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Dissecting the Midterm Election Results: What’s Next for US Politics?

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker is joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation; Loud & Clear co-host John Kiriakou; Florida activist Juliana Musheyev; and Josh Hovey, communications director of the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.
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Results from the midterms have been rolling in, and this first hour is what happened at the polls last night. First, the hosts talk about the federal races for Congress. The Democrats won the House and the Republicans strengthened their lead in the Senate. How will this affect the nation when those new congresspeople get into office? What will the 2020 map look like? Then the hosts move into state races, where there were several tight races for governor. Last will be a few of the many important amendments and ballot measures that voters weighed in on last night, including a few states legalizing medical or recreational marijuana and the felony disenfranchisement law in Florida.

Less than 24 hours after polls closed in the midterms, Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the request of President Trump. The relationship between Trump and Sessions soured early, following Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russiagate investigation. Trump named an acting attorney general, but no one knows yet who will permanently fill the seat. Jim Kavanagh, the editor of ThePolemicist.net, joins the show.

Speaking by video link to a conference in Israel, Edward Snowden denounced the use of Israeli software that he says was used to track Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was killed. Snowden also went on to comment on mass surveillance in Israel in general. Brian speaks with Bill Binney, a former NSA technical director who became a legendary national security whistleblower, and journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen.

According to new reports, Amazon will open not one but two new headquarters — in Long Island City, Queens and in Northern Virginia. As municipal governments competed to offer the company enormous tax breaks and other incentives in the hopes of reaping the economic benefits of hosting the new headquarters, is this a historic instance of bait-and-switch? Dr. Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression" whose work is at www.jackrasmus.com, joins the show.

The incoming far-right administration of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is taking shape, and the military is set to take a huge role in the governance of the country. But inside the country and around the world people are pushing back to defend democracy in Brazil. João Rodríguez, a longtime political activist in Brazil who is currently a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, joins Brian.

Wednesday's regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, joins the show.

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