CovertAction Bulletin

While we are still waiting for some election outcome, the results of the midterm show that the anti-democratic movement of the far right has been rejected by the majority of voters. Sean Blackmon, co-host of the daily radio show By Any Means Necessary, joins to talk about how he analyzes the results of last week’s elections and referendums. Sean shares his thoughts on how the GA Senate race got so close, the failures of the Democratic Party to excite voters, and impending threats to democracy.

This episode was recorded shortly before Trump’s November 15th announcement, so we also discuss what a Trump 2024 campaign could look like for the world and for social & people’s movements for justice.

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Carl Zha, host of Silk and Steel Podcast, joins us to discuss the continued escalation of U.S. Cold War on China. The U.S. information war on China heats up with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent statement about the U.S. government’s prosecution of Chinese officials for alleged “attempts” to undermine U.S. democracy. What exactly does the U.S. hope to accomplish by indicating an official who will never stand trial?

We dive deeper into the information and tech war being waged on China, and how the lives of Chinese Americans, in particular Chinese American researchers, are being upended by surveillance and racist witch hunts.

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Why is Facebook so desperate to make the Metaverse happen? Are the techno feudalists right when they say Facebook is too big to fail? 

With the decline of Meta, it seems a new era may be dawning in Silicon Valley as Facebook’s failed projects continue to pile up. 

A new reporting in The Intercept outlines how the Department of Homeland Security is looking to increase the US government’s influence on social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and more. We examine Meta’s expansion strategy and the role that U.S. intelligence has played in the last few years within the social media giant’s ranks. 

To talk about all of this and in particular how the US state inserts itself into these networks, we’re joined by Alan MacLeod, Senior Staff Writer/Podcast Producer, @MintPressNews. Alan has written about the many ex-CIA employees who now work at Facebook, and overall the government’s efforts to influence social media.

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In this episode, we dig into the idea of the “deep state,” the supposed shadowy cabal of clandestine organizations and individuals who run the show behind the scenes, controlling the US and other governments. The QAnon movement and Donald Trump himself repopularized the idea around the 2016 election, claiming that Trump was a victim of forces attempting to prevent him from “draining the swamp.” In August 2022, he said at an event “to remove rogue bureaucrats and root out the deep state, Congress should pass groundbreaking reform empowering the President to ensure that any federal employee who is corrupt, incompetent, or unnecessary for the job can be told ‘you’re fired’”

Early on in his first campaign, Trump referred to “draining the swamp.” And the QAnon movement seized on the idea, claiming that Trump was fighting a powerful cabal of child traffickers who controlled everything about the government - except him.

The idea of the deep state isn’t new and isn’t the exclusive territory of the far right. Today, we’ll dive deep into the idea of the deep state and look at what the reality is - yes, there is a conspiracy, but it’s not a shadowy underground second government - it’s right in front of us. For that discussion, we’re joined by Brian Becker, host of the podcast The Socialist Program, a long-time socialist organizer, and the national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition.

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On October 6, Joe Biden announced changes to the administration’s handling of marijuana. While pardons are welcome, the changes don’t go far enough to address the racist and classist legacy of the US war on drugs and continuing mass incarceration, which Biden himself played a big role in supporting. We’re joined by Jason Ortiz, Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Plus, on October 8th, solidarity actions took place in London, Australia, Washington DC and other places to demand the freedom of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose health continues to deteriorate as he is held in disgusting conditions at Belmarsh prison, and the US government continues to seek to his extradition. CovertAction Bulletin was on the ground and brings you a selection of the speakers who addressed the crowd, including Marsha Coleman-Adebayo,  Kevin Goztola, Medea Benjamin and Esther Iverem.

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The elections in Brazil are underway with the first round of votes coming in, with leftist candidate Lula da Silva taking 48% of the votes and far-right candidate Bolsonaro behind with 43% of votes. All eyes are on Brazil as the pink tide across Latin America resurges. We speak with Zoe Alexandra of People’s Dispatch who is on the ground now in Brazil to share with us the mood on the ground and what the results of this first round of voting means for the leftist future in Brazil.

Hurricane Ian devastates cities and towns across Florida, with a significant impact on Lee County. The death toll continues to climb while the completely botched evacuation efforts by the local right-wing government continue to come to light. We are joined by Karla Correra with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Tampa who has been on the ground providing relief to areas that have still not seen a single FEMA truck. You can sign the petition here.

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Katie Halper, host of the Katie Halper Show and co-host of the podcast Useful idiots joins us today to share about how she was recently fired from the Hill for talking about Israel.  Katie recorded a segment for The Hill’s Rising defending Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from attacks over calling Israel an apartheid state.  Katie joins the show to share more about the story that got her canceled.

Watch the full monologue here on BreakThrough News.

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On September 18th 1947, the main provisions of the National Security Act of 1947 went into effect. One of these was the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, perhaps the most infamous part of the US national security state. While we pay a lot of attention these days to digital surveillance and the agencies that focus on signals intelligence like the National Security Agency and National Reconnaissance office, the CIA has and continues to play a crucial role in establishing and maintaining global US hegemony via human intelligence as well as through its covert actions, including coups, terrorism and sabotage.

Now, with that global hegemony being challenged in every hemisphere as well as with significant internal political turmoil in the United States, with significant populations on many sides of the political spectrum not trusting the so-called democratic institutions that maintain that supremacy, monitoring and exposing the CIA and all three-letter agencies is as important as ever.

We are joined for this episode by two fellow members of the CovertAction Magazine Editorial Board. Lou Wolf is a co-founder of CovertAction. John Kiriakou is a former CIA analyst and whistleblower who exposed the CIA’s torture program.

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Apple, Inc. spends billions on projecting a clean, fun and progressive image, even claiming on its website that “the products you love also love the planet.” But the reality is very different. Whistleblower Ashley Gjøvik worked at Apple’s Sunnyvale, CA office. After she discovered that the office was built on top of an EPA superfund site known as the “Triple Site,” Gjøvik was silenced and attacked by the company for trying to ensure the safety of herself, her co-workers and community.

We spend our entire episode discussing the case, exposing Apple’s environmental cover-up, the internal “secret police” they use against journalists and whistleblowers and  deep links the company has with U.S. government agencies, as well as involvement in regulatory capture - influencing government agencies with revolving door policies and offers of employment and benefits.

Ashley Gjøvik can be found on Twitter at @ashleygjovik and on the web at gjovik.co.

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Tech workers from Google and Amazon joined forces with Pro-Palestinian organizers in to hold protests last Thursday in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Durham, NC. At issue is Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between the two companies and the Israeli government that would have the US tech giants directly profiting off the oppression of the Palestinian people. We’re joined by Sabina Wildman, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition in the San Francisco Bay Area, to talk about the protests, the striking unity of the No Tech for Apartheid movement, organizing tech workers and more.

Sign the petition and learn more at https://www.notechforapartheid.com

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