The HBO documentary THE SWAMP (2020) follows three "maverick" Republican congressmen who seek to fulfil Donald Trump's promise to "drain the swamp," even if that means alienating their party leaders. But what you really need to know about this documentary is that the main one is Matt Gaetz, and he is a huge doofus. PLUS: thoughts on Canada Day, Alex Gibney's Agents of Chaos, and a look back at the media coverage of the War in Iraq.

Michael and Us

#248 - Enemy at the Gaetz

We discuss another patron request, this time it's a two part essay by Robert Brenner, written as the Soviet Union was beginning to unravel: "The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe - The Roots of The Crisis."

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2490-the-soviet-union-and-eastern-europe-the-roots-of-the-crisis

#138 - "The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe"

Sebijan Fejzula on her essay "The Roma struggle from protests to political liberation" for ROAR Magazine.

https://roarmag.org/essays/roma-protest-political-agenda/

Toward Roma liberation / Sebijan Fejzula

Börsen blev nervös efter förra veckans svaga NFP-siffra som kom in rejält under estimat och faktiskt kvalar in som den tredje sämsta missen någonsin. Men vad är narrativet? Bad News is Good News? Mycket möjligt att marknaden nu börjar tro att FED:s tapering skjuts på framtiden, men oavsett är det ju inte enorma stödköp som skapar långsiktigt aktieägarvärde, även om det skapar brus på kort sikt. Dessutom ett trevligt nyhetssvep.

Delikat lyssning på dig,
Nicklas

Episod 215 - Svag NFP-siffra gjorde marknaden nervös

Historian Suzanne Schneider on her book "The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism" from Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/authors/2565-suzanne-schneider

Neoliberal jihad / Suzanne Schneider

It's not about waking people up, it's about turning them from broken cogs into useful cogs. It's not to free them from the machine but to help them better serve it, while also serving the interests of clever pharmaceutical investors.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-psychedelic-renaissance-is-entirely

The 'Psychedelic Renaissance' Is Entirely About Corporate Greed

Chuck Collins on the IPS report "Silver spoon oligarchs: How America’s 50 Largest Inherited-Wealth Dynasties Accelerate Inequality."

https://ips-dc.org/report-americas-wealth-dynasties-2021/

On dynastic wealth in America / Chuck Collins

(Patreon-only Rose McGowan interview here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/rose-mcgowan-57953217)
Labor journalists Alex Press (https://twitter.com/alexnpress) & Jonah Furman (https://twitter.com/JonahFurman) discuss the labor movement, strikes, John Deere and what it has to do with Alec Baldwin's deadly shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Alex Press is a writer and editor at Jacobin Magazine, whose latest article is "Halyna Hutchins’s Death on the Set of Rust Was 'Not a Freak Accident'."Jonah Furman is a labor movement organizer and writer for Labor Notes (https://twitter.com/labornotes), the media and organizing project that since 1979 has amplified the voice of workers and labor militants. He is also a frequent contributor to The Intercept.

Alec Baldwin Shooting 'NOT a Freak Accident' With Alex Press & Jonah Furman

We go on yet another forced march, this time we learn the rules of the game from "The Dictator's Handbook," by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita and Alastair Smith.

#142 - The Dictator's Handbook

Neil Vallelly on his book "Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness" from MIT Press.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/futilitarianism

The futilitarian condition / Neil Vallelly

Writer David Dayen on his article "The Great Escape" for The American Prospect, and in a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen picks egg over chicken.

https://prospect.org/labor/great-escape-why-workers-quitting-pandemic-trauma/

Neoliberal jihad / Suzanne Schneider

This Is Hell!

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