In this week’s “State of the Force” address Pete Hegseth outlines structural reforms that will engender further zealotry and ineptitude. The end state: a more demoralized and incompetent military.

You can follow El, the Queen of Regs here:

https://linktr.ee/queenofregs?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAaftqexpwGatNMI42YxkSQY8OWET7FmfxbK7rhMwRr0WQMTKP4Nw9_gHeqCT-g_aem_re2Yoqho4a3nRpakXYMM9w

Our society exhibits a suicidal lack of empathy. We are witnessing mass death, violence, displacement on a global scale, all normalized and obfuscated by generations of bourgeois media and propaganda.

How do we begin to push back against it in order to fight for a more sane, sustainable, and equitable world? In this episode of Colonial Outcasts we go inside the isolated and near-invisible world of US women’s prisons with former defense attorney and photojournalist Sarah Bennet.

She is the author of “Looking Inside: Women with Life Sentences,” a long-term photographic project about women convicted of homicide and sentenced to life in New York State. The book follows them inside prison, after release, and in everyday life afterward, using portraits plus personal materials like letters, drawings, Polaroids, and handwritten notes to show that they are more than the crime that led to their sentences. The project resists stereotypes and asks readers to consider how punishment, memory, identity, and rehabilitation shape a life over decades.

This is a challenging topic. Hope you enjoy!

Link to Sarah’s book:https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/Sara-Bennett/978-3-96900-238-4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3969002389?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Subscribe to https://www.rfemedia.com/ for ad-free episodes and exclusive content.

In this episode we discuss the recent socio-cultural backlash against the war with Iran and Dr. Rad’s new book “Don't Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide.”

Are we finally, as a population, gaining a modicum of media literacy?

Assal Rad is a historian of Middle East history and a Nonresident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC and DAWN. She works on research and writing related to U.S. foreign policy issues and the Middle East. She is the author of The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Don’t Say Palestine: How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide (Vintage, 2026). Assal completed a PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine in 2018.

Links to the book here:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/834977/dont-say-palestine-by-assal-rad/

https://www.audible.com/pd/Dont-Say-Palestine-Audiobook/B0H4RTFV8W?srsltid=AU7gw4V5CgpfTLQ1m3_RJ0UAB2EYPX8zcoFssW1cWlg33XVstlAwWcxG

You can follow Assal here:

https://x.com/AssalRad

Our first Doc! The US Government is building a pointless wall through America's last wild border. This flagrant breach of public trust begins in Big Bend and ends in your backyard.

Watch the full documentary with NO ADS at https://www.rfemedia.com/or on our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/ColonialOutcasts

DO NOT be distracted by “the pause.” Bulldozers are tearing through protected desert, sacred grounds, and decades of federal protections along the last truly wild stretch of the US-Mexico border. “Big Bend Betrayal” goes inside the fight between local conservationists, concerned citizens, border communities and a federal government contract awarded to a major Trump donor.

You will see how ludicrous this border construction is, and how it is part of a larger normalization campaign to break the protections on all public lands in the continental United States. The end goal: privatize everything.

After the midterms on Nov 3rd, the assault will continue…

Join us on Substack at https://www.rfemedia.com/ or on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/ColonialOutcasts for ad-free episodes and so much more!

What exactly is predictive policing and how is law enforcement using it to skirt the Constitution and go on “fishing expeditions?” Are they baiting attacks? Haaretz reveals October 7th foreknowledge.

Today we are joined by Jack Jones (quadzillahikes) to talk about his favorite subject - ICE and law enforcement overreach and unaccountability. What does this mean for the future of political action and activism. You can follow him here:

https://www.instagram.com/quadzillahikes/

https://substack.com/@quadzillahikes?utm_source=global-search

Sourcelist:

https://prospect.org/2026/09/09/anthropic-artificial-intelligence-surveillance-system-monitor-activists/

https://www.404media.co/a-secretive-dhs-predictive-policing-unit-is-analyzing-americans-financial-habits-and-pulling-them-over/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-security/2026-09-08/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/netanyahu-got-an-explicit-warning-before-oct-7-he-didnt-brief-security-chiefs/000001a0-7a3b-d7d5-a9fc-7eff3d0f0000

https://theintercept.com/2026/09/03/ice-palantir-privacy-personal-info-access/

https://theintercept.com/2026/09/09/flock-cameras-police-loitering-curfew-surveillance/

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-surveillance-tech/https://www.axios.com/2026/09/09/anthropic-insiders-warn-ai-could-kill-all-humans

This podcast is a production of Radio Free Empire Media. To get access to all RFE media content including ad free and bonus episodes, subscribe at https://www.rfemedia.com.

Also, support the Black Panther Party by subscribing to their newspaper (PRINT ONLY!) at https://www.thebpp.usThis podcast is a production of Radio Free Empire Media. To get access to all RFE media content including ad free and bonus episodes, subscribe at https://www.rfemedia.com. And please like, rate and review wherever you are listening it helps others find us.
Recorded over two months ago. Mea Marie is a humanitarian, activist and independent journalist who sailed as a volunteer on the last Sumud Flotilla bringing aid to Gaza, whose inhumane treatment only scratches the surface of the everyday reality for Palestinians living under occupation.
She describes in detail the physical torture, psychological abuse, sadism and psychopathy of her captors but also the solidarity, bravery, and heroism of her peers. Follow her journalism at her socials here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacebunnynews1/
Instagram 2: https://www.instagram.com/@cityheightsdc
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@spacebunnynews1
Support RFE Media for $5/month and get: no ads, 30 extra minutes of Colonial Outcasts every episode, access to our supporters channel and community chat on Substack, and Fuck Around Fridays — our unhinged bonus series where Mark and Greg just fuck around. You'll also get access to our Hope This Finds You Well livestreams (also on RFE Media's YouTube). Subscribe at https://rfemedia.com
We're building RFE Media into more than just this show: social clips, on-the-ground news reporting, and a new audio-only series with Greg going deep on individual topics. Follow our Substack and socials @rfemedia to stay tuned for everything.

This episode is in a way a spiritual rant which you can watch or listen ad-free at https://www.rfemedia.com/

This episode is in a way a spiritual rant.

Dystopia intensifies but do not despair! As star base after star base are constructed on coastal wetlands just be consoled that one way or the other, this ride ain’t lasting forever.

Joey Santore is a botanist, artist, author and ex-railroader who travels the world documenting plant life. He is the host and producer of the youtube channel Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t and was the host of a small-scale tv show called Kill Your Lawn. He advocates for native plants, building a closer human relationship with Earth’s plant life, and a re-thinking of modern American horticulture and landscaping due to its mundane disconnection from both ecological and biological reality. You can follow him here:

https://www.youtube.com/@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

https://www.instagram.com/crime_pays_but_botany_doesnt/

https://thornscrubsanctuary.org/

A bombshell leak to the Washington post on Sunday, August 31st, demonstrated that US General Officers in the Pentagon are vying for increasingly finite assets and matériel across Combatant Commands, limiting the military viability of interventions in Iran, Ukraine, and Latin America.

This episode examines how and why that is. Here is our general outline:

Part 1: Russia–Ukraine

• Why did the CIA Director urgently fly to Russia?

• The US trying to freeze the Ukraine conflict

• NATO’s fragility

• Can the US rebuild its industrial base?

Part 2: Iran, Sanctions & Economic Warfare

• The limits of military force

• The new sanctions / economic isolation

• Iran’s capacity to withstand the war

• Iran’s international partners

Part 3: Venezuela & Latin America

• Securing Latin America

• The Venezuela deal

• Long-term objectives

• China & multipolarity in the Americas

Final synthesis:

● The three sections ultimately connect:

○ Ukraine: limits of US/NATO military power.

○ Iran: limits of US military and financial coercion.

○ Venezuela: attempt to compensate by consolidating influence closer to home.

● Central question: Is the US adapting to a declining relative position—or attempting

to reverse it through increasingly aggressive economic, military and political

coercion?