Show notes
On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist and author of “Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe.”
Last week, just before Thanksgiving, the White House did everything it could to bury its own report on climate change, which Donald Trump says he doesn’t believe. But the science is in and climate change is here and is already affecting our health, with extreme heat having an effect on productivity, the food supply, and disease transmission. And the last four years have been the hottest in recorded history.
Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, joins the show.
President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty today to a single count of lying to Congress. But does this say anything about the larger investigation into alleged Russian interference into the 2016 election. Brian and John speak with Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the new book “The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World.”
In an article written by a former CIA officer under the pen name Alex Finley, Politico tries to make an argument that an article in The Guardian yesterday saying that Paul Manafort met in Ecuador’s London embassy with Julian Assange, was either planted or that sources duped the authors, Luke Harding and Dan Collins. Politico then points the finger squarely at Russia, including Sputnik, RT, and its so-called partners like Wikileaks and Glenn Greenwald. But isn’t it more likely that Luke Harding is just a lousy journalist? After all, he has already been caught plagiarizing the work of other journalists, and his book, entitled Collusion, takes a conclusion and then tries to find the evidence to support it. Activist and journalist Diani Baretto and Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at www.rall.com, join the show.
President Trump is threatening to withdraw subsidies from General Motors after the company announced the closure of five plants and the layoff of 15,000 salaried workers, and he says that he’s on the side of the American worker. But is he serious, especially in light of the massive tax cuts that GM benefited from earlier this year. How can the auto workers union capitalize on the situation and save jobs? Neal Sweeney, the Vice President of UAW Local 5810, joins Brian and John.
Veterans for Peace is Thursday’s regular segment about the contemporary issues of war and peace that affect veterans, their families, and the country as a whole. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister who refused orders to deploy to Vietnam and lived in exile in Canada and Sweden for 6 years, organizing with other U.S. military deserters and draft resisters against the Vietnam war, and for amnesty for U.S. war resisters, joins the show. He has been a peace and solidarity activist for almost 50 years and has served on the Board of Veterans For Peace for the last 6 years, currently as national president.
Furious over being denied a briefing by the CIA Director on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Senate last night voted by an overwhelming 63-37 vote to bring to the floor a measure to limit President Trump’s war powers in Yemen. It was the strongest signal yet that the Administration’s insistence that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman did not order Khashoggi’s killing cannot be believed. Brian and John speak with Ariel Gold, a peace activist and the national co-director of Code Pink.
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