The world is more fucked than the United States. And we’re pretty fucked, so that’s saying a lot. Perhaps there’s a way to mitigate this mess by playing upon our worst instincts as a nation and the competitiveness that drives the world. Today we take an alternative view of our response to climate change through the lens of the most dispassionate and powerful observer in the world: The U.S. Military. It’s known for decades that the planet is fucked. And they’ve been preparing in plain sight. Reso...
Sep 18, 2021•57 min
Today’s episode is a departure from our normal format. We were tempted to let the 20th anniversary of 9/11 pass given it will be oversaturated with remembrances and armchair punditry as well as the usual tragedy porn imagery. But the impact of 9/11 remains so widespread that it’s impossible to ignore. So, we wanted to add something honest, critical and ultimately hopeful to the mix. This episode contains none of our typical irreverence or profanity, nor do we traffic in speculation or conspiracy...
Sep 11, 2021•51 min
The last time California had a “successful” gubernatorial recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. While we try not to wade into current events, there is significance in this current attempt to unseat Gavin Newsom that goes far beyond the borders of California. In this episode we catch up on what’s happening in California. Beyond the biblical weather events, an ongoing plague and rampant homelessness, there are silver linings in economic terms that could theoretically ameliorate many of th...
Sep 04, 2021•40 min
We love to promote our democratic principles. We love to spread them across the globe as well. But there are three procedural quirks in our system that are so laughably undemocratic it’s surreal. The Electoral College, filibuster and gerrymandering have been such integral parts of our system for so long that we barely recognize them for the travesties they are. Right now, Democrats have tenuous control over the system and the ability to change the course of democracy for decades to come. So why ...
Aug 28, 2021•50 min
Operation “Blame the Afghan People” is in full swing. The countdown to us forgetting completely about Afghanistan has also just begun and the media is doing its best to shove a comparative narrative to Vietnam down our throats. Today’s episode explores our national amnesia, examines the Vietnam comparison, talks about what happens when our occupations end and questions the continuation of a wartime military budget. Resources Peter G. Peterson Foundation: Budget Basics: National Defense The Inter...
Aug 21, 2021•53 min
Momma always said, "Power is as power does." With democrats in charge, Bernie managing the budget and endless wars ending, it's a new day in Washington. Or is it? Today's Quickie highlights three policies - Immigration, Military Spending and Drone Strikes - that seemed to be changing under Biden but might be more of the same. Resources The Intercept - Nobody Knows the Identities of the 150 People Killed by U.S. in Somalia, but Most Are Certain They Deserved It Geopolitical Futures - Why the US C...
Aug 14, 2021•33 min
Progressives continually lose the debate on issues of institutional poverty, structural inequality and systemic racism because they’re loaded with history and meaning that require thinking. It’s a lot easier to say, “Make America Great Again,” “Free Markets,” or “America First.” This episode uncovers the economic side of systemic racism in the United States throughout history and how it led to the uncomfortable reality where Blacks in America have been locked out of every period of wealth accumu...
Aug 07, 2021•1 hr 19 min
They look like us. Sound (mostly) like us. And they know everything about us. And yet, we know precious little about our best friends up north. That ends today, Unf*ckers. Today we cast our gaze upwards to honor our friends and allies from the Great White North. Our friends at Canadaland, the top independent political pod network in Canada, help guide the ship today as we give a brief overview of the Canadian economic and political system and dispel a few myths along the way. Resources Canadian ...
Jul 31, 2021•1 hr 7 min
We recorded today’s episode right before a brief vacation so the team could get some rest and chill out for a bit. So, we’re running a special show today to highlight the lighter side of UNFTR: our inter-episode sketches. To guide you through our sketch journey is the one, the only Manny Faces. Catch you back next week for a regular episode, Unf*ckers. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram at...
Jul 24, 2021•44 min
We’re nearly 10 years on from Occupy Wall Street. We wanted to get a jump on the retrospective before every mainstream news outlet hops on and gives it perfunctory treatment and dismisses it as a failed movement. It wasn’t a failure. If anything, it was the scariest movement the establishment has seen since the anti-Vietnam War protests. It was fast but it was furious. And aspects of it continue to resonate through our society. It was the grand awakening from our post-9/11 haze and the people to...
Jul 17, 2021•41 min
Few concepts get under the skin of traditional economists, Wall Street executives and academics as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT. We’ve been building to this episode for quite a while in our examinations of the United States budget and it’s time to properly unf*ck this massively important economic concept. MMT posits the idea that any government that issues its own currency can run extraordinary deficits to finance basically anything without fear of negative monetary or fiscal consequences. In ...
Jul 10, 2021•52 min
In today’s Quickie we celebrate the upcoming Olympics with our own field of challengers for the nation’s top Stupid White Guy! Exciting times. Our contestants include three Republican governors and it’s a real barn burner. Governors Kemp of Georgia, DeSantis of Florida and Abbott of Texas battle for the gold to be decided by Unf*ckers who can vote for their (least) favorite at unftr.com . -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us o...
Jul 03, 2021•30 min
While the ink is still wet on the Trump era, we’re going to talk through what the real legacy might be before revisionists get a hold of it one way or another and navigate how we can have productive conversations about this period which still divides us. To many of us on the left, the mystery remains as to why anyone with a conscience would have voted for such an abhorrent, pugnacious, racist, misogynist, lecherous pufferfish like Trump. So we should dissect the man and his rhetoric before we at...
Jun 26, 2021•49 min
Today we take on News Corp., the most egregious example of “manufactured consent.” The fact that we let this monster from down under invade our thought space and contaminate the discourse in this nation is a crime. Rupert Murdoch’s companies have made us dumber, angrier and more susceptible to conspiracies. Of this there can be no doubt. To reveal how he accomplished this, we’ll travel through a brief history of American media, discuss the legislation at the center of the disaster that is our me...
Jun 19, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Here we are Unf*ckers. It’s our great hope that we contextualize the Chicago School of Economics and its high priest Milton Friedman by alternately expanding our view of the world and narrowing in on crucial moments that changed the course of history. As mentioned in the teaser last week, we’ll give credit where credit is due. At no point will we call into question the intellect or even integrity of Milton Friedman or the institution he is synonymous with. To the contrary, we firmly believe that...
Jun 10, 2021•1 hr 20 min
In this teaser episode we do a quick recap on why the fuck we're so mad at Milton Friedman and briefly summarize prior episodes that are useful primers on our upcoming blowout episode on The Chicago School of Economics. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftrpod.com/rate and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com . Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com . Subscribe to Unf*cking The Republi...
Jun 03, 2021•8 min
Today we examine Conscious Capitalism™ as an organization (the trademarked entity) and Conscious Capitalism the movement characterized by the investment concepts of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). This is the final building block as we continue on our collision course with Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. The promise of Conscious Capitalism as a concept, ESG and SRI is that capitalism on its own can and will voluntarily cur...
May 29, 2021•36 min
Since 1959, the island nation of Cuba has been giving the middle finger to the United States. Cuba has been in the control of a Castro through thirteen separate presidential administrations and they’ve made it in the most unlikely of ways under the most improbable circumstances. This is episode of UNFTR begins with a slightly different perspective on the 1959 Revolution that has evaded most retellings in U.S. history books and follows the twisted journey of Fidel Castro and his brother Raul thro...
May 22, 2021•58 min
The media has been hard at work lately trying to rehabilitate the image of three significant members of the Republican Party. So we’re not going to let them. In today’s Quickie we examine the legacy of George W. Bush, John Boehner and Rick Santorum and remind everyone of just how terrible they are as people and were as politicians. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us ...
May 15, 2021•32 min
Assange is a complicated figure personally and historically. And he evokes pretty strong reactions on both sides. Mostly though we don’t think about him at all. With the exception of occasional reports whenever there’s an update on his charges or extradition attempts, Assange has been sort of back burnered. Considering the stakes at play for the U.S. media, this should be surprising or even troubling. Today we’re going to review the story of WikiLeaks and put the debate over the fate of Assange ...
May 07, 2021•53 min
We briefly recap what we covered in Part I as a refresher then launch into some of the more egregious examples of how corporations have used their political leverage to create massive tax loopholes and that have left them flush with cash. This preposterous sum of cash has also given corporations the ability to flout regulations they have yet to rewrite by simply paying fines instead of complying with the law. For the first time we also hear directly from this show’s dead nemesis, Milton Friedman...
Apr 30, 2021•34 min
Mitch McTurtlefuck recently chastised Corporate America for butting into politics, which we all know is a joke. But it highlights the insidious nature of the relationship between American companies and the U.S. government. One of the biggest grifts of our time isn’t just the rapid rise of the billionaire class in this country, it’s the mechanisms that allow corporations to hide trillions of dollars from taxation. This week’s UNFTR delves into the movement to lower corporate tax rates that starte...
Apr 24, 2021•40 min
In today’s Quickie we’re taking a look at a developing phenomenon related to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In reality it’s an age-old issue that all powerful women experience. The three separate things happening to AOC take the form of detractors from conservative, moderate and progressive circles. Related, because they all have one thing in common, which will become painfully clear. Pod Love Best of the Left: bestoftheleft.com/listen Book Love John Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath: book...
Apr 16, 2021•29 min
And a good day to you my beloved Unf*ckers. We’re back with another blood-boiling, enraging episode of Unf*cking the Republic. Mass Incarceration: The War on Drugs . It’s a topic that has thankfully come further into the light thanks to the profound work of several organizations such as the Prison Policy Initiative, The Sentencing Project, Innocence Project and more. This episode features a special clip from another incredible pod, News Beat, which does a ton of work on the issue of mass incarce...
Apr 09, 2021•46 min
Despite the occasional reference to poverty statistics or coverage of events like Standing Rock, the plight of Native Americans continues to be a blind spot in our politics. This episode frames the issue of economic justice by examining the historical relationship between sovereign Indian nations and the conquering governments of the U.S. and Canada. While the corporate media obsess over “cancel culture,” we explain how our governments tried to cancel the entire indigenous culture. The show ends...
Mar 29, 2021•41 min
The United States seems to have lost the ability to govern and has given itself over to the whims of corporations that are designing every inch of our lives, our economy, our domestic and foreign policies and ultimately our national priorities. In between busts in the boom and bust market cycles, we’re only capable of tinkering around the edges. As much as we desperately need another round of stimulus, it will be a pyrrhic victory if we don’t fix the structural imbalance in our nation that has r...
Mar 19, 2021•29 min
Hey Unf*ckers. We have a new “inter-episode” format - Unf*cking Quickies - meant to parachute into more current events by looking at three different, but related things happening in the world right now. In this inaugural Quickie we take a topical look at three members of the Democratic Party that are having very different experiences of late: embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, failed O.M.B. appointee Neera Tanden, and Senator I’m-so-fucking-important Joe Manchin. -- If you like #UNFTR, pl...
Mar 13, 2021•16 min
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” These are the nine words Ronald Reagan called “terrifying.” Just another brick in the wall of disdain and deflection politicians use to get elected to the government they hate so much. Cascading structural failures in the system appears to give credence to claims of government incompetence but how much of it is actually by design? This week we unfuck the corporate attack on the system and break down the inherent evils of privatization and deregulat...
Mar 05, 2021•29 min
Congress is a quirky place. The rules are arcane. The people are diverse. The power struggle is real. We take a brief, and sometimes ridiculous journey through history to examine the beating heart of our democracy to find out whether or not Congress has always been this fucked up. We call out some of the best and worst actors in the 117th Congress, why it’s impossible to get anything done these days and look back at some of the biggest assholes that ruined it for everyone else. (Hint: Newt Gingr...
Feb 22, 2021•33 min
As we covered in our insurrection episode, it’s actually quite difficult to take down an Empire, particularly one as fortified as the United States. But that hasn’t stopped one family from trying. If you haven’t met them yet, it’s our pleasure to introduce you to the Mercer family. The patriarch Robert is a reclusive billionaire—we think—who uses his fortune to fund fun initiatives like, rolling back Civil Rights legislation, climate change denial and alt-right white supremacist groups. His will...
Feb 10, 2021•19 min
