As the Biden administration continues to seek the extradition of Julian Assange, new details have emerged about the Trump administration's secret war against Assange and his organization, Wikileaks. Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News discusses his team's explosive reporting on the CIA plot to surveil, kidnap, and even kill Assange -- all overseen by Michael Pompeo. 

Isikoff and Aaron Maté also debate Russia's role in the Assange controversy, particularly the allegation that Russia stole Democratic Party emails in 2016 and gave them to Wikileaks.

Guest: Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News. 

"Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks."
https://news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-assassination-and-a-london-shoot-out-inside-the-ci-as-secret-war-plans-against-wiki-leaks-090057786.html

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Inside the CIA plot to kidnap, kill Julian Assange

As the U.S. government makes a series of aggressive moves, could moves by the Taiwanese government towards a declaration of independence spark a war with China? Brian and Prof. Ken Hammond also discuss the essential historical background left out by the corporate media, explaining how Taiwan was carved away from the rest of China at the conclusion of the civil war in 1949 with the sponsorship of U.S. imperialism.

Brian is joined by Kenneth Hammond, a Professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University and an activist with the organization Pivot to Peace.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Why Taiwan could Trigger A War with China

On today's episode Brian and Prof. Richard Wolff discuss the Pandora Papers -- the massive leak of financial information exposing how the rich and powerful hide their assets in tax havens around the world. How does this institutionalized system of tax evasion function? What does this tell us about how the capitalist system works?

Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Secrets of the Ultra-Rich Exposed: Global Network of Tax Havens Cater to the Capitalists

Abby Martin talks to Alan MacLeod of MintPress News about how the Pentagon has written and edited scripts for hundreds of movies and TV shows over the last 20 years.

Support our ad-free work and get EXCLUSIVE content by supporting us at www.patreon.com/empirefiles or donate at www.paypal.com/paypalme/empirefilesinc

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How The Pentagon Runs Hollywood

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich talks to Abby Martin about his fight as Cleveland mayor against the corporation trying to privatize the city's energy grid where he closely evaded an assassination attempt, his historic tenure in Congress where he stood up against the Bush administration's war path, and the fight for accountability within the corporate captured Democratic Party.

Support our ad-free work and get EXCLUSIVE content by supporting us at www.patreon.com/empirefiles or donate at www.paypal.com/paypalme/empirefilesinc

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Dennis Kucinich, Renegade Against War & Corporations

On today's episode, Brian and Ju-Hyun Park discuss the rising tide of labor activism in South Korea demanding not only economic and social justice for workers, but also an expansion of democracy. Braving violent police repression, half a million workers in South Korea went on strike last week in a major show of force. The unfolding political and social struggles in South Korea will have a far-reaching impact not only for people on the Korean peninsula, but a major impact on regional politics

Ju-Hyun Park is a writer and member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development. You can check out their latest article titled “Half a Million South Korean Workers Walk Off Jobs in General Strike” on Truthout: https://truthout.org/articles/half-a-million-south-korean-workers-prepare-to-walk-off-jobs-in-general-strike/

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

The Battle for Workers’ Rights and Democracy in South Korea

(Patreon-only Rose McGowan interview here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/rose-mcgowan-57953217)
Labor journalists Alex Press (https://twitter.com/alexnpress) & Jonah Furman (https://twitter.com/JonahFurman) discuss the labor movement, strikes, John Deere and what it has to do with Alec Baldwin's deadly shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Alex Press is a writer and editor at Jacobin Magazine, whose latest article is "Halyna Hutchins’s Death on the Set of Rust Was 'Not a Freak Accident'."Jonah Furman is a labor movement organizer and writer for Labor Notes (https://twitter.com/labornotes), the media and organizing project that since 1979 has amplified the voice of workers and labor militants. He is also a frequent contributor to The Intercept.

Alec Baldwin Shooting 'NOT a Freak Accident' With Alex Press & Jonah Furman

On today's "In the News" roundtable, Brian Becker, Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss the Glasgow climate summit and  Biden's capitulation to the right wing on his social program budget. The Glasgow summit is underway, and yet again the U.S. government has failed to meet the challenge -- coming up with only the woefully inadequate measures contained in Biden’s social spending “framework” agreement.

The following articles are referenced in this episode:

The Laughing Stock of the World: Why the world pities us and fears us
https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/the-laughing-stock-of-the-world

Warnings of violence before Jan. 6 precipitated the Capitol riot
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/warnings-jan-6-insurrection/

The Demand for Money Behind Many Police Traffic Stops
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/police-ticket-quotas-money-funding.html

Why Many Police Traffic Stops Turn Deadly
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/police-traffic-stops-killings.html

Before the Final Frame: When Police Missteps Create Danger
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/30/video/police-traffic-stops-danger-video.html

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

Capitalism Fiddles While the Planet Burns

Watch the video version on BreakThrough News here: https://youtu.be/WUHHe6h8iXk

What could be the final effort to resuscitate the Iran nuclear deal will begin this month with negotiators meeting in Vienna. The United States, having violated and destroyed the deal under Trump, is now pushing for new concessions from Iran. This kind of arrogance is nothing new -- it has been the defining feature of U.S. government policy towards Iran going back to the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup and through the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S. puppet monarchy. 

Brian is joined by Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran.

Please make an urgently-needed contribution to The Socialist Program by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/thesocialistprogram. We rely on the generous support of our listeners to keep bringing you consistent, high-quality shows. All Patreon donors of $5 a month or more are invited to join the monthly Q&A seminar with Brian.

U.S. Empire vs. Iran: History and the Present Day

The Party for Socialism and Liberation joins with millions of people across the country in expressing our complete outrage at the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges. Once again, the U.S. court system has functioned to protect a racist murderer, who went out into the streets of Kenosha on August 25, 2020 to wage war on people protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man. The verdict is an infuriating reminder of the fundamentally white supremacist nature of the capitalist legal system in the United States. 

The acquittal of Rittenhouse has tremendously dangerous ramifications. It effectively hands a license to kill to right wing vigilantes, who will now feel even more empowered to terrorize people in the name of “law and order”. There is a long and deadly tradition of far right militia-type violence in the United States, and this threat has now been given a huge boost by the state. 

The kangaroo court presided over by Judge Bruce Schroeder was a disgrace, and greatly enhanced Rittenhouse’s chances of acquittal by the nearly all-white jury. The process was rigged from the start, and grew more and more absurd with each passing day. 

Read the full statement here:
https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-rittenhouse-acquittal-hands-racist-vigilantes-a-license-to-kill/

PSL Statement: Rittenhouse Acquittal Hands Racist Vigilantes a License to Kill

The US Navy has poisoned the largest water supply in O'ahu, Hawaii. Nobody knows how long residents have been drinking toxic water, how big the chemical leak is, or how many it will impact. But instead of urgent action to save lives, the Navy is engaging in a cover up. 

For more details on this case listen to our hour-long podcast on this #RedHill disaster here or any streaming platform: https://soundcloud.com/empire-files/redhill

Support our work covering US military pollution at https://earthsgreatestenemy.com

#SHUTDOWNREDHILL

Hawaii Emergency: Navy Poisons Drinking Water

News and views about the world for those who want to change it, with Brian Becker

The Battle for Workers’ Rights and Democracy in South Korea

The Socialist Program with Brian Becker

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