Author: Talia Baroncelli - Page 9

Strategically and Morally Bankrupt: U.S. Policy in the Middle East – Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

ByTalia Baroncelli November 3, 2023December 8, 2023

Retired U.S. Colonel Larry Wilkerson discusses the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bombardment of Gaza and large-scale indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian civilians. He points to state-sanctioned torture and other unlawful acts committed by the U.S. after 9/11 and asserts that the Israeli government is responding to Hamas’ attacks in a similar fashion by wholly disregarding international legal norms. In doing so, Israel is putting its own population at risk, as well as collectively punishing the Palestinians.

U.S. Politics

Christian Nationalism Unleashed in the U.S. Military – Mikey Weinstein

ByTalia Baroncelli October 31, 2023December 5, 2023

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a non-profit organization, explains why proselytizing in the U.S. military is both dangerous and unconstitutional. Christian nationalist and dominionist ideologies are espoused by high-ranking officers in the military, some of whom are involved in nuclear war and military planning. This highly disturbing reality, Mikey argues, is largely ignored by policymakers. As was reported following the U.S. Capitol attack on January 6th, 2021, an unusually high number of those charged in relation to the attack had a military background, and some of them adhered to radical Christian views.

Economy & Work | Environment

BRICS: Talk Left, Walk Right – Patrick Bond (pt 2/2)

ByTalia Baroncelli October 16, 2023November 15, 2023

In part 2, Patrick Bond broadens out his analysis of the BRICS countries engaging in what he terms “talk left, walk right.” He explains the economic theories of “accumulation by dispossession” and refers back to the aims of the Non-Aligned Movement of 1961 and the spirit of the 1955 Bandung Conference.

Palestine/Israel

A Brutal Occupation Begets a Brutal War Between Israel and Hamas – Trita Parsi

ByTalia Baroncelli October 11, 2023November 21, 2023

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, analyzes Iran’s role in supporting Hamas’ brutal coordinated attack on civilians in Israel. Parsi unpacks Palestinian grievances, as well as Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and illegal blockade of Gaza. With host Talia Baroncelli.

Climate Change | Geopolitics

BRICS: An Anti-Imperialist Fantasy and Sub-Imperialist Reality? – Patrick Bond (pt 1/2)

ByTalia Baroncelli October 2, 2023November 9, 2023

Patrick Bond, political economist, Professor of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, and Director of the Centre for Social Change, discusses the recent BRICS summit in Johannesburg. The BRICS countries continue to call for greater representation within Bretton Woods institutions, while their opposition to US-dollar hegemony has been feeble at best. Patrick Bond lays out the complicity of the BRICS and soon-to-be BRICS+ elite in corruption networks as they profit from Big Oil and Gas contracts and accelerate environmental disasters. This is part 1 of 2.

Workers & Unions

UAW: Historic Demand to Eliminate Wage Tiers – Frank Hammer

ByTalia Baroncelli September 25, 2023November 6, 2023

Frank Hammer, former President of United Auto Workers (UAW) local 909 in Detroit and retired GM worker, explains how “legacy” workers are standing up for new hires. This is critical to building working-class solidarity. He also reflects on the history of autoworker strikes in the U.S. and in Mexico, reminding us of the deadly incident at the Ford Cuautitlán plant, in which thugs dressed in Ford uniforms shot dead one of the workers and injured ten others.

Climate Change | U.S. Politics

Climate Lobbyists Hijack Progressive Climate Bills – Rebecca Burns

ByTalia Baroncelli September 15, 2023October 31, 2023

Rebecca Burns, journalist at the investigative news outlet The Lever, discusses her reporting on extensive lobbying efforts to hold up legislation which would require companies to disclose all of their greenhouse gas emissions. In a recent report, she details how the same lobbyists who seek to derail progressive climate legislation in California are also getting paid by counties and cities along the California coast to deal with the impact of coastal erosion and fires.

Asia | Climate Change | Economy & Work

Debt and Climate Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World – Asoka Bandarage

ByTalia Baroncelli August 30, 2023October 24, 2023

Dr. Asoka Bandarage is an adjunct professor at the California Institute for Integral Studies and the author of a new book, Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World. Sri Lanka has had a minuscule carbon footprint, and yet the country is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, coastal erosion, and flooding. She discusses the convergence of existential climate and debt crises in Sri Lanka, the latter resulting from IMF debt restructuring and the lack of a globally coordinated multilateral sovereign debt mechanism that places traditional and private lenders on an equal footing.

Finance | Middle East

Corruption in Lebanon Propped up by the Transnational Capitalist Elite – Nadim Houry

ByTalia Baroncelli August 25, 2023October 20, 2023

Widespread corruption in Lebanon is fostered by the country’s ruling class, whose business interests are enmeshed with those of international finance. Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, explains how Lebanon’s culture of political impunity is tied to the reconstruction agreements put in place in 1990, at the end of the 15-year civil war. The ongoing political deadlock shields the authorities from scrutiny and allows for vulture capitalists such as the former governor of Lebanon’s Central Bank, Riad Salameh, to embezzle the country’s resources. At the same time, ordinary people are faced with crushing inflation.

Big Tech

Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism

ByTalia Baroncelli August 21, 2023October 19, 2023

Justin Joque is a visualization librarian at the University of Michigan and the author of the book Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism. His book examines the statistical models on which our algorithms, machine learning, and financial systems are built, highlighting the mechanisms of abstraction which lend these models an air of misleading objectivity. Can statistical models be used towards emancipatory aims?