Wherein Benjamin and Ariel attempt to divine a principle governing when it's ok to punch a Nazi in his/her stupid Nazi face.

Benjamin Wachs's Album

Episode 3, Part 2 (He Did Nazi It Coming)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel explore the character and fate of American foreign policy in this new isolationist climate.

Articles and references:

http://time.com/4606071/american-global-leadership-is-over/

Episode 3, Part 3 (Lax Americana)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel discuss the 305 level course in the ethics of punching Nazis; sketch out some aspects of an effective politics of ungovernability and a friendship is almost ended over Ariel's casual beer standards.

Articles and references:

Montana's Anti-Fascist Resistance

https://www.yahoo.com/news/how-the-tiny-montana-ski-town-of-whitefish-defeated-its-neo-nazi-trolls-and-became-a-national-model-of-resistance-225557686.html

JFK Airport Protests and ACLU Injunction

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/federal-judge-grants-emergency-stay-thwart-trump-refugee-ban-article-1.2958483

Beer Snobbery:

http://www.benjaminisabeersnob.com/being-the-guy-writing-summaries-has-its-perks/

Episode 4, Part 1 (Grab Your Beers, Throw Your Bodies On The Gears)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel discuss which executive order they've found most terrifying (so far) and try to grapple with the role and utility of "intelligence" as a metric for political criticism.

Articles and references:

Bannon given regular access to NSC principals meeting:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/30/steve-bannon-nsc-politics-national-security

Episode 4, Part 2 (Bannon-O-Rama)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel discuss the toll taken by the briskly moving events of the past weeks and uncertainty about their roles in the effort to resist; the importance of levity and humor in the fight against what's coming; and how moved they were by the model of resistance and community displayed in Whitefish, Montana.

Also, a throwaway joke about beer leads to a brief appraisal of Heidegger's, earlier, Nazier work.

Articles and references:

Whitefish, Montana, doing it right:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/how-the-tiny-montana-ski-town-of-whitefish-defeated-its-neo-nazi-trolls-and-became-a-national-model-of-resistance-225557686.html 

Martin Heidegger:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heidegger

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/214226/heidegger-was-really-a-real-nazi

Photo Credit:  GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

Episode 4, Part 3 (Joy, and Other Weapons)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel - finding themselves in reasonably good spirits - revisit the virtues and drawbacks of movement inclusivity vs. ideological focus using philosopher Richard Rorty and author Jessa Crispin as models.

Articles and references:

A review of Crispin's "Why I Am Not A Feminist".

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-case-against-contemporary-feminism?intcid=mod-latest

On Rorty's insight into the rise of Trumpism:

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/9/14543938/richard-rorty-liberalism-vietnam-donald-trump-obama

Terry Eagleton:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton

Thomas Aquinas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas

Episode 5, Part 1 (No Way Out Without A Way In)

Wherein Benjamin and Ariel discuss the concept of noblesse oblige in the context of secular modern technocracy and whether or not it, and other civic virtues, can be re-activated in the culture.  Also Ariel paraphrases deadeyed ghoul Grover Norquist in a way he would have hated, kickstarting a conversation about the role crisis plays in the generation of urgency and commitment, which are necessary conditions for re-building a sense of community in an age of market driven social atomization.

Episode 5, Part 2 (Nu-blesse Oblige)

Wherein Benjamin makes an apology of sorts to campus activists leading to an brief appraisal of their tactics, aims and relationship to administrative authority.  Also, the liberal fixation on young adult fiction as a political heuristic is probed for Freudian undertones and as a self-serving justification for the apparent failure of "front row kid" wonkishness.

Articles and references:

Harry Potter and Academia

https://spottedtoad.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/getting-your-owl/

Yes, Minister

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister

Episode 5, Part 3 (Me-a Culpa, You-a Culpa/Hogwart's School For Transference)

Apocalypse Cabaret is an ongoing conversation between Benjamin Wachs, a San Francisco based author, journalist and born-too-late salonist, and Ariel Cruz, an upstate New York townie metal musician and autodidact, as they stand athwart history yelling “what fresh hell is this”.

Follow us on Twitter:

Ariel @colossalrain

Benjamin @BenjaminWachs