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Activism, politics, and beer from PA-based Raging Chicken Press
Episodes
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Today I am joined once again my Amy Knecht - yes, my Bucks County Pravda co-conspirator. Thanks for the moniker, Andy Meehan.
On today's show we're focusing in on this week's Russian invasion of Ukraine, the rise of authoritarianism, and the Pennridge School Board Committee meeting that went off the rails!
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Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
On tonight’s show, I welcome Diana Leygerman back to the show. Diana is a writer, teacher, activist, and former Central Bucks school board candidate. In another example of how elections have consequences, this past week the Central Bucks School Board - dominated by increasing right-wing members - cancelled a field trip to the National Holocaust Museaum in D.C. Why? Well, turns out D.C. strict vaccine and mask mandates was too much for the anti-mask snowflakes to handle. And, as it turns out, the son of one of the school board members was supposed to go on the field trip, but he is not vaccinated. Another perfect example of board members exerting their extremist views with consequences for all the children in the district.
Diana Leygerman pointed all of this out on Twitter and her tweet went nuts. Over 90,000 people viewed her tweet, which helped bolster continued organizing among parents, students, and community members. Looking forward to getting a lay of the land in Central Bucks.
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Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
On today’s show, I welcome Stephen Caruso to the show. Stephen is the House reporter for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. He previously covered Pennsylvania state government for The PLS Reporter. He’s been
Stephen is joining me today to talk about redistricting, voting, and map, maps, and more maps. Once again the PA State Supreme Court will be drawing Pennsylvania’s Congressional maps after deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats could not be bridged. Pennsylvania continues to play a critical role in the balance of power in the House of Representatives. New State legislative maps were approved last week, however some controversy remains. For example, some Lehigh Valley Latino leaders are saying the new maps dilute the influence of Latino voters. We’ll get into all of this in more on today’s show. You can follow Stephen on Twitter: @StephenJ_Caruso.
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
Wednesday Feb 09, 2022
On this week’s show, we’ll catch up with Cyril about his latest article in the Bucks County Courier Times, “Combat the climate crisis before there’s nothing to build back” and hear about his new gig with the recently launched Bucks County Beacon. His first weekly column just dropped this past Friday in which he sounded the call for progressive independent media in Bucks. We’ll also take a look at what’s happening with his newsletter and get a sneak peak into some of the things he’s working on.
You should also sign up for Cyril’s newsletter on Substack: https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com/
And make sure to join our Discord Server to continue the conversation all week long. Just click on the link in today’s show notes: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Feb 07, 2022
Monday Feb 07, 2022
On today’s show…we’ll take a look at what’s turned out to be one heck of a news day. I’ll fill you in on some books I’m reading. Who knows where we’ll go from there!
News:
- Canadian protests against vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions. Or, to put it in the slogans of the truckers and protests locking down Ottawa: “Freedom.”
- Supreme Court reinstates Alabama congressional voting maps that a lower court found in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
- PA Judge says PA Supreme Court should choose GOP congressional maps./
- National Archives recovers 15 boxes of Trump White House documents from Mar-a-Lago
- Pennridge school board meets tonight
Friday Feb 04, 2022
Friday Feb 04, 2022
Today I welcome Amy Knecht as our guest co-host for this weeks Friday Politics Roundup. For the bulk of today’s show, Amy and I will be talking about right-wing organizing in Bucks County, PA. In particular, we’ll be focusing on Andy Meehan's organization, Right for Bucks. Meehan has built a well-organized, well-funded, and growing organization bent on taking control of the Bucks County Republican Party with a far-right "America First" agenda. In the lead up to the 2022 midterm elections and emboldened by the raging culture war battles in local, regional, and national school boards, Right for Bucks is front and center in the “America First,” election conspiracy, Trump cult. But, you’re going to be surprised at what it’s like inside Right for Bucks organizing meetings. How do we know? Well, this week Amy attended a public Right-for-Bucks Zoom event. She’s going to take us inside that meeting and let us all know why we have our work cut out for us.
Before we get there a few headlines:
It’s official, more than 900,000 people have died of COVID in the United States. 100,000 people have died since December 13, 2021. And, as expected, the highest death rates are occuring in states with lower vaccination rates and minimal COVID mitigation efforts. Pennsylvania has the 5th highest death rate, according to an NBC News analysis.
The United States turns to assassination again in it’s never-ending war on terror. Biden announced yesterday that a US raid on Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi’s home, led to his death. Early reports say that at least 13 people, including six children and four women were also killed.
A new study shows that as of 2015 the world’s richest 10% now account for nearly half of all global carbon emissions - up 15% from the previous study released in 2010.
According to the study's author Aimee Ambrose, “In many ways, the rich are being largely insulated from the spike in energy costs.But addressing excessive personal consumption is something that isn’t on the agenda for the government and policymakers. This is bad news for the planet and our prospects of reaching net zero.”
Staff at an elite Democratic consulting firm, Inside Authentic, are in revolt over being asked to work on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s projects. One staffer told Politico, “I’m doing the Devil’s work.” The unionized staffers are pushing back. Taylor Billings, organizing director of the Campaign Workers Guild told Politico, “The Authentic Union views Sen. Sinema’s recent actions to block voting rights legislation as an affront to their company’s values, which they’re proud of and committed to upholding.”
Valerie Arkoosh drops out of the PA Senate race.
Pennsylvania ranks in the bottom half of states for gender representation in politics. The state has never elected a female U.S. senator or governor. There are four women, all Democrats, in a congressional delegation of 18 — up from zero women before the 2018 elections. The state legislature is about 26% female.
Yet another no-knock warrant leads to the killing of black man by police. Minnesota police killed Amir Locke who was not named in any police warrant, but was in legal protection of a handgun. Locke was asleep at the time he was woken up by police and killed.
Facebook loses users for the first time in its 18 year history. Over 500,000 users left the platform over the past 3 months. While King Zuckerberg says it’s because of competition and a new focus on the Metaverse virtual world project, others suggest it might have something to do with recent revelations from whistleblowers about Facebooks abusive practices and violations of privacy.
And, NASA announced that it will crash the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean in 2031, bring to an end one of the most successful orbital scientific research endeavors in history. As expected, NASA will turn over space to the galactic capitalists for future orbital science. Hey, gotta clear the way for privatization of space before the Artemis missions to the Moon, right?
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Monday Jan 31, 2022
Welcome to this week's episode of Out d'Coup LIVE. What's on YOUR mind?
Chatting about Trump's weekend rally and call for violence; Starbucks union efforts grow; Courier Times elections analysis; "The Great Faculty Disengagement;" hope in organizing; and more.
Articles from tonight's show:
- "Philly to pilot a guaranteed income experiment, giving cash to some needy residents" : https://bit.ly/3KZ5sPp
- “At Texas rally, Trump all but promised a racially charged civil war if he’s indicted" | Will Bunch: https://bit.ly/34ipKm5
- "The Great Faculty Disengagement" : https://bit.ly/3odNQWn
- "Two Starbucks locations in Philadelphia file petitions to unionize" : https://bit.ly/3ogCWim
Books mentioned:
- On Compromise: Art, Politics, and the Fate of an American Ideal, by Racel Greenwald Smith. https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781644450604
- The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism, by Suzanne Schneider. https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781839762413
- Join The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, PA Budget and Policy Center, All Voting is Local and We The People - Pennsylvania as part of our series of forums on democracy in Pennsylvania for a discussion with Chris Ullery, Government and Development Reporter, Bucks County Intelligencer and Courier Times.
- LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rduCrrz4oH9wu6CzNuyI6s2QpPGlYjGIF
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, made it clear this week that the Biden administration does not see canceling student loan debt as a priority. Instead, the Dems in power are turning to their old game of means-testing and “targeted” loan relief. In his speech on Thursday, he didn’t even mention Biden’s promise to forgive $10,000 for every student carrying federal student debt.
The book-banning continues. This week, McMinn County school board in Tennessee banned the Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, Maus, from its schools. Board members said the book contained “inappropriate language” and depictions of a nude mouse in a concentration camp. Maus creator, Art Spiegelman, called the decision “Orwellian.”
A new peer-reviewed study, scientists believe they finally figured out the large methane releases in cities. As it turns out, gas stoves release a significant amount of methane - even when they are off. Scientists found that nearly three-quarters of the methane leaking from stoves came from when they were not running. The study projected that methane emissions from stoves are about the same as the CO2 released by 500,000 gas powered cars in a year.
Spotify is standing in Joe Rogan’s corner after Neil Young said that he would pull his music from the site if they continued to platform the coronavirus misinformation podcaster. Young issued the ultimatum after more than 1,000 doctors signed a petition calling on Spotify to crack down on COVID misinformation being spread on its site. By mid-week, Niel Young pulled his music. Young said he and his partners are losing 60% of their streaming income, but it was worth the hit to preserve “our integrity and our beliefs. Misinformation about COVID is over the line.”
This morning, a few hours before Biden is scheduled to speak in Pittsburgh about infrastructure, a bridge collapsed in the Point Breeze neighborhood of the Steel City. People in the area Tweeted pictures three years ago of the bridge’s completely rusted through beam supports. No one was killed but several people were injured as several cars and a bus were on the bridge when it went down. Will Joe Manchin still refuse to support Build Back Better?
Map Wars continue. Looks like the Commonwealth Court will end up picking a map from several maps submitted by a variety of groups. That will set up the second time in a row the PA Supreme Court likely will be picking the maps again.
The Commonwealth Court struck down Act 77 and no-excuse mail-in voting. Governor Wolf is expected to file an immediate appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which will put a stay on the decision. This is just another example of how the conservative led court is hostile to voting rights.
A new report says that Pennsylvania is the Cyber Charter Capital of the nation.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania is the “cyber charter capital of the nation,” the report released Thursday by the PA Charter Performance Center said. It describes Pennsylvania as standing apart not just for its large number of students attending its 14 cyber charters — 61,000 in 2020-21, up from 38,000 the year before — but also for insufficient oversight and funding provisions that haven’t been updated since the virtual schools were first permitted in 2002.”
Monarchists were successful in getting a Harrisburg woman fired from her job because she has been talking about the royal family’s racism. You can help on Amanda recover from the monarchists’ assault. Throw her a few bucks on her newly launched GoFundMe site: Help @matta_of_fact cover living expenses
A SpaceX rocket booster launched in 2015 is on a collision course with the Moon after 7 years in a chaotic orbit. The 4.4 ton spent booster is expected to crash into the far side of the Moon some time on March 4th. The Falcon 9 booster carried a climate observation satellite 930,000 miles from Earth.
The new season of Ozark is out. I’m almost through Foundation.
Here in SE PA I’m just waiting to see how much snow we get from this nice little Nor’easter heading our way.
Friday Jan 21, 2022
Friday Jan 21, 2022
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Biden’s inauguration. So, how things going, dog?
As expected, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, sided with Republicans and voted against changing Senate filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, despite claiming to support the legislation. That means, of course, that voting rights legislation was blocked by a minority of Senators. The vote shined a bright light on the fact that any major legislation favored by Democrats or progressives is dead in the water if the composition of the Senate remains the same.
Biden and Democratic Party leaders now say they will try to break up and scale down Biden’s signature Build Back Better bill in an attempt to get some of it passed. However, it is unclear how that would happen. Even if some of it did, this means that the U.S. government will not pass critical legislation necessary to address multiple crises heading straight for us. Don’t Look Up, folks.
Biden’s approval ratings hit a new low with a majority of Americans disapproving over his handling of his job as president, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Perhaps even more troubling for Biden, only 28% of respondents said they wanted Biden to run for reelection in 2024 - that includes only 48% of Democrats.
Maybe time for a war? Well, that looks like a distinct possibility as Russia threatens to invade Ukraine. Biden didn’t help matters this week when he seemed to indicate that the U.S. and NATO allies might not respond if Russia made a “minor incursion” into Ukraine. That, as you can imagine, didn’t go over well with Ukraine leaders. U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken has hardened the U.S. stance, now telling Ukraine leaders the U.S. is committed to a "united, swift and severe response" if Moscow commits further aggression against Ukraine.
The aftermath of the volcanic explosion near Tonga, the devastation is only now becoming clear.
Malcolm Kenyatta and Conor Lamb scored important endorsements for the US Senate race. Kenyatta picked up the endorsements of SEIU Healthcare PA, 32 BJ, 668 and the state council while Conor Lamb picked up Mayor Jim Kenney, a couple of city council members and the building trades. Rumor has it that Lamb is also seeking the endorsement of the Philadelphia Park Authority.
Josh Shapiro seems to have missed the past couple of years in Democratic politics, leaning into the “ReFund” the police and “more cops” messaging from the 1990s.
Philadelphia council member Bobby Henon, resigned from City Council after a federal jury convicted Henon along with Johnny “Doc” Dougherty on corruption charges. Henon was convicted of selling his seat out to serve Johnny Doc’s personal and political interests. Henon said he would not step down, but just a month ahead of his sentencing hearing, he seems to have changed his mind.
A middle school student in Kutztown formed the “Team Banned Book Club” after local and national extremism leading to banning books and raucous school board meetings screaming about critical race theory. Joslyn Diffenbaugh, an 8th grade student in Kutztown, formed the group because she “wanted to make sure teens have access to books that they can personally relate to or have interest in and not let groups in our community dictate what we can and cannot read.”
And as the Pennridge School District continues to ban and remove books that mention gender identity or engage racism, a group calling itself the Pennridge Improvement Project is working to make those books accessible by stocking “Little Libraries” around the district with school board banned books. And a Pennridge student group, Pennridge Rise Up, is petitioning against the book banning and favor of DEI initiatives.
Doylestown Health calls on Central Bucks School District to change their COVID plan because the hospital is overwhelmed with cases. You’ll recall that last week the Central Bucks school board passed a health and safety plan that they knew did not follow CDC guidelines, despite stating that they were.
The James Webb telescope successfully deployed all of its 18 hexagonal mirrors ahead of schedule and is on its way to its permanent orbit around L2 - the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point - about a million miles from Earth. It should enter that orbit on Sunday, January 23. We should start getting images from Webb in about three months!
Meatloaf died after becoming seriously ill with COVID. His period of “waiting for the end of time” has arrived. It was unclear if he was vaccinated.
Tom Cruise space movie producers sign a deal with Axiom to build studio in orbit attached to the International Space Station.
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Friday Jan 14, 2022
Kyrsten Sinema announces that she is willing to kill voting rights legislation because of her love of the filibuster. Her teary-eyed performance on the Senate floor all but sinks hopes to pass voting legislation this year. Schumer says they will begin debate on Tuesday and force the issue.
The U.S. Supreme Court shoots down Biden’s vaccine and testing mandate for private business.
The leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, is indicted on charges of seditious conspiracy.
Republicans from at least 5 states forged official elector certificates and sent them into the National Archives and the U.S. Senate ahead of the January 6 insurrection.
The Republican Party is changing its rules to prevent any GOP presidential candidates from taking part in debates hosted by the Commission for Presidential Debates.
And the Omicron variant of COVID is predictably swamping the U.S. and the federal government is just getting around to thinking about helping with masks and testing. The should get up and running sometime after the crisis has hit. What do you think? Summer?
Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler admitted earlier this week that he was in contact with the Jan 6th Commission. Makes you wonder who Jim Jordan and Scott Perry were meeting with in Harrisburg while they were attending the Stop the Steal rallies.
Gubernatorial Candidates Lou Barletta and Charlie Gerow, and Charlie Gerow’s co-worker, Kevin Harley, all signed their names presenting themselves as “electors” on forged documents that were submitted to the Dept of State and the US Library of Congress
Full-time and adjunct faculty members at Harrisburg Area Community College will have their union election from Feb 24 to April 7. Faculty members at HACC have faced years of anti-union tactics from the administration to delay a union vote. The school was caught padding their faculty lists with professors who didn’t teach in order to stop the card signing process.
Central Bucks School District votes to lie that its health and safety play is following CDC guidelines.
Pennridge School District just ignores all guidelines and says everyone back to school after three days, no masks needed.
Pat Poprik, Chair of Bucks County Republican Party, was one of the signers of PA’s false slate of electors.
And in other news Former House Speaker Mike Turzai is running for Governor.
Hey, Don’t Look Up. Station Eleven Rocks. Just started Foundation on Apple TV+