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:

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

Ecotones – Butch Larcombe – MONTANA DISASTERS: True Stories of Treasure State Tragedies and Triumphs

When we read Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s Managing Editor, Michael Wright’s article headlined, “New book examines major disasters of Montana’s past,” on the very first day of 2022, we just had to find out more.

The piece was about Butch Larcombe and his book, MONTANA DISASTERS: TRUE STORIES OF TREASURE STATE TRAGEDIES AND TRIUMPHS, published in December 2021 by Farcountry Press in Helena.

Butch Larcombe is a fourth-generation Montanan who grew up in Malta. He worked for more than thirty years as a reporter and editor for Montana newspapers and at Montana Magazine.

We spoke with him from his home near Bigfork on January 12, 2022.

The Methodist church in Three Forks sustained heavy damage from the 1925 Clarkston Valley earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey

Articles pertinent to this interview:

New book examines major disasters of Montana’s past https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/dailyfeatures/new-book-examines-major-disasters-of-montanas-past/article_abee918f-01b6-5839-80ff-f2c074716883.html

Groups request independent investigation into Hebgen Dam malfunction https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/groups-request-independent-investigation-into-hebgen-dam-malfunction/article_44784f51-0113-5f11-b766-c6e07bdc95fe.html

‘Worst in history’ https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/worst-in-history/article_3574a1c0-ab7e-588b-a183-34e972994c60.html

Authorities identify victim from explosion https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=NewsBank&t=pubname%3ABZMB%21Bozeman%2BDaily%2BChronicle%2B%2528MT%2529/year%3A2009%212009/mody%3A0309%21March%2B09&action=browse&year=2009&format=text&docref=news/126D81DE4E5DFE68

30 homes destroyed in Bridger Foothills fire https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/30-homes-destroyed-in-bridger-foothills-fire/article_538b6f6e-3508-51e7-a8f9-7e39c2a1f860.html

The Hebgen Lake Earthquake http://kgvm.org/show/the-hebgen-lake-earthquake/

Karen Greenberg – SUBTLE TOOLS: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump

Karen Greenberg is the Director of The Center on National Security at Fordham University. Her 2016 book, ROGUE JUSTICE :The Making of the Security State, explores the War on Terror’s impact on justice and law in America.

Her latest book, SUBTLE TOOLS: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump, is published by Princeton University Press.

We spoke with Karen Greenberg on January 7, 2022, one year and a day after a momentarily united, bipartisan Congress fled in fear for their lives from a mob, who had violently invaded the capitol, preventing the fulfillment of their obligation under the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to meet on January 6 and count the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election. They were unable to do so until January 7, 2021, one year to the day that Karen Greenberg and I spoke.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The U.S. drops an average of 46 bombs a day: Why should the world see us as a force for peace? https://www.salon.com/2022/01/11/the-us-drops-an-average-of-46-bombs-a-day-why-should-the-world-see-us-as-a-force-for-peace/

The 20-Year War on Terror Was an Amazing Success—If You Were Terrorism https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/01/04/20-year-war-terror-was-amazing-success-if-you-were-terrorism?vgo_ee=Y82RBGepzJGygaHT4lvL4KyPUFd7JHyq9acdSgULWaM%3D

Crisis of Command: The Pentagon, The President, and January 6 https://www.justsecurity.org/79623/crisis-of-command-the-pentagon-the-president-and-january-6/

Timeline for Anniversary of January 5: DOJ Election Fraud Investigations and GA Senate Runoff https://www.justsecurity.org/79743/timeline-for-anniversary-of-january-5-doj-election-fraud-investigations-and-ga-senate-runoff/

The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-american-polity-is-cracked-and-might-collapse-canada-must-prepare/

Links to audio additions to the broadcast version of this interview:

Tapping My Own Phone (Ron Whitehead) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orrsv7kkxYo

Uncivil War (Shemekia Copeland) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtYnzXdhkm0

The Dance – Ron Whitehead & The Storm Generation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZLaNzQH6Dg

Kristen Iversen FULL BODY BURDEN:Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats

In this interview with Kristen Iversen from June 27, 2012, we learn about the history and legacy of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Site, located 15 miles northwest of Denver, CO. Iversen grew up in nearby Arvada, and worked at the plant.

The recent catastrophic fires in Superior and Louisville, CO, brought it to mind, since Superior butts right up against and downwind from the Rocky Flats site, and Louisville butts right up against Superior. On the day of the fire, December 30, 2021, winds were clocked at Rocky Flats at 115 miles per hour. But beyond that, as Kristen Iversen tells us, those winds had been blowing east from the plutonium contaminated site for 6 decades.

Local residents protested the moral and physical dangers at Rocky Flats, as well as proposed real estate developments along its borders, which were nonetheless built, in spite of the scientific findings of plutonium contamination and strong, local resistance, and which have now been utterly destroyed by the fires.

An aerial view of one of the Boulder County neighborhoods that burned to the ground on Thursday. Photo: Hart Van Denburg/AP/Shutterstock

It has been widely reported that abundant spring rains allowed the grasses to grow profusely, only to dry completely in the ensuing drought and unseasonably hot and dry Fall and early Winter. In the growing, those plants absorbed plutonium, known to have been blown there from the Rocky Flats Weapon Lab site during those six decades. The fire vaporized whatever plutonium had been taken up by that tinder dry plant material, blowing it in unknown amounts and unknown distances to the east. I have not found any reports mentioning this aspect of the fires, much less considering the fallout from it, in the most literal sense.

Perhaps this post can be a beginning of that consideration.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this story:

The Return of the Urban Firestorm https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/colorado-saw-the-return-of-the-urban-firestorm.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

The Rocky Flats Grand Jury’s Files Have Gone Missing https://www.westword.com/news/rocky-flats-grand-jurors-were-silenced-and-now-files-are-gone-11430085

Update Regarding Rocky Flats Hot Particle Study https://www.rockyflatsnuclearguardianship.org/single-post/2020/04/09/Update-Regarding-Rocky-Flats-Hot-Particle-Study

Plutonium Inventory Differences at the Rocky Flats Plant & Their Relationship to Environmental Releases https://nuke.fas.org/cochran/nuc_11229601a_178.pdf

It’s alive: The groundbreaking research on the microbes in wildfire smoke https://grist.org/grist-video/its-alive-the-groundbreaking-research-on-the-microbes-in-wildfire-smoke/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=weekly

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

Spencer Ackerman REIGN OF TERROR: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America & Produced Trump

Spencer Ackerman had just graduated from Rutgers University, when the attacks on 9/11 occurred. He began his journalism career, focused on national security, with the New Republic in 2002, and then went on to write for Wired, The Guardian and The Daily Beast.

He won a 2012 National Magazine Award for his reporting on biased FBI training, and a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (with Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras, and others at the Guardian) for reporting on revelations of widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency based on the Edward Snowden revelations.

His recent book, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, was published by Viking in August, 2021. We spoke with him on December 3, 2021.

Articles referenced or pertinent to this interview:

House Responds To GOP’s Lauren Boebert With Islamophobia Bill Sponsored By Ilhan Omar https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-us-congress-boebert-omar_n_61b9c78ae4b0317f6dcec77a

US rejects calls for regulating or banning ‘killer robots’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/02/us-rejects-calls-regulating-banning-killer-robots

The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/08/the-rise-of-the-killer-robots-jody-williams-mary-warehan-artificial-intelligence-autonomous-weapons

How Sept. 11Gave Us Jan. 6 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/opinion/how-sept-11-gave-us-jan-6.html?searchResultPosition=4

McChrystal: ‘Impossible to Argue’ War on Terror Was Worth It https://www.thedailybeast.com/mcchrystal-impossible-to-argue-war-on-terror-was-worth-it?ref=author

Donald Rumsfeld, Killer of 400,000 People, Dies Peacefully https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-rumsfeld-killer-of-400000-people-dies-peacefully?ref=author

Secret Court Reveals: FBI Hunted for Domestic Terrorists Without a Warrant https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-court-reveals-fbi-hunted-for-domestic-terrorists-without-a-warrant?ref=author

The Insurrection Isn’t Over https://www.huffpost.com/entry/insurrection-republican-party-trump_n_60b1217ae4b04ddf13edbe9d

Maj. Ian Fishback, Who Exposed Abuse of Detainees, Dies at 42 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/us/ian-fishback-dead.html?surface=most-popular&fellback=false&req_id=485534344&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces&pool=pool/91fcf81c-4fb0-49ff-bd57-a24647c85ea1&imp_id=505104580&action=click&module=Popular%20in%20The%20Times&pgtype=Homepage

Pentagon Chief Orders New Inquiry Into U.S. Airstrike That Killed Dozens in Syria https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/us/politics/pentagon-airstrike-syria.html

‘The goal was to silence people’: historian Joanne Freeman on congressional violence https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/28/historian-joanne-freeman-congressional-violence-paul-gosar

US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international

Can American democracy escape the doom loop? So far, the signs are not promising https://www.salon.com/2021/12/10/democracy-doom-loop/

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