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Nignorance from across the diaspora. We discuss politics and pop culture from a left perspective. Enjoy and tell a friend.
Episodes
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Friday Sep 10, 2021
In the narrative of liberal America, the states of “flyover country” are often portrayed as bastions of reactionary politics in which any form of progressive struggle is ultimately futile. Such a narrative serves to reinforce a sense of smug cultural superiority on the part of some upper class liberals. Indeed, the notion that reform and change in the rural Midwest is impossible often provides the Democratic Party with a rationale for the abandonment of these territories to Republican control. However, the reality of politics in rural America is far more complex than many assume. This week we talk to Luke Mayville, the co-founder of Reclaim Idaho, about both the opportunities and pitfalls facing those seeking to engender progressive reform in the heart of “Trump country”.
On 2018 Medicaid Expansion campaign: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/do-something-big
Watch the trailer for the documentary on Reclaim Idaho's Medicaid Expansion campaign here: https://www.reclaimidahofilm.com/
Reclaim Idaho's victory in the Idaho Supreme Court: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr7FOaMAs-Q
Luke Mayville op-ed on the legislature's assault on the initiative process: https://www.idahopress.com/.../article_ca5c2c9d-024e-58a3...
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
We'll be talking with Lillian Cicerchia about the limitations of post Marxism, and then we're going to be discussing the Black Music and the culture industry with Greg Tate
About Lillian Cicerchia:
Lillian is a post-doc at the Institute of Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. Her areas of specialization are political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and critical theory. Her research is about capitalism, structural injustice, and the intersection of the two, especially the ways in which capitalism influences experiences of social group oppression. Her work also asks how contexts of structural injustice frame the way that we think about our normative criteria for justice in terms of democratic rights and participation.
What's Left of Philosophy Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuwLXhuSvi3NRGbSmcRS3ig
About Greg Tate:
Tate was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. When he was 13 years old, his family moved to Washington, D.C.[1][2] He credits Amiri Baraka's Black Music and Rolling Stone, which he first read when he was 14, with stimulating his interest in collecting and writing about music.[3] As a teenager, Tate taught himself how to play guitar. He attended Howard University, where he studied journalism and film.
In 1982, Tate moved to New York City, where he developed friendships with other musicians, including James "Blood" Ulmer and Vernon Reid. In 1985 he co-founded the Black Rock Coalition with some of the African-American musicians he knew who shared a common interest in playing rock music.
Tate became a staff writer for The Village Voice in 1987, a position he held until 2005. His 1986 essay "Cult-Nats Meet Freaky Deke" for the Voice Literary Supplement is widely regarded as a milestone in black cultural criticism; in the essay, he juxtaposes the "somewhat stultified stereotype of the black intellectual as one who operates from a narrow-minded, essentialized notion of black culture" (cultural nationalists, or Cult-Nats) with the freaky "many vibrant colors and dynamics of African American life and art", trying to find a middle ground in order to break down "that bastion of white supremacist thinking, the Western art [and literary world" His work has also been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Artforum, Down Beat, Essence, JazzTimes, Rolling Stone, and VIBE. The Source described Tate as one of "the Godfathers of hip-hop journalism".
In 1999, Tate established Burnt Sugar, an improvisational ensemble that varies in size between 13 and 35 musicians. Tate described the band in 2004 as "a band I wanted to hear but could not find".
Tate has been a visiting professor of Africana studies at Brown University and the Louis Armstrong Visiting Professor at Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies. In 2010, he was awarded a United States Artists fellowship.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Sunday Sep 05, 2021
Sunday Sep 05, 2021
Home to 75% of the world's mining companies, Canada is the imperial power that is seldom discussed. While the election of Justin Trudeau was thought to bring progressive change, it's been more of the same capital driven environmental and labor abuse under the charade of enlightened imagery. Is Canada benefiting from an incorrect assumption of progressivism? Or is Canada another “Usual Suspect” in the global game of empire and conquest?
About Owen Schalk:
Owen Schalk is a writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He grew up in the countryside surrounded by rural emptiness, abandoned houses, and farm-loving German Canadians who tried and failed to instil their love of farming in him. He found his artistic curiosity while reading the usual canon, and found his voice while reading Pynchon, DeLillo, Bolaño, and other authors who write with a critical eye for dominant social and political doctrines.
Owen’s short stories have been distributed by a variety of print and online publishers, including The Paragon Press, The Anti-Languorous Project, and whimperbang. Additionally, his academic work has been rewarded with a number of scholarships and awards in Manitoba.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Become a patron now
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Friday Sep 03, 2021
Friday Sep 03, 2021
In recent months, there has emerged a narrative that has sought to frame Joe Biden’s presidency as a revival of FDR New Dealism. To what extent is this narrative realistic? Is Joe Biden really a deviation from the neoliberal economic order that has defined the “50 year counterrevolution”? Or is such talk merely a DC beltway branding exercise?
About Dr. Jack Rasmus:
Rasmus can address the news issues revolving around the global recession and U.S. financial crisis, current economic and political policies of corporate America, and the causes and consequences of growing income inequality. He teaches courses on Contemporary Economic Policy Analysis, Economic Thought, U.S. Economic History and Labor Economics
A former journalist, Rasmus has served as an economist and analyst for several global companies and has roots in the labor movement; he was a local union president, business representative, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions.
Asatar Bair:
Asatar Bair (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst) has taught economics since 2001, at RCC and City College of San Francisco. He has worked as Executive Director of a non-profit. His focus is political economy; he has written a book entitled “Prison Labor in the US: An Economic Analysis,” (Routledge, 2008) and has contributed some 200 articles on the US economy to Austria’s financial weekly The Boursen-Kourier.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Wednesday Sep 01, 2021
Wednesday Sep 01, 2021
One of the persistent features of the culture war both in the United States and beyond has been the question of masculinity. For those on the right, there is currently a war being waged against men and boys. Indeed, masculinity in and of itself is often – it is claimed – being portrayed in a negative light or, to use the current in vogue terminology, “toxic”. What is masculinity in the 21st century and is it toxic? Are we living through a crisis of masculinity? And if so, what are the courses of this crisis and how is it playing out in the field of politics?
About Heidi:
Heidi Matthews is an assistant professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Canada. She researches and teaches in the areas of the law of war, international criminal law, criminal law, and law and sexuality. She splits her time between Toronto and rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here:
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
With the raging culture war and debates around Critical Race Theory we will discuss how Postmodern theory became a dominant force in academia that derailed materialist analysis of social and political phenomena. In this episode we will investigate the origins of postmodern thought and its consequences for today’s politics.
About Vivek:
Vivek Chibber is a professor of sociology at New York University. He is the editor of Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy.
Articles:
"Making Sense of Postcolonial theory: a response to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak", Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 27:3, 617-624, DOI:10.1080/09557571.2014.943593 [Download/read: ResponsetoSpivak.pdf, 79.76 kB]
"Subaltern Studies Revisited - a Response to Partha Chatterjee [Longer version]," Economic and Political Weekly, March 1, 2014. [Download/read: SubalternStudiedRevisited.pdf, 224.12 kB]
"Capitalism, Class, and Universalism: Escaping the Cul-de-sac of Postcolonial Theory," The Socialist Register, 2014. [Download/read: Capitalism, Class.pdf, 76.88kB]
"Organized Interests, Development Strategies, and Social Policies", R. Nagaraj ed., Growth, Inequality, and Social Policy in India, London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012. [Download/read: Organized_interests.pdf, 1,802kb]
Books:
Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital
Verso, 2013.
Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India
Princeton University Press, 2003.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Friday Aug 27, 2021
Friday Aug 27, 2021
All institutions in America post COVID seem to draw nothing but disdain and distrust from the public. Has America come to a point where belief in these formerly trusted institutions are passe? In the wake of the pandemic and the recent Afghanistan debacle, has the American ruling class lost the capacity to secure the faith of the American people?
What does this mean for the contemporary left.
About Doug Lain:
Douglas Lain is the publisher of Zero Books. Based in Portland, Oregon he is also a writer whose books include the science fiction novel Bash Bash Revolution from Night Shade Books and the magical realist novel Billy Moon from Tor Books. He is currently writing a book for Zero Books on the need for a new understanding of Marx.
Lain was the host of the philosophy podcast "Diet Soap" from 2009 through 2014 and is now the host of Zero Squared for Zero Books and the YouTuber behind the Zero Books Youtube channel.
You can follow Doug on his YouTube Channel here:
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get the music from the show here:
Wednesday Aug 25, 2021
Wednesday Aug 25, 2021
Over the last two decades, there has been an intensification of instability in the Middle East as a result of military intervention as well as economic warfare launched not only by the United States but also powerful regional actors. This week we speak to Matthew Petti of the Quincy Institute about a variety of dynamics shaping the region. What does the withdrawal from Afghanistan mean for US influence?
What is the future of the Iran nuclear deal? And how have interventions from the US and regional players exacerbated tensions and chaos in the Middle East and Islamic World?
About Matthew Petti: Matthew Petti was a research assistant at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, reporter for Responsible Statecraft. He is a former national security reporter at the National interest and his work has appeared in several publications including the Armenian Weekly, Reason, and the American Magazine.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Become a patron now
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Facebook:
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here:
Get the music from show here!
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
What are the roots of the current political crisis in South Africa? Why has the ending of Apartheid not resolved the economic gulf that exists between racial and class groups. What is the path forward to resolve the economic challenge in this once racially segregated nation?
About Milton Allimadi:
Milton Allimadi attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia for an M.S. degree; he won the prestigious James Wechsler Memorial Prize award in international journalism at Columbia. He has M.A. and Bachelors degrees in Economics from Syracuse University. He started his journalism career with internships at The Journal of Commerce and The Wall Street Journal. He was a freelance reporter for The New York Times, a reporter and deputy managing editor with The City Sun, before founding The Black Star News. He is also an Adjunct Professor of African History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). He can be heard every Tuesday morning at 7.10 AM on WBAI 99.5 FM or wbai.org Radio as a guest on "The Morning Show."
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Facebook:
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here:
Get the music from show here!
https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions
Friday Aug 20, 2021
Friday Aug 20, 2021
From the earliest period of Black American history the Black Church has had an integral role in shaping the social fabric of Black life. Throughout various periods of that long history the Black church has also been crucial in Black political action and institution building. In this current moment when Black electoral politics is rooted in the right wing corporate flank of the Democratic Party with many White progressives to the left, is there any potential for the Black church to be anything more than a vehicle of political and social control used by the Black political class? Is there potential for the Black church to be radicalized to embrace an agenda that fights the egregious nature of American capitalism and imperialism?
Do phenomena like prosperity ministries relegate the Black church to being a vehicle for promoting conspicuous consumption and Black capitalism, or is a more radical vision possible?
We will ask these questions and more on this episode of THIS IS REVOLUTION.
About Dr. Floyd:
Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd is Associate Professor Political Science at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. A lawyer and political scientist, Dr. Alexander-Floyd has been actively engaged in a wide range of political and legal issues. Dr. Alexander-Floyd has been a featured speaker at fora and symposia at a number of colleges and universities, including Bryn Mawr College, CUNY Graduate Center, Northwestern University, Prairieview A&M University, Princeton University, and Syracuse University, among others. A strong advocate for minorities in general and women of color in particular, she co-founded the Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics (www.asbwp.org), an organization dedicated to promoting the development of Black women’s and gender studies and supporting the professionalization of Black women political scientists. As a legal theorist and activist, she has produced scholarship and provided commentary on some of the cutting edge legal cases of our time, including the important Hopwood case in Texas; her involvement and leadership around Hopwood led to guest appearances and interviews on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and National Public Radio.
An award-winning educator, she teaches a range of courses on Black feminist theory, Black women’s political activism, and race, gender, media, and the law. Dr. Alexander-Floyd is the author of Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics (Palgrave Macmillan 2007), and her articles have appeared in leading journals such as Feminist Formations, The International Journal of Africana Studies, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, The National Political Science Review, Politics & Gender, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Signs. She is a past Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of the National Women's Studies Association, and past Chair of the American Political Science Association's Committee on the Status of Women and the Profession. Her latest book, Liminal Subjects: Black Women, Melodrama, and Post-Feminism in the New Millennium (forthcoming NYU Press, 2020), investigates the political implications of post-feminist, post-civil rights ideology.
Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron only programing, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH!
Become a patron now
Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, (specially YouTube!)
THANKS Y'ALL
Facebook:
Twitter: @TIRShowOakland
Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland
The Dispatch on Zero Books (video essay series):
Medium:
Pascal Robert's Black Agenda Report:
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