Episode 162: WTN The Ad-Fueled Dumpster Fire

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When the news chooses to focus on everything politically except at an entire movement drastically changing the world, they fail everyone. Our news becomes nothing but the title of this Episode 162: The Ad-Fueled Dumpster Fire.

I read quite a bit in this episode, namely: Three Wikipedia Articles relating to the World Trade Organization and the 1999 protests against the 20th Ministerial Conference here in Seattle; Peter Kruger's article "What Don't Most Liberals Realize?"; and a few sentences from Ha-Joon Chang's book Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism.

I play: Al Franken singing to his campaign phone, from an interview he did on Terri Gross's show Fresh Air; Hillary Clinton's observation about half the supporters of her opponent gathered in a basket; and Jake Tapper talking with William McRaven about his endorsement. Musically, I weave Lee Rosevere's "Let's Start At The Beginning" throughout; and use Podington Bear's "New Old Toys" as a rant backing. KMFDM backs Henry Giroux's endorsement of civic literacy; and I close with Julie and Rolf and the Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow".

Links to that material can be found at the show notes at AttackAdsPodcast.Blogspot.com. (Oh, and I'll throw one more link at the notes to a This Is Hell! interview on trade agreements with Nick Deardon that is well worth hearing, but that I just heard and could not squeeze into this show.)

Episode 161: WTN Aphoristic Dissonance

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We all use language to codify and structure the reality around us. We have to be careful, though, not to hide within unexamined aphorisms internal impossibilities that mask from us what is really going on. Hence, Episode 161: Aphoristic Dissonance.

In this episode, I read from: Wendy Brown's book appropriately named Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution; my computer's quickie dictionary; and from Anand Giridharadas' book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. There's a lot more good stuff in this book, which I'll give you in dollops in future episodes.

I play: President Barack Obama proving that he isn't liberal by quoting a bit of his 2013 State of the Union Address; and Travis Kalanick dismissing with extreme prejudice his own complicity in bankrupting others.

Musically, I play: two from Visciera——first "Grinder", and then "Coming Back"; KMFDM opens with Socialist Mayor of Burlington, Vermont Bernie Sanders pointing out the silly of television; and I close with Julie and Rolf and the Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow".