COINTELPRO 2.0: How the FBI Infiltrated BLM Protests After Police Murder of George Floyd

 Feb 7, 2023 - A new podcast out today called “Alphabet Boys” documents how the FBI disrupted racial justice organizing after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, including paying an informant at least $20,000 to infiltrate and spy on activist groups in Denver, Colorado. The informant also encouraged activists to purchase guns and commit violence, echoing the FBI’s use of the COINTELPRO program to sabotage left-wing activist groups in the 1960s. For more, we’re joined by three guests: journalist and creator of the “Alphabet Boys” podcast Trevor Aaronson, Denver-based activist Zebbodios Hall, who was one of many activists targeted by the FBI’s infiltration, and former FBI special agent and whistleblower Mike German, who left the agency after reporting misconduct and mismanagement in its counterterrorism efforts.

 

Democracy Now! 

an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at https://democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

 

Kimberlé Crenshaw on Critical Race Theory, The Concept of Intersectionality and the Right's War on Public Education

Feb 6, 2023 - Democracy Now host speaks with renowned legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw about right-wing efforts to curtail the teaching of African American history, queer studies and other subjects that focus on marginalized communities. The College Board, the nonprofit group that designs AP courses for high school seniors, recently revised a curriculum for a course in African American studies after criticism from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others who maligned it as "woke indoctrination." The new curriculum removes Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer theory as required topics, and drops many major writers, including Crenshaw, from the reading list. "Anybody who's concerned about our democracy, anyone who's concerned about authoritarianism has to wake up and pay attention to this, because this is how it happens," she says. Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" to study the overlapping or intersecting social identities and systems of oppression, domination or discrimination people experience. 

 

Democracy Now! 

is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday.

 

Solving the mystery of the Chinese spy balloon

Feb 5, 2023 - On Saturday afternoon a single missile fired by a jet fighter ended the brief, spectacular life of the Chinese spy balloon that had become a social media star with its own hashtag by the time it had finished passing through United States air space. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports on questions that investigators will seek to answer by recovering the balloon’s wreckage.

 

House Republican Priorities Take Shape

Feb 5, 2023 - This week, the House GOP moved to remove Ilhan Omar from her seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. The controversial spectacle distracted from several other wild Republican moves, however. Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett joined MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin to discuss the GOP quashing a ban on firearms in a committee hearing room, their meaningless vote condemning the “horrors of socialism” and hijacking hearings on pandemic aid with discussions of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

 

Ron DeSantis ramps up war on education

Feb 5, 2023 - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing a new plan to eliminate diversity and inclusion programs at state colleges. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat joined American Voices with guest host Julián Castro to discuss DeSantis’ attacks on higher education and how it undermines American democracy. 

 

Sen. Whitehouse: ‘Pressure is mounting’ for SCOTUS ethics code

 Feb 2, 2023 - A former colleague of Chief Justice Roberts’s wife is calling for Congress and Justice Dept. to investigate potential conflicts of interest her work poses to the chief justice. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joins MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the lack of process for holding justices accountable and why John Roberts refuses to investigate allegations against conservative justices.