Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jacqueline Luqman, the co-editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation, which livestreams every Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. on Facebook, Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist whose work is at rall.com, and Sputnik News analyst and producer Walter Smolarek.It’s time for our weekly segment The Week in Review. The 116th Congress took office yesterday with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. This Congress is unlike any other, with a record number of women, including two Muslim women, the first two Latina congresswomen from Texas, the first two African-American Congresswomen from New England, a former refugee from Somalia, and New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s still in her 20s. The issues this Congress will face are daunting, beginning with the Democrats’ ideas on PayGo, or pay-as-you-go spending, investigations, leadership challenges, and legislative plans. The road ahead, as one part of a divided government, will not b