Out d’Coup Podcast

Out d’Coup LIVE | Karen Feridun, founder of Berks Gas Truth and co-founder of Better Path Coalition

This week I welcome Karen Feridun back to the show. Karen is the founder of Berks Gas Truth and co-founder of Better Path Coalition. The Better Path Coalition are the organizers for the PA Climate Convergence this coming fall. We'll be talking about a summer filled with record-breaking heat, flooding, and climate catastophie. We've seen ocean temperatures that have surprised scientists, heat that broke records by a significant margin, and flooding that has devastated communities around the world. All of this is shocking. And all of this is precisely what climate scientists have been warning us about for decades. And all of this is what world leaders - including our own government - have failed to act on in any significant way.

So, today we'll talk the summer that UN Secretary General has termed the beginning of the "era of global boiling." But we'll also focus on upcoming actions this week, later this summer, and in the fall that will demand decisive, immediate climate action. It's time to make plans to be in Harrisburg this October for PA Climate Convergence. The Convergence will bring advocates, activists, and concerned residents to Harrisburg to tell Gov. Shapiro, lawmakers, and regulators that they are having the wrong conversation on climate and need to change their stance. We’ll talk about why lawmakers are keeping PA from being part of the solution to the climate crisis and what all of us can do to change that.

In addition to founding Berks Gas Truth and co-founding the Better Path Coalition, for the past 11 years, Karen Feridun has worked with organizations in PA, NY, NJ, and DE to win the ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin that was imposed in February. She is currently part of an international coalition working to stop Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports and a national coalition working with members of Congress to reform the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

LINKS:

• Berks Gas Truth: https://gastruth.org/
• PA Climate Convergence: https://www.pennsylvaniaclimateconvergence.org/

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.

 

Friday Politics Roundup | Trump indictments; UPS Teamsters deal; AAUP joins AFT; era of global boiling; electric car infrastructure; CBSD sweetheart deal; Pennridge secrets; Barbie; Sinéad O’Connor

New indictments against Trump announced. The ditch keeps getting deeper. 

UPS Teamsters announced a “historic” contract win a week before what could have been one of the largest strikes in American history. The details of the contract will be the proof to that claim. Since the announcement some UPS Teamsters are saying the unions 180,000 part-time workers may not get as good of a deal as suggested. 

In what could prove to be a sign that higher education faculty are willing to step up and fight to a greater degree, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted to affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The alliance will be the largest union of higher education faculty - about 300,000 strong. 

Following new scientific data from the World Meteorological Organization on this summer’s record heat, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, proclaimed that the era of global warming has ended and the “era of global boiling has arrived.” 

It’s been so hot in Arizona that the state’s famous Saguaro cacti are literally collapsing. 

Ocean temperatures of over 100 degrees in waters around Florida could be a global record. 

Something else that climate change is giving us to worry about. More Americans are developing a rare meat allergy - Alpha-gal syndrome - which is linked to bites from the lone star tick. New data from the CDC find a steep increase in cases of alpha-gal. Alpha-gale can give you  “stomach cramps, diarrhea, hives, and shortness of breath that could trigger fatal anaphylaxis,” according to the BBC. 

GM and other major automakers announce they will build 30,000 electric vehicle chargers to help build out the electric vehicle charging network. 

While Republican politicians and media personalities make is seem as though all parents are up in arms about their public schools, about 80% of parents responding to a new Gallup poll say they are somewhat or completely satisfied with their child’s school. That confirms what a string of other polls conducted during the pandemic have shown. There’s a gap between the political propaganda and real schools. 

And Mitch McConnell suffers a medical incident in the middle of a press conference. The party line is that “he’s fine” but no information about what actually happened has been released. 

Central Bucks school board votes to give their superintendent, Dr. Abram Lucabauh, an $86,000 raise and a new 5 year contract after he joined with the board's new right-wing board to enact book bans, anti-LGBTQ politics, and more. He will now be one of highest paid public school administrators in PA.

Pennridge School District board members are enraged over “secret” curriculum meetings between Vermillion Education’s Jordan Adams and select members of the board. Christening Batycki, a member of the curriculum committee, found out “by happenstance” that Jordan Blomgren and Megan Banis-Clemens were meeting secretly with Adams to discuss the direction of the curriculum. 

Barbie breaks box office records as the right-wing loses it’s collective mind (again). 

Sinéad O’Connor dies at age 56. Morrissey writes a passionate tribute to her and condemns the music industry for their treatment of her.

Out d’Coup LIVE | Alexandra Bradbury, editor of Labor Notes on the impending Teamsters UPS strike

Welcome to this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. This week I welcome Alexandra Bradbury to the show. Al is the editor of Labor Notes, the media and organizing project amplifying the work of union activists putting the movement back in the labor movement. We'll be talking about her new article, "UPS Teamsters 'Just Practicing," co-written with Luis Feliz Leon, about the impending UPS strike and the decades of organizing work by union activists to change the leadership of the Teamsters and bring the fight back to their union. 

Al Bradbury joined the staff of Labor Notes in 2012, after working with hospital workers as a researcher and organizer for Service Employees Local 49 in Oregon. Al edits Labor Notes and covers postal workers and Teamsters. She's also an occasional singer-songwriter. She is based in Seattle. 

LINKS: 

• Alexandra Bradbury and Luis Feliz Leon, "UPS Teamsters 'Just Practicing," Labor Notes, 7/19/23 | https://labornotes.org/2023/07/ups-teamsters-just-practicing
• Follow Al on Twitter@al_bradbury | https://twitter.com/al_bradbury 
• Labor Notes | https://www.labornotes.org/
• Upcoming Labor Notes events: https://labornotes.org/events

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.

 

Friday Politics Roundup | Actors and writers strike; AZ heat; anti-teacher union conference; anti-teacher union bill; Pennrige teachers still no contract & how you can help

SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) continue their strikes as Hollywood and streaming services face a reckoning. 

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin just introduced new legislation to attack the National Education Association’s charter in order to gut teacher union power. 

Chad Connelly, a Christian nationalist operative and former “faith outreach director” for the Republican National Committee, runs a voter mobilization organization called Faith Wins. Connelly has organized dozens of secret meetings between top Republican presidential candidates and right-wing pastors, giving pastors the opportunity to grill the candidates on political issues and pray over them.

A train derailed in Whitemarsh Township in Montgomery County on Monday. We all got lucky. Turns out most of the cars were carrying Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and toxic chemicals. A bomb train that luckily did not go off.  

And are you ready for the launch of a nationwide effort to destroy teachers’ unions? Let me introduce you to the first-annual “Teacher Freedom Summit.”  It’s what all the right-wing education privateers and religious zealots have been drooling over.

Out d’Coup LIVE | Alyssa Bowen from True North Research on ANOTHER far-right ”Moms” group attacking schools and elections

This week I welcome Alyssa Bowen back to the show. Alyssa is a Senior Researcher and Managing Editor for the progressive watchdog group, True North Research.

Tonight we'll be talking about her recent article in TruthOut, "A Jan. 6 “Moms” Group Funded by Big Lie Donors Is Stoking Voter Suppression." And, we'll give you the spoiler right up front: It's NOT Moms for Liberty we'll be talking about. The right-wing extremist group “Moms for America” has been flying under the radar as it works to undermine our rights. 

Alyssa received her PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2021 with an interest in fascism and antifascism, solidarity and social movements, immigration/exile and transnational history. She has bylines in the Nation and in Truthout, where she is a regular contributor. More of her public writing can be found on True North Research’s website and Substack. 

LINKS: 

• Alyssa Bowen: "A Jan. 6 “Moms” Group Funded by Big Lie Donors Is Stoking Voter Suppression," TruthOut | https://bit.ly/3rqMn3v
• Follow Alyssa on Twitter @AlyssaAnnBowen | https://twitter.com/AlyssaAnnBowen
• True North Research: https://truenorthresearch.org/

RESOURCES: 

• Documented: https://documented.net/
• Center for Media and Democracy: https://www.prwatch.org/ 
• Racial Justice Training Series with H.E.A.L. Together: https://bit.ly/3f3vBRG 
• All H.E.A.L. Together trainings: https://www.raceforward.org/trainings 

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino & Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. You can get more information and drop your donation at https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.

 

Friday Politics Roundup | Climate chaos,organizing is hope; Jordan Adams exposed at Moms for Liberty

Raging Chicken's Friday Politics Roundup for July 14, 2023. We're here to break down the good, the bad, and the ugly in state and national politics.

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino, Moms for Liberty, and their oligarch friends buy our schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money. 

You can get more information and drop your donation at  https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/

 

Out d’Coup LIVE | We’re back from vacation! Woah, did a lot happy while we were gone.

On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, we're back from vacation! And wholly crap did a lot happy while were were gone! Would love to hear from you!

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t let Paul Martino, Moms for Liberty, & their oligarch friends buy our schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community-rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money.  You can get more information and drop your donation at  https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/. 

Friday Politics Roundup | Moms 4 Liberty in Philly; SCOTUS guts affirmative action, LGBTQ rights, student loan relief; fight for democracy

Raging Chicken's Friday Politics Roundup for June 30, 2023. We're here to break down the good, the bad, and the ugly in state and national politics.

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino, Moms for Liberty, and their oligarch friends buy our schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, support local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmask the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money.  You can get more information and drop your donation at  https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.

 

Out d’Coup LIVE | Chris Ullery, Extremism and Social Justice Reporter for the USA Today Network in PA

On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome Chris Ullery to the show. Chris covers extremism and social justice for the USA Today network of PA and Bucks County Courier Times. We'll be talking about his new investigative piece, "Emails show how religious liberties law firm has influenced Bucks and York schools." This article is part of an on-going investigation by Chris and investigative journalist Bethany Rodgers from the USA Today Network's PA capitol bureau. Their investigations have helped expose how a deep-pocketed, religious law firm is working with right-wing school boards across Pennsylvania to change policies and sow division. 

Chris Ullery has been a reporter with the Bucks County Courier Times since 2015, covering municipal government, infrastructure and the Central Bucks School District. His mostly self-taught skills in the Python computer programming language have helped him flesh out and analyze years of voter registration data, track COVID-19 cases at the start of the pandemic in 2020, and build a 10-year database of 911 call logs in Bucks County. In addition to using his programming experience to track extremist movements, he will work with local newsrooms in the USA Today Network to help tell stories by the numbers. Chris Graduated Frostburg State University in 2014 with a B.S. in English (major in Literature, minor in Journalism) near his hometown of Cumberland, Maryland. 

LINKS: 

• "Emails show how religious liberties law firm has influenced Bucks and York schools," Chris Ullery & Bethany Rodgers, Bucks County Courier Times | https://bit.ly/442QWiH 
• "Libraries to locker rooms: How a religious law firm is changing PA school policies," Chris Ullery & Bethany Rodgers, Bucks County Courier Times | https://bit.ly/3ojlrki 
• Follow Chris on Twitter | https://twitter.com/ulleryatintell You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Friday Politics Roundup | Oregon climate lawsuit; Atlantic Ocean temps; Bradley Foundations targets DOJ; Moms for Liberty Summit; Pennridge School Board and community resistance; and more!

A county in Oregon is suing some major fossil fuel companies and industry groups for their role in climate change. According to a report in DeSmog blog, the lawsuit “seeks to hold fossil fuel companies and their ‘misinformation agents’ accountable for the unprecedented 2021 heat dome that saw temperatures in the county reach 116 degrees Fahrenheit.” This lawsuit is of special interest because it also implicates the global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company for their role in spreading misinformation. 

And while the national media was urgently reporting on the fate of 5 people on a shoddy submarine seeking to tour the Titanic wreck, North Atlantic ocean temperatures went off the map. The unexpected heating of the Atlantic is, in the words of Bill McKibben, “truly terrifying news.” 

In addition, an unprecedented “heat dome” over Mexico and Texas is producing deadly storms and heat. The jet stream maps are wild. 

A meteorologist in Iowa resigned from his local TV news job due to ongoing threats from climate change deniers. 

New reporting by Cyril Mychalejko in the Bucks County Beacon shows how the right-wing donor group, the Bradley Foundation, is now helping bankroll efforts to help Republicans weaponize the Department of Justice. 

Moms for Liberty is holding their annual national summit in Philadelphia beginning next week. They will be met by protests as they host a range of Republican presidential hopefuls including Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Trump official and South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley. And, now we’ve learned that pseudo-populist, anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist, Robert Kenndy, Jr. will be speaking there as well. 

As the Mad Moms get ready to gather in Philly, yet another M4L chapter in Indiana is under fire for quoting Hitler approvingly in their newsletter. 

New reporting in Vice documents the close relationship M4L has cultivated with the Proud Boys and other extremist organizations. 

And let’s not forget about the leader of the Monroe County, PA M4L chapter who stole a dead woman’s Facebook identity to harass others. Seems to me that all the bad apples are in the same place. 

Info on protests in the Bucks County Beacon. 

New reporting in the Bucks County Courier-Times shows how the Harrisburg-based  right-wing religious Independence Law Firm has influenced and continues to influence Central Bucks and York schools. 

The Pennridge School Board meeting was packed once again as the far-right majority continued to force through their agenda and demonstrate their incompetence. The highlight of the meeting was a Zoom presentation by Jordan Adams, the CEO of Vermilion Education. We’ll get into that. 

You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress.

Don’t Let Paul Martino, Moms for Liberty & Their Oligarch Friends Buy Our Schools and push extremist politics in our community. Raging Chicken has teamed up with LevelField to launch a truly community rooted PAC to invest in organizing, supporting local and state-wide progressive candidates, and unmasking the toxic organizations injecting our communities with right-wing extremism. We’re putting small-dollar donations to work to beat back the power of Big Money.  You can get more information and drop your donation at  https://ragingchicken.levelfield.net/.