Two reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee boldly assert that Russians working at the Internet Research Agency clearly sought to influence the 2016 election to the benefit of the Republican Party. But they don't include anything about the dollar amounts spent (they're absurdly low), when they were spent (56% after the election), or that when this agency actually showed up in court post-indictment, that the prosecution asked for a continuance — and hasn't made any moves since.
Monday's regular segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
There are only five days to go before a partial government shutdown, but the White House and Congressional Democrats are digging in their heels. As members of Congress left Washington for the Christmas holiday, Presidential Senior Advisor Stephen Miller said the administration will do "anything that is necessary" to build a border wall. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, "the President is not going to get a wall in any form." Brian and John speak with Jorge Barón, the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
US airstrikes over the weekend killed 62 purported members of the al-Shabaab fundamentalist armed group affiliated with al-Qaeda in a remote area of southern Somalia. A spokesman for the Pentagon's Africa Command, or AFRICOM, said the strikes were carried out jointly with the Somali government and were designed to prevent future Shabaab attacks. But what's behind the stepped-up role of AFRICOM that these strikes reflect? Is the U.S. engaged in a major escalation of its drone war program? Glen Ford, the executive editor of Black Agenda Report, joins the show.
A federal judge in Texas on Friday struck down the Affordable Care Act, ruling that because Congress changed the tax law associated with it, the entire system is no longer legal. The decision will be appealed immediately and will likely end up in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, experts say that the decision will affect literally every American. Dr. Margaret Flowers, a medical doctor and the co-coordinator of Popular Resistance, at PopularResistance.org, joins Brian and John.
President Trump on Friday named as acting Chief of Staff OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney also is director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Both of these latter positions make him susceptible to Congressional subpoena. Why did Trump finally settle on Mulvaney, someone already with two jobs, after an embarrassingly protracted search for a Chief of Staff? Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter and founder of This Can't Be Happening! as well as a columnist for CounterPunch and a contributor to The Nation, joins the show.
Monday's segment "Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers" is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What's happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book "Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto," joins Brian and John.
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