Project Esther: A Trumpian Blueprint to Crush Anticolonial Resistance / Yoav Litvin

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

9:20 - N+1 editor Marco Roth examines the political futures of a world on the edge of ecological collapse.

Marco is co-author of the N+1 essay The Best of a Bad Situation.

10:05 - Our Man in Budapest, Todd Williams explains how a new 'slave law' united Hungary's opposition. Maybe.

Todd will be talking about a protest wave against new laws on overtime pay, court centralization and university privatization.

10:35 - Journalist Aaron Miguel Cantú explains what a White press won't write about White supremacy.

Aaron wrote the article The Whitest News You Know for The Baffler.

11:05 - Writer Molly Smith explores the work - and politics and feminism and economy - of sex work.

Molly is co-author of the new book Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights from Verso.

12:05 - Extinction Rebellion's Clare Farrell previews the global fight for survival on a dying planet.

Clare is a co-founder of the movement Extinction Rebellion.

We’re so disconnected from nature that we have an ambivalence toward climate change.

Climate change will change everything including our politics and economy.

The businesses that caused climate change have moved on from denying climate change’s existence to cashing in on fighting climate change.

Ocean levels rising due to climate change are creating new shorelines.

In Puerto Rico, things are a lot worse than we know.

With hurricane season approaching, it’s likely to keep getting worse and worse and worse.

Australia is keeping immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers out of sight and out of mind.

The Honduran elections ended with deadly violence and a strengthening of a grip on power by the US-backed government.

Trump's wall can be destroyed a lot easier than bad immigration policies can.

Payday loan and rent-a-centers gouge the most vulnerable with ridiculous interest rates.

Lead-poisoned water isn’t only for Flint any more. It’s come to a community near you.

Bipartisan support for means-testing of social services is hurting the poor.

Andrew Cuomo sides with the very conservatives who he claims to challenge at every opportunity he can in the media.

The olympics are bad for cities.

Appalachia is a lot more progressive than liberals think it is - and you could see that in the West Virginia teachers’ strike.

Liberalism has completely and utterly failed.

Labor protests in Iran that are about a lot more than just the protesters bottom line.

Unions invest pension funds in Wall Street which works hard to undermine workers rights, pay and benefits.

That future is now under threat more than ever with the recent Janus ruling by the Supreme Court.

As mandatory arbitration destroys workers’ rights, corporate wellness programs are bad for workers’ health.

The largest US corporations who are engaging in billions of dollars of worker wage theft to line the pockets of their fabulously wealthy CEOs.

There is a capitalist way to get some of that power back. Maybe.

And the tech industry is starting to unionize, too.

The concentration of corporate power at companies like Amazon have been horrible for consumers, too.

Localization might combat fascism.

Maybe radical geography can change the world - and ‘zones to defend’ could be part of that radical geography.

We have been cursed by bipartisanism and BOTH parties agreeing on the bad ideas embraced by neoliberalism.

... read more

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

"Some men are intimidated by strong women." This has been a glib, empty, un-self- aware dose of pabulum on the left for at least the last thirty years. A moment's reflection reveals its nonsensical nature. A moment's reflection is something frowned upon on the left, unless it's reflection of an acceptable dogma or bland agreement. Yes, strong people intimidate weaker people. But you're not being woke or clever or anything remotely laudable by pointing it out. Capitalism exacerbates that dynamic, incidentally. Your strength is both increased and rendered more intimidating by capitalism. Consider that, if you can.

Yes, I'm intimidated by strong women. Why shouldn't I be? Like strong men, they can reject me socially, hurt me physically, humiliate me, or merely exert power over me to my detriment. I'm supposed to feel ashamed of being intimidated? Blow me. I've got enough negative feelings just being intimidated, I'm not going to judge myself for it. Especially not by your criteria.

Yes, I've intimidated others, and I'm not proud of it. There are ways to defuse the intimidation dynamic, if you want to, if it's important to you, but it takes work, and some humility on your part. You have to be secure in yourself. And yet humble at the same time. That's the burden of the strong. That's how you see beyond your privilege.

Don't worry, I'm not very good at it either.

This is the duty, in my opinion, of everyone with privilege, whether white, male, rich, beautiful, or otherwise gifted, exalted, or accomplished. The people who understand this are incredible, you know them when they reach out from their strengths and lift you up simply through the act of reaching. Not everyone has the ability, and even fewer want to have it. It's a singular strength, the ability to be humble and open about one's strengths, because we live in a culture that rewards bullying and egoism and not caring. Winning. We're all about winning, and we have a very narrow definition of victory.

But in some ways, that's the kind of animals we are. We jockey for prestige, we cultivate the best people as friends, we learn the tricks of making ourselves useful and helpful, or trusted, or admired, or highly regarded. And if we fail at these things, we lose. We become poor or lonely. In short, as a species, we are cliquish a-holes.

We also congratulate ourselves on not being the types that are... read more

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

9:20 - Writer John Pat Leary translates the new language of capitalism in the 21st century.

John is the author of the forthcoming book Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism from Haymarket Books.

10:00 - Live from São Paulo, Brian Mier explains what Jacobin got wrong about pre-coup Brazil.

Brian is a co-author of the article How the US Left Failed Brazil for Brasilwire.

10:35 - Sociologist Dylan Riley explains what Donald Trump is  - if he's not a fascist.

Dylan wrote the article What Is Trump? for the New Left Review.

11:05 - Writer Tony Wood explores Russian politics beyond the shadow of Vladimir Putin.

Tony is author of Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War from Verso Books.

12:05 - The Hopleaf's Michael Roper reviews a down year in the craft beer industry.

Michael will dig into brewery closings, the hops bubble and a general decline in beer drinking - Chuck isn't contributing to that last thing.

12:45 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen can't win for losing, can't lose for winning.

Chuck picks his 18 favorite books from the 100+ he read for the show this year:

Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

Johann Hari / Interview

Why Liberalism Failed

Patrick J. Deneen / Interview

Neoliberalism

Julie A. Wilson / Interview

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Reni Eddo-Lodge / Interview

What’s Wrong with Rights?: Social Movements, Law and Liberal Imaginations

Radha D'Souza / Interview

The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean

Gerald Horne / Interview

Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World

Samuel Moyn / Interview

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

David Graeber / Interview

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

Virginia Eubanks / Interview

The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions

Jason Hickel / Interview

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

Elizabeth Rush / Interview

The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality

Anna-Lisa Cox / Interview

Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump

Asad Haider / Interview

The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism

Howard Bryant / Interview

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

Lilian Calles Barger / Interview

Resisting Illegitimate Authority: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Being an Anti-Authoritarian - Strategies, Tools, and Models

Bruce E. Levine / Interview

A Happy Future Is a Thing of the Past: The Greek Crisis and Other Disasters

Pavlos Roufos / Interview

Behold, America: The Entangled History of ‘America First’ and ‘the American Dream’

Sarah Churchwell / Interview

Chuck's Favorite Books of 2018 Interview Playlist