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

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

In this Sight Unseen film review, we recap the ideological currents and industry backers of J.D. Vance's white trash whisperer shtick and how it blames everyone for Appalachian poverty but corporations and Republicans.

News Brief - Review: Netflix's Charles Murray-Themed Hallmark Film 'Hillbilly Elegy'

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
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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

We are joined by Breht from Rev Left Radio and Brynn Nieboer from Beep Beep Lettuce to discuss Vladmir Lenin's 1901 pamphlet, What Is To Be Done?, and how it relates to how we currently need to do things.

BREHT
@RevLeftRadio
@Red_Menace_Pod
https://www.revolutionaryleftradio.com/

BRYNN NIEBOER
@WeedPod
@GenLossPod

THAT INTERSTITIAL MUSIC WAS
STAY DEAD
by
DOG MAN PIZZA PARTY
https://dogmanpizzaparty.bandcamp.com/track/stay-dead

NYC DRIVER'S CO-OP FUND
https://ioby.org/project/help-nyc-drivers-launch-platform-cooperative

MERCH
PodDamnAmerica.BigCartel.Com

PATREON FOR BONUS EPISODES
Patreon.com/PODDAMNAMERICA

@PodDamnAmerica
@feraljokes
@ptakjokes
@andersleehere

What Is To Be Done? Do We Need To Do Things? Let's Find Out! w/ Rev Left Radio & Brynn Nieboer

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

"Sen. Mark Warner said progressives' calls to 'defund the police' were in part to blame for Democratic losses in the House in a cycle when the party was expected to gain seats," The Hill tells us. "How ’defund the police' sabotaged Democrats on Election Day," Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune writes."'Defund the police’ is killing our party, and we’ve got to stop it," said South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn. In the wake of the Democrats’ disappointing Congressional showing in last month’s elections, centrist Democrats and their media mouthpieces were quick to blame Black Lives Matter and the "defund the police" movement for their subpar results.

There’s only one problem: there is no empirical basis for this claim in any of the above comments or reports. No studies, no evidence––not even anecdotally––is provided. Before the printer ink was dry on the ballots, centrist Democrats who lost or underperformed––or made a career out of defending those that do––rushed to blame the so-called "defund the police" movement, highlighting rightwing attack ads featuring the label. After some initial goodwill immediately following the global outpouring of protests after the horrific police murder of George Floyd, mainstream democratic party line has reverted back to it’s old playbook of blaming the Left and Black activists for offending or alienating a nebulous cohort of moderate white voters.

As the economy crashed and the world was turned upside down in the Spring of 2020, Democratic leaders had a chance to lobby for robust social welfare programs, guaranteed income, mortgage and rent cancellation and single payer healthcare to get us through this ongoing crisis, whose disastrous implications will extend well beyond the introduction of a vaccine. Instead, however, they lowered expectations, blamed Trump for their own unforced ideological limitations and almost never publicly took credit for the extension of unemployment benefits––the one good thing Democrats actually did achieve, albeit fleeting.

The result was a once in a generation opportunity blown, a possible leftwing shock doctrine that was crippled by unmovable austerity ideology. So when the elections came around and the Democrats underperformed, who was to blame? It can’t be party leadership blowing the COVID-19 response and it can’t be the security state-curated centrist tofu candidates who lost or barely won. It has to––once again––be those pesky far left activists. Because Democratic party leadership cannot fail they can only be failed, a scapegoat was needed.

On this week’s episode we discuss why "defund the police" and the broader abolitionist movement was that scapegoat, the long history of concern trolling Black activism and perennially blaming movements for justice for right-wing, white backlash from bad faith actors. We also detail how activists are now on the defensive as Democrats, having successfully exploited the broad sentiment of the George Floyd protests for Get Out The Vote fodder, now seek to lower expectations, purge Black Lives Matter of its truly radical elements, and go back to business as usual.

Our guest is human rights lawyer and abolitionist Derecka Purnell.

Episode 127: Democratic Leadership's Predictable Scapegoating of 'Defund the Police'

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.

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

Citations Needed Podcast