Listening to a bougie boat shoes socialist pretend they lived the rural experience is equal to the college protesters pretending their support for terrorists is at all similar to the civil rights which is similar pretending they are even remotely as decorated or successful Canadian authors as that lady that wrote a book about a bear doing cunnilingus on a woman. If you have no ability to evaluate or discern quality or scale, nearly any two things can look similar no matter how absurd the comparison is.

After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become a multi-episode discussion of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (2006-7).

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Michael and Us

#524 - Studio Sucky, Part 1

In the feature-film adaptation of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (2011), Cold War-era Britain doesn't look that much different from behind the Iron Curtain - visually, at least. We discuss the challenges of compressing an intricate novel into a two-hour movie, and try to situate le Carré politically. PLUS: Taking the temperature of the snap British election, and a fond farewell to a B-movie titan.

#527 - Trained to Rule the Waves

We discuss the work of Norwegian Writer/Director Vibeke Løkkeberg and her films THE REVELATION, CAMILLA and HUD. 

Join the Patreon now for an exclusive episode every week, access to our entire Patreon Episode back catalogue, your name read out on the next episode, and the friendly Discord chat: patreon.com/theimportantcinemaclub

Subscribe, Review and Rate Us on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-…ub/id1067435576
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Check out Justin's other podcasts, THE BAY STREET VIDEO PODCAST (@thebaystreetvideopodcast), THE VERY FINE COMIC BOOK PODCAST (www.theveryfinecomicbookpodcast.com) and NO SUCH THING AS A BAD MOVIE (@nosuchthingasabadmovie), as well as Will's MICHAEL AND US (@michael-and-us).

#383 - Suffer To Understand: The Cinema of Vibeke Løkkeberg

We sit down with Mike Cheslik, the director of the new(ish) silent comedy action farce Hundreds of Beavers. We discuss his Wisconsin influences, ultra-DIY approach to filmmaking, making your film exactly as stupid as it needs to be, and the inherent humor of watching a guy in a mascot costume get wrecked on camera.

There are still a few in-theater opportunities to catch Hundreds of Beavers: https://www.hundredsofbeavers.com/tickets/

And it’s also available for rental at home on Apple and Amazon.

Movie Mindset

Movie Mindset Bonus: Hundreds of Beavers with Director Mike Cheslik

Happy Memorial Day! The MR Crew is OFF today but check out this interview from late December of last year&nbsp;with&nbsp;, editor-at-large at&nbsp;, author of the&nbsp;&nbsp;on SubStack, and professor at the CUNY School of Journalism, on a piece he wrote entitled&nbsp;&nbsp;and much more! Check out Peter's work at Jewish Currents here:&nbsp;https://jewishcurrents.org/author/peter-beinart Check out Peter's prescient piece from 2020 entitled "Joe Biden's Alarming Record On Israel": https://jewishcurrents.org/joe-bidens-alarming-record-on-israel Check out the Beinart Notebook here:&nbsp;https://peterbeinart.substack.com/ Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/join Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!:&nbsp; Help out the state of Utah by telling them what you see in public bathrooms here!:&nbsp;https://ut-sao-special-prod.web.app/sex_basis_complaint2.html Check out Seder's Seeds here!:&nbsp;&nbsp;ALSO, if you have pictures of your Seder's Seeds, send them here!:&nbsp;hello@sedersseeds.com Check out the "Repair Gaza" campaign courtesy of the Glia Project here:&nbsp;https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/rebuild_gaza_help_repair_and_rebuild_the_lives_and_work_of_our_glia_team#!/ Check out StrikeAid here!;&nbsp;https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/gift  Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here:&nbsp;https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp;https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp;http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp;https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp;http://majority.fm/app   Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:    @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop   Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon!&nbsp; Check out Matt Binder’s&nbsp;YouTube&nbsp;channel:&nbsp; Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon!&nbsp;https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here!&nbsp;https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder -&nbsp;

3347 - Israel & Palestine, & The Politics Of Distraction w/ Peter Beinart

The troops fight abroad, and sketch comedians fight on the home front. In our latest dispatch from the universe of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, we ponder the author's tortured relationship with everything from advertising to gender to Woody Allen via "The Nevada Day" Parts 1 & 2 and "The Option Period."

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/528-studio-sucky-105072974

PREVIEW - #428 - Studio Sucky, Part 3: Cheeses of Nazareth

It’s News Day Tuesday and the MR Crew is back from the long weekend! But first they speak with , writing fellow at , to discuss his   on Red Lobster’s bankruptcy &amp; the DOJ filing a lawsuit against LiveNation.&nbsp;First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s military cruising past Biden’s Rafah red-line with no repercussions, revelations around Israel’s decade-long war against the ICC, obstacles to international aid to Gaza, Trump’s struggles with law and libertarians, the UAW’s Mercedes push, WaPo’s burying of Sam Alito’s conspiracy-brain, US internet infrastructure, labor action, and pandemic preparedness, before watching Human Rights Watch founder Aryeh Neier charging Israel with genocide. Luke Goldstein then joins, diving right into the ongoing DOJ attempt to break up the gauging god that is LiveNation, touching on the myriad recent events that have pushed LiveNation’s monopoly to the fore before walking through the long process by which they went from a mere concert promotion platform to a major controller of every step of the concert going process before you enter the venue, featuring a merge with Ticketmaster sponsored by the Obama Administration’s Rahm Emmanuel. Next, Goldstein looks to the recent bankruptcy of Red Lobster, and the Private Equity rig job behind both the financial collapse and the lies about why it happened, first walking through the supposed “endless shrimp” fiasco that (very much didn’t) lead to Red Lobster’s turmoil, before tackling the much-less entertaining reality of Golden Gate Capital buying up the company, selling all of their land to recoup their costs, and immediately signing onto outrageously priced permanent leases. Sam and Emma also touch on Rashida Tlaib’s incredible condemnation of Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s genocide, and watch British Commentator James Whale (not a fictional stereotype, we swear) completely his unabashed shamelessness in the face of a pro-Palestinian Black woman. Ad in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba on why it’s unfair that jurors are allowed to listen to news, Rep. Crocket dissects the corrupt GOP control of the federal judiciary and the inaction of the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee that led to it, and RFK tactfully discusses the horrors of institutionalized slavery, like mask mandates. The Good Liars stir some conflict at the Libertarian National Convention as Donald Trump makes a controversial appearance, which provides many other highlights, Thomas from Central Ohio reconnects with Emma, Tom from Virginia grapples with our electoral choices come November, and Nikki Haley shows of her Zionist bona fides, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out more of Luke's work here:&nbsp;https://prospect.org/topics/luke-goldstein/ Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/join Check out Aryeh Neier's interview on CNN here:&nbsp;https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/05/26/gps-0526-icc-charges-against-israel.cnn Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!:&nbsp; Check out the "Repair Gaza" campaign courtesy of the Glia Project here:&nbsp;https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/rebuild_gaza_help_repair_and_rebuild_the_lives_and_work_of_our_glia_team#!/ Check out StrikeAid here!;&nbsp;https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/gift  Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here:&nbsp;https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp;https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp;http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp;https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp;http://majority.fm/app Check out today’s sponsors: Fast Growing Trees: This Spring Fast Growing Trees has the best deals online, up to half off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to our show get an...

3348 - Monopoly, Red Lobster's Gutting, & The Fading Red Line w/ Luke Goldstein

For the last two weeks, our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been reporting from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

Before the festival officially drew to a close last Saturday, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish moderated a panel about documentary ethics in the Cannes Docs section of the Marché du Film. Curated by the Documentary Association of Europe and presented with American Documentary, the live event featured a stellar lineup of speakers, including Kiyoko McCrae from Chicken and Egg Pictures; Adam Piron from the Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program; Alemberg Ang, a Philippines-based producer and filmmaker; and Viv Li, a Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin. Titled “Towards a Universal Values System in Documentary,” the panel explored a number of fascinating questions, such as what equitable collaboration looks like in nonfiction filmmaking, what it means to gain the consent of your subjects, and who gets to tell which stories.

Cannes 2024 #10, with Kiyoko McCrae, Adam Piron, Alemberg Ang, and Viv Li

Chief Chapo foreign correspondent returns to take us around the wide world of conflict. We get an update on the war in Gaza including the bombing of Rafah, the failing floating Pier, and the Biden administration's attempts to broker some kind of deal between Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia without gaining any concessions or movement toward peace in the process. Plus, we discuss the death or Iranian president Raisi, the situation in Ukraine, and what the hell’s going on in French New Caledonia.

For more Derek: 
The article on Germany Derek references at the end of the pod: www.foreignexchanges.news/p/whats-the-matter-with-germany
Subscribe to Foreign Exchanges: www.foreignexchanges.news
And American Prestige: www.americanprestigepod.com/

Chapo Trap House

836 - Pier One Imports feat. Derek Davison (5/28/24)

“David Plouffe's advice for 2020,” Axios shared in 2019. “James Carville: 'Stupid wokeness' is a national problem for Democrats,” CNN reported in 2021. “Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary under President Obama, discusses the debt ceiling deal and the latest job numbers,” MSNBC announced in 2023.

On a regular basis, news media clue us into the latest prescriptions from so-called Democratic strategists: people who’ve served as advisers, cabinet members, or other high-ranking positions within Democratic presidential administrations, who’ve also gone on to make millions from corporate consultancy and PR. Whether Larry Summers, David Plouffe, or some other cable-news fixture, these figures are consistently trotted out to give a quasi-liberal, professional face to plain old pro-war, anti-Left austerity politics.

It’s an obvious conflict of interest. If a presidential alum joins the board or C-suite of Uber or McDonald’s, for example, they shouldn’t be given the authority to weigh in on regulations or labor policy, especially on media platforms that claim to be somewhat left-leaning. If they work for a military contractor-funded “Strategic consultant” firm or, as is sometimes the case, directly for a weapons maker, they shouldn’t be offering talking head opinions on issues of war.

But, within US media and politics, there’s a bipartisan, Gentlemen's Agreement not to acknowledge this, let alone condemn it. There’s a taboo against noting this widespread revolving door politics between the private sector, Gulf dictatorships, black box corporate consultancy firms and high institutions of government.

Instead, it’s simply accepted that every White House, State Department or Senate job is an audition for a cushy board membership at Amazon, McDonalds, Raytheon, or a shady “consultancy” firm.

On today’s episode, we’ll discuss the blurring of lines between Democratic and Republican politics and corporate PR, examining the revolving door between high status government jobs and the consultancy blob, as well as how cable and print news outlets give PR flacks a platform through which to treat horrible policies as just another product to sell.

Our guest is the Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser, founder and Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project.

Ideological Shaping of the Possible Part I: Democrats & the Black Box Corporate Consulting Industry

It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with , white collar crime professor at George Washington University Law School and author of the  newsletter, to discuss the recent developments in all of Trump's criminal cases.&nbsp;First, they run through updates on Israel’s mass slaughter of civilians in Rafah, failing US aid to Gaza, the Texas GOP, Biden’s nomination for President, South African politics, Alito’s absurd alibi, and the future of the Clean Water Act, before watching John Kirby claim offense over an incredibly reasonable question that happens to acknowledge the horrors occurring in Gaza. Professor Randall Eliason then joins, as he dives right into a summary of the central arguments on either side of Trump’s ongoing hush money case, parsing particularly through Trump’s Defense’s decision to step away from the incredibly viable route of undermining the “proof of intent” in Trump’s payments to Michael Cohen, instead going all in on the Trumpian route of character assassinations against Stormy Daniels and Cohen, and relying on claims that these were legitimate legal expenses (they weren’t). Next, Professor Eliason explores the concept of the broader fraud arguments Alvin Bragg’s prosecution could have used against Donald Trump, before wrapping up their Hush Money conversation by assessing the impact of a hung jury on the future of the case. Randall then looks to Trump’s January 6th case, and Jack Smith’s special council indictment as the second most likely case to be heard before November, and tackles Judge Aileen Cannon’s successful attempts to slow-walk the “Stolen Documents” case in Florida, before wrapping up the interview with the Supreme Court’s role in Trump’s various legal woes, and whether the recent charges against Alito will have any impact on the Court. Sam and Emma also examine the major holes in Justice Alito’s recent attempt to shirk responsibility for hoisting&nbsp;various blatantly anti-Democratic and conspiratorial flags at his house. And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch Donald Trump Jr. call out notorious grifter… Robert De Niro? walk through major issues around polling and turnout as November’s presidential election draws near, and parse through Tim Pool’s warning to teenage women that if they don’t try to fuck him, they’ll be single forever. They also dive into Samuel Alito’s refusal to recuse himself from the Trump case in the wake of the Justice’s January 6th flag waving, American Airlines’ stunning display of racial discrimination, and RFK’s claim that US history, in the context of confederate statues, should be celebrated and protected. Seinfeld goes full latte liberal (or a frappé fascist perhaps), plus, your calls and IMs! Check out "Sidebars" here:&nbsp;https://www.sidebarsblog.com/ Check out this video from Public Citizen here:&nbsp;https://x.com/Public_Citizen/status/1795792636302729682 Become a member at&nbsp;JoinTheMajorityReport.com:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/join Find our Rumble stream here!:&nbsp;https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!:&nbsp; Check out the "Repair Gaza" campaign courtesy of the Glia Project here:&nbsp;https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/rebuild_gaza_help_repair_and_rebuild_the_lives_and_work_of_our_glia_team#!/ Check out StrikeAid here!;&nbsp;https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here:&nbsp;https://fans.fm/majority/gift  Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here:&nbsp;https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here:&nbsp;https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord!&nbsp;http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store:&nbsp;https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!:&nbsp;http://majority.fm/app Check out today’s sponsors: HelloFresh: Go to https://HelloFresh.com/majoritysweet for FREE dessert for life! One dessert item per box while...

3349 - Trump's Trials: Will He Go To Jail? w/ Randall Eliason

A podcast about culture, politics, and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

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#524 - Studio Sucky, Part 1

Michael and Us

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