Responding to the Omicron Variant; Privacy Apps & Surveillance; Cover-Up in Kabul Strike

Omicron variant makes landfall in the US amid rising healthcare costs. How to develop a coherent response to the virus.

Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, professor of public health at College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, joins us to talk about the response to the new COVID-19 Omicron variant, which is rapidly spreading around the world and just made landfall in the US. We talk about how there has not been a consistent response to Omicron across the board, and whether it really is more contagious than the Delta variant. We also talk about how we will have to learn with spikes and new variants in the foreseeable future, how healthcare costs keep rising in the US, and what could be done about it.

Alan MacLeod, senior staff writer for MintPress News, author, journalist, media analyst and member of the Glasgow University Media Group, joins us to tell us about the intersection of Silicon Valley, the national security state and the Open Technology Fund, which bills itself as an independent provider of privacy apps, but is actually funded and controlled by the United States Agency for Global Media, a government body responsible for overseeing US-funded state media outlets overseas, including Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and how these apps are used to advance US interests abroad and destabilize governments they consider to be enemies.

David Swanson, activist, journalist, radio host and author of the book "Curing Exceptionalism," talks to us about how the Pentagon "cover-up" in the Kabul drone killing of a family continues, with the news that no US troops will be punished for deadly Kabul strike, how impunity is rampant in the military, and war crimes accusations only apply to our opponents. We also talk about the strike force Talon Anvil, which operated in Syria from 2014 to 2019 and is responsible for countless civilian deaths and how the burden of responsibility gets shifted across the board.

Roz White, award-winning actress, joins hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about the play “Seven Guitars,” and the journey of each of the characters through the music, through the hope, and through the pain that links them all together.

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