Loud & Clear

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Huge COVID Spikes in US As Trump Tries to Cut Health Care for Millions Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou is joined by Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician and vice chair of the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Global Health Committee.
The House of Representatives today is voting on a landmark bill to make Washington, DC, a state. The bill won’t pass the US Senate, and President Trump has vowed to block it due to the additional anti-Trump representatives the measure would bring. Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice said of the vote “The District is not prepared to shoulder the burden of statehood. This would apply economically, fiscally as well as a host of other ways.” This is an extension of the long racist history of the federal government’s rule over the District of Columbia. Maurice Cook, the founder and executive director of Serve Your City and a co-founder and co-chair of March for Racial Justice, joins the show with Brian Becker.
Russians have begun voting on a wide range of constitutional reforms that would rebalance the relative powers of different branches of the government. The vote is taking place over the course of a week as a measure to reduce overcrowding during the pandemic. What do the constitutional reforms tell us about the future of Russian politics? Brian speaks with Bryan Macdonald, a journalist who specializes in Eastern Europe and Russia.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. John speaks with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the near-record-breaking surge of Coronavirus infections being detected across the country, protests against racism and the brutal police repression of those protests, the controversy over racist statues and monuments, the latest attack on the Affordable Care Act, and moreSputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell join Brian and John.

US Indicts Julian Assange Again - But Why? Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry, and the author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton."
The Justice Department yesterday released a superseding indictment against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange. The indictment doesn’t add to the 18 felony charges with which Assange has already been charged. But it adds detail to allegations that Assange attended hacker conventions in Europe, where they say he solicited hackers to help Wikileaks procure US secrets. Assange’s US attorney said the indictment is a direct attack on journalists.
Americans filed 1.5 million new unemployment claims last week as the economy sputtered and coronavirus cases surged. As states try to reopen, officials are also forced to deal with this surge. Is it possible to reopen an economy and still protect citizens? And meanwhile, the IMF issued a dire warning that the global economic contraction will be far worse than it initially expected. Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist, whose work is at patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen, joins the show with John.
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. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show with John.
Loud & Clear’s series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective, including the protest movement and the reactions in the political class, the strong pushback from the park service, Native nations, and others against president Trump’s planned visit to Mount Rushmore, the anniversary of the Korean war, and more. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Mike Flynn Walks Free After Appeals Court Ruling Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daniel Lazare. He is a journalist and author of three books--The Frozen Republic, The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War.
A federal appeals court ruled today that the criminal case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn must be dropped. This is a major victory for Flynn and it points to chaos in the Justice Department. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing this afternoon to discuss alleged political interference in the Trump Justice Department. The star witness is Aaron Zelinski, a senior member of the Mueller team during the Russiagate probe, and a former Obama Justice Department official, who said that he was pressured to cut Roger Stone a break because of his ties to the President.
Confirmed coronavirus across the country are spiking, with troubling surges in at least 26 states. In Florida, the number of cases is doubling every two weeks. In Texas, Gov. Abbott encouraged all residents to remain in their homes. And in Arizona, all intensive care hospital beds are full. But President Trump has ordered that federal testing for the virus be slowed. Despite the fact that White House officials have said that the president was joking, he told campaign supporters in Tulsa last weekend that he had ordered that testing slow. And he confirmed to a CNN reporter yesterday that he was not joking. Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com whose writings can be found at ThisCantBeHappening.net, joins the show.
There were a number of surprising political upsets in primary races in Kentucky, North Carolina, and New York yesterday. In Kentucky, the race between establishment Democrat Amy McGrath and progressive state legislator Charles Booker to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is too close to call. But in New York, Jamaal Bowman, a progressive middle school principal appears to have defeated Congressman Eliot Engel. Engel has been a member of the House since 1988 and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. And in North Carolina, a 24-year-old real estate investor, Madison Cawthorn, defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate to win the nomination to succeed Rep. Mark Meadows, who is now White House Chief of Staff. He’ll face Guantanamo whistleblower Col. Morris Davis in the general election. Brian and John speak with Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net.
The Biden and Trump campaigns apparently have agreed to three presidential debates in the weeks before the November election. But in a case of role reversal, it is the Trump campaign that is demanding even more, not fewer, debates. President Trump has said that Biden is sequestered in a bunker and does not want to debate him. He has commented on what he called Biden’s poor mental condition and said that it’s “very sad” that Biden’s handlers won’t let him out in public. But what is the truth here? Why is Biden so consistently out of the public eye? Is that his campaign strategy? Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work at www.rall.com, joins the show.

Trump v. Silicon Valley on Worker Visa Shutdown Jun 23, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Professor Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and founder of the organization Democracy at Work whose latest book is “Understanding Socialism.”
Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff.
The State Department yesterday issued an edict that designated the US operations of China Central Television, China News Service, the People’s Daily, and the Global Times as foreign missions. This follows the February 18 designation of Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corporation, and Hai Tian Development USA as foreign missions. Mike Wong, the Vice President of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace, joins the show.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the latest easing of Britain’s coronavirus lockdown today, ditching the two meter social distancing rule, allowing pubs, restaurants, and hair salons to reopen. Gyms will remain closed. While non-essential retailers were allowed to reopen last week, many businesses, especially in the hospitality and leisure sector, have remained closed. The country’s economy has been devastated by the pandemic and lockdown. Brian and John speak with Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star.
Loud & Clear’s series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Tuesday’s regular segment is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Hannah Dickinson, an associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly; Nathalie Hrizi, an educator, a political activist, and the editor of Breaking the Chains, a women’s magazine, which you can find at patreon.com/BreakChainsMag; and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show.

COVID-19: Why Are Some Countries Succeeding & Other Countries Failing? Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice.
China two weeks ago announced that it had a Covid-19 hotspot in an outdoor market in Beijing. The government quarantined the area and snuffed out the virus. South Korea dealt with the coronavirus as soon as it hit and was able to control infections. Australia barely had any coronavirus infections after it went into lockdown. And Greece had a lower Covid-19 infection rate than any other country in the European Union. Why are other countries so good at addressing this pandemic and the US is so bad?
President Trump’s much-touted kickoff campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday ended up having not the hundreds of thousands of people the campaign expected, but a grand total of 6,611. It turned out that the campaign was trolled by children and teenagers, who reserved nearly a million tickets and then didn’t show up. The President is reportedly furious. He blamed “radical leftists,” demonstrators, and the “fake media” for the debacle. But on a serious note, this colossal failure has to call into question the current state of the campaign, just four-and-a-half months before the election. Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, whose work is at www.rall.com, joins the show with John Kiriakou.
For generations African-Americans have been told they have what is now said to be more than one trillion dollars of "buying power." But a new book argues that commentators have misused this claim largely to blame Black communities for their own poverty based on squandered economic opportunity. “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power” exposes the claim as both a marketing strategy and myth, while also showing how that myth functions simultaneously as a case study for propaganda and commercial media coverage of economics. Brian speaks with Dr. Jared Ball, a professor of communication studies at Morgan State University, the editor of “A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X” and the new book “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power,” and his writings are at www.IMixWhatILike.org.
Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John.
In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including . Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show with John.

Juneteenth Protests Shut Down Ports & Tulsa Braces for a Trump Rally Jun 19, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Eugene Puryear, an author, activist and host of the new program BreakThrough News; and Estevan Hernandez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition who has been in the streets helping to organize recent protests.
Today marks the commemoration of Juneteenth. This is a major holiday for the African American community, and it is celebrated as a state holiday in 47 of the 50 states. President Trump, who apparently had never heard of Juneteenth until just a few days ago, tweeted, “I did something good. I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.” Meanwhile, President Trump’s first post-Covid-19 campaign rally is scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma tomorrow. The mayor of Tulsa already has declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew for today and tomorrow, saying that “stragglers would be arrested.” This was after reports that protesters also would descend on the city. Meanwhile, the White House said that it has no concerns that the 20,000 people expected to pack into the rally venue might be at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus.
California utility PG&E, which stands for Pacific Gas & Electric, has agreed to plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. You heard that right. The utilities giant has admitted in court that its faulty and outdated equipment was the cause of a horrific 2018 blaze that destroyed the town of Paradise, California and much of the surrounding area. Besides the dead, 19,000 buildings burned to the ground. The utility will pay a $3.5 million fine, the maximum allowed by law, and a $28.5 billion settlement to the victims, their families, and Butte County, California. Brian and John speak with Nathalie Hrizi, an educator, a political activist, and the editor of Breaking the Chains, a women’s magazine, at www.patreon.com/BreakChainsMag.Brian
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the commemoration of and meaning of Juneteenth, what Juneteenth means for the ongoing protest movement today, the tens of millions who have become suddenly unemployed in the last few months, the labor strikes going on today, and more. Brian and John speak with Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.

Why Did the Supreme Court Rule for Immigrant "Dreamers" & Not Trump? Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition.
The Supreme Court today, in a landmark 5-4 decision, ruled that the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the DACA program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, was unconstitutional. This is a major defeat for the White House, and it protects some 650,000 young people known as “Dreamers.” In the final decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee to the court, joined the court’s four more progressive justices.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s memoir is supposed to come out on Tuesday. The White House is asking a federal court for an injunction against the book, but excerpts are already being widely reported in the media. Is arch-neocon John Bolton now about to be embraced by the centrist establishment that once despised him? And how shocking really is the information being reported as “bombshells” in the media? Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joins the show.
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. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
Loud & Clear’s series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Trump & Pence Tell Nation “It’s All Under Control” as COVID Cases Spike Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, who is at www.rall.com.
Coronavirus cases are surging in parts of the country with Florida, Texas, and Arizona yesterday setting new records for the number of confirmed new cases. Indeed, hospital beds in Arizona, Alabama, Texas, and elsewhere are filling quickly. But Vice President Pence, in a call with governors, suggested that governors should stop testing their citizens, which would cause the number of “confirmed” cases to decline. And he told those governors to tell their constituents that the Administration has the pandemic under control.
President Trump yesterday signed an executive order on policing reforms calling for additional police training and a new database to track police misconduct. Progressive groups immediately dismissed it as not worth the paper it is written on. Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing their own reform bill but it appears to be stalled in the Senate, where Republicans are suggesting reform measures won’t be voted on until after Congress gets back from its July 4th vacation. Daryle Lamont Jenkins, executive director of the organization One People’s Project, joins the show.
An internal CIA report prepared by then-director Mike Pompeo and his deputy, Gina Haspel, that was obtained by the Washington Post, concludes that the 2016 theft of top secret computer hacking tools known as Vault 7 was the result of a culture in which the Agency’s elite hackers “prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own weapons. The CIA did not even know that the information had been stolen until it appeared on the Wikileaks website in 2017. Officials call it the biggest unauthorized disclosure of classified information in the CIA’s history. Brian and John speak with Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry, and the author of the book "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton."
The Trump Administration yesterday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block next week’s expected publication of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s memoir. Bolton has been working for months with the NSC’s publications review board to ensure that the book does not contain classified information. But once he got the book cleared, someone at the White House, presumably the President, put the final clearance on hold. Bolton then said that, clearance or not, he was publishing the book. It’s supposed to come out on June 23. Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Control the World: How the US Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World,” joins the show.
Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show. The webinar for comments on the proposed radioactive waste dump affecting Native and Latino communities in New Mexico is on Tuesday at 5pm EDT, with information posted at beyondnuclear.org.

We Are Now in the Third Major Capitalist Economic Crisis in 20 Years Jun 16, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Professor Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and founder of the organization Democracy at Work whose latest book is “Understanding Socialism,” joins the show.
Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff.
Two weeks have now passed since the infamous attack on anti-racism protesters in front of the White House to clear the way for Donald Trump to have a photo-op at a nearby church, and more information continues to come out about how the crackdown was executed and which officials were involved in the fateful decision. Will those who carried out this wanton violation of civil liberties be held to account? Mara Verheyden Hilliard, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, joins the show.
A coalition of progressive organizations have nominated the Cuba-based organization called the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics for the Nobel Peace Prize for their humanitarian work around the world during the Covid-19 outbreak. The group, which is better known as the Cuban Medical Brigade Henry Reeve, is working against Covid-19 for free in 26 countries. Brian and John speak with Medea Benjamin, a legendary peace activist and the co-founder of the peace group Code Pink.
Loud & Clear’s series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Tuesday’s regular segment is called Women & Society with Dr. Hannah Dickinson. This weekly segment is about the major issues, challenges, and struggles facing women in all aspects of society. Special guest Juliana Moraes, Executive Director of the Washington Brazil Office, a project of the US Network for Democracy in Brazil; Hannah Dickinson, an associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and an organizer with the Geneva Women’s Assembly; Nathalie Hrizi, an educator, a political activist, and the editor of Breaking the Chains, a women’s magazine, which you can find at patreon.com/BreakChainsMag; and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show. You can read more about the Brazilian favelas that Juliana talks about from Rio On Watch, UNEAfro, and MTST.

Police Executions of Unarmed Black People Continues; Atlanta Rises Up Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by community organizer Monica Johnson who attended the protests over the weekend and Sputnik news analyst Nicole Roussell.
Peaceful protests continued across America over the weekend, with large marches in Washington, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and abroad. In Atlanta, the police chief resigned after an officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, who was shot twice in the back and killed by police in a Wendy’s parking lot. The cops were fired and an investigation was initiated. Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is meeting today to discuss systemic racism, police brutality, and violence against peaceful demonstrators in the United States.
Coronavirus cases are spiking in 20 states, mostly in the Deep South and the Midwest, with Florida seeing 2,000 confirmed new cases every day for the past three days. Critics are blaming governors and state leaderships for reopening too quickly. And they say that many residents are no longer practicing social distancing and are not wearing masks. So far, nearly 115,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 in the past three-and-a-half months. Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair in molecular pathogenesis of emerging and reemerging viruses, joins the show.
A former Marine by the name of Paul Whelan was convicted of espionage in Russia and sentenced to 16 years at hard labor today. Whelan maintained that he was framed, and his Russian attorney said that, while at a wedding in 2018, a friend handed him a flash drive that contained state secrets. Whelan told his attorney that he expects to be exchanged for a Russian pilot in a US prison on a cocaine conspiracy charge and, perhaps for arms dealer Victor Bout. Brian and John speak with Bryan Macdonald, a journalist who specializes in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian and John.
In this segment, The Week Ahead, the hosts take a look at the most newsworthy stories of the coming week and what it means for the country and the world, including . Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show.

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