Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

The U.S. Election is finally, it appears, over. It looks as if Joe Biden is the next President Elect of the United States and that Donald Trump and his will be out of the White House by 2021. Kamala Harris will join Joe Biden in the White House as Vice President replacing Mike Pence. Democrats are celebrating in the streets over the victory, believing it represents the defeat of a 21st century fascist threat, while Trump and his supporters accuse the election of being rigged through a voter fraud conspiracy. What will the future hold for a post-Trump America? Journalist JP Sottile aka the Newsvandal joins us to provide his always insightful analysis. In this conversation JP and I discuss: - The landscape of mainstream and alternative media; Chris Ruddy and Newsmax; class and making it journalism; what has the effect of the Trump Presidency been on journalism and the press?; Fox News - The projections of Presidential victories in the media, exit polling, and the 2000 election - The election as a referendum on Trump and how Trump has created a "distortion field" that obscures what the American people want in terms of policy; the Presidential Election as a Trump "reality show" - The off-year elections in 2022 and what it will say about what Americans want - Do Americans want progressivism?; Does progressivism have a messaging problem?; the "Defund the Police" movement; Democratic Party Strategist James Carville and others blaming progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar for Democrats' downballot losses; AOC's New York Times interview; can progressives learn a thing or two from the long game of the evangelical Christian Right over the past half century? - The Lincoln Project; did it play a role in the election? - High voter turnout and how the conventional wisdom of higher turnout equaling a Democratic "Blue Wave" didn't pan out -  Military Keynesianism and demand side economics; can Keynesian be applied to other areas rather than those the benefit what has been referred to as the military industrial complex?; the World Economic Forum and the transnational capitalist class; supply side economics vs demand side economics; is Reaganism/Thatcherism over and did Trump show the cracks in its acceptance? - Richard Spencer's support of Biden/Harris; is Spencer getting what he wanted in the sense that the focus of the Democratic Party's leadership is shifting toward an even more "law and order" route going forward; the history of "liberal" as an epithet during the Reagan era and how "socialist" has become the new epithet

I thought this episode would be interesting as we get through the election process this year. Enjoy! - J.G. On this edition of Parallax Views, much has been made about the role of money in the outcomes of political elections, at least within . In academic disciplines, however, this has often been seen as heresy. In fact, some view it as nothing more than conspiracy theory. And, truth be told, it would likely be overly simplistic to argue that a small handful of shadowy individuals select the two Presidential candidates every four years in U.S. elections. However, political scientist Dr. Thomas Ferguson, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston,  dispenses with such oversimplifications while also making the case, through his extensive empirical research, that, yes, money in politics DOES, as a matter of fact, influence electoral outcomes. After receiving his Ph.D at Princeton University, Dr. Ferguson went on to teach, for a time, at MIT. During his academic travels he delved into the history undergirding FDR and the New Deal. In doing so he developed an alternative model to understanding elections that challenged the median voter theorem. This came to be known as the investment theory of part competition, which Dr. Ferguson elaborated upon in his landmark book Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems, he joins us on this edition of the program to discuss this theory, how he came to developing it, and his thoughts on the 2020 Presidential election pitting Republican incumbent Donald Trump against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In the course of our conversation we also discuss: - Rahm Emmanuel's declaration that 2020 would be the year of the Biden Republican - Thoughts on the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party and the development of small donor power in elections - Why conspiracy theories have become so popular - The stunning defeat of Joe Kennedy by Ed Markey in the Massachusetts Senate race - Thoughts on the panic-laden Deutsche Bank report by Jim Reid warning investors of an "Age of Disorder" - And much, much more! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this edition of Parallax Views, Morris Kight was a radical antiwar, civil rights, and labor activist, but he's probably most remembered today as a gay rights icon. "Wait," you may be saying, "I've heard of Harvey Milk. I've heard of RuPaul. But I've never heard of Morris Kight." No, folks, I'm not exagerrating. Morris Kight had a long and storied life as an activist, especially within the burgeoning LGBTQ community, on the West Coast during the 20th century. So who was Morris Kight and why isn't he more well-known? Mary Ann Cherry, a friend of Kight in his later years and the author of the Feral House publication Morris Kight: Humanist, Liberationist, Fantabulist, joins us on this edition of program to answer both those questions. Among other things we discuss: - The charismatic, "dandy"-style of Morris Kight and it's similarities to fellow gay icon Gore Vidal - Morris Kight's antiwar activism, specifically his actions directed against Dow Chemical during the Vietnam War - Morris Kight's socialist tendencies and skepticism of the two-party political duopoly - The infamous homophobic sign at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood that Morris and other activists protested to get taken down due to its discriminatory nature - Morris Kight's brush with the Los Angeles gangster Eddie Nash of Wonderland Avenue Murders infamy - And much, much more!

For the penultimate episode of our Parallax Views Halloween series, John Cussans joins us to discuss his book Undead Uprising: Haiti, Horror, and the Zombie Complex. Believe it or not, the zombie wasn't always simply a figure of flesh-ripping, brain eating apocalyptical disease and undead horror. The zombie begins as a figure within Haitian folklore and Voodoo (Voudon) before eventually coming to Western pop culture. John argues that the zombie's migration to the West was underpinned by white Western fears of voodoo-fueled black slave uprisings in Haiti and has evolved from there. In addition, he makes the case that the myths of Haitian voodoo has been used, at least in terms of its imagery and cultural power, as a weapon of control by Western elements such as intelligence agencies (WWII black ops; see: Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die), journalists, white liberals who seek to "carebearize" the religion, and transgressive revolutionaries like George Bataille,  etc. We delve into all these topics as well as the connection between mesmerism and the early zombie in pop culture, Wade Davis' The Serpent and the Rainbow and John's critique of it, thoughts on Frank Wilderson III and Afropessimism, conspiracy theories and Videodrome, the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier, Western "ju ju journalism", Baron Samedi, the Bizango secret society, and much, much more. This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

For the Devil's Night edition of the Parallax Views countdown to Halloween we delve into the real history of the New Jersey Devil myth and how it connects to today's problem fake news. Joining us to unravel the story is Prof. Brian Regal, co-author with Frank J. Esposito of The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster. In this fascinating book Regal and Esposito argue the the tale of the Jersey Devil, the hideous, pegasus-like, cursed "13th Child" monster spawn of Mother Leeds, is actually originates in the real-life figure of Daniel Leeds and his struggles against superstitious Quakers centuries ago. Leeds, a promoter of Scientific Enlightenment ideals, thought to spread knowledge in early America by way of an almanac. But due to his belief in astrology he ran afoul of New Jersey's Quakers, who saw him as an occultist and, later, "Satan's Harbinger". The tale of Daniel Leeds Vs. the Jersey Quakers, Regal says, shows that political mudslinging, despite how bad many consider it today, has been a bare-knuckled tradition in America since its earliest days. But the story doesn't end there as Daniel Leeds son, Titan Leeds, get smeared as a sorcerer by none other than one of America's Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, in what may well be one of the earliest instances in America of the fake news phenomena... or at the very least show Franklin as a innovator of Fake News! And then, later on, the slanders against the Leeds morph into the myth of the Jersey Devil by way of P.T. Barnum carny hucksters looking to sucker a few rubes with wild stories of a monster in the Pine Barrens. It's a complicated and fascinating story that can't possibly be fully explained in this summary, but trust me when I say Regal lays it all out in riveting detail. He even manages to explain where the origins of the witch-like "Mother Leeds" in Jersey Devil lore. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views. This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this bonus edition of Parallax Views we take a break from our Halloween series to chat about getting out the vote w/ filmmakers Angela Barnes (formerly Angela Gomes) and Paul Fox. In case your unfamiliar, Angela and Paul are the creators of the "Get Your Booty to Poll" Public Service Announcement that employed pole dancers and strippers to explain the importance of voting, specifically in local elections, in Atlanta. Targeted towards Atlanta's potential black male voters, "Get Your Booty to the Poll" has generated much controversy. Some argue that it perpetuates negative stereotypes of black men and women. Others argue it is pro-sex worker and only being attacked on grounds of "respectability politics". Angela and Paul join us, in light of the second "Get Your Booty to Poll" PSA (which addresses some of the 1st PSA's critics) being released), to discuss why they did it, what they hope it achieves, and thoughts on the debate and discussion it has generated. This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

The Parallax Views Halloween special continues as we talk to a filmmaker who has been bringing together social issues, specifically racism, and horror together years before Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us.  Pittsburgh-native Rusty Cundieff has directed episode of of Chappelle's Show, acted as a correspondent on Michael Moore's TV Nation, acted in Spike Lee's School Daze, and helmed the hip hop mockumentary Fear of a Black Hat. But he is perhaps best known for his 1995 horror anthology Tales from the Hood starring Clarence Williams III as the Crypt Keeper-esque storyteller "Mr. Simms", Psych's Corbin Bernsen, Rosalind Cash, David Alan Grier, and Wing Hauser among others. The film touched on a number of issues including police brutality and domestic abuse as well as pointedly commenting, in one specific segment, on then then hot topic of former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke. Duke, at that time, had once served as a Congressman in the Louisiana House of Representative and made campaign runs for Senate and Governor. If you ever wanted to see David Duke menaced by dolls possessed by the spirits of plantation slaves, well, then this is the movie for you. Or, for that matter, if you ever wanted to see corrupt, drug dealing, murderous cops get their just desserts or hearing Clarence Williams III repeatedly say "THE SHIT!" (this particular aspect of the film has become legendary) you'll have a ball with Tales from the Hood. Since its release Tales from the Hood has produced two sequels, Tales from the Hood 2 and Tales from the Hood 3, and the similarly-themed anthology, also made by the duo of Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott, entitled American Nightmares. These three films have continued the tradition of social horror found in Tales from the Hood and featured such actors and actresses as Keith David, Candyman's Tony Todd, Saturday Night Live's Chris Kattan, Vivica A. Fox, and Danny Trejo among others. In this conversation we cover all of those films, the social power of the horror genre, Dave Chappelle and having one's art misinterpreted, the influence of the Twilight Zone's Rod Serling on Cundieff and Scott's horror anthology, different racial reactions to Tales from the Hood, a great Corbin Bernsen story, and much, much more.  This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

The count to Halloween continues as Parallax Views celebrates the ladies of horror movies otherwise known as "Scream Queens"! From Janet Leigh in Psycho to her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, a variety of actresses have appeared in scary movies over the years and made the role of women in horror a pivotal one to say the least. And, often times, the "Scream Queens" aren't just relegated to using their well-known superpowered lungs. Indeed many a horror film has featured females who fight back, especially in the form of the "Final Girl" trope, such as Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in the Scream franchise, and Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) in Friday the 13th among many others. So in order to celebrate the gals who add a feminine touch to the scary movies we all know and love I invited two actresses associated with the genre onto the program just in time for Halloween. That's right, it's another Parallax Views double feature! Two interviews for the price of one! First up... Linnea Quigley, the "Queen of the B's", joins us to discuss her long career in film and how she became one of the most recognizable "Scream Queens" of the 1980s due to her appearances in cult classics like Return of the Living Dead; Night of the Demons; Silent Night, Deadly Night; Graduation Day; Nightmare Sister; Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama; and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Hell, she's even had the chance to pop out of Freddy Krueger's chest in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, a scene which has an interesting behind-the-scenes story you'll here in our conversation. And if that wasn't enough she's been the subject of documentaries (including the great Screaming in High Heels), appeared in music videos by rock bands like the Revolting Cocks and Motorhead, written an autobiography (The Linnea Quigley Bio & Chainsaw Book) and a memoir (I'm Screaming As Fast As I Can: My Life in B-Movies), and has her very own workout video aptly entitled the Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout. Seriously, how many Scream Queens have their very own workout video? As I say to Linnea during our conversation, "Eat your heart out Jamie Lee Curtis!" We cover all the bases we can in fast-paced half hour conversation with Linnea that manages to touch on her surreal experiences in Hollywood (including a marriage proposal story you'll never forget, the trials and tribulations of having make-up FX put on you, a tale of topless guerrilla filmmaking, the famous "deer antlers" murder scene in Silent Night, Deadly Night, and what it's like doing nudity on camera), her experiences in the punk scene (Linnea was as regular at punk rock club The Masque in L.A.), and her love of animals that has led her to vegetarianism and animal rights advocacy! All that and much more with the "Queen of the B's" Linnea Quigley! Then... In our second interview we speak with actress, journalist, and teacher Deborah Voorhees (aka Debi Sue Voorhees). As fans of the 80s slasher movie juggernaut that made Jason Voorhees a household name will tell you, Deborah portrayed the "Tina", who suffered a grisly fate at by way of garden shears in 1985's Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning. Since then, as previously mentioned, Deborah has gone on to careers in journalism and education, but lately horror movie fans have brought her back to the world of cinema. In fact, as of the recording of this interview, Deborah has just finished editing her directorial debut, 13: Fanboy. Returning to her horror roots, Deborah's 13: Fanboy is about a deranged fan who stalks the cast of the Friday the 13th series. The film features such Friday the 13th alumni as the original Friday the 13th's Adrienne King, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood's Lar Park Lincoln and Jennifer Banko, two different Jason Voorhees actors in the form of Kane Hodder and C.J. Graham, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning's Ron Sloan, Friday the 13th Part III's Tracie Savage, and even Corey Feldman (who fans will remember appeared in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning). Hell, the movie even features a turn by Debra Sullivan who wrote the script for one of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies and an appearance by Dee Wallace of Joe Dante's The Howling, Steven Speilberg's E.T., Critters, Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem, Stephen King's Cujo, and many other fan favorite genre features! Deborah describes the movie as both a psychological thriller that'll be enjoyed by viewers outside of the Friday the 13th fandom as well a a flick that promises a few good throwback and slasher moments for longtime fans of the Friday the 13th franchise. In this conversation Deborah and talk both about her experiences with Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning as well as the exciting project 13: Fanboy. Also, Deborah explains how her teaching career was abruptly ended when her students found out she was in Friday the 13th Part V. A few boys passed around pictures of her nude scene in the movie and this led to administrative officials to firing her just weeks before her students' graduation. But, believe, it or not this story has a touching end and an emotional moment between Deborah and her students, including one of the male students who passed around the pictures in question. All that and more on this special "INVASION OF THE SCREAMS QUEENS!" edition of Parallax Views! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

With only a few days left till Halloween, we continue the #ParallaxViewsHalloweenMassacre by turning our attention the urban legend/creepypasta mash-up known as Polybius. According to internet a strange video game, known as Polybius, briefly popped up around arcades in or near Portland, Oregon during the height of arcade-mania in the 1980s. Allegedly the game cause strange, spooky side effect including being highly addictive, causing physical illness, and psychological impacts leading to outcomes like, most frighteningly, suicide. And that's not where the creepiness of this digital campfire tale ends. There also was allegedly mysterious "Men in Black" figures that would check on the game with unusual devices. Moreover, the game's developer was said to be a company called Sinneslöschen, which roughly translated from the German would mean something like "Sense Deletion" or "Sensory Deprivation". As the legend goes the enigmatic game disappeared from arcades as quickly as it had arrived. The earliest recorded references to Polybius date back to the 2000's vis-à-vis an entry on the arcade game website CoinOp.Org. Since then, Polybius has gained a life its own within pop culture eventually, among other things, being referenced in The Simpsons and a Nine Inch Nails music video. And, although there is no evidence to confirm the existence of the mysterious arcade game, the legend soon grew so great that actual Polybius video games began to make the rounds of the gaming world. There's even, believe it or not, a Playstation 4 game bearing the title that was released in 2017. But what of the a malevolent game that allegedly haunted Oregon arcades for a short time in the 80s? Most say it is a hoax or a mere myth. Others continue to believe that somewhere the game exists. Some speculate, due to the "Men in Black" referenced in the original legend, that the game was part of a CIA mind control experiment like MK-ULTRA. In any case, Polybius has become a staple of digital campfire tales on the World Wide Web and has certainly captured the imagination of the culture. This should come as no surprise, since details about the supposed game, beyond the original urban legend itself, are extremely sparse. As such it has been left to others to fill in the blanks and from there it's off to the races as imaginations run wild trying to answer the question: What was Polybius? Filmmaker and horror novelist David Irons, who often dabbles in "retro-novels" drenched in big hair, cocaine, and MTV aesthetics of the Reagan-era 80s, is just one person who asked that question. And he most certainly let his imagination run wild in answering it when writing his new book, Polybius. In this novel Irons, whose previous books include Graveyard Billy, Night Waves: Something Has Been Set Free, Wolf Moon, and Night Creepers, uses the Polybius legend as launching pad for a madcap story that crosses the teenaged coming-of-age hijinks of The Breakfast Club with the gory melodrama of 80s creature feature horror movies Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps, and Chopping Mall. And, of course, he does it all with a more general aesthetic of retro nostalgia that is drenched in neon and looking to give Stranger Things a run for its money! He joins us on this edition of the program to discuss the book, horror more generally, and much, much more! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

The Parallax Views countdown to Halloween continues as we revisit the life and times of the actor most associated with Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi, w/ the world's foremost Bela Lugosi scholar Gary D. Rhodes. Previously joined us to discuss Lugosi's cinematic career from his runaway success and rise to superstardom courtesy the Universal Studios classic Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) to his later years appearing in the notorious films of the infamous Ed Wood such as Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and Bride of the Monster (1955). In this conversation we shift our focus to the political life of Bela Lugosi including his involvement in the Hungarian Revolution of 1919, Gary's research into Bela's support of working classes causes, Lugosi's anti-fascism, and how Lugosi's early life may have shaped his politics. And then we delve into the little known story of how Lugosi headed up an organization called the Hungarian-American Council for Democracy. This led to Lugosi being monitored by the early U.S. intelligence agency known as the OSS, whom referred to the HUACD as the "Dracula Council" and believed it to be a communist front organization. It turns out, however, that Lugosi was also informing the OSS on the activities of Hungarian fascists in the U.S. while those very same fascists reported on Lugosi to the same agency! It's a wild tale that Gary has dubbed a "Horror Noir" and it doesn't end with the OSS. In fact, Gary's scholarship, which involved digging through national archives and making Freedom of Information Act requests, shows that after WWII the FBI was monitoring Lugosi well into the 1950s when the horror icon's star had faded and he was close to death. It's a fascinating story and definitely one you won't want to miss this Halloween season as Gary D. Rhodes returns to Parallax Views! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window