In recent months, western media pundits and officials have been near apoplectic about both the Russian intervention into Kazakhstan as well as the deteriorating security situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border. While many in the American foreign policy and media establishment are warning of growing Russian aggression vis-à-vis its neighbors, Russia claims it is merely acting defensively in face of NATO expansion. What is the historical context behind Russia’s relationship with its neighbors? What explains Russian actions in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan? And what do these developments mean for both regional and global affairs? We speak to historian Harun Yilmaz, who has written extensively on Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

Dr. Harun Yilmaz:

Dr. Harun Yilmaz received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Oxford and subsequently worked as a research fellow at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He is currently a British Academy research fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He is a regional expert on history, politics, national identities, and political propaganda. His academic and popular publications cover Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Dr. Yilmaz worked in these locations for long periods of time and acquired an excellent grasp of existing political and cultural issues at grassroots level. His language skills include Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Azerbaijani, and Kazakh. His most recent book is National Identities in Soviet Historiography: The Rise of Nations under Stalin 

This week the Crüe invites former California State Assembly candidate and lawyer and activist, Janani Ramachandran. We'll be discussing the failed attempt by the California State legislature to get bill AB1400 which would make California the first state with universal healthcare for all of its citizens. Also, in the Champagne Room Kuba and Pascal will be discussing the mystery behind F-35 and more!

Janani Ramachandran

anani Ramachandran is a lawyer, activist, and artist with a lifelong passion to build inclusive and equitable political systems. She is also a strong advocate for survivors of domestic violence: she works on initiatives that further the rights of survivors by making the legal system more accessible, culturally-responsive, and trauma-informed.

Janani currently serves as a Commissioner on the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, as Board Secretary for Family Violence Appellate Project, and as Board Director at Men Creating Peace.

Janani is an East Bay native. She received her J.D. from Berkeley Law, bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and is provisionally licensed to practice law in California.

Prior to law school, Janani worked as a home-visiting case manager for low-income immigrant mothers. She later founded a domestic violence advocacy program across five community health clinics, where she led trainings for medical staff, supervised advocates, and launched public education campaigns. As a law student, Janani worked for several legal aid organizations on the intersections of domestic violence, housing, and other social justices causes.

Forrest Miller and Conan Neutron discuss The Conversation with Erica Strout and Francesca Fiorentini. Picture This: it's the middle of Watergate in 1974 and America is in the grip of an obsession with surveillance and wiretapping. During the hearings, it has been revealed that Nixon taped every single conversation in the Oval Office and that might be key to finding the "Smoking Gun." As Congress debates whether to subpoena those tapes, Francis Ford Coppola releases a new movie: The Conversation starring Gene Hackman.

The Conversation is a film about Harry Caul, a Private Surveillance Expert who is obsessed with his own privacy. Caul is assigned to watch and record a couple having a Conversation in Union Square. As the film goes on, Harry Caul begins to suspect that the couple he's recording is in danger and might get killed if he releases the tapes.

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Conan Neutron hosts Protonic Reversal: Website: https://www.protonicreversal.com/

Francesca Fiorentini hosts The Bitchuation Room Website: https://www.francescafiorentini.com/

Erica Strout is a Georgia Based Musician and Filmmaker Website: https://www.ericastrout.com/

Jason and Marcus of the Left Flank Vets talk sports from a left a perspective.  This show will air live every other Monday, and every other Tuesday for the audio only.  

Pascal discusses MLK's legacy and asks whether the political tactics and strategies he pursued were the correct ones for his time.

From Ethiopia to Haiti, international minefields have shown up extensively during the first year of the Biden administration. What does it mean to be a journalist with revolutionary politics trying to get the facts straight, while trying to keep your political integrity covering these stories? Is it possible to focus so much on the role of America that various regional power struggles can become obscured? How does a revolutionary journalist balance these things out? Jason and Pascal speak with journalist and revolutionary Eugene Puryear.

Eugene Puryear

Eugene Puryear is a longtime journalist and community organizer currently based in New York City. As a high school student in Charlottesville, Va, Eugene organized a walkout when the war in Iraq began in 2003, and helped to organize a number of the large-scale demonstrations that took place against the continuing U.S. war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. He was a key leader In the struggle to free the Jena Six in 2007, was a founder of the anti-gentrification group Justice First as well as the Jobs Not Jails coalition, DC Ferguson Movement and Stop Police Terror Project-D.C. Puryear is the author of the book Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America, and worked for four years as the lead host of “By Any Means Necessary” a public affairs radio program in Washington D.C. Currently he is the lead host of the News on BreakThrough, a social justice media project based in New York.