Pillow Scream Radio

Alex, Jim, Mandy, and Mike finish out the libertarian dialogue and end with a big announcement

If you feel like you're going crazy, you aren't. If you feel like you're alone, you're not. We know these past few weeks have been tough for anyone so we wanted to refocus the episode on something that's near and dear to every veteran's heart. We all feel like we've lost a part of ourselves and you shouldn't feel ashamed for that. We'll miss you OnlyFans. Rest in peace.  Oh yeah, we talk about Afghanistan too. 

No one wants to hear that the original libertarians were actually communists. Unfortunately, facts don't care about your feelings, so we have a go at the OG libertarians and discuss how the term somehow morphed from "anarcho-communism" to "anarcho-capitalism." Hint: it has something to do with money. 

So, funny story. We were going to watch the new Mortal Kombat (2021) movie and riff about how terrible it was and how it perfectly encapsulated the decadence of late stage capitalism. What actually happened was that we ended up liking the movie. Something about ripping someone's spine out and beating them to death with it just speaks to our lizard brains. Anyways, we debo'd the episode to talk about some of the quirks of our fever dream reality with our returning guest, Zach! 

Yell at us on Twitter @pillowscreampod. Drag us on apple podcasts with a review.  This week the two athletes of the gang discuss the strange history and traditions of the Olympics, who profits the most from the games, and which "sports" should definitely be cut.      

Jim and Mandy welcome a new guest, Raj!  There's no better way to talk about Afghanistan than with a battle-hardened combat veteran, and boy did we find one.  Raj, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the daring behind-enemy-lines rescue of fallen beef stroganoff, left the service after one cup too many of dogsh*t army coffee. Anyway, we talk about the all the media noise surrounding Biden's decision to pullout of Afghanistan, once and for all (by the "darkly ironic" date of September 11th, 2021, no less).  We discuss the ulterior motives of the man who helped start the war--and the utter vanity of his claim to be the man that ended it.  All in all, we agree that all us veterans and active duty folks are sick of the Democrats and Republicans fighting over us like it's a goddamn custody battle.  Get your shit together Mom and Dad, you were both trash parents, you didn't feed us, you blew our college savings, and we're definitely going to become strippers.  Oh and we're absolutely doing drugs. Fun fact: Dick Cheney tastes like baby powder.  Can confirm.  Want to know how we know??? Thanks for coming on Raj! Love, Mandy and Jim (Oh and btw, there's an audio clip in here about the military industrial complex from the documentary Why We Fight.  Brilliant piece of filmmaking.  Check it out!)

We're joined by Dr. Stonk Brule aka @amcstonkrocket aka Mike who discusses both his good and bad experiences with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, gives us some A+ fiduciary advice, and cures every illness imaginable with nothing but a rubber band. Mandy takes us through the long and meandering history of the VA and veterans' benefits. Finally, we examine how we might remove the barriers to accessing healthcare for everyone whether they served or not. Veterans, if you feel like you don't deserve benefits, take a tip from Dr. Stonk: There’s a lot of wastes of tax payer money but you are not one of them.  Find us on twitter @PillowScreamPod

The Pillow Scream Team, with guests Jackie and Dennis, gets together this week to answer a question: now that the pandemic is easing up, why is it so hard to get restaurant workers to come back to work?  To help us answer it, we invited two experienced servers to talk us through the experience of working in a restaurant, highs and lows.  Some interesting stories on this one--creepy old men, miniature cowboy congressmen who don't tip, and kilted Scots who freeball where they really shouldn't.  Tune in for a good one. Want to know about the restaurant industry? Don't listen to the suits that write for the Wall Street Journal.  Listen to your favorite weekly podcast. Find us, message us, make fun of us, you can do it all on Twitter: @PillowScreamPod  Yes I KNOW this was published late sue me we'll just delete the podcast and make a new one nerd

Houston Wade joins Mandy, Jim and Alex for our 25th episode and an *extremely* informative show!  A teacher, geologist, and retail investing enthusiast, Houston explains in detail for us just how screwed up Wall Street has become.  Dark clouds are gathering over the financial sector and none of those preppy investment banker jabronies are taking notice.  But that's not all--if you have even a little interest in field grade stalkers, real-life treasure hunts, space mining, thousand year helium oligarchies, or what a trillion dollars in public spending can do for the American citizen, give it a listen.  Also, fuck Mars. Where to find more of Houston if you like him as much as we do: Twitter: @TheWouston Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HoustonWade YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/houstonwade/videos

Jim and Alex are joined by a new member of the Pillow Screamin' Family, Jackie!  After we cover a bunch of rapid-fire news stories and put ourselves in a thoroughly melancholy mood, we talk about something that is WAY more motivating.   Ever noticed how American cities are just, like, gross?  Feel like this is a country made for musty 40 year old semi trucks, not for people?  They are and it was.  We explain that.  And then we offer the alternatives: Municipalism, Local Socialism, and Community Wealth Building Strategies!  We stumbled onto these ideas after too many uppity leftist Zoom calls and Reddit purity tests made us realize that the whole "Online Socialist" dog just ain't gonna hunt.   We'll never really be over Bernie losing the primary, of course.  But there ARE things, actual real world things, that work out there!  Check them out at the links below: The Democracy Collaborative https://democracycollaborative.org/ Community Wealth: https://community-wealth.org/ The Trust for Public Land: https://www.tpl.org/

In this episode, we review an American coming-of-age movie starring Operator Jim, a rad pair of aviator sunglasses, and some of the sharpest jawlines this side of Easter Island. It's Thirteen Hours, written and directed by Michael Bay, who is frankly not notable for anything besides being the director-iest director that has ever directored. And this is his movie. It's big, it's bold, it's American, and full of all the military hero-worship, internalized misogyny, and repressed sexuality that you could ever ask for. 

We get real out there, folks. Talking the scifi book Blindsight by Peter Watts and all the empirical reasons as to why you're not as real as you think. Cotard's Delusion, blindsight, transaccadic memory, Anton's syndrome, body integrity dysphoria. It's a fun time. Maybe, just maybe, this gives us more of a reason to give a shit about each other as humans. Not all of us asked to be aware of our own existence. 

Mandy and Alex take the Army's equivalent of a "What disney princess are you?" online quiz and get caught up in the glory of 90s military advertising. Pro tip, if your PTSD-ridden Vietnam vet father begs you not to enlist in the military, you probably shouldn't do it. Take it from us. We're professionals. 

The gang makes a new friend!  Kevin joins us to talk the news, Marxism in the military, and police reform.  Brace yourself, he shares a big bucket of bubbly brain juices!  As a Coast Guard vet, former law enforcement officer, city planner, and a regular-type dude who likes guns and leftism, he is both exceedingly interesting and entirely relatable.  Come give this one a listen. Kevin has a GoFundMe up and running to help fund the construction of a leftist-friendly shooting range, because "nobody in the LGBTQ+ or BIPOC communities should need to put up with a range that sells confederate flags or is frequented by those who believe they do not deserve their rights - or worse, their lives." Hell yeah.  Donate here: https://gofund.me/e52d9c8d Kevin also runs a podcast "dedicated to improving the running, playing, and supporting elements...of the Delta Green role-playing game."  Check it out here! https://www.greenboxpod.com/

Given the situation in Palestine, we (Jim and Mandy) wanted to zoom out this week to discuss just and unjust uses of violence. Jim mansplains the ethical framework supporting the use of violence, then we delve into different opinions on the matter between the left and the right. We also parse through the thinly veiled fascism of Jack Donovan's "Violence is Golden." Finally, Jim waxes poetically about the dangers of adopting a nihilistic position.  It's over Anakin, we have the moral high ground. 

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @pillowscreamradio  In this episode we forego politics to talk through some big news in entertainment concerning the arrest of Josh Duggar and delve into the sick world of fundamentalist Christian families. Mandy gets disappointed because Jim and Alex came totally unprepared to discuss the NFL draft. Also, Bill Gates is now single and ready to mingle!  For the main course this week, we dig in to some of our favorite brovet™ style election ads and dispute the premise that military service justifies running for political office. We reach across the aisle to mock all aspiring politicians: conservatives and democrats, men and women, parents and nonparents.       Finally, Mandy offers us the cure to our deranged Instagram algorithms.  

Mandy abandons the show this week for something actually impactful.  Meanwhile, Alex and Jim do the news.  Topics include: Joe Rogan being an anti-vax moron, Joe Biden's big ole' American Families Plan proposal, his dem-brain means-tested attempt at tuition-free college, Bernie's College for All plan (which is, of course, a million times better), Mark Zuckerberg evicting native Hawaiians from his newly purchased beach, and India's coronavirus woes.   Then we talk something many vets are thinking about: the War-That-Will-Not-End in Afghanistan.  While Biden blows off the May 1st troop withdrawal date, and the Taliban prepares to attack coalition bases in reprisal, veterans of Afghanistan are back home trying to make sense of it all.  Timothy Kudo captured this sentiment in a bottle with a NY Times opinion piece called "I Fought in Afghanistan. I Still Wonder, Was It Worth It?"  Though he hasn't quite figured out yet that WAR IS A RACKET, he still works through his own Hurt Locker Moment, like we all have (or will). Link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/opinion/afghanistan-war-biden-veterans.html If you want to reach out to us the best way is to send a note to pillowscreamradio@protonmail.com.  One of us will respond.  Being frustrated together is better than being frustrated alone.  #You'reNotTheOnlyOne -Jim & Alex

It's the Zach and Alex show now, ladies and gents! We talk Chauvin's trial (and god-awful Reddit takes), Ukraine shenanigans, and the militarization of video games. We have on our third ever guest, Zach from About Face Veterans, to talk about the history of the military entertainment complex and how Call of Duty Black Ops tries to convince us that the commies are coming to steal our toothbrushes. That's right, don't consume any media unless it's ours. That's the only way to be a good leftist. Anyways, it's a fun one, come check us out!

Jim's away! We can finally speak the truth!  Instead, we talk about Biden's pull-out game in Afghanistan, uncover some decent takes in the America First Caucus policy platform, and discuss Texas's plan to send parents of transgender youth to prison for supporting their kids.  Then, we set the record straight on the Army's SHARP program and why it sucks. This one gets heavy.   Also, Mandy claims that the first Jackass movie healed the nation after 9/11.  Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Posts are coming...maybe: @pillowscreampod 

Liberals suck.  Especially neoliberals.  And especially condescending neoliberals who want us to grow up and bend the knee to Joe Biden.  So we do our best in this episode to "have a dialogue" so we can find "common ground" with our "fellow progressives".  By that I mean we ridicule the cognitively dissonant, economically privileged, and sexually frustrated middle-class boomer lib types and why their arguments for liking Biden make about a much sense as, well, Biden. We also review another AWESOME week of American news.  Dead Royals (hell yeah), DMX died (hell nah), triggered baseball fans, cops being complete chuds to an active duty service member, and the Amazon Bessemer Warehouse Union Vote (RIP).  We also continue to explore our piss fetish and discuss the Egalitarian Philosophy of Pooping. Hope you burn in hell Philip, -Mandy, Jim & Alex