Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
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A palestinian man mourns his family members who were killed in the israeli bombing of the nuseirat refugee camp  gaza strip

If you think of democracy as simply something that’s constituted by regular elections and if you don’t think that an ethno-nationalist state that badly treats about 20% of its population, which is the Arab population, which enforces a brutal state of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, which treats the people living there as 3rd class citizens, which periodically bombs them. Kills them in large numbers. I think we are stretching here, quite dramatically, the definition of democracy. I think it’s a nice rhetorical move on the part of Israel supporters to claim that Israel is a democracy and for that reason morally superior to the people it oppresses and morally superior to its neighbors. But I think we are looking at a democracy where majority opinion is in favor of genocide and ethnic cleansing. I think we do have to radically redefine our notion of democracy and try to fill it a little bit more with positive content. Otherwise, democracy equals murderous majoritarianism and that’s what we’re looking at in Israel right now.

Award-winning author Pankaj Mishra returns to “This Is Hell!” to talk about his new book, “The World After Gaza: A History”, published by the Penguin Random House.

Check out Pankaj’s book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/780437/the-world-after-gaza-by-pankaj-mishra/

Keep TiH! free and completely listener supported by subscribing to our weekly bonus Patreon podcast or visiting thisishell.com/pages/support

 


Posted by Alexander Jerri

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

The Limousine Liberal: How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America - Steve Fraser [Basic Books]

Getting Your Irish Up / Unexecuted Ideas of an Irish Republic - Sarah Jaffe [The Baffler]

American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes - Rebecca Gordon [Skyhorse Publishing]

Episode 898

Mob Connections

Apr 30 2016
Posted by Alexander Jerri

On This Day in Rotten History...

On this day in 1881 – (135 years ago) — the area in and around Moradabad, in northern India, experienced a terrifying storm that battered houses and farms with highly destructive winds and pelted the countryside with hailstones reportedly the size of oranges. Since no severe weather warning systems existed at the time, many farmers were working in their fields when the storm struck, and were instantly killed by the huge hailstones. Once the storm died down, the hail was piled two feet high on the ground in some places. Two hundred forty-six people were killed, along with thousands of farm animals.  

On this day in 1900 – (116 years ago) — Casey Jones, an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, was killed when his passenger train, the Cannonball Express, plowed into the rear end of a stalled freight train near Vaughan, Mississippi. It was a foggy night and Jones had been running his train at top speed, trying to make up for lost time, when he rounded a curve and saw the stalled freight ahead of him on the main line. Shouting to his fireman to jump from the train, Jones blew his whistle, reversed the throttle, and slammed on his air brake. It was just enough to slow the Cannonball Express from seventy-five to thirty-five miles an hour before it slammed into the freight train’s caboose. Both trains were heavily damaged, the fireman who jumped from the train was knocked unconscious, and a few other people were slightly injured. But most passengers on the Cannonball Express felt only a sudden bump that awoke them in their sleeping cars. The only person killed in the accident was Casey Jones himself. Folk singers would go on to celebrate him as a hero for having given his life to save his passengers. The IWW activist Joe Hill, however, would write and sing a very different tune that denounced Jones as a scab for having refused to join a strike against the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Rotten History is written by Renaldo Migaldi

Posted by Alexander Jerri
898lineup

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

 

9:10 - Journalist Seymour Hersh investigates the truth and lies around Osama bin Laden's death.

Seymour is author of the new book The Killing of Osama Bin Laden from Verso.

 

10:00 - Writer Simone Weichselbaum explains what stalled the Chicago model of police reform.

Simone wrote the Marshall Project feature The ‘Chicago Model’ of Policing Hasn’t Saved Chicago

 

10:35 - Policy analyst Laura Carlsen follows a call to end the drug war across Latin America.

Laura covered the protest in her piece The Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice Demands End to Drug War in New York City.

 

11:05 - Occupy Wall Street co-founder Micah White looks beyond protest, to the future of activism.

Micah is author of The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution from Penguin Random House.

 

12:05 - Writer Marina Sitrin explores the new democracy blooming on the streets of Paris.

Marina wrote the ROAR Magazine essay ‘Soon we will be millions’: from Paris with love and lessons.

 

12:45 - Jeff Dorchen grasps at the meaning of life, and comes up empty-handed. Again.

One of these 8 minute monologues, he's gonna get it though. Just not this one.

Posted by Alexander Jerri

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

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden - Seymour Hersh [Verso]

The ‘Chicago Model’ of Policing Hasn’t Saved Chicago - Simone Weichselbaum [The Marshall Project]

The Caravan for Peace, Life and Justice Demands End to Drug War in New York City - Laura Carlsen [CIP Americas]

The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution - Micah White [Penguin Random House]

‘Soon we will be millions’: from Paris with love and lessons - Marina Sitrin [ROAR Magazine]

Episode 897

Lender's Game

Apr 23 2016
Posted by Alexander Jerri

On This Day in Rotten History...

On this day in the year 599 – (1417 years ago) — in what is now Chiapas, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border, Uneh Chan, also known as “Scroll Serpent” — the king of Calakmul, one of the largest and most powerful city-states of ancient Mayan civilization — led his troops across the Usumacinta River to attack the rival city-state of Palenque, which at the time was ruled by queen Yohl Ik’nal, the first female ruler recorded in Mayan history. In the ensuing battle, Palenque suffered a massive and probably bloody defeat. Though the city-state retained its political identity and its queen survived for five more years, historians believe that for at least the next decade Palenque was a client state of Calakmul, which in turn was locked in a long-term power struggle with the rival city-state of Tikal, in what is now Guatemala. Calakmul and Tikal are often described as the two major superpowers of the classic Mayan era, and historians liken their political maneuvering to a modern cold war. 

On this day in 1940 – (76 years ago) — Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians, a highly regarded swing orchestra from Chicago, were in the middle of their set at the Rhythm Club dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, when a fire started near the building entrance. The flames moved through the club quickly because the rafters were heavily festooned with Spanish moss that had been sprayed with a petroleum-based insecticide to prevent bugs. A few people managed to escape through the building’s front entrance, but the other doors and windows were boarded shut, trapping most of the patrons inside. As flames spread and smoke grew thick,  Walter Barnes directed his band to keep playing, in an attempt to calm the increasingly hysterical crowd. In the end, 209 people were killed and many more were seriously burned. Among the dead were Barnes and most of his band. The town’s morticians were so overwhelmed that they had to bury the dead in mass graves. The Rhythm Club fire was later the subject of songs by Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker. 

On this day in 1967 – (49 years ago) — Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was launched into orbit aboard Soyuz 1, a brand-new spacecraft that — as he and his colleagues knew very well — was not ready for spaceflight. Members of the Soviet Politburo, anxious to score... read more

Posted by Alexander Jerri
897lineup

Listen live from 9AM - 1PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream at www.thisishell.com

 

9:10 - Social justice scholar Monique Morris examines the injustices pushing Black girls out of school.

Monique is author of Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools from The New Press.

 

10:00 - Our Man in San Juan, Dave Buchen reports on the debt crisis pulling Puerto Rico underwater.

Dave previously reported on the story for This is Hell! back in June 2015.

 

10:35 - Live from São Paulo, Brian Mier exposes the forces behind the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Brian recommends reading the Intercept article After Vote to Remove Brazil’s President, Key Opposition Figure Holds Meetings in Washington.

 

11:05 - Political scientist Kathy Cramer explores the ways resentment is driving American politics.

Kathy wrote the new book The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.

 

12:05 - Economist Yanis Varoufakis challenges the bankrupt ideology of Europe's debt/austerity regime.

Yanis is author of And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future from PublicAffairs.

 

12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen disgorges a political philosophy like a mother pelican.

I guess you the radio listener play the role of the pelican chick in this scenario, eating regurgitated fish.

Posted by Alexander Jerri

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

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools - Monique W. Morris [The New Press]

After Vote to Remove Brazil’s President, Key Opposition Figure Holds Meetings in Washington - [The Intercept]

The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker - Kathy Cramer [University of Chicago Press]

And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future - Yanis Varoufakis [PublicAffairs Books]

 

Episode 896

Not Working

Apr 16 2016