By Any Means Necessary

Fault Lines Grow Deeper Among Dems Ahead of Nevada Debate

Unions divided as Nevada debate looms; Embassy protectors case results in a mistrial; Congress okays Exxon/Israeli-backed pipeline to Cyprus
Sputnik

On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" hosts Jacquie Luqman and Sean Blackmon are joined by Dr. Bill Honigman, California State Coordinator and Co-Coordinator of the Healthcare as a Human Right Issue Organizing Team for Progressive Democrats of America, to talk about the upcoming debate in Nevada, why organized labor continues to go unmentioned in these debates despite ongoing high-profile labor mobilizations throughout the country, why pro-establishment unions and especially the Nevada culinary union are throwing their weight behind efforts to block Medicare-for-all legislation, whether Joe Biden actually stands a chance of securing the nomination anymore, and why claims that Medicare-for-all would reduce healthcare coverage in underserved areas are misleading.

In the second segment, Jacquie and Sean are joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-founder of Popular Resistance and director of the Health Over Profit for Everyone (HOPE) Campaign, to talk about why the trial of the Embassy Protection Collective 4 resulted in a mistrial, why the defendants chose not to mount a defense in the case, why the prosecution seems to be attempting to thread the needle between providing too little information for the jury to confidently convict and providing so much information that the jury sees through the flaws in the case, what ties she views between the political persecution of the embassy protectors and broader attempts to criminalize politically inconvenient free speech, between and why—as a medical professional—she agrees with the characterization of the Lancet medical journal that the ongoing treatment of Julian Assange constitutes torture. 

In the third segment, Jacquie Luqman and Sean Blackmon are joined by Steve Horn, investigative reporter and producer for The Real News Network, to talk about Congress approving a bill to build a gas pipeline and provide arms shipments to Cyprus, why Exxon and the Israeli government lobbied so hard to get the bill passed, why such legislation invariably seems to draw bipartisan support, what the American Chamber of Commerce's role in backing the bill says about the ability of US economic interests to dictate policy internationally, and why the measure got so little pushback from supposedly-progressive quarters.

Later in the show, Jacquie and Sean are joined by Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voting Project, to talk about the news that Bloomberg will be making an appearance at the Nevada debate, why the Democratic party continues to fail to extinguish the momentum of the Sanders campaign, how the establishment's manipulation of the Democratic nomination process in 2016 paradoxically set the stage for Sanders' comeback, why the 'vote blue no matter who' mantra is fading away as Sanders looks more and more likely to secure the nomination, the extent to which Bloomberg's overflowing pockets enable him to overtly influence the party's trajectory, why the bipartisan regime change foreign policy consensus makes it difficult to label so many Democrats "progressive," whether Sanders will face a backlash for describing the Israeli government as "right-wing" and "racist", why engaging with the mass movement coalescing around the Sanders campaign is critical to shaping its ultimate direction, and how that movement's lack of loyalty to the Democratic establishment helps ensure that there's space for Bernie to move leftward.

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