US Government Has Enough Money for War But Not to House the Poor

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by John Kiriakou, Sputnik News correspondent to discuss the legacy of the post-9/11 torture program and its absence from the conversations surrounding the anniversary of the attacks, how popular media such as “24” have propagandized torture and the connections between the surveillance state and the entertainment industry, and the expansion of surveillance and Islamophobia in the post-9/11 world.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dominic Moulden, DC community organizer and Right to Resources Committee Member with ONE DC to discuss the ties between the violence of the state, the war economy, and the displacement of Black and brown communities, how spending on militarization contributed to the gentrification of Washington, DC and the displacement of longtime Black residents, and the importance of working and poor people organizing against the violence of capitalism at home and abroad.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss Facebook’s camera glasses and the privacy concerns that accompany them, tech companies vying for contracts with ICE for a tool which collects information on undocumented workers in the US, and Facebook’s lack of transparency in misinformation research.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Stacey Hopkins, Activist, Organizer, and political strategist to discuss the watered-down voting rights bill in the Senate and the Democrats acquiescence to Republicans, the moralization and culture wars waged by agents of the capitalist system to deflect from capitalism’s responsibility for the harm it causes to people, and the diversion that was the MET Gala and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s dress.