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Activism, politics, and beer from PA-based Raging Chicken Press
Episodes
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
Out d'Coup's Friday politics round-up is off this week. I thought that since we've been talking a lot about PASSHE Chancellor Greenstein's plans to "redesign" PA public higher ed that I'd post a replay of an Out d'Coup LIVE from March in which I breakdown some of the history of "PASSHE-in-crisis" and Chancellor Greenstein's rhetorical strategies to get people to buy into his plans for consolidation and austerity under his "redesign" brand.
Kevin Mahoney
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The Chancellor of the PA State System of Higher Education, Dan Greenstein, has dropped a few bombshells this week about the future of the 14 state owned university system. Public higher education in PA is facing an uncertain future now. We'll be taking your calls about PASSHE and the future of public higher ed.
Sound from this week's PA State Senate higher ed appropriation hearings, unpacking the rhetorical strategy of PASSHE Chancellor, and so much more.
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
On tonight’s show, I welcome Joshua Boaz Pribanic, the co-creator and -co-director of the Rights of Nature documentary, Invisible Hand. Invisible Hand has been called a “paradigm shifting” documentary about the struggle for the recognition of “Rights of Nature,” quite possibly a defining battle of our times where nature, democracy face off in rural America. Produced by award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo, Invisible Hand takes us behind the curtain of the global economy where “Rights of Nature” becomes capitalism’s primary opponent. The film’s epic battle does not begin in the centers of global capital, but in the small rural community of Grant Township, PA as residents band together to stop a fracking waste injection well from being located in their town. The “Rights of Nature” may be the most provocative, and powerful, assemblages of Western legal traditions and Indigenous knowledge that this country has ever seen. And it may be what is necessary to combat the climate crisis and reimagine global civilization.
Joshua is a film director, editor, investigative reporter who gained international attention for his reporting on fracking shale gas in the United States. He’s probably best known for his award-winning documentary films on fracking, the 2013 film Triple Divide and the 2017 film, Triple Divide [Redacted], and, now, of course, Invisible Hand. Joshua is also the co-founder of the investigative journalism non-profit, Public Herald where he serves as Editor-in-Chief. Public Herald has been cited in over 200 publications including The New Yorker, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Monday Apr 26, 2021
On tonight’s show, I welcome Dr. Jamie Martin to the show. Martin is the president of the APSCUF, the faculty union representing the 14 state-owned universities making up the PA State System of Higher Education. Faculty, staff, and students are facing a precarious future as the Chancellor of the state system, Daniel Greenstein, pushes forward his agenda to merge six universities into two, layoff scores of faculty and staff, throw students' academic programs into flux, and force more classes online. Greenstein tells a fairy tale narrative of his "Redesign" plans, but many faculty, students, and staff aren't buying in. Earlier today, Greenstein dropped his 439 page university merger plan - a plan that will be presented to the Board of Governors this Wednesday, April 28. We'll talk about how we got here and where we need to go.
Martin graduated from IUP with bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in criminology. Her research has focused on qualitative research, corrections, and criminal-justice ethics. She has published articles in the Journal of Criminal Justice Education and American Journal of Criminal Justice, and she has also published a book called Looking Out: Jailed Fathers’ Perceptions about Separation from Their Children. Additionally, she won the Center for Teaching Excellence Award in 2004 and the Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Health and Human Services in 2008.
Resources:
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April 27 – LHU APSCUF town hall
Lock Haven University’s APSCUF chapter will host an online Q&A session for alumni to discuss consolidation. The session runs 7–8 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, in Zoom meeting ID # 977 1143 0089.
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April 28 – Consolidation-plan presentation and Day of Action:
8:30 a.m. | BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING (livestreamed) — Click here for details about how to watch and how to participate in public comment that morning. -
11:30 a.m. | SAVE OUR STATE SCHOOLS will host a streamed event to discuss advocacy surrounding the plan. We’ll share registration when it is available; better yet, you can sign up for SOSS email alerts to hear directly from them.
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Follow Save Out State Schools on Twitter: @OurStateSchools. Look for additional. Sign up for additional information and email alerts on their webpage: SaveOurStateSchools.org.
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Check out APSCUF's student page with additional events and organizing info.
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Apr 19, 2021
Monday Apr 19, 2021
On today’s show, I welcome back to the program, Karen Feridun. Karen is the Founder of Berks Gas Truth, a grassroots community organization fighting to ban fracking and all shale gas infrastructure. She is co-founder of the statewide Better Path Coalition. For the past 11 years, she worked with organizations in PA, NY, NJ, and DE to get the ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin that was imposed in February. She is currently part of an international coalition working to stop Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports and a national coalition working with members of Congress to reform the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
We'll be talking about The Better Path Coalition's "We Are the Ones" campaign. The coalition hopes to build on the recent decision to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin and the release of Kristina Marusic’s bombshell report for Environmental Health News, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking” - and pressure the Wolf administration to end his support of fracking and the fossil fuel industry once and for all.
Resources:
- Berks Gas Truth: https://gastruth.org/
- Better Path Coalition: https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/
- We Are the Ones: https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/we-are-the-ones
- We Are the Ones Sign-On letter: bit.ly/wearetheoneswolf
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Apr 12, 2021
Monday Apr 12, 2021
On tonight’s show, I welcome Chad Nicholson, Community Organizer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Chad has been engaged in community rights work since 2009, initially working with Envision Spokane on a Bill of Rights protecting neighborhoods, workers, and the environment. He then moved on to assist in New England, working with communities in Maine and New Hampshire to protect their environment. He now lives and organizes in Pennsylvania, assisting communities to engage in rights-based organizing on issues ranging from environmental protection to prisoners’ rights.
Chad has been involved with the fight in Pennsylvania townships to pass Home Rule powers to resist the decimation of their communities by the fracking industry. Most notably, Chad’s work in Grant Township, PA has been part of an on-going fight to assert the rights of a community to protect its environment and to extend legal rights to the natural environment. The story of Grant Township is a David and Goliath story - a battle that began more than seven years ago and is scheduled to go before the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court this summer. The Grant Township battle has only emboldened other PA towns/. Just last month, residents of Clara Township in Potter County, PA voted in support to consider Home Rule powers after Routlette Oil and Gas tried to get a permit for a fracking waste well there.
Chad and the CELDF have been on the cutting edge of making a case for the legal rights of the natural world. The fight in Grant Township, PA featured heavily in the recent documentary by Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, Invisible Hand: The Rights of Nature. Mark Ruffalo was the executive producer for the film.
Resources:
- Contact Chad Nicholson:
- chad@celdf.org, keybase.io/ctnicholson (encrypted) or 207-541-3649 (encrypted through signal.org)
- Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: https://celdf.org/
- Pennsylvania Community Rights Network: https://www.pacommunityrights.org/
- East Run Hellbenders Society FB page: https://www.facebook.com/eastrunhellbenders
- Grant Township, Indiana County, PA: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grant%20Township,%20Indiana%20County,%20Pennsylvania/104053069631300/
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Apr 05, 2021
Monday Apr 05, 2021
On tonight’s program, I am thrilled to welcome Cyril Mychalejko to the show. Cyril is a new progressive columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times & The Intelligencer. His column brings a sorely needed left/progressive voice to the pages of the papers that serve one of the most hotly contested Congressional districts in the state: PA-1.
To give you a window into Cyril’s background, let me simply paraphrase from his introductory column for the Courier Times. Cyril is a son of Bucks County. He grew up in Holland, went to St. Bede Elementary School, graduated from Council Rock High School, and went to Bucks County Community College where he edited the student newspaper. He finished college on the West Coast and just kept going after that. His writing, activism, and teaching has taken him all over the country — and the world. He’s organized anti-Iraq war protests in upstate New York, knocked on doors in Bucks County for former Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy, and campaigned against free trade deals like the FTAA and CAFTA in Florida. He’s also worked as a human rights observer and accompanier in Ecuador monitoring a violent mining conflict, participated in human rights and solidarity delegations in Central America, and taught at an international school in the Kurdish region of Iraq. His writing has also appeared in progressive publications such as Truthout, Upside Down World, The Indypendent, Toward Freedom and Common Dreams.
Cyril certainly wasted no time jumping into the political fray. On March 24, Cyril turned his lens to an on-going issue in the Pennridge School district - something you have heard me talk about in the past. His article, “Turning Point USA a Trojan horse of right-wing extremism for Pennridge students?,” focuses on a growing concern by local parents and students about the far-right group - Turning Point USA - gaining access to the halls of the high school. Turning Point USA has been flagged by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for their documented cases of racism, bigotry, and white nationalism. He also raises questions about the behavior of some members of the Pennridge School Board who have fanned the flames of extremism. I am hoping this is the first of many occasions to have Cyril join us here on Out d’ Coup.
- Cyril's newsletter: https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com/
- Follow Cyril on Twitter: @cmychalejko
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Mar 22, 2021
Monday Mar 22, 2021
The Chancellor of the PA State System of Higher Education, Dan Greenstein, has dropped a few bombshells this week about the future of the 14 state owned university system. Public higher education in PA is facing an uncertain future now. We'll be taking your calls about PASSHE and the future of public higher ed.
Sound from this week's PA State Senate higher ed appropriation hearings, unpacking the rhetorical strategy of PASSHE Chancellor, and so much more.
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
Wednesday Mar 17, 2021
I welcome Kristina Marusic to the show to talk about her new devastating, investigative series for Environmental Health News, “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.” Fractured lays bear their scientific findings from a 9-week pilot study in Southwestern Pennsylvania where families are exposed to harmful chemicals and the failure of local, state, and federal officials to protect communities’ physical, mental, and social health. The series focuses on five families, three in Washington County, PA and two in Westmoreland County, PA. The study finds not only high levels of toxic chemicals in the air and water - but inside the bodies of these families, with children frequently showing the highest levels of toxins. The study also explores how the explosion of fracking in Southwestern PA has also led to significant costs on the mental health of residents and a breakdown in the social well-being of communities.
Kristina Marusic covers environmental health and justice issues in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. She has received recognition or awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Institute of Health Care Management, the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Science Center, and the Pittsburgh-based Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) for her reporting on these topics.
Prior to joining EHN, Kristina covered issues related to environmental and social justice as a freelancer for a wide range of digital media outlets including Slate, Vice, Women's Health, MTV News, The Advocate, CNN, and Bustle. She is also the co-president and co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of LGBTQ Journalists. She is also working on a new book called, The New War on Cancer, about the doctors, researchers, and activists leading a nationwide movement to rethink cancer prevention strategies through the lens of toxic exposures, to be published by Island Press in 2022.
She lives in Pittsburgh, where she spends much of her free time kayaking the city's iconic three rivers, consuming coffee and eating adventurously. Reach her at kmarusic@ehn.org. And, make sure to check out all the awesome reporting over at Environmental Health News, https://www.ehn.org/.
- Read the series: “Fractured: The Body Burden of Living Near Fracking.”
- Follow Kristina Marusic on Twitter: @KristinaSaurusR
- Follow Environmental Health News: @EnvirHealthNews
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
We’re talking about the PA State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein’s plans to merge three state universities - Bloomsburg University, Mansfield University, and Lock Haven University - the university at which tonight’s guests teach and work. As you might recall, Chancellor Greenstein is also forcing mergers on three additional campus in Western PA - California, Clarion, and Edinboro.
Just at Lock Haven, the Chancellor wants to cut 30% of the faculty; slash 56 custodial and grounds keeping jobs; end 12 academic programs; and, send a small PA town into economic uncertainty.
On tonight's show I welcome:
Peter Campbell: is the president of the Lock Haven chapter of the faculty union APSCUF. Campbell is a professor in the Sport Administration program at Lock Haven. He teaches courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs including: Contemporary Issues and Problems in Sport Administration, Sport Law and Ethics, Governance of Sport, Sport Facility Management and Operation, Sport Administration Professional Field Experience, and Legal and Policy Issues in Sport.
Shawn O’Dell: President of AFSCME Council 13, Local 2360 which includes many employees at Lock Haven University including custodians, grounds keepers, maintenance, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, painters, HVAC, electricians, secretaries, and support staff. As she puts it, AFSCME members are the backbone of the LHU community, without them, LHU could not exist. O’Dell is also a graduate LHU with a BA in English. She was a nontraditional student and graduated at age 41 and then was given an opportunity to work with the Upward Bound program. That opportunity opened the way to move to the Center for Global Engagement and the Global Honors Program where I work as their secretary.
Matt Girton: Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at Lock Haven University. He is also a former president of the Lock Haven chapter of APSCUF. On the State APSCUF Exec Council. The State System Universities have been part of his entire life. He grew up 10 miles from Bloomsburg where, swam in the old Centennial Gym pool and went to Celebrity Artist Series productions in Haas Auditorium. His high school band director took Matt and other students to Mansfield for weekly music lessons. He returned to BU in the mid-90’s for his MA in Communication, and while finishing his doctorate at Florida State University, he worked as an adjunct for a year at Shippensburg.
How to stay involved and help with the fight:
- Follow Lock Haven APSCUF on Facebook
- Follow Lock Haven APSCUF on Twitter
- Follow Save Our State Schools on Twitter and click the "Get Involved" button on the Save Our State Schools website
- If you are in the Lock Haven area, join the Rally to Save Lock Haven University Jobs, this Saturday, March 20 @ 10:00 am
- Find your state legislator and write and/or call them. Let them know you do not want to see Lock Haven merged
- Call the PASSHE Board of Governors @ 717-720-4010 or fax them @ 717-720-4011 and tell them to "Save the Haven"
- Share this interview on all your social media
A special shout out to Jonathan Mann who wrote our intro song, “There Are No People in the Future.” Check out all is great stuff on his YouTube page and follow him on Twitter @songadaymann
Monday Mar 08, 2021
Monday Mar 08, 2021
On today’s show I am thrilled to welcome State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler and State Sen. Nikil Saval to the show. Rep. Fiedler represents District 184 in South Philadelphia, a seat she won against a deep-pocketed Democratic machine. Let’s face it, in significant sections of Philly, the Democratic Primary is where all the action is. She ran a strong general election campaign with two other members of PA’s own squad, Rep. Summer Lee and Rep. Sara Innamorato, who also won huge upset victories against Democratic machine politicians.
In 2020, State Sen. Nikil Saval won his election to represent the First State Senate District in Philadelphia. Sen. Saval’s district hugs the Delaware River from the Philly airport in the south to Sections of Port Richmond in the north. His election win set a new round of shock waves through the Democratic party establishment and state politics. Yes, Democratic party voters will elect an open socialist to office.
In a remarkable short period of time the progressive left is on the rise in PA and that’s made a huge difference in the political discourse - but perhaps more importantly, what we might call our political horizons. Suddenly things seem possible. What was once PA’s own progressive squad is becoming a battalion.
I wanted to have Rep. Fiedler and Sen. Saval on the show this week because it’s budget season in Harrisburg and they are both part of a renewed push for a People’s Budget along with the great folks at We the People - PA. This time around, however, progressives are exercising their muscles and pushing the political discourse. And not just in the State Capitol. They continue to work with the movements that they have been part of for years. So, it’s a progressive budget and progressive-left movements on the table tonight. Welcome to the show.