Black Bag Inc. feat. Abby Martin (E354)
Julian, Travis, and Jake ring in the new year by chatting about the deluge of disinformation and AI slop created in the wake of the brazen U.S. abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. We interview The Empire Files journalist Abby Martin about her on-the-ground reporting in Caracas. Plus, Julian reveals the darkest secret of his family line.
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Abby Martin
The Empire Files
https://www.youtube.com/@empirefiles
Earth’s Greatest Enemy: A Film by Abby Martin
https://earthsgreatestenemy.com/
All episodes of Annie Kelly’s new 6-part podcast miniseries “Truly Tradly Deeply” are available to Cursed Media subscribers. Sign up now for the most in depth analysis of tradwives you can hear anywhere.
Cursed Media subscribers also get access to every episode of every QAA miniseries we produced, including Manclan by Julian Feeld and Annie Kelly, Trickle Down by Travis View, The Spectral Voyager by Jake Rockatansky and Brad Abrahams, and Perverts by Julian Feeld and Liv Agar. Plus, Cursed Media subscribers will get access to at least three new exclusive podcast miniseries every year.
Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Comments (150)
Uhhhh, guys, did you do any research on this lady before having her on the podcast? Shes an ex-9/11 truther who started work at RT, and the reason she was in Venezuela was because she was working for Telasur…a network sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Is anyone else vaguely concerned that they’re analyzing the state of Venezuela through the word of someone who worked for a state TV branch of the Venezuelan government? Did you guys do any research on her before having her on? If so why aren’t you at least asking her about those connections/conflicts of interest?
God I wish you’d been here to point that out when the episode first came out. The selective omissions in Abby’s biography clarifies… so much. I think the honest answer is that Julian at the very least was aware but his ‘America is the great Satan’ instincts got the better of him. He has many good qualities but he has a real blind spot when it comes to ‘resistance countries’ engaging in malfeasance.
Cut to Abby Martin being featured on DTFH along with ALEX FUCKING JONES. Absolute grifter at best, probably just an opportunist, but worst case cenario, given both her AND AJ's connections to RT, this is all very sus. And unacceptable, she should not be legitimizing hateful homophobic transphobic Roganoids. Abby Martin can absolutely go fuck herself and retire from public life after pulling that shit. See the latest episode of Knowledge Fight if you don't know what I'm talking about.
This ep. is deeply disturbing, enlightening and… a lot. I listened through twice. I appreciate the perspective. I need to go curl up in a ball for a while, but I’ll be okay.
This epiaode was odd, I loved some of it. Was great hearing Julians background! I do find the tension between Julian and Travis to be very odd though. Not sure if it's me imagining things but I hope you're all doing ok. I also felt a bit confused about what to take away here. I think Marudo is a pretty bad dude. But I think also the USA is terrible and has to stop meddling. I still feel a little unsure of whats going on in Venezuala I guess and would have to have heard more local voices and perspectives on it all 😊
Lot of folks here are fundamentally incurious about the result of *bipartisan* American foreign policy for the last 100 years. Hate to see it honestly - your conflation of your self worth and your country's reputation is glaring. Excellent episode 👏
I miss the old days of this pod so much.
have you ever read a Toronto Star story about a local man who is trying to live on 5$ a day to learn what it’s like to be poor or one where they discover laundromats, “delicious ethnic food” in scarborough or they decided to sketch every public library in the city only travelling on the buses? That’s how i experience Julian’s rants. i understand you mean well, but jesus to fuck check your priv.
The fact that Julian has obediently jumped through all the hoops to gain American citizenship while simultaneously shouting to the heavens that America is a uniquely evil country is a fact that has often made me reflect upon human nature.
really good episode, the crashouts in the comments are wild to me
I'm starting to find it strange how this podcast spends a solid chunk of time talking about experiences of people in other countries when they have yet to meaningfully talk about conspiracies in the US that affect people of color in the US. Trying to hide that you're shopping at Target when there's been a massive boycott of the company due to them reneging on promises they made to communities of color just made the whole thing even worse
"America is bad therefore every regime that's not America is good" is also a form of American exceptionalism.
Despite being born overseas I’d honestly say that Julian is the single most American host on the entire show. He’s the only one who CHOSE to become an American citizen. Everyone else was either born into it or is perfectly happy being non-American.
Highly recommend checking out the doco: Theatres of War (2022). It shows the extent to which the US military has influenced hollywood, and therefore, our perceptions of the United States and its power.
We don’t need the oil. The privatization of public mineral rights (through leases) IS the goal. All the “drill, baby, drill” bullshit is marketing for the dumb shits who continuously vote against their own interests. The private sector holds leases (onshore) on ~26.6M acres of public land, but 47-53% are idle–non-producing. Offshore the comparison is drastic: 77% of the ~12M acres leased is non-producing. They’re playing the long game. Republicans are spectacular at playing the long game. We can change the Constitution. They could call a constitutional convention and update 1789os to 2026os. Professor Larry Lessig has advocated for that for years. It’s getting the votes to call it 36 and 38 states to ratify it that’s the problem, among many Trumpian things.
I feel like Julian purposefully sabotaged Travis’ intro. I don’t know what this quiet feud is about. For the first half an hour Travis struggled to get out a quick, informed recap of the situation but Julian interrupted him nearly every sentence with some unhinged rant, yet when it’s his segment he can hold a conversation that’s passionate and coherent for two hours without the other hosts interrupting.
My cousin was in the 82nd Airborne during the Panama invasion. Leaving the army disgusted by the horrific shit he saw our military do down there was what kept him from having to go to the first Gulf War.
I now have been made aware of an alternative polar opposite narrative about Venezuela that just ALSO feels like propaganda
comment section is wild. Love to see it
Boys if you're reading this never change and for the love of yahweh don't turn into libs or platform them. Commenters here are just annoyed at Jules off his meds. Not only are both sides bad, they are the same to everyone who is not a pearl clutching lib or an American
Boys if you're reading this the podcast has gone to hell with the level of cringe from wealthy podcast bros that can't get out of their own way. If you guys were actually friends of Jules you'd probably get him help and not prop him up to record episodes that are awful.
it’s not oil it’s a power grab for the north west passage so he can pretend to be a big boy.
Yeah have to agree with many that the “both sides” shit has gotten to a point. Y’all are actively covering an episode where Trump sent the military to capture another foreign leader, and you’re telling me Harris would’ve done the exact same thing? That’s wild. And oh a democratic president would have ice shooting citizens on the street? Yall really need to do an internal check with yourself and say “democrats can be bad but also not the goddamn same.”
Yeah, cops don’t shoot people in the street when Dems are in office. Good point. Dems wanted “regime change” same as GOP, they’re just not so stupid or obvious as Trump. The Dems are not above getting their hands dirty when they want to, however. Just now forgetting Genocide Joe’s funding and coverup of the Gazan genocide? Or the entire party’s support of the Iraq War? Or really any major war, invasion, or coup the U.S. has done in the last century and a half? Fucking JFK did the Bay of Pigs, which was even dumber than the Maduro black bag. And Dems have bayed for the blood of the Ayatollah for 50 years now. God, Americans literally know nothing about their own country.
This episode is kinda of a slog to get through. Given Abby Martin's history working for both Russian and Venezuelan state media she is not someone who I would trust outright on these things, just like I wouldn't trust Radio Free Asia alone on the Uighur genocide I would need her accusations of violence to be backed up by some independent Journalism and aside from counterpunch which has been as sus source over their defense of Milosevic. One thing I will say has become more apparent since trump two, my personal life in America has remained relatively unchanged even as Trump ramps up political repression on the ethnic cleansing of migrants. I think we should keep this in mind when people talk about walking around the streets of a repressive regime that political repression can exist side by side with a normal day to day life.
Okay, but the violence of the right-wing regimes that Chavismo replaced IS well documented. Are we just ignoring that now? No, you’re right. We should wait for the exact right kind of journalist to fully interview each and every Venezuelan to see how they feel about their government and, if no one has anything bad to say, then denounce the open coup against their country.
If you are a liberal imperialist. It's time to leave. Fuck you. Stop defending this shit in the comments and pretending that poor, left wing people are the propaganda kings
Bro who are you talking about specifically?
So we’re now fully blatant that Julian and Jake have exchanged Right Wing Extreme Conspiracism for Exteme Left Wing Conspiracism and that’s OK??
Have they learned nothing from covering Conspiracism and all the blind spots it creates??? Travis needs to rein it in please, or he becomes complicit. And I love your show, listen religiously.
I love qaa but yo the brainrot ivory tower leftism has jumped the shark so far that the shows quality has suffered. I get you all feel super enlightened but "both sides" are the same and in this episode lecturing that even voting in the USA is worthless and all dem/GOP candidates are manchurian drones is the pinnacle speech of idiots that have no experience and have clearly never attempted to participate in democracy in a meaningful way. It's the speech of a incel basement dweller that's smarter than everyone he sees. I absolutely guarantee many issues some host lamant about and would say have had major negative impacts on their lives, that they yell about on the show, someone else you all look down on actually did work and made more change on it within a single election than you ever will in your life.
Exactly 🎯
Great episode. Would highly recommend as an addendum Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine for more background on how the U.S. is behind every “failed state” in our hemisphere and has committed countless crimes against humanity. Somebody put our country down like the mad dog it is. Great fucking point by Abby about Dems in the 2nd term not even fucking suggesting Trump be impeached for black bagging the President of Venezuela while 1st term Dems were apoplectic about arms shipments to Ukraine being paused. Granted, they were right to impeach him the first time, but if this last week isn’t enough to put Trump in The Hague then nothing is. The dirty secret is Genocide Joe would have done “regime change” too but just in a less obvious way.
Hell yeah 2026 and the spite listeners are in the comments, all is well with the world/we are so cooked, fuck, make it stop god pls
Target guy was probably talking about Pokémon cards
That was a brutal listen. A former 9/11 truther and RT host as a guest…. Never that that would happen on this show. Least favorite QAA to date.
“Brutal listen” but your takeaway was that it was brutal because of who the host was and not the 2 hours of recounting American crimes against humanity…
These comments are so so telling lol
Finding out that Travis is an eskrimador was a huge reveal for me. The man is becoming deadly
I live in a very MAGA area and can confirm that they LIKE all of this and WANT IT to happen.
It's not that I disagree with the sentiment, but listening to Julian felt like doom scrolling on Reddit while all the comments were crashing out. I know some people here are describing it as cathartic, but it just made me more despondent. I don't want to give up, but I don't know, realistically, what a person does in a situation like this.
Correct individually none of us can stop this and it's infuriating. However you get to live a few years and will have opportunities to resist. In the mean time support your fellow local victims. Small victories add up
Julian I love you buddy but of all the things to rail off on to start of 2026, why humanitarianism? USAID didnt even fund humanitarian programs (the US gov org that does that is BHA) and also most humanitarian workers are neither American nor funded by them.
Seems like you got a little lost and hung up on 35 seconds of the podcast
The Julian haters can fuck right off.
I like you guys but she’s a real cocky and smug jerk. I have a full time job, you don’t need to insult people who don’t spend every waking hour researching Venezuela and understand the background. The yes/and-ing of mocking Americans who don’t know Venezuelan history is so smug and annoying. I like you guys because you teach - you don’t need to try to make us feel bad for not knowing what you’re about to teach us. Maybe to me, you not knowing engineering means you have an infant brain.
Your country just kidnapped their president. Maybe you should stop feeling sorry for yourselves and learn about the place.
I feel like I am jake in this episode. I’m pretty jaded and just don’t trust any narratives from any state at this point
Excellent Episode!!
Can Julian change his resolution to get less sexual instead, it’s probably his worst (and most French) trait
SCRATCH THAT actually as long as it’s him sexually harassing his male cohosts I am 100% in favor.
It’s getting to the point that so much crazy shit is happening that by the time QAA posts an episode it’s already like 3 really fucked up incidents behind the last incident
And unlike in pacific rim, we can't nuke the source. I mean we can't , right?
Great episode, great guest. Watching the news, I feel like I’m in the most insane-making version of the Truman show doing a reboot of the early 2000s episodes. NYT editors really should go to The Hague with Trump.
Shout out to WJHS Europe trip planning
Julian I like the 2026 energy.
Oh God, that Black Eyed Peas joke hit hard. This sick boy enjoyed that reference.
There's an eternal question of who actually sold out harder, Black Eyed Peas or Jurassic 5?
Abby Martin one of my favourite people. Can't wait to listen to this.
How do you feel about her being platformed on the same show, the same EPISODE of the show, that platformed Alex Jones? Go listen to the Family Hour Show episode of Knowledge Fight if you don't believe me. Abby Martin is a grifter AT BEST. They should literally pull this episode over that connection, this is embarrassing! If they ever have her on again I'm unsubbing.
Amazing amazing episode!
Great ep to start the year!
Distracted this episode because I’m an immigration paralegal and I can’t help but try to put Julian’s life in the context of the INA.
Interesting episode and great guest. 🥰
I'd like to hear more about the run-up to the kidnapping of Maduro....this was in the planning for months.
up the meds
Orange County mentioned! 🦊
A whole lot of nonsense or small fry gripes being aired out in the comments lately. How is the weather in Virginia this time of year?
Yes, every negative comment is a CIA op. You've busted us! Oh no!
I’ve been thinking that the decline in specifically American serial killers might have something to do with potential serial killers just being rerouted into special forces and ICE to do everything they wanted to do with impunity and a bonus discount at Harbour Freight
I always sort of joke that it’s declining attention spans and they’re just mass shooters now, but that really works too
Jake obviously overheard the guy at Target talking about Pokemon cards.
Oh my goodness, you're probably right! (I'm a mom of a boy)
I’ve just listened to 2 hours of discussion about Venezuela and Chavismo and there was no mention of Chavez’s TWO separate coup attempts in February and November 1992 and the fact that since 2015 between 7-9 million people have chosen to leave the country. I grasp the history here is complex but this episode involves some Trump level selective omissions from Abby and Julian.
You think that two coup attempts means that there isn't a class war going on in Venezuela exactly how they said? Trump tried to coup Biden, does that make Trump the good guy to you? Americans need to actually think before they speak and not treat everyone they disagree with as an automatic idiot and get mad at them. Calm down, Mac.
Babe wake up- new Julian lore just dropped 🔥
The "part of the way you talk to yourself like shit is by getting into other people's heads and using their voices to also talk to you like shit" stuff resonates so deeply, I'm genuinely gonna use that, thanks, lads
I was interested in the concerns Abby raised about Western media narratives of Venezuela vs. what she saw on the ground, especially the part about the Carter Center endorsing Venezuela's elections for their transparency. However, when I looked up the Carter Center's statement on Maduro's recent reelection they say "Venezuela’s electoral process did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages and violated numerous provisions of its own national laws." The full Carter Center statement can be found here: https://www.cartercenter.org/news/venezuela-073024/
Perhaps I misunderstood, but I assumed she was referring to an earlier election that happened while she was working there…. I couldn’t find any such statement on the Carter Center page though.
Honestly, Julian, I love you, but the unreflected tankie/CIA/Amerikkka stuff (at this point pretty much a conspiracy ideology itself) and derailment of the podcast is pushing it for me. I was recently listening to some older episodes again, and I don't know what it is that must have happened in the past year or so, but it must've hit you pretty hard, and I'm sorry for that. I hope you find back on your feet and you guys manage to get back into your old groove. Not sure if I'll be around too many more episodes to find out, though, if this is what QAA has come to.
America fucking sucks and is evil though?
Whoa whoa whoa THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS PODCAST cuz I just read the comments here for maybe the first time and like, wow people really be mad about a free podcast that they choose to pay for. For the record I love your whole team of weirdos and it wouldn't be as special any other way.
There is no more wretched a hive of scum, villainy, and shit libs than a QAA Patreon comments section
Great start to the year. Great episode. But… Civilization is crumbling. !!!!
Julian doing his usual well thought out "everything bad that happens in America is/was a CIA/JSOC style op"... fucking Christ dude. Get this dude the fuck off the pod at this point, he is one degree removed from being Q-pilled himself with the shit he says, and once again not letting anyone else speak. Edit: This is wildly bad, the pod is now Julian speaking for 70% of the recording time and either being a prick to Travis or throwing out some hairbrained nonsense. My premium podcast money is limited, so I'm out ✌🏻
America is incredibly shitty and evil, though. Thankfully, Kamala was defeated so it isn't quite as bad as it could have been
For Julian, the Mexican lens is officially called the piss Christ filter. As per November on the Kill James Bond podcast anyway.
Jake's film reference was very Jake, and Julian's film reference was very Julian. Also, one of those films has the best usage of in-a-gadda-da-vida
If anyone wants to hear more about the silver corps coup Abby brings up, there's an old TrueAnon episode "Raid in Macuto" that covers it
Uncle worked for I believe Crystallex International Corp and caught a puddle jumper out when Chavez took over. I’ll look into that story. He was a geologist. Grandfather worked for Dept of Agriculture in Guatemala/Mexico/Honduras/Salvador. Same uncle tells me as kids finding guns run over by tanks and flattened in Guatemala. Got to look into that also.
Love y'all, but fifty minutes in and Abby has barely had a chance to speak!
Yes, but the ep is 2 hrs and the majority of the first half is content recorded at a different time than the guest recording. Personally, I'm satisfied with this episodes structure and banter.
Was there any planning or organization that went into this episode? Julian took the theory pill and I'm getting tired of his ranting and yelling into the mic.
It feels like he can't help but try to become the center of attention and the other hosts/guests can't do much about it. I think he needs to take a break to sort his personal life out while they bring in Liv and/or Annie to fill in for a few months.
Julian and Travis lore drop alert
Coming into the New Year hot I love it
also omg kali sticks mentioned!!!!!! i did that martial art growing up and it really is so fun and a great work out and has a fascinating history that i recommend looking into
absolute banger of an episode, boys. and abby is an amazing guest. also julian is the most relatable he's ever been lol this regime change is absolutely vile and horrific. im mexican american, and all my family members still in Mexico are terrified that claudia sheinbaum is next to be black bagged
Love my beautiful id (Julian), ego (Jake), and superego (Travis). You guys make me feel more sane! Love you all, hang in there ♥️♥️♥️
Travis lore drops are so rare, starting off with the announcement that his New Year’s resolution is to get more disciplined with Filipino martial arts is a top tier start to the episode
Update: insane Julian lore drop
Great, now I gotta change my billing info for Cursed Media so Julian doesn’t show up to my house and treat my family like the US treats Venezuelan presidential guards.
Julian is really dragging the show down
Drag these nuts across your face
Corey better get bonus pay for every bleep he has to add.
Bennie Thompson != Benny Johnson
Really not a huge fan of the guest basically saying that all US elections are big fake dog and pony shows. Local elections are still really important even if you believe both major parties are the same!! There needs to be a little more care taken with nuances before throwing out statements like that
Local politicians have very little power. Abby is 100% correct.
i’m so tired.
Love Abby
The DSA dig is so tired. DSA had a delegation meet with Venezuelan leadership and in any set policy, has been unambiguously pro Venezuela for ages. Yes, there might be annoying idiots at meetings, but those people do not control the stance or actions of the movement. They are often just as annoying to dedicated organizers as anyone else, but many of them end up reformed into practical political participants with time.
The DSA is gay (disparagingly)
Excited to have you back, happy new year!
Damn it's a tankie episode
Silence, Trot
Good to have you all back! Fuck me though, imagine a situation where Trump blackbagged Jeremy Corbyn for nationalising the railways. I didn't think 2026 could get more deranged than 2025 so quickly.
That wasn’t a woman of color, bud.
White people can’t have bad things happen to them in AmeriKKKa so therefore she must be POC
Travis doing Kali Arnis Escrima!!! Trained for a few years and with a grand master who did some permanent damage to my knuckles :). Great exercise and you can substitute the rattan sticks with anything like a newspaper or umbrella, etc. The episode is so timely and needed-as a Canadian we’re a bit…ok quite a bit…pissed off and frankly alarmed at what’s going on down there. Things feel wrong. Glad to have you all back at least!
Micro Machines reference is top tier stuff
Great episode. Julian is fascinating. Happy new year everybody.
30 seconds in and Julian is on his bullshit.
“I think I’m getting worse” we all are Julian we all are
Finally a really good ep! It's been so long since they were worth it.
Would love to see yall tackle “conformity gate.” Everyone’s gone a little mad.
Some of the Byler stuff does read a lot like Johnlock as well
"The point is, if you're spending half your tweet or even part of your tweet saying this after somebody did a clear Geneva Convention war crime, you know, in contravention of like basic sovereignty of another country, you are a part of the problem." Nicely put
Thank fuck you lot are back ! You had a load of us worried there ! Of course you deserve a break and hope you are fully recharged for yet another manic year. So welcome back and Happy New Year to all . We've missed you ❤️
Just to demonstrate the blatant level of propaganda, the 1989 invasion of Panama was called Operation Just Cause.
We have to stop them picking these Apprentice team names and go back to a random system where it's operation teacup or something, as a bare minimum.
I understand the refusal to criticize Maduro, but I think it was the wrong decision. The number of migrants trying to enter the US seems like clear evidence of a nation in crisis. An exploration of these more contemporary events would be more useful than a haphazard recount of American misdeeds in decades past. And I would have been shocked if the US came out looking good even in an honest look at the reasons driving the ongoing Venezuelan diaspora — there’s obviously no doubt that American misdeeds continue to the present
I wonder if US sanctions have anything to do with that
They want Greenland for the trade route
I wish Julian would shut up just a little bit more, especially when having on such an amazing guest as Abby Martin.
Same. Julian needs to hear himself speak
I feel like Batman, or halo..
Of all the people you could have gotten on. It’s not hard to find people, including Venezuelan leftists, who can tell you that Trump kidnapping Maduro is horrible news without downplaying how horrible Maduro was. You had to get some white leftist on
Idpol has rotted your brain
“it’s complete horseshit…” that caracas is dangerous. as a venezuelan who grew up in caracas and has been held up at gunpoint, this episode is just such phony bullshit. be curious yourself. get an actual venezuelan to guest host. what a disappointing episode.
My understanding is that yes Venezuela has problems but also those problems are downstream of colonialism, both Spanish and Estadounidense. That is: the United States invariably makes things worse. The best thing we can do is to do nothing and leave other countries alone. Anyway the fact that Trump doesn’t seem to want to do state-building in Venezuela seems actually somewhat encouraging.
My fanfiction here is that this is the culmination of generations of rivalry between the narcos and the pedos. Maduro is actually doing deep cover to rescue the mole children from the tunnels under Central Park. The drone strikes against Venezuelan fishing boats were actually carried out by Ghislaine Maxwell’s TerraMar Project, and she was also using the underage girls she was sex trafficking for the purpose of fighting drug traffickers. This also explains the Windsors: Liz Windsor was the narco-in-chief, but she had a soft spot for her younger son, Andrew, which allowed him to become a narco-pedo double agent, and it took her death for Chuck Windsor to put an end to that. So here’s hoping the narcos save us from the pedos! 😅 (MadurAnon? I hardly know her!)
You know who deserves to be appointed “Transitional President” of Venezuela? Hillary Clinton! Yes, Venezuela deserves better, but Hillary deserves her own bathetic Maximiliana!
It’s good to hear your voices again, but you’re break made finish some of my other podcasts
Is it just me or did julians trump sound Scouse
Is Julian’s Trump a Red or a Blue?
Man I hope you guys and girls all had a good break. Looking into the abyss the past couple of weeks has been bleak? Enraging? ¿Por qué no los dos? Yay! Less than 5 mins in and a huge Julian bleep!
Fourth
Abby!
As soon as this news hit the headlines, I wanted to hear the QAA team's take on it.
There are other places to get news?