Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas and producer
Michelle Witte broke down the incidents of violence against protesters
over the weekend and some of the latest polling on the protests and
the issues driving Americans into the streets. They also scratched
their heads over the WHO’s latest confusing statements on asymptomatic
transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

Joel Segal, co-author of the original Medicare for All bill, executive
director of the Justice Action Mobilization Network and national
director of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Group, explained the
difference between hate, systemic racism and structural racism, and
broke down some of the passive ways inequalities are enforced without
drawing attention. He drew the clear connections between poverty and
crime, and to the permanent black underclass that has come to be
accepted in the US. These protests can help usher in a new America,
but they have to address structures. He also offers some advice on
framing demands.

Artist and activist Billie Krishawn discussed the art she’s been
documenting in downtown Washington, DC, around Lafayette Park.
Americans have been turning their pain into beauty on streets and
walls, she says, and officials have been engaged in a full-time
erasure of it. There is a struggle playing out on surfaces as well as
in three dimensional space, and it is important to commemorate this
struggle without endangering those involved. She also describes the
solidarity she’s felt in the streets and how people involved in these
protests are managing their own community.

The Misfits also covered Rio Tinto’s destruction of priceless cultural
heritage sites.

Artist and activist Billie Krishawn discussed the art she’s been
documenting in downtown Washington, DC, around Lafayette Park.
Americans have been turning their pain into beauty on streets and
walls, she says, and officials have been engaged in a full-time
erasure of it. There is a struggle playing out on surfaces as well as
in three dimensional space, and it is important to commemorate this
struggle without endangering those involved. She also describes the
solidarity she’s felt in the streets and how people involved in these
protests are managing their own community.

Joel Segal, co-author of the original Medicare for All bill, executive
director of the Justice Action Mobilization Network and national
director of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Group, explained the
difference between hate, systemic racism and structural racism, and
broke down some of the passive ways inequalities are enforced without
drawing attention. He drew the clear connections between poverty and
crime, and to the permanent black underclass that has come to be
accepted in the US. These protests can help usher in a new America,
but they have to address structures. He also offers some advice on
framing demands

Joseph Richardson, professor of African-American Studies and
Medical Anthropology at the University of Maryland College Park and
the University of Maryland School of Medicine, tells Misfit hosts Bob
Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas that it is high time for radical and
revolutionary change, not only in policing but across all our
institutions. He connects the layers of trauma experienced by black
people through state sanctioned and structural violence to the trauma
inflicted across the globe by the same American systems, and says our
media does Americans a disservice by separating these two linked
phenomena. He also stresses the very real physiological effects of
existing in a constant state of fight or flight, the danger of
ignoring economic inequality in the current conversation, and the need
to see money in politics as a racial issue.

Gustavo Vargas, a member of the Bolivian immigrant community in the DC
area and a member of the DMV Bolivia Solidarity Network, explained the
media blockade that has expanded in Bolivia since the coup and the
proliferation of misinformation about the country, even as Western
press reckon with their failure to accurately report the coup last
year. He also draws parallels to overpolicing, racism and violence in
Bolivia, perpetrated by the government supported by the US.

Margaret Kimberly editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report
and author of the book "Prejudential: Black America and the
Presidents," breaks down the difference between performative kente
cloth on Democratic leaders and the real solidarity in the streets,
and explains why she has hope ‒ and it ain’t Joe Biden. We need to be
talking about real community control of the police, including hiring,
firing and subpoenas, as well as prison abolition, the role of the
federal government in escalating police violence and, once again, US
imperial violence. Beware of incremental change or window dressings,
even if they’re pushed by black politicians, and continue the
grassroots organizing and demonstrating that’s actually making change.
She also breaks down how economic and racial injustice were
deliberately decoupled by dishonest leaders.

Margaret Kimberly editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report
and author of the book "Prejudential: Black America and the
Presidents," breaks down the difference between performative kente
cloth on Democratic leaders and the real solidarity in the streets,
and explains why she has hope ‒ and it ain’t Joe Biden. We need to be
talking about real community control of the police, including hiring,
firing and subpoenas, as well as prison abolition, the role of the
federal government in escalating police violence and, once again, US
imperial violence. Beware of incremental change or window dressings,
even if they’re pushed by black politicians, and continue the
grassroots organizing and demonstrating that’s actually making change.
She also breaks down how economic and racial injustice were
deliberately decoupled by dishonest leaders.

Joseph Richardson, professor of African-American Studies and Medical
Anthropology at the University of Maryland College Park and the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, who investigates violence,
trauma and the effectiveness of hospital violence intervention
programs, tells Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas that
it is high time for radical and revolutionary change, not only in
policing but across all our institutions. He connects the layers of
trauma experienced by black people through state sanctioned and
structural violence to the trauma inflicted across the globe by the
same American systems, and says our media does Americans a disservice
by separating these two linked phenomena. He also stresses the very
real physiological effects of existing in a constant state of fight or
flight, the danger of ignoring economic inequality in the current
conversation, and the need to see money in politics as a racial issue.

Dr. Richard Wolff, professor of economics at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, visiting professor in the graduate program in
International Affairs of the New School University and the author,
most recently, of “Understanding Socialism” and “Understanding
Marxism,” tells the Misfits that the US had no excuse for being
unprepared for this pandemic ‒ except for the perennial excuse that it
wasn’t profitable. Our government could have been buying and storing
public health supplies the same way it does military supplies, but it
doesn’t. Our capitalist system crashes every four to seven years, but
the combination of events this year has pushed us to a total system
breakdown. He urges listeners not to be deflected by the wedges the
forces of capital will try to drive between us, be they racial,
generational or otherwise. He also predicts much more civil unrest,
because job losses on this scale are an open invitation to labor
abuse.

Erik Vargas, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and
Liberation at the Philadelphia Liberation Center, says the action he’s
seen in that city has been both mind-boggling and terrifying. Protests
have gone from a few dozen to a few hundred people at a time, to
several protests per day of hundreds or thousands. People are showing
that they’re willing to be hurt and die for actual systemic change,
and they won’t stop for anything short of it. Now is the time for
ideological education and rigorous organization, he says, to maintain
momentum, and to make sure our lens remains trained on repressive
systems, not “bad apples.”

Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host and author of “The Scourge of
Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump,” reminds
listeners that today’s mini-recovery is only very, very qualified good
news. Consistently undercounted are the part time jobs lost, the gig
jobs lost, or the unemployed independent contractors. And the Labor
Department itself admits that its own labor survey is so limited as to
be barely meaningful. There’s also no way we see a V-shaped recovery,
he says. Get ready for the big W, austerity programs that only
exacerbate public pain, and a decade before we get back the jobs we’ve
lost. Meanwhile, of course, the same people who always profit will
continue to use their corporate power to line their pockets with our
recovery money.

An academic physician working in DC who wishes to remain anonymous
joined to explain how his hospital is joining in on the performative
allyship movement. But large hospitals are built to make money, and
they make that money by exploiting the most vulnerable of their labor
force. If your institution is institutional racism, how can it call
out institutional racism? Hospitals are cutting costs, exploiting
staff, and crawling with police, because they remain pillars of a
capitalist system, he says.

Misfit hosts Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas also broke down New
York’s decision to erode our right to habeas corpus, DC’s efforts to
evict soldiers from its hotels and Fox News’ latest bro meltdown.

Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host and author of “The Scourge of
Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump,” reminds
listeners that today’s mini-recovery is only very, very qualified good
news. Consistently undercounted are the part time jobs lost, the gig
jobs lost, or the unemployed independent contractors. And the Labor
Department itself admits that its own labor survey is so limited as to
be barely meaningful. There’s also no way we see a V-shaped recovery,
he says. Get ready for the big W, austerity programs that only
exacerbate public pain, and a decade before we get back the jobs we’ve
lost. Meanwhile, of course, the same people who always profit will
continue to use their corporate power to line their pockets with our
recovery money.

An academic physician working in DC who wishes to remain anonymous
joined to explain how his hospital is joining in on the performative
allyship movement. But large hospitals are built to make money, and
they make that money by exploiting the most vulnerable of their labor
force. If your institution is institutional racism, how can it call
out institutional racism? Hospitals are cutting costs, exploiting
staff, and crawling with police, because they remain pillars of a
capitalist system, he says.