This Week with David Rovics

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.

Demonetizing, Deleting, and Disappearing David

YouTube has just informed me that my channel has been permanently demonetized — not just a 90-day suspension as I had previously been told. There is no possibility for redress, they say. It’s a lifetime ban on making any more income through this major streaming platform.

A History of the World According to David Rovics EPISODE 9

Listen to everything from the beginning at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld or just start with this one!

2000-2002

• The rise of the global justice movement in its many forms, such as the guerrilla gardening movement represented by groups like More Gardens in New York City (“The More Gardens Song”)

• The Biotic Baking Brigade (“Song for the Biotic Baking Brigade”)

• The beginning of the Second Intifada in Palestine (“Children of Jerusalem”)

• The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the new antiwar movement (“The Dying Firefighter”)

• Al-Qaeda and “War on Terror” (“Promised Land”)

• Barbara Lee, the sole dissenter in the US Congress after 9/11 (“Barbara Lee”)

• The arrest of Ana Belen Montes and the ongoing US campaign to subjugate Cuba (“Song for Ana Belen Montes”)

• 9/11 and suspicious events in Hollywood, Florida (“Hollywood Bread”)

• The invasion of Afghanistan and the bombing of Kama Ado by the US Air Force (“The Village Where Nothing Happened”)

• The opening of an internment camp at the US’s naval base on the island of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay (“Guantanamo Bay”)