This episode explores American warmaking, remembers Dan Handelman, and reviews recent nonfiction. Frann Michel hosts, and we hear these segments:
Big Tech and Big War: On June 13th, the US Army swore in four silicon valley executives, from high-tech firms Meta, OpenAI and Palantir, at the rank of lieutenant colonel, to serve in the new Detachment 201, an “Executive Innovation Corps,” dedicated to integrating further into the military what's sometimes called artificial intelligence (aka machine learning or large language models). In recognition of this, we rebroadcast an interview that originally aired in January: Laurie Mercier speaks to Roberto J. González, a professor of anthropology at San José State University, about how Silicon Valley is transforming the Military-Industrial Complex. Some of Gonzalez’s recent books include American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain (2009), Militarizing Culture: Essays on the Warfare State (2010), and most recently War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future (2022).
Dan Handelman: On June 28, Portland activists will gather at the Clinton Street Theater to honor the life and work of the founding member of Portland Peace and Justice Works/Portland Copwatch, an indefatigable organizer on a host of interconnected issues – war/militarism, police accountability, and civil rights. Handelman, 60, died suddenly in April. Desiree Hellegers, a former longtime board member of Peace and Justice Works, speaks with Seemab Husseini, a former member of the Portland Police Accountability Commission, and an activist with Freedom to Thrive; and civil rights attorney Ashlee Albies, about Dan’s organizing legacy. Dan often shared his knowledge with the Old Mole and with other shows on KBOO. Please RSVP to reserve a seat for the 10 am to noon memorial at 2522 Clinton Street in Portland, and to join friends, colleagues, and family for a potluck picnic afterwards in North Portland.
Truth Demands: Matt Witt reviews Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice, by lawyer, climate activist, and writer Abby Reyes. Twenty years after Abby Reyes's partner, Terence Unity Freitas, was assassinated in Colombia while working with the indigenous U’wa community to protect their land and their rights from multinational oil interests, Reyes attends the truth and reconciliation process revisiting the murders. Her memoir interweaves these and other stories of her longtime climate activism with reflections on the process of navigating grief and seeking hope. Matt Witt is an author, photographer, activist, and sometime Mole contributor.
No Straight Road: Patricia Kullberg reviews Rebecca Solnit's latest collection of essays, No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain. You can find the book at the Multnomah County Library. You can find more of Solnit's most recent writing at her site, Meditations in an Emergency.