Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, Project Censored' Nolan Hidon returns to the program alongside the Media Freedom Foundation's Allison Butler to discuss their recent USA Today article "Strangers are spying on your child. And schools are paying them to do it". Since the pandemic, big tech hardware and software has become even more ubiquitous in schools across the United States. Is there a downside to this alliance between the American education system and big tech companies? Nolan Higdon and Allison Butler argue that big tech's latest ventures in the classroom violate students' right to privacy and stifle their learning environments. In fact, they go so far as to invoke George Orwell's 1984 in addressing the issues of big tech in the classroom. Among the topics we'll be discussing are: companies and software such as  Turnitin, ClassDojo, Illuminate Education and G Suite for Education; the effects of big tech surveillance and the potential for student self-censorship in the classroom; data breaches in schools; big tech surveillance in the classroom's growth and its coinciding with the renewed issues around book banning; the difficult in measuring what the possible negative impacts of big tech's influence in the classroom will be going forward; and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Ramon Glazov, translator of Girgio De Maria's The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works and author of assorted pieces found in such publications as Jacobin and Overland, joins us to discuss the Russian far-right philosopher Alexander Dugin. Dugin has been in the news due to his daughter's death in a fiery car explosion. This episode will not deal so much with that current events incident, but rather the question of Dugin's significance to the regime of Vladimir Putin. In both mainstream and alternative/independent media Dugin has often been described as "Putin's Brain" or "Putin's Rasputin".  Ramon believes the evidence for Dugin's significance  to Putin and the Russian state has been vastly overstated in a way that has negative consequences. We'll discuss Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics, his "Fourth Political Theory", Dugin and postmodernism, Dugin's anti-China views, Dugin's more bizarre geopolitical proposals that are unlikely to be held by Putin or the Kremlin, elitism vs. populism on the right, the Traditionalist thinker Julius Evola, the modernist poet and rabid antisemite Ezra Pound, French far-right thinker Alain de Benoist, the political uselessness of Evolian occultism, Dugin's removal from the University of Moscow for genocidal comments directed at Ukraine/Ukrainians, the paradox of Dugin's self-professed "ethno-centrism, but not racism" views, Dugin's defensive identity politics, spiritual racism, fascism, Russian punk/counterculture icon Eduard Liminov and National Bolshevism, Dugin's views on Germany, Western journalism on Dugin and cherry-picking what Dugin says, Dugin's pluralist relativism, racist ideas about Russians as inherently relativist in their thinking, Dugin and the Kremlin, isolationism and the paradox of far-right wing "anti-globalism", far-right intellectuals and political opportunism, Dugin/Pound/Evola as political hanger-ons, Steve Bannon Vs. a figure Julius Evola or Alexander Dugin, Ezra Pound's WWII propaganda broadcasts in Mussolini's Italy, Ezra Pound's mental hospital stay, Dugin's strange views on Soviet Union serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, is the two-state solution in the Israel/Palestine conflict dead? If so what are the possible futures moving forward for Israel/Palestine? Dr. Ian S. Lustick, the Bess W. Heyman Chair in the Political Science Department of the University of Pennsylvania, joins us to discuss why he believes the two-state solution is now an impossibility as argued in his 2019 book Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality. Recently, Dr. Lustick's book was just recently released in a Hebrew-language edition which is what helped precipitate this conversation. Among the topics discussed in this conversation: - The history of the the two-state solution including discussion of Great Britain, the Peel Commission, partition, the United Nations, Zionism, Palestinian Arabs, the 1967 Six-Day War, and the return of partition discussion in the 1970s - Dr. Lustick's support for the two-state solution and his work on that matter starting in the 1970s; how Dr. Lustick's views evolved over time and why he no longer believes the two-state solution is within the realm of possibility - The use of the term "one-state reality" rather than solution in the title of the book; the loss of the two-state solution as a paradigm of thought; the promise and hope that exists within new ways of thinking about Israel/Palestine - The question of the Israel lobby (specifically AIPAC) and U.S. foreign policy; John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's critique of the lobby as related to U.S. national interests and the ways in which Dr. Lustick's analysis is both in way similar to and different to Mearsheimer and Walt's analysis - The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement - Revisionist Zionism, Likud Party founder and Israel's sixth Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Zionist thinker Vladimir "Ze'ev" Jabotinsky, and the "Iron Wall" strategy - Secret negotiations, sabotaging of peace processes, and the failure of Oslo Accords - Gaza and the West Bank - President Joe Biden's comments on Israel/Palestine early on in his White House tenure and why Dr. Lustick believes they are significant - The nature of political change, the evolution of the Democratic Party from supporting Jim Crow to being the party of the first black President Barack, and the abandonment of the "Demographic" argument in regards to Israel/Palestine - What does Dr. Lustick have to say about, for example, Gazans than can't wait for decades long changes through a long protracted struggle? - The theme of unintended consequences in Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality - Commenting on the human rights-centric approach to Israel/Palestine as advocated by Palestinian human rights attorney Zaha Hassan and others - Peter Beinart and the changing of the guard on the issue of Israel/Palestine and the two-state solution - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we return to the issue of the struggles faced by people living in the Gaza Strip. Specifically, we are honing in on the mental health crisis in Gaza, especially in regards to children. Joining us is Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, a Palestinian clinical neuro-psychiatrist and the Director General of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. This is a sobering conversation in which Dr. Jamei details how trauma, fear, and poverty have coalesced in Gaza to create mental health for its inhabitants. We'll be discussing the effects of the Israeli occupation, air-strikes, difficult socio-economic conditions, and the biopsychosocial model as they relate to these matters. Additionally, Dr. Jamei will discuss the issue of education and universities in Gaza, the differences in challenges face by men and women/boys and girls in Gaza, Gaza and human rights (and framing the issues around human rights rather than religious conflict), the discourse around Gaza in Western media, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a previously unpublished interview with journalist Dave Lindorff of This Can't Be Happening on the fascinating story of the Theodore Alvin Hall, the American physicist who became an atomic spy by sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But this is not just the story of Ted Hall. It's also the story of his brother Edward Hall, who, despite his skepticism towards the Soviet Union, protected his brother against J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Moreover, it's a case that asks the question, "Why did Ted Hall share these secrets with the Soviet Union?" As it turns out, the answer to that question may be more noble, if we consider Hall's perspective, than one would imagine. We dive into the world of atomic bombs, Hiroshima and Nagaski, the Manhattan Project, spying, the romance between Ted Hall and his wife Joan Hall, the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the "What If" scenario of the U.S. having a monopoly on nuclear weapons after WWII, the physicist and atomic spy Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall's motivation for becoming an atomic spy, the incredible life of Ted's brother Edward (including a connection to Operation Paperclip and working on a top secret missile program at Wright Patterson Air Force Base), the interrogation of Ted Hall, the FBI file on Edward Hall, Ted Halls' Harvard roommate (and spy) Savile Sax, and much, much more! For more information on Ted's story please read Dave's article at The Nation entitled "One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal".

On this edition of Parallax Views, Kathy Reichs, author of the best-selling Bones series of murder mystery/thriller novels, joins us to discuss the 21st entry in the series, Cold, Cold Bones. The Bones books follows Temperance Brennan as she helps solve crimes with her expertise in forensic anthropology. Reichs' novels became so popular that they eventually spawned a hit TV series that lasted 12 seasons. In Cold, Cold Bones Tempe is made to revisit her old cases after she and her daughter discover a mysterious package at her place. Said package contains a human eyeball that leads her to a Benedictine Monastery and what eventually comes to pass is that a copycat killer familiar with Tempe's earlier cases is on the loose. Will Tempe solve the murders in time? In this conversation Reichs and I discuss the enduring nature of the Bones series, speculation that Tempe is on the autism spectrum, the ways in which readers relate to Tempe, thoughts on the hit TV series based on Reichs' books, working at Ground Zero after 9/11, Reichs' anthropological work in Guatamala (which inspired her novel Grave Secrets), the appearance of humor in her murder mystery stories, an overview of Cold, Cold Bones, the snowstorm setting of Cold, Cold Bones, misconceptions about forensic anthropology, DNA and the evolution of forensic anthropology, how newspaper headlines and stories influence Kathy's stories, how CRISPR tech influenced a Temperance Brennan murder mystery, how Kathy went from bio-archaeology to helping police on cases as a forensic anthropologist, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy's Grant F. Smith returns to discuss his new podcast documentary series How Israel Made AIPAC. Grant takes through the history of AIPAC, often simply referred to as the Israel lobby, from its earliest days vis-a-vis the figure of lobbyist Isaiah L. Kenen. Grant gives an overview about the origins of AIPAC and issues related to Israel in the 20th century including the Transfer Agreement and the Third Reich, Haganah arms smuggling, NUMEC and how Israel acquired nuclear weapons, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),  the U.S. State Department, Ze'ev "Vladimir" Jabotinsky and the Likud Party, and more. We'll also discuss the importance of this documentary series to current events and U.S. foreign policy today as well as the ways in which previous Presidents like the Pendergast Machine-affiliated Harry Truman could be compromised by private or foreign interests. Then, in a brief bonus segment, Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.Com joins us to discuss how a recent CBS documentary on U.S./NATO arming of Ukraine was pulled after Volodymyr Zelensky's government complained about it. One of the issues raised by the documentary was the question of how many of the arms being sent to Ukraine are actually making it into the hands of the military. Ukraine's foreign defense minister has called for CBS to launch an internal investigation to see who "enabled" the documentary.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we delve into the intellectual life and thought of Michael Harrington, a key figure of the American New Left who helped found the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). The author of the influential The Other America: Poverty in the United States, Harrington was a proponent of what he called "the left wing of the possible" and thus believed that socialists must push for a re-alignment of the Democratic Party. Joining us to offer a critique Harrington's thought is Doug Greene, author of the zer0 books title A Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism. Among the topics covered in this conversation: - The early intellectual development of Michael Harrington and his interest in bohemianism - Harrington's anti-communism, his belief in a popular front sans Stalinists, and his relationship to New Left in the 60s - Harrington's "left wing of the possible" strategy and the Democratic Party - The influence of theorist Max Schachtman on Harrington's thinking; Harrington's concept of "Democratic Marxism" - Liberalism, Capitalism, Michael Harrington, and the reformist vs. revolutionary divide - Michael Harrington, the DSA, and the Israel/Palestine conflict - Michael Harrington, the Vietnam War, and imperialism - Harrington's value beyond the criticisms Greene has of him - Harrington's The Other America, FDR the New Deal coalition, and LBJ's Great Society - Harrington's debates with or critiques of right-wing figures like William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, longtime activist and populist historian Harvey "Sluggo" Wasserman joined the show to discuss his life of radical activism and his new book The People's Spiral of U.S. History: From Jigonsaseh to Solartopia. This conversation is a wild ride as Harvey gives us an overview of his long life including stories of Democratic National Convention riots in 1968, writing a pro-marijuana article in his youth that caused him to appear on multiple TV shows, dropping acid in the 1960s, living in a hippie farming community, discovering the life and times of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, the COINTELPRO-era FBI's attempts to infiltrate and destroy a radical news service Harvey was involved with called Liberation News Service, and helping to kickstart the anti-nukes/"No Nukes" movement as well as his encounters with Howard Zinn, Martin Luther King, Jr., Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, and many, many others. Additionally, Harvey and I also manage to discuss: - California Governor Gavin Newsom, Diablo Canyon nuclear reactors, and the problems with nuclear power - The People's Spiral of U.S. History as dealing with a cyclical interpretation of U.S. history influenced by William Appleman Williams that details a dialectical struggle between the indigenous and puritanical elements in America's cultural DNA that Wasserman traces back to America's earliest origins - Harvey's "Law of Unintended Consequences" in history, J. Edgar Hoover, and helping to pioneer organic farming - LSD, mushrooms, Gordon Wasson, ergot poisoning and the Salem Witch Trials, the CIA's involvement in spreading acid, whether Timothy Leary was working for the U.S. intelligence community and MKULTRA, and Terence McKenna's "Stoned Ape" theory - Organizing protests that shutdown a nuclear power plant and why that campaign succeeded - Nuclear energy, Fukushima, and Chernobyl; Putin, nuclear reactors, and the war in Ukraine; nuclear reactors built on earthquake faults - Nuclear power vs. solar and wind power - Republican Election stealing and Harvey's work with political scientist and Columbus Free Press journalist Bob Fitrakis on unusual activity in Ohio related to the 2004 Presidential election that pitted George W. Bush against John Kerry - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, James C. Zimring, M.D., Ph.D., Thomas W. Tillack Professor of Experimental Pathology at the University of Virginia, joins us to discuss his new book Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort Our Thinking. Zimring is also the author of What Science Is and How It Really Works. This conversation was recorded on 6/21/22. In this conversation Zimring explains what his book is about and how it deals with the ways in which fractional thinking shapes the way we think about the world. When we talk about fractions and fractional thinking in this conversation, however, we are not talking about solving math problems in an classroom or academic setting. Instead, as Zimring explains, we discussing our everyday usage of fractional thinking that we often take for granted. This fractional thinking is necessary, as we learn in this conversation, but also can distort our perception about a number of phenomena and issues. Among the topics covered in this conversation are: - Fractional thinking and the moral panic around Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s - Fractional thinking and the blunder of the Iraq War during the Presidency of George W. Bush - Fractional thinking and the strange story of a McDonald's burger - New Age beliefs, spirituality, religion, and an on-air cold reading experiment - Heuristics, the availability heuristic, and inductive reasoning - A recent study by the Heritage Institute on Israel and China and the fault reasoning used in the study - Big data and racism - Information, p-hacking, selective reporting, and faulty academic studies - The problems of science reporting - And much, much more!