Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, David Isenberg, a long time independent researcher into the subject of PMCs (private military companies) and PMSCs (private military and security companies) and bloggers at the Isenberg Institute of Strategic Satire, joins us to discuss his article "The Rise and Fall of the Mozart Group". The Mozart Group was founded amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by two former U.S. Marine colonels, Andrew Milburn, at one time the Deputy Commander of Special Operations Command Central, and Andrew Bain, who since leaving the military has become a Ukraine-based businessman. Composed of Western military veterans, the Mozart Group sought to assist in efforts during the war by serving as a private military company that offered military training and evacuations. Named in part as a cheeky reference to Russia's infamous Wagner Group, the Mozart Group, in Isenberg's word, "positioned itself as the reverse, good-guy version" of said group (though, as Isenberg notes in the beginning of our conversation the Wagner Group and the Mozart Group are different in terms of the actions they take and should not be considered simple Western Vs. Russian versions of each other). Although the Mozart Group garnered a great deal of positive press in the past year as a humanitarian group helping Ukraine, it has since shuttered it's operation amidst a thorny lawsuit between co-founders Bain and Milburn. In said lawsuit, Milburn has been accused of misrepresenting the Mozart Group as a non-profit, 501(c)3 charity to journalists despite it being registered as a for-profit LLC. (limited liability company) business. The complex lawsuit also includes complaints Milburn soliciting for donations/funding that went into Milburn's personal or other accounts rather than the Mozart Group. Another issue that comes up with regards to the lawsuit is Milburn hiring a Ukrainian woman he met on a dating app to work for the Mozart Group and paying her a $90,000 annual salary that far exceeded that of other Ukrainian-based employees. On the other hand, Milburn-supporter Jeffrey Carr of the Inside Cyber Warfare Substack, recently accused Andrew Bain of having ties to Russia and the Taliban as well as war profiteering. In this conversation, Isenberg offers his thougths on both the lawsuit against Milburn as well as his thoughts on the accusations Carr made against Andrew Bain. Isenberg also discusses some juicy details that he can't discuss in-too-much detail at this time that did not make it into the article and indicate that the Mozart Group was seeking to move away from its specific work in regards in Ukraine and becoming a more broadly-focused private military company. We'll also discuss more broadly the problems/issues surrounding private military companies; lack of regulation/oversight in regards to PMCs; Star Trek and the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition No. 34: “War is good for business"; Erik Prince, Blackwater, and the Iraq War; the Mozart Group vs. the Wagner Group; war profiteering; the problem with mixing charity work and military functions together under one roof; why David doesn't use the term "mercenaries" when talking about PMCs; should Ukraine be concerned about working with PMCs?; was Bain trying to expand the Mozart Group into working in other regions where their services weren't wanted?; and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, controversial German-born filmmaker Uwe Boll has alternately been called "the world's worst director", potentially "the most misunderstood filmmaker in the business" and a "legitimate auteur", "a brutish bully inclined to lash out against his detractors", "the only filmmaker interested in investigating the likelihood of a violent response to political powerlessness" and "the only director taking the events the media treats as the country’s worst tragedies seriously", and an "asshole". He's taken on his critics in a boxing match. He's worked with A-list Hollywood talents like Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Elizabeth Moss, Ray Liotta, J.K. Simmons, and Burt Reynolds. He's become known for his adaptation hit video game properties like House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark, Dungeon Siege, and Postal into movies that were slammed by gamers and critics. He's been a lightning rod for controversy due to some of his movies being financed by German tax shelters. He's also made more personal films dealing with or reflecting on social issues like Wall Street corruption and the financial crisis of 2009 (Assault on Wall Street), school shootings (Heart of America), spree murders and political violence (Rampage, Rampage: Capitol Punishment, and Rampage: President Down), prison brutality (Stoic), the Holocaust (Auschwitz), the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region (Attack on Darfur), and the absurdities of war (1968 Tunnel Rats). Boll announced his retirement from directing in in 2016 with the release of Rampage: President Down, the last movie in his trilogy following the exploits of spree killer turned political terrorist Bill Williamson (played by Brendan Fletcher). During this retirement Boll kept helping produce films made by other directors, including the opioid epidemic documentary The Decline, as well as opening his own highly-lauded Vancouver-based restaurant Bauhaus. In 2022, however, Boll returned to the director's chair with Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1) or Hanau: Germany in Winter, a docudrama exploring the disturbed mind of Tobias R. and the descent into radicalization that led him to become the first recorded mass shooter inspired by the far-right wing conspiracy theory movement known as QAnon. Now, Boll is continuing his return to cinema vis-a-vis his company Event Film. His next project is First Shift, a New York City crime/cop drama set to feature Sons of Anarchy's Kristen Renton and Shades of Blue's Gino Anthony. Also in the works for the filmmaker's comeback is a biopic of Elliot Ness of The Untouchables fame dealing with the Prohibition-era law enforcement agent's attempts to solve the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Road or Cleveland Torso Murders case. In addition to all of this the cult film distributor Unearthed Films' is soon releasing the 2013 horror anthology The Profane Exhibit containing the Boll-directed segment "The Basement" about the depraved Austrian criminal Josef Fritzl that stars noted character actor Clint Howard and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II's Caroline Williams. Despite his busy schedule, Boll made time to chat with me for this edition of Parallax Views. I'll admit that I'm not completely objective in this conversation. I think Boll's gotten a raw deal in terms of how his films have been evaluated/perceived and I make that known in this extended discussion of his career. Rather than covering the video game adaptations he's notorious for or the infamous boxing match between Boll and his critics, this conversation focuses on Boll's early German film career, his transition to making films in Hollywood, his politics and explorations of social issues like men who "run amok", a great deal of discussion about his non-video game based movies, and more. Among the topics covered throughout this episode: - Uwe's early cinematic influences; Hollywood vs. the German New Wave cinema; Werner Herzog - Uwe's German films: the irreverent comedy German Fried Movie and the arthouse spree shooter movie Amoklauf - Uwe's dealing with the theme of people, particularly men, who "run amok" (going on rampages or killing sprees); fascination with what leads people to snap mentally - Assault on Wall Street as a subversion of the Death Wish and similar revenge movies (ie: the vigilante goes after white collar criminal than pretty street thugs); the slow-burn nature of Assault on Wall Street; the 2008 financial crisis, Bernie Madoff, and what inspired Assault on Wall Street - The overt, "in your face" politics of Assault on Wall Street and the Rampage movies - Boll's school shooting drama Heart of America; the dark side of suburbia; Brendan Fletcher's portrayal of the school bully in Heart of America; Heart of America vs. Gus Van Sant's Elephant; the narrow view a teenaged mind can have about the future and how this relates to Heart of America; sometimes we change our way too late as a theme in Heart of America - Boll's prison drama Stoic; Boll made the actors, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day's Edward Furlong, sleep in a prison cell in preparation for the film; relying on the improvisation of actors to create realism; Stoic and it's scary examination of how easy it is for people to dehumanize others - Uwe's thoughts on Russia and the war in Ukraine - Was there a specific moment that led to Uwe's political awakening?; NATO, Germany, and the Cold War; the East vs. West Germany divide; the Red Army Faction and the debated death of Ulrike Meinhof - The Rampage trilogy and its main character, the teenager turned terrorist Bill Williamson; Williamson as a character who commits violent acts that disturb the viewer but also is, disturbingly, relatable in other ways (telling certain truths about the problems with society); the realism of the violence in Rampage as a deliberate contrast to Boll's early films trying to emulate unrealistic video game-style violence - The evolution of the Bill Williamson character in the Rampage sequels; 2016's Rampage 3: President Down and the Jan 6th riots; Julian Assange and Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the persecution of whistleblowers; Donald Trump's lack of pardons for the aforementioned whistleblowers - Boll's Holocaust documentary Auschwitz; portraying the dehumanization of the camps and why the film included nudity (although not nudity that was meant to titillate but rather depict the stripping of human dignity that the Nazis perpetrated against Jews; the Israeli reception to Boll's exploration of Nazi death camps in Auschwitz; why Boll played an SS guard in the film - Casting real life refugees in Attack on Darfur - Films like Auschwitz and Attack on Darfur as attempts to force us to confront the reality of atrocities and genocides; why did no one intervene in Darfur?; war, profits, and exploitation; political violence, terrorism, and state violence - Who was Tobias R., the German QAnon spree shooter? Why tell his story in the docudrama Hanau: Winter in Germany; Tobias R.'s mental disturbance, isolation, manifesto, and racist, xenophobic father; the rise of Trump and the radicalization of Tobias R.; the problem of misinformation, disinformation, and the destabilization game; are we getting screwed by all sides politically?; figures like Tobias R. are not alone (ie: QAnon is a social phenomena) - The lack of common sense in the geopolitical power struggle in the world (some talk about the U.S., Russia, and China); the decline of diplomacy and the horrors of war; weapons manufacturers and war profiteering; climate change and the need to address the issues facing the environment - The historical context of Boll's irreverent comedy Postal; the War on Terror, the George W. Bush administration, and 9/11 - The censorship of the first Rampage movie in Germany - Boll's work as a producer; tax incentives and Boll's use of tax shelters (and the misperceptions people have about the use of those tax shelters); the money Boll made from DVD sales; movies like Stoic and Rampage would not have been made without the video game movies allowing Boll to make some cash to fund the later non-video game features - Advice to young filmmakers; Boll's approach to directing actors; the state of cinema today; the importance of storytelling; the problem of self-censorship in cinema; it is cheaper to shoot a movie today in many ways than it was for when Boll first started filmmaking; how to foster a good relationship with actors; taking a straightforward approach with actors; Ron Perlman's assessment of Boll's approach to working with actors - High-octane filmmaking, working on tights schedules, and practical struggles Boll and his crew face making films like House of the Dead and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; taking into account the role of money in film production and being able to make one's money back; working with budgetary restraints as a filmmaker; filming Alone in the Dark and anecdote about Bryan Singer, Halle Berry, and the X-Men movies - Boll's future projects; First Shift follows a day in the life of Brooklyn cops during a 12-hour shift; making a new movie about The Untouchables' Elliot Ness and the sad story of "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run"; a little info about the Boll-produced documentary The Decline about the North American opioid epidemic and fentanyl deaths (Boll saw the epidemic first hand while running his restaurant Bauhaus in Vancouver); Boll's documentary on the Bandidos Motorcycle Club gang - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, David Metcalfe, Santa Muerte researcher and Editor-in-Chief of Threshold: Journal of Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies, joins us for a long, jam-packed discussion of the Morbid Anatomy online course he is teaching with Dr. Diana Pasulka entitled "Your Waking Nightmare: Exploring the UFO Through the Lens of Horror and Techno-Realism". The course will take a media studies approach that delves into understanding the phenomena of Unidentified Flying Object, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, by way of the themes explored in the horror genre. It will also feature guest speakers Amanda M. Radcliffe, the occult and ritual witchcraft advisor for the Nicolas Cage-starring H.P. Lovecraft movie The Color Out of Space, and Whitley Streiber, the world's most famous claimed alien abductee and a former horror author whose novels like The Hunger and Wolfen set him up to be a successor for Stephen King before he became famous in regards to the UFO/alien abduction subject. This isn't necessarily a conversation about believing  in the UFO phenomena or being skeptical of it, but rather what the horror genre can say about people who claim to have "paranormal" experiences and perhaps even what these experiencers can say about themes touched upon in horror that relate to philosophical and social issues. Among the topics discussed in the course of this conversation: - Whitley Streiber and his career as a horror author; his alien abduction memoir Communion (originally set to be titled, interestingly enough, Body Horror) and it's dealing with subject like the Self vs. the Other (and bridging the gap between the two); filmmaker Phillipe Mora's movie adaptation of Communion; Whitley Streiber and psychological/physical trauma; Whitley Streiber's relationship with William S. Burroughs - UFO researcher Jacques Vallee and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Valle served as the basis for the Francois Truffaut character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; creatives who don't necessarily believe in the UFO phenomena taking an interest in the subject - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as it was released) and it's invocation of astrology ("Saturn in Retrograde) that arguably adds a cosmic horror element to the story - The horror genre and catharsis; David's college horror binge that included a diet of Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, and movies like Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (and why David pulled back on watching those movies before returning to them for the course) - Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, Don Coscarelli's Phantasm, and hell/other dimensions depicted in film; horror movies and ritual experience; Kenneth Anger's perspective on cinema - The art of the jump scare; the visceral nature of the horror genre; the intersection between horror and comedy - The Travis Walton alien abduction case and the movie depiction of it in the police-procedural-turned-full-on-horror-in-the-third-act Fire in the Sky; the depiction of alien abductions in cinema; intentional artificiality and theatricality in Phillipe Mora's Communion starring Christopher Walken as Whitley Streiber; Communion vs. Fire in the Sky and the ways in which Communion portrays the alien abduction experience in a stranger, harder-to-grasp way - Lovecraft, the encounter with the unknown in horror, and the inability to adequately express/fully comprehend alleged anomalous experiences - Clive Barker's 1987 cult classics Hellraiser, reframing the concept of the alien/extraterrestrial, and interdimensional beings; Alien amorality in Hellraiser; Cliver Barker's Cabal (later made into the movie Nightbreed) and sympathy for the Other; exploration of the anomalous rather than belief in the anomalous; the occult-tinged industrial music project Coil, led by Jhonn Balance and Peter Christopherson, and Hellraiser; Hellraiser, the BDSM underground, and the Barker's The Hellbound Heart as a dark fairytale/dark romance exploring what loves means and is - The dark portrayal of psychology in Nightbreed, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors  - The late psychiatrist Dr. John E. Mack, professor and the head of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and his perspective on alien abductions; Mack's desire to understand the alien abduction through, among other things, Eastern spirituality; how John Mack's approach to alien abduction differs from other alien abduction believers such as Budd Hopkins or David Jacobs; how alien abductions and how they are understood in popular culture are forced in a a specific narrative to the preclusion of all else - Different cultural perspectives on UFOs: Christian evangelical and charismatic Christianity narratives about UFOs; Islam and exorcisms; Muslims who believe UFOs can be warded off by the Koran; the use of exorcism in the Santa Muerte tradition; occult rocket scientist Jack Parson, occultist Aleister Crowley, Parsons' love Marjorie Cameron's UFO experience (interestingly, Cameron appeared in a Kenneth Anger movie), and the Aeon of Horus - Albert K. Bender, the first notable case of someone who claims to have had Men in Black encounters, and his interest in the horror genre and pop occultism - Demonic possession narratives; The Exorcist; charismatic Christians and Pentecostals in relation to exorcisms; grocery store grimoires and ritual magick's connection to the tradition of exorcism; exorcism in various religions; Catholicism and exorcism; the mediation of these topics in popular culture - The concept of techno-realism; virtual worlds and virtual reality; David Cronenberg's eXistenz and the UFO experience; hallucination and reality in Nightmare on Elm Street 3; the real life inspiration for A Nightmare on Elm Street and parallels to the alien abduction experience - Revulsion to the extraordinary and anomalous as well as longing for the extraordinary and anomalous in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and Hellraiser - The media and anomalous experiences - The Natalie Portman-starring adaptation of Jeff Vander Meer's weird fiction tale Annihilation; The Color Out of Space and the desire for experiences beyond the normal comprehension of existence; transcendental experience in The Color Out of Space; horror and union in The Color Out of Space; the ultimate other as both beautiful and horrifying; the Necronomicon and ritual magick - Techno-realism and John Carpenter's They Live; parallels between They Live and Robert Anton Wilson's fnords in The Illuminatus Trilogy - Tobe Hooper's Invaders from Mars remake; paranoia and fear in the films of Tobe Hooper; Tobe Hooper's Stephen King adaptation Salem's Lot and it's parallels to Invasion of the Body Snatcher and it's marketing as a vampire story; the character of Mr. Barlow in Salem's Lot; Tobe Hooper's apocalyptic alien vampire movie Lifeforce - Druids, ritual witchcraft, synchronicity, and apocalypticism in Halloween III: Season of the Witch; the weirdness of John Carpenter's religious-apocalypse-meets-quantum-physics-meets-time-travelers-meets-aliens movie Prince of Darkness; Prince of Darkness's "broadcasts" which act as premonitions transmitted through the characters dreams - The British horror anthology The House That Dripped Blood and why it will be taught in the course; Jacques Tourneur's Curse of the Demon and expectations around anomalous experiences - Horror and philosophy; Eugene Thacker's In the Dust of This Planet; the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher and the eerie - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Joshua Frank, muckraking journalist extraordinaire and editor at Counterpunch, joins us to discuss his new book Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America. Joshua tells the story of the Hanford, Washington's struggles with radioactive waste (which has led it to be dubbed "the most toxic place in America" by the EPA) and how, at a cost of $677 billion, became the most expensive environmental clean-up job in the in the entire world. Waste from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has led to contamination of the Columbia River and the land surrounding the reservation as well. Fish were found with radioactivity. The soil has been contaminated. And a single accident at Hanford could lead to explosive problems that, arguably, would amount to an American Chernobyl. How did this all happen? We delve into how capitalism, imperialism, militarism, and racism fit into this tragic story and the ways in which contractors like Bechtel have perpetrated what Joshua refers to as a "profit-driven fraud". Additionally, Joshua and I discuss the wrecking of Native American cultures and lands in relation to this story; the courageous whistleblowers who spoke about Hanford radioactive waste; the role of militarism, the Cold War, and big business in the story of Hanford; the left-wing anti-nuclear movement, criticisms of it from climate change/environmentalist activists/authors like George Monbiot, and Frank's response to those criticisms; the connection between nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and the weapons industry; why the late actress Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeves-starring Superman movies) received a special thanks at the end of the book; the poisoning of Hanford workers like Abe Garza; Hanford whistleblower Ed Bricker and the attempt to silence him through monitoring, harassment, and intimidation (including what Bricker's lawyer Tom Carpenter referred to as an attempt to kill Bricker); Donald Alexander, a chemist (specifically) a chemist who worked at Hanford and had concern about the site's waste treatment plan; the whistleblowing of Dr. Walter Tamosaitis, former Deputy Chief Process Engineer and Research & Technology Manager for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation; the politics of the Hanford whistleblowers (they were not left-wing radicals; some were even rather conservative); Frank Russo, one of the villains of the story, and the Department of Energy; the secrecy of Bechtel; why the issues with Bechtel were not just a result of "a few bad apples" but something more systemic and structural; the "Green Run" covert military experiment in 1949 which involved the intentional release of radioactive material into the atmosphere (and thus onto the unsuspecting public); "The Quiet Warrior" Russell Jim, the Yakama Nation, and resistance to American militarism's role in Hanford; Hanford within the context of the Cold War and the importance of that in light of the potential new Cold War between the U.S. and China; the U.S. military machine as the biggest polluter in the world; and more! In the shorter second segment of the show, Yint Hmu of Win Without War joins us to discuss his article in The Hill entitled "A new nuclear weapons delivery system is the last thing the US needs". Yint explains the potential problems with the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and its origins. Additionally, Yint discusses the mission and purpose of Win Without War, which seeks to promote a progressive vision of U.S. foreign policy, and it's importance in an age of conflicts like the Russia/Ukraine war and the possibility of nuclear weapons being used in 21st century conflicts. All that and much more with guest Yint Hmu of Win Without War.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Brazil's President, Lula da Silva, recently made a 48-hour visit to the United States and met with U.S. President Joe Biden. The-left-of-center politician from the Worker's Party recently defeated the controversial and right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's previous President, to achieve his third term in office. What can we glean from Lula's visit to Washington D.C., what does it say about what Lula wants for Brazil's foreign policy and U.S.-Brazil relations, and what is the Biden administration's feelings about Lula as Brazil's political leader? Among the topics covered in this history: - Lula's working class background and labor organizing, the power of his personality in Brazilian politics (as well as the pros and cons that come from this), the Worker's Party in Brazil, and Lula's early career dating back to 1970s with Unions - Lula da Silva's politics; neither a revolutionary or a right-winger or a pure neoliberal; strong reformist tendencies but not revolutionary; criticisms from the right and the left of Lula; Lula's social welfare programs, economics, tackling of issues like poverty and hunger, and their effects on Brazilian society; Lula's first two terms as Brazil's President from 2003-2010; delivering material benefits to Brazilian citizens and addressing issues around inequality; wealthy and right-wing opposition to Lula's policies - The corruption charges against Lula; Operation Car Wash aka Java Lato, Lula's time in jail, debate over the charges, accusations that Judge Sergio Moro colluded with the Java Lato prosecutors to prevent Lula from running for President again, the question of whether or not Java Lato was politically motivated - Jair Bolsonaro as the greatest beneficiary of the Java Lato investigation; Jair Bolsonaro's relationship with Donald Trump and Trumpism/the MAGA movement; how Bolsonaro throwing his political lot in such a partisan manner with Trump damaged his relations with the U.S. political scene long-term - Lula and U.S.-Brazil relations during his 2003-2010 terms. Lula's relationships with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama; the Lula administration's issues with the Obama White House - Lula and Brazil as a mediator for international relations and diplomacy; the argument that this foreign policy is absurd and expects too much of Brazil as smaller country with a developing economy; Bolsonaro and the tradition of thought that the best way forward for developing Brazil is aligning with the U.S. vs. Lula's approach of recognizing U.S. interest but placing Brazilian interests first and having neutral relations (or, in other words, taking a non-aligned approach); Lula aligning with the U.S. on some issues but not necessarily automatically aligning with the U.S. on all issues - Lula's stances on Vladimir Putin's Russia, the war in Ukraine, China, Venezuela, the question of sovereignty, human rights, Israel/Palestine, opposition to coups/regime change/overthrows, achieving peace when conflict breaks out on the international scene, and the importance of being able to talk to "both sides" in a conflict so as to be able to act as a mediator - The Brazilian left's suspicions of Washington D.C. and the recent history that has led to those suspicions (ie: U.S. spying on Lula's Worker's Party successor Dilma Rousseff); what does that history mean for U.S. foreign policy going forward; U.S. recognition of Lula's Presidential victory; Venezuela's Hugo Chaves vs. Lula in regards to U.S. relations and foreign policy - Arguments that Lula is not critical enough of leaders deemed authoritarian in South/Central America (ie: Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela or Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua) - The Lula/Biden meeting as an attempt to reset U.S.-Brazilian relations since Bolsonaro - Independence as a central concept to Lula's foreign policy; the importance of assertiveness in his foreign policy; Lula's foreign policy as independent and assertive but also collaborative (working with other nations) - Lula's previous terms and the Iran nuclear deal - What is the U.S. point-of-view/perspective on Lula and Brazil right now under Joe Biden's administration - Criticism from the left and far-left, specifically in Brazil, that argue Lula is too moderate and thus is not going to challenge neoliberalism; what is Lula's stance on the legacy of neoliberalism and dealing with that legacy?; U.S. leftists that view Lula as a pure socialist; Lula's lack of interest in academic debates about socialism and leftism; Lula's populism and lack of interest in political purity displays; Lula's compromises and his reformist rather than revolutionary tendencies - Lula's foreign policy ambitions and the U.S. not, so far, taking issue with those ambitions; should the U.S. be taking this approach? - Rationalism and Lula's foreign policy - Foreign policy, human rights, and political trade-offs/compromises - Lula's stance on neoliberalism and privatization; Lula, infrastructure projects, and state-owned banks - Potential sources of friction between the U.S. and Brazil in terms of foreign policy - A brief look at Lula's views on human rights in regards to the Israel/Palestine conflict; Western hypocrisy on human rights issues and Brazilian criticism of that perceived hypocrisy; Jair Bolsonaro's stance on Israel/Palestine (pro-Israel/anti-Palestine) and the role that played in Bolsonarismo and the Brazilian far-right - 2024 as the bicentennial of U.S. recognition of Brazilian independence - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Mel Gurtov, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, blogger at In the Human Interest, and author of Engaging China: Rebuilding Sino-American, joins us to discuss the 2023 Chinese Spy Balloon Incident aka #Balloongate that has further inflamed tensions between the U.S. and China. The incident caused an uproar on Capitol Hill and led to Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a diplomatic trip to China. Initially China claimed it was merely a weather balloon that veered off course. The U.S. has said otherwise. The reporting has been that it was indeed a surveillance balloon. The ballon was first believed to enter U.S. airspace near Alaska on January 28th before moving over Canada. On February 1st the ballon was spotted over Montana before being shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on February 4th. We discuss the importance of this story, the response by the U.S. and China, how the situation could've been handled differently/better, the growing tensions between the U.S. and China, and the future of Sino-American relations. Among the topics covered: - The Biden administration vs. the Trump administration on China - The bipartisan consensus in Washington, D.C. and it's hostility to China; tariffs, trade wars, and Trump's China policy; China as a strategic threat from the Biden administration's point-of-view - Why Blinken's diplomatic visit to China being cancelled could be seen as a missed opportunity - Republican pressure for a hawkish, hardline response to China in regards to the spy balloon incident - The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, AUKUS, Japan, the Philippines, Guam, and security treaty partnerships - The U.S. role in Taiwan, strategic ambiguity vs. strategic clarity positions on Taiwan, China, and foreign policy - The issue of human right abuses in China; the Uyghur Muslims in China; Hong Kong - China's response to the spy balloon incident; U.S. surveillance in China; satellite technology and spying; was the balloon an immediate threat? - President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping,  the People's Liberation Army, the nature of bureaucracy as it relates to Balloongate, China's Foreign Ministry and the U.S. State Department, and the spy balloon - The potential consequences/blowback of the Chinese Spy Balloon Incident; the hawkish element in China and its press is being fed by the U.S. response; paranoia begets paranoia; the blame game is being played by the U.S. and China and is making diplomatic engagement more difficult - International security, the U.S., and China; can the U.S. and China find common ground on pandemic response research, climate change, and nuclear weapons? - Are we in a New Cold War? - The U.S., China, and the global economy - Lessons to be learned from the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union - Comparing the Chinese spy balloon incident to other tense U.S.-China moments such as the shooting down of a Chinese jet over Hainan in 2001 - What has happened to diplomacy and use of the diplomatic toolbox in U.S. foreign policy?; the national security apparatus, the Cold War mindset, ossifying institutions, and opposition to diplomatic engagement with adversaries - Former World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick's Washington Post op-ed "Opinion Engage, don't cancel, China over the balloon" - Anti-Chinese violence and racism; the Justice Department, the China Initiative, and the McCarthyite crackdown against visiting Chinese scientists that's been called racial profiling - The pandemic, U.S. vs China's response to the pandemic, Zero COVID policy and protests against Xi, anti-China conspiracy theories about the pandemic, China's handling of the pandemic, and Donald Trump use of the term the "China" virus - Misperceptions about China; China is not a monolithic Borg entity; the limited understanding many American have of China even at a professional (even government level); looking at the world through Chinese eyes; China, cultural differences, and the pros and cons of U.S. individualism - Stereotyping and demonization of the Chinese; China as a diverse country - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Jared Yates Sexton, host of The Muckrake Podcast and author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, joins us to discuss his latest book The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis. In The Midnight Kingdom Jared delves into the lies, paranoia, mythologies, and pursuit of power the undergirds the far-right movements that have become a worldwide concern in recent years due incident to the Jan 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C. and the similar uprisings/riots that happened in Brazil after Lula de Silva defeated Jair Bolsonaro to once again become that country's President. Among the topics discussed in this conversation: - Conspiracies, real and imagined; the far-right wing, conspiracy theories, and the conspiratorial view of history - What does the title The Midnight Kingdom refer to and how does it relate to the apocalyptic vision of the world presented by controversial Russian thinker Aleksander Dugin? - The crisis of institutional power in America today that elements of both the right and left are recognizing; neoliberalism, the neoliberal consensus, hyper-capitalism, and inequality - Jared's examination of cycles of history in The Midnight Kingdom and how it differs from, for example, right-wing operative Steve Bannon's preferred cycles of history theory known as "The Fourth Turning" - How power protects itself in a society - Paranoia as the basis for modern American society and conspiracy theories in modern American history - Real conspiracies, journalist Sarah Kendzior's They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent, and the World Economic Forum in Davos - The destabilization of the middle class, the need for explanations for that destabilization, and how the right-wing offers that explanation through Grand Conspiracy Narratives - The targeting of vulnerable communities by the right-wing's brand of conspiratorial thinking - How ancient Rome ties into Jared's analysis in The Midnight Kingdom; imperial cults, social mythologies, and the fall of civilizations - How the history of Christianity, apocalypticism, and narratives of power figures into Jared's analysis; how bastardized religion is utilized to promote war, imperialism, patriarchy, racism, wealth inequality and more; Christian nationalism and white nationalism; Jared's evangelical Christian upbringing - People's desperation for meaning; the rise of evangelical Christianity as a political force in American life; atomization in neoliberal society and the rise of the far-right - The Republican Party is not a homogenous movement; the emergence of an anti-neoliberal, reactionary right-wing; the left and the right have different criticisms of the neoliberal society and prescriptions for dealing with the problems of neoliberal society - Operation Gladio and Operation Condor and the lack of a strong left in the U.S. - The idea of homo economicus, the hollow existence neoliberalism provides, the dog-eat-dog world mentality of neoliberal society, and the reality TV series Survivor - Christian nationalism, feudalistic ideas, hierarchical power, and theocratic control - The individual, the atomized society, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as the PR front for neoliberalism in the 1980s, the book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, and the destruction of labor unions and class solidarity - Academia, specialized knowledge, and the working class's lack of access to that knowledge - Marjorie Taylor Greene's rhetoric about "woke" corporations; the lack of understanding about what communism is, what Karl Marx wrote, and what neoliberalism is; the right's ideas about the natural right and natural order; feudalism and the concept of the "Great Chain of Being"; eugenics and social Darwinism - Argument about "wokeism" and the problem of woke-washing by major corporations - Tucker Carlson and illiberalism, neoliberalism and authoritarianism, Friedrich Hayek and neoliberalism; and how the right-wing protects the powerful - The New Cold War between U.S. and China, American protectionism, the unraveling of globalization, and the end of "The End of History" - Tackling the criticism that Jared's book is anti-religion; why he disagrees with that assessment; the weaponization and bastardization of religion by systems of power for purposes of control ;Catholic converts and the TradCath phenomena; the value of spirituality; Traditionalism and right-wing mythologies; Ancient Aliens, Erich Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, and racialism - Explaining the rise of QAnon - A discussion of the Brazilian uprisings and the Jan 6th riots after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden; the funding of these uprisings/riots by right-wing billionaires; the Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, and right-wing paramilitary groups; the QAnon shaman, MAGA, and the belief of the rioters that they were saving the government from a "deep state" coup; how people are primed into QAnon, MAGA, and similar movements; how people are animated by mythologies that make them the heroes of their own story - Discussing the concept and idea of the deep state; technocracy and the administrative state; why Trump resonated with a portion of the American populace; authoritarianism and the desire to be part of something bigger than oneself - The problem with blaming "hillbillies" for the rise of the far-right - Pro wrestling, kayfabe, how WWE's "Montreal Screwjob" helps us understand the modern political moment, Hulk Hogan and the power of mythological storytelling, the pro wrestling-ification of television news and political media like Tucker Carlson, and political grifting - The culture war over M&M's and the illusion of ideology and rebellion in consumerism - Briefly discussing the movie Judas and the Black Messiah about Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers and its relevance - The concept of freedom on the left and the right; the left's pro-freedom, liberatory narrative - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, anthropologist David H. Price, author of Weaponizing Anthropology and Cold War Anthropology: Social Science in the Service of the Militarized State, returns to discuss his latest book The American Surveillance State: How the U.S. Spies on Dissent. The conversation begins with David H. Price discussing his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about interactions between American anthropologist, the FBI, the CIA, and American military agencies. We delve into how David became involved in looking at how anthropologists and social science were utilized in the global War on Terror, especially through the Human Terrain System program. In other words, the use of anthropology and social science for social monitoring and control. From there we delve into the thesis of The American Surveillance State and the idea, put forth by CIA whistleblower Philip Agee, that agencies like the FBI and CIA act as "the secret police of American capitalism". In this regard we discuss how intelligence agency institutions became powerful surveillance apparatuses that often targeted the labor and radical leftist movements. This also allows us to discuss the (in)famous figure of longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and some conversation about the period of WWII and the transition into the Cold War. Among other topics we also manage to discuss: - The history of phone surveillance and wiretapping - The Total Information Awareness program and mass data collection - The issue of corporate surveillance as well as government surveillance - The American Surveillance State's targeting of anthropologist Gene Weltfish, Native American activist Archie Phinney, and South African anti-apartheid activist Ruth First; the targeted surveillance of activists who sought to expose systems of racial inequality - American anthropology, racial inequality, and the American surveillance state in the era of Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare in the 1940s and 1950s - Addressing arguments that the massive surveillance and suppression of privacy and individual rights is necessary to fighting security threats like terrorism - The deep roots of anti-communism in the U.S. Liberal anti-communism in the CIA and right-wing anti-communism in Hoover's FBI; President Harry S. Truman and the Truman loyalty oaths program (which targeted federal employees) as a precursor to McCarthyism; Truman vs. Harry Wallace and the weaponizing the surveillance state against political enemies - The FBI's targeting of liberal anti-communists; liberal anti-communist German-American anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank, the Global South, and Frank's critique of American economic hegemony; the FBI's massive file on Andre Gunder Frank - The FBI file on left-wing Academy Award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker Haskell Wexler, who directed the film Medium Cool (a movie filmed in the midst of the riots at the Chicago Democratic National Convention (DNC) in 1968; Wexler's film on the Weather Underground and FBI surveillance of Wexler - Court trials, jury selection, prosecutors, and the FBI - The FBI and Palestinian-American academic Edward Said, the founder of postcolonial studies; the monitoring of Said, who was known for his pro-Palestinian views - The FBI file on the late left-wing journalist Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch; the American Surviellance State and Alexander Cockburn's visa - Anthropologist Melville Jacobs, who was a student of Franz Boaz, and how he was targeted for his involvement with communism; pre-McCarthy threats against anthropologists who addresses issues of inequality; academic freedom, Cold Wars paranoia/fears, and the rumored-to-be-antisemitic academic who acted as an FBI informant against Jewish professors - Spanish anthropologist Angel Palerm, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the monitoring of Palerm over his work on Latin America; informants in the OAS - Why is certain information redacted in FOIA documents?; why is some information withheld or claimed to be non-existent when it comes to FOIA requests? - FBI incompetence and FOIA - Price's thoughts on the FBI and it's handling of modern domestic terrorism threats, specifically far right-wing groups like the Proud Boys and white supremacist organizations; how surveillance of right-wing groups like the Ku Klux Klan arguably differs from surveillance of left-wing groups; intelligence agency responses to the far-right as being far too late and far less numerous than targeting of left-wing activists - Liberal sentiments that the FBI and other intelligence agencies are the heroes that will save America from Trump and the far-right; Price's response to this - How to make a FOIA request; the ins and outs of making a FOIA request - Has Price ever requested a FOIA on himself?; the CIA's review of one of Price's books - Responding to people who believe that any talk of the surveillance state is just tinfoil hat, right-wing conspiracy theory crankery territory - The CIA vs. the FBI during the Cold War and the roots of the CIA at Yale University - J. Edgar Hoover as a creature of the FBI rather than the Cold War FBI being a creature of Hoover; analysis of institutions vs. hyper-focusing on specific individuals like Hoover - Edward Snowden and the need for a new Watergate moment which will bring about new investigations into the American Surveillance State and possible reforms; FBI oversight, the Pike Committee, and the response to the Watergate scandal - Are we too numb to the American Surveillance State at this point to be outraged by it? - And more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, noted Portland, OR radio personality Rick Emerson joins us to discuss the wild story of the controversial anti-drug book Go Ask Alice as explored in his book Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposer Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries. In 1971, a book purporting to be the diaries of a teenage girl who fell into drug addiction through LSD swept the nation. In an age of growing concerns over teenage drug use, especially psychedelics, the book became a sensational success and has continuously remained in-print since that time. Questions about the authenticity of the book, credited to "Anonymous", arose and the truth about the book's actual author leads one to Beatrice Sparks, a conservative Mormon youth counselor who would later go on to fan fears about Satanism through the similarly-claimed-to-be-autobiographical-account-of-teen-trouble Jay's Journal. Rick and I will discuss the story of Go Ask Alice and the question of its authorship throughout the conversation on this episode as well as delving into the political climate of the 1970s, legendary TV personality Art Linkletter and the crusade against drugs in response to the 60s counterculture, the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, the TV movie version of Go Ask Alice starring Star Trek's William Shatner, why Go Ask Alice resonated with many youths who read the book, parents offended by Go Ask Alice subject matter and depiction of drug use, book banning and Go Ask Alice, the religious background and conservative Republican politics of Beatrice Sparks, the American press/media and Go Ask Alice, literary frauds and literary imposters, Richard Nixon and the War on Drugs, teenaged sex in Go Ask Alice and how that made the book scandalous, Go Ask Alice as the birth of the YA (Young Adult) novel, the infamous "Another day, another blowjob" line in the book, parental fears about the state of the youth reflected in Go Ask Alice, Go Ask Alice as sensationalistic anti-drug propaganda in the form of a "cautionary tale" (and why it may be more than that for many of the people that read it), Go Ask Alice as a book with a cult following today due to its camp quality, how Rick became interested in Go Ask Alice and the story behind it, the diary format of the book and the mystery/allure around the book being written by "Anonymous", Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit" with the line "Go Ask Alice", the teen suicide follow-up to Go Ask Alice entitled Jay's Journal, Go Ask Alice's protagonist as being a composite of people Beatrice Sparks treated as a counselor, the early advertising for Go Ask Alice, the early reviews of Go Ask Alice and the glowing New York Times review that treated it as an authentic diary without much skepticism, the question of whether Go Ask Alice is a good book (well-written vs. impactful to the reader), exploring Go Ask Alice in light of phenomena like fake news and right-wing conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate, how Jay's Journal helped create or accelerate the fears about Satanic cults and cult-related teen suicide, scapegoating and how books like Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal can actually cause us to sweep the real causes of youth issues like adolescent mental health under the rug, the moral panic about Dungeons and Dragons being a tool of the devil of the 1980s, moral panics and the muzzling of child creativity, how lines from Go Ask Alice were recycled in later Beatrice Sparks books, why do literary hoaxes like Go Ask Alice and the JT Leroy books happen?, and much, much more! It's an amazing story that will lead us into discussion of politics, social mores, censorship, paranoia, moral panics, history, literary hoaxes, the War on Drugs, the tumultuous climate of the 1970s, and the struggles of being a teenager in America.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Joseph Fishkin, Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, joins us to discuss his new book, co-authored with William E. Forbath, The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy. Oligarchy is a term often used when describing power players in countries like Russia. But what of the United States? And what can a look at the Founding Father and the Constitution tells us about American concerns about oligarchic wealth and power throughout U.S. history? In this conversation we seek to answer that question and we talk about the history of progressive reforms in the U.S. and debates that have been had over the Constitution over the years. Additionally, Joseph and I discuss constitutional arguments, the problem with overconcentration of wealth into the hands of the few, and Fishkin's belief that American liberals and the left must not ceded constitutional arguments to the right-wing. Among the topics covered: - Beliefs among the Founding Fathers about the need for a broad middle class for the Republic to function and how to much wealth concentrated into the hands of landed oligarchs would be disruptive - FDR and the "Democracy of Opportunity" tradition; wealth inequality as a hinderance to freedom; how we conceptualize the idea of freedom on the right and the left of the political spectrum - How the American right-wing seized the ground of Constitutional arguments - The Supreme Court - Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Alexander Hamilton, class, and divisions amongst the Founding Fathers on certain issues - The Civil War, Reconstruction,  Abolitionists, Radical Republicans, the landed aristocracy, slavery and "Forty Acres and a Mule" - The collapse of Reconstruction, the political system in the South, the landed aristocracy and the use of wealth to influence politics - The landed aristocracy's attempts to prevent fusion politics between the poor black and poor whites; fusionist pro-labor politics as a challenge to oligarchic interest in the South - Explaining the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th century; the resistance to the massive wealth concentration and monopolies of that time; the emerging American underclass in the Gilded Age; the call for better wage, redistribution of wealth, and more that informed the early 20th century labor movement - How early 20th century courts used constitutional law arguments to put down labor strikes; how populists and progressives crafted constitutional counter-arguments against the courts' arguments in response; parallels between the Gilded Age and today (are we living in The Second Gilded Age?) - Constitutional arguments as needing to be within the realm of politics rather than just arguments to be made in the courts; progressive claims on the Constitution; Franklin Delano Roosevelt's contention that the Constitution is a "laymen's document" rather than just a lawyer's document full of arcana to be argued over by elites - The history of American populism and it's importance; the hijacking of American populism; right-wing populism and how the right-wing defines elitism and elites in a way that differs from the left; "The Kingfish" Huey Long; Bernie Sanders and populism - LBJ's "The Great Society" and the phenomena Fishkin and Forbath refer to as "The Great Forgetting"; FDR and the New Deal; court-packing; social security and labor law; the left's move towards making technical expertise arguments over constitutional arguments - Campaign finance law and the need for Constitutional arguments in the U.S. today - And much, much more!