Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Committee for a SANE U.S.-China Policy was recently formed by Michael Klare, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Arms Control Association, and Joseph Gerson, a long-time peace organizer whose work stretches back to the days of the Vietnam War, over their concerns that the hawkish Washington D.C. consensus on U.S. foreign policy towards China has birthed a dangerous New Cold War that could, through one false move by either side, turn hot. Klare joins us on this edition of the program to describe this new organization's goals and how the U.S. could take a different approach to China. Among the topics we cover:

- The fear permeating Washington, D.C. over the rise of China as a rival superpower to the United States
- The military-industrial complex that benefits from a New Cold War between China and the U.S. In this regards we discuss military spending, the Pentagon, and defense contractors
- The problems on both the U.S. and China sides of this New Cold War. Tensions over the South China Sea and Taiwan
- The frightening potential for a World War
- The challenges and potentials for the U.S. of China's rise and the alternative approaches that can be taken to dealing with China's rise rather than aggression and provocation
- Can we achieve a co-existence?
- The need to address the climate change crisis globally and how China and the U.S. may have to cooperate on this matter
- The relationship between the U.S. and China as a clash of two nationalisms backed by militarism
- Greater dialogue between the U.S. and China as a possible way forward in U.S.-China relations; discussing other forms of conflict resolutions that are mutually beneficial to the U.S., China, and the world
- Policy Papers — Committee for a SANE U.S.-China Policy by Michael Klare
- Track 2 and Track 1.5 diplomacy
- And much, much more!

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, is American an Empire? And, if it is, is that Empire decline? Noted academic Alfred W. McCoy, Fred Harvey Harrington Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, believes the the answer to both those question is "Yes." McCoy has authored numerous books over the years including The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State, but his most recent book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power, deals with the idea the idea of as a declining empire most directly.

Last month, McCoy penned an article for TomDispatch that supplements the observations and analysis of In the Shadows of the American Century. Entitled "While America Was Sleeping: Waking from a Four-Year Fever Dream to Find Global Power Gone", the piece explores the ramifications of the 4-year Trump Presidency on America's status as a global hegemon and what it portends for the new President Joe Biden and America as a whole.

In this conversation McCoy and I discuss a number of issues including:

- The idea of America as an empire
- The ascension of China as a global power, the decline of American primacy, and what both together mean for the world
- Obama's geopolitical strategy and the TPP (Trans-Pacific Parternship)
- The imperial hubris of the George W. Bush Presidency and the Iraq War; the "unanaswerable question" of pinpointing the exact reason of U.S.'s decline in terms of global power
- Trump's acceleration of the decline and why McCoy believes the full-force of said decline could be felt as soon as 2030
- Reasons for China's ascent as a global power
- And much, much more.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, Paul Jay is a journalist and documentarian behind the thoughtful independent media outlet theAnalysis.News. Prior to founding theAnalysis.News, where he hosts interviews with such figures as Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Matt Taibbi, Abby Martin, Noam Chomsky, and many others, he directed the documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows (concerning pro wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart and his relationship to the WWE and Vince McMahon) and served as the founder, CEO, and Senior Editor of The Real News Network.

Paul joins us on this edition of the show to do what he does best: provide an analysis of the world and the events sweeping it today. In particular we focus on the dual process of the financialization and what Paul calls the fascistization of American culture. We delve into the long shadow of the Cold War mentality and how modern far-right movements with a penchant for the paranoid-style in American politics, like QAnon, have predecessors like the John Birch Society in the 20th century. Additionally we discuss the struggles of the political Left today and how they relate to the struggles of today. We talk about socialism and the crushing of socialist movements in the 20th century, the Soviet Union, McCarthyism, and more in this regard. Additionally, we also discuss how hyper-capitalism or a kind of capitalism-on-steroids has created a situation of multiple crises of epic proportions. In particular, Paul consider the climate crisis and the lack of time we have in dealing with said crisis. Additionally, Paul and I discuss what can be done, the Democratic Party and corporate politics, third party politics and whether they are feasible, Gore Vidal's ideas about the decline of American Empire, Russiagate, the digital revolution and digitized globalization, how financial capital and Wall Streets works in our neoliberal society, Blackrock and the irrationality of Wall Street's mentality, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, true crime author Synova Cantrell joins us for a riveting discussion of an organized crime syndicate known as The Dixie Mafia. If you've ever seen the Walking Tall movies The Dixie Mafia are the antagonists of tough southern Sheriff Buford Pusser (portrayed in the movies by Joe Don Baker, Bo Svenson, and, in the remake, "Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). But the story of Buford Pusser and his battle against The Dixie Mafia wasn't just the stuff of action movies. Pusser was real and so was the Dixie Mafia. In fact, the Pusser story is only one part of the Dixie Mafia saga. Synova Cantrell, in her book Silenced by the Dixie Mafia: The Anderson Files, tells not only the story of Pusser and the Dixie Mafia but a cold case that has led one woman, Phyllis Anderson, on quest for justice over the course of multiple decades. It's a story of that encompasses arson and murder-for-hire plots, police brutality and police misconduct, racist groups like the KKK, lawless southern-fried criminality in rural America that was arguably more vicious than the Italian mob, moonshine, poverty, villains resembling more serious versions of The Dukes of Hazzard characters Boss Hogg and Roscoe, Southern belles gone bad, and even the break-up of the the Allman Brothers band!

We delve into a number of these areas including:

- The origins of the Dixie Mafia by way of the Stateline mob
- The brilliance of the Dixie Mafia and characters like Towhead White as well as the structure of the Dixie Mafia
- The Dixie Mafia, "The Godfathers of Southern Rock" the Allman Brothers, and the RICO act
- The real Buford Pusser and the mythology of the Walking Tall movies; Buford "The Bull" Pusser's one-man war against the Dixie Mafia and his fight to the death with Towhead White
- The vicious and seductive Louise Hathcock, the Queen of the Stateline mob
- And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Jeremy Kuzmarov of CovertAction Magazine joins us to discuss his 5-part series of articles on Biden's foreign policy with a particular focus on the first in the series: "The Forgotten Story of How Joe Biden Helped Ramp Up the War on Drugs in Colombia". What was Biden's role in Reagan's War on Drugs and the awful Plan Colombia which targetted the leftist group FARC as narco-terrorists? Find out on this edition of the show as we critique Joe Biden's involvement in Plan Colombia and the devastating effects it has had on the Central American country. Additionally, Kuzmarov tells us a bit about the recently relaunched CovertAction Magazine, founded by the late CIA whistleblower Phil Agee, and gives his thoughts on U.S.-Russia relations in light of the protests that broke out in relation to Alexey Navalny. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views that gets into foreign policy, imperialism, paramilitary juantas, corruption and drug trafficking, counterinsurgency, and much, much more!

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, David H. Price is a scholar who has been studying aspects of the National Security State from the Cold War onward. In particular, he has written a great deal about the weaponizing of academic anthropology during the Cold War by the National Security establishment in America. His two books, Weaponizing Anthropology and Cold War Anthropology, cover the matters in-depth. Recently he also penned an article for Counterpunch entitled The CIA Book Publishing Operations: Fragments of Sol Chaneles’ Lost Manuscript detailing the CIA's involvement in book publishing during the Cold War (ie: the CIA's promotion of the book Doctor Zhiavago, the Ramparts investigation into the issue of CIA and the publishing world, and more). David Price joins us on this edition of the program to discuss both the weaponization of anthropology and his recent research into the CIA's involvement in the publishing industry as well as giving listeners an idea of how to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and engage in quality research. We also touch on topics like MKULTRA, Don Delillo's observations about the CIA, Cold War liberals in the National Security State apparatus, and much, much more!

NOTE FROM THE HOST: Late in the interview I mistakenly refer to William Casey as "Wild" Bill Casey when I was meaning to refer to OSS's "Wild" Bill Donovan.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, the U.S COVID-19 vaccine rollout has not been off to the best start. What has led to these failings that have turned obtaining the vaccine into a Hunger Games-style Darwinian competition? And how can these failings be remedied? Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News and a contributing writer for the New York Times, joins us to discuss these issues and more. Rosenthal, author of the book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business And How You Can Take It Back and the recent NYT op-ed "Yes, It Matters That People Are Jumping the Vaccine Line", takes us through the problems of inequity that have arisen due to a hollowed-out public health system, the mistakes made during the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, the lack of central planning in dealing with the vaccine rollout, people "jumping the line" to get the vaccine, how the most in need of the vaccine are not always the first in line to receive it, and what can be done under the Biden administration to remedy these issues.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, former National Security insider Mevlin Goodman, who has worked for the CIA, the State Department, and the Department of Defense's National War College, joins us to discuss the problem of  the politicization of intelligence work in the U.S. and President Joe Biden's picks for the CIA (William Burns, a career diplomat) and Secretary of Defense (Retired General and Raytheon official Lloyd Austin, who some analysts, including Goodman, will widen the the civil-military gap). We delve into Goodman's history in intelligence work and his views on what has gone wrong with how the National Security State has operated in the past few decades. We also discuss the dumbing down of America, U.S.-China relations, Michael Scheuer of the CIA's Bin Laden Unit Michael Scheuer, the idea of the "deep state", defense spending, the civil-military gap, and much, much more.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this bonus edition of Parallax Views, users of the "Wall Street Bets" Reddit have wreaked havoc on Wall Street hedge funds in relation to Gamestop and other stocks in the past day. What is this? The Gamestopocalypse? What should we make of this stock market mayhem? Mike Swanson of the Wall Street Window and author of the new book Why the Vietnam War (and previously The War State) joins us to discuss the matter and the problems with apps like Robinhood, which is currently coming under fire from figures like Congresswoman Rashida Taleb. Everyone from Tucker Carlson to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has chimed in on this controversy. Mike Swanson has a take you may disagree but I thought this conversation was worthwhile as some whose reactions to the events have thus far differed from Mike's own analysis.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews

On this edition of Parallax Views, a quick-and-dirty rundown of where U.S. foreign policy stands at this early stage in the Biden Presidency. Dave DeCamp, news editor for Antiwar.Com, joins us to talk Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken, hawkish figures like Samantha Power and Victoria Nuland's involvement in the administration, the War in Yemen, the prospects for renewing the Iran deal, Biden's Defense Secretary pick Lloyd Austin, the tensions between China and the U.S. especially as they regard to the South China Sea, and much, much more.