VP Harris Asia Tour; UK Prison Labor; Censorship and Content Creators; Voting Rights

Kamala Harris tours Asia in an anti-China recruitment drive. How the US legacy in the region undermines international cooperation.

Koohan Paik-Mander, journalist, media educator, and board member of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, joins us in a conversation about the takeaways from Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Asia this week, how this tour is meant to recruit countries into an anti-China bloc, and whether these entreaties and overtures will be effective. We also talk about the long history of US intervention in the region, and how calls to follow a rules-based order ring hollow considering the US legacy there.

John Ross, author and economist, a senior fellow of the Chongyang Institute at the Renmin University of China, talks to us about another labor shortage being associated with covid and Brexit in the UK, and how some companies are calling on the government to authorize the use of prison labor to allegedly alleviate this crisis. We also talk about the rationale within these proposals, how low wages and precarity have exacerbated these labor shortages.

Bria Backwoods, content creator and social media maven, talks to us about how content creators and sex workers navigate the minefield of censorship and securing a decent living after OnlyFans decided to eliminate sexually explicit content, only to rescind this decision after receiving significant pushback.

Nick Cruse, co-founder of Fred Hampton Leftists and citizen journalist focusing on state violence, the class war, and foreign policy, and Kevin Cramer, organizer with The Palm Collective, join hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about the passing of a major voting rights bill in the US House of Representatives that will seemingly be blocked in the anti-democratic Senate, the fight against voting restrictions, and the effectiveness of protests as tens of thousands of people descend this weekend on the nation’s capital for the March on Washington anniversary.

Nookie Bishop, host of the Digital Gumbo Podcast, talks to us about the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games getting underway despite the pandemic, former NBA player J.R. Smith returning to school at North Carolina A&T, and New York Knicks center Nerlens Noel filing a lawsuit against former agent Rich Paul.

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