Welcome to Mister Swanson’s neighborhood, kinda. On TYR’s Day Michael Swanson returned after a vacation outside of The Asylum we call America to discuss some of the wicked webs of scandals spun around his home state of Virginia and provide his analysis of the political default positions he observes. Michael also talks about the social strategy of tensions that keep being harnessed to stoke fear. White Flight and post-industrial urban consolidation are nothing new even if the T.V. tries to sell it to you as “New and Improved”.
How is the War on Crime going? The first use of a SWAT Team was to attack The Black Panthers. When people speak of the “War On Terror” is there any real way to determine who terrorists are? A City Of Angels and it’s connection to corruption make it the perfect place to imagine the militarized Police forces of the future. Nixon and his “Law and Order” BS TV specials were only hinting at the BS TV yet to some.
In the second hour Red 6 checked in. Pearse Redmond continued the conversation addressing the current disinformation campaigns which merely serve the best interests of the Military Industrial Complex. Is it just about the oil? Is it really all about The Benjamin’s? Is every fear of Latino People been destined to be combined with the Islamist-Fascist narrative?
This week , The author of The War State continues to enlighten us about the complex industrial known as military and a great deal more. A realistic connection relating his Fathers profession to the Swanson perspective is explored. How did Mike get interested in The JFK Assassination? What is the long term trend that drives the greater war machine? Vietnam , The alleged War on Terror , Bystander Nations destroyed? Did the Neo-Cons get the Red White and Blue meat they wanted when the post 9-11 reality took shape? Included in a very special hour and a half here is also a duel reflection on the events of September 11 2001 , From both Mike and Chuck. Plus a lot more http://wallstreetwindow.com/node/13850 Geopolitics Asia Trump Versus Reality … Mike Carries over into the second hour just to cover current events when we are joined by Pearse Redmond
Despite Trumps Sally Field moments , and all the domestic madness that could be covered , Chuck and Pearse close out the show Unpacking Africa , and Chinese Diplomacy alongside the debacle of Saudi Arabia , Yemen and other dirty wars against the backdrop of The Newest Trump normal and the seemingly eternal paradigm brought to you by the customers who buy into the alleged War On Terror. Pearse is under the weather a bit , but shows he is a trooper. All this while NYC Selects it’s latest Mayor and we don’t touch upon that Hot Mess. Chuck Also explains that Pearse is the perfect second hour man on Tuesdays…
Hour 1 The Author of “The War State” Michael Swanson continues the series of critiques regard the Ken Burns Documentary on Vietnam. The domestic unrest of 1967 and the how and why of the rise of the anti-war movement itself was the main topic. Has COINTELPRO become reborn? Is Jeff Sessions running Drug War 2.0 ? Is the script of a documentary only important in that you must keep the viewer awake ? Are there better films for one to get a realistic portrait of Vietnam ? Is Burns making a point or just putting his audience to sleep? Should we even take all the air time that we have dissecting this series? Chuck and Mike suggest films that WON’T waste your time. Hearts and Minds , Fog Of War , and Winter Soldier make the list among others.
Hour 2 Pearse Redmond joins us to break down much of the current media chaos caused by the Trump era of alternative facts and brush fire war with the truth, good taste and anything thing that once was the artist formerly known as America. The host of Porkins Policy Radio and Chuck attempt to keep pace with the madness. Vietnam War Racket Raqqa Rolling Thunder ? is history repeating itself or simply stuttering? Can anyone keep up? If people keep saying things are getting better , does it count? Who’s cooking for Putin? As The People of Puerto Rico suffer , Trump complains they haven’t helped themselves? Wars and Rumors of Wars? Wars of Rumors , and Fake News as described by…?
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.
Intelligence circles in the Middle East are abuzz with news of a mysterious website that appears to offer substantial financial rewards in exchange for information about alleged members of militant group Hezbollah. The website, located at stop910.com, describes its mission as helping end “Hezbollah-perpetrated terrorism in Lebanon and abroad”. It specifically targets the Lebanese group’s Unit 910, believed to be tasked with international operations, including intelligence gathering from around the world. Hezbollah is a Shiite militant group and political party that controls large swathes of Lebanese territory. It was founded in 1985 in response to the invasion of southern Lebanon by the Israel Defense Forces. It is largely funded by Iran and in recent years has come out in support of the Syrian government in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. Much of the stop910.com website consists of dozens of photographs of alleged Hezbollah operatives. Some are identified by name or alias, but the website asks for further information on them, including their real name, primary residence and telephone numbers or email accounts associated with them. Other photographs show images of unidentified individuals, whom the website describes as suspects known to be members of Hezbollah’s Unit 910. Next to each photograph, the website provides an allegedly secure link, which visitors can use to upload information and request payment. The website, which is currently blocked by most Lebanese Internet service providers, claims to represent an alliance of Western intelligence organizations. But McClatchy Newspapers contacted two Western intelligence officials who said the website was almost certainly an Israeli effort to gather information on Hezbollah activities. The United States-based news agency said it spoke to an unnamed “official based in Beirut […], who works for a European intelligence service”. The official told McClatchy that he had seen the website and “wondered why they [the Israeli intelligence services] lied” about who was behind the project. The news agency spoke to another unnamed “intelligence official based in Europe”, who dismissed the project as bad spy tradecraft. “I can’t believe this thing […], it’s very foolish”, he said. And he added: “it actually contains a significant amount of raw intelligence that would be literally illegal for American or European services to release to the public without the highest level of clearance”. The unnamed intelligence official continued: “now anyone can go online and get an idea of how much information we or the Israelis have on some of these guys”.
The war in Syria has now become a serious regional conflict. The US/Saudi/Qatari/Turkish backed FSA has begun a campaign against Hezbollah. This is a terrifying escalation of an already highly escalated conflict. The situation is further compounded by the fact that Hezbollah is a partner in the current coalition government in Lebanon. The FSA has in essence declared war on Lebanon. No doubt this will only add to more bloodshed and further destabilization of the region as a whole. The logic of the FSA seems rather misplaced. Hezbollah is a very sophisticated resistance group; not like the disorganized FSA which has had to rely on foreign jihadist fighters to do most of the frontline fighting. The FSA may be hedging it’s bet that soon the EU will declare the Shiite group a “terrorist” organization as per the request of America and Israel, thus making intervention seem more palatable for western citizens.
Porkins Policy Review 