EDITOR—Because of his apparent “reasonableness” in matters concerning Russia, the Ukraine War, and the Middle East, John Mearsheimer seems to many to be a public intellectual deserving of wide respect and credibility, says Garland Nixon, but such a view would be wrong. For Mearsheimer is just another Neocon, albeit a Neocon whose predilect bogeyman is China, the most dangerous of all possible US adversaries. Listen carefully to this talk by Garland analysing how a confrontation with China could easily get out of hand and escalate to all-out nuclear war, and you will see why Mearsheimer may be much more toxic than even John Bolton or Victoria Nuland, both chiefly obsessed with Russia.
-
-
DEMOCRACY NOW—We speak with renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé about his recent trip to the United States, when he was interrogated for two hours by federal agents upon arrival at Detroit airport about his political views on Gaza, Hamas and Israel, as well as demanding to know whom he knew in U.S. Muslim, Arab and Palestinian communities. Pappé was only allowed to enter the country after agents copied the contents of his phone. “They refused to tell me why they stopped me,” he says. Pappé, author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, also discusses the Nakba, growing support for Palestinian rights, and why he believes “the collapse of the Zionist project” is imminent.
-
BILLY BOB—Despite Mearsheimer’s eminent reputation, the tremendous respect which he commands, and his accurate and scathing indictment of Western foreign policy, his framework is surprisingly shallow and lacking in even a basic grasp of “how the world actually works”. Why do I say this and what do I mean? For starters, Mearsheimer is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who seemingly has never even heard of the concept of class. There are innumerable instances throughout history of seemingly inexplicable behavior that the lens of liberalism is incapable of explaining. Only when one adopts the lens of oppositional class interests and class struggle does history even begin to make any sense. The same is true regarding contemporary reality.
-
EDITOR—We are revolted by Bill Maher’s vile trajectory from mildly progressive but usually funny comedian to his current incarnation as an insidious and mostly unfunny defender of a rotten global imperialist status quo, with emphasis on the defence of the morally bankrupt Zionist entity. So we are happy to see Kyle Kulinski, an ambitious liberal (and current Krystal Ball’s team-mate) take Maher to the woodshed, which he richly deserves. But we hold no long-term hope of consistent leftism for Kulinski, who, as a liberal, and often comfortable establishmentarian celebrity, may disappoint us sooner than we expect.
-
EDITOR—Episode 77 of Blowback: Exposing Imperial Decline with special guests Dust James and Greg Rosen.
The roundtable discusses the most recent developments in the global battle between Russia and its Eurasian allies and the collective West, the latter representing the dying values of exploitative hierarchy, hegemony, colonialism and imperialism at any cost. The world is quickly approaching flashpoints where tactical nukes could be employed, something that could easily happen in both the Ukraine and Middle East, where the main problem is the uncontrolled and depraved conduct of the Israelis, currently celebrating the start of their offensive on Rafah. The panel also weighs the honesty or dishonesty of US attempts to restrain Israel from committing further acts of genocide on helpless Palestinians.
