My guest this week is Gregory McKelvey. Greg is an activist and public speaker, the founder of Portland Resistance, and Vice-Chair of the Black Caucus of the Democratic Party of Oregon. He has been participating in and witnessing the demonstrations in Portland, Oregon.

Greg recently wrote an article entitled America, Here's the Truth About Portland's Protests that the Mainstream is Hiding.  He is also campaign manager for Sarah Iannarone, a candidate for Mayor of Portland.

We discuss the George Floyd protests as well as the upcoming election and the need for systemic change.

This is the first episode since our summer hiatus and I am delighted to welcome Jim Kavanagh back to kick off our 4th season of Wider View.   Jim is a former college professor and New York City native and denizen. He blogs at The Polemicist.net and his writing and analysis can be found on CounterPunch, Op-Ed News, The Greanville Post, Dandelion Salad, and elsewhere. Jim is a frequent guest on Loud & Clear and The Critical Hour on Radio Sputnik, and you can follow him on Twitter at @ThePolemicist_ and on Facebook at The Polemicist.

Jim refers to a recent article by Ajamu Baraka and echoes his call to expand the George Floyd protests into a struggle for the structural change that we need in this nation. 

This will be the last episode for a while as I am suspending for the summer. I took this opportunity to reflect on the demonstrations arising from George Floyd's murder by the Minneapolis police and include comments by Ajamu Baraka and Margaret Kimberley. 

This week I welcome Barbara Boland to Wider View.  Barbara is foreign policy and national security reporter for The American Conservative. She previously worked as an editor for the Washington Examiner and for CNS News. She is the author of Patton Uncovered, a book about General George Patton in World War II, and her work has appeared on Fox News, The Hill,  UK Spectator, and elsewhere. Boland is a graduate of Immaculata University in Pennsylvania. 

We discuss two of her recent articles for The American Conservative, How Did a Bronze Star Green Beret End Up Behind Venezuelan 'Bay of Pigs'? and 'Zombie Neocon': How This Iran Contra Architect Is Leading Trump Policy.  We also discuss China and the coronavirus accusations by the Trump Administration and the anti-war Right. 

My guest on this program is Rob Dietz, the Program Director at Post Carbon Institute.

Prior to joining Post Carbon Institute, Rob worked as a project manager at Farmland LP, helping to transition conventional farmland to organic. He was also the first executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy  taking it from an unfunded start-up organization to an internationally respected leader on new economic thinking.  He is the lead author of Enough Is Enough, a popular book on steady-state economics.

During the show, I referred to a recent article by Elizabeth Rosenthal on Kaiser Health News entitled "We Knew the Coronavirus Was Coming Yet We Failed 5 Critical Tests".  I strongly recommend this article to those of you interested in health care policy.

I am very pleased to welcome Monisha Rios back to Wider View.  Monisha is a Gulf War Era Army Veteran and a Doctoral Candidate on Liberation Psychology. Her research focuses on the militarization of psychology in the United States. Her work is geared towards building a grassroots movement to conduct a peoples' inquiry into the U.S.'s use of psychological warfare against the peoples of the world, including its own citizens, and to amplify the voices of those who are most impacted by U.S. wars, centering the voices of indigenous communities. She is also the creator of MIRA, a grassroots research project that focuses on moral injuries related to the causes and consequences of U.S. wars.

During our conversation, Monisha mentioned the organization Vamos, which sees its mission as  "Puerto Rico empowered, where our people, as people who think and feel, unite in community and sovereignly exercise the construction of a sustainable, inclusive, caring, democratic, fair, equitable, prosperous, healthy and happy country."  Their website is https://www.vamospr.org/

I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Jack Rasmus to Wider View. Jack has a Ph.D in Political Economy and teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California.  He is the author of a number of books including “Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression”, “Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy”, “Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few” and his latest, “The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump”.  Jack is also host of a weekly radio show called Alternative Visions on the Progressive Radio Network.  You can follow him on Twitter at @drjackrasmus

Jim Kavanagh is a political analyst and commentator who lives in New York City.  He is a regular contributor to the Loud and Clear and Critical Hour podcasts on Sputnik Radio and writes a blog called The Polemicist.

We talk about the reaction of the left to the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign and what options are left open for real change in the United States.

This week I talk with Iranian-American attorney Mehrnoush Yazdanyar whose clients are struggling to deal with the illegal US sanctions on Iran and the fallout from the Muslim Ban. 

During her 10 plus years of private practice, Ms. Yazdanyar has not only established herself an expert in her niche areas of practice, but she has also gained notoriety for her pro-bono and non-profit work as well as her dedication to assisting non-government organizations with their legal needs.

Assal Rad, Research Fellow of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) joins me to discuss the dire situation in Iran where the nation is struggling to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak while vital medical supplies are withheld due to illegal US sanctions.  NIAC is currently calling on Congress to provide immediate relief to Iran from the sanctions regime.  You can join in that action by going to:

 https://www.niacouncil.org/campaign/solidarity-not-sanctions/