authored an article titled “The Democratic Party Death Spiral.” The Democrats “cannot depend on corporate money and do what the people want them to do.”

U.S. Can’t Rule World by Force

Despite its massive military, the U.S. cannot rule the world by force of arms, said Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Duboisian scholar from Philadelphia. China’s regional neighborhood includes “three of the five largest economies in the world,” said Monteiro. Therefore, a war with China “would be like the U.S. shooting itself in the head.” A war with Iran, on the Persian Gulf, “would throw the world into a recession or depression.” These are “wars that the United States can’t win; wars that the American public don’t want; and wars that most of humanity would condemn as wars of aggression,” he said.

Mumia: Back to the Bad Old Days

Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, recalled being beaten up by cops, as a 14 year-old, in 1968 Philadelphia. It was “a little taste of [former mayor and police chief] Rizzo, and “an introduction to Trump,” Abu Jamal told journalist Chris Hedges, host of the RT program “On Contact.” “I lived in the ‘bad old days,’” said Mumia. “They were ugly days, and they’re ugly days, today.”

Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: one hour.

 


More Stories


  • Isaac Saney , James Count Early
    Democracy Under Siege: Popular Participation and Socialist Renewal in Cuba in a Time of Crisis
    01 Apr 2026
    While Western democracies exclude working people from economic decision-making, Cuba is expanding participatory governance to navigate its deepest crisis since the Revolution.
  • Nicholas Mwangi
    UN Declares Transatlantic Slavery the “gravest crime against humanity”
    01 Apr 2026
    The UN has adopted a landmark declaration, introduced by Ghana, recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity,” in a move that has intensified calls for reparations…
  • John Perry
    UN “Experts” Fueling Washington’s Attacks on Nicaragua
    01 Apr 2026
    The UN panel’s reports on Nicaragua recycle claims from U.S.-backed opposition groups, serving as a propaganda arm for Washington’s regime change agenda.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 27, 2026
    27 Mar 2026
    In this week’s segment, we hear about an effort to build community-based power and self-determination for a Black working-class Washington, DC community. But we begin with a report on conditions in…
  • Cuba
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuba Solidarity and Resistance to the U.S. Embargo
    27 Mar 2026
    We're joined by Suzanne Adely of the National Lawyers Guild and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and Corinna Mullin of the US Peace Council and Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us