US Senate Bill Aims to Freeze Russian Gold Reserves

At the top of the show, Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, breaks down the latest developments on the ground from Ukraine over the weekend. They talk about a Fox News report this morning that Andrei Soldatov, the head of the FSB, Russian Intelligence Services, was placed under house arrest. Then they discuss reports of the Russian strike on the Ukrainian base that resulted in dozens of deaths and more than 100 injured. The base was practically on the border of Poland. What does this mean in terms of an expansion of the conflict if anything? And, they talk about Russian relations with China.

Then, Kevin Gosztola, journalist, writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure joins the conversation to talk about media coverage of former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul saying Adolf Hitler wasn’t as bad as Vladimir Putin because Hitler didn’t kill “ethnic Germans.” Then, Rachel Maddow Show’s blog repeating this absolutely vile bit of revisionism as a nugget of social media wisdom. They discuss the onward march of censorship in this conflict. On Friday, as we were airing, YouTube made its announcement that it would drop Russian state funded media worldwide and remove content “denying, minimizing or trivializing” the war in Ukraine as part of its policy toward “well-documented violent events.”

Next on the program, Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism, University of Tehran called in to talk about the Iranian government confirming today responsibility for a rocket attack on a facility near the US consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. The attack was in retaliation for an Israeli missile strike in Syria last week that killed two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strike in Irbil drew a harsh response from the Iraqi government which called it a violation of international law and demanded an explanation from Iran.

For the last segment, Sam Husseini, independent journalist. You can find his writings and Substack at Husseini.org joins the Misfits to talk about his long running hunt for the origins of Covid-19. And, the evolution of theories that it might have come from a lab; from lies and conspiracy to accepted possibility. They talk about the process and speed the media reports on research of potentially dangerous pathogens in Ukraine. They compare examples of the virtues of skepticism in media - the lesson in both of these stories isn’t to have been on the right bandwagon from the beginning - it’s not to be on one - it’s very hard to find well known media outlets these days that haven’t chosen a team.

The Misfits sign off till tomorrow.