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Earlier this year journalist Ben Makuch caught a glimpse of Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, dancing at a club in Kyiv. It was a surreal moment, a snapshot of a tragic war that the West thinks is defining the future of conflict. Tech executives have flocked to Ukraine, courting the country in an attempt to get at a resource more precious than gold: data. Makuch was just there and has written about what he saw for The New Republic and he’s on the show today to talk about it.

* Some light smoking banter

* Ben’s timeline

* Google’s CEO dancing in a bar in Kyiv

* Ukraine as laboratory for war tech

* The JSOC era is over

* In defense of the majestic American turkey

* The great America vs China speculation

* War, cheaper

* On the actual frontline

* Wheat fields of fiber optic line

* The buzz of the drone

* Life in the bloodlands

* The human suffering of living in Ukraine

* FPV-made propaganda

* “Never underestimate human innovation when it comes to killing other humans.”

* What’s Erik Prince doing in Ukraine?

New York Times on Military Reform

The Medieval—and Highly Effective—Tactics of the Ukrainian Protests

Who Is St. Javelin and Why Is She a Symbol of the War in Ukraine?

‘Cope Cages’ on Busted Tanks Are a Symbol of Russia’s Military Failures

‘Unauthorized’ Edit to Ukraine’s Frontline Maps Point to Polymarket’s War Betting

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Another week and another Angry Planet about the horrifying systems that rule our lives.Is there a depressive theme running through the work right now? Possibly. I promise we’ll soon replace it with rage.

This week on the show we have Sven Beckert to talk about his new book Capitalism: A Global History. Beckert is a professor of history at Harvard and his tome is an attempt to capture the entire history of an economic system in one book. It’s a doorstop, but it’s also readable and clear-eyed. Some come with me on a journey that runs through the plantations of South Carolina to the tech markets of Shenzhen.

* Cotton as an entry point to the history of capitalism

* The economic big bang

* Industrial Revolution as mutation

* “It’s still being born.”

* Human data is oil to be fracked

* The Quaker Oats metaphor

* “The market is God.”

* Ascribing morality to economics

* When Gary Hart ushered in Neoliberalism

* “Capitalism is a series of regime changes.”

* Moments of great change offer opportunities

Capitalism: A Global History

The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate.

Hey there Angry Planet listeners, Matthew here.I want to take a minute at the top of the show because something strange happened during the recording.

The episode is about Vanessa Guillén, a US soldier who was murdered at Fort Hood in 2020. She also experienced sexual harassment while in the military. I spoke with ABC Special Correspondent John Quiñones about his new podcast, Vanished. It’s a good podcast that covers Guillén’s case in-depth and highlights the reforms the Pentagon instituted after.

We recorded the show on September 30, Guillén’s birthday. That morning, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a long speech about his own military reforms. Many of the changes Hegseth has pushed through conflict with the changes that Guillén’s death ushered in.

As such, I thought it was important to get John’s reaction to Hegseth’s speech. Before we began recording,I told him I planned to ask him about this and he agreed to talk about it.

When I asked the question during recording, a public relations person from ABC jumped on the line and asked me to stop talking about Hegseth. I pushed back, but not hard enough.

The next day, ABC PR reached out via email to ask if I would cut this moment from the show.I will not. It’s included here in full. I’m also dropping the paywall on this episode. I think it’s important that everyone hears this and I beg the indulgence of Angry Planet’s paying subscribers.

Further, I want to take a moment at the top to highlight the reasons why I brought up Hegseth’s speech. There’s a lot to it and, honestly, it demands its own episode.

But, first, let’s focus on Guillén. You’ll hear John mention that Guillén’s case forced the Army to change the way it deals with toxic leaders. Here are Hegseth’s thoughts on that same subject.

“Today, at my direction, we’re undertaking a full review of the Department’s Definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing, to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing. Of course, you can’t do, like nasty bullying and hazing. We’re talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They’ve been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs. No more. Setting, achieving, and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.”

I’ll also point out that the Army website for the “People First Initiative” that John mentions is no longer active.

Guillén’s case also changed the way the Army investigates sexual harassment. Here are the secretary’s thoughts on the current state of official internal military investigations:

“We are overhauling an inspector-general process, the IG that has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat. We’re doing the same with the Equal Opportunity and Military Equal Opportunity policies, the EO and MEO, at our department. No more frivolous complaints, no more anonymous complaints, no more repeat complaints, no more smearing reputations, no more endless waiting, no more legal limbo, no more side-tracking careers, no more walking on eggshells.

“Of course, being a racist has been illegal in our formation since 1948. The same goes for sexual harassment. Both are wrong and illegal. Those kinds of infractions will be ruthlessly enforced.”

After the speech, Hegseth signed 11 memos that detailed these changes. I’ll link them in the show notes. The memos say that the military’s definition of “harassment” is overly broad, calls for the end of “anonymous complaints”—something Hegesth also said in his speech, and asks that investigations be completed quickly with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

I believe that is all important context for this episode. I also believe that Hegseth’s speech and the policy directives represent a regression in the American armed services. I will not pretend otherwise.

* Who was Vanessa Guillén?

* “The military sort of bungled the case.”

* Primary documents make a good true crime podcast

* The Fort Hood of it all

* AWOL by default

* Aaron David Robinson

* An unsatisfying story of military infidelity

* The TuffBoxx

* How does a murder suspect flee so easily?

* The failure of Army CID

* “Things have changed.”

* The “I Am Vanessa Guillén Act” and how it changes military investigations

* The “People First Task Force”

* Cecily Aguilar

* Guillén’s sexual harassment case

* An unpleasant interruption from public relations

* Some parting words on Killeen

* John’s important parting words

Listen to the All-New ‘Vanished: What Happened to Vanessa’ Podcast

What the Hell Is Going on at Fort Hood?

I Am Vanessa l 20/20

Body Of Missing Fort Hood Soldier Elder Fernandes Found A Week After Disappearance

New law named for Vanessa Guillén will revamp military investigations into sexual assault, harassment

Full text of Hegseth’s speech

The Hegseth memorandums

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Sometimes it’s good to back up and ask the basic questions: How do we know Iran was even developing nuclear weapons?

On this episode of the show, the Arms Control Wonk Jeffrey Lewis walks us through the history of the Iranian nuclear (weapons and energy) program. It’s got it all: diplomacy, assassinations, cowardly politicians, and uranium fever.

Lewis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute, member of the National Academies Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and former member of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He knows the tale well and he’s here to tell it straight.

* Damning the strikes with faint praise.

* “The hard part of a nuclear weapon is not the explodey part.”

* Making a nuclear weapon is a solved problem.

* The Iran-Iraq war and the origins of Iran’s nuclear weapons program

* The ladders of Natanz, how they cascade down

* Energy programs are always bigger than weapons programs.

* Unmasking the International Atomic Energy Agency

* Israel’s war on the program

* How to enrich uranium

* The “torturous” process behind the Iran deal

* Congressional cowards

* “A new generation of suckers”

* The French movie goodbye

The Deal

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WARNING: This episode contains nuance in the discussion of subjects usually left to screaming and violence!

This week we get into a bunch of stuff around Israel that we normally avoid. Settlements. Blame versus responsibility. The definition of colonialism. The social media posts of IDF soldiers. It’s a calm, nuanced conversation with Shaiel Ben-Ephraim. No, really.

* Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace

* Why no one talks about what comes next

* Israel loses Matthew

* America and Israel’s “special relationship”

* When Bush (senior) stood up to Israel

* Going down the colonialism rabbit hole

* The social media output of IDF soldiers on the ground in Gaza and Lebanon

* “There’s terrible things they’re not taping.”

* Explaining Ben-Gvir and Smotrich

* How right wingers paralyze the Israeli government

* Israel is eyeing settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and Lebanon which is, in fact, colonialism

* The difference between blame and responsibility

* The episode is not anti-Israel, so save your letters and phone calls.

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim Explains Israel 

The History Of The Land Of Israel Podcast

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This week, Angry Planet talks with Caleb Larson who has been working as a journalist in and around Ukraine’s Donbas region where much of the war is currently being fought. He paints a picture of the situation on the ground and tells us where to buy groceries in time of war.

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As the planet slowly broils, we keep hoping that some technological revolution will save us. Not just carbon capture or seeding the oceans with iron to grow algae that will drink in all the carbon dioxide right out of the atmosphere, but solutions that we can power our homes with and drive around. But what if we’ve put all of our money on the wrong horse? David Ko and Richard Busellato former hedge fund managers, have a different solution, but can it really save the Earth?

After you listen to the show, you can check out:

https://rethinkingchoices.com/

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In 1973, as most American troops left Vietnam, President Richard M. Nixon ended compulsory military service for males over the age of 18. It was an end of system that had been in place since the Second World War and came in answer—at least in part—to an ever-growing anti-war, anti-draft movement. Historian and writer Max Boot joins us to talk about the history of the draft and the all-volunteer force that now has 50 years under its belt.

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What’s the biggest Chinese threat to the United States? Well, if you ask security expert Stephanie Carvin, it’s not a balloon—no matter how large and how many missiles it takes to shoot down.

So, what should we really be worried about from China’s security apparatus? Well, you could start with more traditional spying, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

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Afghanistan. U.S. troops have been leaving for years, fast, then slowly, then fast again. There is some kind of peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, but it doesn’t involve peace. The Afghan government isn’t even a party to it.

Russia—which lost its own war in Afghanistan a generation ago--may have been paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops.

Soon, though, Afghanistan will ostensibly be on its own again. What’s next, aside from more war, of course.

To help us understand all of this, we have Kathy Gannon. She is a veteran reporter with the Associated Press based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She witnessed the Taliban’s victory in 1996, the U.S. invasion in 2001, and has won numerous awards for her work. She is the author of I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror in Afghanistan.

• Recorded 7/21/20
• The lay of the land
• What the Taliban wants
• Taliban VS Kabul 
• The strength of Afghanistan’s warlords
• Rumors of bounties on U.S. soldiers
• No one wants chaos in Afghanistan

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