1.4 million Americans filed new unemployment claims last week, the first increase in months, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the labor market. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate came closer to a unified position on a new stimulus package. They scrapped the president’s demand for a payroll tax cut, but they also proposed dramatically lower benefits for the unemployed.
President Trump yesterday threatened to send federal agents to cities all around America, ostensibly to protect federal buildings. We know from what we’ve seen in Portland, Oregon, though, that these agents are perpetrating violence on peaceful and unarmed protestors. The agents appear to be from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the Bureau of Prisons. They are dressed in military fatigues and they don’t wear nameplates or insignia. And they’ve been snatching people off the streets, throwing them into unmarked vehicles, and detaining them without charge. Dari Rodriguez, an organizer with the Bronx Justice Center, 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.
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