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

Please support Julian Assange's Case https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/assangeappeal/ Human Rights lawyer and Julian Assange's fiancée Stella Moris delivers an urgent update about what's next for the Wikileaks founder. In the process, she destroys the legal case against Julian, points out that the star witness is a diagnosed sociopath & convicted pedophile, and argues why freedom of press has already been harmed by the treatment of Assange. Of course, it will only get worse unless and until he is finally free. The United Kingdom’s High Court has granted the Biden administration the right to appeal a lower court’s ruling which blocked the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States.

Julian Assange's Fiancée Blasts Media Silence & Political Cowardice

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

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

Director of the Tricontinental Institute For Social Research, author of Washington Bullets, and trained mime Vijay Prashad joins the boys to talk mass movements in India and how to find hope in your politics. We also listen to that Madison Cawthorn abortion speech everyone was so mad about.

MERCH
poddamnamerica.bigcartel.com

PATREON
patreon.com/poddamnamerica

COME TO PAID PROTEST ON 12/10: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paid-protest-comedy-show-dsa-fundraiser-tickets-214770322817

Clown Politics w/ Vijay Prashad

Max Liboiron on their article "Decolonizing geoscience requires more than equity and inclusion" for Nature Geoscience.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00861-7

On science and colonialism / Max Liboiron

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/

On dynastic wealth in America / Chuck Collins

This Is Hell!

Related tracks