Episode

9/7 US Empire In Afghanistan; McKinsey Exposed w/ Noah Kulwin, Brendan James, Garrison Lovely

September 7, 2023

It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Noah Kulwin and Brendan James to discuss the most recent season of the Blowback podcast. Then, she’s joined by freelance writer Garrison Lovely to discuss his recent piece in The Nation entitled “Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower.” Emma starts off by reacting to remarks UAW President Shawn Fain made on CNBC, in response to a question about UAW withholding their endorsement of President Biden. Then, she’s joined by Noah and Brendan to discuss Season 4 of Blowback, and Emma’s devastation that a postscript from the movie “Rambo” did not, in fact, hand it to the mujahideen in Afghanistan, despite the movie being a love letter of sorts to them regardless. Noah dives into some of the history of the mujahideen, and how the U.S. began involvement with them and supporting them as a Cold War battleground state in the conflict against Russia. Brendan breaks down the antecedents to the Iraq and Afghanistan war, and how all of the elements of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan from the 1970’s-1990’s, especially their support and eventual rejection of the mujahideen, lead directly into the 20+ year conflict that defined the 21s century. Then Emma is joined by Garrison, who discusses his early employment as an intern, and then full-time staffer at McKinsey Consulting, and how it shaped his views on America capitalism. Garrison explains his work involving the carceral state, and how McKinsey tried to make its mark on American prisons, and also dives into some of the absolutely unbelievable corporate-speak that McKinsey has introduced into the lexicon, like “right-sizing”, and how those signifiers mask and obscure some of the more insidious characteristics of the work being done at the firm.

And in the Fun Half, Emma is joined by Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton and check in on some of the Senate Republicans, like Josh Hawley, who are getting a little antsy about Mitch McConnell’s leadership as Minority Leader after his most recent freeze-up. They then dive into Mehdi Hasan’s masterful skewering of Vivek Ramaswamy, who was constitutionally incapable of answering why Trump was the best President of his life time, but also a sore loser who committed abhorrent acts on January 6th. They then get into the REAL, hard-hitting news of the day: Tucker Carlson’s bombshell interview with convicted felon and serial fabulist Larry Sinclair, who outlined the (most likely fictional) night where he had (alleged) sex with Barack Obama and smoked crack with him (it was actually cocaine, we think.) They top it off by hearing Tim Pool’s thoughts on the matter (would it shock you that he compared it to Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Justice Kavanaugh)? Plus, your calls & IM’s!

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Check out Garrison’s piece here: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/mckinsey-whistleblower-confessions/

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