Out d’Coup Podcast

We're opening up the "phones" again on this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. We'll be talking more about PASSHE redesign plans, the expansion of Raging Chicken's podcasts, some things I've been reading (prepare yourself for a little MMT convo), and whatever you all bring to the table.

Some topics for tonight:

• Seth Kahn, West Chester U faculty pens open letter to Chancellor Greenstein on PASSHE consolidation: https://bit.ly/3vjlPy4
• Liz Downing, Chair Post-Secondary Education Committee of the Women's Advocacy Coalition makes the case for the Nellie Bly Scholarship: https://bit.ly/3vhFMFy
• State Senator Lindsey Williams wants your thoughts on PASSHE redesign: https://www.senatorlindseywilliams.com/passheredesign/
• Just finished Stephanie Kelton's "The Deficit Myth," so Modern Monetary Theory might also make an appearance: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781541736184

Join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/WMW98RQEYV
Chatting on #livechat during and after the show.

We're continuing to test our new platform for Out d'Coup LIVE. We'll be doing some real-time experiments with Riverside.fm. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for listeners to join the show while at the same time boosting the quality of our sound. So, we'll give it a whirl.

During the live show, I'll announce when we'll be taking calls. If you want to call into the show, you should join the show on Riverside.fm and turn the volume off on YouTube, otherwise you'll get a delay and feedback.

You can join the show, Monday 5/24/21 @ 7pm using this link: https://riverside.fm/studio/out-dcoup-live

Once your are in the show, you can comment in real time. You should be able to "call in" to the show too. Here's the info for how that works: https://support.riverside.fm/en/articles/4666206-live-call-in

 

We are back and we survived the gas shortage of 2021!

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire after more than a week of intense violence that led to at least 243 Palestinian deaths - more than 60 were childrent - and 12 Israeli deaths, as reported by the BBC. Looks like that ceasefire may not last the day. 

Republican Senators will not get on board legislation calling for a bi-partisan commission looking into the January 6 insurrection. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio gives Republicans a lashing. 

New reporting in ProPublica shows that the Trump era helped launch a new breed of donor who now have significant influence over the Republican Party. 

According to a newly compiled report by the EPA, climate change is already having a significant impact on the U.S. - not to mention the rest of the world. EPA administrator Michael Regan said, “There is no small town, big city or rural community that is unaffected by the climate crisis...Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close, with increasing regularity.” As reported in the New York Times, those impacts include bigger wildfires that start earlier in the year; warmer seas; more frequent heat waves; persistent flooding; and, even ragweed pollen season is starting earlier.

Ford launches what may be a game changer in the electric vehicle market. On Wednesday, Ford unveiled the all-electric F150 Lightning, which performs better than combustion engine models in many metrics. However, its $39,974 pricetag that is likely to mark a turning point. At just under $40,000 the F150 Lightning is competitive with Tesla’s base model Model 3, currently the most popular electric vehicle in the country. 

The big F150 lightning reveal follows Biden’s visit to the Ford plant in Dearborn, MI the day before, to pitch his EV plan. The EV plan, which is folded into Biden’s infrastructure bill, calls for $174 billion in consumer tax credits, support of US battery production, and funds to retool car plants to assemble EV’s.  

This may sound like a broken record player, but progressives across Pennsylvania once again celebrated huge primary victories.

• Larry Krasner won in a landslide against FOP endorsed candidate Carlos Vega.  The FOP and other pro-police PACs spent $250,000 to unseat Krasner only to lose by a 2-1 margin
• On top of Krasner’s victory, Krasner gained a lot of allies in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.  Seven of the eight open seats went to nominees endorsed by Reclaim Philadelphia, the Working Families Party and other criminal justice reform organizations. 
• Out west, House Representative Ed Gainey defeated Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.  Gainey gained traction as a movement candidate following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and was backed by SEIU Healthcare PA and groups like One Pennsylvania.  He will become the first black mayor in Pittsburgh’s history.
• Tyler Titus (they/them) won their primary for Erie County Executive in the far northwest as an out transgender person.  They will faceoff against the Republican nominee in November and have the opportunity to become the first transgender person to hold an elected exectuvie position in the country.   
• Ezra Nanes crushed his primary election to become the next mayor of State College.  He will become the first Jewish mayor in the city’s history and his victory only highlights how progressive movement is turning Centre County into a solid blue county.

In not so progressive news, but shocking to say the least, Wanda Williams defeated Harrisburg’s mayor Eric Papenfuse.  Williams raised $30k and was vastly outspent by Eric Papenfuse, Dave Schankweiler and Otto Banks.  Wanda won by linking Papenfuse to his Republican donors and to Schankweiler and Banks, who were Republicans running as Democrats. 

House Representative Marty Flynn wins his special election to replace former Senator John Blake.  The district has been trending red for some time, but Flynn was able to hold onto the seat.  Blake left the Pennsylvania Senate to work for Congressman Matt Cartwright earlier this year 

In other news, go grab your spurs cowboy! Doug Mastriano is preparing his run for Governor and is already taking shots at Lou Barletta’s extremely white teeth.  Mastriano held a fundraiser with Rudy Giuliani last week and was spotted posing for photographs with an insurrectionist wanted for spraying bear spray at the capitol police during the January 6th attack on the capitol. 

PA Senate Democratic Caucus continue hearings on PASSHE consolidation plan. This week’s hearings included testimony by faculty, staff, students, university leaders, and community members. 

Cyril Mychalejko’s new piece just dropped, saying “Only a political uprising can save PA’s higher education system.”  Mychalejko echos what we’ve been saying for years on this program: only organizing and direct action gets the goods. 

In his first hearings after taking over as NASA’s Chief administrator, Bill Nelson pledges to move forward with the Artemis moon program and Mars ambitions while stoking fears that China is on course to dominate the future of space exploration. 

China becomes the second country to successfully “soft-land” a rover on Mars. The Zhurong rover successfully landed last Friday, May 14. On Wednesday, the rover sent back some selfies and images of Mars. The Zhurong rover is part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission that arrived in Martian orbit back in February.

A little further in the weeds, SpaceX grabs the contract for Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander in 2023. According to Firefly, “Blue Ghost will be carrying 10 payloads for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order 19D mission, in addition to separately contracted commercial payloads.” Yes, the next round of Moon exploration is really a thing, folks. 

In some ‘not so good’ beer news, Tired Hands’ owner Jean Broillet IV was pushed out of day-to-day operations by employees for allegations of racism, sexism and unsafe working conditions throughout the pandemic.  When confronted, he stepped down immediately.  The staff posted on the company's Instagram account that they will keep the brewery running as they look for new leadership.  This story comes as a reckoning is happening throughout the craft beer industry.

It’s Sour Sunday this Sunday at Free Will Brewing and they have a new release to celebrate: Catch Lightning; DDH Love Letter from the 90s; Kragle Light. And, Free Will just opened a new tap room in Souderton, PA at the Broad Street Theater! 

On this week's show I welcome Nick Marcil and Alexandra Karlesses. Nick and Alex are graduate students at West Chester University who wrote a piece for the student newspaper The Quad, "Hallmarks of neoliberalism pervade PA system of higher education." In that piece they argue, 

"While the promise of market efficiency can seem tempting under such bleak circumstances, it is not a sustainable model of increased access or more abundant resources in higher education. In fact, despite the increasing reliance on this model, inflation-adjusted per-student state funding has declined in 41 states since 2008, according to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In PA alone, we have seen about a 40% reduction since the year 2000 in state funding across the board, even as universities continue to struggle and threaten to shut their doors."

Now, Alex and Nick are helping launch a new organization, "PASSHE Defenders," Fighting for a Fully Funded State System of Free Public Higher Education. Sounds like an appropriate addition to the Marvel Universe and I'm all in. Find them on Twitter @DefendersPasshe & Instagram passhe_defenders. You can join them for an organizing meeting this Thursday, May 20 @ 7:00 pm - SIGN UP HERE. 

It turns out today is a good day to have them on, too. Earlier today the PA Senate Democratic Caucus Policy Committee held a hearing on PASSHE consolidation plans. State Senators Katie Muth, Lindsey Williams, and Judy Schwank led questions for panels featuring faculty, staff, students, and administrators. 

Nick Marcil is a first-year Higher Education Policy and Student Affairs masters student at West Chester University. He is a current Graduate Assistant for Student Engagement in the Center for Civic Engagement & Social Impact and will be returning there next year. He graduated from the West Chester University in May 2020, where he majored in Early Grades Preparation and a minor in Mathematics Education (Pk-8).

Alex Karlesses is a first-year Higher Education Policy and Student Affairs masters student at West Chester University. She is a current Graduate Assistant in the Twardowski Career Development Center, and thoroughly enjoys counseling students and helping them with their postgraduate plans. She was also recently elected as the Vice President of the Graduate Student Association, and plans to use her platform to promote and plan programming for first-generation students, as well as help graduate students obtain any resources they need to help secure funding or further aid for their studies. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 2017, where she majored in English and Journalism.

 

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

___________________________

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

Let’s call this our soft-launch of our new regular/semi-regular show, Out d’Coup Wednesdays with Cyril Mychalejko. We don’t know if that’s going to stick as the name of the show. It’s descriptive, you’ve got to give me that. 

On today’s show, Cyril and I will talk a little bit about our ideas for this show, check in on the some remarkably important school board elections in Bucks County, spotlight the connections between the increasingly extreme Bucks County Republican Party and this past weekend’s New Yorker article on State Senator Doug Mastriano’s Christian Nationalism; and. See what Cyril is writing about in recent and upcoming columns. 

We're opening up the "phones" again on this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. It's the end of Mahoney's semester, so we thought we'd take a little break from guests and hear from you. We'll definitely be talking about the PASSHE hearings last week and thoughts on the future of public higher ed in PA.

We're also testing out a new platform for Out d'Coup LIVE. We'll be doing some real-time experiments with Riverside.fm. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for listeners to join the show while at the same time boosting the quality of our sound. So, we'll give it a whirl.

President Biden made an unvarnished case for taxing the rich on Wednesday, facing reporters steeped in decades of anti-tax dogma.

In another surprise move, Biden came out in favor of suspending patents for vaccine makers in order to make the vaccine more readily available to the world. However, Germany is pushing back against waivers, which will lead to a global showdown over access to the life-saving shots. 

India’s COVID cases continued to climb this week to more than 412,000 cases in one day. Only about 2% of Indians have been vaccinated and hospitals continue to face oxygen shortages as the Modi government faces charges of fumbling or actively worsening conditions. 

More than 25 people are dead in Colombia after more than a week of protests over a tax plan put forward to cover costs of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Colombia is has also been hit by mass unemployment due to lockdowns. 

Right-wing Republican Liz Cheyney is on the verge of losing her House leadership position because she won’t tow the party line that Trump actually won the election. New York’s morphing power-Trumpista, Elise Stefanik looks like she may take over Cheyney’s leadership position. 

Texas Republican’s pass more voter suppression legislation. Good thing the Texas GOP dominated Senate passed legislation the day before allowing concealed carry without a permit. 

A Trump appointed federal judge, Dabney Friedrich, struck down the CDC’s eviction moratorium on Wednesday, spreading that much more concern among tenants hit hard by the pandemic. 

Irish Republican’s remembered the IRA’s Bobby Sands this week on the 40th anniversary of his death in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. Check out my friend Stu’s amazing book on the hunger strikes, Smashing H-Block: The Popular Campaign against Criminalization and the Irish Hunger Strikes 1976-1982, from Liverpool University Press. 

Ski Patrollers at Breckenridge Resort in Colorado voted to unionize with the Communications Workers of America. Breckenridge Resort is part of Vail Resorts which has seen a string of union drives over the past few years as patrollers point to declining wages and working conditions. 

Trump launched a new blog. 

And births fall to a 42-year low in the U.S. due largely to pandemic social distancing. However, if you follow calls for a “Hot Vax Summer” on social media, we just might see a new boom in little ones by next spring. 

Governor Wolf fired every member on the Charter Appeals Board and sent nominations to the Pennsylvania Senate.  One of the nominees include former state senate candidate and music teacher, Shanna Danielson. The Charter Appeals Board was filled with holdovers with expired terms from the Corbett administration. 

The race for Philadelphia District Attorney is getting underway and Philly politics is showing everyone what they got.  Late last week, the Philadelphia FOP was handing out Mr. Softee ice cream cones in front of Larry Krasner’s offices.  

In response to this stunt, Ben Cohen from Ben and Jerry’s put Mr Softee on blast.  In a press release, Mr. Cohen stated:

“The FOP is out of control, regularly lashing out at anyone who threatens their unquestioned power,” “To be clear, Mr. Softee isn’t even ice cream. It is pumped up with a lot of hot air, which is somehow frozen in a limp sort of way. It is chock full of artificial ingredients. In short, it’s fake ice cream. Just like the lies that the FOP has been telling about a courageous fighter for true justice and one of the best D.A.’s in the U.S.”

Then following Wednesday’s debate, Krasner’s opponent, Carlos Vega tried taunting Krasner once the debate finished. The taunting was caught on a hot-mic and Vega said “I’m your worst nightmare” and “I’ve been in your head for a long time.”  Krasner responded by saying “Sure Carlos.”

Vega claims to be living “rent-free” in Krasner’s head, but Vega filed a bullshit lawsuit trying to sue Krasner and his supporters from social media because of “mean tweets.”

Will Bunch wrote a scathing column writing that moves to dismantle the PA State System of Higher Education are actively turning the American Dream into a nightmare. He lays the bulk of the blame at the feet of GOP legislators who have been beating the drum of austerity since the 1980s.

Oh, and thanks to Rep. Russ Diamond. Russ decided to troll us after our Monday show and, as a result, we’ve got a whole bunch of new listeners!

An 18 ton Chinese rocket segment is set to come crashing down to Earth most likely this weekend and no one knows where exactly it will land. Normally a piece of equipment that large would reenter the atmosphere in a controlled descent. Not the case here. After delivering the first module of China’s first space station to orbit, the booster started to fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled descent. So, as they say, heads up this weekend. 

SpaceX finally sticks a Starship landing. The SN15 Starship rocket made a successful high-latitude test on Wednesday - this time without the explosive landing. 

Pennsylvania House is taking up a critical question that’s on everyone’s post-pandemic mind: will we still be able to get our cocktails to-go? Well, we have an answer - at least part of an answer: on Tuesday, the PA House Liquor Control Committee voted 23-0 to approve Republican Rep. Kurt Masser’s legislation to make drinks-to-go a permanent part of living the PA life. 

Free Will Brewing releases: Spruce - Barrel Aged Saison with Spruce Tips; Tentacle - Pale Ale hopped with EXP10416, Amarillo, and Huell Melon; and, Safeword - Imperial IPA with Mangoes and Habanero Peppers. 

Sean is turning to wine for the next chapter of his lifestyle channel. 

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

One day ahead of his 100th day in office, Biden addressed a joint session of Congress to layout out another ambitious policy agenda in his “American Families Plan.” As reported in the New York Times, 

Also this week, Biden signed an executive order increasing the minimum wage for all federal contractors to $15/hour. The increase will impact hundreds of thousands of workers. 

The FBI raided Rudy Giuliani’s home and office this week, seizing computers and cell phones. According to new reporting in the New York Times, the probe centers on the firing of the US Ambassador to Ukraine. If there are any feds listening to this podcast, please send us all conversations between Rudy and Doug Mastriano.

Tucker Carlson tests the boundaries of extremism. Carlson used his top-rated, Fox News show to claim that requiring children to wear masks was “child abuse.” He said, “your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart...Call the police immediately, contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse, it’s child abuse and you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.” 

The game of musical chairs has begun as the Census Bureau released the new state population numbers, which determine the number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives. 

Gains: Texas (2), Florida (1), North Carolina (1), Colorado (1), Oregon (1), Montana (1)
Losses: California (1), New York (1), Illinois (1), Pennsylvania (1), Ohio (1), Michigan (1), West Virginia (1)

Matt Gaetz’s wing man decided to sing. 

Pennsylvania Spotlight relaunched their website!  This is a project that has been in the works for months and thank you to everyone who helped make this possible, especially Scott Wagner and Mike Turzai. 

Senator Doug Mastriano and Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidate Paula Patrick were slated to speak at the “Up Front in the Prophetic” Q-Anon conference happening in Gettysburg this June, but both issued statements condemning the event and movement. Unconfirmed reports are that Mastriano issued this statement with a wink and a nod. 

A case by Pennsylvania high school student Brandi Levy made it to the Supreme Court after she was suspended from her cheerleading tea m after posting harsh comments about her school on Snapchat. When she failed to make the varsity cheerleading team, she posted a picture of herself flipping the bird captioned with “F___ school f___ softball f___ cheer f___ everything.” The case raises significant questions about the authority of schools to punish students for speech that occurs off school grounds. 

This was a major week for the future of the PA State System of Higher Education. On Wednesday, Chancellor Greenstein’s plans to merge six universities into two was accepted by the Board of Governors, triggering a 60 comment period and legislative hearings. A new report by the U Mass-based Political Economy Research Institute found that Greenstein’s plans will lead to over 1,500 direct job losses, leading to over 700 additional “indirect” or “induced” lost jobs in the Commonwealth. The question on the table now is whether Governor Wolf wants the destruction of PA public higher ed to be his lasting legacy. 

In my neck of the woods, there’s a team of right-wing extremists running for the Pennridge School Board. At least they are making it easy to know who NOT to vote for. So, DO NOT vote for Christine Batycki, Jordan Blomgren, Ricki Chaikin and Bob Cormack.

The Mars Helicopter Ingenuity failed to make a fourth flight yesterday when it failed to switch into flight mode. 

China launched the main main module for its first permanent space station on Thursday. The launch is the first of 11 missions necessary to complete the station and establish China a major player in the future of space. China will also land its first rover on Mars next month. 

Last Friday, SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission launched a new crew to the International Space Station. On their way to the space station, a piece of space junk came unexpectedly close to colliding with the capsule. 

The four astronauts that arrived at the International Space Station were scheduled to depart the ISS later today, but they have been delayed for the second time due to weather. Or, maybe they want a few more days for sightseeing? 

Free Will Brewing new releases: Strawberry Banana Mash & Longful Hunt.

Last weekend Free Will launched Sunday Sessions - live music at the Brewery. Sklyar Love kicked off the season for the first show. This Sunday, John Valerio will be taking the stage from 1-4pm. No tickets required. There will be 19 beers on tap, wine from Pennswood, and food by Tre’ Locally Sourced.

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:

• 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.

• 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.

• Follow Save Out State Schools on Twitter: @OurStateSchools. Look for additional. Sign up for additional information and email alerts on their webpage: SaveOurStateSchools.org.

• 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