2330 - US Empire & Cambodia; Eric Adams Is In Trouble w/ Noah Kulwin & Brendan James, Ross Barkan

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Noah Kulwin and Brendan James to discuss the most recent season of the Blowback podcast. Then, she speaks with Ross Barkan, contributing writer at New York Magazine and columnist at Crain's New York, to discuss his recent piece published in The Nation entitled "Is Eric Adams’s Luck About to Run Out?" First, Emma runs through updates on Israel’s attacks on civilians in Lebanon, the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming vote to end Israel’s military presence in Gaza and the West Bank, reporting on Biden’s weapons transfers, the uncommitted movement, the teamsters’ lack of a presidential endorsement, swing state polling, New York State’s Democratic Party problem, the Fed, Russian offensives in Ukraine, Beshear’s conversion therapy ban, and dropping overdose rates in the US, before parsing a little more thoroughly through the developing story of Israel’s en-masse attack of Lebanese citizens (Hezbollah or not) via the use of rigged communications technologies. Emma is then joined by Noah Kulwin and Brendan James as they outline why they chose Cambodia for the focus of the fifth season of Blowback, unpacking its role as a central (and emblematic) node in the constellation of US intervention in Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Expanding on this, Kulwin and James dive into the complex cast of characters that dominate this season, first tackling the Nixon-Kissinger paring that set the blueprint for the entire thing, first sabotaging Vietnam peace negotiations in 1968 to help ensure a GOP victory, before centering a strategy of “Peace with Honor,” by which Nixon meant a shift to more expansive bombing campaigns, and immediately expanding said campaign by pushing Cambodian Royal Norodom Sihanouk to embrace a US carpet bombing campaign on his country (not war, totally not war), all while hiding the entire campaign behind a dual reporting system, separate books, and direct, behind-the-scenes communications between the White House and relevant parties. Shifting focus to Cambodia, Noah and Brendan parse through the Khmer Rouge’s origins as an auxiliary, socialist-aligned force with the North Vietnamese (the basis for Nixon’s carpet bombing), only to help launch a full-scale Civil War in the wake of the US-backed deposition of Sihanouk by South Vietnam in 1970, resulting in years of bloodshed (increased by ongoing US bombings) that saw the Khmer Rouge gain more and more territory and power, until the formerly-small-guerilla movement successfully sacked the capital city of Phnom Penh, launching five years of forced labor, full-scale genocide and the extermination of ethnic minorities, refugee crises, mass executions and more under the rule of Pol Pot. Continuing, James and Kulwin move into the breakdown of Cambodian society under the brutal regime of Pol Pot and expanding conflict as the Khmer Rouge turned against the North Vietnamese government that had supported them (in part due to the Khmer Rouge’s budding relationship with the US and the West), resulting in said government launching a full-scale invasion of Cambodia, getting rid of Pol Pot and establishing a friendly regime, all to the condemnation of the West that had been peacefully watching Cambodians die for nearly a decade. After briefly expanding on the mythology tying the Khmer Rouge’s rule to the greater Soviet movement and the obvious failures of said narrative when you look into who was actually supporting the regime, Emma, Brendan and Noah jump to the modern period, unpacking the symbiotic nature of a fully-capitalist Cold War between the US and China, and what that has meant for Cambodian development over the last decade, wrapping up the interview by running through the final figures on the mass deaths from US carpet bombing (100-150k), the US-backed Civil War (300-500k), and the following Cambodian Genocide (1.7m). Ross Barkan and Emma then dive right into the overwhelming cloud of corruption around NYC Mayor Eric Adams, including FOUR federal investigations ranging from domestic to foreign corruption, and the correlating complete incompetence of his governance, with Barkan comparing his administration to a Tammany Hall that didn’t actually deliver anything to the people. After briefly expanding on the role an overwhelmingly unpopular New York Democratic Party is having on races up and down the ballot, Ross and Emma tackle the particulars of Adams’ corrupt relationship with the NYPD and its deadly impact.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they unpack North Carolina GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Mark Robinson’s odd sermon on the ability to take and make life with one’s genitalia, JD Vance’s continuing commitment to racist conspiracy, and Ryan Grim’s cathartic shutdown of Matt Walsh’s absurd anti-Haitian bigotry. Kimmy from Kentucky on the misconceptions about her state and the value of people without college degrees, and M from Florida on Tim Pool, plus, your calls and IMs!

 

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