NEWS EP! AI apocalypse and regulation scenarios. Global shipping disrupted big time. Xi winning. Flights are grounded; nature is healing. AFD surge in Germany. All hail the Great and Powerful Theil!

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Show notes:

Riley on AI vs market capitalism: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/blind-guesses

China's AI Great leap forward: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/business/china-ai-economy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Global shipping in crisis: https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/5761d9f3-1150-4323-ab8e-41c9a56e3099

AI doomsday scenarios: https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/17/tech/how-will-ai-exterminate-humanity-cec

European Jet Fuel shortage: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europe-faces-q4-jet-fuel-supply-deficit-even-south-korea-becomes-latest-big-2026-09-21/

Karp audio: https://youtu.be/2YVCdwvG548?si=PJJLcaHdDeeb6SUs&t=447

Xi rolls Trump on trade: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/xi-rolls-into-trump-summit-with-chinas-trade-engine-roaring-2026-09-21/ Ukraine / Russia war analysis: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-battlefield/

German elections: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/world/europe/germany-merz-pressure-afd.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Song: Johnny Cash - Legend of John Henry

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In this bonus episode Andy and Sean are joined by roving media correspondent, Rax King, to get into some of the 80s/90s urtexts that created 21st century American culture: spoken word and standup comedy by Generation X luminaries Jello Biafra, Henry Rollins and Denis Leary. What do these cultural artifacts from a bygone era tell us about how all the highlights of organized American political life in this millennium - from Bush to Obama to Trump - came into being? Which aspects of what they critiqued are still discernable and which would be incomprehensible to a post-GFC, post-literate society?

This is the first episode of a new mini-series exploring the dark recesses of the Gen X mind.

To listen to the entire episode and all of our great bonus content, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage to support our work.

Sean and Andy are joined by historian Daniel Wortel-London to discuss his recent book The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development 1865-1981 out now from University of Chicago Press.

Without the taxes and jobs generated by wealthy firms and households, we are told, our communities cannot survive. But what if the costs of elite-driven growth outweighed its benefits? What if the wealthy were not the fiscal saviors of American cities, but their assassins? What if relying on the rich to “take care of everyone else” was neither politically nor financially sustainable? And what would all this mean for how our communities should develop economically?

His history is particularly timely as the Mamdani administration tries, within the bounds of political economy, to open up what Daniel calls the 'fiscal imaginary' of what is possible on a municipal level.

Song: Mobb Deep - Shook Ones Part II

&y, &ers Lee & a special SECRET guest (Jake Flores) compare some Zoomer 9/11 takes (via the Daily Wire) and the post-9/11 hot takes that got Susan Sontag, Amiri Baraka in some trouble.

For the full episode support the show at http://patreon.com/thiswreckage

Brooklyn vs. Dallas. Brownstones vs McMansions. Jelly Roll Morton vs. Jelly Roll. The Braves vs. The Savannah Bananas.

The authors of "Alphabet America" (Liam and Jackson) claim that their theory of a cosmopolitan America A and a psuedo-rural America B is "the most explanatory method of understanding the cultural divide," and that " the vast majority of people, whether they can name it or not, experience life in America this way more than they do under any other schema of social categorization we have seen."

We define the two Americas, pick apart their origins, speculate on if they're heading towards a civil war, and question how to engage with this specific type of polarization.

Alphabet America: https://newmoralworld.substack.com/p/alphabet-america

Gladio Free Europe: https://www.patreon.com/GladioFreeEurope

Phil Neel interview about Hinterland: https://brooklynrail.org/2018/04/field-notes/PHIL-NEEL-with-Paul-Mattick/

Songs: Dolly Parton - Tennessee Homesick Blues & Coat of Many Colors

Audio from our LIVE SHOW in Chicago at the first national ILC Convention!

For the full episode, including our panel with Jamie Merchant and 3 delegates from ILC locals, support us on patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

Song: Chicago - Saturday in the Park

&ers makes some recommendations for Mamdani's approach to the NYPD, &y recaps is Irish dérive, & we read together some excerpts from the recently departed Raoul Vaneigem

&ers essay on police reform: https://www.geesemag.com/articles/zohran-mamdani-needs-to-fire-jessica-tisch-but-who-will-he-replace-her-with

& reply from Ant L.: https://www.geesemag.com/articles/letter-the-nypd-is-none-of-our-concern

Basic Banalties: https://libcom.org/article/basic-banalities-parts-i-ii-raoul-vaneigem

Revolution of Everyday Life: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/raoul-vaneigem-the-revolution-of-everyday-life

Vaneigem's address to Greek anarchists in 2010: https://illwill.com/the-state-is-nothing-lets-be-everything

Song: Pink Floyd - Time

FOR THE FULL EPISODE, support the show at https://www.patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

NEWS EP! We preview our coming events in Chicago and New York, and read about the United States' comic inability to make artillery shells.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

FRI 8/21 This Wreckage live event: https://luma.com/tc972eyv

SAT 8/22 UFOlogy to the People event at the Beach: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachchicago/

SUN 8/23 Metropolitans event at Pilsen Community Books: https://www.instagram.com/p/DcMgcU2GRvQ/

WEDS 8/26 Heatwave Magazine release party at Night Club 101 in Manhattan: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/heatwave-magazine-launch-night-club-101-tickets/15029603

Song: Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business

The boys are back, Sean interviews Varn on his recent tour with Daniel Tutt, What did they learn and what did they see? Next is a segment about the DSA, its strategy and factions, present and future. What might we imagine coming of winning on the Democrat ballot line?

In the bonus room we get real doomer talking about the climate crisis, Complexity theory, public/private debt, the inability of US capitalists to get their shit together and the vagaries of Trumpism. You'll want to stick around for the discussion of ILC, DSA and pre-politics.

To check out this bonus content and much more become a patron at www.patreon.com/thiswreckage

To watch this on video and get tons of great educational material become a supporter at www.patreon.com/varnvlog

Sean (car painter) sits down with Billy OC (rod buster) and Gregory A. Butler (UBC retiree, IUOE member) to discuss the latter's new book The Workerist Manifesto. This is part 1 of a miniseries devoted to Greg's books, his news service Gangbox News and his many years of experience working in the trades and thinking about working class emancipation.

Chicago: get tickets for the This Wreckage Live Show sponsored by ILC Chicago on Friday, August 21st https://luma.com/tc972eyv?lm_source=embed

Song: Nourished by Time - Workers Interlude

Audio from our live panel on Saturday, July 25 at Woodbine where we go deeper on Varn & Tutt's new book The People Are Not One, starting with some normie vs. Marxist LARPing and ending with a spirited Q&A featuring Ross Wolfe, Greg Butler, Platypus, Donald Parkinson, and more!

For the full episode, support the show at http://patreon.com/c/thiswreckage

The event was sponsored by ILC of NYC Song: Run the Jewels - Goonies vs. E.T.