Historian Aaron Good explains how the CIA organized a coup against Guatemala's democratically elected left-wing President Jacobo Árbenz to stop land reform and help the United Fruit Company (Chiquita today). He also discusses the Dwight Eisenhower administration's policies in Southeast Asia and the Vietnamese national-liberation struggle against French colonialism.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JTfMOH-j4Oc

This is PART 15 of the Empire and the Deep State series we are co-hosting with historian Aaron Good and producer Seamus McGuinness of the American Exception podcast.

PLAYLIST with past episodes in the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hNArLl765PXe8tsTKmOciGL

How CIA overthrew Guatemala's elected president for United Fruit Company (with historian Aaron Good)

On a Very Special Episode of "Home Improvement," Tim and Jill lecture their son about the dangers of marijuana after he’s caught smoking a joint. On a powerful episode of ABC’s "Sports Night," written by Aaron Sorkin, sportscaster Dan Rydell delivers a four-minute monologue on how dope killed his younger brother. On a devastating episode of CBS's "Chicago Hope," a dozen teenagers are rushed to the emergency room after taking a new psychedelic drug at a rave.

We’ve all seen these "Very Special" drug episodes throughout our childhoods and adolescence. For some reason, our favorite shows, seemingly out of nowhere, decided to dedicate an entire episode to the perils of teenage drug use.

These episodes, mostly from the 1980s and '90s, have become a cultural punchline, something amusing and mocked but ultimately, one would think, harmless. But what most viewers don't know is that many of these episodes were not just part of a teen-oriented convention turned TV trope; a number of them were actually funded by the federal government to the tune of hundreds of thousands––sometimes millions–– of dollars to promote so-called "drug awareness."
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the late 1990s made a deal with multiple TV networks to include anti-drug messaging in show plots. In 1997, Congress approved a plan to buy $1 billion of anti-drug advertising over five years for its National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

From at least 1997 to 2000, the Feds paid TV networks to air what was ostensibly drug awareness public health information but was, in many key ways, propaganda to sustain and build support for the war on drugs. The White House drug office paid networks large sums of money to weave so-called "anti-drug" stories in their narratives, undisclosed to the viewer, often revising and approving scripts without the show writers knowledge.

Rather than being harmless––if corny––anti-drug messages we can all now laugh at, these narratives were also part of a broader scare strategy to frighten, misinform, and prop up the federal government's war on drugs both at home and abroad.

On this episode, we will review some of the major TV shows that ran these episodes, how much money they took in from the U.S. government, and how these tropes shaped and directly impacted public policy that promoted racism, imperial meddling in Latin America, and mass incarceration.

Our guest is Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Ep 174: How Your Favorite 1990's "Very Special" Anti-Drug Episode Was Probably Funded by the US Govt

We interviewed the 23-year old Swiss hacker who got access to the No Fly List and leaked it to the media and other organizations: Maia Arson Crimew.

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

Maia: https://twitter.com/_nyancrimew / https://maia.crimew.gay/

Merch: http://merch.qanonanonymous.com

Music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz.

Bonus Episode: Hacking Into the No Fly List with Maia Arson Crimew

Numerous mainstream media outlets have reported that the US military is preparing for war on China, as soon as 2025. Japan is re-militarizing and collaborating closely in these war plans.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iy5FALVrULM

Sources and more information in Danny Haiphong's article here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/16/us-preparing-war-china

German foreign minister: ‘We are fighting a war against Russia’: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/26/german-foreign-minister-baerbock-war-russia

US military preparing for war on China - and soon

Greece’s former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis explains the US system of “neo-imperialism” based on the dollar, an “IOU issued by the hegemon”, which finances a huge trade deficit by letting foreign capitalists “extract colossal surplus value from their workers and then stash it away in America’s rentier economy”.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yohXMsuxzDA

Sources and more information here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/03/us-imperialism-dollar-hegemony-yanis-varoufakis

German lawmaker condemns ‘US-led proxy war against Russia’ and EU’s ‘servile vassals’: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/28/german-lawmaker-us-proxy-war-russia-ukraine-eu

Varoufakis' full speech: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6MfuGSlDRsc

US 'neo-imperialist' dollar scheme explained by economist Yanis Varoufakis

Historian Aaron Good explains the final years of the Dwight Eisenhower administration, including the start of the CIA's war on Cuba's revolutionary government and the coup against Congo's anti-colonialist leader Patrice Lumumba.

This is PART 17 of the Empire and the Deep State series Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton is co-hosting with Aaron Good and Seamus McGuinness of the American Exception podcast.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7nuSZN2GU

PLAYLIST with past episodes in the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hNArLl765PXe8tsTKmOciGL

Behind the CIA war on Cuba and coup in Congo (with historian Aaron Good)

In an interview with the Chamber of Commerce, US Ambassador Nicholas Burns referred to China as a “threat”, “great challenge”, and “very difficult government”, stating arrogantly, “The United States is staying in this region. We’re the leader in this [Indo-Pacific] region”.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BEqmQkKlcjo

Sources and more information here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/03/04/us-ambassador-china-leader-region

US admits weather pushed Chinese balloon off course, US shot down hobbyists’ $12 balloon in $2M missile attack: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/18/us-weather-chinese-balloon-hobbyist

China report excoriates ‘US hegemony’, war crimes, CIA coups, 400 foreign interventions: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/02/22/china-report-us-hegemony-wars-coups-intervention

US arrogantly tells China ‘threat’: ‘We’re the leader in this region (Asia)’!

Abby Martin speaks with journalist Vincent Bevins about the hidden CIA genocide in Indonesia, which created the model for US extermination campaigns against communists in 22 countries during the Cold War. 

WATCH this episode // https://youtu.be/up3-lOiO9L8

BUY The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins here: https://vincentbevins.com/book/

FOLLOW https://twitter.com/Vinncent // https://twitter.com/AbbyMartin // https://twitter.com/EmpireFiles

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MERCH // https://empirefiles.store

CIA Stories: The Jakarta Method w/ Vincent Bevins

It’s a fan cam episode for our favorite tech columnist, Brian Merchant, who had two pieces come out recently that are back-to-back bangers. First is about why all the people making and selling AI keep talking about being afraid of their own creations. It’s Frankenstein meets sorcerer's apprentice but as a marketing strategy for their own power (and their unique ability to control that power). Second is about what all these people should actually be afraid of. As history shows us, there is more than one way to crash a computer.

Article we discuss
••• Afraid of AI? The startups selling it want you to be | Brian Merchant https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-03-31/column-afraid-of-ai-the-startups-selling-it-want-you-to-be
••• Silicon Valley elites are afraid. History says they should be | Brian Merchant: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-03-24/column-how-afraid-should-silicon-valley-be 

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)

245. Shook Ones (Tech Style)

In this Live Interview with Nell McShane Wulfhart, we discuss the hidden labor and humiliation of the Airline Industry's "Swingin' 60's" image and how the "pretty faces" behind the tawdry ads fought back.

News Brief: "Go Fly Yourself": Marketing 'Sex' and the Great Stewardess Rebellion of the 1970s

Alexander Edward from Minion Death Cult joins us to talk about the possible upcoming UPS strike. But first, what the fuck just happened in Russia??? We sort of catch you up ish.

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@miniondeathcult
miniondeathcult.com

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PATREON.COM/PODDAMNAMERICA

Big UPS w/ Alexander Edward

Geopolitical Economy Report is an independent news outlet that provides original journalism and analysis to understand the changing world.

US military preparing for war on China - and soon

Geopolitical Economy Report

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