Listen live Fridays 8 to 10 Eastern on Revolution.Radio later archived at patreon.com/DrKevinBarrett
First hour: Philosophy professors James Fetzer and Sterling Harwood debate the existence of Paul McCartney on the occasion of his 79th birthday. Is the guy celebrating his 79th birthday today the original Paul, or an impostor known as Faul? Sterling Harwood isn’t buying James Fetzer’s “Paul is dead” theory…even though Harwood admits there are some interesting items of evidence. (Check out Prof. Harwood’s book The Greatest Mystery of the Beatles: Critical Thinking on Paul is Dead & the Skeptical Sixties.)
Though Paul McCartney presumably has better ways to celebrate his birthday, if he has a few free minutes, he is welcome to call in to Revolution Radio to try to convince Jim Fetzer that he really is himself. (See my 2015 letter inviting Paul to debate Jim Fetzer.)
Sterling Harwood sends these links:
*Paul and Jane with their feet in the photo
*Paul and Jane without their feet showing—Jim Fetzer heavily relies on this photo
*Paul and Jane closer in height but it seems after 1966
*What do you make of this one? After 1966?
*Jane & Paul after 1966, at the same event as 1 of the photos that Jim relies on
* Decisive photo that Paul was Taller than John on Jan. 1, 1962
*Tall Paul on Ed Sullivan Show
*More tall Paul on Ed Sullivan Show
Jim Fetzer sends these links:
Second hour: Science professor Gideon Polya says Rep. Ilhan Omar should be ashamed of herself for comparing Israel to Hamas:
“Somali-born and Muslim American Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar recently caused a storm by Tweeting ‘We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice.’ She was variously criticized by the Left and the Right for comparing the US and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban.
“Leftists criticized Ilhan Omar for unfairly implying a moral equivalence between (a) the Indigenous Palestinian Hamas and the Indigenous Afghan Taliban taking up arms to defend their countries against foreign invaders (as is permitted in International Law), and (b) the serial war criminal, International Law-violating foreign invaders, US-backed Apartheid Israel and the US, respectively.
“In stark contrast, the Orwellian Republicans and Democrats condemned Ilhan Omar as asserting the moral equivalence between (a) the assertedly ‘democratic’ and ‘law-respecting’ US and US-backed Israeli invaders assertedly bringing ‘peace’ and ‘freedom’ by war, and (b) their Indigenous opponents who are classified by the US Alliance as ‘terrorists.’
“However 30 key and objective comparisons have been made of (a) the armed Indigenous resistance groups Hamas and the Taliban versus (b) the serial war criminal and serial invaders the US and US-backed Apartheid Israel. Whatever their well-publicized deficiencies, Hamas and the Taliban come up smelling of roses in all 30 comparisons whereas the US and Apartheid Israel stand condemned as mendacious, nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, International Law-violating, and serial war criminal rogue states. Thus, for example:
(1). Nuclear weapons possession: Hamas (0), Taliban (0), US (5,800-7,315), Apartheid Israel (90-400).
(2). Countries with territory invaded by Hamas (0), Taliban (0), US (72), Apartheid Israel (13)…
People killed this century by violence and imposed deprivation by Hamas (circa 1,000), Taliban (circa 10,000), US (over 30 million Muslims), Apartheid Israel (100,000 Occupied Palestinians; goodness knows how many people killed in Israeli-backed conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Guatemala, Sudan, South Sudan and elsewhere in the Developing World)…
Humanity and the Biosphere are existentially threatened by nuclear weapons (nuclear terrorism) and deadly climate change inaction (Climate Genocide): Hamas (negligible contribution), Taliban (negligible contribution), US (world-leading contribution as a world leader as both a nuclear terrorist and a climate criminal state), Apartheid Israel (a world-leading contributor on a per capita basis as a nuclear terrorist state and as a contributor to egregious neoliberalism and climate criminality).
For details see Gideon Polya, “Ilhan Omar & moral non-equivalence of Hamas & Taliban versus US & Israeli invaders”, Countercurrents, 16 June 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/06/ilhan-omar-moral-non-equivalence-of-hamas-taliban-versus-us-israeli-invaders/ and please tell everyone you can.
Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya, Melbourne, Australia.