The Trump triad

January 23

GUEST: Emma Briant, an academic at Bard College who specializes in propaganda and the workings of Cambridge Analytica, talks about her research in identifying the secret techniques being used to influence public opinion.

Cambridge Analytica, how I peered inside the propaganda machine

Our world is now full of tiny data bits, being collected silently by our ever present electronic devices. Using AI (artificial intelligence) this data is reorganized into a whole for each person on earth, and then used to predict and to influence their behavior.

In effect, each of us is put into a predefined category of people, like the results of a Myers Briggs personality assessment.  From there, test are run to determine how best to control the things we do or believe in. The "dark triad" category represents the most vulnerable type of people to work with, and Cambridge Analytical limited their efforts in the 2016 presidential race to this group.

In psychology, the dark triad refers to the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. They are called "dark" because of their malevolent qualities.

This does sounds like your typical Trump voter, motivated by fear, greed and malice for all. Send them a hate message about Blacks or immigrants, and they will go running off to the polls to choose their favorite hater in chief. In fact, Trump is the most recognizable manifestation of the dark triad, from his self absorption to his endless preoccupation with crazy conspiracy theories. And for sheer malevolence? Perhaps the dark triad should be renamed the Trump triad.

But this takes us away from the real problem with these techniques. Potentially, this technology can know us better than we know ourselves, and in so doing can pull our strings without us even realizing how we are being manipulated. That is the brave new world that we must learn to understand and to resist.

Bard College does not like interview of two students

Malia,

Thanks for your comments on the recent interview with two Bard Students. Thanks for listening!

Would you mind if we read part of your email on the air?

The fact that Al Quds comes up at all seems to be a red herring. The issue is whether students who protest a racist speaker on campus have a right to express themselves during a public presentation.

Reading a short statement from the audience seems more like a courageous thing to do rather than a gross transgression of student regulations. Would such behavior at a KKK event on campus bring out similar official condemnation? 

Bard would never invite a member of the KKK to speak on campus? Why then did Bard allow a known racist to be part of a panel on antisemitism?

Bard's connection with Al Quds is an admirable initiative, not a get out of jail card for oppressing students' freedom of expression on campus. Yet every letter about the incident I read from Bard College includes a rather long section on Al Quds. That to me is bizarre, and suggests the use of Al Quds as a public relations strategy. 

As "Chief of Staff & VP for Strategy and Policy," isn't that a little too transparent for the educated public you are trying to influence? 

Perhaps we can have both: praise for Bard's link with a Palestinian University, and praise for Students For Justice in Palestine reading a statement about racism and Islamophobia at a public event. 

Fred Nagel
https://classwars.org

On Jan 29, at  3:38 PM Jan 29, Malia Du Mont <mdumont@bard.edu> wrote:

Dear Fred, Eli, and Raphaelle,

I recently became aware of your program and of an interview you conducted with two Bard students in December.

I was surprised that the subject of Bard's enormous investment in Palestinian education did not come up during the interview, so I wanted to share some information about our work at Al Quds Bard College, the largest American-Palestinian educational collaboration. Our work with the Palestinian Authority, now in its 11th year, includes a BA program and a Master of Arts in Teaching program in the West Bank that we are also working to expand to refugee camps in Jordan. No other American institution of higher education has worked as long or as closely on the ground to advance the cause of liberal arts education for Palestinian students. We have deep and enduring relationships with our colleagues at Al Quds, whose students receive Bard degrees.

I found it bizarre and deeply unfortunate that, during your interview, the students cited Leon Botstein's stint almost a decade ago as an orchestra conductor in Israel as evidence that Bard College has Zionist leanings, but they elected not to mention the fact that Palestine's first and largest liberal arts college is a Bard institution and an integral part of the Bard network, and that no other American institution of higher education has prioritized and invested in the cause of Palestinian education to the extent that Bard has. This omission likely created a significant misapprehension of the nature of Bard's engagement in the Middle East among your listeners. Therefore, I wanted to make sure that you are aware of the scope and impact of Bard's work in Palestine. We are dedicated first and foremost to our mission as an educational institution, expanding access to underserved populations around the world.

I hope you find this information helpful. Thank you for engaging with our students and faculty members on important issues.

Best,
Malia


Malia K. Du Mont '95
Chief of Staff & VP for Strategy and Policy
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson NY 12504
office: 845-758-7800/ cell: 845-891-3113
mdumont@bard.edu

Jailing a man for filming a murder

January 16

GUEST: Elias Holtz, a freelance television producer and queer organizer with The #BradleyPride NYC Coalition and The Freedom Socialist Party, talks about police violence and the story of Ramsey Orta, who was prosecuted and imprisoned for videotaping the murder of Eric Garner.

Plan to establish the Elected Civilian Review Board

Reading about the harassment of Ramsey Orta after he filmed the murder of Eric Garner is like taking a peek at some fascist regime of the 1930s. The NYC cops could not be controlled. Ramsey had videotaped one of their members choking a Black man laying on the sidewalk. Viewers could even hear the dying man pleading, "I can't breath."

At first it was shining spotlights into Ramsey's home and stopped people coming in and out of his house. Pretty soon it escalated to arresting him for various crimes. He was jailed at least eight times in fewer than two years before any of the charges stuck. Were the guns and drugs planted on him? In a white world, such things don't happen. But for Ramsey Orta and Eric Garner, their skin color determines whether they are treated with justice or not.

Ramsey finally made a number of plea deals, mostly to free his mother and his brother who had also been arrested. But once in jail, the harassment got even worse. Continually targeted for petty infractions, Ramsey has spent much of his prison time in solitary confinement.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-attempt-ramsey-orta

Elias talked with us about the critical fight to empower communities to combat police abuse. The effort is being organized by the NYC Campaign for an Elected Civilian Review Board and a Special Prosecutor (ECRB). These are grassroots coalitions, led by the Freedom Socialist Party, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and family members of several police victims.

For more information, visit stoppoliceviolencenyc.org.

The religion of empire

January 9

Eli and Fred spend part of the hour on the US Empire: what it has done to other countries since WW II, why both political parties can't really oppose it, and why most Americans can't even conceive of it. Confronted by the good possibility of another war in the Middle East, it is time to be honest about what empire means in the "Land of the Free."

World Beyond War

Yes, we spent a good deal of time exploring the way we felt about our country. Each new war crime makes us realize how far away we are from the country we had grown up believing in. Even after the Vietnam War, I held onto the convenient assumption that my country just made some mistakes in judgment. The Land of the Free just got confused, and we didn't really mean to kill two or three million Vietnamese.

Living with that assumption is hard enough. It became even more difficult when I saw my country doing the same things in Latin America in the 1980s. This time, I couldn't avoid seeing the structural problems of my beloved homeland. There was racism at home, and imperialism abroad, all fed by the never ending lust for profit. A blood lust really, since those elites at the very top have always known that empire requires brutal and savage behavior.

Most good Americans are much better than that. If they knew what went on in the Third World, they would be horrified. It helps to have been in the US Army stationed in Korea. Racism and brutality are always part of a military occupation. And when a country has 800 military bases in the rest of the world, it ends up spilling blood in so many places.

Savage capitalism is the religion of the empire, and its sacrificial victims are always black or brown. 

Hi Fred, Eli, and Raphaelle,

I'm a fan of your show but have never gotten in touch before. I'm sure you're all following the Iran situation. A few thoughts have come to me, inspired by listening to your show:

- The Times, the Post, and NPR are all repeating the Trump administration's claim that Soleimani was planning an attack on the U.S. While there's no way for the media to know for sure whether this is true--it could be--none of the media outlets are even raising the possibility that this claim might be a lie. They're not voicing any scepticism. Given the Gulf of Tonkin affair, the Bush administration's lies that Iraq was involved in 9/11 and had WMDs, and the revelations of the Afghanistan Papers, how can any self-respecting editorial board not at least raise the possibility that the administration is lying in order to rally the public around the flag with a war prior to an election, and to deflect attention away from impeachment? It seems that even "liberal" media outlets are willing to set aside their differences with the Trump administration when it comes to propping up American imperialism and the military-industrial complex. No surprise to listeners of your show. 

- Let's assume for a moment that an attack on the U.S. was planned by Iran and that the U.S. action was preemptive. I remember the debate during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The debate was over whether a preemptive strike is acceptable, ethical, or rational. The debate has changed greatly since then: That a preemptive strike is warranted is no longer a matter of debate. Again, none of the editorial sections of the major news outlets are debating whether a preemptive strike is acceptable. I see this change as another step down the road--which we have been on since the end of the Second World War--towards brainwashing the public into accepting permanent war. 

Keep up your important work on the air!

Best,

Steve
Beacon, NY

The sorrows of empire

January 2

GUEST: Tarak Kauff, US Army Veteran, Editor of "Peace in Our Times, and board member of Veterans for Peace, talks about his history of organizing nonviolent direct action for peace in Washington DC, Korea, Okinawa, and Ireland.

No Country For Old Men: Two US Veterans Go MIA in Ireland

After a number of nonviolent direct actions at the White House, New York City, Korea, Okinawa and the West Bank, Tarak met his match in Ireland. The Irish people got his message against US imperialism, at least 8 month of it because the Irish government wouldn't let these two vets, Tarak and Ken, go back home.

Tarak, a perpetual optimist, thinks that his extended visit was a window of opportunity. The vets spent two weeks in jail, but the rest of the time marching, holding banners and passing out flyers in this "neutral" country.

So if Ireland is in fact neutral, why are US troops bound for the Middle East stopping at Shannon Airport? It is not that the Republic of Ireland doesn't know about colonialism. The Irish people will always remember the centuries they spent under the boot of an occupying army, intent on robbing and humiliating them. Why would this proud country help in the invasion and occupation of the Middle East?

Tarak and Ken went about the countryside asking that question. Maybe it is a question that should be asked in more countries. Since World War II, the US has overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 84 elections and attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders. We have bombed people in over 30 countries. With 800 overseas bases, we are the world's most active killing machine. At least that is what the vast majority of earth's citizens think; they consistently name America as the biggest impediment to peace in the world.

The rest of the world gets it, of course. Tarak and Ken spent eight months in Ireland trying to educate the American people. The empire will continue until US citizens put a stop to it by getting rid of the two war parties and starting a national media that respects human rights over Wall Street profits. Only then will the sorrows of empire cease. 

Turning back the clock on our global warming end-times

December 26

GUEST: Robert Connors, founding member of “Community Advocates for a Sustainable Environment," co-founder of “Stop NY Fracked Gas Pipeline,” and founding member of “Community Advocates for a Sustainable Environment," talks about grassroots activism versus the neoliberal fossil fuel industry. 

Stop Fracked Gas Pipeline

Hard to kill a very bad idea like fracking. Hard if that idea is making a lot of money for some elite investors and unethical banks. That's the way it is, and most of us can see it quite clearly in this year of 2020 vision.

Nuclear energy had the same problem. Investors and banks poured money in, the governmental regulators looked the other way, and our media rolled over and died, like the animals around Chernobyl or Fukushima. Like the people.

In fact, petroleum has always attracted the worst of the worst when it comes to human scum. Whether they are polluting Africa, poisoning the atmosphere or buying up our politicians, these investor criminals have always been intent on destroying the world around them for their filthy billions.

People like Robert Connors eschew purple prose; they just organize their grassroots communities to keep the poisons out. They attend meetings, research scientific papers, write letters to the local editors, and sometimes get arrested for standing in the way. Can people like Connors stop the pillage of the world around us? Can they turn the clock back on our global warming end-times?

Join the picket line for your species. 

Taking the resistance to the next level

December 19

GUEST: Creek Iversen, naturalist, environmental educator, summer camp co-coordinator, and sustainable community farmer, talks about the resistance to the massive Cricket Valley fracked gas plant being built in Dutchess County, NY.

Cricket Valley Shut Down

It was a cold day to be at the top of an enormous fracking plant tower. Yet Creek and several other activists held their ground, delaying for another day the construction of the largest frack gas plant in New York State.

Plants like this will spew climate killing gases into the atmosphere for the next several decades, insuring that disasters like the conflagration of Australia will be happening all over the word. The pipelines supplying this plant are almost as bad. They are huge and accident prone due to poor government regulations. Not only do they jeopardize farms and small towns, but larger spills can mean the death of regional aquifers that serve millions of people.

Fracking is fossil fuels gone mad. At the bottom of all this are the neoliberal criminals intent on squeezing the last dollar out of their poisonous investments. I like to think that some day, as our world collapses around us, these CEOs will be dragged out of their gated communities to face justice.

In the meantime, let's congratulate people like Creek Iversen who has taken the resistance to the next level.   

Campus president employed by the State of Israel

December 12

GUESTS: Two students from Bard College talk about their participation in a Students for Justice in Palestine rally and how the college as well as some outside hate organizations are trying to undermine their freedom of speech on Palestinian rights.

SJP Bard College

The war against free speech is heating up again on campuses, including at Bard College. Supposedly known for its "liberal" atmosphere, Bard has been threatening students with disciplinary action after a campus rally for Palestinian rights.

My heart goes out to these students. Despite worries about their academic status on campus and about career opportunities after graduation, they simply forge ahead and do the right thing. They and their group, Students for Justice in Palestine, rallied against a Zionist speaker with a long history of racist statements. They held up protest signs in the audience. Now the college accuses them of being anti-Semites.

We covered a lot of areas in the interview. I hadn't know that the campus president was also employed by the State of Israel (Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra). I was also unaware of the financial pressures that Bard was under, making the college even more hesitant to allow a voice for Palestinians on campus. Some well connected Zionist alums had supposedly demanded that the Students for Justine in Palestine be disciplined.

One of the two students is Jewish, and his expression of solidarity with the Palestinian cause was quite moving. It's a good interview in that it gives listeners an inside look at campus censorship and the resistance against apartheid Israel.