Meditations and Molotovs

Meditations and Molotovs - 11.14.16

On today's program, Vince interviews his friend, activist and writer, Ramon Mejia (the baddest hombre this side of the Mississippi).

Ramon is from Dallas, Texas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps upon graduating high school in July 2001 out of economic necessity in order to support his wife and daughter. Ramon served in Supply Ops. and participated in the initial invasion of Iraq, deploying to Dhi Qar Province in 2003. After suffering from multiple seizures, Ramon was placed on med board and discharged from the Marines in Nov 04. As a result of his experience in Iraq, he converted to Islam in 2008.

Since then, Ramon has opposed the war and all US military expeditions around the world. He's been an active organizer over the last year or so in countering local manifestations of hate and racism by neo-Nazis and protest of mosques by a paramilitary group in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. He currently resides in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Meditations and Molotovs - 11.08.16

On today's program, Vince reflects on 18 months of electoral madness and what people should expect over the next four to eight years under a potential Clinton Presidency. 

Meditations and Molotovs - 10.31.16

 On today's program, Vince interviews author and activist, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi.

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born in the United States in 1971 to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father. After graduating from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Biology in 1993, she earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 but left medicine in 2002. Today, she works for social justice. Dr. Wasfi has made two trips to Iraq to visit her extended family since the 2003 "Shock and Awe" invasion, including a three month stay in Basrah in the spring of 2006. She is an activist in support of ending the US-led and US-funded occupations (military and economic) of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Dahlia is currently working on a book that humanizes the victims of American and Israeli policy “From the Nile to the Euphrates.” On Twitter, her username is @liberatethis

Meditations and Molotovs - 10.24.16

Today, Vince speaks with author, activist and global citizen Deena Stryker about her book, "Cuba: A Diary of the Revolution" (Tayen Lane).

It has been nearly five decades since Deena Stryker, then Boyer, journeyed to Cuba. Deena, a photojournalist went to revolutionary Cuba to both write and photograph the struggles, the trials and disagreements, the victories, and losses of the Cuban people. There she experienced the revolution first hand and enjoyed numerous conversations and powerful moments with its revolutionary leaders—Castro, Che, Celia, and a host of Revolutionaries. Cuba, A Diary of the Revolution is the documented account of that journey during the early years of Cuba’s revolution in the early 1960’s and also a candid look at the Cuba of today as it comes to detente with the US.

Philadelphian Deena Stryker studied in Paris, became a French citizen by marriage, debuted at Agence France Presse in Rome, then, as Deena Boyer, followed Fellini’s creative process for The Two Hundred Days of ’81/2’. The proceeds enabled her to interview Fidel Castro for a major French weekly, meeting with him again a week after the Kennedy assassination, and several times in 1964 for this book.

Meditations and Molotovs - 10.17.16

 Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the U.S. and Donald Trump will be in the media even more than he is today (recent reports have him starting his own cable channel - we'll see). His supporters, emboldened but disorganized, will remain.

But where does that leave the rest of us? What should we expect from a Clinton presidency? And how will activists, particularly the millions who were mobilized for Sanders, respond? 

Meditations and Molotovs - 10.10.16

On today's program, Vince recaps the second presidential "debate" in all its wonderful madness and banality. He also discuss the possibility of organizing Trump's supporters and why he thinks The Donald's campaign has been the best learning experience for Americans in over a century.

Plus, why are liberals, progressives and Democrats silent as Clinton escalates Cold War 2.0 with Russia? Scoring cheap political points while simultaneously provoking war - textbook American liberalism! Hillary must have learned a thing or two from JFK. 

Meditations and Molotovs - 10.03.16

 On today's program, Vince is joined in studio by Samantha Castro, the Operations Coordinator for Friends of the Earth (Melbourne, Australia). Vince and Samantha talk about ecology, feminism and how to build more effective political movements. 

Meditations and Molotovs - 09.12.16

Fifteen years after 9/11 and Americans have learned very little about war, violence, revenge, history, terrorism and empire.

So, for today's program, Vince plays Howard Zinn's famous speech,"Three Holy Wars" (The Revolutionary War, The Civil War and World War II) because these idealized wars must be questioned if we ever hope to stop the madness of U.S. Empire.

Meditations and Molotovs - 08.29.16

Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance sparked an important conversation and debate about nationalism and American Exceptionalism - an essential conversation more Americans should have. For this, he should be commended, not admonished.

As Albert Einstein once noted, "Nationalism is an infantile disease." Of course, the same is true today, yet I hear less and less progressive and leftwing activists say so. Why? Is nationalism the ultimate taboo in American political discourse?

When will a prominent American athlete draw attention to the millions of people of color the U.S. military has killed overseas in the name of American Exceptionalism and under the banner of the U.S. flag? That's the conversation no one wants to have.

Meditations and Molotovs - 08.22.16

Show Description - AUGUST 22nd: On today's program, Vince explores a wide-range of issues, from the ways in which media consolidation colors our collective culture, to the absurdity of nationalism and why he loathes the Olympics. This off-script show is sure to entertain.