The OTHER People's Historian: David Rovics

Listen to or download Part One now (Broadcast qlty. 192 kbps--40 MB) Listen to or download Part One now (Good quality 64 kbps--13 MB) Listen to or download Part One now (32 kbps for dialup -- 7 MB) List all . . . and listen to or download any . . . installments

New World Notes News Vol. 4, No. 16 -- April 16, 2011

Once again, the formatting is all messed up--though not quite as bad as in the previous entry--and my attempts to fix it aren't working. We are not amused.

This week in New World Notes, radio program #163, April 19, 2011

The OTHER People's Historian: David Rovics

In brief

David Rovics makes history interesting, relevant, occasionally inspiring. This week we offer four Rovics songs on historical events plus some background and commentary by me. The topics are

• deindustrialization & decay of once-vital cities (specifically, Danbury, Connecticut)


• the (anti-slavery) Abolitionists John Brown and Henry Ward Beecher


• the revolt of "the little guy"--particularly war veterans--against the bankers, government, and other powerful interests after the Revolutionary War (Shays' Rebellion, 1786-87)


• the first great Arab revolt of 2011, by the people of Tunisia.

Titles:

1. Used to Be a City


2. John Brown*


3. Berkshire Hills


4. Tunisia 2011*

*from Rovics' new studio album, The Big Red Sessions.

Rovics is good indeed at writing "bottom-up" history--which stresses how the world was experienced by the common people. He works in the same genre as did the late Howard Zinn. On top of that, Rovics is a very talented singer/songwriter and musician. So listen to him for the excellent music, if not for the history lessons. (See below for the address of his free archive.)

Above: Danbury Fair, Connecticut (1970s?). ("Used to be a City.") Below: Monument commemorating the last battle of Shays' Rebellion, Sheffield, southwestern Massachusetts. The government and the bankers won. ("Berkshire Hills.") Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links http://davidrovics.com/

David Rovics' recorded music is available for free (payments also are accepted): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=111310 New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Boardwalk") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net'>radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: Abolitionist John Brown, in Kansas Territory, holding a Beecher's Bible (viewer's left) and King James Bible (right). ("John Brown.") Below: Mohammed Bouazizi, Tunisian, d. December 17, 2010. His self-immolation touched off the first of the great revolts of the Arab peoples in 2011. The revolt drove Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to resign and flee the country. Rest in peace, Mohammed. ("Tunisia, 2011.")

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

• April 26 -- They Warned Us! Featuring George Carlin, Michael Parenti, and Jello Biafra.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/


• Saturdays, 1:00-1:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/


• Saturdays, 5:00 to 5:30 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/


• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

More 9-11 Info.: A Short Bibliography

9-11 Info. -- Some recommended sources

All these are good, sound, sane, and cautious in their conclusions--hence all the more devastating to the Official Version of events.

9-11 Research
Comprehensive, concise, readable, and level-headed presentation of known facts pertaining to the 9-11 attacks. As they state, "9-11 Research stresses verifiable information and rational analysis."
http://911research.wtc7.net/index.html

WTC7.net
Focuses on the little-known third WTC building suddenly to collapse, at near-freefall speed, onto its own footprint (in the late afternoon of September 11). This one wasn't even hit by an airplane. A BBC-TV reporter (live) and a CNN anchor (live) each announced the collapse of Building 7 many minutes before it occurred. In both cases the viewer can see the very building--standing tall and in no obvious distress--through the picture window in the background, Did I mention that The 9-11 Commission Report doesn't even mention Building 7?

Oh, yes, I've become a Building 7 buff! Of all the property that got smashed that day, WTC7 offers--per square foot--more fun, more improbable official explanations, more lies, more Sergeant Schultz ("I see Not'ink!") imitations by the media--than any other site. It's more fun than a barrel of Thermite!

WTC7.net is brought to you by the same people who do 9-11 Research. Don't miss the video clips!
http://wtc7.net/

Scholars for 911 Truth & Justice
Substantial articles by researchers in several academic fields--not only physics & engineering but also political science, philosophy, history, religion, & other Liberal Arts disciplines. If you think that "good academic writing" is not necessarily an oxymoron, you're likely to find much of interest here.
http://stj911.org/

Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth
Firefighters for 9-11 Truth
What do these middle-class professionals and gritty "hard-hats" have in common? Among other things, the considered opinion that (1) plane crashes and/or office fires do not make steel-frame highrise buldings collapse looking just like well-managed controlled demolitions. And that (2) well-managed controlled demolitions make steel-frame highrise buldings collapse in exactly the way the 3 WTC buildings did--including the "squibbs," chains of preliminary explosions, debris sent flying laterally with great force, huge clouds of thousands of tons of finely pulverized concrete initially forming a cauliflower shape, molten iron (not steel) heating the basement for weeks afterwards, and near-freefall speed of collapse. Prior announcement of the collapse on BBC and CNN optional. . . There are many more items, but these should get us started.
http://www.ae911truth.org/
http://firefightersfor911truth.org/

Connecticut 9-11 Truth
In the early stages of construction, but shows promise. Currently has some good links to audio recordings & to other organizations.
http://www.ct911truth.org/

Dan Rather describes the fall of WTC7.
Note how the penthouse collapses first. (If video
will not start, nudge the slider at the bottom--
next to the Play button--a little to the right.)

Oppressed by the Press

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 10 -- March 10, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #54 -- March 10 & 13:

The good news is that the corporate-controlled press is in an apparently uncontrollable death-spiral. The bad news is that the corporate-controlled press is in an apparently uncontrollable death-spiral.

Yes, the entire staff of New World Notes is not unfamiliar with ambivalence.

Newspapers are not dying; they are being killed. They are being killed not by the Internet but by their corporate owners. The owners are killing them not out of unconcern or greed or incompetence--though there is plenty of all three among them--but by their bondage to Finance Capital. Finance Capital is requiring a rate of return much higher than newspapers have ever produced, effective immediately.

And/or the new corporate owner borrowed so much (from Finance Capital) to finance its purchase of a newspaper chain--like the chain that owned the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and New Haven Register--that it has to destroy the papers in order to make the loan payments.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out what my fellow ultra-Leftist, Commie-sympathizing Progressive-Populists at Forbes magazine have to say about it: http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/08/tribune-zell-newspapers-biz-media-cz_sf_1208zell.html

Policy-Making

Here, Sam Zell’s proposed highly-leveraged purchase of the Tribune
chain is debated at the Federal Trade Commission, which must grant
approval for the deal to be--you should pardon the expression--
consummated. Yes, at last it can be told: Juan Valdez smokes Camel
Filters! After admiring David Weinholtz’s painting as a whole, please
click to enlarge it & admire the painterly textures. [This seems to have
stopped working. You can do it in the version in the next blog entry
(above). --KD] That's nothing: you should see the 4-Megabyte
version! OK, I'll email you the 4-MB'er, on request.

Rocky Mountain News stayed in business for just short of 150 years. Until last week, it was the oldest continuously-operating business--not just newspaper--in the state of Colorado. If it is typical of major metropolitan dailies, it had been returning a profit in the range of eight to 15 percent per annum. Wall Street doesn't want 12 percent annual profit for another 150 years. It wants at least 25 percent profit for each of the next six quarters. After that, who cares? Find a way to do it, Mr. Editor.

R.I.P., Rocky Mountain News.

Farther to the east, well down the same tubes are the Inquirer and the Register. I used to read the Inquirer, back when Pulitzer prizes were still a recent memory.

If a merciful God did exist, one would think He'd spare at least the Inquirer and end the worldly suffering of the Hartford Courant--sending Connecticut's finest off to its Eternal Reward in that ultimate Gated Community down below--which, while lacking certain amenities, at least provides free heat yearround.

Though major American newspapers generally served the ruling classes well and the people ill, would the people be better off tomorrow if the papers all closed down tonight? As Rene Descartes said, just before vanishing, "I think not!"

If there is any hope for change, it will come from the proles, decided Orwell's Winston Smith. And if there is any hope for the newspaper biz, it will come from the provincial dailies, say I. I celebrate them on this program by reading a few passages from my local one. This is the former Manchester Journal-Inquirer, now just the Journal-Inquirer--its very name suggesting "Nowheresville"! Or is that, rather, "Utopia"? *

This installment of the radio program is mostly monologue, as brilliant and insightful as it is witty. Yes, the ambiguity is intentional. I like the installment, and if your tastes are identical to mine, I guarantee you will too! Besides, where else can you hear, within a span of 20 minutes, two Dave Rovics songs and Spinal Tap’s “Hell Hole”?

Also featured: (Most of) Stephen Colbert's incredible keynote speech at the White House Correspondents Association banquet, May 1, 2006. Here he mocks President Bush--who was seated at the same table as Colbert--and mocks the Washington press corps for their mindless repeating of White House lies and propaganda.

Oddly, all press reports of the banquet somehow neglected to mention the keynote speech. Except (God bless her) Amy Goodman's, on "Democracy Now!" which played the entire speech. Support your local noncommercial "alternative" radio station!

Catch New World Notes . . .

(all times Eastern)

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/

Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/

Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/

Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Anyway, as some right-wing radio show on shortwave always used to sign off,
VOICE 1: God Bless America!
VOICE 2: Death to the New World Order!
VOICE 1: We shall prevail!

* Pun in ancient Greek on "not place" (ou-topia) and "good place" (eu-topia). And apologies for the Descartes joke. Couldn't resist.
--K.

Photos -- December 7 Peace Rally

Some views of the Pearl Harbor Day peace rally at the north portal of the State Capitol building, Hartford, Connecticut, 12-7-08.

The afternoon was cold, but the crowd was in good spirits, and the Capitol grounds were much more colorful than usual.