Social Media Data Harvesting; Wage Theft; Vaccine IP Protections

Political Misfits

Chris Garaffa, web developer, technologist, security and privacy consultant, talks to us about reports that Facebook and Instagram are threatening to charge Apple users for their services if they don’t let the companies track their movements through apps and what these privacy changes mean for users. We also talk about Signal purchasing ads on Facebook showing the extremely detailed information that is harvested from individuals by the social media giant, and their justification for not running those ads.
Trupti Patel, Lead DMV Organizer for One Fair Wage, joins us in a conversation about recent media reports on alleged labor shortages, with certain industries arguing that unemployment benefits are preventing employees from returning to work, and how it’s not a right to own a business if you rely on paying poverty wages to workers. We also talk about how employers cheat workers out of their wages, with $287 million in stolen wages in 2019 alone, and how the pandemic has also exacerbated this problem.
Margaret Flowers, a doctor, co-director of Popular Resistance and a member of the steering committee of HOPE - Health Over Profit, an organization working to achieve a national improved “Medicare for All” healthcare system, joins us to talk about the announcement by the Biden administration supporting waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccine,and the insanity of tying global health to profits. We also talk about the CDC eviction moratorium being struck down by a federal judge, what this means for tenants, and the tragic case of whistleblower Daniel Hale, who is now in solitary confinement.
Esther Iverem, multidisciplinary author and independent journalist, host of "On The Ground: Voices of Resistance From the Nation's Capital" on Pacifica Radio, and founding member of DC Poets Against the War, joins our Trends with Benefits segment to talk about a report from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press revealing the extent of police violence against journalists in the U.S., and a new poll commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation which found that the US is seen around the world as more of a threat to democracy than Russia and China.