Clearing the FOG with co-hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

UPS workers are in a critical struggle with both their employer and their union, the Teamsters, which are pushing a poor contract on them. Like many workers in the United States, UPS workers are facing low wages and cuts to health care and other benefits. Although UPS workers nationwide voted by over 90% to go on strike, they are being told that the new five-year contract is a "done deal." Rank and file workers are doing all they can to reach workers and let them know that this is not the case. They can still reject the contract and keep fighting for a better one. We discuss why this is an important step in raising the standards for all workers and why all people need to support UPS workers now with Richard Hooker of #623LivesMatter. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Violent protests have been going on since April of this year, forcing residents to stay indoors. While the corporate media and an army of online trolls have been making false claims about the Ortega government, the reality is exactly the opposite. We speak with Stephen Sefton, who lives in Nicaragua and is a founder of Tortilla con Sal. He names the names behind the violence and describes what is really happening. We also discuss recent news and upcoming events. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Labor unions have been on the decline in the United States for over fifty years, which has caused a decline in wages, working environments and overall social conditions. In other countries, a strong alliance between labor unions and social movements have brought improvements. We discuss two major mistakes that labor made in the United States that caused its decline, the recent Supreme Court decision on Janus and what workers must do now to improve their situation. We also discuss recent news and cut through the corporate media fog on major issues. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFGRadio.org.

Two major crises of our era are growing wealth inequality and its resultant poverty and climate change, which is connected to a variety of environmental issues. Neither of these crises can be resolved without addressing the underlying root cause of capitalism, but many people are uncertain about what an economy beyond capitalism looks like. In his new book, Red Green Revolution: The Politics and Technology of Ecosocialism, Victor Wallis explains why a livable future must be ecosocialist, what ecosocialism is and how we get there. We discuss his book and the latest news. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This Juneteenth, there are actions around the militarization of police and community-based efforts to create security without the police. Eugene Puryear, who works with Stop Police Terror DC, discusses the Washington DC version of "Stop and Frisk," which involves Jump Out Squads, and the efforts to get data on how this program works. Stop Police Terror DC grew out of mass Black Lives Matter protests, which Puryer helped organize, in reaction to the police violence in Ferguson, MO and around the country. We also discuss current events including immigration issues around separating parents from their children and treatment of youth who were brought to the US as children, protests in support of Julian Assange, US regime change efforts in Nicaragua and the initial agreement between the United States and North Korea. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

For the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign and Resurrection City, poor and houseless people marched from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to Washington, DC where they are setting up a Resurrection City in DuPont Circle. We speak with Tiny (aka Lisa Gray-Garcia), co-founder of POOR Magazine and a participant on the march, about the reality of poverty in the United States. Tiny describes the march and the intersections between poverty and many other areas such as mass incarceration, health and colonization. This is a poor-led people's campaign that is not only resisting the policies and systems that drive the current crises, but is also putting forth poor people-led solutions, such as the Bank of Community Reparations and Homefulness. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela just succeeded against the forces of US imperialism through the election of Nicolas Maduro for a second term as president. US officials were openly calling for regime change, supporting opposition forces and announcing that the recent presidential election was illegitimate before it even occurred. We spoke with Roger Harris, past president of Task Force Americas, who participated in an international delegation with Kevin Zeese to Venezuela during the election, about the revolution, the bloodbath that will occur if US empire succeeds in regime change and the necessity of US activists to be in solidarity with Venezuela. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, there has been an unprecedented consolidation in the healthcare industry. Giant medical corporations are investing in "vertical integration," which basically means they own everything, including the hospitals, doctor's practices, long term care centers, pharmacies, insurances (both public and private), and more. This gives corporations the power to have control over hospitals and health professionals. Their interest is a healthy bottom line, not the health of patients and communities. Non-profits are just as ruthless as the for-profits, and on top of that they don't pay taxes. We speak with Dr. Anna Reed about the way this is playing out in Maryland and putting children and the poor at risk. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

First there were charter schools and high stakes testing, and now we are entering a whole new realm of corporate education that treats students as commodities and views schools and teachers as obstacles to profits. Education corporations are pushing computer-based learning on students and crowding out classroom-based instruction, even though studies show online learning is less effective. On top of that, new education tech also monitors students' eye movements, vital signs and emotional state. It is mining data on students from preschool on up that can be sold to marketers and used to determine a student's future. We speak with Morna McDermott, an educator and mom who co-founded the Opt Out Movement and has launched a new campaign, "Classrooms, Not Computers." For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Each new study on climate change shows that not only is the crisis here now, but changes are happening a century earlier than predicted. We speak with respected climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann, about what we can expect in the next decades and what we need to do to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. We also cover recent movement news and upcoming actions. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The meeting between President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea resulted in an agreement to end the Korean War and work toward unity. Their declaration was a major breakthrough where the two Koreas announced Koreans will determine their own fate and end hostilities on the Korean Peninsula. We speak with Hyun Lee, an editor of Zoom In Korea and a peace activist who is a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea, about the importance of their meeting and what to expect from President Trump's upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un. We also provide news and activism updates. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Chelsea Manning is running for U.S. Senate in Maryland in the Democratic Party primary against career politician, Ben Cardin. She explains why she is running, her concerns about the future, which should be of concern to all of us, and what we should be doing right now. We also bring you news and upcoming actions that you can join. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with Vijay Prashad, who provides insightful analysis of the situation in Syria and the aerial bombing of Damascus by the US. The US' claims, which were used to justify the bombing, of attacking Syrian chemical weapons facilities make little sense. If the US knew of such facilities, the information should have been provided to the UN so they could be inspected. Prashad finds it strange that the US attacked Damascus while chemical weapons investigators were in Syria and had not yet completed their investigation of the alleged chemical attack. The attack did not change the balance of power. Syria continues to regain control of its territory and the rebels, along with their allies, i.e. the US, UK and France, have been routed. These and other issues around the Syrian war are discussed and Prashad also examines the impact of US actions on conflicts with North Korea and Iran. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Poor People's Campaign, called for by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although Dr. King was murdered a month prior to the Poor People's Campaign, it happened anyway. Resurrection City was built on the Mall in Washington, DC and people stayed there for six weeks. Fifty years later, widespread poverty exists and the "evils" of racism, capitalism and militarism are still in crisis. Two major campaigns are organizing poor people across the country. We speak with Cheri Honkala of the Poor People's Economic and Human Rights Campaign and Rev. Robin Tanner of the Repairers of the Breach. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In Palestine, on Friday, March 30, Land Day, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated. This began six weeks of protests leading up to the 70th anniversary of the Nakba on May 15. Israeli soldiers fired at the demonstrators with live ammunition killing 17 and wounding over one thousand. We speak with author and activist Miko Peled about the violent occupation of Palestine by Zionists. The United States is a top supporter of the occupation through funding of the Israeli military and providing cover for Israeli violations of international law in the United Nations. Peled emphasizes that activists in the US have a responsibility to take action to end the occupation of Palestine and outlines many ways to do this, including an aggressive BDS campaign and support for legislation in Congress. Peled says "Israel" is an illegitimate state and the area should be called Palestine. He also speaks about his newest book, "Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five." For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The science is clear that we must no longer build new fossil fuel infrastructure and we must invest in clean sources of energy, yet oil and gas companies continue to receive permits to build more pipelines, compressor stations and refineries. in response, communities are organizing to stop these projects. We speak with Tim DeChristopher about how communities are using the necessity defense to defend their actions to stop the projects. And we discuss the state of the climate justice movement, how Big Greens are failing on climate justice and strategies for action. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Our current food system has a large negative impact on the climate crisis and our health. Factory farms produce large amounts of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), pollute the land, air and water and deplete the nutrients in soil. We are eating foods that contain low levels of nutrients and contain hormones, antibiotics and pesticides that harm our health. Regenerative farming techniques ameliorate these problems by restoring the nutrients to the soil, lowering the need for chemicals (and water) and sequestering carbon. We speak with Pat Kerrigan of Organic Consumers Association about the growing move toward regenerative agriculture and what people need to know about the food we eat. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Ajamu Baraka of Black Alliance for Peace attended an historic meeting, with over 100 countries represented, in Caracas Venezuela in early March. We discuss the current situation in Venezuela and why solidarity by people in the United States is critical, even if we believe the process in Venezuela is not perfect. We also discuss Syria, North Korea and the Ukraine, and the serious threat of conflict with Russia and China. Baraka placed the current discussion of gun control in the U.S. in the context of the need to make deeper connections between violence and weapons in the U.S. and U.S. imperialism around the world. We also talked about the upcoming military parade in November called for by President Trump and the urgent necessity of mobilizing against the normalization of war and militarism in the U.S. For more information, visit www.PopularResistance.org.

Public Banks exist around the world. They are used to hold public dollars, such as taxes and fees, to keep the money local so it serves the public interest, instead of giving it to Wall Street banks who charge high fees and interest rates. There is only one public bank so far in the United States, the Bank of North Dakota. It has been in existence for almost 100 years. Now, thanks to the work of the Public Banking Institute, there is a vibrant movement to create more public banks in the U.S. at the city and state level. We speak with Walt McRee and John Comerford about the reasons to support public banks, how they would serve people instead of Wall Street profits and current efforts across the country. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

President Trump formally requested the Pentagon to organize a military parade in Washington, DC on November 11, celebrated as Veteran's Day. However, groups of veterans want to stop the glorification of war and are organizing to reclaim the holiday as Armistice Day. This November is the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. We speak with Brian Becker of the ANSWER coalition about the many groups organizing opposition to the military parade and calling for an end to wars at home and abroad. We also speak with Cindy Sheehan about the October Women's March on the Pentagon, which was organized in response to the Democratic Party-affiliated Women's Marches that omitted anti-war messages. Both Becker and Sheehan expose the bipartisan nature of the war machine in the United States. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The Supreme Court has entered the final phase in its deliberation of Janus vs AFSCME and is expected to announce its decision this June. If the decision is made against public sector unions, as is expected, it will be one more nail in the coffin of collective bargaining and protection of worker's rights. Union leaders and workers are taking this assault seriously. They recently held a national day of action, #UnrigTheSystem. Unions are educating their workers about the case to overcome billionaire-funded propaganda being aired in support of it. And in West Virginia, teachers and other public school employees are now in the eighth day of a wildcat strike for better pay and health benefits. Oklahoma teachers are planning to go on strike too. We speak with Elizabeth Davis, president of the Washington Teachers Union and Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Sherri Mitchell, Penobscot, an Indigenous lawyer, writer and activist, has a new book, "Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change," which explains her personal journey to activism and both how our societies have arrived at this time of grave threats and what we can do to create change. Some of our tasks are to recognize that colonization has not ended, the ways it manifests itself and how to begin the process of decolonization. We can do that, in part, by working to protect water sovereignty. Sherri talks about the mobilization at Standing Rock and the rise of Water Protectors. Then we speak with RaeLynn Cazelot, United Houmi and Pointe-au-Chien, who is a Water Protector working to stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP). The BBP is being built by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Dakotas. Currently, Water Protectors are holding a week of action against the BBP in Louisiana. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Latin America is described as the back yard of the United States. There is a long history of US intervention in Latin American countries and vibrant resistance both to the US and to vicious right wing governments. Current hot spots are Venezuela, where the US is now openly advocating regime change, Colombia, which is struggling to live up to its peace agreement, and the Honduras, where the new president is being heavily protested after a fraudulent election. We speak about these countries and more with James Jordan and Chuck Kaufman, co-coordinators of the Alliance for Global Justice. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The United States has a long history of intervention in Africa that is not widely discussed. Africa is a continent with tremendous resources that has been colonized and exploited by Western countries for more than 100 years. True to the practices of colonizers, the United States and its allies have made sure that African governments are controlled and the population is kept in poverty. These efforts expanded with AFRICOM (Africa Command) after its creation in 2008. We discuss AFRICOM with Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report and the Black Alliance for Peace. Then Maurice Carney, co-founder of Friends of the Congo, digs deep into the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and U.S. involvement, which continues today. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The new National Defense Strategy announced last week moves from the 'war on terror' toward conflict with great powers. The move from military conflict against non-state actors, i.e. 'terrorists', to great power conflict means more military hardware, massive spending on weapons and a new arms race. We speak with Nicolas Davies and Mike Whitney about reasons for the change in defense strategy, the broad impacts it will have and how it will affect areas of conflict around the world. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In 2017, President Trump repealed Obama's executive order for young immigrants, Dreamers, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allowed them temporary status in the United States. The repeal took effect in September and advocates have been fighting since then to restore DACA and pass the Dream Act, which would create a path to citizenship. We speak with two immigrant's rights advocates, Mani Martinez of Cosecha Movement and Juan Escalante of America's Voice, about the impacts of current immigration policies and what it would take to permanently protect immigrants in the United States. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Jeff Sessions, head of the Department of Justice, reversed the "Cole Memo" that allowed states to pursue marijuana legalization without fear of the federal government stepping in and prosecuting the marijuana industry. Sessions is leaving it up to each state's federal prosecutor to decide on how to proceed. This happened just as California moved to implement legal marijuana and Vermont voted to legalize marijuana. We speak with Justin Strekal, policy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and Doug McVay, a long time advocate for drug law reform at the state and national level and editor of Drug War Facts, about what lies ahead for the movement to end marijuana prohibition. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In his latest book, "In the Shadow of the American Century: The rise and decline of US global power," Alfred McCoy writes about the tools used by the United States to maintain global domination and how its status is declining. McCoy predicts that China will replace the US as the dominant global power holder by 2030. We speak with him about US Empire, what the decline will look like and how it will impact people in the US and around the world. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We talked to Mostafa Afzalzadeh from Tehran about what the current protests in Iran are about and where they are going. Mostafa has been an independent journalist in Iran for 15 years and a documentary filmmaker. One of his documentaries is Manufacturing Dissent, about the US, UK and their western and Gulf State allies that launched a covert war in Syria in early 2011, dressed up by the media as a "revolution," to remove Assad from power and the role of western media in creating support for the war. Mostafa said the US has been trying to change the Iranian government since the 1979 Iranian revolution. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In 2017, more people became activated for social justice. At the same time, white supremacist groups became more visible, marching with torches and chanting words of hatred. There were conflicts between people who disagreed over what tactics would be most effective in stopping the rise of white supremacy and fascism and achieving greater equality and justice. We speak with Rivera Sun about her novels, which use fiction to teach lessons of movement strategy, and about organizing for social change in our times. Her newest book is "The Roots of Resistance: Book Two of the Dandelion Trilogy" and it will be available in February. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The year 2017 has been another active year for people fighting on a wide range of fronts. The Trump administration has brought many issues that have existed for years out into the open where they are more difficult to deny – racism, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and patriarchy and the crises they create. There will be a backlash against overreach by the power holders on a number of issues, including wealth inequality, health care, Internet freedom, militarization at home and abroad, mass incarceration, climate change and human rights abuses. This backlash provides an opportunity to organize a broader movement of movements and clarify our demands so that we are well-positioned to demand transformative policies. We discuss two of these areas today in greater depth: US imperialism and the fight against fossil fuel infrastructure. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), lead by chairman Ajit Pai, voted to dismantle the hard-won net neutrality rules, going against widespread public support for those rules. The public organized in a massive effort to stop the vote, and now organizations, states and people are taking action to revoke and challenge the FCC's decision. This decision and the public activation around it provide an opportunity to build power not only to win net neutrality, but also to put laws and structures into place that go much farther to create the universal right to high quality, affordable Internet access and equality.

A new report released by Chuck Collins and Josh Hoxie of the Institute for Policy Studies, "Billionaire Bonanza 2017: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us," reveals that only 3 people in the US hold wealth equivalent to the bottom 50% of the population, about 160 million people. The wealth divide is getting more severe every year. Just 7 years ago it was 400 people who owned wealth equivalent to the bottom 50%, now they own wealth equal to the bottom 64%, 204 million people. The numbers of people with zero wealth or who are in debt is also growing and is worse for black and Latinos than whites. We discuss the current wealth divide, what's behind it, how the new tax proposal will affect it and how to resolve it. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Two new divestment campaigns launched this year. One is the Divest from the War Machine campaign, led by CODEPINK and endorsed by more than 60 organizations, which is targeting weapons manufacturers. The other, Mazaska (Money) Talks, is an Indigenous-led campaign that began after Seattle divested from Wells Fargo for being a major investor in the Dakota Access Pipeline. Mazaska Talks is now a global campaign targeting Wall Street banks for the many harmful investments they make and promoting public banks as a positive alternative. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We discuss two of the many assaults on our communities by corporations that put their profits above the health and safety of people. The first is the re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by the Trump administration. Bill Waren of Friends of the Earth explains how this process is more secretive than the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. The corporations and Wall Street financiers are using the NAFTA negotiations to slip in the worst of the TPP and TTIP. Then Peggy Chase of the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation describes how Nestle is taking public water in Michigan and other states and other efforts at water privatization. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

PBS is currently airing a ten-part documentary about the Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that is financed by the Koch Brothers and Bank of America and promoted by the Pentagon. We speak with Vietnam scholar, Professor Bob Buzzanco about the real history of the Vietnam War, what led to it and the opposition that developed. He emphasizes that it is important to understand this history so that we do not repeat it in North Korea or the Middle East. Then we speak with Vietnam Vet, David Ross, about his experiences in Vietnam and subsequently in organizing veterans to stop the war. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

With Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, wildfires and droughts fresh in our minds and threats of greater global aggression, we take a look at the connections between Empire, war, Indigenous rights and the environment. This week is the tenth anniversary of the official adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We speak with Gar Smith, editor of The War and the Environment Reader, about his new book and a conference he is organizing later this month with World Beyond War on the topic. Then we speak with Charmaine White Face, author of Indigenous Nations' Rights in the Balance, who participated in and protested the process used by the United Nation, about Indigenous sovereignty and her work to protect the Black Hills, a sacred site. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

White supremacist rallies and counter protests, especially the events in Charlottesville that led to the murder of Heather Heyer and many people injured, are bringing the issues of institutional racism and white supremacy to the forefront of our national dialogue. After years of efforts to remove confederate statues in Baltimore, protests brought about their swift removal in the night. A Columbus monument was also protested. Sean Yoes explains what the monuments in Baltimore symbolize and efforts to remove them. Dedrick Asante-Muhammad speaks about the racial wealth divide and ways to bring greater equity. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Members of Congress are currently trying to outlaw a form of free speech – the boycott. For over a decade now, hundreds of Palestinian organizations have been calling for the world to impose boycotts, divestment and sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements, much as people urged a boycott of South Africa during apartheid. The BDS movement, as it is known, has been an effective tool causing Israel to fight back. For years, state legislatures have introduced legislation to prevent participation in BDS. Now, led by Senator Ben Cardin, a similar but much more severe law has been introduced in Congress. Miko Peled, author of The General's Son, speaks with us about Israeli apartheid, what moved him to fight it and the BDS movement. Visit www,ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for more information.

July 26 to 29, 2017, there will be national actions to raise awareness that housing is a human right and to pressure the federal government to lift spending caps and increase funds for housing. Currently, only one in four people who are eligible for federal housing assistance receive it and public housing is either being privatized or wiped out of existence. We speak with Sarah Mickelson of the National Low Income Housing Coalition about the situation from a policy standpoint and with David Prater, a disability rights activist, and Rev. Annie Chambers, a welfare rights activist, about actions they are organizing in Baltimore and why they are necessary. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

As wealth inequality grows in the United States and people struggle to afford basic necessities, civil unrest is growing. Rather than responding with policies to address these unmet needs, the state responds with repression. The political system in the United States has lost its legitimacy and people are searching for alternatives. The People's Congress of Resistance, which meets this September 16 – 17 in Washington, DC, is designed to shift political power to the people. We speak with two of the organizers, Walter Smolarek and Karina Garcia. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The health care fight is hot right now. The Republicans are working to repeal the Affordable Care Act, possibly without a replacement until a later date, and the Democrats are largely ignoring their base's pleas for Medicare for All, with some exceptions. People across the United States are taking bold action to prevent cuts to health coverage, especially to Medicaid, and to pressure lawmakers to support Medicare for All. We speak with Professor David Barton Smith about the history of our social insurances and racism, including the way Medicare was used to by the civil rights movement to desegregate thousands of hospitals. Then we speak about the status of the current healthcare fight and what we must do to win National Improved Medicare for all. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

There are fights against new pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure around the country as people demand an end to carbon-based energy. We speak with three people who are deeply involved in pipeline fights about the impacts these projects have on their communities and the lengths that fossil fuel companies will go to in order to protect their profits. In Western Maryland and West Virginia, TransCanada wants to build a pipeline under the Potomac River in a place where the geology is very porous and a spill will poison the drinking water for 6 million people. In Pennsylvania, Sunoco is building a pipeline that will carry fracked gas to an export terminal on the Delaware River. The company is harassing families who oppose the pipeline. And in the Bayou region known as Cancer Alley, Energy Transfer Partners wants to build a final leg of the Dakota Access Pipeline that will harm mostly lower income communities of color. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for more information.

June 19 is known as Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when black slaves in Texas were freed. It was two and one half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth is recognized as a holiday by 45 states, although it is still not widely celebrated. On this Juneteenth, we speak with historian Ana Edwards about the work she does through the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality to preserve and protect land in Richmond that is an African Burial Ground and the site where organizers of a slave rebellion in 1800 were hanged. Then we'll speak with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report about systemic racial injustice that continues in the United States. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This week on Clearing the FOG Radio we examine the issue of RussiaGate and the special counsel examining the Trump administration and President Trump. We will talk with former FBI agent, Coleen Rowley, about the backgrounds of former FBI director, James Comey and Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. Both have received a lot of positive commentary on their trustworthiness and reliability. We will discuss the history of both, their relationship and whether the public can trust them. Then, with reporter Max Blumenthal, we will discuss 'RussiaGate': what is the proof of Russian interference in US elections, is there evidence of collusion with the Trump administration and who is behind these accusations and why? For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The United States is now in its 17th year of the "War on Terror" with no end in sight. President Trump is escalating aggression and tension in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan and is threatening Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. He wants to increase military spending by $54 billion while he cuts critical safety net programs. On top of that, militarization and the security state are growing within the United States. We discuss the impacts of living in an Empire Economy and the inherent racism with Joe Lombardo, co-coordinator of the United National Antiwar Coalition. UNAC is holding a national conference in Richmond, VA from June 16 to 18 called "Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad." Then we speak with Alice Slater of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation about the United Nations treaty to ban nuclear weapons currently being negotiated. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In 2015, a large coalition of organizations and tech groups together with millions of people forced the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify the Internet as a common carrier under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act so that strong net neutrality rules could be put in place. Net neutrality means that neither the government nor the telecoms can discriminate against legal content on the Internet and that all people can go where they want to go on the net. The new chair of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is moving quickly to dismantle net neutrality. We speak with Joe Torres of Free Press about what's happening, why it's important and what we must do to protect our Internet. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Recently, hundreds of thousands of people marched for climate justice. The science is clear that climate change is here and is happening at a more rapid rate than was expected. The United States is the world's largest economy and military, and while we have some of the best climate scientists in the world, we lack governments at every level that are willing to take necessary steps to address the crisis. We speak with climate scientist, Ben Horton, about the state of the climate crisis and what we need to do to solve it. And we speak with Lee Stewart of Beyond Extreme Energy about their extraordinary work to take on the Rubber Stamp Machine for the fossil fuel industry. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio,org for more information.

Immigrant's rights activists have ramped up their organizing and protests this year in response to ongoing ICE raids that are now targeting undocumented organizers. Leading up to mass marches and strikes on May Day, known as Day Without Immigrants, actions are being held across the country to raise awareness about the contributions that immigrants make to the United States economy and the challenges they experience living in the US. Organizers are working towards a week-long general strike. We discuss the May Day actions with Sergio Hurtado, a volunteer organizer with Movimiento Cosecha. And we also provide an update on the campaigns for National Improved Medicare for All and to stop a US attack on North Korea. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The level of student loan debt has risen to $1.5 trillion and defaults are 40% and rising. Underneath the crisis are rising tuition costs, a predatory student loan industry and an absence of consumer protections for students. Governor Cuomo recently signed a new law that is supposed to help with the cost of higher education, and Senators Sanders introduced similar legislation at the federal level. Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, says that these efforts will not solve the crisis, which is going to hit within the next 12 to 18 months. Nothing short of a student debt jubilee will end the crisis. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.