By a 4-3 vote, the Republican-dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the governor’s stay-at-home orders were illegal and ordered that the state reopen. Bars and restaurants did so immediately and now scientists will watch the state to see if coronavirus infections spike there. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright testified before Congress today, saying that the Trump Administration simply does not have a master plan to respond to the coronavirus and to save American lives.
The official unemployment rate currently stands at 14.7 percent, a number not seen since 1937. Economists believe it will go even higher next month, probably hitting or surpassing 20 percent. That’s a number associated with the Great Depression. Unemployment is calculated by counting the percentage of the labor force that is without a job. But the definition of what it means to be in the labor force is very narrow. And economists are now saying that the real unemployment number is more likely around 23 percent. Dr. Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of “The Scourge of Neo-Liberalism: US Policy from Reagan to Trump,” which you can find at www.jackrasmus.com, joins the show.
Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
Loud & Clear’s series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.
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