By Any Means Necessary

As Quarantine Sets In, US Crackdowns Hit Poor Hardest At Home & Abroad

State Dept. tells officials to blame China for COVID-19; Baltimore blocks public housing Food Bank; GOP using outbreak to restrict abortion
Sputnik

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Ian Goodrum, senior editor with China Daily, to talk about the renewed push to blame Beijing for the botched handling of the pandemic in the US and Europe, why accusations that China covered up the outbreak are undermined by the many reports that the Chinese government informed the WHO and the CDC about it on Dec. 31st and Jan. 3rd, respectively, and why accusations that the reduction in cell phone accounts and alleged irregularities in the number of cremations in Wuhan reveal the media's desperation to lay the blame of the outbreak at China's doorstep. 

In the second segment Sean and Jacquie are joined by Brandon Walker, an organizer with Ujima People’s Progress Party in Baltimore, to talk about the revelation that Housing Authority representatives in Baltimore suddenly decided to refuse to allow deliveries from food bank trucks to low-income residents, why many feel this decision is motivated by a government desire to control the public relations narrative around the COVID-19 response, and why the move has led to not only harassment, intimidation, and apparent attempts to evict housing rights advocate/Douglas Homes community leader Rev. Annie Chambers, but also many public housing residents throughout Baltimore being confined to a single meal per day.

In the third segment Sean and Jacquie are joined by Candice Yanez, a public school teacher and organizer in Albuquerque, NM, to talk about the attempts by numerous conservative state governments to use to the COVID-19 outbreak to further chisel away at reproductive rights, how an order by a federal judge yesterday requiring Texas, Alabama, and Ohio to allow abortion clinics to stay open has partially thwarted the anti-abortion offensive, and how the developments fit into a broader push to shift the brunt of the consequences onto women. 

Later in the show, Sean and Wyatt are joined by RaShad Frazier Gaines, , to talk about whether Joe Biden's apparent unwillingness to break with Barack Obama's legacy and put forward a more progressive healthcare agenda betrays a level of political cowardice, whether there is any real value in the 'representation' that Cory Booker and Kamala Harris offer the Black community, what the embrace of Donald Trump in spite of his vulgar history says about the malleability of Evangelical morality, and (given that even the most privileged sectors of society are vulnerable to the virus) why the most economically disadvantaged are all but guaranteed to suffer disproportionately. 

We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

Discuss