India’s COVID Crisis; FBI FISA Abuses; Census Consequences

Political Misfits

Ahsan Butt, associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and Dr. Sahil Singh, co-director at Vmedica Clinics and Diagnostics, talk to us about the COVID crisis in India, the situation on the ground, what the country needs the most at this moment, and how the health system has been pushed to the brink of collapse. We also talk about how the country went from an exporter of vaccines to the current crisis, how the government failed to protect the population by promoting political and religious gatherings that accelerated the spread of the virus, and whether we could see a light at the end of the tunnel of this crisis.
John Kiriakou, co host of Radio Sputnik’s The Backstory, joins us in a conversation about how government agencies are conducting warrantless surveillance and searches in the guise of fighting terrorism, how the groundwork was laid in the passage of the Patriot Act that allows FISA courts and the NSA to conduct these searches disregarding the 4th Amendment and behaving with no constraints and no congressional oversight, and how this unchecked power can be used to persecute whistleblowers, environmental, progressive, and animal rights activists.
Ra Shad Frazier Gaines, founder and chair of the Black Caucus of the Young Democrats of America and founder and chair of Black Progressives, talks to us about the outcome of the Chauvin trial, how police killings continue to happen, and where we stand in the movement to reform or even abolish the police. We also talk about new ways for the progressive movement to have a conversation about race and the results of the decennial census showing a decline in the population in the country, and what this means for politics moving forward.
Ong Siraphisut, a multidisciplinary artist, joins hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber in our Politics of Art segment to talk about the lingering impact of the pandemic on the arts landscape, as well as isolation and the artististic process. We also talk about his Turmeric and Charcoal project, the choice of materials, the process, and the subjects of his portraits.