Podcasts about forever war

Lasting state of war with no clear ending conditions

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Best podcasts about forever war

Latest podcast episodes about forever war

Adelaide Writers' Week
AWW25: The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself - Nick Bryant

Adelaide Writers' Week

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2025 61:20


With Richard Fidler.Nick Bryant, author of The Forever War, discusses with Richard Fidler the history of contemporary America's polarisation and whether the nation's political future will be dictated by its violent political past.Event details:Mon 03 Mar, 1:15pm | East Stage

Pod Save the World
Trump Reignites the Forever Wars

Pod Save the World

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2025 100:42


Tommy and Ben discuss Bibi Netanyahu restarting the war in Gaza as he creates a new domestic political crisis, why Trump's airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen are likely to fail, and the gutting of Voice of America. They also cover the latest in Trump's efforts to harness the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador, how Putin continues to play Trump in negotiations over Ukraine, Serbia's wave of student-led protests over government corruption, and why patrons at a popular Chinese hotpot chain are getting more than just a full refund. Then Ben speaks with Pankaj Mishra, author of The World After Gaza: A History, about how Israel's relationship with the legacy of the Holocaust has shifted, decolonization in the 20th century, and how a writer can be of service in these dark times. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Nashville's Morning News with Dan Mandis
Trump/Putin Meeting Is this war truly a forever war?

Nashville's Morning News with Dan Mandis

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2025 14:07


Looks like no progress was made in the Trump/Putin phone call.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

LANDLINE
E135 - Trump Wants Forever Wars, Gaza, & ICE

LANDLINE

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2025 77:34


What's there to say about lying ahh leadership? We talk bad luck Chuck, ICE disappearing people with dangerous disregard to rights, Israel's latest bloodthirsty campaign, and Trump's unequivocal support of endless wars. Good luck sending Gen Z to fight your wars -- you'll have to pry the vapes and zyn canisters from their hands, so so strong from typing. Get in with Janaya Future Khan. SUPPORT THE SHOW  Patreon - https://patreon.com/@darkwoke Tip w/ a One Time Donation SUBSCRIBE + FOLLOW IG: www.instagram.com/darkwokejfk Youtube: www.youtube.com/@darkwoke TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@janayafk

Watchdog on Wall Street
Did Trump Just Put America in Another Forever War with Iran?

Watchdog on Wall Street

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2025 4:53


Chris questions the U.S. sending three aircraft carriers to strike the Houthis in Yemen. Is this another endless war? With no Congressional vote and ceasefire off in Gaza, he demands clarity—why not a global coalition instead? Fed up with constant bombing, he echoes a growing call: America first, not foreign wars. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Pandemic Quotables
Getting Out of Forever Wars

Pandemic Quotables

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2025 7:19


Lever Time
Big Tech's Forever War

Lever Time

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2025 30:20


Does Donald Trump have what it takes to challenge Big Tech? Despite the elevation of Silicon Valley billionaires and insiders within his administration, the Department of Justice is still pursuing antitrust cases against Google and Microsoft. But some worry these efforts may be too little, too late. Today, technologies owned and operated by Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft are so deeply embedded in society that it's hard to imagine life without them. It's a situation that has caught the eyes of regulators and politicians, sometimes resulting in unexpected political alliances. Today on Lever Time, Senior Podcast Producer Arjun Singh sits down with several current and former regulators, including recently dismissed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chair Rohit Chopra, to learn how the tech sector is rapidly changing society at the expense of the working class — and what the government can do to stop it.

American Prestige
Special - The Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil w/ Spencer Ackerman

American Prestige

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2025 39:06


Spencer Ackerman of Forever Wars joins the program to talk about the arrest by ICE of activist Mahmoud Khalil. Read Spencer's piece on the matter, "Mahmoud Khalil's Detention Is A War on Terror Milestone". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Quincy Adams Society Events
Spencer Ackerman on the Global War on Terror and Biden's Legacy

John Quincy Adams Society Events

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2025 58:54


On this week's episode of Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and A.J. Manuzzi interview Spencer Ackerman, a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award-winning reporter, who has covered the War on Terror and U.S. foreign policy for The New Republic, Wired, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and Zeteo. He is also the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump and the Forever Wars newsletter, and he is currently writing the new Iron Man series for Marvel Comics and The Torture and Deliverance of Majid Khan. Our conversation discussed the impact of the GWOT on U.S. politics, whether the GWOT is actually over, and the Biden Administration's foreign policy legacy.

The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum
No One Wins A Forever War

The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2025 23:02


After the contentious conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the White House Oval Office last week, a senior White House official reports the U.S. will pause all military aid to Ukraine.    Former Moscow CIA Chief and FOX News Contributor Dan Hoffman provides his expert opinion on the ongoing events and conversations between the U.S. and Ukraine. He discusses the best plan of action to get Russia to the negotiating table. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The True North Field Report
Canada needs to side with the U.S. in ending the forever wars

The True North Field Report

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2025 46:43


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keen On Democracy
Episode 2244: Tim Wu on how to decentralize capitalism

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2025 51:05


Why is reforming capitalism so essential? In the latest issue of Liberties Quarterly, Tim Wu argues that unregulated capitalism not only leads to economic monopolies, but also drives populist anger and authoritarian politics. In “The Real Road to Serfdom”, Wu advocates for "decentralized capitalism" with distributed economic power, citing examples from Scandinavia and East Asia. Drawing from his experience in the Biden administration's antitrust efforts, he emphasizes the importance of preventing industry concentration. Wu expresses concern about big tech's growing political influence and argues that challenging monopolies is critical for fostering innovation and maintaining economic progress in the United States.Here are the 5 KEEN ON AMERICA takeaways from our interview with Tim Wu:* Historical Parallels: Wu sees concerning parallels between our current era and the 1930s, characterized by concentrated economic power, fragile economic conditions, and the rise of populist leaders. He suggests we're in a period where leaders are moving beyond winning elections to attempting to alter constitutional frameworks.* The Monopoly-Autocracy Connection: Wu argues there's a dangerous cycle where monopolies create economic inequality, which generates populist anger, which then enables authoritarian leaders to rise to power. He cites Hugo Chavez as a pioneer of this modern autocratic model that leaders like Trump have followed.* Decentralized Capitalism: Wu advocates for an economic system with multiple centers of distributed economic power, rather than just a few giant companies accumulating wealth. He points to Denmark, Taiwan, and post-WWII East Asia as successful examples of more balanced economic structures.* Antitrust Legacy: Wu believes the Biden administration's antitrust enforcement efforts have created lasting changes in legal standards and public consciousness that won't be easily reversed. He emphasizes that challenging monopolies is crucial for maintaining innovation and preventing industry stagnation.* Big Tech and Power: Wu expresses concern about big tech companies' growing political influence, comparing it to historical examples like AT&T and IBM. He's particularly worried about AI potentially reinforcing existing power structures rather than democratizing opportunities.Complete Transcript: Tim Wu on The Real Road to SerfdomAndrew Keen: Hello, everybody. We live in very strange times. That's no exaggeration. Yesterday, we had Nick Bryant on the show, the author of The Forever War. He was the BBC's man in Washington, DC for a long time. In our conversation, Nick suggested that we're living in really historic times, equivalent to the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, perhaps even the beginnings of the Second World War.My guest today, like Nick, is a deep thinker. Tim Wu will be very well known to you for many things, including his book, The Attention Merchants. He was involved in the Biden White House, teaches law at Columbia University, and much more. He has a new book coming out later in the year on November 4th, The Age of Extraction. He has a very interesting essay in this issue of Liberties, the quarterly magazine of ideas, called "The Real Road to Serfdom."Tim had a couple of interesting tweets in the last couple of days, one comparing the behavior of President Trump to Germany's 1933 enabling act. And when it comes to Ukraine, Tim wrote, "How does the GOP feel about their president's evident plan to forfeit the Cold War?" Tim Wu is joining us from his home in the village of Manhattan. Tim, welcome. Before we get to your excellent essay in Liberties, how would you historicize what we're living through at the moment?Tim Wu: I think the 1930s are not the wrong way to look at it. Prior to that period, you had this extraordinary concentration of economic power in a very fragile environment. A lot of countries had experienced an enormous crash and you had the rise of populist leaders, with Mussolini being the pioneer of the model. This has been going on for at least 5 or 6 years now. We're in that middle period where it's moving away from people just winning elections to trying to really alter the constitution of their country. So I think the mid-30s is probably about right.Andrew Keen: You were involved in the Biden administration. You were one of the major thinkers when it came to antitrust. Have you been surprised with what's happened since Biden left office? The speed, the radicalness of this Trump administration?Tim Wu: Yes, because I expected something more like the first Trump administration, which was more of a show with a lot of flash but poor execution. This time around, the execution is also poor but more effective. I didn't fully expect that Elon Musk would actually be a government official at this point and that he'd have this sort of vandalism project going on. The fact they won all of the houses of Congress was part of the problem and has made the effort go faster.Andrew Keen: You talk about Musk. We've done many shows on Musk's role in all this and the seeming arrival of Silicon Valley or a certain version of Silicon Valley in Washington, DC. You're familiar with both worlds, the world of big tech and Silicon Valley and Washington. Is that your historical reading that these two worlds are coming together in this second Trump administration?Tim Wu: It's very natural for economic power to start to seek political power. It follows from the basic view of monopoly as a creature that wants to defend itself, and the second observation that the most effective means of self-defense is control of government. If you follow that very simple logic, it stands to reason that the most powerful economic entities would try to gain control of government.I want to talk about the next five years. The tech industry is following the lead of Palantir and Peter Thiel, who were pioneers in thinking that instead of trying to avoid government, they should try to control it. I think that is the obvious move over the next four years.Andrew Keen: I've been reading your excellent essay in Liberties, "The Real Road to Serfdom." When did you write it? It seems particularly pertinent this week, although of course you didn't write it knowing exactly what was going to be happening with Musk and Washington DC and Trump and Ukraine.Tim Wu: I wrote it about two years ago when I got out of the White House. The themes are trying to get at eternal issues about the dangers of economic power and concentrated economic power and its unaccountability. If it made predictions that are starting to come true, I don't know if that's good or bad.Andrew Keen: "The Real Road to Serfdom" is, of course, a reference to the Hayek book "The Road to Serfdom." Did you consciously use that title with reference to Hayek, or was that a Liberties decision?Tim Wu: That was my decision. At that point, and I may still write this, I was thinking of writing a book just called "The Real Road to Serfdom." I am both fascinated and a fan of Hayek in certain ways. I think he nailed certain things exactly right but makes big errors at the same time.To his credit, Hayek was very critical of monopoly and very critical of the role of the state in reinforcing monopoly. But he had an almost naivete about what powerful, unaccountable private economic entities would do with their power. That's essentially my criticism.Andrew Keen: In 2018, you wrote a book, "The Curse of Bigness." And in a way, this is an essay against bigness, but it's written—please correct me if I'm wrong—I read it as a critique of the left, suggesting that there were times in the essay, if you're reading it blind, you could have been reading Hayek in its critique of Marx and centralization and Lenin and Stalin and the Ukrainian famines. Is the message in the book, Tim—is your audience a progressive audience? Are you saying that it's a mistake to rely on bigness, so to speak, the state as a redistributive platform?Tim Wu: Not entirely. I'm very critical of communist planned economies, and that's part of it. But it's mainly a critique of libertarian faith in private economic power or sort of the blindness to the dangers of it.My basic thesis in "The Real Road to Serfdom" is that free market economies will tend to monopolize. Once monopoly power is achieved, it tends to set off a strong desire to extract as much wealth from the rest of the economy as it can, creating something closer to a feudal-type economy with an underclass. That tends to create a huge amount of resentment and populist anger, and democracies have to respond to that anger.The libertarian answer of saying that's fine, this problem will go away, is a terrible answer. History suggests that what happens instead is if democracy doesn't do anything, the state takes over, usually on the back of a populist strongman. It could be a communist, could be fascist, could be just a random authoritarian like in South America.I guess I'd say it's a critique of both the right and the left—the right for being blind to the dangers of concentrated economic power, and the left, especially the communist left, for idolizing the takeover of vital functions by a giant state, which has a track record as bad, if not worse, than purely private power.Andrew Keen: You bring up Hugo Chavez in the essay, the now departed Venezuelan strongman. You're obviously no great fan of his, but you do seem to suggest that Chavez, like so many other authoritarians, built his popularity on the truth of people's suffering. Is that fair?Tim Wu: That is very fair. In the 90s, when Chavez first came to power through popular election, everyone was mystified and thought he was some throwback to the dictators of the 60s and 70s. But he turned out to be a pioneer of our future, of the new form of autocrat, who appealed to the unfairness of the economy post-globalization.Leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orbán, and certainly Donald Trump, are direct descendants of Hugo Chavez in their approach. They follow the same playbook, appealing to the same kind of pain and suffering, promising to act for the people as opposed to the elites, the foreigners, and the immigrants. Chavez is also a cautionary lesson. He started in a way which the population liked—he lowered gas prices, gave away money, nationalized industry. He was very popular. But then like most autocrats, he eventually turned the money to himself and destroyed his own country.Andrew Keen: Why are autocrats like Chavez and perhaps Trump so much better at capturing that anger than Democrats like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?Tim Wu: People who are outside the system like Chavez are able to tap into resentment and anger in a way which is less diluted by their direct information environment and their colleagues. Anyone who hangs around Washington, DC for a long time becomes more muted and careful. They lose credibility.That said, the fact that populist strongmen take over countries in distress suggests we need to avoid that level of economic distress in the first place and protect the middle class. Happy, contented middle-class countries don't tend to see the rise of authoritarian dictators. There isn't some Danish version of Hugo Chavez in the running right now.Andrew Keen: You bring up Denmark. Denmark always comes up in these kinds of conversations. What's admirable about your essay is you mostly don't fall into the Denmark trap of simply saying, "Why don't we all become like Denmark?" But at the same time, you acknowledge that the Danish model is attractive, suggesting we've misunderstood it or treated it superficially. What can and can't we learn from the Danish model?Tim Wu: American liberals often misunderstand the lesson of Scandinavia and other countries that have strong, prosperous middle classes like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. In Scandinavia's case, the go-to explanation is that it's just the liberals' favorite set of policies—high taxation, strong social support systems. But I think the structure of those economies is much more important.They have what Jacob Hacker calls very strong "pre-distribution." They've avoided just having a small set of monopolists who make all the money and then hopefully hand it out to other people. It goes back to their land reform in the early 19th century, where they set up a very different kind of economy with a broad distribution of productive assets.If I'm trying to promote a philosophy in this book, it's for people who are fed up with the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism and think it leads to autocracy, but who are also no fans of communism or socialism. Just saying "let people pile up money and we'll tax it later" is not going to work. What you need is an economy structured with multiple centers of distributed economic power.Andrew Keen: The term that seems to summarize that in the essay is "architecture of parity." It's a bit clunky, but is that the best way to sum up your thinking?Tim Wu: I'm working on the terminology. Architecture of equality, parity, decentralized capitalism, distribution—these are all terms trying to capture it. It's more of a 19th century form of Christian or Catholic economics. People are grasping for the right word for an economic system that doesn't rely on just a few giant companies taking money from everybody and hopefully redistributing it. That model is broken and has a dangerous tendency to lead to toxicity. We need a better capitalism. An alternative title for this piece could have been "Saving Capitalism from Itself."Andrew Keen: Your name is most associated with tech and your critique of big tech. Does this get beyond big tech? Are there other sectors of the economy you're interested in fixing and reforming?Tim Wu: Absolutely. Silicon Valley is the most obvious and easiest entry point to talk about concentrated economic power. You can see the dependence on a small number of platforms that have earnings and profits far beyond what anyone imagined possible. But we're talking about an economy-wide, almost global set of problems.Some industries are worse. The meat processing industry in the United States is horrendously concentrated—it takes all the money from farmers, charges us too much for meat, and keeps it for itself. There are many industries where people are looking for something to understand or believe in that's different than socialism but different than this libertarian capitalism that ends up bankrupting people. Tech is the easiest way to talk about it, but not the be-all and end-all of my interest.Andrew Keen: Are there other examples where we're beginning to see decentralized capitalism? The essay was very strong on the critique, but I found fewer examples of decentralized capitalism in practice outside maybe Denmark in the 2020s.Tim Wu: East Asia post-World War II is a strong example of success. While no economy is purely small businesses, although Taiwan comes close, if you look at the East Asian story after World War II, one of the big features was an effort to reform land, give land to peasants, and create a landowning class to replace the feudal system. They had huge entrepreneurism, especially in Korea and Taiwan, less in Japan. This built a strong and prosperous middle and upper middle class.Japan has gone through hard times—they let their companies get too big and they stagnated. But Korea and Taiwan have gone from being third world economies to Taiwan now being wealthier per capita than Japan. The United States is another strong example, vacillating between being very big and very small. Even at its biggest, it still has a strong entrepreneurial culture and sectors with many small entities. Germany is another good example. There's no perfect version, but what I'm saying is that the model of monopolized economies and just having a few winners and hoping that anybody else can get tax payments is really a losing proposition.Andrew Keen: You were on Chris Hayes recently talking about antitrust. You're one of America's leading thinkers on antitrust and were brought into the Biden administration on the antitrust front. Is antitrust then the heart of the matter? Is this really the key to decentralizing capitalism?Tim Wu: I think it's a big tool, one of the tools of managing the economy. It works by preventing industries from merging their way into monopoly and keeps a careful eye on structure. In the same way that no one would say interest rates are the be-all and end-all of monetary policy, when we're talking about structural policy, having antitrust law actively preventing overconcentration is important.In the White House itself, we spent a lot of time trying to get other agencies to prevent their sectors, whether healthcare or transportation, from becoming overly monopolized and extractive. You can have many parts of the government involved—the antitrust agencies are key, but they're not the only solution.Andrew Keen: You wrote an interesting piece for The Atlantic about Biden's antitrust initiatives. You said the outgoing president's legacy of revived antitrust enforcement won't be easy to undo. Trump is very good at breaking things. Why is it going to be hard to undo? Lina Khan's gone—the woman who seems to unite all of Silicon Valley in their dislike of her. What did Biden do to protect antitrust legislation?Tim Wu: The legal patterns have changed and the cases are ongoing. But I think more important is a change of consciousness and ideology and change in popular support. I don't think there is great support for letting big tech do whatever they want without oversight. There are people who believe in that and some of them have influence in this administration, but there's been a real change in consciousness.I note that the Federal Trade Commission has already announced that it's going to stick with the Biden administration's merger rules, and my strong sense is the Department of Justice will do the same. There are certain things that Trump did that we stuck with in the Biden administration because they were popular—the most obvious being the turn toward China. Going back to the Bush era approach of never bothering any monopolies, I just don't think there's an appetite for it.Andrew Keen: Why is Lina Khan so unpopular in Silicon Valley?Tim Wu: It's interesting. I'm not usually one to attribute things to sexism, but the Justice Department brought more cases against big tech than she did. Jonathan Kanter, who ran antitrust at Justice, won the case against Google. His firm was trying to break up Google. They may still do it, but somehow Lina Khan became the face of it. I think because she's young and a woman—I don't know why Jonathan Kanter didn't become the symbol in the same way.Andrew Keen: You bring up the AT&T and IBM cases in the US tech narrative in the essay, suggesting that we can learn a great deal from them. What can we learn from those cases?Tim Wu: The United States from the 70s through the 2010s was an extraordinarily innovative place and did amazing things in the tech industry. An important part of that was challenging the big IBM and AT&T monopolies. AT&T was broken into eight pieces. IBM was forced to begin selling its software separately and opened up the software markets to what became a new software industry.AT&T earlier had been forced to license the transistor, which opened up the semiconductor industry and to some degree the computing industry, and had to stay out of computing. The government intervened pretty forcefully—a form of industrial policy to weaken its tech monopolies. The lesson is that we need to do the same thing right now.Some people will ask about China, but I think the United States has always done best when it constantly challenges established power and creates room for entrepreneurs to take their shot. I want very much for the new AI companies to challenge the main tech platforms and see what comes of that, as opposed to becoming a stagnant industry. Everyone says nothing can become stagnant, but the aerospace industry was pretty quick-moving in the 60s, and now you have Boeing and Airbus sitting there. It's very easy for a tech industry to stagnate, and attacking monopolists is the best way to prevent that.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Google earlier. You had an interesting op-ed in The New York Times last year about what we should do about Google. My wife is head of litigation at Google, so I'm not entirely disinterested. I also have a career as a critic of Google. If Kent Walker was here, he would acknowledge some of the things he was saying. But he would say Google still innovates—Google hasn't become Boeing. It's innovating in AI, in self-driving cars, it's shifting search. Would he be entirely wrong?Tim Wu: No, he wouldn't be entirely wrong. In the same way that IBM kept going, AT&T kept going. What you want in tech industries is a fair fight. The problem with Google isn't that they're investing in AI or trying to build self-driving cars—that's great. The problem is that they were paying over $20 billion a year to Apple for a promise not to compete in search. Through control of the browsers and many other things, they were trying to make sure they could never be dislodged.My view of the economics is monopolists need to always be a little insecure. They need to be in a position where they can be challenged. That happens—there are companies who, like AT&T in the 70s or 60s, felt they were immune. It took the government to make space. I think it's very important for there to be opportunities to challenge the big guys and try to seize the pie.Andrew Keen: I'm curious where you are on Section 230. Google won their Supreme Court case when it came to Section 230. In this sense, I'm guessing you view Google as being on the side of the good guys.Tim Wu: Section 230 is interesting. In the early days of the Internet, it was an important infant industry protection. It was an insulation that was vital to get those little companies at the time to give them an opportunity to grow and build business models, because if you're being sued by billions of people, you can't really do too much.Section 230 was originally designed to protect people like AOL, who ran user forums and had millions of people discussing—kind of like Reddit. I think as Google and companies like Facebook became active in promoting materials and became more like media companies, the case for an absolutist Section 230 became a lot weaker. The law didn't really change but the companies did.Andrew Keen: You wrote the essay "The Real Road to Serfdom" a couple of years ago. You also talked earlier about AI. There's not a lot of AI in this, but 50% of all the investment in technology over the last year was in AI, and most of that has gone into these huge platforms—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini. Is AI now the central theater, both in the Road to Serfdom and in liberating ourselves from big tech?Tim Wu: Two years ago when I was writing this, I was determined not to say anything that would look stupid about AI later. There's a lot more on what I think about AI in my new book coming in November.I see AI as a classic potential successor technology. It obviously is the most significant successor to the web and the mass Internet of 20 years ago in terms of having potential to displace things like search and change the way people do various forms of productivity. How technology plays out depends a lot on the economic structure. If you think about a technology like the cotton gin, it didn't automatically lead to broad flourishing, but reinforced plantation slavery.What I hope happens with AI is that it sets off more competition and destabilization for some of the tech platforms as opposed to reinforcing their advantage and locking them in forever. I don't know if we know what's going to happen right now. I think it's extremely important that OpenAI stays separate from the existing tech companies, because if this just becomes the same players absorbing technology, that sounds a lot like the darker chapters in US tech history.Andrew Keen: And what about the power of AI to liberate ourselves from our brain power as the next industrial revolution? When I was reading the essay, I thought it would be a very good model, both as a warning and in terms of offering potential for us to create this new architecture of parity. Because the technology in itself, in theory at least, is one of parity—one of democratizing brainpower.Tim Wu: Yes, I agree it has extraordinary potential. Things can go in two directions. The Industrial Revolution is one example where you had more of a top-down centralization of the means of production that was very bad for many people initially, though there were longer-term gains.I would hope AI would be something more like the PC revolution in the 80s and 90s, which did augment individual humanity as opposed to collective enterprise. It allowed people to do things like start their own travel agency or accounting firm with just a computer. I am interested and bullish on the potential of AI to empower smaller units, but I'm concerned it will be used to reinforce existing economic structures. The jury's out—the future will tell us. Just hoping it's going to make humanity better is not going to be the best answer.Andrew Keen: When you were writing this essay, Web3 was still in vogue then—the idea of blockchain and crypto decentralizing the economy. But I didn't see any references to Web3 and the role of technology in democratizing capitalism in terms of the architecture of corporations. Are you skeptical of the Web3 ideology?Tim Wu: The essay had its limits since I was also talking about 18th century Denmark. I have a lot more on blockchain and Web3 in the book. The challenge with crypto and Bitcoin is that it both over-promises and delivers something. I've been very interested in crypto and blockchain for a long time. The challenge it's had is constantly promising to decentralize great systems and failing, then people stealing billions of dollars and ending up in prison.It has a dubious track record, but it does have this core potential for a certain class of people to earn money. I'm always in favor of anything that is an alternative means of earning money. There are people who made money on it. I just think it's failed to execute on its promises. Blockchain in particular has failed to be a real challenge to web technologies.Andrew Keen: As you say, Hayek inspired the book and in some sense this is intellectual. The father of decentralization in ideological terms was E.F. Schumacher. I don't think you reference him, but do you think there has been much thinking since Schumacher on the value of smallness and decentralized architectures? What do people like yourself add to what Schumacher missed in his critique of bigness?Tim Wu: Schumacher is a good example. Rawls is actually under-recognized as being interested in these things. I see myself as writing in the tradition of those figures and trying to pursue a political economy that values a more balanced economy and small production.Hopefully what I add is a level of institutional experience and practicality that was missing. Rawls is slightly unfair because he's a philosopher, but his model doesn't include firms—it's just individuals. So it's all about balancing between poor people and rich people when obviously economic power is also held by corporations.I'm trying to create more flesh on the bones of the "small is beautiful" philosophy and political economy that is less starry-eyed and more realistic. I'm putting forward the point that you're not sacrificing growth and you're taking less political risk with a more balanced economy. There's an adulation of bigness in our time—exciting big companies are glamorous. But long-term prosperity does better when you have more centers, a more balanced system. I'm not an ultra-centralist suggesting we should live in mud huts, but I do think the worship of monopoly is very similar to the worship of autocracy and is dangerous.Andrew Keen: Much to discuss. Tim Wu, thank you so much. The author of "The Real Road to Serfdom," fascinating essay in this month's issue of Liberties. I know "The Age of Extraction" will be coming out on November 10th.Tim Wu: In England and US at the same time.Andrew Keen: We'll get you back on the show. Fascinating conversation, Tim. Thank you so much.Hailed as the “architect” of the Biden administration's competition and antitrust policies, Tim Wu writes and teaches about private power and related topics. First known for coining the term “net neutrality” in 2002, in recent years Wu has been a leader in the revitalization of American antitrust and has taken a particular focus on the growing power of the big tech platforms. In 2021, he was appointed to serve in the White House as special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy. A professor at Columbia Law School since 2006, Wu has also held posts in public service. He was enforcement counsel in the New York Attorney General's Office, worked on competition policy for the National Economic Council during the Barack Obama administration, and worked in antitrust enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission. In 2014, Wu was a Democratic primary candidate for lieutenant governor of New York. In his most recent book, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (2018), he argues that corporate and industrial concentration can lead to the rise of populism, nationalism, and extremist politicians. His previous books include The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads (2016), The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (2010), and Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World (2006), which he co-authored with Jack Goldsmith. Wu was a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and also has written for Slate, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post. He once explained the concept of net neutrality to late-night host Stephen Colbert while he rode a rollercoaster. He has been named one of America's 100 most influential lawyers by the National Law Journal; has made Politico's list of 50 most influential figures in American politics (more than once); and has been included in the Scientific American 50 of policy leadership. Wu is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Keen On Democracy
Episode 2243: Nick Bryant on why Trump 2.0 is as historic as the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Keen On Democracy

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2025 42:54


How historic are Trump 2.0's first few weeks? For the veteran correspondent, Nick Bryant, the longtime BBC man in Washington DC, what the Trump regime has done in the first few weeks of his second administration is as historic as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It's the end of the America we haver known for the last seventy years, he says. Bryant describes Trump's rapprochement with Russia as Neville Chamberlain style appeasement and notes the dramatic shifts in U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding Ukraine and European allies. He sees Trump's actions as revealing rather than changing America's true nature. Bryant also discusses the failures of the Dems, the role of Elon Musk in the administration, and structural changes to federal institutions. Despite all the upheaval, Bryant suggests this isn't so much "goodbye to America" as a revelation of the cynically isolationist forces that were always present in American society.Here are the five KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Nick Bryant:* Historic Transformation: Bryant sees Trump's second term as a pivotal moment in world history, comparable to the fall of the Berlin Wall, with rapid changes in global alliances and particularly in America's relationship with Russia, which he characterizes as "appeasement."* Democratic Party Crisis: He analyzes how the Democrats' failures stemmed from multiple factors - Biden's delayed exit, Kamala Harris's weak candidacy, and the lack of time to find a stronger replacement. While Trump's victory was significant, Bryant notes it wasn't a landslide.* Elon Musk's Unexpected Role: An unforeseen development Bryant didn't predict in his book was Musk's prominent position in Trump's second administration, describing it as almost a "co-presidency" following Trump's assassination attempt and Musk's subsequent endorsement of Trump.* Federal Government Transformation: Bryant observes that Trump's dismantling of federal institutions goes beyond typical Republican small-government approaches, potentially removing not just bureaucratic waste but crucial expertise and institutional knowledge.* Trump as Revealer, Not Changer: Perhaps most significantly, Bryant argues that Trump hasn't changed America but rather revealed its true nature - arguing that authoritarianism, political violence, and distrust of big government have always been present in American history. FULL TRANSCRIPT Andrew Keen: Hello, everybody. About eight months ago, we had a great show with the BBC's former Washington correspondent, Nick Bryant. His latest book, "The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself," predicted much of what's happening in the United States now. When you look at the headlines this week about the U.S.-Russia relationship changing in a head-spinning way, apparently laying the groundwork for ending the Ukrainian war, all sorts of different relations and tariffs and many other things in this new regime. Nick is joining us from Sydney, Australia, where he now lives. Nick, do you miss America?Nick Bryant: I covered the first Trump administration and it felt like a 25/8 job, not just 24/7. Trump 2.0 feels even more relentless—round-the-clock news forever. We're checking our phones to see what has happened next. People who read my book wouldn't be surprised by how Donald Trump is conducting his second term. But some things weren't on my bingo card, like Trump suggesting a U.S. takeover of Gaza. The rapprochement with Putin, which we should look on as an act of appeasement after his aggression in Ukraine, was very easy to predict.Andrew Keen: That's quite a sharp comment, Nick—an act of appeasement equivalent to Neville Chamberlain's umbrella.Nick Bryant: It was ironic that J.D. Vance made his speech at the Munich Security Conference. Munich was where Neville Chamberlain secured the Munich Agreement, which was seen as a terrible act of appeasement towards Nazi Germany. This moment feels historic—I would liken it to the fall of the Berlin Wall. We're seeing a complete upending of the world order.Back at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, we were talking about the end of history—Francis Fukuyama's famous thesis suggesting the triumph of liberal democracy. Now, we're talking about the end of America as we've known it since World War II. You get these Berlin Wall moments like Trump saying there should be a U.S. takeover of Gaza. J.D. Vance's speech in Munich ruptures the transatlantic alliance, which has been the basis of America's global preeminence and European security since World War II.Then you've seen what's happened in Saudi Arabia with the meeting between the Russians and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, completely resetting relations between Washington and Moscow. It's almost as if the invasions of Ukraine never happened. We're back to the situation during the Bush administration when George W. Bush famously met Vladimir Putin, looked into his soul, and gave him a clean bill of health. Things are moving at a hurtling pace, and it seems we're seeing the equivalent of a Berlin Wall tumbling every couple of days.Andrew Keen: That's quite dramatic for an experienced journalist like yourself to say. You don't exaggerate unnecessarily, Nick. It's astonishing. Nobody predicted this.Nick Bryant: When I first said this about three weeks ago, I had to think long and hard about whether the historical moments were equivalent. Two weeks on, I've got absolutely no doubt. We're seeing a massive change. European allies of America are now not only questioning whether the United States is a reliable ally—they're questioning whether the United States is an ally at all. Some are even raising the possibility that nations like Germany, the UK, and France will soon look upon America as an adversary.J.D. Vance's speech was very pointed, attacking European elitism and what he saw as denial of freedom of speech in Europe by governments, but not having a single word of criticism for Vladimir Putin. People are listening to the U.S. president, vice president, and others like Marco Rubio with their jaws on the ground. It's a very worrying moment for America's allies because they cannot look across the Atlantic anymore and see a president who will support them. Instead, they see an administration aligning itself with hard-right and far-right populist movements.Andrew Keen: The subtitle of your book was "America's Unending Conflict with Itself: The History Behind Trump in Advance." But America now—and I'm talking to you from San Francisco, where obviously there aren't a lot of Trump fans or J.D. Vance fans—seems in an odd, almost surreal way to be united. There were protests on Presidents Day earlier this week against Trump, calling him a tyrant. But is the thesis of your book about the forever war, America continually being divided between coastal elites and the hinterlands, Republicans and Democrats, still manifesting itself in late February 2025?Nick Bryant: Trump didn't win a landslide victory in the election. He won a significant victory, a decisive victory. It was hugely significant that he won the popular vote, which he didn't manage to do in 2016. But it wasn't a big win—he didn't win 50% of the popular vote. Sure, he won the seven battleground states, giving the sense of a massive victory, but it wasn't massive numerically.The divides in America are still there. The opposition has melted away at the moment with sporadic protests, but nothing really major. Don't be fooled into thinking America's forever wars have suddenly ended and Trump has won. The opposition will be back. The resistance will be back.I remember moments in the Obama administration when it looked like progressives had won every battle in America. I remember the day I went to South Carolina, to the funeral of the pastor killed in that terrible shooting in Charleston. Obama broke into "Amazing Grace"—it was almost for the first time in front of a black audience that he fully embraced the mantle of America's first African-American president. He flew back to Washington that night, and the White House was bathed in rainbow colors because the Supreme Court had made same-sex marriage legal across the country.It seemed in that moment that progressives were winning every fight. The Supreme Court also upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare. You assumed America's first black president would be followed by America's first female president. But what we were seeing in that summer of 2015 was actually the conservative backlash. Trump literally announced his presidential bid the day before that awful Charleston shooting. You can easily misread history at this moment. Sure, Trump looks dominant now, but don't be fooled. It wouldn't surprise me at all if in two years' time the Republicans end up losing the House of Representatives in the congressional midterm elections.Andrew Keen: When it comes to progressives, what do you make of the Democratic response, or perhaps the lack of response, to the failure of Kamala Harris? The huge amount of money, the uninspiring nature of her campaign, the fiasco over Biden—were these all accidental events or do they speak of a broader crisis on the left amongst progressives in America?Nick Bryant: They speak of both. There were really big mistakes made by the Democrats, not least Joe Biden's decision to contest the election as long as he did. It had become pretty clear by the beginning of 2024 that he wasn't in a fit state to serve four more years or take on the challenge of Donald Trump.Biden did too well at two critical junctures. During the midterm elections in 2022, many people predicted a red wave, a red tsunami. If that had happened, Biden would have faced pressure to step aside for an orderly primary process to pick a successor. But the red wave turned into a red ripple, and that persuaded Biden he was the right candidate. He focused on democracy, put democracy on the ballot, hammered the point about January 6th, and decided to run.Another critical juncture was the State of the Union address at the beginning of 2024. Biden did a good job, and I think that allayed a lot of concerns in the Democratic Party. Looking back on those two events, they really encouraged Biden to run again when he should never have done so.Remember, in 2020, he intimated that he would be a bridge to the next generation. He probably made a mistake then in picking Kamala Harris as his vice presidential candidate because he was basically appointing his heir. She wasn't the strongest Democrat to go up against Donald Trump—it was always going to be hard for a woman of color to win the Rust Belt. She wasn't a particularly good candidate in 2020 when she ran; she didn't even make it into 2020. She launched her campaign in Oakland, and while it looked good at the time, it became clear she was a poor candidate.Historical accidents, the wrong candidate, a suffering economy, and an America that has always been receptive to someone like Trump—all those factors played into his victory.Andrew Keen: If you were giving advice to the Democrats as they lick their wounds and begin to think about recovery and fighting the next battles, would you advise them to shift to the left or to the center?Nick Bryant: That's a fascinating question because you could argue it both ways. Do the Democrats need to find a populist of the left who can win back those blue-collar voters that have deserted the Democratic Party? This is a historical process that's been going on for many years. Working-class voters ditched the Democrats during the Reagan years and the Nixon years. Often race is part of that, often the bad economy is part of that—an economy that's not working for the working class who can't see a way to map out an American dream for themselves.You could argue for a left-wing populist, or you could argue that history shows the only way Democrats win the White House is by being centrist and moderate. That was true of LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton—all Southerners, and that wasn't a coincidence. Southern Democrats came from the center of the party. Obama was a pragmatic, centrist candidate. Kennedy was a very pragmatic centrist who tried to bring together the warring tribes of the Democratic Party.Historically, you could argue Democrats need to move to the center and stake out that ground as Trump moves further to the right and the extremes. But what makes it harder to say for sure is that we're in a political world where a lot of the old rules don't seem to apply.Andrew Keen: We don't quite know what the new rules are or if there are any rules. You describe this moment as equivalent in historic terms to the fall of the Berlin Wall or perhaps 9/11. If we reverse that lens and look inwards, is there an equivalent historical significance? You had an interesting tweet about Doge and the attempt in some people's eyes for a kind of capture of power by Elon Musk and the replacement of the traditional state with some sort of almost Leninist state. What do you make of what's happening within the United States in domestic politics, particularly Musk's role?Nick Bryant: We've seen American presidents test the Constitution before. Nobody in the modern era has done it so flagrantly as Donald Trump, but Nixon tried to maximize presidential powers to the extent that he broke the law. Nixon would have been found guilty in a Senate trial had that impeachment process continued. Of course, he was forced to resign because a delegation of his own party drove down Pennsylvania Avenue and told him he had to go.You don't get that with the Republican Party and Donald Trump—they've fallen behind him. FDR was commonly described as an American dictator. H.L. Mencken wrote that America had a Caesar, a pharaoh. Woodrow Wilson was maximalist in his presidential powers. Abraham Lincoln was the great Constitution breaker, from trashing the First Amendment to exceeding his powers with the Emancipation Proclamation. Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase was unconstitutional—he needed congressional approval, which he didn't have.There's a long history of presidents breaking rules and Americans being okay with that. Lincoln has never been displaced from his historical throne of grace. FDR is regarded as one of the great presidents. What sets this moment apart is that constraints on presidents traditionally came from the courts and their own political parties. We're not seeing that with Donald Trump.Andrew Keen: What about the cultural front? There's talk of Trump's revenge, taking over the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., revenge against traditional scientists, possibly closing some universities. Is this overdramatic, or is Trump really taking revenge for what happened between 2020 and 2024 when he was out of power?Nick Bryant: Trump is in a vengeful mood—we always thought Trump 2.0 would be a project of vengeance. Republican presidents have always thought parts of the administrative state work against them, and Trump is dismantling it at warp speed. Elon Musk is going into various government departments acting like he's heading a hostile takeover of the federal government.Reagan launched a rhetorical assault on federal government, which was really a creation of the New Deal years under FDR. That period saw massive expansion of federal government into people's lives with Social Security and the welfare net. We haven't seen this kind of assault on federal government since then. Trump is also trying to dismantle what he regards as America's cultural establishment, which he sees as too white, too elitist, too intellectual. He's trying to remold America, its government, and cultural institutions in his own image.Andrew Keen: You've mentioned Reagan. I came to the U.S. like you—you came as a grad student to study American history. I came in the '80s and remember the hysteria at UC Berkeley over Reagan—that he would blow up the world, that he was clueless, a Hollywood actor with no right to be in politics. Is it conceivable that Trump could be just another version of Reagan? In spite of all this hysteria, might this second Trump regime actually be successful?Nick Bryant: You can't rule out that possibility. The mistake made about Reagan was seeing him as a warmonger when he really wanted to be a peacemaker. That was the point of ending the Cold War—he wanted to win it, but through gambles on people like Gorbachev and diplomatic moves his advisors warned against.There are analogies to Trump. I don't think he's a warmonger or wants to send U.S. troops into countries. He's described some surprising imperial ambitions like taking over Greenland, though Harry Truman once wanted that too. Trump wants to make peace, but the problem is on what terms. Peace in Ukraine, in Trump's view, means a massive win for Vladimir Putin and the sidelining of the Ukrainian people and America's European allies.There wasn't a big cost to Reagan's peacemaking—the European alliance stayed intact, he tinkered with government but didn't go after Social Security. The cost of Trump is the problem.Andrew Keen: The moral cost or the economic cost?Nick Bryant: Both. One thing that happened with Reagan was the opening of big disparities in income and wealth in American society. That was a big factor in Donald Trump's success—the paradox of how this billionaire from New York became the hero of the Rust Belt. When the gulf between executive pay and shop floor pay became massive, it was during the Reagan years.You see the potential of something similar now. Trump is supercharging an economy that looks like it will favor the tech giants and the world's richest man, Elon Musk. You end up worsening the problem you were arguably setting out to solve.You don't get landslides anymore in American politics—the last president to win 40 states was George Herbert Walker Bush. Reagan in '84 won 49 out of 50 states, almost getting a clean sweep except for Mondale's home state of Minnesota. I don't think Trump will be the kind of unifying president that Reagan was. There was a spontaneity and optimism about Reagan that you don't see with Trump.Andrew Keen: Where are the divisions? Where is the great threat to Trump coming from? There was a story this week that Steve Bannon called Elon Musk a parasitic illegal immigrant. Is it conceivable that the biggest weakness within the Trump regime will come from conflict between people like Bannon and Musk, the nationalists and the internationalist wing of the MAGA movement?Nick Bryant: That's a fascinating question. There doesn't seem to be much external opposition at the moment. The Democrats are knocked out or taking the eight count in boxing terms, getting back on their feet and taking as long as they can to get their gloves up. There isn't a leader in the Democratic movement who has anywhere near Trump's magnetism or personal power to take him on.Maybe the opposition comes from internal divisions and collapse of the Trump project. The relationship with Elon Musk was something I didn't anticipate in my book. After that assassination attempt, Musk endorsed Trump in a big way, put his money behind him, started offering cash prizes in Pennsylvania. Having lived at Mar-a-Lago during the transition with a cottage on the grounds and now an office in the White House—I didn't anticipate his role.Many people thought Trump wouldn't put up with somebody who overshadows him or gets more attention, but that relationship hasn't failed yet. I wonder if that speaks to something different between Trump 2.0 and 1.0. Trump's surrounded by loyalists now, but at 78 years old, I think he wanted to win the presidency more than he wanted the presidency itself. I wonder if he's happy to give more responsibility to people like Musk who he thinks will carry out his agenda.Andrew Keen: You've been described as the new Alistair Cooke. Cooke was the father of Anglo-American journalism—his Letter from America was an iconic show, the longest-running show in radio history. Cooke was always very critical of what he called the big daddy state in Washington, D.C., wasn't a fan of large government. What's your take on Trump's attack on large government in D.C.? Is there anything in it? You spent a lot of time in DC. Are these agencies full of fat and do they need to be cut?Nick Bryant: Cutting fat out of Washington budgets is one of the easy things—they're bloated, they get all these earmarks, they're full of pork. There's always been a bloated federal bureaucracy, and there's a long historical tradition of suspicion of Washington going back to the founding. That's why the federal system emerged with so much power vested in the states.Reagan's revolution was based on dismantling the New Deal government. He didn't get that far in that project, but rhetorically he shifted America's views about government. He emphasized that government was the problem, not the solution, for four decades. When Bill Clinton became president, he had to make this big ideological concession to Reaganism and deliver Reaganite lines like "the era of big government is over."The concern right now is that they're not just getting rid of fat—they're getting rid of expertise and institutional knowledge. They're removing people who may be democratic in their thinking or not on board with the Trump revolution, but who have extensive experience in making government work. In moments of national crisis, conservative ideologues tend to become operational liberals. They rely on government in disasters, pandemics, and economic crises to bail out banks and industries.Conservatives have successfully planted in many Americans' heads that government is the enemy. Hillary Clinton saw a classic sign in 2006—a protester carrying a sign saying "get your government hands off my Medicare." Well, Medicare is a government program. People need government, expertise, and people in Washington who know what they're doing. You're not just getting rid of waste—you're getting rid of institutional knowledge.Andrew Keen: One of the more colorful characters in these Trump years is RFK Jr. There was an interesting piece in the National Review about RFK Jr. forcing the left to abandon the Kennedy legacy. Is there something symbolically historical in this shift from RFK Sr. being an icon on the left to RFK Jr. being an icon on the libertarian right? Does it speak of something structural that's changed in American political culture?Nick Bryant: Yes, it does, and it speaks to how America is perceived internationally. JFK was always seen as this liberal champion, but he was an arch pragmatist, never more so than on civil rights. My doctoral thesis and first book were about tearing down that myth about Kennedy.The Kennedys did inspire international respect. The Kennedy White House seemed to be a place of rationality, refinement, and glamor. JFK embodied what was great about America—its youth, dynamism, vision. When RFK was assassinated in California, weeks after MLK's assassination, many thought that sense of America was being killed off too. These were people who inspired others internationally to enter public service. They saw America as a beacon on a hill.RFK Jr. speaks of a different, toxic American exceptionalism. People look at figures like RFK Jr. and wonder how he could possibly end up heading the American Health Department. He embodies what many people internationally reject about America, whereas JFK and RFK embodied what people loved, admired, and wanted to emulate.Andrew Keen: You do a show now on Australian television. What's the view from Australia? Are people as horrified and disturbed in Australia as they are in Europe about what you've called a historic change as profound as the fall of the Berlin Wall—or maybe rather than the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's the establishment of a new kind of Berlin Wall?Nick Bryant: One of Australia's historic diplomatic fears is abandonment. They initially looked to Britain as a security guarantor in the early days of Australian Federation when Australia became a modern country in 1901. After World War II, they realized Britain couldn't protect them, so they looked to America instead. America has underwritten Australia's security since World War II.Now many Australians realize that won't be the case anymore. Australia entered into the AUKUS deal with Britain and America for nuclear submarine technology, which has become the basis of Australia's defense. There's fear that Trump could cancel it on a whim. They're currently battling over steel and aluminum tariffs. Anthony Albanese, the center-left prime minister, got a brief diplomatic reprieve after talking with Trump last week.A country like Australia, much like Britain, France, or Germany, cannot look on Trump's America as a reliable ally right now. That's concerning in a region where China increasingly throws its weight around.Andrew Keen: Although I'm guessing some people in Australia would be encouraged by Trump's hostility towards China.Nick Bryant: Yes, that's one area where they see Trump differently than in Europe because there are so many China hawks in the Trump administration. That gives them some comfort—they don't see the situation as directly analogous to Europe. But it's still worrying. They've had presidents who've been favorable towards Australia over the years. Trump likes Australia partly because America enjoys a trade surplus with Australia and he likes Greg Norman, the golfer. But that only gives you a certain measure of security.There is concern in this part of the world, and like in Europe, people are questioning whether they share values with a president who is aligning himself with far-right parties.Andrew Keen: Finally, Nick, your penultimate book was "When America Stopped Being Great: A History of the Present." You had an interesting tweet where you noted that the final chapter in your current book, "The Forever War," is called "Goodbye America." But the more we talk, whether or not America remains great is arguable. If anything, this conversation is about "hello" to a new America. It's not goodbye America—if anything, America's more powerful, more dominant, shaping the world more in the 2020s than it's ever done.Nick Bryant: It's goodbye to the America we've known for the last 70 years, but not goodbye to America itself. That's one of the arguments of the book—Trump is far more representative of the true America than many international observers realize. If you look at American history through a different lens, Trump makes perfect sense.There's always been an authoritarian streak, a willingness to fall for demagogues, political violence, deep mistrust of government, and rich people making fortunes—from the robber barons of the late 19th century to the tech barons of the 21st century. It's goodbye to a certain America, but the America that Trump presides over now is an America that's always been there. Trump hasn't changed America—he's revealed it.Andrew Keen: Well, one thing we can say for sure is it's not goodbye to Nick Bryant. We'll get you back on the show. You're one of America's most perceptive and incisive observers, even if you're in Australia now. Thank you so much.Nick Bryant: Andrew, it's always a pleasure to be with you. I still love the country deeply—my fascination has always been born of great affection.Nick Bryant is the author of The Forever War: American's Unending Conflict with Itself and When America Stopped Being Great, a book that Joe Biden keeps in the Oval Office. He was formerly one of the BBC's most senior foreign correspondents, with postings in Washington DC, New York, South Asia and Australia. After covering the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he left the BBC in 2021, and now lives in Sydney with his wife and children. Nick studied history at Cambridge and has a doctorate in American history from Oxford.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

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Israel Undiplomatic
Ep. 39: Forever WAR in Gaza or Relocation? Trump Doubles Down

Israel Undiplomatic

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 31:07


U.S. President Donald Trump continues to shake things up not only in America, but across the globe. Recently, he doubled down on the idea of relocating residents of the Gaza Strip to another country, either temporarily or permanently. Join JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum and Mark Regev, former Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom—both former advisers at the Prime Minister's Office—for an in-depth look at where this all may be headed. They'll also be discussing the hypocrisy of International Holocaust Remembrance Day in light of everything that has transpired since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist massacre in Israel. All this and more on “Israel Undiplomatic!” Latest news: Get in-depth analysis at https://bit.ly/jewish_news_serviceSubscribe for more: Never miss a story - sign up for our newsletter: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H09J9Tx0Support our work: Your donation helps JNS fight for accurate headlines: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H09J8B40

Bannon's War Room
Episode 4190: Trump Does Not Own These Forever Wars Backed By Dems

Bannon's War Room

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2025


Episode 4190: Trump Does Not Own These Forever Wars Backed By Dems

Lever Time
How Marvel Helped Sell Us Forever Wars

Lever Time

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2024 30:07


When Iron Man hit theaters in 2008, it didn't just launch the wildly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe — it also, with the Pentagon's help, became a bombastic symbol of modern military might in the digital age. Now, can the same comic book character be used to critique the military-industrial complex and the War on Terror?When Marvel wanted to make an Iron Man film in the early aughts, executives turned to a longstanding relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon, allowing the Defense Department to approve the movie's storyline in exchange for access to military equipment. The U.S. military was able to alter significant parts of Iron Man's script, allowing the film to also serve as a marketing device for the military. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Spencer Ackerman is flipping the script. A veteran war reporter, Ackerman is writing a new Marvel comic book series of Iron Man, in which he's applying the lessons he learned over two decades of covering the War on Terror. Decidedly more critical of the military-industrial complex that the movies championed, the books are reshaping the iconic hero into a parable about the impact of excessive wealth concentrated in the hands of one billionaire, Today on Lever Time, senior podcast producer Arjun Singh sits down with Ackerman and Dave Gonzales, co-author of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios and the host of the podcast Trial By Content, to discuss how the Pentagon pushed Marvel to use Iron Man as a piece of propaganda, and how events like 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars influenced the way superhero is seen today.Read Spencer Ackerman's newsletter Forever Wars by clicking here. 

The Schilling Show Unleashed Podcast
Katy Talento: The Forever War on Children

The Schilling Show Unleashed Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2024 28:32


Katy Talento is Executive Director of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries and a Trump Administration health policy advisor. In this exclusive Schilling Show Unleashed Podcast interview, Talento discusses the scourge of Abortion on America, how true Covid disinformation warped children, and the dangerous food additives in the American diet.

ChangeMakers
Nick Bryant - ChangeMaker Chat - Lessons from the US Election

ChangeMakers

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2024 47:52


The whole world has just witnessed President Trump getting re-elected, but what is the long story behind what happened.In this chat, our last for 2024, we talk to Nick Bryant, US foreign correspondent and author of several books that have sought to understand what is going on with politics in the US!In this conversation Nick shares a little about why he because a journalist focused on the US, then with his eye to history, combined with his intrepid experience as a reporter in the US since the Clinton Administration, he helps explain some of the perpetual challenges that shape America, in particular the darker side to America's Disneyland,- that help explain how President Trump has been able to be successful.For more on Nick's Books - including The Forever War (2024) and When America Stopped Being Great (2020):https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/nick-bryantRadio: Saturday ExtraYou can find links to the weekly radio program that Nick now hosts on ABC Radio National in Australia:https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/saturdayextra/saturday-extra/103551454ChangeMakers 2024 is supported by the Civic Power Fund and work with the UCL Policy Lab. This year they are supporting ChangeMakers to bring together a collection of Chats filled with extraordinary ideas and everyday experience to understand how we can change the world, www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/ucl-policy-lab and www.civicpower.org.uk/.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org (where you can also sign up to our email list!)On Facebook, Instagram, Threads - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On X/Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatattsOn LinkedIn - Amanda.Tattersall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Judging Freedom
COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Trump and Forever Wars.

Judging Freedom

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2024 25:11


COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Trump and Forever Wars.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jacobin Radio
Long Reads: The Forever War on Gaza w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed

Jacobin Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2024 55:42


Earlier this week, Joe Biden welcomed the Israeli president Isaac Herzog to the White House. Last October, Herzog announced that there were no innocent civilians in Gaza. The International Court of Justice cited his comments as evidence that the Palestinian people needed protection from the threat of genocide.Akbar Shahid Ahmed of the Huffington Post has been following the Biden administration's support for the Israeli attack on Gaza from the start. He's currently working on a book that will give a detailed account of the inside story. Akbar has joined the podcast twice before to discuss the latest developments. Dan spoke to him again after the US presidential election about the events of the past few months and what is likely to happen next.Find our last Long Reads interview with Akbar here: https://jacobin.com/2024/06/biden-administration-israel-cease-fire-policyAnd read his ongoing coverage for Huffington Post here: https://www.huffpost.com/author/akbar-shahid-ahmedLong Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine's longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Tara Show
Hour 1: The Tara Show - “Trump is Back with a Vengeance" “Pressuring the Swamp Creatures” “Pretend Forever Wars” “The UFO Conspiracy has Returned”

The Tara Show

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2024 26:28


Hour 1: The Tara Show - “Trump is Back with a Vengeance" “Pressuring the Swamp Creatures” “Pretend Forever Wars” “The UFO Conspiracy has Returned” full 1588 Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:15:55 +0000 aKZRbvHhI5K4T3GtgJxImV33PoIg2df1 news The Tara Show news Hour 1: The Tara Show - “Trump is Back with a Vengeance" “Pressuring the Swamp Creatures” “Pretend Forever Wars” “The UFO Conspiracy has Returned” Tara presides over the Upstate's #1 all news/talk morning show every weekday on News/Talk 989 WORD.Tara's faithful listeners are affectionately known as "Tara-ists" because of their passion and participation in the show. Tara was named 2021 Best News Talk Show and Best overall Personality, AGAIN, by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association! Tara took home the same honors in 2018 and was also named 2016 "Personality of the Year!" In addition, Tara has also won over two dozen state and national journalism awards for column writing, news reporting and investigative reporting while working for three newspapers and writing for a variety of national publications. She won a first place reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for an investigative series about the weaknesses in Charlotte's overburdened court system, which regularly let murderers off the hook with less than 15 years in prison. Due to her work, that system has been reformed. Tara is also a winner of the prestigious first place Green Eyeshade Award, a national award for column writing from The Society of Professional Journalists. Tara took to the airwaves about 15 years ago to do a radio show heard up and down the coast and fell in love with bypassing her editors to talk straight to the people. Tara hasn't stopped reporting, and still brings her investigative journalism to the show. Tara is a mom, wife and talk radio convert-- and weekday mornings she's live and local on News/Talk 989 WORD. Are you a "Tara-ist"? It's time to get captured!      2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com?feed-link=https%3A%2F%2F

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer
Netanyahu bets on Lebanon to justify his forever wars

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2024 10:28


Israel may soon return tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes along the border with Lebanon, with or without a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The return of the evacuees would allow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to tout a significant success in his 13-month-long war in Gaza and Lebanon, even if it may be short-lived without a ceasefire, if not in an equitable negotiated resolution of Israel's disputes with Lebanon and the Palestinians.

Haaretz Weekly
Netanyahu gambled on a Trump presidency. Will it pay off?

Haaretz Weekly

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2024 29:13


**The sound of a siren warning of rocket fire is heard in this episode of the Haaretz Podcast** Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "gamble" on extending the war in Gaza in anticipation of Donald Trump winning the U.S. election seems to have paid off, according to Haaretz senior military analyst Amos Harel. In conversation with Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Harel said that Netanyahu "kept promising total victory, what he actually had was sort of a Forever War. It was not forever, but he was waiting for November, and for January 20 and for his friend Trump to be back in the White House." What is the Israeli premier hoping to get out of his bet? Harel believes that in renewing the Bibi-Trump bromance, Netanyahu believes he can win U.S. support for measures that will stop his criminal trial - Trump after all, will certainly sympathize - and move ahead with the judicial coup that will damage Israeli democracy. Also on the podcast, Harel discusses and explains what stood behind Netanyahu's  decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the day of the U.S. election, and his not-so-veiled threat that the IDF Chief of Staff and head of Shin Bet security service may be next if they don't fall in line.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stories Behind the Story with Better Reading
Stories Behind The Story: Nick Bryant on The Complex Interplay Between Politics and Society In The U.S.A.

Stories Behind the Story with Better Reading

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2024 41:06


Nick Bryant talks to Cheryl about the rise of populism, the media's influence on public perception, and the deep-seated culture wars shaping the landscape of the United States. His latest work, The Forever War, is out now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tech Won't Save Us
Gaza Is a Laboratory for Future Warfare w/ Spencer Ackerman

Tech Won't Save Us

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2024 55:25


Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the past year of Israel's actions in Palestine and the innovations in war technology being used to carry out what the ICJ has deemed a "plausible" genocide in Gaza.Spencer Ackerman is a Pulitzer-prize winning author of Reign of Terror. He's a contributor at Zeteo and publishes the Forever Wars newsletter. He's also writing a new series of Iron Man comics that come out very soon.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.Also mentioned in this episode:Spencer wrote a piece marking a year since October 7 for Zeteo. He's also written about the Lebanon pager attack and Israel's innovation with quadcopters.Yuval Abraham has written about the use of AI in Gaza and how Israel is relying on US cloud companies for military purposes.Roberto González wrote a paper about the links between Silicon Valley and the military-industrial complex.Support the show

Start Making Sense
Gaza Is a Laboratory for Future Warfare w/ Spencer Ackerman | Tech Won't Save Us

Start Making Sense

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2024 55:25


Paris Marx is joined by Spencer Ackerman to discuss the past year of Israel's actions in Palestine and the innovations in war technology being used to carry out what the ICJ has deemed a "plausible" genocide in Gaza.Spencer Ackerman is a Pulitzer-prize winning author of Reign of Terror. He's a contributor at Zeteo and publishes the Forever Wars newsletter. He's also writing a new series of Iron Man comics that come out very soon.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Debate
Grim anniversary, forever war? October 7 and the future of the Middle East

The Debate

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2024 45:52


It was an unspeakable terror attack that succeeded: succeeded in shock value, succeeded in triggering a massive overreaction that has appalled the planet, succeeded in stoking an escalation that's drawn in the whole region. Fortunately, not everyone is hell-bent on an all-out clash of civilisations in the Middle East. On the anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, at a time when public opinion in Israel supports the widening of the campaign into Lebanon and retaliation against Iran, we put some simple questions to a panel that instead wants to find the path to peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.Where to start? How to address and process the genuine fear felt by both sides? And what can the international community do? Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Annarosa Zampaglione.Watch moreOctober 7 attacks: Israel's intelligence failures 

Consider This from NPR
More forever wars?

Consider This from NPR

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2024 9:39


The US is trying to broker an end to the war between Israel and Hamas. Ceasefire talks begin and end and begin again. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has traveled to the region 10 times in the past year. And that's not the only war the US hopes to end. Russia and Ukraine have been fighting since 2014 when Russia first attacked. It launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, more than two and a half years ago.The US and NATO have been supporting Ukraine's efforts to hold off Russia in a hope to preserve broader security and stability in Western Europe.The next occupant of the White House looks certain to inherit two major conflicts. Why are these wars lasting so long with no end in sight?For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Scandal Mongers Podcast
Harry, Meghan & Charles + America's Forever War With Itself | Ep.86 | The Scandal Mongers Podcast

The Scandal Mongers Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2024 68:33


Former BBC correspondent Nick Bryant joins Phil to discuss his many years working in the USA, and reveals how and why his love for that country turned into something closer to despair about its future.But first our friend Clive Irving - a legendary investigative journalist and now star writer at The Daily Beast - returns to give us his update on the royal family as Charles approaches his second anniversary as King, Harry passes his landmark 40th birthday and new allegations about Meghan's behaviour towards her staff hit the American media.You can buy Nick's' book on America, and all the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-forever-war-america-s-unending-conflict-with-itself-nick-bryant/7589599?aid=12054&ean=9781399409308&***We now have a Thank You button (next to the 'three dots') for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help.https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongersTHE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on youtube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast/videosThe Scandal Mongers...https://twitter.com/MongersPodcastPhil Craig...https://twitter.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)Produced byPodcastWorld.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Black Op Radio
#1217 – Chad Nagle

Black Op Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2024 85:50


  RFK Jr. and the Unspeakable: Why This Historic Moment Matters Article Chad Nagle Substack page JFK: American History and the Memory Hole First JFK Facts article: The CIA's Sinister 'Transparency Plan' for JFK Files Article about the Mary Ferrell Foundation lawsuit: JFK Researchers Appeal for Justice in Federal Court Trail of Destruction series on JFK Facts: Trail of Destruction: The Shredded JFK Files Article - The American Conservative in May 2023 about RFK Jr: The Courage of RFK Jr. Trump has previously stated he doesn't think the remaining assassination JFK files can be released. Chad explains why RFK Jr. suspended his campaign in August 2024. JFK Facts on Substack is hosted by Jefferson Morley. Jefferson Morley is the Vice President of the Mary Ferrell Foundation. The Mary Ferrell Foundation has current federal litigation against the Biden administration. Chad has served as a legal affairs correspondent for JFK Facts Chad is volunteering as a researcher for the Mary Ferrell Foundation RFK Jr.'s recent endorsement of Trump inspired Chad to write his latest article on Kennedys & King. Chad's article "The Courage of RFK Jr." posted in The American Conservative in May 2023. The American Conservative just published a pro 'Trump Is The Liberal Candidate' article. Kamala Harris & the Biden administration have been restricting freedom & censoring dissenting views. People in UK being fined, arrested & jailed in the UK for their posts on social media. RFK Jr. has ran his campaign on a platform of revamping the public health system & anti-censorship. RFK Jr. feels the Democrats are now 'The Party of War'. Politics have become completely toxic. Pharmaceutical companies are able to directly advertise to consumers with constant TV advertisements. Len reflects on the ads on TV made to entice people into trying dangerous drugs & medical procedures. Vaccines are designed to create a sick & disabled society, creating constant revenue for Big Pharma. Lopsided ad revenue controlling editorial lines & media messages, programming people. The 'Forever Wars' - corrupt merger of state & corporate power is deeply entwined US foundation. RFK Jr. the only Kennedy member rejecting the government version of the Kennedy assassinations. Oliver Stone documentaries in 2021 put RFK Jr. front & centre. Chad started to volunteer with the RFK Jr. campaign in 2023 and collected signatures for ballot access in 2024. War in Ukraine is a defacto money laundering exercise. Chad lived in the Ukraine back in 2001 & 2002, watching the elections. RFK Jr. shut out of the campaign by the Biden Administration. Why did RFK's supporters do a 180 and vote for George Wallace after his assassination? Chad helps to dispel rumour about RFK announcing his candidacy AFTER LBJ dropped out. It was a historic moment recently in Arizona when Trump very graciously introduced RFK Jr. on stage. Trump disappointed people in 2017 by postponing disclosure of the remaining JFK documents. Once in office, Biden tried to bury the JFK Records Act, keeping the JFK files locked up. Trump is now promising to release the JFK records if reelected. Can we trust him? Chad lacks faith in executive branch commission investigations concerning the JFK assassination. The federal law suit by the MFF is to force the federal archives to comply with the JFK Records Act. Have all Presidents been cyphers of sorts after JFK was assassinated? Will recent assassination attempts on Trump inspire him to follow through by releasing JFK's records? Why are the current Presidential candidates so unqualified? These are our choices? Why were there over 200 FBI agents dressed up as Trump supporters at the January 6th event in 2021? Why were the FBI planting pipe bombs the night before?! Russia Gate was phony!? Len reflects on how after time passes & events are investigated that you rea...

UNGOVERNED
ORWELL'S "1984" LAYS OUT THE SWAMP'S PLAN | UNGOVERNED 9.12.24

UNGOVERNED

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 58:31


George Orwell's "1984" describes the REAL plan behind the "FOREVER WARS" and what that is supposed to lead to. This goes far deeper than just a profitable industry for politicians. Biden/Harris admin sabotaged a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. A possible whistleblower at ABC may come forward with bombshell details about how the network handled the Trump/Harris debate. Jake Tapper SLAMS Harris for repeatedly lying/filibustering during the debate. Join UNGOVERNED on LFA TV every MONDAY - FRIDAY from 5pm to 6pm EASTERN!   www.FarashMedia.com www.LFATV.US www.OFPFarms.com 

Science Fiction Book Review Podcast » Podcast Feed
SFBRP #551 – Joe Haldeman – The Forever War – Forever War #1

Science Fiction Book Review Podcast » Podcast Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2024 76:02


Luke re-reads The Forever War by Joe Haldeman to see if it could make it onto the SFBRP Must-Read List, but discovers there are more versions of the novel than he knew, and he read a version that didn't win the Hugo or Nebula awards. Luke on Mastodon: @lukeburrage@masto.nu Juliane on Mastodon: @JuKuBerlin@mastodon.social Support Luke […]

American Prestige
E174 - Woke Iron Man w/ Spencer Ackerman

American Prestige

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024 44:41


Danny and Derek welcome back AP mega-guest Spencer Ackerman, author of the Forever Wars newsletter and soon-to-be-published issues of Marvel Comics' Iron Man. The group explores Spencer's inspiration to pursue more work in the world of comic books, writing for a character who is a defense contractor, bringing left-wing messaging into the medium, the sand box of Marvel Comics vs. the behemoth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus Spencer's impressions on some major current events. NOTE: This interview was recorded on 8/30/24, prior to reports that the Israeli military had recovered the bodies of six hostages inside Gaza. Click hear to learn how to pre-order Iron Man & get free merch! More of Spencer's work: The graphic novel Waller vs. Wildstorm Forever Wars newsletter  His book Reign of Terror  Further Reading: Annie Nocenti, journalist, writer, editor and filmmaker Six Stops on the National Security Tour by Miriam Pemberton

American Prestige
E174 - Woke Iron Man w/ Spencer Ackerman

American Prestige

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024 44:42


Danny and Derek welcome back AP mega-guest Spencer Ackerman, author of the Forever Wars newsletter and soon-to-be-published issues of Marvel Comics' Iron Man. The group explores Spencer's inspiration to pursue more work in the world of comic books, writing for a character who is a defense contractor, bringing left-wing messaging into the medium, the sand box of Marvel Comics vs. the behemoth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus Spencer's impressions on some major current events.NOTE: This interview was recorded on 8/30/24, prior to reports that the Israeli military had recovered the bodies of six hostages inside Gaza.Click hear to learn how to pre-order Iron Man & get free merch!More of Spencer's work:* The graphic novel Waller vs. Wildstorm* Forever Wars newsletter * His book Reign of Terror Further Reading:* Annie Nocenti, journalist, writer, editor and filmmaker* Six Stops on the National Security Tour by Miriam Pemberton This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Start Making Sense
Woke Iron Man w/ Spencer Ackerman | American Prestige

Start Making Sense

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024 44:41


On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome back AP mega-guest Spencer Ackerman, author of the Forever Wars newsletter and soon-to-be-published issues of Marvel Comics' Iron Man. The group explores Spencer's inspiration to pursue more work in the world of comic books, writing for a character who is a defense contractor, bringing left-wing messaging into the medium, the sand box of Marvel Comics vs. the behemoth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus Spencer's impressions on some major current events.NOTE: This interview was recorded on 8/30/24, prior to reports that the Israeli military had recovered the bodies of six hostages inside Gaza.Click hear to learn how to pre-order Iron Man & get free merch!More of Spencer's work:The graphic novel Waller vs. WildstormForever Wars newsletterHis book Reign of Terror Further Reading:Annie Nocenti, journalist, writer, editor and filmmakerSix Stops on the National Security Tour by Miriam Pemberton Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hugonauts: The Best Sci Fi Books of All Time
Starship Troopers: the deeply Philosophical classic of Military Sci-Fi!

Hugonauts: The Best Sci Fi Books of All Time

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2024 43:14


In the 23rd century Johnny Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry, the heart of the human military. As he nears completion of an intensely rigorous training program to learn how to fight and use his power armor, war breaks out between humanity and the bugs. The bugs are aliens with a hive mind, who attack and destroy Buenos Aires, and Johnny and his friends must strive to survive and defend humanity through the brutal war. It's also full of deeply interesting (and controversial) ideas about duty, service, crime and punishment, and so much more. If you like military sci-fi this is a must-read, and if you are into philosophical SF you are going to be pleasantly surprised how much it will stick with you and make you think.Join the Hugonauts book club on discord!Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer videoSimilar books we recommend:The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (listen to our interview with Joe)Columbus Day by Craig AlansonThe Parafaith War by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

The Coode Street Podcast
Episode 659: Joe Haldeman and The Forever War (Live in Glasgow)

The Coode Street Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2024 56:55


The Forever War, the debut novel from US writer Joe Haldeman, was first published by St Martins Press in 1974. It was shortlisted for the Locus Award, and was awarded the Hugo and Nebula Awards as Best SF Novel of the year. It went on to become recognised as an essential classic of the science fiction field, was listed as #1 in the Gollancz Science Fiction Masterworks, and has never been out of print. On a Saturday afternoon at the recent Glasgow World Science Fiction Convention, Jonathan and Gary and a boisterous crowd of science fiction fans welcomed John Scalzi, Gay Haldeman, and Joe Haldeman to discuss the 50th Anniversary of The Forever War and why it is so beloved. Our thanks for Joe, Gay, and John for taking part, to the crowd for their support, and to the wonderful tech team from Glasgow 2024: A Worldcon for Our Futures for making the recording possible.

Progressive Voices
WEIRD ELON; Kamala Draws; Forever Wars; UK Explodes Karel Cast 24-92

Progressive Voices

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2024 30:01


WEIRD ELON; Kamala Draws; Forever Wars; UK Explodes Karel Cast 24-92 by Progressive Voices

The Coode Street Podcast
Episode 658: A resumption of normal service

The Coode Street Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2024 51:13


With the Glasgow WorldCon just around the corner, Gary and Jonathan turn their attention to plans for the event. In addition to panel appearances, there'll be a special live recording of The Coode Street Podcast where we are joined by Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, and John Scalzi to discuss 50th anniversary of the publication of The Forever War. Since rambling is unavoidable, there is also a brief discussion of how newer readers discover older SFF texts and writers, both in terms of short fiction and novels, anthologies like The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Dangerous Visions series (which has been in the news because of the much-delayed publication of  The Last Dangerous Visions,) as well as single-author collections like Harlan Ellison's Greatest Hits. That somehow leads to a chat about how reputations are made and sustained, and Gary and Jonathan touch upon a number of contemporary writers—but you'll have to listen in order to find out which ones.

TRENDIFIER with Julian Dorey
[VIDEO] - Special Forces 'John Wick' on Killing 18 Insurgents in 1 Ditch | Danny Hall • 217

TRENDIFIER with Julian Dorey

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2024 182:47


My Other Episode w/ Danny: https://open.spotify.com/show/5skaSpDzq94Kh16so3c0uz (***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Danny Hall is an Army Ranger, Green Beret, & Silver-Star Awardee. He served many tours of duty on multiple continents over the span of 3 decades. Ryan Tate is a former Recon Marine who served in Iraq & Afghanistan before retiring to become founder of VETPAW, a military-led anti-poaching organization in Africa. - BUY Guest's Books & Films IN MY AMAZON STORE: https://amzn.to/3RPu952  EPISODE LINKS: - Julian Dorey PODCAST MERCH: https://juliandorey.myshopify.com/ - Support our Show on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey  - Support VETPAW (Ryan Tate's Org.): https://vetpaw.org/ JULIAN YT CHANNELS: - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips  - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily  - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP  ***TIMESTAMPS*** 0:00 - Origins of Iraq War; Saddam's WMD (Evidence?); Sarin Gas 8:11 - CIA WMD Spy Jim Lawler & Iraq Nukes; Saddam's Terror 16:12 - Danny first invades Iraq Story; The “Purple Heart Plane” Story; Staging in Romania 21:36 - Bags of CIA Cash; The Kurdish Peshmerga; Erbil Citadel 28:58 - Iraqis Lives Pre Invasion vs. Post Invasion 31:16 - What happened when first Special Forces hit Iraq; Battle of Dubeka Pass 41:16 - Bush “Mission Accomplished” was wrong; Dropping Bombs; Iraqis Surrendering 46:13 - Vibes in Iraq early on; Al-Zarqawi; “We got a problem” 51:09 -  Special Forces working w/ CIA; Al-Zarqawi was a “ghost”; Danny talks w/ Iraqis 57:38 - The Iraqi Child story; Creating t3rrorists 1:01:55 - When Danny knew Iraq went bad; Burning w33d field; “Patriot” movie scene & toy drop 1:07:58 - The days before Danny's Silver Star Fire Fight 1:15:57 - The Battle that earned Danny his Silver Star 1:40:58 - PT*D Dreams & True Crime; Danny's daughter's “shot” 1:53:32 - How Danny got Silver Star 2:02:06 - Al Zarqawi's Death; 2007 Iraq; Fear of engagement; Blackwater 4, Politics & Military 2:10:51 - Danny's last combat tour in Iraq; Bosrah; Working w/ British SAS 2:25:41 - Danny decides to retire from Special Forces; Osama Bin Laden; Scumbag politicians 2:38:18 - Danny gets into military government contracting 2:45:02 - How Danny started working w/ VETPAW; Anti-poaching is dangerous warfare 2:51:33 - Forever War; Danny's faith; What God thinks of War 2:58:13 - Danny's regrets 3:01:32 - Danny's story is now out there FOLLOW JULIAN DOREY: INSTAGRAM (Podcast): https://www.instagram.com/juliandoreypodcast/  INSTAGRAM (Personal): https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realjuliandorey  CREDITS: - Host, Intro Editor & Producer: Julian D. Dorey - Producer: Alessi Allaman: https://www.instagram.com/alessiallaman/ ~ Get $150 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover (USING CODE: “JULIANDOREY”): https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier ~ Music via Artlist.io ~ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 217 - Danny Hall

1A
Journalist And Historian Nick Bryant On America's "Forever War"

1A

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2024 33:31


What are the consequences of America's unresolved history?That's the question raised by a new book by journalist and historian Nick Bryant, "The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself." The book maps a path from the founding of the United States to the current political state of the country, and argues that the political divisiveness we see today is a natural part of the country's story.Nick Bryant joins us to talk about the lessons we can learn from America's history, and what that history can tell us about the stakes of the election.Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Journal.
The Brutal Calculation of Hamas's Leader

The Journal.

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2024 24:25


Yahya Sinwar is the Hamas leader inside Gaza who allegedly plotted the October 7th attacks. According to private messages reviewed by the WSJ, Sinwar believes that a rising Palestinian death toll—and the international condemnation it brings—is in the best interest of his cause. WSJ's Rory Jones walks us through Sinwar's strategy. Further Reading: - Gaza Chief's Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas  - The Hamas Leader Who Studied Israel's Psyche—and Is Betting His Life on What He Learned  Further Listening:  - Why Israel and Hamas Could Be Headed Into a Forever War  - Inside the White House's Scramble to Avert a Bigger Middle East War  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
5/30/24: Trump Trial Verdict Imminent, Trump Promises Tax Cuts To Donors, DNC Moved Online, Israel Says Gaza Forever War, Biden Ally Flips Over Israel, GenZ Says US Dying Empire, P Diddy Grand Jury

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2024 116:54 Transcription Available


Krystal and Emily discuss Trump's Stormy Daniel trial coming to a close, Trump promises tax cuts to wealth donors, Biden plans online DNC convention, Israel says war in Gaza to last through end of year, close Biden allies criticize handling of Gaza, young people say US is dying empire run by bad people, P Diddy faces grand jury.    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.com/   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Patriotically Correct Radio Show with Stew Peters | #PCRadio
Military SUBVERTED By Foreign Interests: FOREVER WAR Lobby Must Be STOPPED

The Patriotically Correct Radio Show with Stew Peters | #PCRadio

Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2024 67:00


From the Stew Peters Network, the producer of the World-Changing Documentary Died Suddenly, comes what will be yet another EXPLOSIVE documentary that will change the way you think about Taxes and the American government! Watch Slave Nation at: https://stewpeters.com/watch-slave-nation-now/   Richard Leonard is here to talk about the importance of veterans and how the U.S. government historically abuses those who are ready to give their lives for America.   Watch this new segment NOW at https://StewPeters.com  Keep The Stew Peters Show FREE and ON THE AIR! SUPPORT THE SPONSORS Below!  Protect your retirement and wealth, get up to $10k in FREE SILVER using this link: http://stewlikesgold.com  The world needs to know the truth that fake history has concealed. WATCH Old World Order May 25th, and find out more at: https://stewpeters.com/owo/ It's time for Extreme Accountability. Learn how you can take part in this historic event at http://theextremeevent.com/  Check out the Stew Peters Store for all things Stew Crew merchandise and more! https://www.spnstore.com  American Reserves provides high quality emergency food, supplies and water filtration. American Made. American Owned. American Reserves. Use code "Stew” for 10% off your order: https://www.americanreserves.com/stew  70 DIY Projects to Survive a World Without Electricity: https://nogridprojects.com/stew/  Energized Health's deep-cell hydration is the key to curing chronic pain, inflammation and weight gain. To find out more, visit: https://www.energizedhealth.com   Stay connected with nationwide coverage and no monthly fees using Rapid Radios' walkie-talkies and emergency radios! Get 5% off your purchase by using code STEW at:  https://rapidradios.com Mushroom Breakthrough is the complete package of supplemental mushroom- blend you need to improve your sleep, health and focus. Go to https://bioptimizers.com/stewpeters and use promo code stewpeters at checkout! Visit www.TacRightStew.com to Order Your Night Vision today! Kuribl offers premium CBD products shown to increase rejuvenating sleep and decrease muscle pains. To see the variety of hemp and CBD products, visit: https://kuribl.com Support your child's natural immunity with Z-Spike Gummies and use code SPN for 15% off at: www.zstacklife.com/spn  Health resolutions can be made easy with Field of Greens! Get started on their super-fruit and vegetable supplements to support your whole body by going to http://www.fieldofgreens.com/  and use promo code STEW for 15% off! Reduce joint pain and inflammation with all natural, fast-acting krill oil by visiting http://stopmyinflammation.com/   Parasites are the hidden enemy of your health and wellness. Get PURGE to cleanse your gut from the infestation preventing your health at: https://www.purgestore.com  Preserve heart-health and be the best version of yourself with Cardio Miracle by checking out: http://HighPowerHeart.com   Stay up-to-date with Stew by following him on all socials! Twitter: https://twitter.com/realstewpeters Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stewpetersofficial/ Telegram: https://t.me/stewpeters Gab: https://gab.com/RealStewPeters

The Journal.
Why Israel and Hamas Could Be Headed Into a Forever War

The Journal.

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2024 19:34


Seven months into the war, Hamas is far from defeated. The Islamist militant group is using guerrilla tactics and a vast underground tunnel network to evade Israeli forces. WSJ's Jared Malsin reports on how the group's resilience is stoking fears in Israel that it is walking into a forever war. Further Reading: -Hamas Shift to Guerrilla Tactics Raises Specter of Forever War for Israel  -ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas Leader Sinwar  -Israel War Cabinet Member Sets Ultimatum and Threatens to Quit Government  Further Listening: -A Deadly Strike on Aid Workers in Gaza  -The UN Agency Accused of Links to Hamas  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Argument
Thomas Friedman on Iran, Israel and Preventing a ‘Forever War'

The Argument

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2024 28:13


Will Israel and Iran's unprecedented attacks escalate into a wider mideast conflict? A “forever war”? This week, columnist Tom Friedman joins the hosts to unpack the latest developments, what it means for Gaza, and the implications for the region writ large.A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication on the Times website.Mentioned in this episode:“How to Be Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Israeli and Pro-Iranian” by Thomas L. Friedman“Iran Just Made a Big Mistake. Israel Shouldn't Follow.” by Thomas L. Friedman“A Biden Doctrine for the Middle East Is Forming. And It's Big.” by Thomas L. Friedman“Netanyahu Must Go” by Bret StephensThoughts about the show? Email us at matterofopinion@nytimes.com or leave a voicemail at (212) 556-7440.