Ukraine Antics with Chinese Characteristics
Episode #mechanical-freak-192 published April 16, 2023 2:30 PM PDT
Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon patreon.com/posts/81611662
Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon patreon.com/posts/81611662
The gang discusses the latest legislation making it through the bowels of the Statehouse in Olympia before casting our gaze out to our neighbor to the east.
The Idaho Captial Sun, “Citing Staffing Issues and Political Climate, North Idaho Hospital Will No Longer Deliver Babies,” 3/17/2023
Become a Patron and get extra content! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak
Pramila Jayapal joins us on the boat to talk about the hottest new trend on the American Left. We also hear from the Seattle Times editorial board on the newest danger to smol-bean landlords.
New York Times, “The US Built a European Style Welfare State. It’s Largely Over.” 4/6/2023
Become a Patron and get extra content! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak
The boys are back on the digital boat to discuss the new capital gains tax that is making waves from Olympia to Plano. Then we look at the valley that is dying and the new valley that is struggling to be born.
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth!
Become a Patron and get extra content! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak
The gang is back on the boat to talk about Boeing woes, the fight around a new light rail station, and gaze into the dark abyss of real estate capital.
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth!
Become a Patron and listen to our loving eulogy of Jimmy Carter, may he rest in piss patreon.com/posts/79945601
The boys are all back on the boat and they are asking the heads of SVB and Signature to join them for a “bail-in.”
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth to see how we got here!
Become a Patron and listen to our loving eulogy of Jimmy Carter, may he rest in piss patreon.com/posts/79945601
Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon patreon.com/posts/79945601
The boys get together to discuss the hottest new trend for the new year, “premiumization.” Will this be the secret sauce that unlocks wonderful new delights here-to-fore unseen? Or is it part of the slow descent down into Lovecraftian horror that is living in modern America? Only time will tell!
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth to see how we got here!
Looking for someone to blame? Check out our obituary for Jimmy Carter, available now!
Munya is mysteriously absent as Greg and Brian don their political science caps and dig into an exciting new way to do politics – minus the politics – brought to us by former Stranger writer Ansel Herz. It’s a poli-sci mega-episode full of all the requisite Aristotle, Hobbes, and David Icke references that make undergrad dorm room debates so exciting!
Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon patreon.com/posts/79171896
Munya and Brian are joined by a veteran of Hollywood who has worked on such films as Blackhat and Ted 2 to discuss the movies M*A*S*H (1970) and Southern Comfort (1981). They discuss how these movies’ depictions of the military were affected by the Vietnam War and how they differ from depictions of the military today.
Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings
Up Next: Ending the Myth will be back in May to discuss the 1980s and Chapter 13 – More, More, More from Greg Grandin’s The End of the Myth
Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor
Show art by Carl
The boys are back to breakdown all the highlights and controversy from this year’s Super Bowl. From there they talk UFO sightings, train crashes, and Seymour Hersh’s new article about the Nord Stream Pipeline – turns out sometimes pipelines just do that.
Read Seymour Hersh’s article here
Become a Patron of Mechanical Freak for more bonus content!
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth before history ends for good!
Greg & Brian see what is the latest outrage that has conservatives shitting their pants before diving into some statewide measures that are on the ballot this February.
Become a Patron of Mechanical Freak for more bonus content!
Make sure to check out Ending the Myth before history ends for good!
Munya and Brian get together to expand on some of the ideas covered in episodes 22, 23, & 24 as well as answer some listener questions. They talk Richard Nixon, foundational Marxist concepts, where healthcare went wrong, the antiwar movement, and why the Left disintegrated.
Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings
Up Next: We have a special bonus episode for you where we will be discussing the movies M*A*S*H (1970) and Southern Comfort (1981) and the impact that the Vietnam War had on cinema.
Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor
Show art by Carl
We talk a little football before asking if a car really needs a steering wheel to drive? Then we discuss the murder of Tyre Nichols at the hand of the police and go over the idiot reform ideas that are being proposed to soothe people conscious until the next murder… which has statistically already happened! Then we talk New York real estate and entertain the idea that maybe landlords lie sometimes.
Definitely read the article on rising rents in the NYC housing market here
Check out our interview with Jerry Lembcke on Ending the Myth
We welcome esteemed sociologist Jerry Lembcke to talk about how the memory of the Vietnam War was both recreated and used in the 1980s and 1990s to unify public sentiment against the liberatory movements of the 1960s. Lembcke reminds us that even in the creation of memory, there is a political struggle for the future that needs to be waged.
Jerry Lembcke is the author of many important books about Vietnam and memory, including:
The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam (2000)
Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal (2010)
Dissenting POWs: From Vietnam’s Hoa Lo Prison to America Today (2021)
Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings
Up Next: We will be discussing the episodes 22-24. We’ll go a little deeper into what allowed capital to turn the tables on the American working class and tie some strings together from these episodes.
Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor
Show art by Carl
Listen to the episode in its entirety on Patreon patreon.com/posts/77857911
The guys discuss the process of deindustrialization and corresponding financialization of the economy that took place in the 1970s. Was it a market-determined fait accompli? Or a political choice?
Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings
Up Next: We have an amazing interview with sociologist Jerry Lembcke about the politics around the memory of the Vietnam War
Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor
Show art by Carl
The end of an era. This week we bid farewell to Kshama Sawant who will not run for reelection to the Seattle City Council. She’s the greatest to ever do it, but after a decade on the council, there may not be another Kshama walking through that door.
Read her own words in the Stranger.
Brian and Munya discuss the means by which the capitalist class in the United States was able to put the brakes on the Left in the 1960/70s. That’s right, it’s time to talk some COINTELPRO!
Visit the Ending the Myth page for updates, sources, and suggested readings
Up Next: We continue our discussion of the 1970s with a discussion of neoliberalism: What is it? And how was it forced down our throats?
Show music by Bjorn/Fleksor
Show art by Carl