Loud & Clear

The head to head between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence this evening is the only debate between Clinton and Trump's running mates before November’s election. Both will have a right-wing record to defend.In a shocking result, the people of Colombia voted “no” on a referendum on whether to accept the peace deal between the government and the FARC. What does this mean for a country that has been at war for 52 years? Professor and radio host Mario Murillo joins Becker to explain what happened and what's next for Colombia.Trade negotiators scrambled yesterday to get talks on the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) back on track as the 15th round of negotiations started. But with such major opposition on both sides of the Atlantic, are the talks really pointless? Mark Dearn, senior campaign coordinator for War on Want, speaks with Becker about the talks and if they are futile.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Bill Ayers, author of the new book Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto, for the full hour. Eight years ago in the run up to the presidential election, Barack Obama faced allegations that was connected to, and was perhaps even friends, with a so-called “domestic terrorist.” This year’s Republican nominee Donald Trump also once suggested that it was none other than Bill Ayers who wrote Obama’s memoir.Though his life as a member of the Weather Underground in the 1960s and 70s is often discussed, less attention is given to his work as an award-winning educator and his work in curriculum and instruction. He has released over twenty books, many on education but also memoirs and political works. In Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto, Ayers discusses the progressive causes and anti-war activism that he has long been a champion of, and how these movements can lead to a fundamentally different world.

After the breakdown of the ceasefire, Russia says the U.S. failed to separate moderate rebels from terrorists, as the U.S. rattles the saber and alludes to a military intervention. President Obama will send 600 more U.S. troops to Iraq in the last months of his presidency. 13 years after its murderous invasion of Iraq, over 5,000 troops remain in the country, managing the sectarian bloodletting that the U.S. occupation instigated. Becker speaks with Iraqi-American journalist Raed Jarrar about why Obama is sending more troops into the country while not referring to them as "boots on the ground."The resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline continues at Standing Rock as the government intensifies its repression. 21 were arrested this Wednesday during a peaceful protest, but activists are showing no signs of going anywhere despite the brutal tactics from military style law enforcement. Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement in 1968 and 2016 Vice Presidential candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party in California, discusses the protests and history of Standing Rock resistance.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to react to the Dutch-led investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 releasing its first report yesterday. The Joint Investigative Team's conclusion was that a BUK missile delivered from Russia was responsible for the downing of the plane, but should this now be taken as established fact? Or has the Joint Investigative Team been allowed to fabricate evidence?The Senate has overwhelmingly overturned President Obama’s veto on a bill that would allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign governments for terrorism on U.S. soil. What are the ramifications if 9/11 survivors and family members are soon able to sue Saudi Arabia? Becker is joined by Sam Sacks, co-host of Radio Sputnik's Unanimous Dissent. Fifteen years have passed since 25,000 people joined the first major anti-war demonstration of the post-9/11 period in Washington, DC just weeks after the attacks. The protest was the first action coordinated by the newly established ANSWER Coalition and inaugurated a new, 21st century anti-war movement. Sarah Sloan of the ANSWER Coalition joins Becker to discuss the importance of the protest and the establishment of the organization.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Nantina Vgontzas, Sociology PhD student at New York University, and Cassandra Fairbanks, Sputnik News reporter, to discuss if elections in the United States are really as free and fair as the establishment would like to have us believe.Although the U.S. regularly lectures other countries on the need for fair elections, there are serious flaws in the U.S. voting system that are compounded by inequality. This has serious implications for how people view democracy in the United States - or the lack thereof.Google has released its new instant messaging app called Allo. The company says it is revolutionary, but Edward Snowden has warned people against using the app. Is Google Allo the perfect tool for the surveillance state? Becker is joined by Professor Bryan Ford, who leads the Decentralized/Distributed Systems lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Israel has teamed up with Facebook to monitor what it says are comments on social media that incite violence. But as the arrest of seven journalists from the Shehab News Agency and Quds News Network this week shows, the relationship is really about undermining the Palestinian movement in general, and any kind of criticism of Israel’s apartheid policies.

Brian spends the full hour analyzing the first presidential debate with Gloria La Riva, the 2016 Presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation; Anoa Changa, host of the weekly progressive talk show The Way with Anoa; and by Bob Schlehuber, producer of Radio Sputnik’s By Any Means Necessary with Eugene Puryear. More hollow rhetoric last night as two of the wealthiest and most hated people in the country clashed at the presidential debate. Why were only two people allowed on the debate stage? Who runs the show? The exhausting race to the White House continues with more lies and more empty promises.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker looks ahead to tonight's first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He is joined by Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and by Ben Norton, a journalist and staff writer at Salon.com.Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton finally go head to head tonight in the first presidential debate in the run up to November’s election. How did we get to this point in U.S. politics that this election matchup was between two of the most unpopular candidates in US history?

European Union trade ministers continue meeting in Bratislava today to discuss trade liberalization including the TTIP. But as Obama used his UN speech earlier this week as a rallying cry for free trade, does the agreement actually have any chance of passing. Worldwide opposition is growing against the corporate takeover of the world. Powerful U.S. B1-B Lancer hypersonic bombers flew across South Korea earlier this week, landing just minutes away from the 38th parallel that has divided the country since the end of the Second World War. Brian is joined by Christine Ahn,co-founder of the Korea Policy Institute and Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ. The U.S. presidential election results won’t be in until November 8th, but voting begins today in Minnesota. How is it possible that ballots can be cast before the two major candidates even debate each other? And how much do election laws differ from state to state? Brian discusses these issues and more with Richard Winger, publisher and editor of Ballot Access News.

The company's chief executive John Stumpf came under intense scrutiny from a panel of Senators and was urged to resign by Elizabeth Warren as a scandal over bogus accounts rocked the company. But will anybody complicit in Wells Fargo’s crimes actually face prison time?Yesterday marked 40 years since a former Chilean diplomat’s life was taken in a bombing in the streets of Washington, D.C. Who was Orlando Letelier and why was he targeted in the capital of the United States by a military dictatorship installed in a CIA orchestrated coup? Becker speaks with Chilean historian and author Victor Figeuroa Clark.Hillary Clinton was nowhere to be found at the Clinton Global Initiative’s final annual summit, as President Obama also kept his distance from this year’s event. But will both of them staying away do anything to improve the image of the Clinton Foundation? Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, joins Becker.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker analyzes President Obama's speech at the United Nations with Peter Lavelle, host of RT’s flagship show CrossTalk; Jeremy Kuzmarov, a professor of American history at the University of Tulsa; Ted Rall, award-winning editorial cartoonist and author; and Walter Smolarek, Loud & Clear producer. Obama's final speech at the General Assembly marked one of his final chances to sum up his legacy before leaving office in January 2017. Obama gave a sweeping speech attacking right-wing populism and nationalism while calling for global integration: but was it simply language designed to draw support for free trade agreements like the TTIP and TPP? He also addressed the refugee crisis, urging world leaders to do more, but refused to acknowledge the major role the United States has played in creating the crisis through its endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama sniped at Russia trying to "recover its lost glory by force", but didn't shed any light on the U.S. regime change operations across the globe. Was Obama's speech another case of window dressing combined with hypocrisy?

Did the rebel groups use the last few days to regroup and prepare to launch a new offensive? The Russian military says that only the government forces have actually been observing the truce, and the United States killed scores of Syrian government soldiers in an airstrike it claims was a mistake.Ahmad Khan Rahami, the main suspect in the string of bombings in New York and New Jersey, has been captured following a shootout with police. Politicians immediately jumped in following the blasts to make them a campaign issue. What are the consequences when politics and a massive manhunt collide? Becker speaks with John Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst and case officer, and Dr. Douglas Weeks, he is a counter-terrorism expert and Visiting Research Fellow at the London Metropolitan UniversityDonald Trump appears to be surging with new polls suggesting a shift towards him in the electoral map. With Trump and Clinton are tied across many battleground states, could Donald Trump actually become the president? Anoa Changa, host of the weekly progressive talk show The Way with Anoa and contributor to the Benjamin Dixon Show, joins Becker to talk about the Trump surge.

Today, Brian spends the full hour addressing the election and the drumbeat of militaristic anti-Russia rhetoric. Brian is joined from New York by journalist and writer Ben Norton, a politics reporter and staff writer at Salon.com. Brian is also joined from Moscow by Clinton Ehrlich, a visiting researcher at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and by Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and now political activist and journalist. This year’s U.S. presidential election is now less than two months away, but is a foreign government working to determine whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump take office? The Clinton campaign and much of the mainstream media would like you to think so. With frequent allegations being hurled against Russia by the Democratic establishment, do any of the accusations actually add up? Are Americans losing faith in the political system because of the machinations of Moscow, or is that discontent actually entirely homegrown?

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined for the full hour by lawyer and political activist Kevin Zeese and economics professor Steve Keen to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Obama administration is making a last ditch effort to get the trade deal passed by the end of the year. With both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton opposed to the trade pact and the window of opportunity shrinking for Obama, can it actually pass? Or is the deal already doomed for failure like its companion piece, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), appears to be? What would the failure of the TPP mean for the U.S. in the Asia Pacific and Obama's pivot?

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Adrian Bonifacio, the National Chairperson of Anakbayan-USA, and Nap Pempeña, Vice-Chairperson of Anakbayan-USA to discuss if the U.S. military is on the verge of being kicked out of the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte has said that U.S. special forces troops have to go from the southern island of Mindanao and blamed resentment from the local Muslim population on their presence. As the Philippines begins to assert an independent foreign policy, the U.S. government is sure to attempt to keep its grip on the country.Muslims held Eid al-adha celebrations earlier this week in France in a climate of growing Islamophobia. With the burkini ban a topic of intense debate and mainstream politicians pandering to fears over the state of secularism, will anti-Muslim bigotry be the dominant issue of the 2017 election? Becker is joined by Hafsa Kara Mustapha. Whistleblower Chelsea Manning has started a hunger strike, protesting what she calls bullying on the part of the U.S. government and prison system and demanding “dignity, respect and humanity.” Will the government grant her demands? Michael Prysner, an anti-war activist and former U.S. Marine who took part in the occupation of Iraq, discusses the important of Chelsea Manning and her action.

The landmark agreement was reached by Russia and the United States last week, but with some rebel factions refusing to accept the ceasefire, will fighting continue to rage in parts of the country? Will the U.S. and Russia team up in the fight against al-Nusra at the conclusion of the week, and is the agreement the most realistic prospect for a solution to the Syrian war yet? Yesterday, Sputnik released an exclusive story on research conducted by Dr. Robert Epstein that shows that Google is using search suggestions to manipulate the election in favor of Hillary Clinton. Becker is joined by Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, founder of the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) to talk about the research and what it means for democracy in the United States. The National Football League season kicked off on Sunday, with more players joining in protest of the national anthem. Becker talks with Gerald Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, about the anthem’s history and its racist content, and if this unprecedented display of protest is bound to grow.