Episodes
Monday Nov 07, 2022
Monday Nov 07, 2022
It's Election Day Eve in one of the most consequential midterm elections in recent history. Democracy hangs in the balance, women's rights and autonomy are being attacked, white supremacy is on the ascent, and our schools are being turned into right-wing laboratories. Tomorrow, we get to see if we can turn back the extremists and reclaim our communities. How are you doing tonight? We're here for your thoughts, hopes, concerns, and plans of action.
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Friday Oct 28, 2022
Friday Oct 28, 2022
The United Nations environment agency issued its Emissions Gap Report ahead of this years COP 27 Climate Summit in Egypt. The report states that there is “no credible pathway to 1.5 degrees Celsius in place” - the target agreed upon in the Paris Climate Agreement. They now say that the only way to limit the most catastrophic effects of climate change is a “rapid transformation of societies.” Given current policies and commitments, the world is on track to reach a minimum of 2.8 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 - which means significant portions of the planet will become uninhabitable.
The UN climate report also find that the world is on pace to INCREASE emissions 10.6% by 2030.
Elon Musk finalizes his takeover of Twitter. On day one he tweeted that the “bird is free,” and marked the occasion with the firing of several key executives at the company. Musk says he’ll remove lifetime bans which will pave the way for the return of Donald Trump, QAnon, and science denying conspiracy theorists to the platform.
And, Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked with a hammer in his home this morning.
Montgomery Township Dems flag weird Mastriano “voter fraud” door hangers.
PA candidates for Senate, John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz, took to the stage this week in their first and only debate ahead of the rapidly approaching midterm elections. The midterms are just over a week away and the polls are showing a virtual dead heat. Real Clear Politics has Fetterman ahead by just .3%, which is well within the margin of error.
Of course, it didn’t take long for national Republican leaders to take to the airways to mock Fetterman who is still recovering from a stroke. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel jumped on right-wing radio to joke that maybe between Biden and Fetterman, they could get a full sentence out. This is just another example of how Republicans have no shame in weaponizing their discrimination and cruelty.
Democrat Josh Shapiro is still holding a six point lead in the race for PA Governor against Christian Nationalist Republican, Doug Mastriano.
The International Space Station had to dodge some Russian space junk this week.
The House of Dragon finale.
Monday Oct 17, 2022
Monday Oct 17, 2022
On this week's show, I welcome Sharon Ward to the show. Sharon is the Senior Policy Advisor for the Education Law Center, a statewide nonprofit legal services and advocacy organization that works to secure quality education for Pennsylvania children with an emphasis on students who are most underserved. She has worked for 30 years, inside and outside of government, to secure quality schools, affordable health care, and people-serving budget priorities and to empower advocates to work for economic and social justice.
We'll be talking about the ongoing attempts by school boards across the country to ban books, limit teachers' ability to provide welcoming environments to LGBTQ students, and enact extremist agendas in our schools. Last week the ACLU of PA filed a lawsuit against Central Bucks School District for creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ students and the Pennridge School District seems like it wants a lawsuit of its own as it bans books, limits expression, and demands schools be stripped of Pride flags. We'll talk with Sharon Ward about the work of the Education Law Center in defending the rights of ALL students and the legal hot water Bucks County Schools find themselves in.
Sharon served two terms on the Albany, NY City Council, directed Governor Tom Wolf’s Budget Office and led a government-wide transformation initiative to help state agencies use technology, data, collaboration, and social policy innovation to deliver better and quicker services to Pennsylvanians. She is the founding director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center; Pennsylvania’s premier progressive policy think tank and led the fight for an equitable state tax system. She has served as an advisor on state legislation, policy, and advocacy for the School District of Philadelphia, the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, the Impact Project, Education Voters of Pennsylvania, the Voter Project, and the Keystone Research Center.
LINKS:
- Education Law Center: https://www.elc-pa.org/
- ELC Back to School Guide 2022: https://www.elc-pa.org/back-to-school-guide-2022/
- ELC | Advocating for Inclusive Schools and Honest Education: https://bit.ly/3ToM9lU
- Advocates for Inclusive Education - Bucks County: https://advocatesforinclusiveeducation.org/
- Upcoming trainings: https://bit.ly/3S7rdib
REPORTING:
- "Central Bucks School District’s Cruelty Toward LGBTQ+ Students May Finally Get The Scrutiny It Deserves," Cyril Mychalejko, Bucks County Beacon: https://bit.ly/3yDWOkL
- "Book Bans And A New Era Of American Totalitarianism," Garen Meguerian, Bucks County Beacon, https://bit.ly/3MnvywF
- "In Pennridge School District Where They Banned Banned Books Week, I Read As A Form Of Protest," Robin Reid, Bucks County Beacon, https://bit.ly/3yBOu4Z
- "ACLU files federal complaint against Central Bucks School District, alleging discrimination against LGBTQ students," Emily Rizzo, WHYY: https://bit.ly/3Tj7YDE
- "A school where even Banned Book Week was banned," Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer: https://bit.ly/3rPgL4h
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Friday Oct 14, 2022
Trump gets subpoenaed by the January 6th committee.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to take a wrecking ball to higher education admission policies designed to help level the playing field for Black students and students of color.
According to a bombshell report in Bloomberg by Josh Eidleson, a former manager at Starbucks in Buffalo, NY testified under oath to the National Labor Relations Board that he was “instructed to single out and discipline pro-union employees.” The manager, David Almond, testified that “Starbucks higher-ups listed names of employees the company had determined supported the union, and told him to punish them.”
Leonard Leo begins to get the national scrutiny he deserves in a New York Times report on his influence and powerful right-wing network.
A new study published in the ILR Review shows that “unionization throughout one’s career is associated with a $1.3 million mean increase in lifetime earnings, larger than the average gains from completing college.”
Pennsylvania Republicans have introduced their own version of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is even more restrictive than Florida.
ACLU has filed a complaint against the Central Bucks School District with Civil Rights Divisions of the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education. The complaint argues that the district is in violation of both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment for creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ students.
The Proud Boys can be heard yelling “We are Penn State!” Yes, a Penn State group calling itself “Uncensored America,” founded by former president of Penn State’s chapter of Turning Points USA and a field organizer for Trump in 2020, is bringing the founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, to Penn State on October 24th. Billed as a “comedy show,” Nittany Lions will certainly be treated to all the hilarity of McInnes’s misogyny, racism, and advocacy for political violence.
Former Central Bucks school board member tweets out a thread about the ongoing trauma resulting from her time on the school board during the rise of extremism in the district.
The Rings of Power finale is streaming now. House of the Dragon is closing in on the end of its first season, too. We can look forward to the coming of season 2 of the Wheel of Time
Friday Oct 07, 2022
Friday Oct 07, 2022
The Supreme Court is back in session. According to Ian Milhiser of Vox, “The Supreme Court’s new term could be even more consequential than its last one.” “A single case, Moore v. Harper” Millhiser writes, “threatens to fundamentally rewrite the rules governing federal elections, potentially giving state legislatures…nearly limitless power to skew those elections.”
A right-wing legal organization based out of Wisconsin, the Institute for Law and Liberty, is suing the Biden administration over plans to cancel some student debt. Because the Biden administration has stated that his student loan cancelation plan will help narrow the racial wealth gap and advance racial equity, the Institute for Law and Liberty argues that the action constitutes an “improper racial motive.”
Biden announced that he is pardoning thousands of people convicted of simple possession of marijuana, saying in a statement that “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It's time that we write these wrongs.” The executive action will apply to more than 6,500 people convicted of simple possession under federal law or under the D.C. code.
Reporting in the Atlantic, Robinson Meyer gives an uncharacteristically upbeat report on how the Inflation Reduction Act could prove to have a much bigger effect on a shift to a post-carbon economy than most people expected. That comes in response to a surprisingly cheery report by the investment bank Credit Suisse.
Hundreds of youth activists from the global South gathered in Tunisia to prepare for a collective fight for justice and demand climate action at next month’s COP27 meeting in Egypt.
As promised, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Central Bucks School District arguing that the district is creating a hostile environment for LGBTQ students. We’re waiting to see when we see similar moves against Pennridge.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP) and other major medical groups are urging the U.S Department of Justice to investigate threats of violences against the hospital because of they provide care to transgender children.
While the right-wing yams on about teachers unions’ influence on elections, it turns out that one man - Jeffrey Yass - has spent more than 5 times what PSEA has spent during 2022. Yass’s spending consistently dwarfs that of teachers unions as shown by Philly Power Research..
There will be a protest in Philly next Thurs. 10/13 @ 11:30am to protest Jeff Yass' ongoing funding of far right politicians and efforts to redirect resources from public to private schools. The protest will take place outside Yass’sSusquehanna International Group's City Ave office 401 City Ave 220, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004. You can get all the details here: https://www.mobilize.us/pa-wfp/event/523232/
Got my COVID booster and have I got a story for you.
Monday Oct 03, 2022
Monday Oct 03, 2022
On this week's show, I welcome Aly Shaw to the show. Aly is a Research Analyst working on the state power mapping program at the grassroots watchdog group, LittleSis (you know, the opposite of Big Brother?). We'll be talking about her new report, "Jeffrey Yass: The Billionaire Behind Pennsylvania's Right-Wing Machine." Yes, we just keep digging around in the muck around here. No billionaire left unexposed.
Based in Pittsburgh, Aly has led campaigns to prevent the privatization of Pittsburgh’s water system, to make drinking water safer and more affordable, and organized grocery store workers to win higher wages and safer working conditions during the COVID 19 pandemic. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh and her Master’s in Public Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.
LINKS:
- Aly Shaw, "Jeffrey Yass: The Billionaire Behind Pennsylvania's Right-Wing Machine," Eyes on the Ties, Little Sis https://bit.ly/3dTIqxN
- LittleSis: https://littlesis.org/
- Aly Shaw on Twitter https://twitter.com/AlyMS77
- LittleSis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/twittlesis
- Get involved with LittleSis. Join here to get more info on webinars & trainings: https://littlesis.org/join
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Hurricane Ian devastates Florida and is set to make landfall again this afternoon - this time in South Carolina as a category 1 storm. At least 19 people are currently reported dead in Florida, but the numbers are expected to rise considerably. As one council member in Fort Myers Beach - one of the areas hit worst by Ian - put it, “90% of the island is pretty much gone.”
Biden’s Department of Education quietly changes rules for some student loan borrowers who were initially promised relief under the recently announced student loan forgiveness program. Fearing Republican lawsuits and Republican talking points, Biden’s plan will no longer allow borrowers with privately held federal student loans to consolidate those loans into Direct Loans to qualify for the $10,000 - $20,000 debt cancellation.
The Dallas Morning News reports on a right-wing takeover of North Texas schools that may signal a new chapter in the National Republican playbook to expand their power. And, it might sound familiar to listeners of this show.
An excellent new report by Aly Shaw from the grassroots watchdog group, LittleSis, tracks the roll that PA-based billionaire Jeffery Yass has played in fueling Pennsylvania’s right-wing machine.
On Wednesday, Pennridge School Board president, Joan Cullen, was named the worst person in the world by Keith Olberman on his podcast after Pennridge High School banned Banned Books Week displays - ending a 15 year tradition taking part in the annual national awareness campaign.
The Pennridge School District administration ordered teachers to remove any “advocacy materials” from their classrooms by next week. The School Board even suspended its own policies to rush the vote. According to reporting in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “advocacy materials” includes LGBTQ pride materials; crosses and other religious symbols; political party symbols; and, even images like the Ukrainian flag signaling support for Ukrainians after the Russian invasion. How long do you think it will take for right-wing religious groups to file their well-funded lawsuits?
In response to the move, the Pennridge Education Association released a rather bland, cookie-cutter statement saying, “While new policies may present changes throughout Pennridge School District, our members - the teachers, nurses, counselors, librarians, social workers, and psychologists who server Pennridge students - remain steadfast in our mission of ensuring our students feel welcomed, valued, and encouraged to excel as learners.
Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter, just completed its 33rd flight. The original mission - to see if powered-air flight was even possible - was only expected to last about a month with a handful of test flights. Instead, Ingenuity has become an exploratory companion of the Perseverance rover.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft just sent back some amazing pictures of Jupiter’s ice-encrusted ocean moon, Europa.
NASA’s DART mission is a success.
Monday Sep 26, 2022
Monday Sep 26, 2022
Tonight we’re digging into a couple articles and we're looking at you. What's on your mind and what's happening in your neck of the woods? We'd love to hear! Drop into chat and spill the beans.
We might just talk about some articles I am reading for a class that I am teaching, so...here's the links to those articles:
- "We're Not All in This Together: A Case for Advocacy, Factionalism, and Making the Political Personal," by Kevin Mahoney. From Unruly Rhetorics: Protest, Persuasion, and Publics | https://drive.google.com/file/d/19JzHrXyNVv97iS_Fb2de9qPI9-z8HqxM/view?usp=sharing
- "What is 'Peak Indifference'?: A Theory and Plan for Change," Cory Doctorow | https://doctorow.medium.com/what-is-peak-indifference-b7ddb6d92ca5
We'll also probably talk about the new article in the Philly Inquirer on the Pennridge School District's upcoming vote (while this podcast will be live) on curbing student expression and faculty advocacy:
- "The Pennridge school board is debating policies including 'teacher advocacy.' Here's where those guidelines stand," Oona Goodin-Smith in Philadelphia Inquirer.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennridge-school-student-expression-teacher-advocacy-20220925.html
And thanks to a question from one of our Twitter warriors, Starry-Eyed, I'll probably talk about some of the choices being faced by unions - especially public sector and teachers' unions.
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u
Friday Sep 23, 2022
Friday Sep 23, 2022
A new long-form article in the New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Leonhardt, takes a deep dive into what he’s calling the “twin threats” to American democracy today: First, “a growing movement inside one of the country’s two major parties — the Republican Party — to refuse to accept defeat in an election.” Second, “the power to set government policy is becoming increasingly disconnected from public opinion.”
Last weekend saw the weirdest - and perhaps the most troubling - Trump rally to date. Closing out his Youngstown, OH rally, Trump got dark about the decline of America as creepy QAnon themed music played over the speakers. As he spoke, people in the audience began raising their arms and pointing a single finger in the air. It felt like a Nazi salute mixed with religious signs of devotion. Even journalists who have been covering Trump and right-wing extremist groups for a long time were baffled.
New internal documents show that Big Oil companies openly admit to gaslighting the public about their commitment to “going green.” Documents also showed that some company officials wished climate activists would get infested with bed bugs.
It’s Banned Books Week and public libraries across the Commonwealth and the country are shining bright lights on censorship and attempts by right-wing zealots to remove books from our schools. Bucks County has, of course, been front and center of the book-banning agenda. This year alone has seen 681 attempts to ban or restrict library sources, according to the American Library Association.
As ALA president Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozado put it, “The unprecedented number of challenges we’re seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us — young people, in particular — of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience.”
Saturday, Sept. 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. at State and Main Streets with the first annual Banned Books Parade. Participants will dress up in cardboard box book costumes to bring banned books to life.
The educational website Docuseek was blocked by the Central Bucks School District after “concerned parent” Vonna DeArmond complained at a recent school board meeting that some of the materials available on the site made references to sexually explicit themes and were discriminating against Christians.
Abortion is proving to be a key issue in PA’s 1st Congressional district and Brian Fitzpatrick seems to believe that avoid talking to the media and his constituents is his best strategy. A recent WFMZ’s 69 News story covering the issue featured Ashley Ehasz speaking out about abortion rights, but as the reporter put it: “69 News wanted to talk more to Fitzpatrick about his views, but several attempts to reach his campaign went unanswered.” Duck and cover, Fitzy.
A couple of big things happening in space news. NASA is holding a press briefing today to discuss the status of the Artemis I mission to the Moon following two failed launches. Artemis ! may now launch as soon as September 27. Also, NASA will also be streaming its asteroid-smashing DART mission Monday evening.
And the cartoon The Jetsons, premiered on this date in 1962.
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
It’s Banned Books Week and have we got a show for you. Tonight I welcome Alyssa Bowen back to the show and the timing couldn't be better. Alyssa is a Senior Researcher and Managing Editor for the progressive watchdog group, True North Research. We'll be talking about their new report, "The Disinfo Playbook Targeting Our Public Schools & Elections" and Alyssa’s related article for TruthOut, "Dark Money Groups are Trying to Buy the Midterm Elections for the GOP." True North's new report is a "guide to the anti-public school front groups - like the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) adn Moms for Liberty - and their Dark Money-funded efforts to censor books, disrupt equality, and impede fact-based learning by kids."
Alyssa received her PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2021 with an interest in fascism and antifascism, solidarity and social movements, immigration/exile and transnational history. She has bylines in the Nation and in Truthout, where she is a regular contributor. More of her public writing can be found on True North Research’s website and Substack. Follow Alyssa on Twitter @AlyssaAnnBowen.
LINKS:
- "The Disinfo Playbook Targeting Our Public Schools & Elections" | True North Research https://bit.ly/3UdVCxP
- "Dark Money Groups are Trying to Buy the Midterm Elections for the GOP" | Alyssa Bowen, TruthOut https://bit.ly/3LnWOuh
RESOURCES:
- True North Research: https://truenorthresearch.org/
- Documented: https://documented.net/
- Center for Media and Democracy: https://www.prwatch.org/
- Racial Justice Training Series with H.E.A.L. Together: https://bit.ly/3f3vBRG
- All H.E.A.L. Together trainings: https://www.raceforward.org/trainings
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.
Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u