Under US Control, Japan Is Remilitarizing For The Coming War On China

The occupied islands of Okinawa, formerly the Ryukyu Kingdom, have been heavily militarized since the end of World War II. 70% of the US military bases in Japan are in Okinawa, which represents less that 1% of Japan's landmass. In preparation for a hot war on China, the US and it's client state, Japan, are building more bases, particularly on islands close to Taiwan. Clearing the FOG speaks with Japanese-American activist Rachel Clark about her recent tour of Okinawa where she visited the islands. Clark speaks about the history of the militarization of Japan, including forced changes to its pacifist Constitution, and the similarities between media propaganda in Japan and the US. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

On January 3, the Trump administration authorized a large-scale military invasion in Venezuela that killed one hundred people. The US bombed infrastructure in and around Caracas, and in other states, and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro and First Combatant (aka First Lady) Cilia Flores. Outright lies are being reported in the corporate media on a massive scale to justify crimes committed by the US military and to mislead the public. Clearing the FOG speaks with activist and policy analyst Leonardo Flores. Flores addresses many of the common myths and provides the facts you need to understand that President Maduro is still the President of Venezuela, that the US-backed far-right opposition led by Maria Corinna Machado has little power within Venezuela, that the Venezuelan government and the Bolivarian Revolution remain strong and united and that gains claimed by the Trump administration are exaggerated. He also discusses what people in the US are doing to mobilize in support of President Maduro and First Lady Flores. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org

The new book, "Killing Democracy: Western Imperialism's Legacy of Regime Change and Media Manipulation," is a timely account of the West's efforts to control countries around the world through soft power and, when necessary, military power, and the critical role the media plays in forming popular opinion to support these efforts and view them as legitimate. Clearing the FOG speaks with two of the five co-authors, Finian Cunningham and K J Noh. They discuss the West's efforts not only to overthrow governments but also to go after and, in some cases, annihilate the Left. They also speak about current efforts, including the very recent kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a night raid. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country in central Africa the size of Western Europe and rich in arable land and minerals, including those critical to the military industrial complex, such as cobalt and coltan. Since the CIA-backed assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961, the DRC has been ruled by puppets who answer to the United States and its allies. 2025 has been a devastating year for the DRC. Clearing the FOG speaks with Maurice Carney, the executive director of Friends of the Congo, about the occupation by Rwandan forces, mass displacement of millions of people, and the recent 'peace agreements' that rob the DRC of its riches and sovereignty. He discusses this in the context of Kwame Nkrumah's work, "Neo-colonialism: The last stage of imperialism." For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

David Rovics is an activist musician who composes songs that educate about historical events, provide political analysis about current events, and raise up people from social movements. His solidarity with Palestinian liberation is deep, spanning his entire musical career. Recently, his entire 50-album catalog on YouTube Music was deleted. Clearing the FOG speaks with Rovics about the retaliation he has faced, some of his recent songs, how platforms like Spotify and YouTube are impacting the music industry, his artificial intelligence band, Ai Tsuno, and calls to boycott Spotify. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

On November 30, six million Hondurans voted in their presidential election. One week later, the outcome of the election has not yet been announced due to credible allegations of fraud and illegal interference by the Trump administration, which includes threats of ending remittances from the United States that account for 25% of Hondura's GDP. Clearing the FOG speaks with Camila Escalante of Press TV and a founder of Kawsachun News who has covered Latin America for nearly ten years. Escalante provides background to the current political crisis and explains what is known so far about the election. She describes similarities to the 2019 coup in Bolivia. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

A right-wing, billionaire-backed and violent demonstration was held in Mexico City on November 15 against President Claudia Sheinbaum. Corporate media in the United States portrayed the protests as Gen Z taking a stand against corruption, but the march had all the makings of a US-backed destabilization effort. Clearing the FOG speaks with Jose Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth, co-hosts of the public TV program Sin Muros and the podcast Soberania, about the protests, who is behind them, the achievements of the Fourth Transformation and the risks of US aggression in the region. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

The United States was scheduled for its regular review of its human rights violations by the United Nations Human Rights Council on November 7, but it refused to cooperate. As part of the process, activists in the US submitted a shadow report last April called "The Rights to Life and Health: How financing affects the right to health care in the US." Clearing the FOG speaks with Martha "Marti" Schmidt, a human rights expert and activist, about the findings in the shadow report, the legal basis supporting the human right to health care, the problems with the current healthcare system in the United States and what type of system would honor our right to health care. Schmidt also discusses successful healthcare systems in other countries and the importance of showing solidarity with countries that are targeted by the United States. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

The United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) is holding its annual meeting in Brazil this year for the 30th time. Despite the creation of the Paris Climate Agreement nearly ten years ago, carbon emissions continue to rise, and the world is now experiencing the impacts of the 1.5° Celsius rise in temperature we sought to avoid. The time has come to shift our thinking and actions to what we can do locally to prepare for and protect our communities from the dangers of the climate crisis. Clearing the FOG speaks with Ed Jarvis, the leader of the Climate Majority Project's SAFER (Strategic Adaptation for Emergency Resilience) campaign. Jarvis discusses the campaign's efforts to bring greater awareness to the need for adaptation and shares what people are doing with a focus on climate justice. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

The Syrian government under Bashar Al-Assad was so successfully demonized by Western imperialist media and governments that many celebrated when Assad was overthrown last December, even though the new puppet government was led by the extremist Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda terrorist group. Now, Syria is balkanized and the government is implementing forced displacement and ethnic cleansing. Clearing the FOG speaks with Dan Kovalik, co-author with Jeremy Kuzmarov of "Syria: Anatomy of Regime Change," about the long history of US interference in Syria, dating back to the 1946 coup, how the recent coup appeared to happen so rapidly and the current situation in Syria, as well as the impact of these events on the region. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.