The Racket by Jonathan M. Katz

The world's coolest dictator and his American fanboys: El Salvador's Nayib Bukele [repost]

With Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele very much in the news, thanks to his collaboration with Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, I'm re-upping my 2023 interview on the self-described "world's coolest dictator" wit

A tale of two RICOs (feat. Josie Duffy Rice)

Find all episodes and newsletters at TheRacket.news Atlanta: Home of Coca-Cola, Jermaine Dupri, and the country’s most open-ended racketeering law. Two very different cases of national importance are headed to trial unde

'If somebody's going to conduct a coup, it is going to be him'

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.com Last week, in its story on the latest African coup the New York Times included precisely one line of context about the United States: Nation

The 'world's coolest dictator' and his American fanboys

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit katz.substack.com Subscribe and read the full transcript at TheRacket.news In his non-apology apology for his just-revealed years of genocidal racism, Richard

Gangsters Movie Night 5: White Zombie

A break from the war to go back in time, and beyond the grave. That’s right, it’s time for another Gangsters Movie Night — our irregular series where I and a guest talk about a movie about a place or theme I explore in G

Gangsters Movie Night 4: Hands of Stone

“Spheres of influence” are hot again these days. Here’s what Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had to say about the controversial geopolitical concept, as it regards the showdown with Russia over Ukraine: But look, the

Gangsters Movie Night 3: Goyo The Boy General

This morning, Russia and China announced a “no limits” strategic partnership against what Reuters summarized as the “malign global influence” of the United States. The reactions of the rest of the world remain to be seen

Gangsters Movie Night 2: 55 Days at Peking

Folks, the day has arrived: Gangsters of Capitalism is in the world. You can find it at your local bookstore. If you order it online, it will be shipped or appear in your e-reader or audiobook app immediately. Hallelujah

Gangsters Movie Night: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (feat. Spencer Ackerman)

Happy belated new year! We are dangerously close to the Jan. 18 release of Gangsters of Capitalism, my book about Smedley Butler and the making and breaking of America’s empire. (Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered so

What We Talk About When We Talk About Vaccination (feat. Eula Biss)

Are the unvaccinated entitled, deprived, or just misunderstood? What would be a more effective way of controlling the COVID pandemic—shame or providing healthcare for all? (Or both?) I talked with Eula Biss, author of On

Can a lawsuit stop the Nazis? (feat. Amy Spitalnick and Heidi Beirich)

Back to Guantánamo

Audio editing by Evan Roberts For the Biden administration, the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants on the southern border has been a telling moment. Instead of rushing relief to and expediting the admission of as

Audio Edition: The Pandemic Prevention Project Trump Gutted in 2019

Trump has described COVID-19 as a problem that “came out of nowhere.” “Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened,” he said on March 26, as he steered his country to the worst nightmare of the p

Audio Edition: Did Sharpiegate cross a line? feat. Gabriel Snyder

With Trump again threatening war with Iran, last week’s best-known scandal—the president doctoring a hurricane map with a marker—might already seem quaint. But #Sharpiegate was revealing. It showed the depths to which th

Audio Edition: Is a Trump a Fascist? (Yes.) feat. Prof. Jason Stanley

Audio Edition: My visit to the concentration camps, feat. AOC

Happy Friday. Hope everyone had a good — and dry — Independence Day. This week I was on the U.S.-Mexico border, getting as close as I could to America’s concentration camps. I was following a congressional delegation led