Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
New interviews throughout the week
960px prime minister of hungary viktor orba n and indonesian president prabowo subianto signs the declaration to join the board of peac

I think we have to just really be laser focused on the pro-democratic project. That doesn't mean that we ignore the harms that this authoritarian incursion has put upon our society, our government, et cetera. I think there are many things that probably need to be unwound, right? Either fully or partially in terms of autocratic state capacity. But I also think that it is not going to be just enough to undo because the systems and the structures that we've been living in have not delivered for people for decades. We've been in a sort of cost of living crisis for decades. People have been struggling with healthcare, the cost of education, the cost of housing for decades. And so simply undoing what Trump has done is not going to be enough to actually create the society, the democracy, and the economy that we need and we deserve. And frankly, in my opinion, it's not going to be enough to win an election, right? I don't think people are looking for just the opposite of what we're experiencing right now. I think people are looking for policy makers who truly listen. Who truly understand and who truly are putting forth their best effort to address the concerns of regular people and put power back in the hands of regular people. So just as the administration and its allies have really kind of laced our political institutions with an authoritarian administration, such as retooling the IRS to be used for surveillance as opposed to in tax enforcement. A pro-democracy coalition has to do the same thing. And so a big question I think for all of us and all of your listeners is what are the different ways in which we can kind of weave in a pro-democracy bias into our state institutions? This is not to be clear about partisanship. This is about democracy. How do we make sure that our democratic institutions are sort of fundamentally oriented towards helping people, helping society, and building that trust back in the public sector?

Rakeem Mabud speaks with This Is Hell! about her new essay for Common Wealth that she co-wrote with Melanie Brusseler titled “The Power Grab: The Authoritarian Coalition’s Strategy of Power Consolidation”

Rakeen is an expert on how economic trends impact people’s everyday lives. She was most recently the Chief Economist at Groundwork Collaborative, and has also held roles in the US Treasury Department, Roosevelt Institute and Time’s Up. She holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University, and a BA from Wellesley College.

We will have new installments of Rotten History and Hangover Cure. We will... read more

 


Posted by Matthew Boedy
896

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

 

9:10 - Sociologist David Frayne explores the revolutionary potential of simply resisting work.

David is author of The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work from Zed Books.

 

10:00 - Writer Sarah Kendzior visits a dying Midwestern town with big hopes for Donald Trump.

Sarah recently wrote Metropolis, the hometown of Superman, has a new hero: Donald Trump for The Guardian. We'll also dig into her report on freedoms in Uzbekistan for Freedom House's Nations in Transit series.

 

10:35 - Correspondent Mikael Mikaelsson translates the Panama Papers leak into an Icelandic political scandal.

Iceland's Prime Minister recently resigned after a document leak exposed his hidden off-shore finances.

 

11:05 - Author Ashley Dawson explains how capitalism is the engine driving climate change and mass extinction.

Ashley is author of Extinction: A Radical History from OR Books.

 

12:05 - Environmental health researcher Laura Orlando finds poisoned drinking water way beyond Flint.

Laura wrote the In These Times piece Why Your Water Could Be Worse Than Flint’s.

 

12:45 - In a noncommittally previewed Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen does his usual schtick.

It will be a good segment, but that's all we know about it, if you couldn't tell from the above description.

Posted by Matthew Boedy

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

 Refusal of Work: Post-Work Theory & Practice - David Frayne [Zed Books]

Metropolis, the hometown of Superman, has a new hero: Donald Trump - Sarah Kendzior [The Guardian]

Extinction: A Radical History - Ashley Dawson [OR Books]

Why Your Water Could Be Worse Than Flint’s - Laura Orlando [In These Times]

Apr 9 2016
Episode 894

Anti Up

Apr 2 2016
Posted by Matthew Boedy

On April 2nd in Rotten History...

On this day in 1863 – (153 years ago) — in Richmond, Virginia — capital of the Confederacy during the US Civil War — bread riots broke out in the center of town as thousands of people broke into shops and looted food, clothing, and other merchandise. The rioters, mostly women, were angered by the same shortages of bread and other staples that were making similar riots a common occurrence across the American South that spring. Hungry troops on both sides of the Civil War had been stripping local farms of their crops and livestock during their movements from one battle to the next. To make matters worse, runaway inflation was making Confederate currency increasingly worthless. In Richmond, the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, came out and pleaded with the rioters to disperse. He even threw them the money he had in his pockets. But the rioters ignored Davis until he finally called in the militia and threatened to have them open fire on the crowd.

On this day in 1982 – (34 years ago) — Argentina launched an amphibious invasion of a nearby South Atlantic archipelago known to the Argentines as the Islas Malvinas, and to the British as the Falklands. These cold, windswept islands — where less than three thousand people lived mostly by fishing and sheep farming — had been ruled by Britain for some 150 years, but Argentina had never given up its own claim to them. And now, Argentina’s ruling military junta had ordered an invasion in the hope of distracting that country’s increasingly discontented populace from their economic woes and lost civil liberties. The Argentine generals were gambling that the Brits would not use military force to keep the islands — and at first, it seemed that their bet would pay off, as the Argentine invaders met little resistance from the islands’ tiny self-defense force, bolstered by a few dozen British troops. But when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent a major naval task force to retake the islands, it led to a war that lasted more than two months, killed some nine hundred people, and ultimately caused the downfall of the Argentine junta. The Falklands remained firmly in British hands — and Port William, the territory’s busiest ship harbor, remains heavily mined to this day.

Rotten History is writtern by Renaldo Migaldi.

Posted by Matthew Boedy
894lineup

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

 

9:10 - Author Chloe Taft examines Bethlehem, PA's post-industrial bet on casino gambling.

Chloe is author of From Steel to Slots: Casino Capitalism in the Postindustrial City from Harvard University Press.

 

10:05 - BYP100's Janaé Bonsu presents a plan and a path to economic justice for Black America.

Janaé is one of the authors of the BYP100 report Agenda to Build Black Futures.

 

10:35 - Journalist Michelle Chen reports on the hidden work and low wages of Miami's hotel housekeepers.

Michelle wrote the article Spring Break’s Cleanup Crew for Slate.

 

11:05 - Robin Yassin-Kassab and Leila Al-Shami explore the political and social landscape of revolutionary Syria.

Robin and Leila are authors of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War from Pluto Press.

 

12:05 - The Hopleaf's Michael Roper follows the corporate takeover of craft beer to neighborhood bars.

Michael will explain how distrubutors and franchises are capitalizing on the cache of craft beer's limited supply.

 

12:45 - In an omni-lingual Moment of Truth, Jeff Dorchen says, 'Je Suis Pissed Off.'

Found this phrase in a tweet by Hollywood creep Chuck Woolery, hopefully just a coincidence!

 

Posted by Matthew Boedy

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

From Steel to Slots: Casino Capitalism in the Postindustrial City - Chloe E. Taft [Harvard University Press]

Agenda to Build Black Futures - Black Youth Project 100

Spring Break’s Cleanup Crew - Michelle Chen [Slate]

Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War - Robin Yassin-Kassab, Leila Al-Shami [Pluto Press]

Episode 893

Assembly Required

Mar 26 2016
Posted by Matthew Boedy

On This Day in Rotten History...

On this day in the year 752 – (1,264 years ago) – in Rome, Pope Stephen II died of a stroke just three days after being elected to succeed the former Pope Zacharias. To this day, Stephen II holds the record for the shortest time in office of any Catholic pope.

On this day in 1812 – (204 years ago) – the city of Caracas, Venezuela, was struck by two major seismic tremors within a half hour. The earthquakes leveled the city, along with five nearby towns, and killed some fifteen to twenty thousand people. The tremors were so severe that they created a new lake and permanently changed the courses of several rivers and streams in the area. Since Venezuela was fighting its war of independence at the time, local representatives of the Spanish crown viewed the earthquakes as divine punishment for the colonial rebellion — and the Catholic archbishop of Caracas pronounced the deadly cataclysm “terrifying, but well-deserved.”

On that SAME DAY in 1812 – (again, 204 years ago) – the Boston Gazette published a political cartoon that ridiculed how electoral districts in the state of Massachusetts had been redrawn in such a bizarre and contorted way as to benefit candidates of the state party organization led by Governor Elbridge Gerry. Noting that the long, strange, twisting boundaries on the map of one new district made it resemble the shape of a salamander, the cartoonist labeled it a “Gerry-mander,” after the governor and party boss. The name stuck, and more than two hundred years later, “gerrymandering” remains a favorite practice of party leaders and politcos across America who seek to create inpenetrably “safe” electoral districts for their favored career legislators.

On this day in 1969 – (47 years ago) –  having suffered for months from severe depression and paranoia after his novel The Confederacy of Dunces was rejected by two major publishers, the author John Kennedy Toole committed suicide by running a garden hose from his car’s exhaust pipe into the car. It was almost ten years later that his mother finally managed to browbeat the famous novelist Walker Percy into reading her dead son’s unpublished manuscript. Percy was wowed, the book was published in 1980, and Toole was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981, twelve years after his death.

On this day in 1998... read more

Posted by Matthew Boedy
893lineup

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

 

9:10 - Author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor explores the revolutionary potential of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Keeanga is author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation from Haymarket Books.

 

10:05 - Writer Sarah Kendzior reports on the tabloid spectacle of Trump's campaign through the Midwest.

Sarah wrote the recent articles Who won the Midwest? Not the people who live in it for the Globe and Mail and Trumpmenbashi: What Central Asia’s spectacular states can tell us about authoritarianism in America for The Diplomat.

 

10:35 - Live from São Paulo, Brian Mier sees a coup emerging from Brazil's current political crisis.

Brian will be talking about the Brasilwire piece Overthrowing Dilma Rousseff: It’s Class War, and Their Class is Winning and his own most recent writing Rio Olympics: A City within a City.

 

11:05 - Mark and Paul Engler explain why strategic nonviolence is the future of political protest.

Mark and Paul wrote the new book This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century from Nation Books.

 

12:05 - Writer Shiyam Galyon highlights the revolutionary work Syrians are doing in between bombs.

Shiyam is author of the article Syrian Protests Bloom During Lull in Bombings posted at Warscapes.

 

12:45 - Jeff Dorchen laughs in the face of Death, or rather in the faces of other people's Deaths.

This is maybe about Garry Shandling. Or maybe about Rob Ford. Hopefully not about Phife Dawg.