Biden Reaffirms Commitment to Brinkmanship With Russia Over Ukraine

Joe Biden Plunders Afghan Assets, The Growing Private Surveillance Infrastructure, Why Everyone Should Fight Back Against Anti-LGBTQ Bills

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Sohrob Aslamy, a doctoral candidate at Syracuse University to discuss the theft of Afghanistan’s frozen assets by the US government after Joe Biden announced that they would be split in half between the Afghan people and the families of victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the piecemeal attempts at the resolution of economic crises caused by the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan through humanitarian aid, the efforts to strange the Afghan economy and force it to remain dependent on foreign aid, and how this theft and sanctions only hurt the Afghan people despite what Joe Biden says.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss the growing surveillance infrastructure developed by Apple and other companies advertised as a means of finding lost items but features little regulation and can be easily used maliciously, the culture of acceptance around surveillance that has been inculcated within children partly as a result of pandemic schooling, Apple’s anti-competitive practices forcing app developers to adopt its payment platform and the widespread adoption of this strategy across tech giants, and the recently revealed CIA collection of data from American citizens.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Sputnik News Analyst and transgender activist Morgan Artyukhina to discuss the wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in state legislatures in 2022 and how those bills are taking inspiration from other right-wing bills that attack other marginalized groups, the historic weaponization of children against progressive causes like integration and how that same tactic is being used to push these bills, and how these attacks on LGBTQ people constitute an attack on all workers and present a false choice that must be met with solidarity.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace to discuss how some elements of the western left gave in to corporate media propaganda regarding the 2014 coup in Ukraine and how some of those elements continue to fall for the demonization campaign against Russia as NATO and the US escalate tensions over Ukraine, how the attacks by the western press on Russia share similarities to the attacks against Ethiopia when it was the target of the US and allied forces, and Joe Biden’s comments on the Ukraine crisis and the irony of his comments on protecting Ukraine’s national sovereignty.

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