Note also all the fawning tv shows about those lovely cuddly border guards, ticket inspectors and of course, police officers. The executive arms of power- ultimately not their fault but how desperate must you have to be to do a job like that?

We are joined by Antony Loewenstein — author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World — to discuss his extensive reporting on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the policing tactics and surveillance technologies that are tested on Palestinians before sold as part of lucrative global export industry, and how the dynamics of occupation never stay within their cordoned zones but always expand to capture increasingly more people and places.

••• Antony’s book: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2684-the-palestine-laboratory
••• Antony’s twitter: https://twitter.com/antloewenstein 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

262. – How Israel Battle Tests Occupation for the World (ft. Antony Loewenstein)

In this public News Brief we discuss the recent escalation in violence in "the middle east" and the quickly-forming bipartisan consensus to jam the issue into a simplistic, dehumanizing War on Terror narrative

News Brief: US Media, Washington Rush Head First into 9/11 2.0

British comedian-turned-Hollywood-actor-turned-Youtube-guru Russell Brand is facing serious sexual assault accusations. Annie Kelly takes a look at his relationship to his audience as he slides into the conspiratorial and contrarian. This is part one of two and includes an interview with Dr. Rob Topinka, senior lecturer at Birkbeck, the University of London.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Down and The Spectral Voyager: www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous

Dr. Rob Topinka: https://twitter.com/robtopinka

Music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz.

http://qanonanonymous.com

Episode 251: Russell Brand (Part 1)

“Israel Called Them ‘Precision’ Strikes. But Civilian Homes Were Hit, Too.,” The New York Times equivocated back in May 2023. “US Military Footprint in Australia Expands to Counter China,” Bloomberg announced in July 2023. “NATO to launch biggest military exercise since Cold War,” the Financial Times reported in September 2023.

Far too often, media accept and parrot the terminology of the Pentagon, never pausing to consider how deceptive and pernicious this language may be. War reportage is regularly littered with euphemisms, metaphors, jargon, and esoteric acronyms that obscure the enormity of the warfare and war crimes waged and backed by the US, warping public perceptions of the violence happening throughout the world in service of US empire.

Some major news outlets, such as the New York Times, have adopted policies not to use terms like “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a Bush-era phrase used to sanitize the committing, sanctioning and outsourcing of literal torture by the US government. More recently, the BBC has said it will no longer use the term “terrorist,” as it is “a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally.” But, troublingly, many loaded, euphemistic words and phrases remain in the vocabulary of leading news media, painting a woefully inaccurate and incomplete picture of both the past and the current state of US-led and US-backed violence around the world.

On this episode, Part I of a two-part series on the language of war, we’ll examine five of the 10 most insidious terms that US media and government officials use to sanitize military aggression worldwide, discussing how journalists, writers, and others in media can use terms that are clearer and more representative of the human stakes of war. Next week, we’ll complete the list of 10 with Part II.

Our guests are Maha Hilal and David Vine.

Episode 192: How Military Jargon and Cliches Make Mass Death Seem Sterile (Part I)

We take a look at the life and times of the embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing tough questions from both the FBI and Manhattan prosecutors about his campaign's relationship with... Turkey? Featuring: straw donors, the Safdie Brothers, Ed Koch, open relationships, and plant-based diets.

Episode 336: Mr. Mayor Goes to Turkey

Hello everyone! We're back and talking about none other than the don diva herself...FKA Kitara...AKA Latino Baby Grinch...George Santos. We draft a group message to his real email, go through his various crimes and scams (NOT GUILTY), and hear tell from another diva about her past run ins with George. Also some really bad Jacques health updates. 

Thank you to Santiago for designing our new cover art!

Also Jacques and Hesse will be featured at the Girl God show this weekend at the Bell House in NYC! Get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-girl-god-christmas-spectacular-tickets-741044292427?utm_experiment=control_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

SD 272 - We Need To Talk About George

We’re joined by Richard Sanders, one of the producers of the Labour Files, to talk about about the leaks, the famous Labour antisemitism crisis, and the rise of Keir Starmer.

Watch The Labour Files Part 2: The Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DTMF0MSXng

All parts of The Labour Files: https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/the-labour-files/

Episode 344: The Labour Files

"Ex-officer Amber Guyger testifies in wrong-apartment murder trial: 'I was scared to death,'" a " story reported in 2019. "Starbucks Files Complaints with Labor Board, Accuses Union Organizers of Bullying and Harassment," reported Food & Wine Magazine in April 2022. "Labour MPs fear for safety as pro-Palestine protesters target offices," The Guardian warned in November 2023

Within the last decade, we’ve seen the rise of a phenomenon we’ll refer to as “elite crybullying," in which people in power engage in political manipulation in order to portray themselves as victims. Routinely, we hear that armed American police fear for their safety around unarmed civilians, lawmakers feel for the their safety after there's a sit in protest and corporate executives are being unfairly intimated by union organizers. 

It's a sleazy, manipulative tactic that not only flattens, but flips, power dynamics. By claiming to have been bullied or traumatized by those who oppose them, wealthy and influential figures suddenly transform themselves from victimizers into victims. Meanwhile, by this same perverse logic, they characterize their actual victims–be they organizing workers and peace activists, who merely seek to stand up for themselves, or people killed by military and police violence – as victimizers.

On this episode, we explore the rise of ruling-class crybullyism, how elites increasingly traffic in the language of anti-bullying and therapy-speak to indemnify themselves from criticism, examine how cynical distortions of power relations recast the upholders of colonialism, labor abuses, and police violence as the oppressed, and the people who dare to object as the oppressors, all in an effort to silence dissent from the justifiably angry masses. 

Our guests are Mari Cohen and Saree Makdisi.

Episode 199: The Golden Age of Crybullyism

“Sen. Chuck Schumer warns drug dealers are pushing rainbow fentanyl to children,” CBS News cries. “'It's very challenging': Inside the fentanyl fight at the border,” ABC News reports. “The hard-drug decriminalization disaster,” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens laments. 

In recent years, we’ve been warned about the growing threat of hyperpotent street drugs, particularly opioids. Fentanyl is disguised as Halloween candy to appeal to children. US Border Patrol doesn’t have enough resources to keep up with drug screenings. Efforts to decriminalize drug use and possession are causing chaos and suffering on our streets.  

The dangers of drugs like fentanyl are, of course, very real, and concerns about them are certainly legitimate. But too often, media framings don’t reflect genuine concerns. Rather than offering urgent solutions to help those who are truly struggling-like reduced penalties, or stable housing and healthcare–media, alongside policymakers, consistently promote the same old carceral logic of the Nixon-era War on Drugs, turning a true public-health crisis into an opportunity to increase arrests and policing in general. 

On this episode, we look at the War on Drugs 2.0: This Time It’s Different We Promise, and how, despite lofty liberal rhetoric about how the War on Drugs has been cruel and counterproductive, media and elected officials are doubling down on fear-mongering, stigmatization, and severe prison and punishment.

Our guest is Emily Kaltenbach of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Ep 200 - The Rise of the War on Drugs 2.0: This Time It's Different, We Promise

We take a look at the apocalyptic scheme of psycho Christian Americans and kooky Israeli nationalists to sacrifice a beautiful red cow and bring about the end of the world.

Episode 373: Red, Dead, Redemption!

In this episode, we bring you an interview with Kevin Rashid Johnson, who has been incarcerated since 1990 in prisons throughout the U.S., most recently in Southwest VA.  Benny Becker spoke with Johnson by phone, about his own experiences on the inside, histories of organizing from within prison walls, and the national prison strike taking place right now.

The strike, which runs from August 21st - September 9, 2018 has a list of demands, including that "All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor." Currently, incarcerated folks are paid next to nothing for their work. So, on this Labor Day, we bring you voices from an ongoing labor struggle inside U.S. Prisons.



Self portrait by Rashid Johnson from his website rashidmod.com

Rashid Johnson & The National Prison Strike

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Episode 199: The Golden Age of Crybullyism

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