There's a great book that juxtaposes the US/Soviet nuclear capacity - which goes on to cogitate over the coterminous economic criterion of capitalism (represented by the US, of course) and Marxism (USSR) - 'Plutopia' by Kate Brown

Speaking of the arctic, and the competition between the US and Soviets in the destruction of the ecosystem there, I'd recommend the seminal work by Bathsheba Demuth - 'Floating Coast'

the U.S. Empire is in decline and very desperate to maintain itself ... buckle up buttercup. I've seen the future and it is murder.. lol

wooo started listening from ep 1 two weeks ago and i finally caught up. you rock!

Related tracks: Linking US imperialism and police violence: Killer cop got start at dictator-training military base

And introducing…on bass guitar, John Taylor! Bassist and founding member of 80’s new romantic superstars Duran Duran, Taylor and his bandmates achieved wild success in the 1980, but Taylor and Duran Duran’s 80’s excess came with a price, and his personal journey took him to the brink of self-destruction. Today we’ll be talking all about those wonderful double Duran’s through his book “In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran”.

Songs
Chic - Everybody Dance
Duran Duran - Girls on Film
Duran Duran - Rio
Duran Duran - Save a Prayer
Duran Duran - The Reflex
Duran Duran - A View to a Kill
The Power Station - Get it On (Bang a Gong)
Duran Duran - Drug (It’s Just a State of Mind)
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
Neurotic Outsiders - Jerk
Neurotic Outsiders - Janie Jones
Duran Duran - Falling Down

And Introducing Podcast

#72 DURAN DURAN!

Spenser & Mike get deep in pandemic brain with philosophy and updates on COVID warfare at home & abroad.

Show notes: 
- Join upcoming May 30 national actions to Cancel The Rents @ https://www.canceltherents.org/

- Get the new album 'Rend Wake' by our audio engineer Anahedron: https://condinarecords.bandcamp.com/album/rend-wake

- Learn about this 72nd anniversary of the Nakba: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2020/5/15/remembering-72-years-of-the-nakba-as-annexation-looms

PANDEMIC VISION

Spenser and Mike interview Army Major Danny Sjursen about his journey from West Point officer in Iraq and Afghanistan to anti-war author, commentator and activist. 

Sjursen is host of 'Fortress On A Hill' podcast and author of several books. Find his work at https://skepticalvet.com/

Army Major to the Anti-War Movement

The popularity of HGTV house-flipping TV shows can’t be overstated: In the second week of July, HGTV was the fourth highest rated cable network, behind only Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, making it the highest rated entertainment network in the United States. Its most prominent programming: the reliable, risk free formula of home flipping shows. All of these shows—Flip or Flop and its many regional spinoffs, Good Bones, Flipping 101, to name just a few—share a basic formula: house-flippers, usually a family business in the form of a husband and wife team or parent and child with a folksy rapport, buy a neglected house on the cheap—cue zoom-ins on mold, water damage, decaying wood, dust and dead bugs—that’s often in a relatively poor or gentrifying neighborhood.

They then turn it into something they describe as "beautiful", to be sold at a much higher price to, most likely, young white people looking for a "funky" home in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood. But at what cost do these glossy, get-rich-quick reality shows entertain us?  What ideologies do they promote, and how do they erase the working class black and brown families whose housing was condemned, and communities were systemically neglected, before the camera’s even began rolling?

On this episode—our  Season 3 finale—we take a look at these shows to understand how and why HGTV became a glorified commercial for house-flipping and gentrification, examining its indifference to housing instability and its dead-eyed cheerleading of “middle-class” bourgeois aspirationalism, no matter the social cost. 

Our guests are culture writer Ann-Derrick Gaillot and Atlanta-based community organizer Kamau Franklin.

Episode 116: The Pro-Gentrification Aspirationalism of HGTV's House-Flipping Shows

One point brought up in Episode 116, highlighting the connection between real estate interests and over-policing, solicited a lot of feedback from listeners. In this News Brief, we wanted to expand upon this topic by interviewing an academic source we cited in the episode: assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver Brenden Beck, whose work focuses on the intersection between "urban development" projects and the targeted, sustain harassment of communities of color.

News Brief: Detailing the Connection Between Gentrification and Racist Police Harassment

Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes!

www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

Chapo Trap House

449 Teaser - Felix WILL Move to Minnesota for a Debate

"U.S. military tactics falling behind those of adversaries, Pentagon official warns," The Guardian proclaims. "Russian Propaganda Is Pervasive, and America Is Behind the Power Curve in Countering It," reads a report from the RAND Corporation. "U.S. falling behind in new space race, says CIA's former head of science and tech," cautions CBS News. 

U.S. media consistently characterize the United States – a country with nearly 800 military bases worldwide and an ever-climbing annual defense budget that's already more than a trillion dollars – as the world's eternal underdog. Somehow, the United States military is always "lagging" or "falling behind" perennial enemies Russia, China and evil Muslim terrorists in everything from nuclear weapons, PSYOPs, Internet security and surveillance, Arctic ice cutters, intercontinental ballistic missiles, drones, dominating outer space, and the always reliable and extremely vague "military readiness."

The scam goes something like this: A weapons contractor and military-funded think tank publishes a supposedly neutral "report" or a handful "U.S. officials" run to a media outlet insisting the United States is "lagging behind" in a sector that incidentally coincides with said think tank's funders or government entity's interests. Credulous American media mindlessly repeats the claims, everyone acts panicked, treating the warning like a work of good faith, sober and objective analysis. Congress then reacts and uses media coverage to rationalize even more contracts to the very funders of the think tank that raised the warning, further bloating the Pentagon, State Department and  CIA budgets. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, all the while portraying the U.S.'s gargantuan defense expenditures as paltry and insufficient.

On this episode, we parse the trope of the always “lagging” United States, who pushes and funds it, who benefits from it, and ask why the inverse question – "what if the U.S. is too powerful and dominant over the rest of the world" – is never broached by American media, much less honestly debated. 

Our guest is FAIR's Jim Naureckas.

Episode 117: The Always 'Lagging' U.S. War Machine

Will talks to Jess Scarane, who is challenging incumbent Chris Coons for a U.S. Senate seat in Delaware. They discuss Delaware’s unique importance as a state, the limits of “compromise,” building power for progressive policies, and how to lift voters’ expectations for what they can demand from their politicians.  

Get involved with Jess’ campaign here: https://www.jessfordelaware.com/

BONUS: Will interviews Delaware Senate candidate Jessica Scarane

UNLOCKED SUBSCRIBER EPISODE 81
We are joined by the legal galaxy brains from the ALAB podcast to disrobe the criminals on the Supreme Court, shed light on the dark ecosystem of legislation mills and demystify the perverted institutions of Big Law

UNLOCKED! Episode 81: SCROTUS

This week we figure out why everyone thinks antifa trying to kill smoky the bear. We also talk about a haunted statue of Melania.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/world/europe/melania-trump-sculpture-slovenia.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/09/18/scapegoating-antifa-starting-wildfires-distracts-real-causes/

MERCH:
PodDamnAmerica.BigCartel.com

PATREON:
Patreon.com/PodDamnAmerica

West Coast... You're Fired

Liz and Brace go long to offer critical support to Julian Assange, explicate the ridiculous showtrial of the political prisoner, the war crimes of the United States and the curious media blackout surrounding Wikileaks. 

Support the independent journalists covering the trial: 
www.craigmurray.org.uk
www.shadowproof.com

Episode 106: #FreeAssange

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

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

Following Robbie Martin's 2-part podcast QAnon breakdown on Media Roots Radio, the anonymous (self- proclaimed) 'government insider', Q continued to post on the 8kun message board but appeared to be running out of steam, lacking the creativity and spark it once had. Trump has lost the election and gone into hiding and interestingly the anonymous poster known as Q decided to do the same, only posting 3 times total in the month of November. Unfortunately for the sitting president, Q now seemingly describes Trump as 'post-POTUS'. But what happens if or when Q stops posting? Has the QAnon movement become stronger than the identity itself? What the hell does this all mean? Robbie attempts to decipher all this from @ 01:16:00 onward. The co-founder of 8chan, Fredrick Brennan joins Robbie at the beginning of the episode to discuss his political trajectory and how he was intimately close to the technical backend of the 8chan website enough to have a plausible theory on who may be behind Q. Is it possible Jim and Ron Watkins, the father/son duo and owners of 8kun are currently posing as Q? Take another journey with Media Roots Radio into QAnon land to find out answers to these bizarre questions and more....

intro/outro music: Gescom - Seventh Stone Triangle 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to Media Roots Radio on Patreon // www.patreon.com/mediarootsradio

Patreon subscribers at the $5 tier get access to an exclusive bonus episode per month.

FOLLOW // twitter.com/AbbyMartin // twitter.com/FluorescentGrey // twitter.com/fr_brennan

Media Roots Radio 

The Storm Recedes? QAnon Post-POTUS & the Chan Board Origin Story of Q w/ Fredrick Brennan

On August 31, 1997, the world changed forever when the famous Princess Diana died in a car crash. This documentary explores new evidence about what really happened that day. (Written by @necrobranson Starring @DanBoeckner @_devojka_ @humidnightblue @RahRahRaina @ByYourLogic @intellegint @charlesraustin)

E1 on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/e1podcast

155 - Crown of Mist: The Final Day of Princess Diana

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.

Episode 117: The Always 'Lagging' U.S. War Machine

Citations Needed Podcast

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