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The Persistence of White Supremacy: A Conversation with Margaret Kimberley

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

On, April 24th, I interviewed Margaret Kimberley by phone, for my podcast, “Voices for Nature & Peace.” Kimberley is an Editor and Senior Columnist at the Black Agenda Report, author of the book, “Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents,” a contributor to the anthology, “In Defense of Julian Assange,” and serves on the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.

We discussed “Prejudential,” US foreign policy, the 2020 elections (including Bernie Sanders), Russiagate, how the COVID-19 virus is disproportionally affecting Black Americans, and the historic opportunity for fundamental change that is presenting itself during the current crisis.

What follows here are lightly edited excerpts. You can listen to the full interview here.

Kimberley: Americans don’t like to think of themselves as being propagandized but we are. Most definitely propagandized from childhood on, about the nature of this nation, which was founded as a settler-colonial state, which means that the original inhabitants—the indigenous population—were immediately the victims of genocide. And that continued with chattel slavery. So we have two great crimes which impacted this nation, its founding, and its history to this very day.


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Russiagate: The Toxic Gift That Keeps on Giving

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

"I have to ask: Is the Russian collusion in the room with us right now?"

“All smears are boomerang smears. That is why anyone worth a damn does not engage in it. That goes for the Russia-Gaters, the left/right smears on Gabbard, the years of left/right smears on Assange, the attacks on the Green Party and now the Russia narrative attacks on Sanders. Falling into line with the secret police will not save anyone. Red Scares target dissenters and promote war. Isn’t the history clear enough?”

Richard Moser

The despicable exhuming of “Russia!” to smear Sanders recently smacks of desperation and dishonesty.

Of course, the role played by the preposterous Russiagate conspiracy theory has always been the same: to be a distraction from issues that really matter. At best, it makes a mountain out of molehill. At worst, it’s straight up political psy-op.

For those just tuning in, a re-cap:


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Homophobia in the Service of Anti-Trumpism is Still Homophobic (even when it’s the New York Times doing it)

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Photo from White House rally against Trump, featuring homophobic signage

Photo from rally at White House against Trump, featuring homophobic signage. Photographer unknown.

As anyone who has even glanced at the internet this week couldn’t help but notice, the level of fervor over Trump and Russia reached a new pitch.

In this essay, I am setting aside any discussion of the veracity of the myriad charges being leveled at Trump and “the Russians” regarding the election, business dealings, “treason,” etc. Of more interest, and ultimately importance, are the social phenomena of how these issues swirl through social circles and what they say about people in the USA in general and Democrats/liberals and radicals in particular.

Photographs from an anti-Trump rally in front of the White House on Tuesday (July 17th), show Neera Tanden speaking. Tanden is president of the Center for American Progress and was a “policy aide” to Obama when he was president. At this event she called Trump a “traitor,” characterizing his behavior as “commonly understood as treasonous.” [source: After Helsinki, Dems struggle over Trump, the term ‘treason’ ]

Behind Tanden in the photograph is a sign that reads: “I HOPE THEY USED CONDOMS WHEN TRUMP TOOK IT UP THE ASS FROM PUTIN.” It’s my understanding that Tanden “disavowed” the sign when asked about it, but regardless I wholly agree with Black Agenda Report Editor and Senior Columnist, Margaret Kimberley, who said that “the issue is bigger than this one instance.”

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Partisan Fiddling while the Planet Burns

by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time, people will solemnly vote against their own interests. -Gore Vidal

Today I write from Mendocino County, CA – 120 miles north of the Bay Area, on the edge of the “Lost Coast,” and in the circulation zones of both the Anderson Valley Advertiser (“Fanning the flames of discontent”) and the Green Fuse – where the effects of a freakish “split polar vortex” are impossible to ignore. This weather anomaly delivered a biting cold wind that has dug in with icy claws and is hanging on persistently. Snow is on the way.

It’s not Minnesota cold (where I spent seven winters) and I’m certainly grateful for that. So, though nightly lows have dipped below freezing, the lettuce that overwintered in the garden has survived, and the kale and carrots have been deliciously sweetened. (If you’ve never tasted winter-harvested kale or carrots, then you’ve never tasted kale or carrots, as far as I’m concerned.)

Though on the chillier end, these temps are not out of the historic range for this area at this time of year. What’s jarring about them is that they came right on the heels of a warmer-than-usual mid-winter thaw. The sun heated the oak-dotted hills to 75 degrees for a week, coaxed out flushes of wildflowers on the slopes, induced the mustard greens to bolt, and hatched clouds of moths. For a few sultry, open-windowed nights, the spiders in the cabin captured these moths by the dozens and wrapped them up tight for later. Some are still hanging high on the walls like ill-fated campers in mummy-style sleeping bags (or dwarves from tree branches).

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