Podcasts about alabamans

The water is now closed at several popular Florida panhandle beaches off State Road 30A following two reported shark attacks on Friday that resulted in severe injuries to two people. 30A is a popular beach destination for many Alabamans, including the Rick & Bubba crew. We debate getting back into the water. Snake meat is the latest chicken and beef alternative being pushed by the "green" movement. Speaking of pushing meat, a bull gets loose at an Oregon rodeo and runs through the crowd. And in politics, did Joe Biden plagiarize Ronald Reagan during his recent Normandy speech? We actually give Joe a pass on this one.Sponsors:First Cup Coffee Co. is Christian-owned patriot coffee company that stands for Core Values, Family, and Building Community across the Nation. Freshly Roasted Beans delivered in Ground or Whole Bean Texture, Pods, and Bulk with 11 Roast Profiles Available. There is a flavor for every freedom-loving American We don't sell burnt coffee like Starbucks and the others. Shipped within days of being roasted and all subscriptions get free shipping. No Contracts - Cancel at any time. Change your Subscription at any time. Go to https://FirstCup.com and use code “BUBBA” and save an additional 10% on your order and if you subscribe save an additional 10% for the life of your subscription. Shop Blaze Media: If you like what we do around here, and you want a great way to let other people know what you're watching and listening to, you're going to LOVE all the Blaze Media merchandise available at ShopBlazeMedia.com! Everything from the Blaze Heritage and Blaze Media Collections – jackets, tee shirts, hoodies, socks, mugs, candles, flags, and a whole lot more…there's so much there you're going to love! Go to https://ShopBlazeMedia.com today. Check out all the cool stuff available from Blaze Media, and be sure you use the code “BLAZE10” to get 10% off your ENTIRE order!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The water is now closed at several popular Florida panhandle beaches off State Road 30A following two reported shark attacks on Friday that resulted in severe injuries to two people. 30A is a popular beach destination for many Alabamans, including the Rick & Bubba crew. We debate getting back into the water. Snake meat is the latest chicken and beef alternative being pushed by the "green" movement. Speaking of pushing meat, a bull gets loose at an Oregon rodeo and runs through the crowd. And in politics, did Joe Biden plagiarize Ronald Reagan during his recent Normandy speech? We actually give Joe a pass on this one. Sponsors: First Cup Coffee Co. is Christian-owned patriot coffee company that stands for Core Values, Family, and Building Community across the Nation. Freshly Roasted Beans delivered in Ground or Whole Bean Texture, Pods, and Bulk with 11 Roast Profiles Available. There is a flavor for every freedom-loving American We don't sell burnt coffee like Starbucks and the others. Shipped within days of being roasted and all subscriptions get free shipping. No Contracts - Cancel at any time. Change your Subscription at any time. Go to https://FirstCup.com and use code “BUBBA” and save an additional 10% on your order and if you subscribe save an additional 10% for the life of your subscription.  Shop Blaze Media: If you like what we do around here, and you want a great way to let other people know what you're watching and listening to, you're going to LOVE all the Blaze Media merchandise available at ShopBlazeMedia.com! Everything from the Blaze Heritage and Blaze Media Collections – jackets, tee shirts, hoodies, socks, mugs, candles, flags, and a whole lot more…there's so much there you're going to love! Go to https://ShopBlazeMedia.com today. Check out all the cool stuff available from Blaze Media, and be sure you use the code “BLAZE10” to get 10% off your ENTIRE order!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the popular narrative goes, the Civil War was won when courageous Yankees triumphed over the South. But an aspect of the war that has remained little-known for 160 years is the Alabamian Union soldiers who played a decisive role in the Civil War, only to be scrubbed from the history books. One such group was the First Alabama Calvary, formed in 1862. It went on raids that destroyed Confederate communications and also marched with Sherman's forces across the South. They aided the fall of Vicksburg and the burning of Atlanta.Today's guest is Howell Raines, author of “Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta—and Then Got Written Out of History.” As Raines has pieced together, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's decisive effort to burn Atlanta was facilitated by an unsung regiment of 2,066 yeoman farmers and former slaves from Alabama—including at least one member of Raines's own family.So why have the best-known Civil War historians, including Ken Burns and Shelby Foote, given only passing – or no – attention to this regiment of southerners who chose to fight for the North – a regiment that General Sherman hailed as one of the finest in the Union? We explore this question through an account of Alabama's Mountain Unionists and their exploits, along with investigating why they and others like them were excised from the historical record.

Anything going on? Holy Cow. Bill Kurelic and Mark Porter are here as the news flies in fast and furious. Here's what we got for you: * LIVE announcement of another Buckeye sticking around ... joining a number of other key Buckeyes sticking around. Who's left to decide? We discuss. * Matt Guerreri joins Ohio State's staff. Parker Fleming is out. Chatter ensues. * Zahir Mathis committed yesterday. Defensive end recruiting talk on the way. * Nick Saban: He gone. Will Ohio State pilfer the Crimson Tide roster? Possibly. * Quinshun Judkins: He's good. Mark broke down his tape.  All that plus all of the great questions we got from the LIVE chat. Spend 5ish with us this a.m., 'Nutters! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shadiin and Delma open up discussing the cultural relevance of the "Rock at the Dock," The "Fadesgivin' Festivities, " otherwise known as the August 5th "Montgomery Mollywhop," wherein a group of white Alabamans fucked around and found out. They discuss how the role of blood quantum and other western notions of belonging continue to haunt the Pueblo nation Shadiin belongs to and what it means to dive into the work of calling in folks who look just like you but hold VERY different politics.Finally, as our hosts hit the halfway point of the season, they pause to take note of what the season has been and what we hope it'll be moving forward.

Today, we return to once again to the state of Alabama to speak with Stacey Fuller and Kathleen Henderson. If you will recall, Stacey joined Hunter in his conversation with Leah Nelson to discuss the fines and fees that keep Alabamans from accessing a meaningful second chance. At the end of that episode, Stacey mentioned the Felony ID card the state required her always have on her. That conversation plays directly into this one as we examine the other onerous conditions the state of Alabama places on those returning from incarceration. Join Hunter, Kathleen, and Stacey as we wade through the minefield that the formerly incarcerated must navigate to avoid returning to jail.   Guests: Stacey Fuller, Community Outreach Coordinator, Tennessee Kathleen Henderson, Re-Entry Case Manager, Alabama Apple Seed   Resources: Alabama Appleseed https://alabamaappleseed.org/ Alabama Driver's License Bill https://www.al.com/news/2023/05/lawmakers-pass-bill-to-limit-drivers-license-suspensions-for-unpaid-fees.html Alabama Prison Funding https://alabamareflector.com/2023/05/02/alabama-crime-victims-compensation-commission-gets-less-than-it-sought-in-general-fund/ https://www.al.com/news/2023/03/alabama-governor-wants-100-million-of-school-funds-for-prison-construction.html https://www.al.com/news/2023/03/alabamas-billion-dollar-no-bid-prison-disaster-is-only-the-beginning.html   Alabama Trial Penalty https://www.al.com/news/2023/04/whitmire-alabama-lawmakers-trial-tax-bill-will-cost-us.html Alabama Inmate Frozen to Death https://www.cbs42.com/regional/after-release-of-video-lawsuit-claims-alabama-man-froze-to-death-in-police-custody-was-likely-placed-in-jail-freezer/   Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN  

Alabamans urge a grocery tax reduction, a tape shows Trump knew about a classified document on Iran, Pennsylvania puts federal road funds to work and Minnesota's marijuana law will wipe away minor offenses.

Alabamans urge a grocery tax reduction, a tape shows Trump knew about a classified document on Iran, Pennsylvania puts federal road funds to work and Minnesota's marijuana law will wipe away minor offenses.

Alabama's Sec. Of State, Wes Allen promised to withdraw Alabama from ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center) and manage the state's voter data.  Every 60 days people's names, dates of birth, partial social security numbers were sent to a private out-of-state group with no way to check or audit the data ERIC returned to the state.  Alabama voters want paper ballots, which Allen will keep.  Voting machines will never be hooked up to the internet or blue tooth, or have any capability of being connected.  Alabamans want an election day and not an election month.  Allen says Voter ID is an absolute must to guarantee no voter fraud at the polls.  Alabama votes and counts votes at precincts not at a central counting center so that results are known on election night except for very close races.  The result will be transparent, secure elections in Alabama.   GUEST:  WES ALLEN, ALABAMA SECRETARY OF STATE

It's a Rock' n' Rollgiving episode of the God Pod! Satan (fresh from flossing his horns), Psyche (back from changing diapers), and God (who won't do anything for a Klondike bar) get the best news from reviewer Superhappyclam who said, "…the God Pod makes me believe in laughter again."  On the Satan Show! host Satan McGregor battles article paywalls but brings the hot gossip about the Disney Bobs, magic bands, something about tax evasion by people with a tv show, and Lionel Ritchie collabs with someone. The silly gang says what they are thankful for on Therapy with Psyche. And on the God**** News, Alabamans flipping out over Krampus, hilarious Goodreads bible reviews, and Eli Lilly tweet flap makes the CEO question the ridiculously high markup of insulin that's SUPPOSED to be FREE for FFS! Anyway, a little lower down, you can click links, and they'll make you believe in laughter again -- it's in the bible.  The God Pod: Have It Yahweh! After 6000 years of running the universe, God realized that Satan is kicking his butt, like, really bad. Over the centuries and despite lots of trying, God has not been able to smite the forces of evil. So, he started a podcast to do just that. Full of fun and heart, the God Pod is a twice-weekly opportunity for God to hang out with his fellow deities and maybe even meet some interesting humans. NEW EPISODES MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS The God Pod is everywhere! Signup for the God Pod Newsletter: https://god.dailydot.com/newsletter/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/TheGodPod  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thegodpodcast Mastodon: https://universeodon.com/@godpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodgodabove/ Join our Discord server for FREE and hang out with fellow fans of the God Pod:: https://discord.gg/7v3Cc4pjMC Get the God Pod ad-free on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/godpod Find the God pod wherever you get podcasts. thegodpodcast.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR: Give Crescent Canna THC gummies a try or enjoy any of their potent, effective, and legal cannabis products at crescentcanna.com and get 30% OFF with my special discount code: GODPOD. You must be 21 or older to purchase or consume THC products. Age verification at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't think we're very fair to Alabamans. Yeah it's fun to roast them for banging their sisters, because obviously that's super gross. But their only other options are other Alabamans. They're choosing between a turd sandwich and a tampon burrito, and we're really gonna judge them for choosing the turd sandwich? If anything we should pity them. We should have fundraisers and bake sales, we should get creative, start sending them mail order brides or something. They hate illegal immigrants, but maybe this would be a good way to fix that divide. Start shipping them hot Mexican chicks who just hopped over. The Alabamans get to swim in a different gene pool, (or I guess let their swimmers into a different gene pool) the ladies get citizenship. Win win!

Alabamans want to know, is it safe to mow your lawn again? How much hot dog filling is too much? And what the heck is Transient Global Amnesia? Two of the ladies bring it to the table.......apparently, one or both of them 'forgot' it was such a brain teaser. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mary-e-swarts/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mary-e-swarts/support

On Monday's Mark Levin Show, since our founding, freedom of speech remained relatively unchanged until the Supreme Court changed that in the New York Times v. Sullivan case. The problem with allowing entities to besmirch public figures as a part of free speech has created a space for the constant character assassination of political and ideological foes. Therefore, organizations like Media Matters can malign this program and related emails that they suggest participated in a 'coup plot.' As usual they're wrong. Then, President Biden is still pushing critical race theory in schools all over the country. Now in the form of a bill misleadingly named the 'Civics Secures Democracy Act' creates a federal mandate for this curriculum to enhance the teaching of 'racial inequities' and a national test with a new woke vision of history and civics. This national test would usurp the power of local school boards and nationalize neighborhood classrooms. Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow at Ethics and Public Policy Center, warns that the poison pill bill known as the 'Civics Secures Democracy Act' will be passed by unsuspecting Republicans if parents don't intervene right now. Kurtz added that the bill ought to be known as the 'Critical Race Theory Destroys Democracy Act.' Afterward, Congressman Mo Brooks calls with an update on his campaign for the US Senate in Alabama. Mitch McConnell and phony conservative-sounding front group PACs are outspending the real conservative in this race. Brooks has been endorsed by this program, Sean Hannity, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, and Rand Paul and is calling on Alabamans to show up and vote in tomorrow's primary election.        une 20, freedom of speech, 1st amendment, free speech, john eastman, eastman, jan 6, January 6, media matters, alabama, mo brooks, brooks, stanley kurtz, kurtz, crt, economy, inflation, critical race theory, grant, education, john corny, cornyn, Civics Secures Democracy Act, civics, naep, csda, suburbs, homes, school, britt, New York Times, ny times, mitch mcconnel, mcconnell, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two decades ago, an Amtrak line used to run from Louisiana all the way to Orlando, Florida. Hurricane Katrina brought that to a halt, but now officials are discussing ways to restore part of that service, connecting New Orleans to Mobile. Gulf States Newsroom's Stephan Bisaha tells why not everyone is supportive of this new proposal. One Louisiana scientist is touting research that seeks to come up with ways to mimic the health benefits of exercise in some other way. Exercise psychologist and director of the Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine Lab, Chris Axelrod, tells us more about what's being dubbed, “exercise in a pill.” Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Atlanta Braves are in this year's World Series, but their name, imagery and chant face a growing backlash; plus Alabamans are concerned about redistricting.

The Atlanta Braves are in this year's World Series, but their name, imagery and chant face a growing backlash; plus Alabamans are concerned about redistricting.

Norm MacDonald passed away, and so did more Alabamans than were born last year, COVID was the leading line of duty cause of death in law enforcement, and Conway (Ark.) Regional Health System asks employees requesting a religious exemption to prove it. ► COME to a LIVE recording every Monday at 8p CST (♫@730) Follow the link below - RSVP by email, then we send a Zoom link about an hour before the show! https://linktr.ee/fb4tb #FB4tB ► Like & Subscribe! FB4tB YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DwJff4lq7vvOaFnoDkU-A ► Subscribe to the FB4tB podcast HERE: https://bit.ly/3mINXct ► Like FB4tB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FB4TB ► Follow FB4tB on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FB4tB_WasTaken ► Check out another nifty visualizered FB4tB podcast episode here: https://youtu.be/9O9KVHScswU Thank you for listening! #FB4tB, #Comedy, #memes, #Monday night, #podcast, filmed before a Live audience

Drive-By Truckers play music from and talk about their twelfth album, The Unraveling. The band of Alabamans—represented here by Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood—discuss how the political climate shaped the themes of their latest record. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The EU is debating whether funding to protect economies from the ravages of the Corona virus should come from centrally issued Corona Bonds, or from country-specific debt. In short, should Italy and Spain pay the price of their own misfortune and be landed with the bill to pay off for years to come, whilst totally sovereign nations, like the US, simply issue bonds which can be paid for by the central bank and for which the government has no intention of ever repaying. In this edition of Debunking Economics Phil Dobbie asks Prof Steve Keen whether the inflexibility of the Euro at a time like this will mean countries like Italy will no longer want to be part of it. Could this crisis expedite the demise of the Euro, and, perhaps, the EU itself? If so, is that a good thing? This podcast is FREE, but you'll get access to many more, in full, if you become a paying subscriber - either here, or by becoming a supporter of SDteve Keen on Patreon patreon.com/profstevekeen TRANSCRIPT PHIL DOBBIE [00:00:01] If you were Italy right now, or Spain, suffering thousands of deaths from the Corona virus and the EU, that body was there is there to unify Europe, was quibbling about how we should fund that support, wouldn't you be wondering whether EU membership was worth it? In fact, when this is over, and you are possibly riddled with more debt as a consequence from all of this, wouldn't you be thinking what is the point of staying in the EU? And could Italy and Spain and others quickly follow the UK on the back of the way the EU has dealt with the Corona virus? That's today on the Debunking Economics podcast. PHIL DOBBIE [00:00:38] I'm Phil Dobbie and Steve Keen is with me again, of course. The EU is meeting this week to discuss Corona Bonds, which is something Steve talked about weeks ago on this podcast - funding what could be generated through bonds which are bought by the European Central Bank and issued in large volumes to help countries suffering the most, that need the resources basically, to manage their way through this crisis. But some in the ECB, like Germany and the Netherlands, still see the funding coming through loans, just so those southern European countries don't get used to the idea of lots of free money. So they come out of this crisis with more austerity as they try and pay back those loans, just to add to the general sense of misery. Oh, Steve. The joys of the EU. Well, it is a joy for those who who live in the north of the EU anyway, because they don't have to go through all this austerity. STEVE KEEN [00:01:33] Yeah, it's incredible how the ideology can be sustained when reality is slapping it in the face and kicking in the balls. But that's what's going on. Particularly this is this is just particularly Germanic dedication to what's known as ordoliberalism, which is a combination of the sort of extreme libertarian attitude you'll find with a lot of American libertarian Austrian types combined with this Germanic idea that uou've got to enforce it, so that's where the ordo comes from. And they're saying we've got to get right back to austerity as soon as we finish this without thinking, well, if we didn't have austerity maybe we'd have enough beds right now in the hospitals and enough intensive care units to be able to cope, which we don't. PHIL DOBBIE [00:02:16] But Germany is covered, of course. I mean, they've got a it's very sad, but they've got almost 2000 deaths in Germany. But compare that to Italy, where it's over 17000, almost 18000 deaths. So, yeah, I mean, they're in a much better position. STEVE KEEN [00:02:31] Yeah, they've got the capacity to some extent. But having a decent public health system helps. They haven't destroyed that, whereas the Americans didn't have one to begin with. PHIL DOBBIE [00:02:41] And they've got they've got a government surplus (in Germany). So if they need to spend more money, they can dip into it. STEVE KEEN [00:02:47] That has no relevance whatsoever. But yes, I'll let you get away with that one. PHIL DOBBIE [00:02:50] But from from their point of view they're saying, yeah, we've got the government money. We can spend it. STEVE KEEN [00:02:57] Yeah, that's true. That's the reasoning they'll use unfortunately. PHIL DOBBIE [00:02:59] And Italy doesn't have that surplus. So people in the south aren't gonna buy this. When this is all done and dusted once this is all over, people in Greece and in Italy and in Spain and Portugal, they're all going to say, hang on a second, the EU didn't work for us in this occasion. There was no funding coming. We didn't get to make any extra funding. You didn't help out. What? What are we getting for our membership,. STEVE KEEN [00:03:24] Particularly Italy? Yeah. And in Spain, too. I mean, that's the situation with them is absolutely appalling .When the Italians can rely upon the Cubans and the Chinese more than they can upon their own neighbours, the whole idea of European solidarity ain't looking so crash hot. It's not solidarity. They've been locked into a death cult. PHIL DOBBIE [00:03:48] And the euro is the big problem here, isn't it? Because we've got one central bank. The one central bank issues the bonds. They determine if they are going to embark on quantitative easing. If they if they changed the regulations of the EU, which they have loosened, there's nothing to stop the Europeans agreeing that the the central bank will issue a mass of new debt, new bonds, and that will go to funding the crisis in Italy. There's nothing at all to stop that happening. As you say it's just ideology. STEVE KEEN [00:04:23] Yeah. And it's also that it's been set up in such a way that it can't make a decision, unles its a decision to increase austerity. Remember I voted for Britain leaving the EU. At the time I made the arguments in favour of it, not on the point of view of what would benefit Britain, but ultimately, it was an organisation that shouldn't they shouldn't exist given its policies. Somebody said, look, you can't say it's not Democratic. Look at this democratic structure here. The Democrat structure I saw was, first of all, the European Commission, a bunch of economic dominated bureaucrats, tthey draught the laws, not the parliament. The parliament cannot draught laws. The law is sent to the parliament for ratification or objection. And if the parliament votes against the law, it can also be voted for by the 19 finance ministers who meet independently and no records are kept at their meetings. That's why Yanis Varoufakis recent move to release all the recordings he made I think is a brilliant move because it shows us how stupidly and badly they behave. So the whole thing is set up in such a way that, whatever the commission wants to happen will happen. What everybody else wants to happen, you can get it can get ... well, I was only the words starting with F,. PHIL DOBBIE [00:05:38] Stuffed. Let's go to with stuffed. STEVE KEEN [00:05:41] Consequently, there is there is no capacity to make a decision unless it's a decision which supports the direction of the Maastricht Treaty and makes it even more difficult to spend or create government money in even more difficult to rescue people than in the dire circumstances of the Corona virus. So this could be the death knell. What I'd like to see happen is Italy to say, we've had enough, every bank account in Italy is now a Lira account, the new lira is worth one euro, we repudiate its national debts, including the German and French banks, you guys can get stuffed and we're starting our own monetary system again. PHIL DOBBIE [00:06:18] Do you think that will happen? I mean, Greece came so close to it, didn't they? I mean, Yanis was was on the verge of pushing that button, if he could have got support within his within his own government. Do you think Italy will, and if Italy does then obviously, Greece and Spain are not going to be far behind. STEVE KEEN [00:06:34] It's possible. I mean, Italy's got an apalling trajectory in terms of the number of deaths right now.And with the leader of being a populist right wing populist as well, it's a possibility. We actually discussed in a previous podcast, what would shift after this? Would people say we overreacted, but think Italy is one country where peole are going to say, right, this went really  badly and we've got to do something about it, and we're not taking Belgium bullshit anymore.  If weare going to do something Belgium doesn't like anymore, because Belgiumbeing the centre of the EU, then we're going to do it. And so I think there's a possibility that the fracture could come through Italy over the Corona crisis. PHIL DOBBIE [00:07:19] It's interesting when you look back at the foundation of the EU. It really came out of a crisis, that  crisis being that the Second World War. Then we had, the Marshall Plan, and it was America pumping large amounts of money into Germany to industrialize Germany and the concerns from the French that Germany was going to become too dominant, which is why that, early on, France wanted to share a currency to try and avoid the the imbalance. Of course, Germany had all that debt to the US, written off. How quickly they forget. STEVE KEEN [00:07:49] And they also do not let's not forget German debt to Greece, for God's sake, which the Greeks wrote off. So it is remarkable how fast we fail to learn from history. And this will be on the level of the Second World War, by the way. The impact is so great, so rapid, whether it can be avoided or not, whether we could have reacted in a different fashion or not, that doesn't change it. It will be the biggest economic crisis since since the Great Depression and the fastest shut down of productive resources since the Second World. PHIL DOBBIE [00:08:23] So, at the same time, we had all this fear, didn't we, during the Brexit campaign that the EU was going to allow Turkey into the EU? We did allow Hungary into the EU. Janos Ader say now is basically a dictator. He's got full powers. He's enacted no sunset clause on on when that power might end. He's still a member of the EU. So basically dictators are allowed in the EU now. STEVE KEEN [00:08:51] Yeah, well, they always were. The whole idea that its a democratic institution as a joke and the joke is being exposed right now because, what would people want on the ground, they want, for example, they want masks. Now you can't have them. They want ICU units. No you can't have them all. This is democratic, isn't it? PHIL DOBBIE [00:09:09] So it goes one way or the other, doesn't it? It either falls apart or it becomes, which is perhaps more dangerous, it pulls together more. And we've spoken about this before. If the EU acts as one nation, then one nation would not allow the southern part of the country to have such a massive death threat. That would be people like people in London laughing in cocktail bars while people in the north of England died of starvation. You can't allow that to happen. So Europe isn't behaving like one country. It wants to be more integrated, but it's still going to be a series of sovereign nations. And each of those nations is still going to be in it for what they can what they can get out of it. STEVE KEEN [00:09:49] Yeah, that's the trouble. I mean, there's is a certain sense of European commonality, not quite that dire, but nonetheless, the Europeans identify Swiss and Germans and Dutch, et cetera, et cetera, first, then European second. Americans identify as Americans first and Alabamans and Californians and so on, second. So this is thing even Milton Friedman realised was when he wrote in opposition to the formation of the euro in the very first instance, that you don't have the degree of commonality you need. Also, in a very important point, which even again, even Milton Friedman realised this, you don't have a common treasury. Without a common treasury the expenses get passed from one effectively state treasury to another, which are spending constrained. And they resent, therefore, people moving from one state to another because you impose the burden of the wealth in that person on their recipients state. So all these things just argue against the EU and the Euro from the very first outset. And the whole thing about it, is was supposed to strengthen Europe. Well, great. What's fabulous strengthening this has been. This has. First of all, it amplified the impact of the crisis back in 2008. Now its having a debilitating impact upon its capacity to respond to the Corona virus. They'd be better off by separating. And this is the great tragedy of the European Union. PHIL DOBBIE [00:11:05] Well, so will it then? If if Italy says that's it, as you say, we're going we're not going to pay off our debts, so you can get stuffed. So they pull out of the euro, even if they don't pull out of the EU,  and they went back to to the to their own currency, the lira, the that would pretty quickly devalue. They would have a competitive edge against Germany. They could build a manufacturing base to challenge Germany over time and a far healthier future for Italy. So why wouldn't they do it and why wouldn't everyone else follow them? STEVE KEEN [00:11:49]  I can still see people sticking on saying that we've got to maintain the euro. I wish people would learn from these sort of experiences. But again, as I've said in the last podcast, experience has made me rather pessimistic about the capacity of people to learn from experience. However, if the Italians did pull out and did go back to the Lira and could devalue against the euro, then they would lose one of the two main problems have had fromthe euro to begin with, which is, with a lower inflation rate than Germany, necessarily their goods got more expensive over time because they were not able to devalue. Once they can devalue, the difference in inflation rates doesn't matter. And therefore, the competitiveness that Lamborghini and Ferrari and Fiat have lost against Mercedes Benz and BMW would disappear and they could restrengthen their manufacturing sector. So it would be an amazing lesson in how how bad an idea was to form the euro in the first place, to get out of the damn thing and see the economy do quite well. And by the way, if they did actually write off all their debts, it's quite possible they could revalue against the euro and still do well, because they wouldn't be carrying any debts, whereas the rest of the European Union would. PHIL DOBBIE [00:13:01] And they could do that. Can they? STEVE KEEN [00:13:03] Yeh. Plenty of countries have written off their foreign debts in the past and as soon as they do it, people say your currency is going to plunge in value, because the market won't trust you. 30 seconds later, the bond traders absorb the whole experience and they're now buying your currency because you're no longer debt encumbered. PHIL DOBBIE [00:13:21] So what does it do to the banking sector in the in that process, though? STEVE KEEN [00:13:25] Well, again, you've got you've got to be ready at the central bank. There is actually an Italian central bank. Every European country has its own central bank. It just doesn't have a power to issue a currency. Suddenly you've got the power and you can therefore provide as much in the way of assets to the banking sector, so that its liabilities don'texceed the assets and therefore they don't go bankrupt, you can do that instantly. Then they would they would enable the banking sector to continue operating. PHIL DOBBIE [00:13:52] So say Italy and others then say, well, we're going to follow the same path - if that threat is made to the EU, is the EU going to look for a halfway house? Maybe the idea that everyone can have their own independent currencies, their own independent bank, and we just have a common trading currency, like we used to with the ECU. That is stripping back the EU so it becomes more like the common market. You get to that stage, then Britain might say, well, you know what, we don't want to be in the EU, but we might be part of this. STEVE KEEN [00:14:31] The common market was a relatively sensible idea. It gave you a chance to have economies of scale across the whole continent, which was the objective of the European Union in the first instance. The mistake was forming the Euro as well. So, yes, you could be quite effective. And my argument always been, use the euro for international trade, to trade between countries of the European Union, use your own currency domestically. And that the real appeal to the public of the euro, and I've experienced this with the amount of travelling I've done in the European Union, is you follow exactly the same currency - you face no currency loss when you go from Germany to France, Italy to Spain and so on. And that's personally a very attractive advantage of the euro. My argument has been ,let the European Central Bank take over the currency conversion responsibilities. So you give all the private institutions impossible competition. The government bureaucracy converts the currency at exactly the exchange rate. If you have a thousand lira and that's worth two thousand Francs, you walk in with a thousand lire, you walk out with two thousand francs, you suffer zero currency loss going from one country to another. That'd be a central role for also the European Central Bank. And then with that there's no need to have the same currency across the whole of the continent. As a community, you ensure that no individual loses out of the ridiculous mark-ups that these companies make for exchanging currency. PHIL DOBBIE [00:15:59] But you know what? I wonder whether, in fact, that that becomes less of an issue going forward as we have more technology and more competition for that side of the banking sector for foreign exchange, which we're seeing quite a lot of. So you have a you have a card. You don't you don't really care. You go from you go from Germany into Italy. You switch currencies. You've got a vague awareness of what the exchange rate may be. And you've signed up to a bank or a card which is going to give you the best possible exchange rate. Does it really matter? STEVE KEEN [00:16:31] Well, I'm a heavy user of transferwise, for example. An unsponsored advertisement. it's a fabulous service transferwise and it saved me a large amount of money. PHIL DOBBIE [00:16:42] Other ones are available. WorldFirst and OFX. STEVE KEEN [00:16:45]  It's brilliant. They totally undercut the incredible mark-ups and the made in all those foreign to currency changes. I don't really worry about the cost going from one currency to the right anymore. I use the same card everywhere. PHIL DOBBIE [00:16:57]  So the idea of the euro being one unified currency to make it easy as you move around and as you trade. I'm just wondering whether that selling proposition is rapidly disappearing, so one of the key reasons for the euro, perhaps as is not such a key reason anymore. STEVE KEEN [00:17:13] Which it was a key reason back in 2000, maybe, or 1999, obviously.  But you're right, now that that's there's the technology and the fact that is an enormous financial incentive there for people to move into that particular space, that's a classic case of capitalism innovating to take advantage of a large discontinuity in the economy. PHIL DOBBIE [00:17:31] So if was to happen, if the euro did disappear, could the EU survive without it? And what form would that take, do you think? STEVE KEEN [00:17:37] Well, to go back to being a common market, that's all we need it to be. A common market, and you'd have a forum resolve disputes between states. And it should be one where where the states have representatives, the Italian, the French, the German, etc, governments coming together just to have conversations, not having idea of a bloody parliament, which itself is a farce. The parliament, as I said before, only decide to do what the European Commission tells it to do. Nothing like a democracy. The whole idea of the European Union, from the ordinary Europeans point of view is to end the old internecine warfare of the European continent. But from the point of view of the bureaucrats, who is it getting people out of the way and let the bureaucrats run everything. Because obviously with democracy that gave us fascism. PHIL DOBBIE [00:18:23] But it also gave us Donald Trump. STEVE KEEN [00:18:27] So, you know, I'm not saying democracy is perfect by any stretch. And I want to get rid of it and replace it with a set of skilled individuals who don't want to do the job, who are system dynamic specialists and united by intelligent software. That's what we really need to run the complex system of the world we're in these days rather than the popularity contest of standard democracy. PHIL DOBBIE [00:18:46] Right. Okay.  Are you going to be the head of that government as well? I mean, you. STEVE KEEN [00:18:51] So please, please, please. PHIL DOBBIE [00:18:57] Herr Keen. My arms in the air, as I talk to you,. STEVE KEEN [00:18:59] I'm tickling your underarms. PHIL DOBBIE [00:19:02] I'm loving it. STEVE KEEN [00:19:09] Let's let's let's listen to a podcast on that particular issue - democracy versus versus systemic governance. That's that's an important point later on. PHIL DOBBIE [00:19:18] Gee. All right. So back to the EU, though. I mean, what we're describing then, really is that it's a common market. There has to be agreement on standards. Do you do governments then say, well, we're gonna have this common common market, we need to make sure you're not subsidizing your products and dumping products on our market because you've given so much state subsidy. I guess you still need regulations like that, don't you?  So that you've got a level playing field. STEVE KEEN [00:19:50] You know, some sort of commonality. It's common market, it has to have common regulations. So that's okay. It's the imposition of the budgetary noose of the Maastricht Treaty and the inability of any decision to be reached that isn't something the European Commission wants. It's having bureaucrats,  who are mainly trained economists and that's the bloody problem. Trained engineers would be a damn sight better. PHIL DOBBIE [00:20:18] Right. But a lot of it is just finding commonality of a level playing field for competition isn't it? so setting setting standards. I mean you're not going to do that by parliament. Someone's got to establish what their standards are going to be. STEVE KEEN [00:20:30] Equally, at the same point, there's also one thing I hope we learn out of this crisis, is that the whole year of a globalised integrated economy is a mistake at a biological level. You need to have regionalized economies. I've been arguing for a long time that we need a biological approach to economics in general, and that would never have had us having globalised production systems, because globalised production systems are great for pathogens. They are not fabulous with humans. So I hope we learned that lesson that we don't go back to the obsession about bigger and bigger trading blocks, and more and more free trade, and more and more transportation around the planet, etc, etc. More and more consumption of oil. PHIL DOBBIE [00:21:08] But that is a good reason for making sure that the trade within the EU continues then isn't it? So that the UK is not shipping a whole load of stuff across the ocean from the US or from South America or from China. We are better off eating fruit, for example, that comes from the south of Europe STEVE KEEN [00:21:29] Exactly. You try to divine a regional trading bloc. I'm not my actual principle here is what's called the von Neumann machine. Had ever heard of that one? PHIL DOBBIE [00:21:36] I think I had one but I couldn't work the instructions. STEVE KEEN [00:21:39] No, you didn't. A von Neumann machine is a machine, that can make other machines and also make itself. One of the most brilliant men of all time, von Neumann, came up with the concept of this. He said humanity needs to create a machine which is capable of making all of the other machines needed, as well as reproducing itself. And then you'd send that inter outer space and you could colonize the entire galaxy. But the idea, we should think in terms of creating regions of the planet, which are von Neumann machines, meaning they create everything they need as well being able to reproduce themselves over time. So you say, what scale do we need for this region to be self-contained and have multiple self-contained regions lik,e that which don't need to trade with others. You don't go for this obsession with a globalised approach because that works in favour of the pathogens, that works in favour of humans overloading the planet, completely ignoring the other species, and then we get the biological venereal disease coming back at us. PHIL DOBBIE [00:22:43] But I mean, all the more reason for the EU to, in some form, even if it is just a common market working to common standards, but everybody has their own central bank, they determine the way they operate, how much they borrow, how much that their debt to GDP ratio is they are that totally independent sovereign nations, but they have a common agreement on what they're going to sell and the standards between them. That's gotta be the utopia, hasn't it? Because it does create that trading bloc that the EU could then say, well, we really don't need anyone else. STEVE KEEN [00:23:19] To reach that Utopia we've had to go through a dyspotian experience was necessary. But, yes, treating it as a regional production system, intending to achieve overall self-sufficiency across all the products that are necessary to sustain a decent high human society and a decent environment, not just for ourselves, but for the other species on the planet. That's the way we should be thinking in the future. PHIL DOBBIE [00:23:46] Is that going to happen, though? Will the EU survive the way it is? Could, for example, if Italy say we want out of the euro, but we'll stay in the EU,  to which that the payoff would be you can't write off all your debt, you don't have to pay it up back after off over over 20 years. You're gonna have to live in austerity and and perhaps more people will die from malnutrition than died from from the virus as you attempt to pay all this back. That seems more likely than Italy pulling out totally and the EU collapsing, doesn't it, sadly? STEVE KEEN [00:24:21] Yeah. I mean, the thing is, though, lets remember there have been other Pan European and pan global organisations which have disappeared. For example, what's the most recent announcement of the League of Nations? PHIL DOBBIE [00:24:33] Yeah, they have been very quiet lately, haven't they? STEVE KEEN [00:24:36] Died about 80 years ago. It was killed by the First World War. So these organisations have failed in the past. And I can think of no better organisation to fail than the European Union. PHIL DOBBIE [00:24:49]  But we don't. But we don't want it to disappear and then just have a series of independent nations do we? STEVE KEEN [00:24:58]  Yanis Varoufakis has finally come around to saying he reckoned the British did the right thing for the wrong reasons when leaving the European Union. It's very hard to expect somebody to who's you whose entire life has been around trying to globalise everything and trying to minimise trade barriers, and letting competition rip and ignoring sustainability while pushing efficiency, it's very hard to have a person suddenly flip over to a biological way of thinking. You have simply got the wrong people in there and getting rid of them is impossible in a bureaucracy. So. It may be that it has to fail to be replaced by something more sensible. PHIL DOBBIE [00:25:41] I wonder what would replace it. Could we in fact get a group of countries like perhaps France, maybe we'll include Germany, the UK and Ireland and Spain and Greece saying, well, okay, let's if that's all fallen apart, but we need to trade with each other because we've got so much trade across all on across our borders, so let's at least agree some standards and let's form the new EU. STEVE KEEN [00:26:03] That's definitely what happens, I think. And the emphasis has to be on the ecological and social sustainability of the society, not this obsession with competition and efficiency. So it could happen, but I certainly can't see the bureaucrats in Brussels being the ones who lead the charge. PHIL DOBBIE [00:26:20] And how quickly is it going to fall apart? Then, do you reckon? Is that going to be after this, after over this virus, the second half of this year, is this gonna be the big story? STEVE KEEN [00:26:28] No, again, because of my cynicism about people's capacity to learn from experience. I think we'll go through this, there will be in aftermath. We will continue on and then something else will hit us. I mean, 2020 has been a one and a dog of the year. We had the fires in Australia and the floods in Australia, then the locust plagues in Africa, which we've stopped talking about but is probably still happening, now the Corona virus. We're only one third of the way into the year. What the hell's going to come along next? PHIL DOBBIE [00:27:00] Well, we've got a lot more of this to go havcen't we? I think this is going to keep us going for the rest of the year. But the idea that this will be almost swept under the carpet, and its oging to take something else to disturb the EU, I wonder if that's the case, because, look, it's over 17000 deaths now in Italy, less than 2000 in Germany and 14000 in Spain. There's such a huge difference, a huge disparity, between nations. And surely people are going to be looking at that and saying, how did we allow this to happen? I mean, we're talking about the price on human life. Surely there's going to be some recompense from all of this. STEVE KEEN [00:27:36] Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, just looking at the doubling rate, by the way, for Germany is not looking as healthy as a doubling rate for Spain right now, strangely enough. So maybe, maybe there'll be a price to pay in the future. PHIL DOBBIE [00:27:52] And that's the bad news, because if Germany gets hit as much as everybody else, then that argument that there's a disparity on this disappears. To which the conclusion will be in Germany and from the powers behind the EU, that that was a crisis that we all faced, we all paid the price for it, now, let's carry on as normal. STEVE KEEN [00:28:14] This was a crisis nobody expected except anybody who'd read Laurie Garrett's 'The Coming Plague.'  And these are people who've been completely sidelined with the redesign of society. These are epidemiologists, the specialists in humans as a biological species, not humans as the dominant economic force on the planet. They're the ones who saw this coming. They've been sidelined. The one thing I hope to happen is, is that we pay much less attention to bloodyeconomists and a damn sight more to epidemiologists, engineers, physicists and atmospheric scientists. They're the people we need to listen to, not bloody economists. The EU was built by economists. That's one of the best reasons to get rid of it. PHIL DOBBIE [00:28:55] We should leave it there. But one final question is, I mean, a lot of it does relate to the acceptance of debt, doesn't it? That's the core of all of this. So German debt to GDP is 60 or 70 percent government debt versus 200 percent in Japan.  The US is shooting up there as well. Greece, I think, is less than 200 percent. Italy is relatively low. If you ijust said, well, okay, let's accept 200 percent as acceptable. Then you would have allowed a massive increase in spending. STEVE KEEN [00:29:28] Yeah. Government deb is not the problem. We've had many talks on this issue in terms of the financial issues as well, but the whole obsession with government debt has always been wrong. It's always come out of neoclassical economics and applying a household analogy to an overall economy. It's the private debt that matters. That's what's caused all the dilemmas. That's what has led to the boom beforehand and the bust as well. Hopefully, some of that understanding will get through during this crisis as well. PHIL DOBBIE [00:30:00] Right. So if the EU survive, but they accepted that point, could it could it survive and do good rather than be evil. If it if it accepted the fact that we should allow countries to run much heavier debt. STEVE KEEN [00:30:14] Potentially, but again, that means countries would have divergent inflation rates. The euro should not survive. That's the one thing, the euro should not survive. The European Union potentially could survive,  if it if it learns from this crisis and fundamentally changes its direction. But that's like expecting a Ptolemaic astronomer to suddenly understand Copernicus and stop drawing epicycles and start thinking about ellipsis centred on the sun. People's minds a rereshaped by the belief systems they have, and that reshaping means they are simply incapable, their neurones are wired their own way. It is it is not possible for someone to change the neurological wiring as fast as it is for a new person to come along with a fairly open neural network and relearn these issues. So in many ways we just got to retire the people who currently run the European Union. If we could keep the buildings and send the people off to retirement homes, we might get somewhere. PHIL DOBBIE [00:31:14] Generational change is what you're talking about, isn't it? And they're all looking pretty old. Time to shuffle on and do your next thing. Good to talk Steve.  PHIL DOBBIE [00:31:25] And talking about neoclassical economics, we are going to look at Adam Smith next time. Is there anything good that came out of Adam Smith's work? Anything that we can take and say, well, that was all right. We'll look at that next time on the Debunking Economics podcast with Professor Steve Keen. I'm Phil Dobbie. See you then.

Not everyone can claim that they were born in Purgatory, but Andrew Tozier could, on February 11, 1838. Purgatory is a town near the Monmouth-Litchfield line in central Maine and is neither a heaven or a hell - like most towns, just somewhere in between. But during his life, Andrew Tozier would see more than his fair share of the landscape bordering Hell, even if it was all man-made. In fact, he would become one of the most interesting and least noted figures of the American Civil War. Tozier's family moved from Purgatory to the Plymouth, Maine area in 1848 when he was a mere ten years old. His father, was an abusive alcoholic who wrought his anger upon his children. We do not know exactly at what age Andrew ran away from home, but it is likely he was quite young. The fifth of seven children, his absence meant one less mouth to feed at the Tozier homestead, but it also meant that young Andrew was now penniless, and on his own in a largely agrarian state, with no real prospects and no plan for the future. In that, he wasn't alone. In the 1850s before the advent of the American Civil War, there were large numbers of ‘homeless' men moving from place to place in search of work, food, and warmth in the winter. Tozier likely took a common route - he may have made his way to the coast and became a sailor. He may have been a day laborer or worked from season to season, depending on the harvest. He may have found work in the lumber trade. Whatever he did, he was surely uneducated beyond a basic grammar school experience and he was certainly a wanderer, growing up rather quickly on his own, away from any home. We do know that he reconnected with the Tozier clan in 1861 when he returned to their Plymouth home. Lincoln had called the banners and it was time for twenty-seven year old Andrew Tozier to settle into a trade, of sorts. He signed up to fight for the Union, enlisting in Company F of the 2nd Maine Infantry. In those days, local groups of men could form units and fight together within the larger companies in the army.So it was in Maine, like it was everywhere else. Andrew would have received the basic training and drill that any of the soldiers of the newly formed Army would have received. In the early days of the war, the number of battles were few and far between, but the 2nd Maine saw action in one of the early ones. Andrew Tozier was in the thick of the Battle of Gaines Mill, also known as the Battle of Chickahominy River. In Hanover County, Virginia, on June 27,1862, General Lee made the largest advance of the confederate side thus far in the war, pushing the Union troops back over the Chickahominy River in retreat. Tozier was wounded in the battle almost a year to his date of enlistment, losing his middle finger to a minie ball, breaking one rib, and receiving what must have been a lifelong ailment for him - a bullet in his left ankle that went in but never came out. Captured as a prisoner of war by the South, he recuperated in two different Confederate prisons in Richmond. He was used to hard living and managed to heal while incarcerated. He was eventually paroled and allowed to return to the north, this time with Company I of the 20th Maine. In the early part of the war, nearly every soldier was inexperienced. A soldier like Tozier, already wounded, imprisoned, battle-scarred and now back to fight again, would likely have had some gravitas with the newer recruits as someone with at least a modicum of knowledge of how to fight.His experience in battle, brief though it was, set him apart from the rest of the men. It must have been an odd thing for him to experience - the respect and admiration of other soldiers for an ill-educated rambler from central Maine. The whole unit was a little like him -it was made up of men from other units, leftovers, remnants and the odd new recruit. That's how Tozier got in to the 20th Maine. Their leader was a scholar, an unlikely military strategist who knew his martial training from reading ancient texts in Greek and Latin. Andrew Tozier didn't know Joshua Chmaberlain, not then. He was his commander and that was all he needed to know. Like all of the men in the 20th Maine, he knew how to work, how to walk, how to make do. It was something that had kept him going when everything seemed like it was going against him. He had been wounded and captured, but here he was, back in the midst of the action. Events would conspiure so that in less than a month when another soldier's drunkenness reared its ugly head, it gave him the opportunity that changed his life forever. To be a bearer of the colors for a unit was an honor among the soldiers of the day. It was generally believed by the soldiers than the man bearing the colors was the bravest of them all. He was in the front. He was bold. A color bearer led the men into battle and gave the soldiers a focal point on the field when the fighting started and the fog of battle descended on them. A soldier looked to the color bearer and followed him - no other real communication was possible on the field once the guns began to fire. Hiram Maxim, another Mainer from Sangerville, had not yet invented smokeless gunpowder and in the heat of any Civil War battle, soldiers were often limited to being able to see only a few feet in front of themselves. The color bearer might be the only sight recognized in that field, once the bullets began to fly. Sergeant Charles Proctor was the color bearer for the 20th Maine as it marched towards Gettysburg. Imbibing too much liquor one night, Proctor became so riled up and intoxicated that he began to cuss out the officers of the regiment. Acknowledging that he was not in his right mind because of drink, the officers limited their response to him by taking the colors away from him, one of the greatest of insults one could give to a soldier. There was no time to let him sober up as they marched onward to battle. Three recruits in the rear tried to frog-walk him for awhile as they moved towards Gettysburg, but they found it impossible to keep up. He was eventually left there on the side of the road and was officially listed as A.W.O.L. Proctor had been the senior enlisted man in the unit prior to this, and the colors would now be given to the next most experienced man in the 20th Maine, which was...Andrew Tozier. Marching at night, in the rain and through the mud, Andrew led the men of the 20th Maine through the dismal Maryland countryside. He had been in the 20th Maine less than a month and was now in charge of her colors. He would take this task more seriously, perhaps, than any other task in his life. By the time they had made it to Unions Mills, they had marched nonstop and covered 25 miles of hard slogging. They were now only four miles from Pennsylvania. In another day they would make it to Hanover and then, finally to a little place called Gettysburg and a hill known as Little Round Top. The significance of the Union winning the Battle of Gettysburg is that it became the turning point of the war. It was decisive because there was no guarantee that the strategy and prowess of General Lee would ever fail. The South had won battle after battle with fewer men and fewer supplies. Up to this point in the Civil War, it was not at all clear if the North could eventually muster the kind of willpower, strategy and tenacity to take on Lee and his generals and gain the kind of ground needed to take back the South. The Battle of Gettysburg became the pivot around which the war turned, and a small Company from the northern state of Maine would be given a task that, if they failed, would have given the south its biggest victory yet and all but spell the end of the war within months, in favor of the Confederacy. Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and his 386 infantrymen found themselves running desperately low on ammunition. The 20th Maine had been given the task of holding the left flank of the Army's line. The 16th Michigan held the right flank and the men from New York and Pennsylvania held the center. Earlier in the day, Chamberlain's commander, Colonel Vincent, had told him that the thin line that the Maine men held was the left of the Uinion army's line. “You are to hold this line at all costs!” he told Chamberlain and Chamberlain took him at his word. Earlier, 44 of his men from Company B were cut off by the enemy's flanking maneuver, leaving only 314 men from Maine to hold the main line. Early in the day, over 800 Texans under General Hood began their assualt on Little Round Top. Later, the 15th and 47th of Alabama began to hammer into the Maine line. The Maine men held the high ground, but they were vastly outnumbered and their supply of ammunition was running dangerously low. There was little hope of holding this hill for long. Something had to happen. Something had to change. There are times in battle when something unlikely happens, something unexpected and so unusual that it can change the course of events for everyone involved, stirring people to action they might not otherwise take. At such moments, it is all one can do not to simply stop and wonder, to gaze upon something so unlikely, so perfect. Things were looking bad for the 20th Maine. The Alabamans were moving up the hill and the Maine men had run out of ammunition. Company B was still nowhere to be seen and Colonel Joshua Chamberlain surveyed the scene at this terrible moment, only to see something that stirred his courage into even more action and caused him to make a decision that would alter the course of the battle, the war, and the fate of his country. As he stood there, his sword drawn, he observed for a long moment the state of his color guard. All were gone, either killed or wounded, with the exception of one man - Andrew Tozier. While all possibility of snatching a victory out of the jaws of defeat seemed lost, there was one man who seemed unfazed by the carnage and confusion around him - Andrew Tozier. With the colors still flying, held in the crook of one arm and steadied against his body, he stood fast, methodically and cooly loading and then firing a borrowed musket. Later, Colonel Chamberlain would put his memory to pen. He wrote: “I first thought some optical illusion imposed upon me. But as forms emerged from the drifting smoke, the truth came into view...in the center, wreathed in battle smoke, stood the Color-Sergeant, Andrew Tozier. His color-staff planted in the ground by his side, the upper part clasped in his elbow,so holding the flag upright, with musket and cartridges seized from the fallen comrade at his side he was defending his sacred trust in the manner of the songs of chivalry.” At that precise moment, is it reckoned, a total of over forty thousand bullets had been fired by combatants in the fray. With so many bullets, nearly everyone should have been hit in some way, either mortally or incidentally. Chamberlain remained unharmed. The Alabama men still lingered at the bottom of the hill. The Maine men still held it. But Chamberlain knew if the southerners rallied, the Maine men could not take another onslaught. Spurred on by Andrew Tozier's impossible coolness in battle, Chamberlain placed himself behind Tozier and ordered a right wheel maneuver. Some say he shouted ‘Bayonets' but it little mattered. They were out of ammunition anyway and if they were to move forward and down the hill, all they had were bayonets. Andrew Tozier led them down. The outcome of that battle remains one of the most decisive in American Military history. The south did not take the high ground. The left flank held. Because of this, the course of the war shifted in the North's favor. But there was something almost unworldly about Chamberlain and his fellow mainer, Andrew Tozier, at the Battle of Little Round Top. Chamberlain had been in plain sight to the enemy - he was a classical leader, a fighter, visible to all. Twice an Alabama soldier had taken aim against him and twice the soldier, inspired perhaps by Chmaberlain's bravery and boldness, decided against pulling the trigger. In another close call, a Southern officer's pistol misfired only feet from Chamberlain's face. By all acounts, he should not have survived that battle. And then there was Tozier. He stood his ground, against all odds, inspiring his own Colonel and all who saw him. That inspiration caused the sagging middle of the regiment to bolster - if they had not seen Tozier calmly firing, loading, and firing again as he held the flag slightly askew, there is little doubt that the Alabama men would have taken the hill. His courage gave Chamberlain the chance to order an unlikely attack that drove the confederates flying. It is fair to say that without Tozier, Chamberlain would not have held that hill. Andrew Tozier, son of an alcoholic, a drifter, with no place to call his home. After the battle Tozier was offered a field promotion by Chamberlain but he asked his Colonel to withdraw it. He had more in common, it can be assumed, with the common soldiers than he did with officers. He remained in action until May of 1864 at The Battle of North Anna, where he received a wound in the left temple. Months passed before surgeons removed as many of the fragments as they could, but there would always be pieces of the minie ball in his cranium. He was not unaffected by the wound, either. Dizziness, headaches and tinnitus remained for the rest of his life. Perhaps something else happened as a result of that wound, something that changed not only his health, but his perspective, his behavior, his future. In 1864, his term ended, and Andrew Tozier returned to Maine. He got married and became the proud father of a son. We aren''t sure what he did before the war, but we know that in 1865, Andrew Tozier, hero of the Battle of Little Round Top, began a life of crime. Along with his half-brother, Lewis Cushman, he began to steal cattle, clothing and sundry other items. He did not act with honor or courage. He did not step forward bravely. He stole. He lied. He cheated. In 1869, the law finally caught up with him and he was implicated in a heist at the clothing store in East Livermore. He was sentenced to five years hard labor at the Maine State Prison in Thomaston. It can be rightly assumed that Andrew Tozier probably suffered from what we would today call PTSD - post-traumatic-stress-syndrome. His head injury alone may have accounted for his behavior after his enlistment was done. But just after he was given his cell in the prison, he received a full pardon by the Governor of the State of Maine - none other than Joshua Chamberlain, his former commander. One might think that this was a kind of honor payment, a thank you for what had happened on the sweltering day in July in Pennsylvania, but Chamberlain was better than that. He asked Tozier to move in with him and his family and he promised Tozier that he would help him change the course of his life. He taught Andrew how to read and write and gave him the kind of attention few men would have received from their former commander. A convicted felon and his wife moved in and lived with the Governor of the State and his family. In the fullness of time, Tozier's wife gave birth to a daughter and they named her Gracie, after the Governor's teenage daughter. By all accounts, Andrew Tozier was lucky to have such a friend as Joshua Chamberlain. Eventually Tozier moved out and took up the straight and narrow, never again to turn to a life of crime. His health continued to falter and he found himself working odd jobs, enduring the pain of his many wounds from the war. He moved back to the area he was born and settled down to the life of a small farm - vegetables, milk, and a job in a broom factory. He had started out in Purgatory, left, took a detour into the hell that was war, and then was saved by Chamberlain, only to move back to the area of Purgatory, where it all began. In 1890, Chamberlain wrote to the War Department, suggesting that Tozier be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on Little Round Top in 1863. Eight years later, the award was given. It arrived in the mail at Tozier's door. The citation read, “At the crisis of the engagement this soldier, a color bearer, stood alone in an advanced position, the regiment having been borne back, and defended his colors with musket and ammunition picked up at his feet.” In this letter to the War Department, the Grand Old Man of Maine wrote, “He was an example of all that was excellent in a soldier” and is “one of the bravest and most deserving men. The war took the lives of so many men. But it is safe to say that it made some men, too. Joshua Chamberlain was such a man - before the war he was a professor of languages of Bowdoin, a self-made man who taught himself Latin and Greek by shutting himself up in a garret until he understood them. He lied to get out of his teaching contract so he could join the army. He was the hero of the Battle of Little Round Top. He accepted Lee's sword at Appomatix. He became the Governor of Maine. He became President of Bowdoin. Andrew Tozier was made by that war, as well. Before the war, he was no one in particular, one of the many with no real place to call home. But after the war, he became a wanted man, a criminal on a spree that lasted years before he was caught and sentenced, then pardoned and cared for by his old commander who so fondly recalled that one moment in all of his life (that we know of) when Andrew Tozier decided to stand fast and hold his ground, against all odds. That one act changed the course of history - not just his own, but ours, as well. A single act of courage in an otherwise unremarkable life, except for that time after the war, when he lived the life of a common criminal. Not many American realize that the actions of this one man turned the events of the Civil War in the North's favor. One man and a single show of outrageous courage set into action a chain of events at led to the inevitable conclusion of the south's surrender. One has to wonder, did he even realize what he had done for his nation? The bravery of Tozier has been immortalized in a song by the Ghosts of Paul Revere that has been officially recognized by the state legislature as Maine's official state ballad. It is told from the point of view of none other than Andrew Tozier,child of an alcoholic, drifter,common soldier and color-beaer, small time farmer and broom-maker, convicted criminal and Medal of Honor winner. He died on March 28, 1910. He was 72 years old. SOURCES Christian, James A."Sgt. Andrew J. Tozier, Medal of Honor Recipient of the Twentieth Maine". Gettysburg Magazine. University of Nebraska Press. Number 54. January, 2016. pp. 81-90. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/605540/pdf https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3604/andrew-j_-tozier "Andrew Jackson Tozier," Litchfield Historical Society. http://www.historicalsocietyoflitchfieldmaine.org/AndrewJacksonTozier.htm "Andrew J. Tozier." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_J._Tozier Desjardin, Thomas (1995). Stand Firm Ye Boys From Maine. 2009. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195382310. https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Firm-Boys-Maine-Gettysburg/dp/0195382315/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=9780195382310&qid=1566070875&s=gateway&sr=8-1

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Metro Shrimp & Grits Thursdays!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, California Representative Barbara Lee slams Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over Trump's $30 million military parade, that would fund SNAP for 24,000 people for a year.Then, on the rest of the menu, a Russian citizen gets 12 years in a US prison for his role in a wide-ranging hacking scheme; Alabama law enforcement wants to profit from people who are not convicted of a crime; and, serious questions arise in determining who is behind the forged letter targeting Maxine Waters.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table to consider the statement by the son of renowned Iranian-Canadian environmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami, that his family has been threatened by authorities after his father turned up dead in an Iranian prison cell; and, white Alabamans tried to secede from their school district, because it had too many black kids.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.Bon Appetit!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Metro Shrimp & Grits Thursdays!Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, California Representative Barbara Lee slams Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over Trump's $30 million military parade, that would fund SNAP for 24,000 people for a year.Then, on the rest of the menu, a Russian citizen gets 12 years in a US prison for his role in a wide-ranging hacking scheme; Alabama law enforcement wants to profit from people who are not convicted of a crime; and, serious questions arise in determining who is behind the forged letter targeting Maxine Waters.After the break, we move to the Chef's Table to consider the statement by the son of renowned Iranian-Canadian environmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami, that his family has been threatened by authorities after his father turned up dead in an Iranian prison cell; and, white Alabamans tried to secede from their school district, because it had too many black kids.All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.Bon Appetit!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Everyone in this good city enjoys the full right to pursue his own inclinations in all reasonable and, unreasonable ways.” -- The Daily PicayuneNew Orleans, March 5, 1851~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/15/1741494/-West-Coast-Cookbook-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Metro-Shrimp-Grits-Thursdays

In this episode Jeff looks at yesterday's victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama. It is a vivid show of integral stage theory and represents the waning of the state's Old Testament and Old Confederacy identity, as more Alabamans resonate with modern values that demand respect for minorities and women. Though the election was state-wide the implications are national — and ominous for President Trump. As the Wall Street Journal writes, “The GOP voters who ignored Mr. Trump and rejected Mr. Moore also want a President who acts presidential.” Jeff starts the episode by checking in on Puerto Rico, as political and business forces align to create a state-of-the-art, low-carbon power grid.

The Thomas Fire is out of control, update on the New York bombing and Roy Moore wants non-Alabamans to keep their noses out of his election.

Eyes Wide Open: DemBlogTalk Tune in every Tuesday Night at 8:30pm CST for the best political talk and visit DemBlogNews.com for the best political Blog Online! Tonight's Guest: Sterling Morris a patriotic American and Texan who has thrown his hat in the ring to run for office!  He hopes to be elected Collin County Democratic Party Chair! Tonight's Topics: -The latest revelations in the sexual misconduct and assault accusations against Roy Moore, the Evangelicals who, upon learning that indeed it has always been "common knowledge" that then thirtysomething Assistant D.A. 30something Roy Moore had a well known habit of trolling the mall and high school football games prowling for young girls, have responded by doubling down on Moore, and Alabamans who say they will absolutely vote for Moore because "even if he is guilty it is still better than voting for a democrat!"  -More RUSSIAN COLLUSION! Don Jr. was in contact and seeming to facilitate coordination between the campaign and Wikileaks on disseminating the information from the STOLEN DNC and Clinton campaign emails! But of course, what we are supposed to recognize as the "real story" in all of this is that clearly the facts point to the Clinton campaign colluding with Russia to tamper with the 2016 election, so.....there ya have it?  -And we will also discuss the latest shiny object in Trumpland, the DOD is now "looking into the possibility of appointing a Special Counsel to investigate the (TOTALLY BOGUS AND THOROUGHLY DEBUNKED) Uranium One/Clinton Foundation ties."  We can not facepalm with nearly enough force on this one!

DUSTIN' OFF THE DEGREE - Heresy and Schism NEWS Christian nationalist protests in Poland http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/12/europe/poland-warsaw-nationalist-march/index.html God's Army patrolling streets in North Phoenix http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/security-or-vigilantism-gods-army-patrolling-the-streets-of-north-phoenix Roy Moore tried to seduce teenage girls in his 30s https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/woman-says-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-when-she-was-14-he-was-32/2017/11/09/1f495878-c293-11e7-afe9-4f60b5a6c4a0_story.html 29% of Alabamans are now even more likely to vote for Moore because of the allegations http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/360010-poll-37-percent-of-alabama-evangelicals-more-likely-to-vote-for-moore-after Alabama state auditor cities the bible as evidence that Moore didn't do anything wrong http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alabama-state-auditor-defends-roy-moore-against-sexual-allegations-invokes-mary-and-joseph/article/2640217 Salem-Keizer School District informed staff they they need to inform the police if any students are sexually active https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/11/03/sexually-active-students-must-be-reported-to-law-enforcement-or-state-officials-ore-school-district-says/ House has taken the attack on the Johnson amendment a step further https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-house-republicans-assault-on-the-johnson-amendment-just-got-a-lot-worse Congressman Huffman has come out as a non-believer https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/congressman-jared-huffman-comes-out-as-a-non-believer-and-rips-trumps-phony-religious-pandering/ Trans-woman defeated the author of Virginia's trans bathroom bill in last week's election http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/danica-roem-transgender-virgina-house-state-win-bob-marshall-bathrooms-bill-anti-trans-lgbt-rights-a8043466.html This episode is brought to you by: Dark Matter Sponsor – >US$35.00 * Travis Megee Nuclear Sponsor – US$20.00 – US$35.00 per month * Mike Platinum Sponsor – US$8.00 – US$19.00 per month * Darryl Goossen * Kim * Danielle Gold Sponsor – US$4.00 – US$7.00 per month * Rachel * John * Josh * Rob * Alfred * Henry * Alex * Mike * The Flying Skeptic Bronze Sponsor – < US$4.00 per month * George * Frank * Revan * Archway Hosting provides full featured web hosting for a fraction of the cost of traditional shared hosting. You get all the benefits of shared hosting, without the sticker shock or extra fees. Check them out at archwayhosting.com. You can find us online at www.atheistnomads.com, follow us on Twitter @AtheistNomads, like us on Facebook, email us at contact@atheistnomads.com, and leave us a voice mail message at (541) 203-0666. Theme music is provided by Sturdy Fred. DOWNLOAD EPISODE

Share this Bible Study for Atheists, in which FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb looks at the controversy over Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. A self-proclaimed man of God whose behavior seems like blasphemy. How is it that the most religious part of America is also home to the most blasphemers? And Alabama really is the most religious state in the country, According to a 2016 survey by Pew research Alabama ranked first in the nation for religiosity. 82% of its people say they believe with “absolute certainty” in God, nearly tHree quarters of Alabamans say they pray to him every day. Yet, many in that state are still lining up to support a man who acknowledges preying on underage girls, and just generally falling short of all moral precepts contained in the Bible. The Southern mindset is very religious. It imposes itself on visitors, even an atheist needs a modicum of biblical knowledge and language to have conversation with Southerners. So this Bible Study for Atheists tries to figure this out in Biblical terms. When you think of Moore, and all the other public or political Christians who have been caught out in scandals think of blasphemy. Isn’t it blasphemy to present yourself to the world as a Godly person while behaving in ways that depart from all moral teaching? And isn’t blasphemy a terrible sin. St. Thomas Aquinas thought it a worse sin than murder.

Watch Video | Listen to the AudioWILLIAM BRANGHAM: And it’s the beginning of the week, and so we are joined now by our regular Politics Monday duo, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR. Welcome to you both. AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Thank you. TAMARA KEITH, NPR: Thank you. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Before we get to Alabama and policy and all that stuff, let’s talk about Sean Spicer and his little cameo last night on the Emmys. For those who didn’t see it, he comes out, and it seems like he’s trying to poke fun at his first day of the job, President Trump’s inauguration. He comes out and, all evidence notwithstanding, he says that president had the biggest audience ever in the entire history of the universe. And then that was his declaration. And he pointed his finger at the journalists and told them, report this. Last night, during the Emmys, Stephen Colbert is wondering about the size of his audience. And out comes Sean Spicer. Let’s take a look at that. (LAUGHTER) (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) SEAN SPICER, Former White House Press Secretary: This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period, both in person and around the world. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What do you make of that? AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: You know, this is life imitating art. Right? He was actually channeling Melissa McCarthy, who you see there, who was making fun of him in her “Saturday Night Live” skit. Look, this, to me, is a sign about where we are more broadly as a culture, which is, there is no such thing as having bad publicity or notoriety. You can always cash in on it. And it’s very short-lived. So, the name Sean Spicer is one that most people know today. It’s hard to know that it’s going to be the same a year from now. So, take it while you can get it. Take it to the bank. A lot of other Trump supporters, his former campaign manager, for example, got fired, and then ended up as a CNN commentator, is a lobbyist now. So, people trying to use their cache while they can here in Washington. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tam, what do you think about this? Is this us not being able to take a joke? Or is this us, as many people have argued, that we’re being encouraged to chuckle at the idea that it’s just fine for the press secretary to lie to the American people? TAMARA KEITH: Well, this is Sean Spicer’s rehabilitation tour, his image rehabilitation tour. He also went on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and then today, in an interview with The New York Times, said that he regretted that press conference where he came out and told reporters, report the facts that were not the facts. They were alternate facts. And that was sort of the original sin of his entire time as press secretary. He came out and said something that was unverifiably untrue. And it led to further questions about whether what he said was true, whether what was said from the podium in the White House press Briefing Room, which has typically had some connection to reality, whether that could be trusted from this administration. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Some connection to reality. I love that. OK, let’s talk about the runoff next Tuesday in Alabama, very big Senate runoff race. AMY WALTER: Right. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Roy Moore and Luther Strange. What is at stake in that particular race? AMY WALTER: Well, these are two Republicans that are challenging each other. And what’s interesting here is, it is the choice between which Alabamans are going to like more. Or their choice is between loving Trump more or whether they dislike Mitch McConnell more. That is what they get a choice between. Roy Moore is the outsider. He is a former state Supreme Court judge. He has been kicked off the bench twice now, but he’s running as the anti-establishment, anti-Washington firebrand. Luther Strange is in a Strange position, which is, he’s been endorsed both by Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is coming down on Saturday to campaign for him. But he also has the support of Mitch McConnell and the leadership. So, really, what we’re looking for here is, how strong is the Trump connection? Can support from Trump, the president, coming down, giving outward, in this case a rally, outward support, enough support to overcome what voters’ reticence, especially in a place like Alabama, for the establishment — Roy Moore, polling has shown him ahead, some by bigger margins, some by smaller. So, Luther Strange, who is the incumbent right now — he was… WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The interim. AMY WALTER: … the interim here, replacing Jeff Sessions, starts off as the underdog. The real question for Republicans, what really is at stake, two things. One, if Roy Moore wins and comes to the United States Senate, the fear from Republican establishment people like Mitch McConnell is, he’s another rogue agent. They have very few votes that they can lose. They only have a 52-seat majority. They can’t afford somebody else who goes off on his own tangent. And the second is, it may encourage, if he succeeds, it may encourage other candidates to challenge sitting Republican incumbents. That’s not something they want to deal with. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, Tam, the president can read the polls. He must know, even if he prefers Strange, that he might be backing the guy who ends up losing. Like, why is the president — why is he willing to risk capital on this? TAMARA KEITH: I haven’t quite figure that out, to be perfectly honest. It’s a big question. And the other thing is, President Trump is doing what Mitch McConnell wanted him to do, which is endorsing Strange and working for Strange. But the flame keepers of President Trump’s, you know, agenda, the Steve Bannons, the Sean Hannitys, they have all endorsed Moore. And so it’s this really bizarre fight for, you know, who is the really — the true Trump candidate, the guy who Trump endorsed or the guy that all of Trump’s allies endorsed? And I don’t know how this is going to turn out and what it will mean for President Trump’s political capital. The interesting thing is, in this case, he’s for the incumbent, whereas, in some other states, he’s talking about wanting to primary the incumbent Republican. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right. AMY WALTER: Yes. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right. Let’s talk about health care quickly. The GOP, it seems like, are taking one last stab at putting the dagger in the Affordable Care Act with the Graham-Cassidy bill. Why are they pushing for this? AMY WALTER: It’s about a deadline. That’s usually what gets people motivated in Washington, is, they look and they see, we only have a certain amount of time. In this case, September 30 is the last day that Republicans can pass a health care bill with just 50 votes under this reconciliation deal. After that, they have got to get 60 votes. So this is really the time to be able to do this. Talking to folks who cover this today, there is a great deal of skepticism that this is going to happen. It’s pretty clear that the folks that held out on the first version, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Rand Paul, are not committed to this. Rand Paul has already come out publicly and said he’s not for it. So, still, I wouldn’t say it is impossible, but it’s — the odds are longer. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last to you, Tam. On the Democratic side, you have seen Bernie Sanders has been pushing his Medicare-for-all plan. We just saw Hillary Clinton express some skepticism about that, sort of implying that it wasn’t that realistic. But yet a lot of Democrats, including many who are thought of as 2020 contenders for the presidency, are signing onto this. So, why are they risking capital on something that may never go anywhere? TAMARA KEITH: Well, and Bernie Sanders says this bill is not going anywhere. They, I think, see this as a way to send a signal, to say that they care about health care. And they’re not talking about what’s practical and pragmatic. They aren’t at that stage yet. It’s — 2020 is a long way off. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, thank you very much. AMY WALTER: You’re welcome. TAMARA KEITH: You’re welcome. The post What’s at stake for Republicans in Alabama’s runoff election appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the weekly Compensatory Call-In. We encourage non-white listeners to dial in with their codified concepts, new terms, observations, research findings, workplace problems or triumphs, and/or suggestions on how best to Replace White Supremacy With Justice ASAP. We'll use these sessions to hone our use of words as tools to reveal truth, neutralize White people. We'll examine news reports from the past seven days and - hopefully - promote a constructive dialog. #ANTIBLACKNESS Whites devoted a grotesque, deliberate amount of attention on the 50 year anniversary of the "Blood Sunday" carnage in Selma. Jimmie Lee Jackson and black Alabamans were once again stomped as Whites smeared images Rev. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo to demand that there are "good Whites." And White Victims, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promoted while pleading for defense of Israeli sanctuary and discrediting President Obama's foreign policy. Andrea Shea King called for Congressional Black Caucus members who challenged Netanyahu's address to be lynched. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice formally announced that there would be no indictment of Michael Brown, Jr.'s White killer. However, a simultaneous DOJ report corroborated the claims of enraged black people by finding that the Ferguson Police Department was structurally Racist and prioritized terrorizing and extorting poor black citizens above public safety. Speaking of terrorists, Daniel Holtzclaw's trial date is set for October 26th. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://tiny.cc/ledjb CALL IN NUMBER: 760.569.7676 CODE 564943# SKYPE: FREECONFERENCECALLHD.7676 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

Summary of today's show: In our regular Thursday news roundup, a new Catholic college is moving to the Archdiocese of Boston; palliative care is introduced as an alternative to assisted suicide; time is running out to show support for Choose Life license plates; a rally for religious freedom on Boston Common on Friday; new archbishop for Baltimore; Obama losing support from women; and Greg Tracy is going to Cuba. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: St. Thomas More College; palliative care; Choose Life plates; stand up for religious freedom; Baltimore archbishop; going to Cuba 1st segment: Scot welcomed Susan Abbott back to the show. She's planning this Saturday's Catechetical Congress. It's a gathering of 800 catechists and directors of religious education. Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine, will celebrate Mass and be the keynote speaker. They will give out two awards for excellence in catechetical leadership and recognizing volunteer catechists nominated by their pastors. After lunch here will be a number of workshops in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It's going to be held at Boston College High School. 2nd segment: Scot welcomed Gregory Tracy and Fr. Roger Landry to the show. Scot said in the Pilot this week is a story about the move of Thomas More College, now in southern New Hampshire, that is moving to Groton, Mass., which is in the Archdiocese of Boston. Pilot reporter got a tour of the new land that the campus will be located on. It's an old farm and they intend to keep some of the farm buildings. It's about 35 acres, but it's surrounded by dozens of acres of conservation land. They intend to preserve the historic buildings, but they will be able to build new buildings. The college will be able to grow from about 80 students to over 300. The college president said they will like Groton because they were very serious about the whole of the community. He also likes that students will be able to enjoy an historic New England town. They also hope to buy the former Sacred Heart church building, which is closed, and move it to the new campus. Scot said this is a win for the Archdiocese. Susan said she's thrilled, especially because of the mission of the college. Scot explained where in the northwest corner of the Archdiocese Groton is located. The move is expected between 2014 and 2019. Fr. Roger talked about the college's positive features and advantages, including a semester abroad program in Rome. Scot said another story is about the Women Affirming Life spring breakfast at which the speaker was M.C. Sullivan - a nurse, bioethicist, attorney and Director of Ethics at Covenant Health Systems in Tewksbury—who said the answer to the push for assisted suicide is better palliative care, which treats not just bodily pain, but also spiritual and emotional pain. The women at the breakfast were fired up. Susan said she was glad to learn of the difference between palliative care and hospice care. Hospice focuses strictly on the end of life, but palliative care can also be used for those with chronic illness. Greg said more and more people are coming out to stay this assisted suicide is not curative and isn't really helping people. He said palliative care recognizes that quality of life is not solely about “fixing” or curing someone. Fr. Roger said the short-term focus in this fight is for those who are the end of life, but also for the fight against the legalization effort for November. The longer-term issue is about creating a culture of life, not just for palliative care, but also to provide companionship and compassion through presence for those who are suffering alone. Scot said another pro-life effort is the Massachusetts specialty license plate called Choose Life. Those who sponsor the plate effort have to give a bond to ensure to the state that enough plates will be issued. The organizers need about 600 plates in order to read their goal in the next few months. Fr. Roger said these plates are one of the best pro-life efforts we've been able to get through our Legislature the past few years. Thousands of people will see these plates as we drive around each day. He was one of the first to get the plate and he challenged many of his parishioners to get the plate as well and they have responded. Fr. Roger joked they might even be a get-out-of-a-ticket card with regard to being pulled over by state troopers. He said we should be grateful for the anonymous donor who put $100,000 of his own money for the bond and hopes he gets all of his money back. But even more important we can show we support life in a commonwealth that may not be as pro-life as we want it to be. Also in the Pilot this week is the announcement that Fr. John Delaney from St. Michael Parish in North Andover has been appointed as Pastor of Sacred Hearts Parish in Haverhill. Scot said St. Michael's has had a lot of upheaval in recent months with three priests leaving for one reason or another. It is the largest parish in the archdiocese with the most activities of any parish. Greg said it's a dynamic parish that is well-supported by the parishioners. Also in the Pilot is the obituary for Fr. John Fallon, who was 89 years old. He was ordained in 1946 and served in many parishes in southern and western parts of the Archdiocese, although he served in most parts of the Archdiocese, including Gloucester, Arlington, and Ayer. He served 9 parishes in the archdiocese. His funeral Mass was celebrated in the parish where he was baptized, St. Charles Borromeo in Woburn. Fr. Roger talked about the baptismal imagery invoked in the funeral Mass and the symbolism of being buried from the same parish where he ws baptized. Scot said in the Anchor was a story about Fr. Riley Williams who is serving in Rome where he wrote a book on the station churches of Rome. He also has a popular blog. Other articles include the Legion of Mary of the diocese of Fall River celebrating its 60th anniversary, a profile of the Faith Formation Office in Fall River, Catholic Girl Scouts celebrating 100 years of scouting, and a new parish that brings togethers two other parishes in Fall River. Scot also read prize-winning pro-life student essays that were published in this week's Anchor, including an essay by eighth-grader Althea Turley: I am lucky to walk, talk, and communicate normally with the people I love. I have spina bifida, and without spinal operations. my life would be dramatically different. My parents always loved me, regardless of my problems. Not all babies with birth defects are so lucky. Some never take their first breath. Six hundred ninety unborn babies with Down's Syndrome were aborted in 2002, and that rate rises every year. Aborted babies will never experience the simple joys of life because a person rejected a wonderful gift. Only God should have the power to give or take a life as every human life is a gift and a miracle. Jesus “came so that all might have life and have it to the full.” Victims of murder, capital punishment, assisted suicide, and abortion have a right to life. They are unable to have it because of the choices of others. God should be the only One to make these decisions, yet some people give up hope rather than trusting in God. They don't leave it up to the omniscient Father. Humans are fallible and make mistakes. Therefore, cancer patients who might live three more years may commit suicide because ofa doc-Il tor's estimate of a month left to live. The same goes for abortion and capital punishment. A baby in a complicated pregnancy might not kill a mother, and a convicted criminal may be innocent after all. Life's potential cannot be known. An aborted baby could discover cures for diseases or become a great world leader, but no one will ever know if he or she is deprived a chance at life. The disabled, poor, elderly, and sick are just as important as anyone else and should be treated with the same respect. This past Advent season. my classmates and I volunteered at a homeless shelter and served lunch to the less fortunate who were so appreciative of a single meal. As I was there. I realized the homeless people who seemed so different on the outside weren't so different from us. We all have the same needs and hopes, and we are all God's children. We are all important and all merit good lives. God is love, and He created us in His likeness, with the purpose of living a full, happy. and successful life. Humans need to realize this and let God choose when to terminate a life. We should put our faith in God and help others live lives God gives all His children. Susan said she was really impressed. She has the message and has made this her message. She's not just repeating what she's heard. There seems to be great commitment in this. Scot said this is a neat contest, in which the winners read their essays during a Mass with Bishop Coleman. Fr. Roger said they've been doing the contest for a decade and they change the theme each year. Fr. Roger said he loves seeing the perspective of the youth and the young have a great energy and hope and enthusiasm. Scot said the first place in the senior division was Eileen Corkery, a high school senior. 3rd segment: Scot said across the country tomorrow a lot of organizations are sponsoring local rallies at noon to stand up for religious freedom. A Boston rally will take place on the Boston Common on the corner of Park and Beacon Street. There will be five speakers from 12-1. Scot asked those who could take the time to join in so that our voices could be seen and heard. Also this week, the bishop who is overseeing the US bishops' religious freedom initiative, Bishop William Lori, has been appointed to become the next Archbishop of Baltimore. Fr. Roger said Baltimore was the first and only diocese in the United States soon after 1789. It's the closest thing the US has to be a primatial see. That fact that we're now in a very visible battle for religious freedom, most pundits thought Bishop Lori was most likely to be given the archdiocese. He is a native of the area. [“Former government officials join religious leaders in conscience fight”, CNS, 3/16/12](http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20120315.htm] Scot said another article shows that two former ambassadors to theVatican have joined the fight for religious freedom, Ray Flynn and Jim Nicholson. They have joined other former government officials to create a group called Conscience Cause. Greg said they intend to travel around the country speaking out about this issue from a different perspective from the bishops. Scot said another late-breaking story is related to the lawsuit filed by EWTN against the HHS mandate. Today the state of Alabama has joined EWTN in that lawsuit, claiming that the federal mandate is hurting the rights of all Alabamans. It's a big development for a state government to join a lawsuit like this. Another story shows that President Obama's approval rating among women voters has dropped. Fr. Roger said he thinks the sense the Obama administration is projecting, that all women are lining up for their free contraception, is false. It's awakened the vast majority of women for whom the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood don't speak. Fr. Roger also thinks economic news is also important to women and that might be hurting the president as well. What Catholic women need to do is stand up and say what the President is trying to do doesn't speak for their values when forcing them to pay for other women's abortifacient pills. This is not the type of feminism they want to support. Scot said it seems like it could offend a lot of women when far-left groups claim they speak for all women. Susan said this is a hot topic among women she knows, who are saying that the administration isn't doing this for them. Susan suggested listeners re-listen to last Friday's show to hear an excellent argument. Scot suggested many women will want to sign on to the petition at WomenSpeakForThemselves.com. Greg said we can't draw direct conclusions art o why the president's approval rating dropped, but it must be related. It's a little degrading to think that their vote can be purchased by contraceptions. Scot said next week Greg will be visiting Cuba to cover Pope Benedict's trip. Greg said his group is traveling to Havana to participate in the Pope's Mass there. He is traveling with a group called Caritas Cubana. Over four days they will visit many of the projects they are doing there.