Aesthetic Resistance Podcast

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, George McIntyre, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Looking back at the Covid years five years after the first cases, war again in Syria, the campaign against “animal racism” in Oregon, hostile takeovers of media platforms, Cormac McCarthy: America no country for old men with young lovers, 100 years since Edward Bernays turned women onto smoking "Torches of Freedom". Music track: “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Dennis Riches, Shaenah Batterson, John Bower, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Lex Steppling. Topics discussed: Billy Bob Thorton in “Landman”: is Hollywood ditching the “woke” agenda? Is the pro-Palestine movement slowly becoming a gentrified signifier? Is Netanyahu on the way out? How can people be pro-Palestine and anti-Russia when they both have the same enemy? Distortion of history in works of fiction, as in “Bridgerton”, “Inglorious Basterds”, and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Battleship fleets and nuclear weapons: are they useless in modern warfare? Russia swapped out nuclear warheads from a supersonic ICBM with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs), loaded them with conventional bombs, and made history with the first ICBM attack during warfare. Thanksgiving approaches after an autumn season of flirting with WWIII. Music track "Bemsha Swing" by Thelonius Monk (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: NATO long-range missiles used against Russia, reckless escalation of the war, imperialism, colonialism, slavery, historiography of famine and revolution. Music track: "Tin Tin Deo" by Dizzy Gillespie (public domain).

A discussion that clears up the common confusion and misunderstandings about the differences between communism and fascism. Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Dennis Riches.

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Dennis Riches, Shaenah Batterson, George McIntyre, and Lex Steppling. Topics discussed: Democratic voter panic, Trump’s long con against his supporters, the contradiction of Elon Musk—with his green energy vehicles—now being aligned with Trump’s rejection of the green new deal, “pogroms” in Amsterdam against Israeli soccer hooligans, fentanyl as the latest instrument for fearmongering, the re-criminalization of shoplifting in California, the aesthetics of the “Day of the Jackal” remake, QR codes inducing the sound of silence in public spaces. Music track “Statesboro Blues” by Blind Willie McTell (public domain).

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Shaenah Batterson, George McIntyre and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Non-endorsements and vote strikes by people for whom genocide is a red line. Wide acceptance of genocide in an era that lacks public intellectuals. The erasure of race relations and history in recent "historical" dramas (i.e. Bridgerton). The erasure of women in sports and other institutions. Young athletes rushed into adulthood while the adult-aged masses are infantilized. This episode was recorded on the eve of the 2024 US presidential election. Might it stand as a testament to the end of an era? Come what may from the new administration, this election drove a spike into decades-long modus operandi of the Democratic Party. Closing music track: Lonesome Road Blues by Sam Collins (copyright: public domain).

Participants: Dennis Riches and Hiroyuki Hamada. In this lecture, Dennis Riches discusses the final years of the US support for South Vietnam, 1973-1975, and the path followed by Vietnam after the war. The analysis relates this period of the conflict to other wars that the US fought through proxy forces. Another subject is the history of the US failing to honor peace accords and instead continuing conflict through means other than direct military force. The second half of the one-hour recording is a discussion of the lecture with Hiroyuki Hamada.

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, George McIntyre, and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Israeli Defense Forces: weaknesses and vulnerabilities, Money for Nothing and your MTV: massive US defense spending may be producing an ineffective fighting force, popular music and television of the late 20th century—heroes of yesteryear ended up as reactionaries and Zionists, the opposition to Trump freaks out about his “Nazi rally” at Madison Square Garden. Natural wonders of the U.S.A. Music track “Suffer Me” by Jack Littman, used with permission.

Participants: John Steppling, Shaenah Batterson, Hiroyuki Hamada, Max Parry, George McIntyre and Dennis Riches. Topics covered: Biden biding his time on the beach, storm damage in the Eastern U.S., historical changes in attitudes about sex change surgery and non-binary identities, the rise of identity politics after the crushing of radical politics, Israel off the leash while no one is in charge in Washington, the misconception of Israel as a liberal democracy, the complicity of Arab states in Israel’s quest for lebensraum, Palestine in light of what the U.N. Charter states about de-colonization, or the obligation to assist Non-Self-Governing Territories in gaining independence. Music track “Holy Hunger” by Jack Littman, used with permission.

Participants: John Steppling, Max Parry, Hiroyuki Hamada, Dennis Riches, and George McIntyre. Topics discussed: Popular support for genocide within Israel, nuclear materials in Israeli weapons used in Lebanon? weakness of the US Navy in the Middle East, the new semiotics of political leadership—coaches, school teachers and school administrators to our rescue, Left publications drift away from the Left and embrace liberalism, theories about the moon landings and the possibility of thousands of conspirators keeping a secret for decades. Music track “Betty” by Jack Littman, used with permission.