The Unnatural, Manmade Disasters: Capitalism & Hurricane Florence

Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined from North Carolina by Jessica Culpepper, the Food Safety & Health Attorney at Public Justice, and Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and the co-author of “What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism.”
Hurricane Florence was downgraded to a tropical depression over the weekend, but not until it killed at least 17 people, stranded thousands, and left millions without power. Many of those stranded are poor people who have bedridden family, no car, or no money to leave. Meanwhile, coal ash ponds are overflowing into neighborhoods and there’s been flooding around the animal excrement disposal ponds known as CAFOs as well.
Monday’s regular segment Technology Rules with Chris Garaffa is a weekly guide on how monopoly corporations and the national surveillance state are threatening cherished freedoms, civil rights and civil liberties. Web developer and technologist Chris Garaffa joins the show.
In July, California Professor Christine Blasey Ford confidentially accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault via the Washington Post tip line and in a letter to her congressperson. After delays and a series of leaks, the story came out without a name or many details, and Ford decided to speak out despite the consequences that victims of assault often suffer by talking about it publicly. What does this tell us about prep school culture, assault in the highest echelons of power, and whether Kavanaugh’s nomination will be blocked? Brian and John speak with Heidi Boghosian, the executive director of the A. J. Muste Memorial Institute and the former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.
President Trump last week signed an executive order that would allow the intelligence community to determine whether or not there was foreign interference in a US election, and it sets out punishments for that interference. But what does “interference” mean? And there is nothing to indicate that the US will stop interfering in the elections of other countries. Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer who is the author of “The Plot to attack Iran,” joins the show.
A Democratic political action committee in California is targeting vulnerable Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher with a parody ad saying that the 15-term incumbent is a Russian hero and is endorsed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The ad will run in both English and Russian. Rohrabacher and Democratic businessman Harley Rouda are tied at 45 percent in the latest polls. Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, whose work is at rall.com, joins Brian and John.
Berta Caceres was a Honduran environmental activist and indigenous leader. She won the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for leading a grassroots campaign that successfully forced the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the massive Agua Zarca dam project. Just a few months later, she was assassinated in her home. Today, eight Hondurans go on trial for her murder amid criticism of the government’s handling of the investigation into her killing. Jackie McVicar, a member of the Atlantic Region Solidarity Network, working in solidarity with people struggling for social justice and environmental protection in Latin America, the Caribbean and Atlantic Canada, joins the show.
Monday’s segment “Education for Liberation with Bill Ayers” is where Bill helps us look at the state of education across the country. What’s happening in our schools, colleges, and universities, and what impact does it have on the world around us? Brian and John speak with Bill Ayers, an activist, educator and the author of the book “Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto.”