At the top of the show, Mark Sleboda, international affairs and security analyst, breaks down the latest developments on the ground from Ukraine over the weekend. They talk about a Fox News report this morning that Andrei Soldatov, the head of the FSB, Russian Intelligence Services, was placed under house arrest. Then they discuss reports of the Russian attack on the Ukrainian base that resulted in dozens of deaths and more than 100 injured. The base was practically on the border of Poland. What does this mean in terms of an expansion of the conflict if anything? And, they talk about Russian relations with China.

Then, Kevin Gosztola, journalist, writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure joins the conversation to talk about media coverage of former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul saying Adolf Hitler wasn’t as bad as Vladimir Putin because Hitler didn’t kill “ethnic Germans.” Then, Rachel Maddow Show’s blog repeating this absolutely vile bit of revisionism as a nugget of social media wisdom. They discuss the onward march of censorship in this conflict. On Friday, as we were airing, YouTube made its announcement that it would drop Russian state funded media worldwide and remove content “denying, minimizing or trivializing” the war in Ukraine as part of its policy toward “well-documented violent events.” 

Next on the program, Mohammad Mirandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism, University of Tehran called in to talk about the Iranian government confirming today responsibility for a rocket attack on a facility near the US consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. The attack was in retaliation for an Israeli missile strike in Syria last week that killed two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strike in Irbil drew a harsh response from the Iraqi government which called it a violation of international law and demanded an explanation from Iran.

For the last segment, Sam Husseini, independent journalist. You can find his writings and Substack at Husseini.org joins the Misfits to talk about his long running hunt for the origins of covid-19. And, the evolution of theories that it might have come from a lab; from lies and conspiracy to accepted possibility. They talk about the process and speed the media reports on research of potentially dangerous pathogens in Ukraine. They compare examples of the virtues of skepticism in media - the lesson in both of these stories isn’t to have been on the right bandwagon from the beginning - it’s not to be on one - it’s very hard to find well known media outlets these days that haven’t chosen a team. 

The Misfits sign off till tomorrow.

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including The Russians are Coming, Again, with John Marciano and Obama's Unending Wars to discuss the role that the National Endowment for Democracy and so-called “soft-power” tactics are playing in the conflict in Ukraine, why the NED is attempting to hide its connections to far-right organizations and the government of Ukraine by deleting its records of its projects there, the information war being waged over the US role in the conflict and targeting of voices that dare to highlight the historical context of interference and NATO expansion in Ukraine, and how the ingrained Russophobia in American political culture contributes to the hysteria against dissident voices and Russians.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire to discuss the refusal of many African nations to take the side of NATO and the United States in the conflict over Ukraine, the history of the Soviet Union’s support for anti-colonial movements on the African continent and how that contributes to this more independent foreign policy, and how the USSR’s anti-colonial history contrasts with the US and NATO’s historical role in sowing chaos and supporting undemocratic governments on the continent.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear to discuss the anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the continuing efforts to contain the waste that was released by the disaster, the lasting damage of the nuclear disaster and the lies and deceit of the nuclear industry to hide the human toll of the disaster, how this event and the current conflict in Ukraine highlight the real danger posed by nuclear energy and the waste it creates, and how the so-called disposal of nuclear waste contributes to environmental racism against indigenous people.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kristine Hendrix, President to the University City School Board, Junior Bayard Rustin Fellow with the Fellowship for Reconciliation and contributor to the Truth-Telling Project and "We Stay Woke" podcast to discuss the racism experienced by African students attempting to leave Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia and why the mainstream media refused to cover it for so long, the ignoring of fundamental needs by the US government as it focuses on practicing brinkmanship over the conflict in Ukraine, and what the material consequences of the war in Ukraine and the Biden administration’s response means for political education and organizing.

In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including The Russians are Coming, Again, with John Marciano and Obama's Unending Wars to discuss the role that the National Endowment for Democracy and so-called “soft-power” tactics are playing in the conflict in Ukraine, why the NED is attempting to hide its connections to far-right organizations and the government of Ukraine by deleting its records of its projects there, the information war being waged over the US role in the conflict and targeting of voices that dare to highlight the historical context of interference and NATO expansion in Ukraine, and how the ingrained Russophobia in American political culture contributes to the hysteria against dissident voices and Russians.

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dave Lindorff, investigative journalist, Editor of the online publication ThisCantBeHappening.net and 2019 winner of an “Izzy” Award for Outstanding Independent Media to discuss the pervasive propaganda pushing the effort to “close the sky” or impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine and how aggressive and dangerous how actually doing that is, the very real risk of nuclear war that comes with a potential war with Russia that a no-fly zone would cause, the history of mutually assured destruction and the role that physicist Ted Hall played in a gamble to stop the US from achieving insurmountable hegemony over the world by giving information to the Soviet Union about US nuclear efforts, and the need for denuclearization to end the threat of nuclear war.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Joshua Cho, freelance writer and media critic to discuss baseless accusations of espionage against China and its COVID tracking app for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the double standard used to judge China’s app, which does not take any more data than other popular apps like Facebook, and the consistent allegations against China and anything Chinese based on racist, yellow-peril assumptions.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of Red Spin Sports to discuss the detention of WNBA player Brittany Griner in Russia amid the deteriorating relations between the US and Russia, how Griner is suffering from US attempts to restart a cold war with Russia, the vitriol against former 76ers player Ben Simmons by Philadelphia 76ers fans in the aftermath of his refusal to play for the team and trade for James Harden, and the double standard about mental health employed to ridicule Simmons.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Danny Haiphong, Contributing Editor of Black Agenda Report, Co-Host of The Left Lens, and co-author of “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People's History of Fake News―From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror” to discuss the weaponization of white supremacy and racist representations of Russia and Russians as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the importance of not falling into campism for the sake of taking a side and the importance of using information to inform a firm, consistent, and clear analysis, and the connections between the racism employed against Russia and the racism used against other imperial targets like China and in the United States.

For the first segment, George Szamuely, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute and author, Bombs for Peace: NATO's Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia, 2014 joins the show to talk about Meta - Facebook’s parent company - changing its hate speech rules to allow what it calls “forms of political expression” that include calls for violence against Russian soldiers, Russian leaders or just Russians - as long as the context is the invasion of Ukraine. Then they talk about media coverage of bio labs discovered in Ukraine. And, they talk about the announcement that the US, the EU and the G7 countries will revoke Russia’s most favored nation trading status.

Next on the show, Ali al-Ahmed, Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs joins the conversation to talk about Saudi Arabia and China announcing on Wednesday that they would create a joint venture to design and build military drones in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia already owns Chinese-made Wing Loong II military drones and American-made Reaper drones that it actively uses in its war in Yemen. China is also in talks to sell to Saudi Arabia its FC-31 stealth fighter aircraft. And, Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world, announced a joint venture with China to develop a refinery and petrochemical complex in eastern Saudi Arabia. These announcements come after reports in the US media that Saudi and Emirati leaders would not accept telephone calls from President Biden. 

For the next segment, Netfa Freeman, organizer for Pan-African Community Action (PACA), member of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, Co-Producer/Host for the radio show and podcast Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM, joins the conversation to talk about a published investigative report showing that police departments around the country have spent $1.5 billion since 2010 to settle lawsuits brought against police for misconduct. Departments across the country have had to pay settlements for individual officer misconduct multiple times. Then they talk about Johnson & Johnson apologizing for an experiment that it conducted in 1971, when it injected 50 Pennsylvania prisoners with asbestos to compare its effect on skin versus talc. Both asbestos and talc are known to cause cancer. 50 prisoners were black men and none of them knew exactly what they were being injected with.  

For the last segment, Dr. Yolanda Hancock, board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist called into the program to talk about Dr Bronner’s Soap Company funding research into the mental health benefits of psychedelic drugs and making the benefits of that research available to their staff by covering ketamine therapy in the company’s insurance plan. And, they talk about a looming health disaster in this country - the coming purge of medicaid rolls. The Daily Poster reported on this earlier this week, noting that since the start of the pandemic, Medicaid, the program that provides health insurance to low income Americans, has expanded, with enrollment at 77.8 million. That is nearly a quarter of the population! Part of the reason for this is that states had halted disenrollments because of the ongoing public health emergency - so they weren’t going to check on whether someone’s income had tipped over the income threshold according to Dr. Hancock.

Is Friday, the Misfits close with "stories of the weird."