We begin with Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, who joins the show during the first segment to break down the latest in Ukraine. Hungary and Ukraine expand their deal on gas imports to alleviate dependence on Russian natural gas. Mark points out that the “lethal aid” which the Western alliance has provided Ukraine since 2014 has been used by Ukrainians to kill fellow Ukrainians. John and Michelle ask Mark about the UK, Poland, and Ukraine working on a trilateral security pact.
Next, Paul Wright, managing editor of Prison Legal News and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center, joins John and Michelle to discuss the latest news that all federal prisons are in a nationwide lockdown today following the murder of two prisoners at the US penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas. The dead are apparently both members of the MS-13 street gang. The BOP is in disarray and stressed over multiple factors, including the latest gang incident and having trouble finding people to hire and keep on staff. John explains that the eligibility to be a prison guard is remedial and problematic, which is exacerbating the problem of hiring qualified prison workers.
For the first segment in the second hour, we are joined by Jon Jeter, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist with more than 20 years of journalistic experience. He is a former Washington Post bureau chief and award-winning foreign correspondent on two continents. Jon catches up with the Misfits to talk about the impact of the pandemic economy and recent news from the New York Times highlighting Paycheck Protection Program fraud and missing money. More resources should have been given to workers who create consumer demand rather than fund a trickle-down economics approach to stimulus that emerged, which supplies the rich and draws down on the consumer, according to Jeter.
For the last segment, Keean Bexte is on the ground in Ottawa, Canada. He’s reporting on the latest developments from the Freedom Convoy, and checked in with Michelle and John to talk about the truckers' protest over the weekend. Keean clarified their demands: since the Justin Trudeau administration implemented pandemic mandates, ten to fifteen percent of truckers lost their jobs. The convoy is demanding an end to all pandemic-related mandates. The group has amassed a whopping $10 million. Keean says the convoy has enough cash to idle at the capital of Ottawa for about two and half years.
Michelle and John end the program by sharing news about the killing of Peter Spencer, a Jamaican immigrant living in Pittsburgh who went on a trip in the woods with his white coworkers and was discovered dead a few hours later. No charges have been filed. More about this story on tomorrow’s broadcast.
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