Prolific author, historian and executive director of the Tri-Continental Institute, Dr. Vijay Prashad, told the Misfits that the 20 percent unemployment rate the US has just hit and probably exceeded is nothing compared to what we should expect under the conditions of “The Great Lockdown.” Neither main party in the richest country in the world seems to recognize that they’re facing a humanitarian crisis. Prashad offered a vision of a humane response in the US and explained where governments are actually stepping up to the job, including in the Indian state of Kerala. The three break down the ruling ideas of our age, the coming surge in platform capitalism, and what our neighborhoods will look like in the future.
Dr. Bill Honigman, Progressive Democrats of America national outreach lead and co-coordinator of the Healthcare as a Human Right Issue Organizing Team for Progressive Democrats of America, explained the intersection of senior care, race, housing, and poverty at the heart of the COVID-19 explosion in the US. He updated Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas on the results of some organizing efforts by nurses in California and provided some insight into the conditions of California emergency rooms, how budget cuts impact sanitation and health care, and why nurses and hospital staff need labor protections as much as other workers. They explored the historic disdain this country has for nurses and other workers and the opportunity the pandemic offers, by focusing attention on their important work and their shabby treatment, to recognize our other economic crimes.
The Misfits also covered grim warnings from the World Food Program about widespread famine, the latest major storms to rip across the US, the puppet masters behind some protests against social distancing lockdowns, the future of American health care, and the DNC’s plans to hold an in-person primary, come hell or high fevers.
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