Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, Russ Baker of WhoWhatWhy (and author of the cult classic book Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years) joined me to discuss a fascinating story he got from the late Len Colodny (co-author, with Robert Gettlin, of the controversial Watergate book Silent Coup: The Removal of a President) about a conversation Colodny had with Roger Stone in which the long-time Republican "dirty trickster" claimed back in 2016 of plans for a disruption that could remind one of what happened a year ago with the Capitol breach on January 6th. Additionally, Russ and I also discuss the figure of Taylor Budowich, a Trum spokesman, and a for-profit California entity he just so happened to create on January 6th, 2021. Turns out Budowich has filed a suit to block the Jan 6th getting more testimony and financial documents from him. Budowich has also gone to court the banking giant JP Morgan Chase over his records. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views! "Roger Stone: Widespread Disorder Was Planned for 2016, Had Trump Lost" by Russ Baker - WhoWhatWhy - January 5, 2021 "Exclusive: Trump’s Election Chaos First Hatched in 2016, Says Roger Stone" by Russ Baker - WhoWhatWhy - November 3, 2020 "Did Trump Spokesman Hide Assets on January 6?" by Russ Baker - WhoWhatWhy - January 6, 2021

On this edition of Parallax Views, during the 2016 Presidential election a conspiracy theory known as Pizzagate went viral online. Said theory alleged that influential members of the Democratic Party were involved in child sex rings that engaged in human trafficking of minors through a Washington D.C. pizzeria known as Comet Ping Pong. Believer in the theory grew in numbers as discussion of Pizzagate proliferated through 4chan, websites like Infowars and Your News Wire, r/DonaldTrump Reddit and its subreddit r/Pizzagate, as well as other digital spaces. Comet Ping Pong owner reported harassment of himself and his employees at the hands of the theory's believers. Then, on December 4th, 2016, Edgar Madison Welch, armed with an AR-15 style rife and spurred to action after reading about Pizzagate, opened fire on Comet Ping Pong. Welch was subsequently apprehended and arrested before anyone could be injured. Rather than blowing the lid off an alleged shadowy cabal's nefarious activities at a D.C. pizza shop, Welch instead found himself serving a 4-year prison sentence. That, however, was not the end of the Pizzagate saga. Despite a lack of evidence for its central claims, belief in Pizzagate persisted and mutated into new forms. In 2020, for example, Pizzagate was reborn in a new iteration on the social media website TikTok. Additionally, phenomena like QAnon or the "Stop the Steal" movement, both of which figured into the now infamous January, 6th, 2021 breach of the Capitol, very arguably evolved from or at least are adjacent to the Pizzagate theory's proponents. Texas-based filmmaker John M. Valley recently took the phenomena of this particular conspiracy theory and its far-reaching social ramifications as a springboard for darkly satirizing fake news and right-wing political paranoia in the independent film The Pizzagate Massacre. A road movie with elements of horror and western within its trappings, The Pizzagate Massacre follows recently fired rookie journalist Karen (Alexandria Payne) and militia man Duncan (Tinus Sinoux) as they travel to a Texas-based pizzeria that sensationalistic local media personality Terri Lee (Austin-based comedian Lee Eddy) claims is the site of a sinister child trafficking conspiracy run by an shadowy elite cabal that includes shapeshifting reptilians (a la David Icke conspiracy theories) in its ranks. Meanwhile, Duncan's rival within the local militia, Philip (John M. Valley), spurred on by Lee's Pizzagate theories, has plans of his own that could have violent consequences. John M. Valley joins me on this edition of Parallax Views to discuss the movie, its themes, the process of making it, and the threats he received from Pizzagate believers before the film was even released. Among the topics discussed: - Capitalism, media, Alex Jones, and the supercharging of tribalism in the service of monetization - The specters of Waco, Ruby Ridge, David Koresh, and the Branch Davidians in the movie -  John Carpenter, Sam Peckinpah, and The Pizzagate Massacre as a neo-western - Roger Corman and the potential of genre and exploitation movies to allow independent filmmakers a way of exploring important social, cultural, and political issues - Film as a collaborative effort; how a cast and crew can bring their own vision to a movie alongside the director's vision - Making a film that feels high budget on less than a million dollars ("micro-budget") - The "lizard people" trope and conspiracy theories as metaphor; discernment and the weaponization of conspiracy theories today and in the past; conspiracy theories as potentially conspiracies in and of themselves sometimes - Attempting to empathize with people who fall down rabbit holes like QAnon and Pizzagate while also critiquing right-wing conspiracy culture - How the narrative of The Pizzagate Massacre unfolds from the perspective of multiple characters with their own biases and its purpose within the film's thematic tableau - The 2020 horror/thriller The Hunt, which was cancelled by Trump supporters for its storyline involving liberal elites hunting "deplorables" - Belief, empathy, and uncertainty - The death threats John received over the movie before it was even released - The portrayal of militias and their culture within the movie - How cinema can offer a different perspective than news media on issues related to politics, culture, and society - And much, much more

On this edition of Parallax Views, we discuss the little-known-to-U.S.-audiences history of South Korean dictator Chun Doo-Hwan, the Gwangju uprising and massacre, and the U.S. complicity in this history. Joining us to unpack it all are returning guest and long-time journalist Tim Shorrock as well as first time guest In Jeong Kim, who has worked as an investigative journalist for the South Korean public broadcasting station Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). In Jeong Kim is also the co-director and co-producer and two documentaries, 2017's His Name Is... and 2017's Candle Light Movement. His Name Is... dealt with the Gwangju massacre directly and Kim's work has led to the discovery of documents about U.S. complicity in Chun Doo-Hwan's bloody legacy. In this conversation we discuss who Chun Doo-Hwan was and how both Tim Shorrock and In Jeong Kim became interested in the subjects of Doo-Hwan and the Gwangju massacre. We discuss how Chun Doo-Hwan came to power as well as the story of the Gwangju uprising that pitted armed citizens against state officials like the police and soldiers. Kim discusses the memos she has uncovered documenting U.S. complicity in all of this during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter and his campaign for re-election. Additionally, Kim fills us in on the horrors faced by survivors of the massacre, in particular highlighting the story of Lee Gwang-yeong, A Buddhist monk and survivor of the Gwangju massacre who took his own life at the age of 68. We also discuss the key issues surrounding South Korea and the Gwangju uprising and the massacre that people in the U.S. may miss and how all of this relates to the 20th century Cold War. There's also some discussion of how we talk about North Korea and Kim Jong-Un in America and Tim particularly takes aim at a recent report in the New York Times alleging the murder of k-pop music listeners in North Korea that seemingly relied solely on claims made by the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy. While both Kim and Shorrock believe there is a humanitarian crisis in regard to North Korea, they both feel that some of the discourse around North Korea and South Korea in America is problematic. In particular, Tim points towards the racism and colonialism when South Korea and North Korea are discussed in media. Tim points towards a rather racist piece by P.J. Rourke and J.G. mentions comments made by Zbigniew Brzezinski concerning U.S. foreign policy in Korea. We also cover the conspiracy theories and the right-wing in South Korea attempting to whitewash the massacre, Chun Doo-Hwan's death and the fact he never made an apology for his actions, Chun Doo-Hwan's memoir and fake news, Chun Doo-Hwan's arrest and the lack of accountability for the Gwangju Massacre, destruction of Gwangju uprising documents under Doo-Hwan's reign, the U.S. and the mentality of Empire, the need for the U.S. to declassify documents about Doo-Hwan and the Gwangju uprising, the CIA claiming documents referenced by U.S. General John A. Wickham do not exist, the Iran hostage crisis, and much, much more! "Chun Doo-hwan’s bloody Gwangju legacy is America’s problem too" by Tim Shorrock and In Jeong Kim - Responsible Statecraft - 12/14/21

On this edition of Parallax Views, we are joined, courtesy of a very helpful listener's suggestion, by Dr. Ye Tao of The Rowland Institute at Harvard to discuss possible solutions to the biggest immediate threats posed by climate change and to unpack the problems of corporate greenwashing and the infinite growth model of capitalism. The nature of this conversation also leads to a discussion of the possibility, or perhaps necessity, of a post-capitalist paradigm in the future. The main focus of this conversation is a very interesting project Dr. Tao is involved in known as MEER Framework or the Mirrors for Earth's Energy Rebalancing Framework project. Said project involves the use of mirrors as a cooling mechanism to counteract the warming effects of climate change. From the MEER website: We envision a new role for Homo sapiens: stabilizer of the natural world and replenisher of Earth's ecosystems. This new role will require: - acknowledgement that we have transgressed the thresholds of Earth's carrying capacity; - acceptance of Earth’s delicate and finely balanced climate system; - deep-rooted respect for the finiteness of Earth's abiotic physical resources; - full appreciation of our interconnectedness with other species; - and the simultaneous emergence of efficient fabrication technologies and universal social values that are transformative. Embracing this new role can place us on the only available path that leads to a future of hope and plenty, on this radiant blue, swirling white, planet of life. In the course of our conversation we will discuss a number of topics including an explanation of the science behind MEER, climate justice and the Global South, the problems of "infinite growth" on a finite planet, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, a previously unpublished conversation between J.G. Michael and journalist Gabriella Lombardo of WhoWhatWhy about the mysteries that remain around Ghislaine Maxwell, notorious Jeffrey Epstein associate and the daughter of the controversial & enigmatic media mogul Robert Maxwell. This was recorded on 12/06/21. Since then the verdict has come in on the case of Ghislaine Maxwell vis-a-vis a guilty verdict. The conversation deals more withthe strange stories of Epstein, Robert Maxwell, and Ghislaine more so than the trial itself and the implications of the remaining mysteries. We discuss a number of issues including alleged intelligence connections the Epstein/Maxwell saga, the parallels between Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, the mysterious death of Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell's whereabouts in between Jeffrey Epstein's death and her trial, Maxwell's ocean non-profit TerraMar Project, Ghislaine Maxwell and the United Nations, Ghislaine Maxwell and the Clintons, an underage girl who appeared in the Epstein flight logs eventually became part of the TerraMar Project, Virginia Giuffre's defamation suit against Ghislaine Maxwell, the unsealing of records immediately prior to Epstein's death, Ghislaine Maxwell in New Hampshire, false memory syndrome and Elizabeth Loftus, Epstein's hold over Les Wexner, Epstein and Maxwell allegedly threatening victims and journalists like Vicky Ward, mysteries that still swirl around Epstein himself, international modeling and Jean Luc-Brunel, MC2 Modeling, powerful men and abuse, the cultural reading of the Epstein/Maxwell saga, Ghislaine Maxwell as akin Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons, the Epstein/Maxwell saga as a blow to American exceptionalism, a feminist angle/reading of the Epstein/Maxwell saga, the social reproduction of abusers like Epstein, aristocratic wealth and social stratification (what are the implications for how someone with that wealth effects one's psychology and how the relate to the world socially?), and much, much more! Will Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Reveal Jeffrey Epstein Secrets? by Gabriella Lombardo -11/29/21 - WhoWhatWhy.Org

On this edition of Parallax Views, we have a double-header episode. First, free speech is an issue often discussed in American politics. One aspect of that discussion involves a movement called BDS, or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. The BDS movement seeks to pressure Israel on issues related to Palestinian human rights vis-a-vis the three measures of its initials. This has caused backlash from Israel and its supporters, including many evangelicals Christians in the United States. In an attempt to quash the BDS movement, the conservative organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) and certain states within the U.S. are seeking to put anti-BDS laws on the books. This led to Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leverett being asked to sign a pledge that his publication would make a pledge to Israel against BDS. Leverett refused on the grounds that the publication is neither for or against Israel, is focused on local issues of significance to Arkansas rather than the Middle East, and that said the state forcing such a pledge from the Arkansas Times violates both the 1st and 14th amendments. This has not only cost the publication in advertising revenue, but has also led to a court case in which the Arkansas Times is being supported by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). The case, Leverett says, is not so much about Israel/Palestine (Leverett's publication has no stance on this issue) but rather free speech. The case will likely go to the Supreme Court and has ramification for freedom of speech across America. Alan Leverett  joins us to discuss this case and its implications, which has gained more attention thanks to his November op-ed in the New York Times entitled "We're a Small Arkansas Newspaper. Why is the State Making Us Sign a Pledge About Israel?" Then, the Center for International Policy's William Hartung joined me to discuss the war in Yemen and how U.S. arms sales from the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies have enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to carry out deadly blockades and bombings on the Yemeni people. President Biden had promised to end the U.S. support for the war in Yemen. However, he is now signing off on an arms sale worth $650 million. Congress, both Senate and the House, are seeking way to block the sales from happening. Said attempt to block the sale has received bipartisan support with its proponents including Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna. William and I discuss all of this as well as the problem with Washington's foreign policy establishment aka the D.C. "Blob", the changing consensus around U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the arms race with China, progressives and conservatives working together on issues pertaining to war and peace, countering the slur of "isolationism" when criticizing U.S. foreign policy, and more. Arming Repression: U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia, from Trump to Biden by William D. Hartung - Center for International Policy, Arms and Security Program - December 2021 "The Biden Administration’s Missile Sale to Saudi Arabia Is Offensive, and Must Be Stopped" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/28/21 "Congress Should Cut Off U.S. Military Support for Saudi Arabia" by William Hartung - Forbes 11/8/21

On this edition of Parallax Views, the American Israel Public Affairs Commitee (AIPAC) recently announced the launch of a Super PAC which signals its official entry into direct spending on U.S. elections. Joining us to explain the reasons AIPAC may be doing this as well as to give a critical overall perspective on the lobby is Grant F. Smith of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy. Joining me to co-host this conversation is "Free Palestine", host of the West Bank Robbery podcast. We discuss a number of issues including the Virginia Israel Advisory Board and Project Jonah, the Steve Rosen/Keith Weissman/Larry Franklin scandal, the need to avoid antisemitism in talking about both AIPAC and Israel/Palestine, Zaha Hassan and the human rights-centric approach to Israel/Palestine, Stealth PACs, Jamal Bowman, the Abraham Accords, the UAE, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's a double feature! First up, the legendary Jim Lobe, formerly of LobeLog and IPS (Inter Press Service), joins us to discuss his Responsible Statecraft piece "Houthi hysteria breaks out at the Wall Street Journal". For the uninitiated, Lobe is known for his reporting on the neoconservative movement and the Project for a New American Century think tank in the lead up to the Iraq War initiated under George W. Bush. In this conversation we discuss the Wall Street Journal seemingly shilling for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in two recent op-eds, one by journalist Karen Elliot House and another by the Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board. Saudi Arabia has been pleading for more Patriot missles from the U.S. to support its bombing and blockade efforts against the Houthis in Yemen. According to estimates the death toll inflicted upon Yemen now exceeds 350,000 with many of the victims being children. Recently, Saudi Arabia appears to have attempted to shut down a United Nation Human Rights Council investigation into what is happening in Yemen through actions that would serve to intimidate Muslims members of the council. Despite all of this, the Wall Street Journal frames the Kingdom as facing an existential threat by what it refers to as the "Iranian-backed Houthis. Jim and I discuss all of this including the exaggeration of the relationship between Iran and the Houthis, the sham of the "existential threat" framing, and more. Additionally, Jim and I also delve into issues related to the foreign policy establishment including talk of neoconservatism, Likudism, liberal interventionism, the long shadow of 1930s Munich, the Pentagon budget, Thomas Pickering, Robert Kagan as the renegade neocon, the subtle ideological differences between various factions of the foreign policy establishment and how they come together at certain times, and much, much more! On the second half of the program we're joined by Stephen Semler of the Security Policy Reform Institute (SPRI) to discuss the whopping $778 billion Pentagon budget passed by Congress last week. Said budget ended up being longer than the one proposed by President Biden. We discuss this as well as the death of Build Back Better, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema's support for the Pentagon budget despite their supposed aversion to runaway spending, how defense spending cuts into dealing with issues like climate change and healthcare, responding to critics who believe that defense budget spending shouldn't be debated because of the need to combat America's foreign adversary, answering the age old line about how defense spending as it stands now is good because it creates jobs, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, the distinguished historian Prof. Alfred W. McCoy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison joins us to discuss his latest book To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change. McCoy's previous works include the classic The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade as well as 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, Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State, Endless Empire: Spain’s Retreat, Europe’s Eclipse, America’s Decline, and In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power. In To Govern the Globe, delves into the history of empires and world orders from the Iberian Age to now as well as tackling the seeming decline of U.S. hegemonic power, the rise of China, and what climate change means for world order going forward. In this conversation Alfred and I begin by discussing the meaning of empire and world order and what those terms mean. We then delve into the issue of what Alfred calls the "delicate duality" in which Empires express ideals on one hand but seeks maintenance of power, often through breaking from those ideals, on the other. From there we dive into a number of other topics including the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, how the contradictions of the "delicate duality" can eventually undermine and subvert an empire, the degradation of U.S. moral authority vis-a-vis the torture at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo Bay, China and an alternative international order, climate change and its projected impact on Shanghai by 1950, the late geopolitical chess player Zbigniew Brzezinski, principle vs. power in China and the U.S., what the decline of U.S. power means for the American public, projecting 2030 as the year of America's loss of hegemonic power globally, Chinese military power and technology in the near future, the Pentagon war games in which the U.S. end up in a conflict with China over Taiwan, the succession of hegemonic powers historically and their struggles to dominate the Eurasian land mass, how the U.S. dominated the Eurasian landmass through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), China and the Shanghai Cooperative Organization, China and the tri-continental world island, potential waning of relations between U.S. with countries like Japan and the Philippines, the advantage that the U.S. has had as the global hegemon, the establishment of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency and the construction of a "Grand Imperial Bargain", the weak social safety net and low wages in the U.S. and workers relying on cheap good that could become expensive in the future (causing social tensions to arise and exacerbate), not wanting to make policy recommendation in To Govern the Globe as it could degrade an objective analysis of the historical trajectory, Barack Obama's strategy for containing China and the Asia Pivot, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Sir Halford McKinder and the World Island, Zbigniew Brzezinski's conditions for the perpetuation of U.S. hegemonic power and how all those conditions have been violated), climate change as the next catastrophe for world order and the choice between world order and barbarism that may face us as climate change worsen, climate change and the potential refugee crisis it could cause, the emergence of the First World Order through the Black Death and the destruction of the Mongolian Empire, the death of one world order and the emergence of another throughout history, China and coal power, projections indicating China will be hit by extreme heatwaves in the coming decades, international cooperation without the total loss of national sovereignty, the potential for a new kind of empowered world order to face climate change, climate change and the potential for brutal conflict over resources like water, the prosperous Global North vs. the impoverished Global South, John Mearsheimer and looking past the anarchic world system, the European Union, ceding limited and narrow areas of sovereignty as a small reform that could combat climate change, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston returns to the program to discuss his new book The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family. According to David's reporting the Trump Organization made a between a whopping 1.6 to 1.7 billion dollars during the Trump Presidency. Although Trump ledged to receive only a salary of $1 for his time as President (and, in fact, did donate his salary to charity), it appears Trump himself along with his daughter Ivanka Trump, Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, and other associates of the 45th President of the United States of America profited greatly from the Trump Presidency. In this way Trump is arguably the embodiment of a form of gangster capitalism. And "gangster" may well be apropos as David argues that the Trump family is actually a generational crime family. Despite all this, figures like Trump and Steve Bannon have promoted themselves as heroically trying to remember the "forgotten man" of the working class. Nothing could be further from the truth according to David Cay Johnston, who, it should be added, reports on the ways in which Trump bilked supporters in hospice and retirement out of their money in a very devious manner. In this conversation we cover all that as well as the story of Brian Kolfage and the "We Build the Wall" charity, how corruption under Trump differs from corruption of yesteryear like that associated with the Pendergast Machine and Tammany Hall, Donald Trump's effect on foreign policy, the story of the curious Trump associate Tom Barrack, why David refers to Trump as a carny huckster like P.T. Barnum (with one major difference) and his supporters as marks, Super PACs and the need for reforms, white collar crime, the Trump family history, Trump and Christianity, the death of conservatism in the United States, Trump and the Atlantic City casino business, Trump stealing from a dog charity, and much, much more!