Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, at the summer 2022 Game Done Quick, a video game speed-running marathon charity, fans of the classic Nintendo 64 title The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were treated to an experience that they'd never expected. For 23-years players imagined the possibility of obtaining the game's most legendary, mystical item: the Triforce. Throughout the latter part of the 90s and the early 2000s urban legends proliferated claiming that players could, in fact, get the Triforce in game. But it wasn't until the "Beta Showcase", later revealed to be the Triforce% run showcase, that the dream of many of these fans would materialize into a reality. Using Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE), a human speed-runner, and cute, trusty robot known as TASBot (short for tool-assisted robot) a team led by the gaming community's Sauraen and DwangoAC were able to create a wildly new, fresh experience of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on an original, unmodified N64 cartridge. Said experience created a new story within the game that even included, believe it or not, a finale featuring a scene with graphics from the Nintendo Switch's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a fan-inclusive moment that tugged on the heartstrings of many gamers. And, as previously stated, this was all accomplished on an unmodified N64 cartridge. It was monumental event, in part, because it completely goes against previous conceptions of what Arbitrary Code Execution can do in video games. Ultimately, most people perceive ACE exploits as merely "breaking" a game. In other words, ACE, which involves pressing controller buttons in a quick and process way, is most commonly used glitch games in ways that allow for game completion in ways not intended by the developers. With the Triforce% run, however, ACE was used in quite a different way: to create rather than to destroy. Sauraen, the Triforce%'s director, and DwangoAC, the keeper of TASBot, join us on this edition of the show to talk about the whole project, how it came together, what the reactions to it have been, common misconceptions about Triforce% and what was done at the showcase of it at Games Done Quick, and much, much more including: - Explanations of TAS the tool-assisted robot, ACE (Arbitrary Code Execution, and SRM (Stale Reference Manipulation) and how they were used to make the Triforce% speedrun possible - The emotional elements of Triforce%'s story and ending - The Triforce% showcase as transformative art and "RAM Hacking" - How the speedrun could've gone wrong - Using ACE to create rather than to destroy; ACE being commonly understood as "breaking" the game and how the showcase shows a different side of what ACE can do - How was the ending with graphics in the style the Nintendo Switch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild done? - Misconceptions people have about the Triforce% showcase - TASBot's ability to press buttons faser than any human and how this figured into the speedrun - Does this open up new doors of possibility for future transformative art and the use of ACE in games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and Super Mario games? - Legal concerns and Nintendo - How the showcase was used to raise money for the Doctors Without Borders charity

On this edition of Parallax Views, the conspiratorially-minded, Trump supporting Infowars host Alex Jones recently lost a major lawsuit against Sandy Hook families. WhoWhatWhy.Org's Russ Baker, author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Past Fifty Years, returns to the program to discuss his experience with Jones as well as to explore the rise and fall of the Infowars empire and the problems with the media/journalism ecosystem that may have contributed to Jones's success. Among the topics discussed: - Russ Baker's experience with mainstream media after the publication of Family of Secrets - Alex Jones and the Iraq War - The problems facing journalism today - The term "conspiracy theory" and its uses and misuses - The rise of QAnon and conspiratorial-thinking that places a shadowy, almost supernatural cabal at the center of the world's problems - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Project Censored' Nolan Hidon returns to the program alongside the Media Freedom Foundation's Allison Butler to discuss their recent USA Today article "Strangers are spying on your child. And schools are paying them to do it". Since the pandemic, big tech hardware and software has become even more ubiquitous in schools across the United States. Is there a downside to this alliance between the American education system and big tech companies? Nolan Higdon and Allison Butler argue that big tech's latest ventures in the classroom violate students' right to privacy and stifle their learning environments. In fact, they go so far as to invoke George Orwell's 1984 in addressing the issues of big tech in the classroom. Among the topics we'll be discussing are: companies and software such as  Turnitin, ClassDojo, Illuminate Education and G Suite for Education; the effects of big tech surveillance and the potential for student self-censorship in the classroom; data breaches in schools; big tech surveillance in the classroom's growth and its coinciding with the renewed issues around book banning; the difficult in measuring what the possible negative impacts of big tech's influence in the classroom will be going forward; and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Ramon Glazov, translator of Girgio De Maria's The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works and author of assorted pieces found in such publications as Jacobin and Overland, joins us to discuss the Russian far-right philosopher Alexander Dugin. Dugin has been in the news due to his daughter's death in a fiery car explosion. This episode will not deal so much with that current events incident, but rather the question of Dugin's significance to the regime of Vladimir Putin. In both mainstream and alternative/independent media Dugin has often been described as "Putin's Brain" or "Putin's Rasputin".  Ramon believes the evidence for Dugin's significance  to Putin and the Russian state has been vastly overstated in a way that has negative consequences. We'll discuss Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics, his "Fourth Political Theory", Dugin and postmodernism, Dugin's anti-China views, Dugin's more bizarre geopolitical proposals that are unlikely to be held by Putin or the Kremlin, elitism vs. populism on the right, the Traditionalist thinker Julius Evola, the modernist poet and rabid antisemite Ezra Pound, French far-right thinker Alain de Benoist, the political uselessness of Evolian occultism, Dugin's removal from the University of Moscow for genocidal comments directed at Ukraine/Ukrainians, the paradox of Dugin's self-professed "ethno-centrism, but not racism" views, Dugin's defensive identity politics, spiritual racism, fascism, Russian punk/counterculture icon Eduard Liminov and National Bolshevism, Dugin's views on Germany, Western journalism on Dugin and cherry-picking what Dugin says, Dugin's pluralist relativism, racist ideas about Russians as inherently relativist in their thinking, Dugin and the Kremlin, isolationism and the paradox of far-right wing "anti-globalism", far-right intellectuals and political opportunism, Dugin/Pound/Evola as political hanger-ons, Steve Bannon Vs. a figure Julius Evola or Alexander Dugin, Ezra Pound's WWII propaganda broadcasts in Mussolini's Italy, Ezra Pound's mental hospital stay, Dugin's strange views on Soviet Union serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, and much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, is the two-state solution in the Israel/Palestine conflict dead? If so what are the possible futures moving forward for Israel/Palestine? Dr. Ian S. Lustick, the Bess W. Heyman Chair in the Political Science Department of the University of Pennsylvania, joins us to discuss why he believes the two-state solution is now an impossibility as argued in his 2019 book Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality. Recently, Dr. Lustick's book was just recently released in a Hebrew-language edition which is what helped precipitate this conversation. Among the topics discussed in this conversation: - The history of the the two-state solution including discussion of Great Britain, the Peel Commission, partition, the United Nations, Zionism, Palestinian Arabs, the 1967 Six-Day War, and the return of partition discussion in the 1970s - Dr. Lustick's support for the two-state solution and his work on that matter starting in the 1970s; how Dr. Lustick's views evolved over time and why he no longer believes the two-state solution is within the realm of possibility - The use of the term "one-state reality" rather than solution in the title of the book; the loss of the two-state solution as a paradigm of thought; the promise and hope that exists within new ways of thinking about Israel/Palestine - The question of the Israel lobby (specifically AIPAC) and U.S. foreign policy; John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's critique of the lobby as related to U.S. national interests and the ways in which Dr. Lustick's analysis is both in way similar to and different to Mearsheimer and Walt's analysis - The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement - Revisionist Zionism, Likud Party founder and Israel's sixth Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Zionist thinker Vladimir "Ze'ev" Jabotinsky, and the "Iron Wall" strategy - Secret negotiations, sabotaging of peace processes, and the failure of Oslo Accords - Gaza and the West Bank - President Joe Biden's comments on Israel/Palestine early on in his White House tenure and why Dr. Lustick believes they are significant - The nature of political change, the evolution of the Democratic Party from supporting Jim Crow to being the party of the first black President Barack, and the abandonment of the "Demographic" argument in regards to Israel/Palestine - What does Dr. Lustick have to say about, for example, Gazans than can't wait for decades long changes through a long protracted struggle? - The theme of unintended consequences in Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality - Commenting on the human rights-centric approach to Israel/Palestine as advocated by Palestinian human rights attorney Zaha Hassan and others - Peter Beinart and the changing of the guard on the issue of Israel/Palestine and the two-state solution - And much, much more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, we return to the issue of the struggles faced by people living in the Gaza Strip. Specifically, we are honing in on the mental health crisis in Gaza, especially in regards to children. Joining us is Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei, a Palestinian clinical neuro-psychiatrist and the Director General of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. This is a sobering conversation in which Dr. Jamei details how trauma, fear, and poverty have coalesced in Gaza to create mental health for its inhabitants. We'll be discussing the effects of the Israeli occupation, air-strikes, difficult socio-economic conditions, and the biopsychosocial model as they relate to these matters. Additionally, Dr. Jamei will discuss the issue of education and universities in Gaza, the differences in challenges face by men and women/boys and girls in Gaza, Gaza and human rights (and framing the issues around human rights rather than religious conflict), the discourse around Gaza in Western media, and much, much more.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a previously unpublished interview with journalist Dave Lindorff of This Can't Be Happening on the fascinating story of the Theodore Alvin Hall, the American physicist who became an atomic spy by sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But this is not just the story of Ted Hall. It's also the story of his brother Edward Hall, who, despite his skepticism towards the Soviet Union, protected his brother against J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Moreover, it's a case that asks the question, "Why did Ted Hall share these secrets with the Soviet Union?" As it turns out, the answer to that question may be more noble, if we consider Hall's perspective, than one would imagine. We dive into the world of atomic bombs, Hiroshima and Nagaski, the Manhattan Project, spying, the romance between Ted Hall and his wife Joan Hall, the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the "What If" scenario of the U.S. having a monopoly on nuclear weapons after WWII, the physicist and atomic spy Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall's motivation for becoming an atomic spy, the incredible life of Ted's brother Edward (including a connection to Operation Paperclip and working on a top secret missile program at Wright Patterson Air Force Base), the interrogation of Ted Hall, the FBI file on Edward Hall, Ted Halls' Harvard roommate (and spy) Savile Sax, and much, much more! For more information on Ted's story please read Dave's article at The Nation entitled "One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal".

On this edition of Parallax Views, Kathy Reichs, author of the best-selling Bones series of murder mystery/thriller novels, joins us to discuss the 21st entry in the series, Cold, Cold Bones. The Bones books follows Temperance Brennan as she helps solve crimes with her expertise in forensic anthropology. Reichs' novels became so popular that they eventually spawned a hit TV series that lasted 12 seasons. In Cold, Cold Bones Tempe is made to revisit her old cases after she and her daughter discover a mysterious package at her place. Said package contains a human eyeball that leads her to a Benedictine Monastery and what eventually comes to pass is that a copycat killer familiar with Tempe's earlier cases is on the loose. Will Tempe solve the murders in time? In this conversation Reichs and I discuss the enduring nature of the Bones series, speculation that Tempe is on the autism spectrum, the ways in which readers relate to Tempe, thoughts on the hit TV series based on Reichs' books, working at Ground Zero after 9/11, Reichs' anthropological work in Guatamala (which inspired her novel Grave Secrets), the appearance of humor in her murder mystery stories, an overview of Cold, Cold Bones, the snowstorm setting of Cold, Cold Bones, misconceptions about forensic anthropology, DNA and the evolution of forensic anthropology, how newspaper headlines and stories influence Kathy's stories, how CRISPR tech influenced a Temperance Brennan murder mystery, how Kathy went from bio-archaeology to helping police on cases as a forensic anthropologist, and more!

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy's Grant F. Smith returns to discuss his new podcast documentary series How Israel Made AIPAC. Grant takes through the history of AIPAC, often simply referred to as the Israel lobby, from its earliest days vis-a-vis the figure of lobbyist Isaiah L. Kenen. Grant gives an overview about the origins of AIPAC and issues related to Israel in the 20th century including the Transfer Agreement and the Third Reich, Haganah arms smuggling, NUMEC and how Israel acquired nuclear weapons, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),  the U.S. State Department, Ze'ev "Vladimir" Jabotinsky and the Likud Party, and more. We'll also discuss the importance of this documentary series to current events and U.S. foreign policy today as well as the ways in which previous Presidents like the Pendergast Machine-affiliated Harry Truman could be compromised by private or foreign interests. Then, in a brief bonus segment, Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.Com joins us to discuss how a recent CBS documentary on U.S./NATO arming of Ukraine was pulled after Volodymyr Zelensky's government complained about it. One of the issues raised by the documentary was the question of how many of the arms being sent to Ukraine are actually making it into the hands of the military. Ukraine's foreign defense minister has called for CBS to launch an internal investigation to see who "enabled" the documentary.

On this edition of Parallax Views, we delve into the intellectual life and thought of Michael Harrington, a key figure of the American New Left who helped found the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). The author of the influential The Other America: Poverty in the United States, Harrington was a proponent of what he called "the left wing of the possible" and thus believed that socialists must push for a re-alignment of the Democratic Party. Joining us to offer a critique Harrington's thought is Doug Greene, author of the zer0 books title A Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism. Among the topics covered in this conversation: - The early intellectual development of Michael Harrington and his interest in bohemianism - Harrington's anti-communism, his belief in a popular front sans Stalinists, and his relationship to New Left in the 60s - Harrington's "left wing of the possible" strategy and the Democratic Party - The influence of theorist Max Schachtman on Harrington's thinking; Harrington's concept of "Democratic Marxism" - Liberalism, Capitalism, Michael Harrington, and the reformist vs. revolutionary divide - Michael Harrington, the DSA, and the Israel/Palestine conflict - Michael Harrington, the Vietnam War, and imperialism - Harrington's value beyond the criticisms Greene has of him - Harrington's The Other America, FDR the New Deal coalition, and LBJ's Great Society - Harrington's debates with or critiques of right-wing figures like William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman - And much, much more!