June 12

Ep. 0161: “Disregarding the Laws of God and Man”: The Not-So-Civil War, Part 11

The end (of this non-consecutive series) is starting to come into sight, as the Union increasingly relies on ‘total war’ to completely crush the spirit of resistance among Southern civilians, regardless of any moral considerations.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • Confederate General Jubal Early’s raid into Union territory, which reached the outer defenses of Washington D.C. before being fought off and chased back into the Shenandoah Valley
  • Philip Sheridan’s decisive defeat of Early’s forces, and Sheridan’s subsequent destruction of the farms, food, and infrastructure of the valley
  • The Atlanta campaign, which saw Union General William T. Sherman facing off against the Army of Tennessee, initially commanded by Confederate General Joseph Johnston
  • Jefferson Davis’s replacement of Johnston with John Bell Hood, and the disastrously costly offensives Hood launched Union forces that outnumbered his by over 2:1
  • Sherman’s shelling of Atlanta & ultimate seizure of the city, followed by the removal of remaining civilian residents
  • Sherman’s increasingly large-scale, deliberate targeting of civilians’ shelter & means of subsistence in “total war”
  • The 1864 presidential election, in which Lincoln was reelected, ensuring that the war would continue
  • Sherman’s burning of the remnants of Atlanta and “March to the Sea” across Georgia

Wanna meet CJ and ? Come out to the 2018 Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest in Delton, Michigan! CJ will be there from Friday, June 22nd through Monday, June 25th, and will be speaking on Sunday, June 24th. Hope to see you there!

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April 28

Ep. 0160: “Remember the Maine!” & The Pageantry of American Aggression

Here’s a big beast of a DHP episode, dealing with the Deep History of the sinking of the USS Maine, the origins of the Spanish-American War, and what relevance this story might have to recent events.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana in 1898
  • A brief description of the so-called “Large Policy” and its proponents in the late-19th century, especially its most influential members: Theodore Roosevelt & Henry Cabot Lodge
  • The so-called “Yellow Press,” as exemplified by William Randolph Hearst & Joseph Pulitzer, and how they were working toward similar goals as the Large Policy cabal (namely, war), for their own reasons
  • TR’s appointment to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and how he used that position for all it was worth (and more)
  • Increasing tensions between the US and Spain, leading up to President McKinley’s dispatch of the Maine to Havana, where of course, it would blow up & sink
  • How proponents of war (the Large Policy cabal & the Yellow Press) hastily jumped to conclusions on virtually no evidence that Spain was behind the sinking, and the official Sampson Board of Inquiry that concluded the ship was sunk by a mine (albeit without claiming to know who was behind it)
  • The lead up to the actual declarations of war between Spain & the US, over two months after the Maine, and a brief rundown of the troubling legacies of this so-called “Splendid Little War”
  • A closer look at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and its oft-overlooked connections to TR & to the Maine
  • Some possible alternative explanations for the sinking of the Maine
  • A basic description of the playbook of “The American Way of Going to War” that pro-war politicians & media outlets still use to this day, for one big reason: it keeps working

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March 8

Ep. 0159: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 3

Once again, CJ is joined by US Army veteran BT to talk about BT’s experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • Thoughts on various people using veterans (or “the troops”) as pawns in their ideological narratives, such as the NFL/kneeling-during-the-anthem controversy
  • Some stories from BT’s first deployment to Iraq, during which time he was a Cavalry Scout in and around Mosul
  • Some stories from BT’s second deployment to Iraq, during which time he was a Blackhawk crew chief and mechanic in Baghdad
  • Some stories from BT’s deployment to Afghanistan, again working on Blackhawks
  • Multiple cases in which BT got in trouble for pointing out safety issues with the helicopters
  • Some of the negative fallout to his mental and physical health, and the damage to his relationship with his family, due to his military service

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March 1

Ep. 0158: Talking National Security Cinema with Tom Secker

For this episode of the DHP, CJ is joined by researcher, writer, and podcaster Tom Secker, the man behind the website SpyCulture.com and the podcast Clandestime, in a conversation primarily about Tom’s research into the national security state’s massive influence on movies and television.

Join CJ & Tom as they discuss:

  • Being a ‘moderate conspiracy theorist’
  • A bit about Tom’s background and how he got into researching these topics
  • ‘Entertainment Liaison Offices’ (or ELOs), and how these offices influence the entertainment industry on behalf of the military, the CIA, FBI, and NSA
  • A bit about Tom’s research methods
  • Some of the more surprising things Tom has discovered in his research
  • The significance of the security state’s influence on popular entertainment

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February 21

Ep. 0157: “I was killed.”: The Not-So-Civil War Part 10

I was originally going to do one massive episode on the coming of ‘total war’ in 1864, but it was getting too unwieldy so I decided to break it into 2 episodes, one covering Grant’s campaign in Virginia and another covering Sherman’s campaign in Georgia. Here is the first of those.

Join CJ as he discusses:

  • The Battle of Olustee
  • Attrition and trench warfare
  • Grant’s Overland campaign, including the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg

This episode of the Dangerous History Podcast was sponsored in part by LiveTeeOrDye.com.

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January 25

Ep. 0156: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 2

This is the second part of my conversation with BT, a US Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, about his experiences. (Be sure to check out last episode – #155 – for part 1 of this if you’ve not already done so.)

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • BT’s first deployment to Iraq, including the conditions  in Mosul and surrounding areas where he was deployed and the shortcomings of his training relative to what he’d actually be dealing with
  • Problems unique to dealing with a counterinsurgency situation in an urban environment, including IEDs
  • Potential issues of friendly fire
  • Problematic thoughts and behaviors that BT noticed, both in himself and from observing others, that were caused by the stressful environment of operating in a war zone, especially one in which insurgents blended in with the civilian population
  • The different types of IEDs and vehicle bombs (VBIEDs), the US military’s attempts to deal with these, and the back-and-forth race between makers of IEDs and designers of counter-measures

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January 16

Ep. 0155: A Modern-Day Grunt’s Perspective, Part 1

This episode is part 1 of CJ’s discussions with a longtime DHP listener & US Army veteran of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, a guy who goes by “BT” on the internet. Not only does BT himself have a lot of personal experiences in these conflicts, he’s also done a lot of research about these wars and related issues. These conversations will cover BT’s experiences in those wars, and the effects of those experiences, which he’s still dealing with today. Along the way, we’ll also cover the history of these conflicts, and a variety of related issues.

Join CJ & BT as they discuss:

  • The 9/11 attacks, the propaganda that followed it, and the effects on people regarding enlisting in the military
  • The origins of the 2003 Iraq War, including some of the problems with the Bush administration’s justifications for war
  • The invasion of Iraq, and the mounting problems as the invasion turned into an occupation, with a special focus on the city of Mosul
  • The beginning of BT’s time in the Army, starting in 2005, and the training he went through (and the many shortcomings of that training) prior to deploying to Iraq

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December 22

Ep. 0154: Orwell Your Orwell with David Ramsay Steele

In this episode of the DHP, CJ talks to David Ramsay Steele, author of many books including his most recent, Orwell Your Orwell: A Worldview on the Slab, which is the subject of this DHP episode. Dr. Steele is a libertarian speaker and writer, and is Editorial Director of Open Court Publishing Company. (Big thanks to DHP listener Lee for putting me in touch with Dr. Steele!)

Join CJ & David as they discuss:

  • How David challenges the standard view of Orwell & his beliefs in this book
  • How Orwell’s beliefs fit into the intellectual milieu of the early- to mid-twentieth century British Left
  • Orwell’s frequently stated opposition to progress, innovation, and technology, and how this was actually the source of many of his misgivings about Socialism (even after he himself became a Socialist)
  • Orwell’s sudden changes of ideological positions on major issues at various points in his life
  • Orwell’s thoughts on a variety of topics, including anarchism, the British Empire, manliness & masculinity, homosexuality, birth control, and more

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December 17

Ep. 0153: Mike Resnick

In this episode of the DHP, CJ and Joshua of The Dusty Den Podcast talk to Mike Resnick, author of (among many, many other things) the novel Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future, which CJ & Joshua reviewed and discussed on the last DHP episode (#152). (Big thanks to DHP listener Jake for putting us in touch with Mike!)

Mike Resnick is (according to Locus) the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He has won 5 Hugos (from a record 37 nominations), a Nebula, and other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Catalonia, Croatia, and Poland. He’s the author of 75 novels, over 275 stories, and 3 screenplays, and the editor of 42 anthologies. His work has been translated into 27 languages. He is currently the editor of Stellar Guild books and Galaxy’s Edge magazine.

Join CJ, Joshua & Mike as they discuss:

  • The genesis of Mike’s love of science fiction
  • How Mike’s work in the ‘adult fiction’ genre influenced his work in other genres
  • Mike’s frequent incorporation of myths, legends, and tall tales into his scifi stories
  • How Mike’s worldview and knowledge of historical themes have influenced his stories
  • Mike’s experiences dealing with Hollywood
  • Mike’s experiences in writing, editing, and working with up-and-coming new scifi writers, and thoughts on the science fiction genre, plus some of his current projects

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December 1

Ep. 0152: Discussing Mike Resnick’s Santiago in the Dusty Den

In this episode of the DHP, CJ talks to Joshua of The Dusty Den Podcast about the excellent scifi Space Western novel Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future by author Mike Resnick (first published in 1986), a great book with a cult following that deserves to be much better known, especially among libertarianish types.

Join CJ & Joshua as they discuss:

  • Why Westerns (and Western-tinged subgenres like the Space Westerns and certain types of horror films) resonate so strongly with people of libertarian leanings
  • Great anti-heroes such as Malcolm Reynolds, Han Solo, and Snake Plissken
  • The concept of myth & legend, and how Resnick features them in Santiago
  • A review/synopsis of the novel, including some discussions of historical parallels to the American Western frontier
  • The potentially liberating nature of staunch pessimism/realism, and how it can lead one to more effective unconventional resistance against oppressive Leviathans

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