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 Video above shows Edward Hood, one of four Black jurors excluded from Timothy Tyrone Foster’s jury through “peremptory” challenges. The Supreme Court did not rule on the lack of Black jurors on the original jury venire, a problem that has existed in Wayne County, Michigan’s courts.

Associated Press

May 23, 2016

Timothy Tyrone Foster, sentenced to death in Georgia at the age of 18.

Washington — The Supreme Court ruled decisively in favor of death-row inmate Timothy Tyrone Foster in Georgia on Monday, chastising state prosecutors for improperly keeping African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman.

The justices ruled 7-1 in favor of death row inmate Foster in underscoring the importance of rules they laid out in 1986 to prevent racial discrimination in the selection of juries.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that Georgia “prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race” when they struck African-Americans from the jury pool.

But the court did nothing to limit peremptory strikes, lawyers’ ability to reject potential jurors without offering any reason. The late Thurgood Marshall once said that racial discrimination would persist in jury selection unless peremptory strikes were curtailed.

[Foster, an 18-year-old African-American, was charged in 1986 with killing Queen Madge White, an elderly white woman, in Rome, Georgia. At Foster’s capital trial the following year, the prosecutors used four of their nine peremptory strikes to remove all four black prospective jurors, resulting in an all-white jury to try this racially charged case. They claimed that the strikes were not based on race, asserting eight to twelve “race-neutral” reasons for each. The lead prosecutor later urged the jury to impose a death sentence to “deter other people out there in the projects.”]

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from opinion.

The outcome probably will enable Foster to win a new trial, 29 years after he was sentenced to death.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying he would have respected the decisions of state judges who sided with prosecutors and rejected Foster’s claims.

When the case was argued in November, the justices did little to hide their distaste for the tactics employed by prosecutors in north Georgia. Justice Elena Kagan said the case seemed as clear a violation “as a court is ever going to see.”

Still, Georgia courts had consistently rejected Foster’s claims of discrimination, even after his lawyers obtained the prosecution’s notes that revealed prosecutors’ focus on the black people in the jury pool. In one example, a handwritten note headed “Definite No’s” listed six people, of whom five were the remaining black prospective jurors.

The sixth person on the list was a white woman who made clear she would never impose the death penalty, according to Foster’s lawyer, Stephen Bright. And yet even that woman ranked behind the black jurors, Bright said.

Prosecutor’s notes on jury selection document.

The court was not persuaded by the state’s argument that the notes focused on black people in the jury pool because prosecutors were preparing to defend against discrimination claims. The Supreme Court’s ruling about race discrimination in jury selection was about a year old when Foster’s case went to trial, the state said. The 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky set up a system by which trial judges could evaluate claims of discrimination and the explanations by prosecutors that their actions were not based on race.

“This argument falls flat,” Roberts wrote. He noted that the record shows “a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury.”

Have the times really changed? Lynching of Black man accused of rape in Royston GA around 1935.

Foster’s trial lawyers did not so much contest his guilt as try to explain it as a product of a troubled childhood, drug abuse and mental illness. They also raised their objections about the exclusion of African-Americans from the jury. On that point, the judge accepted prosecutor Stephen Lanier’s explanations that factors other than race drove his decisions. The jury convicted Foster and sentenced him to death.

The jury issue was revived 19 years later, in 2006, when the state turned over the prosecution’s notes in response to a request under Georgia’s Open Records Act.

The name of each potential black juror was highlighted on four different copies of the jury list and the word “black” was circled next to the race question on questionnaires for the black prospective jurors. Three of the prospective black jurors were identified in notes as “B#1,” ‘’B#2,” and “B#3.”

An investigator working for the prosecutors also ranked the black prospective jurors against each other in case if “it comes down to having to pick one of the black jurors.”

Henry Montgomery, 17, before sentence of death of in Louisiana in 1986.

VOD editor: George Montgomery was the plaintiff in the historic Montgomery v. Louisiana case

The USSC declared Jan. 25, 2016 that an earlier Supreme Court decision banning life without parole (death in prison) sentences for juveniles was retroactive.

Montgomery was originally sentenced to death in 1968, but his conviction was overturned due to the defense’s allegations of extreme racism during his trial. When will the times change?

Related:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2016/04/12/dying-in-prison-michigan-juvenile-lifers-get-new-hope-under-montgomery-still-face-obstacles/

Editorial/interview by VOD Staff Writer Cornell Squires, co-authored by investigative journalist David Schied

May 1, 2016

 As I write what is found below, I am reminded of the interview I had several weeks ago in the living room of Jann DeBacker’s daughter, Shannon DeBacker. It was a shared investigation with me working in the capacity and purpose of my not-for-profit entity of “We the People for the People,” and David Schied, a fully-credentialed Michigan schoolteacher, an investigative journalist and co-founder with me of RICO Busters.

In her living room, Shannon DeBacker presented us with compelling testimony and a plethora of evidence, some so graphically sickening that we thought it better to protect the privacy of her disabled child, about whom this story concerns. It is with that past personal knowledge and first-hand access to the evidence of the reported prolonged sexual abuse of this disabled child that I provide an update of this  situation by publishing the results of my latest interview this past Friday with Shannon DeBacker’s mother, Jannice DeBacker.

I thus write this story with feverish urgency and the need to rally the American public in defense of this defenseless and precious human being, by expounding upon the outcries of this child’s mother and grandmother.

Just this past Friday, April 29, 2016, Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court held a “Show Cause” hearing in the case of “Shannon Debacker vs Michael Lewis,” Case No. 09-154554-DS.

Jann DeBacker, the mother of Shannon DeBacker, was the only person attending that hearing to support her daughter. She watched with  horror in the courtroom as her daughter Shannon was falsely charged with “contempt of court” by Judge Martha Snow. Her daughter was then handcuffed, escorted out of the court, locked up, and falsely imprisoned for the first time in her life….all because Shannon had declined the judge’s appointment of an attorney; and because Shannon had insisted instead on presenting herself to the court as a natural and sane person!

Jann DeBacker said, “What is insane in this situation is the way the ‘judge’ herself is acting in the context of the serious nature of this case.”

She said her daughter has been forced to endure a long history of past attorneys which she claims have sold her out and cut deals with this and other various judges off the record and inside of the judges’ chambers.  Thus, Shannon DeBacker no longer trusts attorneys.

“I honestly believe that most attorneys – at least most operating here in Michigan courts – have ‘sold their souls to the devil,’” she added.

Before being sentenced to jail by this so-called “judge” Snow, Jann’s daughter Shannon had tried reasoning with the court. She had stated numerous times before that she has been double-crossed repeatedly already by attorneys, and that she doesn’t trust any attorney with this particular case because it is so serious.

“This judge” she continued, “completely ignores the fact that my granddaughter’s life – Janna Lewis’s life – has been and remains perpetually in severe imminent danger!”

Jann DeBacker is the grandmother of Janna Lewis. She says she supports her daughter Shannon DeBacker because she knows firsthand that this court case is really about the settlement of an accompanying case.

That is a multi-million dollar medical malpractice lawsuit against the medical community for her granddaughter being born clinically dead and only being revived to the point of having to live with worst type of Cerebral Palsy for the rest of her life.

“These never-ending court cases have been ruining all of our lives – that of my daughter and granddaughter and me – for the past five years,” she stated.

Essentially, the actual reason why so many Charter County of Wayne “government usurpers,” as RICO-Busters calls them, are against Shannon DeBacker today is because her daughter, Janna Lewis, has this huge civil action pending.

It all started weeks prior to Janna’s birthdate of July 15, 2009 when Shannon had gone to Oakwood Hospital Emergency room in full term pregnancy. While she was there, the doctors and medical staff induced labor but Shannon was ultimately sent home before delivery. At home, a rupture occurred and as a result, Baby Janna was deprived of oxygen. She was next subject to a botched surgical procedure and born with cerebral palsy.

For the past few years since Janna’s birth, the court and other “government actors” have been incrementally and systematically taking custody away from Shannon DeBacker under false pretenses. They have been constructing a fraudulent paper trail of lies and covering up the alleged criminal activity of the baby’s father, Michael Lewis, so as to bring the case to a final conclusion that neither parent is fit to manage the life and the lucrative malpractice settlement money.

In essence, these attorneys, as “officers of the courts,” the judges, referees, social workers, guardian ad litems, conservators, and investigators hired by or appointed by the probate court, have long been stealing the proceeds of this massive lawsuit, something that happens much more frequently than anyone wants to admit in large settlement civil cases such as this one.

The facts behind all this prove that this “court” is nothing more or less than the alter-ego of this “judge” Martha Snow. It isn’t about the physical health, welfare or safety of Jann DeBacker’s disabled granddaughter, Janna Lewis. It is all about who controls the money that is being legally designated to the judge’s cronies for covering Mrs. DeBacker’s granddaughter’s future health, welfare and safety.

We can prove that state “actors” operating the Wayne County Circuit Court have a multi-decade history of covering up court cases and hiding facts in courts cases such as Shannon’s and Janna’s medical malpractice cases involving large sums of money. (See the 30-year history of the Wayne County Probate Court case of Lynnette and Mailauni Williams.)

Mailauni and Lennette Williams relax at home after she was returned to her mother subsequent to a 6-month kidnapping. Mailauni also suffers from cerebral palsy, and was expected to live no more than a few months. With her mother’s nurturing, she has graduated from high school and is now 32 years old.

Thus, Martha Snow presents much more than a simple “appearance of impropriety” defining “judicial misconduct;” she is clearly operating this court with unclean hands, using it and using Shannon’s daughter and Jann’s granddaughter as a “payback” tool for lining the pockets of her cronies.

“She needs to be held liable for covering up the criminal activity of my disabled daughter’s sexual perpetrator; and for ordering my grandbaby’s perverted father to instead have temporary custody over my granddaughter while criminally ordering my daughter Shannon to a weekend of false imprisonment,” cried Jann DeBacker during the interview.

Judge Martha Snow showed favoritism to the father Michael Lewis in court on Friday simply because he has an attorney, Audrey C. Stroia (P-21098) and Shannon DeBacker has no attorney!

From Toledo Children’s Hospital

The underlying fact is that this “judge” Martha Snow did like other Wayne County judges Arthur Lombard and Christopher Dingell did on this case for previously years, not investigating the father’s past history and continuing to conspire in covering up Shannon DeBacker’s old and new evidence and allegations of specific sexual abuse, the Debackers say.

In previous years, Arthur Lombard and Christopher Dingell continued to order shared custody between mother and father despite all the facts and evidence being brought to their attention by Shannon DeBacker and her mother.

“Last Friday, Martha Snow deliberately put my granddaughter in harm’s way,” Mrs. DeBacker continued. “She put Janna’s most dedicated advocate, her mother, in the county jail and handed over temporary custody for the entire weekend to the [alleged] perpetrator. This judge knows very well that my and husband and I are licensed foster home caretakers.”

The pattern and practice (#2) of Wayne County “agents” is to thwart their duties in law enforcement and in the judiciary. Examples: Even their own (Southgate PD) police officer (Grondin) reported that Janna Lewis had revealed directly to him that her father “kisses” her vagina. Officer Grondin also said he watched the “disturbing” videos Shannon DeBacker had turned over as evidence she had downloaded from Michael Lewis’ own cell phone camera. Yet “for some reason” that even Ofcr. Grodin could not figure out, the reports are not being taken seriously by the detective’s bureau” and Officer’s Grodin’s report was merely “placed (by whom) into the case file.”

The pattern and practice (#3) – If Janna can’t convey it herself, the government usurpers employed as corporate agents of the Charter County of Wayne simply “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” Example: “Michael Lewis’ criminal history?……..What criminal history?”

Grandma Jann DeBacker said Lewis’ activity – and its cover-up – has been ongoing since 2011, and is supported by credible evidence and an abundance of pictures and incriminating videos. “My granddaughter been crying out for help; and my daughter is now jailed for trying to bring attention to these sexual abuses by Michael Lewis,” Mrs. DeBacker exclaimed.

Jann stated that both she and Shannon have been praying for help, been pleading for help, both have been ignored by law enforcement and child protective agencies, been ignored by many of the state insurance mandated doctors and medical facilities, been ignored by judges and even ignored by the mainstream media.

“I and my daughter contacted the State Agencies Child Protective Services and Monroe Police Department in 2015 and our complaints were ignored. We also contacted the Southgate and Taylor police departments,” she added.

“I contacted Detective Cole today at court when my daughter was being arrested because he had an appointment for Janna scheduled with ‘Kids Talk’ on May 5, 2016; but we needed help today! I now feel that my granddaughter and daughter are both in imminent danger. I called Detective Grodin last year and he corroborated our allegations to a C.P.S worker who knew about these crimes yet denied an investigation of these allegations. But we needed help today! I now feel that my granddaughter and daughter are both in imminent danger. I called Detective Grodin last year and he corroborated our allegations to a C.P.S worker who knew about these crimes yet denied an investigation of these allegations. But the court still has granted custody this weekend to Janna’s father today….even despite the proof of his sexual exploits.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Martha Snow to the bench.

The rallying public needs to ask what more evidence there is to draw the links in the “chain” of association between the criminal conduct of Michael Lewis, accused of cowardly acting in the darkness and privacy of his home, and the criminal conduct of Martha Snow, accused of usurping judicial power and authority in open court.

What reasoning can we attribute to this treasonous activity by the judge appointed to the bench by the very same Michigan governor (Snyder) that is now being petitioned for recall from office and possibly facing prison time for his part in turning a blind eye on the poisoning of the entire population of Flint? Perhaps there is something to the saying about “birds of a feather flock together?”

We already know the links between Snyder’s appointment of Martha Snow to the judicial bench, and between Martha Snow and her “mentor” Audrey Stroia, the attorney defending Michael Lewis as the child’s alleged sexual predator in a custody battle over the welfare of this child. So let’s turn our attention to other questionable “links” in this chain conspiracy to deny due process to Shannon DeBacker and to cover-up to years of alleged sexual exploitation being carried out against his own daughter by the man known to have a mental health diagnosis of “schizophrenia.”

Michael Lewis’ “schizophrenia” is being treated by Dr. Thomas Pinson. “Dr.” Pinson is currently on “probation” by the Medical Board for “incompetence,” “negligence,” and other forms of substandard care.

Dr. Thomas Pinson

Moreover, Lewis’ doctor, Thomas Pinson, is believed to be the very same person who in 1988 was criminally charged with sixteen (16) counts of receiving stolen property and providing a pole barn for an auto “chop-shop” operation/ As shown above on the document bearing Pinson’s signature below Lewis’ diagnosis, he either does or did operate his medical “practice” at 13636 Dix Toledo Rd. in Southgate, Michigan 48195.

Note that according to Dun & Bradstreet, that place of business, “City Medical, PC,” is showing a lucrative $1,200,000.00  annual income. Interestingly however, it appears that office is shared with someone carrying the very same last name as Michael Lewis’ attorney and Judge Martha Snow’s “mentor.” She is a chiropractor by the name of Susan Stroia. Even more interesting is the fact that Stroia and Pinson appear to be more than business partners in City Medical, PC; they appear to be husband and wife.

So besides the obvious fanfare of friendship, cronyism and nepotism between “judicial usurper” Martha Snow, her mentor Audrey Stroia, and Stroia’s mega-successful daughter and  son-in-law, and Stroia’s client, Michael Lewis, why else might Snow be catering favorably and providing “preferential treatment” to attorney Audrey Stroia?

Wouldn’t it be because she is an ESTATE PLANNING expert? In sum, the corporate and state “players” operating the Wayne County Circuit Court are keenly aware of Janna Lewis’ disability and the fact that a multi-million dollar civil case was filed and is soon scheduled to reach a final court settlement after more than five years of state takeover and criminal cover-up!

For the past few years since Janna’s birth, the court and other “government actors” have been incrementally and systematically taking custody away from Shannon DeBacker under false pretenses. They have been constructing a fraudulent paper trail of lies and covering up criminal activity of the baby’s father, Michael Lewis, so to bring the case to a final conclusion that neither parent is fit to manage the life and the lucrative malpractice settlement money.

In essence, these attorneys, as “officers of the courts,” the judges, referees, social workers, guardian ad litems, conservators, and investigators hired by or appointed by the probate court, have long been already stealing the proceeds of this massive lawsuit, something that happens much more frequently than anyone wants to admit in large settlement civil cases such as this one.

The facts behind all this prove that this “court” is nothing more or less than the alter-ego of this “judge” Martha Snow. It isn’t about the physical health, welfare or safety of Jann DeBacker’s disabled granddaughter, Janna Lewis. It is all about who controls the money that is being legally designated to the judge’s cronies for covering Mrs. DeBacker’s granddaughter’s future health, welfare and safety.

Thus, Martha Snow presents much more than a simple “appearance of impropriety” defining “judicial misconduct;” she is clearly operating this court with unclean hands, using it and using Shannon’s daughter and Jann’s granddaughter as a “payback” tool for lining the pockets of her cronies.

Atty. Audrey Stroia of Stroia & Associates specializing in estate planning/Facebook photo.

“She needs to be held liable for covering up the criminal activity of my disabled daughter’s sexual perpetrator; and for ordering my grandbaby’s perverted father to instead have temporary custody over my granddaughter while criminally ordering my daughter Shannon to a weekend of false imprisonment,” cried Jann DeBacker during the interview.

So besides the obvious fanfare of friendship, cronyism and nepotism between “judicial usurper” Martha Snow, her mentor Audrey Stroia, and Stroia’s mega-successful daughter and “incompetent” son-in-law, and Stroia’s client, Michael Lewis, why else might Snow be catering favorably and providing “preferential treatment” to attorney Audrey Stroia? Wouldn’t it be because she is an ESTATE PLANNING expert?

In sum, the corporate and state “players” operating the Wayne County Circuit Court are keenly aware of Janna Lewis’ disability and the fact that a multi-million dollar civil case was filed and is soon scheduled to reach a final court settlement after more than five years of state takeover and criminal cover-up!

Jann DeBacker told VOD,

“I know my daughter Shannon loves her disabled daughter more than anyone in this world would ever imagine. She was and will remain willing to do whatever is needed to stop the sexual exploitation of her daughter Janna by the child’s medically-diagnosed-as-schizophrenic father with a well-documented criminal history. Though Shannon has no criminal history whatsoever before now, she has shown that she is even willing to go to jail in advocacy on behalf of her defenseless baby.”

In court last Friday, April 29, Shannon took a bold stand against the corruption and greed that has inundated her daughter’s medical malpractice case. She chose to stand on her own rather than to allow an evidently crooked judge and attorneys to keep this barreling train on the same railroad track that it has been on for the past few years. She took a stand as a mother who truly loves her daughter.

She also took a stand as a natural person deciding to handle her own affairs without an attorney, rather than to continue trusting more despicable members of the Michigan State BAR. She had that right according to federal law (i.e., see 28 U.S.C §1654), and the “judge” Martha Snow was in violation of Shannon DeBacker’s constitutionally guaranteed rights when that judge sent Shannon to jail with the trumped up “contempt of court” charge.

Shannon additionally has every right to refuse to comply with an unlawful “order” of the court when that order disregards the safety and welfare of her child; particularly when she had a recent order by a registered nurse asserting that she nor anyone else should be allowing Michael Lewis to have access to Janna because she would be in imminent physical danger! Judge Martha Snow refused to address the new sexual assault allegations and evidence to support the reasoning of that nurse. Mrs. DeBacker insists that the pictures in evidence against Michael Lewis are much too graphic to place them in this online news story.

THE DEBACKERS ARE ASKING THAT SUPPORTERS COME TO THEIRHEARING MONDAY, MAY 2 AT 9AM, IN THE COURTROOM OF JUDGE MARTHA SNOW, RM. 1812, AT 2 WOODWARD AVE.

See documents related to Michael Lewis criminal history at:

 010315_LewisViolatedCourtOrderonSupervisedCusto…

 021495_PoliceReportLewisHarassEx-GF.pdf

 042301_DomesticViolenceReport.pdf

 042301_LewisDomesticViolence-womanLopez.pdf

 070800_RegisterofActions-LewisDomesticViolence-…

 082404_WCCCRegisofActions-DrugPossession-Lewis.pdf

 092904_ArrestWarrant&ArrestFelonyWeapons&Drugs.pdf

 092904_ArrestWarrant-ContemptofCourt.pdf

 100904_LewisArrestChildCruelty.pdf

 110195_PoliceReportLewisHarassEx-GF.pdf

 112405_SouthgatePolice-pushoutofvehicle.pdf

 112704_WCCCRegisofActions-LewisDrivingonSuspend…

 120204_CityofTrentonvMichaelLewis-RegisofAction…

 122200_DomesticAssaultReport-Lewis.pdf

 123000_DomesticViolenceReport-LewiswomanLopez.pdf

Syrian civilians in Aleppo following air strike; U.S. has escalated war to overthrow Syrian government by sending U.S. troops there. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders support the U.S. intervention.Photo: The Guardian

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

April 27, 2016

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agree on U.S. war agenda in Syria, Middle East.

Bernie Sanders has endorsed President Obama’s troop escalation in Syria, once again showing that “he is no more ‘progressive’ than Obama on foreign policy, and just as dishonest – a true Democrat.”

Sanders will ultimately bow to Hillary Clinton, while still claiming that the Democratic Party can be transformed from the inside. However, millions will have witnessed that the campaign proves exactly the opposite – and will seek alternatives.

 “His underlings are telling the troops that this whole electoral exercise will be worthwhile if they succeed in pushing through a progressive party platform, in Philadelphia.”

The 2016 presidential season will only be of historical significance if it leads to a fracturing of the duopoly electoral system in the United States, a “trap within a trap” in which the rich control both parties – one of which is always the overt party of white supremacy. Donald Trump has already succeeded in creating a “market” for a second right-wing party by stripping the GOP’s’ appeal to its raw, racist, white nationalist essentials – a political nightmare for every corporate public relations department in the nation. Corporate logos will be hidden in brown paper bags at the Republican convention, in Cleveland.

US business magnate Donald Trump, who is running for president in the 2016 presidential elections.  AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J. BROWN

It is difficult to imagine how the Trump rank and file and the party’s corporate “establishment” will paper over their irreconcilable differences, rooted in the party’s failure to preserve skin privilege and good jobs in a White Man’s Country. Just as brazenly, Trump, the rabble rousing billionaire, has violated the most sacred ruling class taboos by rejecting the national security rationale for the hyper-aggressive, ever-expanding, global U.S. military presence. If Trump fails to convincingly recant such heresies, the rulers will deal with him with extreme prejudice.

“Trump has violated the most sacred ruling class taboos by rejecting the national security rationale for the hyper-aggressive, ever-expanding, global U.S. military presence.”

Bernie Sanders presents no such threat to Empire. He supports President Obama’s illegal drone wars and the 15-year occupation of Afghanistan. Should he somehow be elected president, Sanders would follow Obama’s practice of reserving Tuesday’s for choosing targets from his “Kill List.” To circumvent U.S. and international prohibitions against assassination, Sanders offers the same “self-defense” justification as the Israelis do, when they slaughter Palestinians by the thousands. “There are people out there who want to kill Americans, who want to attack this country, and I think we have a right to defend ourselves,” Sanders told Chris Hayes, of MSNBC.

U.S. President Barack Obama has boots on the ground in Syria, across the globe.

The nominally socialist senator from Vermont claims that he differs from Hillary Clinton on foreign policy because she “is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be.”

During the New Hampshire debate, Sanders said the ouster of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein “destabilized the entire region” and the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi “created a vacuum for ISIS” in Libya. “Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow,” Sanders told the crowd, back in February, “but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS.”

“It doesn’t bother Sanders a bit that the U.S. presence on sovereign Syrian soil is illegal, an act of war.”

His leftish boosters clung to these utterances as proof that Sanders was, deep down, a peaceable kind of guy, in sharp contrast to “Queen of Chaos” Clinton. Tuesday, however, as he was losing four of five primaries, Sanders showed that he is no less a warlord than Barack Obama – who, like Sanders, based his “peace candidate” appeal on his 2002 opposition to the Iraq invasion. Obama announced he was sending 250 more U.S. Special Forces troops into Syria, supposedly to fight ISIS and to arm and train more of those elusive, damn-near-extinct “moderate” rebels. It doesn’t bother Sanders a bit that the U.S. presence on sovereign Syrian soil is illegal, an act of war, as is U.S. funding and training of fighters attempting “regime change.”

Syrian hospital in Aleppo bombed April 28, 2016.

“Here’s the bottom line,” said Sanders. “ISIS has got to be destroyed, and the way that ISIS must be destroyed is not through American troops fighting on the ground.” U.S. Special Forces have already been engaged in combat operations in Syria, as Sanders should know. Nevertheless, he plowed on:

“I think what the president is talking about is having American troops training Muslim troops, helping to supply the military equipment they need, and I do support that effort. We need a broad coalition of Muslim troops on the ground. We have had some success in the last year or so putting ISIS on the defensive, we’ve got to continue that effort.”

What Sanders is saying is that he would continue Obama’s policy of regime change, despite the “unintended consequences” and its clear illegality. He is no more “progressive” than Obama on foreign policy, and just as dishonest – a true Democrat.

“Sanders opposes ‘regime change’ except when it is perpetrated by a Democratic administration.”

Obama sends 500 U.S. troops to Syria.

The same day, Sanders sidestepped Joe Scarborough’s attempts to get him to agree that Hillary Clinton is a “hawk” on foreign policy. “I don’t want to characterize her, but I think our views on foreign policy are different,” Sanders told the MSNBC host.

“I think my views are a lot closer to President Obama’s than they are to Hillary Clinton’s…. I believe it must be Muslim troops on the ground who do the fighting with the support of the United States. I will do everything that I can to prevent our troops from getting involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East.”

A distinction without a difference, as they say. Sanders opposes “regime change” except when it is perpetrated by a Democratic administration. He really doesn’t mind U.S. “boots on the ground” in other people’s countries, as long as they are arming and training people of native religions and races to kill others of their kind, and U.S. casualties are kept to a minimum.

ISIS executes government police and soldiers in open field in Iraq. ISIS is a creation of the U.S. CIA, originating with the anti-Gaddafi “rebels” who helped the U.S. and NATO obliterate Libya.

Sanders is an imperialist pig. Although his self-image is that of a Scandinavian social democrat, Sanders is more like a French “socialist” who supports the maintenance of a safety net for his own people, but reserves the right to routinely commit mass murder in the former colonies in order to preserve the French “way of life” and “values.”

With the mathematics of the presidential primary race now undeniable, Sanders is preparing his supporters to scale back their dreams of social transformation – which, for some of them, includes a genuine retreat from Empire as well as a new domestic deal. His underlings are telling the troops that this whole electoral exercise will be worthwhile if they succeed in pushing through a progressive party platform, in Philadelphia. Then it will be time to unite with Hillary, the plutocrats’ candidate, in the battle against the dreaded Trumpster.

“Sanders is preparing his supporters to scale back their dreams of social transformation.”

Bernie Sanders is peddling the sucker’s line, that the Democratic Party can be transformed from the inside. However, the actual experience of the campaign, as witnessed by millions of young, newly energized citizens, is proving exactly the opposite; that this corporate-crafted Democratic mechanism and its interlocking Republican counterpart are tools of the oligarchy, designed to manufacture consent to corporate rule and corral and crush dissent.

Military occupation at home: Teen confronts police in Ferguson, MO after the police execution of Michael Brown Aug. 9, 2014. His killer, Darren Wilson, was exonerated.

When Sanders consummates his “sheep dog” assignment, he will deflate to his original state: a small-town Democratic Party operative. Most of his supporters will acquiesce to Hillary’s nomination – just as most people everywhere acquiesce to everything most of the time.

But, a significant proportion, numbering in the millions, and including the half of young African Americans that have rejected the Black Misleadership Class’s slavish allegiance to the Democratic Party hierarchy, will not.  And, although Hillary Clinton will surely win victory in November with her “big tent” Democratic Party – flush with white suburbanites who, only yesterday, were Republicans – it will be a Party that is even more hostile to Blacks and progressives than before Donald Trump plunged the duopoly into crisis.

Millions of people, especially young folks, will be looking for an alternative to the Democrats and the Republicans – or to electoral politics, entirely. It’s up to the Left to give it to them.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Related stories:

https://www.rt.com/news/341342-us-syria-violation-sovereignty/

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/syria-civil-war-150-soldiers-enter-kurdish-region-160428134351946.html

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/04/29/463065/Russia-Syria-USled-coalition-Lavrov/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-usa-syria-idUSKCN0XL0ZE

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2015/11/us-sends-special-forces-into-syria-to-act-as-human-shields-for-terrorist-groups-3236900.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/30/syria-us-deployment-troops-obama-special-operations

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/02/19/the-u-s-empire-and-isis-a-tale-of-two-death-cults/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/02/09/the-covert-origins-of-isis-united-states-cia-in-libya-syria-iraq-afghanistan