Out d’Coup Podcast

Donald Trump was indicted yesterday for misuse of campaign funds to pay hush money to porn star Stromy Daniels. He is the first former U.S. president to ever be charged with a crime. 

Trump’s indictment comes less than a week after he launched his presidential campaign with a large rally and speech in Waco, TX. Waco was the site of the 1993 raid of the militant Branch Davidian religious compound that led to the deaths of nearly 80 people. Waco has been a rallying cry for white supremacists and the extreme right ever since. 

38 migrants were killed and 27 seriously injured in a fire at a Mexican detention center in Ciudad Juarez. The continued unjust and cruel immigration policies in the U.S. - the “Remain in Mexico” policy, for example - helped create the conditions for the deaths. Will Bunch was dead on: 

"I wonder how much of the American downplaying of this nightmare in Ciudad Juárez is willful ignorance on our part — a refusal to confront our own shameful role in this episode. That’s because the reason that refugees are overrunning the Mexican city — some estimates place the number at 20,000 — is that U.S. policy is forcing these migrants to stay south of the American border, their actual goal."

According to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, up to about 15 million people are now at risk of losing health insurance as COVID era rules that expand Medicaid and CHIP benefits are rolled back.

A new study in the journal Nature, projects that deep water current around Antarctica could slow by 40% by 2050 if the current trajectory of climate change is not dramatically altered. A disrupted current could dramatically affect the climate, the flow of fresh water and oxygen, and the circulation of nutrients necessary to sustain marine life. 

Some first-graders in Waukesha, Wisconsin won’t be singing “Rainbowland,” by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton. They were supposed to sing the song about acceptance, coming together, and loving one another in their spring concert. Why? Because school administrators concluded that the song violated the district’s new “Controversial Issues in the Classroom,” policy initiated by a new right-wing dominated school board.  

This week’s horrific mass school shooting in Nashville is being used by right-wing politicians and pundits to stoke anti-trans hate. 

New reporting by Maddie Hanna in the Philadelphia Inquirer shows that Paul Martino’s PAC, Back to School USA, is gearing up for the culture war. The PAC’s website says it will be “taking the fight directly to the liberal teachers’ union and special interest groups that are responsible for indoctrinating our children.” The Back to School USA PAC is planning on holding an April 7th fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago with right-wing founder of Project Veritas, James O’Keefe. 

Newly elected Representative Summer Lee is wasting no time in making her voice heard. Summer Lee is a co-sponsor of the newly introduced “Assault Weapons Ban of 2023.” She took to the House floor this week 

PA Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman and OH Senator Sherrod Brown introduced the “Railway Accountability Act” that would help prevent the kind of disasters we just witnessed in East Palestine, OH. 

A coalition of more than two dozen environmental, faith, business, and healthcare groups sent a letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro this week urging him to keep Pennsylvania’s commitment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as part of Shapiro’s stated commitment to getting PA to net-zero emissions by 2050. 

And Temple University’s president Jason Wingard steps down after an authorization of a no-confidence vote by the Temple’s faculty union; a strike by graduate students, and the murder of Temple University Police Sgt. Christopher Fizgerald.

And, yes, the Dungeons and Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves hits the big screen today!

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/.

 

 

This week I welcome Cyril Mychalejko back to the show. Cyril is the editor-in-chief of the Bucks County Beacon and host of their bimonthly podcast, "The Signal." On today's show, we'll be digging into the latest with the creeping extremism on Bucks County school boards and the people working to take back public schools from right-wing ideologues. We'll also get the latest updates from the Beacon and their current fundraising drive to support and expand hard-hitting, independent media in Bucks County.

LINKS:

• Bucks County Beacon: https://buckscountybeacon.com/
• Support the Beacon: https://buckscountybeacon.com/support-the-beacon/

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/.

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

 

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its most comprehensive and alarming report to date about the “closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” While this report and previous ones made it clear that the world needs to rapidly reduce and then eliminate using fossil fuels, a new fossil fuel emissions record was set in 2022. The Guardian noted that the report foregrounded three signposts: 1) the climate crisis is fundamentally a crisis of injustice; 2) any new fossil fuel developments are incompatible with hitting a net zero emissions goal; and, 3) there are key technology and finance needs. 

On March 13, Biden green lighted the Willow Project - massive new oil-drilling operation on federal lands in Alaska. The project is projected to produce around 600 million barrels of oil at a time when the UN’s IPCC is warning us that all new fossil fuel extraction must be prevented if we have any hope of preventing catastrophic impacts of climate change. Lots of younger voters and people who are deeply concerned about climate change perceive Biden’s actions as a “slap in the face.” 

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a pair of bills that force transgender students to use bathrooms of their gender assigned at birth and that ban gender affirming medical care. The Iowa law was signed one day after Arkansas signed its own “bathroom bill,” and Idaho is waiting for its Governor to sign theirs. The AP reports that more than 25 Republican-led bills across 14 states are targeting transgender individuals, looking to make them targets in their culture-war electoral strategies.

Biden issues his first veto against a Republican “anti-woke capitalism” investing resolution that would have banned retirement fund managers from considering “social issues” in their investment strategies. Things like fossil fuels, commitment to diversity, good record on inclusion. You get the gist. 

NPR cancels four podcasts in the latest round of cuts in media organizations. Facing a projected $30 million decline in revenue, popular podcasts such as Invisibilia, Rough Translation, Louder than a Riot, and Everyone and Their Mom will get the ax. 

Massive three day strike by Los Angeles public school workers - bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants, and cafeteria workers - highlights the poor salaries and working conditions of those who help schools operate. 

The Washington Post reports that “Electric cars are creating a new economy and leaving some towns behind.” And important article, but corporations are let off the hook.

Donald Trump raised over $1.5 million in the three days after he took to his Twitter knock off site and predicted he was going to be arrested this past Tuesday. But, we still haven’t seen an indictment. Early this morning he took to that same platform to warn of “potential death and destruction” if he is charged in the criminal case about his hush-money payments to porn star, Stormy Daniels. 

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/.

 

 

This week I welcome Alan Gratz to the show. We'll be talking about his latest #1 New York Times bestselling young adult novel, Two Degrees and the controversy over the Kutztown Area School District's canceling their "One Book, Once School" middle school program that was set to read Two Degrees. Why did they cancel reading his book? It's a familiar story of right-wing extremism infecting our schools. Right-wing members on the school board and in the community objected to reading a book that accepted the reality and the threats posed by climate change. 

On April 15th, Gratz will be one of the Featured Speakers at the 25th Annual Kutztown University Children's Literature Conference. In the wake of the decision by the Kutztown Area School District to cancel their "One School, One Book" program, he made extra time to meet with the community while in town. He will be doing two events at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown on April 15th as well. At the evening event, he will be interviewed by Joslyn Diffenbaugh, founder of the local Teen Banned Book Club. Details for the events can be found on Firefly Bookstore's Facebook page and through the links in the show notes. 

Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels and graphic novels for young readers, including Two Degrees, Captain America: The Ghost Army, Ground Zero, Refugee, Allies, Prisoner B-3087, and Ban This Book. A Knoxville, Tennessee native, Alan is now a full-time writer living in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and daughter. Learn more about him online at www.alangratz.com.

LINKS:

• Alan Gratz's home page: https://www.alangratz.com/about/
• Get Two Degrees at your local bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781338735673
• Firefly Bookstore events on April 15: https://bit.ly/40nVH4m
• Article: "In Kutztown schools, the right's culture warriors block a book on climate change," by Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://bit.ly/3Kk3ACR
• Article: "Kutztown One Book, One School literacy program halted after outcry over book's focus on climate change," by Lisa Mitchell, The Reading Eagle: https://bit.ly/3ZMzywI
• Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence (KOFEE): https://www.kofee.info/

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/.

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

 

The Supreme Court seems poised to strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program not for Constitutional reasons, but because the right-wing members of the court don’t like it. 

Biden’s pick to serve as an FCC commissioner, Gigi Sohn, withdrew her name after 16 months of targeted pressure and harassment by communication’s industry lobbyist groups. Sohn has a long history as a public interest advocate and would have been the first openly gay FCC commissioner.

Weirdness in Congress in the House Oversight hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and the so-called controversy over the Twitter files. Matt Taibii may be a clown, but what exactly is the Democrat’s game plan?

NPR profiles far-right group in Florida - National Socialist Florida. The story reveals the group’s organizing tactics and savvy use of social media to spread hate and expand recruiting. 

Pennridge School District is now facing a lawsuit after playing games with the Right-to-Know law and playing hide-and-seek with books the school board wants banned. 

Delaware County lawmaker Mike Zabel, steps down following credible allegations of sexual harassment. 

Gov. Shapiro’s first budget under fire by education advocates who say he failed to adequately address the demand of a recent court ruling that found PA is in violation of its Constitutional obligations to adequately fund all schools. His higher ed proposal is under the rate of inflation which amounts to a cloaked cut.

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/.

 

This week I welcome Rohan Montgomery to the show. We'll be talking about his recent articles in In These Times about revolt against corporate greed in the tabletop role-playing gaming community - specifically Dungeons & Dragons - and labor organizing by anime voice actors. 

Rohan's piece, "Slaying the Gold-Hungry Dragon" reports on the Dungeons & Dragons community epic victory against corporate greed. In "Anime Voice Actors Speak Out: It's Not Kawaii When We Aren't Paid," he dives into organizing fights by anime voice-actors for fair pay and better working conditions. 

Rohan Montgomery is a journalist and fact-checker. His work has appeared in the BBC, The New Republic, and In These Times. 

LINKS:

• Rohan Montgomery, "Slaying the Gold-Hungry Dragon," In These Times | https://bit.ly/3kTyebQ
• Rohan Montgomery, "Anime Actors Speak Out: It's Not Kawaii When We Aren't Paid," In These Times | https://bit.ly/41MPCQc
• Follow Rohan on Twitter @RohanMontroro | https://twitter.com/RohanMontroro

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/.

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

 

This week I welcome Dr. Patricia Roberts-Miller to the show. We'll be talking about her book, Demagoguery and Democracy and her work on the continued threat a culture of demagoguery poses to democracy, equity, and justice. In Demagoguery and Democracy she writes, "Demagoguery isn't about what politicians do; it's about how we, as citizens, argue, reason, and vote. Therefore, reducing how much our culture relies on demagoguery is our problem, and up to us to solve."

Patricia Roberts-Miller, formerly Director of the University Writing Center and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, is a scholar of train wrecks in public deliberation—that is, times that communities made decisions they later regretted, although they had all the information they needed to make better ones.

In addition to Demagoguery and Democracy, she is the author of Speaking of Race: Constructive Conversations About an Explosive Topic (2021), Rhetoric and Demagoguery (2019; finalist Rhetoric Society of America book of the year), Fanatical Schemes: Proslavery Rhetoric and the Tragedy of Consensus (2009), Deliberate Conflict: Composition Classes and Political Spaces (2004), Voices in the Wilderness: The Paradox of the Puritan Public Sphere (1999), and various book chapters and articles.

LINKS

• Get the book, Demagoguery and Democracy, by Patricia Roberts-Miller: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781615196760
• Patricia Roberts-Miller on the web: https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/
• More books by Patricia Roberts-Miller: https://bit.ly/3KK4x7M

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/.

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

 

Welcome to this week's Out d'Coup LIVE. This week I welcome Robyn Underwood to the show. Robyn leads KOFEE - Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence which formed to push back against rising extremism on the Kutztown Area School District. The KASD middle school was planning on reading Alan Gratz's book, Two Degrees as part of their "One Book, One School" program. Two Degrees centers around the lives of four middle-school students struggling to survive disasters brought on by climate change. Right-wing members of the school board and the community didn't want students to read about climate change, so the superintendent canceled the program. We'll talk about the impact of extremism on Kutztown's middle-school and the work of KOFEE to take back their schools.

Robyn Undersood has a BSc and PhD in entomology (study of insects) and specialize in honey bee research. She is the Mom of two kids who have been in the district their whole lives and are now in the high school. Robyn hesitantly began acting as an activist when she saw things she did not like happening at school board meetings. Now she leads KOFEE (Kutztown Organized for Educational Excellence).

LINKS:

• Check out KOFEE's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/KOFEE.kasd
• KOFEE's main webpage: https://www.kofee.info/
• Learn about the canceling of KASD's "One Book, One School" program: https://bit.ly/3kgPtnb
• Will Bunch's article on KASD's canceling of "One Book, One School": https://bit.ly/3Kk3ACR

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/

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

 

According to a new survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution, more than half of Republicans either adhere to or sympathize with Christian nationalism. The survey also found that half of those who believe in Christian nationalism and 40 percent of those who sympathize with it “support the idea of an authoritarian leader in order to keep Christian values in society.” 

In Oklahoma, a judge stripped a lesbian mom’s parental rights to her son and handed them over to her sperm donor. Legal experts are concerned that this case will only exacerbate attacks on marriage equality. 

Kentucky Supreme Court ruled to keep a near-total ban on abortion in place while a lower court deliberates on the constitutionality of the law. The current Kentucky law only allows abortion to save the life of a pregnant person. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the United State is hearing two cases that have challenged Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Writing in Vox, Ian Milhiser makes clear that the student loan forgiveness program is explicitly authorized by the 2022 Heroes Act, but “the Court’s Republican majority is unlikely to care.”

New report shows that we could enter a climate “doom loop” that could “become so overwhelming that they undermine humanity’s capacity to tackle climate change’s root causes.” 

This week’s mass shooting at Michigan State University killed three students and critically injured another 5. That brings the number of mass shootings this year to 71. 

Central Bucks School district has targeted an additional 60 books to consider banning from its libraries. The books targeted for banning are based on a site created by the far-right group Moms for Liberty. 

52 school board directors from 25 Pennsylvania school districts are calling on Central Bucks School District to repeal their recently passed ban against so-called “advocacy activities.” The group of directors condemned Central Bucks school board majority for “fostering intolerance,” “discrimination,” and targeting LGBTQ students for “political purposes.” 

Temple University graduate students strike as university administrators turn to class anti-worker, union-busting tactics. Support TUGSA and the strike here: TUGSA STRIKE https://www.tugsa.org/strike

Sen. John Fetterman voluntarily checked into Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment of clinical depression. Depression is common for stroke survivors. Last week, Fetterman was hospitalized after feeling lightheaded during a Senate retreat.  

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, "The Right has Expanded Its Dark Money Strategy for Dominating School Boards." If we thought we'd get a break from extremism in our school board elections, we were VERY wrong. 

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. 

Follow Alyssa on Twitter @AlyssaAnnBowen

LINKS:

• Alyssa Bowen, "The Right Has Expanded Its Dark Money Strategy for Dominating School Boards," TruthOut | https://bit.ly/3HG4ab1
• Lisa Graves & Alyssa Bowen, "Tax Docs Link Right-Wing 'Parents Group' to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network," TruthOut | https://bit.ly/3RWIIDn

RESOURCES:

• True North Research: https://truenorthresearch.org/
• 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/.

Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u