Anti-racism and anti-police protests are surging across the country with protesters demanding action to address the problems more quickly than elected officials seem willing or able to do. Marchers in Richmond, Virginia tore down a statue of Jefferson Davis last night, a statue of Christopher Columbus on Tuesday night, and another Confederate general on Saturday. Other Columbus statues in Houston, St. Paul, and Miami were defaced or torn down. Marchers in Seattle took control of a police precinct and declared it an “autonomous zone.” NASCAR announced that he would ban all Confederate flags from its races. And on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she would seek the removal of all Confederate statues from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
The top commander of the US armed forces, General Mark Milley, struggled to explain the role of the military as demands for a crackdown grew from the White House. The Pentagon and the National Guard are currently engaged in something called a “hot wash.” That’s an after-action investigation of their conduct during the protests in Washington a week and a half ago. The early indications, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post, are that the Pentagon leadership and the National Guard acted improperly in confronting peaceful demonstrations. Jeremy Kuzmarov, a professor of American history whose latest book is “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce,” 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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