OSCE Meetings in Stockholm; CIA & Sex Crimes; Omicron, Boosters, & Testing

Tensions rise between US and Russia at OSCE meeting. Are we on a path to a military confrontation?

Peter Oliver, journalist and RT correspondent in Berlin, joins the Misfits to talk about the ongoing OSCE meetings taking place in Stockholm amid growing tensions in Ukraine and the Baltic. We talk about how the meeting has gotten to an ominous start with threats bandied about by the United States and Russia, particularly on Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Lavrov warning that “the nightmarish scenario of military confrontation is returning” as NATO creeps closer to Russia’s borders, and whether there is a behind the scenes effort to de-escalate the situations and the prospects for a peaceful resolution.

John Kiriakou, co-host of The Backstory on Radio Sputnik, joins us to talk about a report alleging that over the past 14 years, the Central Intelligence Agency has secretly amassed credible evidence that at least 10 of its employees and contractors committed sexual crimes involving children, how the agency has been sexualized and scandals like these are commonplace, and the difficulty of prosecuting these crimes due to the veil of secrecy enveloping the organization.

Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, professor of public health at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, joins us to talk about the COVID-19 Omicron variant, which continues to spread around the world and has now been detected in the US, how boosters and testing could help in mitigating this new wave of the pandemic, and how resources should be distributed equitably in order to stop further spread of the disease.

Monica Cruz, host and reporter with BreakThrough News, talks to us about housing and the cost of living and how it has steadily increased throughout the pandemic, with major cities globally becoming increasingly inaccessible to working people, the proposed new union election at Amazon in Alabama, ongoing organizing efforts in Staten Island, and a win for striking Kellogg’s workers.

Chris Garaffa, web developer, technologist, security and privacy consultant, talks to us about reports that China is becoming the world’s largest data broker, what this means for privacy, how this impacts the growing tensions with the US, and Twitter removing “state linked information operations.”

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