Attack + Dethrone Godcast

Our dear friend and brother Forrest Palmer, a co-host of ADG, passed away June 1st, 2024. We memorialize him in this final episode of Attack + Dethrone GodCast.

Patrick, Colin, Mike, Bill, and guest Dan Hanrahan, discuss the spirit, character, and mind of FP, and the incredible impact he had on our lives, and the lives of so many others.

During the meeting, we listened to messages from Rob Seimetz and Kenn Orphan. During the introduction presented by Patrick, three more messages are played: the first from Nate Farrigan, the second from Roy Wade, and the third from Margaret Kimberley.

We sincerely thank everyone who sent their messages to us for this episode, to remember our dear friend, brother, and comrade Forrest Palmer

Rest in peace and power, FP.

Bill got covid. Patrick is tired. Forrest is learning to take care of himself.

At least we got each other.

The Queen is dead, but pickleball is forever...

What does the ADG crew think about such pressing, world-shattering events as the dear Queen of the United Kingdom passing away at the ripe old age of 96? Or Mike's exploding influence in the world of pickleball, a sport that is bound to "save America" from itself? Or the power of ayahuasca to right the wrong that is the very being and outsized cultural presence of controversial football quarterback Aaron Rogers? Or Colin's experience at the literal shitshow that was Woodstock '99? You'll have to tune in (via your HAM radio setup, soon enough) to find out!

This is the grandest ADG yet! Two newcomers, a former educator in GOP-controlled Texas and a nurse in Alberta, Canada, join Patrick, Forrest, Bill, Colin, and previous guest Jonathan DeJong, for a compelling and expansive discussion on the ongoing social collapse of the United States. From the full-fledged emergence of a far-right theocracy seizing absolute power in the coming years, to the unrelenting stream of mass shootings and visible signs of institutional decay, this episode is an excavation, of sorts — an unearthing of the roots of the crisis, and what a path through it may look like.

Alley Valkyrie joins Forrest, Mike, and Patrick from her home in France to discuss what it means to be a Cassandra in a time of collapse. Alley decided to leave her home in the United States for France in 2017, and discusses her rationale for making such a drastic decision to leave — permanently. She also describes the fundamental cultural and political differences between French and US American perspectives on a large variety of issues, everything from the pandemic, access to healthcare, immigration, and the various manifestations of collapse. The common thread that weaves its way through this discussion is: Where will you be with everything falls apart?

Attack and Dethrone is back! Colin Boyd-Bigby joins Mike, Forrest, and I to talk with Jonathan DeJong, "doomer" and off-grid homesteader. He talks to us about his journey from being a financial advisor for thirty years, to dropping out of the capitalist game and living closer to the land in the Southwest. Mike discusses his new obsession, Pickleball, and Colin remarks on getting targeted ads for prison toilets. Forrest had numerous technical difficulties, and couldn't join us for most of the recording, unfortunately (he since has promised that will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN).

Friend of the podcast Bill Schmidt, along with 18-year-old adventurer Louis Koehler, join us for the first half of this episode. Louis has lived much of his life divided between the United States and Germany, and after graduating from high school, ⁠decided to trek across the US along the sunbelt⁠, from Southern California to Florida, with his bike and anything he could carry. In New Mexico, he landed on Mike's property, and had been spending several weeks there before eventually moving on. All five of us discuss "solving your puzzle" -- something Mike and Louis have been discussing during their time together -- in our time of cascading shifts, collapse, and social fragmentation. In the second half, Forrest, Mike, and Patrick make some predictions (or merely guesses) about what this new year of 2022 will bring.

“Stop speaking in code” — speak directly and honestly. We reflect on what that means — from our personal relationships, to the sociopolitical consequences of leaders, and citizens, communicating with half-truths and within fabricated realities.

Forrest, Mike, and Patrick are back to discuss ol' Jeff Bezos blastin' off to the Great Unknown on his extremely phallic pet project. Instead of the United States and the USSR facing off in the Great Space Race of the 20th century, we now have billionaires coasting the high reaches of our planet's atmosphere, laying the groundwork for the industrialization of space. All while the planet burns. But hey, at least ol' Bezos thanked his workers and Amazon customers for making it happen!

We recorded this episode on Mike's birthday, so while he was tripping on the gland secretions of some desert toad he found, friend of the podcast Colin Boyd-Bigby stepped in to fill in his shoes. The focus of this episode revolves in great part around the Adam Curtis BBC documentary series, ⁠All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace⁠. We discuss Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and the outsized influence her work has had on the political, economic, and technological development in the United States.

We return to discuss the Academy Award-winning film ⁠Nomadland⁠, directed by ⁠Chloé Zhao⁠ and starring ⁠Frances McDormand⁠. We discuss the off-grid, nomadic life portrayed in the film and present some of our critiques of it -- what it lacks or altogether avoids to address throughout its narrative, displaying the precarity of contemporary life within the United States during an economic recession. Mike especially provides personal insights into the subject, as he lives in an intentional, somewhat off-grid community himself, and details the many things the film got right. We also then, jokingly, discuss our plans to form a cult with Mike at the helm, acknowledging how good he would look in an all-white suit leading our congregation of followers into the End of Days.

ADG returns. Forrest discusses his recent travails, including his experience of the widespread power outages in Texas several weeks ago, and the contrarianism of so-called "leftists" since the pandemic began last year. We also admit how damn sappy we all are, and express our love of our animal friends, and reflect on how the loss of pets is one of the hardest things to bear in life.

From there, we address "cancel culture," both in the overly-simplistic variety we see in popular culture today, and the more complex and nuanced view we present in this discussion, including the decision Patrick has made to deplatform several individuals from Last Born In The Wilderness.

Kenn Orphan joins Mike, Jeff, and Patrick for this episode of Attack & Dethrone for a wide-ranging conversation about.... practically everything. Social media censorship and the digital commons, the power grid failure in Texas (Forrest couldn't join us because of it... he lives in Houston), rising fascism in the US, shitty jobs and the perils of being a working class person, and -- as always -- collapse and the Empire eating itself alive.

The crew returns to Attack & Dethrone to discuss the Capitol siege on January 6th in Washington DC, including the outright absurdity of the event, and the implications of what may come next as the United States continues its steady and predictable descent into reactionary, conspiracy-laden political suicide.

The whole crew is back for a wide-ranging conversation on psychedelics, cannabis, hard drug use, addiction, police violence, and so-called leftists outing themselves as merely contrarians in the Covid era.

Forrest, Jeff, and Patrick have a somber conversation about the toll the coronavirus pandemic is having on their personal relationships, political views, and future plans as the United States continues to buckle under the weight of this crisis.

We are back! Forrest Palmer, now a regular part of the Attack & Dethrone Godcast, joins Michael, Jeff, and Patrick to discuss the new ⁠Borat⁠ movie and cover the US Presidential Election in all its agonizing glory. This episode is broken in three segments: the first part is a discussion around the new comedy film from Sacha Baron Cohen (recorded Oct. 31st); the second part focuses around what the results of the election may be as the votes come in (recorded election night, Nov. 3rd); and the third and last part is our assessment of what comes next as it became clear in the subsequent days after the election that Biden was going to win (recorded Nov. 6th). Also, we have our first sponsor: ⁠Eric Draitser⁠ promoting his new OnlyFans page!

Special guest Forrest Palmer joins us to discuss a whole lotta collapse, collapse, collapse. In the first segment, we riff on Trump getting the 'rona and the recent presidential debates. In the second segment, we do a reading of ⁠Indi Samarajiva⁠'s essay ⁠I Lived Through, and discuss the implications of the text, including the fact that we are currently living in a collapsed society in the United States.

Co-hosts Mike, Jeff, and Patrick begin this first episode of the Attack & Dethrone GodCast by discussing the realities of living in the United States six months into the Covid-19 pandemic. In the second segment, Patrick reads an excerpt of Chris Hedges' new article American Bloodlands published at ScheerPost, and the three of them then provide their thoughts and critiques of the piece.