Posted by Alexander Jerri
On this day in 1934 – (82 years ago) – several French right-wing anti-parliamentary political groups staged demonstrations in Paris to demand the resignation of France’s left-leaning coalition government. When the groups converged on the Place de la Concorde, the assembly turned violent, quickly escalating from rock-throwing to bullets as rioters and police exchanged fire. In the end, sixteen people were killed, some two thousand were injured, and the French government resigned — soon to be replaced by a so-called national union government composed mainly of conservatives, including Marshal Phillipe Pétain, a French World War I hero who would later become leader of France’s Vichy regime, which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
On this day in 1951 – (65 years ago) – during a rainstorm near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, an overcrowded nine-car train carrying more than a thousand evening commuters derailed as it crossed a temporary wooden trestle in a construction area without heeding warnings to slow down from fifty miles an hour to twenty-five. The train’s weight and speed caused several cars to jump the track, tumble down an embankment, and crash onto the street twenty feet below. Other cars were left hanging off the tracks, partly suspended in the air — and many of those passengers jumped to their deaths, wrongly assuming that the shiny, rain-washed pavement below them was a river. Eighty-five people died and five hundred were injured in what was the third most deadly train wreck in American history.
On this day in 1971 – (45 years ago) – during his live-televised walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 14, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard got out a six-iron club and two golf balls he had smuggled aboard the spacecraft, and used them to take sand trap shots on the lunar surface — thus providing the world with an unforgettable illustration of white American privilege, and a memorable emblem of fun and frivolity to go with the Apollo program’s price tag, which in 1973 was reckoned as some twenty-five billion dollars, or well over one hundred billion in today’s money.
On this day in 1998 – (18 years ago) – President Bill Clinton signed legislation renaming Washington National Airport after former president Ronald Reagan. The bill had been hurriedly passed by the Republican-controlled Congress to... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Listen live from 9AM - 1PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream at www.thisishell.com
9:10 - Historian Premilla Nadasen reviews Bill Clinton's racialized attack on welfare.
Premilla wrote the new Jacobin article How a Democrat Killed Welfare.
10:05 - John K. Wilson examines the identity politics behind the Democratic primaries.
John was recently referenced in Clarence Page's column What this politically (in)correct campaign tells us.
10:35 - Anthropologist Andrea Muehlebach finds water and democracy at odds in Italy.
Andrea wrote the ROAR Mag article How to kill the demos: the water struggle in Italy.
11:05 - Political theorist Nick Srnicek makes the case for a world without work.
Nick is co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work from Verso Books.
12:05 - Attorney Nicole Phillips reports on Haiti's election that never happened.
Nicole just returned from Haiti, where an election was cancelled two days before voting.
12:45 - Old Socialist Jeff Dorchen tells Hillary's whippersnappers to get off his lawn
Don't know how socialist it is to for Jeff to claim it's "his lawn" but I guess it's his segment.
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Here is what Chuck is reading to prepare for Saturday's show:
How a Democrat Killed Welfare - Premilla Nadasen [Jacobin - login required]
How to kill the demos: the water struggle in Italy - Andrea Muehlebach [ROAR Magazine]
Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work - Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams [Verso Books]
Nicole Phillips Breaks Down Haiti Electoral Crisis [audio interview] - Africa Now
Posted by Alexander Jerri
On This Day in Rotten History...
On this day in 1607 – (409 years ago) – the Bristol Channel, between England and Wales on the British west coast, was hit by an enormous flood that swept across two hundred square miles of coastal land and killed an estimated two thousand people. Contemporary accounts describe how the sea first mysteriously receded from the beach, then rose in waves that shot bright sparks, which were quickly followed by “huge and mighty hills of water” moving “faster than a greyhound could run.” Though the exact cause of the disaster remains unknown, many experts studying the written accounts, as well as physical evidence in the area’s soil, contend today that the flood was probably caused by a tsunami. They also warn that the area around the Bristol Channel is vulnerable to being similarly flooded again.
On this day in 1956 – (60 years ago) – the home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama, was bombed while he was away at a meeting with organizers of the Montgomery bus boycott. The bomb destroyed the front porch and blew out the facade and front windows. Dr. King’s wife, Coretta, and his first child, Yolanda, both of whom were inside the house when the bomb went off, were uninjured. Three days earlier, an anonymous telephone caller had threatened to kill King and destroy his home if he did not call off the boycott. After the bombing, Dr. King urged his supporters not to respond with violence. Montgomery city officials, meanwhile, expressed outrage and vowed to catch the perpetrators — but no arrests were ever made.
On this day in 1968 – (48 years ago) – the North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive, a campaign of coordinated attacks that caught by surprise the forces of South Vietnam and the United States, who had expected a lull in hostilities during the traditional holiday of Tet, or lunar New Year. Within days, the surprise offensive swept more than a hundred South Vietnamese towns and cities, including Saigon, the southern capital — and it continued for months, with massive casualties on both sides. The Tet Offensive was a shock to the US government, which had previously believed Vietnamese nationalist forces incapable of such strong resistance. Public sentiment in the United States soon turned strongly against the war in Vietnam, and against US president... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Listen live from 9AM - 1PM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream at www.thisishell.com
9:10 - Anthropologist David Vine explains why more military bases make the world less safe.
David is author of Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World from Metropolitan Books.
10:05 - Our Man in Dublin, Will Lynch reports back from an almost deadly, Guinness-less rainforest trip.
The story involves venomous spiders and a botched terror attempt, but I think the Guinness thing was the hardest for Will to handle.
10:35 - Journalist Curt Guyette investigates both the Flint water crisis and its coverup.
Curt posted the article Gov. Snyder Tainted by Flint Water Crisis for the Michigan ACLU's Democracy Watch blog.
11:05 - Historian Kathryn Olmsted traces the roots of conservatism to the farmlands of Depression-era California.
Kathryn wrote the book Right Out of California: The 1930s and the Big Business Roots of Modern Conservatism.
12:05 - Writer Salma Hussein reflects on five years of activism, revolution and repression in Egypt.
Salma recently posted The Egyptian revolution #Jan25: Important Readings and What you must know about the Egyptian military industrial complex at her blog In Quest For Justice.
12:45 - Jeff Dorchen is relieved to learn that the state has no obligation to provide quality.
I think you might find he actually isn't relieved to find that out. Might be an ironic statement. Jeff's a real trickster.
Posted by Alexander Jerri
On this day in Rotten History...
On this day in 1556 – (460 years ago) – a powerful earthquake hit the Shaanxi province of northern China — altering the course of rivers, causing massive floods, igniting fires, and causing landslides that destroyed countless hillside villages of traditional stone houses, known as yaodongs. In an affected area more than five hundred miles across, the Shaanxi earthquake killed an estimated 60 percent of the population, or some 830,000 people. It’s now believed to have been the deadliest earthquake in recorded history.
On this day in 1968 – (48 years ago) – the USS Pueblo, a US Navy spy ship wth eighty-three crewmen aboard, was captured off the coast of North Korea by warships of that country in an attack that killed one Pueblo crew member and ended with the other eighty-two sailors being taken prisoner. The North Korean government, arguing that the American vessel had violated its territorial waters, kept the Pueblo crew in captivity for the next eleven months, using torture and starvation to extract forced confessions. Meanwhile, the administration of US President Lyndon Johnson struggled to work out a diplomatic solution, while secretly
preparing contingency plans for war. In the end, the Pueblo crew was released after North Korea and the US worked out a complex face-saving solution in which the Pueblo commander, Lloyd Bucher, signed an apology immediately after repudiating it. Upon Bucher’s return to the United States, the Navy began a court-martial against him, but it soon backed down in the face of public outcry. As for the Pueblo itself, it’s now on permanent display at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, North Korea.
On this day in 1978 – (38 years ago) – Terry Kath, lead guitarist and founding member of the rock band Chicago, who for some time had been struggling with alcohol and drug abuse, was fascinated by handguns, which he collected and enjoyed playing with. At a party in Los Angeles, Kath showed a roadie his unloaded .38, which he repeatedly held to his head, pulling the trigger. Kath then picked up a nine-millimeter semiautomatic and began to do the same. The roadie warned the guitarist to be careful, but to reassure him,. Kath showed him that the gun’s ammo clip was empty. He then held the gun to his head, smiled, and pulled the trigger.
Unfortunately for Kath, the gun had a... read more
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Listen live from 9AM - 10:45AM Central on WNUR 89.3FM or stream at www.thisishell.com
9:10 - Political scholar Jodi Dean explains how the left can turn protest crowds into political power.
Jodi is author of Crowds and Party from Verso Books.
10:00 - Historian Lisa McGirr explores the Prohibition-era roots of contemporary systems of state violence.
Lisa's new book is The War on Alcohol Prohibition and the Rise of the American State from Norton.
