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The ruling FOG (Forces of Greed) spin news stories in their favor and keep the masses distracted with celebrity gossip and reality shows. Each week on Clearing The Fog, host Margaret Flowers* features guests who are working to expose the truth and offer real solutions to the current crises faced by our nation and the world. Knowledge is power, and with this knowledge you will be empowered to act to shift power to the people and weaken the corporate stranglehold on our lives. This podcast is brought to you each week without advertising.

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*Clearing the FOG was founded by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese in 2012 on We Act Radio. Kevin died in 2020.

Court Decision On Net Neutrality Opens Doors To Next Steps

In 2015, under great pressure from a broad media justice movement, the FCC passed Net Neutrality policies that guaranteed the universal right to go where users want to go on the Internet. In 2017, the Trump FCC under Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai moved quickly to repeal Net Neutrality. The movement responded with several tactics to win Net Neutrality back. One of those was a challenge in court, Mozilla v FCC. Last week, the court finally announced its decision. We speak with Craig Aaron of Free Press about that decision. While the court did not restore Net Neutrality, it did open the doors for the movement to use other tactics to achieve a free Internet. Aaron describes what those are and the bigger picture of an Internet for everyone.

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Guest:

Craig Aaron has led Free Press and Free Press Action Fund since 2011. For more than a decade, he has been a leader in major campaigns to safeguard Net Neutrality, stop media consolidation, oppose unchecked surveillance, defend public media and sustain quality journalism. He works in Washington and speaks often to the press and the public on media and technology issues. He has written for The Daily Beast, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Hill, MSNBC, Politico, The Progressive, The Seattle Times, Slate and many other outlets. Craig was a 2018–19 yearlong fellow at the Rockwood Leadership Institute and sits on the advisory board of the Media, Inequality and Change Center. Before joining Free Press, he was an investigative reporter for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch and the managing editor of In These Times magazine. He is the editor of two books, Appeal to Reason: 25 Years of In These Times and Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

The United States’ Declining Power Was On Display At United Nations Session

As the United Nations wraps up its General Assembly session, we speak with Bahman Azad, a professor who heads the United States Peace Council, about the unprecedented steps the Trump administration took to restrict visiting diplomats and heads of state from attending or from speaking outside the UN during their stay. We discuss the current state of the world, the harmful impacts of US imperialism, and powerful global institutions such as the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As the world shifts to one where there are many dominating countries, how will that impact US foreign policy and our chances of creating a more peaceful, just and livable future? We also discuss ‘Ukrainegate’ in-depth and other current events.

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Guest:

Bahman Azad is an Iranian-American peace and justice activist living in the United States. He has a Master’s degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology from American universities. He served in the Iranian Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant between 1971 and 1973.

He is a former acting director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He is currently a Professor of Economics and Sociology at Berkeley College in New Jersey.

Azad has been active in the peace and justice movement since his arrival in the United States in 1973, first as a student activist against the previous regime in Iran and then as a member of the National Board of the U.S. Peace Council. He joined Veterans for Peace in the early 1990s at the invitation of his close friend and then VFP President, David Cline. He is currently serving as the Chair of VFP’s Iran Working Group, Organizational Secretary of the U.S. Peace Council, Co-Chair of Iran Pledge of Resistance, and an NGO representative of the World Peace Council at the United Nations. He is also the co-founder of the Campaign in Solidarity with the Iranian People’s Green Movement, an international campaign in support of the Iranian people’s democratic rights.

Former Customs And Border Protection Agent Blows The Whistle On Culture of Corruption

Customs and Border Protection is in the news with the recent article in the New York Times on the lowered morale among CBP officers. Much of it stems from public opposition to the detention and separation of families and mistreatment of adults and children, whether it be crowded cells with unsanitary conditions and inadequate food or sexual and physical abuse of children and deaths. Immigrant detention is being compared to concentration camps. We speak with Jenn Budd, a former CBP officer turned whistleblower, who speaks about the reality of CBP from the inadequate training to the compromising and corruption of officers, from the misogyny to the racism and what happens to officers who speak out. Budd describes the dysfunctional culture of the CBP in detail and shares her wisdom on whether or not CBP should continue to exist.

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Guest:

Jenn Budd was with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from 1995 to 2001 as a senior patrol officer. Based in Campo, California, Budd was tasked with patrolling the border and assisting in the deportation of immigrants. She ultimately left because of what she described as a culture of sexual harassment against women and corruption. She is now blowing the whistle on serious problems within the agency and calling for the current head, Carla Provost, to resign.

US Veterans Held In Ireland For Protesting US’ Violations of Neutrality

Ireland has been a neutral nation since the 1930s, meaning it doesn’t join military alliances and under numerous treaties is not supposed to assist other countries in military endeavors. However, the United States regularly violates Irish neutrality by flying troops, weapons and military supplies through Shannon Airport. We speak with Tarak Kauff, Ken Mayers and Ellen Davidson, all members of Veterans for Peace, about an action Tarak and Ken took in March to protest the US’ violations. They were arrested and held in jail for 12 days for a minor offense and since then have had their passports seized and are not allowed to leave Ireland. It could be many years before they face trial. Listen to their story and what their current walk across Ireland to raise awareness of Ireland’s participation in wars.

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Guests:

Ken Mayers: Since he resigned his commission as a U.S. Marine Corp Captain in 1966 Ken Mayers has unabashedly worked as a peace activist.  18 members of Mayers German Jewish family died during the WWII Holocaust.  “The lesson I took from that,” he said “is no one should ever be oppressed.” He believes that working together we can build a world beyond war.  Ken Mayers says that apart from family, his social activism is the most inherently satisfying part of his life….”going to the streets to support causes I believe in is where it’s at.”  He can be seen on the corner of Cerrillos and St Francis with other peace activists waving banners calling for the end of war.  He has repeatedly demonstrated at the School of the Americas to keep that in public view. In 2002 Ken was the founding president of the Santa Fe Chapter for Veterans for Peace. He feels their mission to abolish war as an instrument of national policy is crucial if we are to survive as a species.  In 2012, Ken along with 18 of his Veterans for Peace colleagues were arrested at the NYC Vietnam Memorial while reading names of the fallen. The Vets used the case to push back what they saw as increasing police and judicial encroachment on First Amendment rights to assembly and free speech in public spaces. Ken has been arrested nearly 20 times while working for peace. 

Ken has promoted a variety of causes, including a freeze and cutback in worldwide nuclear weapons, an end to sexual assault on female soldiers, and providing jobs for former soldiers. As a global peace promoter, Ken has been active in overseas missions to break Israel’s 2011 blockade of Gaza and to protest it’s tear-gas bombing of the Palestinian village of Bi’lin. 

His professional life focuses on administration, consulting, communications systems and helping large organizations function better.  These skills have served him well as his role as a peace activist.  He has that kind of leadership style that isn’t flashy–it’s just steady and organized and persistent.  He is a networker and with his diplomatic manner, hears others positions and respects their approach even if it is in disagreement with his. 

Ken is well informed in economics, politics, justice, international relations, veterans and military history and practices. He brings experts to our community; Israeli and Palestinian speakers, foreign policy experts, and many others. Believing  that any action legal or not, needs an educational component  he speaks at churches, schools, in the courtroom, and is equally effective through his press work. 

It is his deep knowledge of the threats to peace, linked with a sense that continuing to fight for peace in whatever way we can is worth it.  Ken is a wonderful antidote to despair. He is a superior world citizen.

Tarak Kauff is a longtime antiwar and social justice activist. From the Vietnam War to today’s occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has consistently opposed U.S. wars and occupations. He served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper from 1959 to 1962 and is a member of Veterans for Peace. He is a founder and editor of the bimonthly Woodstock International and the quarterly War Crimes Times progressive newspapers and plays a leading role in VFP&r’s Direct Action Group, organizing veteran-led civil resistance to war at the White House on December 16, 2010, and March 19, 2011. He also led two actions at the National Archives in which a small group of vets spent several days displaying banners drawing attention to violations of the U.S. Constitution, which they are sworn to protect. A strong supporter of self-determination for the Palestinian people. He is a member of the Hudson Valley’s Middle East Crisis Response and took part in the 2009-10 Gaza Freedom March in Cairo.

Ellen Davidson is a longtime activist journalist and photographer. She began her career working with the Guardian Independent Radical Newsweekly in the 80s. She currently works with The Indypendent in New York City and with Veterans For Peace. She has co-organized VFP delegations to Ferguson, Mo.; Standing Rock, N.D.; Jeju, South Korea; Palestine; Okinawa; and Ireland, and she is currently an editor for two VFP quarterly publications, Peace in Our Times and Peace and Planet News. You can see her photography at stopthesewars.org/ellen-davidson.

A Frontline View Of The Palestinian Great March Of Return

On March 30 2018, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip started a weekly peaceful protest they call “The Great March of Return.” The purpose was to go to the wall separating them from their previous homes and demonstrate their desire to return. The response by the state of Israel has been violent and intense, killing 210 demonstrators and wounding more than 7,400. Although they were blocked from entering Gaza, Abby Martin and Mike Prysner of Empire Files were able to obtain high-quality video footage of the frontlines and interviews of people involved in the weekly actions. We speak with Abby Martin about their new documentary, “Gaza Fights for Freedom,” and the severe conditions under which Palestinians live. Martin and Prysner show the reality that is not portrayed in most media today.

 

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Guest:

Abby Martin is a journalist and producer from Northern California. In 2009, Martin helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots. She co-hosts the Media Roots Radio podcast with her brother, Robbie Martin. She is on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation, which manages Project Censored. Martin was the host of Breaking the Set on RT until she left in 2015 to launch the investigative documentary and interview series The Empire Files, originally hosted by Telesur. She produced the new documentary, “Gaza Fights for Freedom” with Mike Prysner.

New Jersey Tried To Hide The Fact That Newark Is Another Flint

Residents of Newark New Jersey learned last year that their water was poisoned with high levels of lead, something the government failed to inform them about even though it knew about it in June 2017. When people learned of the problem, the government first denied it and then tried to blame homeowners and downplayed the severity of the impacts. Then, the city offered half-hearted solutions. We speak with Anthony Diaz, a long time organizer in Newark, who co-founded the Newark Water Coalition. They recently had a successful direct action and won an important victory, but there is still more to do. Diaz explains what is going on and offers advice for others who may face similar struggles.

 

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Guest:

Anthony Diaz is co-founder of the Newark Water Coalition. Diaz traces his activist roots back to his teenage years, when he started Science Park High School’s first student union in the University Heights section of Newark. Later, he became involved with Newark’s Black Lives Matter movement and joined a group of other young progressives who called themselves “A Movement of the People.”

In 2018 Diaz ran his first public campaign for city council, representing Newark’s Central Ward. He didn’t win his election bid, but he has remained a dedicated community advocate. With the support of just a few other residents, he founded the Newark Water Coalition in 2018 as a means of raising public awareness about the city’s water crisis and putting pressure on local officials.

Climate Activists Are Building Power, Declare We Have An Emergency

Wildfires are raging around the world, creating a negative feedback loop for the climate by releasing greenhouse gases and destroying the forests’ capacity to sequester carbon. The United States is on track to be the biggest producer of oil and gas in the 2020’s. According to Global Witness, seven of the top ten producers of new fossil fuels are states in the US, with Texas producing nearly four times more than Canada and almost ten times more than Russia. Democratic Party leadership is preventing a presidential debate on climate and is suppressing efforts to develop a Green New Deal. Scientists say that we don’t have any time left to take action on the climate. We should have made changes decades ago. In response, climate activism is escalating. We speak with Greg Schwedock of the Extinction Rebellion in New York City about actions being planned this fall and the current political environment.

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Guest:

Gregory Schwedock is a climate activist and local organizer with the Extinction Rebellion in New York City. He worked for the Climate Mobilization and founded Meatlessly.org.

Hong Kong Protests And The Shifting Global Power Dynamics

Protests have been escalating in Hong Kong this year with tens of thousands of people taking the streets and aggressive actions such as occupying the airport and attacking journalists. What started in April as opposition to an extradition law has erupted into a ‘pro-democracy’ and racist anti-China movement that is supported by the US corporate media and members of Congress. It has the markings of a color revolution. We speak with author and activist K. J. Noh about the protests – who is behind them and what they want – and about Hong Kong’s relationship to China. He describes the ways that China differs from traditional western politics and development. As China rises, it is critical to understand these differences and how they impact the shifting global power dynamics.

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Guest:

K. J. Noh is a peace activist and scholar on the geopolitics of the Asian continent who writes for Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He is special correspondent for KPFA Flashpoints on the “Pivot to Asia,” the Koreas, and the Pacific.

The Hawaiian Kingdom Still Reigns: Alleged Statehood Is Illegal

In a textbook United States regime change operation, wealthy businessmen manufactured a revolution in Hawai’i and executed a coup d’état in 1893. The Queen of the Hawai’ian Kingdom surrendered the administration of the country, but never its sovereignty. A Hawai’ian Kingdom government continues to operate to this day and is working to regain its sovereignty. We speak with Hawai’ian Kingdom Foreign Minister Leon Siu about the story of Hawai’i’s struggle for independence and the broken promises of the US government over the past century. This struggle is escalating through the current protests at Mauna Kea and has big plans in store this fall. We discuss where people in the US can learn more and how to support the Hawai’ian independence movement.

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Guest:

H.E. Leon Kaulahao Siu is the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ke Aupuni Ko Hawaii Pae Aina — the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands
— and has served in that capacity since the year 2000. Mr. Siu has been involved since the mid 1990s with the reactivation of the lawful Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent nation-state. In 1997 he was appointed the Deputy the Minister of Foreign Affairs by the Privy Council of Ke Aupuni O Hawaii and became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000.

His duties are to revive, develop, nurture and advance diplomatic, trade and other forms of friendly relations with sovereign states and international bodies.

He was nominated in 2016 for the Nobel Peace Prize — the only Hawaiian to have had that distinction.

Mr. Siu participates in numerous international fora concerning human rights and the rights of original peoples and nations, particularly with regard to self-determination in governance, economic development, human rights, maintaining sovereign and cultural integrity, and so forth. He has advocated these matters before the UN Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Council, Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Permanent Forum on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, World Intellectual Properties Organization, and others.

He has also led the reentry of the Hawaiian Islands into crucial discussions on global sustainability. He participated in the Marshall Islands conference on climate change at Columbia University, and attended and contributed to regional discussions on sustainable development in the Pacific conducted by the Melanesian Spearhead Group, the Pacific Islands Development Forum and the Pacific Islands Forum.

Minister Siu is the current chair of the Decolonization Alliance a coalition of original nations and supporting organizations working to improve the UN’s decolonization process in order to provide the opportunity for self-governance to original peoples and nations. Minister Siu was nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for his collaborative work in espousing the legal basis for independence for West Papua. He was also a recipient of the Decree of Consecration Diploma and Gold Medal UN Peacemaker Sergio Vieira de Mello award from the International Parliament in 2017. In 2015 he was awarded the Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Kamehameha. Minister Siu is the co-author of the book, Modus Vivendi Situation of West Papua (2017) the seminal analysis of the West Papua situation under international law.

Mr. Siu attended the University of Hawaii, majoring in fine arts and minoring in history. He has an illustrious career as a musician, composer, recording artist and a pioneer producer of multi-arts, multi-media projects using cutting edge technology.

Busting The Myths Of American Exceptionalism And Innocence

The United States has long considered itself to be above the law, and it has gotten away with it by manufacturing public support for its actions, no matter how heinous, through the myths that we are better than everyone else and that we mean well even when things don’t work out. Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong’s new book busts through these myths and shows why all of the problems of today are consistent with the history of what “America” has always been. Every chapter exposes truths and raises questions about who we really are. We can only live up to the values we claim to support if we understand these hard truths and recognize that to fix anything, we must fix everything. While it sounds daunting, the world is changing and this book provides essential knowledge for a path to a better place.

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Guest:

Danny Haiphong is a socialist activist, writer, and political analyst. For the last five years, Haiphong has been a weekly contributor to Black Agenda Report. His articles have also appeared in publications such as MintPressNews, Counterpunch, The American Herald Tribune, The Center for Global Research (Canada) and The Herald (Zimbabwe). Haiphong has frequently appeared on Black Agenda Radio, CPRNews with Don Debar, The Taylor Report, RT, and Sputnik International. His work was recently featured in former Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney’s latest book How the U.S. Creates “Sh*thole Countries (2018).

Haiphong’s new book, co-authored with Roberto Sirvent, is “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News – From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror,” available from Simon and Schuster.

Puerto Ricans’ Revolt Is Deeper Than The Governor’s Chats

Puerto Ricans have suffered over the past several years from deep debt, a faltering economy and the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Struggling to hold on, the final straw came when hundreds of chats between the Governor and other officials were published showing their blatant disregard for the living and the thousands who died after Maria. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have mobilized to demand the Governor’s resignation. We speak with Natasha Bannan, a lawyer who lives in Puerto Rico and is active in the protests about the corruption and subversion of democracy behind this mass uprising, what the people want and how activists can support Puerto Ricans.

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Guest:

Natasha Bannan‘s work focuses on the economic exploitation and discrimination against low-wage Latina/o immigrant workers, as well as legal support in the face of the economic and humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. She works on both domestic litigation and international advocacy before human rights mechanisms concerning issues including: state-sanctioned violence and failure to protect; self-determination and decolonization processes; gender justice; and immigrants’ rights.

Prior to joining LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Natasha worked at the Center for Reproductive Rights and clerked for the Hon. Ronald L. Ellis in the Southern District of New York. Natasha graduated from CUNY School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of CUNY Law Review and was a fellow at the Center for Latino/a Rights and Equality.

Natasha is president of the National Lawyers Guild, the nation’s largest and oldest progressive bar association, and co-chairs its subcommittee on Puerto Rico. She is a board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights and MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization. She is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on Puerto Rico and Inter-American Affairs Committee. Natasha is an adjunct faculty member at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Natasha has written several articles, including Puerto Rico’s Odious Debt: The Economic Crisis of Colonialism, 19 CUNY L. Rev. 287 (2016), and has been featured in numerous news outlets.

Militarized Fossil Capitalism Is The Problem; There Are Solutions

“The Earth Is Not For Sale.” That is the title of David Schwartzman’s new book, written with his son Peter. Both are environmental scientists who have worked on climate change issues for a long time. Schwartzman says the problem is that right now the earth is for sale and it shouldn’t be. He discusses what he calls “militarized fossil capitalism,” and  explains why it is a fundamental problem driving the climate crisis. Schwartzman outlines the possible scenarios for the future, what needs to be done to have a chance for a positive outcome (he believes that is still possible) and how we get there. We also cover recent news and actions.

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Guest:
David Schwartzman is Professor Emeritus, Howard University and is a biogeochemist and environmental scientist.  He is an active member of the DC Statehood Green Party/Green Party of the United States and of Democratic Socialists of America and numerous other community organizations in Washington DC. His newest book is “The Earth is not for Sale: A path out of fossil capitalism to the other world that is still possible.”

What To Do In An Age When Crossing The Border Is A Crime

It wasn’t always a crime to cross the border, but now it is not only a crime but we are also housing immigrants in concentration camps under severe conditions and prosecuting those who try to assist them. As awareness of the inhumanity of immigration policy in the United States grows, people are taking action to change it. We speak with immigration attorney Heather Benno about how the laws have changed (hint: it started way before Trump) and practical advice for immigrants and human rights advocates about how to handle ICE raids, plus information about upcoming actions. Being a human and seeking asylum are not crimes.

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Guest:

Heather Benno is an immigration attorney in the Washington, DC metro area, currently with Immigrant Justice Solutions. Heather has worked in immigration law for twelve years. She is an officer on the immigration court committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

How Many Coups (And Lives) Will It Take Before The US Surrenders In Venezuela?

Venezuela used to be an “oil republic,” which made oil executives from the United States and the wealthy class in Venezuela very rich. That lasted until the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 when the Bolivarian Process began and oil profits were used to provide for basic needs of all the people. Ever since then, the US and its allies have used everything they have to overthrow the revolution, but like Cuba, the people have resisted, despite great suffering being inflicted on them, and the US has failed. We speak with Dan Kovalik about his newest book, “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela” and the tremendous resistance of the Venezuelan people. We also cover some recent news and have a tribute to Bruce Dixon, co-founder and editor of Black Agenda Report, who died last week of cancer.

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Guest:

Dan Kovalik is a retired Senior Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW). He worked for the USW since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. While with the USW, he has served as lead counsel on cutting-edge labor law litigation, including the landmark NLRB cases of Lamons Gasket and Specialty Health Care. He has also worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, recently described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects.

How To Move Away From The Brink Of War With Iran

The United States has been waging an economic war against Iran ever since the Iranian Revolution overthrew the US-backed brutal shah in 1979, but that war has escalated recently with the US-imposed oil embargo. Oil is a major source of revenue for Iran. Add to that the US pulling out of the nuclear agreement, the attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran shooting down a US drone, and we are extremely close to a hot war that would destabilize the entire Middle East. We speak with Patrick Hiller, a conflict resolution expert who traveled to Iran with us earlier this year, about just how dangerous the current situation is, what the potential consequences are and what we can do to reconcile the hostilities. We also cover recent news and analyses.

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Guest:

Patrick Hiller holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University and a M.A. in Human Geography from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. He teaches at the Conflict Resolution Program at Portland State University. Following an interdisciplinary approach, his work and research interests encompass war and peace, conflict resolution, peace studies, environmental issues, ethnicity, human rights, nationalism, social justice, Mexico, Latin America, social/peace movements, identity formation, culture and conflict and migration. He studied and worked on those topics while living in Germany, Mexico and the United States. His writings and research are almost exclusively related to the analysis of war and peace and social injustice and, most often in the form of structural violence and power dynamics with an emphasis on human dignity, solidarity among all peoples, equal participation of all peoples, the role of the governments and the promotion of peace. Patrick seeks to contribute to the growth of the still young peace and conflict studies field. Patrick is the Vice-President of the International Peace Research Association Foundation and served on the Executive Committee of the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association (2012-2016). He served on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War (2013-2016), he is member of the Advisory Council of the organizations International Cities of Peace and PeaceVoice/PeaceVoiceTV, member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Peace Institute, member of the Peace and Security Funders Group as well as member of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. He is the founding editor of the Peace Science Digest.In his free time, Patrick enjoys the outdoors and is a committed triathlete. He lives in Hood River, Oregon with his wife and son.

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