Today is the 40th anniversary of the Iran Hostage Crisis, where Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and took 52 embassy officers hostage. That standoff lasted 444 days, and it permanently changed the scope of both US-Iran relations and American politics. And yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Greensboro Massacre, where Ku Klux Klansmen, led by an FBI agent and an ATF agent, opened fire on a group of American communists in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five. Nobody was ever brought to justice for the attack.
Even as House Democrats on Thursday ratified an impeachment resolution against President Trump, a federal judge has slowed the pace of the inquiry by declining to rule on whether a key witness needed to testify before the House of Representatives. Instead, he gave all relevant parties several weeks to prepare their arguments. That means the hearings will likely last through the Christmas holidays. And how will all of this affect the 2020 election? Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of the book “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil.”, joins the show.
Rioting continued over the weekend in Hong Kong, with demonstrators attacking Xinhua, the Chinese state news service. Xinhua then called on authorities to take a tougher line with demonstrators. Meanwhile, protestors are calling on the US to help them. Brian and John speak with John Ross, Senior Fellow at Chongyang Institute, Renmin University of China, and an award-winning resident columnist with several Chinese media organizations.
Two activists with the organization Veterans for Peace are trapped in Ireland, unable to return home due to criminal charges pending against them for engaging in an anti-war protest. A renewed effort is underway to win their freedom. Gerry Condon, national president of Veterans for Peace, joins the show.
The hosts take a look at the big stories to watch in the week ahead. Walter Smolarek, Sputnik News analyst and producer, joins Brian and John.
The hosts continue the weekly segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa—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 and Patricia Gorky, a software engineer and technology and security analyst, join the show.
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