Ukraine Talks, IRS Facial Recognition, Cyber Warfare and Airstrikes in Yemen

Political Misfits

At the top of the show, Michelle and John talk with Chris Garaffa, editor of TechForThePeople.org. The IRS will soon implement a program whereby taxpayers will have to use facial recognition software to access their taxes.They are using a third-party company, ID.me, plagued with well-documented problems. Chris warns that such software is an invitation for hackers. Anyone in the database is at risk of identity theft. More on the cyberwar front: weapons like IPegasus software created in Israel are used by governments to attack states and individuals through their phones. You don’t even have to click the link, warns Chris.
Next, Steven Donziger, lawyer, writer, former journalist and environmental advocate currently known for leading an unrelenting 24 years legal battle against Chevron Corporation related to its contamination of the Ecuadorian rainforest, joins to talk about Exxon. Steven describes an obscure Rule 202 that allows corporations to go on a fishing expedition for incriminating evidence. They are able to question individuals under oath and demand access to documents even before any legal action is filed against them. Exxon wants to use the provision to force California officials to travel to Texas to be questioned by the firm’s lawyers about what the company describes as “lawfare” – the misuse of the legal system for political ends.
Michelle and John caught up on all the latest developments with RT correspondent Peter Oliver. Talks in Geneva closed with nothing agreed upon. The US decision to send Stinger missiles to Ukraine seems to be a provocative one. After all, Stingers turned around the Afghan war against the Soviets. Russia suggested military deployment to Venezuela and Cuba remain an option.
During the second hour, John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins us. John’s latest book, "Songlands," the third and final novel in the Splinterland Trilogy, is out now. John and Michelle discuss the latest lethal airstrikes in Yemen that knocked out the internet. According to Save the Children, this is a war that had gone somewhat quiet for a while, but has really heated back up again over the past week, with both the Houthis and the Saudi and US backed forces launching strikes. Not surprising, says Feffer, that neither the Washington Post or the New York Times’ mentioned the extent of the US role in this war.
Lee Camp is a comedian, activist, journalist, host of the show “Redacted Tonight” on RT America, and author of the recent book, “Bullet Points & Punch Lines.” Lee joins for the last segment to talk about the insane amount the US spends on police. Spending on police is greater in the US than the amount any other nation spends on their entire military. The only military budgets that are greater than what the US spends on police are China and the US. John and Michelle ask Lee about the recent government papers that deem RT and Sputnik News as networks of propaganda. John mentions the history of Voice of America, which was hatched by the CIA.
The Misfits sign off, till next week…..