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Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsPalestine Part 3: 21st Century Fascism and Capitalist Horrors Without EndIn this episode, we talk again about Fascism because we have entered into a Primary Election cycle where leftists of all stripes will once again be cajoled, harassed and even trolled by the neoliberal establishment to Vote Blue No Matter Who– in order to avoid Donald Trump and “Fascism.”
Many liberals feel entitled to attack leftists at election time because by their shallow, liberal definition, fascism is simply a right-wing ideology that is embodied by Donald Trump. But what the liberal establishment fails to understand time and time again is that fascism is not just an ideological project...2024-02-011h 39Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsPalestine Part 2 - Zionism, Settler Colonialism, Disaster Capitalism, and the Media WarPlease consider making an urgently-needed donation to Crawdads & Taters, as we are ramping up coverage during this genocide. As we find ourselves in the midst of an information war, where critical voices are being censored, banned and bombed, we need your support now more than ever. Please become a subscriber for as little as $3/month at patreon.com/crawdadsandtaters.
Episode Description:
As the official death toll in Gaza soars to more than 8,500, with 5,500 children likely dead, and US-backed Israel prepares for a ground invasion, we bring you Part 2 of our analysis of...2023-10-3157 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsPalestine Part I: Genocide Joe and the Total Destruction of GazaIn Part One one of our series on Palestine, we review the horrific events since October 7th as the death toll in Gaza reaches nearly 6,000.
We analyze the US role in funding and providing political cover for Israeli settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide in the occupied territories of Palestine.
We explore the history of Israel as a settler colonial regime that began in 1948.
We hear from various Jewish voices for peace- Dr. Norman Finkelstein, Holocaust survivor Dr. Gabor Maté, Jewish Voices for Peace as well as historians of holocaust and genocide who describe w...2023-10-251h 03Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsHollywood Workers Strike as Atomic Truths Go Up in SmokeAs of recording this episode, the Hollywood Labor Strike is entering its seventh week. It's the first time actors and screenwriters have been on strike together since 1960. And while 87 percent of SAG-AFTRA union members make less than $26,000/year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, together, have so far grossed $1.83 billion at the box office. This is the real-life backdrop for the release of these two summer blockbuster movies.
In this episode, we focus on Hollywood's treatment of the atomic bomb in its recent blockbuster film, Oppenheimer. Because of the narrow focus of this film on Oppenheimer, the man, we feel...2023-08-201h 31Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsDebt Ceiling "Crisis"- Manufactured Malarky to Enrich the Ruling Class and Starve the PoorIn this episode, we explore the manufactured debt-ceiling crisis of June 2023. Sold to the US public as a financial emergency that required immediate action in order to avoid impending doom and "the scourge of default," we look at what the debt-ceiling negotiations actually resulted in: a giant cash giveaway to big business, the war industry, fossil fuel companies and the ruling class. While feigning the need to cut federal spending across the board, military spending and funding for fossil fuel projects actually increased, while the US government slashed the budgets of the minuscule federal food stamp program and ended...2023-06-2334 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsMushroom Cloud in the Midwest and Neoliberalism’s multiple TrainwrecksIn this episode, we take a deep look at the Norfolk Southern train derailment in Palestine, Ohio on Feb. 3rd, and how this incident is connected to the corporate management of the railways– a topic that we dove into, in depth, in our last episode, Off The Rails.
The United States averages 1,700 train derailments per year. Since the disaster in East Palestine, there have been dozens more derailments to date. Norfolk Southern averages approximately 164 derailments and three hazardous material releases per year. This Ohio disaster was only exceptional–only widely reported – because of the incredibly dramatic, visceral and to...2023-04-111h 14Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsOff the Rails: The Corporate Duopoly Betrays Railroad WorkersIn this first episode of 2023, in the midst of ongoing US wars, pandemics and record inflation, we take a deep look at "the railroad strike that wasn't" in December 2022. In this US political moment, we see an uptick of strikes, walkouts and labor organizing inside the United States. And we feel it's crucial to hear from railroad workers directly in order to understand their working conditions, as well as the role the US government played in shutting down this strike- stripping workers of their democratic rights.
We take you through the timeline of railroad negotiations over the l...2023-01-271h 18Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsRoe Roe Roe your Boat toward the RevolutionWith the midterms coming up in a few days, the Democratic Party is promising to codify Roe v. Wade IF and only IF they win big in the midterms, even though they already have the majority in the House and the Senate, and the Presidency. Meanwhile far-right Christian fascists, in the streets as well as those sitting on the Supreme Court, are threatening to take away even more of our basic economic and human rights.
In this dire situation, we use a class-based lens to look at who, in our system of racial capitalism, has had access to reproductive rights t...2022-11-031h 01Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsUkraine Part 3- Biden’s Armageddon and the Costs of Forever WarsAs Congress has approved almost $70 billion now in Ukraine spending and a more-than $800 billion US military budget for 2023, we look at the costs of "Forever Wars" - the financial, political, and ecological costs. And we examine how global capitalism, as a political-economic system, is becoming more and more dependent upon war-making to sustain itself.
As the new Cold War rages on, and Ukraine becomes more and more of a permanent US proxy state, we look at Biden’s threats against China as a history of peaceful US-China relations is shattered.
We also look at Biden’s es...2022-10-131h 51
Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsUkraine Part 2 - From Maidan to Russiagate: Manufacturing Consent for World War IIIIn Part 2 of our series on Ukraine, we pick up with the history of Ukraine starting with the aftermath of the Maidan Coup in 2014. The post-coup government in Ukraine with hand-picked Prime Minister Yatsenyuk cozied up to the EU, IMF, and US and enacted a law targeting the Russian language. These actions led to widescale protests in predominantly Russian speaking areas of Ukraine. We explain how the story we hear in the western media has been mostly propaganda and that Crimea was not invaded by Russia, but voted by general ballot to join Russia. The same is true of t...2022-08-161h 13Crawdads and Taters: Red State RebelsUkraine Part 1 - A US-Proxy for the New Cold War EraIn Part I of our Ukraine series, we take a deep dive into the history of US interventionism in Ukraine from the dissolution of the Soviet Union to the present. We feel that this history provides essential context for understanding the current US position in reigniting a Cold War with Russia (and China). As leftists, we know that capitalist wars are always waged on behalf of the ruling class and against the world's poor and working classes, and against the natural world.
The fact that this crucial political history is omitted by the mainstream corporate media is...2022-04-071h 43Crawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels6. The Best Way to Fight Fascism is to Fight NeoliberalismIn this episode, we want to expand on our last episode, where we described what neoliberalism is, and the resulting economic inequality and class resentment that has been brewing across the global political spectrum, following 40-plus years of global capitalism and neoliberalism. Today, we want to make the case for why opposing neoliberalism is necessary in order to defeat fascism.
"A government that delivers for people inoculates them against the appeals of fascist demagogues." - Nathan J. Robinson
We can see, throughout recent world history, when economic inequality is surging and working-class resentment is high, f...2021-12-191h 15Crawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels5. What is Neoliberalism?Crawdads and Taters have an impromptu discussion on the definition of Neoliberalism, a few ways it has played out in the US and global economy, and how it paves the way for modern-day fascism.
Episode Notes
Border Deaths
Operation Gatekeeper and the Birth of Border Militarization
From 1994-2014, over 10,000 refugees have died attempting to cross the border. Crossing Over: Enrique Morales, Founder of Border Angels Talks the on Border Crisis and How We Can Stop It, 2014.
How U.S. Policy Turned the Sonoran Desert Into a Graveyard for Migrants, New York Times, 2020.
In Juarez...2021-11-0137 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels4. Only Revolutionary Class Struggle can Dismantle Racial Capitalism. (CRT Part 2)In this second part of a two-part series on Critical Race Theory, Crawdads & Taters review the way CRT, like many once-radical US social movements, has been largely captured by neoliberalism and its funding institutions, stripping it of its original class politics and its revolutionary potential for broad-based political transformation. We also review popular anti-racist literature like Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Anti-Racist" and imagine what Critical Race Theory might have looked like today had it maintained a solid anti-capitalist analysis over the last several decades. Finally, we offer up the work of a few key movement leaders...2021-08-0759 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels3. Chris Rufo and the Right-Wing are Making Bank off Critical Race Theory while Building a Fascist Movement (CRT Part 1)In this first part of a two-part series on Critical Race Theory, Crawdads & Taters discuss what Critical Race Theory is, who's behind the war on Critical Race Theory, who's profiting from it, and how US public education is again being endangered by white-supremacist authoritarian movements to white-wash history. We also discuss how this "white-lash" fits into a broader US political terrain where the Republican Party is shifting further and further toward fascism in order to maintain political power.
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Further resources:
Critical Race Theory (Third Edition) b...2021-06-301h 06Crawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels2. HR1's Poison Pills and the Ratcheting of the Overton Window with Boss Tweed and Reagan DemocratsWe look at how Democratic bills like HR-1, while purporting to rescue “democracy” from Republican attacks on voting rights, simultaneously increase the corporate funding of our elections, shifting more power to the ruling-class and further eliminating the chances of third parties to meaningfully participate in the US electoral system. We also talk about the Ratchet effect and the Overton Window, using HR-1 as an example of how these rightward political shifts are constantly happening in real time.
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Related Reading:
De...2021-04-2043 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels1. What the Ruling Class doesn't want us to remember about the Black PanthersCrawdads & Taters briefly review the new film Judas and the Black Messiah, as well as recent news revelations about Fred Hampton's assassination. With so much media coverage around the Black Panthers lately, why do we never hear about the Panthers' founding ideology as a Marxist, socialist organization? Fifty-plus years after Hampton's murder, why is it still taboo to tell the truth about who the Black Panthers actually were? What is the role of these corporate media omissions in obfuscating US social movement history? And what might our current political movements stand to gain, if we revealed and thoroughly discussed...2021-03-1230 minCrawdads and Taters: Red State Rebels0. Welcome to Crawdads and TatersYour Crawdads and Taters hosts interview each other to answer the question: Why this podcast, and why now?
Erin McCarley is an independent photographer, journalist and filmmaker, based in the foothills outside Denver, Colorado. With a master’s degree in photojournalism from UT Austin, her still photography, videos and writing have been published by Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Due Dissidence, Yes! Magazine, the Denver Westword, TeleSUR, Free Speech TV in Boulder, CO, KLRU TV in Austin, TX, The Christian Science Monitor, the MIT Press, the Ford Foundation, Science Daily, The Daily Texan, the University of Texas, an...2021-03-1234 min