This Week with David Rovics

A History of the World EPISODE 14

Just listen to this episode, or start at the beginning with episode 1 at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld.

2013-2016

• Edward Snowden reveals the NSA's Prism Program to the world ("Prism")

• I am prevented from entering New Zealand on a mysterious basis ("Spies are Reading my Blog")

• Folks who smashed helicopter gunships with sledgehammers in Australia go on trial ("If I had a Hammer")

• There is a coup in Ukraine, and the Biden family gives the appearance of involvement ("A Biden Ballad")

• The police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, Jr. elicit marches across the US ("I Can't Breathe")

• A white supremacist commits a massacre at the oldest Black church in South Carolina ("The State House Lawn")

• A massacre on the Kenya-Somalia border is prevented ("One Day in Kenya")

• Hundreds of thousands of refugees flood into Europe from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere ("Upon Our Shores")

• The autonomous region of Rojava is established in northern Syria ("Rojava")

• Omid Masoumali immolates himself on the island of Nauru in an Australian internment camp ("Leila and Majnun")

• Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader of the British Labor Party ("I Agree with Jeremy")

• Donald Trump launches a campaign for the US presidency, and wins ("Make the Planet Earth Great Again")

 

New song: "Deport the Billionaires"

If we deported the billionaires and nationalized their wealth, the rest of the US could be twice as well-off at least. A much better deal than whatever benefit we're supposed to get from deporting our neighbors!

Why the Resistance Needs Music

Lots of folks are desperately wondering how we build the resistance.  If such efforts have any chance of success, history shows that it had better be a resistance that sings together.

Will the Real Wobbly Please Stand Up?

If you're a card-carrying member of the IWW or just Wobbly-adjacent, this message is for you.  (If you've never heard of the IWW, it's also for you.)

"Trump 2.0" REMIX

I think this will be the last track on the new album documenting the past few months of our collective jump from the frying pan to the fire.

New song: "Trump 2.0"

Moving on from the frying pan to the fire.

"Blinken's Last Press Conference" REMIX

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.

Yet another brilliant remix from Chet Gardiner. Sometimes his remixes are full of musical activity, and other times they’re more understated, like this one. Always in service of the song. One more and we’ll put out the next album…

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.