Out d’Coup Podcast

It was the best Mob movie I’ve seen in a long time. Michael Cohen testified before Congress and it was large-popcorn-bucket-worthy. Like we’ve been saying for a couple of years now, the best way to understand the Trump administration is to read it as an organized crime story. Now it looks like we’re going to get Trump’s accountant, Allen Weisselberg, to testify after all. Cohen’s closing statement warned that if Trump loses the 2020 election, he will not allow for a peaceful transfer of power.

Trump got Kim Jong Un-ed in Vietnam.

Pramila Jayapal drops a major Medicare for All bill that - wait for it - is better than the plan advocated for by Bernie Sanders. The bill was drafted with nurses, doctors, disability rights advocates, advocates for the elderly, and organizations such as Public Citizen and the Center for Popular Democracy.

This past Tuesday was a great day for Chicago socialists as 4 of the 5 DSA endorsed candidates won their election to Chicago’s city council. At least two other progressives also ousted established Democratic Party Machine candidates.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee enters the presidential race with an unabashed commitment to address the climate crisis. CPAC is underway just outside DC. All the tensions with Trump are nowhere to be found as the right-wing political conference fully embraces MAGA. And if you wanted to know if progressive/left policies are moving the needle, look no further than right-wing ex-Senator Rick Santorum who went to CPAC calling for paid family leave.

Charter Appeals Board??? Say what?  Imagine a state-controlled government panel that is specifically designed to overturn local school boards and favor charter schools.

About 1,700 workers are on strike in Erie, PA as Wabtec, the new owners of the former GE locomotive plant, demanded up to 38% reduction in wages, mandatory overtime, expanded use of temps, and arbitrary scheduling. Bernie Sanders weighed in on the strike saying, "The American people are sick and tired of corporate America and their wealthy CEOs ripping off the working families of this country.” In These Times has called this the “biggest U.S. manufacturing strike in the Trump era.”

Senator Bob Casey says he will be backing a $15/hour federal minimum wage bill, marking his continued political evolution. PA House GOP Candidate Frank Scavo is a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist who is running for an open house seat in Lackawanna County.  It’s been a Democratic stronghold for decades but voted for Trump in 2016.

Big Pharma, Big Greed. A PA woman used to be able to get for free medication for a rare neuromuscular disease. But thanks to BioMarin Pharmaceutical who recently gained exclusive rights to see the drug, she is facing a $375,000/year bill. Her case is one of the thousands like it that has been the subject of hearings in DC. Elections have consequences.

State Senator Vincent Hughes wants to "take a data-driven approach to public policy to ensure that lawmakers are fully informed of the potential impacts of legislation on people living in poverty before they vote."

In today’s Last Call, Space X set to test its first-ever Crew Dragon Spacecraft tomorrow if the weather continues to cooperate. The Crew Dragon is designed to bring astronauts to the International Space Station. If all goes well, this will be the first “crew-capable orbital spacecraft” to launch from the U.S. since the Obama administration scrapped the space shuttle program in 2011 in favor of contracting out missions to the ISS. Boeing, the other company tapped by NASA to fly crewed missions to the ISS has its own test launch set for April.

Canada is the first country to join up to support NASA’s lunar gateway project. The Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway program will be a human-tended facility in orbit around the moon, kind of like a sister station to the ISS.

This Sunday, Free Will Brewing will be celebrating the “Spirit of Mardi Gras” with a barrel aged tap takeover at the main brewery in Perkasie. Plus, a double can release tomorrow:

• Fresh King Cake  - a No Boil White Ale brewed with 120 pounds of fresh ground pecans, orange, cinnamon, and vanilla. 7% ABV. Saturday can and draft release, March 2nd!
• 7 Course Red - just in time for St Patty's Day prep, it's Free Will's traditional Irish Red Ale, malt forward with notes of toffee, toasted bread, and dried fruit. Brewed with a touch of roasted barley and carared for additional color and a beautiful tan head.

Run, Bernie, Run. Bernie Sanders officially threw his hat into the presidential race this week. His campaign raised $5.9 million from 223,047 individuals in its first 24 hours, millions of dollars more than any other Democratic party candidate thus far.

West Virginia teachers have another successful strike. They beat back attempts to introduce charter schools across the state. Oakland teachers walked out on Thursday demanding smaller classes, charter school oversight, more school nurses and guidance counselors. And they are demanding a 12% pay increase after years of austerity. Oakland is one of the epicenters of What’s going on? Well, rank-and-file, progressive caucuses have a lot to do with it.

North Carolina election board calls for a new vote in the congressional race in which the Republican candidate and his campaign committed what looks like to normal people as systemic voter fraud.

More conjecture on the status of the Mueller probe while Trump officials apparently tried to sell nuclear tech to Saudi Arabia. And as if to add insult to injury, Trump is preparing to launch a Presidential Committee on Climate Security to determine if climate change actually a national security threat like the Pentagon says it is. The Washington Post reports that Trump wants the committee to be led by climate denier, William Happer, who says CO2 is not a pollutant, it’s an asset. Back in 2014, Happer even compared CO2 to Jews in Nazi Germany, “demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler,” he said.

A self-described white-supremacist Coast Guard officer is arrested for planning a terrorist attack to kill prominent Democratic lawmakers including AOC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and several high-profile television anchors from MSNBC and CNN.

Daryl Metcalfe loves his vegetables. Chris Rabb calls out Tom Wolf for doubling on Natural Gas exploitation.

Sean ended up driving through Wednesday’s snowstorm to get to the America Votes conference in DC and will recap some of the speakers who attended it.

Kevin went to an amazing Labor Notes workshop on Saturday in Kutztown. Great discussion on building power in the union. And yes, we talked quite a bit about caucuses.  

China’s moon landing on the dark side may just launch a new space race.  China’s future plans include a new space station, a lunar base and possible sample return missions from Mars. And China’s military space program “continues to mature rapidly,” according to the Department of Defense.  

Trump officially signs a directive to establish the Space Force.  Space Policy Directive - 4 calls for a commander of the Space Force who will “lead space warfighting through global space operations that may occur in the space domain, the terrestrial domains, or through the electromagnetic spectrum.”

NASA is planning to put astronauts back on the moon by 2028. That was Trump’s Space Policy Directive - 1 if you’re keeping score at home. Space race indeed.

And, Mattel is launching Astrophysicist and Astronaut Barbie this year. Barbie has a 50-year history of space exploration, actually.

Facebook told me that one year ago today, my daughter and I finished the first stage of the 1,969 piece Lego NASA Apollo Saturn V rocket.

Today is National Margarita Day and Free Will has got a double release for you. Not only do we get the 5th of May - a sour ale aged in tequila barrels with key limes and Himalayan salt; but, we also get one my all-time favorites, Safeword - an Imperial IPA with mangoes and habanero peppers, 10.4% ABV and burns so sweet.

Sean makes his legendary return to Pizza Boy.

Trump says he will declare a national emergency as we are recording today’s podcast.

Despite earlier warnings to the contrary, Mitch McConnell now seems to be on board with Trump in support of declaring a national emergency. Meanwhile, McConnell is going to force a vote on “Green New Deal” resolution introduced by AOC and Senator Markey. The Turtle thinks he’s playing political hardball, but we think it’s going to blow up in his face.

Beto O’Rourke meets with Schumer to discuss 2020 Senate run.  Denver teachers go on strike for the first time in 25 years. After three days they come away with a win. Amazon got its foo foos hurt by community protests and kills HQ2 plans for New York. You get a second chance, Gov. Wolf.

New GOP proposal calls for employers to take student loan payments directly out of employees paychecks. Atmospheric river dumps record rain on California. Fear of mudslides and flooding, given the summer of fire.

Lt. Governor John Fetterman’s marijuana legalization tour starts rolling through central Pennsylvania.  Hundreds of supporters showed up at the Dauphin and Cumberland Counties stops. House Democratic Labor and Industry Chair Pat Harkins is back on board with Governor Wolf’s minimum wage plan.

Post Gazette editor John Block went on an epically drunken rant in the Gazette’s news Saturday.  Block had his young daughter with him as he demanded to get a photo in front of a poster that read “Shame on the Blocks.”

PASSHE Chancellor Daniel Greenstein testifies at PA budget hearings. He seemed to give a shot across the bow to the faculty union, saying that unless the relationship changes and becomes more collaborative, saving PASSHE is a fool’s errand.

Labor Notes training at Kutztown tomorrow.

Double can release at Free Will this week. Sean can’t shake the sinus blues. Sean was gifted a book on socialist poems from a newsroom vet!

Star Trek: Discovery update. Sean’s watching Oliver Stone’s Untold Histories

Raging Chicken studios get a remodel. New writers on the horizon?

AOC and Ed Markey roll out the Green New Deal! It’s the first big, bold initiatives the Democrats have had since I’ve been around. It’s got many Democrats, environmental activists, and people who want to avoid a dystopian future super pumped. Nancy Pelosi message tests dismissive “Green Dream” talking point...AOC does some jujitsu with that message.

Trump does Dr. Seuss during the state of the union. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.” Nancy Pelosi lights up the internet, becoming the “Queen of Condescending Applause”

Ryan Grim reports that less than a month after the 2018 midterms, a top health care aide to Nancy Pelosi told executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield not to worry about calls for Medicare for All. He assured them that Democratic leadership will side with the insurance companies and campaign against Medicare for All .

Supreme Court halts Louisiana anti-abortion bill.

Cory Booker is the latest to announce that he’s running for president. Elizabeth Warren set to officially launch her campaign tomorrow in Lawrence Massachusetts. Amy Klobuchar set to announce whether she’ll run in an event on Sunday in Minneapolis. And old school Democrats on pins and needles to see if Uncle Joe will swoop in and Make the Democratic Party Neoliberal Again.

And what the hell Virginia. One hell of a house-cleaning coming up.

Bezos and National Enquirer.

Tom Wolf releases a no-frills budget and GOP Leadership is eager to work with him on his proposed tax cuts. Dems gonna Dem. Tom Wolf released his minimum wage proposal to raise the wage to $12/hr and work its way up to $15 by 2024, but Pat Harkins, the Dem chair of House Labor and Industry committee, wants to find a less ambitious plan. 

Speaking about raising the wage, House Republicans invited two libertarian economists to speak in front of the Labor and Industry committee and they advocated for eliminating the minimum wage and claimed that minimum wage laws are “racist.”

Scumbag Daylin Leach sues three #metoo activists for bringing his allegations to light. He’s gone as far as sending a private investigator to try and harm one of the defendants living arrangements.

Sean gives us his take on this year’s Keystone Progress Summit in Pittsburgh.

Free Will Brewing is hosting a Pre-Valentine Beer Pairing with Tre' Locally Sourced on Wednesday, February 13th at the Perkasie Brewery. 5-course beer & food pairing in the heart of our brewery, the Sour Cellar. Tomorrow, Free Will is releasing  Orange Colored Malcontent – Double IPA with Cara Cara Oranges & Milk Sugar – 9.5% ABV.

Sean crashes Pittsburgh fundraiser.

Day 35 of the Government Shutdown. We’ll do a rundown of some of the major impacts while workers face their second missed paychecks today. Flights out of LaGuardia, Newark and Philly airports halt over lack of air traffic controllers, a result of Trump's government shutdown. [Breaking as this episode gets posted: Trump announces a deal has been reached to re-open government].

The U.S. is getting ready to ship back asylum seekers to Mexico. Roger Stone goes to the pokey. It was a6 am early morning wake up call the Trump consigliere.

Kamala Harris enters the 2020 presidential race. Tulsi Gabbard effectively ends her presidential bid, joining the Both Siders Party instead. A majority of the country support AOC’s to raise the top marginal tax rate to 70 percent, and Elizabeth Warren is proposing a “wealth tax” on the rich.  Will AOC’s proposal to tax the rich force Democrats to add “taxing the rich” to their 2020 platform. 

Striking LA teachers took on the billionaires and won big. Smaller class sizes, a nurse in every school, more counselors and librarians, steps against charter schools, and a slew of “common good” demands regarding social justice issues like immigrant rights, racial profiling, and green spaces at schools. This was not a spontaneous uprising...Sarah Jaffe’s piece in The Nation this week shows that this strike has its roots in a 2014 take over of the LA teachers union by the progressive Union Power caucus. Is everybody watching? Teachers in Denver, Oakland, and Virginia certainly are. 

The U.S. government is trying to return to its Cold War sweet spot by backing coup in Venezuela. China taking the spotlight at Davos, announcing the arrival of a new world political geography. 

And Catholic Young MAGA Red Hats decide harassing a Native elder is a great way to cap off their visit to the nation’s Capital. 

Sexual harassment scandals are once again ripping through the Pennsylvania Capitol.  State Representative Brian Ellis is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Dauphin County DA’s office that is looking into potential rape allegations from 2015. 

State Senator Daylin Leach is once again the center of controversy.  A survivor who has been trying to tell her story for almost a year hand-delivered complaint about her incident to every Senate member last week.  The allegations go back to 1991 when the survivor was 17 and Senator Leach was representing her and her mother in an attempted murder case. 

State Senator Rich Alloway shocked everyone last week when he up and quit out of nowhere.  He said that he was “tired of politics as usual” in Harrisburg, but is seeking to take on a job as a lobbyist. 

Lt Gov John Fetterman will be barnstorming all 67 counties to talk about marijuana legalization! 

Two Chinese companies prepare for their first orbital launch, bringing Kim Stanley Robinson’s vision in Red Moon one step closer. 

Sean gives a rundown on the competing Fyre Festival documentaries from Netflix and Hulu. Kevin finishes season two of Ozark. Laura Linney rocks. Just sayin’. 

Free Will has it’s first Sour Sunday of 2019 this weekend. On Saturday, Free Will releases Angel. Angel was created specifically for BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Fest (Boston 2019) on February 1st & 2nd. New Age “No Boil” IPA w/Galaxy, Vic Secret, & Mosaic – 6.3%.  Brewed with Local Malt from Deer Creek Malthouse and bloody butcher heirloom corn meal from Castle Valley Mill.

The government shutdown now in day 28. Dems flood into the 2020 presidential race. So far it’s Elizabeth Warren, Richard Ojeda, Julian Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, and a couple of guys named John Delany and Andrew Yang.

Nancy and Donny play hard nose politics with the State of the Union and a planned Congressional visit to Afghanistan to visit troops and to Brussels to reaffirm American commitments to NATO.

Republican representative Steve KKK_King of Iowa, stripped of his committee assignments after he complains to the New York Times that you can’t even say you're a white supremacist anymore. Conservatives freak out as AOC gets on the House Financial Services Committee. Aaand AOC gives social media and twitter lessons to her Democratic Colleagues during her first week in office.

Will be this the straw that broke the camel's back?  Will Trump finally be impeached after Buzzfeed’s latest story reporting that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump Moscow? That’s after the Wall Street Journal broke the story yesterday that during the early days of the 2016 campaign, Cohen hired an IT firm to manipulate polls to show that Trump was a real contender. And, yes, Cohen claims that he did so at the request of Trump. 

The Pennsylvania Capital Star will be a new progressive, investigative online news source in Harrisburg. Let’s hope the little social media fails they had with their launch doesn’t trip them up too much. 

It was inauguration day in Harrisburg. Let’s see what the Wolf/Fetterman team can get done as they were fawning over “bi-partisanship.” We’ll have some completely unsolicited advice for them. 

Brendan Boyle and Dwight Evans get seated to the House Ways and Means committee. Right before that, Brendan Boyle came out in support of Medicare for All.

Steve Carell will star in a new Netflix series called...wait for it...Space Force. Star Trek Discovery Season 2 launched last night...and it was freaking awesome. 

A team of NASA scientists is proposing to land a drone called “Dragonfly” on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, following research from the Cassini probe found that Titan has an atmosphere that rains organic compounds on the surface of the moon. 

Free Will is going all blueberries with this week’s can release. Blueberry Mash is a Kettle Sour Ale with Blueberry, Vanilla, and Milk Sugar – 7.5% ABV.

Happy 2019! Establishment Dems clutch their pearls over Rashida Tlaib’s calls for impeachment. It’s not what she said, it’s how she said it.

Elizabeth Warren makes it official. She’s running for president in 2020. Already the talking heads and Twitterati are deeply engaged in the EmoProg Primary. Let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you must engage in the Bernie v. Warren sniping, at least checkout David Dayen’s article in the New Republic from last October.

Nancy Pelosi sworn in as the Democratic Speaker of the House. The first-ever woman speaker takes up the gavel again.

Another smear campaign against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez falls flat on its face. AOC wears white to her swearing-in ceremony to pay tribute to the suffragists.  

Are Old Deal Democrats trying to squash progressive initiatives with Pay-Go? Can we at least get through the first week before Dems decide to use Republican rhetoric to define their policies? Try buying a house with Pay-Go rules. Ro Khanna, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Tim Ryan come out early against Pay-Go.

Indivisible groups, Medicare for All supporters, climate activists and other progressives are not wasting any time letting Democrats know they will not be going away any time soon.

And, Terry McAuliffe gets launched into the talking heads circuit to tamp down progressive, universal policies like Medicare for All and tuition free college.

House Republicans released their committee assignments on Wednesday and Daryl Metcalfe is pissed that he didn’t get on the House Judiciary Committee.  Instead, he’s going to sitting on the Energy and Environmental Resources Committee.

PA Senate Republicans sat Lindsey Williams after voters went to their local Senate offices and demand that they seat her.

Governor Tom Wolf has booked The Roots for the inaugural ball. And, it’s the Farm Show in Harrisbu

Farm Show. John Micek is on the beat. Here piggie, piggie, piggee.

China lands on the dark side of the moon. China's robotic Chang'e 4 lander became the first to touch down on the dark side of the moon on Wednesday night. The Chinese lander now sits on the floor of the 115-mile-wide Von Kármán Crater. NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft visited Ultima Thule, a Kuiper Belt object 4 billion miles from the sun. It’s the most distant object get a pass by from a man-made spacecraft.

Sean watches Vice. AOC dances.

Free Will bottle release: Clifford the Big Red Quad - a collaboration with Blue Dog Tavern will be released tomorrow (Saturday, 1/5) in 500ml bottles.

It’s Shut Down Mania! Trump threatens to shut down the government for a “very long time” if the Senate does not pass a bill with $5 billion for his Great Wall of ‘Merica.  Despite what he said during his meeting with Chuck and Nancy, He’s blaming the Democrats.

Mad Dog Mattis resigns as Trump’s Defense Secretary. Mattis’s resignation letter is widely seen as a protest against Trump’s announcement that he wants U.S. troops out of Syria and Afghanistan. Mattis also objected with Trump alienating allies and embracing autocratic regimes like China and Russia. German officials call it “a moment of alarm in Europe.”

Democrats say ixnay to the Green New Deal committee championed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other newly elected progressives. Instead, Democrats tapped Florida Democrat, Rep. Kathy Castor to head a revived House panel on climate change. Castor didn’t waste any time embracing Exxon Mobil’s talking points, arguing it might be “unconstitutional” to ban members from the committee who are flush with Big Oil and Gas money. Despite being hugely popular, Democrats still can’t get it through their head that a Green New Deal is the way forward. Here’s a little tidbit about Castor: According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Castor accepted more than $73,000 from the energy and natural resources sector during her Congressional career. That includes $60,000 from corporate political action committees.

Climate agreement in Poland helps to bolster the Paris Agreement. The agreement established a rule book for how countries should measure their greenhouse gas emissions, report on emissions cuts and hold each other accountable. However, the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait blocked language “welcoming” a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that concluded the world must limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or face catastrophic impacts.

Hackers broke into NASA servers and downloaded Social Security numbers and other personal info. NASA officials say they still don’t know the total number of employees that were affected.

And, the City of Opp, Alabama police department blames a recent rise in homicides on townspeople moving away from God and embracing Satan.

Andrew Cuomo releases an extensive legislative wish list that includes legalizing marijuana, an Equal Rights Act, campaign ethics and finance reforms, a Green New Deal and more.  

Governor Tom Wolf says it’s time to start looking at legalizing marijuana with New Jersey and New York getting ready to legalize it in 2019.  GOP leaders, follow suit, by blowing smoke and reefer madness.  

Stephen Caruso from Pennsylvania Legislative Services wrote an excellent report on how Southeast Democrats were unified under the leadership of Madeleine Dean and were able to pick up 5 of 7 House leadership positions.

It’s been over a month and I can barely remember the guy who ran against Gov. Wolf in November.

In today’s Last Call, Gritty and Sean’s tattoo plans.

The Pentagon is finalizing a proposal for the Space Force as a sixth military branch. According to a draft of the proposal, the Space Force would be organized under the Department of the Air Force, kind of like the Marines are organized as an independent service under the Navy.

It’s a White Christmas on Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe beamed back images of a 50 mile wide Martian crater filled with ice. The Korolev crater is on the northern pole plane which surrounds Mars’s polar ice cap. The crater contains 530 cubic miles of water ice and is a mile thick in places.

Arizona State University’s New Space launches the MILO Institute - get ready for the public-private-partnerships in space exploration.

Sean prepares for 2020 by going on a mega facebook purge. Fox news has an extensive debate about Gingerbread people being gender neutral?

Free Will has a double can release tomorrow at both locations: Micromosa and DDH Love Letter from the 90s.

Rick Santorum announces that he is out of the running for White House Chief of Staff.

Green New Deal continues to gather momentum. Writing in New York Magazine, Eric Levitz asks: “Is a Green New Deal Possible without a Revolution?” Good question. Climate activists stage a laugh-in, then protest against Trump officials’ attempt to sell “clean coal” at COP 24 Climate Summit in Poland.

AOC was a “big preoccupation” at a DC Trump hotel meeting of GOP bigwigs and political operatives.

It was Mueller drama all week long as Michael Cohen is sentenced, the National Inquirer head flips on Trump, and the Maria Butina case gets real, shining a light on Russian ties with Republican activist Paul Erickson and the NRA. The Muller investigation is getting ready for phase two of its investigation.  This time, Mueller is investigating Trump’s financial ties to Middle East dictators who are looking to influence US politics.

5 Democrats join with Republican House members to stop any discussion of stopping U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders’s Senate resolution calling on Trump to cut off aid to the Saudis.

Trump organization rolled back Obama-era water protections, reopening small streams and wetlands to corporate contamination.  The rollback is seen as a gift to the Oil and Gas industry. Some large-scale farmers and homebuilders were also pleased.. About 40% of the stream in Pennsylvania will now be vulnerable.

Will last-minute push to bring back net neutrality be nixed by Democrats flush with Telecom cash. Check out DemsAgainstThe.Net to see which Democrats have still not signed on. Mary Gay Scanlon, was one of four Democrats unwilling to move to a vote...looks like the pressure worked. Scanlon has since changed her mind and is supporting attempts to change the rule back.

Chuck and Nancy do the Oval Office.

Media outlets across the state finally start giving it to Senate Republicans for their blatant attack on our democracy by threatening not to seat Lindsey Williams.  The Post Gazette told Senate Republicans to “Let it go. Let it go.” because their fight “represents a serious erosion, not only of good faith but the stability of our democracy”

Incoming PA House Representative Elizabeth Fiedler released a co-sponsor memo advocating for Fair Work Week legislation for workers across the state.  

Space Force in its final approach according to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

After fully recharging following his Oval Office Mr. Roboto power-down, Mike Pence will be heading to Cape Canaveral for Tuesday’s launch of the first Air Force GPS 3 satellite atop of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Virgin Galactic reaching the edge of space with their SpaceShipTwo heralds the launch of space tourism and more.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should be watching National Geographic’s Mars. In October, Mars Season 2 was launched and it’s just as good as Season 1. The latest episode, episode 5, gets into corporate corruption and greed. Well worth the time.

Free Will Brewery news. TRIPLE CAN RELEASE on Saturday: Cosmic Warp Engine, Chocolate Hazelnut C.O.B. & Vanilla C.O.B. Also, Saturday, All Day Christmas Dinner from 12-8 featuring Trè Locally Sourced, and then Beer & Breakfast with Santa on Sunday 11:30 am - 5 pm with down to earth cafe’s brunch menu. Also, Free Will is collecting *new* blankets for Tenderheartz Inc. to help friends-in-need stay warm this winter. Drop off your donation at the brewery.

Progressives led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other newly elected representatives are on the offensive for a Green New Deal. Writing in The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer calls the Green New Deal “one of the most interesting—and strategic—left-wing policy interventions from the Democratic Party in years.” This past Monday, AOC joined by Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Van Jones, and others for a Facebook Town Hall, “Solving the Climate Crisis,” to turn up the heat for climate action. And, yes America, we can pay for it, but it will change everything. H/T Naomi Klein and the LEAP.

Then as if to underscore the need for bold, courageous action, scientists announced on Wednesday that instead of declining, carbon emissions are reaching the highest levels in history.

Someone let Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take over the communications department for the House Dems? This week she burned Mike Huckabee by telling him on Twitter to leave the bullshit to Sarah Huckabee Sanders because she’s much better at it. AOC also takes on living wages for Congressional staffers and the system of unpaid internships in DC.

Robert Mueller and Leakin’ Lyin James Comey will be front and center today at the Mueller is expected to show his cards with what he’s got from Manafort and Cohen. Gonna get craaaaazyyyy!

Former President George H.W. Bush passed away. Trump receives accolades for not being an asshat during the funeral.

Milo Yiannopoulos now more than $2 million in debt. Apparently the troll stepped into the sunlight.

The Republican Party ups the ante when it comes to breaking all political norms to maintain power. State GOP lawmakers are using the lame-duck session to strip newly elected Democrats from being able to exercise power.

Lindsey Williams’ story is starting to get some national traction with coverage from The Intercept.  Philadelphia becomes the second biggest city in the country to pass Fair Workweek Legislation.  The ordinance forces fast food, retail and hotel employers to set predictable work schedules for their employees.

Pentagon “scrambling” to reorganize and make way for the Space Force. On Dec. 7, 1972, NASA launched the last crew to land on the moon with the Apollo 17 mission.

Shout out to our friends over at Inside 254. They’ve brought their podcast to close after 46 episodes. Check out their final episode and visit their archives at https://inside254.podbean.com/. We’ll miss you!

Wawa sells beer for the first time ever!  Customers were waiting in line at a Wawa in Chadds Ford as they released a Wawa coffee stout brewed by 2SP.  Coffee at Just Coffee now 30% off with no code required. JustCoffee.coop.

Free Will - Double Can Release this weekend: Tukutuku Porter and Eavesdrop, a Sour IPA w/Vic Secret & El Dorado 16oz. Cans. 4-packs available at both locations at 12 noon on Saturday, 12/8.