Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, the ouster of Indonesia's first President Sukarno in and Indonesia's transition to his successor Suharto's "New Order", a regime that murdered millions in the name of anti-communism, in the 1960s remains mired in mystery and controversy. The events that transpired on October 1st, 1965, which involved the assassination of six Indonesian Army generals by the 30 September Movement, have proven murky and enigmatic. The Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66 that followed were a horror show. Who were all the players involved in and beneficiaries what ultimately became a coup against President Sukarno that allowed Suharto to take control of Jakarta and exercise a reign of terror against millions of Indonesian? What exactly transpired in the early hours of October 1st, 1965? What to make of potential U.S., specifically CIA, support of Sukarno's ouster? Questions like these have fascinated previous guests that have appeared on Parallax Views. Specifically, Prof. Peter Dale Scott, author of the long-form poem Coming to Jakarta, and journalist Vincent Bevins, author of The Jakarta Method, have both appeared on the program to discuss this haunting story. Now, Greg Poulgrain, Brisbane, Australia-based lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, joins us to discuss this chilling case. Poulgrain has written a number of books related to this period in Indonesian history and U.S. foreign policy's relation to it including The Genesis of Konfrontasi: Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, 1945-1965 and The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles. Poulgrain has continued his exploration of this period with his latest book JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia. He joins us on this edition of the program to discuss this latest work and to illuminate the shadows that lurk within the story of Sukarno's ouster and Indonesia's transition to Suharto's "New Order". It's a story that involves CIA spymaster Allen Dulles and President John F. Kennedy, the Rockefeller dynasty's Standard Oil Company, the international intrigue of geopolitics, the Cold War and the Sino-Soviet split, Freeport mining and a discovery of gold that remained a secret to many for years, and much, much more.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, we explore the history of racial justice struggles at Duke University. Much has been made of Duke alums Richard Spencer, a founding purveyor of the alt right, and Stephen Miller, a former advisor for President Donald Trump, but Duke's relationship with race and racism is a longstanding one. In fact, Duke was the cite of protests in the Civil Rights era culminating in the takeover of the Allan Building by black students of Duke's Afro American Society. Theodore Segal, lawyer and member of the board of directors for the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, joins us to discuss the stories history of racial integration, racism and segregation, and the fight for racial justice at this well-known Southern university out of North Carolina. Ted's new book on the subject is Point of Reckoning: The Fight for Racial Justice at Duke University. Among the topics discussed are the experiences of the first black students at Duke University, the Afro American Society, the "Silent Vigil" after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 1969 takeover of the Allen Building along with much, much more!

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, the Nation of Islam has often been analyzed as a political movement with the trappings of a religion. Dr. Stephen C. Finley, however, has been taking a decidedly different approach to understanding the NoI. Namely, he's sought to analyze the Nation of Islam as a religion with ties to New Age thought, UFO beliefs, Freemasonry, and other elements of the Western Esoteric Tradition. Needless to say, this approach departs from both the conventional histories of the Nation of Islam as well as the Western Esoteric Tradition. Dr. Finley joins us on this edition of the program to discuss his fascinating research into the Nation of Islam. Among the topics discussed: - The mysterious Master Fard Muhammad aka Wallace Fard Muhammad - Elijah Muhammad's formative experiences with racism and how it may relate to the theology of the Nation of Islam - Louis Farrakhan, the reconstituted Nation of Islam, and UFO beliefs - Theological narratives as a metaphor for the lived experience of everyday life (in this case of black bodies) - Discussion of  esotericism in the black religious experience outside of the Nation of Islam; specifically rootwork, hoodoo, and conjure - And much, much more. NOTE: The views expressed by the guest in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of the Nation of Islam. Nor they necessarily represent the views of the host at all times.

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, Edward Girardet, one of the leading journalists on issues related to Afghanistan and humanitarian crises, joins us to discuss his article at Global-Geneva and WhoWhatWhy.Org entitled "Afghanistan: The Abandonment of a Nation". We discuss a number of issues related to the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan slated for May 1, 2021. Additionally we discuss a number of Edward's experiences in Afghanistan and how a possibility for peace in Afghanistan remains within reach. (Further notes forthcoming)

On this edition of Parallax Views, few people have lived the kind of life that John Barbour has managed in his 87 years and still going strong life. He became a successful stand-up comic under the guidance of the legendary Redd Foxx in the Civil Rights-era of the 1960s; revolutionized the talk show with a program that featured non-canned, free-flowing conversations about controversial topics like the Vietnam War, American protesters, and labor rights with guests like Jane Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, and Cesar Chavez that not only treated the audience as intelligent enough to listen in on the discussions but also opened up the phone lines to allow them to ask the questions; invented reality TV with the show "Real People" under the philosophy of telling the interesting stories of people from all walks of life without judgment; and served as a private writer for Frank Sinatra. And he did it all as a self-described "Canadian Dropout" as detailed in 700+ page memoir Your Mother's Not A Virgin: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV! Simply put, John Barbour has led an extraordinary life. And, I think most importantly, he gave a voice to many people, especially through Real People and his talk show, who otherwise would not have been heard. John's career is one of being uncompromising and seeking to promote understanding and truth. That is an accomplishment in itself. John returns to Parallax Views to tell some great stories from his fascinating life including: - Filming a scene with Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, for the 70s TV movie Pray for the Wildcats. - Being taken to court by a movie producer over his negative review of the Charlton Heston-starring dystopian sci-fi flick Soylent Green in case that went all the way to the Supreme Court! - The hustle of Hollywood, the late night talk show host Jack Paar, and John's experience with Johnny Carson after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy - How his talk show AM Los Angeles came about because of latino protests; being the first show in the Los Angeles talk show world to take phone calls - John's thoughts on the Fairness Doctrine; butting heads with TV station managers; some talk about the FCC - John's experience interviewing Ronald Reagan, during his days as a California governor before becoming U.S. President, and his impression of Reagan as an empty suit; the tough question John asked Reagan and how John got away with interviewing Reagan despite refusing Reagan's demand of being given pre-planned questions - Interviewing labor leader Cesar Chavez and how Chavez helped John get back at his station manager - The story of when John interviewed Jane Fonda at the height of her antiwar activism during the Vietnam conflict; how John and Jane became friends after a very interesting pre-show conversation where John, who was sympathetic to her antiwar views, tried to demonstrate that perhaps the actress should try a different approach to convincing the American public to question the Vietnam War

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition, TJ Coles, prolific author and founder of The Plymouth Institute for Peace Research, joins us to discuss geopolitics and what critics of American foreign policy describes as the U.S.'s pursuit  "Full Spectrum Dominance". We discuss a number of topics related to this including: - Beginning the conversation we discuss TJ's latest book Capitalism & Coronavirus: How Institutionalized Greed Turned a Crisis into a Catastrophe; an IMF (International Monetary Fund) report on the pandemic that TJ considers important - The concept of "Full Spectrum Dominance" - The weaponization of space; U.S. Space Command, U.S. technology and the military; the U.N. Outer Space Treaty - The United Nations as a "complicated organization" - The horrific effects of U.S. foreign policy decisions involving blockades and sanctions - Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex - The origins of the U.S. National Security State - The question of declining U.S. power - U.S.-Russia relations; Trump's softer rhetoric on Russia vs. the reality - Binary thinking in the defense of U.S. foreign policy that are used to attack critiques of U.S. foreign policy - The U.S., China, the New Cold War - The renewed nuclear threat/nuclear war - The early days of the Biden Presidency - Full Spectrum Dominance under Clinton; the Bush era neocons and the Project for a New American Century - Differences between the Republican and Democratic Establishments in regards to U.S. foreign policy approaches; the weaponization of U.S. aid through caveats - Syria, Assad, the U.S., and the A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm report - The murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia - Afghanistan; the Graveyard of Empires; Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Soviet-Afghan conflict, and the mujahedeen; the geostrategic significance of Afghanistan to U.S. foreign policy - Voices for Creative Nonviolence and the work of Kathy Kelly - 

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, documentary filmmakers joins us to discuss his latest series, the Showtime original The Reagans, as well as his friendship with the late iconoclast and rabble-rouser Gore Vidal. Vidal was fond of saying that the U.S. should be called "The United States of Amnesia" because of the way American culture memory holes inconvenient aspects of its history. We delve into the influence of this concept and Vidal's thought on Tynauer, who served as Vidal's literary executor, and how the concept of "The United States of Amnesia" relates to The Reagans. In this regard we discuss Vidal's insightful essay "Ronnie and Nancy: A Life in Picture" that offered an early astute commentary and analysis of Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan. From there we move on the to the subject of his latest documentary effort: Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In this regard we delve into a multitude of areas including: - The Reagan image, the attention economy, the decline in literacy, and influencer culture - The parallels between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump - Ronald Reagan, the John Birch Society, and the Human Event newspaper - Reagan vs. the Air Traffic Controllers Union - Grover Norquist and the Cult of Reagan - The forces behind Ronald Reagan's political rise - Nancy Reagan's role in the White House and Ronald Reagan's success - Reagan in Hollywood and his ties to Lew Wasserman and the MCA - Reagan's journey from New Deal Democrat to the face of the GOP - The line from the Barry Goldwater campaign to Reagan's Presidency and onward - The role of the media in Reagan's political success; oppositional journalism in the era of Reagan as represented by Robert Scheer and Helen Thomas - Reagan and Positive Thinking - Dog-whistles and the Southern Strategy - And much, much more!

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, what should we know about the newly elected President of the United States, Joe Biden? How has he operated in the past as a politician? What special interests may seek to influence his administration? What is his relationship to organized labor? What should progressives expect from him? Branko Marcetic, a staff writer for Jacobin magazine and author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, joins us for the hour to tackle these questions and many others. We discuss: - the Biden administration and the Wall Street investment firm Blackrock - Biden, the military-industrial complex, and the foreign policy think tank the Center for a New American Security - the "America is back" and "return to normal" rhetoric of Bidenism - can Biden be pressured by the Left (or, for that matter, the Right)? - Biden and neoliberalism - Biden and the AFL-CIO - Answering the question of whether Biden should be criticized from the Left or if that would only empower Trumpism - Biden's Presidency so far and his early Executive Orders - Biden and the Amazon Union vote - Biden and the suburban middle class; Reagan Democrats - And much, much more!

If you appreciate Parallax Views and the work of J.G. Michael please consider supporting the show through Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, how how have AUMFs (Authorization for the Use of Military Force) been used and misused with regards to America's "Forever Wars"? Matthew Petti of the Quincy Institute joins us to discuss his latest article in Responsible Statecraft entitled "The inside story of how the Pentagon blocked efforts to end the Iraq War". In said article Petti explains how AUMFs have been used to block ending the Iraq War. Additionally, Petti notes how the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs have been utilized by both the Presidential administrations of Barack H. Obama and Donald J. Trump. Is there a possibility that there will be a change in how AUMFs are utilized under President Joe Biden? We discuss all this and much more on this edition of Parallax Views.

On this edition of Parallax Views, for a period in the 1970s a conspiracy-drenched genre known alternately as the paranoid thriller or paranoid political came into vogue. The aftermath of the political assassinations of the 1960s, which saw the violent deaths of public figures like Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., black radical Malcolm X, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and President John F. Kennedy, combined with the tumult of the Vietnam War, the Presidency of Richard Nixon, the saga of Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and the scandal of the Watergate break-in created the perfect storm for critical, bleak reassessments of the American political system that stood in stark contrast to the seeming innocence of the "Camelot years" that preceded it. Meanwhile, the collapse of the Old Hollywood studio system led to a period (often referred to as New Hollywood) of daring and creative flourishing in American cinema that produced such modern classics as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Midnight Cowboy among others. It was from this fertile ground that the conspiracy-drenched 1970s paranoid thriller rose to prominence. Among the classics of this particular genre are such features as Three Days of the Condor, The Boys from Brazil, The Conversation, Soylent Green, Serpico, Capricorn One, and the film that's been referred to as "The Godfather of paranoid political thrillers", The Parallax View. Following in the footsteps of 1973's Executive Action, The Parallax View dealt with questions of conspiracy as they related to political assassinations. But whereas the Burt Lancaster starring Executive Action offered a conspiratorial explanation for the JFK assassination, The Parallax View took a different approach. Although the film featured veiled references to real life matters like the Warren Commission, the death of journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, the PERMINDEX trade organization believed by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison to have played a pivotal role in the JFK assassination, and the "girl in the polka dot dress" of the RFK assassination, its characters and events are ultimately constructions of its makers imaginations. In other words, The Parallax View is a fictional exploration of political assassinations and the conspiracy theories that arise from them. The Parallax View stars Warren Beatty as dogged reporter Joseph Frady, who, after the fatal shooting of a presidential candidate, stumbles upon a vast conspiracy involving a shadowy organization known as the Parallax Corporation. As Frady falls deeper down the proverbial rabbit hole in his search for the truth he finds that the Parallax Corporation seemingly specializes in the recruitment of assassins for highly-valued hits on political leaders. Will Frady be able to bust the story wide open by staying one-step ahead of the Parallax Corporation? Or is the Parallax Corporation already one step ahead of him? Based on the novel of the same name by Lorenzo Singer, The Parallax View was adapted for the silver screen by David Giler and Three Days of the Condor's Lorenzo Semple, Jr. with a rewrite by Robert Towne amidst a looming Writer's Guild of America strike. The film marks the second entry in director Alan J. Pakula's "Paranoia Trilogy" that started with Klute and ended with All the President Men. Although The Parallax View received mix reviews upon it initial release, today it is generally considered a classic of its genre that reflects America in the 1970s and the worst fears many had about its political system during that turbulent moment in the nation's history. Although the film does deal with political assassinations and conspiracy, it also provides a powerful meditation, specifically through its infamous montage scene known as the "Parallax Test Sequence", on the U.S.'s often spoken of "loss of innocence" after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Additionally the film's cinematography by Gordon Willis and soundtrack by Michael Small have been praised as well. It is, perhaps, for this reason that The Parallax View, all these years later in 2021, received the coveted Criterion Collection treatment in a new Blu-Ray release. To coincide with this Parallax Views, which takes its name in part from this film, is offering up a three part retrospective of the classic 1970s paranoid thriller. In part three, Jon Boorstin, who worked as an intern/assistant to director Alan J. Pakula on The Parallax View, joins us to reminisce about the film and its significance in light of the January 6th riots. In addition to The Parallax View Jon also served as the director for the Oscar-nominated 1974 short documentary Exploratorium and has written such books as Mabel and Me: A Novel About the Movies and Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker. For Jon The Parallax View is more than a movie dealing with conspiracy. It is, he believes, a movie that uses conspiracy as a launching off point to explore the best and worst aspects of the human condition and how we can be manipulated by without realizing it. We talk about Gordon Willis's cinematography, Alan Pakula's vision intent when making the movie, comparing The Parallax View to Pakula's All the President's Men (which Jon helped produce), the character of Joseph Frady and what he has in common with the Parallax Corporation's assassins, the infamous "Parallax Test Sequence" and its meaning, and much, much more!