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It’s A Myth That Presidents Welcome Movement Pressure

In early 2009, as Barack Obama prepared to move into the White House, a particular historical anecdote rapidly gained in popularity, repeated in dozens of talks and articles as a parable for how supporters should respond to the new president taking office. The story related a New Deal-era encounter between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a group of activists, usually said to have been led by A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. In the meeting, the advocates laid out a vision of bold action for change that the president could advance with his bully pulpit and his executive power.

A Look At All The Presidents Reveals The System Is Hostile To Black People

As the presidential races heat up, Margaret Kimberley has a new book, "Prejudential: Black America and The Presidents," that exposes how every one of the forty-five presidents in the United States has maintained a state of white supremacy. Her research cuts through the traditional narratives and myths of our presidents to show their support for chattel slavery until the Civil War and then the ongoing oppression of blacks in many forms after that and continuing today. Characterizing the presidents as bad to less bad, she discusses that our presidents reflect the reality of the founding principles of the country, which have not been successfully challenged. Kimberley argues that it has always been popular movements, not presidents, who have brought significant reforms and encourages black voters to break with the duopoly political parties.

If There’s A Hell Below, That’s Where He’ll Go: The BAR Obituary On George H.W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in 1924, the son of Prescott Sheldon Bush, a banker and politician, senator from Connecticut from 1952 to 1963. Prescott Bush had been a World War 1 army officer, a Yale grad and a Skull and Bonesman. His father in law George Herbert Walker hooked him up with Brown Brothers Harriman, the Goldman Sachs of that day which still manages trillions of dollars worth of investor assets, where Prescott Bush became a partner in 1931. Soon after he was a founding and managing director at UBC, the Union Banking Corporation, an entity that managed the global assets of Fritz Thyssen a German Nazi multi-millionaire who helped finance the Nazi Party , purchasing its national its national headquarters in Munich among much else.

An Exclusive Interview With Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega

Since the sudden outbreak of protests and violence last April, an uneasy calm had fallen over Nicaragua. President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista government have claimed victory over what they call a coup attempt, but they now face condemnation from the US and its allies, who accuse them of unleashing lethal violence against peaceful protesters. I spent much of July inside Nicaragua, speaking with supporters of the government and their opponents. I learned that Washington’s narrative of a despised dictator mowing down unarmed demonstrators wasn’t exactly accurate. Across the country, I observed widespread support for Ortega and the Sandinista movement. It also became apparent from the moment I arrived that Western media had covered up the brutality of the opposition, as well as its anti-democratic agenda.

Mexico President-Elect Rejects Bodyguards: ‘The Citizens Will Protect Me’

He has just been elected commander-in-chief of a nation mired in an intractable drug conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives in little more than a decade. But on Tuesday, Mexico’s incoming president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, claimed he would waive the right to close protection in a bid to stay close to the people. “I don’t want bodyguards, which means the citizens will take care of me and protect me,” López Obrador, or Amlo, as he is best known, told reporters as he called on Mexico’s incumbent president, Enrique Peña Nieto, to discuss the transition. Amlo, a 64-year-old leftist who trounced opponents in Sunday’s vote, was repeating an undertaking made on several occasions during his historic campaign – one of several promises designed to bolster his image as a man of the people who will rule for Mexico’s 53 million poor.

S. Korea President Removed By Court, Could Reset N. Korea Relationship

By Staff of Zim Eye - History was early this morning broken as South Korean Supreme Court judges upheld President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, removing her from office. The President has been permanently kicked out of work. Ms Park has been accused of colluding with a friend who allegedly pressured big companies to give money in return for government favours. Ms Park and her friend, Choi Soon-sil, both deny doing anything wrong. South Korea’s constitutional court delivered its verdict after a final session lasting over an hour at around midnight (London time).

Two Presidents Who Ignited Most Inauguration Protests

By Jack Smith IV for Policy Mic. Donald Trump promised a peaceful transition. On Inauguration Day, some protestors have a mind to disturb that peace. Tens of thousands of people are pledging to show up to protest on Jan. 20, either with anti-war groups and grassroots organizations, or just on their own as rogue agitators. Over a dozen groups have requested permits, and local organizers are coordinating communal sleeping spaces in churches to accommodate hecklers and dissidents from across the country. This doesn't happen every four years. In fact, Donald Trump will begin his presidential legacy by joining a pair of presidents mired by controversy and scorned by history. "There've really only been two presidents who stand out from all of the others in terms of the vastness of the protests against them, either against them personally or against the wars that were taking place during their administrations,"

Why Trump Won–And What’s Next

By Jack Rasmus for Predicting the Global Economic Crisis - “US real estate billionaire, Donald Trump, is president-elect. In an age when 97% of all GDP-national income gains since 2010 have accrued to the wealthiest 1%–of which Trump is one—how could American voters come to elect Trump? How could they vote for a candidate that they simultaneously were giving a ‘negative rating’ of 60% to 80%? That fundamental question will ever haunt this election.

A Women’s Economic Agenda For The Next President

By Elise Gould for EPI - Progress on closing the gap between men’s and women’s wages in the U.S. economy has been glacially slow in recent decades—and gender wage parity has become a top priority for those committed to ensuring the economic security of American women. This priority is absolutely essential. No matter how you cut it, the gender wage gap is real and it matters (link to paper). That said, pay parity cannot be the only goal for those looking to improve the economic lot of American women.

Next President Has A Nuclear Option: Scrap The Program

By David Hall and Leonard Eiger for The Seattle Times - HAVE you seen the Seattle bus ads? They read: “20 miles west of Seattle is the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the U.S.” In light of recent media attention on who should have their finger on the nuclear button, this statement seems to beg the question: With so many nuclear weapons, what would happen should the president order their use?

Why Every President Since Truman Has Been An Israel Hawk

By Robert Fantina for Mint Press News - KITCHENER, Ontario — (Analysis) The establishment of the state of Israel is known throughout Palestine as the Nakba, or “Catastrophe.” As the British Mandate of Palestine ended throughout 1947 and 1948, at least 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from or fled their homeland, and another 100,000 or more were massacred. Although the United States wasn’t an active party to the circumstances that led to the Nakba, the country’s long history with Israel has only been supportive of that nation’s barbarity — and that support has grown exponentially over the years.

How US President And JP Morgan Made Panama

By Ed Vulliamy for The Guardian - This goes back a long way. The Panamanian state was originally created to function on behalf of the rich and self-seeking of this world – or rather their antecedents in America – when the 20th century was barely born. Panama was created by the United States for purely selfish commercial reasons, right on that historical hinge between the imminent demise of Britain as the great global empire, and the rise of the new American imperium.

Turkish President Erdogan’s Security Detail Assaults Press In DC

By John Zangas for DC Media Group - Washington, DC – Members of Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s security detail assaulted several journalists at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC on Thursday. Erdogan was scheduled to give a speech about the state of Turkey in the early afternoon, when his security detail grabbed, struck, and forcibly removed journalists from the Institute. DC Metropolitan Police officers broke up several scuffles which ensued outside.

Politicians Seeking To Impeach Dilma, Accused Of Greater Corruption

By Vincent Bevins for The Los Angeles Times - Efforts to impeach Brazil's president accelerated this month as the country fell into full-blown crisis. But the congressional commission that will help decide Dilma Rousseff's fate has its own legal problems. Of 65 members on the impeachment commission, 37 face charges of corruption or other serious crimes, according to data prepared for the Los Angeles Times by the local organization Transparencia Brasil. The commission does not represent just the congressional faction that wants Rousseff impeached, but contains members of both the ruling coalition and the opposition.

Undocumented Worker Stands Up To Billionaire Bully

By Americas Voice in People's World - As the negative coverage surrounding Donald Trump's inflammatory immigration policy paper continues to spill out, Liz Robbins of theNew York Times lifts up a critical, yet missing, voice in the current debate. Meet Ricardo Aca. Ricardo is an undocumented immigrant who works hard at three different jobs, including the Trump hotel in New York City's Soho neighborhood. In an incredible video from New Left Media and picked up by the New York Times, Ricardo describes working as a busboy at the only restaurant at Trump Soho, and his subsequent reaction to Trump's claim that undocumented immigrants from Mexico - hardworking immigrants like himself - are criminals. While Ricardo realizes the risks in going public -feeling Trump's retaliatory wrath in public or at work-he also wants to speak up for his family and community, and that's a risk he's willing to take for them.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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