Month: April 2023

Prigozhin’s Call to End the War is Actually a Call to Rise Up From a Temporary Defeat as a “War Monster” 

We begin with the essay titled, “Only an Honest Fight: No Negotiations”, from the head of the Wagner mercenaries who appears to be calling for Russia to end the war in Ukraine now but Prigozhin is actually calling on Russia ahead of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to either defeat Ukraine or suffer a temporary Russian defeat that will catalyze the rebirth of Russian nationalism so that the “war monster” will rise again and the international community will bow down to Russia. Joining us is Robert Young Pelton, an author, filmmaker, journalist, and explorer. He is the publisher of Dangerous magazine and has a first-hand perspective on the war on terror from direct contact with the world’s most infamous jihadi, rebel and insurgent groups. His books include: The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, Three Worlds Gone Mad, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror and his autobiography, The Adventurist. Earlier in the year he visited the entire front in Ukraine.

Our Zombie National Security State Transitions From “Forever War” to Eternal War

Then we examine the leak of secrets from the $100 billion intelligence establishment which generates mountains of classified information along with the $886 billion defense budget that is actually over a trillion which has transformed the “forever war” into an era of eternal war. Joining us is Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, an international studies fellow at the New America foundation, a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the editor-in-Chief of the CNS Soufan Group Morning Brief and The Aon Cyber Brief. She is the author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, and her latest book, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump. We will discuss her article at Tom Dispatch, “Will It Never Stop? From Forever War to Eternal War.”

As the Government Collects More Data Than in the Course of Human History, Deep State Conspiracies Flourish

Then finally we explore the erosion of privacy from surveillance capitalism along with the US government that has been collecting and storing more data since 2000 than in the entire previous course of humanity. Joining us is Kerry Howley, a feature writer at New York magazine and the author of Thrown, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and pick for best-of-the-year lists in Time, Salon, Slate, and many other venues. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, Best American Sportswriting, The New York Times Magazine, and Harper’s. A Lannan Foundation Fellow, her latest book, just out, is Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State.