Cool Zone Media.
Hello, and welcome to cool Zone Media book Club. I waited to do the chanting, so if you're ready to do the chanting, I don't chant, just say it out of time with me. Book Club, book Club, book Club. There we go. That's the book club intro everyone wants. So it's cool Zone Media book Club only this month, as you probably are aware, instead of doing our regular
book club. What we got sent missives from the future from cool Zone Media twenty fifty four, and so here we are welcome to cool Zone Media twenty fifty four Reports from the Dinah War, your source for everything World War three point five. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and today we've got something extra special for you. Today we are talking to the Witch of Warcraft, the Mistress of Macnovia, the Conquering Queen. She's either the Prince of Portland or
the Butcher of Beaverton, depending on who you ask. Today we're talking to the one, the Only, General, Sophie Lickterman. How are you today, Sophie?
Well, all my dogs are good, so I'm good. All right.
I've got a bunch of questions for you, some are for me, some are listener recommended. And hey, if you want to ask our guest questions, anyone with a service card, civil or military can send them along to us using the social media app of your choice. As always, we'll pick the best ones to ask our guests. And no, we don't sort by rank privates in generals, you're all equal here, just like you are in all the best militaries.
But first you might be asking yourself, dear listener, what if I haven't served in World War three point five yet? What if you're looking for a way to get involved, Well, look no further, because it wouldn't be a cool Zone Media podcast in the year twenty fifty four if we weren't brought to you by our biggest sponsor, Dino Cadence. That's right, Dino Cadence, the world's premiere fighting academy, will
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I would do adreads. Before I get into it with the questions, I've got to pretend like there isn't anyone in the audience who might not have heard of you, just in case you were born yesterday. General Sophie Lickterman is, of course one of the most decorated commanders in the Internationalist forces, and I believe the only person alive who holds the rank of brigadier general in three different armies four armies. Four.
Yeah, the Freeqrumpy of Louisiana just promoted me after last.
Week's campaign four Armies. The only person currently alive who holds the rank of brigadier general in four armies. You are the woman of the hour. It seems like jet setting and organizing forces everywhere in the world. Whenever a new internationalist force needs help getting up and off the ground, you're there. You're still on the board here at cool Zone Media, of course, which you've founded decades ago at this point, but you've still got time to dog mom
two amazing pups. I think you've got more hours in the day than the rest of us. But on to the questions. You first rose to political prominence back in twenty thirty six, during the whole Fight for the Future thing, when you became a household name after a well televised arrest. In your own words, what happened there?
I mean most of you have seen it, but yeah, so the Fight for the Future kicks off and recovering it on a bunch of our shows. I didn't even mean to get more directly involved. I'd had my own podcast for a couple of years, but already given up on it because I like getting stuff done behind this sear I mean, always have. I love you all, but
someone's got to keep things organized, you know. Anyways, I made this offhand comment February twenty fourth, twenty thirty six, on It's Still Happening Here, That was our lead show at the time, just a quick little I hope someone kills that man.
And then someone killed that man.
Yeah, his own, a strange son killed him, And like, how was I supposed to know that kid listened to our shows.
And so later that day you're just out shopping.
I was just at the pet store the day after that asshole died and Suddenly there's the camera crew there, drones everywhere, plus two actual talking heads. Run from Fox and run from that garbage man media. I think it was that old right wing show that Jamie Loftus eventually drove into relevance. So these two men are there, They're sticking MIC's into my face and asking me about why I did it or what I why I masterminded that assassination,
and I don't know. It's been a long day. I just wanted to go home to the dogs, and they're all, why do you hate innovation? And why does Antifa support murder as a tactic? And tried to get out the door, but they were both just there and they weren't small men, and I don't know, And.
So you pepper sprayed both of them.
I pepper sprayed the shit out of both of them, but the cameras caught it all and I was arrested in the parking lot. They clearly planned the whole thing. The cops wanted to hold me in jail until trial too. Our words are more dangerous than a ghost gun, the judge said, which is a compliment, I guess. But I
just wanted to go home see my dogs. And I told the judge and the camera saw and yeah, I guess people listen because Right for the Future laid siege to the courthouse and they brought the cake mortar and started kicking everyone trying to get in and out of the building, and all the while everyone is standing around with actual ar fifteen chanting let her see her dogs, Let her see her dogs. It was a weird time.
Fight for the Future was a weird movement, still throwing pies at people, but defending ourselves with guns.
And so the cops they let you go.
Yeah, turns out the whole power concedes nothing without a demand. Thing is right. The state of Oregon decided they'd be better off without a small army of protesters camped outside the courthouse, and I got to go home that night to see my dogs, and I agreed to come back to trial, but with an escort of my choosing who would make sure I wouldn't go to jail unless I was convicted. And yeah, I don't know. It was a whole big thing. They wanted to get me on terrorism charges.
And I was at some of these protests. Jury of your peers found you not guilty, much to the judge's consternation. You lay low for a while, if you can call running a large podcast network laying low, and then kind of came back on the scene. During the war, well, we used to call it the war, but now we're in another one. I guess. So World War three twenty forty four was wild. I mean, like a solid ten
percent of the Earth's population died. So there's that. But we were all underground the first half of the year, hiding out and broadcasting.
Yeah, can't stop the signal.
I don't think most of our listeners are old enough to appreciate that reference.
I'm sure the little don't call me AI robot in their ears can help them get a firefly reference. Last, of course, they're listening to this in one of the shielded territories on vinyl.
Hey, ad, pivots are my job, Well, then go ahead. You know, sometimes I look around this world and think to myself, the Industrial Revolution and its consequences might just have been a disaster for the human race. We used to be able to say at least it increased our life expectancy, but in this era of war, we can't
even say that. It seems like the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to why spread psychological and physical suffering, and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. It seems like the continued development of
technology might just worsen the situation. When I'm thinking that way, I just book myself a vacation in Helsenborg, Sweden, the largest de electrified region in the world, with its Vishnu shield always activated. You know for certain no one can reach you because if you bring your phone into the city, it'll be completely destroyed. Come on down to Helsenborg, where the stars shine at night, Helsenborg, Come on over. Ironic paraphrasing and industrial society and its future is not intended
to convey sympathy for the actions of Ted Kazinski. Do not consider visiting a Vishnu shielded area if you rely on a pacemaker or other electrical aids. All tourists, too and temporary guests of the Scandinavian Federation are required to spend at least six hours per week in a volunteer position. Not all volunteers are able to pick their form of service. Not all volunteer service is considered safe offline life within an otherwise industrial world, not proven to mitigate climate change,
mental degradation, or human impact upon the ecosphere. There is no such thing as a climate haven, and natural disaster can strike anywhere in the world. This podcast is brought to you by the Council for Unbroken Spaghetti. The Council for Unbroken Spaghetti would like to remind you that you should not break your spaghetti. You just put the spaghetti into a boiling salted water, wait a few seconds, then push the soft and spaghetti into the rest of the pot.
To do otherwise is an insult to the nearly two hundred and fifty thousand Italians who have died already in the Dino War, and there're so far successful fight to keep their peninsula from falling once again into the hands of fascists. In fact, Mussolini, the original fascist, banned pasta, So eat pasta, respect pasta. Don't break your spaghetti. Remember, only Nazis break noodles. And we're back, all right. So
take us back to World War three. It's the end of May and the first schematics for the Vishnu Shield are making the rounds. You and I are living with a bunch of dogs and podcasters and jns's bunker. But the Hunter Killer robots of the US counter Terrorism Force are getting closer to our undisclosed location in eastern Washington.
Every week. You and me and Mia are binging old reality TV shows, the two of you trying to explain to me who Mecca Ariana Grande is and why she's a sports figure now, while and are talking about how they're going to start a machete cult once it's all over.
Yeah, I wasn't the best. Once we got the plans through Vish New Shield, we printed a few up on our three D printer. We couldn't test them in the bunker, of course, because we needed our electronics, so we started sneaking out at night and testing them out in the woods. Once we had them dialed in, we started telling everyone and.
That's when you knew we couldn't stay underground anymore. Fuck no people needed to know. AWP's were killing literally millions of people. The only sides that mattered in that war was people versus drone. If you ask me, I guess all of this is in the history books. But we did that walk from Castle Rock to Portland with all the de factors. All these people have been quietly rebelling in the rinks with tactical EMPs. First day there were one hundred of us. A couple drones tried to take
us out, but we shut them down. Second day or a thousand of us once people realized they wouldn't just get Hunter killed. When we walked into Portland in June, there were ten thousand people walking with us on bikes and horses. And then you blew up Portland.
Not how uh, it's not how I put it, but yeah, look, don't cut yourself out of the story.
Magpie, you were there too.
We got together and talked it over with people from all over the city, work with hospital crews to get everyone who relied on electronics for life support to get them out of the blast radius. Everyone had plenty of time. It was all very coordinated, and yet twenty four hours later we took out the power in Portland. We weren't the only people doing it. It sounds so bad out of context, and don't vish new unconsenting populations.
And that's how I became a folk hero.
I ever said I ought to be a folk hero. I just think some of you all are so good at organizing. I mean like someone had to get it done.
And so we were the first major metropolitan area on the west coast of the US to Vishnu. But we weren't even one of the first hundred places in the world to do it. And soon enough, another three thousand places threw up shields cities to villages, to military bases to actual battlefields. The war ground to a halt with no machines to fight it. And yeah, people started calling you the Prince of Portland. What was your like life? After that? Two times? The folk hero Oh, I.
Tried to return to podcasting. I even still do it sometimes, nothing with my name or voice on it anymore, though, because people just don't know how to handle themselves. I kind of had a long, dark night of the soul after the end of the war. The way people talked about me, it was all too much. And after the war, everywhere in the world it was like either the big revolution kicked off right away or everything kind of went into a funk for a while. The US went into
a funk after the armistice. We all thought this is it, this is the revolution, like it was Palestine in Western Africa and Scandinavia and China, but nope, not the US. Everyone just went back to work. It was surreal. Yeah, I was depressing.
I was depressed.
But then but then twenty forty eight happened. The Baltimore Commune got going, and the Cooperative movement found its teeth. The Maganese Stan's Appatitisa revolts stopped respecting national borders, and the whole Southwest was on fire, not just metaphorically at this point. It was one of those bad summers down there for wildfire. So when the California Cooperative really got going, I went back down to.
Help, okay, And so that brings us up to right around the start of World War three point five two years ago. Now, you've been a major figure, both behind the scenes and on Mike ever since. What was the transition from folk Heiro to brigadier general?
Like, look, I'm the first shurtment. I was kind of grandfather and in that's how I came out the gate high rank. I started going to meetings of what became the California Cooperative before we even picked the name, and I was on the ground organizing support for Ta Tumash revolt. So I was kind of like I said, grandfathered in. But the council didn't just say, okay, you're an organizer, you can be in charge of the military or anything.
Most people don't know. But I actually spent most of twenty forty four to twenty forty eight studying military strategy with the Democratic Confederalist International Like formally, I got a master's in strategic studies. About half the classes were online and half in person all over the world, And when the California Cooperative got started, I started mentoring directly under
some internationalist revolutionary leaders in Mianmar and elsewhere. And still look, I'm a general, that's true, but brigadier general is the lowest rank of general.
I heard you turned down three different promotions.
That's true. I don't need the stress. I want to spend more time with my dogs.
I also heard you turned down a demotion.
Yeah. The brass, well, the higher brass wasn't too happy when we all refused orders in the spring of twenty fifty one, the Fresno incident. They told me I was demoted. I told them they could tell that to the troops. They decided I wasn't demoted after all.
Each shit, So his next question is from a listener Rocky Road Rebel asks, Hi, Sophie, big fan, been following you work since the Fight for the Future days, but then the Corvallis offensive really saved me and my family's asses in the fall of fifty two. I just wanted to ask, there were towns falling left and right to the Nine Angry Armies at the start of the war, why'd you start with us in Corvallis. I mean, I'm glad you did.
Thanks for the question. Honestly, the biggest part of it when Georgie Washington not its real name, but whatever set fire to the Research Library and OSU, it just well, it pissed a lot of people off the brick burning spectacle. You just don't burn books, you know. We didn't have the numbers up in Oregon yet for a major offensive,
not without a lot of risk. But if some assholes get in a bunch of literal zombies to set a bunch of books on fire in a public square, then like we can recruit around that, we can coalition build. There was a lot of folks, centrists, even right wringers, who weren't going to take that lying down. And enough
of those folks had farm dinos and rifles. You had old SCHOOLANTIFA members fighting side by side along the very activists who fought for Prop eight ninety nine, writing those uta rappers that were popular in the cities and farm tractor segosaurus is alike. The Nine Armies didn't stand a chance.
And that seems like as good a place as any for us to go into our last ad break. This podcast is brought to you by the Smaller Problems Council. The complexity of community organizing got you down, suddenly aware of the fact that you're organizing with people, and people are all kind of fuck ups, no matter what ideology they profess. Thinking about redirecting your organizing to shift the blame from fascists to people who are on your side but never do the dishes and just sort of expect
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if it ain't gorgeous, it's just gear and we're back. Okay, This next question X Grendel X asks what's your favorite comfort food when you get back home after a campaign.
Honestly, just like a big bowl of popcorn and a hard sider.
Oh that makes sense. That's a good one. So this next one, I don't think you're going to answer it. Our lawyer has advised us that we shouldn't er any answer to it anyway, But if I don't ask it, people will never leave us alone. In the comments, six different listeners have asked some form of the question, what's going on with.
That's my family? No comment? All right?
And finally, look, this is the hardest question to ask. I am not a hardball reporter and you're one of my best friends. So I warned you I was going to ask you this before we hit record. But it's been three months without a comment from you, and people want to know. In September of this year, you were involved in the campaign in Poland. It didn't go well,
not for anyone. A cavalry unit of six hundred and thirteen Pterosaur riders was dispatched to take out an entrenched force of the new Soviet Red Army, who we will continue to remind our listeners, is in fact a nationalist force that has recuperated Soviet imagery for nationalists socialist purposes. Four hundred and seventy three of those riders died to
Russian guns, only eighty four made it back. The other survivors are currently held in pow camps if we're lucky, But Russian propaganda films have begun to leak across the web of riders being tortured and executed and then resurrected to fight in the Army of the Dead. A lot of people are comparing the whole thing to the Charge of the Light Brigade, when in eighteen fifty four a force of six hundred British cavalry received a miscommunicated order
and attacked a heavily fortified position. Lord Tennyson wrote a poem called the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the event has been a cultural touchstone of the futility of war ever since. So what happened in Poland? I think you actually wrote down this answer ahead of time for us.
Right, yeah, And I've been silent on it because I'm not a media spokesperson. I'm a heartbroken old soldier I've had a lot to say about the charge of the Light Brigade. I'll take it as a name. It was a horrible mistake made by all of us, including soldiers themselves, who adjust as much information as the rest of us and agreed to the offensive. Think about a doctor. A doctor makes decisions every single day that saves live and they make decisions all the time that.
Get people killed.
Their job is life and death, and there is no perfect with a war. It's just the whole other level beyond that. I'm a brigadier general responsible on any given day for about five thousand people's lives. Yeah, we've got a lot more flattening of hierarchy and militaries than we used to. At the end of the day, when a quick call needs to be made by someone or a group of people, it gets people killed. On a good day, I get dozens or hundreds of people I care about killed.
I accept that it's not easy, but I accept that. What I don't accept is any position that the war is futile. What is the futility of war? If I'm walking down the street with my friends and someone runs up and attacks one of us, is it futile? If I intervene, or if I'm attacked, if I fight back, because the other option here is just letting someone attack my friends or me. The majority of Poland is currently
a free country. It's free because hundreds of thousands of people have fought to keep it that way, because tens of thousands of people have died, were suffered fates still worse to keep it that way. Their deaths have not been futile, even if sometimes an individual death might look futile if you zoom all the way in, you've got to zoom out. The life brigand attack was a fiasco,
but there wasn't a miscommunication about orders. Accounts of Poland felt it was necessary to attack that position, which best available information suggested would only be moderately defended. Our terror team, as they called themselves, volunteered. They knew the risks, and they thought it would be hard and bloody fight and they'd come out on top. And the Polish Army, like many internationalist armies, every soldier at every level can refuse
any mission until they've committed. Once they've committed, they are not free to say, for example, show fear in the face of enemy. As far as I'm concerned, every one of those riders is a hero, and fuck everyone who says otherwise. You know what, Fuck everyone who tries to take their agency away from them by blaming me and other generals too.
That all makes sense to me. I mean, the point of Russia releasing those videos is to make us give up hope.
Morale's a terrainer struggle. I know it. You know it. Cool Zone media knows it. The enemy, the nationalists, the fascists, the necromancers, they want us to give up. Why because they know that when we organize and we fight all together, not one off attacks here and there. When we fight, we win. We're winning all over the globe. There's never been a worldwide civil war because there's never been a worldwide revolution, and worldwide revolution has always been our best
chance at building a better world. We're building that world right now. Are we building it out of bones?
Yeah? We are.
But one day all of the dead will just be composts in memories, two of the most valuable things in the world. That's all any of us will end up as composts and memories. That's what we use to build a better world. There are free territories everywhere now, and there are going to be more until everyone is free.
Well, it'd be hard to follow that up with like some lighthearted question about your favorite color. So I want to thank you for your time and thank you for breaking the silence on that for sure. Anyway, thank you so much for coming on the show. Of course. Do you have anything you want to plug?
Yeah, just don't follow for a nationalist from papaganda and put your dog or diner or whatever animal keeps you company. Also support your local mu Julia groups.
All right, thank you so much. That has been general Sophie Lichterman.
It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.