Category Archives: economics

Thom Hartmann The Hidden History of BIG BROTHER IN AMERICA: HOW THE DEATH OF PRIVACY & THE RISE OF SURVEILLANCE THREATEN US & OUR DEMOCRACY

With the latest addition to his Hidden History Series, veteran author, journalist, Thom Hartmann, returns to discuss THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF BIG BROTHER IN AMERICA: HOW THE DEATH OF PRIVACY AND THE RISE OF SURVEILLANCE THREATEN US AND OUR DEMOCRACY. It was just published by Barrett-Koehler on international women’s day, March 8, 2022.

He explores how the government and corporate America misuse our personal data and shows how we can reclaim our privacy. Thom Hartmann documents exactly how the government and corporations are tracking our every online move and using our data to buy elections, employ social control, and monetize our lives. Thom Hartmann traces the history of surveillance and social control, looking back to how Big Brother invented whiteness to keep order, and how surveillance began to be employed as a way to modify behavior. As he writes, “The goal of those who violate privacy and use surveillance is almost always social control and behavior modification.”

Along with covering the history, he shows how we got to where we are today, how China — with its new Social Credit System — serves as a warning, and how we can and must avoid a similarly dystopian future. By delving into the constitutional right to privacy, Hartmann reminds us of our civil right and shows how we can restore it.

And particularly now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cyberwarfare is a factor, whether control of information or disruption of infrastructure. We spoke with Thom Hartmann on March 9, 2020 via Skype.

We end this edition of Forthright Radio, mindful of the suffering of the Ukrainian people enduring the crimes against humanity at the hands of Russian military forces at the behest of Vladimir Putin. First, Russians unplugged live – with Sting introducing his live performance. This is followed by Ukrainian poet/composer, Valentin Silvestrov’s, Prayer for Ukraine performed by the Kyiv Chamber Choir in 2014 as part of the Maidan Cycle. And finally, a little girl, Amelia, singing “Let It Go” in Ukrainian while sheltering in a crowded basement under Russian Bombardment.

Prayer for Ukraine

Links to articles/videos/films pertinent to this edition of Forthright Radio:

With Roe Under Threat, Sale of Location Data on Abortion Clinic Patients Raises Alarm https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/04/roe-under-threat-sale-location-data-abortion-clinic-patients-raises-alarm?utm_source=weekly_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&vgo_ee=Y82RBGepzJGygaHT4lvL4KyPUFd7JHyq9acdSgULWaM%3D

Valentin Silvestrov: Prayer for Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuzS_ZS2czY

Little girl singing “Let it go” in a shelter in Kyiv https://twitter.com/Ankita20200/status/1500496884255051776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1500676050593980426%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fukrainian-girl-amelia-let-it-go_n_62261f06e4b04a0545da2350

Violinists Across the World Play for Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQSIeD-x6dQ
Russians unplugged live – Sting 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5qhS9Ic96A

HOW THE WOMEN WENT FROM DOVER https://allpoetry.com/How-The-Women-Went-From-Dover

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w&t=6s

Mr. Jones https://www.hulu.com/movie/mr-jones-c622d638-82ec-447f-9b64-24f8111980cf

Evgeny Maslin, Russia General Who Secured Nuclear Arsenal, Dies at 84 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/world/europe/evgeny-maslin-dead.html

‘We are not ready’: a cyber expert on US vulnerability to a Russian attack https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/10/us-russia-cyber-attack-prepared

As the Fourth Great Turning Unwinds, Ukraine has become the George Floyd of the World https://hartmannreport.com/p/as-the-fourth-great-turning-unwinds?s=r

‘We Are the First in the World to Introduce This New Warfare’: Ukraine’s Digital Battle Against Russia https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/08/ukraine-digital-minister-crypto-cyber-social-media-00014880

Can the World Learn from the Failure of the Budapest Accords? https://hartmannreport.com/p/can-the-world-learn-from-the-failure?s=r

Investigation Shows Police Are Still Secretly Surveilling Minnesota Activists https://truthout.org/articles/investigation-shows-police-are-still-secretly-surveilling-minnesota-activists/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=e297aee3-d279-418c-8617-603fd0711d10

Exposed: The Trump, Putin & Saudi Connection to High Gas Prices https://hartmannreport.com/p/exposed-the-trump-putin-and-saudi?s=r

Social media turn on Putin, the past master https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/06/social-media-turn-on-putin-the-past-master

I’ve Dealt With Foreign Cyberattacks. America Isn’t Ready for What’s Coming https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/opinion/ive-dealt-with-foreign-cyberattacks-america-isnt-ready-for-whats-coming.html

How Can America Avoid the Bloodshed & Chaos of Civil War? https://hartmannreport.com/p/how-can-america-avoid-the-bloodshed?utm_source=url

This is how we defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/this-is-how-we-defeat-putin-and-other-petrostate-autocrats

Ukraine Again Shows Why Decentralized Energy is Essential https://hartmannreport.com/p/ukraine-again-shows-why-decentralized?s=r

Russia’s War Crime in Targeting Nuclear Plant Makes Clear the Urgency for Renewable Energy https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/04/russias-war-crime-targeting-nuclear-plant-makes-clear-urgency-renewable-energy?vgo_ee=Y82RBGepzJGygaHT4lvL4KyPUFd7JHyq9acdSgULWaM%3D

Santa Claus Is About To Drop a Bomb On Biden https://hartmannreport.com/p/santa-clause-is-about-to-drop-a-bomb?s=r

Past Forthright Radio Interviews with Thom Hartmann:

Thom Hartmann – The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You & Makes Others Insanely Rich https://forthright.media/2021/08/18/thom-hartmann-the-hidden-history-of-american-healthcare-why-sickness-bankrupts-you-makes-others-insanely-rich/

Thom Hartmann The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class https://forthright.media/2021/02/03/thom-hartmann-the-hidden-history-of-american-oligarchy-reclaiming-our-democracy-from-the-ruling-class/

Thom Hartmann MONOPOLIES: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream https://forthright.media/2020/09/02/thom-hartmann-monopolies-how-big-business-destroyed-the-american-dream/

Thom Hartmann: The War on Voting & Jane Kleeb: Harvest the Vote https://forthright.media/2020/02/27/thom-hartmann-the-war-on-voting-jane-kleeb-harvest-the-vote/

Thom Hartmann The Hidden History of the Supreme Court + The Hidden History of Guns & the 2nd Amendment https://forthright.media/2019/10/02/thom-hartmann-the-hidden-history-of-the-supreme-court-the-hidden-history-of-guns-the-2nd-amendment/

Jonathan Katz GANGSTERS OF CAPITALISM: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of the American Empire

This interview was first broadcast as the sovereign nation of Ukraine was being invaded by the Russian Army. Terrible as this was, it was also an appropriate time to examine our own history, which Jonathan Katz has done in his most recent book, GANGSTERS OF CAPITALISM: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of the American Empire, published in January 2022 by St. Martin’s Press.

He is an award winning journalist, whose earlier book, The Big Truck That Went By, chronicles his time in Haiti, where he was the only full-time American correspondent in Haiti, when the devastating earthquake struck on January 12, 2010 and the ensuing disasters brought on by the multiple failures of international aid projects. More than 230,000 people were killed.

As he describes in our interview, Smedley Butler was there from the very beginning of the United States’ imperialism, first as a 16 year old lieutenant in the Spanish-American War, when we secured Guantanamo Bay, then on to Puerto Rico, The Philippines, China, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

After a long career in the Marines, in which he pioneered counter-insurgency methods and the militarization of police forces to enforce the prerogatives of capitalist oligarchs, who he eventually came to understand were calling the shots, he retired with the rank of General, the most decorated Marine in history, as well as the first of only 19 Marines to have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice.

He became the Head of Public Safety for the City of Philadelphia, where he militarized that city’s police force. He eventually synthesized his experiences and understanding from his years subduing nationalist forces in those many countries – as well as battling gangsters in Prohibition era Philadelphia – to write his book, War Is a Racket, published in 1935.

He wrote, ”War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

He spent his final years promoting democracy here in the United States and fighting fascism here and abroad, as well as trying to prevent what became World War II. Smedley Butler died of cancer at the age of 59 on June 21, 1940.

This edition of Forthright Radio ends with a tribute to Dr. Paul Farmer, who died on on February 21, 2022 at the age of 62. It is followed by Paul Farmer’s own voice speaking of his work.

 

Links to articles pertinent to this interview:

The US drew up a plan to invade Canada in 1930. Now Trump is reviving old fears https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/27/trump-canada-us-war-plan

Gorsuch Calls for Overruling ‘Shameful’ Cases on U.S. Territories https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/02/us/politics/gorsuch-supreme-court-insular-cases.html?searchResultPosition=1

Civil Rights Groups To Biden DOJ: Stop Using 100-Year-Old Racist Precedents In Court https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-doj-insular-cases-racism_n_620bc80ae4b032302470eae8

As Honduras’s New President Seeks End to Narco-State, Will US Stand in Her Way? https://truthout.org/articles/as-hondurass-new-president-seeks-end-to-narco-state-will-us-stand-in-her-way/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=75f265c3-570c-48ec-a36c-8c3be3ffa4c4

Former Honduras President Detained After a U.S. Extradition Request https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/world/americas/honduras-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-detained.html?searchResultPosition=3

Dominican Republic begins building border wall with Haiti https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/21/dominican-republic-begins-building-border-wall-with-haiti

Paul Farmer, Pioneer of Global Health, Dies at 62 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/obituaries/paul-farmer-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

A Moment in the Sun a novel by John Sayles

John Leshy OUR COMMON GROUND: A History of America’s Public Lands

John D. Leshy is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He was Solicitor (General Counsel) of the Interior Department throughout the Clinton Administration. Earlier, he was counsel to the Chair of the Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Associate Solicitor of Interior for Energy and Resources in the Carter Administration, an attorney-advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a litigator in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He led the Interior Department transition team for Clinton-Gore in 1992 and co-led it for Obama-Biden in 2008.

The U.S. government owns and manages more than six hundred million acres, which is about 30% of the nation’s land. These lands and the agencies that manage them—the National Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management—are a presence in our western communities.

John Leshy’s forthcoming book, OUR COMMON GROUND: A HISTORY OF AMERICA’S PUBLIC LANDS, soon to be published by Yale University Press. In 600+ pages, it chronicles this history of our public lands and suggests how Congress, the executive and the federal courts have responded to the numerous challenges facing these lands.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

From Yosemite to Bears Ears, Erasing Native Americans From U.S. National Parks https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/erasing-native-americans-from-national-parks/

Utah Wants to Disable the Law That Led to the Creation of Four of Its Magnificent National Parks https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/opinion/national-parks-bears-ears-monuments.html

Private Landowners Bar Access to 500,000 Acres of CA Public Lands https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/calif-public-land-access-barred-17764934.php

Judge halts oil and gas leases in Gulf of Mexico; the largest offshore auction in U.S. history https://www.salon.com/2022/02/05/halts-oil-and-gas-leases-in-gulf-of-mexico-the-largest-offshore-auction-in-us-history_partner/

Guest column: The U.S. Forest Service’s access contradictions https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-the-u-s-forest-services-access-contradictions/article_3564cf1a-adda-5beb-9593-1c1a51026bc7.html

Guest column: Making progress on access in the Crazy Mountains https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-making-progress-on-access-in-the-crazy-mountains/article_5c773a1e-9456-53e9-9d7e-8f5206f0f3ac.html

Plan to Reduce Feral Cattle in New Mexico Draws Objections https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/feral-cattle-gila-national-forest.html

Activist Renew Push for Moratorium in Jackson State Forest – Six Arrested https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/11/activists-renew-push-for-moratorium-in-jackson-state-forest-six-arrested/

Native Americans are at the heart of Yellowstone. After 150 years, they are finally being heard https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/native-americans-are-at-the-heart-of-yellowstone-after-150-years-they-are-finally-being-heard-aoe

Kehinde Andrews THE NEW AGE OF EMPIRE: How Racism & Colonialism Still Rule the World

Kehinde Andrews is Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is the director of the Center for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity,
and co-chair of the UK Black Studies Association. In fact, he was the first black studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first black studies program in Europe at Birmingham City University.

Among his books are Resisting Racism: Race, Inequality, and the Black Supplementary School Movement and Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century.

His most recent book is THE NEW AGE OF EMPIRE: HOW RACISM & COLONIALISM STILL RULE THE WORLD, published in the US by Bold Type Books.

“Where knowledge is duty, ignorance is a crime.” Thomas Paine
http://Public Good: Being an Examination Into the Claim of Virginia to the Vacant Western Territory and of the Right of the United States to the Same to Which Are Added, Proposals for Laying Off a New State, to Be Applied Asa Fund for Carrying on the War

Articles referred to or pertinent to this interview:

The Psychosis of Whiteness https://drive.google.com/file/d/16FAFidJPpee2RqEH4hcYAoWfZ0kTDR1o/view

I Don’t Mourn the Queen https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/13/for-black-britons-the-late-queen-is-the-number-one-symbol-of-white-supremacy-00056262

His Name is George Floyd by Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa review – the murder that shamed the US https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/22/his-name-is-george-floyd-by-robert-samuels-and-toluse-olorunnipa-review-the-that-shamed-the-us

THE RANSOM – The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/world/americas/haiti-history-colonized-france.html

D.C.’s Enslavers Got Reparations. Freed People Got Nothing. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/17/washington-emancipation-day-00038824

Jamaican Leaders Shun Prince William, Kate Middleton Visit, Demand Slavery Reparations https://www.huffpost.com/entry/royal-visit-jamaica_n_62396bc3e4b0c727d48265ab

As a historian of slavery, I know just how much the royal family has to answer for in Jamaica https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/25/slavery-royal-family-jamaica-ducke-duchess-cambridge-caribbean-slave-trade

My family benefited from slavery. Why can’t we accept white people still owe a huge debt? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/slavery-enriched-family-accept-white-people-owe-huge-debt

A Bill Proposed to Teach History. It Got the History Wrong. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/us/virginia-lincoln-douglas-debates-bill.html

Rich Countries Lure Health Workers From Low-Income Nations to Fight Shortages https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/health/covid-health-worker-immigration.html

We can afford to reverse poverty and climate breakdown. What we can’t afford is the alternative https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/24/we-can-afford-to-reverse-poverty-and-climate-breakdown-what-we-cant-afford-is-the-alternative

When will Britain face up to its crimes against humanity? https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/29/slavery-abolition-compensation-when-will-britain-face-up-to-its-crimes-against-humanity

Built on the bodies of slaves: how Africa was erased from the history of the modern world https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/12/africa-slaves-erased-from-history-modern-world

Reparations to the Caribbean could break the cycle of corruption – and China’s grip https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/25/reparations-caribbean-cycle-of-corruption-china

There was a time reparations were actually paid out – just not to formerly enslaved people https://caricomreparations.org/there-was-a-time-reparations-were-actually-paid-out-just-not-to-formerly-enslaved-people/

Why climate change is inherently racist https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220125-why-climate-change-is-inherently-racist

80 Years Ago the Nazis Planned the ‘Final Solution.’ It Took 90 Minutes. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/world/europe/lake-wannsee-conference-final-solution-holocaust.html

Lessons to remember this Holocaust Memorial Day https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-lessons-to-remember-this-holocaust-memorial-day/article_cfc570ed-e546-5465-b990-8dc730b1b039.html

Our people will be mourning on 26 January, but it can still become a day of healing https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/25/our-people-will-be-mourning-on-26-january-but-it-can-still-become-a-day-of-healing

The west was built on racism. It’s time we faced that – video https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2017/jan/18/the-west-was-built-on-racism-its-time-we-faced-that-video

Native American tribes reclaim California redwood land for preservation https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/25/native-american-tribes-california-redwood-preservation

White women and fascism: Seyward Darby on how right-wing women embrace their “symbolic power” https://www.salon.com/2022/01/28/women-and-fascism-seyward-darby-on-how-right-wing-women-embrace-their-symbolic-power/

Fascism’s “Legal Phase” Has Begun. Threats of White Vigilante Violence Are Real. https://truthout.org/articles/fascisms-legal-phase-has-begun-threats-of-white-vigilante-violence-are-real/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=fb0f0c17-eea0-4e37-91c0-a78a05a727f5

David Lammy requests pardon for 1823 slave rebellion convicts https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/13/david-lammy-requests-pardon-for-1823-slave-rebellion-convicts

Alfred McCoy TO GOVERN THE GLOBE: World Orders & Catastrophic Change

Alfred McCoy is University of Wisconsin Harrington Professor of History. He was our guest in 2017, when his book, IN THE SHADOWS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF US GLOBAL POWER, was published by Haymarket Books. That archived interview can be heard on our website, forthright.media. https://forthright.media/2017/10/04/alfred-mccoy-in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-us-global-power/

Fifty years ago, the publication of his book, THE POLITICS OF HEROIN IN SOUTH EAST ASIA, led to his testifying before the Senate Committee on Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee in June 1972. His research, including traveling to Hmong villages in Laos, revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency was knowingly involved in the transportation of heroin in the Golden Triangle of Burma, Thailand, and Laos. The CIA tried to block its publication, but it has been translated into 9 foreign languages with three English editions and is regarded as the “classic” work on global drug traffic.

His new book, also published by Haymarket Books, is titled TO GOVERN THE GLOBE: WORLD ORDERS & CATASTROPHIC CHANGE.

In it, he explores the interplay of three factors—sovereignty, human rights, and energy—in shaping the succession of empires and their global systems from the Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050.

It is packed with meticulously researched facts and analysis of world history of the last 600 years, examining the continuities and disruptions that create systems that rule international affairs.

He asserts that China will become the world hegemon by 2030, via initiatives such as the Belt & Road Initiative, which makes manifest Halford Mackinder’s thesis that who controls the World Island, controls the world.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

Moscow’s Man on the Spot in Africa https://tomdispatch.com/moscows-man-on-the-spot-in-africa/

As Tensions Rise over Taiwan, U.S. & China “Edging Ever Closer” to War https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/10/xi_jinping_china

Russia & China: Together At Last https://www.democracynow.org/2022/3/21/ukraine_war_strengthens_china_russia_alliance

The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/opinion/russia-ukraine-putin-eurasianism.html

On the Most Fundamental of All Human Rights: Survival https://tomdispatch.com/climate-crisis-at-the-top-of-the-world/

Climate Crisis at the Top of the World https://tomdispatch.com/climate-crisis-at-the-top-of-the-world/

Washington’s World Order and Catastrophic Climate Change https://tomdispatch.com/to-govern-the-globe/

In China’s new age of imperialism, Xi Jinping gives thumbs down to democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/12/xi-jinping-china-beijing-new-age-of-imperialism

China Biggest Winner in Afghanistan https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/09/13/china-biggest-winner-afghanistan?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Emai

The US military trained him. Then he helped murder Berta Cáceres https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/dec/21/the-us-military-trained-him-then-he-helped-berta-caceres

Washington’s Great Game and Why It’s Failing https://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/06/11/tomgram-alfred-mccoy-washingtons-great-game-and-why-its-failing/

Julius S. Scottt, Groundbreaking Historian of the Caribbean, Dies at 66 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/obituaries/julius-scott-dead-common-wind.html

How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/09/how-the-heroin-trade-explains-the-us-uk-failure-in-afghanistan

Here’s how to repay developing nations for colonialism – and fight the climate crisis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/14/heres-how-to-repay-developing-nations-for-colonialism-and-fight-the-climate-crisis

Kathleen Belew A Field Guide to White Supremacy

Kathleen Belew is an international authority on the White-Power Movement and Assistant Professor of History at the university of Chicago.

Her 2018 book, BRING THE WAR HOME: THE WHITE POWER MOVEMENT AND PARAMILITARY AMERICA, published by The Harvard University Press, was a hugely important work toward our understanding of the international white supremacy movement.

She now has a compilation of essays, A FIELD GUIDE TO WHITE SUPREMACY, which she co-edited with her colleague at the University of Chicago, History Professor, Ramón A. Gutiérrez. It contains the writings of a diverse group of writers, among them Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Jamelle Bouie, Judith Butler, Rebecca Solnit, just to name a few.

In September of 2019, Professor Belew was a witness at a congressional hearing on confronting white nationalism. In her witness statement, she described the white power movement as a threat to our democracy and that that is was transnational. Her research and writings decry the notion that attacks such as the massacres at the Christchurch Mosque, the Tree of Life Synagogue, or the El Paso walmart are the work of lone wolves. We spoke with Kathleen Belew on October 28, 2021.

Articles referred or pertinent to this interview can be found here:

A historian of white power reacts to the Rittenhouse verdict: ‘a bonanza for the far-right’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/24/historian-white-power-reacts-kyle-rittenhouse-verdict-far-right

Three Trials in America – The conversations playing out in courtrooms in Kenosha, Charlottesville, and Georgia are revealing https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/10/kenosha-charlottesville-georgia-trials-justice-system-race.html

Neo-Nazi duo handed nine-year US prison terms over apparent attack plot https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/28/neo-nazi-the-base-far-right-us-prison-terms

Victims of Charlottesville Rally Argue the Violence Was Planned https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/charlottesville-rally-trial.html

U.S. Border Agency Settles With 2 Americans Detained for Speaking Spanish https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/us/montana-spanish-border-patrol.html?searchResultPosition=1

A 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charlotesville-spencer-kessler-trial-spitalnik_n_61730a2ee4b09314320ae288

How higher education can win the war against neoliberalism and white supremacy https://www.salon.com/2021/10/24/how-higher-education-can-win-the-against-neoliberalism-and-supremacy/

2020 Had The Most Reported Hate Crimes Since 2001: FBI Data https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fbi-2020-hate-crimes-asian-americans_n_6176fd81e4b010d933148e55

“Diversity,” “White Supremacist” Among Terms WI GOP Seeks to Ban in Schools https://truthout.org/articles/diversity-white-supremacist-among-terms-wi-gop-seeks-to-ban-in-schools/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=1e0e4c93-75bb-4f98-941f-8f5c9ca0dbce

California synagogue killer not allowed to speak as he gets life without parole https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/01/california-synagogue-killer-not-allowed-speak-life-without-parole

Abortion Has Just Never Been About Abortion https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opinion/abortion-evangelicals-conservatives.html

White supremacists declare war on democracy and walk away unscathedhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/10/white-supremacists-war-on-democracy-unscathed

Giulio Boccaletti WATER: A Biography

In addition to having been a lead author of the fifth Assessment Report to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Giulio Boccaletti was Chief Strategy Officer and Global Managing Director for Water at The Nature Conservancy, where he led a team of over 200 freshwater scientists, policy experts, economists and on-the-ground conservation practitioners, promoting action on water issues by governments and businesses.

Earlier in his career, he was a partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he co-founded the water practice and worked with businesses and governments around the world. He trained at MIT, Princeton and Bologna University in Physics and Atmospheric Science. His book, WATER: A Biography, was published in Sept. 2021 by Pantheon Books. We spoke with him in England on October 15.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

He’s Got a Plan for Cities That Flood: Stop Fighting the Water https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/sponge-cities-kongjian-yu.html

Lobbyist for Saudi Alfalfa Company Desiccating Arizona Was Elected to Maricopa County Board of Supervisors https://theintercept.com/2022/11/28/maricopa-supervisors-saudi-lobbyist-thomas-galvin/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

Spring time: why an ancient water system is being brought back to life in Spain https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/11/ancient-water-system-restore-spain-sierra-nevada-aoe

Flooding could shut down a quarter of all critical infrastructure in the U.S. https://www.axios.com/flood-risk-united-states-critical-infrastructure-a8703d5b-8d95-4584-8bc3-4ea086b83cfa.html

Slow water: can we tame urban floods by going with the flow? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/07/slow-water-urban-floods-drought-china-sponge-cities

China floods: Nearly 2 million displaced in Shanxi province https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58866854

Joe Manchin’s Climate Objections Opposed by BP and Shell https://www.newsweek.com/joe-manchin-build-back-better-clean-energy-joe-biden-bp-shell-1640230

As Manchin Blocks Climate Plan, His State Can’t Hold Back Floods https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/climate/manchin-west-virginia-flooding.html

It’s easy to feel pessimistic about the climate. But we’ve got two big things on our side https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/15/climate-crisis-cop26-bill-mckibben

The Climate Disaster Is Here https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/oct/14/climate-change-happening-now-stats-graphs-maps-cop26

Corporations are pledging to be ‘water positive’. What does that mean? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/14/water-positive-pledge-corporations

The Lost Canyon Under Lake Powell https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/the-lost-canyon-under-lake-powell

Andrew Cockburn The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine

Award winning journalist, documentary film producer and Harper’s Washington, DC editor, Andrew Cockburn, comes from an illustrious family of British journalists. In addition, he has been married to American journalist and documentarian, Leslie Cockburn, since 1977.

For more than four decades, he has focused on national security not just of the United States, but of the Soviet Union as well. Beginning with his Peabody Award winning 1981 PBS film, THE RED ARMY, which was the first in-depth study of deficiencies in the Soviet military, he has covered the wars in Afghanistan since the 1980s with his wife, Leslie Cockburn. In 2009, they produced the film AMERICAN CASINO on the financial collapse of 2007. His 8th book, THE SPOILS OF WAR: POWER, PROFIT and the AMERICAN WAR MACHINE, has just been published by Verso.

In it he asserts that “The record shows America’s Afghan War was nothing other than a prolonged and entirely successful operation – to loot the US Taxpayer. At least a quarter of a million Afghans, not to mention 3,500 US & allied troops paid a heavier price.”

He is proud to be descended from Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, who ordered the burning of Washington in 1814, as he recounts in this interview.

We spoke with Andrew Cockburn on Sept. 29, 2021, as the Senate Armed Services Committee was grilling Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, about the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years and trillions of dollars spent, which they characterized as “a logistical success but a strategic failure.”

Articles referred to or pertinent to this interview:

Biden’s Top Middle East Adviser ‘Torched The House And Showed Up With A Firehose’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mcgurk-biden-middle-east-adviser_n_628f97a4e4b0933e73705793

THE UNSEEN SCARS OF THOSE WHO KILL VIA REMOTE CONTROL https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/drones-airstrikes-ptsd.html

War in Afghanistan Isn’t Over — It’s Taking the Form of Illegal Drone Strikes https://truthout.org/articles/war-in-afghanistan-isnt-over-its-taking-the-form-of-illegal-drone-strikes/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=85e66ca2-fcf5-49a4-a3d3-bbcfa2db97a9

A Dam in Syria Was on a ‘No-Strike’ List. The U.S. Bombed It Anyway. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/airstrike-us-isis-dam.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=US%20News

IN RE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20210920a80

Second Circuit Reinstates Insurers’ Suit Against Saudi Bank Stemming from 9/11 Terrorist Attacks https://www.law.com/insurance-coverage-law-center/2020/09/11/second-circuit-reinstates-insurers-suit-against-saudi-bank-stemming-from-911-terrorist-attacks/?slreturn=20210826182432

My father was brutally killed by the Taliban. The US ignored his pleas for help https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/27/father-killed-taliban-us-ignored-pleas-daughter-afghan-president

Support for Nuclear Ban Treaty Is Rising. Nuclear Nations Are on the Defensive. https://truthout.org/articles/support-for-nuclear-ban-treaty-is-rising-nuclear-nations-are-on-the-defensive/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4ed37bf3-fa8f-40c4-94b4-932aea3990de

Stop Calling the Military Budget a ‘Defense’ Budget https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/10/05/stop-calling-military-budget-defense-budget?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

Fewer Democrats This Year Supported a 10 Percent Cut to the Defense Budget https://truthout.org/articles/fewer-democrats-this-year-supported-a-10-percent-cut-to-the-defense-budget/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=85e66ca2-fcf5-49a4-a3d3-bbcfa2db97a9

Are the Motives of War Profiteers Driving Us to the Brink of a New Cold War? https://truthout.org/articles/are-the-motives-of-war-profiteers-driving-us-to-the-brink-of-a-new-cold-war/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4ed37bf3-fa8f-40c4-94b4-932aea3990de

Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee

Barbara Lee Offers Amendment to Reduce Pentagon Budget by $25 Billion https://truthout.org/articles/barbara-lee-offers-amendment-to-reduce-pentagon-budget-by-25-billion/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=9dd7dc3c-f6d6-4669-87fd-a5b2f6b00948

Nearly 50 Groups Demand Passage of Amendments to Cut Pentagon Budget https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/22/nearly-50-groups-demand-passage-amendments-cut-pentagon-budget?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

Henry Giroux

Returning to Forthright Radio is internationally renowned writer and cultural critic, Professor Henry Giroux. He is the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest & The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.

Henry Giroux has authored, or co-authored over 65 books, written several hundred scholarly articles, delivered more than 250 public lectures, been a regular contributor to print, television, and radio news media outlets, and is one of the most cited Canadian academics working in any area of Humanities research. He is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals, and he has served as the editor or co-editor of four scholarly book series. He is on the Board of Directors for Truthout.

He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe. His working class roots inform his scholarship, writings and lectures, which clearly and consistently articulate the predicament of the average person overwhelmed by the forces of global capitalism, and critiquing the cultural forces supporting its destructive power.

We spoke with Henry Giroux on September 11, 2021. Of course, that was the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, and Henry notes that it was the anniversary of the US backed military coup d’état in Chile, in which the democratically elected President Salvador Allende was overthrown, but it was also the 80th anniversary of the beginning of construction of the Pentagon on September 11, 1941.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

Attacks on Critical Race Theory Seek to Insert Fascist Politics Into Education https://truthout.org/audio/attacks-on-critical-race-theory-seek-to-insert-fascist-politics-into-education

Stanley Aronowitz, Who Taught Us Teaching Must Be Political, Has Passed https://truthout.org/articles/stanley-aronowitz-who-taught-us-teaching-must-be-political-has-passed/

9/11 and the Crisis of Memory https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/when-the-towers-fell/

The Right Wing Wants Misinformation and Manufactured Ignorance, Not Democracy https://truthout.org/articles/the-right-wing-wants-misinformation-and-manufactured-ignorance-not-democracy/

Fighting back against the age of manufactured ignorance: Resistance is still possible https://www.salon.com/2021/07/03/fighting-back-against-the-age-of-manufactured-ignorance-resistance-is-still-possible/

To End Racial Capitalism, We Will Need to Take On the Institution of Policing https://truthout.org/articles/to-end-racial-capitalism-we-will-need-to-take-on-the-institution-of-policing/

Tucker Carlson Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg in Right-Wing Media’s War on Truth https://truthout.org/articles/tucker-carlson-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-right-wing-medias-war-on-truth/

Three Fundamentalisms Are Driving the Resurgence of Fascist Politics in the US https://truthout.org/video/three-fundamentalisms-are-driving-the-resurgence-of-fascist-politics-in-the-us/

Threat of Authoritarianism Is No Longer on the Horizon: It’s Arrived in the GOP https://truthout.org/articles/threat-of-authoritarianism-is-no-longer-on-the-horizon-its-arrived-in-the-gop/

Downplaying Trumpism Is Dangerous https://truthout.org/articles/downplaying-trumpism-is-dangerous/

Attack on Capitol Affirms Trumpism Will Live On After Trump Leaves White House https://truthout.org/articles/attack-on-capitol-affirms-trumpism-will-live-on-after-trump-leaves-white-house/

Racist Violence Can’t Be Separated From the Violence of Neoliberal Capitalism https://truthout.org/articles/racist-violence-cant-be-separated-from-the-violence-of-neoliberal-capitalism/

Why are Americans paying $32m every hour for wars since 9/11? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/afghanistan-us-foreign-wars-congresswoman-barbara-lee

Todd Miller Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders

Returning to Forthright Radio is Izzy Award winning Todd Miller. He was our guest in 2017, when the book that won the Izzy Award, STORMING THE WALL: CLIMATE CHANGE, MIGRATION, AND HOMELAND SECURITY, came out. Last Spring of 2021, City Lights published his latest book, BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS: A Journey to a World Without Borders. We spoke with him on August 30, 2021.

Building Bridges his his fourth book on border issues.

“As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” – Virginia Woolf

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The broadcast ended with this piece by David Shuster, Trump’s Border Wall WRECKED By Storms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F81SPqWNO0c

Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/24/supreme-court-biden-trump-remain-in-mexico-migrant-policy

Federal Judge Debunks Greg Abbott’s COVID-Fighting Rationale, Blocks Texas Governor’s Ban on Transporting Migrants https://lawandcrime.com/covid-19-pandemic/federal-judge-debunks-greg-abbotts-covid-fighting-rationale-blocks-texas-governors-ban-on-transporting-migrants/

The wall Trump built for a fake crisis just got washed away by floods from a real crisis https://www.mic.com/p/the-wall-trump-built-for-a-fake-crisis-just-got-washed-away-by-floods-from-a-real-crisis-84116464

Repression Without Borders https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/opinion/sunday/repression-human-rights-china-turkey-russia.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Editorials

The Housing First Village in Bozeman https://forthright.media/2021/08/26/housing-first-village/