While still the darling of many liberals, in his time as president Barack Obama maintained a veil of progressive politics while prosecuting US wars and empire quite effectively. Matt was joined by Jeremy Kuzmarov to discuss the trail of blood and destruction left behind by the 44th president of the United States. Jeremy is a writer and managing editor at Covert Action Magazine. He is also the author of Obama’s Unending Wars and The Russians are Coming Again. His work can additionally be found at his website.

Discussed in This Episode: 

- Jeremy's background and interest in anti-imperialist writing

- Barack Obama's background and faux antiwar stances 

- The devastating imperial crimes of the Obama administration including the drone war, the continued devastation of Afghanistan, and the destruction of Libya

- A critique of Intercept journalist Jeremy Scahill's recent breakdown of current US president Joe Biden's history with regards to imperialism

- Several of Jeremy's recent articles about Biden's plan for Afghanistan, Obama's destruction of Libya, the heroic whistleblower Daniel Hale, and a breakdown of Joe Biden's record in foreign policy.

Our Work: 

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Read Matt's article's at Covert Action Magazine

Justin Podur joined Matt to discuss the ongoing violence visited upon Palestinians by the US backed Israeli government. Justin is the founder of the Anti Empire Project and the host of the  Anti Empire podcast. He is also the author of America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DR Congo and The Path of the Unarmed, and Siege Breakers For his day job, Justin is an Associate Professor at York University's Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Check out his website at podur.org  

Discussed in this Episode: 

-Zionism as an extension of Western imperialism 

-How to deflate the most common pro Israel- anti Palestine propaganda tropes

- The perpetual claims of victimhood by oppressors

- Settler colonial states stick together

- Shifting attitudes in the US towards Israel

- Justin's resource for countering anti Palestinian propaganda 

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Makasi and Matt were joined by Dr. Vijay Prashad to discuss a variety of topics including the United States' long war on the people of the Global South, the CIA's methods of regime change, and the current cold war with China. Dr. Prashad is the executive director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and the chief correspondent at Globetrotter.  He is also the author of many books including The Poorer Nations, The Darker Nations, and Washington Bullets

Discussed in This Episode:

- Vijay's anti-imperialism origin story

- Rethinking the Cold War

- The various methods of regime change employed by the United States

- The ongoing cold war with China and the hypercritical weaponization of human rights

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Christine Ahn joined Matt to discuss the long history of US imperialism and violence on the Korean Peninsula. Christine is the  founder and director of the peace organization, Women Cross DMZ.

Discussed in this Episode: 

-Christine's background and interest in peace activism with a focus on the Korean Peninsula

-The origins and mission of Women Cross DMZ

- The genocidal behavior of the US in the conflict that Americans often call the "forgotten war"

- The need to understand how trauma of US' industrial scale violence still affects the peninsula today

- How should we talk about alleged human rights abuses by the Kim government?

- Sarah Lazare's In These Times article featuring Christine, which discusses feminist imperialism, and why we need to be weary of it

- Christine's article in The Nation, Anti Asian Violence in America is Rooted in US Imperialism

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Justin Podur joined Matt to discuss imperialist propaganda, and how to provide a countervailing narrative.  Dr. Podur is the Associate Professor at York University's Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. He is also the founder of the Anti Empire Project and the host of the  Anti Empire Project Podcast.  Justin is the author of  America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DR Congo, The Path of the Unarmed. and Siegebreakers.

Discussed in this Episode:

- Justin's background, interest in anti-imperialism, and the development of the Anti Empire Project

- Expanding on Justin's Twitter thread about how anti- imperialists within the US empire should speak about the alleged human rights abuses of nations that are official US enemies

- Complicating the traditional narrative on the US role in the Rwandan genocide

- Connecting Justin's work on environmentalism  with his anti-imperialist efforts

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

In the US, it is often taken as fact that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, despite little evidence indicating that this is true, and mountains of evidence to the contrary. This myth has had devastating consequences for the Iranian people due to US sanctions that are justified through the nuclear weapons allegation. Dr. John Ghazvinian rejoined the show  to speak about this topic along with some other misunderstandings that have hindered the Iran-US relationship.  Dr. Ghazvinian is the executive director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the author of Untapped, the Scramble for Africa’s Oil and most recently, America and Iran: A History from 1720 to the Present

Discussed in this Episode:

The Iran-Iraq War-the devastating effects on Iran and the US' involvement

The intricacies of the Iranian political system

Iranian Presidents Ahmadinejad and Khatami, misunderstandings and missed opportunities for peace

Iran's phantom nuclear weapons- and the mountains of evidence that disprove this allegation

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns 

The United States has been at war for nearly every year of its existence. Nearly all of those wars have been offensive in nature. These wars have killed tens of millions of people, and traumatized exponentially more. While this acknowledging that the history of the US military is one of mass murder and devastation, one source of hope is the fact that throughout all of these wars, there has always been members from within the military who have resisted, and sought to undermine the efforts of the war state. Matt was joined by Chris Lombardi to speak about the long history of dissent from within the United States military. Chris is the author author of I ain’t Marchin Anymore,Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors.  She also sits on the board at Center on Conscience and War.

Discussed in this Episode:

-Chris' background in and interest in telling the stories of dissenters from within the military and her work with conscientious objectors

- The connection between domestic oppression and resistance to dissent in the military

- Stories of various forms of resistance across US history from the American Revolution to the War on Terror. 

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

GI Rights hotline

wagingnonviolence.org

Chris' website

Our Work: 

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Jon and Matt were joined by Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi to discuss the history and recent updates in ongoing US, Saudi, and UAE war on Yemen. Dr. Al Adeimi is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University. She also devotes much of her time to activism directed toward ending the genocidal war in Yemen. Her writing can be found at In These Times, and she has made many other media appearances on a variety of platforms including  Democracy Now.

Discussed in this Episode:

-A brief overview of the war and the complicity of the United States

- Trump's designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization and the further human catastrophe that decision could cause 

- The hypocrisy of the US designating the Houthis a terrorist organization while having fought on the same side as al Qaeda in Yemen, Libya, and Syria

- Shireen's recent article in In These Times about Biden's recent announcement about ending US involvement in this war, and why there is cause for both hope and skepticism

- The double standards held by the US that allow Saudi Arabia to get away with (mass) murder 

- Accountability and the forms it could take

- Shireen's outlook for the future of this crisis and lessons she has learned from her past 6 years of activism 

Donate to:

Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

Matt was joined by Janine Jackson for a discussion about the role US media plays in furthering US imperialism and warfare. Janine is a Program Director at the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She is also the producer and Host of the weekly radio show Counterspin

Discussed in this Episode:

- Janine's background, her interest in media criticism, and the mission of FAIR

- The ways by which the US media has become a servant to powerful interests without any need for official censorship. For more on this, check out FAIR's What’s Wrong With the News?

- Assumptions about the United states and other nations that are at the core of US media's coverage of war and empire 

- A case study: US media coverage (and failures) in the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq

- Outlook for media performance in the Biden era, and Janine's recent article, Trump Briefings? Always News. Biden Briefings? Not News.

- The use of sanitizing language to manufacture consent for extremely violent practices such as "targeted sanctions" and "surgical strikes"

- Tips for how to be a critical consumer of US media

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns

The military industrial congressional complex consists of war profiteers, both obvious and less apparent. Matt was joined by Christian Sorensen for a wide ranging conversation about some of the most nefarious aspects of the war industry. Christian is a veteran of the United States Air Force and the author of Understanding the War Industry. He is also a prolific investigator of government contracts offered within the MIC at warindustrymuster.com. 

Discussed in this Episode:

- Christian's background in going from a member of the Air Force to a prolific enemy of the war industry

- The ways in which the war industry influences policy through the use of retired military personnel and lobbying Congress

- The nefarious weaponization of "imperial feminism" to promote war and militarism

- The complicity of mainstream media in promoting war

- Christian's article, Who Are the Ultimate War Profiteers? U.S. Air Force Veteran Removes the Veil, about the lesser known role of the financial industry in propagating US imperial violence

- Christian's list of euphemisms that serve to sanitize the violent behavior of the US empire 

- Responding to critics... is this whole MIC thing a conspiracy theory?

- Christian's and Matt's outlooks for the future

Our Work:

Read our "In the Context of Empire" blog with corresponding and expanded posts to this content!

Matt's related article about imperial euphemisms

Social Media: Twitter- @JonTheContrary and  @Mattylongruns.