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Political Misfits
Political Misfits bring you news, politics and culture from the belly of Washington DC without the red and blue treatment. Informed by progressive politics, class analysis and anti-war activism, we break down the day's pressing economic, social and political stories from perspectives often ignored.

Russiagate Keeps Giving, What’s Up With PVDSA, 30 Million Out of Work

Russiagate Keeps Giving, What’s Up With PVDSA, 30 Million Out of Work
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How did we get a “left” that looks so much like the right? By letting our power to hold them accountable atrophy.

Venezuelanalysis.com writer and editor Paul Dobson joined Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas to explain what exactly is happening in Venezuela's oil sector and in its national oil company, PVDSA. There is a wave of privatization happening in Venezuela, he said, and it is possible that reports in Western media of the privatization of PVDSA contain some truth. Such a move would be unpopular at home, though obviously much desired by neoliberal economies. Dobson broke down the major players on the oil scene and what they really represent, and the complex pressures Caracas is operating under. He also gives an overview of the media landscape in the country so maligned by the US, and the view on the ground of attacks on its major industry. 

Dr. Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance and a member of the steering committee of HOPE, Health Over Profit, an organization working to achieve a national improved Medicare for All healthcare system, joined to explain this week’s Supreme Court decision that Congress has to pay for some bills accrued because of the Affordable Care Act and put it in the context of the long battle for humane health care in the US. She discussed how a national single-payer health care system would function, including during a pandemic, and how for-profit health hurts the public. They also got into the politics of health systems and the need to be uncompromising and independent of parties when pushing for health care reform, as well as the dishonesty in mainstream discussions about the “cost” of single-payer systems. 

Bob also waxed apoplectic about the latest Russiagate revelations, namely the release of documents that further undermine the already shoddy case against Michael Flynn and the innocuous correspondence between Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and Jamarl let loose on Tara Reade’s attackers and Joe Biden’s enablers. The hosts also covered the new jobless claims released by the US, the collapse of state systems intended to protect workers, and plans for unprecedented walkouts in the US to mark May Day. 

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