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Debtors' Prisons in America!? War on the Poor Intensifies Under Trump

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Kevin Gosztola, writer and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure and Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center.
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rescinded Obama-era guidance to state courts that was meant to end debtors prisons. The Supreme Court already has called such institutions "unconstitutional." The war against the poor keeps going, but did it ever really slow down?

National Security Agency head Admiral Mike Rogers will retire this spring, according to a classified memo that was leaked to the press. It's a fitting end to Rogers's four-year tenure. We talk about the rise of the National Surveillance state and the US government's war against whistleblowers. Kirk Wiebe, a former NSA senior analyst and renowned national security whistleblower, joins the show.

The Trump Administration announced today that it will expel as many as 260,000 El Salvadorans who were granted temporary status in the United States after a devastating 2001 earthquake in their country. Brian and John speak with Heather Benno, managing attorney at Esperanza Center.

Oprah Winfrey last night gave a powerful speech at the Golden Globe Awards that has sparked talk of a 2020 presidential run. Meanwhile, several celebrities arrived at the venue in Beverly Hills with well-known activists, in an effort to highlight the struggles of America's poor. Anoa Changa, director of political advocacy and a managing editor of Progressive Army and the host of the show The Way With Anoa, joins the show.

Israel yesterday published a list of 20 international groups that now will be banned from the country for their support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Dan Cohen, a journalist and filmmaker, joins Brian and John.

Recy Taylor just died at the age of 97. Ms. Taylor was gang-raped in 1944 in Abbeville, Alabama, by six white men, who were all subsequently acquitted. It was a case that Rosa Parks investigated, many years before she rose to prominence in the civil rights movement. Jaimee Swift, a PhD candidate at Howard University, joins the show.

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