Citaitons Needed Marathon I need to do

Related tracks: CIA Assassinations, Anticommunism & the Phoenix Program w/ Douglas Valentine

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And introducing...Kanye West! Chris and Molly are joined by online expert Felix Biederman to discuss Kanye's latest tear through Twitter, his sudden (but not necessarily unexpected) embrace of Trump, his new music, his ability to bend the world to his will, the intersection of politics & celebrity, and why hip-hop beefs have gotten so lame. 

Songs:

Runaway (wade pod dub)
Kanye West - Ye vs. the People (starring TI as the People)
Kanye West -  MAGA Hat Full Freestyle
Kanye West - Lift Yourself
Kanye West - Father Stretch My Hands pt. 1
Cam’ron feat. Kanye West - Down and Out (Instrumental)

And Introducing Podcast

#25 KANYE WEST! (ft. Felix Biederman)

We take a moment to salute the life and achievements of Sen. John McCain, and then are joined by comedian Jake Flores (@feraljokes) to hear all about his run-in with the Department of Homeland Security.

For Jake's Tour Dates check his twitter account @Feraljokes

Read Katherine Krueger's interview with Jake here:
https://splinternews.com/the-brooklyn-comedian-whose-joke-about-ice-got-him-a-vi-1825865670

Support International Whore's Day and fight SESTA/FOSTA:

https://macc.nyc/2018/05/11/International-Whores-Day.html

Donate to Rakem Balogun:

https://www.gofundme.com/help-with-the-fbi-sabotage-recovery

Listen and Subscribe to Pod Damn America:

https://www.patreon.com/poddamnamerica

Chapo Trap House

Episode 210 - ICE to See You feat. Jake Flores (5/13/18)

​Will and Virgil peel back the curtain to give an intimate backstage look at their recent media hit with Jesse "The Body" Ventura on RT.* They're then joined by political scientist David Faris to discuss his book "It's Time To Fight Dirty". Faris out lines all the ways a slim democratic majority could and should shortcut norms and the constitution to build enduring power, while Will and Virgil supply all the reasons they'll probably be too chicken to actually do so. Finally, a reading from the good book.


*Note: Our segment seems to have been cut before airing lol we still love you Jesse! 

Buy the book:

chapotraphouse.com

Episode 214 - 6 Weird Election Tricks That ACTUALLY Work! feat. David Faris (5/27/18)

Due to overwhelming popular demand, we've unlocked this recent episode...

Felix talks with @intifadarling, a Palestinian-American activist based in Ramallah. They discuss the context of the May 14 massacre of Palestinian protesters in Gaza, the political situation between Israel, America and Palestine, and the future of the Palestinian people.

UNLOCKED  - In Conclusion, Palestine is a Land of Contrasts feat. @Intifadarling (5/23/18)

It's sports night here on Chapo! We're go deep into the Red Zone with local radio call-in favorite, PFT Commenter. We go around the horn and take a tour through the wide world of sports takes: Is Lebron overrated? Should we play the National Anthem before movies? Should you kneel? Did Robert Redford make the right move by leaving Kristen Scott Thomas at the end of 'The Horse Whisperer'? 

We analyze the athletes who clash on the gridiron and the heroes who cover them in the sports media.

Episode 216 - First Time, Long Time feat. PFT Commenter (6/3/18)

“Obama lauds small business owners in his State of the Union,” announced The Washington Post. “I have always said that there is nothing more optimistic – perhaps maybe getting married – than starting a small business,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells us. “John Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses,” insisted a reelection ad for George W. Bush.

Everywhere we turn we are centering the needs of and reminded of the glowing status of the “small business.” They are the bipartisan holiest of holies in our economy – the scrappy little guy that also props up the moral pillars of capitalism – evidence that with a little elbow grease and knowhow anyone can build a business in their image. Small businesses are one of two major vehicles for COVID-19 relief – a wholly uncontroversial good that both parties, all ideologies, everyone!, can agree are worth protecting and prioritizing. 

But what do pundits and politicians mean exactly when they say “small business”? How does our romantic vision of “small business” match up with reality, and how is their plight used as a messaging vanguard to strip away environmental and labor regulations, tort protections, taxes and a host of safeguards against corporate greed?

The rhetoric forces the evocation of a wholesome image of a Mom-and-Pop candy store in Appleton, Wisconsin, in order to push for laws that will ultimately benefit hedge funds, Dupont and Koch Industries, and a murderers row of polluters and worker abusers.

Our guests are Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert and Street Fight Radio's Bryan Quinby.

Episode 111: How “Small Business” Rhetoric Is Used to Protect Corporate America

The United States and its close allies Saudi Arabia and Israel have been bombing and occupying large sections of the so-called “Muslim world” for decades – drastically ramping up after the 9/11 attacks and seemingly with no end in sight. The U.S., like all empires, cannot operate a large, complex system premised on violence, meddling and subjugation without a moral pretext. This moral pretext, even before 9/11, was primarily about fighting a war on so-called “Terrorism” or “Islamic extremism” while allegedly promoting “stability,” “freedom” and “democracy.”

Along with American news media’s constant fear-mongering over scary Muslims lurking in the shadows, a major pillar propping up this moral pretext is pop culture – namely the cultural products coming out of Hollywood. Our decades-long "War on Terror" would no doubt be much more difficult to sustain without a constant reminder from TV and film that, despite the fact that the average American is more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a terrorist attack, the threat of Islamic terrorism remains ever-present and existential, marked by an inevitable “clash of civilizations” devoid of context or any notion that the U.S. is a primary driver of violence across the globe.

Over the course of three episodes, we'll be taking a look at how Hollywood’s television and studio film output helps prop up America’s military aggression in the Middle East, engages in both casual and explicit racism, strips conflicts of any historical or imperial context pushes the idea the only Good Muslim is a snitch or CIA agent, and generally leaves its audience angry and ill-informed. 

In this episode, we review Hollywood’s long history of anti-Muslim racism in both classic and campy action/adventure films and TV and how it both primed us for – and sustains – the never-ending and self-perpetuating "War on Terror."

Episode 113: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism (Part 1) - Action and Adventure Schlock

Our cultural context for understanding what we see on the news and hear in our politics, is often informed by the films and TV shows we’ve grown up watching. Pop culture is powerful and persuasive, and — for a century now — racist, Orientalist and cartoonish portrayals of Arabs and Muslims have littered our screens, big and small. This is the second episode in our three-part Citations Needed series on anti-Muslim racism in Hollywood. On Part I, we discussed big budget action and adventure films like Delta Force, American Sniper and True Lies, where Muslims get blown away at every turn.

But not every movie and TV show is quite so overt in its vilification of the designated enemy. Since the release of these movies, the state curated narrative in film has diversified, broadening to include savvier Oscar-bait productions in which anti-Muslim racism is dressed up in elaborate plot structures and supposedly nuance "debates".

Films like Argo, Syriana, and Zero Dark Thirty are lauded for their ostensible complexity, subtlety, and nuance, such as their willingness to suggest that government agencies like the CIA are bloated and bureaucratic. Instead of scenes with a tough action hero bodyslamming or mowing down teeming hordes of Muslim terrorists, these films are part of a smarter genre of jingoistic action film — the prestige thriller — featuring flawed protagonists, some meta comedy, and women CIA agents excelling in a historically male-dominated field of coups and torture. 

But ultimately, they project the same tired nationalism and ideology reinforcement just in a sleeker, more modern form. On this episode, we’ll examine how anti-Muslim and anti-Arab propaganda is disseminated through the contemporary prestige thriller genre.

We're joined by historian, artist and author Maytha Alhassen.

Episode 114: Anti-Muslim Racism in Hollywood (Part II) - Oscar-Bait Imperialism

For over a hundred years, the American film industry has been promoting and glorifying U.S. foreign policy, initially working with the military and Department of Defense, and eventually, the CIA as well. From its origins as a producer of wartime propaganda like 1911’s The Military Air-Scout to its contemporary role as purveyor of high-tech action epics like Iron Man, Hollywood and the American war machine reinforce each other — myth and politics intertwine.

In the process, the entertainment industry has reaped handsome rewards. Producers, directors, and other top brass in the entertainment industry are lavished with military equipment for filming, personal tours of government headquarters, and inside information — or at least what government officials want filmmakers to believe is inside information — all under the guise of lending “authenticity” and “realism” to film and, to an extent, television shows as well.

But what are the costs of this so-called “authenticity?” How do the U.S. military and intelligence agencies use benign-sounding partnerships like “on-set consulting” and “equipment loaning” arrangements to shape and censor narratives so they make American Empire look, at worst bumbling and good natured, and, at best, heroic and pure hearted?

In Parts I and II of this three-part series on Hollywood and anti-Muslim racism, we analyzed over half a dozen films and TV shows, illustrating how state-driven narratives of U.S. nationalism and vilification of an official enemies animate Hollywood’s cultural products, namely those targeting Arabs and Iranians. On this episode, we’ll explore the intersection of U.S. military and intelligence agencies with Hollywood, taking a closer look at how the military state helps shape films and television showing that pro-U.S. messaging used to smear Muslims doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but is often subsidized by the very forces dropping bombs on them.

Our guest is Professor Matthew Alford, co-author of National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood.

Ep 115: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism Part III - How the Pentagon & CIA Sponsor American Mythmaking

By now, it's largely taken for granted that country music is a racialized signifier, interchangeable with right-wing politics. And it’s not such an unreasonable generalization: the political currents of twanged and drawled patriotic paeans like Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)," and Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America" leave little to the imagination.

But how, exactly, did this come to be? After all, country music, a descendant of the blues, folk, Tejano, and other genres, with connections to labor organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World and social-justice movements, has historically attracted musicians spanning the political spectrum, and didn’t necessarily emerge from such a staunchly right-wing political tradition.

Rather, popular conceptions of country music have long been deliberately shaped by a series of broader ideological projects. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, conservative politicians and other right-wing forces have exploited the genre to promote illiberalism, racism, revanchist politics, and runaway anti-intellectualism where not giving a shit about the world beyond one’s own cold beer, pickup truck, old lady is not only acceptable, but actively encouraged and flaunted. 

On this episode, we examine how the genre of country music has been wielded as a tool of reactionary politicking in the US, from the machinations of Henry Ford in the 1920s to the Nixon administration’s Southern Strategy in the 1960s and ‘70s to the heady Shock and Y’all days of the Bush years, and how a once working-class tradition became a cultural cul de sac of worn-out tropes and middle-class, white grievance politics.  

Our guest is writer, editor and artist Alexander Billet.

Episode 119: How the Right Shaped Pop Country Music

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

Abby and Robbie Martin dive deep into the CIA assassination program during the Vietnam war known as the 'Phoenix Program' with writer and deep politics expert Douglas Valentine. After combing through the long and horrid history of CIA criminal activity and murder the discussion concludes with Douglas' take on the idea of 'Trump vs the Deep State' and how it is a false paradigm that distracts the American people away from the *real* deep state.

Intro/Outro music: Shin Megami Tensei If... OST - Donyoku Kai

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FOLLOW // twitter.com/AbbyMartin // twitter.com/FluorescentGrey // twitter.com/dougvalentine77

Media Roots Radio 

CIA Assassinations, Anticommunism & the Phoenix Program w/ Douglas Valentine

We interview legendary leftist science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson on his new book Ministry For The Future, the shape of a modern revolution, and the popular American sitcom Family Guy.

Read Robinson on the value of utopia here:  https://communemag.com/dystopias-now/

Get his new book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-for-the-future

Ministry For The Damned w/ Kim Stanley Robinson

Matt Christman (@cushbomb) joins Charles and Dan to enjoy some politically charged country tunes delivered candidly from the back of a pickup truck.

Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit/

70 - Red Like Reagan (ft. Matt Christman)

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