Podcasts about caleb maupin journalist

It's Friday: that means it's panel time!"The April unemployment rate surged to a record 14.7%, and payrolls dropped by a historic 20.5 million workers as the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy, wiping out a decade of job gains in a single month," the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing US Labor Department data. What are we to make of this?Two men are facing charges in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Brunswick, Georgia. Gregory and Travis McMichael are charged with murder and aggravated assault charges for the death of Ahmaud Arbery back in February. Arbery was jogging down a street when the father and son confronted him with guns drawn. Video of the incident shows the confrontation unfold. Meanwhile, ABC 7 Chicago reported Wedesday, "An Illinois state representative who is black said he was stopped by a police officer while leaving a store and wearing a mask and gloves. In a series of tweets, Representative Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) said he was dressed casually, like most of the other shoppers on Sunday, when an officer asked to see his receipt and ID. Buckner complied. He asked why he was stopped and said the officer told him, 'People are using the coronavirus to do bad things. I couldn't see your face, man. You looked like you were up to something.'" What are we to make of these incidents?In the context of the operation's poor planning and utter failure, Alan MacLeod writes in MintPress News of the recently attempted coup in Venezuela: "In what has been labeled a new 'Keystone Kops Bay of Pigs,' the latest attempt to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro failed spectacularly, as both American and Venezuelan paramilitaries were immediately overwhelmed when they came into contact with the navy, or even with armed local fishermen's collectives." What are we to make of this?"Corporate media outlets spread fake news claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had died. The lie originated with a Seoul-based website funded by the US government's regime-change arm the NED," The Grayzone reported on May 4. "Many of these fake news stories originate with Korean opposition groups that are funded to the hilt by the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA cutout created by the Ronald Reagan administration to push regime change against foreign countries that don't sufficiently kowtow to Washington.""President Donald Trump made clear during both an interview and a press briefing Tuesday that he is willing to sacrifice lives for the sake of reopening US businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic, declaring that jumpstarting the American economy is worth the dire public health risks," Common Dreams reported Wednesday.We've got all these stories and more!GUESTS:Dr. Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. John Burris — Lead attorney and founder of the Law Office of John L. Burris. He is primarily known for his work in the area of civil rights, with an emphasis on police misconduct and excessive force cases. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy.David Schultz — Professor of political science at Hamline University. Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War."

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. There's been a lot of hype around Friday for Brexit, the same way we all waited with bated breath for the clock to strike 12 on January 1, 2000, for Y2K, when all the computers were supposed to crash, and nothing happened. How's this playing out in London?According to Friday remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron, Brexit is a "historic warning sign" for the European Union, adding that it meant "we need more Europe." He continued, "This departure is a shock. It's a historic warning sign which must ... be heard by all of Europe and make us reflect.” How is this playing out there? Macron, who was elected on a promise to transform the EU, also argued that Britain's decision to leave was enabled by the fact that "we did not change Europe enough"."US President Donald Trump unveiled his much-awaited peace plan on Tuesday at the White House. Alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said his plan is 'a win-win' for both Israel and the Palestinians," Haaretz reported Tuesday. But the plan demands Palestinians to "dismiss all pending actions" before the International Criminal Court. So what do we make of this?"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the Trump administration was committed to supporting Ukraine in its defense against aggression by Russia, which invaded and annexed part of the country and is supporting a separatist insurgency," The New York Times reported Friday.We've got all these stories and more!GUESTS:Garland Nixon — Co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik News Radio. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Dr. Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator who is the editor of The Polemicist.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. According to a Tweet put out by Muhawesh on Thursday, "URGENT: @danielhopsicker & @GeorgWebb have been publishing dangerous & false allegations against @MintPressNews, myself, our staff writer @_whitneywebb & affiliates of MPN, not to mention putting all of our safety at risk thru doxing (publish private or identifying information)." MintPress intends to take legal action. How big of a problem is this, and what does it say about the safety of independent journalists in a country where a free press is supposed to be a cornerstone of democracy and the republic? Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept, has been charged with cybercrimes in Brazil. He is "accused of being part of a 'criminal investigation' that hacked into the cellphones of prosecutors and public officials," the New York Times reported earlier this week. "Citing intercepted messages between Mr. Greenwald and the hackers, prosecutors say the journalist played a 'clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime.' For instance, prosecutors contend that Mr. Greenwald encouraged the hackers to delete archives that had already been shared with The Intercept Brasil, in order to cover their tracks. Prosecutors also say that Mr. Greenwald was communicating with the hackers while they were actively monitoring private chats on Telegram, a messaging app." Is there a link between US interests and what's happening in Brazil?"George Soros accused Facebook of working to re-elect Donald Trump in this year's US election campaign in exchange for protection," Politico reported Thursday. “'Facebook will work to re-elect Trump and Trump will protect Facebook,' the Hungarian-born US financier said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. 'It makes me very concerned about the outcome of 2020.' A Facebook company spokesperson later told Politico in response: 'This is just plain wrong.'" One of the problems that I have with this story is that Soros made this claim speaking at a dinner he hosted, but from all that I can see, he offered no proof."The Justice Department has concluded that two of the four court orders allowing the FBI to conduct secret national security surveillance as in secretly wiretap and spy on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page were not valid because the government made 'material misstatements' in obtaining them, according to a newly declassified judicial order," NBC News reported Thursday. What's going on here?"House impeachment managers laid out the heart of their abuse-of-power case against President Trump on Thursday — charging that his efforts to pressure Ukraine into political investigations were precisely what the nation's founders wanted to guard against when they empowered Congress to remove a president from office," the Washington Post reported Thursday. What can we expect to happen next?GUESTS:Mnar Muhawesh — Founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of MintPress News, and also a regular speaker on responsible journalism, sexism, neoconservativism within the media and journalism start-ups. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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." Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War."

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. "Taiwan votes in presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, which will set the course for the democratic island's ties with its giant and autocratic neighbor China, which claims Taiwan as its territory," Reuters reported Friday. Why does this matter, and how does it affect the US?"A sharply divided House voted on Thursday to force President Trump to come to Congress for authorization before taking further military action against Iran," the New York Times reported. It has been called a sharp response by some and a sharp rebuke by others to Trump acting without consulting Congress to increase tension with Tehran. The resolution passed 224 to 194, almost entirely along party lines. I don't know how sharp of a rebuke or response it was, since two weeks ago, 188 Democrats in the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and in doing so removed the bipartisan amendment that would have accomplished the same thing. So, they pass the NDAA without the amendment, Trump engages in an act of war against Iran, and now they want to strongly rebuke him?A Ukrainian jetliner crashed Wednesday after taking off from an airport in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board. "The jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines, went down on the outskirts of Tehran during takeoff just hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at US forces. While the timing of the disaster led some aviation experts to wonder whether it was brought down by a missile, Iranian officials disputed any such suggestion and blamed mechanical trouble," AP reported Wednesday. Let me preface this discussion by saying that there is a lot of speculation around this crash. We don't want to draw any conclusions just yet, and we really need to wait for the results of the investigation. But I think a discussion of this is warranted. One working theory, according to a Thursday Reuters report citing a US official: "U.S. satellites had detected the launch of two missiles shortly before the plane crashed, followed by evidence of an explosion. Two officials said Washington believed the downing of the plane was accidental."Job growth in the US economy is falling below what economists expected. The Labor Department reported 145,000 jobs were added in December. That's about 20,000 below what economists were hoping for. Still, it was the 10th straight year the US economy has added jobs. Wages are also up but not meeting expectations, rising by only 2.9% last month. GUESTS:Bob Schlehuber — Sputnik News analyst.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Dave Lindorff — Investigative reporter and founder of the news collective This Can't Be Happening! Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War."

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. "House Democrats took the historic step Wednesday of impeaching President [Donald] Trump, a momentous move that will send long-lasting reverberations throughout the Capitol and the country," The Hill reported Wednesday. "Lawmakers voted 230 to 197 on the resolution accusing Trump of abusing his power ... The second article, alleging obstruction, passed along near-identical lines, with lawmakers voting 229-198 approving it.""Christianity Today, an influential evangelical magazine, says Trump ‘should be removed from office,'" reads a Friday Washington Post headline, and the article begins: "The evangelical magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham published a surprising editorial Thursday calling for President Trump's removal and describing him as 'a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.'" The editorial in question, penned by Mark Galli, asserted: "It's time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president's character was revealed for what it was." This comes the same week that some of Trump 's conservative critics launched a political action committee (PAC) to oppose his reelection. "A group of conservatives known for their criticism of President Trump, led by lawyer George Conway, is launching a super PAC aimed at stopping Trump from winning reelection," The Hill reported Tuesday." The Lincoln Project is made up of some of Trump's staunchest conservative critics and represents the first formal operation for the so-called Never Trump movement." Could this become or has this become serious problem for Trump? Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate in Los Angeles, California, saw seven candidates take the stage: former US Vice President Joe Biden; Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; investor Tom Steyer; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. First, there has been discussion about the fact that Yang was the only person of color on the stage. We knew going in that the Democratic National Committee's process is rigged. Look at what they did to Sanders in 2016. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) - who dropped out of the race on December 3 but who had qualified for Thursday's debate - were fine with the process months ago. Now Booker wants to cry foul because he can't get traction in the polls."US-led pressure on North Korea fractures as China and Russia work for North Korea sanctions relief," reads a Reuters headline from Tuesday. The article states: "A proposal by China and Russia to ease UN sanctions on North Korea increases pressure on the United States and signals what is the likely end of unified efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its growing nuclear and missile arsenal." This comes a day after Reuters reported that US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said North Korea would likely carry out tests if they "don't feel satisfied" with the progress of diplomacy. How serious is this for the maximum pressure sanctions campaign that the US has employed?GUESTS:Jon Jeter — Author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Dr. Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time."The House Judiciary Committee quickly approved two articles of impeachment Friday against President Trump on party-line votes accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress," the Washington Post reported. "The full House is expected to vote to impeach Trump next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said there is 'no chance' the Senate will vote to remove Trump from office." Trump is now on his way to becoming the third president in history to be impeached, after Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson."Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Friday for 'closure' over the Brexit divisions that have riven or split the United Kingdom, saying his election victory provided an overwhelming mandate to take Britain out of the European Union on January 31," Reuters reported. "Johnson, the face of the victorious 'Leave' campaign in the 2016 referendum, fought the election under the slogan of 'Get Brexit Done,' promising to end the deadlock and spend more on health, education and the police." Now that the votes have been tabulated, the die has been cast. What does this mean going forward?"The United States and China cooled their trade war on Friday, announcing a 'Phase one' agreement that reduces some US tariffs in exchange for increased Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods," Reuters reported. "Beijing has agreed to buy $32 billion in additional agricultural goods over the next two years, US officials said, from a baseline of $24 billion purchased in 2017, before the trade war started. China would also ramp-up purchases of US manufactured goods, energy and services."So, more than 180 House Democrats joined a nearly united Republican caucus Wednesday night in passing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, a $738 billion military budget that includes funding for the Space Force as a sixth armed service and increases the Pentagon's budget by $22 billion. On the House floor Wednesday night, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) excoriated the bill, saying, "The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Yemen: stripped by the White House. The bipartisan amendment to stop the war against Iran: stripped by the White House." Only 41 Democrats voted against the bill. What does all of this really mean?"A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable," the Post reported Monday. Sounds like Iraq and Vietnam all over again. GUESTS:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Dave Lindorff — Investigative reporter and founder of the news collective This Can't Be Happening! Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War." Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."

House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, accusing him of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress in its impeachment inquiry. This should all but guarantee that he becomes just the third president in the nation's history to be impeached, joining the infamous club of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon went through an inquiry and resigned before a formal vote could be undertaken. What does this mean going forward? House Democrats said Tuesday that they had rewritten sections of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Trump's new North American trade deal to replace NAFTA, adding new protections for workers' rights and removing a section they said would have caused prescription drug prices to rise. Are Democrats playing political gamesmanship at the highest level, or will Trump create a narrative that moves him closer to victory in 2020? "A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable," the Post reported Monday. Sounds like Iraq and Vietnam all over again. GUESTS: Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War." Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California. Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including "Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis." Kathy Kelly — Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Roger Stone, a longtime political operative and associate of US President Donald Trump, was found guilty of federal charges on Friday. "The panel of nine women and three men deliberated for less than two days before finding Stone, 67, guilty on all seven counts," the Washington Post reported. "A judge set Stone's sentencing for Feb. 6 and allowed him to remain free until then. Stone faces a legal maximum penalty of 50 years in prison — 20 years for the witness tampering charge and five years for each of the other counts, although a first offender would face far less time under federal sentencing guidelines."Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs George Kent testified in open impeachment inquiry hearings before the House Intelligence Committee earlier this week. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified Friday. Here are my thoughts about this: the Democrats claim they have a rock-solid, smoking gun case for impeachment. What I have heard so far is a circumstantial presentation that requires what I call inferential supposition. Today, Yovanovitch's testimony sounded like what my colleague Bob Schlehuber called a bad HR exit interview.Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned from office on Sunday, and riots and protests intensified across the country Monday. On Tuesday, Senator Jeanine Añez, a leader of Bolivia's right-wing opposition party, declared herself interim president of the country, despite lacking the constitutionally required number of lawmakers to approve her appointment. In response to that development, Morales, who has accepted asylum in Mexico, tweeted that the coup in the country "has been consummated." What's going on in Bolivia?Islamic Jihad leader Baha Abu al-Ata was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week. "Israeli security forces killed a senior leader of the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in a targeted airstrike in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, sparking retaliatory rocket fire from the enclave and raising fears of escalating reprisals," the Washington Post reported Tuesday. "Syrian state media, meanwhile, reported that an attack about the same time struck the house of a second Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus. The reports said that the leader, Akram al-Ajouri, was not injured but that his son and one other person were killed and 10 others were wounded. Israel declined to comment on the reports." How dramatic and destabilizing of an action is this?"There are seven weeks until North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is scheduled to deliver a keynote New Year's Day speech. That will come a day after his self-imposed year-end deadline expires for the United States to come up with new proposals to restart nuclear talks," the Washington Post reported Thursday. "On Wednesday — with Washington transfixed on the House impeachment inquiry — North Korea significantly raised the stakes, making an implicit threat to resume long-range missile or nuclear tests. In an official statement, the North said it felt 'betrayed' by a US decision to continue with joint air drills with South Korea, calling it an 'undisguised breach' of an agreement made between Kim and Trump in Singapore last year."GUESTS:Lee Stranahan — Co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik News Radio.Dr. Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Joia Jefferson Nuri, communications specialist for In The Public Eye Communications.Tuesday night's elections were good for Democrats. They already occupied the offices of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general in Virginia, and now they control both houses of its legislature, seemingly solidifying the state's transition to “blue” status. Democrats picked up the Kentucky governor's mansion and kept the Mississippi governor's race to within around 6 points. Will we look back a year from now and see Tuesday as a bellwether, a harbinger or an outlying data point?US President Donald Trump was really clear last week while announcing Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's demise: “We are leaving soldiers to secure the oil. And we may have to fight for the oil. It's OK. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight. But there's massive amounts of oil … And we're securing it for a couple of reasons. Number one, it stops ISIS [Daesh], because ISIS got tremendous wealth from that oil. We have taken it. It's secured. Number two – and again, somebody else may claim it, but either we'll negotiate a deal with whoever is claiming it, if we think it's fair, or we will militarily stop them very quickly.” Dana Stroul, a longtime US diplomat who oversaw a congressionally mandated study of Syria, outlined a four-pronged plan for what she called the “new phase” of the war in Syria. What is this four-pronged plan?French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping have announced fresh trade contracts worth $15 billion amid the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Macron and Xi also agreed to double down on combating climate change. What do the French know that the US does not?Iran is going to begin injecting uranium gas into 1,044 centrifuges. It's the latest step away from 2015 nuclear deal, and it piles pressure on EU signatories of the pact to counteract crippling US sanctions against Tehran. In journalist Caleb Maupin's new piece, entitled "Confronting the Islamic Republic: Trump vs. Rhodes' Round Table" he writes, "There seem to be solid disagreements among the circles of power about how much to escalate tensions with Iran." The basis for these differences, and what they represent, are worth examining carefully.GUESTS:Joia Jefferson Nuri — Communications specialist for In The Public Eye Communications.Ben Norton — Journalist with the Grayzone Project and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast. Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics and politics at St. Mary's College in California. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

According to The Grayzone, its editor Max Blumenthal has been arrested on false charges after reporting on Venezuelan opposition violence outside the Washington, DC, embassy. What's really behind this action and does it have any stifling effect on independent journalists? He was arrested on the morning of October 25 on what he says is a fabricated charge related to the siege of the Venezuelan embassy in DC that took place between April and May. What happened and what's going on here? "A team of DC police officers appeared at Blumenthal's door at just after 9 a.m., demanding entry and threatening to break his door down. A number of officers had taken positions on the side of his home as though they were prepared for a SWAT-style raid," Ben Norton wrote for The Grayzone. "Blumenthal was hauled into a police van and ultimately taken to DC central jail, where he was held for two days in various cells and cages. He was shackled by his hands and ankles for over five hours in one such cage along with other inmates. His request for a phone call was denied by DC police and corrections officers, effectively denying him access to the outside world. Blumenthal was informed that he was accused of simple assault by a Venezuelan opposition member. He declared the charge completely baseless." First, simple assault required such a show of force? Also, the arrest warrant was five months old. "According to an individual familiar with the case, the warrant for Blumenthal's arrest was initially rejected. Strangely, this false charge was revived months later without the defendant's knowledge," Norton continued. If he had been notified, he could have voluntarily surrendered and appeared at his own arraignment. According to Max, “Instead, the federal government essentially enlisted the DC police to SWAT me, ensuring that I would be subjected to an early morning raid and then languish in prison for two days without even the ability to call an attorney.""Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced he was resigning today, succumbing to the demands of protesters who have staged nationwide demonstrations for nearly two weeks," CNN reported Tuesday. "The three-time prime minister has led a national unity government, which included some of his political adversaries, for less than two years. In recent months, the country saw rapid economic deterioration, ballooning debt and rising prices." What's really going on here, and will Hariri's resignation make any substantive difference? "Scores of protesters in downtown Beirut cheered as Hariri announced his departure. At their peak, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest government corruption on Sunday," CNN continued. What's happening in Lebanon?"After President Donald Trump said on Monday the US will be 'keeping the oil' in northeastern Syria, his administration is looking into the 'specifics,' according to a senior State Department official — but it's prompted renewed cries that doing so is a war crime," ABC News reported Monday. What does all of this mean? "On Sunday, when detailing the US special forces raid against [Daesh] leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Trump said US troops would remain in Syria to secure 'massive' oil reserves and even put up 'a hell of a fight' against any force that tried to take them. 'We should be able to take some also, and what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly,' he added. 'We're keeping the oil,' Trump said Monday to a conference of police chiefs in Chicago. 'I've always said that — keep the oil. We want to keep the oil, $45 million a month. Keep the oil. We've secured the oil,'" the report continued. So, when you hear the president say that, what comes to your mind?GUESTS:Bill Moran — Attorney for Max Blumenthal.Kevin Zeese — Co-editor for Popular Resistance.Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War." Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that the US and China have reached what he called a substantial “phase one“ trade deal in which Beijing agreed to limited measures to improve trade ties between the countries. In exchange, Trump will not move forward with another round of tariff increases against roughly $250 billion in Chinese goods that had been set to take effect on Tuesday. Who really won in this deal?The May dismissal of Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, is now a subject of interest to House of Representatives impeachment investigators. In prepared remarks to Congress Friday, Yovanovitch said Trump pressured the State Department to oust her. "She told lawmakers that she was forced to leave Kiev on “the next plane” this spring and subsequently removed from her post, with the State Department's No. 2 official telling her that, although she had done nothing wrong, the president had lost confidence in her and the agency had been under significant pressure to remove her since the summer of 2018," the Washington Post reported Friday. What are we to make of her testimony? Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, two associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, were arrested Wednesday at Virginia's Dulles International Airport while trying to leave the country. They were charged Thursday with "conspiring to make contributions in connection with federal elections in the names of others, and with making false statements to and falsifying records to obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission," according to the Department of Justice. How bad is this, not just for Igor and Lev but for Rudy?Turkey is now in its third day of ground and air strikes against Syrian Kurdish groups who were key allies in the US fight against Daesh. How big of a mistake is this? What about the mixed messages? "Mr. Trump acquiesced to the Turkish operation in a call with Turkey's president on Sunday, agreeing to move American troops out of Turkey's way despite opposition from his own State Department and military. On Wednesday, hours after the operation began, he condemned it, calling it 'a bad idea,'" the New York Times reported.Two missiles reportedly struck a National Iranian Oil Company tanker in the Red Sea off of Saudi Arabia's coast Friday, causing an explosion and an oil spill. Saheb Sadeghi, head of public relations for the National Iranian Tanker Company, told Iranian state-run outlet Press TV that the projectiles were "possibly" launched from Saudi soil, but Tehran has not yet provided any public evidence regarding the incident. According to global ship tracking service Marine Traffic, the tanker in question is traveling south, and the Iranian government has yet to blame the strike on anyone.GUESTS:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California.

It's Friday, which means it's panel time!On Thursday night, investigators from the House of Representatives released a trove of text messages obtained from former US Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, in which US State Department officials and Rudy Giuliani — US President Donald Trump's personal attorney — negotiated with a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The texts show that US officials felt Trump would not agree to meet with Zelensky at a summit unless the Ukrainian president publicly promised to investigate both the 2016 US presidential election and a Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden, the son of current Democratic presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden. As this continues to play out, where's the leverage? Who has the advantage? While the US' private sector added more jobs in September than forecasts predicted, the pace of job growth flagged, and there are increasing indications that the labor market is tightening, according to a Wednesday report from ADP and Moody's Analytics. "Manufacturing activity is contracting across advanced economies, according to a raft of data released on Tuesday that pointed to the impact of US President Donald Trump's trade policies," the Financial Times reported. "Output this summer was lower than a year earlier across all 36 advanced economies and sentiment indicators show that it is the most geographically widespread manufacturing downturn for seven years. The global purchasing managers' index in September recorded its fifth month below the 50 mark, the level that divides expansion from contraction. That was the longest period that indicator has been so low since 2012." Are these blips of data outliers, or should we be paying attention to them as indicators of what's to come?A Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May allows some teachers in the state to carry guns in the classroom. The controversial measure was drawn up in response to the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in which 17 people were killed. According to the new law, school districts may designate at least one school-safety officer for each public school, who would be allowed to carry a weapon. The pool form which such officers can be drawn is broad, including district-employed law enforcement officials, security guards, school resource officers and school guardians.We'll have all these stories and more!GUESTS:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Anya Parampil, Washington, DC-based journalist. She previously hosted a daily, progressive afternoon news program called "In Question" on RT America."Hours before an expected vote at the United Nations General Assembly on the legitimacy of Venezuela's Maduro-led government amidst a US-led coup, a senior official of Juan Guaidó's coup regime was forced to resign from his position," The Grayzone reported Friday. "Economist Ricardo Hausmann stepped down from his post at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) following an exposé by The Grayzone's Anya Parampil of his conflicts of interest and opaque financial practices." What does this say about the attempted coup, and what does it mean going forward? House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday that his panel has reached an agreement to secure testimony from the anonymous whistleblower whose detailed complaint launched an impeachment investigation into US President Donald Trump. This while, according to The Hill, "House Democrats want an impeachment inquiry that moves swiftly, but they say they have no timeline. They say they want to narrowly focus the investigation on President Trump and his alleged efforts to get a foreign government to dig up dirt on a political rival. Yet the potential witness list and lines of inquiry grow by the hour." Where are we going with all of this?While President Trump has hoped his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will convince the country to give up its nuclear weapons, recently fired US national security adviser John Bolton contended in a Monday speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank that North Korea will not denuclearize and that it has benefited from stalling in talks with the US. "It seems to be clear that [North Korea] has not made a strategic decision to give up its nuclear weapons. In fact, I think the contrary is true," Bolton said, adding that Kim "will never give up the nuclear weapons voluntarily." This is an interesting analysis from the same guy who said that Kim would go the same way as former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. What does all of this mean?GUESTS:Anya Parampil — Washington, DC-based journalist. She previously hosted a daily, progressive afternoon news program called "In Question" on RT America. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Linwood Tauheed — Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War."

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. US President Donald Trump tweeted last weekend that he had canceled scheduled meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and senior Taliban leaders on September 8. He claimed to have called off the secret Camp David meetings because the Taliban admitted responsibility for a recent attack in Kabul which killed a US soldier. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zhalmay Khalilzad previously declared that an agreement with the Taliban had been finalized "in principle" and initialed by both sides after nine rounds of painstaking negotiations in Doha, Qatar. "Taliban leaders said they would come to Washington as long as the visit came after the deal was announced. That would become a fundamental dividing point contributing to the collapse of the talks. Mr. Trump did not want the Camp David meeting to be a celebration of the deal; after staying out of the details of what has been a delicate effort in a complicated region, Mr. Trump wanted to be the dealmaker who would put the final parts together himself, or at least be perceived to be," The New York Times reported September 8."In the largest of a number of demonstrations across Britain on Saturday, crowds gathered outside Downing Street to protest against 'Boris Johnson's coup against the democratic process' and hear combative speeches from anti-Brexit campaigners. The London protest was marred by violence when scores of pro-Brexit counter-protesters attempted to disrupt the rally and provoke the anti-Brexit demonstrators by marching through the crowd holding a banner demanding the UK revert to WTO rules – which some believe would be the default eventuality after a no-deal Brexit – and verbally insulting them," The Guardian reported on September 7. All of this occurred after Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd launched a broadside against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "aggressive and dangerous" approach to Brexit when she resigned on September 7 from the Conservative Party. Rudd, who favors Britain remaining in the EU, warned that if Johnson continues to pit Parliament against the people, violence in the streets will follow.Former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford said last Sunday that he's challenging President Trump in 2020 for the Republican presidential nomination, and he criticized both the president and Congress for the nation's rising deficit. "I think we need to have a conversation on what it means to be a Republican," he told Fox News. "I think that as a Republican Party, we have lost our way. ... The epicenter of where I'm coming from is that we have lost our way on debt and deficits and spending … The president has called himself the 'King of Debt,' has a familiarity and comfort level with debt that I think is ultimately leading us in the wrong direction."President Trump claims US forces are responding aggressively after an American soldier was killed in a car bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week. Speaking at the Pentagon's annual 9/11 ceremony, Trump said, "We have hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue." Trump also talked about canceling planned peace talks with the Taliban after the car bomb attack. He said, "They thought they would use this attack to show strength, but actually, what they showed is an unrelenting weakness." Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. But as the Washington Post states, "That was thrown into sharp relief this week when President Trump abruptly announced Saturday that he was canceling months of negotiations with the Taliban, even as he aims to fulfill a promise of ending America's endless wars. The US war in Afghanistan has led to the deaths of about 2,400 American service members, including 16 in combat action this year. Some 20,000 more have been wounded, many grievously." So will we ever pull out, and why are we still there?The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration can enforce its new asylum rules, which require some people seeking asylum to apply in a third country before applying in the US. The administration's intent is to block immigrants from Central and South America from traveling to the southern border of the US to ask for asylum. The high court said the administration could enforce the new rule while it's being challenged in court, overturning a lower court's ruling that temporarily blocked the measure.We have all these stories and more!GUESTS:Kathy Kelly — Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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." David Schultz — Professor of political science at Hamline University and author of "Presidential Swing States: Why Only Ten Matter."

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst. It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. US President Donald Trump is raising the stakes in his trade war with China, tweeting Friday that he's increasing the tariffs scheduled to start next week from 10% to 15% on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump's comments came on a volatile day in his trade war. China started things off by announcing tariffs on $75 billion of US goods Friday morning. Just as the market was starting to calm down, Trump made two tweets that further rattled investors. The first ordered American companies to find alternatives to doing business in China, and the second wondered who is the bigger enemy: Chinese President Xi Jinping or US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump also tweeted his justification for taking on China over trade, saying it is something that was long overdue. Hong Kong saw its first weekend without tear gas in weeks, even as anti-government protesters brought streets to a standstill, and hundreds of thousands of people marched despite police objection. Hong Kong's embattled leader, Carrie Lam, has said she will “immediately” set up a platform for dialogue with citizens and tackle complaints against the police, after a weekend of peaceful protests that she hoped would be the start of a return to calm in the financial hub. Her offer was dismissed by activists as “a trap”, however. “Work will start immediately to build a platform of dialogue,” Lam said. “We hope this dialogue can be built upon a basis of mutual understanding and respect to find a way out for Hong Kong.” What is to come of these protests?New York state, New York City, Connecticut and Vermont sued the US federal government Tuesday, challenging new Trump administration rules blocking green cards for many immigrants who benefit from public assistance programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing vouchers. The plaintiffs are not the only ones suing over the new policy, one of the administration's most aggressive moves yet to stem legal immigration. The Trump administration is also planning to hold migrant families in detention for the entire duration of their immigration proceedings. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan says the current standards incentivize illegal entry, which has “caused and fueled” the family crisis at our southern border. At issue is an agreement the US government made with a federal court in 1997 after lawyers representing migrant children, including a girl named Jenny Lisette Flores, filed a lawsuit objecting to their treatment in custody. The resulting "Flores Settlement Agreement" limited the time children could be held in custody to 20 days and required that they be provided safe and sanitary conditions.Police arrested Tristan Scott Wix, 25, on Friday in Daytona Beach, Florida, on a charge of making written threats to kill. Wix was detained outside a Winn-Dixie grocery store after police were alerted of text messages he had sent saying he wanted to “break a world record for longest confirmed kill,” according to WKMG-TV. The suspect sent several text messages saying he wanted to kill 100 people in a mass shooting and had decided on a location, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office reported. Deputies said the 25-year-old told them he is fascinated by mass shootings but does not own any guns. However, Volusia County Sheriff Michael Chitwood told CNN Sunday that officials had searched Wix's apartment and found a .22-caliber hunting rifle and 400 rounds of ammunition. What's really going on here?These stories and more!GUEST:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways has been caught up in the fallout of ongoing pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Hundreds of flights were canceled this week because of protests at Hong Kong International Airport, and the airline has threatened to fire employees who take part in the demonstrations. It was announced Friday that the company's CEO Rupert Hogg and Chief Commercial Officer Paul Loo are resigning. The airline's stock has fallen almost 24% since April. What's going on in Hong Kong and why?Greenland is not for sale. That's what Ane Lone Bager, Greenland's foreign minister, told journalists who asked her about reports that US President Donald Trump has talked about the possibility of buying the territory with advisers. She said, "We are open for business, but we're not for sale." The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump has repeatedly asked advisers about buying Greenland with "varying degrees of seriousness." He's said to have asked the White House counsel to look into whether it could be done. What's with the interest in Greenland?The Trump administration is moving ahead with an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan despite strong objections from China. The State Department late yesterday submitted the package for informal review. It would be the largest and most significant sale of weaponry to the self-governing island in years, and comes amid stalled trade talks and a deteriorating US relationship with China. Lawmakers from both parties had questioned whether the White House would scuttle the sale to soften the ground for a US-China trade deal, or otherwise use the fighter jets as a bargaining chip in deadlocked negotiations.Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said Friday that she would not travel to Israel under “oppressive conditions” to see her 90-year-old grandmother after the Israeli government reversed course and said it would allow her to make the trip. After initially banning her and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country, Israel relented Friday in response to a request from Tlaib to see her grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank, during a four-day trip planned for next week. Hours later, Tlaib said she had decided not to travel to Israel under conditions that would have included a pledge in writing not to “promote boycotts against Israel” while there. Your thoughts?How bad will the next recession be? Prognostications vary, and we don't have great data on future events. But we've got plenty on what happened in the past, and we can look there for clues.Gibraltar's government Thursday released an Iranian supertanker detained on suspicion of violating European Union sanctions on oil exports to Syria, authorities said, in a move likely to soothe tensions with Iran even as it drew opposition from the Trump administration. The Grace 1 tanker was seized last month near Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, with 2.1 million barrels of oil, which the government suspected was destined for the Syrian port Baniyas. Its detention was at the center of a brewing crisis between Iran and the British government, which helped Gibraltar authorities impound the ship.On Monday we discussed how Yemeni separatists over the weekend seized key government and military posts in Aden – the de facto capital – raising the prospect of the South seceding. The power grab, carried out by UAE-backed forces, calls into question the unity and purpose of the Gulf Arab coalition in Yemen, launched in 2015 to restore the Yemeni government to power and roll back gains made by the Houthi rebels. Thursday on Capitol Hill there was a vigil in honor of the 41 Yemeni students killed last August in Sa'dah by an American bomb.GUESTS:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War." Mac Hamilton — Executive manager at STAND: The Student-led Movement to End Mass Atrocities.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Democratic presidential candidates are traversing Iowa this week with lively summer bus tours, stopping with their families at the Iowa State Fair and eating fried butter and fried Oreos, and speaking at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox and the annual Democratic Wing Ding fundraiser. So, right now Real Clear Politics has Joe Biden up by nine points over Elizabeth Warren, followed by Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. Is there any sense of momentum on the ground that either confirms these numbers or provides a different perspective? Have the shootings in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio, changed the focus of discussion for these candidates?The man accused of carrying out last weekend's deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso confessed to officers while he was surrendering and later explained that he had been targeting Mexicans, authorities say. The death toll is 22. Just hours after that attack, another man wielding a powerful firearm unleashed more horror, this time at a strip of bars and restaurants in Dayton, Ohio. Police said that in about 30 seconds, the shooter killed nine people and injured 27 more. Police in Dayton are still trying to determine his motive. On July 28, three people were killed, including two children, and 12 others wounded in a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California. Santino William Legan, 19, was the shooter. In April, 19-year-old John Earnest opened fire at the Poway synagogue in San Diego, California, killing one person and injuring three others. Last October, 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 11 people and injuring six others.The deputy director of national intelligence is resigning. Sue Gordon is leaving a vacuum at the top of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), resigning at the same time as her boss, DNI Dan Coats, who announced his resignation last month. Gordon spent more than 25 years at the CIA before becoming the second-in-command at the ODNI. US President Donald Trump praised her as a great professional in a tweet. She and Coats are leaving on August 15. But did Trump push her out? What's going on here?US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up nearly 700 suspected undocumented immigrants Wednesday in what's being called the biggest single-state immigration raid in US history. Agents who raided food processing plants in six Mississippi cities took 680 people into custody. The acting director of ICE says they'll go before an immigration judge to see if they should be allowed to stay in the US. The Southern Poverty Law Center says children had their parents ripped away from them parents during the first week of school. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, called the raids "dehumanizing and ineffective" and is asking churches in the city to become immigrant sanctuaries. Trump is still insisting that Americans are not paying for the steep tariffs he has imposed on China. Economists and trade analysts say otherwise. Talking at the White House, Trump again expressed optimism about striking a deal with China to end the ongoing trade war with the US. More meetings between negotiators are expected next month. Trump said the US has been "hurt by China" for decades. What's the truth?GUESTS: Bob Schlehuber — Producer for By Any Means Necessary and Sputnik news analyst. Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist, and political analyst. It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Disputes between the Trump administration and Puerto Rican leaders over rebuilding costs and the unsteady implementation of a new process to approve project funding have severely hamstrung recovery from Hurricane Maria. Out of some 10,000 schools, bridges and other damaged sites dotting the island, funds for only nine have gotten the green light from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as of Wednesday. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló faces calls to resign over two separate scandals: a fraudulent scheme involving federal funds that ensnared two former top aides; and the release of private chat messages between the governor and other top aides that were insulting and inflammatory.US President Donald Trump is confident that the drone the US took down in the Strait of Hormuz this week was Iranian. Speaking at the White House Friday, Trump said the US is prepared to respond to other provocations from Iran and warned them not to do anything foolish. The US Navy warship USS Boxer brought down the drone as it came within 1,000 yards of the vessel. Pentagon officials say numerous calls to "stand down" were ignored. Iranian officials say the drone wasn't theirs. However, Iran claims it seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. State media reports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps captured the oil tanker Stena Impero on Friday for violating international regulations. The move comes a day after Trump said US forces took down the Iranian drone. Where do we go from here?Convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein is staying behind bars for now after he was denied bail. He is awaiting a trial on new charges in New York that he sex trafficked and abused underage women. Prosecutors argued Epstein's wealth, access to a private jet and motive to flee were reasons he should remain locked up. Epstein's attorneys were pushing to have him out on bail living in his Manhattan mansion under heavy supervision. Epstein, already a registered sex offender, is accused of sex trafficking dozens of girls from 2002 to 2005. GUESTS:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Earlier Friday, US President Donald Trump described the decision-making process to call off an attack on Iran in order to avoid disproportionate casualties. His decision and his account of such are facing scrutiny from aides around him and military analysts questioning the sequence of events he laid out in tweets and statements. The president said he called off the strike at the last minute because it would kill 150 people in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned surveillance drone. “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die,” he tweeted. But administration officials said Trump was told earlier Thursday how many casualties could occur if a strike on Iran was carried out, and that he had given the green light to prepare for the operation Thursday morning. The decision has divided his top advisers, with senior Pentagon officials opposing the decision to strike and National Security Adviser John Bolton strongly supporting it.China's President Xi Jinping went to North Korea to hold talks with Kim Jong Un before this month's G-20 summit, while Trump and Canadian prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the North American trade deal in the context of the trade war with China. Xi arrived in North Korea for a historic summit with Kim Thursday, becoming the first Chinese leader to travel to the country in 14 years. His two-day trip comes days before Xi is scheduled to meet with Trump during a Group of 20 summit in Japan. Is this pre-game strategy between Xi and Kim?The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a $1 trillion spending bill Wednesday that amounts to what some describe as an opening bid in a guns vs. butter fight with the Trump administration. The measure far exceeds Trump's budget request for domestic programs, attracting a White House veto threat, but denies him his full Pentagon budget increase. The House bill includes $733 billion for the Pentagon, up from $716 billion the previous year. Trump demanded $750 billion. The Philadelphia Police Department announced Wednesday it had taken 72 officers off the streets in response to the discovery of thousands of offensive social media posts by the officers, including violent messages and racist memes. The officers were placed on desk duty as the social media scandal brews, implicating more than 300 officers of the city's 6,500-strong police force. The posts came to light as part of the work of the Plain View Project, a group of lawyers that began monitoring the social media accounts of Philadelphia officers in the fall of 2017 in order to assess whether the officers' online behavior eroded public trust in the police force. The group's data collection ended up identifying offensive posts by 2,900 officers, including hundreds more former officers across eight police departments. The data dump has caused police departments in other cities — including Phoenix, St. Louis and Dallas — to assess how to discipline their officers for offensive posts. In a thorough and damning report on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi released Wednesday, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Agnes Callamard concluded, after a nearly six-month investigation, that Khashoggi was the victim of a “deliberate, premeditated execution” and his kidnapping and murder violated international law. She added that Khashoggi may have been tortured. "Evidence points to the 15-person mission to execute Mr. Khashoggi requiring significant government coordination, resources, and finances," Callamard wrote. "Every expert consulted finds it inconceivable that an operation of this scale could be implemented without the crown prince being aware, at a minimum, that some sort of mission of a criminal nature, directed at Mr. Khashoggi, was being launched." We have talked in the past about how this heinous murder has been used as the rationale for members of Congress to oppose the US involvement in the Saudi war against Yemen.GUESTS:Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: "The Frozen Republic," "The Velvet Coup" and "America's Undeclared War." Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst. It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. A London court will decide in February whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be extradited to the US to face 18 criminal charges in connection with the leak of thousands of classified documents relating to US military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange appeared at the Westminster Magistrates' Court Friday by video link from Belmarsh Prison, where he is currently serving a 50-week sentence for skipping bail and fleeing to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012. It's interesting to me that Assange told the London court he had not seen the latest indictment containing 18 US allegations against him.The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a lawsuit by a Yemeni man, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, who has been held in wartime detention for more than 17 years at the military's Guantánamo Bay prison, prompting Justice Stephen G. Breyer to warn in a statement that the American legal system is on autopilot toward permitting life imprisonment without trial. “It is past time to confront the difficult question left open by” a 2004 ruling allowing the indefinite detention of Guantánamo prisoners captured after the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan. What has happened to the US Constitution? Two petrochemical tankers in the Gulf of Oman came under suspected attack early Thursday amid soaring tensions between the United States and Iran. One of two ships attacked, a Japanese-owned tanker, was targeted just as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was wrapping up a high-stakes visit to Tehran to help cool hostilities in the region and potentially mediate US-Iran talks. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran on Thursday for the “blatant assault” on the vessels and said the United States would defend itself and its allies against Iranian aggression in the region. US President Donald Trump rejected Iran's denials Friday that it had attacked two tankers, insisting in a television interview that “Iran did do it” and pointing to a video released by the US Central Command purporting to show Iranian vessels retrieving an unexploded mine from one of the damaged ships. Can anyone say Gulf of Tonkin?President Trump announced an expanded military relationship with Poland on Wednesday, including the likelihood of additional US troops serving at what Trump called a “world-class” new Polish base, as his administration rewards a like-minded and increasingly authoritarian NATO ally. What's going on here? Poland, which has said it wants to buy 32 state-of-the-art F-35s from the US, meets its NATO defense spending commitment, while Germany falls far short. Trump pointed to the NATO spending shortfall several times during public appearances alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, and also criticized Germany for its planned purchase of large amounts of Russian natural gas.GUESTS:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jim Kavanaugh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; and Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst. It's Friday, so that means its panel time. Hiring cooled in May, the Labor Department reported today, as firms appeared more hesitant to bring on new employees amid uncertainty over President Trump escalating the trade war. The U.S. economy added 75,000 jobs in May, a significant pullback from 224,000 jobs added in April. Analysts had expected a gain of about 175,000 jobs, according to Bloomberg. Is this heightening fears the trade war is taking a greater toll? The unemployment rate remained at a five-decade low of 3.6 percent. Dr. Jack Rasmus, you have been talking for the past few months that a recession is looming on the horizon. Are jobs still a lagging indicator of the US economy? The Justice Department has decided not to charge Julian Assange for his role in exposing some of the CIA's most secret spying tools. It's a move that has surprised national security experts and some former officials, given prosecutors' recent decision to aggressively go after the WikiLeaks founder on more controversial Espionage Act charges that some legal experts said would not hold up in court. The decision also means that Assange will not face punishment for publishing one of the CIA's most potent arsenals of digital code used to hack devices, dubbed Vault 7. So instead, the Justice Department will go after Assange on the one count for allegedly assisting Manning and the 17-count Espionage Act indictment. There are no plans to bring any additional indictments prior to his extradition.During his press conference in London on Tuesday with outgoing British PM Teresa May, President Trump dismisses London protests, says he would have sued E.U. over Brexit and a bunch of other things. He said that he believed Brexit would eventually happen, adding that Britain is “a very, very special place and I think it deserves a special place.” What are we to make of all of this? The saga in Venezuela continues. During a closed-door meeting in New York last week with Jewish leaders, Secretary Pompeo spoke honestly about the challenges the Trump administration is facing in their attempts to overthrow the democratically elected president of VZ, Nicolas Maduro. The US narrative has been that the opposition is strong, united and legitimate. In this meeting Pompeo admits, “Our conundrum, which is to keep the opposition united, has proven devilishly difficult…The moment Maduro leaves, everybody's going to raise their hands and [say], ‘Take me, I'm the next president of Venezuela.' It would be forty-plus people who believe they're the rightful heir to Maduro.” What's going here? Speaking ahead of his trip to Normandy, Trump said he had made clear to Mexico that he was prepared to follow through on his threat to levy 5 percent tariffs on Mexican exports from June 10, rising to 25 percent by October. But he added: “We're having a great talk with Mexico. . . something pretty dramatic could happen”. This is a marked change of tone from Wednesday night when he tweeted that “not nearly enough” progress had been made. I've been asking is the threat of further tariffs a negotiating ploy? All of this while the NY Times today published analysis on Which States Will Be Hit Hardest by Trump's Tariffs on Mexico.GUESTS:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst. It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. Special counsel Robert Mueller finally spoke publicly Wednesday, and his carefully chosen comments highlight the ways in which he disagrees with his boss, Attorney General William Barr, about the facts and the law surrounding the investigation into US President Donald Trump. One of the lines from his nine-minute presentation is: “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.” Mueller's remarks also made clear how heavily his office relied on a long-standing legal opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that a sitting president cannot be indicted. That opinion, Mueller said, “says that the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” I don't agree with that. So, where was all of this weeks ago when Barr first came out with his spin machine, and what are we to make of Mueller, who infamously told us that Saddam Hussein had WMD's?The license for Missouri's last abortion provider will not expire, according to court documents. Judge Michael Stelzer has ruled that the “temporary restraining order is granted” and "petitioner's license shall not expire and shall remain in effect." The matter will be heard in court again on June 4. The clinic's license to perform abortions was scheduled to expire at the end of Friday.Federal judge Carlton Reeves blocked a Mississippi law last week that forbids abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. In issuing a preliminary injunction, Judge Reeves said the law "threatens immediate harm to women's rights, especially considering most women do not seek abortions services until after six weeks." He further wrote, "Allowing the law to take effect would force the clinic to stop providing most abortion care," adding that "by banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, the law prevents a woman's free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy."According to Bloomberg, China, the world's largest soybean buyer, has put purchases of American supplies on hold as the trade war between Washington and Beijing escalates. "State-grain buyers haven't received any further orders to continue with the so-called goodwill buying and don't expect that to happen given the lack of agreement in trade negotiations. Still, China currently has no plans to cancel previous purchases of American soybeans," the outlet reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.We'll cover these topics and so many more!GUESTS:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. A federal judge today issued a preliminary injunction blocking Mississippi's fetal heartbeat anti-abortion law from going into effect, saying it infringes on women's health care rights. “Here we go again. Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions prior to viability,” Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his order. "By banning abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, SB 226 prevents a woman's free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy.” The Mississippi ban prohibited abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, or around six weeks into pregnancy. Governor Phil Bryant signed the bill into law in March. The lawsuit leading to the injunction was filed by the Jackson Women's Health Organization against Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer of Mississippi.After defying political gravity for three years, Theresa May brought her tortured tenure as UK prime minister to a close Friday. "I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold," she said outside Downing Street, her voice quivering in the morning sunshine. And with that, she's off - or at least she will be later in the summer, once a new Conservative leader is elected. We knew it was imminent, but to me, it is still a surprise.The US government is stressing that Julian Assange is no journalist after bringing an 18-count indictment against the co-founder of WikiLeaks. Federal prosecutors are accusing Assange of violating the Espionage Act in working with a former Army intelligence analyst to obtain and distribute classified information. That worries some professional journalists because it's close to what they do. Assange remains in jail in London after being evicted from the Ecuadorian Embassy there. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified lawmakers Friday that US President Donald Trump is invoking his emergency authority to sidestep Congress and complete 22 arms deals that would benefit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, despite lawmakers' objections to the transactions. Both Republicans and Democrats urged the Trump administration this week not to take the rare step of exploiting a legal window to push through deals - worth about $8 billion, according to congressional aides - that lawmakers have blocked from being finalized. You know, it was Wall Street who was happy and well cared for during the Obama administration. Now it seems like the war machine, the military industrial complex and the arms manufacturers are being so well cared for.Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday acknowledged that the growing tensions with Iran “may involve sending additional troops” to the region. Shanahan's comments marked the first public confirmation that the Trump administration is considering sending additional US forces to curtail what it claims are “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran. The Pentagon has already deployed a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East, and news reports emerged this week that Shanahan on Thursday was set to present the White House with a request to deploy 10,000 troops to the Middle East. An earlier report said that the US could send upwards of 120,000 additional troops. GUESTS: Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer is joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst.It's Friday, so that means it's panel time.Stocks are finishing the week in the red amid reports of stalled trade talks between the US and China. Uncertainty over the negotiations prompted a big drop on Monday, and the major indexes haven't recovered. As the trade war with China heats up, US President Donald Trump is cooling the fight with America's neighbors. Trump announced Friday that negotiators have reached an agreement with Mexico and Canada to end tariffs on metal imports. He also will put a pause on the planned tariffs on cars and car parts. This deal could be the first step toward ratifying the US-Mexico Canada Agreement that Trump hopes will replace NAFTA.President Trump says he hopes there will not be a war with Iran. He made the remark in response to a question from a White House reporter Thursday. The White House has been tamping down reports of a rift within the administration over Iran. There have been reports that some high level administration officials are suggesting possible US military action against Tehran.The few remaining pro-Maduro protestors occupying the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC, are out. Four people were arrested by federal law enforcement officers this morning and forcibly removed from the building. Activists had been occupying the embassy for over a month, following the US government's recognition of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's rightful leader. For weeks the embassy has been the site of a standoff between supporters of President Nicolas Maduro and backers of Guaido. Federal officers and DC police on Monday posted an eviction notice telling those camped inside the building they had to leave.GUEST:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. High-level trade talks with China are over for now with no word of any breakthrough. US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin categorized Friday's discussions with China's top trade negotiator as "constructive." The talks are aimed at trying to salvage a trade agreement that seemed to be within reach just a week ago. The US boosted tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese goods overnight, and Beijing has promised to retaliate. North Korea launched two suspected "short-range missiles" on Thursday, adding yet another complication into Pyongyang's stalled negotiations with the United States and peace talks with South Korea. Yesterday's firing comes less than a week after North Korea tested several new weapons systems, the first confirmed launches of their kind since 2017. Since China has played a stabilizing role in the US' relationship with North Korea, what does this mean for everyone?The Venezuelan Embassy goes dark as the standoff intensifies on the streets of Washington, DC. On Wednesday evening, the lights flicked off inside the facility. The water has also been turned off in spite of the fact that from all reports, the bills have been paid, Venezuela owns the building and this in direct violation of international law. The commander overseeing US naval forces in the Middle East told Reuters Thursday that American intelligence showing a threat from Iran will not prevent him from sending an aircraft carrier through the vital Strait of Hormuz, if needed. Iran has dismissed the US contention of a threat as “fake intelligence.” Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since the Trump administration withdrew a year ago from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions to throttle the Islamic Republic's economy.GUESTS:Dr. Jack Rasmus — 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."Jon Jeter — Author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. US Attorney General William Barr did not show up for Thursday's scheduled hearing about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. So, what's being reported is that the Justice Department objected to the format of the planned hearing, which would have allowed the committee's Democratic and Republican counsels question Barr for as long as 30 minutes at a stretch after an initial five-minute exchange with lawmakers. What's really going on?House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress about Mueller's report and Mueller's issues with how Barr has characterized the special counsel's findings. Is she right?A group of determined US activists forced Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's shadow ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, to flee from a rally that was supposed to mark his triumphant entry into the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC. As the saga surrounding Venezuela continues, why is the media not focusing what's really going on?GUESTS: Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined is by Lee Stranahan, co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik Radio; Jim Kavanagh, political analyst, commentator, and editor of The Polemicist; and Caleb Maupin, journalist focusing on US foreign policy, capitalism, and imperialism.It's Friday, so that means it's panel time.British police entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London early Thursday, forcibly removing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on a 2012 charge of failing to surrender to the court. Later that day, he was found guilty of that charge at the Westminster Magistrates' Court. Now the real battle ensues: will he be extradited to the US, bringing his seven-year stint in the embassy to a dramatic close? Assange entered the embassy June 19, 2012, to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped and remained there in exile for six years, nine months and 24 days, or 2,488 days from start to end. What's been going on in London around this issue?It was two days of questions for US Attorney General William Barr. With the Russia investigation complete, Barr said he was preparing to review “both the genesis and the conduct of intelligence activities directed at the Trump campaign,” including possible improper “spying” by American intelligence agencies. Is this really news, or is it more political theater? Should we be concerned that the FBI and or other intelligence agencies in this country opened an intelligence investigation into a US presidential candidate?With all votes counted, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fifth election win is confirmed. After a full day of rechecking, Likud gained a seat to outscore Benny Gantz's Blue and White alliance, 36-35, United Torah Judaism lost a seat, and Netanyahu's path to a majority coalition is clear. Netanyahu was confirmed as the big winner of Israel's general elections on Thursday night, when the Central Elections Committee published the completed tallies of Tuesday's election, a full 60 hours after the polling stations closed. Israeli voters “have said no to peace and yes to the occupation,” Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Tuesday night. Thanks to enthusiastic support from the Trump administration, Netanyahu has been emboldened to pursue right-wing policies — he now says that if he wins, he will annex the West Bank, home to around 2.5 million Palestinians. Gantz called this pledge “irresponsible.” While many observers brushed it off as campaign rhetoric, the Trump administration's unwavering support makes this a real possibility, believes Jake Walles, who served as US consul general in Jerusalem from 2005 to 2009 and is now a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Holden Matthews, the 21-year-old man accused of burning three historically black churches in Louisiana, was influenced by “black metal,” police say – a music genre sometimes tied to organized hate. Matthews engaged in a conversation about Varg Vikernes on Facebook. Vikernes is a musician who is linked intimately to National Socialist Black Metal (NSBM), a subgenre within black metal that is explicitly racist and fascist in nature. Vikernes, who is Norwegian and founded the band Burzum, burned down three historically significant churches in his homeland during the 1990s. He also murdered a guitarist for the black metal band Mayhem. From prison, Vikernes expressed views closely aligned with neo-Nazism, even though he objected to that term. Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist who murdered 77 people, including children, during a 2011 rampage, mailed Vikernes his manifesto before his arrest. In a 2012 blog post, Vikernes took issue with Breivik's methods and wrote that Breivik should kill himself, and argued there were more constructive ways to deal with “internationalists lead [sic] by their Jewish masters.” Matthews, the son of a Louisiana sheriff's deputy, is in St. Landry Parish jail. He's charged with three counts of simple arson of a religious building. The churches Matthews allegedly burned were the St. Mary Baptist Church in Port Barre, the Greater Union Baptist Church in Opelousas and the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Opelousas. The fires occurred on March 26, April 2 and April 4. It is unclear if Matthews allegedly chose the churches because of their connection to the black community.GUESTS:Lee Stranahan — Co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik Radio. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday, so that means it's panel time. It's been reported that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition is just hours or days away. According to the Associated Press, a senior Ecuadorian official countered the claims of a WikiLeaks source, saying that no decision had been made to force Assange out of the London embassy, but the official's Tweet has since been removed. What does this say about Assange, the free press and the power of the US?"Some on Mueller's Team Say Report Was More Damaging Than Barr Revealed," says a recent New York Times headline. This to me is a goofy story, because there are a lot of baseless allegations made by unnamed sources. On Thursday, they reported that some of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators have told associates that Attorney General William Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Donald Trump than Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations. The Washington Post reported Thursday, "Revelations that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's still-confidential report may contain damaging information about President Trump ignited a fresh round of political fighting on Thursday, ushering in a new phase of the nearly two-year-old battle over the Russia probe."Boeing, the world's largest commercial aircraft manufacturer, is being investigated by the Department of Justice in response to two deadly crashes fewer than six months apart. The company's best-selling plane in the world, the 737 MAX 8, has crashed twice in the past several months: the first was a Lion Air flight leaving Jakarta, Indonesia, in October, and the second was an Ethiopian Airlines flight leaving Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March. A recent report laid out a timeline of the flight based on analysis from 18 Ethiopian and international investigators and information from the jet's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg apologized Thursday for the "erroneous activation" of the company's maneuvering software in the two jets that crashed. "We extend our sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," he said, explaining the faulty system that may have caused a sudden nosedive. "It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it, and we know how to do it."Rejecting a plank of President Donald Trump's foreign policy, the House of Representatives late yesterday invoked never-before-used powers to demand that his administration withdraw support from the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The senseless war that has resulted in what international aid organizations have called the worse man-made humanitarian crisis in the world. The Senate passed the same resolution in March with bipartisan support. Trump is expected to issue a veto of the measure, his second as president, and Congress does not have the votes to override him.In Chicago's mayoral election, Lori Lightfoot won Tuesday's runoff against Toni Preckwinkle, a longtime politician who leads the county board and local Democratic Party. Is this another data point in regards to the success of an alleged progressive agenda?According to Whitney Webb from MintPress News, Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela who is supported by the United States government, recently announced coming “tactical actions” that will be taken by his supporters starting April 6 as part of “Operation Freedom,” an alleged grassroots effort to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. That operation, according to Guaidó, will be led by “Freedom and Aid Committees” that in turn create “freedom cells” throughout the country — “cells” that will spring to action when Guaidó gives the signal on April 6 and launch large-scale community protests. Guaidó's stated plan involves the Venezuelan military then taking his side, but his insistence that “all options are still on the table” (read: including foreign military intervention) reveals his impatience with the military, which has continued to stay loyal to Maduro throughout Guaidó's “interim presidency.”The opioid epidemic has ravaged Philadelphia, and many in the city feel that drastic measures are necessary to stem a scourge of overdoses, including a radical plan to provide a safe space where people can use illegal drugs while under supervision. Though the plan for what is known as a safe injection site has garnered local support, the city now finds itself in the middle of a major legal fight with the federal government.We've got these stories and even more!GUESTS:Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Michelle Hudgins — Communications strategist, producer, media consultant and writer.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Whitney Webb, journalist and staff writer for MintPress News.It's Friday, that means it is panel time!A recent MintPress article by Whitney Webb says the "United States military has rejected offers to resolve the growing humanitarian crisis in the Rukban refugee camp in Syria, which sits inside a 55 kilometer zone occupied by the US along the Syria-Jordan border. The US has also refused to let any of the estimated 40,000 refugees — the majority of which are women and children — leave the camp voluntarily, even though children are dying in droves from lack of food, adequate shelter and medical care. The US has also not provided humanitarian aid to the camp, even though a US military base is located just 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away." What's going on here, and why is the US holding primarily women and children captive?The White House on Friday warned Russia and other countries backing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro against sending troops and military equipment to Venezuela, saying the United States would view such actions as a "direct threat" to the region's security. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been given a list of options to respond to Russia's growing presence in Venezuela in support of Maduro, including new sanctions, said Elliott Abrams, the US special representative for Venezuela.UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal was beaten down for an amazing, unprecedented, pitiful third time by the British Parliament on Friday, with all bets off now on when or how the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. The EU had given Britain until the end of this week to approve the withdrawal agreement. Now Britain has until April 12 to propose a new way forward, crash out of the bloc without a deal or beg for a long extension. May called the results of the day's votes “grave.”After taking last weekend to pore over the Mueller report, US Attorney General William Barr sent Congress his summary of the "principal conclusions" from the special counsel's 675-day investigation into the Trump campaign's slleged ties to Russia. Barr says he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that the evidence "is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense," noting that the government would have to prove such a case "beyond a reasonable doubt." This is not the Mueller report or even a well-based summary, but folks are acting as though Barr's letter is dispositive.Facebook is banning white nationalism and white separatism from its social network following criticism that it had not done enough to eliminate hate speech on its platform. The social media giant said in a blog post Wednesday that conversations with academics and civil rights groups convinced the company to expand its policies around hate groups.“Today we're announcing a ban on praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism on Facebook and Instagram, which we'll start enforcing next week,” the company wrote in the post. “It's clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services.” Under Facebook's change, people who search for terms associated with white supremacy will instead see a link to the page of Life After Hate, a nonprofit that helps people to leave hate groups, the company said.GUESTS: Whitney Webb — Journalist and a staff writer for MintPress News. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Michelle Hudgins — Communications strategist, producer, media consultant and writer. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday; that means it is panel time!Israel launches Gaza air attacks after rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. Israel's military says the attacks are in response to rockets fired by Hamas at Israeli civilians - a claim the group denies. Here's what I find interesting: according to Al Jazeera, Hamas has denied responsibility for the attack on Tel Aviv, saying the rockets were launched when the group's military wing was meeting with Egyptian mediators to try to strengthen a ceasefire with Israel. In an unusual step that indicated Hamas was attempting to prevent further escalation, the interior ministry in Gaza said the rocket fire went "against the national consensus" and promised to take action against the perpetrators. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, two smaller Gaza armed factions, also denied responsibility. "These accusations are mere lies by the Israeli occupation," said Daoud Shihab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad. "Our movement and its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, did not fire any rockets," he told Palestinian news agency Quds Network. With an Israeli election scheduled for April 9, I am more inclined to see this as a false flag operation.At least 49 people were killed in an attack on two New Zealand mosques today by a gunman the authorities said professed white nationalist views, in the deadliest case of right-wing terrorism since 77 people were murdered in 2011 by an anti-Muslim extremist in Norway. A 28-year-old Australian has been charged with murder in Christchurch. A manifesto by a man claiming responsibility for the shootings said he had been inspired by Anders Breivik's 2011 Norway attack and a 2015 shooting of a black church in South Carolina that killed nine. The gunman produced a 17-minute video, filmed while apparently carrying out the attacks. The attack comes just five months after the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 dead.US President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency today to secure federal money for the border wall he promised as a candidate and considers a crucial priority for reelection, capping a week of confrontation with both political parties. “Today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution, and I have the duty to veto it,” Trump said. Twelve Republicans had joined Democrats to challenge Trump over his declaration of a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, which would allow the president to circumvent Congress and spend billions on wall construction.Multiple nations and the European Union have grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 after it was involved in two fatal crashes. President Trump finally announced Wednesday that his administration had grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8, making the United States became the last country to do so. Trump said, "The safety of the American people, of all people, is our paramount concern." The United States was the last holdout on grounding the aircraft after Canada on Wednesday joined the growing list of nations, including China, Britain, France and Germany, to make the call following an Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday that killed 157 people. The Federal Aviation Administration previously stood by the safety of the plane, saying it hadn't found any issues to merit a grounding order. In a statement issued after Trump's remarks, the FAA said the administration was reversing course based on "the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site." The United States has withdrawn all remaining diplomatic personnel from its embassy in Caracas as the crisis in Venezuela deepens. "Today, all US diplomats remaining in Venezuela departed the country. I know it is a difficult moment for them," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement yesterday. Pompeo said earlier that diplomats were being removed because keeping them there limited US options. Pompeo today said he has “every expectation” that the United States will continue diplomatic talks with Pyongyang, after North Korean officials said leader Kim Jong Un is reconsidering his moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, addressing a meeting of diplomats and foreign media earlier this morning in Pyongyang, said the United States missed a golden opportunity when President Trump failed to reach an agreement with Kim at the leaders' summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month.According to Choe, Kim will decide soon whether to continue negotiations with the United States. He has no intention of doing so, she said, unless US officials take measures that are commensurate with the steps North Korea has already taken, referencing the 15-month moratorium on launches and tests. Choe also suggested that Pompeo and US National Security Adviser John Bolton created an environment of hostility and mistrust at the Hanoi summit, while Trump was more willing to talk, the AP reported. Pompeo said Friday he does not think the allegations will hamper his ability to aid future negotiations.GUESTS: Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of Fault Lines, host Garland Nixon and producer Eric Ladny discuss the "Yellow Vests" in France and what the movement represents for the country. What are the main reasons that the protests began, what are the citizens major requests, and how will French President Emmanuel Macron respond moving forward?Guests:Stephen Lendman - Writer and Geopolitical Analyst | US Militarizing Space for Future WarsFord Fischer [In-Studio] - Independent Journalist for News2Share | Ford's Yellow Vest Coverage in FranceMark Frost - Economist and Professor | What is Modern Monetary Theory?Caleb Maupin - Journalist and Political Analyst | What are Bernie Sanders Supporters Saying?As technology takes leaps forward, militarizing space is in the works. Geopolitical analyst Stephen Lendman joins Garland and Eric on today's show to discuss how the government is making technological advances in space and the potential danger of weaponizing space.In recent months, Garland has been devoted to wearing a yellow vest during the show in solidarity with the citizens of France. Independent journalist Ford Fischer joins today's program for two segments to give his "on-the-ground" analysis of the Yellow Vest Movement. He will discuss his experience covering the protests in France and what he heard from people on the streets.Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an economic philosophy that has been gaining in popularity despite its controversial views. Economist Mark Frost returns to the program to discuss exactly what MMT is, and how it would impact our economy and everyday people if it were to be implemented.For the final segment of the show, Garland and Eric interview Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, on his experience at a recent Bernie Sanders rally in Brooklyn. What did the crowd of supporters look like and what does socialism mean to them?

It's Friday: that means it's panel time, as we discuss the major stories of the week. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to strike a deal, calling off nuclear weapons talks early. Some call the summit a failure, while others hail the fact that a so-called “bad” deal would have been worse than no deal at all. Did President Trump waste time and jet fuel going to Hanoi, or is this case of, as Larry Graham would say, you got to go through it to get to it? Trump's negotiating style: personal vs. understanding the importance of research, preparation, front-end diplomacy by career diplomats and negotiators.Canada will move ahead with the extradition case against Chinese technology executive Meng Wanzhou, paving the way for a legal battle that will pit Canada against China and could complicate the relationship between both countries and the United States. For those who may not remember, Meng, who is chief financial officer for China's Huawei Technologies, was arrested at Vancouver's airport on December 1 on US charges related to alleged violations of US sanctions law, setting off an ongoing diplomatic dispute. The decision, which was announced today, means Canada's Justice Department believes there is “sufficient evidence” to proceed with an extradition hearing. Meng will next appear in a Vancouver court on March 6, when the next steps for the hearing will be set. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen uncorked many disturbing allegations in his seven hours of congressional testimony this week. Will any of it be crucial to the future of the president? Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) invoked Lynne Patton, a former Trump employee and current HUD official, to challenge Cohen's assertion that Trump is racist. Cohen testified he was in the room when Republican strategist Roger Stone called Trump and told him about an impending WikiLeaks release of stolen Democratic National Committee emails. Stone and Trump have not only denied that claim, but also done so in a coordinated way that may shape what special counsel Robert Mueller ultimately does. The consequences here are simple. If Cohen lied to Congress, he could be indicted for it, and the world would soon find out. If Cohen told the truth, then Trump is in trouble. The allegation could be pivotal, because Trump and Stone have been united in denying it, not only in public statements, but also in legally binding assurances to the government.The United States announced today sanctions on Venezuelan officials who blocked a humanitarian aid convoy last week, as opposition leader Juan Guaido toured South America to drum up support for an end to President Nicolas Maduro's government. Guaido says 600 military officers have abandoned Maduro.President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House's top lawyer, the New York Times reported this week. It's within the president's purview to declassify information and grant clearances. My concern is not that he did this. I want to know why those in the intelligence apparatus denied Kushner's application and see him his as being unworthy or such a threat that they would recommend he not receive a top-secret clearance. According to the report, Trump's decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” to give Kushner the top-secret clearance.GUESTS:Shermichael Singleton — Writer and political analyst. Jim Kavanagh — Political analyst and commentator and editor of The Polemicist.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Colin Campbell, senior Washington, DC, correspondent; and Caleb Maupin, a journalist, and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.It's Friday: that means it's panel time, as we discuss the major stories of the week.Five officers are injured and five civilians are dead, including the gunman in Aurora, Illinois. The incident occurred at the Henry Pratt Company manufacturing plant. The suspected gunman in Friday's mass shooting has been identified as Gary Martin. The 45-year-old was an employee at the business where the shooting occurred. We'll discuss the latest in the case. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid have reached a settlement with the NFL concerning their collusion grievances against the league. Attorney Mark Geragos and the NFL said in a joint statement issued earlier today, ”The resolution of this matter is subject to a confidentiality agreement, so there will be no further comment by any party." Kaepernick charged that the NFL and its owners "have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick's leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States." Reid was the first player to join Kaepernick in kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. I think it is interesting and telling that Kaepernick did not go through the NFL Players Association in filing the grievance but instead hired Geragos, a high-profile attorney.President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday in a bid to fund his promised wall at the US-Mexico border without congressional approval, an action Democrats have vowed to challenge as a violation of the US Constitution. He also signed a bipartisan government spending bill that would prevent another partial government shutdown by funding several agencies that otherwise would have closed on Saturday. The legislation would fund nine Cabinet departments and dozens of other agencies through September 30, removing — for now — the threat of another government shutdown. It provides $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new fences along the border in Texas, far short of the $5.7 billion Trump had sought for 234 miles of steel walls. The final number for border barriers is also less than deals that were on the table last year before Trump pushed the government into a record, 35-day shutdown. So, did he get a worse deal than he was offered before? The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Trump administration may add a question about citizenship to the next census questionnaire. Critics say that adding the question would undermine the accuracy of the census because both legal and unauthorized immigrants might refuse to fill out the form. By one government estimate, about 6.5 million people might decide not to participate. That could reduce Democratic representation when Congressional districts are drawn in 2021 and affect the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending. A month into Venezuela's high-stakes political crisis, President Nicolas Maduro revealed in an Associated Press interview that his government has held secret talks with the Trump administration. He also predicted he would survive the US-led coup to force his resignation. While harshly criticizing US President Donald Trump's confrontational stance toward his socialist government, Maduro said Thursday that he holds out hope of meeting the US president soon to resolve a crisis triggered by America's recognition of his opponent, Juan Guaido, as Venezuela's rightful leader. Now approaching nearly a year after the April 7, 2018 alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria — which the White House used as a pretext to bomb Syrian government facilities and bases throughout Damascus — a BBC reporter who investigated the incident on the ground has issued public statements saying the "Assad sarin attack" on Douma was indeed "staged." Riam Dalati is a well-known BBC Syria producer who has long reported from the region. He shocked his nearly 20,000 twitter followers on Wednesday by stating that after a "six-month investigation" he had concluded, "I can prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged." What's going on here?GUESTS:Colin Campbell — PhD student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has written an open letter to the people of the US. “I forged myself in the heat of popular and union struggles in a Venezuela submerged in exclusion and inequality. I am not a tycoon, I am a worker of reason and heart … rooted in a model of inclusive development and social equality, which was forged by Commander Hugo Chávez since 1998 inspired by the Bolivarian legacy.” He frames this in a socialist historical context of a class struggle. “Your national representatives of Washington want to bring to their borders the same hatred that they planted in Vietnam … The history of the usurpation of power in Venezuela is as false as the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a false case, but it can have dramatic consequences for our entire region.” What are we to make of this? US President Donald Trump also intends to disturb noble dialogue initiatives promoted by Uruguay and Mexico with the support of CARICOM for a peaceful solution and dialogue in favor of Venezuela. We know that for the good of Venezuela, we have to sit down and talk, because to refuse to dialogue is to choose strength as a way. Keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Are those who do not want dialogue afraid of the truth?Thousands of Haitians protest corruption and rising living costs. At least two people died and 14 police officers were injured Thursday, police said, as thousands of Haitians protested against rampant inflation and demanded the resignation of President Jovenel Moise on the two-year anniversary of his inauguration. "For two years, Jovenel has promised to fill our plates. But I can't eat lies," protester Josue Louis-Jeune said in the capital of Port-au-Prince, banging a metal plate with a spoon. As Haitians reel from 15 percent inflation over the past two years, a sharp drop in the value of the gourde — the national currency — against the US dollar has only intensified price increases on mostly imported everyday essentials. Unlike the October 17 and November 18 anti-corruption protests, however, where demonstrators demanded an accounting of $2 billion in allegedly misused money from Venezuela's PetroCaribe oil program, Thursday's demonstrations mostly centered on the economic malaise that has been gripping the country and led to some bakeries and other stores shuttering their doors earlier in the week in disgust.Also, it's Friday: that means its panel time, as my panelists discuss the major stories of the week. A second accuser comes out against embattled Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. Fairfax is denying the latest sexual assault allegation made against him. He issued a statement through his spokesperson that claims it is demonstrably false. He said he has never forced himself on anyone. He is calling for a full investigation into the allegations, because he believes it will show that he is telling the truth. He said this is an obvious and vicious smear campaign against him, and he will not resign. Lawyers for Meredith Watson sent a letter to Virginia lawmakers today claiming Fairfax raped her in 2000 when they were both students at Duke University. She claims she immediately told friends about the rape after it happened. The National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., says it will "thoroughly investigate" blackmail allegations made by Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who said yesterday that the Enquirer threatened to publish intimate pictures of him unless he backed off an investigation of the tabloid. It is interesting to me how Bezos now claims, "Also, The Post's essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles,” when the Post has been a mouthpiece for the Saudi government for a number of years.GUESTS:Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis.Kweku Lamumba — External Relations Coordinator of KOSSSA.Colin Campbell — PhD student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday: that means it's panel time as we discuss the major stories of the week. Senator Cory Booker, the former mayor of Newark who has projected an upbeat political presence at a deeply polarized time, entered the 2020 race for president today. He joins a growing field of Democratic presidential hopefuls that already includes Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and former Maryland Congressman John Delaney. Any insights going forward?In an evening vote that garnered essentially no national media coverage, the US Senate voted Monday night to advance Marco Rubio's “Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019” – sometimes called the “anti-BDS bill” for its component that would allow state and local governments to punish companies or individuals who support the non-violent Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement aimed at promoting Palestinian rights and ending Israeli apartheid and military occupation of the West Bank. The bill was, notably, numbered S.1 — the Senate's first legislative act of its 2019-20 session. The Senate passed the bill on a 74-19 vote; it now moves to the House.The Trump administration Tuesday forged ahead in what one analyst called “a complicated chess game” of handing more of Venezuela's assets in the United States over to its interim president, seeking to tighten the economic stranglehold on the embattled government of Nicolás Maduro. Washington worked furiously this week to isolate Maduro and allow National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó, internationally recognized by the US and its allies as the interim president of Venezuela, to control the nation's vital oil trade that supplies nearly 6,000 US gas stations under the Citgo brand. The State Department certified that Guaidó has authority to control all Venezuelan government bank accounts in the US financial system, giving him access to any cash or gold Venezuela may be holding in US banks. President Donald Trump takes US intelligence officials to task, disputing their assessments on Iran and other global threats. According to him, “The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. Their economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran … Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”Mainstream corporate media is painting this as Trump going off the rails again; how can he challenge the leaders of the intelligence apparatus in this country? Who's right and who's wrong here? Oh, if the leaders of the intelligence apparatus in this country are infallible, where are the weapons of mass destruction? GUESTS:Colin Campbell — PhD student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday, time for our panel discussion on this week's biggest stories! The government is reopening now that Congress and the president have agreed on a short-term budget deal. The deal keeps government agencies open until February 15. President Donald Trump said he would end the partial government shutdown for three weeks while negotiations over the border wall continue. He also indicated that he was open to declaring a national emergency or shutting down the government again if Republicans and Democrats cannot reach an agreement on wall money by the February deadline. Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime Trump adviser, has been charged as part of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. He was arrested at his home in a pre-dawn FBI raid in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, appeared in court earlier today and reappeared on the steps of the courthouse proclaiming his innocence. He was released on a $250,000 signature bond. The New York Times opens their story with the following: “The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, revealed on Friday the most direct link yet between the Trump campaign's and WikiLeaks' parallel efforts to use Democratic Party material stolen by Russians to damage the election campaign of Hillary Clinton. In an indictment unsealed Friday, the special counsel disclosed evidence that a top campaign official in 2016 dispatched Roger J. Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump, to get information from WikiLeaks about the thousands of hacked Democratic emails.” Does the indictment, in fact, provide the most direct link yet, and does it provide evidence that Stone was dispatched by a top campaign official to get information from WikiLeaks?He is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering.Marzieh Hashemi, a news anchor for Iran's English-language Press TV who was detained by US authorities as a material witness for 10 days, is with her US family. She had been held in jail to make sure she would appear to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC. And on Wednesday, the 59-year-old fulfilled her obligation as a material witness and was released from any further obligation.Venezuela's senior military figures signal backing for President Nicolás Maduro as Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Cuba have come down on one side. The United States, Canada, and countries in Western Europe are on the other. Senior figures in the Venezuelan military came out in support of Maduro today, a day after the US said it no longer recognized him as the country's leader and backed the opposition's Juan Guaidó instead. The geopolitical fault lines are clear. The US has decided to ignore the democratic process in Venezuela and is working to overtly orchestrate a coup, all while accusing Russia of violating US law and undermining the US democratic process.GUESTS:Lee Stranahan — Co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik Radio.Colin Campbell — PhD student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Colin Campbell, a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008 who has been a reporter-at-large covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.We have a number of national emergencies on the books. Today's protest in Washington, DC, which began at noon in front of the AFL-CIO building on 16th Street NW, down the street from the White House, was meant to highlight the struggles of furloughed federal employees and out-of-work contractors. The partial shutdown that has left nine federal departments and several agencies closed since December 22 remains at a standstill today after a meeting between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders in Congress unraveled yesterday. Trump delivered the first Oval Office address of his presidency Tuesday night — and it came in the midst of a protracted partial government shutdown. The president made no mention of the national emergency during his Oval Office speech. Why not?The United States today refused to recognize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's legitimacy as he starts a new term and urged rank-and-file government employees to empower the opposition. For a country which is complaining about outside interference, this sure sounds hypocritical and dangerous to me. "The US will not recognize the Maduro dictatorship's illegitimate inauguration," National Security Advisor John Bolton tweeted. "We will continue to increase pressure on the corrupt regime, support the Democratic National Assembly and call for democracy and freedom in Venezuela," he wrote. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Venezuelans to work not with Maduro but with the National Assembly, which is controlled by the opposition but has been sidelined by a new Constituent Assembly created by Maduro's government. If you listen to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Middle East has been plunged into chaos and violence because of two entities: Iran and former President Barack Obama. Now, under President Donald Trump, that's changing. In spite of the fact that Iran, by every measurable and verifiable agency available was adhering to the Iran Nuclear deal, Trump withdrew the US from the pact in May 2018. Pompeo delivered a scathing rebuke of Obama's Middle East policy in Cairo on Thursday in an address that centered on exerting maximum pressure on Iran and doubling down on the United States' alliances with Sunni autocrats and Israel. In establishing his own vision for the Middle East, Pompeo set up the Obama administration as a foil showing what not to do, whether it was striking the landmark nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 or leaving Egypt's autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak, in a lurch during that country's protests in 2011. GUESTS: Colin Campbell — Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Dr. Ajamu Baraka — American political activist and former Green Party nominee for vice president of the United States in the 2016 election.

President Trump will address the nation Tuesday night about the situation at the US-Mexico border. Trump tweeted out that it is "Humanitarian and National Security crisis." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will deliver the Democratic response to Trump's speech. They are demanding equal time to challenge Trump's claim that there is a national security crisis along the border. The government shutdown is in its 18th day. Will the president use his executive power to get funding for his wall?The Russian lawyer involved in the infamous Trump Tower meeting in 2016 is being indicted in a separate case. Federal prosecutors in New York are charging Natalia Veselnitskaya [vessel-nit-SKY-ah] with obstruction of justice. She allegedly attempted to prevent an investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm. Veselnitskaya was present at the meeting with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Trump Tower meeting included Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chief Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law. But, there are some serious holes in this story. The New York Times reports, “The money-laundering case was not directly related to the Trump Tower meeting. But a federal indictment returned in Manhattan seemed to confirm that Ms. Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials and rekindled questions about whether the Kremlin tried to use her as an intermediary to Donald J. Trump's campaign.” The Magnitsky Act is a bipartisan bill passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009. Since 2016, the bill, which applies globally, authorizes the US government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freezing their assets and banning them from entering the US. If the Russian response stating that Magnitsky and other persons defrauded the Russian Treasury is, in fact, true, wouldn't that mean that the basis of the Magnitsky act is wrong?The Trump administration is attempting to end temporary protected status — known as TPS — for over 50,000 Haitians living in the US. Tens of thousands of Haitians were given TPS after an earthquake devastated their country in 2010. In November 2017, the Trump administration announced it would revoke TPS for Haitians. The move was met with protests and multiple lawsuits, and is now being challenged in court. In October, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump effort, which also affects immigrants from Sudan, El Salvador and Nicaragua, citing a “discriminatory” motivation. Haitian TPS recipients and their supporters are expected to rally this morning outside the Brooklyn courthouse where the suit is being argued.News that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is visiting China is reinforcing rumors that Kim will meet Trump, possibly in Vietnam, in the near future, for a critical second summit. China remains North Korea's closest ally, extending a cross-border economic lifeline to the cash-strapped and heavily sanctioned state, and China has called for economic sanctions on North Korea to be eased. The timing of Kim's trip to China could be highly significant, potentially suggesting an imminent summit with Trump. In 2018, Kim met Xi for discussions prior to his first summits with both South Korean President Moon Jae In in April and with Trump in June. While no date for the second Kim-Trump summit has yet been set, nor has a location been decided, South Korean daily the Munhwa Ilbo reported Monday that the meeting could take place in Hanoi.GUESTS:Ray Baker — Political analyst and host of the podcast Public Agenda.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Dahoud Andre — Haitian activist who works with the Free Haiti Movement.Lee Stranahan — Co-host of Fault Lines on Sputnik Radio.

This is Friday, so it is roundtable day!So, we are now into day 7 of the partial government shutdown, it goes into full effect next week. House Democrats hope to pass a funding bill shortly after members are sworn in. They believe that would put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to follow suit. Most people see this as a two-sided issue, Republicans vs. Democrats. I see this quickly developing into three sides if it has not already, Trump, Democrats and Republicans. Trump, playing to his base sees an advantage. Democrats see this as a Trump shutdown since he claimed ownership of the crisis two weeks ago. Where are most Republicans? Siding with the head of their party or slowly starting to pressure him to give in?Trump has threatened to shut down southern border as government funding stalemate drags on. President Trump today issued a string of tweets in which he again vowed to close the entire U.S. border with Mexico and halt aid to several Latin American countries unless Democrats agree to his demand for billions of dollars in wall funding. “We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with,” Trump said in a morning tweet.Hundreds of asylum-seekers spent part of Christmas Eve in a downtown parking lot in El Paso without knowing where they'll end up next. Lawmakers and immigrant rights groups scramble after ICE releases hundreds of migrants without alerting local shelters. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began dropping off the migrants late Sunday at a local bus station without warning local shelters that usually take in large groups after they seek asylum and are released by federal agents. About 200 arrived Sunday, about 200 more arrived Monday and the total number could exceed 800 by Wednesday, according to U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso. Normally, ICE would alert the Annunciation House, a local shelter that has taken in tens of thousands of migrants and has several locations across this border city. But that didn't happen Sunday night, O'Rourke said. What's going on here?President Donald Trump took a whirlwind, secret trip to Iraq this week but it has to be placed into the context of a week ago, Trump hastily declared that he had defeated ISIS, and that the US would pull its troops out of Syria. The abrupt move was reportedly resisted by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who appealed to the president to reconsider and then resigned when his counsel fell on deaf ears. The president failed to meet with any Iraqi officials while in the country and I believe that Iraq is supposed to be a sovereign nation — despite the fact that the US invaded the country in 2003 and has had a continuous troop presence there ever since. Though the trip had reportedly been planned for weeks, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi was invited to meet the president only two hours in advance and was unable to make it to the event. The two leaders spoke over the phone instead, and the prime minister later said that the meeting was canceled because of a disagreement over how to conduct the session.We've got all these stories and more!GUESTS: Dr. Mamie Locke — Professor of Political Science at Hampton University and former Senate member of the Hampton, Virginia city council 1996–2004, and mayor 2000–2004. Since 2004, she has been a member of the Senate of Virginia from the 2nd district. Colin Campbell — Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large covering two presidencies, Congress and State departments.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

The United States will move quickly to withdraw all forces from Syria, the White House abruptly announced Wednesday, December 19th. On Thursday, December 20th, President Trump directed the Pentagon to withdraw nearly half of the more than 14,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, announced he stepping down effective Jan 1. These moves are defying warnings from his top advisers and upending their plans for a continued mission against the Islamic State. Well today, Trump and the First Lady Made a Secret Trip To Iraq To Visit U.S. Troops. What does all of this mean going forward? Are these troops actually coming back CONUS or stateside or being repositioned to other bases and did he make a mistake by not pulling troops out of Iraq as well?Today is the first full business day since the shutdown. What's the method behind the madness? It is assumed that once the final funding package gets approved the government workers will receive back pay but historically, many contractors don't get paid. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died of unknown causes in custody minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve in New Mexico, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. It was the second death of a child in the agency's care this month. Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, also of Guatemala, died in custody after traveling to the U.S. with a group of 163 people. Her body arrived in Guatemala on Monday. Also, new migrant crisis brewing in El Paso as ICE releases threaten to overwhelm border city - More than 1,200 undocumented immigrants are expected to be released into El Paso this week, with no apparent plan for housing. That's in addition to the 700 migrants already left in the border town since Sunday. Fear and uncertainty swirl around the bus station where they have been left. Despite modest inter-Korean goodwill, no trains are likely to run any time soon amid the stalled denuclearization process. In a modest event today, North and South Korea held a groundbreaking ceremony for the linkage of their railway lines across the Demilitarized Zone. However, it was not the first time optimism about inter-Korean transport links has been on display. The tracks were, in fact, reconnected in 2005, amid the “Sunshine Policy' of inter-Korean engagement. What does this mean going forward? GUESTS:Dr. Gerald Horne — Professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including Blows Against the Empire: US Imperialism in Crisis.Abdus Luqman and Jackie Luqman — Co-editors-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the co-hosts of the Facebook livestream Coffee, Current Events & Politics.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It is Friday, so that means it is panel time, and we look at some of the bigger stories from this week!A recent New York Times piece, "China's ‘Belt and Road' Plan in Pakistan Takes a Military Turn" opens by saying, "When President Trump started the new year by suspending billions of dollars of security aid to Pakistan, one theory was that it would scare the Pakistani military into cooperating better with its American allies. The reality was that Pakistan already had a replacement sponsor lined up. Just two weeks later, the Pakistani Air Force and Chinese officials were putting the final touches on a secret proposal to expand Pakistan's building of Chinese military jets, weaponry and other hardware." The NYT says that this is a “confidential plan,” and it is intended to deepen the cooperation between China and Pakistan in space, a frontier the Pentagon recently said Beijing was trying to militarize after decades of playing catch-up. Context is always important to me. What got my attention was first, is it confidential, and second, the concern over the militarization of space, as if on August 9, Vice President Mike Pence did not announce the US plan to create military space force by 2020.Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancerous growths removed from her lungs, voted from her hospital bed to uphold a block on President Donald Trump's restrictions on asylum. The 5-4 decision let stand a lower court's order temporarily blocking Trump's ban on applying for asylum for people who have crossed the US border illegally. Justice Ginsburg is literally phoning it in. We'll discuss the vote and this means going forward.Trump says chances of government shutdown "probably very good." He says: "I'd say the chances are probably very good, because I don't think Democrats care much about this issue." Trump appears to be bringing in some reinforcements. Vice President Mike Pence - who would cast a deciding vote in the case of a tie - incoming White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Trump's son in law and adviser Jared Kushner are on hand at the Senate. Mulvaney, during a 2015 WRHI radio interview in South Carolina, said, "The fence doesn't solve the problem. Is it necessary to have one? Sure. Would it help? Sure. But to just say build the darn fence and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic of [a] view," No distinction was made between fence and wall.Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced his resignation this week. The retired four-star general was reported to have disagreed with several of the president's foreign policy decisions, none more so, apparently, than Wednesday's surprise move to pull US troops out of Syria. A self-described warrior who once boasted it was a “hell of a lot of fun” to shoot people, he's also famous for having said, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." He has called Iran "the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East." He defended a military strike which killed 42 people in Iraq in 2004, which the US said targeted a militant safe house, but survivors and many reports said was a wedding party. "Bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men," he was quoted as saying at the time. And now Democrats want to bemoan this guy retiring and romanticize what this guy stands for.It's interesting to me how the US media is dealing with this issue. Are we moving away from Democrat and Republican to Anti-War vs. War? Here's what I find interesting, CNN, MSNBC, FOX - they all have their shorts in a bunch because Trump has announced the troop withdrawal in Syria. I was listening to this analyst Bobby Ghosh yesterday on MSNBC, who said Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees with Trump about this withdrawal, therefore it's obviously a bad decision. We've got all these stories and more!GUESTS:Colin Campbell — Multimedia journalist for a number of national and international outlets.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

It's Friday: time for our news roundup as we look at this week's biggest stories! A fragile truce was secured after week-long negotiations in Sweden, making for the first Yemen peace talks since 2016. We'll also discuss the arrest of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, which sent shock waves through the global markets. The US government alleges that Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei's founder, helped the company dodge sanctions on Iran by telling financial institutions such as HSBC that a Huawei subsidiary, Skycom, was a separate and unaffiliated company. Also, US District Judge William H. Pauley III sentenced President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen to three years in prison and ordered Cohen to pay nearly $2 million in penalties for financial crimes and lying to Congress. Cohen pleaded guilty in two separate cases. One was brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, over Cohen's lies to Congress. The other was brought by federal prosecutors in New York over tax and bank fraud allegations and campaign finance violations.Lawyers for Michael T. Flynn, President Trump's first national security adviser, asked a federal judge late yesterday to spare him prison time for misleading investigators, and they suggested that the FBI agents who interviewed him last year at the White House had tricked him into lying. Mr. Flynn's lawyers said that his contrition, lengthy military service and willingness to aid the special counsel should warrant a sentence of only probation. “His cooperation was not grudging or delayed,” Mr. Flynn's lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo that included letters from supporters vouching for his character. Even in accepting blame, Mr. Flynn portrayed himself as a victim of FBI tactics to trap him. His lawyers highlighted details from the interview that played into an unfounded theory that Mr. Flynn's demeanor during questioning was potential evidence that he did not lie to investigators. Their emphasis on the FBI's conduct during the interview aligns with Mr. Trump's dim view of federal law enforcement.The US Senate will take up a revised criminal justice bill this month, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor this week, reversing his previous resistance to acting on the measure. McConnell (R-KY) said on Tuesday that he will bring a bipartisan criminal justice bill up for a vote, marking a significant win for the legislation's supporters, including President Trump. "At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that has been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently revised criminal justice bill," McConnell said from the Senate floor.GUESTS: Colin Campbell — Multimedia journalist for a number of national and international outlets.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Cedric Cromwell, Chairman of Maspee-Wampanoag Tribal Council; and Jay Winter Nightwolf, host of Nightwolf—The Most Dangerous Show on Radio on WPFW 89.3 and brings an American Indian perspective to global issues. Thursday was celebrated by most Americans as Thanksgiving. Pilgrims and Puritans who emigrated from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. The common narrative is that this holiday commemorates the cooperative relationship between the Native Americans, primarily the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Massachusetts and the Pilgrims. As with most narratives and histories told by invading or concurring forces, there's another side to the story. How does the mistold story of "Thanksgiving" add to the elitist and 'American exceptionalism' mentality that exists today? Why is this called the National Day of Mourning for some?Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. directed a rare and pointed shot at President Trump today, defending the federal judiciary in the wake of Trump's criticism of an “Obama judge”. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in a statement released by the court's public information office. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”Delivered on the eve of Thanksgiving, Roberts added: “That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.” Shermichael, your thoughts on what this says about the president's view of the judiciary and Chief Justice Robert's reply.President Trump has conceded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "could very well" have known about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. But he's still not going to punish Saudi Arabia's government for it. The CIA has “high confidence” in its findings that MBS directed Khashoggi's murder, and Trump was expected to receive a full CIA briefing today. Still, the president signaled in a statement earlier today that no matter what the CIA tells him, he still won't take retaliatory action against the Saudi government. What does this indicate?A modest first step in restoring full-fledged negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban.” This was how senior Russian senior diplomat Zamir Kabulov defined the landmark conference in Moscow last week, which aimed to find a resolution to the long-running Afghan conflict. This was not widely covered in US mainstream media as far as I can discern. What does this mean? GUESTS: Jay Winter Nightwolf — originator and host of The American Indian's Truths — Nightwolf — the Most Dangerous Show On Radio on WPFW 89.3 FM. His show is the only Native American program on FM radio in the mid-Atlantic region. Nightwolf is also the first Native American Indian to serve as a national advisory member of The Progressive Democrats of America.Cedric Cromwell – Chairman of Maspee-Wampanoag Tribal Council.Dr. Ajamu Baraka — American political activist and former Green Party nominee for vice president of the United States in the 2016 election.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Colin Campbell — Multimedia journalist for a number of national and international outlets.

This episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research; and Caleb Maupin political analyst who focuses on US foreign policy, capitalism and imperialism. CNN's Jim Acosta has returned to his post at the White House following a court ruling that forced the Trump administration to reinstate his press pass. Today's ruling by federal judge Timothy J. Kelly was in favor of CNN in its lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several top aides. The suit alleges that CNN and Acosta's First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated by last week's suspension of his press pass. All of this happened while the US Justice Department accidentally revealed a secret indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. As reported on the Sputnik News website, the US Justice Department is apparently poised to indict Assange, though it remains unclear whether the charges have already been filed or not. What has Acosta, who is being celebrated, really accomplished while Assange has revealed real information and is in fear for his life? If we look at this strictly from a journalism perspective, Acosta vs. Assange, which case is really the greater attack on the public good?Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on Congress to rein in government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in order to slow America's increasing national debt. He called the debt disturbing and said it's driven by the three entitlement programs, although he did not mention that the tax plan that the Senate recently passed has contributed to the debt increase. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the GOP tax cuts would add $1.9 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. In Vijay Prashad's article, "Living Our Lives Inside a Tragedy the Size of the Planet," which discusses the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) austerity plan in Argentina, he writes, "The IMF entered with its shop-worn prescriptions, a recipe that it has effectively sold for the past four decades: structural adjustment. We will promise to give you funding and to help you attract investment, the IMF says if you cut back on State spending on social infrastructure (education and health) and increase measures that are attractive to monopoly capitalism." Are there similarities between austerity programs in Italy, Greece, Spain and now Argentina and what Trump has set up with his tax cuts and what McConnell is supporting?Democrat Stacey Abrams ended her run for Georgia governor earlier today as the state prepared to certify the election, but she said she would not concede the contest to Republican Brian Kemp. Saying the law “allows no further viable remedy” for her bid for governor against Kemp, Abrams announced a new voting rights group that will file “major” litigation against the state over electoral issues. She laced her speech with critiques of Kemp, a former Georgia secretary of state who she said was “deliberate and intentional in his actions” to suppress the vote. “I will not concede, because the erosion of our democracy is not right,” she added.Florida Senator Bill Nelson's already improbable path towards victory in a recount has gotten narrower, with the Democrat suffering a series of setbacks in court and in county election offices across the state. Republican Governor Rick Scott has a 12,603-vote lead in the recount. Nelson was handed a consequential loss early today when Judge Mark Walker ruled that the guidelines Florida law provides to election canvassing boards as to how to determine voter intent in a manual recount are constitutional. Nelson's lawyers did score a narrow win on Thursday when Walker ruled voters whose mismatched signatures disqualified their provisional and mail-in ballots and who were "belatedly notified" of the problem have until Saturday at 5 p.m. to correct those signature problems. But even that victory was muted. Lawyers for Nelson and other Democrats had asked for the ballots in question to be counted with no review of the signatures at all. And even though Elias and others celebrated the ruling, Uzoma Nkwonta, a lawyer for Nelson's campaign in the case, told the judge in the hearing that a ruling that only extended the deadline by a few days — which is what Walker ordered — "would probably be insufficient."The number of people missing in California's wildfires has soared to over 600, and the death toll has risen to 66. In the Camp Fire in Northern California, 631 people were unaccounted for after officials on Thursday added more than 500 names to the list of people reported missing. Hundreds of others are living in tent cities with no idea when they'll be able to return home. Members of the Paradise community held a town hall meeting Thursday night to begin the long road to recovery, with many signing up for FEMA relief. What does this say about those who deny the science of climate change? Where do the victims turn for financial relief?GUESTS:Vijay Prashad — Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and chief editor of LeftWord Books. He is also a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

The 2018 midterms are trying to wind down. In Georgia, with a narrow lead in unofficial returns, Brian Kemp on Thursday stepped down as secretary of state and declared victory in the gubernatorial race while there are votes left to count.Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema has taken a narrow lead over Republican opponent Martha McSally in the Arizona Senate race as officials continue to tally mail-in ballots — a change in fortunes that could narrow the size of the GOP majority next year. Sinema now leads McSally 49.1 percent to 48.6 percent, according to results provided by election officials at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday. The two congresswomen were separated by just 9,610 ballots cast statewide, with a Green Party candidate lagging far behind.The Florida Senate race is still too close to call. According to unofficial results on the Florida Department of State website at 11:45 a.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 9, Republican Gov. Rick Scott led Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by 15,046 votes — or 0.18 percentage points. We're watching that margin closely, because if it stays about that small, it will trigger a recount. It's already narrowed since election night, when Scott initially declared victory with a 56,000-vote lead. Broward County's undervote rate is way out of line with every other county in Florida, which exhibited, at most, a 0.8 percent difference. President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him for the time being with loyalist Matthew G. Whitaker, who has echoed the president's complaints about the special counsel investigation into Russia's alleged election interference and will now take charge of the inquiry. Whitaker has courted the anti-abortion, evangelical Christian vote, saying at one candidate's forum that he would scrutinize nominees for federal judge seats to ensure they had a "biblical view of justice." In August 2017, Mr. Whitaker wrote a piece called "Mueller's investigation of Trump is going too far," in which he said, “I would start with the idea of Marbury v. Madison. That's probably a good place to start and the way it's looked at the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of constitutional issues. We'll move forward from there. All New Deal cases that were expansive of the federal government. Those would be bad. Then all the way up to the Affordable Care Act and the individual mandate.”He was asked in 2014, during an ill-fated run in the Republican senatorial primary in Iowa, about the worst decisions in the Supreme Court's history. Is Whitaker using his faith inappropriately?The Thousand Oaks gunman went from Marine vet to mass shooter. Marine Corps veteran Ian Long, 28, stormed into the Borderline Bar & Grill country music dance hall in Thousand Oaks, California, firing a Glock .45-caliber handgun without a word as patrons line-danced late Wednesday night; he killed 12 people. This mass shooting has put gun control back in the spotlight, but will the country ever reach a consensus on how we deal with this issue?Michelle Obama rips Trump in a new memoir. She expressed disbelief over how so many women would choose a "misogynist" over Hillary Clinton, "an exceptionally qualified female candidate." She also slammed Trump's "birther" campaign questioning her husband's citizenship, calling it bigoted and dangerous, and saying it put her family at risk of being harmed. “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls?" she wrote, according to ABC News. "Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family's safety at risk. And for this, I'd never forgive him.” Trump responded in a news conference by saying, "I'll give you a little controversy back, I'll never forgive [President Barack Obama] for what he did to our US military. It was depleted, and I had to fix it," Trump said. "What he did to our military made this country very unsafe for you and you and you." GUESTS: Carmine Sabia - Journalist and writer for Citizen Truth.Dr. Sekou Franklin - Associate professor of political science at Middle Tennessee University.Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

The United States will add 700 individuals and entities to its Iran blacklist and pressure the global SWIFT banking network to cut off Tehran when expanded sanctions are put in place Monday. But eight countries, including Italy, India, Japan and South Korea, will receive temporary waivers allowing them to continue to import Iranian petroleum products for a limited period as long as they end such imports entirely in the future. It's been reported that Turkey and Iraq have also been granted waivers. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wants Tehran's Shiite clerical regime to withdraw from war-ravaged Syria, where it is a critical ally of President Bashar al-Assad, and to end longstanding support to regional militant movements Hezbollah and Hamas. The US also wants Iran to stop backing Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are facing a US-supported air campaign led by Saudi Arabia. What's going on here?The US economy added 250,000 jobs in October, federal economists reported today in the government's last labor market snapshot before the midterm elections. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, a 49-year low, and the typical worker's earnings rose by 3.1 percent over the year that ended in October, the biggest leap since 2009. These are economic numbers that most political parties would love to have and would be the center of their messaging. Why are Republicans in fear of losing the House of Representatives, and dropping seats in the Senate and in state Houses?Bolton promises to confront Latin America's "troika of tyranny": US National Security Advisor John Bolton gave a speech yesterday afternoon at the Freedom Tower in Miami, right before the mid-terms, denouncing the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. “This troika of tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability,and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere,” Bolton said. “The United States looks forward to watching each corner of the triangle fall ... The troika will crumble.” This story broke on Saturday, but it impacted our news this entire week: Armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and three handguns, Robert D. Bowers, shouting anti-Semitic slurs, opened fire inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this past Saturday morning, killing 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and two others. There has been so much made about the rhetoric from the president and the language from some of those on the other side of the aisle. The attack has also highlighted divisions within the Jewish community, with some Zionists in Israel claiming that Tree of Life is not a synagogue but a place with Jewish flavor and blaming the victims for their plight.We've got these topics and so much more as we analyze this week's biggest stories!GUESTS: Jon Jeter — Author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

It's Friday: that means it's panel time. We'll turn to them to get analysis on the important stories of this week!Federal authorities made an arrest on Friday in connection with the nationwide bombing campaign against outspoken critics of President Trump. The suspect is Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, of Aventura, Fla. It was not clear whether the authorities were seeking other suspects, or if they believed Mr. Sayoc acted alone. The details surrounding this event are being fairly clearly hashed out. Sayoc has been charged in Manhattan with five federal crimes, including the interstate transportation of an explosive, illegal mailing of explosives, making threats against former presidents, threatening interstate communication and assaulting former and current federal officers. With that said, why is Sayoc not being charged with terrorism? Is US President Donald Trump an aberration, an outlier or the culmination of a history of anger and vitriol?President Trump is considering a major speech on Tuesday to announce a broad crackdown on the southern border. He is expected to use the remarks to outline his plans to fortify the border, including executive actions he is considering to deny entry to Central American migrants and asylum-seekers, and the deployment of hundreds of United States Army troops to aid in the effort. It is being reported that he plans to invoke broad presidential powers to bar foreigners from entering the country for national security reasons — under the same section of immigration law that underpinned the travel ban — to block Central American migrants from crossing the southern border. Trump reportedly plans to put in place new rules that would disqualify migrants who cross the border in between ports of entry from claiming asylum. Exceptions would be made for people facing torture at home. According to American immigration law, people arriving at ports of entry on the United States border have the right to seek asylum, and, if they demonstrate a “credible fear” of returning home, to have their claims processed with the possibility of eventually being granted legal status to stay. Those who do not go to a checkpoint but are apprehended crossing the border without authorization can also make such a claim and must, under the law, be afforded a chance to have their cases heard.CIA Director Gina Haspel, or “Bloody Gina,” as she is affectionately known, briefed President Trump yesterday about her trip this week to Turkey, where she listened to audio purportedly capturing the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, as Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that its agents murdered the dissident Saudi journalist in what Saudi public prosecutors called a “premeditated” operation. That was another change in the Saudis' story. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and his father, King Salman, have both repeatedly assured Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week, that they had no knowledge of a plot to kill Khashoggi. Trump initially described the Saudi explanation last Saturday as credible. But in recent days he has expressed doubt, calling it “the worst cover-up ever,” although he has not directly pointed the finger at the Saudi leadership. Instead, Pompeo announced that visas held by the Saudis arrested in connection with the case were being revoked, and the White House on Monday dispatched Haspel to Turkey.Megyn Kelly will not return to her 9 a.m. program on NBC, the network said today, as the beleaguered host remains in negotiations over a likely exit from the NBC airwaves. After her time at Fox News, wherein 2013 she argued, "Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have- he's a historical figure; that's a verifiable fact. As is Santa. I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?," she then went to NBC and was confused this week about why wearing blackface at Halloween is no longer in vogue. "But what is racist? You truly do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween … That was OK when I was a kid, as long as you were dressing as a character," Kelly said.Molly Ball writes at TIME: "Michael Avenatti, the lawyer and possible presidential candidate, caused a stir with his contention that there's only one type of candidate who can beat President Trump. In an interview with TIME published Thursday, Avenatti said the Democrats' 2020 nominee 'better be a white male,' because society affords more credibility to white men than it does others.” Here's another quote from the longer interview piece from Thursday, written by Ball and Alana Abramson: “A run for President would thrust Avenatti into the middle of the party's identity crisis. The Democrats have not been this powerless since the 1920s, and their members have responded by nominating a historic number of women and people of color for the office. But when it comes to the party's presidential nominee in 2020, Avenatti thinks in different terms. 'I think it better be a white male,' he says. He hastens to add that he wishes it weren't so, but it's undeniable that people listen to white men more than they do others; it's why he's been successful representing [Stormy] Daniels and immigrant mothers, he says. 'When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight,' he says. 'Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.'" Does Avenatti's lingo in his statement sound as bigoted as the people he's accusing of being bigoted? GUESTS: Shermichael Singleton — Political analyst.Jon Jeter — Author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Colin Campbell — Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication.

According to the US Secret Service, several suspicious packages have been found at or intercepted on their way to prominent political and politically connected figures this week. One was found Monday at the New York home of George Soros, reportedly containing an explosive device. On Tuesday, another suspicious parcel was intercepted on its way to the Clinton residence in Chappaqua, New York. On Wednesday, a package was intercepted en route to former US President Barack Obama's residence in Washington, DC; another was intended for Former US Attorney General Eric Holder but had the wrong address, and was thus sent to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Florida office, which was listed on the package as a return address; and yet another parcel, addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan and containing white powder as well as an apparent pipe bomb, was found at CNN's New York City headquarters, prompting an evacuation. Is America descending into the politics of rage, or is this part of a cyclical ebb and flow? Also, what is it about America that stimulates this behavior? Professor Joanne Freeman wrote an interesting piece in The Atlantic in which she said, “Anger has a peculiar power in democracies … It feeds on raw emotions with a primal power: fear, pride, hate, humiliation. And it is contagious, investing the like-minded with a sense of holy cause … Such is the dynamic of politics in the time of Trump. The politics of outrage is fast becoming a political norm, each flare-up lowering the bar of acceptable rhetoric and producing an upswing in belligerent posturing.” Is this fast becoming a new political norm, or is this America being America?Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is embarking upon the first trip by a Japanese prime minister to China in seven years. He faces challenges on the strategic front but may find gentler economic common ground to traverse, as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping face off against a gale blowing across the Pacific. What does this mean for these two countries, and what does it say about their relations with the US? These two Asian giants – the world's number two and number three economies – are regional strategic rivals with a bloody history, and they are increasingly finding themselves confronted by US President Donald Trump's assault on their trade practices. What is the basis of this meeting?Yemen is right now experiencing one of the world's worst human atrocities, and it's not front page news. At least seven Yemeni civilians were killed on Sunday when Saudi-led coalition aircraft targeted residential areas in Yemen's northwestern governorate of Hajjah, the northwestern city of Sana'a and the western coastal province of Hodeida. In Hajjah, Saudi airstrikes targeted a car as it was traveling on a road in the Bani Hassan area of the Abs district on Sunday afternoon, leaving four people dead and one injured, including one woman. The Legal Center for Rights and Development in Yemen, a non-governmental organization monitoring human rights violations immediately after their occurrence, told MintPress News that the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen has resulted in the death of 15,185 civilians, including 3,527 children and 2,277 women. Meanwhile, more than 700,000 Yemenis, along with their families, are struggling to survive after recently being expelled from the Saudi Kingdom. Why is mainstream media ignoring this grave humanitarian crisis?GUESTS: Jon Jeter — Author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Elisabeth Myers — Editor-in-chief of Inside Arabia.

Facebook shut down 559 pages and 251 personal accounts yesterday. After catching a lot of heat for security breaches, privacy concerns and participating (whether willingly or unwillingly) in impacting election outcomes, the company said it is banning pages which are "working to mislead others about who they are, and what they are doing." Some of the pages that are being closed belong to legitimate journalists who are providing alternative narratives to those being presented in mainstream media. What does this portend for the future of the free exchange of ideas in the virtual public square via social media and beyond? This is virtual censorship – I say virtually since FB is taking action as a private entity, not involving the government, but with the way that FB and now Twitter have become so ingrained into our social fabric, should they be regulated as public utilities are?A Turkish court on Friday ordered the release of the American pastor Andrew Brunson from house arrest, a move that will end his 24-month imprisonment and allow him to fly home and that signaled a truce of sorts in a heated diplomatic dispute between Turkey and the United States. Mr. Brunson was sentenced to three years, one month and 15 days in prison, but the judge lifted all judicial controls - including a ban on travel - due to his good behavior and in view of time served, leaving him free to leave the country immediately. Mr. Brunson left the courthouse by a car shortly after the decision was announced, and American officials following the case said he would return home to Izmir before departing for the United States on Saturday morning. It is alleged that US intelligence officials told The Washington Post they have been presented with video and audio recordings of the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi inside his own nation's consulate in Istanbul. According to anonymous intelligence officials cited by The Post, the recordings capture the moments before and during what they described as Mr. Khashoggi's violent death. The 59-year-old, a columnist for The Post, was allegedly killed at the hands of a team of Saudi security personnel flown by private jet into Turkey's capital city just hours before he was scheduled to arrive at the consulate to settle routine personal matters. So, first we have to be careful since we are dealing with anonymous sources here, but what does this say about government intelligence services? Are the US and Turkey admitting that they are spying on embassies?The media branch of Yemen's Ansar Allah military released footage on Friday showing the moment that strategic Saudi military locations were captured in the eastern al-Doud mountains and al-Reqa'h military bases, located in Saudi Arabia's southwestern region of Jizan, approximately 900 kilometers (559 miles) south of the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the recent attacks. Yemen's army launched two ballistic missiles at a gathering of Saudi military forces, including mercenaries, just east of al-Doud. A group of Saudi-allied mercenaries south of al-Khobeh in Jizan was also targeted. Later in the day, Yemen's army struck a Saudi military base in Jizan with two ballistic missiles, killing a number of Saudi soldiers, according to two military sources in Yemen's army. Another missile reportedly struck its target in the southwestern Saudi region of Asir, according to a Yemeni military source's statement to MintPress.Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the embattled archbishop of Washington, DC, and one of the church's most powerful Americans. But the pope's high praise for Wuerl in the wake of two clergy sexual abuse scandals angered some abuse survivors. Wuerl is the most prominent American Catholic to step down since the abuse scandal reignited this summer. But Francis has asked Wuerl to remain as the archdiocese's apostolic administrator - akin to an interim manager - until a successor is named. And in a letter released Friday, the pope praised Wuerl for his "nobility" in handling the criticism against him.GUESTS: Elisabeth Myers — Editor-in-chief of Inside Arabia.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur, and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh made it out of committee this morning in his quest for the Supreme Court. The Senate voted narrowly to cut off debate on his nomination and move to the floor for a final vote as early as tomorrow. The 51-49 vote is the next-to-last step in the most tumultuous Supreme Court confirmation process in decades. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) initially said her vote to move the confirmation forward did not signal how she would vote in the end, but she announced later on Friday that she will vote to support him on the floor. I think after the past few weeks of this hearing process, it looks like Kavanaugh will become the next Supreme Court justice. What does all of this mean? Jason Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, carrying a mandatory minimum of six years in prison, and had his bail revoked. For some insight into this verdict we turn Fred G. Rabner, the attorney for the family of Antwon Rose II, the unarmed 17-year-old who was shot and killed in June by Michael Rosfeld, an East Pittsburgh police officer. It's Friday! Time for the weekly panel discussion. There are lots of things to talk about. Mike Pence declares Trump's fight with China just got personal. Claiming that Beijing wants to get Trump out of office, Vice President Pence outlines a China policy that threatens to dramatically increase tensions. “A new consensus on China is rising across America,” is what he told an audience in Washington, warning Beijing in fighting terms that “this president will not back down.” The wide-ranging speech employed many criticisms long levied against Beijing, including backpedaling on reforms and representing a malign influence in global politics. But Pence also denounced the Chinese government on a new front that related to President Trump himself: election meddling. So far, the allegation appears to be based primarily on the fact that retaliatory tariffs placed on US goods by China have overwhelmingly targeted counties that voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The notion that Beijing is specifically targeting Trump, which served as an exclamation point at the end of Pence's laundry list of grievances, raises the question of whether the US president will abandon his insistence on maintaining the public image of a warm relationship with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping. Job growth slumped in September, but the unemployment rate hit the lowest level since 1969. Job creation for September fell to its lowest level in a year, though the unemployment rate dropped to a point not seen in nearly 50 years, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. Non-farm payrolls rose just 134,000, well below Refinitiv estimates of 185,000 and the worst performance since last September, when a labor strike weighed on the numbers. The unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.7 percent, the lowest level since December 1969 and one-tenth of a percentage point below expectations. A separate measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding jobs part-time for economic reasons — sometimes called the "real unemployment rate" — edged higher to 7.5 percent. Unemployment among black Americans declined three-tenths of a point to 6 percent, slightly above its record low of 5.9 percent achieved in May. The increase in pay over the past 12 months slowed to 2.8 percent from 2.9 percent, but it's widely expected to top 3 percent soon because of the growing competition for a shrinking pool of available workers. Most economists believe it's just a matter of time before hiring slows sharply, and they wonder if September is a hint of what's to come. The economy is starting to run out of workers, they contend. We've got all those topics and more!GUESTS:Leslie Proll — Civil rights lawyer, advisor to the NAACP on judicial nominations, former NAACP LDF Policy Director and former Alabama director of the US Department of TransportationAttorney Fred Rabner, Esq. — Attorney in Antwon Rose II case.Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Political analyst; author of Why Black Lives Do Matter; the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, Telesur, and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

People opposed to the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh amid allegations against him of sexual assault and misconduct are marching through the streets of Washington today. A crowd of demonstrators chanted and held signs saying "I believe Dr. Ford" and "I believe Anita." Other signs quoted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony, "indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter," which Ford says haunts her the most about the night she was sexually assaulted. All of this comes as the FBI's report on the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh is now available for US senators to read. What does all of this mean? Is the limited nature of this FBI investigation due to the limitations placed upon the FBI by the White House, or is this the FBI being the FBI that so many of us are suspicious of due to its history?Testimony has ended in the murder trial of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke for his shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke testified yesterday and at times turned defiant when questioned by prosecutors, who pointed out that video footage of the 2014 shooting didn't match his account of what happened. He said he opened fire when McDonald kept advancing toward him while waving a knife. He said the shooting video “doesn't show my perspective.” Van Dyke, who is white, shot the black teenager 16 times.Brazil will go to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, in what could be the most important election in its history. The 2016 Olympics were held in Brazil. The 2014 World Cup was held in Brazil. In 2001, Brazil was considered to be the greatest growing economy. What's happened to, or in, Brazil over the past 15 years or so?GUESTS:Leslie Proll — Civil rights lawyer, advisor to the NAACP on judicial nominations, former NAACP LDF Policy Director and former Alabama director of the US Department of TransportationJohn Burris — Lead attorney and founder of the Law Office of John L. Burris. He is primarily known for his work in the area of civil rights, with an emphasis on police misconduct and excessive force cases.Vijay Prashad - Indian historian, journalist, commentator and Marxist intellectual. He is the executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the chief editor of LeftWord Books.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

Dr. Cosby was given a three to 10-year prison sentence earlier today for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home outside Philadelphia 14 years ago. Judge Steven T. O'Neill upheld a state board's finding that Dr. Cosby is a sexually violent predator. He was immediately taken into custody and will go straight to prison, as the judge denied him a request to remain free on bail while he pursues an anticipated appeal.It is a tragic end to a brilliant career.President Trump addressed the UN General Assembly this morning with a very interesting speech. We'll provide full analysis and fact-check his statements and views on sovereignty, global governance, criminal courts, OPEC and sanctions. From China to Venezuela, Trump pulled no punches, but did they really land? Trump positioned the US as a victim being taken advantage of by the rest of the world. How does his speech stack up against the Monroe Doctrine? Monroe made four basic points: (1) the United States would not interfere in the internal affairs of or the wars between European powers; (2) the United States recognized and would not interfere with existing colonies and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere; (3) the Western Hemisphere was closed to future colonization; and (4) any attempt by a European power to oppress or control any nation in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States. Trump opened his speech with the statement, “In two years, my administration has achieved more than any administration had achieved before in history,” and the room laughed at him. Are they still laughing after this speech? GUESTS: Tom Porter — African American Studies department at Ohio University and former director of the King Center in Atlanta.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela. Daniel Lazare — Journalist and author of three books: The Frozen Republic, The Velvet Coup and America's Undeclared War.Mark Sleboda - International affairs and security analyst.Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California, author of Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression and writer at jackrasmus.com.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Stephanie Myers, co-chair of Black Women for Positive Change. She'll discuss what the organization is doing to combat gun violence as a new report declares it a humanitarian crisis.According to Amnesty International, we all want to be safe, secure and to live without fear, which is a human right that we all have. But in the US, gun violence is an epidemic that directly threatens these rights – to discuss this we turn to my first guest, a businesswoman, and civic leader. A staggering number of people are killed with guns in the United States every year: more than 30,000 men, women, and children. Among high-income countries, the United States accounts for 80 percent of all gun deaths in the world, 86 percent of all women killed by guns and 87 percent of all children younger than 14 who are killed by guns. Fueling this epidemic, laws on guns in the United States are inconsistent and weak – and federal, state and local governments are not meeting their obligations under international law to protect people's safety. It's Friday! Time for the weekly panel discussion. There are lots of things to talk about. From lessons learned in New York's election results to the continuous progressive blue wave. Also, last week, Botham Shem Jean was shot and killed by Dallas police officer Amber Rene Guyger, who authorities say accidentally went to Jean's apartment, thinking it was her own. Now, the smear headlines are appearing attacking Jean's character. What's going on here? Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro received a rare yet exceedingly warm welcome Thursday as he landed in Beijing, where the oft-maligned leader and target of US-spearheaded regime-change efforts will discuss new ways in which his government and the People's Republic of China can deepen their relations and strengthen their long-running ties. Lastly, Paul Manafort will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his guilty plea.We've got all those topics and more!GUESTS:Dr. Stephanie Myers - Vice president of R.J. Myers Publishing Company and national co-chair of Black Women for Positive Change. She served as a presidential appointee for 12 years and authorized the first US commercial space launch of a privately owned rocket. Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Earl Ofari Hutchinson - Political analyst, author of Why Black Lives Do Matter and host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

It's Friday, time for a power-packed panel discussion on all of this week's hottest news, controversy and political drama. So, let's start with the Kavanaugh hearing. We now know he's a nice guy, great dad, basketball coach and wonderful husband, but none of that has anything to do with interpreting the Constitution. The emails tell us that he has misrepresented the truth about many of his positions. There's a lot of stink on this guy, but confirm him they will. "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration": that's the title of an interesting anonymous op-ed published in the NY Times right after Bob Woodward's new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, exploded onto the political scene. It included anecdotes like President Donald Trump's aides purposely keeping information from him in order to protect the country and Trump lashing out at aides, most notably Jeff Sessions, referring to his attorney general as "mentally retarded." The author of the op-ed wants the administration to succeed and thinks that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous. Really? Which ones, and for whom? This tells me that it's not an ideological conflict; it's a matter of process and presentation. If that's the case, then the author of this op-ed and his/her cohorts are just as sick and dangerous as Trump. Yesterday, the National Association of Police Organizations fired off a letter to Nike chairman and CEO Mark Parker, saying the organization is now calling on all its member officers, their families and friends to join in boycotting all Nike products. Now, the National Black Police Association has released an open letter they sent to Parker. In the letter, the group not only condemned the calls from traditionally white police organizations to boycott Nike, but congratulated Nike on its new campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. “NAPO believes that Mr. Kaepernick's choice to openly protest issues surging police brutality, racism and social injustices in this country makes him anti-police,” NBPA Chair Sonia Pruitt wrote. “On the contrary, the NBPA believes that Mr. Kaepernick's stance is in direct alignment with what law enforcement stands for - the protection of a people, their human rights, their dignity, their safety and their rights as American citizens."GUESTS: Jackie Luqman — Co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation and co-host of the Facebook livestream Coffee, Current Events & Politics.Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Political analyst, author of Why Black Lives Do Matter and host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Johanna Fernandez, a filmmaker with Big Noise Films, professor of history at Baruch College (CUNY) and one of the coordinators of The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.Arguments in a request by former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal to have his previous appeals vacated have been postponed. The Philadelphia District Attorney's office turned over a document Monday that the defense says could show former Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille was personally involved in the case. The judge ordered the parties to continue searching for additional documents before he hears arguments in October.It's Friday, so it's time for my panel. We'll get into all the latest news and controversies from the Arizona and Florida primaries: President Trump warning evangelical leaders in a closed-door meeting that there would be “violence” if Republicans lose the House in the November midterm elections; Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis using the term "monkey this up" when referring to his African American gubernatorial opponent Andrew Gillum; and what do people really know about Brett Kavanaugh's record, and what impact will he have if appointed to the US Supreme Court? GUESTS:Johanna Fernandez — Filmmaker with Big Noise Films, professor of history at Baruch College (CUNY) and one of the coordinators of The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.Ray Baker — Political analyst and host of the podcast Public Agenda. Caleb Maupin — Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Earl Ofari Hutchinson — Political analyst, author of Why Black Lives Do Matter and host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli live gunfire on Friday during protests along the Gaza border. What's going on in the region? Miko Peled provides updates to this latest reports of those shot and discusses his recent article "Ahed Tamimi Comes Home to Great Joy but Also Reminders of Pain." Some eight months after Ahed's imprisonment, the Israeli authorities are unhappy with the status that the prisoners and the Tamimi family achieved as symbols of the Palestinian resistance. What is the government doing? An NAACP poll released on August 7 found that Trump's approval rating among black Americans was at 21 percent. And a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in June found Trump's approval rating among blacks at 14 percent. According to a Rasmussen poll, an astounding one in three blacks say they approve of his performance. Now, Rasmussen is a GOP- and Trump-leaning poll that always manages to show him doing better than just about any other survey in his approval ratings. However, even if the staggering figure of black support is wrong as sin, other polls including the NAACP survey all show that Trump is doing a lot better than many might think among blacks. The brutal reality is that, as a relative of mine did, thousands of blacks voted for Trump. He touched a tiny nerve with his shouts that poor, underserved black neighborhoods are supposedly messes with lousy public schools, high crime and violence and chronic joblessness and poverty. How will this play out in the midterms?Also, it's Friday: Time to bring in the panel and discuss this week's hottest stories!GUESTS:Miko Peled - Israeli-American activist and author of The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, TeleSur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.Earl Ofari Hutchinson - Political analyst, author of Why Black Lives Do Matter and host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Richard Rothstein, Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute and author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.A study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, released Wednesday, shows that the vast majority of neighborhoods marked “hazardous” in red ink on maps drawn by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corp. from 1935 to 1939 are today much more likely than other areas to comprise lower-income, minority residents. As we witness and experience the expanding chasms in American society centered around ethnicity and religion, many ask: how did we get here? To many scholars and social critics, the racial segregation of our neighborhoods was the product of de-facto segregation proponents working outside the law, but private activity could not have imposed segregation without explicit government policies designed to ensure the separation of African Americans from whites. Venezuela has released evidence connecting President Nicolas Maduro's would-be assassins to outside actors in Columbia and Washington. So, what's going on in Venezuela, and why does President Maduro believe that the US is behind this drone-based assassination attempt? Is there a difference between the US politics of personality and the Chinese politics of statecraft? As the US engages in trade wars and jingoistic rhetoric with China, my last guest will break down his new article, Xi Jinping Presents the Science of Statecraft, and give insight into the mind of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. Xi emphasizes party discipline and policies to combat corruption. While the media tries to understand China on a daily basis, the actual writings of Xi are essential for those who want to go beyond speculation and understand the truth. GUESTS:Richard Rothstein - Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute and author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.James Carey - Journalist and editor at Geopolitics Alert. He specializes in Middle East and Asian affairs. Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, Telesur and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

On this episode of The Critical Hour with Dr. Wilmer Leon, we'll talk with Attorney Fred Rabner representing the family of Antwon Rose. Rose, 17, was shot while running from a car that was pulled over by Rosefeld after a reported drive-by shooting in another area. The lawsuit alleges wrongful death and other counts against the borough itself, Rosefeld, Mayor Louis Payne and police Chief Lori Fruncek. Also, it's Friday and time for our panel discussion. First up it's all about defense spending. Is this LUNACY? The Senate cleared and sent to President Trump a $717 billion defense policy bill aimed at building up the military and blunting Chinese foreign investment and telecommunications technology. This $717 billion includes $616.9 billion for the base Pentagon budget and $21.9 billion for nuclear weapons programs under the Energy Department. Another extra $69 billion would be authorized to fund U.S. war efforts under the Overseas Contingency Operations account.What message does this send around the world and what does this say about our domestic politics?Budgets are numeric representations of priorities. So with infrastructure crumbling, homelessness, public schools underfunded, etc., this country decides to spend $717B on strengthing its war footing...what say you? We'll also talk about Thursday's major statement from Pope Francis. The world was at attention when the pope declared that the death penalty is wrong in all cases. This is a clear change in church teaching that is likely to challenge faithful Catholic politicians, judges and officials in the United States and other countries who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment. Over 2800 people sit on death row in the United States. Fourteen executions are scheduled for the remainder of 2018. What does this do to the politics, especially for Catholics and Christians? In our last segment, our guests will assess the fight over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the SCOTUS and examine the recent unemployment numbers. The devil is in the details and we're digging until we get to them. You don't want to miss this!GUESTS: Attorney Fred Rabner, Esq. - Attorney in Antwon Rose, II case.Earl Ofari Hutchinson - Political analyst; author of Why Black Lives Do Matter; the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. He has appeared on Russia Today, PressTV, Telesur, and CNN. He has reported from across the United States, as well as from Iran, the Gulf of Aden and Venezuela.

A Mint Press article entitled The DuBois Relationship Between Racism and Capitalism states that " In the wake of W.E.B. DuBois's 150th birthday, his works offer a lens through which to assess US capitalism's relationship to racism today."How does that play today.On this episode of The Critical Hour with Dr. Wilmer Leon, we'll examine the Mint Press article that quotes Dubois, “Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction,” while adding that in the US, race would be a key issue in that process. Thus, he would have had much to say when, around last Memorial Day, Trump suggested that NFL players peacefully protesting police killings of black people did not belong “in the country.”One of the elements of this piece is that there is an extreme right-wing capitalist agenda prevailing and unchallenged in this country that is pushing private capitalists' goals and race is one of the elements being used as a cover. What's your take?The author points out these cycles, we had the great depression then the New Deal brought about by a coalition of industrial unions, two socialist parties, and one communist party. Then New Deal programs were attacked by Republicans, in 2008-2009, the absence of a serious left opposition precluded anything like another New Deal. Now, centrist Democratic Party leadership waits for Trump's demise and another looming crisis.The author argues that racism in the US had settled deeply into the economics, politics and culture of the US since its inception. It had adjusted itself to capitalism and vice-versa. Their interdependence or partnership was deeply structured. What's your take on that historically and is it playing itself out in todays political narrative?It's Friday, time for our panel discussion on hot topics. This week Israel took center stage by approving the Nation State Bill. The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People; Jews have a unique right to national self-determination there and puts Hebrew above Arabic as the official language. Is this apartheid all over again?Also,Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie take are trying to take their message to Kansas, but Brent Welder, a former labor lawyer running on a platform of “Medicare for All,” a $15 an hour minimum wage, tuition-free public college, and reducing big money's influence in politics, is taking his message to Kansas. Which will win out. Is there a progressive tinge that is starting to break through? Lastly we'll discuss, who CAN and CAN'T beat Trump in 2020? We'll discuss all these topics and more!GUESTS:Dr. Shayla C. Nunnally - Associate Professor with a joint appointment in Political Science and Africana Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in public opinion and political behavior, race and politics, African American public opinion and political behavior, and black political development and is the author of Trust in Black America: Race, Discrimination, and Politics.Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst who focuses his coverage on US foreign policy and the global system of monopoly capitalism and imperialism.Earl Ofari Hutchinson - Author and political analyst, the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network. His latest book is Why Black Lives Do Matter