In this News Brief follow up to Episode 115 on Hollywood's symbiotic relationship with the Pentagon and CIA, we spoke with director and screenwriter Oliver Stone about his experience making mainstream motion pictures about often taboo subjects like the American imperialism and war crimes.

News Brief - Hollywood and the Pentagon: A Follow Up Conversation with Oliver Stone

“Climate change is real.” “Three words — science, science, and science.” “From coastal towns to rural farms to urban centers, climate change poses an existential threat.” “Now it is time to put our coalition to work and pass bold climate solutions.”

These are just some of the many statements — all of them true — that the U.S. public routinely hears from its Democratic Party leaders, expressing their unbridled commitment to acting on the ever-urgent issue of climate change.

But there is a tremendous gulf between Democratic leaders’ claims to believe climate change is an existential threat and their actual actions, which are the actions of people who do not believe climate change must be urgently and robustly tackled. Since climate change has ascended from thoroughly ignored to occasionally acknowledged issue in US political discourse and elections, Democratic leaders have for the most part only been willing to push for small-scale policy solutions — a carbon-capture tax credit here, a fossil-fuel subsidy cut there.

These solutions are almost always incremental and market-based, and these same Democrats refuse to embrace what’s actually needed: keep fossil fuels in the ground, and mobilize public resources so that we can make the broad social changes we need to address the climate crisis. The most powerful Democrats, people like Nancy Pelosi, have not only steered clear of more far-reaching policies, but have actively undermined them, as seen most clearly with her opposition to the Green New Deal — often under the guise of debt scolding.

When Democratic Party claims about the dire consequences of climate change are not matched by robust and necessary policy proposals, one can only assume one of three realities is true: (1) they do not care about the disastrous inevitably of environmental collapse, (2) they don’t truly believe the science on climate change in general, or (3) they’re simply hopeless and spineless. In any case, the resultant inertia amounts to an insidious form of climate denialism in its own right.

On this episode, part one of two tackling climate change, we discuss the net effect of this chasm - what we’re calling “the Climate Rhetoric-Policy Gap” - and how, from a messaging standpoint, it reads false and leads many to believe that climate change may be real in some abstract sense, but mostly not a matter of urgent moral importance.

Our guest is Basav Sen, Cli­mate Jus­tice Project Direc­tor at the Insti­tute for Pol­i­cy Stud­ies.

Ep. 121 - Climate Chaos (Part I):  How the Gap Between Liberal Rhetoric & Policy Promotes Denialism

Trillbillies coverage of Election Day 2020

Also please welcome our newest Trillbilly member, Aaron Thorpe, who we couldn't bus up to Kentucky for this episode but who was on our most recent Patreon episode and will be on our upcoming episodes: @posadist_trapgd on Twitter if you'd like to say hello

And please check out Tarence's article at Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4905-a-view-from-trump-country

And finally you can support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 171: Thank You, Kentucky

Comedian James Austin Johnson joins us to do expert reporting and analysis on the election that's still happening or is over or is still happening I can't tell. Then Donald Trump calls us to announce his resignation sort of.

JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON
@ShrimpJAJ on Twitter and IG
@WTAWTPod

ATLANTA SOLIDARITY FUND
https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/contribute-to-the-atlanta-solidarity-fund
@ATLSolFund

PHONE BANK FOR RAPHAEL WARNOCK
https://www.mobilize.us/warnockforgeorgia/event/331688/

MERCH
PodDamnAmerica.BigCartel.Com

PATREON
Patreon.com/PodDamnAmerica

2020 ELECTION ANALYSIS BREAKDOWN w/ James Austin Johnson & Donald Trump

It's another week of begrudgingly covering the news. Is Trump attempting a coup? What can Biden's transition team tell us about the future? How will honest Americans like the MAGA Florist and Stormin' Norman fare under a repressive Biden regime? Tune in to find out...

Tarence has a new article about Congressman Hal Rogers up at Dissent Magazine: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/hal-rogerss-kentucky-kingdom

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 172: Stormin' Norman and the 10,000 Biker Coup

This week we discuss the theory of NEOFEUDALISM, company towns, EPCOT center, and the gig economy.

SOURCES
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neofeudalism-the-end-of-capitalism/
https://lingojam.com/EnglishtoShakespearean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPCOT_(concept)

HELP THE GEORGIA SENATE FIGHT:
https://Janemcalevey.com

ALEX'S MOVIE SPACE TRASH:
https://vimeo.com/295924793

MERCH:
Poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON EPS
Patreon.com/PodDamnAmerica

GIVE ME FUEDALISM GIVE ME FIRE GIVE ME THAT WHICH I DESIRE

"Joe Biden Calls For ‘Immediate, Full And Transparent Investigation’ Into Jacob Blake Shooting," Forbes reports. "Obama Fraud Task Force Takes on the Big Banks," Bloomberg News proclaims. "Democratic lawmakers call for vote on bill to study reparations," announces CNN.

It seems that every time there’s a movement toward righting a historical or current wrong, whether police violence, corporate abuses, or climate change, policymakers muster the same tepid “solution”: initiate a committee, investigation, commission, study, or, if they want to sound super militaristic and Serious a “task force” to probe the issue. This type of rhetorical filler offers elites the best of both worlds: Creating the appearance of attentiveness and progressiveness without requiring any meaningful, overt ideological commitments.

Tethered to explicit political objectives, calls for investigations or studies can be a useful lobbying tool, but absent this, they are more often than not a political trick, psychological tools to compel activists and those outraged on social media to take a break, because now the professionals are handling it. The effect: the political equivalent of a five-day cooling off period, wait the outrage out and channel activist energy into Get Out the Vote fodder and superficial reform-ese that never truly upsets the existing order.

On this episode, we study the phenomenon of the liberal appeals for bare-minimum interventions in times of political crisis, looking at how vague and open-ended calls for studies, committees, task forces, and commissions are designed to elevate the reputations of spineless politicians while nullifying the social movements that actually seek racial, economic, and climate justice.

Our guest is Briahna Joy Gray, former national press secretary for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.

Ep 123: How Liberal Meta-Demands for "Investigations" and "Studies" are Used to Silence Activists

In this News Brief, we talk with journalist Ashoka Jegroo about Giuliani's long history of racism, white liberal New Yorkers providing cover for his carceral sociopathy because they liked the results, and the pathetic, inevitable final chapter of the former New York mayor.

News Brief: It's Not a "Fall From Grace", This Has Always Been Who Giuliani Was

A woman falls prey to QAnon along with child custody hucksters “E-Clause” and ends up committing murder.

↓↓↓↓ SUBSCRIBE FOR $5 A MONTH SO YOU DON'T MISS THE SECOND WEEKLY EPISODE ↓↓↓↓
https://www.patreon.com/QAnonAnonymous

QAA Merch / Join the Discord Community / Find the Lost Episodes / Etc: https://qanonanonymous.com

Episode music by Nick Sena (http://nicksenamusic.com), Doom Chakra Tapes (http://doomchakratapes.bandcamp.com) and Matthew De La Torre (http://implantcreative.com)

Sources and primary documents can be found here: https://bit.ly/33eFtzm

Episode 118: The Tragic Tale of Neely Blanchard

Environmentalist and author Thea Riofrancos is here to rap with the kids about about ecosocialism and talk shit on John Kerry. Dare we defy the all powerful Climate Czar? He whose divine blood gives us the Earth itself?

CHECK OUT HER BOOK
Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador https://www.dukeupress.edu/resource-radicals

SUPPORT THE SHOW AND GET MORE EPISODES @ patreon.com/poddamnamerica

TYRANNY OF THE CLIMATE CZAR w/ Thea Riofrancos

This is the second installment of our scoldy, buzzkill, two-part episode on Obama-era media failures we should be on the look out for as the Biden administration takes office. On this episode, we examine five more tropes that, sadly, are already being resurrected.

Our guest is Roberto Lovato, author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas.

Episode 126: Obama-Era Media Failures We Shouldn’t Rehash Under Biden (Part II)

Citations Needed is a podcast about the media, power, PR, and the history of bullshit. It is hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, and produced by Florence Barrau-Adams.

Ep 123: How Liberal Meta-Demands for "Investigations" and "Studies" are Used to Silence Activists

Citations Needed Podcast