Political Misfits

Labour's Perfidy, AMLO Between OPEC and a Hard Place, Hip Hop at Home

The Labour Party decided to self-sabotage rather than move left with Jeremy Corbyn. Will the US left recognize the obvious lesson here?
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Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program for the Center for International Policy, joined to discuss the urgent need for a rethinking of US immigration policy, and what that policy and how it is communicated means to the Latinx vote in the US. Joe Biden is pretty well known in Latin America as President Obama’s liaison and as a representative of repressive and violent drug policies. Why aren’t these disastrous tactics scrutinized more? Look to who benefits from them. And is there any chance a Biden presidency could return to the brief moment of promise offered in the early days of the Obama administration? Mexico’s president also recently won a tough victory in his fight against OPEC, Carlsen told hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas, but it wasn’t without cost. He accrued a mysterious debt to the US president, who backed his Mexican counterpart, but, as we see, not for free.

Tom Luongo, independent analyst on politics, culture and markets at his blog, Gold Goats ‘n Guns, dropped by to defend the #FireFauci folks and get into a heated debate about the US response to COVID-19, nationwide shutdowns versus locally specific solutions, and black and white versus nuanced restrictions. What is response, and what is over-response? Should we be chilled by Trump’s obvious enthusiasm for centralized power? Are our treatments for this disease even the right ones? And what is Trump’s economic and financial policy paving the way for here? Is the pandemic clearing the field for another huge multinational buyout? The Misfits also did some general election prognosticating, and reviewed the wreckage of the Democratic party over the past four years.  

Hip hop artist and educator Bomani Armah spoke to the Misfits about how he’s continuing his educational efforts during this pandemic, and also about the limits of home learning and the need for compassion. He also spoke about how to tell stories, his path from artist to educator and the link between the two. 

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