Conspiracy You Can Believe In

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was the most popular politician in Haiti. He helped lead a grassroots movement against far-right dictatorship and military rule in his country, and earned the support of millions of voters. So why was he forced out of office--twice?

SOURCES 

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by CLR James

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/775985.The_Black_Jacobins

Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment by Peter Hallward

https://www.versobooks.com/books/524-damming-the-flood

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights-OAS--The Attack on St. Jean Bosco Church

http://www.iachr.org/countryrep/Haiti88eng/chap.2e.htm

Our Man in FRAPH - Behind Haiti's Paramilitaries by Allan Nairn

https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-3UeW4hbOCNQYZpOT/Our%20man%20in%20FRAPH%20-%20Behind%20Haiti%27s%20paramilitaries%20%28The%20Nation%2C%2024%20Oct%201994%29_djvu.txt

How do the experiences of average Russians during the tumultuous 1990s explain the way the country is today? And what does the popular narrative in the U.S. about Vladimir Putin get right--and wrong?

SOURCES:

Russia Without Putin by Tony Wood

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3040-russia-without-putin

The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy by Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski

https://www.usip.org/publications/2001/02/tragedy-russias-reforms

Russia Responds to Anti-Migrant Riots by Arresting Migrants by Simon Shuster

https://world.time.com/2013/10/14/russia-responds-to-anti-migrant-riots-by-arresting-migrants/

In 1996, it was hard to believe that Boris Yeltsin had ever been a popular leader. Years of economic devastation, corruption, and war tarnished the image of Russia's first president, leaving him with an approval rating in the single digits, and little chance of winning re-election. Miraculously, Yeltsin would go on to win a second term that year--with a little help from the U.S. government and the International Monetary Fund.

SOURCES: 

The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy by Peter Reddaway and Dmitri Glinski

https://www.usip.org/publications/2001/02/tragedy-russias-reforms

Russia Without Putin by Tony Wood

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3040-russia-without-putin

Clinton Digital Library: Declassified Documents Concerning Russian President Boris Yeltsin

https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/57569

PRESS SOURCES

Election meddling in Russia: When Boris Yeltsin asked Bill Clinton for help by David Shimer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/26/russian-election-interference-meddling/

The Harvard Boys Do Russia by Janine R. Wedel

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/harvard-boys-do-russia/ 

Bearing Gifts, Yeltsin Gains Ground by Lee Hockstader

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/russvote/main/art2.htm

IMF Approves $10.2 Billion Loan For Russia by Michael Dobbs

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1996/03/27/imf-approves-102-billion-loan-for-russia/6820c3ac-496a-482f-a01e-500c2e6a7d40/

Yeltsin drunk, near-naked, outside White House --AFP wire story

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-23/yeltsin-drunk-near-naked-outside-white-house/1438342

Rewriting Russian History: Did Boris Yeltsin Steal the 1996 Presidential Election? by Simon Shuster

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2107565,00.html

During South Africa's transition to democracy in the 1990s, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was tasked with holding public hearings on crimes against humanity committed during the turbulent years of Apartheid. Here, we cover only a few of the atrocities carried out by the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

SOURCES:

TRC Special Report broadcasts 

https://sabctrc.saha.org.za/

Project Coast: Apartheid’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme by United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research https://unidir.org/publication/project-coast-apartheids-chemical-and-biological-warfare-programme

Quest to Solve Assassination Mystery Revives an AIDS Conspiracy Theory by Matt Apuzzo https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/world/africa/hammarskjold-south-africa-aids.html

South Africa's Dr. Death by Benjamin Pogrund

https://web.archive.org/web/20210409142855/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5424386

South Africa: ‘Dr Death’ discovered to still be practising medicine by Olivier Marbot

https://www.theafricareport.com/63661/south-africa-dr-death-discovered-to-still-be-practising-medicine/

Shortly after midnight, on September 18, 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash just outside the Congo. Hammarskjöld was on his way to broker a peace settlement for the Congo Crisis, a conflict that pitted the UN against the proponents of white minority rule in central and southern Africa. It could have been what got him killed. 

SOURCES:

Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa by Susan Williams

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12657762-who-killed-hammarskj-ld-the-un-the-cold-war-and-white-supremacy-in-afr

Cold Case Hammarskjöld by Mads Brügger and Göran Björkdahl

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9352780/

The Assassination of Lumumba by Ludo de Witte

https://www.versobooks.com/books/792-the-assassination-of-lumumba

U.N. Report Bolsters Theory That Hammarskjold Plane Was Downed 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/world/africa/dag-hammarskjold.html

When Phil Donahue was offered a prime-time slot on MSNBC in 2002, he was already a household name. The person who developed the format of the daytime talk show would now be the face of the network that was gearing up to be the biggest competitor to Fox News. But seven months later, his show was canceled. The official explanation given was poor ratings. But a series of insider memos and emails from the network revealed the real reason Phil Donahue was forced back into retirement: he was too critical of America's coming war with Iraq.

SOURCES:

Phil Donahue and the Art of Remembering by Maria Bustillos

https://www.cjr.org/public_editor/msnbc-public-editor-phil-donahue-and-the-art-of-remembering.php

Chasing Fox by Gabriel Sherman

https://nymag.com/news/media/68717/#print

Phil Donahue on MSNBC Firing by Jack Mirkinson and Marc Lamont Hill

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/phil-donahue-chris-matthews-msnbc-firing_n_2926643

The Surrender of MSNBC by Rick Ellis (archived)

https://web.archive.org/web/20130824023817/https://allyourscreens.com/index.php/features2/760-the-surrender-of-msnbc

Battling for the Soul of Donahue by Rick Ellis (archived)

https://web.archive.org/web/20030314191429/http://www.allyourtv.com/0203season/news/03042003buyersregret.html

MSNBC Cancels Donahue by Bill Carter

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/business/media/msnbc-cancels-donahue.html

Phil Donahue on His Firing from MSNBC by Democracy Now

https://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/21/phil_donahue_on_his_2003_firing

Countdown to Big Ratings by Stephen Battaglio (archived)

https://web.archive.org/web/20110517134556/http://www.tvguide.com/biz/Countdown-Big-Ratings-35184.aspx

Phil Donahue and his Show by Dr. James Todd Uhlman

http://daytonarenahistory.org/project/phil-donahue-and-his-show/

Donahue cold open source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIa1UgSpJAE&ab_channel=PhilosophyandEsoterica

In 1863, a regiment of black soldiers steamed out of Boston Harbor for the front in South Carolina. The 54th Massachusetts would distinguish themselves at multiple battles--including the bloody assault of Fort Wagner--even though they didn't enjoy the full rights of citizenship or even full pay. Listen to the story of the brave troops who helped deliver the death blow to the Slave Power.

SOURCES:

A Brave Black Regiment by Luis F. Emilio

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2497915.A_Brave_Black_Regiment

Retouching History: The Modern Falsification of a Civil War Photograph by Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite, Jr.

http://people.virginia.edu/~jh3v/retouchinghistory/essay.html#2

Black Confederates: Truth and Legend by Sam Smith

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/black-confederates-truth-and-legend

The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground by Ronald S. Coddington

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/the-old-flag-never-touched-the-ground/

Harriet Tubman's Great Raid by Paul Donnelly

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-the-whole-land-is-full-of-blood-the-thomas-sims-case.htm

https://www.nalc.org/news/the-postal-record/2020/september-2020/document/Postal-pioneers.pdf

One of the motivations behind the anti-slavery movement in the 1850s in the United States was the belief in the Slave Power conspiracy. Abolitionists and their allies argued that a confederation of powerful slaveholders secretly plotted to capture the federal government of the US and direct its might towards the preservation and extension of slavery. The abolitionists were wrong about one major thing: it wasn't that much of a secret.

SOURCES

https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/free-soil-free-labor-free-men-9780195094978?cc=us&lang=en&

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35100.Battle_Cry_of_Freedom

This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy by Matthew Karp

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737259

The Slave Power Conspiracy: 1830-1860 by Russel B. Nye

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40399768?seq=1

The Appeal of the Independent Democrats

https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss15610.028_0602_0607/?sp=2

Thomas Morris' speech in the Senate

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=006/llcg006.db&recNum=430&itemLink=r%3Fammem%2Fhlaw%3A%40field%28DOCID%2B%40lit%28cg0062%29%29%3A%230060683&linkText=1

JQ Adams' Speech on the Slave Power

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1848-03-10/ed-1/seq-1/

George Fitzhugh's Horace Greely's Lost Book:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acf2679.0031.003/239:9?page=root;rgn=full+text;size=100;view=image

Fitzhugh's Sociology For the South:

https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/fitzhughsoc/fitzhugh.html

James Henry Hammond's Mudsill Speech:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3439t.html

John C. Calhoun's Slavery a Positive Good Speech

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/slavery-a-positive-good/

I appeared on Arsenal For Democracy with Bill and Nate to talk more about Vance Packard's The Waste Makers, planned obsolescence, and recent victories at the polls for the right to repair the things you own.

Listen to more episodes of Arsenal for Democracy here: http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/

Do you ever wonder why you have to replace a perfectly good smartphone after a software update? Do things in your home seem to fall apart before their time? Was your grandpa right when he said "They just don't make 'em like the used to?"

If you think that somewhere, someone is making some of the products you buy wear out on purpose, you're not crazy. They are. It's called planned obsolescence.

SOURCES

The Waste Makers by Vance Packard

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250912.The_Waste_Makers

The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy by Markus Krajewski

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

The Story Behind The Story Behind "The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy" by Jean Kumagai

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/geek-life/history/the-story-behind-the-story-behind-the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

Farmers Fight John Deere Over Who Gets to Fix an $800,000 Tractor by Peter Waldman and Lydia Mulvany

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-fight-john-deere-over-who-gets-to-fix-an-800-000-tractor

We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership by Kyle Wiens

https://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware by Jason Koebler

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware