The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on December 4 has led to a massive outpouring of anger against the insurance industry for its common practice of denials and delays of healthcare claims. A TikTok content creator and self-described insurance worker talked about how the insurance industry has been behind the efforts to privatize Medicare.
Labor journalist Joe Masicalo of Work-Bites spoke to Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer about top union leaders who have secretly conspired to push the privatization of Medicare by pushing workers and retirees into Medicare Advantage.
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On September 13, Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a press conference accusing the Russian media outlet RT of covertly spreading Kremlin propaganda, targeting audiences not only in the United States but also in Africa and beyond. Blinken specifically called out African Stream, a Pan-African media platform distributed through its website, AfricanStream.media, and various social media channels. Shortly after Blinken’s remarks, African Stream was banned on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok—likely under pressure from the State Department.
Block Report’s JR Valrey spoke to Julie Varughese, the output editor for African Stream. Varughese and others are organizing a petition to address the McCarthy-like attack on African Stream.
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December 10th marked the 20th anniversary of the death of investigative journalist Gary Webb. Many believe that Webb was murdered because of his groundbreaking exposé, The Dark Alliance, which was published in the San Jose Mercury News in 1997.
Webb’s report uncovered and extensively documented the U.S. government’s role in fueling the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. According to Webb, the CIA created the epidemic in Black neighborhoods in the Bay Area and Los Angeles to covertly fundraise to support the Nicaraguan Contras in their fight against the revolutionary Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The ensuing violence and devastation from the crack epidemic were later used to justify the mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities, feeding the U.S. prison system.
Next, we share excerpts from Donald Lacy’s 2004 interview with Webb. It was recorded at downtown Oakland’s Jahva House months before Webb’s death for San Francisco’s Radio 89.5 KPOO.
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Today’s program was produced by the Capitalism, Race & Democracy collective, with contributions from Steve Zeltzer and JR Valrey, and hosted by Polina Vasiliev.
You can find this and all previous episodes at our website “capitalism race and democracy dot ORG”. Make sure you click the subscribe button. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @PacificaCRD.
Thanks for listening!
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