Rishika Pardikar, freelance journalist writing from Bangalore, India, covering wildlife, climate change, and free speech, joins us to talk about how internet censorship has gone global with controversial stories that seem to be disappearing from social media, particularly Instagram in places like India, with stories that contradicted the government narrative regarding the COVID-19 pandemic; in Colombia, with the documenting of the government repression of protests over the proposed tax hikes; and in Palestine, with protests in Sheik Jarrah and the subsequent bombing campaign in Gaza. We also talk about the role of social media companies in this censorship, and whether they can be trusted to be honest brokers between governments and its citizens.
Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host & author of “The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump,” joins us to talk about a recent report published by ProPublica and based on IRS documents that showed the ways that the super-wealthy avoid paying their share in taxes, and how they pay much less than average working citizens. We also talk about how this is not a novel practice, how financial innovation helps create these disparities in income and taxation, and how we have investment firms purchasing single-family homes across the country and driving up prices.
Ajamu Baraka, political activist, writer and former Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2016 election, joins us to talk about the Biden administration's foreign policy so far, how it could be considered more dangerous than even Trump’s, what to expect from Biden Europe visit at the G7 meetings, particularly his meeting with President Putin, and whether this meeting will bear any fruit in improving relations with Russia or whether we will see a retrenchment of the “America is Back” rhetoric.
In our Trends with Benefits segment, the Misfits talk about a new cryptocurrency fad that could also be just a plain grift, otters making a comeback in the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, the sticky situation regarding foreign substances in baseballs, and the newest gimmick from Facebook.
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