Clearing the FOG with co-hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

The United States has been waging an economic war against Iran ever since the Iranian Revolution overthrew the US-backed brutal shah in 1979, but that war has escalated recently with the US-imposed oil embargo. Oil is a major source of revenue for Iran. Add to that the US pulling out of the nuclear agreement, the attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran shooting down a US drone, and we are extremely close to a hot war that would destabilize the entire Middle East. We speak with Patrick Hiller, a conflict resolution expert who traveled to Iran with us earlier this year, about just how dangerous the current situation is, what the potential consequences are and what we can do to reconcile the hostilities. We also cover recent news and analyses.

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And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

Canada issued a report two weeks ago on thousands of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) calling them victims of Canadian Genocide and connecting a root cause to colonization, racism, and sexism. This report came after decades of pressure by families of the victims and validates what indigenous communities have been reporting as a major problem. We speak with Annita Lucchesi (Cheyenne), a founder of the MMIW Database, who organizes to track these cases, raise their visibility and change policy throughout the Americas. She recently started the Sovereign Bodies Institute. as a home for the database. Lucchesi discusses what it will take to protect indigenous women and girls and how everyone can play a role in this movement.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

The Trump administration designated Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as a "Troika of Tyranny" and has been ratcheting up pressure on all three countries through economic blockades, creating dissent and covert attacks. This includes manipulating popular opinion in the US to demonize them and build support for intervention. All three countries have in common that they are resisting US domination. Recently, President Trump announced a travel ban to Cuba, which will curtail the possibility of people being able to visit and see for themselves that things are not as they have been told by the media. We speak with Netfa Freeman, who just spent two weeks in Cuba and who has done Cuba solidarity work since the early 1990's, about the situation there, how the US is interfering and what Cubans are doing to resist.

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And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

Each new report indicates the need to take urgent action on the climate crisis. The impacts in the US so far this year are already devastating - much of the farmland in the Midwest is still unsuitable for planting because of flooding and severe storms. In the European Union, climate was a major factor in the parliamentary elections with Green Party candidates surging toward the top in many countries. Will there be a similar awakening in the United States? We speak with Howie Hawkins, the person who brought the Green New Deal to the US and who recently announced that he is seeking the Green Party nomination for president, about the details of the eco-socialist Green New Deal he proposes and how to win it.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

According to the director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Renata Dwan, the risk of nuclear war is the highest it has been since World War II. Last year, seven plow shares activists entered the Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia to protest the Trident submarine, calling it "the world's deadliest nuclear weapon," to bring attention to this risk. They poured blood on it and beat on it with hammers to symbolize the biblical statement, to "beat swords into plow shares." We speak with four of the seven, the other three are in prison, about why they took this action, how it connects to the triple evils identified by Martin Luther King of "racism, extreme materialism, and militarism," and what can be done to stop this threat.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

For 37 days, from April 10 to May 16, activists calling themselves the Embassy Protection Collective stayed at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC 24/7 to prevent the United States from perpetuating its coup attempt and violating the Vienna Convention by turning the embassy over to the US-supported coup leader, Juan Guaido. The activists, including the show hosts, were there with the permission and support of the elected government of Venezuela. The United States government used everything it could to force the activists out, including cutting off access to food, electricity and water and surrounding the embassy with violent fascists. Adrienne Pine, a professor of anthropology who has studied the coup in Honduras and who was an Embassy Protector until the end, joins us to discuss what happened, what it was like and what comes next.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

On March 18, opposition leader Juan Guaido's people took over the Venezuelan consulate in New York City and the military attaché office in Washington, DC. They announced they will take over the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC next. Activists, with permission of the legitimate Venezuelan government, have been staying at the embassy 24/7 for over two weeks now to protect it from opposition people entering. They may attempt to do so as soon as April 25. The US is setting a new precedent by failing a coup attempt but pretending it succeeded and turning assets over to the opposition anyway. We speak with Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODE PINK, who is staying with us in the embassy.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

In the middle of the last century, there was a large and secure working class. Then, changes to the tax structure distributed more and more of the wealth to the richest and hollowed out the middle class. Now, levels of inequality in the United States are unsustainable as the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) has wealth equal to the bottom 80%. Momentum is growing to make the tax system more fair at both the state and federal levels. We speak with Sam Pizzigati about the history of taxes and what policies are currently being proposed.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

On April 4, 2019, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers met in Washington, DC to celebrate its 70th anniversary. While both parties in Congress applauded NATO, peace and justice activists held a week of action in protest, disrupting meetings, shutting down an entrance to the State Department and taking the streets. Activists are trying to expose the truth about NATO as an institution founded to prevent the rise of left movements, protect capitalism and provide cover for illegal wars. We speak with Yves Engler, a Montreal-based author and activist, about the history of NATO and why it's time to abolish it.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/

Julian Assange, the editor of Wikileaks, a media outlet for information provided by whistleblowers, has been in confinement in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for almost seven years and is experiencing increasingly harsh treatment. Chelsea Manning, who leaked information to Wikileaks and spent seven years in prison for it, is back in prison for her refusal to testify against Assange in a secret court. We speak with Joe Lauria of Consortium News about why Assange and Manning are sacrificing so much to protect our right to know what our governments are doing, the historical significance of their deeds and what we must do to support them.

Subscribe to Clearing the FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through, plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts. Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

And visit the new Popular Resistance Podcast Network at www.PopularResistance.org/prpn/