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Original Air Date: 1/31/2023 Today, we take a look at just some of the nearly infinite ways in which our society, culture and economy are infused from top to bottom with Scam Culture™ that is bleeding us dry both financially and mentally. Be part of the show! Leave a voice message, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube! BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: The Grift Economy: Everything is a scam, always. - Thought Slime - Air Date 11-5-21 For those that need to read this: you aren't a capitalist. You're capital. Ch. 2: Power and Corruption: The Devos Family - iilluminaughtii - Air Date 1-20-23 Betsy DeVos and her family have been important figures in the business world for decades. They're involved in a massive MLM, invest in shady businesses, and have put their money toward politics for as long as anyone can remember. Ch. 3: Bill Black: The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One - theAnalysis.news - Air Date 5-31-21 How does a corrupt mortgage scam by brokers in California become a massive national fraud that puts the whole economy into a deep crisis? Bill Black on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay. Ch. 4: Why FTX's Crypto Scam Is A Tale As Old As Time - The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast - Air Date 12-7-22 "Whatever fun name you wanna put on it, it's the same damn thing we've seen over and over again." David Dayen, Executive Editor of The American Prospect, joins us to talk through the spectacular rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX Ch. 5: The Gig Economy Was Always A Scam - Wisecrack - Air Date 8-8-22 The gig economy has revolutionized how we think about work, but not necessarily for the better. How have a bunch of multi-billion-dollar companies like Uber or Instacart so fundamentally changed our economy? Ch. 6: Why Spotify Will Ultimately Fail - Benn Jordan - Air Date 1-9-23 An investor's guide to breaking the thing you're trying to sell. Ch. 7: James O'Brien caller wrote his dissertation on 'incel' culture - LBC - Air Date 1-27-23 Explaining the appeal of Andrew Tate and his accolites to young, insecure men Ch. 8: TikToker Exposes New A.I. Scam That Is Absolutely TERRIFYING - Rebel HQ - Air Date 1-13-23 TikToker @benno56 shares his family's experience with a terrifying new A.I. voice-mimicking scam. Max Burns breaks it down. Ch. 9: Mark Rober's Prank And The Truth About Scammers And Capitalism - Second Thought - Air Date 6-17-22 Scam call centers are just one cancerous offshoot of bureaucracy under capitalism, and while pranking these places may be cathartic, it's not enough to tackle the root cause. Ch. 10: Is all money just a ponzi scheme? | Vicki Robin - Big Think - Air Date 7-22-18 "Money, it's a gas," wrote Pink Floyd's Roger Waters for their hit 'Money'. Author, speaker, and social innovator Vicki Robin would probably agree: she posits that most people don't understand the true, human, working value of money.   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  

Paul Jay joins Maria Hall, Jim Lafferty, and Michael Smith on the Law and Disorder radio show. They discuss his upcoming documentary How to Stop a Nuclear War, based on extensive interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and narrated by Emma Thompson. Jay reveals how post-World War II economic decisions drove nuclear weapons expansion, explaining why the Soviet threat was largely manufactured according to declassified CIA documents. He breaks down why Trump's proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system actually increases nuclear war risk, discusses the dangers of AI in nuclear command and control, and outlines seven concrete steps citizens can demand to reduce the threat of nuclear catastrophe, including ending presidential sole authority to launch nuclear weapons and negotiating new arms control treaties. Learn more at stop-nuclear-war.org or visit theAnalysis.news for ongoing investigative journalism.

Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, joins Paul Jay and condemns the Israeli attack on Iran as an unprovoked violation of international law—and a dangerous step toward full-scale regional war. Wilkerson argues that the U.S. is complicit, acting through Israel as a proxy.  Wilkerson analyzes the use of the military in L.A. and doesn't mince words: the Empire is collapsing into autocracy and militarism, and the consequences could be catastrophic. TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Paul JayHi, welcome to theAnalysis.news. I'm Paul Jay. In just a few seconds, we'll be back with Colonel Larry Wilkerson to discuss the Israeli attack on Iran.Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu, who says this is not an attack on the Iranian people. It's an attack on the Iranian regime. But in fact, it's exactly that, an attack on the Iranian people. The sovereignty of a country is not the sovereignty of a government. It's the sovereignty of the people, and it's the sovereignty of Iran that has been illegally attacked by every piece of the UN charter and international law, an unprovoked attack on the people's sovereignty.Now, I've been very critical over the years of the Iranian government. I'm not going to call it a regime. I don't know why it's more of a regime than most of the other governments or states that call themselves governments. My guest and I, Larry Wilkerson, who will be here in just a few seconds, we've both been very critical of the Iranian government and its repression of people and opposition movements in Iran. That has nothing to do with what's going on here. This is an out-and-out, unprovoked attack on Iran. We're going to talk about the reasons for that, but let me just add one other small thing, which we'll talk about. It's maybe not that small.Critiquing this Israeli attack is not anti-Semitism. In fact, this is just like the Cold War. When people condemned the Vietnam War, they were called communists. They're being soft on communists. Well, now, if you critique the crimes of the Israeli government, and now this unprovoked war, and of course, the genocide in Gaza, the bombings in Lebanon, now you're an anti-Semite. It's being thrown around just the way it was, the anti-communist rhetoric of the Cold War.Now, joining us to talk about this current conflict is Larry Wilkerson. Thanks for joining us, Larry.Col. Lawrence WilkersonGood to be with you, Paul. Long time.Paul JayFor people who don't know, Larry was the Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, both at the Joint Chiefs and at the State Department. So, let me start by asking you, Larry, what do you make of the way the media is covering this? I was a little surprised over the last year that there were at least some reports on how Gaza was being devastated. You saw quite a few pictures of the killing of children, and there was a glimmer of legitimate reporting for a while. Now, this is so one-sided. I watch CNN, and guest after guest is essentially from the Israeli government or the Israeli ambassador, and the fact that this is a complete violation of international law is not even mentioned.Col. Lawrence WilkersonWell, this is truly a disgusting display of the Empire's degradation and profound slippage from world leadership. There's no question about that. Not only have we violated international law, consistently, we have ignored even those or punished even those who didn't want to ignore it or were trying to do something about it, like South Africa and their application to the court with regard to the genocide in Gaza. I think it's appalling that we did a Yamamoto. We did a Pearl Harbor. We did a Saddam Hussein on Kuwait attack on Iran. We, not Israel, the United States of America, using Israel as its foremost in the frontline proxy, if you will, just like we're doing with Ukraine. We said, diplomacy was going to continue. We achieved tactical surprise, an enormous advantage for an Air Force attacking,

On this episode of theAnalysis.news, Frank Hammer speaks with labor scholar and activist Eric Blanc about the growing role of organized workers—especially federal unions—in confronting the Trump-Musk authoritarian agenda. They discuss the resurgence of May Day protests, the push for a general strike in 2028, and the urgent need for mass resistance now, not later. Blanc outlines how Trump's attacks on federal unions are a warning shot for the entire labor movement, drawing historical parallels to Reagan's PATCO firings. He also calls on union leaders, including the AFL-CIO, to move beyond court battles and into coordinated, disruptive action.

In part 2 of Paul Jay's discussion with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, they examine Trump's push for a new missile defense system—a step toward the weaponization of space that heightens the risk of nuclear war. They also analyze the roots of the war in Ukraine, the failure of U.S. foreign policy, and what's needed now to prevent further escalation. TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Paul JayHi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. This is part two of my interview with Larry Wilkerson about whether Trump is building, should I say, is the American political-economic system giving birth to a new made-in-America Mussolini-styled state. We're going to talk in this episode more about Trump's Iron Dome, nuclear weapons, and foreign policy, particularly Ukraine. Please join us.All right, let's focus on some of the foreign policy and military stuff because they're connected, obviously. I just want to start a little bit on the supposed cuts to the Pentagon. I think they're being very smart about various things, one of which they're talking about how Musk is going to go in and cut the Pentagon budget. I think it's pretty clear, and there's been even some straightforward admissions by some of the officials, that this isn't really about cuts. It's about moving the money around. It looks like there's a conflict developing between the old legacy's Lockheed and Northrop Grumman's, and the new Silicon Valley, SpaceX and Musk, Palantir of Peter Thiel, although they both invest in each other's stuff and which all want this new high tech AI weaponry. This weaponization of space. And they want to take money away from the old guys and give it to the new guys. Now, there is an easy answer if you're Trump. Give money to both.Col Lawrence WilkersonYeah.Paul JayMaybe that will be his answer because they don't really give a damn about the deficit anyway. I don't know. What's your thinking?Col Lawrence WilkersonThat's true. Well, I've seen the lines, and there's been much controversy over the lines amongst people like the Pentagon Budget Campaign, POGO, and others. There was euphoria in the beginning because it was just announced as cuts, but then very quickly, when the budgeteers got into it from all these groups, they saw, no, they're not cuts. It's just transferring money. It's going from this account to that account. This account over here is high-tech, and Elon Musk or somebody like that has a lot of stake in it. This account over here is old, and that's what he's doing. No cuts at all. There are zero cuts so far in terms of the top line. In fact, there's going to be a $100 billion-plus increase in the top line forced by Wicker and others in Congress.So we're going to be close to a trillion dollars. It's going to be clear it's over $900 billion, but it's going to be close to a trillion. And you're right. What you might call the vested contractors do not like the fact that, in many cases, the money is going away from accounts over which they have the profit-making capacity to accounts where other Silicon Valley, smaller startups, or whatever have the capacity because Hegseth thinks, and he may be right in this, these people are agile. They move fast, they move quickly, and if they make a mistake, they fix it. They don't charge you necessarily for fixing it, which has become a practice of the big guys. He's got some people in the Pentagon who are not necessarily displeased with this shifting of funds, but it's clear, and people need to understand this: there's no cutting going on. In fact, as I said, with Congress beefing it up by 100 plus, it's going to be an even bigger top line than last year.Paul JayOkay, so what do you say to people, whether they're Trump supporters or not? Because I think a lot of people don't understand the issue. Okay, you're going to weaponize space, but what you're really doing, according to President Trump, is creating, finally, after so many failures, an effective anti-ballistic missile system.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson and Paul Jay analyze Trump's 2024 victory, attributing Harris's failure in part to a campaign that avoided progressive policies that would lower the cost of living - to please billionaire donors. Wilkerson warns of a climate catastrophe and a draconian Trump administration that leads to the collapse of American society. Jay argues Harris's defeat creates an opening for a broad democratic, independent movement that takes control of the Democratic Party at state and local levels. Both emphasize organizing in major cities in Democratic-controlled states, focusing on mobilizing the working poor, urban and rural, who usually don't vote - a potentially game-changing constituency the Democratic establishment has ignored. TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Paul Jay Hi, welcome to theAnalysis.news. I'm Paul Jay. As you'll notice, I'm in my brand new artificial intelligence studio. In the last interview I did with Larry Wilkerson, I got so many complaints about how everything looked. Justly so. I did something about it, so I hope this is at least an improvement. Joining me in just a few seconds will be Larry Wilkerson. We're going to talk about the election results. Don't forget, there's a donation button you can click. If you'rae on YouTube, please subscribe. Although most of our subscribers are constantly complaining that YouTube never notifies them of a new video and continues to try to suppress what we do. The best way to watch us is on the website at theAnalysis.news. If YouTube takes down any of our videos, which they have done in the past, we have other ways to feed the website. You'll always get to see us there. We'll be back in a few seconds with Larry Wilkerson. Now, joining us to talk about the election results in the United States, which is the beginning of a new era of a return- was that back to the future? Now, joining us is Larry, who doesn't need any introduction to our normal viewers and to most people who follow the news. Thanks for joining us, Larry. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Good to be with you, Paul. By the way, did you get my cheque? Paul Jay No. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson I mailed it about 10 days ago, so it should be getting there. Paul Jay Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, that's terrific. If people want to donate, that'd be great. All right, so let's talk about what happened. I'm blown away at what an awful campaign the leadership of the Democratic Party conducted. It wasn't something I said once I saw the results. I was saying it all through the campaign. Kamala Harris simply would not answer in any straightforward way almost any real question, but particularly the most important economic question. She would not answer why inflation is coming down, but the cost of living is not on the whole, especially food, rent, and other basic necessities. She never answered why that's happening, and she never said what she would do about it. There's some talk about price gouging, but she actually never said how she would stop that and more or less stopped talking about that as the campaign came to its conclusion. The most important things that need to be talked about, i.e., the existential threats facing America and the world, the climate crisis, almost not a word, and the issue of the threat of nuclear war. In fact, the only person to mention it at all, really, was Trump, and only when he's talking about his crazy Iron Dome proposal to create a new anti-ballistic missile system, which we'll talk about as we get into the interview. In the course of this, let's talk about these three things I'd like to talk about. But first, just your basic reaction, and then we can get into these three areas. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson Frankly, I was stunned by the results, and not because I wasn't watching the polls. I was, but I don't trust the polls anymore. They're too much aligned with interests that back them.

The First Amendment guarantees religious freedom and the separation of Church and State, basic tenets of American democracy which conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation is intent on undermining. Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, describes how the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 would upend military protocols to eliminate civilian oversight. He believes a dystopian future in which the rights of racialized and marginalized groups are denied would be in store under a second Trump presidency.  TranscriptListenDonateSubscribeGuestMusic Talia BaroncelliHi, I'm Talia Baroncelli, and you're watching theAnalysis.news. I'll shortly be joined by Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. We'll be speaking about Project 2025 and the implications it has for the U.S. military. If you'd like to support the work that we do, you can go to our website, theAnalysis.news, and hit the donate button at the top right corner of the screen. Make sure you're on our mailing list; that way, you're always up to date every time a new episode is published. You can like and subscribe to the show on YouTube or on other podcast streaming services such as Apple or Spotify. See you in a bit with Mikey. Project 2025 is a lengthy policy agenda authored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative and Christian nationalist think tank. Investigative outlet ProPublica recently obtained Project 2025 private training videos, which involve several former Trump officials. This corroborates the connection between former President Trump and the Heritage Foundation. One of the videos features Bethany Kozma, a former Deputy Chief of Staff at USAID during the Trump administration. In this video, she discusses Project 2025's opposition to legislation trying to mitigate the effects of climate change. She reads from page 364 of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership, which states that "In the name of combating climate change, policies have been used to create an artificial energy scarcity that will require trillions of dollars in new investment, supported with taxpayer subsidies, to address a problem that government and special interests themselves created." They don't perceive climate change or carbon-intensive industries as posing a threat to society or to the environment but as a set of policies meant to create energy scarcity and benefit a certain segment of the elite. Joining me to discuss these issues is Mikey Weinstein. He is the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the constitutional right of religious freedom for the U.S. Armed Forces. He is also a lawyer and a former Air Force officer and served as White House Legal Counsel to the Reagan Administration. He also served as first general counsel to Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire who ran for president twice. He's the author of several books, including Was God on Our Side and No Snowflake in an Avalanche. It's great to have you again, Mikey. Mikey WeinsteinThanks, Talia. I'm looking forward to it as well. Talia BaroncelliBefore we get into Project 2025, can you explain to our viewers what you do at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation? Mikey WeinsteinAbsolutely. We are a weapon, and we've been fighting Christian nationalism and calling it out before anybody else did, that I'm aware of, going back to the early 2000s. Our job is to protect the U.S. Constitutionally mandated wall, separating Church and State in the technologically most lethal organization ever created by humankind, which is the U.S. military: the Marine Corps, Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force.We have clients in all 18 national security agencies. Some are well-known, like the FBI, the CIA, the DIA, etc. We have clients in the U.S. Coast Guard, which is not the DOD; that's the Department of Homeland Security, and even the U.S. Maritime Service,

Reagan understood the American psyche from within it. He used his acting skills to sell right-wing “dog whistles” and militarism. Matt Tyrnauer, director of “The Reagans”, on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay. This interview was originally published on January 29, 2021.

The documentary series "The Reagans" shows that President Ronald Reagan's roots are corruption, racism, and corporatism. Trumpism is not an anomaly but walks in the footsteps of a right-wing construct to achieve tax cuts for the rich and undoing the New Deal. Director Matt Tynrauer joins theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay. This interview was originally published on January 27, 2021.

UAW president Shawn Fain called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza yet endorsed Biden, who has been accused of complicity in the Israeli genocide. Frank Hammer, a former president and chairman of the United Auto Workers local 909 in Detroit, joins theAnalysis to discuss the role of the UAW and the working class in balancing opposing Biden's policies and a possible Trump victory.

Paul Jay and Talia Baroncelli discuss the recent arrest of Russian anti-war sociologist and Marxist Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky. Boris was interviewed several times on theAnalysis.news. Talia and Paul dig into what a long-term stalemate and threats of nuclear war might mean for Ukraine, Russia, and the world—part 1 of 2.

Air Date 1/31/2023 Today, we take a look at just some of the nearly infinite ways in which our society, culture, and economy are infused from top to bottom with Scam Culture™ that is bleeding us dry both financially and mentally. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Get AD FREE Shows and Bonus Content) Join our Discord community! OUR AFFILIATE LINKS: ExpressVPN.com/BestOfTheLeft GET INTERNET PRIVACY WITH EXPRESS VPN! BestOfTheLeft.com/Libro SUPPORT INDIE BOOKSHOPS, GET YOUR AUDIOBOOK FROM LIBRO! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: The Grift Economy: Everything is a scam, always. - Thought Slime - Air Date 11-5-21 For those that need to read this: you aren't a capitalist. You're capital. Ch. 2: Power and Corruption: The Devos Family - iilluminaughtii - Air Date 1-20-23 Betsy DeVos and her family have been important figures in the business world for decades. They're involved in a massive MLM, invest in shady businesses, and have put their money toward politics for as long as anyone can remember. Ch. 3: Bill Black: The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One - theAnalysis.news - Air Date 5-31-21 How does a corrupt mortgage scam by brokers in California become a massive national fraud that puts the whole economy into a deep crisis? Bill Black on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay. Ch. 4: Why FTX's Crypto Scam Is A Tale As Old As Time - The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast - Air Date 12-7-22 “Whatever fun name you wanna put on it, it's the same damn thing we've seen over and over again.” David Dayen, Executive Editor of The American Prospect, joins us to talk through the spectacular rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX Ch. 5: The Gig Economy Was Always A Scam - Wisecrack - Air Date 8-8-22 The gig economy has revolutionized how we think about work, but not necessarily for the better. How have a bunch of multi-billion-dollar companies like Uber or Instacart so fundamentally changed our economy? Ch. 6: Why Spotify Will Ultimately Fail - Benn Jordan - Air Date 1-9-23 An investor's guide to breaking the thing you're trying to sell. Ch. 7: James O'Brien caller wrote his dissertation on 'incel' culture - LBC - Air Date 1-27-23 Explaining the appeal of Andrew Tate and his acolytes to young, insecure men Ch. 8: TikToker Exposes New A.I. Scam That Is Absolutely TERRIFYING - Rebel HQ - Air Date 1-13-23 TikToker @benno56 shares his family's experience with a terrifying new A.I. voice-mimicking scam. Max Burns breaks it down. MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S) Ch. 9: Mark Rober's Prank And The Truth About Scammers And Capitalism - Second Thought - Air Date 6-17-22 Scam call centers are just one cancerous offshoot of bureaucracy under capitalism, and while pranking these places may be cathartic, it's not enough to tackle the root cause. Ch. 10: Is all money just a ponzi scheme? | Vicki Robin - Big Think - Air Date 7-22-18 "Money, it's a gas," wrote Pink Floyd's Roger Waters for their hit 'Money'. Author, speaker, and social innovator Vicki Robin would probably agree: she posits that most people don't understand the true, human, working value of money. VOICEMAILS Ch. 11: Response to the Stolen Children episode FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 12: Final comments on radical criticism of the true sources of Scam Culture and other ails of our society MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world) Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

The inflation conference at Political Economy Research Institute at UMass Amherst (PERI) presented mounting evidence that raising the rate of interest will only raise unemployment and weaken the bargaining power of low-wage workers and the poor that are already hit hard by the pandemic across the world. Robert Pollin joins Sharmini Peries on theAnalysis.news.

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I'm Paul Jay. In his book American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and American Identity, Christian Appy writes: the need to demonstrate presidential balls has been an under-acknowledged but enduring staple of American foreign policy. Aggressive masculinity shaped American Cold War policy and still does. Deep-seated ideas about gender and sexuality cannot be dismissed as mere talk–they have explanatory value. U.S. policy in Vietnam was driven by men who were intensely concerned about demonstrating their own and the nation's toughness. As every other justification of the war grew threadbare, it became increasingly important to appear firm. Now joining us in the studio is Christian Appy. Thanks for joining us again.  CHRISTIAN G. APPY, AUTHOR, AMERICAN RECKONING: You're welcome.  JAY: So one more time, his latest book is American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity. And Christian teaches history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. So this has always seemed to me, this need to develop, portray firmness and strength and so on, you know, it's akin to, like, a loan shark, and it's actually a lot akin to a loan shark, given how much of American commerce is based on lending people money–and I shouldn't say people; lending countries money, and assuming they're going to pay back. And for most loan sharks, you've got to break some knees once in a while to make sure people pay you the exorbitant interest you're trying to collect. Talk about this need to projected toughness, and start with Kennedy in Vietnam.  APPY: Well, Kennedy early on in his presidency suffered a couple of real blows to his reputation, most obviously when he supported the–orchestrated the invasion of Cuba in an effort to overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs. And it was a debacle, and it failed. Every one of the Cuban exiles that was trained to carry out the operation was either killed or captured. And Kennedy was forced to actually pay ransom to get the prisoners back. So what was to be a secret operation was quickly exposed, and it was felt that he felt it as deeply humiliating. And then later that same year he met for the first time with Khrushchev, and Khrushchev effectively kind of bullied him, and once again Kennedy felt that he had not demonstrated his presidential gravitas and was already beginning to look at foreign-policy interventions.  JAY: Can I just add one thing?  APPY: Sure. Yeah.  JAY: And internally taking tremendous flack from some sections of the military and certainly the whole conservative /pʌndərˈæpɨs/–can't say it, but you know what I mean–about being weak.  APPY: Yes.  JAY: I mean, why didn't he go in with a full-fledged invasion of Cuba?  APPY: Right. That, and he was already beginning to sort of move toward a neutralist solution to the communist insurgency in Laos, so he was beginning to think that maybe Vietnam would be the place to assert American credibility and power. But before that really began to develop, we had the Cuban missile crisis, and this for him was a great boost to his reputation and to his reputation for strength and steely resolve.  JAY: Again, really quickly–some of our viewers don't know that what that is.  APPY: Yeah. Well, the United States discovered, through U-2 reconnaissance photographs, that the Soviet Union–  JAY: That was the spy plane. APPY: –the spy plane–that the Soviet Union was beginning to install medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba–in response, actually, to the U.S.-backed invasion. They were put there as a kind of deterrent, really defensive, though of course all nuclear weapons are almost by definition dangerous.  JAY: And also there were nuclear–United States had weapons in Turkey which were awfully close to Russia.  APPY: We had–exactly. And indeed you speak to the exact resolution of the missile crisis. Kennedy made clear on television that it would not be tolerated. Interestingly enough, he couldn't tolerate it because he had made a speech a couple of months earlier saying that if offensive weapons were put on Cuba by the Soviet Union, he would not allow that. And once it happened, he asked some advisers, does this really change the balance of power in the world? And Kennedy said–McNamara said, no–this is Secretary of Defense McNamara. And Kennedy agreed. He said, I wish I had never said that. I wish I had never drawn that line.  JAY: Yeah, 'cause what could they do with them?  APPY: Yeah. So he had–but now he felt he had to do something. And what he did, thankfully, was to be a little patient and to say no to those of his advisers that immediately wanted to launch airstrikes and take a more aggressive response. They negotiated a settlement. So it really was diplomacy, not bluster or militarism, that solved the crisis. They were willing to say to the Soviets, okay, we will publicly promise never to invade Cuba, and privately we'll agree to remove our missiles from Turkey that are threatening very close to your borders. But the narrative that they wanted to go out to the public was a tougher narrative, that we stared them eyeball to eyeball and the other fellow blinked–that was attributed to–.  JAY: Yeah, 'cause America set up all these military ships, Navy ships as a blockade around Cuba.  APPY: Yes, the sort of the–yes, the quarantine. And Kennedy even went so far as to suggest that Adlai Stevenson, who was representing us at the United Nations, had wanted to sell us out, had wanted to, quote-unquote, Munich, because he had advised that we remove our missiles from Turkey to solve the crisis. And that's exactly what did solve the crisis. But Kennedy didn't want anybody to know that, so he actually threw Stephenson under the bus as a weakling. Anyway, privately he told people that–Kennedy bragged in private to friends that he had cut off Khrushchev's balls. So that really is deeply embedded in the American foreign policy of the period. And it becomes more important, as I write, as the other justifications for the war are no longer believed even by the policymakers. By 1965 or 1966, I believe, Johnson was not convinced that the war in Vietnam posed any threat to national security.  JAY: I want to get to Johnson, but I just want to stay on Kennedy for a minute.  APPY: Okay. Sure.  JAY: You know, there's a lot of debate about the Kennedy assassination. That's whether or not he was really going to pursue Vietnam or not. What's your take?  APPY: Well, I waffle on this issue. As I tell students, it's hard enough as a historian to figure out what actually happens, and nearly impossible to figure out what might've happened if x or y or z had been different. So really these are interesting speculations, but really impossible to nail down. The truth is there's documentary evidence that would support both positions. I mean, those who would like to believe that Kennedy would have pulled us out of Vietnam can cite documents where they're talking about withdrawing 1,000 troops at a time and slowly drawing down our presence. But Kennedy was pretty clear in a lot of that planning that those withdrawals had to be contingent on success. And there was some hope at the time that maybe success was coming, but it needs to be remembered that Kennedy, although he never put more than 16,000 troops into Vietnam, which seems quite a small number when you compare it to the 540,000 that finally ended up there under Johnson, those 16,000 troops had already put into place many brutal practices that would only get expanded. We were–by 1962 we were already using chemical defoliants on South Vietnam. We were using napalm. We were engaged in aerial bombing of South Vietnam, the very land we claimed to be defending. And we were already beginning the forced relocation of people from the rural countryside into what were then called strategic hamlets.  JAY: Concentration camps.  APPY: Effectively concentration camps. So all of that had begun. And even on the last day of his life, he gave a speech that morning–or maybe it was the night before; I think it was that morning–in which he reaffirmed the necessity of America's standing against communist aggression in South Vietnam. That was to a Texas audience, but he did tick off all the ways in which we had built up the military and were–.  JAY: I interviewed Gore Vidal a few times and got to know him fairly well, and he knew Jack Kennedy, President Kennedy, fairly well. I think he was a stepbrother to Jackie Kennedy. And he was quite convinced that Jack–and this goes back to you've got to have balls theme–he was quite convinced that Jack wanted to pursue the war in Vietnam, and to a large extent to prove he could be a wartime president, and maybe that he had the balls to go to war in Vietnam. But as you say, this becomes a much even bigger issue for Johnson. In fact, I'm going to read a quote from your book.  APPY: Sure.  JAY: By 1966, Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton concluded that avoiding humiliation had moved from 70 percent of America's goal in Vietnam to 100 percent. Quote, the reasons why we went into Vietnam to the present depth are varied, but they are now largely academic. Why we have not withdrawn is by all odds one reason: to preserve our reputation. We have not hung on to save a friend or to deny the communists the added acres and heads. Christian writes, to preserve an image of strength, LBJ systematically escalated the war. Perhaps the most shocking moment in Robert Dallek's biography of Johnson comes when a group of reporters, pressed by LBJ to explain why he continued to wage war in spite of so many difficulties and so much opposition, the president, quote, unzipped his fly, drew out his substantial organ, and declared, quote, this is why. Other key policymakers may not have displayed their genitals, but all the men who sent America to Vietnam felt a deep connection between their own masculinity and national power. Expand a bit.  APPY: Well, it's true. I mean, the group of policymakers did not share Johnson's crudity, at least, or his poorer background from the hill countries of Texas–they came from, really, a different class background, many of them very privileged private schools, Ivy League colleges, elite military service, all-men's Metropolitan Club, secret societies. That whole world inbred a kind of code of masculinity that made personal toughness inseparable from the toughness of the state. And so they really did own that idea that it was their mission, kind of a Spartan mission, to uphold American strength, and that anybody who questioned that could not really be part of that team.  JAY: It goes back a little bit, I think, to what I was talking about as the loan sharks having to prove–someone has to be the test case, the model of getting their knees broken so everyone else will pay. I mean, it's in prison too. You know, you're not shown–if you show weakness, then someone will take advantage of you. This mentality that if America shows any weakness, then other powers are going to take advantage of that weakness, it seems to be almost at the core of U.S. policy, because it keeps ending in debacle.  APPY: Yes. And it needn't be that way. I mean, at this precise time that they're digging their heels in, grounds of toughness, a whole new countercultural and antiwar movement is developing that is challenging this idea of masculinity and rejecting sort of the John Wayne image that they had grown up with, and coming to the conclusion that maybe it's really braver and tougher to express a kind of moral courage that can say, no, this is wrong, and we really need to withdraw. And there were occasionally some people close to power who were starting to say that, and they would immediately get sort of shut out. I mean, they were saying, for example, that, you know, yes, it might be–as George Kennan, one of the great architects of the policy of containment, said when he was called before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to testify–William Fulbright was the chair at the time, and it was widely televised. So George Kennan was asked, what do you think would happen if we withdrew from Vietnam? This is 1966 again. He said, well, honestly, I think it would be a six-month sensation, but it would blow away, it wouldn't really have any fundamental effect on our national security, and it actually, in terms of our international reputation, might improve it. So one of the ironies of this period for me is that Johnson, who was always credited as being the master politician who could read the tea leaves and count every vote, completely miscalculated the direction of the American public, because had he withdrawn early in his presidency, before the massive escalation, I think he might well have been reelected. I think he could have made the case that this really was not in our interest and not so much a sign of weakness but of really pragmatic realism. And another irony: all these guys prided themselves on being hard-headed realists who could see the world with steely eyes and unaffected by sentimentality or namby-pamby moralism, and yet in the face of the evidence that they were receiving on a daily basis, that the war was going poorly, that they had privately very little optimism that they could achieve their objectives–certainly not in any time soon, maybe five, ten, 15 years down the road–those same pragmatists were willing to continue a war they knew they weren't winning, because they didn't want to be seen as weak, didn't want to be the first president to lose a war.  JAY: But then doesn't Johnson at the end–near the end of his presidency he does come to the conclusion to try to end it and negotiate in secret a ceasefire that might lead to a final settlement that gets torpedoed by Nixon.  APPY: Yeah, he does make some small steps it that direction, though the ceasefire over the bombing in the North, first, it's only above the 20th parallel, and then just days before he leaves office it's all the way down to the 17th parallel, but he never stops the bombing of the South. And one thing that Americans to this day don't quite realize is that our bombing of South Vietnam was far more intense and unconstrained than the bombing of the North. We dropped 4 million tons of bombs on the South, 1 million tons of bombs on the north. That's a lot. But South Vietnam became by far the most bombed country in world history. We were using B-52 bombers that could hold, each one of these planes, 30 tons of bombs. They, of course, had been designed to drop nuclear weapons, but were retooled to be used in Vietnam. But, again, on the South, within 25 miles of Saigon.  JAY: But doesn't Johnson–Johnson does negotiate a ceasefire, right, I mean, a full-scale ceasefire that never takes place 'cause Nixon talks the North Vietnamese into withdrawing.  APPY: Well, no, he continues the war. What I think maybe you're alluding to is he does initiate peace discussions, the sort of those Paris peace talks, which do slowly begin in the last year of his presidency, though the South Vietnamese president, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, wanted nothing to do with them.  JAY: But this idea of having balls and showing American power, in spite of the war starting to unravel–but there's also economic interest here. I mean, there's a lot of people making a lot of money out of the war.  APPY: It's true. Certainly defense contractors are making bushels of money. But one of the interesting things is that over time, by the late '60s, high-level executives are beginning to believe that the war is actually hurting the economy, because it's–.  JAY: Or hurting them.  APPY: Yeah. Well, they see [crosstalk]  JAY: Their section of the economy.  APPY: Yeah. And defense industry aside, there's a moment in which the CEO of the Bank of America, no less, goes before Congress and makes the case that the war is bad for business, that corporate profits have actually peaked in '65 just as the massive escalation began and had declined steadily since then and that inflation was ticking up. And so he really is calling for an end to the war.  JAY: Yeah, it was an interesting part of your book. You talk about how–'cause unemployment gets so low,–  APPY: Right.  JAY: –inflation starts to go up, corporate profits start to go down.  APPY: Right.  JAY: So you have a real division, I guess, within the American elites about those who are still making money out of the war and those who aren't making as much money as they want to be.  APPY: Right, or people who are ideologically committed to the war, even if it doesn't necessarily support business. So it is an interesting period. But it does suggest how broad-based opposition to the war was by 1970 and '71.  JAY: And for some of our younger viewers or people that forget, let's just remind people this isn't just when someone wants to continue a war because they want to pull their organ out of their pants, they want to prove how tough they are, prove how tough America is, was. Just remind us again how many people suffered and were killed in the war.  APPY: Well, now the best estimate for the number of Vietnamese–the Vietnamese say that 3.8 million were killed during the American phase of the war. And former secretary of defense McNamara, before he died, said he has every reason to believe that they were correct. American historians tend to say that it was at least 2 million. Sort of that's the conservative estimate. So we don't actually know the proper figure. But when you include the fact that we were also bombing Laos very heavily and Cambodia, you can add roughly another at least a million and a half to that total. So this is a real bloodbath. And for the United States, certainly more troops were lost than at any time after World War II–more than 58,000. And, of course, hundreds of thousands wounded, and many more who suffered psychological casualties from that experience. One further cost of the war that is not always noted is that after the war ended in 1975, many Vietnamese and Cambodians and Laotians have died from unexploded ordnance. Roughly 2 percent of every American bomb that was dropped, or even artillery shell, doesn't explode. So ten, 20, even 30 years later, a farmer can be plowing his field and hit one of those things and it can go off. Or a child can pick up–they had these really small baseball-size bombs that were called cluster bombs that–they would come inside a large conventional bomb, and then, when they exploded, they would send out these smaller bombs, and inside each one of these small bombs were hundreds of little steel pellets or dart-like–they were called flechettes that would go in every possible direction, designed as the classic antipersonnel weapon that would kill people but not structures and that would burrow into your body and not necessarily kill you but require other people to take care of you or lead to a slow and horrible death. And as I say, a kid could pick up one of these little baseball bombs and it could go off again. So the estimate now is that some 40,000, anyway, Vietnamese have died from that cause since the war, which is extraordinary, and many more wounded.  JAY: And when you look at American media and this narrative of American exceptionalism, the real victim of the Vietnam War was America.  APPY: Right.  JAY: And we're going to get into the America-as-victim narrative in the next segment of our interview with the Christian Appy on Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network. Select one or choose any amount to donate whatever you like any amount $5 $15 $25 $50 $100 $500 $1,000 Custom Amount $ Make this donation each month (optional) Donate with Credit Card var gform;gform||(document.addEventListener("gform_main_scripts_loaded",function(){gform.scriptsLoaded=!0}),window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){gform.domLoaded=!0}),gform={domLoaded:!1,scriptsLoaded:!1,initializeOnLoaded:function(o){gform.domLoaded&&gform.scriptsLoaded?o():!gform.domLoaded&&gform.scriptsLoaded?window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",o):document.addEventListener("gform_main_scripts_loaded",o)},hooks:{action:{},filter:{}},addAction:function(o,n,r,t){gform.addHook("action",o,n,r,t)},addFilter:function(o,n,r,t){gform.addHook("filter",o,n,r,t)},doAction:function(o){gform.doHook("action",o,arguments)},applyFilters:function(o){return gform.doHook("filter",o,arguments)},removeAction:function(o,n){gform.removeHook("action",o,n)},removeFilter:function(o,n,r){gform.removeHook("filter",o,n,r)},addHook:function(o,n,r,t,i){null==gform.hooks[o][n]&&(gform.hooks[o][n]=[]);var e=gform.hooks[o][n];null==i&&(i=n+"_"+e.length),gform.hooks[o][n].push({tag:i,callable:r,priority:t=null==t?10:t})},doHook:function(n,o,r){var t;if(r=Array.prototype.slice.call(r,1),null!=gform.hooks[n][o]&&((o=gform.hooks[n][o]).sort(function(o,n){return o.priority-n.priority}),o.forEach(function(o){"function"!=typeof(t=o.callable)&&(t=window[t]),"action"==n?t.apply(null,r):r[0]=t.apply(null,r)})),"filter"==n)return r[0]},removeHook:function(o,n,t,i){var r;null!=gform.hooks[o][n]&&(r=(r=gform.hooks[o][n]).filter(function(o,n,r){return!!(null!=i&&i!=o.tag||null!=t&&t!=o.priority)}),gform.hooks[o][n]=r)}}); Never miss another story Subscribe to theAnalysis.news - Newsletter Email(Required) Name(Required) First Last Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); “Christian Gerard Appy is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is widely known as a leading expert on the Vietnam War experience. The most recent of his three books on the subject is American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity.” theAnalysis.news theme music written by Slim Williams for Paul Jay's documentary film “Never-Endum-Referendum“.   Never-Endum-Referendum Artist Website Paul Jay's Documentaries

A Bank for International Settlements study says 60+ trillion dollars of off-the-books currency swaps could be a profound, systematic risk. Rob Johnson joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

A Bank for International Settlements study says 60+ trillion dollars of off-the-books currency swaps could be a profound, systematic risk. Robert Johnson joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

In dieser Folge von The Source debattieren wir mit dem preisgekrönten Dokumentarfilmer, Journalisten und Chefredakteur von theAnalysis.news Paul Jay über den Krieg in der Ukraine.

In part 2 of our conversation with award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor-in-chief of theAnalysis.news Paul Jay, we talk about the situation in Iran and why the U.S. is no longer seeking a nuclear agreement. We also talk about why the mainstream media is now coming out in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The interview was conducted by Zain Raza for acTVism Munich.

In this episode of The Source, we debate the war in Ukraine with award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and editor-in-chief of theAnalysis.news Paul Jay. The interview was conducted by Zain Raza for acTVism Munich.

Rich fossil fuel states blocked real solutions at COP27, but what needs to be done is well known. People need to organize and elect candidates with a green agenda. Robert Pollin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Economist Bob Pollin says government stimulus and higher wages are not the primary drivers of today's inflation. Higher interest rates are not the solution. Bob joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Was the ‘62 U.S. blockade of Cuba justified? Is Russia's invasion of Ukraine justified by the potential of nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory? Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says the situations are “similar“. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Daniel Ellsberg joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Why did Corporate Democrats “cede” the economic argument? Are they really fighting inflation or trying to weaken worker's bargaining power? Tom Ferguson joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Lula Wins by a whisker, but Bolsonarist Christian Right remains a powerful threat. Lorena Barberia joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

While the Jan 6th committee will produce hundreds of hours of testimony important for the historical record, have they investigated the reasons why ten former secretaries of defense and the editorial board of the Financial Times thought a coup was in progress - on Jan 4th? What was the role of Christian Nationalism in the military? What is the threat of another coup attempt in the future? Gerald Horne joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Air Date 10/14/2022 Today, we take a look at the women-led protests roiling Iran in response to violent crackdowns from the so-called morality police that have led to the deaths of young women demanding rights and freedom. Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Get AD FREE Shows and Bonus Content) Join our Discord community! OUR AFFILIATE LINKS: BOMBAS.COM/BEST AND USE CODE: BEST - BUY ONE/GIVE ONE TO SOMEONE IN NEED SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Voices of women inside and outside Iran on the uprising after Mahsa Amini's death - PBS NewsHour - Air Date 10-7-22 For nearly three weeks, Iranians have marched in the streets to denounce the Islamic regime that has ruled for more than 40 years. What started as a response to the killing of a young woman by the "morality police," this uprising is now nationwide. Ch. 2: What Iranian Protesters Need Now - What Next - Air Date 9-28-22 What began as a revolt in the wake of an overstep by Iran's morality police has evolved into a mass movement calling for “death to the dictator.” Protests in Iran are nothing new, but these demonstrations strike at the heart of the repressive regime. Ch. 3: “Complete Dissatisfaction with the Current Order”: Why Mahsa Amini Protests in Iran Are Not Slowing Down - Democracy Now! - Air Date 10-6-22 Protesters in Iran are continuing to demand justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the hands of the so-called morality police, as well as envisioning a political future beyond the Islamic Republic. Ch. 4: 'Woman, Life, Freedom' - On the Media - Air Date 9-30-22 Large-scale protests took over the streets of Iran after twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini died on September 16 while in custody of the morality police. She had been arrested her for wearing her headscarf improperly. Ch. 5: Anti-Regime Protests and the Devastating Effects of US Sanctions in Iran - theAnalysis.news - Air Date 10-5-22 Iranians protest brutal repression and why U.S. statements of solidarity are empty without a reversal of crushing sanctions. Assal Rad joins Talia Baroncelli on theAnalysis.news. Ch. 6: What's Happening in Iran and Why? with Reza Aslan - Factually! with Adam Conover - Air Date 9-28-22 Iran is currently being rocked by protests against the oppressive theocratic regime that rules the country. What is happening there, and what brought us to this point? MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S) Ch. 7: Revolutions - Power Corrupts - Air Date 4-2-20 When revolutions happen, everything changes. In this episode, we'll look at how Teddy Roosevelt's son led a CIA-backed coup in 1953 that contributed to the Iranian revolution FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 8: Final comments on the beneficial discomfort of diversity TAKE ACTION! MIDTERMS MINUTE 2022 - Installment #3: How to defend State Governor and Secretary of State races from anti-democracy MAGA extremists.  Past Installments:  Installment #2 - Toss-up Senate Races in GA, NV, PA & WI, & Senate Races Leaning D or R Installment #1 - Toss-up House Races in CA, NY, & OH, & Open Seats Leaning D or R Researched and written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman  MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE: Description: A woman stands in the midst of a protest in London wearing full face paint in the color and pattern of the Iranian flag. She holds up both arms and in each hand is a photo of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman who died in the custody of the Iranian "Morality Police". Credit: "Mahsa Amini #1" by Alisdare Hickson, Flickr | License: CC by 2.0 | Changes: Slightly cropped   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com

The Soviet Union became dependent on easy energy sales, and consumer production stagnated, says Sommers. Gorbachev's democratic and economic reforms supposedly meant to head towards a European style social-democracy, but instead created conditions for the rise of the oligarchs and the free for all of the ‘90s. Jeffrey Sommers joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Noam and Daniel discuss the rising fascist movement and its roots in American history. They analyze the significance of the coming elections and the necessity to vote against overt fascism and continue to organize for more profound political change. Ellsberg and Chomsky on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.

Iranians protest brutal repression and why U.S. statements of solidarity are empty without a reversal of crushing sanctions. Assal Rad joins Talia Baroncelli on theAnalysis.news.

"Terror and tyranny in the USSR arose more from war and the demands of state security services required to survive, and the paranoid politics it enabled, rather than any “inevitable” path from the socialist path taken," writes Jeffery Sommers. He joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news to discuss the end of the Soviet Union.

Biden again declares he will "defend" Taiwan with U.S. forces, essentially threatening nuclear war against China. Why is he dropping "ambiguity" and raising the level of tension? Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg join Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

The Federal Reserve is trying to increase unemployment and strip U.S. workers of the small gains in bargaining power they have achieved in the aftermath of the COVID economic lockdown. Robert Pollin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg discuss the significance of the life of Mikhail Gorbachev and what the deconstruction of the Soviet Union means for today's world. Noam and Daniel join Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

By opposing deep democratic reforms from below, Gorbachev laid the groundwork for privatization and the looting of the 1990s. Buzgalin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Paul is asked if a strong Russia is a positive counterbalance to U.S. global hegemony. Paul is interviewed by Colin Bruce Anthes on theAnalysis.news.

According to William I. Robinson, the COVID pandemic has further intensified the structural crisis of global capitalism and has caused numerous uprisings and revolts around the world, which global elites are trying to suppress via militarization, police repression, and surveillance. Robinson joins Greg Wilpert on theAnalysis.news.

Paul comments on the events of 2014, the role of Zelenskyy, the deception of humanitarian intervention, and dying and killing for a nationalism that serves the oligarchs. Paul Jay is interviewed by Colin Bruce Anthes on theAnalysis.news.

The so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” will have a positive affect on the climate crisis, but it does not phase out fossil fuel and is far from what's needed. Big industrial states like New York and California can and must go much further. Bob Pollin on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay

Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was reckless and stupid, but why does anyone care? More important is what is driving American aggressive and incoherent policy towards China. Paul Jay is interviewed by Colin Bruce on theAnalysis.news.

Russia faces the catastrophic consequences of climate change and an economy dependent on fossil fuel exports. Boris Kagarlitsky joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

"West Virginia Can't Wait" is a movement to win a government where the people who work the hardest and bear the most are also the ones who write the laws. Katey Lauer joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

On January 10, 2021, four days following Trump's attempted coup, Gerald Horne stated that "class-based reforms must be combined with a fierce crackdown on the violators of the law on January 6." Horne discusses the historical background and the lead-up to this event with Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Gustavo Petro, the new leftist president of Colombia, plans to fully implement the 2016 peace accords that ended the decades-long civil war, to drastically reduce the country's 40% poverty rate, and introduce a new national healthcare system. Gimena Sanchez of the Washington Office on Latin America joins Greg Wilpert on theAnalysis.news

When PM Diefenbaker said no to nuclear missiles in 1961, Kennedy helped Lester Pearson become Canadian Prime Minister. John Boyko, author of “Cold Fire: Kennedy's Northern Front” joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro and his running mate Francia Márquez were expected to make history on May 29th by becoming shoo-ins for the run-off election. However, despite the strong first-round showing they are now expected to lose the June 19th run-off against a populist right-wing candidate. What happened? Colombia expert Gimena Sánchez of the Washington Office on Latin America joins Greg Wilpert on theAnalysis.news

Central banks are raising interest rates to create more desperation amongst workers and weaken their bargaining power. Bob Pollin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news. 

Crushed by the 2008 financial crisis, Patrick Lovell joined Eric Vaughan and white-collar crime expert Bill Black to expose “control fraud” and the real story behind the 2007/08 crash. Lovell and Vaughan join Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Yves Engler relates the history of Canada's subservient role in NATO and how NATO is a tool of the U.S. military-industrial complex and a way to suppress socialism in Europe. This interview was recorded before the Russian invasion of Ukraine but provides important context to today's events. Yves Engler joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

There are times when it's necessary to weaken the malignant tumour in order to continue fighting the underlying cancer. Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon has united all the major left parties around a very progressive agenda for the June French National Assembly elections. He stands a good chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of France. Renaud Lambert of Le Monde Diplomatique joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.