This week I was joined by legendary anti-fascist researcher and radio host Dave Emory. We started off the conversation by discussing the surveillance state and its influence on everyday life. Dave and I talked about Silicon Valley and the military and intelligence links behind the creation of the internet. We also touched on Snowden and his mysterious past and connections to right wing figures like Bruce Fein. Later we talked about Tulsi Gabbard and her popularity amongst many on the left. Dave discussed her connections to Chris Butler’s Hare Krishna cult and how this has played a role in many of her political positions. We talked about the racist past of Hare Krishna leader Prabhupada and his admiration of Adolf Hitler. Dave and I also talked about the larger fascist movement with in India known as Hindutva. We ended the conversation by talking about the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez within the Democratic Party. Dave focused on her lack of true substance. He also talked about AOC’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, who was recently in a video wearing a shirt with the image of Indian fascist Subhas Chandra Bose.
Tom Secker and Robbie Martin join me for a very wide ranging discussion on everything from Reality Winner to Dennis Rodman. Tom and I start off the conversation by talking about the Wikileaks Twitter account tweeting about our issue on The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. We talk about the obvious divide right now between Assange and Wikileaks not just in terms of Twitter, but in terms of their media strategy. The three of us then dive into the bizarre case of NSA leaker Reality Winner. We theorize as to whether she is a true leaker, or a truly disgruntled employee. We discuss the possibility that Winner was set up to leak, and if this is really a move by the Trump administration to ward off future potential leakers. Robbie and Tom also touch on the strange behavior of The Intercept and how they mismanaged this entire story and their lack of protection of Reality Winner.
In the second hour we ponder the question as to whether Reality Winner represents a bookend to the celebrity culture of leakers and whistleblowers. We take a close look at Chelsea Manning and her recent media interviews. The three of us talk about the media’s obsession with Manning as a trans celebrity, and the ways in which they have sexualized and fetishized her since her release from prison. We discuss how the media has largely ignored or forgotten the true reasons for why she was imprisoned in the first place: leaking thousands of government documents. We talk about the notion that Bradley Manning and the actions associated with him are now dead and therefore are no longer a topic of discussion among the media. We round out the conversation by talking about Dennis Rodman’s most recent trip to North Korea. We talk about the possibility that Rodman is being used as either a back-channel or some form of intermediary between Kim Jong-Un and US intelligence. Robbie, Tom, and I also touch on the cryptocurrency Potcoin which has sponsored Rodman’s trip to the Hermit Kingdom.
Continuing our review series of the 5th season of Homeland Pearse joined me to discuss the second episode. We dwelt on the coinciding of real news events and storylines and dialogue in Homeland, asking how the show manages to pull this off so consistently. This episode establishes that former CIA black operations officer John MacGaffin is still working on the show, and we expanded on many of the topics from episode 1 – Syria, ISIS, Laura Poitras, the Snowden affair – showing how each real life topic is an explicit inspiration for this fictional series. The conversation also touched on the concept of hyperreality which is as relevant to Homeland as it is to any other TV show out there. We wrap up by asking for more of your comments and predictions for this new season.
In honor of our favorite CIA television show, Homeland, Tom Secker and I have decided to cover every single episode with a separate podcast. We’ll be switching off hosting duties every other week.
In this inaugural episode, we take a brief look back to where all of our favorite characters left off at the end of season 4. Jumping ahead two and a half years, we see that Carrie has left the CIA, Saul has been promoted, and Quinn seems as crazy as ever. Tom and I discuss the new setting of this season, Berlin, and the implications of locating it in Western Europe. We also get into some of the major plot themes being laid out including: Edward Snowden, mass surveillance, ISIS and the threat of Islamic sleeper cells all over Europe. We break down how this season seems geared towards more of a niche audience immersed in the intelligence world, and round out this episode with our predictions for the rest of the season.
Good friend Adam joins us to discuss the 1998 action thriller Enemy of the State, and its unprecedented ‘revelation’ of surveillance technology. We talk about how the film has a rogue’s gallery of technical advisers – including Chase Brandon and Marty Keiser – and how this led to one of the most spectacular depictions of the NSA and the spy state in general. Following from this we analysed the likely purpose in the CIA masking themselves as the NSA in the film, and how this has scuppered the progress of any serious dialogue about mass surveillance.
“The TOR Project promises its users a modicum of privacy protection from would-be information gatherers, both small time crooks and nation-state cyber-security agencies. But do these promises hold up to scrutiny? And who is behind the TOR Project itself? And why did a TOR developer recently doxx a critic on Twitter? Joining us today to dissect this onion stew is Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Review.”
On this week’s episode we peel back some of the layers behind the TOR Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a man at the center of both, John Perry Barlow. We take a look at Tor’s longtime government funding and how this has helped shape the project. We investigate some of the project members such as Jacob Applebaum and Runa Sandvik, both of whom have played up their techno-activist street cred while simultaneously receiving massive salaries from the US government. Lastly, we take a critical look at the founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow, and make the case for his integral partnership in the Snowden/NSA psy-op. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is really going on with the NSA scandal, but hopefully this will open up the door for you to begin investigating for yourself.
Our good friend Tom Secker has recently launched a brand new website called Humanarchy. The site deals with both philosophy and politics, and like all of Tom’s work, will prove to be very interesting and worth your time. The above video is the first open source intelligence broadcast. It deals with the upcoming propaganda film based on Glenn Greenwald’s new book detailing his relationship with Snowden and the leaking of documents he acquired from the so-called whistle blower. As with all of Tom’s work he presents a concise and informative piece that details what is really going on. For the sources that Tom references and more click here.
A newly leaked document from Edward Snowden shows that the NSA uses a persons proclivity for pornography to discredit them. The practice is employed against those that the state believes are “radicalizers”. Of course all of the targets are Muslim, and of course they have minute if not nonexistent ties to terrorism. There is nothing particularly new about this practice. J Edgar Hoover used these very same tactics during his decades long reign as FBI director. Buried deep in this article is a disturbing nugget of information.
Two of the targets chosen to have their porn collections scrutinized are considered radical extremists because they believe that “the U.S. brought the 9/11 attacks on itself” and that “the U.S perpetrated the 9/11 attack.” One of these individuals is a well know celebrity, while the other merely has had his writing featured in jihadist websites. For simply voicing an opinion that the security state doesn’t like (an opinion that is widely held and accepted outside the United States) they are viewed as a serious threat to national security. There is a concerted effort by the security state to stifle any all discussion of alternative conspiracy theories. Either you believe the official conspiracy theory of 9/11, or you will be discredited and publicly humiliated. The targeting of those who espouse alternative views to official conspiracies theories in and of itself is nothing new either. After the JFK assassination the CIA penned a memo to their “media assets” urging them to discredit anyone who questioned the official conspiracy theory as to how Kennedy was murdered.
What is terrifying is that the CIA no longer has to publish secret memos to their media assets. Instead they can simply rely on them to take the stance that questioning 9/11 is obviously “radical” and “extreme.” Gloss it over with the sensationalism of pornography, and most people will either ignore it, or be irritated that the NSA would use ones personal online choice to look at pornography as a weapon. The silver lining of all this is that the truth movement is in fact challenging the power structure of the state. The efforts of individuals to expose the states complicity in 9/11 has obviously had a profound impact on the government. So much so, that they are willing to spend tax dollars trolling a random person’s visits to porn sites, for no other reason than his choice not to believe the official conspiracy theory of
9/11.
Porkins Policy Review 