Clearing The Fog With Co-hosts Margaret Flowers And Kevin Zeese

President Obama started the New Year off with a wave of ICE raids, including early morning raids of family homes with young children. Obama’s legacy, when it comes to immigration, will be one of mass deportations, the jailing of immigrants in for-profit prisons and of worsening the US foreign policies that drive people to leave their homes. We’ll speak with Abraham Paulos, executive director of Families for Freedom, which has taken bold actions to highlight and stop these practices. And we’ll speak with Alexis Stoumbelis of Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) about the policies that drive migration. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with four organizers who are currently involved in projects around racial, economic and environmental justice about what they are currently working on, what their goals are for the year ahead and how their issues are connected. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Venezuela has been a leading country of the resistance in Latin America to US Empire and, through the Bolivarian Revolution, has put in place reforms that have created greater democracy and economic equality. Chavez called it 'Twentyfirst Century Socialism.' However, in the Dec. 6 Venezuelan elections, the right wing won 109 of the 164 seats in the National Assembly giving them the power to possibly undo much of the progress that the Bolivarian Revolution made over the past 15 years. We speak with Keane Bhatt, who was in Venezuela during the elections about the state of the economy, the elections and the extent of US involvement in both of these. Then we speak with Jesus Rodriguez-Espinosa of the Venezuelan Consul in Chicago about the response to the elections and next steps for the revolution. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with Herman Wainggai, a former political prisoner, visiting scholar and a leader in West Papua’s self-determination struggle, John Miller of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network and Arnie Saiki of the Moana Nui Action Alliance about the ongoing threats to self-determination and resistance to it in Asia Pacific. Colonialism is still present and just as destructive as ever. We discuss the fight for independence in West Papua. Few know that West Papua was given independence only to be invaded by Indonesia. They have been under military occupation for more than 50 years. We discuss why and the US' hand in it. We also speak about the Moana Nui Action Alliance which brings the struggles of many Pacific Islanders together. With the TransPacific Partnership racing to the finish line and the military's Asia pivot, collective resistance is critical. For more information, visitwww.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with Chris Hedges about his newest book, “Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt.” Before turning his focus to resistance in the United States, Hedges spent twenty years as a foreign correspondent covering fifty countries. We discuss the lessons he learned from watching countries in turmoil, the dramatic political changes that occurred and how those lessons might be applied in the US. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The capitalist economic model is one of wealth extraction from communities to consolidate riches at the top. As an antidote, many communities are building alternatives to this model – models called economic democracy, the solidarity economy and ‘buen vivir’ (good living). We begin with Michael Johnson who is actively building the alternative economy in the Northeast to talk about what the alternative looks like and how communities are making it a reality. Johnson is currently on a book tour. Then we speak with Ellen Brown of the Public Banking Institute. Ellen has been following and writing about the fragility of the global financial system. Her most recent article concerns an extreme step being taken by central banks in the European Union of moving to a negative interest rate. This means that depositors could be forced to pay banks to hold their money. Ellen will describe who is the most impacted by this practice and who is most at risk. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

At the end of November, national leaders will meet in Paris, France for the United Nation’s COP 21 to try to put together a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Treaty which expires in 2020. With atmospheric CO2 levels continuing to rise, this may be too little too late.It is up to our communities to take action now. Courtney White who has published a new book, “Two Percent Solutions for the Planet: 50 Low-Cost, Low-Tech, Nature-Based Practices for Combatting Hunger, Drought and Climate Change” speaks about ways that communities can work together now to lower carbon footprints and sequester carbon. Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, youth director of the Earth Guardians, works locally and globally fighting pollution and fossil fuel extraction. He is helping to organize a global youth climate strike on November 30. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

While Martin O'Malley was governor of Maryland, he pushed two energy projects that threaten the health of local Marylanders. First we hear from Lili Sheeline who lives near the neighborhood of Cove Point where Dominion Resources is building a new gas refinery, power plant and export terminal. It is the first gas export terminal to be built on the East coast and the first in the world to be placed in a densely-populated community. Learn more about it, why O'Malley was given the "Golden Pillow" award for his role and how the community is fighting back. Then we hear from Amanda Maminski of Curtis Bay where Energy Answers is trying to build a large trash incinerator. O'Malley tried to sneak it through as a 'clean energy solution' but the community didn't fall for that and they are working to build a solar farm there instead. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This fall, with international treaties like the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) and Paris climate treaty looming, mass actions are taking place to demand an end to the fossil fuel and the rapid transition to clean sustainable energy, trade that doesn't drive a race to the bottom in worker rights and environmental protection and a health care system that includes everyone. As a wave of protests is unfolding in the capital of Vermont, we speak with Jane Palmer, a landowner trying to stop a fracked gas pipeline on her land. These actions are part of Rising Tide North America's campaign, Flood the System. We talk about the mass mobilization being planned in Washington, DC November 14 to 18 to protest treaties like the TPP and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. And we talk with Anand Saha, a medical student and organizer with Students for a National Health Program which held a national days of actions on October first called #TenOne. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

October 16 was World Food Day. Decades of consolidation of agriculture into large industrial farms and the drive for ever greater profits is destroying family farms, the environment and climate, our health and food safety. Vandana Shiva writes, "“For the planet and people, the costs have been tragically high. 75 per cent of the earth’s biodiversity, soils, water have been destroyed, the climate has been destabilised, farmers have been uprooted, and instead of nourishing us, industrial food has become the biggest cause of disease and ill health.” We speak with Jim Goodman, an organic dairy farmer who started Family Farm Defenders, about the what smaller farms are doing to protect their futures and the integrity of the food system. Then we speak with Diana Reeves, founder and executive director of GMO Free USA, about the growing movement to label foods that contain GMOs and her work to build sustainable and healthy food systems. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

October 7 marked the 14th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. The week started off in a tragic way with the US bombing of a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres, MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. It was the only hospital of its kind serving Northeastern Afghanistan and treated hundreds of patients every week. The Senate held a hearing last week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. We discuss the hospital bombing and why this may be a violation of international law and we will speak with Kathy Kelly, who travels frequently to Afghanistan, about her impressions of the US' military presence there. We also discuss Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day and its impacts on US 'War Culture'. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We talk with attorney and consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who, along with a team of lawyers and museum experts, recently opened The American Museum of Tort Law in his home town of Winsted, CT. The  first museum of law in the country, focuses on tort law which governs claims made in courts by victims harmed by wrongful actions of corporations or others. Tort law operates of, by and for the people by giving people the power to right injustices and operates because of citizen participation: citizens bring the lawsuit, not the government; and  the outcome of the lawsuit often depends on a verdict reached by a group of ordinary citizens, sitting as jurors, who determine the facts to and apply the law.However, for many reasons, Tort law is under attack. In addition to the new museum, we discuss current issues with Nader, among them whether people will be able to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other corporate rigged trade deals. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with Ethel Long-Scott of the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) about the crises of poverty and un/under-employment that are not expected to improve under the current system due to technology and robotics and the need for new solutions such as an unconditional basic income. Then Steve Shafarman, a life member of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), discusses the history of basic income and how it works to immediately end poverty and guarantee that all people can meet their basic needs and live with dignity. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This week on Clearing The FOG Radio Margaret Flowers will be interviewed by Kevin Zeese about her plans to run for US Senate in Maryland. Flowers is normally a co-host on the show but this week she will change roles and be interviewed by her co-host. Flowers and Zeese not only co-host Clearing The FOG but also co-direct Popular Resistance and are partners in life. So, you can expect an in-depth conversation about why she is running for Senate, how she plans to win as a third party candidate and what she will do when she is elected. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We speak with Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK women for peace and tireless activist for justice and peace about US foreign policy and taboo topics like American Empire, Saudi Arabia, AIPAC, the soft regime change tools of US agencies like the CIA, State Department and US AID and the corporate duopoly. In particular, Benjamin talks about her travels and work in Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, Cuba and more. We discuss the Iran Nuclear Agreement and what people can do to support that. And we talk about the presidential elections. Tune in for views you won't hear in commercial media. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We talk with two teachers who are protecting our children's right to have an education. In the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, parents are on a hunger strike in their desperate attempt to save the last public high school. Dyett High School is the last school in their area that accepts all students regardless of ability and the city is trying to shut it down. The parents have another vision of a school that teaches cutting edge technology for sustainability. In Washington State, kindergarten teacher, Susan DuFresne, is a power house fighting to protect her students from the cruelty of standardized testing that robs them of their education and labels them at successes or failures when they are just getting started. Seattle, where Susan teaches, is investing $210 million to expand a youth prison. The city is basing occupancy on fourth grade reading scores. Rather than investing in better education, it is choosing to lock students up. For more info, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Two major diplomatic changes occurred recently between the US and Iran and Cuba. Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, UK, US + Germany) completed an agreement regarding Iran's nuclear program. It is historic that the US and Iran engaged in diplomatic relations and that the sanctions against Iran will end. The agreement opens Iran up for more foreign investment and trade. Will war be averted? We speak with Professor Muhammad Sahimi, a chemical engineer who frequently writes about Iranian politics and the nuclear program to hear an Iranian perspective on this agreement. And diplomatic relations were restored with Cuba after 54 years of economic and political isolation. The Cuban embassy was reopened in Washington, DC. We speak with Miguel Fraga, the First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy about the restoration of diplomacy, what Cuba is asking of the US and how the US is responding. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

This week there are two groups in Washington, DC protesting colonialist policies being imposed on them by the US government. Apache Stronghold traveled across the country from Oak Flat in Arizona because there was a provision in the most recent version of the National Defense Authorization Act to give land including the sacred site of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper Company – Rio Tinto – BHP for a billion dollar mining operation. The land was protected since 1955, but the mining companies have been trying to get a license to mine it since 2005. We speak with San Carlos Apache Tribal Councilman Wendsler Nosie and Naelyn Pike, a leader in the Apache Stronghold movement. The International People’s Tribunal held events over the past week in New York and Washington, DC to bring attention to the collaboration between the US and Philippines in the “war on terror” which is resulting in the disappearances, torture and murder of hundreds of people and the displacement of tens of thousands. We speak with Ka Paeng (Rafael

We speak with Debbie Bookchin and Blair Taylor, editors of "The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy," which is a compilation of essays by the late Murray Bookchin. Bookchin ran the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont which describes itself as "a pioneer in the exploration of ecological approaches to food production, alternative technologies, and urban design, and has played an essential, catalytic role in movements to challenge nuclear power, global injustices and unsustainable biotechnologies, while building participatory, community-based alternatives. The Institute strives to be an agent of social transformation, demonstrating the skills, ideas and relationships that can nurture vibrant, self-governed, healthy communities." Bookchin was one of the most influential thought leaders in the later twentieth century. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The recent massacre of nine people in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina by a white supremacist highlights the racist culture that is particularly prevalent in the South and has amplified the call for removal of symbols such as the Confederate flag. The attack demonstrates that institutionalized racism is not isolated to the police and judicial system, it is pervasive in the educational system, government and in our neighborhoods. And it is not limited to the United States but extends around the world, particularly where the US Empire and other colonists have interfered. Kymone Freeman, an activist and artist, and Reverend Graylan Hagler of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC join us to discuss the state of racism in the US and around the world today. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.