Inventing "Invasion" / Molly Redden

On This Day in Rotten History...

On this day in 626 – (1,390 years ago) — in the midst of a complicated palace intrigue, Prince Li Shimin, second son of the Chinese Emperor Gaozu, set up an ambush to kill both his brothers in what became known to historians as the Xuanwu Gate Incident. Li Shimin’s father was a warlord who had spent his younger years subjugating various nomadic and agricultural peoples and bringing them together as founder of the Tang dynasty. By killing his brothers in cold blood, his son not only established himself as sole heir to the dynasty, but also terrified his now elderly father into abdicating and passing the empire over to him. In this way, Li Shimin became Emperor Taizong, regarded today as one of the greatest and most powerful emperors in Chinese history.

On this day in 1822 – (194 years ago) – in Charleston, South Carolina, Denmark Vesey was executed by hanging, along with thirty-five slaves, after being accused and convicted of the crime of organizing a slave rebellion. Vesey, also known as Telemaque, was himself a former slave who had won a city lottery and purchased his own freedom some two decades earlier. As a slave he had secretly learned to read and write, and he was fluent in French and Spanish as well as English. After buying his way out of slavery, he had built a successful carpentry business and co-founded a local African Methodist church, which had grown to become the second largest of that denomination in the United States. But after he was executed, the church was demolished and its minister was chased out of town.

On this day in 1962 – (54 years ago) – in Rogers, Arkansas, the first Wal-Mart store opened for business. Owned and operated by a former employee of J. C. Penney’s named Sam Walton, it was an unassuming five-and- dime that showed no sign of growing into a retail juggernaut that would one day spread across five continents, forcing small-town independents out of business and subjecting employees to its draconian labor practices.

Rotten History is written by Renaldo Migaldi

America's longformest, politicalist interview show is turning 20 years old this month, and we're celebrating two decades of respectable journalism by getting trashed at a bar.

Join us at Cary's Lounge on Saturday, July 16th, 3PM - whenever Chuck passes out.

Here is the Facebook event.

You don't need to RSVP or anything, just show up.

There will be:

• Beer specials from Lagunitas Brewing!
• Raffles for actually cool, exciting crap!
• Food you don't have to pay for!
• Bands playing music, probably loud!
• Correspondents from around the world!
• Past guests dropping by!
• One wasted radio host!

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

9:10 - Historian Ibram X. Kendi traces racist thought in America back to the birth of the nation.

Ibram is author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America from PublicAffairs.

10:05 - Live from Mexico City, Laura Carlsen reports on a teacher's strike that left nine dead in Oaxaca.

Laura spoke to the Real News Network for their segment Nine Killed in Police Crackdown on Oaxaca Teacher's Strike.

10:35 - Live from São Paulo, Brian Mier surveys land rights rollbacks in post-coup, pre-Olymics Brazil.

Brian has been covering the Brazilian coup a year before it even happened.

11:05 - Historian Andrew Bacevich explores four decades of American intervention, and failure, in the Middle East.

Andrew is author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History from Penguin Random House.

12:05 - Historian Judith Stein explains how liberals turned their backs on New Deal politics.

Judith was interview by Connor Kilpatrick for the Jacobin piece Why Did White Workers Leave the Democratic Party?

12:40 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen criticizes smugness, or is smug, or both.

Here's what Chuck is reading (and watching) to prepare for Saturday's show:

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America - Ibram X. Kendi [PublicAffairs]

Nine Killed in Police Crackdown on Oaxaca Teacher's Strike - Real News Network

America’s War for the Greater Middle East A Military History - Andrew Bacevich [Penguin Random House]

Why Did White Workers Leave the Democratic Party? - Judith Stein [Jacobin]

On This Day in Rotten History...

On this day in 1950 – (66 years ago) — North Korean troops crossed the Thirty-Eighth Parallel in a large-scale invasion of South Korea that opened the Korean War. North Korea’s leader, Kim Il Sung — the grandfather of its current leader, Kim Jong Un — had spent several years building up a massive Soviet-style army. South Korea was largely unprepared, and within days the Northern army worked its way far enough down the peninsula to capture Seoul, the Southern capital. South Korea was forced to seek help from the United States. The Truman administration obtained a UN sanction for a major undeclared war, and the Chinese army came to North Korea’s aid. The Korean War lasted three years, and no one really knows how many people died. But by one estimate, it killed some two hundred thousand South Korean, American, and British troops, another half million on the North Korean and Chinese side, and more than a million Korean civilians. It abounded in massacres, torture, and other atrocities, and it was fought to a stalemate. In 1953 a cease-fire brought the border between the two Koreas back to where it had been before the war, and sixty-six years later, the Korean War remains technically unresolved.

On this day in 1975 – (41 years ago) — days after being convicted of election fraud and stripped of her seat in India’s Parliament, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — no relation to the nation’s founder, Mahatma Gandhi — responded to widespread protests, strikes, and calls for her resignation by having a nationwide state of emergency declared, which allowed her to rule the country by decree. Elections were postponed, press freedoms were curtailed, and TV and radio stations were forced to broadcast government propaganda. Many newspapers responded to the censorship with carefully veiled satire — one, the Indian Express of Delhi, simply published a large blank space on its editorial page. According to Amnesty International, some 120 thousand opposition politicians, protesters, strike leaders, and dissidents were arrested and detained without trial, and some were allegedly tortured. Meanwhile, the prime minister’s son, Sanjay Gandhi, led a program of forced sterilization in which some eight million people were pressured into receiving vasectomies or tubal ligations. But after twenty months, Indira Gandhi finally... read more

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

9:10 - Historian Carol Anderson surveys a long history of White rage in the face of Black progress.

Carol is author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide from Bloomsbury.

10:00 - Live from Yangon, Sean Gleeson explores Myanmar's first months under Aung San Suu Kyi.

Sean will be making his first Irregular Correspondent report from Yangon, talking about his Frontier Myanmar article The Sanctions Saga.

10:25 - Our Man in London, David Skalinder files one last report from the UK, fittingly on the Brexit vote.

David will be on the phone with us while movers are hauling away his stuff, which adds an appropriate vibe to the whole report.

10:40 - Access Now's Peter Micek explains the stakes in the battle against internet shutdowns.

Pete's organization, Access Now just launched the #KeepItOn campaign.

11:05 - Writer Sally Denton surveys the complex military and industrial history of the Bechtel corporation.

Sally is author of the Simon & Schuster book The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World.

12:05 - The Undercommoning collective make the case for a radical rethinking of the university.

Undercommoning's Max, Cassie and Brianne will be talking about their ROAR Magazine article Undercommoning within, against and beyond the university-as-such.

12:40 - In a Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen tells us what it's like to drink blood from a skull.

Sounds like Jeff's newfound Hillary support must have ended its begrudging phase.

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

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide - Carol Anderson [Bloomsbury]

The Sanctions Saga - Sean Gleeson [Frontier Myanmar]

#KeepItOn - Access Now

The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World - Sally Denton [Simon & Schuster]

Undercommoning within, against and beyond the university-as-such - Undercommoning collective [ROAR Magazine]