What a Hell of a Way to Dad

Some recent developments in the US military that you should know about: first, the President has decided to defund military spending in order to build his stupid racism wall. While on one hand we would call defunding the military a good thing, we would reject that given the fact the money (which was earmarked for things like building maintenance and fire safety) is going towards a stupid project that sucks. We also talk about a surprise revelation that some (relatively low-ranking) members of the Navy SEALs have been disciplined for their unit's misbehavior. That said, our argument stands that the SEALs need to be disbanded because they're out of control. And honestly, why stop there? This episode includes Francis' argument that the Marines should go away, too. This week's bonus features an inaugural feature where Francis explains some how-tos on things that are useful to know. You've heard about active shooter training (and if you're a parent, the hellworld of America is making your kids go through it), but did you ever wonder how the military goes about it? Well, here's your MILSPEC active-shooter training as briefed by SSG Horton, your training NCO. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29832909 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

The rent is too damn high, but especially nowadays given that hedge funds and private equity are working to squeeze as much lifeblood out of renters as possible. However, god forbid you enact rent control — then you might become like Venezuela! This week, Francis and Nate speak with Nick Babakitis (@sternburgpapi) of the Corner Späti podcast (@cornerspaeti), a Berlin-based leftist program. Berlin recently passed a mild rent control law, which has already gotten denounced as Venezuela. The conversation also covers New York's rent stabilization laws (you'd better believe that's a Venezuela) and the military's housing allowances — which are somehow not socialism? This week's bonus is our monthly Q&A session. You've asked us some questions, and we've done our best to answer. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29653263 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Francis is out this week, and this episode features Nate in discussion with Rhett J. Evans (@RhettJEvans), the author of a work of speculative fiction entitled "The Echo Chamber." It's a book about social media, corporate malfeasance, a dystopian future, and the possibility of a high-tech smoothie gadget playing a huge role in global affairs. They also discuss Rhett's political conversion from right to left, the unaccountability of social media companies, and the way online distorts people's relationships. You can buy "The Echo Chamber" on Books a Million here (or on Amazon if you want): https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Echo-Chamber/Rhett-J-Evans/9781682618615?id=7670120814234 This week's bonus features Brock Wilbur and Francis discussing the 2012 video game Spec Ops: The Line, a game where you give yourself PTSD and then freak out and kill your fellow troops. A bit on the nose, maybe, but it's a great conversation. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29367028 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

This podcast supports antifa -- end of discussion. "A bloo bloo bloo," you might say in response, "My norm's and notion's of respectability!" We don't care. People who put their bodies and livelihoods on the line to face down fascism are heroes and deserve our support. Francis and Nate discuss the recent protests in Portland, the truth to the refrain that cops and fascists work together, and a little digression about internet atheism's total interchangeability with xenophobia. This is the link to the story about the New Hampshire MIA/POW display that features religious imagery: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/08/18/new-hampshire-veterans-group-seeks-intervene-pow-bible-display-lawsuit.html?fbclid=IwAR3venPBMsTSiFaucJ1ccqknuzHaB2ZOOB-LR13L5utwN5_V0kXGPU4jUHY A Portland antifa member got arrested by the famously not fascist-adjacent Portland PD. Here's a link his legal defense GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/jve5am. We're also doing a promotion between now and the end of the day on 22 August -- if you buy this shirt we'll donate all the profits to the defense fund: https://teespring.com/new-sorry-if-my-marxism-offend This week's bonus features a discussion between Francis and Joe Kassabian of the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast on the topic of being a Soviet conscript, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and Svetlana Alexeivich's book BOYS IN ZINC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29262977 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Word on the street is that the US and the Taliban may have come to a peace agreement. Which is why Republican politicians in America hate it. Why? Well, for one, because they're horny for war (and war expenditures), but also because they're really, really dumb. Here's a Defense News story that gives you the full smorgasbord of terrible quotes: https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/08/12/liz-cheney-republicans-voice-skepticism-on-possible-us-taliban-peace-deal/?fbclid=IwAR1p5YRIwb566foKFSXhURrdB5ZsaWBtnxpAOiIz2Q2-n3yxJlwlPdN0VJU As a palate cleanser, we also discuss a story about how a soldier in Germany got drunk and tried to use land-navigation skills to get back to base, except he wound up on the tracks of Germany's high-speed passenger train (don't worry! Nothing bad happened): https://www.armytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/08/08/ridin-the-rails-drunk-soldier-arrested-after-using-train-tracks-to-find-his-way-back-to-base/?fbclid=IwAR38FrizJm6HRQjh8pWTWvkBO-K48NBqsd2U06iZ2ZywFWm9kiNRZyqy12I This week's bonus is the conclusion of Francis reviewing the HBO series GENERATION KILL. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29109895 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

NOTE: When we recorded this episode, news reports hadn't yet disclosed that the Dayton shooter's murdered sibling was a trans man. We wanted to update the show notes to reflect that disclosure. It's hard to write pithy show notes when a horrible weekend has just rained more indiscriminate death and destruction on America. Nate and Francis discovered this week that the Dayton, Ohio shooter followed them both on Twitter, which is not good. In this episode, they discuss whether or not online leftist shitposters should be introspective in this moment. We also got a great question from a listener about how to navigate the fact that troops don't like leftists and leftists don't like troops. But then again, what about young leftists or left-adjacent people who join because the military is the closest thing to a real welfare state in America? We spend a lot of time breaking down our views on this, too. This week's bonus features labor lawyer and Coast Guard vet Carey Shockey (@shocks) on the topic of classic lawyer movie MY COUSIN VINNY. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28932628 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Well, it was bound to happen at some point. The US military has bases primarily in the South, and primarily in parts of the world in which climate change poses a huge risk. So, what is the US military doing about it? If you guessed 'killing more soldiers in training via heatstroke,' you're right on the money. Thanks to a fan of the show, we had a chance to read this in-depth piece from Inside Climate News on the topic of heat deaths, the military's obligation to both assess risks and (politically speaking) not seem as though they're opposing Trump's climate denial, and much more: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23072019/military-heat-death-illness-climate-change-risk-security-global-warming-benning-bragg-chaffee?fbclid=IwAR1CfQwRxg4sX4pc0gud7gZa28tTXEZXySplP9sewnaZVblCluJVT7T4Gdw This week's bonus features our monthly Q&A session, in which we answer the questions you've asked us: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28644105 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

The military is an authoritarian hellworld, sure, but there are ways to navigate it. In this week's episode, Nate and Francis discuss a recent op-ed arguing on behalf of the junior enlisted community -- basically, arguing that perhaps the military (in this case, the Marine Corps) should treat privates as more than window lickers. You can read that article here: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/23/our-untapped-resource-junior-enlisted/?fbclid=IwAR0P6T6SNesBFz4NOLmJJR8RQFocZypprOQEsNELGMo-ayom48ut7SbURuk Over the course of the episode, however, Nate and Francis also discuss the pros and cons of pulling rank -- and some stories of pulling rank gone wrong. Why do people think it's a good idea? Why do top-down organizations generate weird fixations on rank? This might be a bit of a weird one, but we hope you enjoy it. This week's bonus features an 'Is This Fascist?' discussion between Francis and Brock Wilbur on the topic of the 2005 PS2 game 'Shadow of the Colossus.' We only review games from 1994-2005 because, as you've guessed, we're old. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28558003 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Yes, we've read the terrible article. A genius decided that it would be a wise idea to propose allowing 16-year-olds to enlist in the military (as a means of solving our current recruiting issues). We think this would be a bad idea -- read the original piece here: https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2019/07/10/why-we-should-lower-the-age-for-recruitment-to-16/?fbclid=IwAR2JcuTfe7Na6hsgoLhnQewUeen-GkgS5U2P7_3KBj515QYOMpQGDk6yZf8 We also discuss whether or not the 'Storm Area 51' event is anything worth taking seriously. What is a naruto run? Where in fact are them aliens? We'll find out: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/452949-feds-warns-ufo-enthusiasts-to-think-twice-about-storming-area?fbclid=IwAR0mxi6rvWcDvt0eqiHbYsTveq_cg8WzLm_omL5IpjRnb6Qs34heohDmoVY This week's bonus features our 'Is It Fascist?' review of the 2016 Independence Day sequel. It's not good! But there's a lot more to discuss, and you can hear that whole thing here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28335268 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

It's a season of good ideas, and by good ideas we mean people wanting to change things in the Army because they heard that keto was good for you or that you need to do deadlifts to have Warrior Strength. In this week's episode, Nate and Francis discuss a few hot topics in the military: a proposal to recruit combat arms soldiers to the tune of $250k bonuses; a (pie-in-the-sky) proposal to enforce dietary ketosis for soldiers; and a discussion of how informal memorials crop up as a result of endless war. Here's the link to the Finance Bonuses for Warriors article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/07/06/no-grunts-under-26-250k-bonuses-dods-most-radical-ideas-transform-infantry.html?fbclid=IwAR02swUbx4EioPsykEF9dbWzQw4_qgUnLtbI3qy7hwWJHniXnZydr16GVHM Here's the link to the no-more-pizza article: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/07/01/defense-department-to-ban-beer-and-pizza-mandatory-keto-diet-may-enhance-military-performance/?fbclid=IwAR3i4kHE_492CrPu00qfGfEnjItZbnhyVDP1DNlyjiu3EcsEVGSrbrmA4X0 Here's the link to the piece about informal memorials at Camp Pendleton: https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/07/05/what-makes-a-war-memorial-marines-upset-over-removal-of-beer-cans-around-camp-pendletons-horno-crosses/?fbclid=IwAR3wAauuk0fSM2S-IrxBY55JAWLhbl_T_DIrYxt5_N7ESwD2kwGWgiqO4VE This week's bonus features Francis reviewing episode 6 of the HBO series 'Generation Kill.' Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28222914 You may have noticed that the first issue of our zine has debuted, and you can get it in print by signing up at the $10 monthly Patreon tier. We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw We have a new t-shirt out — get some anarchist agriculture in your life! Buy it here: https://teespring.com/new-anarchist-agricultural#pid=387&cid=101810&sid=front You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedesertsFollow Francis here: @ArmyStrang