Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books--“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.”Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman accused of procuring and grooming young girls for the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, appeared in court today, charged with perjury and conspiracy. Maxwell’s attorneys are expected to base their legal defense on an unprecedented sweetheart deal Epstein received from prosecutors in Florida in 2007 that shielded his co-conspirators from legal consequences. But what Maxwell is accused of doing is just as horrifying as the accusations against Epstein. A major battle is brewing between the White House and states, municipalities, and school districts around the country over whether, when, and how to reopen schools in the fall. The President and his Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, are adamant that schools must reopen fully and on-time or risk losing federal aid. But epidemiologists and educators say it’s too dangerous and a fight is likely in the courts. Rick Ayers, a professor of education at the University of San Francisco, the author of “An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning after the Death of a Student,” and co-author of the book “You can’t fire the bad ones: And 18 other myths about teachers, teachers unions, and public education,” and Karla Reyes, a teacher in New York Public Schools and a managing editor of the women’s magazine Breaking the Chains, joins the show. Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff. 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.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; Ann Marie Kernen, a Washington, DC anti-war organizer; and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell join the show.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to The Nation, Extra!, and Salon.com, and whose writings are at ThisCantBeHappening.net.States across the country yesterday reported record numbers of Covid-19 infections, 57,789, with marked increases in 35 states. Florida alone reported 15,300 new cases on Sunday. And perhaps even more troubling, the average age for those people newly-infected has declined. Experts say this is a result of bars and beaches opening and younger people refusing to practice social distancing and to wear masks. Meanwhile, the White House appears to have turned on Dr. Anthony Fauci, calling into question his ability to continue leading the fight against the disease. And a new report has shown even more abuse of pandemic assistance programs by the ultra-rich -- this time by wealth management firms. Major unions representing academic workers are organizing protests today in cities across the country in opposition to ICE’s new policy of deporting international students whose universities do not resume in-person classes. Tomorrow, a court in Massachusetts will hold a hearing on a major lawsuit brought by Harvard and MIT seeking to block ICE. Neal Sweeney, the Vice President of UAW Local 5810, joins the show. 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 theImpossible: A Radical Manifesto,” joins Brian. The federal government was just prohibited from beginning executing death row prisoners again today. As if that’s not controversial enough, the government has been secretly experimenting with pentobarbital as the execution drug without telling the companies that manufacture it and without telling the people of St. Louis, MO that experiments in advance of the executions are taking place in the center of their city. Miriam Gohara, a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School who spent sixteen years representing death-sentenced clients in post-conviction litigation, as assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and then as a specially designated federal public defender with the Federal Capital Habeas Project, joins 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 the huge and growing coronavirus numbers, the Washington football team abruptly changing its name during the current protest movement after years of campaigns against the name, and more. 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sputnik News analyst and producer Nicole Roussell and, in the second half hour, special guest Kym Smith, an South Carolina organizer in the ongoing protest movement.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 record-breaking counts of new coronavirus cases in six of the last ten days, deaths due to coronavirus beginning to increase, the Supreme Court cases this week that ruled on Trump’s taxes and women’s right to health care, and a special report from Columbia, South Carolina, about the escalating level of police repression against the protest movement. Immigration detention facilities have been hit hard by the coronavirus. Last week, more than 100 of the 412 detainees at an ICE facility in Farmville, Virginia tested positive for the coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly throughout the facility, and detainees say the real numbers are far worse. ICE, meanwhile, continues to transfer people from other states into the Farmville facility, further endangering everyone. And those who are sick are merely handed Tylenol. Danny Cendejas, an organizer with la ColectiVa, a social justice organization in Northern Virginia campaigning for the release of everyone at the immigration detention center in Farmville, Virginia, where covid-19 has started spreading, joins the show. Many Americans followed the story of Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen. She was the soldier from Fort Hood, Texas who was brutally murdered and dismembered by a fellow soldier in April. Her remains were found two weeks ago. The murderer was Guillen’s supervisor, and she had been harassed by him previously. Now Guillen’s family and a group of female veterans are demanding systemic changes and a congressional investigation into the failure of the military to protect Guillen and other female soldiers. Brian and John speak with Isabel Garcia, co-founder of Coalición de Derechos Humanos. The unemployment rate in the UK is expected to soar to more than 15 percent in an expected second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. Such a rise in unemployment would put the British rate above unemployment levels in France, Germany, and Italy. Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star, joins the show. 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers.The Supreme Court ruled today that New York City prosecutors may have access to President Trump’s tax returns for use with a grand jury, but that Congress may NOT have access, at least until after the election. Even with a partial victory, Trump is furious, and he spent much of the day tweeting his anger. Meanwhile, likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issued an underwhelming economic plan advocating small tax increases on corporations and what Biden loosely called “common sense” taxation. And the Democratic Party’s “unity commissions” submitted their recommendations. The Department of Labor this morning released its latest unemployment numbers today, and the 600-dollar a week enhancement to unemployment benefits is set to expire soon. Pete Dolack, an activist and writer with Trade Justice New York Metro, who focuses on human rights, social justice, and environmental and trade issues and the author of “It’s Not Over, Learning from the Socialist Experiment,” 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Chicago Teachers Union member and activist Nick Stender.Covid-19 is continuing to spread rapidly, with 34 states reporting record numbers of cases yesterday, the same day that the President announced the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Nearly 132,000 Americans already have died of the disease this year, and current projections from the Centers for Disease Control say that we should expect to see 200,000 to 250,000 dead by November 1. But Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are unfazed by these numbers. Trump yesterday tweeted an untruth that schools across Europe already are open and are reporting no problems. It’s the middle of the summer. And DeVos said that she would withhold federal funding for all schools that do not open physically when the new school year starts. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador flew to Washington yesterday to meet with President Trump. It’s his first foreign trip since winning in a landslide two years ago. Meanwhile, in Mexico, nearly six years after 43 college students disappeared in a rural area of the country, investigators have identified the remains of one of the missing, known as the Ayotzinapa 43. Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, joins the show. President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have agreed to hold three presidential debates in the fall, one less than Trump had sought. The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman suggests that Biden not debate unless Trump agrees to release his 2016-2018 tax returns and agrees to a real-time truth tracker. For his part, Biden has kept a low profile, making it difficult for Republicans to attack him. And all national polls show Biden winning in a landslide if the election were held today. Brian and John speak with Lee Camp, a writer, comedian, activist, journalist, and host of the television show “Redacted Tonight,” which you can see on RT America. His latest book is called “Bullet Points & Punch Lines,” and you can find it, and more of his work, at leecamp.com. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun arrived in Seoul South Korea yesterday for talks on stalled nuclear diplomacy hours after North Korea said Kim Jong Un had “no intention of sitting face to face with the United States.” President Trump had said earlier in the day that he was willing to have yet another summit with the North Korean leader. But Biegun reiterated the US position that North Korea must give up all of its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has always maintained it would not do unilaterally without concurrent sanctions relief. Gregory Elich, a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea and an author of many articles and books, whose work is at gregoryelich.org, 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.

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.Major cities in the United States have suffered from serious gun violence for a very long time. All of a sudden, in newspapers across the country these tragic shootings are becoming front page news. Democratic Party politicians and corporate media outlets are implying that this is a consequence of the movement to defund the police. But these shootings, and others in cities like New York and St. Louis, had nothing to do with protests. So why are authorities trying to tie them together? Paul Erickson, the Republican operative and former boyfriend of Maria Butina, the Russian student who was convicted of failing to register as a foreign agent, was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison yesterday for defrauding investors over the past 20 years. But critics argue that similar practices are commonplace among Washington lobbyists. The case had nothing to do with Butina, but prosecutors targeted Erickson after he refused to cooperate in the case against his girlfriend. Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books--The Frozen Republic, The Velvet Coup, and America's Undeclared War, joins the show. Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff. 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. 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Robert Gallo, MD, the Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine, co-founder and director of the Institute Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and co-founder and international scientific adviser of the Global Virus Network.What would you think if someone told you that we already have a vaccine that at least helps fight Covid-19? That may already be the case. Two American scientists, Dr. Robert Gallo and Dr. Konstantin Chumakov, are positing that decades-old live vaccines for things like polio and tuberculosis strengthen the immune system’s first line of defense a more general way to fight infection. And the history books show us that that sometimes translates into at least some cross-protection against completely different viruses. President Trump over the weekend gave a threatening and incendiary speech at Mount Rushmore that dispensed with any questions about whether he was going to launch a war on progressives in the presidential campaign. The event was protested by Native Americans whose land Mt. Rushmore is carved into. Among other things, Trump said that, “Angry mobs are seeking to unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities” and that those seeking to deface monuments want to “end America.” He called protestors, “members of the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who have absolutely no clue what they are doing.” Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, whose latest article on CounterPunch and The Polemicist titled “Over the Rainbow: Paths of Resistance after George Floyd,” joins the show. 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 coronavirus numbers exploding, what President Trump said in his inciting and racist speech at Mount Rushmore over the weekend and what effects it may have, and more. 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books, including “The Counterrevolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America.”The successful 1776 revolt against British rule in North America has been hailed almost universally as a great step forward for humanity. But the Africans then living in the colonies overwhelmingly sided with the British. Gerald Horne argues that in the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt. The so-called Revolutionary War was in part a counter-revolution, a conservative movement that the founding fathers fought in order to preserve their right to enslave others. Abby Martin and Mike Prysner have filmed a new documentary titled “Afghanistan War Exposed: An Imperial Conspiracy”, that shows the totality of the US conflict in Afghanistan, from CIA covert action in the 1980s until today. They argue that the occupation of Afghanistan has become so normalized and mostly serves as background noise to Americans. It’s even referred to as the “Forever War,” accepted as just a constant reality. You can support the journalism of Mike and Abby Martin at patreon.com/EmpireFiles, and check out their work at YouTube.com/EmpireFiles. And check out an earlier documentary on Afghanistan by Abby and Mike titled “The Forever War: From the Killing Fields”. Mike Prysner, the documentary’s producer, and the co-host of the podcast Eyes Left, a military podcast hosted by two anti-war Army veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, 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.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? John speaks 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.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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou is joined by Ted Rall, an award-winning commentator and editorial cartoonist whose work you can find at www.rall.com.New coronavirus infection cases are surging across the country, with marked increases in 45 states over the past 14 days. Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that he would not be surprised to see 100,000 new infections per day in the coming weeks. Even the Republican governors of Texas, Florida, and Arizona said yesterday that they had reopened their states too soon. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he was considering a third coronavirus stimulus bill that would extend unemployment benefits. Accusations continue to fly that Russian military intelligence paid the Taliban a bounty to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, although there is little in the way of evidence. The Wall Street Journal reported that NSA strenuously objected to the report, saying there was no evidence that it was true, while former National Security Advisor Susan Rice offered an opinion in the New York Times that it was true and that both President Trump and Vice President Pence live in a state of denial. Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joins the show. Supporters of Medicaid expansion won a narrow victory in conservative Oklahoma yesterday where a ballot measure passed with slightly over 50 percent of the vote. In Colorado, an right-wing insurgent congressional candidate who is a follower of the conspiracy group Q-Anon, defeated incumbent Republican Congressman Scott Tipton, despite being outspent 4-1. Meanwhile, mail-in ballots in Kentucky have been counted and Amy McGrath has won the Democratic nomination for Senate. She will take on Mitch McConnell in November. John speaks with Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com whose writings are at ThisCantBeHappening.net. The Israeli government was widely expected to present to the cabinet today a plan to annex as much as 30 percent of the West Bank. That’s what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deal with Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz allowed for. But it didn’t happen, even after a meeting yesterday between Netanyahu, a White House envoy, and the US Ambassador to Israel. Miko Peled, the author of “The General’s Son - A Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and of "Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five,” 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, joins the show.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is 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. Accusations flew in Washington over the past two days about what President Trump was told about allegations that Russia paid bounties for the Taliban to kill American soldiers. But an equally intense debate is taking place over whether the information is even true in the first place. We don’t know much about the source and we have no idea if the information was vetted. Bryan Macdonald, a journalist who specializes in Eastern Europe and Russia, joins the show with John. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said today that now is the time to lay out an ambitious economic plan to bring the UK out of its coronavirus recession. Plans set out in a new Tory election manifesto call for a New Deal and 5 billion pounds of new spending on homes and infrastructure, as well as investment in new schools, green buses, and upgraded broadband. The Opposition Labour Party said the plan was not new and not much of a deal. John speaks 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 with Brian.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou is joined by Matthew Hoh, who worked for 12 years in United States Marine Corps and the Departments of Defense and State and resigned in 2009 from the State Department over the American escalation of the war in Afghanistan, whose writings have appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Defense News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and who won the Ridenhour Prize for Truth Telling.The New York Times over the weekend reported an explosive story saying that the Russian government paid a bounty for Taliban militants to kill Russian soldiers in Afghanistan. President Trump says he was never briefed on the report, and the intelligence community has used language indicating that they have no actual proof or corroboration. And the Pentagon says that Defense Department leaders were briefed on the report, but they, too, have not corroborated it. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who would have been briefed on the issue, seemed to not know anything about it when he was interviewed on the weekend news shows. Covid-19 continues to spread rapidly, with Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California setting new infection records over the weekend. The governors in those states have begun scaling back and reversing reopenings and two of them, in Texas and North Carolina, said they erred in opening too early. Coronavirus deaths have topped 126,000 so far in the United States. And there are more than a half a million dead worldwide. 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 with John. Boeing has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin test flights of its 737 Max jet to demonstrate that it can fly safely with new flight control software. The 737 Max was grounded in March 2019 after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people. No Boeing executives were held accountable for those deaths. John speaks with Mary Schiavo, the former Inspector General at the Department of Transportation, an aviation attorney, an aviation professor, and an on-air consultant on aviation matters for CNN. 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 the supreme court decision today in favor of abortion rights for many many women who were at risk of losing further access to care; new articles out in several major papers about Russia allegedly putting bounties on American soldiers while they occupy Afghanistan, despite no hard evidence former National Security Adviser John Bolton not knowing about it, and having low casualties; and more. Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show with Brian and John.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.

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.

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.

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.

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.