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Nignorance from across the diaspora. We discuss politics and pop culture from a left perspective. Enjoy and tell a friend.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
Wednesday Sep 16, 2020
In the middle of an economically devastating pandemic, we're looking at Depression Era unemployment. Those jobless numbers are also the driving factor that we are facing the possibility of 30,000,000 Americans on the street. With no federal oversight, this could be disastrous for the United States. I got to speak with attorney, author, and homeless advocate, Randy Shaw. He spoke with me recently to discuss some of his recent articles about housing in this country. Randy Shaw is the Director of San Francisco's Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the Editor-in-Chief of the online daily newspaper "Beyond Chron." He is the author of three books, "Beyond the Fields", "The Activist's Handbook", and "Reclaiming America", and his latest book "Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America".
Read Randy Shaw's Articles Here:
https://www.laprogressive.com/author/randy-shaw/
Beyond Chron:
Purchase Randy Shaw's Books Here:
Thank you so much for checking this out. We appreciate all you returning and new viewers. If you'd like to support independent media like this further, then become a patron. You'll get bonus content, extra programing, and much more!
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Medium
https://medium.com/@jasonmyles/they-dont-really-care-about-us-e2f1703ca39e
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
Sunday Sep 13, 2020
He's the show economist and he's here to tell us what's going with the REAL economy.
From Arash:
"Trying to prevent an economic recession/depression from the top-down is like trying to push string: The more you push, the more slack develops – but nothing moves along. Corporations will keep hoarding their capital & won’t hire employees or invest in the REAL economy.
Corporations won’t spend one additional penny on hiring workers or additional capacity unless that penny returns more pennies. And that doesn’t happen unless consumers have money to spend on the goods & services they need.
Top-down bailouts, like what we’ve seen over the past few months, never work. Never have & never will. They only function to further redistribute more wealth to the already wealthy, which is exactly what we’ve seen over the past few months.
As the financial markets, large corporations & the 1% receive trillions in handouts, the REAL economy - the economy that affects you & I - is headed for a train wreck."
Thank you again for taking the time to check this out. If you'd like to support independent media such as this, BECOME A PATRON! You'll get bonus content from the shows, special patron only programing, and MUCH MORE!
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Please like, follow, share, and subscribe to us on the following platforms:
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YouTube
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https://www.instagram.com/thisisrevolutionoakland/
Medium
https://medium.com/@jasonmyles/they-dont-really-care-about-us-e2f1703ca39e
Wednesday Sep 09, 2020
Wednesday Sep 09, 2020
Hillary Clinton called them "deplorables". Now, president Donald Trump calls them his minions. The Proud Boys, the Buggalou Movement, you name it. Marx had a different name for them, he referred to them as the lumpenproletariat. A class of people defined by Marx as:
"slum workers or the mob, this term identifies the class of outcast, degenerated and submerged elements that make up a section of the population of industrial centers. It includes beggars, prostitutes, gangsters, racketeers, swindlers, petty criminals, tramps, chronic unemployed or unemployables, persons who have been cast out by industry, and all sorts of declassed, degraded or degenerated elements. In times of prolonged crisis (depression), innumerable young people also, who cannot find an opportunity to enter into the social organism as producers, are pushed into this limbo of the outcast. Here demagogues and fascists of various stripes find some area of the mass base in time of struggle and social breakdown, when the ranks of the Lumpenproletariat are enormously swelled by ruined and declassed elements from all layers of a society in decay."
-Marxist.org
In his latest essay, professor Clyde W. Barrow compares Trump to Louis Bonaparte III who Marx and Engels wrote about in their 18th Brumaire. Bonaparte was, much like Trump an authoritarian populist who rose to power on the backs of a class of people who he himself identified with. The "deplorables" have their hero in Trump. He's rude, vulgar, unforgiving, politically incorrect, and unapologetic about it all. He is a "poor man's ideal of a rich man." The cartoonish villain that people root for.
From Professor Barrow's Essay:
Bonaparte had initially won an election with support from the finance aristocracy and the votes of the rural and urban petit bourgeoisie, who were swayed by his promise to reduce their taxes and his pledge to make France great again. However, Bonaparte’s coup d’état ultimately relied on the mass support and violence of the lumpenproletariat. Marx and Engels did not consider the lumpenproletariat capable of independent political action, because of its dependent position at the margins of capitalism. Thus, when the lumpenproletariat does become politically active, it is often because it has been organized into in the political arena by other classes, although the lumpenproletariat is usually brought into the class struggle by the ruling class as a counterweight to the proletariat’s superior numbers. The ruling class will most often enlist the lumpenproletariat as “bribed tools of reactionary intrigue” by enrolling them in counterrevolutionary militias and special police forces directed against the working class. A uniform, a steady salary, medical care, a pension, and a gun are an appealing “bribe” to someone whose “conditions of life” offer no prospects for the future.
Buy the Professor Barrow's Book Here:
https://www.press.umich.edu/11595909/dangerous_class
Read Professor Barrow's Essay Here:
https://socialistproject.ca/2020/08/donald-trump-a-new-emperor-of-the-lumpenproletariat/
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and check this out. If you'd like to continue to support independent media such as this, then please become a patron. You'll get all the bonus show content, extra shows, and MUCH MORE!
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Medium
https://medium.com/@jasonmyles/they-dont-really-care-about-us-e2f1703ca39e
Sunday Sep 06, 2020
Sunday Sep 06, 2020
How often do you buy something online, and then you get hit with suggestions of other things you should purchase. Most of us ignore this bid to separate us from our hard earned cash, but I was hit with a suggestion that piqued my interest. It was a book called "Welcome to the Rebellion: A New Hope in Radical Politics". A book about Star Wars, revolution, Marx, hope...WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?
I read the book in about 3 days. Imagine my excitement when the author, Michael Harris agreed to be on the show?
“The rebellion is all around us, and it is spreading. It is a struggle for freedom and democracy, and for peace and justice. In the face of multiplying crises, it is a rebellion that can no longer wait, and which will force us to take sides.”
“Star Wars doesn’t just depict a dystopian future but focuses on fighting it. It says that another galaxy is possible.”
“Empires have been defeated before, and they always fall eventually. We can choose to remain subjects of an empire in crisis and collapse, or to live and act as citizens of a new republic, one we create through our actions big and small, starting here and now.”
― Welcome to the Rebellion: A New Hope in Radical Politics
Michael Harris is an independent writer and researcher who has worked in numerous sectors including education, technology, innovation, government, public services and urban planning. Most recently he has focused on planning for future trends, such as climate change, population growth, economic and technological disruption, and the collapse in trust in political institutions.
Michael's first book, on planning for today's biggest social challenges, was published by Routledge in May 2019. His second book, about political hope in the twenty-first century, will be published by Zero Books in June 2020. He is currently working on his third book, about survival in turbulent times.
Buy The Book Here:
https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/welcome-to-rebellion
Thank you again for checking this out. We appreciate all of you guys that check the show out and share it. If you want to support independent media like this make sure we stay around, become a patron. You'll get bonus content, extra shows, merch, and more!
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Medium:
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Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
I first came across Justin Hunte on Facebook a few years back. A video popped up in my feed titled "Black Rappers are Going Extinct". I watched it, and it was a very smart, well produced, well thought out story of race, class, and access with Net Neutrality being a key concern. After that I feel down the TCM rabbit hole and consumed as many videos as I could. I love this man's style. If Davy D is the godfather of Hip Hop journalism, then Justin Hunte is the future. We had a 2 hour discussion on air and another hour or so off. He's great insight and I love his perspective on the culture, genre.
Follow The Company Man on YouTube:
The Company Man on Twitter:
@TheCompanyMan
Thank you for taking the time to check this out. We truly appreciate your support. If you'd like to further the support this show BECOME A PATRON. You'll get bonus content, patron only programing, merch and more!
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Sunday Aug 30, 2020
Sunday Aug 30, 2020
I first came across Rob Israel's art looking for images for the show. We were doing a show about Trump's racism and I found the greatest image. It was a picture of Trump's face, covered in Swaztika's. It was PERFECT. I put the image up and advertised the show. I didn't realize I committed the cardinal sin of not crediting the artist. He quickly I found out how disrespectful I was being to the artist. Well, he certainly LET ME KNOW!
After an email exchange...a somewhat heated exchange, I agreed that Rob was right for his initial outrage. People that create the art deserve their credit. Recently filmmaker, and political pundit Michael Moore used one of Rob's images in a Twitter post and didn't bother to credit him. Weak dude. Weak.
You can find Rob's Art :
https://www.etsy.com/market/rob_israel
Rob Israel Tee Public:
Rob Israel Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/robisrael/?hl=en
Rob Israel Twitter:
@RobIsraelart
Thank you for taking the time to check this out. We truly appreciate you guys checking this out. If you'd like to support independent media become a patron. You get bonus shows, extra content, merch and more!
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Please support us on the following platforms by liking, sharing, and subscribing to us here:
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Sunday Aug 23, 2020
Sunday Aug 23, 2020
I wasn't lying when I said I was going to make these dudes a part of the show. I got a chance to speak with the homies once again. Take a listen, as always it's informative and entertaining!
Follow the Left Flank Vets
https://www.twitch.tv/LeftFlankVets
Left Flank Vets Twitter
https://twitter.com/LeftFlankVets
Thank you again for taking the time to check out the show. If you'd like to support independent media such as this, then become a patron. You get special bonus content, extra shows, and MORE!
Become a patron
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Please like, follow, and subscribe to us on the following platforms as well:
Facebook:
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YouTube:
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Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
Wednesday Aug 19, 2020
For my birthday show I wanted to make it a little fun for this one. If you've listened to the show for a while, you've heard comedian and good friend Chris Riggins on. He had hit me up a while back to come to the studio to record a live stand up album. Before I botched that he wanted to do a podcast to warm up for the jokes. Well, I'm his co-host and enjoy doing it. We had fun, we did it with a very small audience. Something that was a strange for me doing the show on stage, but it was fun.
Also, the DNC is going on and I have a few choice words about that.
Donald Trump didn't create racism. He didn't create the idea of kids in cages. He didn't create the disgusting disparity between the military spending budget and what we spend on Public Health. That being said, I haven't seen a more clearer Lifetime Network movie version of politics in my soon to be 43 years of life. The Democratic Party should just be called the "We're Not Trump" party. They seem to be more than happy to simply be an opposition party than one that seeks to make real change. Many people I know are holding their nose once again at the ballot box, and some that have been newly radicalized during the Trump presidency are looking at other options or opting out altogether. Wherever you sit on the issue one thing is true, after Biden/Harris is elected the fight is not over.
COVID-19 and the horrible mishandling of the virus has laid bare all the systemic problems with our country that have exacerbated on a bipartisan level. A private healthcare system that ignores its most vulnerable. The lack of a living wage. Even before the pandemic hit, this country was looking at housing crisis that was leaving millions of Americans homeless and hungry. We have a government that would rather spend billions on a military machine than on its own people. And let's remember that military spending and forever wars is something that Obama and Bush, Jr. was a part of.
So I as stare at this photo, I see a screenshot of America. The America that is shown on nightly cable news broadcasts, and the America politicians sell us. I see the frustrated oppressed screaming to be heard, and I see the elites in fear of a real people powered uprising. The pundits will tell you that it's simply racial, but it's more than that. It's Amazon making billions during a time of crisis and not even bothering to keep the facilities clean that their workers risk their lives in. It's sites like this, Facebook making billions allowing actual fake news to spread like cancer throughout the body politic.
If a Biden/Harris administration is what we get come 2021, then we cannot stop fighting, pushing for the change we wanted when we thought we would get our more progressive choices. It's "We the People..." not "They the aristocracy...". A people powered movement can push the needle and get real results, real reform. People are already changing the conversation around law enforcement from one of "lock them up" to examining the need for armed officers to respond to mental health crisis. I am not happy with the Democratic Party, just as I am not happy with the Republican Party. Whomever is in office I will be critical, and I will continue to speak out. A Trump defeat in November is not the time to go back to brunch.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to the show, we truly appreciate you. If you'd like to further support independent media like this then please share, like and subscribe, but also..BECOME A PATRON! You'll get bonus content, the show a day early, and free stuff!!
Become a Patron here:
https://www.patreon.com/BitterLakePresents
Also, please like, subscribe, and share us on the following platforms:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/
YouTube:
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https://www.instagram.com/thisisrevolutionoakland/
Medium
https://medium.com/@jasonmyles/donald-trump-is-having-his-herbert-hoover-moment-4437447d6915
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
I found Zero Books and Douglas Lain a few years ago after falling down a Marxist rabbit hole on YouTube. I was quickly hooked by the 80's Max Headroom on LSD imagery combined with a heavy dose of Marxist theory. Well, I had the pleasure of talking all things leftist politics with Mr. Lain the other day, and we had such a good time we've decided to make it a regular thang.
A little about Douglas Lain:
Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books. Based in Portland, Oregon he is also a writer whose books include the science fiction novel Bash Bash Revolution from Night Shade Books and the magical realist novel Billy Moon from Tor Books. He is currently writing a book for Zero Books on the need for a new understanding of Marx.
Lain was the host of the philosophy podcast "Diet Soap" from 2009 through 2014 and is now the host of Zero Squared for Zero Books and the YouTuber behind the Zero Books Youtube channel.
Bash Bash Revolution:
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bash-bash-r…in/1125676101
Follow Douglas on Twitter:
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Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Tuesday Aug 11, 2020
Nancy Pelosi has been in congressional office since 1987. In her 33 years as a Congresswoman, she has not only become Speaker of the House, but she's become one of, if not the most powerful people in politics. She's a firebrand in the #Resistance Democratic establishment. As the Trump administration has been an utter disaster of a presidency, Pelosi has done an amazing job at being the figurehead of tepid opposition. A master of political theater with sarcastic claps and dramatic speech ripping, but she hasn't been a stalwart for the people she was put in office to represent. She has exemplified the Corporate, neoliberal Democrat that has dominated the party since the ascension of Bill Clinton.
Finally, in 2018 Peolsi faced a strong challenge from her left. An immigrant, and constitutional lawyer by the name of Shahid Buttar. He was to be out New Hope. Buttar, a Democratic Socialist is running a truly progressive people funded campaign. Like AOC,Jamaal Bowman and the many other progressive candidates, Buttar isn't taking any big corporate donations. As of June 30th, he's raised over one million dollars. The incumbent Pelosi has raised over 14 million dollars, not to mention the $87 millions she's helped raise for other establishment Democratic primary candidates. Buttar understands the odds that are against him, and he's challenged the 33 year veteran to a debate. She's ignored his attempts to go head to head. Just last month Pelosi's debate dodging against Buttar garnered front page attention from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Exactly a week later the headlines for Buttar wouldn't read so well. He was accused of sexual harassment of an acquaintance from several years ago during his time in DC and to make matters worse, his former staffers accused Buttar of fostering an atmosphere of misogyny in his campaign. I've worked on this campaign because I believe this is an amazing chance to oust a powerful foe who's watched out for the corporate interests while people suffer. The CARES Act was a pathetic attempt to help people that are struggling to survive in a time of economic uncertainty. Tens of millions of people are facing eviction and unemployment while the half-hearted CARES Act bailed out corporations to the tune of TRILLIONS. Pelosi is portrayed as a progressive, but she's voted for the Patriot Act on multiple occasions, Bush and Trump tax cuts and military spending increases. Her performative politics is great for talk show fodder, but her actions have made her nothing more than an courtier for corporate interests.
I spoke with Shahid about the recent event that stand to derail what is one of the more important down ballot races in some time. He spoke candidly and I appreciate that. Wherever you stand on the issues, women MUST be heard.
If you'd like to donate to the campaign do so here:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/4shahid
Nancy Pelosi Won't Debate Shahid article:
SF Chronicle Harassment article:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Shahid-Buttar-Nancy-Pelosi-s-election-15424675.php
Intercept Article:
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/23/shahid-buttar-campaign-allegations/
Shahid Buttar on Michael Brooks Show:
(RIP Michael Brooks)
Thank you for taking the time to check this out. If you'd like to support independent like this, PLEASE become a Patron. You'll get all the bonus content, extra shows, and merch! Become a Patron here:
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