History Hit. The Clinton Body Count to the QAnon Shaman: Conspiracy Theories in American Politics Gabriel Gatehouse, from the BBC, has a second series of The Coming Storm, which I listened to back in 2022. This episode is a bit of a rehash of the first series, which focussed on the conspiracies swirling around the Clintons, but brought up to the January 6 riot and its fall-out. He says that now conspiracies revolve more around “hidden actors”, which has an element of truth to it (says she, frustrated by the influence of lobbyists and miners on Australian politics).
The Rest is History. Episode 454 Fall of the Sioux: Death of Crazy Horse (Part 1) From their own summary: “Though the Battle of the Little Bighorn seemed for the triumphant Lakota and their allies – the largest gathering of Plains Indians ever assembled – a miraculous victory, it was for them the beginning of the end. A great council was held near the battlefield in which they made the fateful decision to split up. Meanwhile, in Washington, Custer’s death and the military defeat of the army was being politicised, and the public rallied against the Lakota. Red Cloud, their political leader through so many of their struggles, was replaced with a puppet interloper. Then, during the winter of 1877, a contingent of ruthless and fiercely effective U.S. officers, including General Crook and General Miles, chased and harried the retreating Sioux contingents through the snows, leaving them starving, beleaguered and desperate. At last, in March 1877 the once formidable war chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull found themselves cornered, and their people left with little choice but to admit defeat. What then would be their fate?Dominic and Tom … discuss the annihilation of the Plains Indians and the dissolution of their extraordinary culture and nomadic way of life, along with the tragic death and downfall of one of the most mesmerising and mysterious characters of the entire story: Crazy Horse. “
We Live Here Now (The Atlantic) Thank you for Calling President Trump The presence of their neighbours from the ‘Eagles Nest’ at the vigils outside the Washington DC jail attracted the attention of politicians, most particularly Sebastian Gorka, who took up the cause of Ashli Babbitt with enthusiasm. As part of the vigil, people would telephone in, and these calls were often broadcast out loud. President (at this stage ex-president) called in as well.
I Bet It’s a January 6 case There were over 1500 arrests after January 6, and in a small jurisdiction like Washington DC, many locals were called up for jury duty in January 6 cases. And so, Lauren gets the call up and she is part of the jury that convicts Taylor Johnatakis for obstruction of an official proceeding; civil disorder’ and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officer and a handful of misdemeanors. His sentence was more than seven years. (Trump walked away scot-free). Lauren feels bad about it, and Hanna Rosin visits his wife, Marie and after learning that he has five kids, that his wife is a sad, forgiving woman, and that they may well lose their house, then Hanna feels bad about it too.
Shadows of Utopia Episode 13 The Royal Crusade for Independence. This episode is only 1.5 hours long, and it comes three years (!!) after Lachlan Peters embarked on this project. It deals with the year 1953. By this time, the IndoChina was becoming known in France as the ‘Dirty War’. All sides- the French, the Nationalists, the Viet Minh were appallingly violent, and this violence was spreading across all three territories of Indochina. The narrative divides in half here: looking at the diverging paths of Saloth Sar (the future Pol Pot) and King Sihanouk. Saloth Sar returned to Cambodia, charged by the Communist students back in France with compiling a report about the different groups, and which group they should throw their weight behind. He wrote back to Paris saying that the Khmer Viet Minh was the only viable force, but that the Cambodians should work for independence from within the tent. He joined the Kymer Viet Minh, but found that despite the name, the group was dominated by the Vietnamese who looked down on them. Meanwhile, Sihanouk decided that he was going to get independence from the French for ‘his’ country, so he got involved with international diplomacy which was getting increasingly complex now that it was overlaid by Cold War diplomacy. In the end the French, who were domestically becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this ‘dirty war’, decided that they had to go along with Sihanouk’s proposal because of the Communist threat, so independence was declared in November 1953. But the Nationalists led by Than and his Kymer Srei and the Viet Minh did not accept Sihanouk’s takeover. So we had Sihanouk with French and US support against the Khner Viet Minh supported by Vietnam, China and Russia.
Global Roaming (ABC) I enjoy Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald, two of my favourite ABC journalists. Maori vs the King: Who owns NZ? picks up on the large recent protests in New Zealand (involving both Maori and Pakeha) over the bill before their Parliament to rewrite the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi. Although there is little chance of this bill being passed, the fact that it even came before Parliament says a lot about the times we are living in. Features Taiha Molyneux, Māori News Editor Radio New Zealand .
Rear Vision (ABC) Treaty of Waitangi It might be flawed, it might be contested, and is continually being discussed and reconceptualized but I think that the attempts to ‘rewrite’ the Treaty itself are absolutely appalling. I suspect that NZ politicians were emboldened by our recent Voice referendum over the ditch. It’s interesting that two of the speakers in this episode have died so it really does take on a historical perspective. The speakers are Judith Binney, was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Auckland. She died 15 February 2011, Claudia Orange is a historian and Director of History and Pacific Cultures at Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand and Dr Ranginui Walker was a Māori academic and writer. He died 29 February 2016. I just had a look at the Waitangi Tribunal reports page: it’s telling that of the five ‘urgent’ reports issued there, four of them arise from this year.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 