Out d’Coup Friday Politics Roundup | Guest host Amy Knecht joins to talk about right-wing organizing in Bucks County and more

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?