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Scheer Intelligence: The Powerful Past, Present And Future Of Black Lives Matter

June 19, 2020 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. , , , ,
Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin highlighted the dangers Black children, women and men face daily because of the color of their skin. The grassroots movement has protested against police violence and anti-black racism since then, and advocated for policy changes to address racial injustices. Despite having been active for the better part of a decade now, Black Lives Matter was recently launched into the global spotlight after the police assassination of George Floyd rocked the world.   On this week’s episode of “Scheer Intelligence,” Dr. Melina Abdullah, one of the Black Lives Matter co-founders, tells host Robert Scheer how while BLM had worked hard to raise awareness about the slayings of everyone from Sandra Bland to Eric Garner, the activists did not expect the response to Floyd’s death to be so far-reaching. 

Scheer Intelligence: The Cynical Forces Behind America’s Forever Wars

June 12, 2020 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. , , ,
American interventionism in the Middle East has resulted in two of the longest wars in U.S. history, and led to countless deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as widespread instability in the region. Nearly two decades into the so-called “War on Terror,” concerns continue to arise about the U.S. military presence in the Mideast and its seeming inability to extricate itself after all these years. Patrick Cockburn is especially well-positioned to both ask and answer many of the questions stemming from what have become America’s “Forever Wars” as an award-winning, courageous journalist who has spent several decades reporting for the Financial Times and The Independent from the war torn region.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Larry Wilkerson

June 11, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. , , ,
Powerful.  That’s how I’d describe today’s episode.  A deep dive into the mind of COL(R) Larry Wilkerson, his career as a U.S. Army officer to include combat in Vietnam, his close professional relationship with Colin Powell, his time at the State Department during the Bush II era, his thoughts on various conflicts to include Iraq and Syria, and his thoughts on the murder of George Floyd amidst the COVID-19 era.   Lawrence Wilkerson’s last positions in government were as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff (2002-05), Associate Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs (2001-02). 

Scheer Intelligence: A Global Look At The Virus That Upended The World

May 22, 2020 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. , , ,
Incendiary, often racist theories and news about the coronavirus seem to have spread around the world at nearly the same speed as the virus. Fortunately a new PBS NOVA documentary titled “Decoding Covid-19” offers a humane, global look at the illness that has brought so much of the planet to a grinding halt. Not only does the film feature scientists and medical practitioners, as well families impacted by the disease, but it serves to highlight the international cooperation taking place in an effort to tackle the unprecedented crisis. On this week’s installment of “Scheer Intelligence,” host Robert Scheer speaks with documentary filmmaker Sarah Holt about how she felt while making “Decoding Covid-19” as the crisis unfolded.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

May 19, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. , , ,
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, legendary activist and author of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, stopped by the podcast to discuss her journey to studying and writing about indigenous history, how COVID-19 is impacting Native American communities, and her experiences with firearms, along with its connections to white supremacy and settler colonialism. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian, author, memoirist, and speaker who researches Western Hemisphere history and international human rights. She grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She has been active in the international indigenous movement for more than four decades, and she is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues.

Scheer Intelligence: Big Banks Got The Sweetest Deal From The Covid-19 Bailouts

May 15, 2020 Robert Scheer, Popular Resistance. , , ,
It’s been over a decade since the 2008 banking meltdown, and yet many Americans are still living with the consequences of the financial crisis and the Obama administration’s decision to bailout banks over people with their own tax money. As Covid-19 spread around the world, and the economic impacts of the public health crisis began to take shape, the U.S. government once again faced a similar choice regarding bailouts. This time, Congress passed the CARES Act, which, on paper, aimed to help working people and small business owners most affected by both the virus and the lockdown measures used to combat the crisis, seemingly marking a shift from the 2008 crisis handling. Yet, as banking expert Nomi Prins points out to “Scheer Intelligence” host Robert Scheer in the latest installment of his podcast, banks and large companies are once more taking advantage of a crisis to swindle the public. 

Fortress On A Hill: Rebecca Gordon And American Nuremberg

May 9, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. , , ,
Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular and author of American Nuremberg: The Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post 9/11 War Crimes, stop by the podcast to discuss torture and moral injury in the post 9/11 world, her experiences in Nicaragua and South Africa, how past presidents paved the way for Donald Trump, and over-classication in the intelligence community. Rebecca Gordon received her B.A. from Reed College and her M.Div. and Ph.D. in Ethics and Social Theory from Graduate Theological Union. She teaches in the Philosophy department at the University of San Francisco and for the university’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. Previous publications include Letters From Nicaragua, Cruel and Usual: How Welfare “Reform” Punishes Poor People, and Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Robert ‘Bob’ Scheer Part II

May 2, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress On A Hill. , , ,
Okay, let me answer a question that was raised before we got into this and some of the thoughts that Danny, connected with me, how do you get social change? And what is the role of electoral politics and so forth. And here I will draw upon my 84 years on this earth because I am old, I can remember from my childhood when I was 234 years old, that Roosevelt was not doing enough to get us out of the depression and This was already his second term. And the stuff that he was doing only became because you had the veterans marches. You had trade unions submerging the industrial unions. You had people protesting major Danny said I was a red diaper, baby. Yes. My parents were union activists. My father had been a wobbly. He was something I then he was a social democrat. And then he flirted with a few months with communists or something.

Scheer Intelligence: Coronavirus Proves Capitalism Has Always Been A Lie

May 1, 2020 Robert Scheer, Scheer Post. , , , ,
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause mass death and upheaval around the world, there has been an unexpected side effect: it has unmasked capitalism. In the U.S., this unmasking can be seen in both the Federal Reserve’s actions as well as Congress’ coronavirus aid legislation, the CARES Act, both of which reveal critical truths about an economic system that has been sold to working people as one thing and as quite another to banks and corporations. To shed some much needed light on the intricacies of our financial situation during the latest crisis, “Scheer Intelligence” host Robert Scheer spoke with acclaimed economist and attorney Ellen Brown. There are plenty of parallels to be drawn between the last financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, with the clear exception being that now we’re not just dealing with a broken economy but with a deadly virus.

Fortress On A Hill: Interview With Robert ‘Bob’ Scheer

April 28, 2020 Danny Sjursen, Fortress on a Hill. , , ,
All right, well, hey, listeners, we have another really solid interview today. And I guess we're kind of running the old TruthDig circuit right now. We had Chris Hedges last week, who some of you have probably already listened to that episode, which was was really solid. And now we've got the boss. Although he probably wouldn't like the term, Robert 'Bob' Scheer, who, you know, is senior editor over there, you know, founder, you know, co founder just really started up the whole TruthDig scene. And, and the thing that's interesting about Bob is, you know, we have more than a little of a personal relationship these days, but I'm constantly learning about him. And, you know, I'll mention it, but we just all watched the documentary on bob above the fold. And, you know, I thought I knew everything about him. And I was just totally blown away by some of the aspects of his career.

Scheer Intelligence: Governments Are Using Coronavirus To Usher In A New Era Of Mass Surveillance

April 24, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW.com. , , , ,
On this week’s installment of “Scheer Intelligence,” host Robert Scheer speaks with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Adam Schwartz. The civil rights lawyer, who spent two decades at the ACLU, explains why Americans should be incredibly alarmed at how the pandemic could be used to chip away at whatever is left of their civil liberties under the excuse of contact-tracing.  “You've raised some cautions about the blank check we're giving every government in the world to engage and increase surveillance, to track down people on the contact list, and so forth,” Scheer tells Schwartz, “But what I don't understand is the basic justification of keeping this all secret rather than transparent. Because we don't have an enemy, this ‘invisible enemy’ that Donald Trump talks about, that cares to translate, to read, to break codes.”

Scheer Intelligence: The Power And Pain Of Being Asian American During The Coronavirus Crisis

April 17, 2020 Robert Scheer, ScheerPost.com. , , ,
The coronavirus has turned everyone’s lives upside down, but at the same time Covid-19 threatens us all, Asian Americans have been subjected to another dangerous epidemic: racism. Since news of the novel coronavirus began to spread in the U.S., Asian Americans have been the victims of hate crimes, verbal and physical abuse, and have even had to hear President Donald Trump insultingly call the deadly bug the “China virus” in official White House Press briefings. The targeted prejudice comes at the same time many people of Asian descent are risking their own lives on the medical frontlines to save patients with Covid-19. This week, Asian American foreign policy experts, joined by many others in their community, sounded the alarm about the rising wave of attacks they were facing, writing,

Scheer Intelligence: Coronavirus Has Already Transformed America, For Better And For Worse

April 10, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW. , , ,
In a special edition of “Scheer Intelligence,” host Robert Scheer becomes the guest as filmmaker Stephen French asks for the journalist’s take on the coronavirus crisis. Speaking on the eve of Scheer’s 84th birthday, the “Scheer Intelligence” host draws from lessons learned in his seven decades of reporting to make sense of this unprecedented moment. His two most recent books, “They Know Everything About You” and “The Great American Stickup,” are especially helpful in understanding how governments, as well as financial institutions and private companies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the filmmaker asks him what he thinks about the pandemic sweeping the world, Scheer initially discusses the impact the coronavirus is already having on privacy and civil liberties.

Scheer Intelligence: Even The ICC Can’t Rein In American Exceptionalism

April 3, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW.com. , , ,
In early March, senior judges in the international criminal court ruled that an investigation into the actions the U.S., Afghan and Taliban military committed in 2003 could take place, overturning a previous ruling. Perhaps more remarkable than the fact the ICC, which had earlier assumed such an investigation wouldn’t be possible because none of those implicated would be likely to cooperate, was the U.S. response to the decision.  “This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Although the Trump official’s blatant disparaging of a global justice organization is deeply troubling, American undermining of the ICC predates both Donald Trump’s rise to power and the Afghanistan War.

Sheer Intelligence: Is California About To Execute An Innocent Man?

March 21, 2020 Robert Scheer, Scheer Intelligence. , ,
Three hours and 42 minutes. That's how close Kevin Cooper came in 2004 to being murdered by the state, strapped down to a gurney and poisoned via lethal injection. He had been placed in what he calls a "death chamber waiting room" stripped of his clothes and body searched several times before he was granted a stay of execution. Five years later, in an unprecedented dissent of a ruling denying him a new trial, five federal judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion that began: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." A rash of evidence appeared to substantiate their claim of his likely innocence. In the opinion, Judge William A. Fletcher details multiple Brady disclosures—key information that the prosecution illegally ignored or actively suppressed that could exculpate Cooper.
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