Ep 165 Weaponized Immigrants as Tools of Empire feat Yasha Levine

Guest: Yasha Levine. We talk about his new series on Substack, titled Immigrants as a Weapon. Yasha refers to this as an "investigative newsletter" about "weaponized immigrants, oligarchs, and the twisted politics of American power". He refers to himself as "a Soviet immigrant living in an era of American decline" and it speaks for itself as to why his perspective is so perfect for this fascinating topic. At the end of the discussion, there's an extra segment on surveillance and contact tracing. It's a separate bonus extra for patrons titled Episode 165 EXTRA Surveillance and Contact Tracing in the Pandemic Era.  Yasha Levine is an investigative journalist and author. Born in Leningrad, he grew up in San Francisco, and just moved back to California. He has reported from all over the world — with a focus on America and the former Soviet Union. He is the author of Surveillance Valley:The Secret Military History of the Internet, a book about the forgotten counterinsurgency origins of the Internet. He's also working on some documentary projects, including  one about California's Oligarch Valley. FOLLOW @yashalevine  SUBSCRIBE to his Substack investigative newsletter, Immigrants as a Weapon. Read his book Surveillance Valley and visit his website yashalevine.com Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com.  SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon.  SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Reference Links: Weaponized Immigrants and the History of America's Imperial Propaganda Machine, Yasha Levine Weaponizing Fascism for Democracy: The Beginning, Yasha Levine