This Week with David Rovics

The first time I organized a show for someone, I think five people showed up.

The Hawai'i department of the Ministry of Culture has given us a haunting remix of the song I wrote about those Iranian missiles that hit those Israeli military targets the other day.

Everywhere the Al-Jazeera reporters were reporting from throughout the Middle East during and after Iran's October 1st ballistic missile attack on Israeli military targets, people could be heard cheering loudly. Most of the people I know across the world might not have been cheering, but their hearts were a little lighter, for a little while, at least. I know mine was.

We interrupt these wars to bring you a Senate hearing with Bernie Sanders calling the shots. I'm still recovering from the shock of hearing a person with a Danish accent utter that much nonsense. Obviously they're not all fine upstanding radical leftists like almost everyone I know in Denmark!

If you've missed the proceedings, the upshot is that half of the expenditures for health care costs in the US these days goes for buying prescriptions of Ozempic, the new, extremely popular weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk. The reason it's so expensive is because the US government doesn't believe in regulating monopolies, and capitalism says charge whatever they'll pay -- it's basic supply and demand, after all.

If there were any press outlets interested in covering the trials and tribulations of a little-known traveling musician trying to sing any songs about Palestine without having people try to cancel his gigs, what might that coverage look like?

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was born on July 27th, 1998, and killed by an Israeli sniper while standing in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in the town of Beita, in the Occupied West Bank, on September 6th, 2024.

Remixed rendition thanks to Chet Gardiner, from his studio in Hawai'i.

Here's Chris Cook's interview with me from earlier today, wherein I wax eloquent about the horrors for a half hour. You can hear the entire show and subscribe to Gorilla Radio, which is a wonderful weekly podcast, on Substack. And to meet the host, come to my gig next weekend in Victoria, BC!

Israeli settlers began a new campaign to steal more of the land from the people of the town of Beita, Palestine, in 2021. Turkish-American ISM activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was the 17th protester to be killed by Israeli troops in Beita since 2021.

Over the course of the summer I wrote a bunch of things, but didn't make audio versions of most of it.  Here's everything I missed, in one fell swoop, interspersed with appropriate songs.  The following segments are the order in which I recorded them, and the order in which they were published on Substack, and in the case of "I Survived Chicago," on Counterpunch as well.

• Reflections on Singing for Wikileaks

My very prolific musical collaborator, Chet Gardiner, has come up with a very appropriately sinister backdrop for this song, which is the first of two songs I wrote after the arrest of Palestine solidarity organizer and influencer, Sarah Wilkinson, in England at the end of August.

Like the other song on the subject ("On the Streets of London"), this song is not just about Sarah's ordeal, but all the other journalists who have been getting arrested by Keir Starmer's balaclava-wearing Mossad thugs.