Loud & Clear

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

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

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 a

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 me

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice.China two weeks ago announced that it had a Covid-19 hotspot in an outdoor market in Beijing. The government quarantined the area and snuffed out the virus. South Korea dealt with the coronavirus as soon as it hit and was able to control infections. Australia barely had any coronavirus infections after it went into lockdown. And Greece had a lower Covid-19 infection rate than any other country in the European Union. Why are other countries so good at addressing this pandemic and the US is so bad? President Trump’s much-touted kickoff campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday ended up having not the hundreds of thousands of people the campaign expected, but a grand total of 6,611. It turned out that the campaign was trolled by children and teenagers, who reserved nearly a million tickets and then didn’t show up. The

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Eugene Puryear, an author, activist and host of the new program BreakThrough News; and Estevan Hernandez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition who has been in the streets helping to organize recent protests.Today marks the commemoration of Juneteenth. This is a major holiday for the African American community, and it is celebrated as a state holiday in 47 of the 50 states. President Trump, who apparently had never heard of Juneteenth until just a few days ago, tweeted, “I did something good. I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.” Meanwhile, President Trump’s first post-Covid-19 campaign rally is scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma tomorrow. The mayor of Tulsa already has declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew for today and tomorrow, saying that “stragglers would be arrested.” This was after reports that protesters also w

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition.The Supreme Court today, in a landmark 5-4 decision, ruled that the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the DACA program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, was unconstitutional. This is a major defeat for the White House, and it protects some 650,000 young people known as “Dreamers.” In the final decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee to the court, joined the court’s four more progressive justices. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s memoir is supposed to come out on Tuesday. The White House is asking a federal court for an injunction against the book, but excerpts are already being widely reported in the media. Is arch-neocon John Bolton now about to be embraced by the centrist establishment that once despised

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, who is at www.rall.com.Coronavirus cases are surging in parts of the country with Florida, Texas, and Arizona yesterday setting new records for the number of confirmed new cases. Indeed, hospital beds in Arizona, Alabama, Texas, and elsewhere are filling quickly. But Vice President Pence, in a call with governors, suggested that governors should stop testing their citizens, which would cause the number of “confirmed” cases to decline. And he told those governors to tell their constituents that the Administration has the pandemic under control. President Trump yesterday signed an executive order on policing reforms calling for additional police training and a new database to track police misconduct. Progressive groups immediately dismissed it as not worth the paper it is written on. Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing their own reform bill but it appears to be stalled

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Professor Wolff, a professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and founder of the organization Democracy at Work whose latest book is “Understanding Socialism,” joins the show.Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff. Two weeks have now passed since the infamous attack on anti-racism protesters in front of the White House to clear the way for Donald Trump to have a photo-op at a nearby church, and more information continues to come out about how the crackdown was executed and which officials were involved in the fateful decision. Will those who carried out this wanton violation of civil liberties be held to account? Mara Verheyden Hilliard, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, joins the show. A coalition of progressive organizations have nominated the Cuba-based organization called the

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by community organizer Monica Johnson who attended the protests over the weekend and Sputnik news analyst Nicole Roussell.Peaceful protests continued across America over the weekend, with large marches in Washington, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and abroad. In Atlanta, the police chief resigned after an officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, who was shot twice in the back and killed by police in a Wendy’s parking lot. The cops were fired and an investigation was initiated. Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is meeting today to discuss systemic racism, police brutality, and violence against peaceful demonstrators in the United States. Coronavirus cases are spiking in 20 states, mostly in the Deep South and the Midwest, with Florida seeing 2,000 confirmed new cases every day for the past three days. Critics are blaming governors and state leaderships for reopening too quickly. And they say that

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 the ongoing protest movement sweeping the country, the victories against racist monuments and memorials, divisions between the White House and the military, and more. Confirmed cases of Covid-19 are skyrocketing in a dozen states, mostly in the Deep South and the Midwest as governors insist that their states reopen. In those 12 states, confirmed cases are up more than 50 percent over what they were two weeks ago. Only Utah’s governor announced that the state would delay its reopening to deal with the new cases. Four of those states--North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Nevada--are now seeing a record number of new coronavirus cases. Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician and vic

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Rebecca Keel, Virginia organizer with Southerners on New Ground.Anti-racism and anti-police protests are surging across the country with protesters demanding action to address the problems more quickly than elected officials seem willing or able to do. Marchers in Richmond, Virginia tore down a statue of Jefferson Davis last night, a statue of Christopher Columbus on Tuesday night, and another Confederate general on Saturday. Other Columbus statues in Houston, St. Paul, and Miami were defaced or torn down. Marchers in Seattle took control of a police precinct and declared it an “autonomous zone.” NASCAR announced that he would ban all Confederate flags from its races. And on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she would seek the removal of all Confederate statues from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. The top commander of the US armed forces, General Mark Milley, struggled to explain the role of the military as dema

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Daryle Lamont Jenkins, executive director of the organization One People’s Project.Democrats in the House of Representatives on Monday introduced broad police reform legislation aimed at boosting law enforcement accountability, changing police practices, and curbing racial profiling. However, Democratic officials sought to distance themselves from progressive activists seeking to defund police departments. John Gleeson, a former judge leading a review of the Department of Justice’s handling of the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, released a brief today expressing strong disapproval of the Department of Justice’s effort to drop the prosecution of Michael Flynn after he already pled guilty. Also, Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified last week before a Senate Committee on the origins of the Russia investigation. What he had to say was devastating for those pushing the narrative that

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.”In the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, many communities are now calling for the defunding of their police departments. The Minneapolis City Council last week took a veto-proof vote to do just that. And in the past 15 years, the communities of Trenton, NJ and Compton in Los Angeles, CA also have done away with their local police departments and instead joined reformed county departments. But Joe Biden is sticking to his guns. He says that he does not--and will not--support the defunding of police departments. Anywhere. The New York Times is embroiled in controversy as its opinion page editor resigned for publishing a piece by Senator Tom Cotton advocating the use of violence against protestors. But is this just hollow lip service to progressive ideas? Media critics have long pointed to the

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by producers Walter and Nicole, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality Michelle Gross, Bronx Liberation Center organizer Dari Rodriguez, Philadelphia MC for Saturday Mecca Bullock, ANSWER LA organizer Kameron Hurt, and journalist Neil Clark.Peaceful demonstrations against police violence and racism continue to spread around the country and the world. Altogether several million were estimated to be in the streets with protests held in more than 100 cities and towns around America. The Minneapolis City Council, by a veto-proof margin, voted to disband the police force there and restructure it. Similar demonstrations took place around the world, all in solidarity with anti-racism and anti police violence protesters here. Tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations across the UK yesterday, marching against racism and police violence. In Bristol, marchers pulled down the bronze statue of a 17th century slave t

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Nino Brown, an activist with the Boston Teachers Union, Terra Oliveira, a Philadelphia-based writer, the founder and editor of Recenter Press, and an organizer with the Philadelphia Liberation Center, and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell, join the show.Major demonstrations are expected this weekend in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC, and elsewhere as the protest movement against police in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder expands. Tens of thousands--and perhaps hundreds of thousands--of people will march in New York and Philadelphia, while Washington’s chief of police said yesterday that the city expects one of the largest demonstrations in its history on Saturday. Before Trump’s public announcement that he would be sending U.S. military into U.S. states, he had a private conference call with the country’s governors. Trump showed his true colors there, as did Attorney General Barr, Secretary of Defense Esper, and several Democratic poli

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Kameron Hurt, an organizer with ANSWER Coalition LA, Dari Rodriguez, an organizer with the Justice Center and a speaker & organizer at last night’s protests in the Bronx, Jodi Dean, a professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges whose latest book is called “Comrade,” and producer Walter Smolarek. 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.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek.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, including the massive protests continuing all across the country, the police brutality that shocked the nation on Monday night at the white house for a photo opp, what’s different about these protests compared with the large-scale protests of years past, and more. Protests against police violence continued across the country last night, but were largely more peaceful than the night before. In New York, police arrested a handful of demonstrators who they say violated the city’s 8:00 pm curfew. And police stopped a large crowd from crossing the Manhattan bridge after a lengthy standoff. But earlier in the day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo pointedly and publicly criticized Mayor DeBlasio’s handling of the demonstrations. Police were

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sputnik journalists Nicole Roussell and Sean Blackmon, Philadelphia Liberation Center organizer Erik Vargas, Mara Verheyden Hilliard, executive director of Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, and Ben Norton, a journalist with The Grayzone and Moderate Rebels podcast.The first full hour of the show is dedicated to the protests that continued across America yesterday in the wake of last week’s police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The governors of 26 states and the District of Columbia have deployed the National Guard, which has been quick to use force against unarmed protestors. And there have been sympathetic demonstrations in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and elsewhere. President Trump yesterday threatened to invoke the Insurrections Act to deploy active duty troops to cities across America. And Congress has been largely silent, except for Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton’s statement urging the president to use le

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Max Blumenthal, a bestselling author and journalist, whose latest film is “Killing Gaza,” and who is also the senior editor of Grayzone and co-host of the podcast “Moderate Rebels.”Former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice made a wild and unsubstantiated accusation over the weekend, saying that Russia and Vladimir Putin were behind the uprising in Minneapolis and subsequent nationwide rioting following the police murder of George Floyd. She offered no evidence for the accusation and went on to say that the Trump Administration’s decision to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization was “fine.” The country is in the midst of an uprising not seen since the 1960s, with anti-police marches, demonstrations, and violence taking place in hundreds of cities and towns across America. The protests began when a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota knelt on the neck of George Floyd and killed him. But frustration and ange