This Week with David Rovics

New song: "Blinken's Last Press Conference"

Last Thursday, at Secretary of State Antony Blinken's last press conference, journalist Sam Husseini asked such pointed questions that they had to drag him out of the room.

"Across the Street from Ebenezer" REMIX

As people in Atlanta prepare to remember Martin Luther King, Jr., on the weekend after MLK would have turned 96, let's also remember Cornelius Taylor, who was run over by a municipal vehicle on Thursday which was "sweeping" a homeless encampment across the street from Ebenezer Baptist Church.

This remix comes from Chet Gardiner's studio on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

New song: "Across the Street from Ebenezer"

Cornelius Taylor was killed by a municipal vehicle while sleeping in his tent, across the street from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the day after Martin Luther King's birthday, as the Department of Public Works was tidying up the neighborhood in preparation for MLK weekend events.

New song: "The Ashes of LA"

Will the LA fires be a turning point?

A History of the World EPISODE 13

Listen to episode 13 first, or start at the beginning at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld.

2011-2013

• Navy Seals kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan (“Osama Bin Laden is Dead”)

• A white supremacist kills 78 people in Norway (“Breivik”)

• Food Not Bombs founder, Keith McHenry, and others are arrested for serving food in Orlando, Florida (“Ballad of Eola Park”)

• Riots in every major city in England (“London is Burning”)

• Occupy Wall Street begins with a protest in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan (“Occupy Wall Street/Stay Right Here”)

• Teenager Trayvon Martin is killed while walking down the sidewalk and his killer is found to be innocent, on the basis of having been “standing his ground” (“Trayvon”)

• CeCe McDonald is attacked at a bar in Minneapolis and is jailed for “standing her ground” and killing her attacker (“Ballad of CeCe McDonald”)

• NATO has a summit in Chicago where the FBI infiltrates protest groups and entraps people (“Meanwhile in Afghanistan”)

• Spotify launches their Free Tier and destroys the lives of millions of musicians (“A Penny A Play”)

• A train with 72 cars full of Bakken crude exploded in Quebec, killing 47 (“Oil Train”)

A History of the World episode 12

You can start here with episode 12, or start at the beginning at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld.  If you're enjoying the podcast series, please tell people about it.

2009-2011

• The killing of Oscar Grant by BART police sets off a movement against police brutality in the San Francisco bay area (“Song for Oscar Grant”)
• Barack Obama is elected president on a platform of Hope and Change (“If Only It Were True”)
• Private Chelsea Manning is arrested and imprisoned for revealing US war crimes in Iraq (“Song for Chelsea Manning”)
• The Global Financial Crisis results in a skyrocketing in the cost of housing in the US (“Just a Renter”)
• The biggest ship to try to break the siege of Gaza, the Mavi Marmara, is attacked by Israeli soldiers, with 9 dead (“Song for the Mavi Marmara”)
• The Citizens United Supreme Court decision gives corporations an unlimited ability to influence elections (“Corporations Are People, Too”)
• The people of Tunisia rise up (“Tunisia, 2011”)
• Tens of thousands of people occupy the Wisconsin state capitol (“Wisconsin”)
• A tsunami kills tens of thousands of people in Japan (“Minami Sanriku”)

A History of the World According to David Rovics EPISODE 11

Start at the beginning with episode 1 of the podcast series at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld or just listen to episode 11 here.

2004-2008

• The Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal breaks in the New York Times (“After We Torture Our Prisoners”)
• Neocon architect of the Iraq occupation, Paul Wolfowitz, is appointed head of the World Bank (“Paul Wolfowitz”)
• Cindy Sheehan starts camping out in front of President Bush’s ranch (“Song for Cindy Sheehan”)
• Hurricane Katrina and government ineptitude kill thousands of people in New Orleans (“New Orleans”)
• Construction of Israel’s Apartheid Wall in Palestine begins (“They’re Building a Wall”)
• Israel invades Lebanon in 2006, killing thousands (“Lebanon, 2006”)
• My dear friend and longtime activist and musician Brad Will is killed by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico (“Brad”)
• Rod Coronado spends eight months in prison for giving a speech (“Burn It Down”)
• The premier squatted social center in Denmark, Ungdomshuset, is destroyed by the Danish government, setting in motion a new social movement (“Ungdomshuset’s Microphone”)
• The Global Financial Crisis leads to massive protests in Iceland (“Iceland, 2008”)
• The GFC leads to massive protests in Greece, too, in which a dog named Loukanikos plays a prominent role (“Riot Dog”)
• Founders of the Holy Land Foundation are charged with supporting terrorism, and five men are sentenced to between 15 and 65 years in prison (“Holy Land 5”)

A History of the World According to David Rovics EPISODE 10

Start with episode 1 at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld or start here with episode 10.

2002-2004

• Israeli invasion of Jenin (“Jenin”)
• Heightened border security resulting from global justice movement continues (“Outside Agitator”)
• Woomera Breakout in Australian refugee detention center (“Woomera”)
• Coca-Cola union-busting efforts in Colombia turn deadly (“Drink of the Death Squads”)
• Attempted coup in Venezuela against Hugo Chavez is defeated by the Venezuelan people (“Song for Hugo Chavez”)
• International Solidarity Movement volunteer, Rachel Corrie, killed by Israeli occupation forces (“The Death of Rachel Corrie”)
• The US invades Iraq again (“Operation Iraqi Liberation”)
• The global justice movement is drowned in tear gas in Miami outside of the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks (“Miami”)
• Spanish journalists go on strike (“Spanish Journalist Strike”)
• A year after the US invasion of Iraq, the insurgency against the occupation begins (“Fallujah”)

The Coming Fires

Los Angeles is burning.  What comes next?

Lao Tzu, the Syrian Revolution, and Anti-Social Media

Talking about critical analysis of history and current events (or not), and some ancient Chinese philosophy.