Hog Planet

This week we cover everything from cowardly Democrats to Tucker Carlson’s war on anti-white quote-on-quote racism, and Alex Jones’ altogether terrible week. The brain juice guy got dunked on by teenagers on the internet, waxed poetic about his current wife’s bodacious schnozz, and, surprisingly enough, got slapped with a few harassment allegations.

Our main story is the most recent flare up of the ever-present China panic in outlets like the New York Times, The Economist, and other periodicals you see yuppies carrying on public transportation. We’ll decide whether CPC chairman Xi Jinping’s decision to suspend his own term limits will bring back Mao’s Cultural Revolution and mention Winnie the Pooh at least once.

Notes:

Tim Kaine - cyber war veteran

https://www.districtsentinel.com/democrats-lament-lost-cyber-war-hearing-nsa-chief/

The High Court will not save immigrants from endless detention without cause

http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/375791-supreme-court-rules-immigrants-can-be-detained-indefinitely

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/15-1204_f29g.pdf

Liberals demand to see Melania Trump’s papers

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/questions-linger-about-how-melania-trump-a-slovenian-model-scored-the-einstein-visa/2018/02/28/d307ddb2-1b35-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html?utm_term=.5853062d35f4

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-first-preference-eb-1

Uber and Lyft drivers make average of less than $4 per hour

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/02/590168381/uber-lyft-drivers-earning-a-median-profit-of-3-37-per-hour-study-says?utm_campaign

The Terrible Crusty Take on Millennials of the Week

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/opinion/go-ahead-millennials-destroy-us.html?smid=fb-share

Tucker's Incredible Segment

https://splinternews.com/sick-liberals-photoshop-brave-patriots-face-onto-a-salt-1823425845?rev=1519922411205&utm_campaign

Bad Week for Alex Jones

https://gizmodo.com/one-strike-away-from-youtube-ban-alex-jones-begs-parkl-1823365098

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alex-jones-accused-of-sexual-harassment-bullying-at-infowars

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2018/03/01/alex-jones-defends-himself-anti-semitism-charges-talking-about-size-his-wifes-nose/219535

Boycotting Dick’s Sporting Goods to own the libs

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/28/589436112/dicks-sporting-goods-ends-sale-of-assault-style-rifles-citing-florida-shooting

Banning Winnie the Pooh lmao

https://news.sky.com/story/china-censors-winnie-the-pooh-social-media-posts-amid-xi-criticism-11270677

The New York Times’ new new cold war: JYNA

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-new-cold-war.html

Bizarre articles about Xi’s official titles

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-titles-chairman.html

https://qz.com/1112638/xi-jinping-title-xi-jinping-is-not-the-president-of-china/

The Economist had already named Xi the world’s top supervillain

https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21730144-do-not-expect-mr-xi-change-china-or-world-better-xi-jinping-has-more-clout

These are articles you write when you know nothing about history

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-authoritarianism.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/world/asia/xi-jinping-china.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/02/27/is-xi-jinping-now-a-leader-for-life-like-mao-heres-why-this-is-dangerous/?utm_term=.a0395123359a

Crash Wins Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain

http://ew.com/movies/2018/03/02/crash-brokeback-mountain-best-picture-oscars/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly

On this week’s show, the Teamsters are training to defend their immigrant members from DHS and at CPAC, Sebastian Gorka clashed with his long-time rival, the Mediaite reporter Caleb Ecarma. Our main story is the history of the NRA’s lobbying efforts and how it got us to where we are at today. We will try to fill in the gaps that most media outlets have forgotten about or ignored. We’ll also discuss the heinous reaction to the Parkland shooting survivors from conservative ghouls like Donald Trump Jr. In the pop culture corner, we are going to take a fresh look at Starship Troopers and draw out some of its most relevant and biting themes, including the fascism inherent to militarism, the sadistic nature of military propaganda, and the role it plays in justifying and rationalizing imperialist wars abroad.

Links:

Teamsters training to defend immigrant members

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/373418-new-york-teamsters-learning-rights-how-to-challenge-immigration

Bob’s Burgers character flips seat to blue

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/20/linda-belcher-defeats-widow-disgraced-kentucky-rep-dan-johnson/357269002/

Gorka vs. Caleb Ecarma

https://www.mediaite.com/online/seb-gorka-just-challenged-me-to-a-fight-over-email-and-i-accepted/

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE

https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/966704102037164032

Gorka: CPAC Celeb

https://www.thedailybeast.com/at-cpac-seb-gorka-is-a-cult-hero-who-gets-mobbed-by-fans

Newsweek retracts “Franken taken down by Russian bots” story

http://www.newsweek.com/alt-right-trump-franken-mueller-twitter-810355

Michael Ian Black’s NY Times op-ed

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html

NRA figures and history - Frontline Documentary

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-evolution-of-wayne-lapierre/?utm_source=

FBPAGE&utm_medium=social&utm_term=20180222&utm_content=1366689200&linkId=48400426

Harlon Carter’s wild life

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-teen-killer-who-radicalized-the-nra

Wayne LaPierre’s “Good Guy with a Gun” theory is garbage

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-florida-shooting-sro-20180222-story.html

Right-wing attacks on Parkland survivors

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article201177359.html

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on American gun culture

http://www.wweek.com/arts/books/2018/02/21/roxanne-dunbar-ortiz-the-second-amendment-is-almost-a-time-bomb-that-was-planted-in-the-constitution/

Students forbidden from protesting in Texas

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/374812-texas-school-district-threatens-to-suspend-students-who-protest#.Wo3DhujAXnc.twitter

Little Marco

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a18657418/cnn-gun-debate-

Birmingham Children’s March

https://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-childrens-march/

Church will bless your AR-15

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/375075-pa-church-invites-couples-to-bring-ar-15s-to-church-for

Wayne LaPierre warns of socialist uprising

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/22/587911457/nra-leader-warns-conservatives-of-socialist-wave-in-wake-of-shooting?

Talk of gun control with no action hugely benefits gun makers and the NRA

https://qz.com/1212311/parkland-florida-shooting-trump-talking-up-gun-control-without-lawmaking-is-great-for-the-nra/

Blue Apron, but for welfare!

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amberjamieson/trump-administration-wants-to-slash-food-stamps-send-out?utm_term=.cmeL4ZpX9#.st0M28zmn

Gun owners mad at Trump

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-gun-owners-control-florida-shooting-bump-stock-nra-latest-a8226461.html

Oregon gun control bill after massacre

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/fl-reg-oregon-gun-control-bill-20180223-story.html

Starship Troopers’ misunderstood satire of right-wing militarism

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/-em-starship-troopers-em-one-of-the-most-misunderstood-movies-ever/281236/

Folks, it’s our last show before our vacation - while we will enjoy LA, we will be pining for the sunny shores of Bay View, Michigan, the Christians-only town that is the center of a lawsuit against its policy of only allowing pastor-approved gentiles to buy or inherit houses. What’s worse is that milquetoast conservative hack Andrew Sullivan is writing again, and he’s writing about young people. We will take in his latest terrible take before we get into Trump’s contempt for opioid addicts, the second government shutdown, and the impending military parade coming soon to the streets of Washington DC.

In the pop culture corner we will be sharing our favorite clips from the epic interview that Quincy Jones recently gave in which he dissed the Beatles, dished on his relationship with Ivanka Trump, and told us which software executive can really shred. We’re also going to talk about why we liked The Cloverfield Paradox, the universally-panned space thriller and sequel to 2008’s Cloverfield and 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane.

For story time, we will discuss our continued failure to use Airbnb, the app which has disrupted entire communities and, more importantly, our vacation! We will bring up some of our past experiences with the app and evaluate its efforts to capitalize on our co-habitating with strangers.

Da Notez:

Christians-only town in Michigan

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/09/christians-only-town-bay-view-michigan?CMP=share_btn_fb

We All Live On Campus Now, announces old man

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/we-all-live-on-campus-now.html

Trump has nothing but contempt for opioid addicts

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/trump-has-given-victims-of-opioids-nothing-but-contempt.html

Gorka-Pizzagate Update

https://www.thedailybeast.com/seb-gorka-paid-dollar40k-by-pizzagate-group

Second Democratic shutdown cave-in

http://theweek.com/articles/753831/why-house-democrats-should-reject-senates-new-budget-deal

Nancy Pelosi urged House Dems not to vote for Senate budget deal

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/house-democrats-confusing-budget-vote-strategy.html

The government shut down thanks to Rand Paul

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/congress-second-shutdown.html

Trump loves a good parade

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/us/politics/trump-military-parade-america.html

Nauseating responses to the military parade

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/07/trump-military-parade-defense-328962

Death squad member mocks the developing world

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/08/bin-laden-killer-and-navy-seal-oneill-says-trump-parade-is-bad-idea.html

The Crimes of Seal Team 6

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/10/the-crimes-of-seal-team-6/

Tim Faust on the United States of Care

https://splinternews.com/the-very-bad-politics-of-putting-healthcare-over-politi-1822806820

Quincy Jones gets messy

https://www.gq.com/story/quincy-jones-has-a-story

The Cloverfield Paradox: The few rotten tomatoes reviews that liked it

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_cloverfield_paradox/reviews/?sort=fresh

Trump gave his first State of the Union address, proving that even the foulest and most foolish around us can talk and stand at the same time when prompted. This achievement prompted liberals to heap obsequious praise on the man-child in chief, and a chicken executive served as “designated survivor.” What could have been less appealing? Cue Joe Kennedy’s counter speech, and the drool that followed.

Let’s face it, everything’s more substantial than the State of the Union address, so we pulled some criminal justice stories from Baltimore, San Francisco, and Detroit that we think you need to hear about. We’ll also discuss Trump’s material impact on job growth and arm you with knowledge. Compare that to the feeble mainstream press that bombards you with nonsense like Corey Lewandowski screaming TOM BRADY BABY and self-appointed troop defender Jake Tapper.

In the pop culture corner, we talk about Comedy Central’s Nathan For You and Corporate, with an emphasis on their anti-capitalist messages. And for story time, Sam will tell you about the perils of the papaya tree.

NOTEZ:

Opening whopper from the Anti Defamation League

https://www.adl.org/education/resources/reports/white-supremacist-propaganda-surges-on-campus

Chicken Capitalist was the Designated Survivor at SOTU

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/30/sonny-perdue-named-state-unions-designated-survivor-5-things-to-know.html

Joe Kennedy - The last man we need in 2018 - politically savvy drooler

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/who-was-joe-kennedys-state-of-the-union-response-for.html

Kennedys hate weed for some reason

https://twitter.com/shitshowdotinfo/status/958859337954484224

Just casually inviting a Holocaust denier to SOTU - picture is incredible

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/31/gaetz-florida-right-wing-troll-380577?cmpid=sf

Awful Baltimore PD story

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvzwp/baltimore-cops-carried-toy-guns-to-plant-on-people-they-shot-trial-reveals-vgtrn?utm_source=vicefbus

SF applying new legal weed laws to past convictions

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/SF-will-wipe-thousands-of-marijuana-convictions-12540550.php

Project Greenlight in Detroit

https://boingboing.net/2018/01/30/for-a-few-thousand-bucks-detr.html

NYT cant quit on idiot trump supporters

https://twitter.com/mollyknefel/status/958343827261132800

Paul Nehlen made a list of verified jews who are mean to him

https://twitter.com/pnehlen/status/958404521952194561

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/31/paul-nehlen-posts-phone-numbers-and-email-address-critics-after-posting-those-81-people-74-jews/1082125001/

Lewandowski yelling TOM BRADY BABY is hell

https://twitter.com/morninggloria/status/958344695805042689

Mark Halperin's old partner suggests Devin Nunes is a russian agent..meaning Paul Ryan is a Russian agent

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/371358-msnbc-analyst-to-dem-rep-has-nunes-been-compromised-by-the-russians

https://www.rt.com/usa/417731-ryan-team-russia-msnbc/

Jake Tapper: Troop Defender

https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/957970263882305538

https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/957975696705507328

What happened to all the jobs trump promised?

https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/trump-job-promises?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1517242513

Black Employment Numbers

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/06/576216793/president-trump-so-happy-black-unemployment-rate-at-a-historic-low

Fact Check

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-essential-washington-updates-hold-fact-check-black-unemployment-rate-1517364943-htmlstory.html

Nathan for You as indictment of capitalism

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43qk8m/nathan-for-you-is-a-perfect-indictment-of-late-capitalism?utm_source=vicefbus

Corporate as eulogy for capitalism

https://www.fastcompany.com/40523541/corporate-is-the-funniest-eulogy-for-capitalism-you-will-ever-see

For this week’s terrible takes, we have curated some of the worst of the worst conservative voices in media, politics, and the blogosphere in our ongoing attempts to discourage our fellow white males from embracing the alt-right. We’ll discuss David Brooks’ new bae Jordan Peterson, proud sexist Courtland Sykes, and the foam on the rabid dog’s mouth, good old Breitbart News. Across the aisle, we’ll discuss Hillary Clinton’s newest scandal and the myth of the Bernie bro.

Before we get to the fun stuff, we are also going to discuss the sickening agenda the Trump administration has outlined for the suppression and subjugation of our immigrant comrades in the wake of the Democrats’ utterly uninspiring yet unsurprising cave-in on the government shutdown. Please be sure to check the show notes for some worthy causes fighting to mitigate the threat the White House poses to our neighbors, friends, family, and colleagues.

For pop culture this week, we are going to explore nostalgia as it relates to the unstoppable tide of reboots, sequels, and remakes flooding the film industry. We’ll talk about Netflix’s Wormwood, and we’ll evaluate some recent reboots.

To close us out, in this week’s storytime, Dan will tell you a trippy tale from his college days, culminating in an unexpected foe that will teach him the joy of service to the elderly. It’s all that and more this week on the Plunge.

Links:

REPORT ALL IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

http://www.aila.org/infonet/report-raids-and-enforcement-actions-to-aila

DONATE MONEY OR TIME TO PRO-IMMIGRANT CAUSES

https://www.osibaltimore.org/safecitybaltimore/

https://www.justneighbors.org/

https://www.hogarimmigrantservices.org/

The ongoing Jordan Peterson Lovefest: Exhibit A - David Brooks

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/opinion/jordan-peterson-moment.html

Jordan Peterson uses big words he does not understand

https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/01/23/postmodernism-not-take-place-jordan-petersons-12-rules-life/

Right wing twitter freaks out about CNN cuck article

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/25/health/cuckolding-sex-kerner/index.html

Breitbart thinks CNN employees deserve to be killed by chuds

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/01/25/death-threats-cnns-climate-hate-comes-home-roost/

Sleeping Giants

https://twitter.com/slpng_giants/status/956675870692818944

Courtland Sykes wants a home cooked dinner every night

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/gop-senate-candidate-flips-womens-rights-want-come-home-cooked-dinner-every-night/

Hillary’s newest sexual harassment scandal

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/us/politics/hillary-clinton-chose-to-shield-a-top-adviser-accused-of-harassment-in-2008.html

The garbage Bernie Bro myth

https://boingboing.net/2018/01/22/a-future-to-believe-in.html

Jamil Smith’s take on the Bernie bro

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/128747/sanders-campaign-knows-bernie-bros-problem

Amanda Hess’ lazy, anecdotal writing

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/users/2016/02/bernie_bros_are_bad_the_conversation_around_them_is_worse.

The White House’s heinous immigration wish list

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4360033/White-House-Framework-on-Immigration.pdf

Interview with Wormwood’s Errol Morris

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/errol-morris-wormwood-netflix-interview

People are bored of nostalgia

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k5gaj/people-are-finally-getting-sick-of-nostalgia-in-tv-and-movies

Now that we have achieved full anarcho-communism and hierarchies are being flattened nationwide, we are happy to share audio from our quaintly dystopian past. Before the federal government collapsed, freeing us from its tyrannical yoke, we were in a disturbing world in which we had elected officials who acted like buffoons even as they demanded our respect and fealty. Our very president, Donald J. Trump, was having the lurid details of his elderly sex life revealed by weathered porn star Stormy Daniels. It was also revealed that former White House official and proud “legal” immigrant Sebastian Gorka has been subject to a Hungarian Arrest Warrant, which is somehow not the name of a Steven Segal film. Foreshadowing the eventual fall of the government, Trump appointee Carl Higbie resigned in disgrace after speaking a little too frankly about his desire to conscript everyday citizens to shoot all those crossing the US-Mexico border. And last, but certainly not least in size, disgraced ex-governor Chris Christie got in an altercation with Newark Airport staff when they refused to let him use his old VIP entrance.

Links on links:

Stormy Daniels on Trump sex

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/stormy-daniels-full-interview-151788

Politico’s whiny take on the girther movement

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/18/donald-trump-conspiracy-theories-democrats-216476?cmpid=sf

“No excuse” for fat-shaming Trump

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/no-excuse-fat-shaming-donald-trump-article-1.3762847

MRA take on fat-shaming Trump

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mocking-trump-his-weight-hypocritical-ignorant-ncna838491

It’s mean to call Trump fat while he’s deporting people

http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/369402-what-america-loses-by-fat-shaming-the-president

Leftists have finally “abandoned everything” to fat-shame Trump

https://www.redstate.com/jon-street/2018/01/18/leftists-abandon-everything-fat-shaming-trump/

NYT op-ed page stunt with letters from Trump supporters

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/01/editors-roll-their-eyes-as-the-times-op-ed-page-goes-full-trump

Gorka has a warrant for his arrest

https://splinternews.com/sebastian-gorka-was-a-wanted-man-in-hungary-the-entire-1822204735?utm_campaign

J Adomian Gorka tweet in show notes

https://twitter.com/JAdomian/status/954483669816586240

Corey Booker is a bit much

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/cory-booker-is-laying-it-on-a-bit-thick.html

Corey Booker’s funding https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/industries?cid=N00035267&cycle=2016&type=C

Jeff Flake’s crocodile tears

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/politics/jeff-flake-speech/index.html

James Comey is teaching something he knows nothing about

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/comey-to-teach-course-on-ethical-leadership-for-college-of-william-and-mary/2018/01/18/4ea7b2ca-fc8d-11e7-8f66-2df0b94bb98a_story.html?utm_term=.85490f85992e

The FBI manufacturing terrorist attacks

https://theintercept.com/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism-isis-grave-threats/

Carl Higbie’s got something to say

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/19/579111221/carl-higbie-resigns-from-trump-administration-after-bigoted-comments-surface

Chris Christie turned away from private entrance at Newark Airport

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-18/mortal-again-christie-blocked-at-vip-entrance-to-newark-airport

Yes friends we have entered the elite ranks of the iTunes Store! Also jobless racist Joe Arpaio, having narrowly escaped criminal charges in a deus ex Trump, is now running for Arizona senate to replace retiring senator Jeff Flake. We will fill you in on his prior exploits as the totalitarian sheriff of Maricopa county, and we discuss the merits of faking one’s own assassination. But as one racist ascends, so another has fallen: Steve Bannon is out at Breitbart, and we couldn’t be happier..

Soon-to-be-jobless Chris Christie has offered massive tax breaks to Amazon in exchange for the coveted second headquarters being located in New Jersey. Unfortunately, as we say goodbye to the governor’s meatloaf-filled body, we still find ourselves forced to contend with the sheer dominance of Amazon and its god-emperor, Jeff Bezos.

In the pop culture corner, we’ll have consulting producer Rachey on the show to discuss Justin Timberlake’s return to the Superbowl stage and the use and abuse of black music and culture by former teen idols as they struggle to shake their bubblegum image. We’ll also harken back to the pre-Youtube days of 2004, when the phrase “wardrobe malfunction” entered our lexicon.

Rachey also came here to give her unadulterated read on Oprah 2020, and that’s what’s going to happen. Then she will stick around to tell us a story about newly-minted sex pest James Franco and his overwhelming odor.

Notes:

Hell world, exhibit A: Joe Arpaio’s senate run

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/arizona-sheriff-pardoned-by-trump-announces-he-s-running-for-senate

Epic thread listing every insane thing Arpaio has done

https://twitter.com/phoenixnewtimes/status/901263384087334914

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/politics/joe-arpiao-barack-obama-cnntv/index.html

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/joe-arpaio-courts-infowars-in-his-run-for-senate/

BANNON IS SLAIN

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/09/576868468/bannon-out-at-breitbart-news

Supine Chris Christie offers Amazon tax breaks

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/11/new-jersey-christie-tax-breaks-amazon-333159

https://newrepublic.com/article/146540/amazon-thriving-thanks-taxpayer-dollars?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nuzzel

Snowden dispatch on the extension

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/951498077923348481

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/us/politics/fisa-surveillance-congress-trump.html

Edward Snowden also kinda sucks

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-crypto-keepers-levine

The scourge of “Trump exceptionalism”

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/01/trump-exceptionalism-will-kill-every-last-one-of-your-brain-cells

Luke Savage on Bill Maher

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/bill-maher-real-time-trump-islamophobia

NYC fossil fuel divestment

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/nyc-taking-steps-to-divest-pension-funds-of-fossil-fuels/2018/01/10/d005dce8-f5c6-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html?utm_term=.c3e7bfdd1061

Books Through Bars’ letter regarding the vendor policy

https://booksthroughbarsnyc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/openletterJanuary.pdf

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/08/new-jim-crow-ban-prisons-nj-new-jersey-aclu/

http://www.newsweek.com/new-york-prisons-impose-draconinan-rules-limiting-books-inmates-can-read-sex-775708

Miley Cyrus, Mark Wahlberg, Kid Rock, etc. using black music to get out of child star swamp and then abandoning it once necessary

https://twitter.com/DuragsBoatshoes/status/860343445080199168/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.essence.com%2Fculture%2Fblack-twitter-claps-back-yesjulz-miley-cyrus

Justin Timberlake will be headlining the super bowl

http://time.com/5097637/justin-timberlake-super-bowl-singing/

Racialized and gendered impact of the Super Bowl on Janet Jackson

http://gawker.com/nipplegate-at-10-how-justin-won-superbowl-xxxviii-and-1511051968

Bonus: Super Bowl mishap apparently inspired Youtube?

https://www.thoughtco.com/who-invented-youtube-1992691

There’s hot gossip flying off the shelves this week!! We’re talking, of course, about Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s account of the Trump White House’s chaotic interior. We’ll read and react to some of the weirdest, cattiest, and downright craziest things in the book, including mind-bending quotations from Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and all those with the name Trump. We’ll also talk about who Michael Wolff is, whether we can trust him, or whether that even matters!

Meanwhile, ex-president and newly minted water sports aficionado Barack Obama blessed us with his best of 2017 list. We’ll see what tracks Obama claimed to like this year and debate whether or not he actually listened to them or simply pulled an NSA and spied on his daughters’ Spotify lists.

We’re going to be talking about the protests that began in Iran before the New Year. We’ll give you the lowdown on what we know so far, and then we will pivot and relentlessly rip on the right wing’s false sympathy and bloodthirsty interest in regime change.

In the pop culture corner, we are going to go head to head in one of our first ever on-air disagreements. We’re talking about Dave Chappelle’s comeback and the role of criticism and woke politics in the decidedly not-woke field of stand-up comedy.

This week’s storytime is a touching tale of generosity and civility on the New York subway. OK, obviously that is not true. Dan is going to tell you about a fierce confrontation he had with a fellow Subway rider, just another atomized soul under late capitalism, and there will be a “baby hand” involved.

Linkz:

In obvious news, Trump is breaking down

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/us/politics/trump-genius-mental-health.html

Trump gave Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff full access, no one ever told him to leave, and Trump has now disavowed the book

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html

Is Michael Wolff credible?

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/04/michael-wolff-fire-fury-credibility-325399

Matt Taibbi on Michael Wolff

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-why-michael-wolffs-book-is-good-news-w515045

Taxi union shuts down JFK, apparently all according to Bannon’s plan

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316705-new-york-taxi-workers-refuse-to-pick-up-customers-from-jfk-for

Dana Gresham’s appointment as Doug Jones’ chief of staff

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/01/02/alabamas-sen-elect-doug-jones-picks-african-american-chief-of-staff/?utm_term=.69c6db522ff7

MySpace 8th-grader Barack Obama’s best tracks of 2017

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/1/2/16840986/barack-obama-best-2017-list-books-music-gentleman-in-moscow

Early reports on the Iran protests

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/02/iran-protests-how-did-they-start-and-where-are-they-heading

Short description of the history of the left in Iran since 1950s

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/iran-left-tudeh-khomeini-nationalization-orientalism-oil-imperialism

Fox News Opinion explicitly advocating for the dismantling of the Iranian state

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/01/02/iran-protests-here-is-what-us-should-do-now.html

Trump tweets in support of Iran’s protests, even though Iran is on the travel ban:

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/02/politics/donald-trump-iran-tweet/index.html

Racist imp Ben Shapiro on how the Iran protests owned the libs

https://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/iran-protests-trump-foreign-policy/

Myles Johnson’s take on Dave Chappelle’s comeback https://zine.philaprint.com/2017/04/01/dave-chappelle-and-performing-ignorance/

THE CASE AGAINST LIBERAL HUMOR

https://www.splicetoday.com/pop-culture/the-case-against-liberal-uncle-humor

Trump as bad comedic material

http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/donald-trump-jokes-bad-comedy.html

J20 legal defense fund

http://defendj20resistance.org/2017/10/27/donate-j20-legal-fund.html

We will start with some weird stories from the last week of 2017. We’ll give you the lowdown on Melania’s brave battle against Andrew Jackson’s magnolia tree, the greater of two evil PAULs running for senator in Wisconsin, and another classic Cernovich self-own, this time on Reddit!.

In the pop culture corner, we’re finally done with Star Wars, so we are ready to move on to its polar opposite. We’re talking about Bright, Netflix’s brand-new inexplicable Will Smith buddy cop movie. Its $90 million budget and attempt to recast race relations as magical clashes have certainly generated a lot of noise.

For story time, we are proud to present THE STORY OF 2017.

The least important resistance figures of 2017

https://splinternews.com/the-least-important-resistance-figures-of-2017-1821516772

Melania does not respect wood - cornball Chelsea Clinton weighs in

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chelsea-clinton-thanks-melania-trump-for-preserving-part-of-the-magnolia-tree/article/2644455

The other Paul running against Paul Ryan is a straight up nazi

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/27/media/paul-nehlen-steve-bannon-breitbart/index.html

Cernovich owned on Reddit

https://splinternews.com/mike-cernovich-s-reddit-ama-backfires-spectacularly-1821538191

Bright is the opposite of The Last Jedi in terms of critics-vs-audience scores

https://qz.com/1165113/rotten-tomatoes-scores-for-star-wars-the-last-jedi-and-netflixs-bright-do-critics-still-matter/

Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn loves it

https://twitter.com/jeffweiner/status/943546406643609600

The algorithmic design of Bright

https://qz.com/1161921/netflixs-will-smith-movie-bright-acts-like-algorithms-made-it/

Scorned makeup artists on the Bright set

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/bright-end-credits-left-off-makeup-artists-studio-adi-1201911081/

Chance the Rapper on Bright’s insane recharacterization of race relations

http://www.vulture.com/2017/12/chance-the-rapper-wants-to-talk-race-and-netflixs-bright.html

Barron thinking Kathy Griffin actually beheaded Trump

http://www.tmz.com/2017/05/31/barron-trump-thought-donald-beheaded-image-real/

Bill Maher’s Milo interview

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/see-bill-maher-milo-yiannopoulos-talk-free-speech-trolling-w467783

TPUSA’s diaper stunt and the alt right-not wiping bottoms out of homophobia https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliegerstein/listen-up-men-we-need-to-talk-about-how-to-wipe-your?utm_term=.swwkVdMrN#.lhwjo6bk7

I love my thicc wife http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/man-dragged-for-instagram-post-about-loving-curvy-wife.html

Kurt Eichenwald’s tentacle porn story

https://news.avclub.com/newsweek-s-kurt-eichenwald-was-just-looking-at-tentacle-1798263101

Guy suspended from twitter for sexual harassment against Tony the Tiger

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/you-can-release-your-great-all-inside-me-daddy?utm_term=.jlzGx4zyW#.jbK5Zwb0K

Kellyanne hawks Ivanka’s ghastly consumer products

http://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/02/09/kellyanne-conway-nordstrom-ivanka-nr.cnn?iid=EL

Sean “Holocaust Center” Spicer at the Emmys/Spicer at Harvard

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/colbert-emmys-sean-spicer-skit

http://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/sean-spicer

The Mooch New Yorker “interview” w/ Ryan Lizza

https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon

Chris Christie on the beach

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/nyregion/chris-christie-beach-new-jersey-budget.html

DO I LOOK LIKE I WAS LEFT OFF BAD N BOUJEE

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/bet-awards-2017-joe-budden-migos-confrontation-fight-bad-and-boujee-left-out-a7808336.html

Tyrese Gibson’s meltdown

http://people.com/movies/tyrese-gibson-sobs-please-dont-take-my-baby-in-emotional-plea-to-ex-wife/

Donald Trump Jr. ruined all of our appetites by posting a picture of himself with an eerie melted candle named Ted Cruz and a distorted Obama cookie. His failson counterpart Wyatt Koch also took to Instagram to discuss what it means to be bold, and to inflict his tacky clothing line on all of us.

Sorry folks, but we’re talking politics today. Doug Jones and Ralph Northam revealed themselves to be sniveling swine, selling out their voter bases seemingly overnight. We’ll talk about the failures of the centrist Democrat and rip on a truly heinous article written by Bill Scher on that topic. Lastly, Bob corker stole over a million dollars from taxpayers for his pass through companies. Our prayers go out to him and his family.

In the pop culture corner we’re talking Star Wars, again, just like everybody else. But we will keep it funky and pick apart the overt #resistance allegory in the LAST JEDI. Spoilers may be dropped, but they will be funny, so listen anyway if you haven’t seen the film and you aren’t rabidly avoiding plot points a week after the film came out.

In the same vein as star wars’s evil First Order, our story this week focuses on totalitarian evil. Sam will tell you all about how his first visit to the seat of US imperial power, the WHITE HOUSE, ended up in a life lesson about the state’s love of the use of force.

Show Notes:

Trump Jr. cookie photo

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/365551-restaurant-owner-rips-trump-jr-over-obama-cookie

Wyatt Koch

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/ridiculous-video-emerges-of-wealthy-koch-heir-and-the-internet-is-dying-of-laughter/

Link to Chappaquiddick movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5270948/

David Roth’s tweet about Wyatt Koch

https://twitter.com/david_j_roth/status/943349982006038530

Felix Biederman Chuck Schumer

https://twitter.com/ByYourLogic/status/943362866677256195

SLIM 1-VOTE DEMOCRAT LEAD IN VIRGINIA’S HOUSE (AKA “WE DID IT”)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democrat-wins-va-house-seat-in-recount-by-single-vote-creating-50-50-tie-in-legislature/2017/12/19/3ff227ae-e43e-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.bc2a0c20dd35

RALPH NORTHAM LOVES BIPARTISANSHIP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/gov-elect-northam-rode-a-democratic-wave-but-now-hes-preaching-bipartisanship/2017/12/16/689e1074-e1b3-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html?utm_term=.be61dc416b56

https://www.thenation.com/article/will-ralph-northam-break-his-campaign-pledge-to-expand-medicaid/

DOUG JONES THINKS TAX BILL IS OK AND TRUMP SHOULDN’T BE PUNISHED

https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/20/long-take-southern-white-democrat-elected-black-voters-shift-right-less-week/

PATHETIC OP ED DEFENDING BORING CANDIDATES LIKE DOUG JONES https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/20/how-to-beat-trump-2020-elections-generic-democrat-216121

BOB CORKER AND THE TAX BILL

https://splinternews.com/corker-insists-he-knew-nothing-about-the-tax-bill-provi-1821450884

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/politics/bob-corker-donald-trump-timeline-relationship/index.html

ALIENS

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html

SAM’S LAST JEDI ARTICLE

https://medium.com/@samwagstaff/inter-generational-wars-unpacking-the-overt-resistance-allegory-in-the-last-jedi-cf9e4b07b9ef