Truth and Other Lies™

Listen to "Mishandled / T^OL2236" on Spreaker.

Mishandled

Episode: 2246

Music:

On August 8, 2022, FBI agents raided the Florida residence of former president Donald Trump, seizing more than three hundred classified documents. Although decried as a political maneuver by Trump supporters and Biden opponents – the two do not necessarily intersect – the real question is one of presidential power. Is the president accountable to the laws of the executive just as any other citizen or do the president’s proclamations carry the weight of and supersede statutory law?

James and Marc debate the customs and realities of presidential power on Truth and Other Lies: Mishandled.

HELIX_TAGS: CIA, Donald Trump, FBI, Hillary Clinton

Listen to "Citizen, Sovereign / T^OL2137" on Spreaker.

Citizen, Sovereign

Episode: 2137

Music:

Jungle Rooster

If you know someone who prefers travelling in a conveyance to driving in a car that person might be an adherent of the Sovereign Citizen movement: people who believe themselves capable of outmaneuvering judicial systems using obscure loopholes in the United States Code and creative interpretations of the Constitution.

They believe themselves to be beyond the law and think they can manipulate the law to effect that belief. Discover the origin and tactics of this peculiar ideology in Citizen, Sovereign.

Clarification

At 15:23, Marc uses the word claim when referring to tax returns. In this context, claim is synonymous with return.

Key Individuals in the Origin of the Sovereign Citizen Movement

HELIX_TAGS: SCOTUS, Posse Comitatus, Sovereign Citizen Movement, William Potter Gale, Tax Protest

Listen to "What About Bob? / T^OL2135" on Spreaker.

What about Bob?

Episode: 2135

Music:

Jungle Rooster

Area 51 is as much a part of the American lexicon as Coke, Kleenex, and malignant narcissist. However, like television and Phylo T. Farnsworth, Area 51 is only half of the story. The other half of the story is Bob Lazar, the man who brought Area 51 to the attention of most of the world.

We all know about Area 51, but what about Bob?

HELIX_TAGS: Aliens, Area 51, Bob Lazar, Gravity, Element 115

Listen to "Left-Wing Conspiracies / T^OL2123" on Spreaker.

Left-Wing Conspiracies

Episode: 2123

Music:

Jungle Rooster

Many of the conspiracy theories that pervade America’s social consciousness as fanciful dalliances had less than auspicious origins. Some of our favorite conspiracy theories grew from seeds of discontent sown by people resistant to potential realities.

Join us as we wade through the spectrum to explore Left-Wing Conspiracies.

The JFK Assassination
Corporations
Military Engagements

HELIX_TAGS: JFK, Capitalism, Socialism, Conspiracy Theory, Vietnam War, Big Tobacco, Big Oil

Listen to "Right-Wing Conspiracies / T^OL2122" on Spreaker.

Right-Wing Conspiracies

Episode: 2122

Music:

Jungle Rooster

Each political faction in America has a litany of ghost stories and urban legends they tell themselves to reinforce their perceptions and justify their value systems.

These ghost stories are usually known by a different term: Conspiracy Theories.

Conspiracy theories are as American as apple pie and fake wrestling. While most are as harmless as the cocktail party musings over the authenticity of the moon landings, others have destroyed lives.

Splitting the Spectrum

Episode: 2121

Music: Jungle Rooster

American society has an uncanny history of bifurcating support for issues: assuming a position on one side or the other and overlooking nuance and shades of gray. This propensity for polarization has led to the American body politick being divided into the unimaginatively named factions of Left and Right.

How did we get here and is it working for us?

Join the Jacobins to learn how Americans are Splitting the Spectrum.

HELIX_TAGS: Politics, Republican Party, Democrat Party, Spectrum Politics, French Revolution

Listen to "The Chinese Century II / T^OL2022" on Spreaker.

The Chinese Century II

Episode: 2022

Series: The Chinese Century

Explore the complexities of China’s invisible stranglehold on the global economy and journey with the Jacobins down a tantalizing path of intrigue and malice aforethought.

HELIX_TAGS: China, Coronavirus, Bernie Sanders, COVID-19, The Chinese Century

Listen to "The Chinese Century I / T^OL2021" on Spreaker.

The Chinese Century I

Episode: 2021

Series: The Chinese Century

China has grown from a simple society of agrarian feudalism to a global economic and military superpower in just seventy years, a feat rivalled only by America’s rise to power in the twentieth century.

In this two-part series that explores China’s role in the modern world, revisit the rise and fall of Dynastic China and the rise of its successor, the People’s Republic of China, a country of free peoples ruled by an authoritarian regime that ‘plays the long game’.

HELIX_TAGS: China, Economics, Communism, Authoritarianism, The Chinese Century

Mishandled

Citizen, Sovereign

Clarification

Key Individuals in the Origin of the Sovereign Citizen Movement

What about Bob?

Left-Wing Conspiracies

Right-Wing Conspiracies

Splitting the Spectrum

The Chinese Century II

The Chinese Century I

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