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Dennis J
Bernstein is the host and executive
producer of Flashpoints, a daily news magazine broadcast on Pacifica Radio. He
is an award-winning investigative reporter,
essayist and poet. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York
Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, and many other publications in the US and
around the world. He is the recipient of the Art of Peace Award, the
International Service Journalism Award from Friends World College, and six
Project Censored awards for investigative reporting. In 2009, Pulse Media named
him one of the “20 Top Global Media Figures.â€
Bernstein is also a widely published poet, and the
author, most recently, of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom, which
received the 2012 Literary Achievement Award from Artist Embassy International.
His poetry has
appeared in the New York Quarterly, Chimaera, Bat City Review, The Progressive,
Texas Observer, ZYZZYVA, etc
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The
Color Purple , writes that Special Ed “…is art turned to us through
the eyes of love.†Carol Smaldino says in The Huffington Post that the poems
remind us how “…we are all connected to the sorrows as well as to the grandness
of being human…â€
Bernstein, who holds a master’s degree in Education, has
also taught media literacy and special education, working in some of the poorest
communities in New York City and New York State. Bernstein has also taught
writing and reading literacy in various prisons in New York City and New York
State, for the CCNY/John Jay College and Mercy College.
(87 comments) SHARE Friday, November 23, 2012 John Pilger on Israel's Gaza Rampage: It's Not Just War
We see a form of genocide underway in Palestine. And this is the later stage. And what we should be in no doubt about is that although Israelis are doing the bombing, it's really the United States that is pushing the buttons. Because it's only Israelis who are flying the American planes. This is, in effect, an American/Israeli assault on a people who live effectively in an open prison.
(16 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 28, 2018 Weapons Inspector Refutes U.S. Syria Chemical Claims
Scott Ritter is arguably the most experienced American weapons inspector and in this interview with Dennis J. Bernstein he levels a frank assessment of U.S. government assertions about chemical weapons use.
(25 comments) SHARE Friday, May 24, 2013 Interview with Code-Pink founder, Medea Benjamin After She "Heckled" Obama
Code-Pink founder, Medea Benjamin, took President Barack Obama head-on during a major foreign policy speech the president was giving Thursday on drone policy and related issues. Benjamin demanded that the president close the Guantanamo Bay prison immediately.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, September 2, 2016 Wanna-Be Presidential Assassin Hinkley Goes Free, Leonard Peltier Left to Rot and Die in Prison
There is a dual standard of justice when it comes to Native Americans, like Peltier, who has now spent over 40 years in jail based on what many feel was a travesty of justice -- a trial wrought with injustice, fatal breaches of his civil rights, false testimony, and massive intimidation of witnesses brought forth by the defense.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 5, 2017 The War on WikiLeaks and Assange
Helping government authorities discredit Julian Assange and destroy WikiLeaks, mainstream media outlets twisted a recent interview to make Assange look like a Donald Trump backer, write Randy Credico and Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, May 28, 2018 "Ehud Barak Gave the Order to Kill"
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was on the stomp in San Francisco last weekend to promote his new memoir, My Country, My Life. He was met by a group of highly organized young protesters who were interested in a few facts that the former Israeli PM did not include in his new memoir.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 30, 2016 Mike Pence Walks 10 Nuns Out of the Voting Booth
The republic lasted two centuries without photo ID. We founded the republic before there were photographs without any problem. We haven't had hoards of identity thieves voting. But it's been marvelously excellent at knocking out literally hundreds of thousands of poor people, especially voters of color.
SHARE Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Extracting Aleppo from the Propaganda
The mainstream U.S. news has supplied a consistent narrative regarding Syria that treats the "rebels" as the good guys and the "regime forces" as the bad guys, but it has never been that clear-cut, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 25, 2017 Surveillance State Goes After Trump
Democrats are so eager to take down President Trump that they are joining forces with the Surveillance State to trample the privacy rights of people close to Trump, ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley tells Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 24, 2017 The Israel-gate Side of Russia-gate
While unproven claims of Russian meddling in U.S. politics have whipped Official Washington into a frenzy, much less attention has been paid to real evidence of Israeli interference in U.S. politics, as Dennis J Bernstein describes.
SHARE Monday, April 9, 2018 On the Silencing of Julian Assange
Legendary filmmaker and journalist John Pilger and Christine Assange, mother of Julian Assange, spoke to Dennis J. Bernstein and Randy Credico on April 5, about the latest attempt to silence the Wikileaks founder.
SHARE Thursday, August 31, 2017 A Victory Seen Over "State-Sponsored Racism"
The restoration of a Mexican-American studies program in Tucson, Arizona public schools is being hailed as an important step in telling the more complex history of the American West, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 19, 2017 The Price for Criticizing Israel
Israel is well-known for having a potent U.S. lobby that not only influences Congress and the mainstream media but intimidates Americans who dare criticize its policies toward the Palestinians, as Dennis J Bernstein describes.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 4, 2017 Pilger Criticizes Ken Burns's "'The Vietnam War"
For decades, the U.S. mainstream media has shied away from a clear-eyed view of the Vietnam War, not wanting to offend the war's apologists, a residue of which tainted the recent PBS series, as John Pilger told Dennis J Bernstein.
(4 comments) SHARE Monday, October 30, 2017 Hillary Clinton Keeps Pointing Fingers
Hillary Clinton blames others for last year's electoral defeat, never recognizing that many Americans -- both Democrats and Republicans -- found her public record appalling, as Dennis J Bernstein discusses with John Pilger.
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 10, 2016 Green Party Candidates Face Arrest: An Interview With Green Party VP Candidate Ajamu Baraka
The latest twist in the 2016 presidential campaign comes with the issuing of warrants for the arrest of the presidential and vice presidential candidates running on the Green Party ticket, Dr. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. Baraka was notified on Wednesday. Stein had been notified on Tuesday.
SHARE Wednesday, August 8, 2018 Pilger Excoriates Media on Assange Silence
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and investigative reporter John Pilger takes the gloves off on the continuing attempts to upend WikiLeaks and arrest its founding publisher, Julian Assange, in this interview with Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 26, 2017 Macron's Maneuvers on the New Cold War
Official Washington's hawks are blocking President Trump's desired detente with Russia, but that has opened a path for France's new President Macron to mediate the New Cold War, Diana Johnstone tells Dennis J Bernstein
SHARE Friday, December 22, 2017 Why Loss of Net Neutrality Hurts Democracy
The principle of every person having equal access to the Internet represented a strong pillar of modern democracy -- and its removal represents another victory for profit-dominated plutocracy, as Dennis J Bernstein explains.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 10, 2017 The Russia-Did-It Certitude Challenged
Many mainstream news outlets confessed to their gullibility over the Iraq-WMD claims, but have fallen into another groupthink over Russia-gate, as Randy Credico and Dennis J Bernstein heard from ex-U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 29, 2017 Russia-gate Inquisitors Subpoena Journalist
The Russia-gate frenzy is reaching into the ranks of non-mainstream journalists with the House Intelligence Committee's subpoena of Pacifica's Randy Credico, who compares this witch-hunt to the McCarthy era, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 24, 2014 Changing Israel from Without
For decades, one-sided support for Israel distorted U.S. perceptions and policies in the Middle East. Only recently has the pro-Zionist narrative faced significant challenge, including protests against the abuse of Palestinians from Israeli dissidents like Ilan Pappe, who spoke with Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Poverty Protests at RNC/DNC Conventions
For decades, Democrats like Republicans have shied away from talking much about poverty, but America's severe income inequality has made the plight of the poor a national crisis, notes Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 16, 2017 Taking Nuclear War Seriously
Emmy-Award winning filmmaker John Pilger's latest film, The Coming War on China, deals directly with the new projection of U.S. power into Asia, as well as the toll U.S. aggression has already taken on the people of the region.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 3, 2017 Trump's Mixed Signals on North Korea
The Trump administration is sending mixed signals about what it might do in North Korea, from suggestions of a first-strike military attack to talks aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Friday, April 15, 2016 Clinton's Pro-Free Trade Policies Lead to Wider Illegal Money Laundering in Panama
We may not be losing manufacturing jobs to Panama, but our quality of life and our community is getting undermined, because the U.S. companies and wealthy individuals that are still here can dodge having to contribute to the common good and the infrastructure that we all rely on, by making sure that they find ways to use offshore in havens like Panama, to avoid paying taxes.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 15, 2018 Korean Olympic Diplomacy Moves Forward Despite U.S. Intransigence
An interview by Dennis J. Bernstein with writer, activist and regional expert, Kay Jay Noh, about the big-power politics swirling around the Olympic Games now being held in South Korea.
SHARE Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Laughing While Pulling the Trigger
Donald Trump has shown "sadism" against Palestinians who've turned to Ghandian protests but are still being slaughtered by Israel, says Max Blumenthal in this interview with Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, July 22, 2017 Farmworkers Protest EPA's Pesticide Ruling
As part of President Trump's campaign against President Obama's environmental regulations, Trump's EPA has rejected a proposed rule banning a brain-damaging pesticide, reports Dennis J Bernstein
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 18, 2017 Signs of U.K. Misconduct in Assange Case
The world's most prominent freedom-of-the-press case remains the legal pressure on WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange, still in Ecuador's London embassy amid signs of U.K. prosecutorial misconduct, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 12, 2017 A New Angle in Abu-Jamal's Case
The decades-old case of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal has always centered on whether the legal process was rigged against the black political activist, an argument that has new life, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Tuesday, November 14, 2017 The Ongoing Misery of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane Maria, which hit the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, remains slow and spotty with continued power outages, unsafe water and school closings, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 28, 2017 A Crackdown on the Poor and Hungry
Concerned about "quality of life" appearances, cities across America are cracking down on the homeless and the hungry, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, June 19, 2015 The Rush to a New Cold War
The U.S. government and news media have jumped back into Cold War attitudes since early 2014 when a U.S.-backed coup overthrew Ukraine's elected president and prompted countermoves by Russia, setting the stage for a potential nuclear showdown, as journalist Robert Parry discussed with Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, July 17, 2014 The Whys Behind Israel's Gaza Slaughter
Because the borders are closed, there is nowhere to run. Which is why thousands of Palestinians rush to U.N. encampments. There are currently over 17,000 Palestinian civilians taking refuge in U.N. compounds. There are thousands of people at the Rafah crossing into Egypt. That crossing is largely closed, part of the duplicity of the Egyptian government. There is nowhere for the Palestinian people to go.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 2, 2012 Why the US Threatened to Cut Off Aid to Palestine if the UN Granted it Observer Status
Palestine could join the Law of the Sea Convention and get legal access and legal right to these enormous gas supplies right off the coast of Gaza, which Israel has access to. Lebanon, Cypress, Turkey...they all have their claims in. But Palestine has a claim too. Indeed, a pretty substantial claim. And if Palestine gets access to that gas, it can become economically self sufficient. So this is a very important issue.
SHARE Sunday, July 31, 2016 Sheriff Arpaio Paved the Way for Trump
Before there was Donald Trump and his promise of a "beautiful wall" across the U.S.-Mexican border there was Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona who pushed cruel treatment of illegal immigrants and other Latinos, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, June 8, 2013 How Secrecy Stops Debate on Secrecy
Americans got a rare glimpse into the breadth of U.S. government surveillance of their communications with new revelations that phone and Internet providers have been turning over vast amounts of data to be mined for "terrorism" investigations, an issue discussed by human rights attorney Shahid Buttar with Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, November 8, 2017 Trump and the NAFTA Effect
President Trump has blamed NAFTA for eliminating manufacturing jobs for U.S. workers but it also caused economic dislocation in Mexico, driving some desperate Mexicans northward to the U.S., as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Why Trump's Victory Wasn't a Surprise
America's liberal elitists, who look down on the discontented working class and put up a presidential candidate representing a failed Establishment, set the stage for Donald Trump's victory, journalist John Pilger tells Dennis J Bernstein.
(6 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 9, 2016 The Honduras Killing Field
The murder of prominent Honduras environmental activist Berta Caceres recalls Hillary Clinton's role in supporting a right-wing coup in 2009 that ousted an elected progressive president and turned Honduras into a killing field, writes Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 4, 2017 The Legacy of Dennis Banks
Native American activist Dennis Banks, who died Oct. 29 at 80, leaves behind a legacy that includes a reenergized movement that reminded America of its original sins of genocide and deceit, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 14, 2017 As Trump Fumes, Puerto Rico Struggles
Angered by criticism from desperate U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, President Trump lashed out with threats to remove federal rescue and recovery personnel -- even as the crisis grows worse, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, June 30, 2017 Is Trump Making Up Syria-Sarin Claims?
The White House claimed victory after it warned Syria not to mount a chemical weapons attack and nothing happened, but some experts are questioning the quality of these U.S. claims about Syria and sarin, says Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 25, 2018 Mainstream Media and Imperial Power
Noted journalist and filmmaker John Pilger's collection of work has been archived by the British Library, but deep-rooted problems of Western media create an increasingly difficult landscape for ethical journalism, as Pilger explained in an interview with Dennis Bernstein and Randy Credico.
SHARE Friday, January 26, 2018 The Struggle Against Honduras' Stolen Election
Last year's disputed elections in Honduras continue to present a struggle for grassroots activists in the country, who face harsh police and military crackdowns in response to protests, reports Dennis J. Bernstein in the following interview.
SHARE Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Oliver Stone Defends His Putin Interviews
Director Oliver Stone saw his four-part interviews with Russian President Putin as a way to give Americans a better understanding of a leader who has been demonized in the mainstream media, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, April 8, 2016 Nuclear War if Necessary: An Interview With Frontline Filmmaker, John Pilger
The Iraq invasion was brought about largely with propaganda at first, where the media promoted the completely false notion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and that he was a threat. Now we see almost daily some kind of story that China is a threat. We've had many stories saying, rather hysterical stories saying, "Look, here's China being aggressive. This is the reason why China clearly is a threat."
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 20, 2013 A Foot Soldier Throws Down His Gun
Brandon Toy, an Iraq War veteran and a mid-level project manager at General Dynamics, concluded that what he had done and was doing went against the best principles of the United States -- and so resigned with a declaration that if "every foot soldier threw down his rifle," things might change.
SHARE Thursday, December 28, 2017 Reverberations from Trump's Jerusalem Move
One ironic benefit from Donald Trump's presidency is that the world is showing more independence against U.S. edicts, such as the recent rebuff of Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(11 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 16, 2017 Greens' Stein Faults Two-Party System
Some Democrats blame Jill Stein for "siphoning off" crucial votes from Hillary Clinton and thus helping to elect Donald Trump, but Stein insists that the two-party straitjacket is the real enemy of democracy, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(29 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 20, 2013 Barack Obama: "Deporter In Chief"
From day one of his first campaign for President, Barack Obama promised a kinder, more humane treatment of undocumented migrant workers and their families. But his administration has been nothing short of brutal when it comes to his policies. Some of those on the front lines fighting for comprehensive and humane immigration reform have started to refer to Obama as "Deporter in Chief."
SHARE Wednesday, January 18, 2017 The Murky Future for US Health Care
Republicans vow to repeal Obamacare, but President-elect Trump has injected confusion by claiming that the replacement will provide health insurance for all. But many health experts fear what comes next, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Friday, May 10, 2019 Stefania Maurizi on How Julian Assange Changed Journalism
Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist for the Italian daily la Repubblica and the author of two books; "Dossier WikiLeaks: Segreti Italiani" and "Una Bomba, Dieci Storie." She has for years worked closely with Assange on some of the most significant WikiLeaks releases including "Collateral Murder."
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, July 7, 2017 The Fight over Mexican-American Books
Latino-rights activists are challenging Arizona's ban on school books and courses that provide students with information about Mexican-American history and culture, as Dennis J Bernstein describes.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 6, 2014 Sinking Deeper into the Mideast
The deserts of the Middle East and North Africa have become a kind of quicksand for U.S. policymakers, the more they thrash around violently the faster they sink, with the latest round of warfare against the Islamic State worsening matters, not improving them, as Phyllis Bennis told Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, November 11, 2017 The Saudi Hand in Lebanon's Crisis
Facing defeat in its proxy war for "regime change" in Syria, Saudi Arabia undertook some startling moves, including staging the resignation of Lebanon's prime minister, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 17, 2017 The Push for a Medicare-for-All Plan
America's complex and inefficient healthcare system ends up being both very expensive and limited in its coverage, a problem that Sen. Bernie Sanders is targeting in his Medicare-for-all plan, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 8, 2016 Still Fighting for Native American Rights
The U.S. government's historic abuse of Native Americans has many chapters, including modern ones, such as the standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973 and today's protests against a pipeline in North Dakota, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 24, 2017 As Trump Preens, Puerto Rico Still Suffers
Many Puerto Ricans continue to live in primitive and dangerous conditions more than a month after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory in the Caribbean, as Judith Berkan explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, March 1, 2018 California Dems Withhold Endorsement of Sen. Feinstein
California Democrats did not endorse longstanding Senator Dianne Feinstein for the upcoming primary election, setting the stage for a tough campaign against challengers such as California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Honduras Nearing Ten Years of Stolen Elections, Neo-Colonial Rule
Despite an organized and active grassroots movement, Honduran politics have been repeatedly steamrolled by the self-interests of international ruling elites, as journalist and filmmaker Jesse Freeston explained to Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Tuesday, December 26, 2017 Trump's Continuation of US Interventionism
Criticizing his predecessors for misguided foreign wars, President Trump promised a break in that approach, but his National Security Strategy report indicates a shift more in rhetoric than substance, reports Dennis J. Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, November 22, 2013 Cop's History an Issue in Toy-Gun Slaying
By all accounts, Andy Lopez was a good-hearted boy with a bright future -- until the 13-year-old was confronted by a police deputy who told him to drop a toy gun and then felled him with a deadly fusillade, a case that has shocked northern California.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 22, 2017 California Resists Trump on Immigration
President Trump's crackdown on America's 11 million undocumented immigrants is raising alarm among that community but faces its stiffest resistance in California where leaders vow defiance, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Monday, July 31, 2017 Violence Around the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Tensions around the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem eased late this week after Israel removed security infrastructure around the entrance, but earlier violence left four Palestinians and three Israelis dead, as Dennis J Bernstein reported.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 17, 2016 The Deposer in Chief: Hillary in Honduras
Actions taken by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state are a major factor contributing to the waves of Central Americans, mostly Hondurans, coming north to the US, according to a highly respected Latino human rights activist and several distinguished scholars who have studied the situation and spent extensive time in the country.
SHARE Saturday, June 24, 2017 Palestinians Still Demand Human Rights
The Trump administration's emerging Arab-Israeli policy focuses on Saudi Arabia and Israel with little concern for the Palestinians, who continue to protest for their rights, including a recent prison hunger strike, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 12, 2017 What DeVos Might Do to Public Schools
Donald Trump is stocking his administration with fellow rich people including "school voucher" advocate Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, a choice that makes many public school defenders nervous, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 22, 2013 Bush's Foiled NSA Blackmail Scheme
In early 2003, as the U.S. and British governments were seeking international acquiescence to their aggressive war on Iraq, an unexpected cog thrown into the propaganda machine was the disclosure that the National Security Agency was spying on UN Security Council members in search of blackmail material.
SHARE Sunday, July 13, 2014 Why the Honduran Children Flee North
Much of the violence driving thousands of unaccompanied children from Honduras to the U.S. can be traced to the past decades of U.S. military and economic interference in Honduras, including ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's support for a 2009 coup, Adrienne Pine tells Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Sunday, August 17, 2014 Iraq and the Oil Wars
Oil has always been part of U.S. decision-making on Iraq, a key motive for the 2003 invasion and the bloody occupation that followed. Now, as President Obama returns U.S. forces to Iraq, the issue of oil has bubbled back to the surface, as oil analyst Antonia Juhasz explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 11, 2018 Trump Lashes Pakistan over Afghan War
Trump's first tweet of 2018 was about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan. "The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit," Trump tweeted on Jan. 1. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"
SHARE Thursday, November 20, 2014 The Grassroots Battle For True Net Neutrality
Dr. Margaret Flowers is on the front lines of the battle for net neutrality. She a medical doctor and an organizer of popularresistance.org which engaged last week in a series of direct actions at the FCC Headquarters in a last-minute call for true net neutrality. On Monday Flowers and a number of activists confronted the chairman of the FCC as he was coming out of his house to drive to work.
SHARE Tuesday, September 26, 2017 New Earthquake Leaves Mexico on Edge
Mexico continues to struggle with recovery after another earthquake over the weekend left some people still trapped inside collapsed buildings and many Mexicans on edge, as Molly Kate Goss described to Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 22, 2018 Senate Votes to Continue Yemen Devastation
What the establishment press won't tell you is that no less than 25 American lobbying firms worked for the Saudi Arabian government in 2017 to the tune of $16 million, to burnish their image, manage the message, and get massive military contracts for the weapons of war that are now being used to kill, maim and slowly starve millions of civilians in Yemen today.
SHARE Saturday, July 26, 2014 Palestinian Suffering and Fighting Back
The problem in Gaza now is that there's nowhere to live. People have nowhere to go. They escape from an area that is being targeted, to another area that is being targeted. All these explosions, and all these bombings happen randomly, and they don't take into consideration the amount of civilian casualties that might fall.
SHARE Thursday, July 13, 2017 Behind Trump's Trip to Poland
an important aspect of Trump's speech, he talked about the importance of defending civilization. He didn't talk about the importance of defending democracy. He didn't talk about the importance of popular participation, other than equating popular will with a vision of civilization. This is sort of straight out of the Steve Bannon playbook, which pits white Christian civilization, against other types of civilization.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, March 25, 2016 So Many Children Left Behind: Interview: Education Reformer Diane Ravitch
There are charter schools that exclude kids with, as I said before, disabilities or who don't speak English. And public schools shouldn't do that. Public schools are supposed to accept everyone, and they don't have a choice in this. But under the banner of school choice we are being pushed to accept schools that are far more segregated even than the public schools.
SHARE Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Trump's Pipeline Orders Challenge Protesters
Ignoring environmental concerns and tribal objections, President Trump has put the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines back on track without even consulting the opponents, Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 16, 2018 Border Angels Fight Trump's Borderland Brutality
As Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policy intensifies, an organization founded in 1986 has stepped up its efforts to help families under attack, as Dennis J. Bernstein explains.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 11, 2017 Lynne Stewart: "War on Terror" Casualty
In America's "war on terror," normal actions, such as lawyer Lynne Stewart passing a client's message to friends, became criminalized. Stewart was imprisoned, likely speeding her death from cancer, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, January 9, 2017 The Left's Challenge in Age of Trump
The impending Trump presidency challenges the American Left to consider how to contest a right-wing agenda and how to create electoral options beyond Democratic Party orthodoxy, as Dennis J Bernstein and Norman Solomon discuss.
SHARE Wednesday, September 6, 2017 Growing Fears in Immigrant Communities
Amid more federal and state crackdowns on illegal immigrants, some Latinos feared that Hurricane Harvey relief efforts could serve as another excuse to round up people without documents, as Dennis J Bernstein learned.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, July 4, 2016 Anger at Obama over Immigration
President Obama's mixed record on immigration includes deporting nearly three million people while seeking protections for some categories of undocumented immigrants, a move just obstructed by federal courts, writes Dennis J Bernstein.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, November 27, 2016 Sessions's Old-Time Contempt for Civil Rights
President-elect Trump's choice of Sen. Jeff Sessions as Attorney General would put a longstanding opponent of civil rights for African-Americans in charge of the Justice Department, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Friday, December 23, 2016 How Trump Kills the "Two-State Solution"
President-elect Trump's choice of a backer of Israeli settlements to be ambassador to Israel may be the final death-blow to the "two-state solution," which has been on its death bed for years, as Dennis J Bernstein explains.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 1, 2017 Rising Resistance to Trump on Immigration
President Trump has stirred up anger over his provocative executive orders targeting immigrants, both undocumented people inside the U.S. and arrivals from seven mostly Muslim nations, as Dennis J Bernstein describes.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 5, 2018 Gaza Protesters Murdered by Israeli Forces
An attack on protesting Palestinians on March 30 by the Israeli military left 18 dead and thousands injured and constitutes mass murder and a blatant war crime, argues Palestinian human rights attorney Diana Buttu in an interview with Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, February 18, 2016 Behind Flint's Lead-Poisoned Water
Largely abandoned by auto manufacturers who shifted factories to low-wage areas, Flint, Michigan, suffers from a powerlessness that allowed Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and other officials to ignore the city's lead-poisoned water, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
SHARE Thursday, November 24, 2016 Still Not Thanking Native Americans
Returned to its historical roots, Thanksgiving would be a day to express thanks to Native Americans whose generosity saved the Pilgrims, but that never seems to be a lesson learned, as Dennis J Bernstein reports on the Dakota pipeline standoff.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 9, 2017 Missing the Significance of Israel-gate
Amid the U.S. mainstream media's hyping of Russia-gate, there has been much less attention given to what some call "Israel-gate," evidence that Israel was wielding much more behind-the-scenes influence, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 30, 2018 Questioning the Conventional Wisdom of Russian Spy's Poisoning
The recent poisoning of a Russian spy has started a tit-for-tat of expelling diplomats between the US and Russia, an escalation of tensions that deserves serious questioning, explained former ambassador Craig Murray in an interview with Dennis J Bernstein and Randy Credico.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 17, 2016 The Killing Fields of Baghdad: The Case of Hillary, Layla, and "Little Deer"
Bernstein writes: "Many who mourned the death of Layla al-Attar believed the Clintons' silence was clearly a political choice, not to call attention to the killing of such a prominent woman, a leader in the art world of the Middle East. Others believed it was a not 'collateral damage' as Clinton claimed. It was the second time the artist's house had been hit."
SHARE Sunday, February 5, 2017 The Double Standard on Yemen's Suffering
The Trump administration condemns Iran as somehow responsible for a Yemeni rebel group's attack on a Saudi warship, but ignores the Saudi-inflicted bloodbath on the Yemeni people, as Gareth Porter explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Punishing a Professor's Criticism of Israel
Criticism of how Israel treats Palestinians has become a firing offense in some circles, including academia where professors must muzzle themselves or face accusations of anti-Semitism. In the case of Steven Salaita, Twitter posts about Gaza cost him his job, as Dennis J. Bernstein explores in an interview.
SHARE Tuesday, December 6, 2016 A Protest Victory at Standing Rock
The Native-American-led protest against an oil pipeline near Sioux lands in the Dakotas drew international attention and support from U.S. vets, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to seek a different route, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 21, 2015 Learning from the Greek "Betrayal"
Europe's defenders of neoliberal economics -- favoring the market interests of wealthy elites over the social needs of average people -- marshaled their forces to crush the Greek challenge to "austerity," with Greek Prime Minister Tsipras betraying his supporters, John Pilger told Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, October 22, 2016 The Open Wounds of Mideast Conflicts
Beyond Hillary Clinton's insults about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin -- and finger-pointing about ISIS -- foreign policy has gotten little attention in Campaign 2016 and that's especially true about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, December 14, 2017 Trump's Lethal Decision on Jerusalem
President Trump has won praise from Christian Zionists and many staunch supporters of Israel for declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital, but critics say it only makes peace a more distant goal, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(12 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 6, 2013 Gunning Down a Boy with a Toy Gun
Exclusive: The Trayvon Martin case, in which a community watch volunteer killed an unarmed black teen-ager in a hoodie, roiled the U.S. last year. Now, a California deputy has gunned down a Latino boy carrying a toy AK-47, raising other troubling questions, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
SHARE Friday, September 22, 2017 Civil Society Rises to Confront Disasters
As the Mexican earthquake becomes the latest natural disaster to hit the Western Hemisphere, the role of civil society -- especially the first responders -- has demonstrated the best of human nature, as Dennis J Bernstein reports.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 14, 2013 Fighting Secrecy and the National Security State
The U.S. government's "war on terror" and its companion "surveillance state" have become troubling issues not only for the civil liberties of Americans but even more so for the rest of the world where popular movements are arising to challenge the electronic penetration of people's information and violation of their privacy.
SHARE Friday, January 19, 2018 Trump Ends Protections for El Salvador
El Salvador is the latest country targeted by the Trump administration's termination of protections for people under TPS, which provides relief for migrants fleeing humanitarian crises, reports Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, February 18, 2017 Immigrant Round-ups Stir Fears
During last fall's campaign, Donald Trump vowed to get rid of the "bad hombres" among the 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., but recent raids appear far less targeted, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, September 29, 2014 The Chile Coup, 9/11 and James Foley
Time and history sometimes intertwine in ways more poetic than linear, such as the multiple crimes associated with the date September 11 and the legacy of bearing witness to suffering that led journalist James Foley to his death in Syria, as Martin Espada explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 29, 2018 Killing a Journalist in Kashmir
In this interview with noted author and editor, Vijay Prashad, Dennis J. Bernstein discusses the recent streetside assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari in Kashmir.
SHARE Sunday, January 24, 2016 Malheur Wildlife Refuge Takeover Is No Wounded Knee
Morningstar is deeply troubled by the takeover of the Malheur Refuge area, which she said contains sacred burial grounds of their ancient ancestors, and extensive personal records about the community and its people. She bristles at the claim by the Bundy brothers that they are acting on behalf of everyone in the area, including the Native American tribes.
SHARE Thursday, February 23, 2017 Palestinians See More of the Same
President Trump has offered mixed signals about precisely what his attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be, but Palestinians see little prospects for meaningful improvement, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Friday, March 10, 2017 America's Anti-Immigrant "Atmosphere"
A hostile U.S. "atmosphere" toward a wide range of immigrants, not just Muslims, has followed President Trump's travel ban aimed at six mostly Muslim countries, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 30, 2014 Recalling a Proud American Moment
United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez, with quiet dignity and nonviolent tactics, rallied millions of Americans behind the cause of oppressed farm workers in the 1960s, a remarkable moment recalled in a new movie by Diego Luna, interviewed by Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Friday, October 11, 2013 Netanyahu's Scheme for Palestine
Netanyahu has said he's committed to peace talks. He's not committed to peace, but he's committed to talks, because the longer he keeps talking, the Palestinian Authority is locked into this timeline so they can't do anything -- not that they would do anything -- about the kinds of crimes that are being committed in the occupied territories. Netanyahu looks for diplomatic cover so Israel can continue its colonial project.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 9, 2016 Calling Out Drone War as a War Crime
Night and day, U.S. "pilots" sit in cushioned chairs near Las Vegas, commanding drones on the other side of the planet, tracking and killing people, what retired Col. Ann Wright and other activists call a war crime, writes Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, January 27, 2017 Fear Among Undocumented Immigrants
Moving quickly on campaign promises to tighten U.S. borders and crack down on "sanctuary cities," President Trump is spreading fear among communities where many undocumented immigrants live, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, February 18, 2016 The Disgrace of Flint's Poison Water
The case of Flint, Michigan, and its lead-poisoned water supply has exposed a U.S political disgrace, treating poor and minority communities with shocking disregard -- and showing little interest in punishing the officials responsible, as Marsha Coleman-Adebayo told Dennis Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Fear Spreads in Immigrant Communities
President Trump's roundup of undocumented workers has spread fear though immigrant communities unsure what to expect as federal agents coordinate with local police to hunt people down, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 2, 2016 Debate over the Cleveland Indians' Mascot
The U.S. government's genocide against Native Americans has led many people to object to Indian nicknames and caricatures in sports, such as the grinning Chief Wahoo mascot of the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 23, 2017 Resisting the Trump/Ryan Health Plan
The complex Obamacare system struggled to gain popularity, but now that Republicans are moving to replace it with a less generous program, many medical professionals are irate, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 1, 2016 Ready to Resist Trump's Immigrant Round-up
Donald Trump's draconian plan to round up 11 million undocumented immigrants and deport them suggests turning America into a police state and likely confronting strong resistance from their families and friends, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 17, 2018 "The Everyday Process of Ethnic Cleansing"
Palestinians protesting at the Gaza fence posed no threat whatsoever and even if they were trying to cross the border, you don't use live fire to kill them, says Diana Buttu in this inerview with Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, January 21, 2017 Trump's Threat to Farmworkers
The Age of Trump is an unsettling time for undocumented farmworkers whose labor has helped make California's "wine country" rich but are now facing threats of draconian arrests and deportations, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, March 8, 2017 America's Deadly New "National Bird"
Officially, America's "national bird" is the eagle, but it is fast becoming the hovering, deadly drone that kills with missiles fired from half a world away, reports Dennis J Bernstein about Sonia Kennebeck's documentary, "National Bird."
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 27, 2016 Seeking Justice for Guatemalan Slaughter
Brave prosecutors in Guatemala are trying to enforce accountability for government-sponsored rapes, tortures and murders in the 1980s, a time when President Reagan and his administration were complicit in the atrocities but remain respected U.S. figures, as Allan Nairn explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 21, 2018 Embattled Palestinian Knesset Member Fights for Her People's Rights
In this interview with Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Dennis J. Bernstein discusses Zoabi's feminism, the struggle in Gaza and life in the Israeli parliament.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 27, 2017 Another Journalist Killed in Mexico
Breach was shot eight times by a heavily armed gunman as she was leaving home in her car, accompanied by one of her three children, shortly after 7 a.m., according to published reports. The child was not injured, but Breach died in transport. Breach was the third journalist to be murdered in Mexico this month.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 3, 2013 Migrant Workers' Bitter Fruit
The battle to overhaul U.S. immigration policy has now moved from the Senate to the House where its future is at best uncertain. The debate continues even as the Obama administration presses forward with the most stringent deportation policies in modern history.
SHARE Friday, May 27, 2016 The Urgency of Now: Fighting the "Hysteria Factory"
Until the Voting Rights Act, the blockade was created by the Democratic Party. The racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant know-nothings and Klan were expressing their prejudice and fears of the other. Now it's changed. It's become billionaires who are interested in manipulating the vote. It's very sad how many Democrats as well as Republicans have become involved in purging voters of color in these vicious primary cycles.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 29, 2014 Iraqi Chaos May Give Kurds a State
Millions of Kurds live in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria but the British-French imperial division of the region left them without a state of their own, adding to the region's tensions. But some Kurds see the current chaos in Iraq as a pathway to nationhood, as scholar Edmund Ghareeb told Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Tuesday, February 7, 2017 Latino Fear from Trump's Bluster
President Trump's harsh rhetoric toward undocumented immigrants is spreading fear in immigrant communities, even among people who are in the U.S. legally, a California state senator tells Dennis J Bernstein.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 9, 2016 The Meaning Behind the Sanders Surge
What is most startling about the excited response to Sen. Sanders's campaign is that millions of Americans seem to be saying that free-market capitalism is failing them and that there must be something better than accepting vast income inequality, as economist Richard Wolff explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Thursday, November 13, 2014 Dennis J Bernstein interviews Keith McHenry, founder of Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a national organization that distributes free food to the growing armies of hungry Americans from coast to coast. While you would think that the government would laud support such a noble cause, Food Not Bombs food-givers face regular arrest and possible jail time for distributing food to the very hungry, a growing number of children and veterans among them.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 8, 2014 Turning Japan Back toward Militarism
The Obama administration's much-touted "pivot" to Asia has a militaristic side that involves encouraging Japan to abandon its post-World War II pacifism and make its revamped military a U.S. ally in containing China, as Tim Shorrock explains to Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 21, 2016 A Machete for Your Thoughts: Free Trade, Hillary Style
Hillary Clinton is very much seen as the person who facilitated for the U.S. government this ongoing regime of a government that has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere, and that has presided over the nation that has the highest level of killing of environmental activists, according to the research of the group Global Witness.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 5, 2014 Giving the Super-Rich More Clout
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to remove limits on how much a person can donate each election cycle represents another giant step toward giving the 1 percent out-sized control of the U.S. political process, as Public Citizen President Robert Weissman told Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Sunday, July 28, 2013 Chilling the First Amendment
President Obama has overseen an unprecedented legal campaign against leaks of classified information with New York Times journalist James Risen now facing possible jail for refusing to testify in the trial of ex-CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for a leak published in Risen's book, State of War, a topic that First Amendment attorney James Goodale discusses with Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Saturday, February 27, 2016 Testing Out Repression in Israel
Jeff Halper, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, sees the brutal practice of destroying Palestinian homes and similar tactics as part of an experiment in social repression that can have broader implications as income inequality spreads across the globe, as he told Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, July 15, 2015 The Path Ahead for Palestine
Israel under Prime Minister Netanyahu is showing no inclination to resolve the long-festering conflict with the Palestinians who remain harshly repressed in an apartheid-like system as Jewish expansion continues into Palestinian lands, a crisis that PLO leader Mustafa Barghouti describes to Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Wednesday, April 30, 2014 FCC's Threat to Net Neutrality
President Obama has been a vocal defender of "net neutrality," but a recent leaked report suggests that Obama's FCC chairman is planning to divide the Internet into one with faster and slower speeds, as Free Press' Craig Aaron told Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Snowden's Case for Asylum
Despite U.S. government pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin is balking at demands that he extradite Edward Snowden from Moscow to face espionage charges for leaking secrets about America's global surveillance operations. Still, Snowden's status remains dicey, as Marjorie Cohn explains.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, March 14, 2016 Dangers from Pesticides
Intensive use of pesticides in California and other agricultural centers presents a risk to farmworkers and their families that is still only dimly understood, writes Dennis J Bernstein.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Hope for an Israeli-Palestinian State
For years, Israel condemned Palestinians for terrorism, but now Israel seems equally upset over non-violent resistance from a boycott movement aimed at ending more than six decades of repression against Palestinians, a reaction that shows progress, author Ali Abunimah tells Dennis J. Bernstein.
SHARE Monday, April 4, 2016 A New Day for Rasmea Odeh: Throwing the Spotlight on Israeli Torture
Rasmea Odeh is a 67-year-old Chicago-based Palestinian community leader. She immigrated to the US in 1994 and received her United States citizenship in 2004. Since that time she has worked diligently and effectively with community organizations that provide crucial care and support for immigrant women.
SHARE Sunday, July 20, 2014 Human Catastrophe at Gaza's Hospitals
The U.S. mainstream media is again downplaying the horror of Israel's latest invasion of Gaza. The Washington Post's front-page headline said "Israel edges into Gaza." But the carnage is more dramatic at Gaza's overflowing hospitals, as Dr. Mads Gilbert explained to Dennis J Bernstein.
SHARE Monday, May 20, 2013 The Historic Conviction of US-Supported Guatemalan Strongman Rios Montt, And What Comes Next
An interview with investigative journalist Allan Nairn, on the historic conviction of US supported Guatemalan Strongman, Rios Montt, for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide, and the continuing legal battle to sustain the verdict, and expand the genocide investigation for indigenous justice in Guatemala.
SHARE Thursday, May 8, 2014 The Death Penalty's Grotesque Reality
On April 29, Oklahoma authorities strapped convicted murderer Clayton Lockett to a gurney and began pumping in drugs to kill him. But the process went awry as Lockett writhed in pain for 43 minutes, raising moral questions discussed by Dennis J Bernstein with death-penalty opponent Michael Kroll.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 22, 2013 Embattled Roe v. Wade Turns 40 Today/An Interview with NOW President Terry O'Neill
Today, Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, will lead a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that recognized women's fundamental right to an abortion.