Episode Notes

who is outside my window yelling "WE ARE BACK TO NORMAL"? show yourself. coward. i will never be normal.

We revisit the through-line that has connected this podcast from its humble beginnings to the towering heights upon which we now stand.

How normal have things been for you? Well the pandemic has ended, so any problems you are facing are entirely your fault and the new administration is doing everything perfectly. Kyle and Phil discuss the return to Obama-era normalcy in our politics, the lack of critical thought expended on our political expressions, and of course the booming economy we have now that Joe has saved us all.

As a note, Kyle and his fiancé Luci are now husband and wife as of the release of this episode. Your thoughts and prayers for Luci are much appreciated.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions, angry emotes, or whatever that you'd like to send us, please reach out at [email protected]. I recognize posting this will bring us spam and I dare you to do it.

Phil and Kyle would also like to give a shout out to those of us still in the streets fighting for the rights of Palestinians and those fighting for justice and abolition of the American police state. The best way to show solidarity with those struggling against the American empire is to struggle against the empire at home.

https://free-palestine.carrd.co/#donations

https://www.phillybailfund.org/

https://bailproject.org/

Episode Notes

Session Nine: Jamming With Edward. Click play at 7:10 to watch along!

Cowboy Bebop, a magnificently animated show about bounty hunters and their tangles with love, death, despair, humor, and the unknowable. Far and away one of the most beautiful animes ever created, Bebop takes viewers along for an anthologically structured trip through a future of gangsters, poverty, obscene wealth, and betrayal. With the episode we decided to watch today, we examine the destitute planet Earth, abandoned - by those who could afford to - after ecological and meteoric crises. Those who live on the surface must burrow underground to avoid "rock showers" from the exploded moon. Squalor, poverty, and Peeps™ mark the lives of humans trapped under the rubble of a forgotten home planet.

Phil and Kyle would also like to give a shout out to those of us still in the streets fighting for the rights of Palestinians and those fighting for justice and abolition of the American police state. The best way to show solidarity with those struggling against the American empire is to struggle against the empire at home.

https://free-palestine.carrd.co/#donations

https://www.phillybailfund.org/

https://bailproject.org/

Episode Notes

What happens when union participation is at a near historic low? Precarit-ization and neofeudal constructs are asserting themselves more forcefully in the First World economy. While these relations have always existed at the periphery of capitalist empire and in the exploited Global South, the contradictions of contract work and elimination of hard-won gains by labor are exposed ever more blatantly.

Kyle "works" in the PMC-Information Economy-Hashtag Market of media content creation. Phil works in the service industry as a grocery store worker and is a member in his local union.

These two forms of work, often incorrectly pitted against each other as "skilled" or "unskilled," are not so different as they may seem on the surface. The cultures of the white collar and blue collar are often very disparate and there are definitely different expectations when it comes to participating in the economy - Kyle gets to mostly work from home during a pandemic while Phil is exposed to asshats wearing masks around their ankles looking for a frozen pizza brand that was discontinued decades ago. However, underlying each is the same down-to-up exploitation and extraction of "surplus value."

This is a topic we have discussed previously from the angle of "alienation" and we wish to take another look at what workers can do and do do in an effort to overthrow their class relations.

Phil and Kyle would also like to give a shout out to those of us still in the streets fighting for the rights of Palestinians and those fighting for justice and abolition of the American police state. The best way to show solidarity with those struggling against the American empire is to struggle against the empire at home.

https://free-palestine.carrd.co/#donations

https://www.phillybailfund.org/

https://bailproject.org/

Episode Notes

Phil and Kyle watch the hit NBC primetime show Community. A sitcom set in the weirdest community college one can find west of the Mississippi. Season 3, Episode 2 "Geography of Global Conflict" takes the gang to an overly-competitive Model UN -off. We discuss how the UN is of course a laundering factory for empire and ultimately contributes nothing toward the betterment of humanity besides empty gestures and rhetoric.

This episode comes at a time of horrible violence being committed by the American-supported, settler-colonial state of Israel on the people of Palestine.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

• Nelson Mandela

Please, if you have the time or ability, donate to one or more of the causes listed below. The BDS movement has been illegally criminalised in many places in the United States, however you can still help in other ways. Free Palestine, end the Israeli apartheid.

https://free-palestine.carrd.co/#donations

https://laborforpalestine.net/

https://uscpr.org/

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/middle-east/occupied-palestinian-territory

*According to Stars and Stripes (an US Army news outlet publishing from within the DoD) there are 18,000 contractors in Afghanistan as of January 2021.

"More than 18,000 contractors remain in Afghanistan, a Defense Department report released this week said, after the Pentagon announced Friday it had reduced its troop total in the country to 2,500."

This would make the ratio 7.2:1 contractor to troop.

https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/troop-levels-are-down-but-us-says-over-18-000-contractors-remain-in-afghanistan-1.659040

**A good documentary on the Friday Protests from Empire Files, Gaza Fights for Freedom: https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/gaza-fights-for-freedom/

~Episode Notes~

How frequently have you heard anti-capitalist viewpoints expressed on CNN, in the New York Times, on the pages of the Washington Post, or from your car radio - tuned to the sultry, hushed tones of NPR's newsreaders?

Contrary to their guises of neutral arbiters that have no ideological allegiance, the premier press outlets are far from "objective." Instead they serve the same interests that all capitalist ventures serve - to consolidate and extract wealth. Phil and Kyle tread the path of the many more intelligent people who came before and examine the pro-business bent of reporting in corporate news outlets and in the culture at-large.

“Even if the press does not mold our every opinion, it does mold opinion visibility; it can frame the perceptual limits around which our opinions take shape. Here may lie the most important effect of the news media: they set the issue agenda for the rest of us, choosing what to emphasize and what to ignore or suppress, in effect, organizing much of our political world for us. The media may not always be able to tell us what to think, but they are strikingly successful in telling us what to think about.” Excerpt from Inventing reality: the Politics of News Media by Michael Parenti

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Episode Notes

In an episode that got pretty intense at times, Phil and Kyle discuss collaborators, who should be included among them, and the ways maybe they should be treated if the glorious revolution ever comes in minecraft.

If you'd like to reach out, please email us at [email protected].

Beats used in the episode are produced by Yung Kartz.

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Episode Notes

Phil and Kyle's good friend Daniel lays down some of his poetry for us!

Beats used in this piece were created by Yung Karts - https://www.yungkartzbeats.com/

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Episode Notes

Did liberals and conservatives win the culture war? Probably. Is it still (or has it ever been) an avenue toward change? Well... let's find out!

In a homogenized media landscape - where blockbuster films get funding to "correctly" depict intelligence agencies and the DoD, where popular music and figures are dedicated to commercialist intent - what role can culture and art serve toward making a better world? Daniel, Phil, and Kyle discuss the material and idealist aspects of our American culture.

Do please look out for each other out there.

Beats used in the episode created by Yung Kartz - https://www.yungkartzbeats.com/

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Episode Notes

Kyle and Phil are taking a stab at a fan favourite - and a favourite show of our own - The Simpsons. Take a trip with us to the far gone year 1990 to see how a single income family can somehow afford a beautiful house in the ever more beautiful Springfield.

The watchalong begins at 1:46 for those of you playing along at home. Love and Solidarity!

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Episode Notes

The unsociable socialist crew go into peoples' needs of connectivity, community, and sanity. Sometimes we make sense, other times we let you decide if we make sense. A new bit makes it's debut and we hope you like it!

Don't forget to keep on the lookout for your local mutual aid funds. We need to make a community in which we support one another. Love and Solidarity!

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