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 David Daley explores the GOP plan to ratfuck the vote and rule from the minority, forever.
David returns to This Is Hell! to talk about his book Ratfucked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, now in paperback with a new afterward, from Norton.
10:00 - Live from San Salvador, Hilary Goodfriend follows USAID money to corporate ends in El Salvador.
Hilary wrote the article USAID's Trojan Horse that appeared originally at Solidarity, and now at Jacobin.
10:35 - Journalist Michelle Chen examines neoliberalism's assault on public housing, at Grenfell and beyond.
Michelle wrote the The Economic System That Made the Grenfell Tragedy Possible and No, Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Is Not Hurting Workers for The Nation.
11:05 - Middle East scholar Wendy Pearlman discusses the Syrian war, from the testimonies of Syrian refugees.
Wendy is author of the new book We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria from HarperCollins.
12:05 - Writer Julian Brave NoiseCat explains how pipeline politics threaten not only native lands, but indigenous sovereignty.
Julian wrote the commentary Law Enforcement is Still Used as a Colonial Tool In Indian Country for the Marshall Project and the Guardian opinion piece Indigenous sovereignty is on the rise. Can it shape the course of history?
12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen post-mortems last week's Dykes [HIS WORDS] v Kikes [HIS WORDS] piece.
Two of those words are HIS WORDS just to repeat. Not Alex's words. Not Chuck's words. Jeff's words.
Posted by Alexander Jerri
On This Day in Rotten History...
In 1523 – (494 years ago) — Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes, two monks from a monastery in Antwerp, were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of adopting religious positions of the German theologian Martin Luther, who had kickstarted the Protestant Reformation six years earlier. Luther had denounced the Catholic authorities for the practice of selling indulgences — basically, taking people’s money for the promise of getting them into heaven after their death. He maintained that the authority of the Bible took precedence over that of the Catholic pope, cardinals, and bishops. Those were dangerous beliefs in medieval Europe, and the Roman Church was so intent on stopping their spread that, contrary to usual practice, the charges against Esch and Voes were not read aloud before their public execution in the main marketplace of Brussels. As the flames rose around them, the two unfortunate monks sang Latin hymns until they fell unconscious. Their monastery was declared to have been defiled, and was demolished.
In 1766 – (251 years ago) — a twenty-year-old French nobleman named François-Jean de la Barre was awakened early in the morning and physically tortured by having his hands cut off and his tongue torn from his mouth. Later that day he was beheaded for crimes against Roman Catholicism, the state religion of France. La Barre been found guilty of failing to remove his hat when a religious procession passed, and also for mocking Catholic hymns by changing the words to include obscenities. Police had searched his bedroom and found prohibited books, including the works of the atheistic philosopher Voltaire. After le Barre was beheaded, his body was burned; his copy of Voltaire’s Philosphical Dictionary was also tossed into the flames. After the fire died, the ashes were swept up and unceremoniously dumped into the nearby Somme River.
In 1916 – (101 years ago) — eighteen British and French divisions attacked the German Second Army in positions along the Somme River, kicking off a major battle of World War I. In some areas, according to some accounts, the British and French soldiers simply marched shoulder-to-shoulder into a barrage of German machine gunfire that mowed them down, filling the battlefield with bloody corpses. In other areas, it was the British and French who had the upper hand, and the... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Jewsplaining the Dyke March
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
If you don't know about the kerfuffle at the Chicago Dyke March between organizers, pro-Palestinians, and three members of the pro-Israel group A Wider Bridge, please Google it. But be warned, very few details are clear. I've read statements and accounts from people at the march and from representative groups, and none of them agree. Even the Chicago Dyke March's own official statement conflicts on several points with that of core Dyke March Collective member and organizer Alexis Martinez in a Windy City Times interview. Were the Wider Bridge women asked not to display their flags, which resembled the flag of Israel? Were the Wider Bridge women abusive and disruptive? Were they asked to leave? Did they leave? Were pro-Palestinian marchers abusive to the A Wider Bridge women? Was anti-Semitism involved? Who started it?
These questions have no easy answers... except for the one about anti-Semitism, but we'll get to that later.
There had already been friction between A Wider Bridge and the anti-Israel wing of the pro-Palestinian faction. Laurel Grauer, one of the A Wider Bridge marchers who may or may not have been asked to leave the march for flag-waving and/or harassing speech or chanting or behavior, had had a text conversation with a Dyke March organizer before the march asking if they would be protested there. The organizer said no, but made clear the position of the organizers in support of the Palestinian struggle.
In addition to its LGBTQ advocacy on the part of queer Israeli Jews, Arabs and others, A Wider Bridge is an emphatically Zionist organization, if uncritical enthusiasm for Israel is Zionism. A perusal of its website makes this clear. If an anti-Israel stance were part of a stated position of my march, one I didn't want challenged, I would ask an organization that announces, "We see the independent state of Israel as the most important project of Jewish people," not to represent that view at my march. Not that one can't be pro-Israel and anti-Zionist at the same time, or pro-Israel but anti-Occupation, but those positions rarely divide or interweave in any simple way, either on the Palestinian or the Jewish side, and representing ideas of such complexity in a march would require real, concentrated effort on the part of all parties.
Does the complexity of the subject mean it should have been avoided?... 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 - Writer Angela Nagle explores the intersection of online extremism and IRL politics.
Angela is author of Kill All Normies: Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right from Zero Books.
10:00 - Azeezah Kanji and S. K. Hussan explain why liberal opposition to Islamophobia backfires.
Azeezah and S.K. wrote the article The Problem with Liberal Opposition to Islamophobia for ROAR Magazine.
10:35 - Journalist Steve Horn reports on carbon's political footprint in the Trump era.
Steve wrote the recent articles Fracked Gas LNG Exports Were Centerpiece In Promotion of Panama Canal Expansion, Documents Reveal and Tillerson Present as Exxon Signed Major Deal with Saudi Arabia During Trump Visit for DeSmog Blog.
11:05 - Laura Erickson-Schroth and Laura A. Jacobs explore the origin and persistence of gender myths.
Laura and Laura wrote the book “You're in the Wrong Bathroom!” And 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions About Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People for Beacon Press.
12:05 - Journalist Will Parrish reports on government-corporate surveillance of pipeline protests.
Will co-wrote the giant, 5-part series on DAPL surveillance and policing, TigerSwan Tactics for The Intercept.
12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen Jewsplains the Dyke March fiasco in a radically inclusive way.
Almost all of those words in that tease are Jeffy's and I just copy/pasted them, please don't @ me.
