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Activism, politics, and beer from PA-based Raging Chicken Press
Episodes
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/
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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
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Friday Apr 01, 2022
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Amazon workers' bid to unionize is looking pretty good. At the end of yesterday’s vote count at Amazon’s Staten Island facility, YES votes for the union stood at 57% according to Reuters. Vote counting continues today and union organizers are feeling pretty good. UPDATE: Amazon Labor Union WINS!!!!
Meanwhile, new information shows that Amazon spent $4.3 million in their anti-union campaign just this past year. So, is that why the costs of my packages are going up?
Florida Gov. DeSantis signs the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the right-wing doubles-down on their anti-gay and anti-trans culture war.
Oklahoma’s Abortion Ban sets its sights on completely gutting Roe v. Wade.
County judge orders 5 West Chester Area School District Democratic board members to be removed. Why? Because they supported a policy to keep the district’s masking policy in place. The case calling for the removal of the board members stems from a lawsuit filed by Beth Ann Rosica the Executive Director of the right-wing PAC, Back to School PA. She is fresh off her landslide defeat in her bid to become West Chester’s mayor.
Pennridge School District school board puts its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee on hiatus.
It’s an inflection point for Pennsylvania’s labor movement. Newly appointed president of the PA AFL-CIO has got some skeletons in his closet and Rick Smith is taking out the laundry. Will PA AFL-CIO take a stand against the abuse of women in the labor movement?
The Dungeon Run’s “Heroes of Bingle” campaign comes to a close.
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
Friday Mar 25, 2022
Friday Mar 25, 2022
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, weathered three days of Senate confirmation hearings. Of course that meant she had to endure, QAnon infused conspiracy theories; Sen. Lindsey Graham storming out of the hearings in a hissy fit - twice; and, as Gabrielle Gurley from the American Prospect put it, “The Ted Cruz CRT Minstrel Show.”
Jackson is expected to be confirmed by the Senate early next week. But with Mitch McConnell making it public that he will not be voting for her, she may be confirmed without a single Republican vote.
Ginni Thomas - the right-wing extremist who is married to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas - was actively pressuring Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and other Trump officials to overturn the 2020 vote. That according to texts recovered from materials Meadows turned over to the January 6 investigation.
More good news on the guaranteed income front, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund (GRO) and GiveDirectly are launching the largest guaranteed income program tried in the South. The program will target Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, providing $850 per month to about 650 women with no questions asked.
As Chris Hayes laid out on his show last night, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feels like the first armed conflict of a new era. An era in which authoritarianism is on the rise and liberal democracies have been backsliding.
And Antarctica is seeing temperatures more than 70 degrees hotter than normal this week.
Jim Worthington, owner of the Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County, is at it again. A staunch supporter of Donald Trump and major financial backer of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, is suing Democratic Congressional candidate Ashley Ehasz for $50,000, because she dared call attention to the fact that Worthington “spent thousands of dollars to organize bus loads of Trump supporters to attend the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that turned into violent insurrection.”
Pennsylvania is facing a major teacher and school staffing shortage as teachers are leaving the profession due to COVID, lack of support, and contentious politics, according an excellent article by Marley Parish of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. In addition, Pennsylvania has seen a 66% decline in Instructional I Teaching Certificates granted - which is the most basic teaching certifications given to new graduates.
The scuttlebutt is that the President of the Pennridge School Board, Joan Cullen, is floating the narrative that the community is supportive of abandoning all DEI initiatives.
Pennsylvania remains the only state that does not provide state funding for public defenders.
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
Friday Mar 11, 2022
Friday Mar 11, 2022
The invasion of Ukraine continues.
In response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, TikTok extended its maximum video length to 10 minutes, as a response to increased pressure on the platform for its role in spreading misinformation and disinformation. However, Media Matters for America warns that rather than providing a solution to misinformation and disinformation, the longer videos may only lead to users taking advantage of the longer format to “spreak longer, more complicated” misinformation as happened when the platform expanded the length of its videos from 1 - 3 minutes in the wake of COVID misinformation.
China locks down Changchun, a city with a population of over 9 million, due to a new outbreak of the omicron COVID variant, sticking to a strict policy geared on preventing the rapid spread of the virus. Meanwhile, it’s masks off for everyone in the U.S. COVID, after all, is a state of mind, right?
Trucker Freedom Convoy couldn’t decide what to do or how to get there.
Colorado-based, right-wing activist Joe Oltmann calls for mass hangings of U.S. senators who voted to avert a government shutdown this week. According to Raw Story, Oltmann said "There's your list of 19 traitors to the American People, along with all the other traitors to the American people," said Oltmann on the Conservative Daily podcast. "I want people to go out there and get some wood. The gallows are getting wider and longer. We should be able to build gallows all the way from Washington, D.C. to California."
They found Ernest Shackleton’s long-lost Antarctic ship almost perfectly preserved at the bottom of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. The ship sunk over 106 years ago after the ship was crushed by sea ice and Shackleton’s entire crew had to be rescued from his failed expedition.
The PA state legislative maps are locked in. Bucks County Democrats have a real chance of flipping two seats given the composition of the new districts.
Democratic candidate Gwen Stoltz visited with the Pennridge Democrats last night. She’s a strong candidate with a local background that has a real shot in flipping the 143rd to Blue.
Central Bucks School Board meets and the extremists are not going to quit. During an extra-long public comment period, former anti-maskers and anti-CRTers took to the mic to read sexually explicty passages from books they want banned from the school library.
Beginning to think these parents want to control the schools so their own kids don’t start to call them out for their own racism and bigotry.
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