Greg & Brian catch up on all the exciting news from the past couple of weeks, from the constant need to struggle against revisionism to the new SPOG contract. Check out The Stranger’s writing on the proposed SPOG contract: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/04/05/79457408/in-new-police-union-contract-seattle-gives-cops-huge-pay-raises-but-gets-l…

Friends of the show Ryan Archibald and Brendan McElmeel are back to finish our discussion of the Byzantine structure of higher education institutions. We uncover the rot at that core of higher education and, guess what, it’s the same rot that is hollowing out everything in America! Want to learn more about the onset of neoliberalism? Check out Endi…

Brian is joined by old friend of the show Ryan Archibald and new friend of the show Brendan McElmeel for an exploration of higher education’s Byzantine labor system. Will we find light at the end of the maze or will we be killed by the Minotaur of adjunctification and budget cuts on the way? Only one way to find out! Read more about the CSU contrac…

The boys take a look into the future of high tech, literally! Then they discuss the JET taskforce’s raid of four Seattle gay bars over the weekend. Does the arrow of progress always bend toward justice? Or is reality more complicated than a story you tell children? Follow Vivian McCall’s reporting on the JET raids at The Stranger here: https://www.…

Greg and Brian catch up on some stories that we have been covering on the show. Tanya Woo, elected! (kind-of). Alec Baldwin, indicted! Boeing, the struggle continues! All that and more! If you never want to fly on a plane again, check out this breakdown of the lawsuit against Spirit Aerosystems made by a plane-crank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

This week on Mechanical Freak we’ve got Hannah Krieg from The Stranger to help us say our farewells to Andrew Lewis, the wettest council member ever to lose reelection. Check out Hannah’s city reporting in The Stranger and her Lewis retrospective in particular: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/01/08/79333251/drugs-hotel-workers-waffles-what-ha…

The boys get together to recap the UW National Championship debacle, lady problems at SPD, and an exciting new student outreach program at Florida State. Finally, we discuss South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ. Read South Africa’s case against Israel here: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00…

The boys get back together in the new year to talk about all the exciting new Seattle news. We check the help wanted ads at the Seattle Times before speculating on the new council and finish with a hot new cop-editorial in the Tacoma News Tribune. All that and more!! Catch the rest of this episode by becoming a patron on Patreon! patreon.com/Mechan…

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The boys are joined by journalist and author Vincent Bevins to discuss his new book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution. We have a wide ranging discussion about how the decade that produced the largest mass protests in human history, saw virtually nothing but setbacks for the Left internationally. Get a copy of Vincent B…

The boys share their thoughts on the death of Henry Kissinger and the resumption of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Finally, we talk with friend of the show Carl about what life is like under Israel’s unique brand of Apartheid. Maybe now is a good time to go back and listen to our 5th Annual Thanksgiving Pageant Spectacular! https://www.mechanic…

It’s that time of year again! Time to sit down at the table with family and friends, dig into your potatoes, and blast the Mechanical Freak Thanksgiving Pageant Spectacular at max volume through your open-back headphones to drown out your family. This year, we are joined by two Justins to talk local politics, one Dae to discuss sports gambling, and…

We’re joined by renowned media star Dae Shik Kim Jr to educate us on the recent lame Seattle election results. We also discuss the disappearance of Black people in baseball, the rise of pickleball, down bad stories, and place uncut gems style bets on Biden’s VP pick. Follow Dae on Twitter @daeshikjr Read Dae’s exit interview with Kshama Sawant in t…

We get back together to discuss the latest developments in Palestine and the new ghoulish tact that our feckless leaders have taken on it. Stare into the absolute depths of human depravity as the White House comments on Gaza here, here, here, and here

The boys discuss the latest developments in Palestine and dive into the neuroses that come from running an Apartheid state. Become a Patron and get extra content! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak For more on how Muslim extremist parties were used to undermine left-nationalist movements, see Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim For more on the creati…

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What caused the U-District and Ballard Targets to close? Was it crime? Was it big-city woke-ism? Was it a terrible business model that was never capable of competing against Amazon and local grocery stores? We get to the bottom of this mystery! Support the work of DivestSPD here: https://divestspd.substack.com/ Become a Patron and get extra content…

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Greg, Munya, and Brian get together to discuss the latest scandal to come out of the Seattle Police Department that has become a national, and now international, story. Support the work of DivestSPD here: https://divestspd.substack.com/ Support the journalistic work of Erica Barnett and PubliCola here: https://publicola.com/support/ Become a Patron…

Greg and Brian get together to discuss the housing market and listen to some old time rock n roll. Raised rates, displace, RealPage, anyways, it’s still unaffordable to me. Become a Patron and get extra content! Like the rest of this episode! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak

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Brian & Greg get together to catch up on all the news they missed over the last couple of weeks. Check out our episode on the Texas Power Grid: https://www.mechanicalfreak.website/podcast/episodes/texas-sucks-when-the-lights-go-down-in-texas Become a Patron and get extra content! Like the rest of this episode! patreon.com/mechanicalfreak…

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The boys get some funny news out of Utah before asking the eternal question, “Is Seattle allowed to tax its billionaires?” Answer: still no. But most importantly, we discover the Pulitzer Prize winning work of our favorite cartoonist, David “the Horseman” Horsey. See the doodles that made the Horseman a Pulitzer winner here: https://www.pulitzer.or…

Munya and Brian take a look at two seemingly opposing economic views – that this is the best economy that has ever existed and that Portland is populated solely by homeless drug addicts – before effortlessly synthesizing these contradictions into one unifying ancient alien theory. Become a Patron and get extra content! Like the rest of this episode…