The Yellow Peril narrative is getting so much worse. I'd like to hear you guys do an episode about all the Sinophobic trash in the news.

And that language bodges chances to end conflicts by US allies, for example, the Saudis have lost the war against the Houthis in Yemen, but Washington will not let them quit: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/03/houthis-saudi-arabia-biden-yemen-policy-backward/

In the Middle East, Iran is the revolutionary Bolshevik Russia spreading Shi'ite uprisings everywhere Shi'ism exists. It's pure nonsense, but it works if Cold War ideology is the only framework you can think in, so reality has to be bent to the formula.

That article about how Maduro, Chavez's Veep, replaced him could be one about how Gerald Ford became US president after Nixon resigned and left Washington in 1974.

may I suggest always putting "part 1", etc, at the beginning of the episode name. thank you very much for all you do

"Hand-picked successor", "firebrand", "proxy" — In Anglo-American media, there are certain Enemy Epithets that are reserved only for Official Enemy States of United States and their leaders, which are rarely, if ever, used to refer to the United States itself or its allies, despite these countries featuring many of the same qualities being described.

Over two years ago, in a two-part episode entitled "Laundering Imperial Violence Through Anodyne Foreign Policy-Speak" (Episodes 70 and 71), we explored the euphemistic way American media discusses manifestly violent or coercive US policy and military action. Words like “engagement”, “surgical strikes”, “muscular foreign policy”, “crippling sanctions” obscure the damage being unleashed by our military and economic extortion regime.

Just as pleasant sounding, sanitized foreign policy speak masks the violence of US empire, highly loaded pejorative labels are used to describe otherwise banal doings of government or are employed selectively to make enemies seem uniquely sinister, while American allies who exhibit similar features are given a far more pleasant descriptor.

This and next week, we're going to lay out the Top 10 Enemies Epithets — derisive descriptors that are inconsistently applied to smear enemies without any symmetrical usage stateside, designed to conjure up nasty images of despotism and oppression, often pandering to racialized and Oriental prejudice and, above all, asking people to shut off our brains and have the label do the thinking for them.

Episode 137: Thought-Terminating Enemy Epithets (Part I)

Bono part deux — for a relaxing time, make it governance time. We hit the second half or so of Bono's book Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story and get into his advocacy, his lobbying, his product-launch mindset, his south of France hedonism, his relationship with God and his overall reflective vibes. Unos dos tres catorce bitches!

Listen to Black Bubblegum podcast: https://blackbubblegumpod.libsyn.com/

Subscribe to Molly's music newsletter: 
https://themollyzone.beehiiv.com/

Music used in this episode:
"Vertigo (8 Bit Raxlen Slice Chiptune Remix)" 
"Staring At The Sun" - U2
"Discothèque" - U2
"Miami" - U2
"If You're Gonna Break My Heart" - Inhaler
"Elevation" - U2
"Party Time" - Northern Boys
"Vertigo" - U2
"Gossip" - Måneskin
"The Miracle of Joey Ramone" - U2
"Blind Elevation" - Molly Mashup O'Brien

And Introducing

#117 BONO! pt. 2

Dimitri and Khalid return to the Grotto of Truth Discord to answer more acolyte questions, starting with whether the mysterious 2002 plane crash of Senator Paul Wellstone was murder, and whether the East German Stasi practice of Zersetzung (psychological disintegration) bears any similarities to the purported “targeted individual”/gangstalking phenomenon in the US today.

Music:
Pop Projekt - Pop Projekt (GDR, 1987)
Immortal Technique - The Cause of Death (USA, 2003)
Karat - Jede Stunde (GDR, 1982)

For access to full-length Patreon episodes, upcoming installments of DEMON FORCES, and the SJ Grotto of Truth Discord, subscribe to the Al-Wara’ Frequency at patreon.com/subliminaljihad.

[#153] GROTTO OF TRUTH Q&A XXI, Part One

We talk about the history of AI by drawing out the often very explicit millenarianism that undergirds so much of this technology and its culture over the last 70 years. This strange brew of Eschatological Evangelism and Technological Theology has sustained a cultish faith in AI’s ability to bring about a New Age.

••• Making God | Emily Gorcenski https://emilygorcenski.com/post/making-god/
••• The Taming of Tech Criticism | Evgeny Morozov https://thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

302. God is the Machine

We take a deeper look at Nvidia, a company that has — compared to software firms like OpenAI — flown under the radar for both investigative and critical analysis of AI. We discuss their meteoric rise and the monopolistic control they have over the hardware for artificial intelligence through their business for GPUs but also how they have solidified that control through the closed, proprietary CUDA system for AI development. We also get into the journalistic style of great man + myth making + ironic distance that structures how these powerful companies and their “visionary” leaders are covered by the media. Finally, we end with one word: Gooniverse.

••• How Jensen Huang’s Nvidia Is Powering the A.I. Revolution https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/04/how-jensen-huangs-nvidia-is-powering-the-ai-revolution
••• How Nvidia Built a Competitive Moat Around A.I. Chips https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/technology/nvidia-ai-chips-gpu.html
••• Nvidia’s $40bn takeover of UK chip designer Arm collapses https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/08/nvidia-takeover-arm-collapses-softbank
••• SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son piles debt on to Silicon Valley mansion https://www.ft.com/content/1ea9c819-3019-47f6-b768-c92a0d06ecdf 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

311. Selling Pickaxes for the AI Gold Rush

First we chat about the very dumb debacle with Google’s Gemini AI being “absurdly woke,” when in reality the story here is that they were extremely naive and lazy about how to solve the structural biases of white visual culture. Then we get deeper into Nvidia’s major stock rally after blowing away all expectations with their latest financial reportings – and what this means for the political economy of technology, both AI specifically and the sector broadly.

••• A Sign That Spells: DALL-E 2, Invisual Images and The Racial Politics of Feature Space https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.06323 
••• The Deeper Problem With Google’s Racially Diverse Nazis https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/google-gemini-diverse-nazis/677575/ 
••• Now Google's 'absurdly woke' Gemini AI refuses to condemn pedophilia as wrong - after being blasted over 'diverse' but historically inaccurate images https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13122189/Googles-absurdly-woke-Gemini-AI-refuses-condemn-pedophilia.html 
••• AI boom catapults Nvidia into tech’s big league https://www.ft.com/content/1f8b317d-fcce-4f5b-9e54-8315e102ec10 
••• What Bubble? Nvidia Profits Are Rising Even More Than Its Stock https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-26/hedge-funds-unload-tech-stocks-after-going-all-in-before-nvidia 
••• The AI craze has companies even 'more overvalued' than during the 1990s dot-com bubble, economist says https://qz.com/ai-stocks-nvidia-overvalued-dot-com-bubble-1851287271 
••• Nvidia's $2 trillion market cap looks bubbly https://www.axios.com/2024/02/23/nvidia-valuation-chipmakers-trillion 

Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills   

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)

322. Nvidia: 2 Boom 2 Bust

Join us, as we plunge into unexplored depths, into hell itself, to discover why you have to PAY TO DO YOUR FUCKING TAXES IN THIS COUNTRY.

SOURCES:
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24071005/irs-direct-file-free-tax-software-turbotax-review

OTHER PODS
@vanquishedpod
@idkypod
@whyyoumadpod

MERCH
poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON + DISCORD
patreon.com/poddamnamerica

DARK PATTERNS: THE ODIOUS WORLD OF TAX SOFTWARE

Erik Davis, scholar of the weird and esoteric, joins us for part two of a long conversation about the legacy of Philip K. Dick, Silicon Valley technopolypse, the future of California, and more from his forthcoming book Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid medium.

Erik Davis’s substack: www.burningshore.com/

Episode 368: High Weirding (Part 2)

In this public News Brief, we discuss Establishment reaction to pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses, from liberal handwringing to police crackdowns to therapy-speak.

News Brief: Campus Anti-Genocide Protests & the Weaponization of Squishy Bad Faith "Safety" Rhetoric

So-called “Constitutional Sheriffs” fancy themselves as the real life version of Judge Dredd: the ultimate arbiters of the law according to their interpretation of the Constitution. Recently the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) held a conference in Las Vegas. Among the speakers were regular features of the podcast disgraced former General Michael Flynn, convicted former County Clerk Tina Peters, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Our guest WIRED reporter David Gilbert attended the conference, and he told us all about what he saw at this gathering of conspiracists and pseudolaw enthusiasts. 

REFERENCES

WIRED: Far-Right Sheriffs Want a Citizen Army to Stop ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Voters
 https://www.wired.com/story/constitutional-sheriffs-election-deniers-immigrants-voting/

WIRED: No, a Shadowy Figure Is Not Buying Tents for Columbia Student Protesters
https://www.wired.com/story/conspiracy-tents-student-protests-gaza/

David Gilbert on Twitter
https://twitter.com/daithaigilbert

NBC News: A sheriff, a felon and a conspiracy theorist walk into a hotel. They're there for the same conference.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/constitutional-sheriffs-las-vegas-conference-rcna147487

MassLive: Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson calls cancellation of ICE contract a ‘politically motivated attack’
https://www.masslive.com/politics/2021/06/bristol-county-sheriff-thomas-hodgson-calls-cancellation-of-ice-contract-a-politically-motivated-attack.html

Politico: The Troubling Sheriffs’ Movement That Joe Arpaio Supports
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/01/joe-arpaio-pardon-sheriffs-movement-215566/

American Oversight: The Constitutional Sheriffs Movement and Its Threat to Democracy
https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/the-constitutional-sheriffs-movement-and-its-threat-to-democracy

NBC News: Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters sentenced to home detention and community service in obstruction case
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-colorado-county-clerk-tina-peters-sentenced-home-detention-comm-rcna79085

CBS News: Mike Lindell's MyPillow evicted from Minnesota warehouse after lawsuit claimed it was $200K behind on rent
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/lawsuit-mypillow-eviction-mike-lindell-minnesota/

Fear And Sheriffs In Las Vegas feat. David Gilbert (E276)

In this News Brief, we breakdown the White House's latest attempt to arm and fund Israeli war crimes while looking like helpless. bumbling humanitarians.

News Brief: Axios, NYT Help White House Obscure Their Role in Rafah Invasion

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 137: Thought-Terminating Enemy Epithets (Part I)

Citations Needed Podcast

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