Dear Friends,
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM:
(02:50) The Strokes’ new video blasts censorship – LISTEN
(19:09) Rep. J.D. Scholten discusses the election – LISTEN
(50:47) November garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes – LISTEN
I’d never heard of The Strokes until last week. (Yes, I’m that culturally illiterate.) Then Lee Camp shared a video where he’s one of five freedom fighters featured in Lonely In The Future.
By “featured,” I mean as puppets. Which is way cooler than you might think.
The video is both hilarious and informative. It calls out the censorship of journalists, like Lee Camp and Chris Hedges, the silencing of activists, like Chris Smalls and Greta Thunberg, and the dismissing of musicians, like J.S. Bach. Seriously. Bach.
(Fun fact: The mega-rich dude that Bach worked for once imprisoned Bach for a month because he had the audacity to apply for another job after being passed over for a promotion.)
As the music plays, red neon signs order people to “Obey,” “Follow,” and “Distract.” When they challenge war and corporate orthodoxy on mainstream media programs, Hedges and Camp are yanked off-stage by the fearsome “legacy media” hook.
Smalls is arrested for protesting the Met Gala because Jeff Bezos and his wife were selected as the event’s honorary chairs. He’s carried away by drones, which is a little weird.
Thunberg is arrested while participating in the flotilla that tried to bring food and medical supplies to Gaza. Even though she’s a puppet, the image of Thunberg huddled under a thin blanket in the corner of an Israeli prison cell is disturbing — and frighteningly realistic, given reports of the harsh conditions she and other flotilla participants were subjected to.
America’s most infamous billionaires are also in the video as puppets: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Rupert Murdoch. Toward the end, Murdoch is seen trying to choose between two buttons: “SAVE THE WORLD” or “DESTROY DEMOCRACY.”
Wanna guess which button Murdoch presses? Anyone surprised that he’s laughing as he does it?
The three tech oligarchs also get their moment of apocalyptic glory, as money falls from the skies above the headline, “BILLIONAIRES CELEBRATE END OF WORLD.”
My favorite part of the video? Toss up between Camp’s massive puppet nose and Bach flipping off a critic. The music is great, too. SO TAKE FOUR MINUTES TO WATCH IT!
Then do something to piss off a tech billionaire, like cancel your Amazon Prime account.
Or pay with cash so you bypass the digital economy that’s enriching these and other uber-rich psychopaths.
Or buy food from a local farmer.
“Wait, Ed,” you say. “What do the tech billionaires have to do with food production?”
Glad you asked. Here’s this warning from Derechos Digitales: “Alliances between agribusiness giants (Bayer, Syngenta, Cargill, for example) and technology giants (Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, among others) are raising concerns, especially among peasant and Indigenous communities. Recent research warns of deepening dependency, the commodification of collective ancestral knowledge, and a possible intensification of environmental contamination.”
Come on, you knew I’d bring it back to food, didn’t you? But wait, there’s more …
The best elected official in Iowa — Rep. J.D. Scholten — joins me on this week’s program to provide his take on the midterm elections.
Rep. J.D. Scholten with Ed in the studio earlier this year, joined by Kathy’s grandson, Quincy. J.D., a professional baseball player, was visibly dismayed when Quincy said he didn’t like baseball.
In addition to his prophetic work from inside the political beast, J.D. and Justin Stofferahn coauthor “You’re Probably Getting Screwed,” a weekly newsletter and video series about how and why bad actors put politics and profits over working people.
As always, J.D.’s perspective is what elites within the Democratic Party need to hear — now more than ever.
Sure, Dems, congratulations on a stunning victory on November 3. Like so many other people, I did my part to help secure that victory — organizing fundraisers, helping with a canoe float, knocking on hundreds of doors.
Now use the power you’ve gained for good:
End the war in Iran.
Cut off military aid to Israel.
Put the brakes on nuclear weapons proliferation.
Tackle the health care crisis.
Regulate AI and data centers.
Get serious about the climate crisis.
I know that’s a lot, but it’s the short list. Our country is a mess, and Americans are expecting great things from the new Congress. Don’t let us down.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action. And if you’re a central Iowa resident, remember to support the local businesses and nonprofits that help underwrite this platform.
Ed Fallon
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