Reed idpol

Related tracks: CIA Assassinations, Anticommunism & the Phoenix Program w/ Douglas Valentine

politics & bullshit

If you went from fighting with your in-laws about how Barack Obama isn't a crypto-Marxist to wishing that maybe he was, that says as much about your dissatisfaction with the president as it does theirs. Adolph Reed understands. He sketched out the left's decades long slide from political power in his Harper's essay Nothing Left: The Long, Slow Surrender of American Liberals. Adolph talks with Chuck about why the left lost the president but the president never loses the left, what we should be doing with the energy we put into electing presidents, and how he knew Rahm Emanuel was an unpleasant little expletive the first time he met him.

Adolph L. Reed Jr. is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at Yale, Northwestern and the New School for Social Research. Adolph is a founding member of the US Labor Party.

Professor Adolph Reed Jr. traces the progressive decline of the political left

'Obama, Antiracism, and Rebuilding the American Left' with Adolph Reed

Since the dawn of the American Empire, thin moral pretexts in our politics and press have been used to justify our wars and conquest. The invasion of Cuba and Philippines in 1898 was declared to be a fight for freedom from Spanish oppression. Vietnam was about stopping Communist tyranny. T he pioneer myth of Manifest Destiny and “westward expansion” was built about “taming” and “civilizing’ the land from violent savages.

But one current that flows through all of these imperial incursions has been the idea that the United States – as well as its allies the Great Britain and Israel – are out to protect women. Today's endless occupations in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are, in large part, justified in perpetuity because the United States is a self-declared, unique protector of modernity and women’s rights. 

All the same, the Pentagon is increasingly promoted, in press releases and media puffy pieces, as a place where women can exercise their agency: the ultimate apex of meritocracy and a vanguard of equality. 

But what if this approach misses the point of equality altogether? What if this is simply a craven branding exercise, putting a liberal face on what is a fundamentally oppressive system of violence? On this episode, we explore various ways "empowerment" has been used to sell colonial objectives and how one can differentiate between actual progress and the superficial language of inclusion used cynically in service of mechanized violence.

Our guests are University of Delaware professor Dr. Kara Ellerby and University of Bristol senior lecturer Dr. Sumita Mukherjee.

Episode 65: How Empire Uses ‘Feminist’ Branding to Sell War and Occupation

Though now a fixture of the fringe right-wing, libertarian pundit John Stossel was a longtime staple of mainstream, Serious Person media. With hour-long specials and a weekly segment on the ABC program 20/20, Stossel built his brand as muckraking Truth-Teller against Big Government and out of control "political correctness", along with an empire of high school “educational” videos, distributed by libertarian billionaire-funded front groups  to tens of thousands of American classrooms.

In his peak libertarian phase on 20/20, the ABC News program was frequently a Top 20 show, with an average of 13 million viewers an episode. Through his “Give Me A Break” segments and other high-profile special reports, Stossel – without challenge or balance – spread endless well-worn libertarian scare stories on topics ranging from teachers’ unions to the EPA to anti-tobacco regulators to minimum wage to Black civil rights activists, nut-picking the most fringe elements while building stories on anecdotal, fraudulent data and a black hole of libertarian sourcing. 

On this episode, we trace today’s neoliberal, far-right toxic media back to Stossel’s brand of mainstream-laundered, libertarian “contrarianism.”

We are joined by Jeff Cohen, founder of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).

Episode 72 - John Stossel: Libertarian Billionaires' Inside Man

"The United States believes any Palestinian government must renounce violence,” a U.S. official told Ha'aretz. When it comes to nonviolence, writes Barbara Reynolds in The Washington Post, “Black Lives Matter seems intent on rejecting the proven methods." "Violence Is Never the Answer," New York Times columnist Charles Blow insists.

We are told endlessly that violence is inherently and unequivocally bad, something - when it comes to advocating for social justice or against military occupation and fascism - that’s always to be avoided, condemned and renounced. It must be rejected, our press and politicians declare, in favor of non-violence, so-called "peaceful protests" and the democratic process.

But in popular discourse, discussions of violence aren’t really about violence; rather, they’re about sanctioned versus unsanctioned violence. The routine violence of poverty, racist policing, militarism is never called "violence"–––it's just the way things are, a law of nature, the price of "stability". But unsanctioned violence, namely that carried out by activists, non or sub-state actors, and those generally distant from the halls of power, causes outrage without any coherent criteria for this indignation. 

On this episode, we discuss how what is and isn't deemed "violence" by our media is largely a function of proximity to power and whether those actions challenge or serve the interests of the status quo. 

We are joined by journalist and author Natasha Lennard.

Episode 74: Liberal Gandhi Fetishism and the Problem with Pop Notions of 'Violence'

In this episode, we are joined by journalist and author Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) to discuss his new book, The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World.

Vincent's Book:

https://vincentbevins.com/book/

INFILTRATE AND CONTROL THE NARRATIVE w/ Vincent Bevins

Spenser and Mike interview Army Major Danny Sjursen about his journey from West Point officer in Iraq and Afghanistan to anti-war author, commentator and activist. 

Sjursen is host of 'Fortress On A Hill' podcast and author of several books. Find his work at https://skepticalvet.com/

Army Major to the Anti-War Movement

We’re joined by Erich Arbor ( to discuss his writings on the recent boom of “Settlers” by J. Sakai, “decolonize amerikkka” rhetoric and how it contrasts with the MAS leadership in Bolivia, and discuss the recent vote in Chile to create a Chicago Boy-free constitution.&nbsp; The Anti-Marxist Elitism of J. Sakai’s ‘Settlers’ -  What Does Decolonization Look Like? Ask Bolivia -

Throw it (Land) Back (w/ Erich Arbor)

In this News Brief, we talk with journalist Ashoka Jegroo about Giuliani's long history of racism, white liberal New Yorkers providing cover for his carceral sociopathy because they liked the results, and the pathetic, inevitable final chapter of the former New York mayor.

News Brief: It's Not a "Fall From Grace", This Has Always Been Who Giuliani Was

Abby and Robbie Martin dive deep into the CIA assassination program during the Vietnam war known as the 'Phoenix Program' with writer and deep politics expert Douglas Valentine. After combing through the long and horrid history of CIA criminal activity and murder the discussion concludes with Douglas' take on the idea of 'Trump vs the Deep State' and how it is a false paradigm that distracts the American people away from the *real* deep state.

Intro/Outro music: Shin Megami Tensei If... OST - Donyoku Kai

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Media Roots Radio 

CIA Assassinations, Anticommunism & the Phoenix Program w/ Douglas Valentine

We interview legendary leftist science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson on his new book Ministry For The Future, the shape of a modern revolution, and the popular American sitcom Family Guy.

Read Robinson on the value of utopia here:  https://communemag.com/dystopias-now/

Get his new book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-for-the-future

Ministry For The Damned w/ Kim Stanley Robinson

Matt Christman (@cushbomb) joins Charles and Dan to enjoy some politically charged country tunes delivered candidly from the back of a pickup truck.

Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit/

INFILTRATE AND CONTROL THE NARRATIVE w/ Vincent Bevins

The Discourse