This week there’s a lot to celebrate after a series of DSA electoral wins across the state, including Kiani Conley-Wilson, and cautious optimism for Marketa Edwards’ campaign as well. And AG Letitia James settles a lawsuit with Johnson and Johnson for $230 million to ease the opium epidemic. Election results: https://www.troyrecord.com/news/rensselaer-county-2021-primary-election-results/article_6b09e04e-d3cd-11eb-8c8d-b72a4b1298ca.html https://www.rensco.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/P21.html ...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 13 min
101 - New Normal, New Weird Tired of making money the hard way, Britney, David, and Chris brainstorm what words and phrases we could trademark to make them Disney bucks. Albany Med hospital has violated human trafficking laws by turning Filipine nurses into indentured servants to avoid bargaining with the nurses’ union. Our climate is still a slow-motion trainwreck. The FBI is still using honeypot apps. But in Rochester, a restaurant has unionized, which is pretty tight. Disney trademarking norm...
Jun 21, 2021•1 hr 24 min
It's episode 100! Engineered for Dystopia by David A. Banks: https://thebaffler.com/latest/engineered-for-dystopia-banks Conquest of Bread read by Britney Gil: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ngehu1tpjxcc4zx/AAB9ZAvgu3AoC8Wh3yuxGw5ka?dl=0 Support us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/ironweeds...
Jun 14, 2021•2 hr 31 min
The Troy PD, intent on strangling even the last bit of transparency they have, is encrypting their radio transmissions. Albany County Sheriff promises to go hard on broken windows policing. The nation’s first line of defense against the bad guys has leaked critical information about our nuclear weapons arsenal in the dumbest way possible. Police using encrypted radios to hide behavior from public: https://builtin.com/cybersecurity/police-radio-encryption-broadcastify https://journaltimes.com/new...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 27 min
NY nurses speak out against Cuomo’s lifting of the mask mandate, and two NY men have a very different take on acceptable mask wearing behavior. HBO is using unfair labor practices while filming in Troy, and looking only for NON UNION extras. The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Troy for our police department’s failure/refusal to release disciplinary records. And RIck Santorum’s racism has finally resulted in him being given the boot by CNN. Troy given a 19th century NYC look f...
May 24, 2021•1 hr 16 min
We must sadly rescind our endorsement of President Biden after he doubles down on US unilateral support for Israel. The IDF continues its reign of terror, now including journalists as targets. In Saratoga, a very brave anonymous Facebook group is attacking a school teacher for bringing BLM activists to a classroom to speak on (gasp!) civil disobedience. Also hailing from our region, Elise Stefanik got a promotion as the party continues to prove that clinging to daddy Trump is the only way forwar...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 27 min
We’re back baby! After six long months of remote podding we’re together again to discuss some awful stuff. The government is destroying private industry by giving people enough money to survive. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are being evicted and brutalized by the IDF and settlers. We all do a self crit on our former hatred of Elon Musk. And in Belgium, an adorable border dispute has caused a bit of a stir. Support Kiani and Marketa for Troy City Council! https://kiani4troy.com https://marketaf...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 13 min
This week we celebrate law and loyalty day and share some of the laws that we love following most. A massive “fatberg” is taking over Birmingham sewers, and Joel Greenberg begs Roger Stone to protect him from the consequences of engaging in activities with an “individual who was not yet 18.” Finally, while you do not in fact have to hand it to him, Biden may be getting us some new trains. Happy Loyalty Day! https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/04/30/a-proclamation-o...
May 04, 2021•57 min
The closing of Zotto’s Notty Pine leads us down a strange rabbit hole that ends in nonsense billboards around the capital district. Albany Police violently disperse an encampment that was a response to gross brutality on the part of Devin Anderson, who has a disturbing record of brutality. Florida says it’s A-OK to run over protesters and we discuss the future of protest and novel approaches to reigning in cops. Finally, this tomato is better than all other tomatoes in every way, and worker cent...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 31 min
This week we’re talking about the recent police shootings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo, and the cops who donated to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund. Farmers in New York and across the country missed out on USDA assistance during the pandemic because the system is designed for corporate monoculture farming. Plastics are in our air and Japan wants to dump radioactive water into the sea. And because we love you so much, two wildflowers this week: Vertical farming in Compton and space Dorito tha...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 39 min
While you may be sad over the news that the Bessemer, Alabama Amazon union failed, you probably haven’t thought about the true beneficiaries of union busting: women! That’s right, unions oppress women. In darker news, a former Boston police union president has been charged with over 30 counts of child molestation. He was first accused in 1995, and now 25 years later he’s finally been arrested after several other accusations have been made. On the brighter side, we’re growing meat in a lab and it...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 41 min
Our old friend the Cohoes Norlite Incineration Plant that has been belching out carcinogens for years is finally facing some heat from the NYS Attorney General! Turns out the ziti keeps on coming, as leaked emails reveal Cuomo may have used state resources to write his memoir about how incredible he is. The flow of military equipment to police has gone way up under Biden, and Trump’s reelection campaign duped supporters into donating way more than they meant to. Is it funny? Should we feel bad f...
Apr 05, 2021•1 hr 15 min
This week we’re talking about the boat that we cannot believe is still stuck in the Suez Canal, and lots of NY happenings. Cuomo has announced a Covid passport system that is a terrible idea for lots of reasons. A judge in Troy has ruled in favor of a predatory landlord who bullied a tenant out of her home in the middle of a pandemic. The Troy Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative has released its final report, which says that they have too much stuff to do and would like a basketball cour...
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 39 min
This week we are saddened with the absence of Britney, but we are delighted to be joined by Indi Samarajiva of https://indi.ca/ and @indica on Twitter. We talk about his accurate scatalogical metaphor of America being politically constipated, whether or not we can save this stupid planet, flat earthers around the globe, mRNA vaccine technology justice, international solidarity, causes for hope, and even exchange some reading recommendations. Indi’s writing: https://indi.ca/ Indi’s book recommend...
Mar 23, 2021•1 hr 5 min
This week we're doing a crossover with the lovely folks over at Well There's Your Problem! If you'd like, you can follow along with the slides on their YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_XFArcUtrA
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 43 min
This week we’re having a free-wheeling chat about everything from girl boss Kyrsten Sinema to a potential grid down situation to bitcoin (what even is it?). We also catch up with MAGA revolutionary Richard Barnett, who is not having very much fun in jail. And finally, New Zealand is set to outlaw conversion therapy! Barnett has courtroom tantrum: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/03/04/capitol-riot-richard-barnett-pelosi/ Banning conversion therapy: https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/02...
Mar 09, 2021•1 hr 24 min
It’s the holiday season in 2021 and Andy Cuomo has some gifts to share with his staff. Truly, the Cuomo government has been a trash fire of corruption, incompetence, and abuse. Meanwhile, the moratorium on evictions is ending, with no relief in sight, and millions of New Yorkers face losing their homes. And one landlord just couldn’t keep patient--he had to kidnap his tenets out of their beds and leave them for dead in a cemetery. Luckily they survived! And lastly, Illinois has become the first ...
Mar 02, 2021•1 hr 25 min
This week we’re playing catch up on some happenings in the news--the freezing conditions in Texas that have led to horrendous prison conditions and skyrocketing energy costs, as well as the abysmal mismanagement of the Biden stimulus package and general incompetence of the democrats. But hey, at least Rush Limbaugh is dead. Texas electric bills: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/us/texas-storm-electric-bills.html Reality Winner’s prison conditions: https://theintercept.com/2021/02/20/reality-wi...
Feb 23, 2021•1 hr 13 min
This week we’re joined by Amanda Yee to talk about anti-Chinese propaganda in American media, and the murky funding flows between government and private intelligence services, thank tanks, publications, and self-styled activist movements. Covid 19 has only ramped up anti-Chinese sentiment, and powerful players work behind the scenes to ensure that American media consumers get a very one-sided narrative of what is happening in China. In a bit of good news, some new embryos just dropped--the extin...
Feb 16, 2021•1 hr 30 min
Once again, we are blessed with a guest: activist, organizer, and candidate for Troy City Council Kiani Conley-Wilson! We talk about Kiani’s platform and her vision for the city, from policing to sustainability to building stronger relationships between the city and people caring for vacant properties. We also talk about how our old friend Norlite Plant is wafting tiny knives into our lungs, how ICE is threatening to kill people with Coronavirus, and how some Aussies are saving depraved platypus...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 39 min
This week we are blessed with a guest: Gizmodo staff writer Shoshana Wodinsky! We talk about all kinds of fun stuff like how tech behemoths follow you around everywhere you go and look at your stuff and read your secret Star Trek group chats all so they can sell you butt flap pajamas. Chairman Sanders raises a ton of money for Vermont charities (who says posting isn’t praxis?) and the jewel of Troy, activist and organizer Kiani Conley-Wilson is running for City Council! If you’re local to Troy, ...
Feb 02, 2021•1 hr 34 min
It’s all labor and the environment this week folks. While produce market workers in the Bronx won a 70 cent pay raise, Lyft drivers are stuck with the new “priority mode,” which they’re calling poverty mode. Take the best parts of the exploitative gig economy and mix em up with race to the bottom and you’ve got a whole new recipe for modern day feudalism. Biden has snatched the permits on the Keystone pipeline, and both Canada and Louisiana are having a sad time about it. Incarcerated people in ...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 30 min
This episode we’re reviewing some of what we’ve learned about the January 6th Capitol Building debacle in the last week. Some are surprising, like how well organized their funding was, and some are less surprising, like how many cops were present and how stupid they were for livestreaming their failed coup. We also discuss the violence that broke out in Albany on the 6th. And of course, we ask ourselves the most important of questions: If you died today and you went to heaven, can you look Georg...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr 37 min
We talk about the chud assault on the Capitol Building. That's it. That's the episode.
Jan 12, 2021•1 hr 52 min
We’d sure like to undo a lot of stuff. Like all of 2020. We discuss the Nashville Christmas bombing and conspiracy theories, the case of a Troy woman who has been kicked out of her home by a Dickensian villain, and how the NY State Legislature has come to renters’ rescue by creating a form to fill out. Then, it’s all Covid all the time, bby. And what a mess it’s been. Between vaccine rollout nightmares and Congress members enriching themselves on the backs of dying Americans, 2021 is shaping up ...
Jan 05, 2021•1 hr 27 min
This week we devote the entire episode to the most troubling and destabilizing conflict in the Western World: The War on Christmas. Links from our war correspondents: https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/christmas-and-the-left/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/04/tucker-carlson-brings-back-war-christmas-maybe-thats-good-thing/ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/us/war-on-christmas-controversy.html https://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2012/04/newt-gingrich-bitten-by-a-penguin-120...
Dec 21, 2020•57 min
This week we face the disturbing news that the Tri-City Valley Cats may end up being stray cats if another league doesn’t step up to the plate. Cheap plastic trinkets, even the very cute ones, may help to temporarily ease the aches and pains of capitalist alienation, but it’s ultimately unsustainable. David, our official Parler correspondent, fills us in on what Bill Mitchell and his ilk are up to in the right wing leper colony. We tease our NXIVM episode on Patreon with a discussion of the cult...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Hope you can pay your rent with Joe Biden’s understanding, because that’s what you’re gonna get! And Pelosi didn’t make a mistake by passing a “stimulus” package with no checks, that was a decision. And how dare you ask! Meanwhile, India is seeing the biggest mass strike in history and Albany nurses had a one day strike for better PPE and wages. And finally, the only good politician, the Mayor of Flavortown, is redistributing funds from the rich to the poor better than our government. Nurses str...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min
This week we dig into the late Mark Fisher’s “Exiting the Vampire Castle” and the ways online attacks and witch hunts have grown since his writing seven years ago. Meanwhile, Troy DSA makes demands for changes to policing, and a massive coral reef spire is discovered off the coast of Australia. The Vampire Castle: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/ Sign the petition! https://defundtroypd.org/ That’s a big reef ya got there: https://www.worldatlarge.news/coff...
Nov 30, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Though we are apart, the gang soldiers on with remote podding as covid cases rise. This week we discuss the Biden cabinet and the myth that liberals ever had any interest in working with progressives, or that the Biden administration could be pushed left. Why should we cancel student debt? So many reasons! Just do it! How can we re-imagine the future of work and the balance of practicality and joyfulness? Child labor: good or bad? Our answer might surprise you! And we find a bit of good news fro...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 39 min
