Posted by Alexander Jerri
On This Day in Rotten History...
In the year 222 – (1,795 years ago) – the eighteen-year-old Roman emperor Elagabalus was ambushed and beheaded in a plot instigated by his own grandmother. Some historians portray him as an eccentric who alienated Romans by appointing unqualified people to high positions, forcing changes to public religion and rituals, and violating sexual taboos. For example, he married a Vestal Virgin while keeping a stable of male lovers. In some accounts, Elagabalus was not only fond of cross-dressing, but actually turned tricks as a prostitute, selling himself in taverns and in the imperial palace. The ancient Roman historian Cassius Dio claims that the emperor also offered huge sums of money, in vain, to any surgeon who could give him a sex change — and some recent authors have theorized that he may well have been transsexual or transgender. But other modern writers suspect that Elagabalus’s reputation was mostly fabricated after his death by the political rivals who killed him. After his headless body was dragged around Rome and dumped into the Tiber River, his name was removed from the official public record, and many of his political allies were also killed.
In 1864 – (153 years ago) – a tiny crack was noticed in a newly constructed earthen dam at Bradfield Reservoir in central England. In late afternoon, the crack was barely wide enough to accomodate a knife blade. But throughout the evening it steadily grew, provoking alarm among workers who finally resorted to using gunpowder in a desperate attempt to open an emergency spillway and relieve the water pressure. Their efforts failed, and just before midnight the dam collapsed, dumping almost seven hundred million gallons of water in a raging torrent that surged into the nearby industrial town of Sheffield. The flood killed some 250 people, and destroyed more than 400 houses, 20 bridges, and 100 factories and shops. The dam was one of only two designed by the civil engineer Sir Robert Rawlinson. His other dam lasted just twenty-nine years, requiring constant expensive repairs the whole time. In contrast, nine other dams built by Rawlinson’s rivals around the same time, and in the same area, are still in service today.
In 1918 – (99 years ago) – at Fort Riley, Kansas, Private Albert Gitchell, a US Army mess cook, was diagnosed with a new and unknown strain of the flu. He was the first... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Listen live from 9AM - 1:00PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM / stream at www.thisishell.com / subscribe to the podcast
9:15 - Journalist Kate Aronoff explains why the climate movement needs a new politics, beyond the Democratic establishment.
Kate is author of the cover story The Climate Movement Goes to War with Trump at In These Times.
10:00 - Political scientist Susan Kang pokes holes in the flawed gospel of political polling.
Susan wrote the article What Nate Missed in the latest issue of Jacobin.
10:35 - Journalist Marcy Wheeler unpacks the scope of the Vault 7 Wikileaks / CIA hacking dump.
Marcy wrote the articles Wikileaks Dumps CIA's Hacking Tools and No More Secrets: Vault 7 at her site emptywheel.
11:05 - Sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom traces the for-profit college boom to our busted economy.
Tressie is author of the book Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy from The New Press.
12:05 - Journalist Victoria Law examines the legal labyrinth facing parents post-incarceration.
Victoria wrote the recent article Double Punishment: After Prison, Moms Face Legal Battles to Reunite With Kids for Truthout.
12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen monitors our current dystopia.
Would have never thought it would be in such crisp, high-definition.
Posted by Alexander Jerri
On This Day in Rotten History...
In 1238 – (779 years ago) – a hastily mustered Russian army led by Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal was attacked by an army of the Mongol Hordes led by the general Burundai at the Sit River, near what is now Sonokovo, Russia — some three hundred miles southeast of modern-day St. Petersburg. The Mongols had already sacked Prince Yuri’s capital, after which he and his brothers pursued a counterattack, only to find that they were surrounded. Yuri and his army tried to flee, but made it only as far as the Sit River, where the entire force was taken out in a bloody battle in which the Mongols also suffered heavy losses. This key event inaugurated two centuries of Mongol domination of modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
In 1519 – (498 years ago) – the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés made his first landing on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, accompanied by some eleven ships, five hundred men, thirteen horses, and plenty of cannon, guns, and other weapons. Here, after claiming the land for the Spanish crown, Cortés began his campaign of conquest, forming key alliances with certain locals in order to vanquish the natives more generally. Cortés’s campaign would lead him up through Veracruz and then west to the great Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Arriving in that city with a large army, he met with the imperial ruler Moctezuma and established friendly relations with him in order to learn his weaknesses — the better to wipe him out two years later, destroy his city, and take possession of the empire, which he personally ruled for three years.
In 1986 – (31 years ago) – after playing a gig in Winter Park, Florida, with his bandmates in The Band, the singer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel returned to his hotel room at a nearby Quality Inn, drank a bottle of Grand Marnier, entered the bathroom, and used a belt to hang himself from the shower curtain rod. An autopsy would later reveal cocaine in his bloodstream. In the Seventies, Manuel had suffered from depression and struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism, which had curbed his songwriting and damaged his singing voice. But in the Eighties, spending time in rehab had seemed to help. He died at the age of forty-two.
Rotten History is written by Renaldo Migaldi
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Listen live from 9AM - 1:00PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM / stream at www.thisishell.com / subscribe to the podcast
9:15 - Journalist Rachel Aspden explains how the Arab Spring came to Egypt, and why it failed.
Rachel is author of Generation Revolution: On the Front Line Between Tradition and Change in the Middle East from Other Press.
10:00 - Writer Nicole Aschoff looks from the start of Trump's presidency to the end of neoliberalism.
Nicole wrote the article The Glory Days are Over for Jacobin.
10:35 - n+1 editor Dayna Tortorici makes the case for a Women's Strike now. Well, March 8th.
Dayna wrote the new piece While the Iron Is Hot: The case for the Women's Strike at n+1.
11:05 - Economist Clair Brown lays out the framework for a new compassion within economics.
Clair is author of the book Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science from Bloomsbury Press.
12:05 - Political theorist Jodi Dean explains why the Communist Manifesto is more relevant, and needed, than ever.
Jodi wrote the introduction to a new edition of The Communist Manifesto from Pluto Press.
12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen goes public on privatization.