Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host Nellie Bailey. Coming up: Is the U.S. empire coming apart at the seams? A Black political analyst says, “Yes, it is.” And, Americans think they are the nicest, most generous people in the world, even as they bomb a great portion of the planet. But a new book shows that American Niceness is a mask, and even a weapon.

President Donald Trump shocked the U.S. military and imperial establishment with his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria and to remove half of American military personnel from Afghanistan. The Black Alliance for Peace welcomed Trump’s withdrawals. Ajamu Baraka, the Green Party 2016 candidate for vice president, is the lead organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace.

The Democrats and others in the U.S. War party act as if Donald Trump is the cause of the U.S. domestic and international crisis. But Dr. Anthony Monteiro, the Dubosian scholar based in Philadelphia, says Trump didn’t create the acute crisis that U.S. imperialism is undergoing…that it’s been a long time coming.

Americans, especially white Americans, seem to think that they are among the nicest people in the world, both personally and as a nation. Most of the world does NOT share that opinion. Dr. Carrie BRAY-man, a professor of English at Buffalo State University, in New York, has written a book on the subject. It’s called  “American Niceness: A Cultural History.” BRAY-man says smiling faces can be very dangerous.