Loud & Clear

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 there was collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Rosenstein told the committee that the FBI never had any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, but that he had asked Robert Mueller to lead an investigation because he had already determined that the FBI had lied to him. Rosenstein’s testimony contained a half-dozen bombshells that turn the entire Russiagate affair on its ear. Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net, joins the show.

A top Harvard chemistry professor was indicted yesterday by a grand jury on felony charges of lying to federal investigators about his ties to a Chinese-run academic program. Dr. Charles Lieber maintains his innocence, and civil liberties advocates have warned that his case represents a sign that any academic or professional collaboration is being criminalized by federal authorities. Brian and John speak with KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice.

Pro-Israel lobby groups are struggling to appear supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement. But privately, they are warning that Black Lives Matter is a threat to the status quo that is Israel’s racist system. Some of those lobbyists are not so subtle. Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, went so far as to ask the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate Black Lives Matter as a hate group. He said, “Black Lives Matter is a Jew-hating, White-hating, Israel-hating, conservative Black-hating, violence-promoting, dangerous Soros-funded extremist group of haters.” Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of the book The Battle for Justice in Palestine, 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 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 Times’ role pushing war and militarism, and just two days ago an article appeared titled, “Is This the Trump Tipping Point” in which columnist Jennifer Senior criticizes Trump for being “partial to Slavs”. How is the corporate media faring in a time of mass uprising? Ben Norton, a journalist with the Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joins the show.

Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff. 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.

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 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 trader and threw it in the harbor.



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 . Sputnik News analysts and producers of this show Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.


Today’s “Education for Liberation” is education for liberation at a time of mass uprising. Our guest has been fighting for economic, racial, and social justice in the streets for decades. Brian and John speak with Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author or co-author of many books, including “About Becoming A Teacher” and “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones: And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education,” and a 1960s central national leader of Students for a Democratic Society, who’s at www.BillAyers.org.


Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state--where this week they focus on the technologies and surveillance tactics that the government has already been using at all levels to suppress the protests for Justice for George Floyd, manipulate the narrative, and criminalize dissent. This is your guide to what’s going on behind the scenes of the nationwide protests demanding justice for George Floyd and the countless people killed by police. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show with John.

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 political leaders. And as a result, the burgeoning movement for racial justice and against racist and brutal policing has only grown. Mara Verheyden Hilliard joins the show, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.



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 historic mass protest movement sweeping the country and the world against racist police violence. Donald Trump and Democratic Party city officials alike are cracking down on the movement, but the protests continue to gain huge momentum. Brian and John speak with Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.

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.

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 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 very aggressive against peaceful demonstrators, attacked members of the media, and used the technique of “kettling” against marchers. The New York Times reports that there was little overall violence because it was the marchers discouraging it, not police. Sasha Murphy, a long-time activist against police brutality and an organizer with the Justice Center, joins the show.



Huge crowds of thousands of people marched through Denver yesterday in solidarity with George Floyd, who was murdered by a policeman in Minneapolis nine days ago. For the most part, police kept their distance, and there were no reported incidents. This was in contrast to the marches in Denver over the weekend, where Denver Police used riot gear and SWAT units to corral marchers in what became a night of repeated clashes. Brian and John speak with Lilian House, an organizer with the Denver Liberation Center, and by Bruno, an activist against police brutality, who have both been deeply engaged in the protests in the city.



Protests are nothing new in American society. And protests for racial justice are certainly nothing new. But has America not learned any lessons from the civil rights movement? Have we learned nothing from decades of the police clashing with peaceful marchers? Why is this still happening in America in the year 2020? Why are our police departments militarized and so willing to use violence against citizens? Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books, including “Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow,” joins 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 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 lethal force.



Today is Loud & Clear’s weekly series about the biggest economic news of the week with special guest -- Prof. Richard Wolff. 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.



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 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 anger have bubbled over, and in many cities, the violence is now out of control. Twenty six states and the District of Columbia have activated the National Guard, many for the first time since World War II. For his part, President Trump has been notably silent, except on Twitter, where he has threatened retaliation against demonstrators. Last night he did that from a bunker underneath the White House, to which he was evacuated during demonstrations in Washington. Eugene Puryear, an author, activist and host of the new program BreakThrough News, joins the show.



Today’s “Education for Liberation” is education for liberation at a time of mass uprising. Our guest has been fighting for economic, racial, and social justice in the streets for decades. Brian and John speak with Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author or co-author of many books, including “About Becoming A Teacher” and “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones: And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education,” and a 1960s central national leader of Students for a Democratic Society, who’s at www.BillAyers.org.



President Trump tweeted over the weekend that he intends to designate Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, a move that constitutional scholars already are declaring unconstitutional. Antifa, which stands for anti-fascism, is a broad-based group of people who support oppressed communities and who protest the amassing of wealth accumulated by corporations and elites. Another tactic that governments use to try to suppress protesters is to slow the wheels of justice against police who kill and carefully craft any indictments against police who kill to be able to wait out the protests and let the police off the hook later on, like Daniel Pantaleo, the policeman who choked Eric Garner to death but who emerged from several investigations years later without criminal charges. Mara Verheyden Hilliard, the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, joins the show.



Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state--where this week they focus on the technologies and surveillance tactics that the government has already been using at all levels to suppress the protests for Justice for George Floyd, manipulate the narrative, and criminalize dissent. This is your guide to what’s going on behind the scenes of the nationwide protests demanding justice for George Floyd and the countless people killed by police. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa and software engineer and technology and security analyst Patricia Gorky join the show with John.

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 uprising in Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd, protests in other cities across the country against racist police violence, the failed renewal of FISA, Iranian tankers arriving in Venezuela, and more.



The American taxpayer has paid handsomely to develop a drug called Remdesivir which media reports say could become a major player in the fight against the coronavirus. Remdesivir was developed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences with tens of millions of dollars from three federal agencies, but it was a failure among anti-virals. Well, now it shows promise, as well as profitability. And Gilead is keeping that money and not refunding taxpayers. Annette Gaudino, State & Local Policy Director at the Treatment Action Group, joins the show with John.



Pharmaceutical companies around the world are scrambling to develop a vaccine for the Covid-19 coronavirus and nine separate vaccines are currently being developed. But there’s a big difference in the way American and Chinese pharmaceutical companies are addressing the challenge. The Chinese government has already announced that its vaccine would be “for the public good” and would be shared around the world. US vaccines would be given only for profit. Brian speaks with Ian Goodrum, a writer and digital editor for China Daily.



A court in Vancouver Canada this week ruled that the “double criminality” requirement was met in the extradition case against Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou constituted a crime in Canada, opening the way for her to be sent to the United States. Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the request of the United States, which claimed that Meng had helped the company evade US sanctions. The Chinese government has expressed outrage at the case, calling it a clear case of the US government attempting to apply its laws extraterritorially. KJ Noh, a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of Asia, and a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and Dissident Voice, joins Brian.



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 Michelle Gross, the president of Communities United Against Police Brutality in Minneapolis, and Jordan Kushner, a Minneapolis criminal defense and civil rights attorney.

Protests over the police killing of George Floyd continued in Minneapolis overnight, with at least one person dead. Most of the demonstrations continue to take place near the city’s 3rd precinct station, near the site where police officers killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck for an extended period. Protestors also appear to have set fire to numerous businesses in the area, and the mayor has asked the governor to call out the National Guard. Minnesotans from all walks of life continue to question why none of the policemen have been arrested.

House Democrats last night adjourned, rather than take a vote on a controversial bill to reauthorize surveillance tools as part of the FISA Act. The measure had broad bipartisan support in March, but Republicans began turning against the measure in March as FBI malfeasance in the Michael Flynn case came to light. President Trump also had said that he would veto the measure. Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers, 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.