Chapo Trap House

Will talks to India Walton, the socialist candidate who won the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo in June. They discuss the ongoing opposition to her campaign from the establishment incumbent she defeated in the primary and his corporate allies, how she plans to make Buffalo work for the city’s tenants and renters, and how she will address policing issues as the mayor of a large American city. If you’d like to learn more about India’s campaign or donate, go to: https://www.indiawalton.com/

Will and Matt talk to Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy, 2312 and last year’s Ministry for the Future. They discuss reckoning with climate change, science fiction literature as an attempt to conceive of our own future’s history, and what kinds of beliefs humans might need to survive that future.

We celebrate 20 years of 9/11 by taking a 2-part look at the political and cultural insanity of the era immediately following the attacks. Today, we look at the hysterical jingoism, veneration of idiotic leaders, politically enforced censorship, and the seminal war-blogger classic “The Pussification of the Western Male” We’ll continue on Thursday’s ep with looks at TV, Film and Culture from the era, plus another canonical 9/11 reading series. Stay tuned!

Canada Correspondent Dan Boeckner stops by to update us on the impending Canadian federal elections. We break down the parties and their platforms, from the Victims of Communism-respecters, to the Semen Retentionists. We also read an op-ed from the Toronto Sun on why Drake is the most dangerous and disrespectful man in Canada. Check out Dan’s podcast The Bottlemen wherever you get podcasts, and subscribe here: https://www.patreon.com/DaBottlemen And find Dan’s patreon for his music here: https://www.patreon.com/operators

Once more into the breach of Afghanistan takes: the media now turns to our precious abandoned military ordnance to hand-wring over, and Britain continues to feel the cold shoulder of the Biden administration. We also cover China’s new gaming ban, and an effort to gin up a BDS movement against the Taliban.

We start off discussing Jeopardy!, Tesla Bots, and how all these conservative radio hosts keep dying of COVID. Then we talk about Tony Blair crying about Afghanistan and step inside Tom Friedman’s mind palace to explore the Taliban’s strategic cousin and nephew reserves.

We look at the brutal, stupid, and embarrassing end of our brutal, stupid, and embarrassing twenty year occupation of Afghanistan.

We review Obama’s 60th Birthday Bash on Martha’s Vineyard, which we were all of course invited to. Then, we take a look at the ongoing “Havana Syndrome” phenomenon, in which U.S. intelligence operatives continue to report un-diagnosable symptoms supposedly generated by a non-existent superweapon. Finally, we take a look back at everyone’s early pandemic “cuomosexual” phase.

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We start today looking at Democrats’ feckless failure to extend the eviction moratorium. That being a fairly dismal topic, we try to lighten things up with two reading series checking in with how some old friends of the show are handling their new post-election lives in DC.

We take a look at the 2007 Antoine Fuqua/Mark Wahlberg film “Shooter,” a fascinating relic of the 2nd G.W. administration that asks the question “what if a hardass marine sniper operator type fuckin merked Dick Cheney?” Also, Matt brings up some deep lore from the author Stephen Hunter’s other novels that really makes him seem like a fertile well of insane ideas.

This is the first episode of Chapo all-stars Derek Davison & Daniel Bessner’s new foreign policy podcast “American Prestige”. To get more, go here: http://patreon.com/americanprestige In the premiere episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek get into the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Did the military intentionally botch the withdrawal? Has the imperial frontier contracted in any meaningful way? Will the Taliban gain legitimacy with the Afghan people? Plus, an in-depth interview with Stephen Wertheim, discussing his new book “Tomorrow, the World”, which explores how and why during World War II U.S. elites decided that their nation should, indeed must, dominate the world.

We’re joined by Chapo foreign policy desk Derek Davison and Daniel Bessner to check in with America’s various “oopsies”, “uh-ohs” and “oh butterfingers” accidentally enforcing our hegemony around the world. Derek and Danny have a new podcast, American Prestige, covering just this type of thing. If you like them on Chapo, be sure to go checkout their new show and, as always, Foreign Exchanges on substack. We’re putting the first episode of American Prestige in the Chapo feed so you can get a taste. http://patreon.com/americanprestige fx.substack.com

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We’re joined by Tides of History’s Patrick Wyman today to take a historical look on things, starting with a brief discussion of the assassination of Haitian president Moïse, and the increasing privatization of violence. We then turn to Patrick’s new book The Verge, examining the crucial years of the Renaissance, and investigating just how and why western Europe transformed from a global backwater to the world dominating colossus it became for the last few centuries. Finally, we ask who’s actually more threatening to the “elites”: JD Vance or Matthew McConaughey? Check out Patrick’s book The Verge here: https://www.twelvebooks.com/titles/patrick-wyman/the-verge/9781538701171/

What’s one band you’re ALWAYS thinking about? We start asking some universal questions. Then, we take a pair of articles that again push the idea of Biden as a transformational progressive president and ask who are they for? Why do we keep getting these? Aren’t we all just eating ice cream? C’mon man. Finally, we turn to the federalist to learn about the “flyover women”.

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Constitution - Washington Get in the Presidency, George. Episode 2 is up now on Stitcher Premium, with new episodes out on Fridays. To sign up and to get a free month of Stitcher Premium, go to stitcherpremium.com/hell on your mobile or desktop browser, click start free trial, select a monthly plan, and use promo code HELL. You'll get access to Hell of Presidents, Time for My Stories and Blowback Season 2, so, pretty good deal.

It’s a jumbo sized Chapo today, starting with a return of our smash hit segment “Animal Facts” to start off with 20 min of levity and speculation on which of Nature’s magnificent creatures are conduits to the spiritual and/or extraterrestrial world. Then, after one of Will’s maybe sweatiest ever transitions, we move on to discussing the tragic Miami condo collapse and the narrowing aperture of improvement in American life. Finally, we read from two accounts of the last days of the Trump Administration, confirming a lot of what we suspected, and adding a few more juicy details of what Trump, Rudy and the gang were actually up to on Jan. 6. Also there’s a little bonus segment on “Woke Capitalism” and the future of “Trumpism” as a political project at the end.

NYC mayoral elections are tomorrow so we give our final review of the candidates - not great! Then we check in with a Chapo favorite we’ve not discussed in quite a bit but are happy to return to, offering a tentative defense of perhaps The Baseball Crank’s best ever take. Finally, a long and surprisingly thoughtful discussion of modern male intimacy.