Moderate Rebels

Ben Norton speaks with Venezuelan journalist Diego Sequera, from inside Caracas, about the US blockade, the Biden administration's continued recognition of puppet Juan Guaidó, and Washington's gangster-like theft.

This is part 1 of our lengthy livestream with Diego: youtube.com/watch?v=WlRl0ZVUrHE

Diego's website Misión Verdad: misionverdad.com

Follow Diego on Twitter: twitter.com/QueraElse

Max Blumenthal speaks with Ben Norton, who is reporting from Ecuador, on the historic February 7 election, and how the US government, regime-change networks, and wealthy oligarchs are trying to prevent the return of the socialist Citizens' Revolution movement of former President Rafael Correa.

We discuss the fake NGO "left," represented by coup-supporting pseudo-environmentalist candidate Yaku Pérez, and how a victory of leftist Andrés Arauz could help bring back the progressive, anti-imperialist Pink Tide in Latin America.

Ben and Max speak with peace activist David Swanson about the US wars coming home: from the prolonged military occupation of Washington, DC to the "liberal interventionist" hawks in the Joe Biden administration, including Antony Blinken, Samantha Power, Lloyd Austin, and Avril Haines.

We speak with former CIA analyst-turned-dissident Ray McGovern about the institutions that truly govern the United States, comprising the MICIMATT, or Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank Complex.

We discuss how the CIA popularized the "conspiracy theory" smear to discredit US government critics, as well as Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol riot, Russiagate lies and the DNC "hack," JFK, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, the new cold war on Russia and China, and the Joe Biden administration.

Ben Norton speaks with Professor Jared Ball about political prisoner Julian Assange, and how the UK judge blocked extradition due to the horrific conditions of US mass incarceration, while also justifying CIA spying by citing a bogus CNN report based on CIA spying. Then we discuss the liberal war hawks in the Joe Biden administration and their "intersectional imperialism."

Follow Jared Ball's show IMIXWHATILIKE at imixwhatilike.org.

Ben Norton speaks with Professor Jared Ball about information warfare, war propaganda, US imperialism, and CIA penetration and manipulation of mainstream corporate media.

Follow Jared Ball's show IMIXWHATILIKE at imixwhatilike.org

In Caracas, Venezuela, Max Blumenthal has a wide-ranging chat with Danny Shaw, a professor of Latin American and Caribbean studies who has lived in the Dominican Republican, Haiti, and Brazil. They discuss revolutionary anti-imperialist movements, life in poor neighborhoods in the Bronx, Malcolm X's internationalist legacy, identity politics, differences of whiteness in Latin America, problems with the US left, and humanity's age-old question: did Jesus Christ do drugs?

You can follow Danny Shaw on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dannyshawcuny

Max Blumenthal, reporting from Venezuela, discusses with Aaron Maté and Ben Norton how Western corporate media outlets are full of stenographers for spy agencies, how the CIA and MI6 drive reporting on Russia, how the US and UK governments fund regime-change website Bellingcat and its deceptive articles on Syria and the OPCW, and how the British military censors journalism.

(Excerpt from The Grayzone livestream on December 19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBfEWdh_0Ec)

Max Blumenthal discusses life on the ground in Venezuela under suffocating US sanctions, and debunks media myths about the December National Assembly election, which he observed. Venezuelan journalist Diego Sequera also addresses the economic situation and what a Biden administration policy could look like.

(This is an excerpt from The Grayzone livestream on December 19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBfEWdh_0Ec)

Our previous interview with Diego Sequera: part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph7jVQf5DSQ / part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OsvbjnTbGc

Ben Norton was invited to give this talk on US imperialism in Latin America, for the Workers' Party of Ireland. He discusses the history from European settler colonialism, through the Monroe Doctrine, the first cold war, and the three great socialist revolutions, to the 21st-century resurgence of the left in the Pink Tide.

VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=ycFW7pvu51k

Topics 0:03 European settler colonialism in the Americas 9:30 US colonialism and Monroe Doctrine 18:51 Rebellions against US military occupations 24:43 First cold war and OAS 27:10 Latin American left's 3 great revolutions 38:23 Pink Tide and socialism in the 21st century

Q&A 1:01:57 Mexico and AMLO 1:13:00 White supremacy and political construction of the West 1:18:07 US military presence in Latin America 1:22:40 Ecuador and Lenin Moreno 1:29:13 Russia and China relations in Latin America 1:39:02 Climate change, oil, extractivism, and renewable energy 1:48:14 Outro