Failed State Update

Failed State Update

By Joseph L. FlatleySociety & Culture
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Failed State Update episodes

  • 38. Mark Jacobson: QAnon, crisis cults, LSD cults, and more

    The return of Mark Jacobson. We expand on our previous conversation to talk about the zeitgeist. We get into QAnon,  the Ghost Dance, and of course, Bill Cooper.

    Mark Jacobson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palehorseriderbook/

    Pale Horse Rider music video by William Cooper (the rapper): https://youtu.be/Mp5pSU5jYC0

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Coming soon! My latest book, New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106 

    1 hr 9 min
  • 37. Mark Jacobson, author of Pale Horse Rider

    We are living in a time of unprecedented distrust in America…


    Faith in the government is at an all-time low, and political groups on both sides of the aisle are able to tout preposterous conspiracy theories as gospel, without much opposition. “Fake news” is the order of the day. This book is about a man to whom all of it points, the greatest conspiracist of this generation and a man you may not have heard of.

    A former U.S. naval intelligence worker, Milton William Cooper published his manifesto Behold a Pale Horse in 1991. Since then it has gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, becoming the number-one bestseller in the American prison system. According to Behold a Pale Horse, JFK was assassinated—because he was about to reveal that extraterrestrials were about to take over the earth—by his driver, an alien himself; AIDS is a government conspiracy to decrease the population of blacks, Hispanics, and homosexuals; and the Illuminati are secretly involved with the U.S. government to manage relationships with extraterrestrials. Cooper died in a shootout with Apache County police in 2001, one month after September 11, in the year in which he had predicted catastrophe.

    In Pale Horse Rider, journalist Mark Jacobson not only tells the story of Cooper’s fascinating life but also provides the social and political context for American paranoia. Indeed, with the present NSA situation and countless other shadowy government dealings often in the news, aren’t we right to suspect that things may not be as they seem?

    Mark Jacobson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palehorseriderbook/

    Pale Horse Rider music video by William Cooper (the rapper): https://youtu.be/Mp5pSU5jYC0

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Coming soon! My latest book, New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106 

    46 min
  • 36. Jared Yates Sexton dissects the face of contemporary fascism (repost!)

    Jared Yates Sexton has been an important voice decrying the little Hitler in the White House (for one more week) and the future, not-so-little Hitlers that are on the horizon if we don't wise up quick. His message is more important than ever, so I'm reposting two of his appearances here in case you missed 'em the first time...

    Check out Jared's Bourbon Talk podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jsexton3

    ...and, of course, follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JYSexton

    Jared's Muckrake podcast: https://muckrack.libsyn.com/

    Jared Yates Sexton website: https://www.jysexton.com

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Coming soon! My latest book, New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106 

    1 hr 29 min
  • 35. Stuart Schrader / Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing (repost)

    Stuart Schrader is a Lecturer/Assistant Research Scientist in Sociology at Johns Hopkins University and the author of Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing. In this episode of Failed State Update, we talk about the little-understood facts that the United States is an empire, and that what our police do at home has a striking resemblance to what our military does overseas. Of course, this has some very serious implications for the current resistance movement that's been so busy on the streets of America since the murder of George Floyd.

    58 min
  • 34. Vincent Bevins / The Jakarta Method (repost)

    Clearly, the American Empire is clocking out — it's anybody's guess whether it will go with a whimper or with a bang, but it seems likely that we'll know the answer to that question relatively soon. But what did it take to forge this empire in the first place, and how can it be that so many Americans are unaware that this imperium even exists? In the latest episode of Failed State Update, I will be speaking with Vincent Bevins, a journalist and the author of the recently released The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World. As it turns out, the bloodiest and most horrific acts of American imperialism are the ones we've never heard of. Also discussed: Covid-19 as a symptom of America's collective insanity, and Russiagate as psychological projection.

    59 min
  • 33. Barbarians at the Capitol Gates w/William Arkin and Vincent Scotti Eirene

    So, we couldn't go a week into the new year without a constitutional crisis... I'm disappointed in us, but I'm not surprised. In order to help understand what the hell exactly happened, I spoke to William Arkin, veteran national security reporter and prolific author. He's been on top of this story from the very beginning (indeed, from before the beginning) and you can see his reporting in the pages of Newseek or on its website: https://www.newsweek.com/authors/william-m-arkin-1

    In this episode I also speak with Vincent Scotti Eirene, longtime peace activist and media provocateur. He has some particularly trenchant insights into the events of the last 24 hours. Vincent and I were in D.C. protesting corporate globalization this time twenty years ago, so it's interesting to compare and contrast what was happening then with what is happening now.

    William Arkin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/warkin 

    William Arkin website: https://williamaarkin.wordpress.com/

    Vincent Scotti Eirene website: http://notowar.com/

    Vincent Scotti Eirene on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vincenteirene

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com

    Coming soon! My latest book, New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106 

    Music: "Magnificent Dance," "Outside Broadcast," "This Is Radio Clash," and "Capitol Radio" by The Clash


    53 min
  • 32. Get Thee Behind Me, Santa w/Doomsday Prophet Pastor Harry Walther

    I didn't set out to present a Christmas episode of this podcast, but when the talk got around to the harmful nature of the Santa Claus myth, I knew I had a timely program. Pastor Harry Walther is the founder of The Church of Philadelphia-Internet and host of Doomsday Talk Radio. I met him in 2012 while filming a series of videos for The Verge about American end times beliefs.  In this episode of Failed State Update, Harry and I talk about why The End didn't happen on December 21, 2012, and why it just might be around the corner now. We also talk about his 2011 book, Jesus: Son of God, Clone of God, and why Santa is harmful to children.

    CORRECTION: Pastor Harry's ministry is called: "The Church of Philadelphia-Internet," not "The Church of Jesus Christ-Internet"

    The Verge "End of the world week" video series: https://www.lennyflatley.net/the-end

    Harry Walther's website: http://www.satansrapture.com/

    Doomsday Talk Radio: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/pastor-harry-walther

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com

    Coming soon! My latest book New Age Grifter. Available for pre-order from BOOKSHOP.ORG: https://bookshop.org/books/new-age-grifter-the-true-story-of-gabriel-of-urantia-and-his-cosmic-family/9781627311106 

    54 min
  • 31. Conversation with a Targeted Individual

    There is an internet community of people that call themselves Targeted Individuals. These people claim that they're being surveilled and harassed by the U.S. government or other unknown entities. Sometimes this activity is called "gangstalking" because, unlike traditional stalking, the harassment involves teams of people. Fears of gangstalking seem to me to be motivated by, among other things, the same anxieties that create UFO abduction narratives and QAnon theorists. 


    This episode of FSU features a conversation that I recently recorded with a woman who claims to be a victim of gangstalking. She contacted me recently and asked me to help her share her story. It is a follow-up to my article on the phenomenon, "Paranoid Delusions in the Police State" from 2017.


    "Paranoid Delusions in the Police State" on The Outline

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com

    Music: "Starfish" and "Alchemical Room" by Alejandro Jodorowsky

    37 min
  • 30. State of Emergence(y) w/Antero Alli

    Are we living in a failed state? And if so, so what? Between the environment, pandemic, and everything else that 2020 has given us, I think it's probably high time that we look at ourselves in the mirror and decide what's really important. And if you're of a spiritual or metaprogrammatical bent, you could probably learn a thing or several from Antero Alli. His latest book, State of Emergence, covers his experiments in group ritual. It's one part Jerzy Grotowski, one part Carl Jung, and 100% mind-blowing.


    Antero Alli on Twitter: https://twitter.com/antero1111

    Antero's website: https://www.verticalpool.com/

    Antero's paratheater work: https://www.paratheatrical.com/

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com

    Music: "Pearls & Perils of Courting the Muses" by Antero Alli; "Deep Blue" and "Trick of the Sun" by bird&wolf

    1 hr 8 min
  • 29. The Real Story Behind Oliver Stone's JFK w/Fred Litwin

    If you know anything about the assassination of JFK, the odds are good that you learned it from Oliver Stone. Even if you haven't seen JFK (1993), the claims made in the film — claims made by the likes of homophobic New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Fletcher Prouty — have kind of seeped into the mainstream and become part of our common understanding of the tragedy. In his latest book, On the Trail of Delusion, author Fred Litwin turns the clock back on the Jim Garrison investigation and makes us reconsider what we think we know about November 22, 1963.

    Fred Litwin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FredLitwin

    Fred's book: https://www.onthetrailofdelusion.com/

    Joseph L. Flatley website: https://www.lennyflatley.net

    Joseph L. Flatley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennyflatley

    Failed State Update Newsletter: https://lennyflatley.substack.com

    Music: "Garrison's Obsession" (JFK motion picture soundtrack) and "Bullet" by The Misfits

    47 min

About Failed State Update

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Stories and conversations from the end of America.