Boondoggle

In this episode, Jim and Chris are joined by Luke Doherty, a fellow student with Jim in Birmingham. After talking for a little bit about what Luke was doing before he came to Birmingham, and what brought him back to studying, they consider the reasons for and possible lessons of the Trump victory. We had intended to discuss many more topics, but thought that since we had been going for an hour and a quarter, it might be sensible to postpone those to next week.
There is much agreement between Jim, Chris, and Luke, but also hints of disagreements as well, which we will be sure to explore in Part 2 next week, so be sure to subscribe to hear the rest of the conversation as soon as we upload it next week.

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BoondogglePodcast2020

With the UK hit by unseasonal snow, Jim and Chris spend a little bit of time discussing the shall we say unusual political approach of the Starmer government in the UK, which seems to involve annoying as many people as possible as quickly as they can whilst telling everyone things are not going to get better for years. They then move on to the main topic of the episode, a consideration of the foreign policy implications of Trump's election win. Whilst resiling not one iota from the likely dire domestic impacts (only made worse by Trump's picks for major government jobs), is there a possibility of a Trump administration bringing peace to an increasingly conlficted world? Given a distinction between US grand strategies of 'deep engagement' and 'restraint', might we see restraint under Trump? Or is his talk of peace just more Trumpian bluster and cover for ever more dangerous deep engagement? Do the answers to these questions depend on whether we are talking about Europe, the Middle East, or East Asia? Given Trump's brutally transactional nature and the lack of evidence of any kind of strategic thinking whatsoever, does it even make sense to talk of foreign policy prospects in these terms at all? We might not have the answers to these questions, but we chew them over for a little while that's for sure.

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In this episode, Jim talks with Chris about the course that he is doing on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Jim outlines the various theories of international relations that he has come across so far, realism, liberalism, and constructivism, and discusses with Chris the barriers to and possibilities for peace-building under these theories.

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BoondogglePodcast2020

In this episode, recorded on Thursday 7th November, Jim Driscoll and Chris Floyd discuss the comprehensive Trump victory in the recent US election. Using Gore Vidal's idea that there is only one party in America, the Property Party, as a prompt, they discuss the extent to which so many elements of the US establishment have acquiesced in the dismantling of American institutions, and whether Trump represents a genuine repudiation of the tenets of the Property Party, as his followers in effect believe, or whether we are witnessing the Property Party realising that it no longer needs democracy in order to achieve its aims. (No surprise, we favour the latter.) We also moan a bit about the extraordinary tone-deafness of the Harris campaign (which we have discussed before) and extraordinary way in which some pundits are arguing she failed because she went 'too far left'. 

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After catching up with respect to Chris' Greek odyssey, and discussing his brief career as a cricket correspondent for the Moscow Times, Jim and Chris discuss the impact of the shock doctrine on Russia in the 90s before considering the extent to which it is proposed to be applied to the US if Trump wins the election and appoints Elon Musk to government.
The election is on a knife-edge and any predictions will be little more than guesses, but either way, US democracy will continue to be under pressure and increasingly hollowed out, in various ways outlined by both Chris and Jim. Happy Hallowe'en!
The next episode of Boondoggle will be recorded on Wednesday 6th November, the day after the US election, when there will be at least preliminary indications of how things will pan out. 

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@Boondog44421386
BoondogglePodcast2020

In this episode Jim and Chris discuss the upcoming US election. Bypassing the usual horserace commentary, they talk about the unprecedented nature of the contest, the 'sane-washing' of Trump, possible futures after the election, and one possible reason why the Democrats seem to constantly misunderstand the strategy required to win against MAGA.

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BoondogglePodcast2020

In this episode, recorded on the evening of the 8th October when there were still three candidates in the Tory leadership race and everyone expected James Cleverly to make the final two, Jim and Chris discuss the degree to which the British political system may be showing signs of realigning. With Reform functioning as an apparently irresistible magnet dragging the Tories ever further to the right and Labour seemingly moving into the centre right ground being abandoned by the Conservatives, do we just have a shift rightwards of the two party system or a fracturing of that system? And does this open up space for a new party or grouping of the left? To what degree does the situation in the UK mirror that happening in Europe? And could a similar thing happen in the US? Questions, questions. We might not have the answers, but we sure can fill an hour talking about them.

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Chris talks to Jim about his recent relocation to Birmingham to start an MA in Global Conflict and Cooperation, and his fifteen-and-a-half day journey from Oxford to Birmingham by narrowboat. What does taking so long to travel such a small distance do to your conception of time? How do you steer the thing anyway? And will Chris ever learn how to pronounce the name of the city properly?

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Jim and Chris discuss themes arising from the recent Democratic Convention in Chicago - how, beyond the schmaltz, nothing much changes; how the centrist project leads to the triumph of the right; and how we are living in a decadent democratic culture. Also, Chris sings a number made familiar (but not written) by Woody Guthrie, The Hobo's Lullaby.

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With Chris back from his secret mission for the mysterious figure known only as 'Toolmaker', and in an episode recorded in the hours before Kamala Harris gave her speech, Jim and Chris briefly discuss the strange experience of watching a Democratic convention full of hope and energy at the same time as US-funded atrocities continue in Gaza.
They then move on to assess the performance of the Labour government in the UK after its first seven weeks. During the course of this discussion, Chris makes a brave and foolhardy attempt at a Scottish accent. It is fair to say, of both accent and government, that it is remarkable how quickly something can go so utterly wrong.
This episode is brought to you by Crab Tut Beer - it'll keep you going all night long!

We'd love to hear from you -
@Boondog44421386
BoondogglePodcast2020