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Beautiful Day is a feel good, uplifting pop rock song that serves as a reminder to all of us that it is always possible to be optimistic.

Its a Beautiful Day

Its A Beautiful Day

CORRECTED DESCRIPTION 13 May 2024

This is a piece created by Duncan Chapman from recordings of forced rhubarb growing at David Westwood & Son rhubarb farm, near Wakefield. You can hear the rhubarb buds popping as they burst and also some mud as we squelched around in the dark. The audio has been cleaned up as much as possible to remove the sound of both the M62 and M1 motorways which are nearby!

A mass of popping rhubarb - forced rhubarb growing at DWS Farm

Dorothy Roberts is an award-winning author and expert on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare. She is a professor of law and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Chuck Mertz interviews Roberts about her latest book, TORN APART: How the child welfare system destroys black families—and how abolition can build a safer world. 

TORN APART available Now at Basic Books https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/dorothy-roberts/torn-apart/9781541675445/

Family Policing Punishes Poor Families and Protects White Supremacy  / Dorothy Roberts

This song was inspired by gangster and florist Charles Dean O'Banion (shot dead in his flower shop on November 10, 1924) and the long defunct Chicago punk bar named after him.

Blood On The Roses (remix)

Black Panthers, Third World revolutionary movements, CIA surveillance and plane hijackings. Elaine Mokhtefi is a century of history in a person. We speak to her about her experiences as an activist ranging back to protesting segregation in 1944. Her book Algiers: Third World Capital is an enthralling testament to a life of involvement in the tangible fight for freedom and justice in colonized and exploited countries.

Subscribe for $5 a month to get all the premium episodes:
https://patreon.com/qaa

Buy Elaine Mokhtefi’s book: https://www.versobooks.com/products/760-algiers-third-world-capital

Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)

https://qaapodcast.com

QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

Elaine Mokhtefi (E330)

Comedy legend Larry Charles (Fridays, Seinfeld, Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm & much more) returns to the show to discuss his new book Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter. We have a wide ranging discussion of Larry’s life in comedy including post-war Brooklyn as a comedy incubator, grinding out avant-garde sketch comedy with Andy Kaufman, the prevalence of coke and other drugs in the comedy writing scene, getting tackled by the Secret Service trying to get a joint to Jimmy Carter’s sister, and the difficulties in comedic creative relationships. Larry also gets candid about his disappointment with the prevalence of zionism among his erstwhile comedy partners, and we talk about the humanizing force of humor in the face tragedy and despair.

Pick up Comedy Samurai here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/larry-charles/comedy-samurai/9781538771549/?lens=grand-central-publishing

AND: get your pre-order in for YEAR ZERO: A CHAPO TRAP HOUSE COMICS ANTHOLOGY starting today at www.badegg.co

947 - Laugh Now, Cry Later feat. Larry Charles (6/30/25)

We read through the Jane Street-funded arms trafficking allegations made against a South Sudanese activist, talk Sudan and South Sudan, ask what the hell Gary Kasparov is up to, and give a classic coup review.

Hit the tip line: (646) 801-1129 | tips@trueanon.com

Discover more episodes at podcast.trueanon.com

Episode 472: The Jane Street Coup

John Washington joins us to discuss his recent piece in the New York Review of Books, "The Roots of Bukele’s Gulag." 

Check out John's article here: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/06/01/the-roots-of-bukeles-gulag/

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Deep Background on Bukele's Gulags in El Salvador / John Washington

"Facebook’s Zuckerberg backs online political ad regulations forwarded by Sen. Amy Klobuchar," reported the Associated Press in 2018. "CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says crypto needs to embrace regulation," announced Business Insider in 2021. "AI leaders: Please regulate us," read an Axios headline in 2023.

In recent years, major U.S. companies, especially in the tech industry, have given new life to a longstanding corporate PR strategy: self-regulation. It's a common tactic. After a scandal — say, revelations about pollution, rampant scams, or large-scale invasions of privacy — corporations rebrand as repentant and disciplined, ready to pay their debts to society and embrace the public good. "No need for oppressive and overly burdensome regulation", they insist, "we can handle it ourselves."

This, of course, isn't the real intention. Historically, this corporate voluntarism has generated little more than a few cosmetic reforms, if that, and allowed the continuation of business as usual in every industry from slavery to oil to tobacco to crypto, save for the occasional sacrificial lamb. So why, and how, do media keep assuring their audiences that, This Time, It's Different? That this time corporate America has learned its lesson and can be trusted to regulate itself?

On this episode, we examine the centuries-old damage-control strategy of industry self-regulation, looking at how corporate claims of self-policing, aided by news media, buy time and goodwill while concealing an agenda of weakening pre-existing regulations, manipulating new laws to the benefit of the private sector, or, often, preventing regulation altogether. Our guest is the Revolving Door Project's assistant director Timi Iwayemi.

Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

Mark Weisbrot and Francisco Rodríguez join us to discuss their Lancet article, co-authored with Silvio Rendón "Effects of international sanctions on age-specific mortality: a cross-national panel data analysis," and their articles based on that research, "Sanctions can kill as many people as wars" (Financial Times), and "Rethink sanctions. They’re killing as many people as war does" (LA Times). "The Moment of Truth" with Jeff Dorchen follows the interview.

Check out Mark and Francisco's study, co-authored with Silvio Rendón: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(25)00189-5/fulltext
Check out Mark's article in the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-07-24/united-states-sanctions-deaths
Check out Francisco's article at Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/99206b73-92c4-41f1-9677-d4a1e6fc78b1?accessToken=zwAGO8yGY2UgkdOZIGtzksRB8dOWd9Sh5vx4sQ.MEQCIFP6yeUhZIJ4mPS1-GjgdlEcQAaHOOh8YjxiUWaqlMAJAiB5JbhVt6_de4NuKcvk8TCwva2ZtyzJMBscOiQnyHKTiA&sharetype=gift&token=4d21afe8-c829-4682-8cd0-4ea688ff1ca7 (sorry about the long url)

Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

Please rate and review This Is Hell! wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps the show ascend the algorithm to reach new listeners.

US Sanctions Kill as Many People as Wars / Mark Weisbrot & Francisco Rodriguez

Released on Linear Obsessional's free download label, my album The Terminal Beach was first conceived in the early 80's.  It is a personal story as much as an attempt to capture JG Ballard's short story.  

A man maroons himself upon a former nuclear test atoll in the Pacific.  The small landscape is festooned with concrete structures.  Lakes, bunkers and two thousand blocks.  Wrecked bombers and more structures than even Ballard gets time to write about.  A story written in the shadow of the cold war, it perfectly captured who and what I was in my early 20's.  Come with me here, and see the sights?

US Sanctions Kill as Many People as Wars / Mark Weisbrot & Francisco Rodriguez

This Is Hell!

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