Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, we're preparing for Halloween w/ a number of episodes celebrating the spooky season! First up, the great film historian David Del Valle joins Parallax Views to discuss monsters, character actor, and the horror movies of Hollywood. We talk Orson Welles, Dracula actor Christopher Lee (and taking him to a gay disco), LGBTQ+ horror and vampires, the adolescent love of horror movies, the classic Universal Monster movies and the British Hammer Studio horrors of the 60s and 70s, the Dracula Society and the strange character of Donald A. Reed, TV horror hosts like Bob Wilkins of Creature Features, meeting Bud Abbot of the Abbot and Costello fame, becoming an agent to Hollywood stars, the Howling Vs. An American Werewolf in London, Lifetime movies, a story about Zelda Rubinstein (known for her role in POLTERGEIST), stories about Hervé Villechaize and Angelo Rossitto, working on the great 80s horror anthology FROM A WHISPER TO SCREAM starring Vincent Price, interviewing Vincent Price for THE SINISTER IMAGE, Donald Pleasance aka Dr. Loomis of the HALLOWEEN franchise, the late John Carradine (patriarch of the Carradine family), recording audio commentaries (and in particular his audio commentary with horror starlet Barbara Steele for SILENT SCREAM), how Hollywood actors get into debt, the classic Hollywood actor Cameron Mitchell a story about film noir actor Lawrence Tierney who gained late-in-life fame for RESERVOIR DOGS and his appearance SEINFELD, the gay horror/arthouse filmmaker Curtis Harrington and his love of outlaw female characters and Kenneth Anger of HOLLYWOOD BABYLON fame, the breast-loving independent filmmaker Russ Meyers (FASTER PUSSCAT KILL KILL!, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS), the Ken Russell adage "Every Day is Halloween" in Hollywood,

For the penultimate episode of our Parallax Views Halloween series, John Cussans joins us to discuss his book Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror, and the Zombie Complex. Believe it or not, the zombie wasn't always simply a figure of flesh-ripping, brain eating apocalyptical disease and undead horror. The zombie begins as a figure within Haitian folklore and Voodoo (Voudon) before eventually coming to Western pop culture. John argues that the zombie's migration to the West was underpinned by white Western fears of voodoo-fueled black slave uprisings in Haiti and has evolved from there. In addition, he makes the case that the myths of Haitian voodoo has been used, at least in terms of its imagery and cultural power, as a weapon of control by Western elements such as intelligence agencies (WWII black ops; see: Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die), journalists, white liberals who seek to "carebearize" the religion, and transgressive revolutionaries like George Bataille, etc. We delve into all these topics as well as the connection between mesmerism and the early zombie in pop culture, Wade Davis' The Serpent and the Rainbow and John's critique of it, thoughts on Frank Wilderson III and Afropessimism, conspiracy theories and Videodrome, the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier, Western "ju ju journalism", Baron Samedi, the Bizango secret society, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the late night Fox News talk show Gutfeld! w/ right-wing comedian Greg Gutfeld recently managed to beat out its liberal competitor The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert in ratings. For liberals and leftists, Gutfeld's "Owning the Libs" brand of humor may not be funny. But it has found an audience. He's not alone either, as similarly-styled comics like Steven Crowder have likewise gained an audience through offending liberal sensibilities. And then there's big name comedians like Dave Chappelle and Joe Rogan, who, although not necessarily explicitly right wing, have in recent years garnered by fierce critics and devoted fans by offending those aforementioned sensibilities. Such developments are a far-cry from a decade or so ago when many were touting psychological studies indicating that liberals liked to laugh whereas conservatives preferred to be outraged as a reason for why the political right hadn't produced its own version of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, or John Oliver. As the growing popularity of Gutfeld! shows, however, that seems to have changed. Joining us to discuss the rise of right-wing comedy is Nick Marx, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Colorado State University, and co-author (w/ Matt Sienkiewicz) of the upcoming book That's Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them and the recent article "How conservative comic Greg Gutfeld overtook Stephen Colbert in ratings to become the most popular late-night TV host". In this conversation we delve into what Nick calls the right-wing comedy complex, how comedians like Tim Allen and Dennis Miller fit into it, the role audience fragmentation has played in the rise of explicitly right-wing comedy in the 21st century, why trying to argue that what comics like Greg Gutfeld are doing is "not comedy" does not stop the right-wing comedy complex, how the right-wing comedy complex papers over over factional divisions within the American conservative movement and unifies unifies them, right-wing comedy as a recruitment tool, troll and trolling culture, addressing psychological studies about liberalism and laughter, the changing nature of the media landscape and triumph of specialized niche entertainment, what has changed about the political comedy format in the past 20 years and the size of the audiences shows within that format could capture?, demographics (age, race, income levels, etc.) and the audience of right-wing comedy, "paleo-comedy", the figures within deeper recesses of the right-wing comedy complex like Gavin McInnes and Michael Malice, and more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a new movie called The Green Sea tells a story that combines straightforward drama with the magical realism reminiscent of authors like Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood) and elements of the kind of ghost stories bringing to mind M.R. James. Its writer and director has an interesting lineage, to say the least. Oliver Plunkett is the 21st Baron of Dunsany, one of the oldest continuously lived in estates in all of Ireland. He's the ancestor of the fantasy writer Lord Dunsany (aka Edward Plunkett, the 18th Baron of Dunsany), who influenced such authors as Cthulhu mythos creator H.P. Lovecraft and The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. He's a noted fan of black metal and death metal, has directed numerous zombie and horror films, and environmentalist. In terms of the latter he has gained both praise and scorn for his notorious decision to rewild the Dunsany estate, turning it into the Dunsany Nature Preserve. With the recently released The Green Sea, Plunkett made his feature film debut as a director. And, as it turns out, the film has many deeply personal and even autobiographic elements in it that shed light on Plunkett's views on creativity, isolation, alienation, the mysteries of life, the importance of social relationships, finding solace in nature, regret and redemption, self-expression, and the power of the imagination. From the IMDB Plot summary for The Green Sea: Simone (Katharine Isabelle), an American writer living a solitary life in Irish countryside, is haunted by visions of her past which begin to intertwine with the fantasy world of the novel she is writing, blurring the lines between reality and the fantasy. Her life changes, when the protagonist of her book, known only as "Kid", played by up and coming Irish actress Hazel Doupe (Float Like A Butterfly), appears to her as a victim of a drunk driving incident that forces the pair together. This sets up the beginning of an unlikely relationship, ultimately setting off a chain of events that will force Simone to face her sinister past. Randal Plunkett joins us on this edition of Parallax Views to discuss this exciting new film that can only be described as a mysterious hybrid of genres. In addition, our conversation allows us to delve into the history of the Dunsany family estate, the musical genius of musicians Scott Conner of the infamous black metal and "doomgrass" one-man-bands Xasthur and Nocturnal Poisoning as well as Justin K. Broadrick of the industrial metal act Godflesh and the post-metal pioneers Jesu, the brilliance of The Green Sea's lead actress Katharine Isabelle (know for her title role in the innovative werewolf movie franchise Ginger Snaps as well as appearances in Freddy vs. Jason, American Mary, and hit TV shows like Hannibal and The Order among others), the rewilding of the Dunsany estate and the backlash it has caused against Randal, the difficulties of making an independent film that blends different genres, and The Green Sea's themes of alienation, the powers of the imagination, alienation, the mysteries inherent to life and consciousness, and how it all relates to Randal's own philosophy and experiences. All that and much more on this jam-packed nearly two hour long edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Andrei S. Markovits is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan. For some decades now he has written, with a scholarly verve, about issues such as globalization, antisemitism, soccer and politics, anti-Americanism in European culture, Left politics, and more. Now he's written a memoir entitled The Passport as Home: Comfort in Rootlessness. In said memoir, Andy Merkovits reflects on how being a marginal figure without a sense of rootedness to one culture has a freedom for him personally rather than a tragedy. The term "rootless cosmopolitan" has been used as an anti-semitic dogwhistle. But in The Passport as Home, Merkovits finds a positive value, at least for himself, in rootlessness and cosmopolitanism. This serves as the launching off point for our conversation as we delve into Andy's sense of rootlessness, his cosmopolitanism, his love for the abstract idea of America, and his complicated relationship with the Left. We also discuss Andy's love of the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, his experience as a young Jewsih man seeing the Rolling Stones in Vienna (and his father's less-than-enthusiastic reaction to it), the generational divide between his generation and that of his father, the politics of 1968, the struggle against imperialism, Andy's first experience in America, his experiences in academia and specifically at Columbia University, an interesting experience Andy had with a member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Club of Rome and its 1972 Limits of Growth Report (pivotal to questions related to climate change, global development, and environmentalism), the Green Left vs. Social Democrats and Communists in the 1970s, computational models and the debates within the global modeling world in the 1970s, remembering his colleague the political scientist Karl Deutsch, and an even an anecdote about Zbigniew Brzezinski!

On this edition of Parallax Views, in his new Sandfuture artist Justin Beal looks at the relationship between architecture, its history (and who it is written for), illness (both as actual malady and as metaphor), and inequity through an exploration of the life and times of World Trade Center designer Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki made many important contributions to architecture in the 20th century, and yet, according to Beal, remains somewhat obscure in architectural history. Finding this curious, Beal began delving more into the life and work of Yamasaki while also exploring his own relationship to art and architecture in the aftermath of Hurrican Sandy (an event which found Beal saving sculptures from ruin). In exploring the story of Minoru Yamasaki we also delve into issues such as how architecture contributes to the ways we think about matters like inequity and illness socially. Additionally, Beal and I discuss Yamasaki's humanist inclinations and how those inclinations played a role in his art work. Although popular with the public, many of Yamasaki's works were not necessarily in line with academic thinking on architecture. Particularly, Yamasaki's focus on the decorative, or what he called "visual delight", went against modernist dogmas within architecture. This opens us up for a discussion of Yamasaki, who considered himself modernist, and his relationship to the modernist movement. We also discuss the ways in which Yamasaki, like other artists, was interested in communicating something with all his work and the ways in which communicating through architecture is a particular challenge. Moreover, this allows us to discuss the issues of elitism in art and architecture. Among the other topics we discuss are sick building syndrome, formalism and its discontents, Yamasaki and the idea of architecture for the occupant, the role of migraines and stomach ulcers in Sandfuture, the book's ambiguous title of Sandfuture, thinking of the phenomena of the migraine as a spatial condition, Yamasaki's fear of heights and how it informs his relationship to the buildings he designed, architectural designs that create a sense of comfort, metaphors in architecture, the strangeness of architecture as a medium, architecture as a symbol (specifically in the case of the World Trade Center), Yamasaki's struggles against racism and xenophobia, changing one's perception of what the World Trade Center symbolizes when viewed through the lens of its designer, public health and architecture in light of COVID, permanence vs. the shifting sands of time, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, are certain segments of alt media becoming hawkish geopolitically beyond the faltering "Forever Wars"? In other words, is there criticisms to be lobbed at alt media figures who may be becoming more hawkish geopolitically as we enter what appears to be a New Cold War on China? Robbie Martin of Media Roots Radio and Connor Freeman of The Libertarian Institute join me to chat about Saagar Enjeti (formerly of Rising on The Hill and now Breaking Point w/ his former Rising co-host Krystal Ball), Cold War 2.0 with China, and alt media hawks. We discuss the Asia Pivot, The Project for a New American Century's (PNAC) long shadow, "The Realignment", neocons in populist clothing, the New "Manufacturing Consent" for a War on China, has the comedy scene got the psyop treatment?, the Hudson Institute funded by military-industrial complex heavyweights like Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, the Institute for the Study of War, Robbie's belief that neocons have infiltrated the alt media left, the Committee on the Present Danger China, propaganda adapting to the new era of great power competition, Bari Weiss and the "Intellectual Dark Web", Tucker Carlson, Julian Assange, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, earlier this year a curious new book was published dealing with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Co-written by R. James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1995, and Ion Mihai Pacepa, a former Romanian spy and a noted, high-ranking Eastern Bloc defect during the Cold War, Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War Against America argues that the JFK assassination was the result of a plot involving the Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Lee Harvey Oswald, the book claims, was instructed by Khrushchev to kill President Kennedy. According to Woolsey and Pacepa, Khrushchev actually called off the plot for fear that it might be discovered and lead right back to him as one of the perpetrators. What Khrushchev did not count on, say Woolsey and Pacepa, is that Oswald would go rogue and carry out the assassination plot in spite of orders to the contrary. In other words, Operation Dragon alleges that President Kennedy's assassination was the result of nefarious Soviet treachery. Is Operation Dragon just another entry in dizzying array of theories positing an alternative to the Warren Commission Report's oft-contested findings concerning the fatal shooting of a sitting President of the United States in Dallas, TX on November 22nd, 1963? Perhaps. Then again, most books that challenge, in varying degrees, the official line on the Kennedy assassination aren't written by ex-CIA Directors. But the curiosity of the book's co-author, the aforementioned James Woolsey, penning a book dealing with the Kennedy assassination doesn't end with his status as the former highest-ranking official in the CIA. In addition to his tenure as DCIA, Woolsey served as U.S. Under Secretary of the Navy in the late 1970s and was involved in negotiations with the Soviet Union in the 1980s. In other words, he was in the thick of it, so to speak, during the Cold War. Most curiously of all, however, when it comes to Woolsey is his connections to the neoconservative foreign policy movement and his penchant for promoting various conspiratorial fears about foreign countries even prior to the publication of Operation Dragon. A member of the notoriously hawkish neocon think tank The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) before its dissolution in 2006, Woolsey has stoked fears that North Korea could use electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons against the United States and was also a notable proponent of the theory that al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq were involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing. Since the publication of Operation Dragon, Woolsey has appeared on the right-wing outlet Newsmax to promote his theory about the Kennedy assassination. This, combined with his neoconservative inclinations and conspiratorial musings that align quite well with the bolstering of a hawkish, pro-war agenda, raises the question of Woolsey's political motivations in promoting what The Daily Beast has referred to as a "QAnon-style spin" on the Kennedy assassination. Joining us to pushback against Woolsey's JFK assassination theory and place it within the context of his hawkish neocon history is returning guest James DiEugenio, the leading figure behind the website Kennedys and King, writer for the upcoming Oliver Stone documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, and author of such books as Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case, Reclaiming Parkland: Tom Hanks, Vincent Bugliosi, and the JFK Assassination in the New Hollywood, and The JFK Assassination. DiEugenio argues that not only is Woolsey's Kennedy assassination theory wrong, but that it is representative of a certain brand of foreign policy thinking in Washington, D.C. that sociologist C. Wright Mills would refer to as "crackpot realism". Before delving into Operation Dragon, however, Jim fills us in on the latest news concerning the fight to declassify and release the last of the JFK records. We discuss how President Trump, despite at times signaling to the contrary, helped keep the records declassified during his Presidency. Now said records and their review for declassification lay in the hands of President Joe Biden. Then we shift our attention to Operation Dragon and discuss the problems with the book's claims that theoretical physicist and "Father of the Atomic Bomb" J. Robert Oppenheimer and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee were secretly Soviet spies, the relationship between Woolsey's theories on the Kremlin and the paranoid "Monster Plot" of the CIA's James Jesus Angleton, a brief history of neoconservatism, Woolsey's neocon credentials, the relationship between the narrative of the Cold War promoted by Woolsey and the ideas of the far right-wing John Birch Society, James Angleton and the origins of the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was a KGB agent or asset,, Operation Dragon as a retread of the narrative put forth in Edward Jay Epstein's 1992 book Legend: The Secret World

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's become a truism that Afghanistan is the "Graveyard of Empire" over the past few decades. It's an idea that's entered the common parlance and the foreign policy lexicon. Even President Joe Biden has mentioned the "Graveyard of Empires" tropes in light of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan this year. The British Empire and the Soviet Unions failed interventions in Afghanistan are used as examples to support the trope and now the U.S.'s 20 year war ending in withdrawal is being used to further the "Graveyard of Empires" narrative. However, Alexander Hainy-Khaleeli of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at University of Exeter recently pushed back on this trope in his Ajam Media Collective article "Why we need to stop calling Afghanistan 'The Graveyard of Empires'". This was recorded 9/2/21. There are some audio drop-outs but they do not disrupt the ability to understand the conversation. We also discuss the leadership of the Taliban vs. its rank and file, the Calpihate vs. the Emirate, the potential theological differences between Islamic State and the Taliban, Deobandi Islam vs. Salafi Islam, Biden's comments about the Taliban facing an "existential crisis", Afghanistan's history before the 20th century and its importance to Empires, racism and the "Graveyard of Empires" narrative, does the "Graveyard of Empires" narrative allow for foreign policy interventionists and the U.S. a get out of jail free card for the occupation of Afghanistan?, oversimplifications of history like "ancient hatred" keeping us from asking real questions about sectarian conflicts and geopolitical issues, the Western bubble, Thomas Friedman's "The Lexus and the Oliver Tree" and the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict/War, bad Middle East takes, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the role of Cold War machinations by the West in that history, the way the Afghanistan war has been explained and interpreted in the West, the deaths of Afghan civilians and the bombing of Afghanistan, why the Taliban has gained some popular support, the Pashtuns, globalization, the homogenization of Central Asia in the Western mind, the "good guys" vs. "bad guys" narrative of geopolitics, has Afghanistan never been conquered in history?, is Afghanistan ungovernable?, the history of the "Graveyard of Empires" trope, the significance of the year 2010 in the mainstreaming of the "Graveyard of Empires" trope, cartoons referencing the "Graveyard of Empires" trope, Alexander the Great and Afghanistan, the Empire of the Mongols, Greeks, and the Arabs and Afghanistan, the rich culture of Afghanistan in ancient times vs. the image of Afghanistan as backwards throughout history, the strategic importance of Afghanistan historically, Afghanistan as the "cradle of empire" in ancient times, the province of Balkh, Rambo III and Afghanistan, the "stinger effect" in the Afghan/Soviet conflict,

On this edition of Parallax Views, what is the legacy of Osama bin Laden and the "Forever Wars" that came after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001? The Middle East Institute's James Dorsey, award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, joins us to tackle that question as related in his article "Bin Laden’s legacy probably surpasses his wildest dreams". James Dorsey is the the man behind the book, blog, and podcast The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. We also discuss Afghanistan and what the future may hold for Afghanistan. We also discuss the Taliban, IS-K (Islamic State of Khorasan), al Qaeda, Iran, the possibility of Civil War and ethnic conflict in Afghanistan now that the U.S. withdrawal has been completed, changing perceptions about U.S. foreign policy, the Kabul airport attack, potential naivete of the Taliban, Caliphates vs. Afghan nationalism, the Pashtuns, Pakistan, the Afghans have had 40 years of war not 20, the lessons of Afghanistan, the loyalties of the Taliban, the shifting goals of the U.S. in Afghanistan during its military engagement there after 9/11, the question of the root causes of terrorism, the rise of the Quincy Institute and the push for the demilitarization of U.S. foreign policy, U.S. foreign policy as "in flux", where should U.S. foreign policy go from here, the cost of stability vs. the risk of change, human rights rhetoric vs. reality, bin Laden and the undermining of U.S. cohesion, identity politics, and much, much more. A note that this episode was recorded on 09/10/21.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Russ Bake, Editor-in-Chief and founder of the non-profit news organization WhoWhatWhy and author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years, returned to Parallax Views to discuss his latest article "FBI Makes Midnight Release of Shocking New Information on Saudi-9/11 Complicity". We discuss the lingering questions about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its potential connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The issue has received renewed attention thanks to the 9/11 victims' families lawsuit and President Joe Biden's Executive Order calling for the declassification review of 9/11 records. Thanks to that E.O., documents pertaining to the FBI's Operation Encore, a probe into the potential Saudi connection to 9/11, were quietly released late on the night of September 12th, 2021. Russ and I delve into the figure of Prince Bandar bin Sultan and other figures as well as discussing the seeming cover-up of this element of the 9/11 story for so many years. We also chat briefly about the concept of the deep state, the controversy around Spike Lee's 9/11 documentary series on HBO featuring voices from the "9/11 Truth" movement, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, 2020 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate Spike Cohen joins us to discuss why he, as a libertarian, opposes a government "War on Abortion" and views the Texas Heartbeat Act (Texas SB8) is a pandora's box EVEN IF YOU'RE AGAINST ABORTION that creates a secret police nightmare through a government incentive system. In other words, the Texas Abortion Law brings to the fore the issue of snitch culture and its weaponization. Spike and I discuss the views of libertarians on this matter before delving into why EVERYONE, again even those who are on the "pro-life" side of the debate, should oppose this this bill. We also discuss the states rights debates amongst libertarians, how it factors into libertarian support or silence on the bill, and why Spike thinks we should be skeptical of state power even when it isn't federal. It's not entirely devoted to libertarianism though. We discuss the ways in which this bill can be used against citizens, how deputizing private citizens creates a secret police, and much more. The big issue is weaponized snitching and the endlessly horrific scenarios that can come out of its popularization. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the great Scott Horton, an inspiration for Parallax Views, the host of The Scott Horton Show, and the author of both Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan and Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terror, joins us to provide a down-and-dirty history lesson on the War on Terror and how neoconservative war hawks played right into bin Laden's hands in the aftermath of 9/11. Bin Laden, Scott argues, wanted the U.S. to react to 9/11 by getting involved in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, Scott says, was a "Vietnam 2.0" that would inevitably end the same way the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan ended. Who were the architects of these wars? We delve into the neocons like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Michael Ledeen and their enablers like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney who gave us the decades long nightmare of the War on Terror in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. We talk George W. Bush, the waste of the War on Terror, why conservative, libertarians, and progressives should oppose wars and imperial hubris, the history of the neocons and their ex-Trotyskite roots, John Podhoretz, radical Islamists, Colin Powell, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's the 20th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks that took down the World Trade Center buildings and damaged the Pentagon (another plane was headed for the White House but ended up crashing in Shanksville, PA). Questions remain, even after the 9/11 Joint Inquiry and the 9/11 Commission, about the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the events of that fateful day. A lawsuit by the 9/11 victims' families is underway. Joining us to untangle the question of the Saudi connection to 9/11 is Dan Christensen of the Florida Bulldog (formerly the Broward Bulldog). Dan Christensen is an journalist who has been covering the story of 9/11 for some years now alongside Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11. As a Florida resident Dan covered the Sarasota, Florida connection to the 9/11 story. Specifically, he detailed the figure of Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his reported relationship to 911 hijackers Mohammad Atta and Marwan al-Sheh. Additionally, Dan has also covered the renegade FBI investigation known as Operation Encore. He has received redacted documents related to Operation Encore that relate to 9/11 and Saudi Arabia. In this conversation we cover all of that as well as the ways in which the FBI has seemingly stonewalled investigations into the Saudi connection to 9/11, the Southern California connection to 9/11 vis-a-vis the suspected Saudi agents Omar al-Baymoui, Musaed al-Jarrah, and Fahad al-Thumairy, Saudi Arabian diplomat Prince Bandar bin Sultan (nicknamed "Bandar Bush") and his subpoena by the 9/11 victims' families, Osama bin Laden, Biden's Executive Order calling for the review of 9/11 records to be declassified, the FBI, Sen. Bob Graham, the infamous "28 pages", Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah and Prince Bandar, the role of Congress in pushing the issues related to Saudi Arabia and 9/11, why the 9/11 victims' family lawsuit matters for society at large, state secrets, the secret pre-9/11 report on al Qaeda sleeper cells in America, the ongoing efforts to unveil the seeming connection between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, has the post-911 Forever Wars created a slew of forever policies that'll live with us long after American military incursions in Afghanistan and Iraq are decades behind us? That's the case Karen J. Greenberg, of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, joins us on this edition of Parallax Views to discuss that subject as outline in her recent TomDispatch piece "Will the Forever Wars Become Forever Policy?" and her new book Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump. Karen argues that although we may be seeing some pivots in terms of policies put in place during the War on Terror, many of the policies of the Forever War years remain "on the table". In this conversation we discuss the Department of Homeland Security, managed counter-terrorism handled multilaterally, the War on Terror and the U.S. as "police men of the world", the Authorization for the Use of Military Force and the problem of its broadness, the opening of a Pandora's Box through AUMFs, the Presidency of George W. Bush and overreach of power, the college generation's relationship to the War on Terror and 9/11, U.S. torture programs and the unprecedented use of police powers in the post-9/11 world, domestic terror threats, whether or not the War on Terror has made us more safe and granted us a sense of security, the Guantanamo Bay pictures and their publication by the Pentagon, violations of norms and Constitutional principles during the War on Terror, militarization at home as well as abroad, climate change and globalization, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, environmental lawyer Larry Schnapf and Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation join me to discuss the efforts of Larry and others to get the last of the documents promised by the JFK Records Act released to the public. Efforts appear to have been made to keep the last of the records from being released vis-vis a memo that in the estimation of activists like Larry Schnapf and Mark Adamcyzk wouldn't hold up in court as a reason for further release delays. What does this mean for government transparency? Will President Biden's Executive Order related to the review for the declassification of 9/11 documents (which could shed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's to the event) be a model for getting the release of the JFK documents? And Jacob Hornberger makes the case for why he believes JFK was assassinated by what amounts to a larger conspiracy than just the lone gunmen figure of Lee Harvey Oswald. We also very off into the issues of vaccine mandates without getting into an argument. Other key topics covered: Kennedy Vs. the National Security State, the JFK assassination and the CIA, John Newman's JFK and Vietnam, Nixon's "Bay of Pigs" comment, and much, much more, All that and much more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, on June 6th, 1968 Robert F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gun shots at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. After the assassination, a Palestinian man, Sirhan Sirhan, was convicted for his death. Over 50 years later, in 2021, Sirhan Sirhan has been recommended for parole. Joining us to discuss why Sirhan Sirhan is up for parole and why he should be released is his defense attorney Angela Berry. Berry argues that Sirhan Sirhan is no longer a threat to the public, and as such should be considered rehabilitated. Berry offers neuroscientific evidence to supoort this case and also discusses the members of the Kennedy family, specifically Douglas Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., that have come out in support of Sirhan Sirhan's parole. Although some members of the Kennedy family and the public at large are outraged by his potential release, Berry argues that under California laws about Corrections and Rehabilitation that her client should be given parole to live out the last of his days (he is now 77 years old) with his brother. Angela also discusses youthful offenses, the role of Sirhan's elderly age in his defense, the question of risk in terms of repeating violent offenses, the psychological tests Sirhan Sirhan has gone through since the 1980s, the emotional backlash against his parole, Sirhan Sirhan's memory loss and the question of complex PTSD, the question of whether Sirhan Sirhan is repentant and remorseful for the events of June 6th, 1968, what the media and the public are missing in regards to this case, the new L.A. District Attorney (D.A.) George Gascón and why the board's decision was not effected by the D.A., and how Sirhan Sirhan's release could be rejected,

On this edition of Parallax Views, U.S. military forces have left Afghanistan after 20 years. But the D.C. foreign policy Blob's arrogance is still going strong, as figures like Max Boot, Leon Panetta, and H.R. McMaster. Our guest on this edition, libertarian gadfly James Bovaird, has a personal experience he's decided to share with us about this kind of hubris that he details in his article "Washington Arrogance is Incurable". Jim recounts a telling conversation he had with a "good Washingtonian" that took issue with Jim's questioning of U.S. foreign policy. Meanwhile, Jim recounts seeing wounded soldiers returning from the Forever Wars that very same day. From there we delve into a number of different topics related to the foreign policy establishment and the Forever Wars like those waged in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the War on Terror. We discuss the responsibility and complicity of President George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and, yes, even Joe Biden in regards to these conflicts. Additionally, Jim gives his opinion on the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and how it was handled poorly in his mind. Nonetheless, Jim also expresses that he believes the withdrawal needed to happen. We also delve into the issue of women's and girl's rights in Afghanistan and Jim relates a telling fact about Karzai, who was in power after the U.S. beat back the Taliban in Afghanistan, and how a certain law he signed was anything but a promotion of women's rights. Also, we talk a little bit about perpetual hawkish commentator Max Boot, gun rights, what Jim refers to as the "Sham of Democracy Promotion" in Afghanistan, the winners and losers of the Afghanistan War (hint: Virginia's weapons contractors did quite well for themselves), the relationship between the War on Terror and the loss of civil liberties, the "Bitter Belated Afghan Vindication", 9/11 and the "28 pages" of the post-9/11 Senate Select Committee, Iran and the long push for war with Iran, the rehabilitation of George W. Bush, Jim's book The Bush Betrayal, the worldwide torture regime, the question of U.S. credibility, sanctions, the economic strangulation of Syria, understanding the fact on the ground on these wars, the smugness of our foreign policy elites, the massive amounts of money that go into D.C. think tanks, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, there's been a political blame game at play since President Joe Biden announced the U.S. withdrawal of its military forces from Afghanistan. The last of the U.S. forces officially left on August 30th, 2021. What now? What does this mean for U.S. foreign policy going forward? Will it open up a debate about U.S. foreign policy since 9/11? And what are the lessons that need to be learned from the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan? We have two interviews delving into those questions on this edition of the program. First up, Ret. Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis of Defense Priorities joins us to discuss his whistleblowing on the Afghanistan War and the surge that took place on President Obama's watch. We talk about the Afghanistan Papers and how the public was systemically misled (or lied to) about the on-the-ground reality in Afghanistan. Also, we find out Lt. Col. Davis' response to criticisms that the withdrawal will hurt Afghans, that this opens us up to new terrorist threats, and calls to end the Forever Wars are the province of dangerous "isolationists". Also, we discuss how figures like Leon Panetta and H.R. McMaster are "addicted to war" as outlined in Lt. Col Davis' commentary at The Guardian. Lt. Col. Davis argues that we need to reintroduce the diplomatic toolkit and reorient U.S. foreign policy. We also manage to delve into the the Kabul airport attack and the U.S. cooperation with the Taliban against the threat of ISIS-K during the evacuation process. Then, Ted Galen Carpenter of the CATO Institute, who regularly writes for Antiwar.Com and the National Interest, joins us for further discussion about Afghanistan and, more broadly, the need for a revamp of U.S. foreign policy. As supplements to this conversation you may want to read Carpenter's latest Antiwar.Com piece "Blame-Shifting: The Political Elites Response to the Messy Afghan Withdrawal" and "The Cynical Campaign To Scapegoat Joe Biden for the Afghanistan Debacle" as well as his article at the National Interest entitled "U.S. Credibility Not Seriously Damaged by Afghanistan Failure".

Interview Start Times: Trita Parsi - 02:22 Nadia Ahmad - 27:14 On this edition of Parallax Views, we have two interviews relating to U.S. foreign policy. First, up Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft co-founder and executive vice president Trita Parsi joins us to discuss how U.S. foreign policy needs a change. For Parsi, that means a shift towards a foreign policy of restraint that rejects militarism and economic warfare like sanctions. He argues that U.S. Grand Strategy is not worked out well for the U.S. as D.C.'s "Blob" adherents of the "Forever Wars" in the Middle East have claimed they would. The disaster of Afghanistan, he argues, is not a repudiation of restraint, but an argument for it. Additionally, Parsi also addresses claims that the Quincy Institute is "isolationist" and takes issue with the U.S. foreign policy Establishment's lack of referring to diplomacy before forms of warfare. Then, Nadia Ahmad, a law professor at the Barry University School of Law, joins us to discuss her Common Dreams op-ed "The US Endgame in Afghanistan Was Mineral Extraction, Not Democracy". Also, Nadia chimes in on what can be done to help the Afghan people now and launches a criticism of those who ignore the question, "Should we have occupied Afghanistan in the first place?". We discuss the mining companies that Nadia argues the U.S. acted as security guards for in Afghanistan and the threat of sanctions against Afghanistan. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views!

Ret. Air Force Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski begins at 04:00 Ron Paul begins at 1:04:00 On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series with a double feature episode. First up, Ret. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski joins us to offer an insider's perspective the Pentagon during the Bush years and to offer insights about the neoconservatives that got us into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We'll also delve into the latest developments in Afghanistan with Karen and why the occupation ended the way it did. Then, former Congressman Ron Paul, noted libertarian and host of The Ron Paul Liberty Report, joins us to talk about his conflicted feelings with regards to signing the 2001 AUMF (Authorization for the Use of Military Force) in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, his argument at the 2008 Republican Presidential debates with Rudy Giuliani over blowback's role in creating terrorism, his correct prediction in 2011 that if we did not leave at that time we'd be stuck in Afghanistan for another 10 years, the connection between the War on Terror and the assault on civil liberties, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist Eric S. Margolis joins us for the latest in our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series. Margolis, the author of American Raj Liberation Or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World and War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet, has years of experience covering Afghanistan with his reporting their going back to the 1980s. He discusses a number of issues including the corruption of the Ghani government and the opium drug trade in Afghanistan, the situation with "ISIS-K" or the Khorasan group and the Taliban, the complex multi-ethnic nature of Afghanistan (the Tajiks, Pashtuns, and Hazaras), why the U.S. lost Afghanistan, the "malefactors everywhere" in Afghanistan, the history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, the mujahedeen, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, Eric's criticism of media coverage of Afghanistan, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we take a break from our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series and turn our attention to Iran. Dr. Pouya Alimagham, author of Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprisings, joins us to discuss the 2009 Green Uprisings, Islam, and Iran and its history more generally. At the beginning of our conversation deals alot with Dr. Pouya's own journey as an Iranian-American, the problem, of Islamophobia in the United States (we debunk fears of Sharia Law coming to the U.S.A., for example), and American misunderstandings and misperceptions about Islamic people and Iran. Later in the conversation we shift to the topic of the 2009 Green Uprisings against then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and understanding Iran politically. We discuss how the Green Uprisings went well beyond the political figure of Mir Hossein Mousavi. We also discuss the issue of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) aka the Iran nuclear deal, the continuity of foreign policy between Presidencies (ie: from Trump to Biden). protests within Iran, elections in Iran, and the issue of sanctions against Iran and how they impact the Iranian people. All that and more on this fascinating edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's a monster-sized edition of our "Reflections of Afghanistan" series with not one but two guests join us for a nearly two hour roundtable conversation asking about how we got to this moment, what the past 20 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan says about our society, and what our withdrawal portends for a future in which China's rise looms and climate change seems ready to change the world. Joining us is long-time friend of the show JP Sottile aka "The Newsvandal" and former marine and State Deparment official Matthew Hoh, who famously blew the whistle on the 2009 surge in Afghanistan. The conversation begins with Matthew describing his background in both the Iraq War and Afghanistan War and his opposition to the 2009 surge. From there we delve into a number of issues with JP commenting on the media coverage of Afghanistan and the complicity we may all share in what he calls "The Empire of Oil". The conversation branches out from there as we discuss everything from the late Michael Hastings (a friend of Matthew Hoh) to the defense contractors that benefitted from the war and the F-35 boondoggle on this mammoth edition of the program. NOTE: HAD TO USE A DIFFERENT MIC FOR THIS EPISODE. I DON'T THINK THE AUDIO QUALITY IS EFFECTED THAT MUCH ON MY END. AND IT'S LARGELY JUST ME MODERATING JP AND MATTHEW.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our deep dive into Afghanistan and the war waged by U.S. forces in Afghanistan over the past 20+ years. This time Prof. Muhammad Sahimi, an astute commentator on Iran, joins me to discuss his latest Antiwar.Com article "The Fake Image of ‘Democratic’ Afghanistan Made by the US Collapses With the Taliban Victory". Why did the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan fail and does the involvement of the U.S. involvement in the country actually stretch back much farther in history than the immediate aftermath of 9/11? Prof. Sahimi discusses the birth of the Mujahadeen and the Taliban, the religious and diverse tribal nature of Afghanistan, what the withdrawal entails for Iran and the possibility that the withdrawal is part of a move against Iran by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the long history of issues between Iran and Afghanistan (including dispute over water distribution), the Persian-speaking populations in Afghanistan, Massoud and the Northern Alliance, the role of ultraconservative Sunni Hanafi Islam in Afghanistan, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our "Reflections on Afghanistan" series. This time we speak with Princeton University international law scholar Richard A. Falk about the parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan and what it says about the nature of post-colonial wars. Specifically, Falk notes how even a superior military force seems primed to lose in an occupation against a "weaker" nation. We discuss this issue more in-depth as well as dealing with a number of other issues. Among these are the criticisms of President Biden's exit strategy, the withdrawal itself, why Falk supports the withdrawal, the Pentagon Papers and intelligence agency lies, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue are reflection on the U.S. war in Afghanistan and its closure. This time we're joined with retired CIA analyst and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professional for Sanity Ray McGovern joins us to discuss his articles "Hold the Generals Accountable This Time" (Antiwar.Com; 2021) and "Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President" (Common Dreams; 2009). Ray McGovern relate some stories that draw parallels between the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan War and also explain the concept of the MICIMATT, or the Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media Academic Think Tank complex. He also offers thoughts on General Kenneth McKenzie, General Mark Milley,, General David Petraeus, General Stanley McChrystal, and what generals need to be held to account for what the U.S. military intervention into Afghanistan has wrought. We also discuss Ray's concept of the Noah Principle, intelligence agencies and wars, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we continue our series exploring the past 20 years of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan. Dr. Stephen Zunes, founder of the Middle East Studies Program at USF, joins us to discuss his thoughts on the latest developments as well as to pushback on attacks on Biden's decision to withdrawal, especially from the right-wing. Additionally, Dr. Zunes and I spend a great deal of time discussing why he was against the invasion and bombing of Afghanistan by U.S. forces even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Zunes argued at the early onset of the plans for intervention that the actions taken by the Bush administration and later continued by Obama and the administrations that followed him were playing right into the hands of Osama Bin Laden. We also discuss the issue of women's rights, where Afghanistan will go from here under Taliban rule, why Zunes believes Biden took a brave stand in going forward with the withdrawal, the need for an investigation into the botching of the exit strategy, the problem of military vs. economic/infrastructure development in the Afghan mission, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, protests against the Taliban in Jalalabad have been met with violent crackdowns. Hours before this development J.G. spoke with Patrick Cockburn, a long-time journalist at The Independent specializing in Middle East wars, about the future of Afghanistan under the Taliban. Given recent developments Patrick's thoughts, particularly his belief that the Taliban would engage in more violent crackdowns and had not moderated, seems pertinent and perhaps even ominous. In this conversation we discuss Patrick's experiences in Afghanistan, what intelligence agencies knew about concerning the state of Afghanistan and what it would look like after the U.S. withdrawal, the ethnic and community diversity within Afghanistan, what the U.S. withdrawal executed by President Biden means for America, what the withdrawal means for Russia, China, Iran, and other nations, what the U.S. got wrong about Afghanistan, how the Taliban managed to take power in the North, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we begin a series of conversations with different guests about the past 20 years of U.S. military adventurism and what comes next for both the U.S. and Afghanistan in the coming years now that the Taliban has retaken the country. First in our series is Doug Bandow, former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and a regular writer at Antiwar.Com, the Cato Institute, and The American Conservative. We discuss the lessons that could be learned from the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan as well as whether the withdrawal represents a "Saigon Moment" for the Biden administration. Additionally, we discuss where the D.C. foreign policy Blob may go from here, why Doug supports the withdrawal, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Ghani-led government in Afghanistan has collapsed and the Taliban has retaken the nation in light of the U.S. withdrawal. Joining us to unravel the latest developments in this monumental story that is at the very epicenter of foreign policy discussion today is Jason Ditz, news editor at Antiwar.Com. We'll discuss a number of issues including how seemingly everyone was blindsided by how fast the Ghani government collapsed and how quickly the Taliban completely reasserted itself. Is it all doom from here on out? Jason Ditz believes we have to wait and see and also discusses what this all mean for the pro-restraint movement in foreign policy circles. Also is what's occuring right now a Saigon moment? Why are the voices of restraint not taking the headlines but rather the architects and supporters of the Afghanistan military adventure? All that and much more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Ghani-led government in Afghanistan has collapsed and the Taliban has retaken the nation in light of the U.S. withdrawal. Joining us to unravel the latest developments in this monumental story that is at the very epicenter of foreign policy discussion today is Jason Ditz, news editor at Antiwar.Com. We'll discuss a number of issues including how seemingly everyone was blindsided by how fast the Ghani government collapsed and how quickly the Taliban completely reasserted itself. Is it all doom from here on out? Jason Ditz believes we have to wait and see and also discusses what this all mean for the pro-restraint movement in foreign policy circles. Also is what's occuring right now a Saigon moment? Why are the voices of restraint not taking the headlines but rather the architects and supporters of the Afghanistan military adventure? All that and much more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a plot by a Michigan militia to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has gained much media attention in light of renewed concerns over domestic extremism, especially in light of the Jan 6th Capitol breach. The story of the kidnapping plot, however, has a thickening plot now as Buzzfeed reported in July 2021 of the FBI's involvement in this story vis-à-vis its informants. Branko Marcetic of Jacobin joins us on this edition of the show to discuss his article on the subject entitled, "The FBI’s Domestic 'War on Terror' Is an Authoritarian Power Grab". What can be said of this incident and what concerns should it raise about the National Security State apparatus? We'll unravel all that and much more on this fascinating edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's another episode of the program about the Washington, D.C. foreign policy "Blob" and its discontents. Recently, the Quincy Institute, a trans-partisan coalition of conservatives, progressives, and libertarians calling for a more restraint-based foreign policy, has increasingly come under fire for its attempt to shake-up U.S. foreign policy discourse. Specifically, a new essay by political scientists John Ikenberry and Daniel Deudney has sought to critique what it refers to as the "Quincy Coalition". Nicholas Cleveland Stout recently penned a piece at the Quincy Institute's Responsible Statecraft publication that responds to Ikenberry and Deudney's piece. Stout joins us on this edition of the show to discuss that piece, entitled "Smearing restrainers won’t hide the woeful failures of US foreign policy", and the possibilities for a new internationalism that acts as a middle road between isolationism and the post-WWII and post-9/11 foreign policy consensus. Also: Is the Blob sweating over the growth of growing coalitions like the Quincy Institute that challenge the foreign policy consensus?

On this edition of Parallax Views, can any valuable lessons be gleaned from examining both the accomplishments and failings of radical activist leaders fighting for Civil Rights, an end to the Vietnam War, and economic justice in the 1960s? In their new book By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution the brother and sister duo of David and Margaret Talbot make the case, through the profiling of a number of radical political activists in the 60s, that there is. Some of the figures and topics covered in the book include the antiwar activism of Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Black Panthers, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, the feminist health collective Jain Collective and pro-choice rights, the LGBTQ+ and the Stonewall Uprisings, the United Farm Workers and Cesar Chavez, and more. We begin this conversation by discussing David's relationship to the 60s and his issues with Harvard Boys School as a student who opposed the draft and Vietnam War. We then move onto a number of topics related to By the Light of Burning Dreams including the life and activism of Tom Hayden, Jane Fond, and the Red Family; the radicalism of Martin Luther King, Jr.; the question of drugs being introduced into the counterculture to hinder activism; leadership vs. leaderless resistance; J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO and the dangers faced by radical activists of the era; the mistakes made by activist leaders in the 60s and the lessons we can learn from those mistakes; the Native American Movement and Russell Means; and more. Also stick around for till the end of the show to hear David give a good story about notorious B-movie filmmaker Ed Wood, who cast David's Hollywood actor father in GLEND OR GLENDA and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.!

NOTE: PODBEAN WAS ORIGINALLY ONLY PLAYING THE 1ST 20 MINUTES OF THIS INTERVIEW. THIS WAS FIXED APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 42 MINUTES AFTER PUBLICATION. THE GLITCH HAS BEEN FIXED AND THE FULL INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE. THE FULL EPISODE WITH INTRO AND OUTRO GOES ABOUT 68 MINUTES. On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist and documentarian Abby Martin joins us to discuss her work exposing the Empire, from her hit shows like the Empire Files and Breaking the Set to her recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience and her eye-opening documentary Gaza Fights for Freedom. Abby and I also manage to discuss her big victory in court related to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement as well as her artistic/creative endeavors outside of her work on projects like The Empire Files, her upcoming documentary Earth's Greatest Enemy on military pollution, and the Media Roots Radio podcast she co-hosts with long-time Parallax Views friend Robbie Martin. At the end of the conversation we manage to tribute the late, great Michael Brooks and in-between we talk about everything from the infamous "Woke CIA" recruitment video to the plight of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and the seeming public opinion sea-change occurring on matters related to Israel/Palestine. This is a free-wheeling conversation that you won't want to miss!

On this edition of Parallax Views, are we witnessing the decline of U.S. primacy geopolitically? Our guest on this edition of the program, Harvard University's Dr. Stephen Walt, author of The Hell of Good Intetions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy, says that that's the case. He joins us to unravel what's been called the D.C. foreign policy blob, give an assessment of the Trump administration and its aftermath, and discuss his latest op-ed in Foreign Policy magazine entitled "Could the United States Still Lead the World If It Wanted To?". Additionally, Dr. Walt will explain for us what the Realist School of Foreign Policy is, his opinion of why Henry Kissinger doesn't fit that well into the Realist school of thought, reasons why other countries may not seek to emulate the U.S. today (QAnon, voter suppression, etc.), the international rules-based order and exceptions made within that order for allies, U.S. foreign policy blunders from the Vietnam War to the War on Terror, atrophied institutions, hawkish foreign policy figures like John Bolton, accountability in the foreign policy establishment, defining the foreign policy establishment/elite, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Friday, August 6th and 9th, 2021 will mark the 76th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Joining us to discuss the bombing from a critical perspective is Prof. Peter Kuznick, co-author with Oliver Stone of the hit documentary series (and its companion book) The Untold History of the United States. Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, makes the case that, contrary to popular belief, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unnecessary to ending WWII. Japan, he argues, would've surrendered. He provides evidence from intelligence reports to the comments of generals to make this case. Furthermore, he argues that the decision to drop the bombs as directed by FDR's successor President Harry Truman was actually about "sending a message" to the Soviet Union. From this perspective, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were collateral damage in service of a geopolitical agenda. Prof. Kuznick lay out the case in detail for why the bombings were both militarily unnecessary and moral unjustifiable in this fascinating and provocative conversation. But moreover, he notes how the unleashing of the atomic bomb all those decades ago led to a dangerous nuclear arms race that has extended beyond the Cold War. In light of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moving its Doomsday Clock to "100 seconds to midnight" this conversation is hopefully very relevant. Prof. Kuznick says that we must recognize the the mistakes of the past if we are to survive the 21st century without facing the existential risk of nuclear winter or species extinction. He also addresses common objection to these concerns, including deterrence theory and mutually-assured destruction We discuss a number of different subjects and figures as they relate to the story of the atomic bomb including Albert Einstein, Gen. Curtis LeMay, General Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Oppenheimer, the Frank Committee, taking his students to the bomb sites and meeting survivors, the pivotal role of the Soviet Union in victory over the Axis Powers in WWII, the 7 generals and admirable who objected to the use of the atomic bomb, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Trump loyalist Tom Barrack was recently arrested on explosive charges of acting as a foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Whether you're still Trump-obsessed or flat-pout Trump fatigued, or you (in many ways rightfully) think we should move on with Biden, this story may prove more important than anyone realizes. And it may cast a different light on Russiagate and the Mueller investigation that puts the mainlight spotlight on Trump the UAE. But, as this scandal unfolds, it may prove to teach us about something much bigger than Trump. Our guest on this edition of the program, the crackerjack journalist JP Sottile aka "The Newsvandal", calls it the "Empire of Oil" that may well explain our current geopolitics. As Joe Pesci's David Ferrie opines in Oliver Stone's JFK, “Oh, what a deadly web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!" JP and I dig deep getting into the UAE scandal as well as how all of it may connect to a bigger geopolitical picture over the past few years and decades. We talk the sabotaging of the Iran deal, Israel-based private intel firm Psy-Group (covered in the Muller report, but underdiscussed), the NSO and Pegasus spyware scandal, the role of oil in geopolitics, fracking, OPEC and OPEC+, the 9/11 families lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, and much, much more! We had some light-hearted talk about classic Bond Girl Caroline Munro and even Eric Clapton (P.S. - minor mistake in saying he made a "River of Blood" speech meant to say he more or less endorsed Enoch Powell and the sentiment of Powell's "River of Blood" speech).

On this edition of Parallax Views, the mighty Ken Silverstein, chief journalist and editor at Washington Babylon, the website devoted to "Shocking True Stories and Political Sleaze" in stately Capitol Hill, returns to expose a gaggle of grifters in the political arena. We begin by discussing the perennial GOP dirty trickster himself Roger Stone, the man with a tacky Richard Nixon tattoo on his back, and how Trump loyalists like him manipulated the rabble when it came to the events ion January 6th now known as the Capitol breach. But don't worry, we're not all about Trump on this show. We're equal opportunity! Which means we'll also be taking aim at former Stormy Daniels lawyer turned #Resistance grifter bilking money out of liberal Democrats Michael Avenatti, who, by the way, is now facing two years in prison with additional charges pending. That's not all though! J.G. finally goes on a rant against the wacky Louise Mensch, who threatened to sick the feds and the LAPD on Barrett Brown and yours truly for reasons that make about as much sense as your average Mensch tweet. And I take no pleasure in reporting that. And, near the end of the show we have a little chat about the passing of Donald Rumsfeld. All that and more on this SCANDALOUS edition of Parallax Views! Beware the grifters, kiddies!

On this edition of Parallax Views, former Washington Post journalist Jefferson Morley took on the Central Intelligence Agency in federal court for a daunting 16 years. Morley struggles related to the release of files around the JFK assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, an enigmatic figure known as George Joannides, and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He details all this in his new book Morley V CIA: My Unfinished JFK Investigation. But this isn't simply a book about the JFK assassination. It's not about who pulled the trigger. It's not claiming LBJ was the culprit, rhat the CIA set up the whole thing, or anything like that. Instead, it's really a book about state secrecy vs. state transparency. You may have no interest in the Kennedy assassination, BUT it has become the symbol of the public's ever-escalating distrust in various institutions. As such, figures who were firmly in the "Lee Harvey Oswald was the Lone Nut Assassin of JFK" offered their support to Morley's lawsuit. Among them are Gerald Posner and, perhaps most famously, Vincent Bugliosi. JFK researchers like David Talbot and Anthony Summers also lent their support. Why? Well, the argument goes that the national security state making these decades old documents public would restore trust in their institutions. For years, Jefferson Morley, with the help of his lawyer Jim Lesar, fought against the CIA for the declassification. They won many cases. But eventually a figure came into the picture that would change all of that. He was initially supportive, but open being on the cusp of a Supreme Court nomination changed his tune. That figure was Brett Kavanaugh. Yes, folks, this episode is going to be a rather interesting foray into issues related to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) documents, state secrecy, and the tax-paying public's right to transparency from their government. Even if you're not at all interested in the JFK assassination, this Kafka-esque story should hold your attention. And it turns out the documents Morley turned up may impart lessons about U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba that would go unheeded as we headed into the Iraq War under President George W. Bush. Also what can Morley's case tell us about how th federal courts potentially block democracy. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views!

On this edition of Parallax Views, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale is about to face sentencing under the Espionage Act. Since the recording of this episode Daniel has been sentenced to 45 months in prison. Hale blew the whistle on U.S. drone program under conscientious grounds. Now he faces 9 years or more imprison for his leaks. Joining us to tell the story of Daniel Hale and the United States federal Government's actions against him is journliast Kevin Gosztola, who previously joined the program to discuss the whistleblower cases of Reality Winner and Julian Assange. What exactly led to Hale getting caught? What are the similarities between his case and the case of Chelsea Manning? How does this story fit into the broader story of the War on Whistleblowers? How do The Intercept and Jeremy Scahill figure into the story? And what did Hale reveal about U.S. drone programs? What do these revelations have to do with national security state watch lists and no fly lists? All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the private Israeli firm NSO Group has been making headlines over the past week due it its sale of a surveillance technology known as Pegasus. A form of spyware, Pegasus has made its ways into the hands of elements in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. It appears to have been used to target not only the fiancé of the assassinated Jamal Kashoggi, but also dissident journalists in Mexico who ran afoul of corrupt official and drug cartels. What to make sense of this real-life scandal that reads like something out of a cyberpunk dystopian tale? Inbestigative journalist Ali Winston, who helped break the story of the NYPD's Ring of Steel surveillance network, joins us on this edition of the program that involves both the private and public sectors and, in his words, reveal the issues of money and power at the heart of global geopolitics. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, known for his libertarian and conservative political leanings, infamously backed Donald Trump's successful 2016 Presidential bid. Although Trump may be out of office, Thiel hasn't given up on using his immense wealth to back political candidates presenting themselves as "populists" in the Trumpian mold. For example, he has contributed to the Senate campaign of Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance in Ohio. He's also contributed $10 million dollars to the Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters. Masters, who co-wrote the best-seller Zero to One with Thiel, serves as the President of the Thiel Foundation and the chief operating officer of Thiel Capital. Although Masters is running as a "populist" candidate, some of the issues Masters if focusing on in his campaign could serve to benefit Thiel's investments. Specifically, the issues of border-security and China, which are key issues in Masters' purview, could stand to benefit Peter Thiel's in surveillance technologies vis-à-vis Palantir (the company, it should be noted, that was providing technology to ICE under Trump). In other words, Masters successfully taking a seat in the Senate could be good for Thiel's border security and weapons investments. Joining us to discuss all of this is Senior Advisor at the Quincy Institute and investigative journalist at Responsible Statecraft magazine Eli Clifton, Clifton recently penned a piece entitled "Meet Peter Thiel’s military industrial candidate" for the aforementioned magazine. We also discuss, briefly, at the beginning of our conversation the controversies around the recently arrested Tom Barrack as it relates to the UAE and foreign influence operations on U.S. foreign policy.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Vermont-based ice cream company Ben and Jerry's has recently caused a bit of an uproar over its decision to stop selling its product in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This has cause current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu to speak out. Additionally politicians in the U.S., from Oklahoma to Texas, are calling for the banning of Ben and Jerry's. It may seem like a frivolous issue, but returning Parallax Views guest Ret. Maj. Danny Sjursen argues there's serious issues underneath the Ben and Jerry's row over issues related to human rights and Israel/Palestine. At the forefront of this is BDS (Boycot, Divestment, and Sanctions) and the free speech issues arising from anti-BDS laws in over 30 states in the U.S. Danny and I discuss the Ben & Jerry's fiasco, the BDS movement and anti-BDS laws, and the continued debates about Israel/Palestine, the question of apartheid, and human rights abuses in the Occupied territories. Danny also argues that the current relationship between the U.S. and Israel has become toxic and is not beneficial to either country. Read more about Danny's thoughts on the Ben & Jerry's/Israel fiasco in his article "Israel Screams for Ice Cream: The Minutiae and Madness of a Toxic Relationship".

On this edition of Parallax Views, controversial Fox News personality Tucker Carlson caused an uproar recently when he alleged that he has been spied on by the NSA (National Security Agency). Pointing aside one's opinions of either Carlson or his allegations, Parallax Views wanted to delve into the issue of domestic surveillance program and how the could potentially be abused in way that could target activists of the left and right. Are there ways in which the real issue of domestic extremism can be exploited to unsavory ends? In our highly politicized world it is easy to see how such abuse can occur. How a BLM activist could be labeled a "Black Identity Extremist", for example. Or how someone holding socialist views could be labeled domestic extremists. Although the issue of domestic extremism has gained renewed attention since the Janury 6th "Capitol Breach". But what of the potential for the misuse of this important issue? And what of the potential abuses of domestic surveillance programs? Joining us to unpack all those issues is libertarian gadfly James Bovard, author of such books as Attention Deficit Democracy, Public Policy Hooligan, and The Bush Betrayal. We talk about all the aforementioned issues as well as the dual problem of the Imperial Presidency and secretive entrenched bureacracies often referred to, for good or ill, as the "deep state". All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views. This conversation was inspired by Jim's latest article in The Daily Caller, "Why NSA Vs Tucker Carlson Is An Alarm Bell For All Americans".

On this edition of Parallax Views, the recent protests in Cuba were, in some regards, boosted by hip hop artists like rapper Yotuel Romero of the Cuban hip hop group Orishnas. Journalist Alan MacLeod, in a recent article for Mint Press News entitled "The Bay of Tweets: Documents Point to US Hand in Cuba Protests", details how taxpayer dollars have been allocated to musicians, specifically hip hop artists, that are seen as potentially useful in stoking unrest and protest against the Cuban government. He joins us on this edition of the program to discuss this strange story and how it involves organizations like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED; which has its origins in the CIA and the Reagan Presidency). We also discuss the impact of the embargo and sanctions on the Cuban economy along with a host of other issues related to Cuba and the protests including U.S. responses to it from political figures like Marco Rubio.

On this edition of Parallax Views, yes, that's right it's the Cuba episode. Protests in Cuba have been taking the news media by the storm the past week. Some are arguing that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the embargo on Cuba, led to material conditions (ie: medical shortages) which, they say, played a role in sparking the unrest. Others, such as the Mayor of Miami, Florida, Francis X. Suarez, are calling for critical support of the protesters in Cuba. The aforementioned Mayor Suarez even went as far as to say the U.S. should consider airstrikes against Cuba. Meanwhile the Mayor of North Lauderdale, Florida, Ana M. Ziade, urged President Joe Biden to authorize U.S. armed forces to "physically enter" both Cuba and Haiti. Joining us to give a few from Miami on the subject of Cuba, the U.S., and all this talk of regime change is the President of the Miami-Dade Young Democrats Adrian Delgado. We discuss all the issue related to the latest protests in Cuba, the U.S. reaction, the Florida GOP's monopolization of the narrative on Cuba in the Sunshine State, why a foreign intervention or regime change operation in Cuba would potentially have catastrophic consequences, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, last month the Director of National Intelligence dropped a highly-anticipated and much covered in the media report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or, as it's more commonly known, the phenomena of UFO sightings. The report didn't, it turns out, offer any revelations about little green men. Or maybe that's part of the cover-up? Joining us to unpack the report, as well as to examine some of the troubling aspects of the UFO subculture, is Jack Brewer, the man behind the blog The UFO Trail. Jack offers a very different take on the UFO subculture as evidenced in his book The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in the UFO Community. We go in-depth on some of the rather seedy elements of the UFO subculture including sexually abusive hypnotherapists specializing in "alien abudction" cases, intelligence agency connected figures, and just plain hucksters. This leads us down a wild path of discussion that includes discussion of such players in the scene as former high-ranking DoD official turned UFO lobbyist Christopher Mellon, the To the Stars Academy, aerospace technology tycoon Robert Bigelow, and the much publicized Pentagon "UFO whistleblower" Luiz Elizondo among others. Jack takes aim at critiquing the "UFO Disclosure" movement and its approach to activism in this conversation and even discusses the long history of this kind of movement going back to the 1950s with Donald Keyhoe and NICAP.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated on July 7th. Details are still emerging, but it appears that the culprits were Colombian. The plot thickens as it also appears these Colombians were the hired guns of a private security firm based in Miami, Florida. Said firm is apparently connected to Venezuela and a Venezuelan expat. The Colombians seem to be implying that they were patsies. These details raise the specter of a phenomena that has become prevalent in the years following 9/11 and the launching of the War on Terror by President George W. Bush. Namely, the issue of private mercenary armies. The most infamous case of this phenomena in the post-9/11 years was, of course, Erik Prince's Blackwater. Although the outsourcing of security to private firms is not new, it is now at a whole different level and on a global scale in the 21st century. Joining us to discuss all of this is returning guest Kelley Vlahos of The Quincy Institute's Responsible Statecraft publication. In her latest piece, "The Miami-Haiti Connection: Another mercenary, another day", dives into the case of the Haitian assassination as well as dealing with last year's "Bay of Piglets" case and the potentials issues arising from the privatization of security at home and abroad. This, she argues, is an issue that should concern both the right and left of the political spectrum and an example of dangerous crony capitalism.