Fight the Empire

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Every first and third Wednesday from 9:00 AM to 9:30 AM. 

 

 

Connecting history with the latest world events

We live in an empire that began 500 years ago with the European conquest of the Americas. This program looks at how the empire permeates our lives.

 

What are we doing in the world? What are we doing to the world?

George Kennan was an influential US diplomat during the Cold War years. It was he who devised the containment strategy against the Soviet Union (as opposed to a more aggressive rollback policy). In February 1948 Kennan presented a document to President Truman, Presidential Policy Statement #23, which includes the following:

"The US has  50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which permits us to maintain this position of disparity...To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives.

"We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans the better."

Some have claimed that Kennan was speaking as a foreign policy "realist," and arguing against an ideological anti-Communist crusade. That may be so, but his words are clear, as Noam Chomsky has pointed out. The US intends to keep for itself an unfair share of the world's resources. The main difference between the realists and the ideologues is one of tactics in pursuing this ignoble goal.

 

 

 

 

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Michael Hudson looks at lender fraud, corruption

Airs at: Thu, 09/15/2011 at 10:00am - 10:30am
Produced for Fight the Empire
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Host Per Fagereng interviews Michael Hudson, Staff Writer at iWatch News about the legacy of corruption that still plagues Bank of America and a pattern of fraud at Countrywide Financial Corp., once the nation’s largest mortgage lender. Michael Hudson covers business and ... Read more

Libya: Qaddafi, the neighborhood bully? NATO, the mafia?

Airs at: Thu, 09/15/2011 at 12:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
 Per Fagering connecting history with the latest world events focusses on Libya, and ponders "Who's worse, the local thug or a shadowy organization with tentacles everywhere?"  He starts out with an article from Afro: "Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Gue... Read more

The S&P Downgrade--insider trading? Who benefits?

Airs at: Thu, 09/01/2011 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
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 "Titanic Battle or Insider Trading? The S&P Downgrade and the Bilderbergers: All Part of the Plan?" Host Per Fagereng interviews Ellen Brown, author of "Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth about Our Money System and How We Can Break Free (Revised and Updated)" about her recen... Read more

Stephen Glain: "State vs. Defense, the Battle to Define America's Empire"

Airs at: Thu, 08/18/2011 at 12:00am
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Per Fagering hosts Stephen Glain, author of State vs. Defense,  the Battle to Define America's Empire,  described as a masterful account of how sixty years of American militarism created the Cold War, fanned decades of unnecessary conflict, helped to fuel Islamist terror, a... Read more

The debt ceiling fiasco: an update with economist Richard D. Wolff

Airs at: Thu, 08/04/2011 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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Economist Richard D. Wolff returns to Fight the Empire with an update on the debt ceiling fiasco. (Host Per Fagereng also hosted Wolff 2 weeks ago on 7/21/11.)  Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught econom... Read more

Richard Wolff on The Economy and the Capitalist Crisis

Airs at: Thu, 07/21/2011 at 9:00am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng hosts a special one-hour Fight the Empire show with economist Richard Wolff on the economy and the global capitalist crisis. Your calls welcome at 503 231-8187. Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst wher... Read more

Peter Bergen on his recent book “The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda”

Airs at: Thu, 07/07/2011 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Peter Bergen is the national security analyst for CNN. In his recent book The Longest War, Bergen writes that Osama bin Laden fell victim to hubris. With his 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center, according to Bergen, bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization over-reached and... Read more

Afghanistan Present and Future; Talk Radio

Airs at: Fri, 06/24/2011 at 12:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Host Per Fagereng interviews Professor Zaher Wahab and journalist Gareth Porter about Afghanistan, Obama's announcement about troops there, and the future of the country. Zaher Wahab is Professor of Education at Lewis and Clark College and a native of Afghanistan. Dr. Wa... Read more

Matthew Fox on the Pope's War

Airs at: Thu, 06/16/2011 at 9:30am - 10:00am
Produced for Fight the Empire
Matthew Fox, a Roman Catholic liberation theorlogian, was silenced by the church but he refused to stay silent. In his latest book, The Pope's War, he discusses the new Inquisition of Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Bnedict. We also talk about the suspicious death of John Paul... Read more

Fight the Empire on 06/02/11, interview with Michael Shermer

Airs at: Thu, 06/02/2011 at 9:30am - 10:00am
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The Believing Brain—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths Host Per Fagereng interviews Michael Shermer, author of numerous books including the most recent, "The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and... Read more