Welcome back to KK&F. This week, on our minds is the unimaginable devastation in Turkey and Syria, where over 41,000 people have lost their lives and cities have been brought to the ground. As many as five million people are in emergency shelters, many in freezing temperatures. According to current U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and former Republican Senator Jeff Flake, $85 million in humanitarian aid to the region will suffice. But compare this number to the aid the U.S. has given to the Ukraine — why won’t the government approve something on the order of the billions of dollars in support it’s sent to the Ukraine since the start of Russia’s attack nearly a year ago? Moreover, why can’t Biden permanently lift U.S. sanctions in Syria, argues former KK&F guest Branko Marcetic in a piece for Jacobin, since the earthquakes prompted him to temporarily halt the sanctions for the next six months? Thinking about these questions means addressing the U.S.’s imperialist and capitalist motives in its global interventions, which have prevented it from offering an adequately humanitarian response to the massively fatal crisis that has devastated Turkey and Syria over the past week.
Considering how those motives translate to repression and racist violence here in the U.S., we’re bringing Alphabet Boys Podcast’s Trevor Aaronson on the pod this week to delve into his reporting on how a violent criminal was paid by the FBI to disrupt, inform on, and attempt to sow violence in Denver’s racial justice movement. It’s a gutting story that captures how U.S. intelligence mobilized against antifascists and protestors of police violence during the 2020 uprisings, and we think this story deserves your attention. Tune in Friday if you’re a paying subscriber, and Saturday through Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, and more to give it a listen.
Imagine any nation calling another a hypocrite as history shows no one is innocent... Talk about throwing stones in glass houses
Jesus fuck, how could you possibly equate a natural disaster and the humanitarian response to the ongoing invasion of a sovereign nation by one of the few superpowers in the world?