Episode 1200
The work of police unions / Flint Taylor
Jul 9 2020
The manifesto was a response to the wave of revolutionary uprisings that began in around 2010: a big wave with the Arab Spring and to austerity movements in Greece and Spain, the Occupy movements, of course, and then another large wave in 2018, 2019 in places like Chile, Hong Kong, Iraq, Lebanon. The manifesto was an attempt of people to come together to share their experiences and share their learnings. That's how The People's Want began as a series of international gatherings in 2018: people coming to ask these questions of “what could internationalism look like in the 21st century?” The text is our putting down those learnings to share with a wider audience.
Leila Al-Shami returns with co-author Benjamin to discuss their new book by The People's Want, Revolutions of Our Times: An Internationalist Manifesto (Haymarket Books). "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview.
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Jul 2 2020
Posted by Matthew Boedy
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
Who put the pube in Reince Pubis? Who put the baa in Barr, the fly in Flynn, the rump in Trump? Who put the scales on Scalia? Who put the pomp in Pompeo?
Pompeo, Pompeo, Secretary of State, the pompous, pumped-up Pompeo. Pompeo distinguished himself at West Point, by graduating first in his class. That is, he distinguished himself by leaving. They were so excited about him leaving that they made him go first. He was not the cutest, nicest girl at school. Although, hefty comedian Jeff Garlin famously had a routine where he contrasted his physical form with the words “I’m a pretty little girl.” “I’m a big fat man,” he would say, and then, “I’m a pretty little girl.” And how the audience would howl in amusement.
Pompeo, pompous, pumped-up. From the French, pompier, fireman. The French find firemen funny. I don’t know why. I think there’s a rumor that all firemen are stupid. The Parisian fire department is a branch of the armed forces. Pompeo is a branch of the armed forces unto himself. Who put the pump in Pompeo, inserted it in his puckered purple portal and puffed him up to such pompous proportions? Probably some pompier.
Pompeo. Pompeo indeed. As noted above, he is not undistinguished. He’s an accomplished scholar and former athlete. Like Bob Barr, the Attorney General, Pompeo had an impeccable record, when viewed from afar. Both Barr and Pompeo are tools of Jesus the Conqueror, Jesus the Dictator, Jesus the One Who Graces the Mighty Chosen with the Divine Right of Kings. Y’know, the evil Jesus. The asshole Jesus. The Jesus who wants the US to inflict upon its foreign prisoners waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, temperature extremes, rape, threats to their families, electrocution, and of course, rectal feeding. Rectal feeding, it also turns out, is exactly the way they pump the pomp into Pompeo. One day Pompeo might pop, from all the pomp pumped into him.
Pompeo opposes abortion even in cases of rape. He opposes gay marriage, and any rights protecting gay and trans persons from discrimination. He, of course, opposes the closing of the prison at Guantanamo, because it’s such an idyllic paradise for rectal feedings. Just imagine him, sitting on the veranda overlooking the Bay, enjoying a rectal feeding as the sun sinks below the horizon.
When it came... read more