Scheer Intelligence (Scheerpost)

Robert Scheer sits down with longtime Californian politician Zev Yaroslavsky to discuss his decades-long career and his take on the presidential election.

Greg Sarris, Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, explores the urgent need for an American future rooted in indigenous knowledge. 

The Rev. Madison Shockley discusses the historical, political and controversial misconceptions of the Christmas story.

Robert Scheer sits down with former congressman and current head of the California Democratic Party, John Burton.

The legendary chef and proponent of the slow food movement discusses her influences and her newest book.

Any urban street in America is guaranteed to be lined with popular fast food chains, the readily available nature of their products being the main attraction, with people barely giving a thought to the process behind getting the food from the farm to the table — or more likely, the take-out box. 

Joining host Robert Scheer on this week’s Scheer Intelligence are two people who dedicated their recent film, “Food and Country,” to understanding this process behind food in the United States and how big business, as usual, has almost complete control of the system. Renowned former food critic for the La Times and New York Times, former editor of Gourmet magazine, author of cookbooks and memoirs and PBS food guru, Ruth Reichl and film director Laura Gabbert discuss some of the key takeaways from the film.

Gabbert asserts that big agriculture’s firm grasp on the industry is where the problems begin. Its lobby is amongst the biggest and Gabbert explains that there is no incentive to try and remedy the problems that come from this monopolization of an industry so essential to human survival. “I think that is really the crux of the whole problem, is money in politics,” Gabbert says.

Reichl takes it back to what happened after World War II and how the U.S. government made an attempt to fight communism by cheapening the food making process, which turned farms into factories. “Almost everything that's wrong with America comes from that policy. We've destroyed our health, our environment, our communities,” Reichl tells Scheer.

The heart of their story lies with the farmers themselves, and how, despite being in charge of the most important aspect of human survival, they still tend to struggle the most in society. Reichl explains their significance in the film, stating, “I just wanted for us to be able to listen to their stories that they tell themselves about what has happened to them and what the American system has done to them.”

Check out the film’s website here for screening information.

Short Description: The active duty Army Officer discusses his time as a soldier and his critical views on the US Military.

The 1960s represented a pivotal time in American history, one that embodied vast change and influence in shaping what the country has become. From the Civil Rights movement to the Vietnam War to the moon landing, society was in a period of steadfast innovation, self reflection and self determination. The specter of death, however, could not escape the memory of the time, including the deaths of the millions of civilians and soldiers in Southeast Asia and the thousands of victims of racial violence. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X and Robert Kennedy delivered a resounding blow to the trajectory of these movements and ultimately, the direction of the United States.

Joel Whitney, the author of “Finks,” joins Robert Scheer to discuss a little-told episode in the socialist actor and singer’s life and why it’s seemingly been erased from our collective memory.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation, remembers the Russian leader—whom she called a friend—as a committed pro-peace thinker, on this week’s “Scheer Intelligence.”

Bill McKibben, the “world’s best green journalist” says it may be too late to save the planet, but that doesn’t seem to keep tech barons and the rest of the uber-rich up at night.

Raised in privilege amidst the barbarism of segregation, the oft-maligned president eventually embraced the New South liberalism that just swept his native Georgia’s election.

The U.S. withdrew its troops and with them all humanitarian aid while freezing Afghanistan’s foreign reserves, leading to mass deprivation for Afghanistan’s innocent civilian population.

On this episode of Scheer Intelligence, host Robert Scheer is joined by Professor Julie C. Suk, an eminent expert in constitutional law and a professor of law at Fordham University. Together, they delve into the challenges women face in society, which stem from the Constitutional framework despite the century old passage of the 19th amendment that belatedly granted women the right to vote. 

Peter Singer knows it is difficult to make a lonely stand against the mega corporate food processing machine. To make meaningful changes to diet, to care more about where food comes from and to consider the vast laundry list of problems that comes with the international food industry requires a great deal of attention to detail and resourcefulness. Singer, through his persuasive and forgiving prose, makes it easier for folks to get in the know about what a trip to the supermarket really entails. Singer joins host Robert Scheer for this week’s Scheer Intelligence episode to talk about the renewed version of his classic book, Animal Liberation Now.

After nearly 50 years since the original publishing of Animal Liberation, Singer finds that there indeed has been change, although not as much as he would have liked. With a fresh perspective on the research regarding food production's impact on climate change, Singer reintroduces his classic with a modern angle. Scheer and Singer revisit the important points that made the book a hit for all these years. For one, despite improvements in regulations in Europe, the U.S. continues to be one of the worst violators of animal welfare. “There's no federal regulation that says you can't keep a chicken in a cage so small that she can't stretch her wings fully or you can't keep a pig in a crate that she can't even turn around in,” Singer says, adding “that's the influence of the lobbyists… the agri-business that is pouring money into Washington lobbyists and preventing any such legislation at the federal level.”

The nightmarish conditions of overcrowded food factories, where 20,000 animals are confined and deprived of natural light, while being force-fed subpar nutrition, depict the current state of affairs. Even if you have no sympathy for the animals, “they're under stress, their immune systems are weakened. It's a perfect recipe for creating new viruses… There will be humans who have to go into the sheds, who will pick up the viruses and spread them back to the community. So there's a serious pandemic risk with factory farming,” Singer adds.

Sympathy for these animals should be the goal, however, as Singer attempts to convey throughout the book. “Animals are other beings who are on this planet. They were not placed on this planet just for our benefit. They are living their own lives. And I don't believe that we—because we have power over them, because of our advanced technology—are justified in giving them miserable lives in order to produce their flesh, milk or eggs more cheaply,” he declares.

As we all battle the deadly pandemic, Asian Americans like Hollywood producer Janet Yang are also facing an onslaught of racism.

The Loyola Law professor discusses her new book about the history and evolution of the right of publicity.

Robert Scheer sits down with writer David Dayen to discuss the fallout from the housing crisis.

The authors of “Let’s Agree to Disagree” offer a guide to fostering critical thinking and dialogue in a society that seems to have forgotten how to engage in either.

Lifelong journalist Joe Lauria joins Robert Scheer to discuss how companies like PayPal, YouTube and Facebook are quashing non-stream reporting and opinions on Ukraine. 

Being a 140-pound 19 year old, who had not yet had to shave is a daunting time to enter an American prison with a life sentence, especially when the system has no interest in rehabilitating you or helping you reintegrate into society. The greed of the prison industrial complex squeezing slave profits out of imprisoned people through the exploitation of the 13th amendment and the brutal system set up to limit opportunity usually leaves most who walk through the gates hopeless and abandoned.

Dorsey Nunn, a formerly incarcerated individual, co-director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) and co-founder of All of Us or None (AOUON), a grassroots movement of formerly incarcerated people working to secure their civil and human rights, explains to host Robert Scheer how his prison experience is rare but demonstrates that it is possible to make it out of San Quentin’s cells a changed person, with the hope of helping others.

A new book by Barbara Freese explores eight stories about the unfettered corporate greed that has corrupted modern society and led to an astounding loss of life. 

The CIA’s destructive role in world politics since the end of World War II as a secret rogue spy agency controlled by unelected intelligence officers has become so ubiquitous that it can be joked about. But behind the jokes lies a far darker reality: the agency's imperial ambitions have fueled a legacy of death and destruction in the name of expanding American power. Hugh Wilford, author and professor of history at California State University Long Beach, joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to delve into the specifics of CIA operations and their impact on geopolitics from its inception to the present day.

Wilford’s book, “The CIA: An Imperial History,” emphasizes how the CIA is an unprecedented force in the world, advancing the goals of a global empire with a facade of spreading democracy. Although it makes for good Hollywood stories, the subversiveness of the agency alongside its brutal methods made it such an effective power that Scheer describes as capable of “destroying the right of people to make their own history.” The two mention the coup in Iran in 1953, choreographed by the CIA, and operations in Vietnam in the ‘60s and most odious examples.

The CIA’s bloody worldwide campaigns would leave populations dazed and confused, all under the pretense of acting in their best interest, while the rest of the world remained similarly in the dark. Wilford explains, “It's not just that America is trying to hide its imperial role from world audiences, from people in the post-colonial world in the Global South, it's also somewhat trying to hide what it's doing from U.S. citizens.”

These imperial ambitions, Wilford warns, inevitably have a way of backfiring, and the CIA’s history is proof of that. The CIA’s consistent meddling in the Middle East in the 20th century resulted, for instance, in the occupation of the Palestinian people, which has translated to the genocide today. “The growth of this massive secret state to carry out this globalist foreign policy has had baleful consequences, disastrous consequences, not just for people living overseas, but for people within the United States as well,” Wilford explains.

When it comes to the U.S. housing crisis, the blame from the wholesale swindling of the American people lies on all ends of the political spectrum.

The Somali-born American writer discusses his early life in the war-torn country and becoming an American.

The journalist and professor discusses his latest book about how fear has contributed to demagoguery.

The independent film director discusses her documentary about the early career of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Languages along with the world views they contain are dying out at an alarming rate. Sadly, this is by no means an accident, argues Lena Herzog.

Torture victim Majid Khan’s lawyer J. Wells Dixon joins Robert Scheer to discuss his client’s shocking testimony about the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation tactics.”

The former L.A. Times cartoonist thought he was protected by freedom of the press until his own newspaper came after him for a blog post about LAPD abuses.

Robert Scheer sits down with activist Jodie Evans to discuss her organization's efforts to move the United States away from military conflict as well as the origins of her activism.

A new PBS documentary provides insight into a prison initiative that is fighting recidivism with an unlikely tool.

CODEPINK founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans are rare voices of conscience confronting the bipartisan warmongers. 

In a brutally honest exit interview, recently retired U.S. Army Maj. Danny Sjursen opens up about his 18 years as a witness to the carnage of America’s forever wars.

Several nations have played a role in the WikiLeaks publisher’s demise as corporate media stands idly by. 

Thomas Frank examines the history of American populism, and how it was distorted by Democrats and co-opted by Republicans. 

The wildfires in Los Angeles county have brought a multitude of difficult and prevailing questions to the forefront of the region as well as the system of capitalism. Joining host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast is Jacobin Magazine columnist Ben Burgis to discuss writer Mike Davis and how his book, “The Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster,” (February 1998) serves as a kind of prognosis for everything going wrong in Los Angeles today.

The two dissect the multitude of issues at play in the wildfire disasters: the conceit of real estate developers testing the limits of nature, the passive and active exploitation of the working class to make and now handle the disaster, the greed of for-profit insurance companies cancelling policies, and the decisions by a major county like Los Angeles in foregoing budgets to handle these inevitable disasters.

Burgis asks, “If the public is just frankly going to be on the hook for it, do we, in fact, need to be building this densely in areas this prone to fire? I think at the very least, that's something that should be a question for public discussion in a way that it's just not.”

"Noncompliant" author Carmen Segarra sounds off on Goldman Sachs, deregulation and the dangerous ways our culture rewards bad behavior.

Leading privacy lawyer Neil Richards joins Robert Scheer to discuss his new book “Why Privacy Matters” and whether we can still claw back some control over our personal data.

Banking expert Nomi Prins explains why Congress’ stimulus bill has been a boon for Wall Street and not the small businesses that need it most. 

The documentary filmmaker discusses his new film about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the organic food industry.

The legendary chef and proponent of the slow food movement discusses her iconic Berkeley restaurant and her involvement in the Edible Schoolyard Project.

The Native American activist’s attorney Kevin Sharp tells Robert Scheer why Peltier’s imprisonment is one of the worst miscarriages of justice this country has ever seen. 

In the second part of the “Scheer Intelligence” interview with Jonathan Alter, the author of “His Very Best” examines the former president’s mixed foreign policy record.

John Kiriakou joins Robert Scheer to discuss the plight of the whistleblower, sentenced to 45 months in prison for revealing how often drone strikes kill civilians. 

The Oscar-winning director discusses taking on wall street through film and American foreign policy.This conversation includes adult language.

In the run-up to the Iraq War, Katharine Gun, the subject of the film “Official Secrets,” nearly changed the course of history with one corageous decision.

The illustrator and author discusses his recent book, Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936. [EXPLICIT LANGUAGE]

A United Nations expert finds the WikiLeaks founder has been subjected to psychological torture, and media around the globe played a part.

Despite the United States accounting for around 5% of the world’s population, it houses nearly a quarter of the world’s prison population. This often discussed metric begins to make sense when examining the major cities like Los Angeles, New York and others, where things like poverty and mental illness are often considered “crimes.” Host Robert Scheer digs into this phenomenon in Los Angeles on this week’s episode of Scheer Intelligence with Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

“First of all, it has to do with the criminalization of poverty, the criminalization of mental illness. What are we talking about? These are people who are innocent at this moment and they have not had any day in court,” Scheer expressed. Together, Scheer and Camacho discussed the recent small victories in L.A. county, where subhuman conditions set for detainees have gradually improved, including new limits on how long detainees can be held at inmate reception centers and how long they can be chained to chairs and benches. Camacho explained that the fight for the improvement of these conditions has been ongoing with the ACLU for over 50 years.

Before this recent victory, detainees would be subject to environments people often associate with third world countries. “[Detainees] were getting stuck in the [inmate reception center] for days at a time, and those who were the sickest were stuck on the front bench, chained to the front bench for literally 24, 48, 72 [hours]. I talked to somebody who had been on the front bench for 99 hours,” Camacho said.

Camacho also mentioned the efforts to control the levels of overpopulation often experienced at these jails. “Our L.A. County jails are authorized to hold around 12,400 people, but they consistently operate above that level, 14,000, 15,000. Before COVID, it was up to 17,000,” Camacho said. As a resident of Los Angeles, Scheer describes how he sees and knows that most of the time, the people who are getting arrested are part of the thousands of houseless people who line the streets of the city.

Peter Edelman examines how Americans are still tormented by the specter of President Bill Clinton’s worst domestic policy failure.

The attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation discusses the fight for privacy online.

Journalist and filmmaker Zeiad Abbas, a Palestinian refugee, describes living conditions of Palestinians under the state of Israel, which he calls “ethnic cleansing,” and discusses a toxic water crisis in Gaza and more.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, a lifelong progressive, talks about his new book and what he found lacking in the Democratic Socialist’s presidential campaign. 

Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges joins Robert Scheer to discuss the WikiLeaks founder’s plight as he languishes in a British prison. 

The odds were stacked against the two authors of “The Kremlinologist: Llewellyn E. Thompson, America’s Man in Cold War Moscow” when it came to treating their subject with anything resembling journalistic precision or objectivity. That’s primarily because they resembled their subject a little too closely -- in addition to being the book’s co-writers, Jenny and Sherry Thompson are also Llewellyn Thompson’s daughters.

In “Rigged,” historian David Shimer documents both countries attempts to manipulate democracies abroad — and comes to some questionable conclusions

Aaron Maté joins Robert Scheer to discuss the damning new Justice Department evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign conspired to finance and promote the totally fraudulent “Steele dossier.”

Life, replete with its ups and downs, goes on in U.S. and Mexican border communities despite the political calamity unfolding around them.  

Comedian Lee Camp explores the legacy of Lenny Bruce, big tech's capacity to strangle independent media and the freedom of working for a network like RT America.

In the 365 days following the events of Oct. 7, the situation in the Middle East is as complicated as ever. Israel’s genocide in Gaza agonizingly continues, and its invasion of Lebanon and subsequent retaliation at the hands of Hezbollah and Iran has added more fuel to the fire. Tensions are escalating and Middle East expert and writer Juan Cole joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to explain its precedent and what the future may hold.

The extremism of the Netanyahu cabinet in Israel, Cole explains, is the basis for the sharp increase in violence and tension in the region. While the Israeli government justifies their actions as necessary for the protection of Jews in the region, Cole argues their actions do the opposite. “The extreme goals of Netanyahu to completely control the lives of people in Gaza and the West Bank and Lebanon are endangering the lives of ordinary Jews. They're not making them safer,” he says.

The attempted expansion into Lebanon, which has brought global attention to the country, is something seen before in the recent history of Israel, Cole says. “It's 1982 all over again. 1982 was an enormous failure, and it produced more radicalization and more headaches in the long term for Israel,” he tells Scheer.

Despite their claims of self-defense against “terrorist” organizations like Hezbollah, Cole explains that much like Hamas, Hezbollah’s rise was a direct consequence of Israeli policies. “The Israelis occupied 10% of Lebanese soil, southern Lebanon, for 18 years. And the Lebanese wanted them right back out of their country,” he explains.

“The Shiites of southern Lebanon, who nobody ever heard of… before Israel occupied that area, threw up these resistance movements like Hezbollah. It was Israel that radicalized the Shiites of southern Lebanon,” Cole states.

A retired CIA expert on Russia and rare voice of reason coming from the bowels of the American deep state, Ray McGovern joins host Robert Scheer on another edition of the Scheer Intelligence podcast. With world peace, nuclear weapon prudence and film critique on the agenda, McGovern and Scheer delve into a host of relevant issues stemming from the war in Ukraine and the history behind it. From Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” to CNN's strange truthful broadcast on Ukraine’s counteroffensive, the old boys from the Bronx prod each other’s encyclopedic minds to try and make sense of the state of the world.

The Academy Award winning writer speaks about making the film Milk and his subsequent activism.

Any threat to the status quo within the American empire has led to the censorship, jailing and escape of the dissidents brave enough to stand against it. One may think of Edward Snowden’s asylum in Russia or Julian Assange’s refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London as recent examples. However, the history of dissidents fleeing American persecution runs deep. Joining host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to discuss his new book, “Flights: Radicals on the Run,” is author and journalist Joel Whitney.

The book exemplifies this missing history of dissent in America through accounts of people such as Angela Davis, Paul Robeson, Graham Greene and Malcolm X. Also included are the accounts of Lorraine Hansberry and her mentor, W.E.B. Du Bois. Whitney refers to De Bois’ time starting an anti-nuclear peace movement and subsequently being persecuted by the U.S. government. “[Du Bois’] reputation took severe damage, so when Hansberry knew him, he could barely afford to buy groceries,” Whitney told Scheer.

“Flights” examines the stories of historic struggle of progressive thinkers and political activists who faced the onslaught of Cold War propaganda and McCarthyism, becoming refugees as a result of their political work. The book chronicles a counter-narrative of American history, where the bravest and most outspoken figures criticizing the system are crushed by it and their lives ruined.

The book title, according to Whitney, refers to “flights that are political persecution in some form or another. In a way, you could think of it as 50 or 60 years of counter revolution, massive amounts of funding to chase people … across borders, out of print and, in some cases, unfortunately, into an early grave.”

In the case of people like Graham Greene and his famous novel, “The Quiet American,” the blacklisting of himself and others for their exposure of American activities during the Vietnam War led to Americans “hav[ing] to wait about a decade or a little bit more to actually understand what carnage, what incredible, cynical violence the anti-communist Americans are overseeing in Vietnam as they're taking it over from the French.”

The Oscar nominated director discusses his documentary about the current pope.

The former presidential candidate speaks to “Scheer Intelligence” host Robert Scheer about the shreds of democracy left in America. 

The former CIA analyst discusses his time in the agency and how he believes intelligence was used to wrongly justify wars.

When it comes to matters of race, the entertainment industry fails its increasingly diverse audience, time and again.

Former Mideast CIA operative John Kiriakou discusses his recent trip covering Biden in Saudi Arabia and what he’s learned about America’s “special relationship” with the country. 

35-year teaching veteran Jim Mamer explores the uncomfortable areas of history most schools fail to teach and what it means about the state of the world today.

The Oscar-winning documentarian discusses her new film Risk, about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

CIA insider Melvin A. Goodman discusses his new book and restarting a constructive dialogue with Russia.

In the second part of an engrossing interview, the renowned thinker explains his criticisms of Israel and his take on U.S. electoral politics.  

The consumer advocate, author and former presidential candidate, refuses to mince words about Democrats and their corporate bedfellows in a new interview with Robert Scheer.

Heyday Books' Steve Wasserman talks about why books are more important now than ever.

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou comments on the legal case of five Guantanamo Bay torture victims and what its outcome could say about the US. 

The great majority of Israel’s problems would be solved if the nation were able to establish lasting peace with its neighbors, says journalist and filmmaker Mariam Shahin.

The University of California at Berkeley is widely considered one of the most progressive and historically transformative universities in not only the United States, but the world. This is printed all over pamphlets written for prospective students and talked about endlessly by tour guides giving people the privilege to walk through such a prestigious site. What isn’t discussed, however, is the other side of that history, the one mired by involvement with the military industrial complex, with the conquest of indigenous lands and with the creation of the greatest mass murder weapon of all time.

The Oscar-winning director discusses his unique take on history through his films. [Contains adult language]

Journalist Will Evans exposed Tesla’s flagrant labor violations, but all the company’s founder did was shrug him off and cry "fake news."

Intelligence expert William Binney discusses the revelation that a widely used encryption service has been in CIA hands for decades.

Communications scholar Mark Lloyd explains how the USPS, which is enshrined in the Constitution, became a political battleground. 

Veteran award-winning journalists Patrick Cockburn and Robert Scheer, who met in  Moscow in 1987 when Mikhail Gorbachev optimistically promised peace, now fear a descent into nuclear war hell. 

Esteemed physician Dr. Stephen Bezruchka explains why spending the most in the midst of inequality and flawed politics produces an unhealthy prognosis.

Jacob Snow discusses Amazon’s Rekognition program, which is being promoted for use at the state and federal level to use facial recognition to fight crime. 

The U.S. government’s attack on the WikiLeaks founder covers up a menacing assault on the First Amendment, argues journalist Bruce Shapiro.

Though one can debate the reasons, statistics and precedent of nuclear war, what is often left out of the conversation is the reality of it: destruction of the world as a whole. In her new immersive art experience titled, “Any War, Any Enemy,” immersive artist Lena Herzog throws this reality literally right in the faces of viewers. The film can uniquely be experienced via virtual reality as well as a traditional screen and it plainly shows what nuclear war looks like.

Herzog begins the film with a quote stating nuclear war is not war. She tells host Robert Scheer on this episode of Scheer Intelligence that she begins with this because “the word ‘war’ is disorienting, because in war, you can have a battle, you can lose a battle, you can win a war. You cannot win a nuclear exchange. It's omnicide. It's not war.”

Part of a trilogy which tries to invoke art in a novel form, the film follows "Last Whispers," another piece of immersive art that focuses on the destruction of language. For “Any War, Any Enemy,” Herzog wants people to “experience [nuclear war] inside the frame, to feel it in the fiber of your being.”

For Scheer, the film’s power comes from viscerally showing the reality most people have no idea will happen in the event of a nuclear war. “You are forced to be immersed into an environment where your voice means nothing, your brain means nothing, your eyes mean nothing, because this weapon has destroyed any means of sustaining life,” Scheer says. “So you are these figures floating around in the water dead.”

Foreign policy discussions centering around the U.S., Russia, China, Israel and others become moot points as Herzog points out, “This is a question of existence versus nonexistence.”

Scheer and Herzog agree that the time for nuclear disarmament is now. As opposed to the middle of the 20th century with the Cuban Missile Crisis, where leaders had hours and days to talk about any provocations and would actually speak to one another. Nowadays, leaders avoid each other and the response time to any kind of strike, Herzog says, “it's 90 seconds. It's four minutes.”

Harvard physician Peter Grinspoon fights back against years of war on youth and communities of color.

At a time when the war that could end civilization escalates, peace activist Ron Kovic marks his July 4 birthday sounding the alarm about the true costs of war, a sentiment shared by his girlfriend of 16 years, TerriAnn Ferren.

Amidst the hype, excitement and nervousness of the election, the bigger picture of what the United States is and how it operates often gets lost on people. Many think that choosing one or another candidate will significantly alter their future to better represent their values, but in reality there is only one group of people that matter the most: those who Dr. Peter Phillips, professor emeritus at Sonoma State University, calls the “titans of capital.”

In his new book by the same name, Phillips studies the economic trends following the COVID-19 pandemic and how the wealth concentration in the world took a dramatic turn towards the already ultra-wealthy. He joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of Scheer Intelligence to further analyze these trends and how dire inequality is becoming.

The main problem is simple to understand: the ultra-wealthy “doubled their wealth concentration.” That means, according to Phillips, that “the upper one half of 1% of the people got richer and basically, the rest of the world got poorer.”

Phillips names the top 10 capital investment companies, such as BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Morgan Stanley and others as the main culprits. Over $50 trillion are controlled by 117 people across these 10 companies, according to Phillips.

This immense concentration of wealth inevitably renders any semblance of democracy almost useless, as the main decision makers are those who hold the biggest bag. “Whoever we elect as President is not going to make any difference because they're managed by capital,” Phillips tells Scheer. 

“They're there to protect global capital. That's what the American political system is about. That's what the political systems in the West are about. They see capital as a vital interest of the West, and that's why we have military bases all over the world to protect capital and to ensure that debts get repaid and that this capital continues to grow and expand.”

Economic expert Ellen Brown talks to Robert Scheer about the financial revolution Vladimir Putin has started and what the global economic future could look like as a result.

The executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting discusses new ways to reach more people.

The documentary filmmaker and a former prisoner discuss the film about a group therapy program in one of the most infamous prisons in the United States.

This week’s episode of Scheer Intelligence welcomes someone with extraordinary courage and experience not only in Palestine but the Middle East as a whole. Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Kuwait-born, Canada-based Palestinian doctor, who also serves as the medical director at Gila, a global humanitarian healthcare organization, provides an indispensable account of what he knows is Palestine.

The director discusses his new film about the true story of a young journalist who embedded himself with Somali pirates.

The former Secretary of Defense discusses the current nuclear threats the world faces and how we got to this point.

The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist discusses his new book on the first year of the Trump Administration.

Indigenous Los Angeles psychology graduate student Eduardo Carreon analyzes the mindset of disgraced former LA City Council leader, a Latina whose racist bile scorned Black and gay colleagues and others, including indigenous members of her own Latinx community.

Gaza today symbolizes nothing but death, destruction and oppression. Israel’s genocide and scorched earth bombing campaign has not only wiped out its people but the rich history that stretches back thousands of years. Juan Cole, University of Michigan history professor and renowned Middle East historian, joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to clearly lay out the history behind Gaza through his newest book, “Gaza Yet Stands.”

Gaza, Cole says, was a cosmopolitan place, a place people went through for travel, trade and its rich civilization. “If you were in Beirut and you wanted to go to Cairo by land, you would go through Gaza. It was a crossroads,” Cole tells Scheer. A unique, multinational city with diverse religious significance, Gaza used to represent something grand in the heart of the Middle East. Today, after it was stolen by Israel and Western colonialism, even the history is in jeopardy. 

“The Palestinians were 1.3 million, and the British envisaged in the White Paper of 1939 that they'd make a state of Palestine in which the Jews would be a substantial minority,” Cole explains. “It would be a Palestine, just as the British Mandate of Iraq eventuated in the country of Iraq, and the French mandate of Syria eventuated in the country of Syria, there would be a Palestine.”

This arrangement, Cole contends, was uncomfortable for all parties involved and made things worse in each affected region. Many of the Jews persecuted in the Holocaust were now destined to repatriate to this foreign land instead of to Poland and Germany, which displaced the Palestinians and welcomed havoc from settlers. In a world emerging from colonial rule following World War II, Cole explains that Israel’s creation was just a reversion back to that model. “That's what Israel is, it's a Western colonial instrument,” Cole says. “What's been done to the Palestinians is considered extremely unfair by almost everybody in the world, outside of Western Europe and the United States.”