2340 - Oil, Capitalism & Imperialism; Impact Of Iran’s Retaliation w/ Adam Hanieh, Greg Stoker

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

It's an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Adam Hanieh, development studies academic based in the UK, to discuss his recent book Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market. Then, she speaks with Greg Stoker, co-host of the Colonial Outcasts podcast, to discuss Israel's recent offensive into Lebanon. First, Emma runs through updates on the release of Jack Smith’s new brief on Trump’s Jan 6th case, Elon’s secret funding of GOP PACs and candidates, Biden-Harris disaster response to Helene, climate change, Harris polling, Israel’s expanding offensives in the Middle East, the devastation of Gazan families by Israel, Facebook’s suppression, the Longshoremen strike, Jordan Neely’s killer, and the presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum, before parsing a little deeper through Jack Smith’s Jan 6th briefing, including his approach to SCOTUS’ ridiculous immunity qualifiers and some extra insights into the day of January 6th itself. Adam Hanieh then joins, briefly touching on his lived experience in the Middle East before diving deep into the central role that the evolution of fossil fuels has played in shaping Western hegemony over the past century and a half, from the rise of coal directly fueling the growth of the British Empire, and well through the “transition” to oil (really more of an addition than transition) and the rise of US Empire. Expanding on this latter point, Hanieh walks Emma through the rise of the oil industry in the mid-20th Century as a product of monopoly, with near-complete vertical integration in an industry dominated by seven companies (five of which were American), also touching on the major role oil reserves in the Persian Gulf played in the evolution of the Cold War, as the US stepped in for dwindling British and French colonial power in the Middle East, establishing a strong alliance with the Saudi regime before Israel’s success in the 1967 war added another major US proxy in the region, with even greater control over the Suez Canal – two relationships that remain central to US interests with the ongoing push for the Abraham Accords. After expanding on the role of the US in bolstering instability and insecurity in the region to secure their influence, Adam wraps up by unpacking the evolution of OPEC and its role as a supposedly decolonial institution headed by a major US-ally and authoritarian regime in Saudi Arabia. Greg Stoker and Emma tackle the rapid expansion of Israel’s ongoing military campaign into a full-scale regional conflict, with Israel launching a full-scale terror campaign across Lebanon before advancing a typically collectively punitive bombing campaign against Hezbollah personnel, as well this week’s Iran-launched barrage on Tel Aviv. Stoker continues, tackling the glaring parallels between Israel’s ongoing invasion of Lebanon and their complete failure in the 2006 war, parsing through the difficulties Israel faces in constantly warring with decentralized guerrilla factions, and exploring Israel’s potential responses to Iran’s controlled assault. Wrapping up, Greg and Emma tackle the U.S’ role as a behind-the-scenes broker between Iran and Israel, and assess the devastating impact Israel’s bloodthirst has had on its economy.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder as they talk with Brendon from San Diego about Harris’ attempt to appeal to the center-right, discuss Trump’s recent invocations of William McKinley, and watch the Longshoreman Union President vocalize support for Julie Su and call out Fox News… all live on Fox. Pamela from Puerto Rico unpacks PR’s shitshow of an election year, Chris Hayes and Ta-Nehisi Coates tackle the “moral abomination” of Israel, and one of Bari Weiss’ many conservative grifter networks does some conservative grifting, plus, your calls and IMs!

Check out Adam's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2760-crude-capitalism

Follow Greg on Twitter here: https://x.com/gregjstoker

Check out Colonial Outcasts here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUyY44cHSYW16ykKeZDXfw

Follow us on TikTok here!: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm

Check us out on Twitch here!: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport

Find our Rumble stream here!: https://rumble.com/user/majorityrep ort

Check out our alt YouTube channel here!: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive

Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/

Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/

Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift

Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow

Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/

Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/

Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/

Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app

Check out today’s sponsors:

Express VPN; Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://ExpressVPN.com/majority. That’s https://ExpressVPN.com/majority and you can get an extra three months FREE.

Hello Fresh: Get 10 FREE meals at https://HelloFresh.com/freemajority. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan. That’s 10 free HelloFresh meals, just by going to https://HelloFresh.com/freemajority.

Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

@SamSeder

@EmmaVigeland

@MattLech

@BradKAlsop

Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning

Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder

Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse

Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/

The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/