Joe Biden Delays Real Action and Refuses to Cancel Student Loan Debt

IPCC Report Indicts Capitalism Again, Shanghai Lockdown Highlights Competent COVID Response, Elon Musk’s Plans For Twitter

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Tina Landis, organizer and author of the book, ‘Climate Solutions: Beyond Capitalism’ to discuss the latest installment of the IPCC report on climate change which states that humanity has reached its last chance to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, how this IPCC report is another damning indictment of capitalism and how mitigating climate change requires a response that the capitalist system can’t provide, how the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the endless militarism of the US also contributes to the exacerbation of climate change, and the responsibility of the global north to do much more to mitigate climate change.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by K.J. Noh, a scholar, educator and journalist focusing on the political economy and geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific. He’s also a member of Veterans for Peace, and senior correspondent with Flashpoints on KPFA to discuss the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai, China and how China’s response to COVID-19 has changed since COVID was found in Wuhan in 2019, how China’s COVID-19 response compares to the US COVID-19 response and the centrality of education and public health messaging in encouraging vaccination, and how having a system that values lives over profit informs China’s competent COVID-19 response.

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 Elon Musk’s purchase of a substantial stake of ownership in Twitter and what it might mean for Twitter’s endeavors into Web3, NFTs, and cryptocurrency, recent reports that Meta has hired a Republican consulting firm to spread and amplify bad press about its competitor TikTok and the bad-faith accusations of TikTok targeting children, how this effort has also made use of the drive for a new cold war on China to accuse TikTok of sharing data with the Chinese government, and Amazon’s restriction of key terms related to work conditions and unionization in its internal chat apps for workers.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Eleanor Goldfield, a creative activist, journalist, co-host of Project Censored, and the filmmaker behind the documentary “Hard Road of Hope” to discuss reports that the Biden administration will extend the moratorium on student loan debt and how the administration’s failure to cancel student loan debt highlights who the political system works for, how arguments that student loan borrowers need to pay off their loans because other people have done so is rooted in individualism, and how the push to send people to college in pursuit of the mythologized American dream has left many people in dire financial situations.

We'd love to get your feedback at [e-mail]

The views and opinions expressed in this programme are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.