This Week with David Rovics

I sat down this morning with the intention of writing a bit of a travelogue about my recent travels in Texas and Georgia, but then I wrote this song instead. I'll probably eventually write the travelogue, too.

British members of Palestine Action on hunger strike are close to death, Israel's "ceasefire" is just a continuation of the famine, disease and slaughter Israel continues to deliver to the Palestinian people, and across the west, leaders express their deference to the genocidal killers, ship more weapons, and ban words and phrases that make fascists uncomfortable. The hunger strike continues In the British prisons As the courts refuse To reach a decision Will they judge this time As they have before That the crime is sending  Weapons to the war Because the terrorists here Are the Zionists Who'd try to hide A genocide It's a holocaust  And it's happening now A hundred thousand lives lost And no one knows how How many more Will ever be found  Under the rubble  Beneath the ground  Chorus The Palestinian people Beneath plastic sheets There's no ceasefire, just a famine  As history repeats History from the Nazis Brought down on the holy land Beside the bloody sea With an F-thirty-five at hand  Chorus As the Israelis go on With their endless killing spree  While Egypt plays the pawn With their new refinery And throughout the west  They ban phrases and words As our leaders do their best At being completely absurd Chorus

Members of Palestine Action are being held without bail or trial in England for trying to stop a British-sponsored genocide.  Many are on hunger strike, and the doctors say they are dying, as their organs are beginning to fail due to some of them now going on 6 weeks without eating.  Meanwhile in Australia, they are talking about passing a law to say that the phrase, "globalize the intifada" is hate speech.  Resisting genocide is apparently a very hateful thing to do.  Terroristic, even.

In the aftermath of an event like Bondi Beach, media can play the role of building bridges and finding mutual understanding, or it can play the role of being the propaganda arm for a genocidal regime.

David Rovics is an activist musician who composes songs that educate about historical events, provide political analysis about current events, and raise up people from social movements. His solidarity with Palestinian liberation is deep, spanning his entire musical career. Recently, his entire 50-album catalog on YouTube Music was deleted. Clearing the FOG speaks with Rovics about the retaliation he has faced, some of his recent songs, how platforms like Spotify and YouTube are impacting the music industry, his artificial intelligence band, Ai Tsuno, and calls to boycott Spotify. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Steve Zeltzer and I talked for over an hour about all sorts of interesting things the other day.

On the daily news and information show broadcast out of KPFA in Berkeley, California, every Friday host Dennis Bernstein is joined for the first half of Flashpoints by Sam Husseini to talk about the latest in Israel's genocide. Today journalist Robert Inlakesh and I joined Dennis and Sam to talk about our respective experiences getting blacklisted by YouTube, or in Robert's case, by Google altogether.

The latest David Rovics musical production, Ai Tsuno's eighth album, drops on all the streaming platforms later this month. In this podcast special, Ai Tsuno herself presents a guided tour of Rage Bait, and introduces you to songs such as Pogroms of the Occupied West Bank, Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber, Let's Talk About Sex, They Deleted David Rovics, and the title track.

I had a conversation with Scott Harris on Counterpoint Radio earlier this week. The first half is about news of all my albums being deleted from YouTube Music, and the second half is about the double-edged sword of AI and AI music.

The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a weekly radio show on WPFW in Washington, DC, as well as a podcast. Most of the hour consists of Chris Garlock and I diving deep into the weeds of AI music generation and the future of humanity. It was a great interview to begin with, but then the way the songs were edited in for the final version makes it even better.

The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of David's journey down the corporate Memory Hole.

The Oxford English Dictionary announced yesterday that their word or phrase of the year for 2025 is "rage bait." Here's a song about it from Ai Tsuno.

It's a sunny forecast for the rest of the weekend in Portland, Oregon. Our weekly neighborhood vigil for Gaza is happening Sunday at noon, and I wrote a jingle for it.

When YouTube Music deleted all of my albums from their platform the other day because my very existence apparently violates their terms of service, Ai Tsuno wrote a fairly blistering song about 1984/2025.

Ai Tsuno presents a guided tour to our album, Class War Zone, which drops on music streaming platforms on December 4th. Class War Zone consists of very recently-penned and tremendously catchy songs about things like the ongoing Starbucks workers strike, the Jeffrey Epstein files, the cost-of-living crisis, the campaign to bring the killers of Hind Rajab and her family to the ICC, and the nonexistent ceasefire in Gaza.

A guided tour of Ai Tsuno's album, Gaza Riviera, which drops on all the music streaming platforms on Thanksgiving Day (November 27th).

I had another scintillating conversation with Gorilla Radio host Chris Cook today.  He interviews me for the last half of the hour.  Mostly we talked about AI...  (The first half of his show, interviewing another pro-Palestinian guy named David, was also very good.)

Kamala and I were guests for the better part of 2 hours on Graham Dean's Common Sense Songs show on Berkshire Community Radio a few days ago in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, along with our good friend, Massachusetts-based singer/songwriter Ben Grosscup. The live talk and music starts about 25 minutes in.

Sam and Amal are the hosts of a show on WUSB community radio in Stony Brook, New York called Unbound:  the arts & culture of Palestine.  They interviewed me for a very enjoyable hour the other day, in advance of the show we'll be doing on Long Island on October 26th!

Scott Harris interviewed me a few days ago for the Counterpoint public affairs radio show. We talked about the situation in Portland and other things.

My adopted home town of Portland, Oregon is once again in the international headlines, and this calls for a little primer.

Everything else happening in the world aside, we are at a fascinating juncture in the history of humanity.  Assuming we live long enough to witness it, many people would say we're on the cusp of a new reality, represented by the three words, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).  Ai Tsuno's fourth album gracefully explores this theme.  For this special edition of This Week with David Rovics I bring you Where the Algorithms Rule:  a guided tour.

Chet Gardiner has delivered a remix of "Invisible Rulers" that sounds just like the collision of the rumor mill with the propaganda machine! And with that, the next album is coming. This'll be track #1.

When I heard on the news that the Global Sumud Flotilla was being attacked by drones and Abba music, I was struck by the muse.

As the Trump administration tries hard to capitalize on this latest instance of political violence in the USA, Chet Gardiner has for us a remix which vastly improves everything.

Renee DiResta's book, Invisible Rulers, does a brilliant job of introducing us to the modern online age -- an age which she characterizes as one during which the rumor mill and the propaganda machine have, in so many ways, collided.

He spent most of his short life feeding off of algorithms, and now the algorithms are feeding off of him.

We're at another one of those seismic moments in technological development as it applies to the arts and most other things.

With the addition of Amherst, Massachusetts, the Ministry of Culture's October tour of the northeastern US now includes 10 confirmed gigs! And I recorded a little musical October Tour PSA as well... Radio and other audio people please feel free to use!

Olympia's beloved Zahid Chaudhry remains in ICE detention in Tacoma. A wounded veteran of the US military, in his wheelchair, was detained by ICE. A cherished member of the community and a loving father, taken from his small children. Here's Chet Gardiner's lovely remix.

Most people in Olympia seem to know Zahid Chaudhry, and everyone who knows him loves him, including me.  He's the most effusively affectionate leftwing military veteran in a wheelchair you're ever likely to meet.  And now he's in ICE detention, being tortured in Tacoma. More info:  keepzahidhome.carrd.co

Party in the USA.

What's one thing that just about all of us can do right now?  I've got answers.

And I don't even live in Gaza.

What do we need? Historical knowledge, vision, optimism, organization, and deep culture. When do we need it? Always.

A song for a photograph, for the photographers, the artists, the journalists, and all who are finding effective ways to tell the stories.  In this case, the stories of a genocide.  Latest remix from Chet Gardiner.  If anyone knows where to find the photo I wrote the song about, please tell me.

In preparation for Sunday's vigil for Gaza that I'll be singing at (12-2 pm at 12th and Hawthorne SE here in PDX) I did a livestreamed concert from my living room to practice some relevant songs.

While Israel continues its genocide of the Palestinians, all the Republicans in the Senate and half of the Democrats voted once again to continue facilitating the genocide. This song names the names of the genocide-supporting Democratic Senators, all of whom should obviously not be in positions of power -- all of whom should be locked up in the Hague, for that matter. This version is another brilliant remix from Chet, bound eventually for another album.

Another powerful remix from Chet Gardiner to drive home the message of the song I wrote just the other day, following announcements from Israel-supporting, war-profiteering leaders like Starmer, Carney, and Albanese that they might just consider recognizing the state of Palestine  --if there are any Palestinians left alive come September, and if Hamas gives up and the Palestinians who haven't been killed yet pretend effectively "play dead."

The western powers talking about recognizing the state of Palestine sometime in the fall if certain outrageous conditions are met is the very definition of the term, "gaslighting."

After 22 months of Israel's total war on the children of Gaza, Senator Bernie Sanders put forward a bill to stop sending arms to the Israeli death machine.  All the Republicans in the Senate voted against it, along with half of the Democrats.  These 24 Democratic senators who voted to support Israel's ongoing genocidal war have names.  And after initially trusting an AI chatbot to give me correct names, I did some proper research with the aid of human journalists, and wrote an updated version of the song.

After 22 months of Israel's total war on the children of Gaza, Senator Bernie Sanders put forward a bill to stop sending arms to the Israeli death machine. All the Republicans in the Senate voted against it, along with half of the Democrats. These 24 Democratic senators who voted to support Israel's ongoing genocidal war have names.

If it weren't for a very long flight, all the kangaroos and kookaburras, and everyone driving on the left side of the road, I might have thought I was still in the USA.

This song is probably my best songwriting effort on the awful subject of Israel's continuing genocide of the Palestinian people by mass starvation. Chet Gardiner has provided us with another stellar remix.

Some distinctions between Auschwitz and Gaza? Gaza is much bigger. And the genocide is being financed and armed by the US and most of the rest of the western world.

Vivien Langford was at last weekend's Gaza solidarity rally in Sydney for 3CR Community Radio, and she made this audio montage from the rally, featuring an amazing speech from someone from the Australian Jewish Council, followed by Kamala and I singing "I Support Palestine Action," and an announcement about the National Convergence on Canberra, which we will be singing at today, tomorrow, and Tuesday.

Maha Almassri is a Palestinian grandmother from the Gaza Strip who was staying with her son in Sydney, New South Wales, after fleeing Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, when one morning she was abducted by police in a pre-dawn raid and put in detention, where she remains today, with no explanation, and no recourse but detention or "self-deportation."  Maha is one of several Palestinians who have been similarly abducted and detained by Australian authorities this month.

The British courts have regularly been finding Palestine Action innocent of any wrongdoing, in the group's efforts to smash the war machine, deeming them to be on the side of international law and British law, and deeming the state and the arms industry to be breaking the law. In light of this state of affairs, the British parliament has acted decisively, passing a law with an overwhelming majority to declare Palestine Action a terrorist group, and thus to declare that anyone expressing support for Palestine Action to be a terrorist as well, potentially liable to spend up to 14 years in prison for singing the chorus to this song. Photo by Guy Smallman, from a protest in London at which many were arrested for holding those signs. Many more were arrested in the following days.

As the daily American-and-Israeli massacres of starving Palestinians in search of food parcels continue in Gaza, Chet Gardiner has delivered a powerful remix of one of the many songs I've written in recent months on this subject, borrowing a line I heard from a reporter on Al-Jazeera, "The Food Lines are the Front Lines Now."

Evening in the Americas when I received this brilliant remix from Chet Gardiner, and at the very moment I received this mix I was hearing news on Al-Jazeera about yet another morning massacre in Gaza, of starving Palestinians knowingly risking a likely death by Israeli machine gun fire in order for a slim chance at obtaining a small sack of flour.  The abhorrent Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's Hunger Games continue.

This is the 3rd of 3 Selections from My Life as a Protest Singer.  The full 11 episodes of My Life as a Protest Singer are available in the Everything folder that all members of my CSA have access to.  If you appreciate my musical (and/or other) efforts, have disposable income to speak of, and might be willing to part with a few bucks a month to keep me on the road, making recordings, etc., please feel hereby encouraged to sign up!  A few dozen more people joining my CSA could vastly improve my family's currently fairly precarious finances.  Let's keep the protest music going.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.