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Activism, politics, and beer from PA-based Raging Chicken Press
Episodes
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
On tonight’s show, I welcome Jonathan Kassa to the program. Jonathan is a Director on the North Penn School Board. He is also a national expert in school and campus safety. North Penn has experienced the same kind of right-wing extremism flooding school board meetings across Bucks County. North Penn found its meetings disrupted by members of Moms for Liberty and ReOpen Bucks. In the last school board election, North Penn also saw the flood of right-wing money into the campaign. Jonathan Kassa has been unwavering in calling out extremism, warning about the threat to our democracy, and insisting on defending our kids and communities.
Link:
- Bucks County Beacon, "Right-wing misinformation leads to rape and death threats at PA01 elementary school," by Cyril Mychalejko https://bit.ly/3LYX96o
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress/
If you want to help us end the domination of right-wing money tipping the scales to the extreme.on our school boards and in our communities, we’ve made that easy. Simply drop a donation to the Raging Chicken Community Fund at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.
Help us support community organizing and school board candidates that our communities and our children deserve. Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
On today’s show, I welcome Garen Meguerian to the show. We'll be talking about his three-part series in the Bucks County Beacon on how defamation lawsuits can be used as weaponized tools of censorship. He digs into how a "rash of defamation suits filed by prominent local Republicans underscores the need for stronger laws protecting the right to free speech in Pennsylvania."
Meguerian is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer licensed in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of New Jersey. He has represented clients in both state and federal courts. He is AV peer review rated from Martindale-Hubbell reflecting achievement at the height of professional excellence and integrity.
Meguerian received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995, where he served as an Associate Editor of the American Criminal Law Review. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Honors Philosophy from Villanova University in 1992, where he was awarded the University's Valedictory Medallion.
Meguerian is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Chester County Bar Association.
Check out his webpage: https://www.garenmlaw.com/
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress/.
If you want to help us end the domination of right-wing money tipping the scales to the extreme.on our school boards and in our communities, we’ve made that easy. Simply drop a donation to the Raging Chicken Community Fund at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/. Help us support community organizing and school board candidates that our communities and our children deserve.
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Apr 25, 2022
Monday Apr 25, 2022
On today’s show, I welcome Daisy Pitkin to the show. We'll be talking about her new book, On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union. On the Line is a first-person account of a five-year campaign to unionize the industrial laundry factories in Phoenix, Arizona. This is a book for every current or future union organizer or anyone who joins the long-haul struggle for justice and solidarity. As I’ve said to anyone who was willing to listen - on any platform - On the Line is a heartbreaking, hopeful, truthful, complicated, and beautiful book.
Daisy Pitkin has spent more than twenty years as a community and union organizer, working first in support of garment workers around the world, and then for U.S. labor unions organizing industrial laundry workers. Her essays have been awarded the Montana Prize, the DISQUIET Literary Prize, the New Millennium Award, and the Monique Wittig Writer’s Scholarship. She grew up in rural Ohio and received an MFA from the University of Arizona. Pitkin lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she works as an organizer with an offshoot of the union UNITE. Find her at daisypitkin.net and follow her on Twitter at @daisypitkin.
You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at patreon.com/rcpress.
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
If you want to help us end the domination of right-wing money tipping the scales to the extreme.on our school boards and in our communities, we’ve made that easy. Simply drop a donation to the Raging Chicken Community Fund at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/. Help us support community organizing and school board candidates that our communities and our children deserve.
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Monday Apr 18, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome Brett Wilkins to the show. Brett is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Prior to joining Common Dreams in 2020 his articles, focusing on issues of war and peace and human rights, have been published on Counterpunch, Antiwar.com, Asia Times, teleSUR, Mondoweiss, and Venezuela Analysis. He is also the communications coordinator for San Francisco Berniecrats, an Our Revolution affiliate, and was a member of Collective 20, a socialist writers' collective whose notable members included Michael Albert, Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky, and Bill Fletcher Jr.
Today we're digging into a his recent article, "Democracy 'Under Siege' in GOP War on Black Voters: Report," which unpacks the National Urban Leagues 2022 report on how "Republican federal and state lawmakers are working 'in concert' with political operatives and violent extremists 'to disenfranchise, delude, manipulate, and intimidate American voters and establish one-party rule."
I hope to dig into more of his current articles as well.
LINKS
- Article: "Democracy 'Under Siege' in GOP War on Black Voters: Report": https://bit.ly/36mbIRL
- Brett Wilkins on CommonDreams: https://www.commondreams.org/author/brett-wilkins
- Brett Wilkins' home page: https://brettwilkins.com/
Help us support community organizing and candidates working to stop the right-wing extremists take-over of our school boards in Bucks County and across PA. Make a contribution to the Raging Chicken Community Fund. Click here for more info: https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome Shanna Danielson back to the program! Shanna is a middle school music teacher in south-central PA. She is a former candidate for state senate and state house, and a 2019 graduate of Emerge PA. Shanna currently serves as Secretary of the Democratic Party of York County, vice-chair of the Northern York Democratic Club, a member of the Democratic State Committee for York County, an elected Auditor for Carroll Township, and has recently been elected as the Southern Region PACE Director for PSEA. And, of course, Shanna is one of the awesome co-hosts of the Sisters of the Night Caucus podcast. Shanna lives in Dillsburg with her husband, son, and many cats.
On tonight's show, we're going to dig into the teaching shortage in Pennsylvania and across the nation. We'll dig into the conditions that are driving more and more teachers to leave the profession and fewer and fewer students choosing to become teachers. Yes, COVID exacerbated these conditions. But the crisis in our public education system runs much deeper.
Links:
- Follow Shanna on Twitter: @shannaforPA
- Sisters of the Night Caucus podcast: https://bit.ly/3E0e4SR
- Pennsylvania Capital-Star article: “Staffing shortage, COVID-19, politics take toll on Pennsylvania teachers,” by Marley Parish https://bit.ly/378JOcp
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome David Backer to the show. David is an associate professor of educational foundations, policy studies, and leadership at West Chester University. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America and tweets at @schooldaves.
We'll be talking about his recent article in Dissent Magazine, "Toxic Finance." In that piece, David looks into how outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools across the country exposed the crisis in our schools' long-ignored infrastructure problems. But more than that, he shows how the way the United States finances school building improvements and maintenance worsened the problem. Another case of hiding the ball so students, teachers, staff, and parents get stuck with inefficient, inadequate, and unequal schools. We’ll also talk about some recent proposals - such as the Green New Deal for Public Schools - that would begin to take on the financial barons that profit off public education for personal gain.
Links:
- David Backer, "Toxic Finance," Dissent Magazine
- David Backer's newsletter, "Schooling in Socialist America"
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
On this special episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome Rick Smith to the show. Listeners to Raging Chicken's podcasts know that Rick is the Founder and Host of the Rick Smith Show. For those who don’t know, The Rick Smith Show is by working people, for working people. It’s a place that serves up a heaping portion of democracy with a side of fairness, the grit of a Teamster, and no apologies. Where facts are the center, where science is real, and where everyone gets a seat at the table.
I think you'll find today's show will only underscore Rick's commitment to building a strong, democratic, inclusive, and equitable union movement for and by working people.
On his show last week, Rick blew the whistle about a history of allegations of sexist and abusive behavior by the newly appointed President of the PA AFL-CIO, Frank Snyder. As a result, there is now an investigation into the history of those allegations.
Rick is calling on out-going AFL-CIO president Rick Bloomingdale to "take responsibility for enabling the abusive behavior of the person who is replacing him as the most powerful labor voice in Pennsylvania." He is also calling Bloomingdale to release the women workers from their NDAs and "issue a statement allowing former employees to talk to the investigators and reporters about the abuses without fear of being sued for violating any NDA or confidentiality agreement."
Links:
- Rick Smith Show: https://www.thericksmithshow.org/
- Follow Rick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RickSmithShow
- Call on out-going president of the PA AFL-CIO, Rick Bloomindale, to
release women workers from their NDAs of confidentiality agreements and "issue a statement allowing former employees to talk to the investigators and reporters about the abuses without fear of being sued for violating any NDA or confidentiality agreement." Tag Rick Bloomingdale on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RWBloomingdale
- Tell the PA AFL-CIO to make public the findings of their investigation into allegations of sexist and abusive behavior by Frank Snyder. Tag them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaAFL_CIO
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Mar 28, 2022
Monday Mar 28, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome Jessica Corbett to the show. Jessica is a staff writer at Commondreams.org. We'll be talking about two of her most recent articles focusing on the fossil fuel links to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Biden's problematic LNG (liquified natural gas) plan to ease European energy needs in the wake of the conflict. Kelly Sheehan of the Sierra Club noted on Wednesday, March 13 that "allowing for the expansion of new and expanded pipelines and gas export facilities, which wouldn't come online for years, would do nothing to help Europe in the short term and would only line the pockets of fossil fuel executives and lock in reliance on risky, volatile fossil fuels for decades to come." As recent reports of record heat waves in Antarctica and the Artic should indicate, locking in more dependency on fossil fuels will be catastrophic.
In addition to her work at Commondreams.org, Jessica has fact-checked for or been published by outlets including In These Times, Rolling Stone, Salon, The Nation, and VICE. Her work primarily focuses on the intersection of politics, public health, and the environment. She also explores human and civil rights, gender and sexuality, and peace and labor movements.
Reporting from Jessica Corbett from tonight's show:
- Jessica Corbett, "'Ukrainian Blood on Their Hands': Analysis Details How Big Oil Funded Putin's War Chest," https://bit.ly/3qYFRhl
- Jessica Corbett, "Ahead of EU Gas Announcement, Biden Urged to Boost Clean Energy Not LNG," https://bit.ly/3IELVkX
- Jessica Corbett, "Sanders Intros Revival of 95% Windfall Profits Tax From WWII to Curb Corporate Greed," https://bit.ly/3qIf2xM
Additional articles from CommonDreams.org that we discussed on tonight's show:
- Andrea Germanos, "McKibben 'Heat Pumps for Peace' Plan Gains Traction With Biden," https://bit.ly/3tOhrsk
- Jake Johnson, "Youth Strikes Worldwide Demand Climate Action That Centers 'People Not Profit'," https://bit.ly/3IO7P5t
- Kenny Stancil, "US Import Ban on Russian Oil a 'Blow to Putin's War Machine,' Says Biden," https://bit.ly/3INbhNq
- Julia Conley, "Majority of Americans Fear Nuclear Weapons Use After Russia's Ukraine Invasion," https://bit.ly/3qI18LQ
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Mar 21, 2022
Monday Mar 21, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I am joined by William Horne. William is an Arthur J. Ennis Postdoctoral Fellow at Villanova University who writes about the relationship of race to labor, freedom, and capitalism after the Civil War. He holds a PhD in history from The George Washington University and is co-founder and Editor of The Activist History Review. He is also the co-editor with Nathan Wuertenberg of the book, Demand The Impossible: Essays in History as Activism.
0We'll be talking about his recent article in TruthOut, "The 'Legal Phase' of Fascism Has Begun. Threats of White Vigilante Violence Are Real" and how history provides little comfort if we expect the recent uptick in white supremacy and authoritarianism to fade away by themselves.
- TruthOut Article: https://bit.ly/3679GVH
- The Activist History Review: https://activisthistory.com/
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, Cyril Mychalejko joins our Monday night show! Cyril is a progressive columnist at the Bucks County Courier Times/The Intelligencer & The Bucks County Beacon. It's been a bit since we've been able to catch up on all that Cyril is working on, so we thought a Monday night would be ideal!
We'll be talking about the ever-present school board wars, with the right-wing turning their attention to banning books. We'll also touch base on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. We'll also take a moment to celebrate Cyril's one-year anniversary as a columnist at the Bucks County Courier Times/The Intelligencer. It's been a significant gain in progressive voices representing the growing progressive community in Bucks County.
You should also sign up for Cyril’s newsletter on Substack: https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com/
Cyril's latest articles:
- "Will Rage Trump Reason in Central Bucks Book Banning Debate?," https://bit.ly/3CFu2B4
- "Pennridge School District Must Acknowledge Creationism Is Not Science," https://bit.ly/3t9Mizk
Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV