** "An empire is also a narrative, and the narrative is, everybody has to be scared of me. And when people are no longer scared of me, guess what - you're not an empire anymore..."

Pacifica Host Galand Nixon Does The Math. Referencing 900 US military bases, fish to the east and west of this country, baseballbats, swiss cheese - and smacking Israel aside like a fly...

** "Where's the director..."

Haifaa al-Mansour Talks Unidentified, The Good Lord Bird, Mary Shelley - and the Saudi filmmaker's hopes regarding turmoil right now in the Middle East.

Adventurous and unconventional, Mansour explores bold and candid insights in her films, uncompromising in her critique of men, and women, whether in Saudi Arabia or here in the US. And ironically, how those choices impact her own life - even as the most eminent and first every female filmmaker in her country - forced to direct her movies from a van because of gender segregation laws, to being viewed as a crew member when filming here.

And while exploring sexual conflicts in her latest Saudi noir thriller Unidentified, Mansour had plenty to say as well about what may be termed the 'American burka' - where women here are pressured to conform physically, disfiguring their bodies surgically, ozempic starvation addiction, and the plastic 'same face syndrome' for social acceptance.

'American Burka'

Mansour also reflects on her inspiration to film 'Mary Shelley' here - her bittersweet biography of the unheralded life of that British teenager who wrote what would become the most popular figure in contemporary western literature and culture, Frankenstein.

** "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one..."

In Case You Missed It - The week's most absurd and head shaking news...Divulging the devil made me do it department; Occupy Wall Street; Israel, Iran and our even a broken clock is right twice a day department; Starbucks Korea, AI sensitivity training, and the 1980 student massacre - and the NY Knicks parade temporary sprawling tenant evictions suspension...

** "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail..."

Endless Bombing And The US Empire. Arts Express Paris Correspondent Professor Dennis Broe on 'the bloated defence budget and military graft in a country whose weapons are losing on the battlefield, is a sign of the growing impotence of imperial reach.'

With connections to war, tech and entertainment - and 'where the human rights gloves are off and the country is seen by the rest of the world as both a supporter of and a participant in genocide. Can you say Minab...'

Lionelle Hamanaka

Plus...Trump, a deep dive diagnosis...Lionelle Hamanaka's Four Women,fierce and forgotten across America's 250 years...