Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Aaron Maté, a journalist with The Grayzone and The Nation, and host of the podcast Pushback with Aaron Maté. After a long delay, the House Intelligence Committee just released 57 transcripts of interviews that the committee conducted in the Russiagate probe. These include interviews with former DNI head James Clapper, Crowdstrike CEO Shawn Henry, and more. The Justice Department yesterday dropped all charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Flynn had agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of making a false statement, but his new attorneys found that the FBI had plotted against Flynn before interviewing him in a way that many Americans believe amounted to entrapment. President Trump had been under some pressure to pardon Flynn. Now that’s not necessary. Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books--“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War,” joins the show. Until last week, Dr. Rick Bright was the deputy assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for preparedness and response and Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Today he’s a whistleblower. Bright says he was demoted after he pushed back on the Trump Administration’s efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by people with White House connections. Bright has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging gross mismanagement at HHS and abuse of authority. Brian and John speak with Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, whose work is at www.rall.com. 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 premature reopening of much of the country in the midst of the pandemic, charges being dropped against Michael Flynn, newly released documents related to the Russiagate conspiracy theory, the ongoing explosion in unemployment, escalating US hostility towards China, and more. Brian and John speak with Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.

The United States and China are involved in an arms race, this one over missiles. Washington announced this week that it would roll out new weapons and a new strategy in a bid to close what it calls a dangerous missile gap with China, which has upgraded its missile systems over the past decade. Beijing, meanwhile, is warning Washington to “stop playing chess” around the region, to stay out of the South China Sea, and to think before it acts. A young black man, Ahmaud Arbery, was jogging through a neighborhood in February in a Georgia suburb. As he jogged past one house, the resident there called out to his son, and the two got into their pick-up truck, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, and they followed him. After a brief confrontation, they shot Arbery and killed him. Although this incident took place in February, it only became public this week. And nobody has yet been charged with any crime. Atlanta activist Estevan Hernandez 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. 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.Yemen’s Houthi rebels have reported the first coronavirus death in the part of the country they control. The internationally-recognized central government reported its first case on April 10 and now says that Yemen has 21 cases of coronavirus, with three deaths. Yemen has been transparent about its infection rates, but the country is isolated and mired in civil war, and it does not have significant exposure to foreign travelers. And concerns are growing that the virus is spreading through the country undetected. Brian Terrell, a long time peace activist and a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, joins 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 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 Senate is back in session and the House of Representatives is preparing to reconvene to consider a new coronavirus relief bill. That bill would provide additional small-business relief and would extend the loan forgiveness period of the so-called Paycheck Protection Program. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, is not concerned with relief bills. Instead, he is laser focused on filling every single judicial vacancy with Trump appointees, just in case Joe Biden finds himself as president-elect in November. An amateurish coup attempt was launched against Venezuela by a group of American and Venezuelan mercenaries. Not surprisingly, the evidence of who initiated the coup is now pointing directly at Juan Guaido and the US government. Patricio Zamorano, an academic and international analyst and Co-Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, COHA, who has put together the facts of the case in a new article, entitled, “Guaidó and the Failed Military Operation against Venezuela: A Story of Betrayal and Financial Corruption,” joins the show. Millions of people around the world are demanding action and are actively seeking solutions to the climate crisis. The dialogue at the top is confined to solutions that align with the laws of capitalism and unbridled economic growth. But what if we look to solutions beyond how we currently structure our economies? A new book called Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism, by Tina Landis, makes the case that socialism provides the framework for solving the crisis and demonstrates how capitalism acts as a barrier to a shift in our relationship to each other and the planet. Brian and John speak with Tina Landis, an organizer in the environmental and social justice movements who writes for Liberation News, and Jodi Dean, a professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a commentator on political issues, whose latest book is called “Comrade.” 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 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 Trump administration is further embracing conspiracy theories about the Chinese military being responsible for the Coronavirus outbreak, but some analysts are raising a very different concern -- Could US military personnel, who travel around the world in close confines bypassing normal border checks, function as “superspreaders” for the pandemic? KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice, and Dr. Claudia Chaufan, a non-practicing Argentine physician and critical health policy scholar who directs the graduate program in health policy at York University, join the show. Eight mercenaries were killed and two Americans captured after they landed on shore in Venezuela with the intent to overthrow the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Responsibility for the coup attempt was claimed by another American, a retired Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau. Goudreau made a premature announcement that what he called Operation Gideon, “has been launched deep in the heart of Caracas” and that other armed cells have been activated throughout the country. That never happened. The terrorists were all captured and the coup failed. Brian and John speak with Paul Dobson, a writer for VenezuelAnalysis.com. 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 Ken Hammond, an undergraduate at Kent State University before and during the Kent State Massacre, a speaker at the May 4, 1970 rally on the Commons, and an eyewitness to the shooting who was questioned and arrested by the FBI as one of the Kent 25 and went on to co-found the Kent Legal Defense Fund.Fifty years ago today, on May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds into a group of unarmed, peaceful students protesting the illegal US bombing of Cambodia. Four students, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Bill Schroeder, and Sandra Lede Scheuer, were killed and another nine were wounded. One was permanently paralyzed. The shootings led to protests against the Vietnam War at colleges and universities across America. But no National Guardsmen were ever punished for the murders. A new report by the International Energy Agency concludes that the coronavirus pandemic is delivering the biggest shock to the international energy system in more than seven decades. Global energy demand is down six percent this year. That’s ten times more than the drop in demand from the 2008-2009 recession. And demand for coal is down eight percent. That’s the biggest drop since World War II. This huge decline in energy demand has led to an eight percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions, the largest decrease ever recorded. But the United Nations says we would have to have similar decreases every year for the next decade in order to reverse the effects of climate change. Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and the co-author of “What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism” and “Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation” from Monthly Review Press, joins the show. People in Ukraine and around the world marked the sixth anniversary of the massacre of over 40 people in Odessa, Ukraine over the weekend. On May 2nd, 2014, a mob that included members of neo-Nazi organization Right Sector trapped anti-fascist activists inside a trade union headquarters and burned the building down. And the far-right continues to wield great influence in Ukraine today. Brian and John speak with Phil Wilayto, a journalist and a member of Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and coordinator of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign. 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 anniversary of the Kent State massacre, surging unemployment and intensified US-China tensions. 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 analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and 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 strike actions for International Workers Day, Joe Biden finally speaking publicly about former staffer Tara Reade’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her, the Trump administration’s potential next moves against China, and more. Today is May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, created to celebrate workers and the working classes around the world. The holiday was originally suggested in 1889 by the Marxist International Socialist Congress and pushed by the American Federation of Labor, which was then lobbying and demonstrating for an 8-hour work day. This celebration of labor subsequently became a national holiday in most countries around the world. But not in the United States. Yasemin Zahra, a labor organizer and chairperson of US Labor Against the War, joins the show. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of a series of emails between FBI agents preparing to interview former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and their supervisors that imply the agents were preparing to entrap Flynn or to trick him into committing a crime. President Trump immediately took to Twitter to condemn the FBI and the agents, and he compared the FBI to 15 buses and Flynn to a man standing in the middle of a highway. Brian and John speak with Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers. President Donald Trump has ordered the Intelligence Community to find evidence that shows that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, despite being told repeatedly by the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that it did not. The Washington Post reports that Trump intends to “punish” China in advance of the presidential election for creating the virus, and Secretary of State Pompeo has criticized China harshly in recent days. KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice, 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 Dr. Peter Kuznick, a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University and the co-author with Oliver Stone of the book and the hit Showtime television series “The Untold History of the United States.”Activists, academics, and political figures from around the world have begun circulating a document called the COVID-19 Global Solidarity Manifesto that calls for a series of basic rights for all people, in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Those rights run the gamut from basic universal healthcare to an end to war to respect for life, biodiversity, and the environment. There are hundreds of signatories, including a number of very prominent people. New unemployment numbers are out this morning showing that yet another 3.8 million Americans sought jobless benefits last week as the economy slid further into the most devastating crisis since the 1930s. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, 30.3 million Americans have lost their jobs, and the economy contracted by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of the year. Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist, whose work is at patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen, 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 Andrew Stacy, a worker at Target who is part of Target Workers Unite and is taking part in a sickout this Friday organized by Target Workers Unite.A Target warehouse in northern New Jersey is the first in the company’s nearly 60-year history to face a public campaign to form a union. Meanwhile, Target warehouse workers in Perth Amboy say they are fed up with frequent firings, steep production quotas and flex schedules, and they say they are treated as robots, not as people. Workers across the chain are preparing for a major May 1st action to protest this type of mistreatment. The coronavirus has put science at the forefront of the US presidential election. It has placed political pressure on Donald Trump and it even may be changing the way we conduct our elections. Yesterday’s Ohio primary, for example, was conducted by mail. But what is the pandemic doing to Donald Trump? Can he overcome allegations of mismanaging it? 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," joins the show. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has returned to work after recovering from a serious coronavirus infection, which saw him placed in a hospital’s intensive care unit. He said that being infected by the coronavirus was like, “an unexpected and invisible mugger.” He said the British people had begun wrestling that mugger to the floor , but that the country was not yet ready to reopen. And, by the way, Johnson and his fiance became the proud parents of a baby boy this morning. Brian and John speak with Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star. Intense protests in Lebanon continued last night as people take to the streets to express outrage over the economic crisis the country is facing and the role of the financial elite. At least one person has been killed and dozens wounded as fierce clashes with the armed forces break out.Jana Nakhal, an independent researcher and a member of the central committee of the Lebanese Communist Party, 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 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. Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, last week ordered the state to begin reopening, despite the fact that the coronavirus continues to spread. On Friday, the state reopened salons, barber shops, tattoo parlors, gyms, bowling alleys, and massage parlors. Yesterday, movie theaters and restaurants reopened. But mayors in cities big and small around Georgia are warning that their number of coronavirus cases is rising, and it’s too soon to return to normal. Community organizer Monica Johnson, and Brad Lathem, a writer for Liberation News, join the show. The conservative Daily Caller, in an exclusive investigation, has found that Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous Steele Dossier, had previously undisclosed meetings with attorneys for the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. One of the attorneys in those meetings provided Steele with the now-debunked tip that a Russian bank had a secret channel of communications with the Trump campaign. That tip set off a chain of events that led to Steele publishing a memo saying that the bank, Alpha Bank, had illicit ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, an allegation that was untrue. Brian and John speak with Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of three books--“The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.” 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 Amanda Starbuck, senior food researcher and policy analyst on the food team at Food & Water Watch.The economic aid bill that Congress passed last week would open Small Business Administration loans to some farmers. The move came after big banks steered the earlier $500 billion that Congress had appropriated to large corporations that used up all the money before most actual small businesses could even complete their applications. An existing $10 billion aid package provided funding for aquaculture, nurseries, and cooperatives, but allotted nothing for small farms with fewer than 500 employees. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend that he was “confident” the US would soon allow the annexation of the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu and his governing partner Benny Gantz, who is now speaker of the Knesset, plan to ask the United States for its support in annexing at least those Israeli settlements that are on Palestinian lands in the West Bank before July. Netanyahu has told confidants that he believes the Trump Administration will give him whatever he wants. Ariel Gold, a peace activist and a member of Code Pink, joins the show. Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, is facing a perfect storm of political crises that could force him from office. Bolsonaro was already a president without a political party. He was under fire for his responses to massive fires in the Amazon and to the coronavirus pandemic. Then his two sons found themselves under criminal investigation for money laundering and promulgating false campaign information. Now, Bolsonaro’s star Minister of Justice resigned dramatically and called the president a criminal. Can Bolsonaro survive? Brian and John speak with Aline Piva, a journalist and a member of Brazilians for Democracy and Social Justice. 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 ongoing controversy over the reopening of businesses in states throughout the country and Donald Trump’s bizarre medical advice. 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 analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and 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 Trump’s latest bizarre medical advice, the growing economic crisis, and the international implications of the Coronavirus pandemic. Politics are an important factor in reporting on the coronavirus, not just in the United States, but around the world. President Trump said in his daily press conference yesterday that the pandemic is serious only in what he called “Democrat states,” and not in Republican ones. Elsewhere around the world, governments are downplaying their rates of infection, or in some cases, pretending there are none at all, in an attempt to show that they are fully in control at home. At the same time, the United States is threatening Iran, Venezuela, and other countries. Is it just to distract the American people from the virus at home? Mark Sleboda, a foreign affairs and security analyst, joins the show. Car caravan protests are planned in nearly 50 cities across the country tomorrow to demand the cancellation of rent and mortgages. Participants in the actions, who will be respecting all social distancing and other public health requirements, are calling on the government to not only declare a moratorium on evictions, but to declare that no debt will accumulate to landlords and banks while the pandemic is going on and tens of millions are out of work. Brian and John speak with Nino Brown, an activist with the Boston Teachers Union and an organizer for tomorrow’s Cancel the Rent action, and Sputnik News analyst Walter Smolarek. 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 Mike Wong, the Vice President of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace.The Attorney General of Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government and several Chinese institutions, arguing that they covered up information about the spread of the coronavirus, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to try to control the disease. Beijing has responded by calling the suit “absurd” and pointing out that as a sovereign entity, it cannot be sued. There’s no end in sight for the UK’s coronavirus lockdown because, according to the British press, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is so frightened because of his own coronavirus experience that he doesn’t dare ease up. Meanwhile, the establishment is fawning over the Labour Party’s new leader, Keir Starmer, after his first appearance as leader during Prime Minister’s Questions. Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star, 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 Amanda Starbuck, senior food researcher and policy analyst on the food team at Food & Water Watch.Farmers across the country are destroying their crops, plowing over their fields, and dumping milk because the supply chain is broken and they are finding it impossible to get their goods to market. How can this breakdown happen in a country that prides itself on the most efficient and technologically advanced supply chain technology in the world? President Trump yesterday temporarily suspended all immigration applications, saying that the action was necessary to protect Americans from the coronavirus. Civil liberties groups immediately said they would file suit. And a group of migrants in an ICE facility have been on a hunger strike. Those hunger strikes are expanding. Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, joins the show. Donald Trump has once again threatened to carry out an act of war against Iran, this time by destroying its ships in the Persian Gulf. Is this an exercise in the politics of distraction as the Coronavirus ravages the United States? Brian and John speak with Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran. The U.S. government at all levels is consumed by infighting over how to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic. A right wing mobilization supported by President Trump is demanding that the economy reopen against the guidance of public health experts, but is the Democratic Party’s single-minded focus on the personality of Donald Trump drawing attention away from the systemic changes needed to save lives? Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, whose latest article in The Polemicist and forthcoming on CounterPunch is “Joe or No,” 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 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.Intense battles took place yet again last night in working class suburbs of Paris with large migrant populations. French authorities have been brutalizing migrants, most of whom come from North and West Africa and the Middle East for years. But now, a combination of cramped quarters, a lack of economic opportunity, police abuse, and the coronavirus is inflaming tensions. Gilbert Mercier, Editor in Chief of News Junkie Post and the author of “The Orwellian Empire,” joins the show. As the nation was preoccupied by President Trump’s impeachment last fall and early winter, and then with the coronavirus, several states across the country were busy purging their voter rolls, most commonly for the false reason that they had changed their residences. More than 16.5 million voters from Wisconsin to Georgia to Ohio to North Carolina and Texas were dumped from the voter lists and are not eligible to vote. The move, with no due process, is illegal. So why have the courts been reluctant to take up the issue? Brian and John speak with Lee Camp, a writer, comedian, activist, journalist, and host of the television show “Redacted Tonight,” on RT America, his latest book is called “Bullet Points & Punch Lines,” and his work is at leecamp.com. 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 Jodi Dean, a professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a commentator on political issues, whose latest book is called “Comrade,” and Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, whose work is at www.rall.com.President Trump on Friday wrote several provocative tweets, saying, “Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Minnesota,” and “Liberate Virginia” and urging residents of those states to protest in favor of their 2nd Amendment rights. Those tweets led to thousands of protestors marching on statehouses demanding an end to the coronavirus quarantine. Meanwhile, debate continues in Congress over the next steps on Coronavirus relief and economic recovery, and all conventional logic about the 2020 presidential election has been upended. Coronavirus is ravaging the economies and societies of countries all across Latin America. Peru on Sunday reported 15,000 cases, the second most in Latin America behind Brazil, and the Finance Minister in Lima said that the economy there is in shambles. The virus is spreading through Brazil’s favelas and through the poor neighborhoods of Mexico City. Guatemala is trying to cope with a new outbreak caused when infected deportees arrived from the United States. Some governments in the region have acted proactively, but other politicians, especially Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, refuse to even acknowledge the seriousness of the pandemic. Patricio Zamorano, an academic and international analyst and Co-Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, COHA, 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 the anti-China sentiment being launched by both corporate political parties, the anti-shutdown protests in a few places, and the economy. 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.