Wider View Radio Podcast

This week’s program is an interview with Dr. Walter Hixson.  Hixson is a historian and commentator whose work has focused mainly on the intersection of American culture and foreign relations. A prolific writer and publisher, he has a produced a series of works critically examining the history of US foreign relations, with particular emphasis on the Middle East in recent years. Since 2019 Hixson has been a columnist and contributing editor of the magazine, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.    Hixson’s forthcoming book, Architects of Repression: How Israel and its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy is published by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. His previous book on the lobby is Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict.     Human Rights Watch has just issued a report on Israel entitled “Abusive Israeli Policies Constitute Crimes of Apartheid, Persecution: Crimes Against Humanity Should Trigger Action to End Repression of Palestinians”   If you are Jewish and concerned about the human rights violations of the Israeli state, you may want to investigate Jewish Voice for Peace and B’Tselem .  Concerned citizens of all faiths should be aware of the most effective of current efforts to rein in the Israeli government - the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement or BDS. 

Bruce Gagnon is a lifelong activist for peace and justice and a co-founder of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. He has traveled to Russia, Crimea and Ukraine and watched this crisis unfold over the last 7 years.   I asked him to bring us up-to-date on the situation in Ukraine and how we got ourselves in this mess. 

This week I am reading excerpts from news and analysis stories from a number of alternative sources - outside the mainstream establishment media. Sources include Strategic Culture, Counterpunch, Anti-War and New Eastern Outlook.  I also strongly recommend taking a look at Covert Action Magazine which has published a number of important in-depth articles over the last few months.  

As the Biden regime seems determined to start another Cold War, this time with both Russia and China, I take a look at the rationale and origins of the first one and the similarities between Cold Wars I and II.

Barbara Boland is a journalist living and working in Washingon, DC who writes primarily about US foreign policy.  She has been published in the American Conservative and Responsible Statecraft, among others.  We take a look at President Biden's foreign policy, its goals and methods, and who's running the show.

Russell Dobular lives in New York City where he is a playwright and the owner and artistic director at Endtimes Productions, an independent Theater/Film Production Company.  He is also a political commentator appearing on the Due Dissidence Podcast with Keaton Weiss, who was my guest a few weeks ago. We had a wide-ranging conversation centered on the failed state in which we live and the political morass in which we find ourselves.  Thankfully Russell has a great sense of humor so it isn't that depressing.

This week I'm exploring the efforts of the elites to control us through control of the media narrative. We explore the role of social media and government efforts to put tight controls on what we can read and write on the internet. 

This is a very timely episode discussing the posture of the US vis-a-vis Iran and the effects of this week's bombing in Syria and the sanctions regime being continued by Biden.  My guest this week is Assal Rad.  Dr. Rad is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Iranian-American Council.  She graduated with a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from the University of California, Irvine in 2018.  Her writing can be seen in Newsweek, Independent, the National Interest, and Responsible Statecraft, and she has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, Al Jazeera, BBC Persian, and NPR.

This episode details the sources I use for news and opinion outside the narrow confines of the mainstream media.   Web Sites mentioned on this broadcast (Please note that I do not endorse everything posted on any of these web sites.  I do think they are worth reading because they provide missing alternative perspectives.): EconomicsNaked Capitalism Michael Hudson New Economic Perspectives EducationCurmudgucation UO Matters Foreign PolicyIsrael/PalestineElectronic Intifada Palestine Chronicle Israel/Palestine News Council for the National Interest Miko Peled Steven Salaita BloggersCaitlin Johnstone Craig Murray EurasiaNew Eastern Outlook The Vineyard of the Saker Indispensible Moon of Alabama Mainstream LeftResponsible Statecraft US PoliticsBlack Agenda Report Scheerpost Benjamin Studebaker Due Dissidence Ray McGovern General News and OpinionMint Press News Consortium News Grayzone Project Matt Taibbi   (Substack is a membership site so the journalists can be paid for their work) Glenn Greenwald Patrick Lawrence Covert Action Magazine American Herald Tribune Video (YouTube)TheHill.com AcTVism Munich Land Destroyer Jimmy Dore Foreign Press SourcesRussiaRT News Sputnik News ChinaGlobal Times CGTN IranPress TV Tasnim News Agency SyriaSyrian Arab News Agency Al-Masdar News VenezuelaTelesur Venezuela Analysis CubaGranma

Keaton Weiss lives in Beacon, NY on the Hudson River, and is a published playwright and award-winning filmmaker.  I came to know him through his Due Dissidence blog, film club, and podcast.  He tweets (much more rationally than our former President) at @DueDissidence and you can support his work on Patreon at https://patreon.com/duedissidence.  The Due Dissidence Podcast is available on Google, Apple, Soundcloud, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an almost hour-long conversation I had with Jim Kavanagh on January 24, 2021.  We talk about the storming of Congress, populism of the left and right, keeping the pitchforks away, and various other topics.   Jim is a former college professor who publishes left-socialist analysis at ThePolemicist.Net, Counterpunch, and Medium and appears regularly on podcasts including The Critical Hour, By Any Means Necessary, and Political Misfits.

Dr. Rick Staggenborg, President of the Linus Pauling Chapter of Veterans for Peace in Corvallis, Oregon and an activist for public banking talk about the need for Public Banking and how it might work and the current political situation in the US.  

In this episode we consider the question "Is the US a failed state?"  Looking at the key characteristics of a failed state, are they here in the US today?  Is the US a failed state with a huge military and an inflated self-image? The program contains the song "Failed State" by last week's guest, David Rovics, from his album "Strangers and Friends".

My guest today is David Rovics.  David is a songwriter, podcaster, and part of Portland Emergency Eviction Response.  We discuss the upcoming tsunami of evictions and the response of landlords, the history of rent strikes, and the struggle to stop evictions including that of the "Red House"  in Portland, OR. You can find out more about David at https://www.davidrovics.com.  His podcast “This Week with David Rovics” is archived at https://drovics.podbean.com/  You can find his music on Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube and wherever fine music is available. He even has an app for Android and Apple iOS!  

In this episode, I examine identity politics as a strategy for the Left.  Is it getting the results we want, or is it a distraction from the work the Left needs to do to gain political power?

I’m very pleased to welcome Patrick Lawrence back to Wider View.  Patrick was a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, and is currently a columnist, essayist, author, and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century.  Patrick's recent essays can be found at https://consortiumnews.com/tag/patrick-lawrence/ Patrick and I have a wide-ranging conversation mostly about US foreign policy and the contrast, or lack thereof, between the outgoing Trump Administration and the incoming Biden presidency.

With clips from experts and other commentators, I discuss the current situation with the 2020 Presidential Election (3 weeks later) along with the problems progressives face over the next 4 years under a Biden administration.

Catherine Shakdam joins me this week.  Catherine is a research fellow at the Al Bayan Centre for Planning & Studies and a political analyst specializing in radical movements. She is the author of A Tale of Grand Resistance: Yemen, the Wahhabi and the House of Saud.  We discuss the differences in Middle East policy between the Trump Administration and the incoming Biden Administration and her take on this may surprise you. You can find Catherine Shakdam's recent essays at New Eastern Outlook.

Colin Moran, a pharmacist, activist and neighbor, joins me to talk about some issues that have been ignored or grossly misrepresented in the Presidential campaigns this year.   

This is the second part of my interview with Moscow-based geopolitical analyst Mark Sleboda.  We talk about US-Russia relations and the impact of the upcoming election.   Following the interview, I talk a bit about the election and the future for progressives in the US.

I'm joined this week by Mark Sleboda, a Moscow-based geopolitical analyst who is a regular pundit on RT, Sputnik and CGTN and other outlets.  We discuss the US encirclement of Russia and in particular the current situation in Belarus.  Mark goes into detail on the history of the current crisis, the involvement of Russia and the US, and likely outcomes. This is Part 1 of my interview with Mark and Part 2 will be made available next week.    

Canadian journalist Joe Emersberger joins me to discuss the upcoming elections in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela and US efforts to disrupt them.  Joe mentioned several excellent sources for unfiltered news on Latin America.  Here they are with links: Venezuela Analysis primarily covers Venezuela and provides an even-handed approach to the news from that nation targeted by the US. Telesur English is the English-language television network sponsored by a number of Latin American governments including that of Venezuela. The Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) provides high-quality analysis of events throughout Latin America. A number of the journalists at the Grayzone have spent time in the nations targeted by US imperialism and cover US actions in the region without fear or favor. A number of good independent journalists report using Twitter.   Ollie Vargas provides ongoing coverage of Bolivia during this dangerous period. Kawsachun News is the English-language service of @KawsachunCoca, official station of the 6 Federations and is headquartered in Cochabamba. Camila Escalante reports for Kawsachun News and also posts independent stories on Twitter. Based on recent reports from these sources, here is a summary of news from Bolivia as of October 11, one week before the national election. With the Bolivian election days away, it’s being reported that fake NGO’s funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy and USAID are in Bolivia to make sure the election is fair (meaning the US-backed candidate wins).  Polls show that MAS, Evo Morales’ party, is ahead and close to a 1st round victory.  The Anez regime intends to impose a 48 hour “quarantine” after the elections to stop protests after they steal the election.  The US-backed neoliberal candidate Carlos Mesa says he will call for ‘resistance’ if the MAS refuses to recognize a fraudulent election result.  Last year his supporters burnt down vote counting centers and chanted ‘second round or civil war’.  We need to watch this closely.  Our turn is coming.

After a brief history of October Surprises, I talk about the current election and the possible effect of Trump's COVID-19 illness on the November results. 

Today I’m welcoming Jeremy Kuzmarov back to Wider View.  Jeremy has taught in history in colleges, written 4 books including “Obama's Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State” with Glen Ford, and “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce” with John Marciano, and was recently named Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine.  We talk about the magazine and its history, current US interventions including Belarus, and the upcoming election.

I keep getting asked that question.  It does seem unbelievable that so many Americans would have voted for this con man and probably will again.  In this episode we listen to the voices of some voters in Michigan recorded in 2016 and I try to make sense of this in some way.  Have I succeeded?  You tell me.

 Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent for Press TV in Paris where he has lived for the last 11 years.  He is also the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’.  He is currently back in the US to cover the political situation here leading up to the election.   His reports can be found regularly on the Press TV web site.   In the interview, Ramin referred to his interview with Naba'a Muhammad, and his report on possible violence after the US election,, one of his reports on the Kenosha protests is here.    

Dr. Rick Staggenborg joins me again to discuss propaganda.  This episode is a wide-ranging discussion of how narrative management is used to gain consent for war. You can read Rick's articles on OpEdNews.com   

Dr. Rick Staggenborg is a retired VA psychiatrist and post-Vietnam Army veteran who specialized in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in his practice.  He is a trained psychotherapist with a particular interest in how perception is modified to manufacture consent for war.  Rick and I recently collaborated on a presentation to the Veterans for Peace annual convention on propaganda and with the presidential campaign in full swing, we thought it would be a good time to share this with a wider audience.  

It’s always a pleasure to welcome Margaret Kimberley back to Wider View.  Margaret is the senior editor of the Black Agenda Report and a writer and activist on peace and justice issues.  Cornel West said of her latest book, Prejudential - Black America and the Presidents, “Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our peril!”

My guest this week is Dr. Benay Blend.  She earned her doctorate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico and has taught at the University of Georgia, Memphis State University, and the University of New Mexico. Currently, she is an adjunct professor of Native American, American, and New Mexico history at Central NM Community College in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Also, she contributes articles regularly to the Palestine Chronicle, Mondoweiss.

My guest this week is Gregory McKelvey. Greg is an activist and public speaker, the founder of Portland Resistance, and Vice-Chair of the Black Caucus of the Democratic Party of Oregon. He has been participating in and witnessing the demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. Greg recently wrote an article entitled America, Here's the Truth About Portland's Protests that the Mainstream is Hiding.  He is also campaign manager for Sarah Iannarone, a candidate for Mayor of Portland. We discuss the George Floyd protests as well as the upcoming election and the need for systemic change.  

This is the first episode since our summer hiatus and I am delighted to welcome Jim Kavanagh back to kick off our 4th season of Wider View.   Jim is a former college professor and New York City native and denizen. He blogs at The Polemicist.net and his writing and analysis can be found on CounterPunch, Op-Ed News, The Greanville Post, Dandelion Salad, and elsewhere. Jim is a frequent guest on Loud & Clear and The Critical Hour on Radio Sputnik, and you can follow him on Twitter at @ThePolemicist_ and on Facebook at The Polemicist.   Jim refers to a recent article by Ajamu Baraka and echoes his call to expand the George Floyd protests into a struggle for the structural change that we need in this nation. 

This will be the last episode for a while as I am suspending for the summer. I took this opportunity to reflect on the demonstrations arising from George Floyd's murder by the Minneapolis police and include comments by Ajamu Baraka and Margaret Kimberley. 

This week I welcome Barbara Boland to Wider View.  Barbara is foreign policy and national security reporter for The American Conservative. She previously worked as an editor for the Washington Examiner and for CNS News. She is the author of Patton Uncovered, a book about General George Patton in World War II, and her work has appeared on Fox News, The Hill,  UK Spectator, and elsewhere. Boland is a graduate of Immaculata University in Pennsylvania.  We discuss two of her recent articles for The American Conservative, How Did a Bronze Star Green Beret End Up Behind Venezuelan 'Bay of Pigs'? and 'Zombie Neocon': How This Iran Contra Architect Is Leading Trump Policy.  We also discuss China and the coronavirus accusations by the Trump Administration and the anti-war Right. 

My guest on this program is Rob Dietz, the Program Director at Post Carbon Institute. Prior to joining Post Carbon Institute, Rob worked as a project manager at Farmland LP, helping to transition conventional farmland to organic. He was also the first executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy  taking it from an unfunded start-up organization to an internationally respected leader on new economic thinking.  He is the lead author of Enough Is Enough, a popular book on steady-state economics. During the show, I referred to a recent article by Elizabeth Rosenthal on Kaiser Health News entitled "We Knew the Coronavirus Was Coming Yet We Failed 5 Critical Tests".  I strongly recommend this article to those of you interested in health care policy.

I am very pleased to welcome Monisha Rios back to Wider View.  Monisha is a Gulf War Era Army Veteran and a Doctoral Candidate on Liberation Psychology. Her research focuses on the militarization of psychology in the United States. Her work is geared towards building a grassroots movement to conduct a peoples' inquiry into the U.S.'s use of psychological warfare against the peoples of the world, including its own citizens, and to amplify the voices of those who are most impacted by U.S. wars, centering the voices of indigenous communities. She is also the creator of MIRA, a grassroots research project that focuses on moral injuries related to the causes and consequences of U.S. wars. During our conversation, Monisha mentioned the organization Vamos, which sees its mission as  "Puerto Rico empowered, where our people, as people who think and feel, unite in community and sovereignly exercise the construction of a sustainable, inclusive, caring, democratic, fair, equitable, prosperous, healthy and happy country."  Their website is https://www.vamospr.org/

I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Jack Rasmus to Wider View. Jack has a Ph.D in Political Economy and teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California.  He is the author of a number of books including “Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression”, “Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy”, “Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few” and his latest, “The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump”.  Jack is also host of a weekly radio show called Alternative Visions on the Progressive Radio Network.  You can follow him on Twitter at @drjackrasmus  

Jim Kavanagh is a political analyst and commentator who lives in New York City.  He is a regular contributor to the Loud and Clear and Critical Hour podcasts on Sputnik Radio and writes a blog called The Polemicist. We talk about the reaction of the left to the end of the Bernie Sanders campaign and what options are left open for real change in the United States.

This week I talk with Iranian-American attorney Mehrnoush Yazdanyar whose clients are struggling to deal with the illegal US sanctions on Iran and the fallout from the Muslim Ban.  During her 10 plus years of private practice, Ms. Yazdanyar has not only established herself an expert in her niche areas of practice, but she has also gained notoriety for her pro-bono and non-profit work as well as her dedication to assisting non-government organizations with their legal needs.  

Assal Rad, Research Fellow of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) joins me to discuss the dire situation in Iran where the nation is struggling to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak while vital medical supplies are withheld due to illegal US sanctions.  NIAC is currently calling on Congress to provide immediate relief to Iran from the sanctions regime.  You can join in that action by going to:  https://www.niacouncil.org/campaign/solidarity-not-sanctions/   

I am very pleased to welcome writer and columnist Patrick Lawrence to Wider View.  Patrick is the author of 5 books, has taught at universities in the US and abroad, and has worked as a journalist and columnist for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune, the New Yorker and Consortium News.  His most recent book is “Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century”. We begin by discussing his recent article for Consortium News, COVID-19: The US National Emergency and move on from there.

Grant Smith, director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, joins me to discuss the Israel Lobby, the Israel Lobby Conference, and his new book The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board.  Learn how taxpayers in Virginia are supporting Israel business interests.  

Geopolitical analyst Mark Sleboda joins me to discuss the latest developments in the 9-year war in Syria, including the machinations of Turkish President Erdogan and his proxies in the Idlib region and the reaction of the Syrian and Russian governments.  We recorded this after the meeting in Moscow of Putin and Erdogan.  

Author and analyst Mike Whitney and I discuss the recent downturn in the stock market, the various tools the government has to respond and their inadequacy, as well as the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on our financial future. You can find Mike's most recent articles on The Unz Review at https://www.unz.com/author/mike-whitney/.  Mike has also been published at Counterpunch, and Global Research at https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/mike-whitney.  

Margaret Kimberley, Senior Editor of Black Agenda Report, joins me this week to talk about her new book, Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents.    "Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our own peril!" — Cornel West, author of Race Matters We also discuss the current presidential campaign as seen from the vantage point of this book.  

This week was a very busy one for news.  Trump gave his State of the Union speech followed the next day by his acquittal in the impeachment trial and the Democrats made a mess of the Iowa Caucuses.  To help us get perspective on these events, I’m joined by historian Jeremy Kuzmarov. Jeremy is the author of 4 books on US foreign policy: Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation-Building in the American Century (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War) The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War) The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce (with John Marciano) He has taught at numerous universities in the field of US history and foreign relations and contributes to a number of progressive publications.  He is also a board member of the Tulsa Peace Fellowship and on the Steering Committee for Historians for Peace and Democracy.

I'm joined this week by Jim Kavanagh.   Jim is a former college professor and denizen of New York City who currently blogs at ThePolemicist.net, reflecting on politics and culture from a left-socialist perspective.  He is a frequent guest on the Loud and Clear podcast from Sputnik.   You can follow Jim on his Facebook page and on Twitter as @ThePolemicist_ . During the show, Jim mentioned a recent article on Joe Biden by Shaun King.  That article can be found on Shaun King's Newsletter at https://shaunking.substack.com/p/2-truths-and-31-lies-joe-biden-has Lots of material packed into this half hour.  Take a listen!  

Writer and analyst Mike Whitney who writes regularly for the Unz Review, joins me for a wide-ranging discussion on the crisis in the Middle East and the role of the neocons. Mike's recent articles include "Pompeo Says Gangland-Style Hit on Soleimani was 'Restoration of Deterrence'", and "Did Pompeo Dupe Trump Into the Soleimani Hit?"

Catherine Shakdam is Co-Founder of Veritas Consulting and Head of the Yemen Unit at the Next Century Foundation.  She was formerly Director of Programs at the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies. She is much in demand as an analyst of the Middle East and I am honored to have her join me on Wider View. We talk this time about the repercussions of the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani throughout the region. You can find Catherine's work at https://www.catherine-shakdam.com/ and at Citizen Truth, New Eastern Outlook, and on the blog of the Next Century Foundation.  You can follow her on Twitter @shakdamc.  

With the murder of Iranian General Soleimani on January 3rd, tensions in the Middle East are worse than before. I explore the events leading to the drone assassination, the popularity of Soleimani and his contributions to the region, and talk about why we continue to get further embroiled in the Middle East region. 

Historian Jeremy Kuzmarov joins me for a discussion of US foreign policy in the Obama and Trump Years.  Jeremy received his PhD from Brandeis University in 2006 and has taught at Bucknell University , Emmanuel College and the University of Tulsa.  He’s the author of several books including “The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs“, “Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation-Building in the American Century”, “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, The Second as Farce” with John Marciano, and his latest “Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State”. His website is the place to go for his recent writings.