Rachel Hu and Chris Garaffa
Rachel Hu is a journalist with "BreakThrough News," a new independent media project, where she hosts the podcast "It's Not You, It's Capitalism."
She is also a host on WBAI 99.5FM in NYC and has been an anti-war and anti-racist activist with the ANSWER Coalition for the last decade.
Rachel can be reached at: rachel@wbai.org.
Chris Garaffa has been an anti-imperialist and social justice organizer since joining the movement against the Iraq war in 2003. Chris is a weekly guest on Sputnik Radio's "By Any Means Necessary," and co-hosts the podcast "The Reboot," focusing on the intersection between technology and human rights. Chris can be reached at: chris.garaffa@gmail.com.
The chilling video released last week of the police response inside Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX on May 24 exposes the police. Dressed in tactical gear, officers waited over an hour to confront the gunman who killed 21 people in a senseless act of violence. Rather than being a local problem, this is a national issue: Over and over again, videos—many of them shot by bystanders—show police killing unarmed Black people. At the same time the police are hailed as heroes required to keep the peace and bring criminals to justice. The Uvalde response and video are the latest example of how this couldn’t be further from the truth.
On today’s show we discuss the deep implications that the Supreme Court's decision to take up Harper v Moore could have on the fundamental institution of so-called U.S. democracy. The Supreme Court’s ruling on this case could rip the mask off the sham of U.S. democracy and reveal the clear dictatorship of the rich. The recent overturn of Roe, the ongoing January 6th committee hearings, and now the turn towards overturning the fundamental democratic principle of one-person, one-vote marks a new period of political struggle in the United States.
The January 6 hearings and this term’s Supreme Court decisions are exposing the right-wing nature of the U.S. state and its institutions. January 6 was plotted in the open and with the apparent support of the highest levels of government, and many questions remain unanswered: why were the Capitol Police so outnumbered? Who donated the massive amounts of money required to mobilize in the days and weeks before? And more.
On today’s show, we discuss the unprecedented roll-back of women’s rights and civil liberties with the overturn of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe V. Wade. After the decision dropped thousands upon thousands of people poured into the streets in places across the country.
United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Assange faces 18 charges brought against him by the US Justice Department, 17 of which fall under the Espionage Act. All the charges relate to documents WikiLeaks released in 2010 and 2011, which were provided by US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
Activist and journalist Walter Smolarek interrupted General Secretary of the OAS, Luis Almagro, and confronted Almagro about his role in the coup in Bolivia. We interviewed Walter the day after the interruption at the People’s Summit for Democracy which took place from June 8th through 10th in Los Angeles.
On this week’s episode, we speak with Mike Rothmiller, former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer with the infamous Office of Criminal Intelligence Division (OCID). Mike is a historian and New York Times best-selling author of many different books including the LA Secret Police: Inside the LAPD’s Elite Spy Network and Bombshell: The Night Bobby Kennedy Killed Marilyn Monroe.
On today’s episode, we are joined by Claudia de la Cruz of the People’s Forum in New York City to discuss developments around President Biden’s Summit of the Americas. Scheduled for June 6-10 in Los Angeles, the legitimacy of the gathering and the role of the U.S. in Central & South American is being severely threatened by announcements from Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, Antigua and Barbuda that they will not attend if the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are not invited.
Biden announced last month the assembly of a team within the Department of Homeland Security with the title: Disinformation Governing Board (DGB). Supposedly this team will be working to combat Russian, Iranian, and Chinese “disinformation.” We dive deeper into the contradictory history of disinformation about Ukraine in 2014 spread by non other than the executive director of the DGB board, Nina Jankowicz.
On today’s show, we bring you the second half of our interview with Tings Chak, Researcher and art director at Tricontinental: Institute of Social Research, and a member of the Dongsheng Collective. We focus on the Chinese government’s programs to eradicate extreme poverty in the country and further discuss her work on the study “Serve the People: The Eradication of Extreme Poverty in China” for Tricontinental.
