In part three of Remember Shuffle’s ongoing series on the Iraq War, the Shuffle Bois turn their investigative eyes to the CPA and the first year of the occupation. They close out by reviewing The Green Zone, a very weak attempt to fictionalize the story of Green Zone: Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

Baghdad Burning Blog: https://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

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The Wolfowitz of Wall Street--In part two of Remember Shuffle’s ongoing series on the Iraq War, the Shuffle Bois turn their investigative eyes to whose fault this war was. After digging down into the ideological tenets of Neoconservatism and describing the prime suspects of this mass murder case, they do a deep dive into the history of the lead-up to the war from 2001-2003. En route, they describe the stifling of any substantial debate on both the grounds for the war and its grand strategy, the fabrication and misrepresentation of flawed intelligence, and the bureaucratic machinations that led to the worst possible outcome. They close out by reviewing a brilliant British satire of this period of history, Armando Ianucci’s “In the Loop” (2009).

Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Join the patreon to support the shuffle bois and for an extra episode per month at ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

Big thank you to S.E. Doyen for sending us the excellent episode art

Full episode can be found at: patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

In an episode that will echo through the millenia, the Shuffle Bois return to the world of sword and sandals flicks to review a film that got Ben Troygered, “Troy” (2004). Troy is a perfect example of the "grounded and realistic" period pieces that proliferated in the 2000s that somehow were neither grounded or realistic or fun. After doing a deep dive into the source material behind the film (the Greek epic poetry of Homer), they look at the film's flat characters, first-draft quality script, and phoned-in performances before turning to themes and a short pedant's corner.

It’s “Anarchy” in the UK as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of V for Vendetta by metaphorically blowing up the veneration for this very mid movie. Alan Moore himself disassociated himself from this movie after complaining that they had made the movie about “current American Neoconservatism vs current american liberalism” rather than ANARCHY VS FACISM.

Totalitarianism, Reddit Guy-ness, and SYMBOLOGY–enjoy our Guy Thoughts with your favorite Guy Thots. 

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Big thank you to S.E. Doyen for sending us the excellent episode art

A fun slice-of-life indie movie from the 2000s, which teaches the exact opposite lesson to The Bear

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Remember Shuffle finally turns to the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 2000s, the Iraq War. On this table-setting episode, tThe Shuffle Bois trace the long history of American collaboration with Saddam Hussein’s regime, the souring of that productive relationship in the 1990s, and the obsessive fixation America developped for regime change in Iraq, both on the Neoconservative and Liberal Interventionist sides of the divide. They then look at some of the Themes and Big Ideas of American Middle Eastern foreign policy through the late 20th century. They then close out with a palate-cleanser film review of 1999’s “Three Kings.”

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Books we recommended:

Steve Coll’s ‘The Achilles Trap’ : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602066/the-achilles-trap-by-steve-coll/

Debriefing the President, by John Nixon:

In part two of the Shuffle Bois’ two-part series on Burger, they turn to the goliath-pioneer of fast food: McDonalds. They trace the company’s flailing attempts to rebrand itself in the 2000s, some of the lasting innovations that they implemented in the decade, and outline some of the reasons that McDonalds’ revenue peaked in the 2000s before starting to decline. They pair this brief corpo-history with a film review of the 2000s documentary “Super Size Me,” which had some influence on the fall of McDonalds.

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I want to go to there. The Shuffle Boys are joined by Chris Wade of Chapo Trap House to discuss what might be the greatest sitcom of the 2000s, 30 Rock. After describing the viewpoints and games of this character driven show, the boys analyze the show’s big ideas around the degeneration of broadcast media, the intersection of race, gender, and class, and 2000s era politics. As always, they close with the echoes in the culture of this supremely unique and self-confident show.

Be sure to give Chris a follow @saywhatagain on Twitter, and check out his shows, Chapo Trap House, Infinite Cast, and And Introducing. 

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The Shuffle Bois return to you with another fun one, taking a look at three cultural products from the 2000s centered around where our food comes from - the muckraking non-fiction book Fast Food Nation, its dramatic film adaptation by Richard Linklater, and the lib documentary Food Inc. They trace food production from factory farm to bolted-down McDonalds table and analyze how these 2000s era works identified problems and offered neoliberal, consumer-based solutions. 

Huge thanks to Isaac Eger for guesting on this episode. Check him out @gluten_daddy on instagram, as well as his podcast, Coexist Inc., here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=6112951 

Isaac's podcast, COEXIST INC. can be found here :

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Remember Comedies? Remember Shuffle looks back at a now-dead art form and examines the mechanics of the 90 minute feature film comedy. Comedies typically age very poorly, but the simple grounded premise of Meet the Parents allows it to be immortal. We talk about what makes Meet the Parents funny and how it differs fundamentally from a movie like Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted. And because it’s Remember Shuffle, we’ll talk about class and the CIA. 

Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.