A Genocide Foretold / Chris Hedges

Listen live from 9AM - 1:00PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM / stream at www.thisishell.com / subscribe to the podcast

9:15 - Philosopher Riccardo Manzotti explains why consciousness and the physical world are the same thing.

Riccardo is author of The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One from OR Books.

10:00 - Political scientist Susan Kang looks beyond the progressive illusion of Andrew Cuomo.

Susan wrote the article The Case Against Cuomo for Jacobin.

10:35 - Arielle Sallai and Rachel Reyes of No Olympics LA explain what cities lose when the Olympics take control.

Arielle and Rachel are organizers with No Olympics LA.

11:05 - Investigative journalist Yasha Levine explains why the internet has been a surveillance tool since day one.

Yasha is author of the new book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet from PublicAffairs.

12:05 - Journalist and stripper Reese Piper discusses strip club raids and worker resistance in New Orleans.

Reese wrote the Medium article New Orleans Is Trying to Shut Down Strip Clubs. Why This Puts My Life In Danger and the op-ed We're real people with bills to pay, have right to work without fear for The Advocate.

12:35 - Our Man in San Juan, Dave Buchen checks in from whatever hasn't been privatized yet in Puerto Rico.

We're talking with Dave for the first time since his three reports in October 2017.

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.

Like everything else – education, housing, food, medical care – luxury needs to move from being privately owned to being entirely available for public use. Just like Yellowstone and Arches national parks, luxury homes, luxury cars, luxury jewelry, clothes, art materials, foods, wines, all of it. Every bit of luxury available all the time for the public to share.

Oh, no! shouts the person with no imagination. But then no new luxury homes will be built. Who will make exceptional wines if they can't hold them hostage for the highest price the market will bear? The only reason we have luxury at all, you know, is because fabulously wealthy people can own it. Their snotty patronage, their willingness to pay top dollar for excellence, is why excellence exists at all.

Maybe so. After all, ever since the social system under which the great Egyptian pyramids were funded and built, we haven't had a similar project, a gigantic pyramid- shaped tomb wasting land and resources so a self-important egomaniac could be buried with all his servants and animals. I guess we'll just have to enjoy the ones that remain from that beautiful time of enslavement and mass stupidity.

True, without kings, no new palaces need be built. Without private luxury, no new mansions need be built. We'll just have to enjoy the ones remaining from that beautiful time when people were stupid enough to believe that a handful of wealth-hoarders deserved the wealth they hoarded, and were so much better than the rest of us that they merited six or seven or a dozen over-sized private habitats. Maybe, if some of them are so determined to hold onto the old ways, we can display them in their former homes like animals in a zoo.

But surely there are people deserving of luxury, the ossified mind persists. You can't mean to suggest that any old self-appointed sculptor eating raw roadkill by the highway deserves to carve their pedestrian design into a singularly glorious piece of marble! Yes, I do. A great artist will make something great out of anything to hand. We needn't worry about running out of art. We might run out of Art Star art. We might run out of the ego- stroked narcissists who get paid hundreds of thousands for their work. Bless 'em, I don't begrudge their success under the current market-obsessed zeitgeist. But once we throw off the tyranny of the market, if an artist was only... read more

Listen live from 9AM - 1:00PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM / stream at www.thisishell.com / subscribe to the podcast

9:15 - Historian Paul Ortiz explores a Black and Brown history of organization and resistance against imperialism.

Paul is author of An African American and Latinx History of the United States from Beacon Press.

10:00 - Investigative journalist Lara Whyte examines the presence and participation of women in the far-right.

Lara co-wrote the article Why are women joining far-right movements, and why are we so surprised? with Claire Provost for openDemocracy.

10:35 - Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce Dixon makes a left case against intersectionality.

Bruce wrote the articles Intersectionality is a Hole. Afro-Pessimism is a Shovel. We Need to Stop Digging. and Looking Down That Deep Hole: Parasitic Intersectionality and Toxic Afro-Pessimism. for Black Agenda Report.

11:05 - Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz views America's history of guns, from the other side of the barrel.

Roxanne is author of Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment from City Lights Books.

12:05 - Journalist David Cay Johnston explains how the Trump administration is remaking the American government.

David is author of It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America from Simon & Schuster.

12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen commandeers John Lennon's fancy piano.

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink. 

What is justice? Isn't wishing for justice these days like buying a tomato in January? Why do it? What makes you think such a thing is possible? A January tomato? Maybe if you're living in Chile. But you're not, are you? Or maybe you are. But for my purposes today, let's say you're in the Northern Hemisphere, where we might ask the question, is it just for us to receive produce from lands thousands of miles away so we can have unpleasant winter tomatoes? 

Answer? Not sure. There are many schools of thought on justice. Is it fairness? Is it just a word, like pennywhistle? Is it a flavor of living, like a little cheerfulness in your day, or a little cucumber in your water? Is it a parabolic, infinitely unreachable limit? 

Is justice an ideal, unrealizable? Is it a dream? I'll tell you what, a fine fresh tomato in January is a dream, a dream that will never come true. So if justice is a January tomato, there's your answer. Justice is a little bit grayer than you want it to be, a little bit harder, a lot less delicious. 

To everything there is a season. Justice, tomatoes. Stone fruits. Basketball. And when is it justice season here in the United States? 

Some might say Justice Season arrived with the #metoo movement. Let's see what that justice is made of. A man in a position of power, formal or informal power, uses that power to force women or even girls against their wills to participate in or observe his sexual gratification. Years later, after having been ignored or gaslit or victim-blamed by the institutions empowering the male abuser, finally these women are listened to and their abusers brought face-to-face with consequences. That's justice. 

 Or is it too little too late? Or is it both: too little justice too late, but justice nevertheless? I think of the Innocence Project. I think of a man, usually black, who has been sitting on Death Row for most of his life – say, thirty-five years – for a crime he didn't commit. Let's just say for the sake of argument that he never committed a single crime. He was simply framed by the police and the prosecutor. But now, due to the discovery of formerly suppressed exculpatory evidence, he's finally free! Justice has triumphed! 

But what if he'd never been railroaded? What if he'd been arrested and, at trial, had been found innocent and set free, never having... read more

Here's what Chuck is reading for Saturday's show:

An African American and Latinx History of the United States - Paul Ortiz | Beacon Press

Why are women joining far-right movements, and why are we so surprised? - Lara Whyte and Claire Provost

Intersectionality is a Hole. Afro-Pessimism is a Shovel. We Need to Stop Digging. / Looking Down That Deep Hole: Parasitic Intersectionality and Toxic Afro-Pessimism - Bruce Dixon | Black Agenda Report

Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment - Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz | City Lights Books

It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America - David Cay Johnston | Simon & Schuster

And here's what we read this week just for fun:

Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews - Nat Parry | Consortium News

The High-Tech Poorhouse: An Interview with Virginia Eubanks - Sam Adler-Bell | Jacobin

Climate Crisis and the State of Disarray - William C. Anderson | ROAR Magazine

11 Theses on Possible Communism - C17 | Viewpoint Magazine

‘One thinge that ouerthroweth all that were graunted before’: On Being Presidential - China Mieville | Salvage

Bombs in Our Backyard - | ProPublica

Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Could Destroy Our Nation’s Water Systems - Michelle Chen | The Nation

Lipstick on a Gig: Why We Should Be Very Skeptical of Uber’s New “Portable Benefits” Scheme - Julianne Tveten | In These Times

Listen live from 9AM - 1:00PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM / stream at www.thisishell.com / subscribe to the podcast

9:15 - Journalist Doug Henwood works out a solution to the pension crisis, far from Wall Street's grasp.

Doug and Liza Featherstone wrote the report Wall Street Isn’t the Answer to the Pension Crisis. Expanding Social Security Is. for In These Times.

10:00 - Journalist Sarah Sunshine Manning discusses the politics of indigenous feminism and the promise of rematriation.

Sarah wrote the article No Indigenous Women, No Women's Movement for Truthdig.

10:35 - Writer Luke Savage examines great moments in bipartisanship, from the Vietnam war to mass incarceration.

Luke wrote the article The Curse of Bipartisanship for Current Affairs.

11:05 - Writer Johann Hari explains why disconnection is at the center of depression and anxiety today.

Johann is author of the book Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions from Bloomsbury.

12:05 - Writer Ijeoma Oluo talks about what we need to talk about when we talk about race in America.

Ijeoma is author of the book So You Want to Talk about Race from Seal Press.

12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen wonders why we even bother thinking about justice.

He'll probably come up with an an