A couple years ago I overheard my sister talking to my nephew about his homework and she tells him "You cannot write that Anne Frank and her family had to 'keep it on the down-low'"

This week we're joined by FT Alphaville writer Alexandra Scaggs (@alexandrascaggs) to discuss all the latest market news from this week: tariffs, reversing the tariffs, reversing the tariff reversals, bond vigilantes, and of course the Art of the Deal

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 388: The Big Beautiful Leap Forward (w/ special guest Alexandra Scaggs)

"American Extremists Aiding Radicals Across Border," trumpeted the Detroit Free Press in 1919. "707 Illegal Aliens Arrested in Checkpoint Crackdown," reported the Los Angeles Times in 1987. "87 Bronx gang members responsible for nine years of murders and drug-dealing charged in largest takedown in NYC history," announced the New York Daily News in 2016. "'Top secret' Hamas documents show that terrorists intentionally targeted elementary schools and a youth center," claimed NBC News in 2023. 

Each of these headlines includes a label for a certain type of Bad Guy. Whether it’s the "Extremist," the "Illegal Alien," the "Gang Member," or the "Terrorist," these terms—and their cousins—seek to exceptionalize the alleged transgressions of their targets, separate them from both the law and history and dehumanize them, all while priming media audiences for crueler laws, harsher policing, longer incarceration and sometimes even extrajudicial punishment. The terms, of course, don’t have clear, universally accepted definitions—nor are they supposed to—their use is often heavily racialized and, by their very nature, subject to the whims and ideologies of the Security State and the media doing its bidding. 

What effects, then, do these Bad Guy Labels have on public perceptions? How do they serve to foreclose critical thinking about who is deemed inside the bounds of due process and humanization and who is categorically an other in urgent need of disappearing and punishment?

On this episode, we examine four thought-terminating Bad Guy labels, analyze their origins, why they rose to prominence and explain how they are selectively evoked in order to turn off people’s brains and open up space for quick and cruel state violence.

Our guest is attorney and author Alec Karakatsanis.



Episode 220: The Power of Thought-Terminating Bad Guy Labels

This week we take a look at some of the early effects of the tariffs, as well as the nature and purpose of RFK Jr's MAHA agenda, before pivoting to a review of Trump's first 100 days in office. Finally we turn to a very sleepy article in the New York Times about how the Resistance is...sort of...doing some stuff...and other stuff...

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Episode 390: Moloch's Vertical Integration

This week we start off with a story about JD Vance's hapless brother trying to be mayor of Cincinnati. Then we pivot to a review of Trump's latest statements, as well as a discussion about AI and what's going on with the global economy. Finally we cover a story in Politico about Elon Musk's new company town in south Texas known as "Starbase"

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Episode 391: The Things They Carried

We’re joined by Gareth Gore, author of the book Opus, to talk about Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic society with deep links to the current U.S. government.

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com.

Call the tip line: (646) 801-1129

Episode 459: Opus D.E.I.

In this News Brief, we break down an object lesson in racist US-Israeli national security state toadyism.

NPR Asks Starving Palestinian Living On Rubble to Denounce Hamas, Co-Sign his Own Ethnic Cleansing

Writer Devin O'Shea joins us to talk about the recent tornado that hit St. Louis: how it has revealed the socio-economic past, present, and future, and what we can expect in a world where climate change will continue to disrupt the social landscape

Read Devin's article here: https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/st-louis-tornado-delmar-divide-recovery/

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Episode 394: Bring The Kiln (w/ special guest Devin O'Shea)

“Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won,” states The New York Times' Ezra Klein Show. “Democratic strategist issues ‘hard truth’ to party members after losing election,” CNN tells viewers. “This Is Why Kamala Harris Really Lost,” writes Eric Levitz for Vox.

Since the 2024 presidential election, elite Democrats and the pundits in their orbits have taken to newspapers, podcasts, and cable channels to attempt to explain why Kamala Harris lost and Donald Trump won. Chief among the explanations is this one: Democrats became controlled and overtaken by the "Wokes," becoming overly concerned with pronouns and political correctness, too soft on immigration and crime, while the electorate drifted to the right and that, to win the future, Democrats have to––alas, and with the putative heavy heart––go right with them.

Instead of contending with how the Democratic Party has abandoned a working class composed of all races and gender identities, chased big money and been overtaken by venal PR flacks and lawyers, Democratic party officials, big donor funded “pollsters,” “strategists,” and elite media have done what they’ve always done whenever there's an alleged “soul searching” in the Democratic party: scapegoated vulnerable people, insisted on a fixed, intrinsically conservative voting base and repackaging what is simply a newer version of corporate-friendly status quo liberalism.

On this episode, part one of a two-part series we’re calling "The Empire Strikes First,” we examine how party elites sought, before the election was even called on the night of November 5, 2024: to control the narrative and maintain their status and power within the party, blaming everyone but themselves, relying on tortured data and transparently self-serving conclusions which permit them to continue their longstanding process of justifying elite-serving, center-right policy, feigning Deep Concern for the preferences of Joe Six Pack, all while making sure their “consultant” gravy train chugs along unabated.

Our guest is UC-Berkeley professor Jake Grumbach.

The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

We’re joined by The Nation’s Aída Chávez for her report from WelcomeFest, the abundapalooza dedicated to staking the technocratic claim for the future of the Democratic party. We review the fairly directionless and unenthusiastic vibes of the centrist shindig, but also discuss the explosion of police violence during protests against ICE in Los Angeles over the weekend. All leading us to ask, what exactly do these people think “power” is, and when is it “right” to exercise it?

Read Aída’s dispatch from WelcomeFest for The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/welcomefest-dispatch-centrism-abundance/   
Donate to the Jordan Breen sports journalism scholarship fund - https://gofund.me/837f326c
New merch for the summer up at https://chapotraphouse.store/

941 - Sister Number One feat. Aída Chávez (6/9/25)

Libby Watson returns to the show! We discuss the weekend’s limited US strike on Iran and Trump’s baffling behavior around what already may be a winding-down conflict. We also talk Democratic & media responses, and where Iran might go from here. Then: all eyes are on Zohran in the NYC mayoral primary, voting is tomorrow, we discuss Zorhan’s campaign and his chances of bringing this all home. Finally, we celebrate the love & marriage of an old friend of the show with their NYT vows section announcement. 

Find Libby’s new show “What’s All This Then” wherever you get podcasts, and all her other links here: 
https://linktr.ee/whatsallthisthen
New merch for the summer up at https://chapotraphouse.store


945 - Hashtag Fordow Fail feat. Libby Watson (6/23/25)

This week we're joined by returning guest Tracy Rosenthal to discuss the Zohran Mamdani mayoral campaign: how it was shaped, how it won the Democratic Primary, what it may look like going forward, and how the rest of the media and political class is reacting to it. But first, we catch up on some housekeeping re: Israel and the U.S.'s war against Iran, and talk very briefly about Peter Thiel's fixation on the Antichrist.

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Episode 391: The Things They Carried

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