He Stood Up to Them
It's Monday afternoon, October 5, 2026, 15:18, and I have updated this Web page with Pickles of the North's piece about Banned Books Week, a poem that Pickles read and a link to the archive of this program. There is maybe a little more to come for this Web page. The original top of this page follows the arrow. ⇒ Here is some of what we talked about on this program. I have a little more to add, so maybe it would be worth your time to check back for an update or two.
You can now listen to this program on the official WBAI Archive.
The next regular WBAI LSB meeting will be held on Wednesday October 14, 2026, at 7:00 PM. That meeting will be held on ZOOM, even though ZOOM compromises privacy and security.
Some years ago the WBAI LSB voted to hold its regular meetings on the second Wednesday night of every month, subject to change by the LSB, so we have the following schedule:
These meetings are set to begin at 7:00 PM.
WBAI has a program schedule up on its Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.
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Here is WBAI's current Internet stream. We can no longer tell if the stream is working without testing every possible stream. Good luck.
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WBAI is archiving the programs! WBAI has permanently switched to yet another new archive Web page! This one is more baffling than the previous one. For some time I was unable to post archive blurbs, then I could, and then I couldn't again. Now I can again and there are a whole bunch of archive blurbs up there now.
This is a link to the latest version of the official WBAI archive. The archiving software appears to have been at least partially fixed. To get to the archive of this program you can use the usual method: you'll have to click on the drop-down menu, which says Display,
and find Back of the Book on that menu. We're pretty early in the list, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Once you find the program name click GO
and you'll see only this Back of the Book program. Management has fixed
some problems that we'd been having with the archives.
For programs before March 23, 2019, we're all out of luck. The changes that took place once WBAI Management took control of the WBAI archives seems to have wiped out all access to anything before that date in March. You'll have to click on the same drop-down menu as above, which says Display,
and find Specify Date
, it's the second choice from the top. You are then given a little pop-up calendar and you can choose the date of the program there. Then click GO
and you'll see a list of programs that aired on that date. For those previous programs you can get the audio, but nothing else, since I can't post anything to those pages anymore. Good luck.
Since the former General Manager banned Sidney Smith from WBAI he's not alternating with us on the air. As of November 2020, Back of the Book airs weekly.
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This past Tuesday there was a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee featuring former Special Counsel Jack Smith. He's the one who was prosecuting Donnie Bonespur
Trump for various crimes he'd committed including election interference in 2020, the January 6th, insurrection and his taking of classified documents home just for fun. Unfortunately Trump was able to delay things and after he got elected again in 2024, Smith had to drop all of the charges.
The Republicans on the committee came ready to pounce on Smith. They were calling him all sorts of names, which I think is not exactly how Senators are supposed to talk in official hearings. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told Smith You make me want to throw up in my mouth.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said to Smith that, Javert from Les Mis would look at you with astonishment,
and Senator Darline Graham whined about Smith saying that he'd bullied her late brother, Lindsey Graham.
This was the now predictable kind of posturing that some political creatures have twisted themselves into for the past couple of years in their attempts to ingratiate themselves with the ever vindictive Donnie Bonespur
Trump, but wait, there was more.
Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri had gotten a big publicity boost right before the hearing began in the form of a piece in the Web site Axios that proclaimed him, A Possible Vance VP in 2028.
Is Vance going to run in 2028? I don't know about that. Anyway, he'd gotten this build-up. Senator Schmitt, being a newer member on the Judiciary Committee was lower down on the list of Senators who were taking pot shots at former Special Counsel Jack Smith. In retrospect it sure looks like the Republicans on the committee had set things up for Senator Schmitt to hit a real home run in their attempt to please Trump by bashing the Special Counsel who had investigated and prosecuted him.
Senator Schmitt had an aide hold up a sign for just a few seconds and then put it away. The sign supposedly had the text of an E-mail on it from someone in the Special Counsel's office. It supposedly proved that Special Counsel Smith had been in Atlanta to talk with someone and collude regarding the prosecution of Trump. Jack Smith asked to see that sign again because it had been held up for so short a time. And then when asked if he had indeed been in Atlanta to watch a basketball game by the Atlanta Hawks which would place him in Atlanta that particular night, he thought about it a little bit and said that no, he hadn't been in Atlanta that night. Well, Senator Schmitt started hollering about how the former special counsel had just committed perjury by lying under oath to a Senate Committee. There were more insults. Smith said he'd been someplace else that night watching a women's college basketball game between the University of Maryland and the University of Iowa. And then Senator Amy Klobuchar asked him if the name of the women's team was the Hawkeyes. Well, yes it was. So the big trap had been sprung and had immediately fallen apart.
But there were signs of this all having been orchestrated to give the MAGA-ites some raw meat with the former special counsel being publicly informed that he was being brought up on perjury charges. While this was going on what's described as the MAGA media had been posting all over the Internet about how former Special Counsel Jack Smith had been caught in a lie and had perjured himself, and on social media they had been attacking Smith like crazy. It may be possible that some of them hadn't even witnessed the trap falling apart, which means that they had been told it was going to happen so they could all prepare to blast away about it at once. The phony issue would thus have taken over the news cycle for the day. I'm reading that Sean Hannity of Fox News had to hurriedly delete his post about what hadn't really happened and another right-wing blogger had posted, Schmidt (sic) just CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself.
So the big trap backfired. Too bad these senators can't do decent things and can't stand up to the danger that Trump's actions pose to Democracy and the United States of America.
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Trump's personal propaganda ads that say they are paid for by the government are airing. This means that they are being paid for by our tax dollars. One ad is simply a recycled campaign ad from Trump's 2024, election campaign. Even some Republicans are objecting to this maneuver by Trump to boost himself.
I'm reading in The New York Times that Trump had personally instructed the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell T. Vought, to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him and his presidency, and they've spent $20 million on this so far using money from the Department of Homeland Security! Yeah, the entire government is just s slush fund to these people.
The ads are bizarre, too. Some really bear a resemblance to something Benito Mussolini would have put out if there had been television in the '30, and '40s.
To make sure that we all understand that this is not some isolated incident Trump has withheld about $1.4 billion that Congress had intended for research by the National Science Foundation. I'm reading that Trump wants to redirect the money to things he's become interested in like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, not that he really understands what any of that is. Yeah, Trump's ego is so much more important than having the National Science Foundation spend the money looking something trivial like a cure for cancer.
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Pickles, here! We talked about Banned Books Week, which this year takes place from October 4, to October 10. The 2026, theme, brought to you by the originator of the Week, the American Libraries Association, is "Let Books Be! Protect the Freedom to Read", and they know what they are talking about, as this 150 year old organization has been guiding standards for public libraries since its inception in 1876, and tracking attempted and successful book banning for decades. They also provide guidance to librarians on how to handle book "challenges," which have greatly increased over the past several years.
They also keep statistics on their Web site showing where the challenges originate; there are very few brought by "Patrons (1%)" or "Parents (3%)", the majority originating from "Pressure Groups (21%), Elected Officials/Government (31%)" and "Board/Administration (40%)".
Things are especially bad under this current Administration. Books concerning LGBTQIA+ subject matter are the most challenged, but also anything from "false claims of illegal obscenity for minors" and books "covering topics of race, racism, social justice and diversity; and presenting political or religious views with which the challengers disagree". Both fiction and non fiction books are under censorship attacks, everything from books written for toddlers to young adults. Young Adult (YA) fiction and non fiction books are especially under attack. This is a free speech issue!
You can find out more at the American Libraries Association.
All three New York City public library systems have many events for all ages happening this week, as do many public libraries across the nation. Hats off to librarians everywhere!
And we also read a poem by Emily Dickinson, who loved writing and loved reading books!
A BOOK.
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
Emily Dickinson
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There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.
One open list that no longer exists was the WBAI-specific Goodlight
Web based message board. It was sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as the bleepin' blue board,
owing to the blue background that was used on its Web pages. This one had many people posting anonymously and there was also an ancillary WBAI people
board that was just totally out of hand.
In June 2012, I ended up having to salvage the bleepin' blue board, and so I was the moderator on it for its last seven years, until it got too expensive.
Sometimes we used to have live interaction with people posting on the Goodlight Board
during the program.
Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Saturday Morning With the Radio On used to alternate with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.
There used to be a number of mailing lists related to Pacifica and WBAI. Unfortunately, they were all located on Yahoo! Groups. When Yahoo! Groups was totally shut down in December 2020, all of those mailing lists ceased to exist. One year earlier their file sections and archives of E-mails, had been excised leaving only the ability to send E-mails back and forth among the members. Now it's all gone. Older Back of the Book program Web pages tell a little more about those lists.
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