Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, independent scholar Wahid Azal joins Parallax Views to discuss the ideology of Russia's Aleksandr Dugin, which he describes as steeped in imperialism and occultism. Dugin has become known in the West as "Putin's Brain", but lost his academic job at Moscow State University in 2014 after essentially calling for genocide against Ukrainians. He is known for advocating what he calls the "Fourth Political Theory" and for writing the book The Foundations of Geopolitics, which had influence in the Russian military. Wahid makes the case that while Dugin is marginal in Russia and Ukraine, his ideology has been boosted throughout Europe through oligarch funding and in the U.S. thanks to a number of factors including Dugin's Rasputin-esque image being perfectly fitted for sensational, attention-grabbing headlines and features. In this conversation we discuss the underpinnings of Dugin's thought including the idea of Atlantacism, the role of the apocalypse in Dugin's worldview, the influence of Heidegger on Dugin, Dugin's connection to Traditionalism and how the influence of Heidegger on him is not in line with Traditionalism (we also discuss what Tradtionalism is from Rene Guenon to Julius Evola and how Dugin's thinking could be described as Counter-Traditionalism), Dugin's current interest in the Russian Orthodox Church and his previous interest in chaos magick, the neo-nazi Satanist group The Order of Nine Angles, the death of Azal's wife and how he believes Duginists may have been involved in it, explaining the meaning of Dugin's quote "We will cure you with poison" and its connection to alchemy, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, April 10th, 2022 would've marked the 43rd birthday of American peace activist Rachel Corrie. In 2003 she went to the Palestinian city of Rafa in Gaza alongside other activists in the International Solidarity Movement. On March 16th of that year she stood in front of a Palestinian home that was to be demolished by an Israeli Defense Forces armored bulldozer. Corrie was crushed to death by said bulldozer. Her death led to an international uproar and her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, sought justice and a full investigation.

It has been 19 years since Rachel's passing. In order to remember her, tell her story, and explain what she was fighting for in her support for the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories we're joined by her parents Cindy and Craig Corrie. Cindy and Craig relate Rachel's story and the events of March 16th, 2003.

On this edition of Parallax Views, investigative journalist Karim Zidan, whose work has been featured in Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and the MMA-news website Bloody Elbow, joins us to discuss the intersection between politics and Mixed Martial Arts from Chechnya's Ramzan Kadyrov's Akmat Fight Club to Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White's appearances on Fox News. We'll discuss how figures from Ted Cruz to Vladimir Putin are interested in MMA and how they attempt to use it politically. We also delve into such topics as sportswashing and propaganda, Abuzayed Vismuradov (the powerful Chechnya associated with Ramzan Kadyrov and the Akmat Fight Club who is known simply as "Patriot" and is considered one of Chechnya's most dangerous men), "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko (and the shady history of his brother), self-described anarcho-communist fighter "The Snowman" Jeff Monson and his relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin, Conor MacGregor, Saudi Arabia and the WWE, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and much, access journalism in MMA reporting, unionization efforts and the UFC, and much, much more!

In the second segment of the show, progressive sports journalist David Zirin joins the show to discuss the intersection of sports and politics more broadly and his latest book The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World. We discuss how David began his now almost 20-year run of writing about politics and sports before delving into such issues as leftist aversion to sports, sports and nationalism (and militarism), cheerleaders who supported Black Lives Matter, the Kaepernick Effect as about the Effect even more so than Colin Kaepernick himself, the film National Champions and efforts of NCAA college football to receive fair compensation, exploitation of athletes by owners, and more!

From Failed State Update:

Daniel Muessig, the "real-life Saul Goodman" on going to prison and America's unjust legal system

 

Daniel Muessig is a Pittsburgh folk hero, mostly for this ad that he put together when he was kicking off his law practice:

But the legal field is a tough racket. Tough enough, in fact, that Muessig eventually turned to some law-breaking of his own. Any day now he will go to prison for five years for conspiring to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and possession of marijuana. He was busted by an FBI task force who ID'd him through a wiretap.

Of course, he broke the law. But should we be sending anyone to jail over marijuana?

Read the rest and listen to the full podcast at Failed State Update

On this edition of Parallax Views, Dr. Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins us for an in-depth examination of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the role of the U.S. in supporting the 7-year long Saudi intervention that has led to instability there. Although a ceasefire is under way, that doesn't mean the conflict is over and Dr. Sheline believes now is the time to apply pressure to end the intervention once and for all. In this conversation we discuss the history of the conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, Saudi human rights violations, starvation in Yemen due to the Saudi-imposed blockade, the Iranian involvement in Yemen, U.S. support of Saudi Arabia throughout the conflict through expensive arms deals, the War on Terror, the return of Great Power Competition, China, proponents of U.S. primacy believing it is necessary to support dictator and so-called "enlightened autocrats", Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Russia (and parallels between the crisis in Yemen and the invasion of Ukraine), and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist Christopher Leonard joins us to discuss his new book The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy. The book chronicles how the Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke dealt with the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath from 2010-2014. In doing so he attempts to offer a concise and highly critical examination of the policy known as quantitative easing and makes the case that quantitative easing has enriched the wealthy at the expense of the working and middle classes through a form of hyper-trickle-down economics.

Leonard and I begin the conversation by discussing his earlier works The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business and Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. We then discuss how his critical examination of the Federal Reserve departs from many of the criticisms of the Fed from libertarians and the right such as G. Edward Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island. Leonard also praises William Greider's seminal work on the subject Secrets of the Temple.

From there we delve into what the Federal Reserve is, what it isn't, and the question of whether it is a public or private institution as well as the ways the Fed, and monetary policy in general, is often treated as being too mystical for a layperson to understand (even if this is not the case). Leonard also explains the concept of quantitative easing and how it has, he argues, enriched the wealthy at the expense of the working and middle classes. Among the many other topics, we cover in the conversation: the Federal Reserve and the Tea Party Movement in November 2010, the story of former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Thomas Hoenig's dissenting from Ben Bernanke's quantitative easing policies, Alan Greenspan and ideology within the institution of the Federal Reserve, the populist William Jennings Bryan and his "Cross of Gold" speech, Bill Clinton and the declaration he made during his Presidency that "the era of big government is over", hyper-trickle-down economics, Andrew Mellon, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Daad Sharab joins me to discuss her role as a trusted troubleshooter and confidante to Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi through half of his 42-year reign. In her book The Colonel and I: My Life with Gaddafi, Sharab tells the inside story of her involvement with Gaddafi's government and the leader's spectacular fall. Daad Sharab talks about the various "missions" she went on for Gaddafi and experiences with Col. Gaddafi as well as other topics including the Lockerbie Bombing and whether Gaddafi was responsible, conflicts between her and the Libyan intelligence offices (whom she believed did a lot of things behind Gaddafi's back and without his approval), her first encounter with Gaddafi, Gaddafi's charisma, the NATO bombing of Libya, acting as an intermediary between Gaddafi's Libya and George H.W. Bush's administration in the U.S., the different sides of Gaddafi and his personality including his emotional side, helping get Libyan men who thought Libya had betrayed them released from British prison, meeting Hillary Clinton's, Gaddafi's death and Hillary Clinton's comments "We came, we saw, he died", U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East, Western double standards, Saddam Hussein, and the three leaders she liked to work with today and why (this last one gets a bit controversial).

On this edition of Parallax Views, Hannah R. Gurman, historian and Clinical Associate Professor at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, joins us to discuss her Responsible Statecraft piece "‘Rambo’ rides again? Switching roles and purifying souls in Ukraine". Said piece deals with the return of counterinsurgency in the post-War on Terror/post-Iraq War context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. response to it. Hannah analyzes this using the popular action film Rambo III, which infamously saw Sylvester Stallone's iconic John Rambo joining Afghanistan freedom fighter (or... the mujahadeen?) fight the Soviet Union and save his friend Col. Sam Trautman by joining a secret CIA mission. Hannah argues that Rambo III is is a piece of pop culture that relevant in understanding how Americans processed the Vietnam War in the decades following its failure. She then uses this to examine how counterinsurgency has returned with none other than the neoconservative hawk Eliot Cohen, a co-founder of the Project for American Century, as a proponent thanks to the Ukraine crisis. All that and much more in this fascinating conversation!

In the second segment of the show, Jacobin staff writer and Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden author Branko Marcetic joins me to discuss his article "We Have New Evidence of Saudi Involvement in 9/11, and Barely Anyone Cares". Branko covers how newly released FBI documents point towards some level of Saudi complicity in the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. The prime figure that come up in the latest documents? Omar al-Bayoumi, a man who provided assistance to 9/11 hijackers in California and that is believed to have been associated with Saudi intelligence, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, whose close relationship with President George W. Bush led to him being nicknamed "Prince Bandar Bush". In this conversation we discuss the seemingly explosive revelations in these documents as well as the media blackout on coverage of the topic, crisis in Yemen, why despots can get away with violations of international law and the mocking of its allies in a world driven by oil and gas, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the "Radical Lawyer" Stanley Cohen joins Parallax Views for a freewheeling conversation about his career as an attorney who has represented members of the Weather Underground, Hamas, and the Mohawk Warriors society. Additionally, Cohen gives his views on the Israel/Palestine conflict, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, imperialism and anti-imperialism, working with Lynne Stewart and the late ACLU board member William Kunstler, meeting and representing Hamas leader Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, rejecting antisemitic conspiracy, the charge that he is a "self-hating Jew", Cohen's view on Hamas, his criticism of liberal Zionism, the history of the Lohamei Herut Israel aka Lehi or the Stern Gang,, whether or not the tide is turning in regards to public opinion on Israel/Palestine, Palestinian identity, his Counterpunch article "Imperialism and the Struggle Against It Begins at Home", NATO, Vladimir Putin and Russia's domestic situation, the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation), the occupation of the Palestinian territories and how Palestinians feelings about the Russian invasion of Ukrainian, oppression in Putin's Russia, the Iraq War, comparative Whataboutism, international law, what leads Cohen to take up a case (especially political cases), and more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, journalist Jonathan M. Katz joins us to discuss his fascinating new book Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire. For the uninitiated, Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler is one of only a few men to receive a Medal of Honor twice for his service in the military. Later on in life he became a voice for disenfranchised veterans and a prominent antiwar figure who claimed that in his years prior he had served as a "gangster of capitalism". Butler wrote the famous antiwar short book War is a Racket to expound on the antiwar views that dominated the latter portion of his life. Katz discusses all of this as well as Butler's dark legacy in Haiti, the ways in which Butler couldn't be neatly categorized politically as anything other than a patriotic defender of troops and veterans (and how the Communist Party's Earl Browder summed that up), his contempt for the Italian fascist Mussolini, PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and moral injury, the Business Plot, the Bonus Marches and Butler's support for them (vs. Gen. Patton), and zombies. Yes, zombies. How does that factor into the story. Well, you'll have to find out by listening to the conversation but the mention of Butler and his time in Haiti should give you a clue!

In the second half of the program, journalist Liza Featherstone, author of such books as Diving Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation and False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton, joins us to discuss her Jacobin obituary of the recently passed diplomat Madeline Albright. Although Albright has been well-remembered in many obituaries since her passing on Mar 23, 2022, Featherstone took a more critical view of Albright and her career which included time as the 20th United States Ambassador to the United Nations and 64th United States Secretary of State. Albright infamously said that sanctions against Iraq, which harmed many innocent Iraqi civilians (including children), was worth it in a 60 Minutes interview. She also held to a foreign policy that conflicted greatly with Colin Powell and his Powell Doctrine, instead believing that U.S. military might should not go to waste. We cover all of this as well as Albright's consulting group and its relation to the pandemic and vaccine apartheid, the hagiography around Albright since her passing, girl boss feminism and its discontents, and much, much more!