Sanctions on Russia Are Just Another Form of US Imperialism

Julian Assange Moves Closer To Extradition, Upcoming Elections In Colombia, Ukraine Uses Flawed Facial Recognition Tech

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Mohamed Elmaazi, a UK-based freelance journalist, and contributor to numerous outlets including The Dissenter, Jacobin, The Canary and Electronic Intifada to discuss the UK Supreme Court’s denial of Julian Assange’s appeal of the decision to extradite him to the US, the outlook for stopping Assange’s extradition as it now goes to the UK Home secretary Priti Patel, and how the current conflict over Ukraine and the subsequent censorship of dissident voices reflects the central issue of censorship in the case of Assange.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by James Patrick Jordan is National Co-Coordinator for the Alliance for Global Justice to discuss the victory of Gustavo Petro in the Colombian presidential primaries and what the victory portends for the upcoming presidential election, the recent history of intimidation and fraud in Colombian elections that may hamper the support of Petro in the upcoming election, the exploitation and violence that has transpired under current president Ivan Duque, and how Petro represents a different direction in the country.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org, co-host of the ReBoot podcast to discuss the use of Clearview AI’s facial recognition by the Ukrainian government to use in combat and on its borders and the danger that technology poses to non-white people in Ukraine, how Clearview and Palantir are opportunistically using this conflict as a way to produce a good media image and to advertise and sell its technology in Europe, the White House’s briefing of TikTok influencers on the Ukraine crisis to help spread Washington’s line on the crisis to their young audiences, and allegations that HBO is sharing user data with Facebook without the consent of subscribers.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Breakthrough News journalist Kei Pritsker to discuss the sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine and what they actually do to the people of the countries on which they are imposed despite the mythology of sanctions as any more peaceful than war, Saudi Arabia’s consideration of pricing some of its oils sales to China in the yuan rather than the dollar and what that means and reveals about the global economy and the US stranglehold on it, and the obscene increases in corporate and ruling class wealth during the pandemic as working and poor people have been left to sacrifice their lives for capital.

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