Critical Hour Week in Review Panel (7/25/2020)

Federal Agents Descend on Kansas City: Is This Solving Existing Problem or Preparing for Future?

US President Donald Trump has threatened to dispatch federal law enforcement officers to other cities as well, and a multi-jurisdictional police force attacked peaceful protestors near the White House in early June so the president could have a photo-op near Lafayette Park. What does all of this mean?

Why is the US intensifying its attacks on the People's Republic of China? Dr. Richard Wolff, founder of Democracy at Work, lists three reasons for America’s senseless and ridiculous provocations towards China.

It’s Friday, so that means it’s panel time. We have a great lineup, starting with our first two guests. We welcome back American columnist and syndicated editorial cartoonist Ted Rall, who is the author of "Silk Road to Ruin." We are also joined by the co-founder of the Black Alliance for Peace and former US vice presidential nominee for the Green Party, Ajamu Baraka. The first discussion is about Trump canceling the Republican National Convention. It looks like science wins.

Political Misfits Discussion of UK Russian Hacking Report (7/21/2010)

Lebanon Crisis Worsens; UK Report Targets Russia; Trump Sending Federal Agents to Chicago

Dr. Hicham Safieddine, professor of the history of the modern Middle East at King’s College London, has the latest on Lebanon's economic woes. Lebanon has not been spared in the coronavirus crisis, but unluckily for the country, the virus hit amid a slowly building economic crisis that seems to have suddenly hit the gas over the past few months, with electricity being cut to a few hours a day, food prices rising so high and so fast that they’re going beyond the reach of some citizens, the Lebanese pound losing 80% of its value over the course of the last year and the country’s banks and citizens running out of foreign currency. That Lebanon is in a serious crisis seems beyond doubt. But how did the country get here?

Jim Kavanagh, political analyst, commentator and editor of The Polemicist, breaks down a British report targeting Russia. The UK Parliament's cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee has issued a report saying in part that "the UK took its 'eye off the ball' in relation to Russia's attempts to meddle in British politics and deliberately 'glossed over' allegations of a Kremlin-sponsored influence campaign during the Brexit referendum," CNN reported Tuesday. Some are saying that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government does not want to reveal what truly took place, while the report said that "British intelligence agencies didn't investigate as they did not see the security of [the] UK voting process as part of their role because they feared the issue was a 'hot potato,'" CNN noted. What do we make of this?
[Related articles: Investigation Nation: Mueller, Russiagate, and Fake Politics, Be Careful What You Ask For: Wasting Time with Manafort, Cohen, and Russiagate]

Loud & Clear Week in Review (7/17/2020)

Which way forward for COVID-19 Crisis?

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jim Kavanagh, editor of thepolemicist.net, and Walter Smolarek, Sputnik News analyst and producer.

In The Week in Review, we take a look at the biggest stories of the week, including the latest controversies over the response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the shakeup in the Trump campaign, the latest U.S. threats against China, recent developments in the economic crisis gripping the country, and more.

Listen to "Which way forward for COVID-19 Crisis?" on Spreaker.

Loud & Clear is a daily program of news, commentary, and political analysis on Radio Sputnik, hosted by Brian Becker and John Kiriakou, featuring independent experts, activists, and political writers. (Introduction above is theirs, with related articles of mine referenced in brackets.)

Loud & Clear Discussion of Trump's Rollback of Environmental Regulations (7/15/2020)

Trump administration moves to gut key environmental protection law

President Trump today unilaterally weakened one of the nation’s bedrock conservation laws, the National Environmental Policy Act, limiting public review of federal infrastructure projects to speed up the permitting of freeways, power plants, and pipelines. Gutting the 50-year-old law is one of the most significant measures the administration has taken. And to date, Trump has either weakened, suspended, or canceled more than 100 environmental protection laws and regulations. Brian and John speak with Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net.

Listen to "Trump administration moves to gut key environmental protection law" on Spreaker.

Loud & Clear is a daily program of news, commentary, and political analysis on Radio Sputnik, hosted by Brian Becker and John Kiriakou, featuring independent experts, activists, and political writers. (Introduction above is theirs, with related articles of mine referenced in brackets.) 

By Any Means Necessary Discussion of Biden's "Task Forces" & Continuing Crises (7/9/2020)

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dr. Richard Wolff, Economist and Professor at the New School University and author of the new book “Understanding Marxism,” to talk about the latest discouraging jobless numbers, whether recent shifts in rhetoric from the White House and Congressional Republicans signal another round of stimulus checks, and how the failure of the ruling class to seriously address the public health or racial justice crisis is bringing the country to the point of collapse.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Wyatt Reed, a journalist, Sputnik News analyst, and By Any Means Necessary producer, to give an update on the "Bountygate" narrative and explain how moves by US intelligence agencies to distance themselves from the story has led competing factions within the security state and the mainstream media to move the goalposts on the story.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kim Ives, editor of the English section of Haiti Liberte, to talk about his latest article, "Wikileaks: Secret U.S. Diplomatic Cables Highlight Danger that “Toto” Constant Might Elude Justice," whether Haiti's justice system is equipped to handle former CIA agent and death squad leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, and Constant's role in helping maintain foreign imperialist domination of Haiti.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jim Kavanagh, a political analyst and contributor to Counterpunch and ThePolemicist.net, to talk about the contradiction between attempts to draw progressives into the Democratic fold via Bernie Sanders' and Joe Biden's "progressive task force" and the party's ongoing push to flank President Trump from the right on foreign policy, the relationship between widespread substance abuse in working communities here and the various CIA campaigns to fund foreign proxy armies by smuggling narcotics into the US, and the role the mainstream media plays in legitimizing the imperialist coups they sometimes later repudiate.
[Related article: Joe or No?]

My segment starts ~59:30

Listen to "No End In Sight As Health, Economic, & Racial Justice Crises Swell" on Spreaker.

“By Any Means Necessary” on Radio Sputnik is hosted by Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman and aims to connect the political, social and economic movements shaping the world around us. With a sensibility informed by movements from Black Power to #BlackLivesMatter with a dash of Occupy, the show elevates the people and narratives that (while often ignored) are driving some of the most important changes in the world.