Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda.President Trump caused consternation and anger at the NATO summit this morning when he chastised allies for not spending enough on defense, and he opined that Germany was “a captive of Russia” because of a 2015 pipeline deal between those two countries. This kind of contention has never before been seen at a NATO heads of state meeting. Beyond Nuclear with Kevin Kamps is Loud & Clear’s regular Wednesday segment. The hosts and Kevin look at nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Today they focus on huge Obama-era regulation changes to allow far more radioactive waste in the atmosphere and on two anniversaries on July 16, the first atomic bomb blast in history (the Trinity blast of 1945), which was a test for Nagasaki, and the 1979 Uranium Tailings Spill, which primarily affected indigenous communiti

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Heidi Boghosian, the executive director of the A. J. Muste Memorial Institute and the former Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, and Anoa Changa, the director of political advocacy and a managing editor of Progressive Army, and host of the show The Way With Anoa.President Trump yesterday named federal appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court seat being vacated by retiring justice Anthony Kennedy. Kavanaugh has solid conservative credentials, and Democrats in the Senate say they will be united in their opposition to his appointment. The keys to his elevation will be Democratic senators running for reelection in states that Trump won and Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. What does this pick mean for those who have used the court as a tool for reform? False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey is L&C’s regular Tu

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Alex Gordon, former president of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, & Transport Workers.There’s been a major shakeup in the UK government. Yesterday, Brexit Secretary David Davis and his deputy resigned because of Conservative Party anger over his policy of negotiating a “soft landing,” where the UK would still maintain close ties to the EU after Brexit. And this morning, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson abruptly resigned because he opposed the policy, which he likened to “polishing a turd.” This is perhaps an attempt by Johnson to position himself to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister. But this morning, British financial markets fell like a rock and Brexit itself is now in disarray. Mass protests in Haiti erupted and have been ongoing for several days. Protesters rose in the capital of Port au Prince over the government’s attempt to raise fuel prices and impose austerity measures. Tim Schwartz, an anthropologist who

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jude Woodward, the author of the new book “The US vs China: Asia's new Cold War?” and Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist whose work is at patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen.The United States launched what appears to be the largest trade war ever last night when it imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing announced that it will respond in kind. And economists warn that the only outcome is that American consumers will pay more for everything that comes from that country.On today’s regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, the hosts talk about races in Chicago, Maryland, and Arizona. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the co-host of the Facebook livestream “Coffee, Current Events & Politics” Thursdays at 9 p.m., join the show.The remaining signatories to the Iran Nuclear Deal, or JCPOA, have agreed t

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Max Blumenthal, senior editor of the Grayzone Project, bestselling author whose latest book is “The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza,” and co-host of the podcast “Moderate Rebels.”Andriy Parubiy is Ukraine’s Speaker of the Parliament. He’s also arguably the country’s leading neo-Nazi figure. Parubiy wears his fascism on his sleeve, but there hasn’t been a word of complaint from western governments. Now Parubiy is visiting Washington and meeting with members of Congress. On the regular Thursday series “Criminal Injustice,” the hosts discuss the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Brian and John speak with Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News, and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure. A

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including “The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America.”A few years ago, Dr. Gerald Horne wrote a book called “The Counterrevolution of 1776” in which he argues that the American Revolution was a conservative reaction to changes in the British views toward slavery. Abolitionist sentiment was running high in London, and the only way to keep Africans enslaved in the colonies was to revolt. False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey, L&C’s regular Tuesday economic segment, focuses on big banks getting big breaks and what society could do with extra wealth from automation, versus what companies will do with it—namely, lay off workers. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey joins the show. A new study shows that Uber and Lyft drivers are

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Eugene Puryear, host of Sputnik News radio show By Any Means Necessary, who is in Mexico City to cover the presidential election, and Juan José Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition.Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a resounding 53% of the vote in yesterday’s presidential election, which was between four people. The second highest vote-getter, Ricardo Anaya, received 22.1%. López Obrador, or AMLO as he is popularly known, is a left candidate who has run twice before for the presidency amidst widespread voter fraud. What does his election mean for Mexico, the Americas, and the world?Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is Loud & Clear’s weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights, and civil liberties. Today, Chris walks Brian and John through the recent revelations that Facebook gave special access to use

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Eugene Puryear, the cohost of the Sputnik News program By Any Means Necessary, and Dr. John Ackerman, professor of Constitutional Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), researcher at the Legal Research Institute of UNAM, and editorial director of the Mexican Law Review.Mexicans will go to the polls on Sunday to choose their next president and Congress at a time of widespread disillusionment at unchecked corruption, poverty, and violence that has claimed more than 200,000 lives since 2007. Left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is expected to win a landslide victory, but the political right and billionaire businessmen—including Americans—are doing everything they can to stop him. On today’s regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, the hosts talk about the huge upsets that happened in this week’s primaries. Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the c

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Professor Zachary Wolfe, a lawyer and activist who teaches at George Washington University, Chip Gibbons, policy and legislative counsel for Defending Rights & Dissent as well as a journalist, and Julie Hurwitz, a civil rights attorney and partner at the law firm Goodman & Hurwitz, P.C.Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced yesterday that he would retire effective immediately. Washington immediately lurched into its next crisis, with Republicans and the right wing gloating about controlling the Supreme Court. On the regular Thursday series “Criminal Injustice,” about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country, the hosts discuss a new bipartisan bill in Congress that would expand the president’s ability to detain American citizens without a trial, and why “police union” is a misnomer. Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-h

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Peter Knowlton, the president of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, and Jeff Bigelow, an official with AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. The Supreme Court this morning issued a landmark decision in the case of Janus versus AFSCME, ruling 5-4 that labor unions may not collect “agency” or “fair share” fees from workers who do not want to join the union in a union shop. The Court had ruled 41 years ago that unions could charge only for services that non-union members benefited from, such as negotiating, collective bargaining, and grievance procedures. The ruling is a major blow to organized labor. Later this afternoon, Justice Kennedy retired, opening up a supreme court seat for Trump to make a nomination. Beyond Nuclear with Kevin Kamps is Loud & Clear’s regular Wednesday segment. The hosts and Kevin look at nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste,

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Sundrop Carter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today to let stand President Trump’s travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries. The majority said that the ban fell within the scope of presidential authority. Meanwhile, the head of Customs and Border Protection said yesterday that the bureau has temporarily stopped referring for criminal prosecution adults who cross the border with children.The Syrian government said today that Israel fired two missiles that struck targets near Damascus Airport this morning. Meanwhile, fighting in the south intensifies as the battle for control of one of the armed opposition’s last strongholds gets underway. Rick Sterling, an investigative journalist and member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, joins the show. We continue our weekly series False Profits -- A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with fi

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Nevzat Evrim Önal, a journalist with the Turkish newspaper SoL, and Max Zirngast, an independent writer in Istanbul.In a victory address, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to fight terrorist groups and to enhance the country’s international stature. Erdogan won reelection on Sunday with 52.5 percent of the vote. More importantly, though, the country has moved from a parliamentary democracy to one with an executive presidency. And the position of Prime Minister has been abolished. Many international observers are concerned that there is now too much power in the hands of one man in Turkey. Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa, our new full half-hour technology and privacy segment, is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the National Surveillance State are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights, and civil liberties. Today they focus on companies working with ICE, Google products secretly recording con

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of “The Plot to attack Iran” and Kevin Zeese, the co-coordinator of Popular Resistance at popularresistance.org.The Senate voted this week 85-10 to give the Pentagon a budget of $716 billion for fiscal 2019. That’s an increase of $82 billion from this year. Economists warned that such major budget increases are untenable over the long term because of the size of the federal deficit. And Congress doesn’t seem to care about the optics of such a vote in the middle of the immigration crisis—despite the facts that some of this funding will go to keeping immigrants in military bases, and that it’s the US-supported coups in Latin America that have been a big contributing factor to immigration.On today’s regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, the hosts talk about developments in races all across America as they tighten up. Jacqueline and Abdus Luq

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.President Trump yesterday signed an executive order reversing his policy of separating migrant children from their parents. The policy drew across-the-board condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike, although it was also seen as a political sop to Trump’s right-wing base. The hosts look at what’s next for asylum seekers, immigrants, and their families. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un completed his third trip to China in as many months, where he consulted with Chinese leaders on next steps with the United States. President Trump said that since his summit with Kim in Singapore, North Korea has returned the remains of 200 US soldiers missing from the Korean War. And in the United States, a new poll shows that 55 percent of Americans support Trump’s North Korea policy, the single most popular policy of his presidency. John Ross, Senio

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ariel Gold, a peace activist and the national co-director of Code Pink.US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced last night that the US would withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling it a “cesspool of political bias.” The action was taken in a fit of pique after 120 countries voted to condemn Israel for its killing of Palestinians along the Gaza border. Meanwhile, an exchange of rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza threatens to spiral into all-out war.Images of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents separating children from their parents at the border are in the front of our collective minds right now. But believe it or not, the policy of breaking up families has a long and ugly history in the United States. For decades the government sent native children to boarding schools, where they were stripped of their culture and abused physically, emotionally, and sexually. Denise Lajim

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Medea Benjamin, an anti-war and anti-torture activist and the co-founder of Code Pink, and Simone Chun, a fellow at the Korea Policy Institute and a member of the Korean Peace Network.The US and South Korea have canceled a major military exercise scheduled for August after President Trump made the surprise concession in Singapore last week. Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in Beijing for consultations. He has also been invited to visit Moscow and Washington, and rumored to have been invited to Japan. In Loud & Clear’s weekly Wednesday series False Profits—A Weekly Look at Wall Street and Corporate Capitalism with Daniel Sankey, the hosts join Daniel in analyzing the back-and-forth trade war between China and the US. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey joins the show. Former FBI Director Comey released an op-ed today in the New York Times defending his actions in the Hillary Clinton email probe. The hosts c

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 Businessweek and The Nation, and by Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of “The Frozen Republic,” “The Velvet Coup,” and “America's Undeclared War.”As we speak, the Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to hear from the FBI and the Inspector General over the report the IG’s office released last week on Comey’s behavior and other topics. Additionally, Paul Manafort was jailed on Friday and there are claims thatRoger Stone met with a Russian national for dirt on Clinton. Nearly 2,000 children have been taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy of separating them several weeks ago. That policy also mandates prosecution of the parents for illegal entry into the United States. Humanitarian and religious groups, and even the United Nations, have condemned the policy. We’ll

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou and Walter Smolarek (sitting in for Brian Becker) are joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the host of the Facebook livestream “Coffee, Current Events & Politics” Thursdays at 9 p.m., joins the show.On today’s regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, John and Walter talk about races in South Carolina, Ohio, and Florida. “The Progress of This Storm” is a new and powerful book by Andreas Malm. In it, he addresses the environmental crisis caused by climate change, its roots in the system of capitalism, and how humanity can step back from the brink. Andreas Malm, who teaches Human Ecology at Lund University in Sweden and is the author of “Fossil Capital,” “Iran on the Brink,” and most recently “The Progress of This Storm,” joins the show. The trade war with China widened today, as President Trump announced new 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese products. He also said that he’s considerin

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou and Walter Smolarek (sitting in for Brian Becker) are joined by Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who was named Time Magazine person of the year with two other whistleblowers, and Joe Lauria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News, founded by the late Robert Parry and the author of "How I Lost, By Hillary Clinton." A highly anticipated FBI Inspector General’s report released today found that former FBI director James Comey deviated from official procedures in handling the probe into Hillary Clinton. The Inspector General found that Comey was not motivated by bias, but his actions damaged the FBI’s image of impartiality. On the regular Thursday series “Criminal Injustice,” about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country, the hosts discuss Prison Legal News under fire in Florida and the skyrocketing “gang database” in New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio. Paul Wright, the

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, John Kiriakou and Walter Smolarek (sitting in for Brian Becker) are joined by Patrick Lawrence, the author of “Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century” and a columnist at The Nation, whose work is at patreon.com/thefloutist, and by co-host Brian Becker, who is in Singapore to cover the summit.The intense struggle over the budding peace process in Korea continued today, as President Trump said this morning that North Korea “is no longer a nuclear threat,” but a full mobilization of the corporate media and a wide range of politicians in Congress is seeking to undermine the progress made in Singapore. Beyond Nuclear with Kevin Kamps is Loud & Clear’s regular Wednesday segment. The hosts and Kevin look at nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Today they focus on the proposed nuclear and coal bailout, as well as localities pushing back against poorly designed nuclear waste disposal. Kevin