Comedian Lee Camp joins Consortium News Radio for Episode 4, discussing the state of America’s wars, prisons and media, as well as his new comedy special to be released on mid-term U.S. Election Day, Nov. 6.
Consortium News Editor-in-Chief Joe Lauria interviews Lee Camp. Listen to the 32-minute interview here:
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Can’t find on SoundCloud or Player FM.
I have an RSS link on Podcast Addict but Episode 4 is not to be found there either.
Somebody needs to up their game or this project is dead before it gets properly started.
As a personal perspective:
Once years ago my wife and I were watching a TV pro US ” documentary” on the Vietnam war, and as she asked about different scenes I would lokk towards her and give my personal insight as both a Veteran and lifelong student of that conflict.
Upon one scene where it showed American soldiers throwing dead enemy bodies into a huge burial pit; and while they were doing so every now and then they would pose a body into a posiytion and laugh at the sight.
They were acting nonchalantly, smoking and joking the whole while.
I heard my wife turn my way in her recliner and before I could return her gaze she asked this question, “How could those men joke and laugh while burying the dead”?
I could not, dared not, then look into her innocent eyes, so I stared streight forward and said,” “Because if I hadn’t done so the full horror of what I had done and was then doing, would of driven me insane.”
The best comedians can bring out the absurdity the peoples bear in their daily lives and not of only distant ones actions but our own as well.
In todays world there are so many absurdities spoken by people as truth that if alone we would call them bald face liars or f’n idiots, but we never get a chance to confront them personaly.
The worst inhibitor for our wanting an outlet to vent such absurdities cannot and mostly dare not express those pent up feelings too.
But if ensconsed in front of our in home PC screen or in a crowded audience, who like us have some knowledge of what comedians jokes are like, we feel free to laugh out loud and clap when a punchline brings forth what is realy the insanity of those in power and their followers.
It is a form of community, one where we know others have these repressed opinions, and we laugh and clap with them.
This laughter lightens our inner load during and shortly thereafter we can talk to those who are complete strangers openly and candidly.
Then in what is known as the real world, once again the insanity outside the doors smacks us even harder between the eyes, but still we will be able to laugh if but alone in that insane world.
Can’t find this as a podcast.
Anybody got the url or RSS?
While I think Mr. Camp is good at what he does and he has a sharp and acerbic eye for the ridiculous, he needs help in microeconomics. The 2008 meltdown was not driven by companies, it was driven by banks who were playing US government. They were selling debt – a CDO is a Collateralized DEBT Obligation – something the USG does on a regular basis (all of this gets really complicated really quickly). There are some companies that operate as he suggested, companies like Tesla where your only return on your investment in the company is capital appreciation (read stock price appreciation) but most don’t. Most actually pay dividends and those aren’t nothing. Depending on company you’ll get a dividend equal to 3 to 6% of the stock price. Compare that to the half a point you’ll make on a savings account at a bank or 2% you might make on a 24 mo. CD.
What we need Mr. Camp to do is mock the corporate welfare that the banks and other companies get thanks to the unceasing efforts of their lobbyists. If we can’t have welfare queens, we also can’t have welfare corporations who make billions and pay no taxes.
I think I’ve figured out what’s going on with the comments here at CN, and the articles themselves for that matter. When the moderator comes to work in the morning, the first thing he or she does is replace the page being displayed with the page that was up at the end of the previous workday. All comments and articles from that time hence disappear, and then reappear after they have been vetted by the moderator. In effect, we are all under constant moderation. While this may make it easy for the moderator to control the comments, it makes timely debate impossible. When is the last time anyone has seen “your comment is awaiting moderation” when they post? Instead the comment is posted and then immediately removed until it has been vetted by the moderator. Anyway, that’s my latest theory. Make sense? BTW, I have emailed CN twice at the “contact us” link asking for an explanation, and so far I haven’t gotten any reply.
I tried watching Lee Camp on RT but he was/is to much of a sophomoric vulgarian.
That guy may sometimes have the right message, but until if and when he grows up, he’s the wrong messenger.
I think he’s a great messenger. You probably don’t think much of Caitlin Johnstone either. And why are you afraid to post your name, or even a consistent handle?
I found it interesting that Joe Lauria said he hasn’t had or watched cable TV for eight years. That is a strategy that should be emulated by everyone. The best way to impact the oligarchy is to vote with your wallet and your lifestyle choices. Opt out until we get the change we want. Keep your money local, grow a “no Monsanto” garden, and barter time and skill sets whenever possible. That’ll do way more than choosing between corporate sponsored warmonger from column “A” or column “B”.
I used to watch Lee Camp on RT which is the only TV news and current affairs program for me. However, much as I like lee Camp’s content, I just can’t watch the show because of the stupid whoops, screams and generally raucous and unnecessary racket from his audience. Its not just occasionally, its after every sentence and frankly, destroys the import of what he has to say.
hello
A very interesting and intelligent conversation.
Very true, Joe Lauria, that humor can often speak sharp truths to power. When people have laughed at the absurdities, they often realize the truths themselves.
Perhaps Lee Camp can try some written articles as well, and complement Caitlin Johnstone. Interviews may drift, but hold interest with energy and variety.
On the other hand, when I see these Late Night Shows everywhere nowadays, trying to push propaganda onto people with “humor”, I feel sick in the stomach.
Are you accusing Lee Camp of that? He isn’t pushing propaganda, he’s making fun of it. Bill Maher makes me sick to my stomach with his arrogance and ignorance.
It was a pleasure to meet Lee Camp at the Women’s March on the Pentagon. Keep fighting!
I think it’s funny that the really big issue which is that the US is not a democracy is not raised nor discussed, and so people are reduced to silly street demonstrations which don’t accomplish anything. I mean why is it that we have all kinds of polls about what people think about this and that, but no meaningful polls as to whether the country’s military should stay in Afghanistan for another month after the seventeen years of death and destruction? Why is there no attempt to develop a popular conception of what should be done on health care and human rights? According to Real Clear Politics polls, a majority of people feel the country is going in the wrong direction, so how about developing an agenda for changing direction to something that people support?
I think it’s funny that nobody advocates correcting the current situation to bring democracy to the USA, especially when one looks at the stats which show the USA is dead last in a number of categories compared to other advanced nations. We’re talking life expectancy (now decreasing), maternal and infant morbidity, people in prison, suicides, murders, vacation time — the list goes on.
Oh, but we have a democracy, the story goes. We get to vote for one schmuck or another every two or four years, someone who is bought and paid for by others with more jingle in their pockets. Not good enough, which is funny.
Yes, the policies and debates that democracy would produce cannot even be advocated, because we no longer have a democracy. If democracy is ever restored in the US, it must be stabilized by amendments to protect elections and mass media debate from economic power, better checks and balances within the government branches, purging the corrupt judiciary and Congress, monitoring of government officials for corruption, and regulation of business so that oligarchic bullies and scammers do not rise to control economic power.
>reduced to silly street demonstrations which don’t accomplish anything.<
I think serious people who don't like what the government is doing are alienated by ludicrous political street carnivals. It undermines developing a consensus among competent people that might actually have an effect on the government.
Great interview Joe. Thanks.
One comment. When listing all of Obama’s failures please put them into the proper context when discussing. It’s not that Obama had a chance to do some good things and he failed for various reasons. It’s because Obama was put in power to KEEP the status quo. He knew his role. He knew he had to cover up war crimes and Wall Street crimes. He knew he had to squelch any chance of single payor.
He was put in power to do these things and he succeeded (unfortunately for America and the World). And we have Trump as a result.
Context matters.
I can not get the video clip of the comedy special to play worth a damn. There was also supposedly a link to the clip at a URL that had to do with Uncle Sam – nothing loads there. I guess I’m getting paranoid – I don’t think it’s coincidence. Does it work for anyone?
I couldn’t either – play the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=1GuebPgik58
I posted this YouTube link to the interview earlier, but for some reason it disappeared. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=1GuebPgik58
Now I see them both. Bizarre!
Lee Camp is one of the best voices we have calling out the issues that are wrecking the country and our world. His insight and humor are for us today what Jon Stewart was during the Bush administration. Thanks, CN, for adding him to your team!
Listened to the interview. Good questions that dug into what the comedian, Lee Camp is about. I actually get bored with the comedy of politics because as Rachel Maddow was brought up… it is corporate and bias-scripted… leaning to a narrative that the system wants regular folks to embrace.
It’s said that “sarcasm is the wit of fools” and I find facts much more interesting than making lite of serious issues because that default (sarcasm) is all too easy to get stuck in.
As far as “hope” goes – hope is a poor business plan. It’s a poor plan for anything. Period. The interview literally outlines issues and in the end we speak of hope. Getting to know the issues from whatever perspective and coming up with solutions as opposed to complaining goes beyond hope… it’s movement. Movement towards a goal and it is clear that with everything around us, all of our inventions, humans have an unlimited mind… only limited by our own self-belief and the outer most layer of our mind – the physical body.
We can accomplish anything, which means we don’t need to erase America or destroy its borders… we can fix it. And that brings up another point. America was discussed in this interview as if it is the only nation with problems. Certainly America was great but its capitalistic system was hijacked to spread product placement across the world. Its policies and military are like the strong son of a maniacal father… that father being globalization. America and its tax base is being used to aid in the creation of chaos. It is being prodded to destroy itself. That inertia can be reversed but as long as the narrative is controlled by corporate and biased government entities it will be hard, especially as social media continues to censor other news/opinion outlets.
On surveillance the UK has the most CCTV surveillance cameras per capita worldwide. China is fast approaching that. The notion that America is the worst surveillance nation… maybe. Most nations are adopting surveillance measures of their local populace. China is literally creating a social credit system that is geared towards rewards for those who praise the Chinese government/policies and punishes those who bring up a differing opinion… these reward/punishments are applied to who you befriend even. This is a way to mold people online. Think Facebook ran by China. Scary.
http://globalproject.is/forum/showthread.php?t=3377&highlight=social+credit
Overall interesting interview. Thanks!
It should be remembered though that much of what is coming out about China is part of a coordinated Trump Administration propaganda campaign in order to stoke war rhetoric (admitted even in the mainstream media). Very dangerous, although I have no doubt China does all of those things- the US & UK are no saints (corporate guard dog Atlantic Council is censoring Facebook and Twitter globally with no democratic decision-making, keep in mind Snowden/Assange/Manning).
Great discussion Joe and Lee. Thank you! I feel optimistic :)
Love this Lee Camp guy!
We need humor these days, maybe more than just about anything else.
Otherwise, I just shake my head all day hearing about the state of things.
Comedy Central used to make me laugh with Stewart/ Cobert…