American Prestige

Danny and Derek speak with Jake Werner, acting director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, about his recent brief, “A Program for Progressive China Policy.” They define the current state of US policy toward China before exploring the background of US-China alignment starting in the neoliberal turn, the fundamental misconception of what’s happening in China by American policymakers, and his progressive vision for the US’s policy towards China regarding issues of the economy, military, human rights, and climate change.

Further reading from Jake:

* This report focusing in more detail on the bilateral US–China relationship

* This analysis emphasizing the contrasting experience of Russia and China in the free market globalization era

* An interview on a progressive vision for the global economy

Also, for this coming week, the House leadership is organizing a “China Week”, when they will try to pass some two dozen bills restricting and excluding China. Look out for an article on this from Jake in The Nation.

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Danny and Derek speak with Jake Werner, acting director of the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, about his recent brief, “A Program for Progressive China Policy.” They define the current state of US policy toward China before exploring the background of US-China alignment starting in the neoliberal turn, the fundamental misconception of what’s happening in China by American policymakers, and his progressive vision for the US’s policy towards China regarding issues of the economy, military, human rights, and climate change.

Further reading from Jake:

Also, for this coming week, the House leadership is organizing a “China Week”, when they will try to pass some two dozen bills restricting and excluding China. Look out for an article on this from Jake in The Nation.

Note: There also appears to be an issue with Substack’s paid subscriber RSS, so we are running this on the main feed. Fear not: a double bonus is coming for paid subscribers soon.

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Danny melts from the LA heat while Derek pukes from the DC elite, all while giving you the news. This week: in Palestine-Israel, several Israeli hostages in Gaza are killed (1:22), Netanyahu continues to block a ceasefire (7:17), and the IDF’s operation in the West Bank goes on over one week (10:57); Turkey applies to join BRICS (14:24); Myanmar’s junta might be making election preparations (16:36); the UN negotiates a central bank resolution for Libya (18:57); the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) finally gets mpox vaccines (21:38); the US again accuses Russia of election meddling (24:57); an update on the Ukraine war (26:52); Macron finally names a prime minister in France (29:46); Venezuela issues an arrest warrant for the opposition presidential candidate (33:02); Antony Blinken visits Haiti amid a stagnant intervention (34:56) and a New Cold War update featuring the US losing support in Southeast Asia (38:14).

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Danny and Derek welcome back AP mega-guest Spencer Ackerman, author of the Forever Wars newsletter and soon-to-be-published issues of Marvel Comics’ Iron Man. The group explores Spencer’s inspiration to pursue more work in the world of comic books, writing for a character who is a defense contractor, bringing left-wing messaging into the medium, the sand box of Marvel Comics vs. the behemoth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus Spencer’s impressions on some major current events.

NOTE: This interview was recorded on 8/30/24, prior to reports that the Israeli military had recovered the bodies of six hostages inside Gaza.

Click hear to learn how to pre-order Iron Man & get free merch!

More of Spencer’s work:

Further Reading:

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Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast television writer and producer Justin Boyd to talk about Oliver Stone’s 1991 epic JFK. They explore Justin’s own origins as a Dallasite, the place the film occupies within the film & television canon, whether a 3 1/2 hour, paranoid epic fueled by rage could be made today, its modernist features, claims of homophobi…

Let Danny and Derek’s labor guide you into the holiday weekend newly informed. This week: Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire (0:29), an IDF operation in the West Bank (8:31), in Gaza, the IDF attacks Deir al-Balah and shrinks more protected zones (11:06) while Palestinians in Gaza also struggle to obtain a polio vaccine amid an outbreak (14:07); Yemen’s Houthi/Ansar Allah forces allow the recovery of a damaged oil tanker (17:15); Jake Sullivan is in Beijing and meets with Xi (19:14); Sudan ceasefire talks end without an agreement (21:23); Libya’s Government of National Unity (or “Eastern Government”) shuts down oil facilities (23:41); in Russia-Ukraine, concerns over the Kursk nuclear plant while Russia bombards Ukraine again (26:11); in France, Emmanuel Macron blocks the leftist prime minister from taking power (30:12); in Mexico, President AMLO “freezes” contact with the American and Canadian embassies (33:30); Honduras pulls out of its extradition treaty with the US (35:50); and the police intervention in Haiti is off to a shaky start (37:32).

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Danny and Derek speak with Séamus Malekafzali, a Beirut-based journalist focusing on the Middle East, about his recent piece for The Nation, “The Rotten Partnership Between the US Media and the Israeli Military.” They check in about the current atmosphere in Beirut amid exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, the Biden administration and US media’s current narrative around Hamas and Iran, the violence Israel has inflicted on Palestinian journalists, the double standards of their portrayal in the US media, and whether there might be any meaningful difference in a Trump or Harris presidency with regards to America’s support for Israel.

Recorded Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Further reading:

* Séamus Malafzali on Substack

* Séamus’s piece "Do You Want Total War?"

* Follow Séamus on Twitter/X @Seamus_Malek

Danny will be talking on a panel at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft at 10am PST/1pm EST on ‘Trump vs. Harris: Whose Foreign Policy Will Win the 2024 Election?’. Here’s the link if you’re interested.

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Danny and Derek welcome John Washington, staff writer at Arizona Luminaria, to catch us up to date on the state of play in the United States’ policies toward the southern border and asylum. They explore the extremism in the Biden administration’s recent decisions, how the current policies continue a thread going back to the 90s’ “Prevention Through Dete…

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The Prestigehead Convention at the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn has drawn a record crowd, but Danny and Derek still find time for your news roundup. This week: in Russia-Ukraine, an update on Ukraine’s Kursk invasion (0:29), reports of cancelled peace talks (3:57), and a continued Russian advance in Donbas (6:32); in Palestine-Israel, an update on Gaza ceasefire talks (9:34), the IDF is moving into the last Gaza “safe zones” (15:14), an Israeli strike kills a Fatah commander in Lebanon (17:04), and the status of the long-anticipated Iranian retaliation (18:52); Afghanistan sends its ambassador the to United Arab Emirates (20:43); a new Philippine-Chinese confrontation in the South China Sea (22:29); failed ceasefire talks in Sudan plus a cholera outbreak (24:39); troubles for the Central Bank of Libya suggest a further deteriorating political situation (26:56); and the Biden administration prepares new sanctions for Venezuela (29:58).

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AP champion Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, returns for a discussion of his recent piece for Carnegie, “Strategic Change in U.S. Foreign Policy.” The group muses on the difficulty of altering established foreign policy paradigms before delving into several case studies such as NSC-68, Nixon's Vietnam Withdrawal, Carter's Failed Korea Withdrawal, NATO Enlargement, and the Global War on Terror, emphasizing the need for foresight, strategic planning, and a willingness to incur political costs to make such change possible.

Check out the companion piece to this episode, Rethinking U.S. World Power w/ Michael Brenes and Stephen Wertheim.

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