Podcasts about Nikita Khrushchev

Chuck Todd opens with a story that seems small and turns out to be a perfect miniature of everything wrong with this Pentagon: a Blue Angels flyover at Pensacola Beach came in too low, the pilot who made the honest mistake felt terrible about it — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without bothering to establish a single fact about what happened, seized the moment to gloat and own the libs. Chuck calls Hegseth an absolute clown and a fake soldier, argues the incident is a window into a Pentagon where the boss cares more about winning an online argument than about the safety of the people he commands, and where the entire "military testosterone" discourse — Hegseth's fixation on creating "supertrooper" fighting men is both dumb and genuinely dangerous. His verdict: a great American military culture is being actively degraded. He extends the same argument to ICE, where the violence has been entirely predictable — the officer involved in the latest shooting had enormous red flags in his background, and the agency appears to have no meaningful vetting process at all. He also explains why, contrary to much of the commentary, he wasn't alarmed by Trump's primetime election-denial address: it was a nothingburger. Trump has no evidence, which is why he keeps turning to cranks — his endorsement of Mike Lindell tells you everything — and there's no policy response attached to his own foreign-interference allegations, since China has faced no sanction whatsoever for what Trump claims it did. He argues American elections are extraordinarily hard to overturn precisely because the system is decentralized, that Trump is too lazy to become a Putin or a Mao… A more disciplined president would frighten Chuck far more. Chuck sees a forever war taking shape in Iran: the strategy amounts to throwing kinetic weight at the problem and hoping the regime collapses, while Iran fights the asymmetric war it always planned, targeting Gulf states and now civilian survival infrastructure — hitting desalination plants could trigger a crisis lasting years — and nobody in Washington actually knows how to win. He closes with a genuinely important profile of Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, the intellectual architect of the new right's foreign policy and a favorite of JD Vance, whose vision of American retreat from its allies would effectively be the policy of a President Vance: Colby has trashed Mark Carney's "middle power" strategy and declared that no country is entitled to the American defense industry — which, notes, misses that buying military hardware is a 30-year bet on trusting an ally, and middle powers who conclude they can be coerced by Washington will simply take their money somewhere else. Quick hits on a messy Wisconsin governor's race (Tony Evers built no infrastructure and left no obvious heir in one of the country's most misunderstood swing states) and Tuesday's Arizona primary round things out. Then, bestselling novelist Daniel Silva — creator of the Gabriel Allon series — joins the Chuck Toddcast for a conversation that starts with the craft of spy fiction and quickly becomes something closer to a threat assessment. Silva's newest plot turns on drones, and he's blunt that this isn't speculative: he believes it's a matter of time before a drone carries out an assassination or a mass-casualty attack. He talks about the strange responsibility of writing a fictional event that could plausibly happen next month, why he deliberately withholds visual detail so readers build the scene themselves, and what he learned reporting out how modern kidnappings and ransom negotiations actually work. The darker current running underneath is his read on American intelligence: the FBI is no longer the same place, the U.S. is jettisoning allies and hollowing out its agencies, and Silva poses the question a novelist is uniquely positioned to ask — if you're the GRU right now, where would you most want an asset placed? He notes that the best assets often don't know they're assets, that NATO held a crisis meeting about Trump, and that this is precisely the moment to be putting the screws to a vulnerable Putin, since Ukraine has victory in sight and isn't desperate for any deal. The conversation turns personal when Chuck asks how Silva handles Israel's collapsing global reputation in a series built around an Israeli intelligence officer. Silva says the shift was entirely foreseeable, that he has no interest in writing about Gaza, and that what saddens him most is the "fortress Israel" mindset — a country founded on European-style socialist ideals now convinced it can go it alone, siloed from the world, while antisemitism surges globally in a way he warns only ever needs the right set of circumstances to reignite. He and Chuck range across the forces reshaping the century: giant corporations approaching the power of nation-states, a new generation of the ultra-wealthy who simply don't believe in philanthropy, AI's capacity to wipe out the knowledge economy, and Silva's conviction that the next great political crisis may be a climate-driven natural disaster — noting that the last major El Niño produced famines that killed millions, that today's migration patterns are already climate-driven, and that people are dying right now as a direct result of cutting humanitarian aid. He's unsparing on writing and AI), amused and appalled that Trump has turned the National Mall into a mess with a reflecting pool gone "Kermit green," and closes on the question every prolific novelist gets asked and rarely answers honestly: does he ever actually rest? Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to draw parallels between the arguments in modern American politics to the argument between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev in the infamous “kitchen debate” and answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment. Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck /*Paid Partnership Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Timeline: (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction 02:15 Pensacola Beach is the home of the Blue Angels 03:15 Low flyover from Blue Angels generated massive controversy 03:45 Hegseth has allowed unsafe flyovers in the past 04:15 Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon has been awful 05:00 Hegseth used the flyover to try to “own the libs” 05:45 The low flyover at the beach was an honest mistake by the pilot 07:30 Online discourse about flyover was both sides trying to prove their point 08:30 Hegseth didn’t even bother to figure out the facts about the incident 09:00 The pilot felt terrible about the mistake, while Hegseth gloated 11:00 Why Chuck isn’t alarmed by Trump’s election denial primetime speech 11:45 Trump has tested constitutional boundaries unlike any other president 13:30 Trump’s endorsement of Mike Lindell says everything 14:00 Trump doesn’t have evidence of fraud, he turns to election denial cranks 15:15 Trump’s speech was a big fat nothingburger 16:30 Trump wanted government to interfere in the 2020 election 17:30 There’s no policy response to Trump’s allegations about foreign interference 18:30 China hasn’t received any sanction or response to allegations 20:00 Trump has lackeys cherry pick facts to try to sew mistrust in elections 22:00 It is extraordinarily difficult to overturn an American election 22:45 The electoral system is decentralized making it harder to meddle with 23:30 A president more disciplined than Trump would be a bigger worry 24:30 We need to repair structural weaknesses in the democracy 25:15 Trump is too lazy to become a dictator like Putin or Mao 26:00 Trump has his sycophants… but they all fear jail too 27:15 Trump wants other people to risk themselves to keep him in power 28:30 We’re on the road to a “forever war” in Iran 29:00 The plan is just to throw kinetic weight & hope the regime collapses 29:45 Iran’s whole strategy is asymmetric, targeting Gulf states 30:15 Iran is now targeting civilian survival infrastructure 30:45 Hitting desalination plants could create a yearslong crisis 31:30 Administration keeps doubling down on the same strategy 33:30 Nobody in Washington knows how to win the war 34:30 Pete Hegseth is an absolute clown… a fake soldier 35:00 The military testosterone discourse is both dumb and dangerous 36:00 Undersecretary Elbridge Colby has a big role in shaping policy 37:30 Colby wants America to retreat from the world & our allies 38:30 Colby has been embraced by JD Vance & the new right 39:15 Colby’s policies would be those of a President JD Vance 40:30 Allies realize they can be coerced by America 42:30 Colby trashed the “middle power” strategy of Mark Carney 43:00 Colby says nobody is entitled to the U.S. military industry 44:00 Buying military hardware is a 30 year bet on trusting an ally 45:00 Middle powers will look elsewhere to buy their military equipment 46:15 Hegseth wants to create testosterone driven “supertroopers” 47:00 Women aren’t being offered a similar screening 48:00 Jesse Watters comments on testosterone were beyond awful 48:30 Most watched cable host was making sexual assault jokes 49:15 Military has had a longstanding issue with sexual assault 50:00 Young men are marketed testosterone from influencers & now government 51:00 Taking outside testosterone shuts down natural production of it 51:45 Taking testosterone has major negative side effects 53:00 Our great military culture is being destroyed by Trump 53:30 The violence from ICE officers has been entirely predictable 54:15 DHS under Trump never deserves the benefit of the doubt 55:15 Officer involved in shooting had massive red flags in his background 56:00 ICE doesn’t appear to have any vetting process for recruits 1:00:00 Wisconsin governor’s race has become a political mess 1:01:00 Tony Evers didn’t build a strong infrastructure around him 1:01:30 Evers didn’t set up an obvious heir in the Democratic party 1:03:00 The party establishment hasn’t responded to all parts of the base 1:03:45 Wisconsin is one of the most misunderstood swing states 1:05:00 Democrats in Wisconsin have to make the political center comfortable 1:07:30 Arizona primary coming up on Tuesday 01:14:00 Daniel Silva joins the Chuck ToddCast 01:15:00 Gabriel Allon is ageless 01:16:45 How much do you put yourself into Gabriel Allon? 01:17:30 Gabriel’s character allows Daniel to pursue things he’s interested in 01:19:15 Potentially creating a spin-off series 01:20:30 Vibe of the book series is European art 01:21:15 How did you learn about modern kidnappings and negotiations 01:23:15 Not writing with great visual detail to allow readers to imagine it 01:24:15 We are going to have a major incident triggered by drones 01:25:15 Ukraine has become the drone specialists of the world 01:26:00 Drones will eventually carry out an assassination or mass casualty event 01:27:15 Any trepidation creating a fictional event that could actually happen? 01:28:15 There was an emergency drone incident in Copenhagen 01:28:45 Europeans are already very nervous about impacts of drones 01:29:30 There are cameras everywhere in modern society 01:30:45 The level of criminality & corruption in the world is staggering 01:32:00 The current FBI is no longer the same place 01:32:45 We are jettising allies and destroying our intelligence agencies 01:33:30 If you are the GRU… where would you want an asset to be? 01:34:30 There are different types of intelligence assets 01:35:00 Some of the best assets don’t realize they are assets 01:36:15 Crisis meeting held at NATO headquarters about Trump 01:39:30 We should be putting the screws to Putin right now, he’s vulnerable 01:40:15 Ukraine has victory in sight, they aren’t desperate for a deal 01:41:00 How do you tackle Israel’s reputation in the world in the books? 01:43:30 The changes to Israel’s reputation were foreseeable 01:44:00 Don’t want to write about the war in Gaza 01:45:00 Is all hope for a two state solution gone? 01:47:45 There’s a “fortress Israel” mindset, they think they can do it alone 01:48:15 Is Gabriel Allon still a zionist? 01:49:00 Israel was founded with tenets of European style socialism 01:50:00 It’s sad seeing Israel becoming so siloed from the world 01:51:30 There’s been a major resurgence of antisemitism 01:53:15 It only takes the right set of circumstances to reignite antisemitism 01:54:30 Giant corporations are becoming as powerful as nation states 01:56:00 The new generation of ultra wealthy don’t believe in philanthropy 01:56:45 AI has the ability to wipe out the knowledge economy 01:58:00 The next great political crisis might be a climate driven natural disaster 01:58:45 The last great El Nino created massive famine, killing millions 01:59:30 The current migration patterns are climate driven 02:00:00 People are dying as a direct result of cutting humanitarian aid 02:03:30 Trump has turned the national mall into a mess 02:04:15 The reflecting pool is now “Kermit green” 02:05:30 If you could write your next book about anything, what would it be? 02:06:30 Don’t think he could write non-fiction, too many novels to write 02:08:15 If you use AI to do your writing, then that isn’t writing 02:11:30 Anthropic CEO gave a reasoned answer to AI military applications 02:12:00 Could have an AI version of yourself that lives forever 02:13:15 Do you ever take a rest from writing? 02:16:30 ToddCast Time Machine July 24, 1959 02:17:00 Nixon and Krushchev host the “Kitchen Debate” 02:18:00 The countries were showing off their way of life - Capitalism vs Communism 02:18:45 Soviets set up a display in New York to show off their society 02:19:30 Khrushchev believed history would belong to the communists 02:20:00 The answer to the Soviet display was a model of an American home 02:20:45 The argument was that a middle class worker could afford that home 02:21:15 America showed it offered equality of opportunity, not outcome 02:22:00 Krushchev and Nixon debated knowing the world would hear it 02:23:00 Krushchev didn’t believe Americans actually lived that well 02:23:30 Nixon argued that competition inspired innovation and growth 02:25:00 Market capitalism proved to be the more dynamic economic system 02:25:30 There are echoes of the Kitchen Debate in modern American discourse 02:27:00 The Soviet Union disappeared, the debate hasn’t 02:27:15 Ask Chuck 02:27:30 Is MLB lockout avoidable? The state of baseball card collecting? 02:38:00 Is Trump’s erosion of norms a form of the incrementalism you champion? 02:41:30 What rights are D.C. & Puerto Rico residents still missing beside representation? 02:47:15 What goes into a decision to run for office? 02:50:45 MAGA just a rework of Reagan’s slogan? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Todd opens with a story that seems small and turns out to be a perfect miniature of everything wrong with this Pentagon: a Blue Angels flyover at Pensacola Beach came in too low, the pilot who made the honest mistake felt terrible about it — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without bothering to establish a single fact about what happened, seized the moment to gloat and own the libs. Chuck calls Hegseth an absolute clown and a fake soldier, argues the incident is a window into a Pentagon where the boss cares more about winning an online argument than about the safety of the people he commands, and where the entire "military testosterone" discourse — Hegseth's fixation on creating "supertrooper" fighting men is both dumb and genuinely dangerous. His verdict: a great American military culture is being actively degraded. He extends the same argument to ICE, where the violence has been entirely predictable — the officer involved in the latest shooting had enormous red flags in his background, and the agency appears to have no meaningful vetting process at all. He also explains why, contrary to much of the commentary, he wasn't alarmed by Trump's primetime election-denial address: it was a nothingburger. Trump has no evidence, which is why he keeps turning to cranks — his endorsement of Mike Lindell tells you everything — and there's no policy response attached to his own foreign-interference allegations, since China has faced no sanction whatsoever for what Trump claims it did. He argues American elections are extraordinarily hard to overturn precisely because the system is decentralized, that Trump is too lazy to become a Putin or a Mao… A more disciplined president would frighten Chuck far more. Chuck sees a forever war taking shape in Iran: the strategy amounts to throwing kinetic weight at the problem and hoping the regime collapses, while Iran fights the asymmetric war it always planned, targeting Gulf states and now civilian survival infrastructure — hitting desalination plants could trigger a crisis lasting years — and nobody in Washington actually knows how to win. He closes with a genuinely important profile of Undersecretary Elbridge Colby, the intellectual architect of the new right's foreign policy and a favorite of JD Vance, whose vision of American retreat from its allies would effectively be the policy of a President Vance: Colby has trashed Mark Carney's "middle power" strategy and declared that no country is entitled to the American defense industry — which, notes, misses that buying military hardware is a 30-year bet on trusting an ally, and middle powers who conclude they can be coerced by Washington will simply take their money somewhere else. Quick hits on a messy Wisconsin governor's race (Tony Evers built no infrastructure and left no obvious heir in one of the country's most misunderstood swing states) and Tuesday's Arizona primary round things out. Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to draw parallels between the arguments in modern American politics to the argument between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev in the infamous “kitchen debate” and answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment. Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck /*Paid Partnership Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Timeline: (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction 02:15 Pensacola Beach is the home of the Blue Angels 03:15 Low flyover from Blue Angels generated massive controversy 03:45 Hegseth has allowed unsafe flyovers in the past 04:15 Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon has been awful 05:00 Hegseth used the flyover to try to “own the libs” 05:45 The low flyover at the beach was an honest mistake by the pilot 07:30 Online discourse about flyover was both sides trying to prove their point 08:30 Hegseth didn’t even bother to figure out the facts about the incident 09:00 The pilot felt terrible about the mistake, while Hegseth gloated 11:00 Why Chuck isn’t alarmed by Trump’s election denial primetime speech 11:45 Trump has tested constitutional boundaries unlike any other president 13:30 Trump’s endorsement of Mike Lindell says everything 14:00 Trump doesn’t have evidence of fraud, he turns to election denial cranks 15:15 Trump’s speech was a big fat nothingburger 16:30 Trump wanted government to interfere in the 2020 election 17:30 There’s no policy response to Trump’s allegations about foreign interference 18:30 China hasn’t received any sanction or response to allegations 20:00 Trump has lackeys cherry pick facts to try to sew mistrust in elections 22:00 It is extraordinarily difficult to overturn an American election 22:45 The electoral system is decentralized making it harder to meddle with 23:30 A president more disciplined than Trump would be a bigger worry 24:30 We need to repair structural weaknesses in the democracy 25:15 Trump is too lazy to become a dictator like Putin or Mao 26:00 Trump has his sycophants… but they all fear jail too 27:15 Trump wants other people to risk themselves to keep him in power 28:30 We’re on the road to a “forever war” in Iran 29:00 The plan is just to throw kinetic weight & hope the regime collapses 29:45 Iran’s whole strategy is asymmetric, targeting Gulf states 30:15 Iran is now targeting civilian survival infrastructure 30:45 Hitting desalination plants could create a yearslong crisis 31:30 Administration keeps doubling down on the same strategy 33:30 Nobody in Washington knows how to win the war 34:30 Pete Hegseth is an absolute clown… a fake soldier 35:00 The military testosterone discourse is both dumb and dangerous 36:00 Undersecretary Elbridge Colby has a big role in shaping policy 37:30 Colby wants America to retreat from the world & our allies 38:30 Colby has been embraced by JD Vance & the new right 39:15 Colby’s policies would be those of a President JD Vance 40:30 Allies realize they can be coerced by America 42:30 Colby trashed the “middle power” strategy of Mark Carney 43:00 Colby says nobody is entitled to the U.S. military industry 44:00 Buying military hardware is a 30 year bet on trusting an ally 45:00 Middle powers will look elsewhere to buy their military equipment 46:15 Hegseth wants to create testosterone driven “supertroopers” 47:00 Women aren’t being offered a similar screening 48:00 Jesse Watters comments on testosterone were beyond awful 48:30 Most watched cable host was making sexual assault jokes 49:15 Military has had a longstanding issue with sexual assault 50:00 Young men are marketed testosterone from influencers & now government 51:00 Taking outside testosterone shuts down natural production of it 51:45 Taking testosterone has major negative side effects 53:00 Our great military culture is being destroyed by Trump 53:30 The violence from ICE officers has been entirely predictable 54:15 DHS under Trump never deserves the benefit of the doubt 55:15 Officer involved in shooting had massive red flags in his background 56:00 ICE doesn’t appear to have any vetting process for recruits 1:00:00 Wisconsin governor’s race has become a political mess 1:01:00 Tony Evers didn’t build a strong infrastructure around him 1:01:30 Evers didn’t set up an obvious heir in the Democratic party 1:03:00 The party establishment hasn’t responded to all parts of the base 1:03:45 Wisconsin is one of the most misunderstood swing states 1:05:00 Democrats in Wisconsin have to make the political center comfortable 1:07:30 Arizona primary coming up on Tuesday 01:13:15 ToddCast Time Machine July 24, 1959 01:13:45 Nixon and Krushchev host the “Kitchen Debate” 01:14:45 The countries were showing off their way of life - Capitalism vs Communism 01:15:30 Soviets set up a display in New York to show off their society 01:16:15 Khrushchev believed history would belong to the communists 01:16:45 The answer to the Soviet display was a model of an American home 01:17:30 The argument was that a middle class worker could afford that home 01:18:00 America showed it offered equality of opportunity, not outcome 01:18:45 Krushchev and Nixon debated knowing the world would hear it 01:19:45 Krushchev didn’t believe Americans actually lived that well 01:20:15 Nixon argued that competition inspired innovation and growth 01:21:45 Market capitalism proved to be the more dynamic economic system 01:22:15 There are echoes of the Kitchen Debate in modern American discourse 01:23:45 The Soviet Union disappeared, the debate hasn’t 01:24:00 Ask Chuck 01:24:15 Is MLB lockout avoidable? The state of baseball card collecting? 01:34:45 Is Trump’s erosion of norms a form of the incrementalism you champion? 01:38:15 What rights are D.C. & Puerto Rico residents still missing beside representation? 01:44:00 What goes into a decision to run for office? 01:47:30 MAGA just a rework of Reagan’s slogan? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Danny Sheehan is one of the most consequential public interest attorneys of the last century. His cases include the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the Karen Silkwood case, the Iran-Contra investigation, and decades of work at the intersection of government secrecy and the public's right to know. He is co-founder of the Romero Institute and the New Paradigm Institute, and a leading voice in the push for congressional UAP disclosure. Today, he stands at the center of what may be the most consequential question humanity has ever faced: the implications of a potential extraterrestrial or extradimensional non-human presence here on Earth. Having spent over 50 years litigating against government secrecy and winning, in this discussion, Danny connects the JFK assassination, the Vatican's role in the 1933 Italy UFO crash, the founding of the CIA, and the architecture of Brown Brothers Harriman to the UFO cover-up we're living through today, and lays out the concrete constitutional path to disclosure. Big thanks to Jamie Billings for helping make this interview happen, and to Danny and his wife for their time and generosity. The New Paradigm Institute, founded by acclaimed civil rights and Constitutional attorney Danny Sheehan, is dedicated to advocating for the public release of information held by the government surrounding the issue of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or what was commonly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). For more information, visit http://newparadigminstitute.org. Stream on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/14ioP0zfFczK8hKPsDUmko?si=cff351ada3944a9a Want more? Join the Frightday Society, at http://thefrightdaysociety.org As a Society Member, you'll have access to all Screamium content (Behind the Screams, It's Been a Weird Week, A Conversation With..., Toast to Toast PM with Wine Kelly, Cinema Autopsy, the Writers' Room, bonus episodes of Captain Kelly's Cryptids & Conspiracies, Byron's Serial Corner, and so much more! 00:00 Intro 00:30 Welcome and guest introduction 02:33 Reaction to WAR.gov/UFO and Pete Hegseth's framing 04:43 Danny's faith in the American people 07:06 JFK and Khrushchev's secret disarmament letters after the Cuban Missile Crisis 09:23 Why the assassination happened and its fallout 11:44 The Gulf of Tonkin lie and the collapse of trust in government 14:07 Coming to grips with UAP reality and the national security state 16:23 1968 vs. today: has Trump set disclosure back? 18:47 Why the world's religious communities may lead reform, not governments 21:05 Jesus, telepathy, and the evolution of human consciousness 23:23 Why the Vatican has withheld information, and why the Jesuit order was founded to reform the Church 25:48 Pope Pius XII and the 1933 UFO crash in Italy 28:11 The "Magenta" case and what Italy/Germany did with the craft in WWII 30:37 1945: Roswell, Aztec, White Sands, and the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 32:57 Roots of the national security state: the U.S. invasion of Russia in 1917 35:10 Brown Brothers Harriman, the Dulles brothers, and the Treaty of Versailles 37:28 George Herbert Walker, Union Banking Corp, and financing the Third Reich 39:28 Trump's $1.5 trillion nuclear modernization plan and why UFOs are watching 41:42 Who are "they"? On multiple species and the unknown galactic order 43:50 Congress's constitutional authority over classification (Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer) 46:12 A message to young people and why participation matters 48:34 How lawmakers respond to pressure, and the strategy for the 2026 midterms 53:10 Recapping the Contact in the Desert panel: Jacques Vallée, Tim Gallaudet, Eric Davis, and the question nobody would answer 57:42 What first convinced Danny this was real 59:49 Deathbed testimonies and how a trial lawyer evaluates truth 1:02:11 Danny's real concern: not fear of ET, but fear of losing ourselves to them 1:04:38 Archival fieldwork: the Army War College, Wild Bill Donovan, and the McGregor Project 1:09:24 Who to trust in the UFO community: Eric Burlison, Tim Burchett, and others 1:11:46 Hope for 2026 and beyond: decent people in Congress and a path forward 1:14:07 Closing thoughts and how to get involved You'll also be part of our interactive community dedicated to the advancement of horror, hauntings, cryptids, conspiracies, aliens, and true crime. All things frightening. Keep our mini-fridges full of blood...I mean...not blood...normal things that people drink...by going to http://shop.frightday.com  Theme music by Yawns Produced by Byron McKoy Follow us in the shadows at the following places: @VISITORSshow  @byronmckoy @kellyfrightday @frightday  This is an Audio Wool Original. #UAP #UFO #Disclosure #DannySheehan #ContactInTheDesert #VISITORS #PentagonPapers #NationalSecurity

Headline: Strategic Stability and the Erosion of the Nuclear Taboo Guest: Peter Huessy Peter Huessy explores the weakening nuclear taboo, noting Putin's near-use of tactical nukes in Ukraine. He contrasts this with historic deterrence during the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Kennedy provided Khrushchev a "way out." Huessy emphasizes that hybrid warfare now complicates traditional deterrence strategies. (7)1903

Headline: Pacific Watch: High Swells and Beach Controversies in San Diego Guest: Jeff Bliss Jeff Bliss reports from Sail Bay, San Diego, discussing the arrival of massive 30-foot El Niño swells. The conversation covers local beach controversies regarding yoga permits, the upscale enclave of Laguna Beach, and an unusual early-season arson fire in the nearby hills. (1)Headline: Las Vegas Sports Expansion and the "Secret Menu" at In-N-Out Guest: Jeff Bliss Bliss discusses the potential for an NBA team in Las Vegas, possibly named the "Las Vegas Jacks." He also highlights the famous In-N-Out "secret menu," explaining "animal style" burgers and fries. Seattle remains a top contender for a returning NBAfranchise alongside Las Vegas. (2)Headline: The Myth of Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment Guest: Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes birthright citizenship, arguing the 14th Amendment's original intent excluded foreigners. He critiques the concept of "tourist babies" and suggests the president's plenary naturalization powers could be used to restrict entry for pregnant mothers seeking citizenship for their children. (3)Headline: Presidential Immunity and the Legal Challenges Facing Donald Trump Guest: Richard Epstein Epsteindiscusses the Supreme Court's 2024 immunity ruling, distinguishing between official and unofficial acts. He critiques President Trump's private business ventures, like cryptocoin deals, as non-official acts subject to litigation. Epstein also argues that Todd Blanche is disqualified from being Attorney General. (4)Headline: Lancaster County's Economy: Weather Disruptions and Inflationary Pressures Guest: Jim McTagueJim McTague reports on violent thunderstorms in Lancaster County that caused widespread blackouts. Despite the weather, the economy remains resilient, with full hotels and strong retail demand. However, rising gasoline prices and wage-driven inflation are impacting the local community's purchasing power. (5)Headline: Italian Summer: Over-Tourism, Extreme Heat, and the Charm of Bassano del Grappa Guest: Lorenzo Fiori Lorenzo Fiori describes record-breaking heat and humidity in Italy, suggesting tourists visit Bassano del Grappato avoid crowds. He discusses the historic Palio horse race in Siena and recommends enjoying grappa with chocolate and ciabatta bread while overlooking the beautiful Dolomite mountains. (6)Headline: Strategic Stability and the Erosion of the Nuclear Taboo Guest: Peter Huessy Peter Huessy explores the weakening nuclear taboo, noting Putin's near-use of tactical nukes in Ukraine. He contrasts this with historic deterrence during the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Kennedy provided Khrushchev a "way out." Huessy emphasizes that hybrid warfare now complicates traditional deterrence strategies. (7)Headline: The Value of Deterrence in a Proliferating World Guest: Peter Huessy Huessy argues that the U.S. nuclear umbrella remains vital for protecting allies like South Korea from North Korean aggression. He asserts that nuclear weapons are cost-effective compared to massive conventional forces. Without a credible deterrent, reckless actors are more likely to trigger catastrophic global conflicts. (8)Headline: The New Space Race: Chinese Advances and Orbital Threats Guest: Henry Sokolski Henry Sokolskidiscusses China's Long March 10B booster, which successfully demonstrated first-stage recovery. He warns about potential nuclear mines in orbit and the challenge of verifying them. Additionally, Russia and China are reportedly collaborating to disable the Starlink satellite network in Ukraine. (9)Headline: Nuclear Safety and the Fog of War in Iran Guest: Henry Sokolski Sokolski examines reports of strikes near Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, noting that targeting reactors is legal if they serve military purposes. He expresses concern over the lack of a baseline inventory for Iran's centrifuges and enriched uranium, which complicates future nuclear negotiations. (10)Headline: Main Street Resilience: Small Business Success in 2026 Guest: Gene Marks Gene Marks reports that American small businesses are thriving, with strong consumer spending and rising revenues. He notes that wages are outpacing inflation, contributing to historical levels of personal wealth. While some use AI for content, most businesses still avoid AI for core transactions. (11)Headline: AI Productivity vs. Headcount in the Small Business Sector Guest: Gene Marks Marks argues that AI is not replacing workers but rather increasing productivity for existing staff. He highlights innovative applications like the "AI Shop Advisor" at The Vitamin Shoppe and automated inventory management tools like Zenput. Small businesses continue to face a shortage of labor. (12)Headline: The Secretive Construction of Iran's Pickaxe Mountain Guest: Andrea Stricker Andrea Stricker warns of a deeply buried nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain, which may house advanced centrifuges. The facility is located two-thirds of a mile underground, making it extremely difficult to disable via airstrikes. Stricker recommends the U.S.demand IAEA inspections to verify compliance. (13)Headline: Latin America's Shift Toward Democratic Capitalism Guest: Conrad Black Conrad Black observes a "tidal wave" of reform across South America as nations reject left-wing "gangster" governments in favor of market economies. He highlights the success of Colombia's President Abelardo De La Espriella, a Trump ally. This regional shift is significantly influenced by Trump's economic model. (14)Headline: SETI Protocols and the Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Life Guest: Michael Garrett Michael Garrett introduces updated SETI protocols for handling potential contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The guidelines emphasize the scientific method and verification to avoid false alarms. Garrett suggests searching for machine technology or waste heat from advanced civilizations across the electromagnetic spectrum. (15)Headline: SETI vs. UAPs: Distinguishing Science from Folklore Guest: Michael Garrett Garrett clarifies that SETIfocuses on astronomy, not atmospheric phenomena like UFOs or UAPs. While supportive of UAP research to understand drones or rockets, he remains skeptical of extraterrestrial visits. These updated guidelines aim to assist astronomers who might stumble upon technological signatures. (16)Each segment now runs as a single paragraph, headline through tail.

2026-06-13 | UPDATES #213 | How Putin's regime ends: the Abramovich Kyiv mission, the Beria precedent and why a chasm is opening between Putin, reality and his elites. 10 June 2026 — the most strategically consequential diplomatic event of the spring of 2026 was held in a Kyiv residence on 21 may, was disclosed by Putin himself at SPIEF on 5 June, and has now re-written the Russian elite's decisional arithmetic. But we must ask, is Abramovich negotiating on behalf of Putin, or the elites that may increasingly be diverging from him, in terms of their perceived interests. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga's Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine's largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------PLEASE HELP ME ME TO GROW SILICON CURTAINWe are planning our events for 2026, and to do more and have a greater impact. After achieving more than 12 events in 2025, we will aim to double that! 24 events and interviews on the ground in Ukraine, to push back against weaponized information, toxic propaganda and corrosive disinformation. Please help us make it happen!----------SOURCES: Financial Times (via Ukrainska Pravda English) — "Zelenskyy proposed meeting to Putin via Abramovich – Financial Times" (7 June 2026) Kyiv Independent — "Zelensky asked Russian oligarch Abramovich to send message to Putin on peace talks" (8 June 2026) Kyiv Post — "Zelensky Confirms Abramovich Came to Kyiv in May, Carried Messages to Putin Including Ceasefire Offer" (8 June 2026) Kyiv Post — "Abramovich Delivered Putin Message on Possible Talks Framework to Kyiv, Zelensky Says" (9 June 2026) Censor.NET — "Zelenskyy confirmed Abramovich's visit in May" (8 June 2026) Michael Naki (YouTube) — "ПУТИН ВЫБЕСИЛ СВОЮ ЭЛИТУ. Абрамович — лишь начало" / "Putin Has Enraged His Elite. Abramovich Is Just the Beginning" (early June 2026)Financial Times (background reporting, 2022; recapitulated in current FT coverage) Time magazine archive — "Russia: At the Kremlin Corral" (reproducing 1953-period coverage) Babel — "71 years ago, the bloody Soviet KGB leader Lavrentiy Beria lost his chance to lead the USSR" (June 2025) History Today — "Lavrenti Beria Executed" — Beria's improbable post-Stalin push for liberalization "that went further than colleagues were ready for"; Presidium hastily convened 26 June 1953; Khrushchev "blistering attack" with British intelligence accusations; "lethal plot was hatched against him"Soviet History MSU archive — "Succession to Stalin" — "Alarmed at Beria's growing prominence and control of the police, Khrushchev conspired with Malenkov and several other presidium members to arrange for Beria's arrest at the hands of the military"; 26 June 1953 plot execution; secret trial and 24 December 1953 execution----------

Harpal Brar | 1 May 2026 Stalin made regular efforts to counter the tendency of Soviet scientists to adopt a servile attitude towards their equivalents in the more backward imperialist west. Contrary to the myths peddled by Khrushchev and Trotsky and repeated endlessly by anticommunist historians, Josef Stalin was a selfless, modest and devoted revolutionary, and a lifelong student of Marxist-Leninist science. ---------------------------------------------------- Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

How Stalin personally ran the Soviet Union has rightly received much attention. Less discussed is the small group of men that served as his top lieutenants. They carried out his orders, and after his death, were instrumental in establishing the post-Stalin order. This week, the Eurasian Knot features a discussion with Pietro Shakarian about his new book Anastas Mikoyan: An Armenian Reformer in Khrushchev's Kremlin. We mostly know Mikoyan as a statesman and political survivor who successfully navigated Stalin's Kremlin. But who was Anastas Mikoyan beyond that? What did he believe? What was his role as Stalin's henchman? How did he push for de-Stalinization after the leader's death in 1953, particularly on Soviet nationality policy. Shakarian tells us that in the end, Mikoyan was more than a survivor. He was a critical player in shaping the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. Guest:Pietro A. Shakarian is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and a lecturer at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. He's the author of Anastas Mikoyan: An Armenian Reformer in Khrushchev's Kremlin published by Indiana University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Serhii Plokhy describes how by October 20, the Joint Chiefs, led by Curtis LeMay, were pushing for Oplan 312 (a full-scale invasion), accusing Kennedy of "appeasement." Kennedy feared an invasion would trigger a Soviet takeover of West Berlin. He successfully hid the crisis from the media for a week to weigh his options. Choosing the term "quarantine" to avoid a legal act of war, he bought critical time. Meanwhile, Khrushchev fell into a panic in Moscow, fearing an imminent U.S. strike and even considering a false-flag claim that the missiles were under Cuban control. (4)1920

Serhii Plokhy describes how on October 26-27, Khrushchev sent conflicting messages: a private letter offering a non-invasion pledge and a public demand to remove U.S. Jupiters in Turkey. This caused chaos in the White House, with officials fearing Khrushchev had been ousted by his military. Kennedy believed a missile swap was the only logical solution but could not agree publicly without undermining NATO credibility. Khrushchev's failure to consult Fidel Castro on these terms sowed deep resentment, creating a secondary crisis between the Soviet Union and its Cuban ally. (6)1956

Serhii Plokhy explains that Anastas Mikoyan emerged as a voice of reason, having opposed the missiles from the start. As the U.S. blockade began, Khrushchev ordered missile-carrying ships to turn back, though one ship with nuclear warheads was ordered to proceed. Washington remained dangerously unaware of Soviet submarines armed with nuclear torpedoes and the true number of Soviet troops on the island. Kennedy privately admitted he felt he had "no choice" but to act, partly fearing impeachment. Dean Rusk famously noted that the Soviets "blinked" when their ships finally stopped. (5)1920

Serhii Plokhy details that Khrushchev's decision was driven by the USSR having only five or six ICBMs capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. By deploying medium-range R-12 and R-14 missiles to Cuba, he sought to balance the threat from American Minutemen. He appointed General Pliyev, despite the general's poor health, because he needed a commander capable of defending the island from a potential ground invasion. Newly tapped KGB records reveal the inhuman secrecy of the transit. Soviet units, unfamiliar with the tropics, faced significant technical obstacles, like mismatched electrical frequencies, making their survival a "heroic deed." (3)1915

Serhii Plokhy explains that Khrushchev placed missiles in Cuba to counter the U.S. "missile gap" and the Jupitermissiles in Turkey. He chose General Issa Pliyev, a loyal cavalryman, to lead Operation Anadyr because of his experience with multi-force coordination and his ruthless loyalty. The secret mission involved over 40,000 Soviet troops, far exceeding CIA estimates. These soldiers endured horrific conditions on overheated ships, only breathing fresh air at night. Upon arrival, they struggled with incompatible technology and a Cuban environment that failed to hide their missiles, yet they persevered out of duty. (2)1899

Serhii Plokhy describes how on October 16, 1962, National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy informed President Kennedy that U-2 spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Kennedy felt personally betrayed by Khrushchev's prior lies regarding the deployment. Faced with intense political pressure and accusations of being "weak" during the midterms, Kennedy initially acted as a hawk, leaning toward an immediate air strike. Robert Kennedy was also surprisingly hawkish during early deliberations. However, advisors like Robert McNamara eventually persuaded the President to adopt a quarantine (blockade) to avoid an immediate nuclear escalation. (1)1897

Stalin's study of history and diplomacy informed the Soviet Union's careful handling of foreign affairs and in particular its dealings with the imperialist powers. Contrary to the myths peddled by Khrushchev and Trotsky and repeated endlessly by anticommunist historians, Josef Stalin was a selfless, modest and devoted revolutionary, and a lifelong student of Marxist-Leninist science. -------------------------------------------------- Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

“We must perpetrate the paradox that our American cultural tradition lies in the future.” — Randolph Bourne, via Dominic Erdozain Should Americans be proud of their country? The Anglo-American historian Dominic Erdozain thinks not. His new book, To Love a Country, argues that there's a problem with American patriotism. Americans shouldn't love their country, Erdozain says. It's not a good place. His argument is that American patriotism has the same Puritan root as British imperialism. The idea of a chosen people, a city on the hill, a nation with a special mission is a kind of moral virus. He says it infected America in the great awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and has provided moral cover for slavery, military aggression abroad, and the denial of rights at home. So what America needs, he argues, is a new set of foundational myths laid out by progressives like Jane Addams, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Martin Luther King Jr. This would establish a new kind of American patriotism which is forward-looking and internationalist rather than nativist or exceptionalist. Erdozain even gives Gandhi a shoutout as a model of American patriotism, although one wonders what the Indian pacifist would have made of this. So what will the Atlanta-based Erdozain be doing on July 4? Hiding under his bed, perhaps, rather than enjoying the hotdogs and fireworks. In hiding from hundreds of millions of patriotic Americans. Five Takeaways •       The Puritan Root of American Exceptionalism: The idea of America as a chosen people, a city on a hill with a special mission to the world, was not invented in America. It was inherited from English Puritanism. As it spread through the first and second great awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — what some scholars call the New Englandization of America — it became the canopy under which very different kinds of people sheltered. You didn't have to be a Puritan in any theological sense. You just had to accept the premise that America was righteously exceptional. And once you accepted that, a great deal of scrutiny became unavailable. •       Nationalism Is Immune to Failure: One of Erdozain's sharpest observations, via historian Lindsey O'Rourke's work on American interventionism: nationalism can absorb any amount of failure. The defeat in Vietnam, the disaster of Iraq, the failure of Afghanistan — a certain kind of nationalism insulates itself from the lessons these events might teach. It's always someone else's fault. It's always a particular administration's failure, never the national premise. This makes exceptionalism uniquely resistant to the ordinary mechanism of democratic accountability. •       Randolph Bourne and the Patriotism of the Future: Erdozain's most original historical recovery: Randolph Bourne, a radical journalist writing during the First World War, who argued that nativism and nationalism were European imports, backward-looking and derivative. Bourne's phrase: “we must perpetrate the paradox that our American cultural tradition lies in the future.” A patriotism faithful to the diversity of modern America — its bustling pluralism, its immigrant energy — cannot be built by looking backward to the founders. It must be built by looking forward to the founders we have not yet had. •       Alternative Founders: Addams, Douglass, Garrison, King: Erdozain proposes replacing — or at least supplementing — the canonical founders with a different cast. Jane Addams, who said the question is not what can we teach the bewildered immigrant but what can we learn from them. Frederick Douglass, who held America to account for its foundational promises. William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist. Martin Luther King Jr., who went to India to learn about nonviolence from Gandhi. These are the people, Erdozain argues, who offer a patriotism adequate to the diversity and complexity of twenty-first century America. •       JFK's Strategy of Peace: The Possibility of Reinvention: Erdozain ends the book with Kennedy's strategy of peace speech at American University in June 1963 — two months before his assassination. By then, Kennedy had come to believe that the impetus for war was coming from within his own country, from his own military and CIA, not from the Soviets. His speech — conceding nothing to communism as an ideology, but immensely generous about the Russian people and about Khrushchev as a leader — is Erdozain's model for what reinvention looks like. The Bay of Pigs taught him something. By the end, he was talking about Vietnam as not America's fight. Lessons can be learned, even in office, even at the last moment. About the Guest Dominic Erdozain is a historian and writer, graduate of Oxford and Cambridge, and visiting professor of history at Emory University in Atlanta. He is the author of To Love a Country: The Problem of Patriotism in America (Crown, June 2, 2026) and One Nation Under Guns. He grew up in Preston, Lancashire, supports Liverpool FC, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. References: •       To Love a Country: The Problem of Patriotism in America by Dominic Erdozain (Crown, June 2, 2026). •       Randolph Bourne — radical journalist and critic of American nationalism during the First World War. His phrase “our American cultural tradition lies in the future” is the book's central provocation. •       Jane Addams — co-founder of Hull House, Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Referenced as an alternative founder. •       JFK's Strategy of Peace speech, American University, June 10, 1963 — the closing argument of the book. •       Episode 2922: Alexandra Natapoff on America Unfinished — directly referenced at the opening. •       Episode 2923: Joe Cunningham on Life of the Party — directly referenced at the opening. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTube

The Peter Boyles Show - May 23, 2026 HOUR 4: Hour 4 bounced between Colorado politics and Military history. Callers criticized Victor Marx’s campaign style, heavy security presence, and media strategy, while Peter Boyles questioned whether Marx was building long-term personal branding more than a serious gubernatorial run. The second half turned into a deep discussion about JFK, Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, Khrushchev, Vietnam, and public distrust after the Kennedy assassination. Boyles argued the 1960s truly began with JFK’s death and ended with Nixon’s resignation, calling that era a permanent turning point in American political culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host Scott Tong is reporting from China this week as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping prepare for a high-profile summit in Beijing. He joins us from Shanghai to share his first impressions of the country since the last time he was there.Then, the summit is set for later this week. Senior research fellow Yu Jie from Chatham House explains the power dynamic going into the meeting.And, Russia held its annual Victory Day parade on Saturday. It was scaled back compared to previous years, with the country's military might displayed not in person but on giant TV screens, out of fear of a possible attack from Ukraine. Nina Khrushcheva, New School professor and great-granddaughter of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, details Russian President Vladimir Putin's hold on power.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Trump Is Making Khrushchev's “We Will Bury You” Real for Putin. Why? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Soviet Era, Crimea's Transfer, and Putin's Formative MythsThe 1950s and 60s represented a "Golden Period" for the Soviet state, during which Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea to Ukraine for economic convenience. This era deeply influenced a young Vladimir Putin, who viewed Ukraine not as a separate entity, but as a romanticized extension of Russia—a place for summer vacations and vital industrial output, such as missiles. Finkel notes that this perspective takes Russian dominance for granted, ignoring the history of forced "Russification" and the Holodomor. Meanwhile, American leaders like Bill Clinton and Herbert Hoover are criticized for historically misreading these Russian imperial intentions. Guest: Professor Eugene Finkel. (4/8)1859

For four years—from July 16, 1945, the date of the first atomic test, to August 29, 1949, when the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear device—the history of nuclear weapons might appear to be an exclusively American story. But even that is misleading.From the earliest theorization of the chain reaction, nuclear development was international: a web of scientific collaboration, technological transfer, espionage, and strategic imitation. As my guest David Holloway argues, nuclear weapons have always had an international history—one that can only be understood by examining not just individual states, but their relationships, perceptions, and interactions.To approach nuclear weapons in this way, he suggests, “requires an effort to understand the different parties involved, their strategies, their policies, their behavior, and, above all, their relationships and interactions.” In this conversation, we explore that history—from Los Alamos to Moscow, from Atoms for Peace to nuclear brinkmanship, and from non-proliferation to the limits of the nuclear order itself.  David Holloway is Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History, Professor of Political Science, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (Emeritus) at Stanford University. His work focuses on the international history of nuclear weapons, Soviet science and technology, and the relationship between international history and international relations theory. His latest book, Nuclear Weapons: An International History, represents a culmination of decades of scholarship.Chapters0:02:31 — What Is International History?0:07:11 — The International Roots of Nuclear Science0:12:23 — Technology Transfer and the Klaus Fuchs Connection0:16:51 — The Soviet Bomb: Hesitation and Espionage0:19:06 — Atoms for Peace0:21:13 — The Thermonuclear Turning Point0:24:02 — Nuclear Weapons and Marxist Theory0:30:08 — Brinkmanship: Dulles, Khrushchev, and the Logic of the Brink0:33:50 — Non-Proliferation and the NPT0:43:57 — India, Pakistan, and the Blind Eye

Happy “Tax Day”! I wonder what the American Revolutionary Founders would think of ‘Tax Day’, on this momentous 250th Anniversary of our American Independence…? Links Videos / Clips [x] = Played The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer – American Archive of Public Broadcasting [x] 48:56--49:39 JIM LEHRER: What is the proper relationship, what should be the proper relationship between a chairman of the Fed and a president of the United States? ALAN GREENSPAN: Well, first of all, the Federal Reserve is an independent agency, and that means, basically, that there is no other agency of government which can overrule actions that we take. So long as that is in place and there is no evidence that the administration or the Congress or anybody else is requesting that we do things other than what we think is the appropriate thing, then what the relationships are don’t, frankly, matter. And I’ve had very good relationships with presidents. 1. [x] Understanding Fractional Reserve Banking: How It Fuels Economic Growth Fractional reserve banking is the banking system most countries use today. It requires banks to hold only a fraction of the money their customers deposit. That amount is the reserve requirement, and in most countries, it is set by the central bank. Banks can loan the rest of their deposits to other customers, which serves to expand the economy. It works like this. Banks accept deposits from individuals and businesses providing them with savings and checking accounts in return. Banks can loan out the bulk of those deposits to other customers to buy homes or cars, start businesses, or to fund other projects. If a customer deposits $100,000 into a bank and the reserve requirement is 5%, the bank can loan $95,000 out to other customers. Once the bank has loaned out $95,000, it in essence has created $195,000. Customers borrow that $95,000 and deposit some or all of it into other banks. If the reserve requirement is still 5%, then the other banks can loan $90,250 to new customers. And the process keeps repeating itself. Financial crisis occurs when the fractional banking system breaks down and the money supply does not expand. Many US banks had to shut down during the Great Depression, because so many people attempted to withdraw their money at the same time. Today, safeguards exist to prevent such an occurrence. 1. Dollar Decline, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) & IMF as World Federal Bank – Jim Rickards – The Triffin Dilemma Headlines [x] = Mentioned / Discussed [x] Secretive Bilderberg group just met – but who knows what global elite said? | Washington DC | The Guardian [x] Prosecutors from Jeanine Pirro’s office tried to access Federal Reserve headquarters, but were turned away | CBS News [x] Grand jury declines criminal charges against 6 Democrats who urged military to reject illegal orders | CBS News [x] Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit | 404 Media WebinarTV Secretly Scraped Zoom Meetings of Anonymous Recovery Programs | 404 Media Farmer Arrested for Speaking Too Long at Datacenter Town Hall Vows to Fight | 404 Media The Rest [x] = Mentioned / Discussed Previous RWR Episodes [x] Road Warrior Radio with Chris Hinkley, April 14, 2026 | Hour 1 | Hour 2 Administrative Fourth Branch [x] The Birth of the Administrative State: Where It Came From and What It Means for Limited Government | The Heritage Foundation [x] The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State on JSTOR [x] America Is A Don't Ask Don't Tell Nation – Road Warrior Radio The Paper Ponzi Scheme [x] Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 27 May 1788 The bankruptcies in London have recommenced with new force. There is no saying where this fire will end. Perhaps in the general conflagration of all their paper. …nothing is necessary but a general panic, produced either by failures, invasion or any other cause, and the whole visionary fabric vanishes into air and shews that paper is poverty, that it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself. [x] Money, whence it came, where it went : Galbraith, John Kenneth, 1908-2006 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. Where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent. [x] Economists John Kenneth Galbraith and Alan Greenspan appeared before… News Photo – Getty Images [x] Crash Could Not Happen Again, Heller, Galbraith and Greenspan Tell Congress – The New York Times [x] FRB Speech, Bernanke – On Milton Friedman’s ninetieth birthday – November 8, 2002 Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again. [x] Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval (1816) – Teaching American History We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers. Our landholders, too, like theirs, retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression. [x] Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address (Mar 4, 1837) | The American Presidency Project The severe lessons of experience will, I doubt not, be sufficient to prevent Congress from again chartering such a monopoly, even if the Constitution did not present an insuperable objection to it. But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government. The power which the moneyed interest can exercise, when concentrated under a single head and with our present system of currency, was sufficiently demonstrated in the struggle made by the Bank of the United States. [x] Federal Reserve Act – Wikisource, the free online library Sec. 30.. The right to amend, alter, or repeal this Act is hereby expressly reserved. [x] hypothecate – definition and meaning [x] Websters 1828 – Webster’s Dictionary 1828 – Hypothecate HYPOTH’ECATE, verb transitive [Latin hypotheca, a pledge; Gr. to put under, to suppose.] 1. To pledge, and properly to pledge the keel of a ship, that is, the ship itself, as security for the repayment of money borrowed to carry on a voyage. In this case the lender hazards the loss of his money by the loss of the ship, but if the ship returns safe, he received his principal, with the premium or interest agreed on, though it may exceed the legal rate of interest. 2. To pledge, as goods. [x] 321gold: Gold and Economic Freedom by Alan Greenspan 1966 In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard. Triffin dilemma – Wikipedia The Shot Heard Round The World [x] Battles of Lexington and Concord – Wikipedia On This Day Events April 2026 Calendar of Public Holidays | Office Holidays Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2026 What day is it today? Important events every day ad-free | United States OTD Worldwide Public Holidays Wednesday April 15th 2026 | Office Holidays On This Day – What Happened on April 15 Today in History: April 15, the Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic | AP News What Happened on April 15 – On This Day What Happened on April 15 | HISTORY April 15 – Wikipedia What Happened On April 15 In History? 15 | April | 2020 | Executed Today Holidays Tax Day (US) Father Damien Day (Hawaii) Jackie Robinson Day (US) Titanic Remembrance Day (US) American Sign Language (ASL) Day (US) Historical Events 2013 – Boston Marathon Bombing: Two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing two women and an 8-year-old boy and injuring more than 260. But: Who is Graham Fuller, and who is Uncle Ruslan…?123456789 1998 – Pol Pot, the architect of Cambodia's killing fields, dies of apparently natural causes while serving a life sentence imposed against him by his own Khmer Rouge. 1994 – The World Trade Organization is founded: The WTO coordinates and strives to liberalize international trade. It has been criticized for ignoring and escalating the negative social and environmental side-effects of globalization. 1990 – Sketch comedy TV series In Living Color premieres on FOX TV 1989 – A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing: The death of reformer Hu Yaobang triggered the demonstrations, which grew in size and were brutally dispersed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4. 1986 – The United States launches retaliatory air strikes against Libya: Around 40 Libyans died in Operation El Dorado Canyon, including an infant girl. The attack was the United States’ response to the bombing of a Berlin discotheque on April 5, in which 3 people had died. 1974 – Members of the Symbionese Liberation Army held up a branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco; a member of the group was SLA kidnap victim Patricia Hearst. (Hearst later said she had been forced to participate in the robbery.) 1960 – Guy Carawan sings We Shall Overcome to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, popularizing the song as a protest anthem 1955 – Ray Kroc opened the first franchised McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1945 – The German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen is liberated: British and Canadian troops found about 53,000 prisoners inside the camp. Tens of thousands died before and after the liberation. 1935 – The Eastman Kodak Company launches Kodachrome: The photographic film was one of the most popular media used by professional and hobby photographers around the world. The product was discontinued in 2009 because of the advent of digital photography. 1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas. 1912 – British luxury liner RMS Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland just over two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. Over 1,500 people died; 710 survived. 1900 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. 1892 – The General Electric Company is formed. 1877 – World’s first home telephone is installed in Somerville, Massachusetts at the house of Charles Williams Jr. 1874 – First Impressionist art exhibition opens in Paris, features Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot 1865 – Abraham Lincoln died after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater the previous evening; Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the 17th president hours later. 1861 – Federal army of 75,000 volunteers is mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War 1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a “long belt” of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. 1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending the American Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence) are ratified. 1755 – Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London 1729 – Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion premieres at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) Births 1978 – Chris Stapleton, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist (48) 1922 – Harold Washington, American lawyer and politician, 51st Mayor of Chicago (died 1987) 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician, 7th Premier of the Soviet Union (died 1971) 1858 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist, psychologist, and philosopher [read Lark’s Collected Musings] (died 1917) 1843 – Henry James, American/English author (died 1916) 1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company Ltd (died 1919) 1832 – Wilhelm Busch, German poet, painter, illustrator (died 1908) 1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, architect (died 1519) Deaths 2025 – Wink Martindale, American DJ, radio personality, and TV personality (born 1933) 2024 – Whitey Herzog, American professional baseball outfielder and manager (born 1931) 2018 – R. Lee Ermey, USMC drill instructor, American actor (born 1944) 1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian general and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1925) 1990 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (born 1905) 1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1905) 1912 – Victims of the Titanic disaster: Archibald Butt, American general and journalist (born 1865) Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (born 1865) Charles Melville Hays, American businessman (born 1856) Edward Smith, English Captain (born 1850) Henry B. Harris, American producer and manager (born 1866) Henry Tingle Wilde, English chief officer (born 1872) Ida Straus, German-American businesswoman (born 1849) Isidor Straus, German-American businessman and politician (born 1845) Jack Phillips, English telegraphist (born 1887) Jacques Futrelle, American journalist and author (born 1875) James Paul Moody, English Sixth Officer (born 1887) John B. Thayer, American business and sportsman (born 1862) John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel, businessman, and author (born 1864) Thomas Andrews, Irish shipbuilder (born 1873) Wallace Hartley, English violinist and bandleader (born 1878) William McMaster Murdoch, Scottish First Officer (born 1873) William Thomas Stead, English journalist (born 1849) 1889 – Father Damien, Flemish missionary, priest, and saint (born 1840) 1865 – Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer, politician, 16th President of the United States (born 1809) Footnotes Jimenez, Guillermo. “The Tsarnaevs and the CIA: Who Is Graham Fuller?” Traces of Reality by Guillermo Jimenez, 2026, web.archive.org/web/20130503080950/tracesofreality.com/2013/04/29/the-tsarnaevs-and-the-cia-who-is-graham-fuller/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. It has been confirmed that the Tsarnaev family, at least to some degree, have been connected to the Central Intelligence Agency for almost 20 years. In 1995, Ruslan Tsarni (formerly known as Ruslan Tsarnaev, affectionately known as “Uncle Ruslan,” the American corporate media darling who bemoaned the alleged actions of his nephews Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev ) married the daughter of the former Deputy Director of the CIA's National Council on Intelligence, Graham Fuller. While the marriage of Samantha Ankara Fuller and Ruslan Tsarnaev was short-lived, reportedly ending in divorce in 1999, it appears that Ruslan and Graham Fuller were more than just father-in-law and son.  They may also been business partners. These key details in the history of the Tsarnaev family and the CIA were first reported by Daniel Hopsicker of Mad Cow Morning News, and the marriage of Fuller's daughter and Ruslan has indeed been confirmed by Al-Monitor reporter, Laura Rozen. ↩ Hopsicker, Daniel. “Boston Bombers' Uncle Married Daughter of Top CIA Official.” MadCow Morning News, 26 Apr. 2013, www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/26/boston-bombers-uncle-married-daughter-of-top-cia-official/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Hopsicker, Daniel. ““Uncle Ruslan” Aided Terrorists from CIA Official's Home.” MadCow Morning News, 29 Apr. 2013, www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/29/uncle-ruslan-aid-to-terrorists-from-cia-officials-home/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Corbett, James. “Who Is Graham Fuller?” The Corbett Report, 2026, corbettreport.com/who-is-graham-fuller/. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ “Graham Fuller – Wikispooks.” Wikispooks.com, 2026, wikispooks.com/wiki/Graham_Fuller. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Wikipedia Contributors. “Graham E. Fuller.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_E._Fuller. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Wikipedia Contributors. “Islamism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Wikipedia Contributors. “Tablighi Jamaat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablighi_Jamaat. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩ Engdahl, F. William. “Graham E. Fuller Where Were You on the Night of July 15?” Archive.org, 9 Aug. 2016, www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO9Aug2016.php. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026. ↩

Stalin's study of history and diplomacy informed the Soviet Union's careful handling of foreign affairs and in particular its dealings with the imperialist powers. Contrary to the myths peddled by Khrushchev and Trotsky and repeated endlessly by anticommunist historians, Josef Stalin was a selfless, modest and devoted revolutionary, and a lifelong student of Marxist-Leninist science. Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

Khrushchev had already been elected First Secretary of the Communist Party, and his later rise to Chairman of the Council of Ministers placed both the party leadership and the government administration under his direct ...

Why did Mao declare war on sparrows as part of The Great Leap Forward? What caused China to attack India in 1962? How did Mao use a swimming pool to embarrass Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev? Anita and William are joined once again by Rana Mitter, author of A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World, and Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, to discuss The Great Leap Forward and its consequences. Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Editor: Bruno Di Castri Researcher: Imogen Marriott Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we talk about the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and decapitation attacks.We also discuss Venezuela, Iran, and the Platt Amendment.Recommended Book: The Will of the Many by James IslingtonTranscriptCuba is a large island nation, about the same size as the US state of Tennessee, which formally gained its independence from Spain in late 1898, following three wars of independence, the last of which brought the US, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines into play against the Spanish when the Spanish military sunk the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, triggering the Spanish-American War.That conflict, which Spain lost, led to the US's acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and it led to a piece of US legislation called the Platt Amendment, which redefined the relationship between the US and Cuba, following the war, making Cuba a protectorate of the United States, the US promising to leave, withdrawing its troops from Cuban soil, only if seven conditions were met, and an additional provision that Cuba sign a treaty indicating they would continue to adhere to these conditions moving forward—making them permanent.Most of these conditions relate to Cuba's ability to enter into relationships with other nations, but provision three also says the US can intervene if doing so will preserve Cuban independence, and that Cuba will sell or lease to the US the land it needs to base its naval vessels in the area, so that it can intervene, militarily if necessary, to keep Cuba independent.The other provisions are largely related to ensuring Cuba stays financially solvent and clean, the former meant to help maintain that independence, so Cuba doesn't make deals with other nations, perhaps US enemies, in order to bail itself out when financially in trouble, and the latter meant to help prevent the bubbling up of diseases in a not well-maintained Cuba, that might then spread to the US.These concerns were concerns for the US government because Cuba is very, very close to the US. It's just over 90 miles away from Key West, Florida, and that means in the mind of those tasked with defending the US against foreign incursion, Cuba has long represented an uncontrolled variable where enemies could conceivably base all sorts of military assets, including but not limited to nuclear weapons.That makes Cuba, again, in the minds of defense strategists looking to help the US secure its borders, long-term, something like an aircraft carrier slash nuclear submarine the size of Tennessee, located so close to the US that it could take out all sorts of major assets in a flash, long before the US could respond, getting the same sorts of strike craft and missiles to the Soviet Union.This framing of the situation, and this collection of concerns, is what led to the Cuban Missile Crisis back in 1962, when the US deployed nuclear weapons in the UK, Italy, and Turkey, all of which were closer to major Soviet hubs than the US, and that led to a tit-for-tat move by the Soviets to deploy nuclear missiles to Cuba, both to get their own weapons closer to the US, just as the US did to them with those new deployments, but also to deter a potential US invasion of Cuba, which was a staunch ally of the Soviet Union.The crisis lasted 13 days, and though then US President Kennedy was advised to launch an air strike against Soviet missile supplies, and to then invade the Cuban mainland to prevent the basing of Soviet nuclear weapons there, he instead opted for a naval blockade of Cuba, hoping to keep more missile supplies from arriving, and to thus avoid a strike on a Soviet ally that could accidentally spark a shooting war.After this nearly two-week standoff, the US and Soviet leaders agreed that the Soviets would dismantle the offensive weapons they were building in Cuba in exchange for a public declaration by the US to not invade Cuba. The US also secretly pledged to dismantle its own offensive weapons that it had recently deployed to Italy and Turkey, and the weapons they deployed to the UK were also disbanded the following year.This sequence of events is generally seen as a minor victory for the US during an especially fraught portion of the Cold War, as that secret agreement between Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev meant that the Soviet people and leadership perceived this agreement as an embarrassing loss, and an example of Soviet weakness on the international stage—they blinked and the US got what they wanted without giving much of anything, though of course, again, the US gave a fair bit too, just in secret.What I'd like to talk about today is a recent escalation in the US's posture toward Cuba, and what might happen next, as a result of that change.—In early January 2026, the US military, ostensibly as part of a larger effort aimed at disrupting a network of watercraft that carry drugs from mostly South and Central American drugmakers across the border, into US markets, called Operation Southern Spear, the United States implemented a new blockade aimed at sanctioned oil tankers carrying fuel from Venezuela to, among other destinations, Cuban ports.Shortly before this blockade was declared, the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, then harassed, boarded, and intimidated other tankers, including one from Russia, that were also dealing in Venezuelan oil—something that US sanctions disallowed, and which the Trump administration had decided to focus on, ostensibly as part of that anti-drug effort, but also seemingly as part of a then-impending mission to kidnap Venezuelan President Maduro, who was then secreted away to the US to face trial, which is where he is, today.These seizures hit Cuba especially hard because the country is highly reliant on all sorts of imports, much of its income derived from tourism, not manufacturing or raw materials, and fuel coming from Venezuela was especially vital—about 72% of Cuba's electricity generation comes from oil-fueled power plants, and basically its entire transportation section is reliant on the same.Venezuela under Maduro also provided oil to Cuba at a discount, subsidizing it because those US sanctions didn't allow Venezuela to have many other reliable customers, and because the authoritarian governments of these two nations saw each other as fellow-travelers in the region, and thus wanted to keep each other propped up against constant pressure from the US and other democracies in the Americas.As of March 2026, Cuba has gone without crude oil deliveries for three months, and this has led to waves of flight cancellations and a depletion of tourism, which again, is the country's most vital income source. As of mid-March, Cuba's energy grid has also collapsed, which has left about 10 million people without power most of the time, amplifying existing problems caused by the country's antiquated energy generation and distribution systems.All of which seems to be according to plan for the second US Trump administration, which announced, as far back as January of this year, that it was seeking regime change in Cuba, and these blackouts have triggered exceedingly rare violent protests against that regime by Cuban citizens; these protests haven't led to any real change or consequences yet, but they could, with time.For their part, the Cuban government has said they've entered diplomatic talks with the US, and they've already agreed to release 51 political prisoners, just as an up-front, good will gesture. But they've also said changes to the Cuban political system or government—which is an authoritarian regime with absolute power, and which, like most such regimes, is openly corrupt, those in charge enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else, while keeping control via state-sanctioned violence against its own citizens—they've said changing that is non-negotiable, also noting that if there is direct aggression against Cuba by the US, they'll fight and offer up “impenetrable resistance.'The change that the US government seeks is reportedly similar to what was accomplished in Venezuela: booting the current leader, but keeping the existing regime, the power behind the publicly visible throne, intact, and then the US government influencing that existing regime from afar.This deviates from the assumed model, attempted by previous US and other governments throughout history, to boot the leaders of opposing government types and then replace them, and the local system, with something closer to their own. This new approach is possibly what the Trump administration is aiming for in Iran, as well, though it's difficult to say how well the model will work even in Venezuela, where it's still early days after the US's seemingly successful decapitation attack, much less in places like Cuba, where there's no single central power in the public-facing government, much of that power spread between Communist Party leaders, rather than hoarded by a single individual—a far cry from how things were under Castro during the Cold War.As of the day I'm recording this, there's a new wrinkle in this blockade: a Russian oil tanker has been tracked heading along a trajectory that would seem to lead to Cuba, which, if accurate, could put the US and Russia at odds over deliveries to the island once more—though in this case it would be oil instead of offensive nuclear weapons that are on board the incursionary vessel.This ship may veer off that current course and head elsewhere, or it could be meant to test the US oil blockade, intentionally poking at what seems to be an impenetrable barrier, to see if it's all just talk. Even if just that one tanker makes it through, it's carrying enough oil to provide about a week's worth of energy to the Cuban people, which could serve as a sort of release valve on the pressure-cooker stress that has led to the aforementioned protests against the government.Most analysts expect this and future vessels will turn off when formally confronted, though, and this isn't the first ship that's attempted to break this new blockade of Cuba; and previous attempters have indeed pulled off before a shot was fired by the blockading fleet.Trump has in recent weeks said that he believes he'll be able to take Cuba, and/or do whatever he wants to the island and its people, and that could just be talk, or it could be that, like in Venezuela, and to some degree Iran, many of the locals would welcome that kind of change, despite the violence and suffering that would no doubt come with it.In the meantime, though, millions of Cubans are going without reliable energy, food, medical care, and other modern necessities, which could push them to take the risk of revolutionary action, but it could also turn them against the outside enemy, reinforcing support for the tyrannical Cuban government against the harmful and oppressive actions of the American military, rather than nudging them into government overthrow.Show Noteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Amendmenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cubahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Cuban_crisishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisishttps://www.reuters.com/business/energy/cubas-national-electric-grid-collapses-says-grid-operator-2026-03-16https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/world/americas/cuba-fuel-blockade-aid-convoy.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/travel/cuba-flights-travel-advice-power-oil.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/world/americas/cuba-says-its-presidents-term-not-subject-negotiation-talks-with-us-2026-03-20/https://www.dw.com/en/cuba-faces-economic-collapse-as-us-oil-blockade-hits-tourism/video-76398387 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Send a textHistory tends to remember the loudest voices in the room. But sometimes the person who actually helped prevent disaster is the one sitting in the middle.During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the world stood just hours away from nuclear war. Most of us remember the names Kennedy and Khrushchev. What we often forget is the man working behind the scenes at the United Nations, trying to slow things down before the world lost its mind. His name was U Thant.This week on Here's What We Know, we sit down with historian and author Thant Myint-U, who also happens to be U Thant's grandson. His book Peacemaker tells the story of a schoolteacher from a small town in Burma who somehow found himself standing between the superpowers at one of the most dangerous moments in modern history.We talk about the Cold War, the role of the United Nations, and what it was like for a grandson to discover the real scope of his grandfather's life by digging through archives decades later.This episode is a fascinating story about diplomacy, history, and the people who sometimes carry the biggest responsibility. Listen now!In This Episode:The Forgotten Peacemaker Behind the Cuban Missile CrisisGrowing Up With the UN Secretary GeneralWhen Did He Realize His Grandfather Was a Global Leader?Why U Thant Was Left Out of the Cuban Missile Crisis StoryFrom Burmese Schoolteacher to UN Secretary GeneralThe Human Side of a World LeaderTaking Over the UN During the Cold WarPolitical Assassinations and Cold War TensionsThe Golden Age of the United NationsCan the United Nations Still Prevent Global Conflict?The Power and Limits of the UN Security CouncilWhat the UN Was Originally Designed to DoThe Decline of UN Peacekeeping InfluenceWhy the UN Still Matters TodayThe Personality of U Thant: Calm, Pragmatic LeadershipThis episode is sponsored by:Mike Counsil Plumbing & Rooter (Use code “Gary” to get $89 off any service!) License #: 679261Bio:Thant Myint-U is a historian, author, and former United Nations official specializing in the history and politics of Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Educated at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Cambridge, he served on UN peacekeeping missions in Cambodia and the Balkans and later worked at the UN Secretariat in New York on humanitarian and political affairs. He has also advised Myanmar's government on economic reform and peace negotiations and founded the Yangon Heritage Trust to preserve the city's historic architecture.Website: https://www.thantmyintu.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thant-myint-u-340aa99/Connect with Gary:Gary's WebsiteFollow Gary on InstagramGary's TiktokGary's FacebookWatch the episodes on YouTubeAdvertise on the PodcastThank you for listening. Let us know what you think about this episode. Leave us a review!

  Dave Ratcliffe inaugurated ratcical.org on the September Equinox, 1995 New 2nd edition of Understanding Special Operation will be released on 15 March 2026   Based on interviews with Col. L. Fletcher Prouty “The world of Official Narratives runs on cover stories (lies). The business of managing perceptions is big business. While 24/7/365 control and influence of perceptions—by multi-layered double-binds, catch 22s, and contronymal cages—hides in plain sight, it is possible to see beyond the mirrors and screens. A purpose of this book is to provoke questions and encourage curiosity.” directory now includes complete HTML and PDF copy of the 1999 First Edition and complete May 1989 and 5 Aug 1993 Recordings   Dave's influences; Mae Brussell, Tom Davis, John Judge, Marty Schotz, Vincent Salandria, Jim Douglass, and Graeme MacQueen, among others Discusses time in Santa Cruz supporting John's efforts to establish the Mae Brussel Library and Research Center Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Conspiracy Trial, Nov 15 to Dec 8, 1999   and all references in Jim Douglass' 2000 witness linked to same: “The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis”   Graeme MacQueen, 2017: “Beyond Their Wildest Dreams: Sep 11 2001 and The United States Left” Jim Douglass: 1980: “Hitler won WWII.... The purpose of the Trident Campaign...is to change ourselves ... [by] reducing Trident to what it is in truth: An inert holocaust machine which conscientious people will no more choose to operate than they would an Auschwitz oven.” 2008: “... And that's why I have some hopes that if we are willing to go deeply enough into the darkness – and Kennedy was, and Khrushchev was – anything can happen for the good. But if we don't go into the darkness it doesn't happen.” 2025 quoting Martin King: ”How did we get here? We got here because [it's] our government, as Dr. King said in his April 7, 1967 speech” Helen Caldicott, 2015: Symposium: The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction Ed Curtin: review: “Martyrs to the Unspeakable: A Luminous Tapestry of Truth” latest analysis: “The Carefully Contrived Spontaneity of the ‘Shocking' Epstein Files Release”  

The Soviet youth organisation, the Komsomol, and how it prepared the young for nuclear war with "predators from the imperialist jungle", as Khrushchev nicely put it.I quote from THE WHISPERERS: PRIVATE LIFE IN STALIN'S RUSSIA by Orlando Figes.Get ad-free access to all episodes, plus bonus episodes, here www.patreon.com/atomichoboJulie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can Khrushchev and Kennedy stop a spiral into nuclear devastation? Khrushchev realises he has lost control of the crisis, as an American plane is shot down over Cuba. With the Americans preparing for war, can the two leaders communicate quickly enough to avoid it? Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, reflect on what might have been, in this extraordinary chapter in 20th Century history.

Geoffrey Roberts discusses the library's 1988 rediscovery, its 1956 dispersal following Khrushchev's de-Stalinization, and analysis of Stalin's marginalia revealing his deep emotional engagement with texts he studied.1942

Soviet anti-aircraft fire takes down an American spy plane over Cuba, as the crisis spirals. The pilot is killed. With nuclear missiles almost ready for launch in Cuba, how can the two superpower leaders pull back from the brink of war? This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

Troops in Cuba fear an attack is imminent, as alarm grows around the world. Fidel Castro urges Khrushchev to strike first. The Soviet premier warns President Kennedy, in a long and emotional letter, that “the knot of war” has been tied - soon "even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it”. This is the personal and political story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

Send us a textToday we cover the tensions between the USSR and the US as well as the start of detente. We will also briefly cover the border conflict between the USSR and China that almost led to war between the two communist behemoths.Support the show

KHRUSHCHEV, CRIMEA, AND THE MYTH OF THE SOVIET FLORIDA Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. The discussion turns to Nikita Khrushchev, who transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 for practical logistical reasons, a decision Putin now contests. Finkel explains that during the 1960s, Ukraine became a manufacturing hub for Sovietmissiles and a "Soviet Florida" for vacations, cementing a romanticized Russian attachment to the region. For Putin'sgeneration, Ukraine is viewed not as a separate state but as an extension of Russia—a place of summer holidays and shared history. This deep-seated perception fuels the refusal to accept Ukrainian independence and the belief that the territory belongs to Moscow. NUMBER 41927 KYIV

President Kennedy sends shockwaves around the world with a televised speech to the nation. He imposes a blockade on all ships bound for Cuba - Premier Khrushchev brands it “an act of piracy”. But he knows that hidden in a tiny Cuban port, there's a Soviet ship laden with unimaginable destructive power. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Pressure is building on President Kennedy to order a military strike on the newly discovered nuclear missile site on Cuba. But JFK wonders whether it's better to keep the discovery a secret from Premier Khrushchev – for now. Meanwhile, the Washington press grows suspicious of all the late-night activity at the White House. This is the personal and political story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by NIna Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

The "Madman Theory" was Richard Nixon's foreign policy strategy during the Vietnam War era, where he deliberately cultivated an image of being unpredictable and irrational—hinting he might escalate to nuclear extremes—to intimidate adversaries like North Vietnam and the Soviet Union into concessions. Nixon instructed aides like Henry Kissinger to spread rumors that he was volatile enough to "go crazy" and use drastic measures, hoping fear of his supposed madness would deter aggression and force negotiations without actual escalation. Nixon's Madman Theory was relatively ineffective in coercing North Vietnam because Hanoi correctly gambled that the U.S. would not use nuclear force against a non-nuclear state—like North Vietnam—due to the massive domestic and international backlash, the high risk of Soviet/Chinese escalation, and the global nuclear taboo. But what if Nixon had used it against an actual nuclear power? That could have happened if history had only played out a little differently. JFK won his presidential election in 1960 against Nixon by a few thousand votes in key counties, and many suspected voter fraud. What if Nixon had won? And what if he used the Madman Doctrine against the Soviets in the Cuban Missile Crisis? In today’s episode, were’ joined by Harvy Simon, who wrote a book of alternate history called “The Madman Theory” that imagines exactly that scenario. The book focuses on how President Nixon handles the Cuban Missile Crisis. True to the "Madman" strategy, Nixon maneuvers the U.S., the Soviet Union, and the world to the brink of nuclear war, believing his reputation for unpredictability will force Nikita Khrushchev to back down. We explore the dangers of deliberately appearing irrational and unstable to an adversary—especially in the nuclear age—significantly increases the risk of miscalculation, accidental escalation, or the adversary failing to understand the bluff, thereby triggering an actual catastrophic conflict. Harvey Simon --- I’m the author of The Madman Theory, which posits that Richard Nixon won the 1960 election against Kennedy. In particular, it focuses on the Cuban missile crisis, and what would have happened differently with Nixon as president.My book is being reissued with a newly added foreword examining how Nixon’s madman theory has been taken up by President Trump.If you'd be interested in a show about what would likely have happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis if Kennedy hadn't won--some scholars doubt the outcome was legitimate--I'd be happy to talk with you about my analysis, and, more generally, how counterfactuals can improve our understanding of history.I'm a former national security analyst with Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and have also worked as a journalist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spy plane pictures reveal the Soviet missile build up to the Americans. Now they know what Khrushchev has really been up to.  How will a furious President Kennedy respond? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A covert convoy of ships carries Soviet missiles across the Atlantic, while American U-2 planes spy over Cuba and the sea routes. And as the ships arrive, Khrushchev writes to Kennedy about the divided city of Berlin. It's a distraction tactic. But the American spy planes photograph an alarming development. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Presenters Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the superpower leaders, explore their rise to power - one wealthy, smooth-talking and Harvard educated, the other a hardened Soviet war leader from a peasant family. As they prepare to meet for the first and only time as world leaders, the stakes could not be higher: they are fierce rivals in the race to build ever more devastating missiles. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nina Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Max Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, and the son of Robert F Kennedy. To hear more episodes, search for The Bomb, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The Soviets secretly plan to move an arsenal of nuclear weapons to Cuba. It is an audacious move by Nikita Khrushchev, to protect Fidel Castro's communist regime from an American invasion. Since Castro and the Soviet leader met in a New York hotel in 1960, they've had a personal bond. Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders, tell the story of how America plotted to overthrow Castro and how Khrushchev persuaded the Cuban leader to go along with his bold plan. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The world is on the brink of nuclear war. How can the Soviet Union and the USA prevent it? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders President John F Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Together Nina and Max explore what drove JFK and Khrushchev during the darkest days of October 1962. And when the crisis moves beyond their control, as a U-2 spy plane is shot down over Cuba, how do they avoid global catastrophe?  To hear more, search for The Bomb, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The Berlin Wall rises, splitting the city from east to west. Then a stand-off between American and Soviet tanks at the crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie, brings the two superpowers to the brink of military confrontation. And fearing that they are falling far behind in the missile race, the Soviets prepare to test the biggest bomb ever exploded. As relations between the two sides deteriorate, we explore the importance of diplomatic back channels with hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the superpower leaders. We meet Max's father, Senator Robert F Kennedy, and his Soviet contact, Georgy Bolshakov. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nina Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Max Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, and the son of Robert F Kennedy.

As the USA and Soviet Union race for supremacy in the 1960s, Premier Khrushchev sizes up his rival, President John F Kennedy. Hosts Max Kennedy and Nina Khrushcheva, relatives of the superpower leaders, explore their rise to power - one wealthy, smooth-talking and Harvard educated, the other a hardened Soviet war leader from a peasant family. As they prepare to meet for the first and only time as world leaders, the stakes couldn't be higher: they are fierce rivals in the race to build ever more devastating missiles. This is the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.Nina Khrushcheva is the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev and Max Kennedy is the nephew of President John F Kennedy, and the son of Robert F Kennedy.

HEADLINE: Mao Zedong, Xenophobia, and the Failure of the Great Leap Forward GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Mao Zedong blended Marxism with fierce anti-imperialism and xenophobia, targeting the "global imperialistic system" and foreign influence. The Great Leap Forward combined elements from The Communist Manifesto, Stalin's collectivization, and competition with Khrushchev. This disastrous experiment, aiming to surpass Britain, led to chaos, famine, and the deaths of 40 to 45 million people.

HEADLINE: Khrushchev, Hard Power, and Gorbachev's Doomed Reform GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Despite Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's crimes (1956), the Soviets pursued hard power politics, motivated by proving their system's superiority. The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a destructive strategic error. Mikhail Gorbachev sincerely sought to reinvigorate communism by reducing corruption and improving planning but failed, ultimately misunderstanding that the regime relied on corruption and sheer force to operate.

  HEADLINE: Khrushchev, Hard Power, and Gorbachev's Doomed Reform GUEST AUTHOR: Professor Sean McMeekin 50-WORD SUMMARY: Despite Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's crimes (1956), the Soviets pursued hard power politics, motivated by proving their system's superiority. The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a destructive strategic error. Mikhail Gorbachev sincerely sought to reinvigorate communism by reducing corruption and improving planning but failed, ultimately misunderstanding that the regime relied on corruption and sheer force to operate.

The conversation moves back to the USSR with Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech, which led to disruption in Eastern Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) is analyzed as an act of traditional great power politics driven by the desire to prove Soviet superiority and overturn the strategic balance in intercontinental ballistic missiles. The 1979 invasion of Afghanistan is highlighted as a remarkable mistake that undermined détente and gave the United States an opportunity to pressure the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to reform and reinvigorate Soviet communism based on a close reading of Marx and Lenin, but failed because he did not understand that the system was not popular and rested entirely on force.

Khrushchev, Crimea, and Putin's Perception of Ukraine as "Soviet Florida". Professor Eugene Finkel discusses Khrushchev's 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine, undertaken for purely economic and practical reasons, though it remains a point of contention today. During the Soviet "golden period," Ukraine became vital, providing coal, industrial manufacturing, and ballistic missiles. Vladimir Putin's image of Ukraine was formed during this time, seeing it as an unquestioned extension of Russia. Due to forced Russification and its popularity as the "Soviet Florida," Putin saw Ukraine as part of Russia, a perception that was not up for debate. Guest: Professor Eugene Finkel. 1855 CRIMEA