Podcasts about democratic socialists

Dean Preston represents District 5 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A tenants' rights attorney and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he was the first democratic socialist elected to the board in 40 years. Recently, a campaign by a group called the "YIMBYs" has accused Preston of denying housing to thousands of people. In this episode, we talk about why San Francisco has a housing crisis and how to solve it. We also talk about how pro-developer groups produce propaganda that portrays affordable housing activists as "opposed to affordable housing." Dean responds to the YIMBY charges and shows how corporate disinformation against socialists works. We discuss:- Why rent control is actually a very good thing - How the hypocrisy of San Francisco rich people has driven inequality spiraling out of control in the city- How the "YIMBY movement" paints anyone who opposes developers' interests as an anti-housing "NIMBY"- The things cities need to actually be affordable - How elected officials can use their positions to exact concessions from developers (and why this shouldn't be considered "opposing the development of housing")- How disinformation campaigns try to massage the facts to manipulate voters (and why voters are often too smart to be fooled) Nathan's article on YIMBYism is here. '

Dec. 17, 2021 - The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has been growing in power since the summer of 2018 and is hoping to flex its political muscles in 2022. We talked with the organization's co-chair, Sumathy Kumar, of their budget and legislative priorities for next year and how they plan on navigating the Democratic primaries in June.

Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant was elected as an open socialist in 2013, long before the present wave of local socialist political victories began. During her time in office, she has taken on Amazon and helped make Seattle the first large city in the country to adopt the $15 minimum wage. In this interview, she discusses how she was able to get elected as a socialist during the Obama years, how movements can successfully pressure useless centrist Democrats to do what they are otherwise disinclined to do, why she doesn't think it's a good idea to associate with the Democratic party under any circumstances (but she supported Bernie anyway), and why she has recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America.

Today Crystal is joined by Shasti Conrad, Chair of the King County Democrats, to discuss Shasti's journey from working on progressive national campaigns to immersing herself in political organizing with the local Democratic Party. In 2018, Shasti became the first woman of color chair of the King County Democrats and set out to re-make the local party into a place where everyone can belong and make an impact in their community. Come listen in on the conversation and learn how to be part of a vision that both recruits and retains passionate volunteers. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and Shasti Conrad @ShastiConrad. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com. Resources King County Democrats: https://www.kcdems.org/     Transcript   [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes.  Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Shasti Conrad, a friend of mine, the Chair of the King County Democrats, and someone who's done a lot of work in the electoral space, campaign space, both locally and nationally. Thank you for joining us. [00:00:57] Shasti Conrad: Hey, Crystal, it's so great to be here. [00:00:59] Crystal Fincher: Well, I wanted to start off and just talk about who you are and how you came to this work. How did you first get started in politics? [00:01:09] Shasti Conrad: Well, in some ways, I feel like I never had a choice not to, in some ways. I felt called into this work even as a little kid. My family were - they treated politics as though it was a part of your civic duty. My grandmother was from Britain and got her citizenship in her 50s and I'm adopted from India. And so it was one of the hot topics at the dinner table - was just being on the issues of the day - what was happening, what elected officials were doing. And then my grandmother would take me to go vote - every year she would go and would make a big deal out of it. And so I was just like the kid on the playground that was constantly talking about politics. I would school my preschool teachers on why they were supporting Ronald Reagan and telling them that they were making bad choices.  So, yeah - and then I worked on my first campaign when I was in high school. It was a school bond levy campaign. And then when I moved up to Seattle University to go to college, I reached out and started working for the Washington State Democrats as an intern and just kind of fell into all of this work and it became a huge part of my life. [00:02:26] Crystal Fincher: So what was your path between just that very beginning and winding up in the White House? [00:02:32] Shasti Conrad: Yeah. So I went to Seattle University for college and it was during the Bush administration. And so I was spending a lot of time protesting, and I was really active in the anti-war movement and was really trying to rail against the system. And then in my senior year, a guy named Barack Obama decided to announce that he was going to run for president. And I had been working on my senior thesis, which was on hiphop and politics and this cultural connection between political activism and community organizing. And then Barack Obama entered the scene and I read his book, Dreams from My Father. And he talked about being this cultural ambassador between white society and his white family, and then into communities of color. And as an adopted kid by a white mom in a small white town, that really spoke to me. And so I just believed in him. I just wanted to help him. And so I jumped on that campaign - I was an Obama organizing fellow and out of the Everett Labor Temple actually.  And I always like to remind people - we weren't supposed to win. We were not the chosen candidate back in 2008. And so when he became the nominee and then when we won, it was such a huge deal - just felt like such a chance for America to deliver on its promise. And a friend of mine had been working on the campaign and went to the White House to go set up their internship program. And she asked me to apply for the internship program. And that's how I was in the first class of Obama White House interns in the summer of 2009. There was 100 people chosen out of, I think, 6,000 applications. And that was what set me off on the trajectory that's led me to today. [00:04:27] Crystal Fincher: Thanks for the reminder about Barack Obama - not supposed to win. A lot of people are - I mean, you're certainly younger than I am - a lot of people are a lot younger than I am. And after Barack Obama had been president for eight years, it seems it's really easy to assume that he would've been pretty standard Democratic nominee, but everything was geared to go the Hillary Clinton route. And certainly the establishment was largely in favor of her, so that was an uphill battle that did not at all look like it was going to happen until much later in the game. So yeah, you found your dark horse candidate. [00:05:15] Shasti Conrad: Yeah - I remind people - he was the progressive in that race. He was the left candidate that people thought like, "Oh, cute, he'll try, but there's no way he'll actually win." I mean, there was also all of the first Black president. I mean, I think so many of us - particularly older people of color - had Jesse Jackson. They'd seen how this stuff had played out previously and they're like, "There's no way in hell. America is not going to allow this Black man to win." And so I always go back to that - it was a real moment of hope and it was a real - say what you want about how the administration ended up - that was a really special time in American history. And improbable. [00:06:06] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. I mean, I think we've seen in the time since then a significant backlash against that happening and a concerted effort to not allow something like that to happen again, because they just didn't think it was going to happen at that time. Kind of snuck in under the gun before they realized what was happening. But anyway, so you landed at the White House and you wound up working for Valerie Jarrett, which a lot of people certainly look at that and are just like, "My goodness, that's a big deal, really big deal." What was your time like there? And I guess how did it shape the work that you've done since then? [00:06:46] Shasti Conrad: Yeah. I mean, when I look back, that arc is so crazy even for me to be like, "How the hell did I end up there?" So when I was an intern, I was in the Office of Urban Affairs. And the plan was it was a summer internship - I was going to go to graduate school that fall. And I did really well in my internship - I worked so hard. My goal was basically to be the person that it was - people just knew they could rely on me. It was like anything that needed to get done, it was like, "We have Shasti. We know we can trust her. We know that she's a value here." And so at the end of my internship, I talked to Valerie's chief of staff, Michael Strautmanis, who had been an intern for Michelle Obama back when they were lawyers in Chicago. And I sort of said to him like, "Hey, I'm supposed to go to graduate school, but I feel called to do this work. I want to stay, I want to build." And he said, "Dream big." He's like, "Okay, put it on the line." And I decided to defer graduate school for a year - I gave myself a year to try to see if I could get a job in the administration.  And in a couple of months, Michael Strautmanis came back to me and he said, "We've got something for you." And so I ended up in the Office of Public Engagement, working for the special assistant to the president on disability policy. He was a blind civil rights lawyer. And I worked with him for about seven months and then was promoted to Valerie's office. And that was such an incredible honor. For people who don't know, Valerie Jarrett was basically the President's best friend - had been the kingmaker in Chicago, met Michelle Obama who - Michelle Robinson - who introduced Valerie to her fiancé, Barack Obama, and they became fast friends. And so I was able to work in her office, which meant that I had an office in the West Wing. And it was intense - there was a lot of crises at that time - it was in the first term. So we were trying to get the Affordable Care Act passed, we were dealing with "Don't ask, Don't tell," there was the BP oil spill - there was just so many things that were happening over and over. There were crises all over the time. But I learned a lot about the toughness and trying to hold onto your compassion and humanity while dealing with deep serious issues where people's lives are at stake. So that balance was a good thing for me to learn - it was in my early 20s. [00:09:33] Crystal Fincher: So what was the path from there to then becoming involved with the King County Democrats? [00:09:41] Shasti Conrad: Well, I'll try to give you the short version. The short version is - so I left the White House to go work on the re-election campaign. Because I loved DC, it was really intense experience, it was all kinds of special opportunities and getting to really - you feel like you're making a difference - but I missed the people part of the work. So I went back on the campaign and we won again, and that was great. And by that point, I felt like, "Okay, we did it." And I was kind of ready to take a little bit of a break. And for me, that break meant going to graduate school. And so I did that and then I went and worked for the Malala Fund and did a couple of other international development foundation projects. Then you speed all the way up to 2016, and I worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign. I did advance for Bernie. And then I came home. And Trump won and folks were in shock and traumatized and there was such a sort of like, "What are we going to do?" And I came back and decided that the best thing that I could do was to try to rebuild, here in the Seattle area in King County, because so many people look to us as this like Blue paradise. And if we couldn't get it together in Seattle, then I was like, "What hope do we have for the rest of this country? We've got to try to build a really strong Democratic Party. We need to..." And you remember, in 2016 - the infighting that was happening because in part, we lost. We turned on each other to say, "Well, it's because you guys messed this up because you messed it up. You pulled the party in these ways," and everybody was fighting. And it was like I just wanted the fighting to stop so that we could pull together to be able to fight back against what Trump was - I knew the Trump types and the GOP - what they were going to go after and we needed a strong front. So that's what brought me back into this work. [00:11:58] Crystal Fincher: Well, and at that time - you talk about fighting and discord nationally. And the local party here in the King County Democrats - there was a chair at the time who had been found to be involved in a variety of different types of misconduct and unethical practices - from harassment to financial mismanagement, in addition to a lot of issues before that and subsequently - come to turned out. But you were taking over - were elected to become the Chair of the King County Democrats - and were taking over an organization that was almost an organization in name only. There was so much that had been either dismantled or was not cared for under the previous chair - there was very little infrastructure. How did you, I guess, go into - thinking about, looking around - what were you seeing as the state of the party then? And what was the vision you had for what it could be? [00:13:12] Shasti Conrad: Yeah. The Democratic Party, both at the county level and some of - not all of the LDs - but in a number of the LDs, there was all of that in-fighting and there was a history of this type of fighting and jockeying for power. And really, I do want to say that there have been a lot of incredible volunteers who have held the line for the Democratic Party. I am appreciative of their work, but there were leaders who were using the party as basically their own power base. It was just about what they could do for themselves, who they could intimidate, who they could - all this kind of quid pro quo stuff behind the scenes. And it just wasn't serving the community. It wasn't doing the work - like sure, we were getting Democrats elected, but it was leaving so many people out. And so - I had no plans. I was not planning to be a leader in the Democratic Party. That wasn't what I was like, "Yes, that's my dream." But I just kept seeing all of this pain. I just kept meeting people who were like, "I got hurt this way when I got involved in the Democratic Party, and I dealt with this type of racism and sexism, and this leader harassed me." And I just was like, "I just want the pain to stop." And so the vision, and I think you helped us back when we were running as Vision 2020, was really that we wanted to create a healthy professional organization that was about the old ethos of Obama - it was like respect, empower, and include. And we really recognized that the party needed to be more diverse and needed to be more inclusive. And we needed to have a team that was going to - who believed in those values. One of the things that I had recognized when I looked back at the history of the different iterations of leadership at King County Democrats, is that in the elected officers, you would have people who had run on different teams who didn't like each other. There was no consensus in, "This is what we want to do. This is what we stand for. These are our values. And so we are going to do this together." And so we ran as a slate because I needed to know that I had a solid team who bought into this belief of, "We want to create an inclusive, welcoming organization that has a culture of accountability, transparency, and is about electing Democrats - people with our values - and not just gate-keeping, not just about power maintenance for a small group." That's what the other team does. That's not what we were going to do. And so we won back in December of 2018 and we set forth on doing the work to try to restructure this organization and bring in new people, bring in more young people, more people of color, more women - and create a space where people felt like they could do good work and they could make a difference in their communities through being involved with us. [00:16:33] Crystal Fincher: This local party apparatus is really what determines whether you have strong, competent elected officials at the local level - and that's the bench that then proceeds on to the national level. So it really does take competent, intentional organizing at the local level. And the local party is ideally supposed to be that. What it actually was was pretty far from that. And I think one of the things that you brought with your vision was to be influential and consequential in local government - and looking at what's happening with city councils, and playing a role in advocacy, and making sure the right people are in the right positions to make the right decisions. And to lead and push those decisions. I know, certainly from my perspective as a Black woman, and we've had conversations about this before, but similar to a lot of us - where we've experienced from party sources - racism and sexism, and viewed harassment and bullying, and things that we fight against. And I had grown quite frustrated with the party quite frankly because of watching those things persist in the local level and not feeling like it was very relevant. I definitely felt that when you came aboard, you were seeking to really completely change that direction and make it relevant again. What have you been working on to help the average person in Seattle, regardless of whether they have a partisan affiliation or not, know that there's a local party, see that it's influential, and trying to help them in the issues that they're dealing with on an everyday basis? [00:18:29] Shasti Conrad: I mean, so much of it is it's basic - it's education, it's connection, it's building authentic relationships, and it's showing up. I think that there had often been this idea that people had to come to the party and that it wasn't that the party was showing up. And there's so much expectation a lot of times that when it comes time to vote, everyone should just get on board with what the Democrats are doing. But if we're not there for the community, if we're not there for other community partners for the rest of the year, we lose our ability to have any leverage to say like, "Hey, remember August primary? Remember November general? Hey, in February, did you know there's special elections for King Conservation District, or there's this or that?" People - they didn't know - and we didn't do a great job of communicating what the value is.  We certainly have benefited for the last couple of years of a much more heightened spotlight on politics, I think, because of 2016. You have people who are paying attention who weren't paying attention previously. But yeah, we have tried to demonstrate how important it is to focus on the local. Now, my career, I have worked on four national presidential campaigns. I was like so many other Democrats where it was like my energy and excitement would be in a presidential year. I'd be all about the national. I love my national politics, but I know that the place where I can make the biggest difference is in helping to flip the city council in Sammamish, it is helping to make sure that on our school boards across King County that we are fighting back against these people who are pushing anti-Critical Race Theory nonsense. We've got real white supremacists that are getting onto Black Diamond City Council - that's happening right here. And so I can drive 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour across the county, and I can make a difference in people's lives in a way that - when I was on Obama's campaign, I'm one of several thousand staffers - when you are part of - and it's great, it's exciting, but we have to remember that you have to guard the cast every single election. And in some ways, I find that these odd-year elections - often have way lower turnout than the even years - are the most important. And Seattle - we'll have Democrats - there is a battle between the type of Democrat that we want leading the City. But in places across the County, you really are fighting against people who don't believe in democracy. My counterpart, King County GOP Chair, Joshua Freed, has totally thrown in with the insurrectionists. He says that wearing masks is child abuse. These are not people who fully believe in what we consider American values. That's what we're fighting against. So I think that's really important for us to continue to keep the spotlight on. And then we've been pushing for getting Precinct Committee Officers - which you helped us with that project - where we have found that, in 2019, in precincts where we had Precinct Committee Officers, there was a 5% higher voter turnout and that those numbers matter. We found that if we'd had full coverage of PCOs in every precinct in King County, we would've passed I-1000. It makes a difference here in King County, but it's also for statewide elections and statewide initiatives. Those progressive votes are going to come out of King County. So if we're not solid here, it impacts the entire state and that impacts the region. So all of this work really, really matters. [00:22:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it does matter. And one of the reasons why I decided to say, "Okay, let me go ahead and try and help," was seeing that someone was willing to do the work even when it got uncomfortable and even when you were facing some pushback to say, "No, it is important to have a local party that looks like the communities that it serves. It's not okay to make people feel unwelcome, to pass off racism and misogyny as casual, let people get bullied out of the organization," and really moving to have the party truly represent and serve people in communities. Which a lot of people have come into meetings, seen that they - especially for someone taking some free time in their evening to come into a meeting - if they see people in-fighting, or if they hear things that are like, "This is not a welcoming or inclusive place for me, I don't feel like this is a space for me," they're just going to peace out, and they had been in droves. And in my view, there's such a potential - and clearly in yours, right? Such a potential for the party to be impactful in driving some of those key meaningful things where, to your point, there are certainly especially sometimes in Seattle, these extremely passionate but really ultimately nuanced conversations about like, "What is the correct climate policy that we should be pursuing? What is the correct zoning policy where some people are just like, 'No, we don't believe in the concept of climate change, we don't believe in the concept of a minimum wage?'" You would be surprised how many local city council candidates right now in King County are publicly saying they don't believe there should be a minimum wage. Period. Not, "We shouldn't raise it to a living wage," just there shouldn't be. We are going all the way back. And to your point, just some blatantly talking about violence and being okay with undemocratic processes and just really just being flat-out racist and violent, and it's not cool. So I guess in looking at how people can and should get involved and what the party has in the pipeline here in King County, what are you looking to do, I guess, as we come upon these November elections, how are you involved with that? And overall, just in communities, how are you engaging? [00:25:14] Shasti Conrad: Well, and let me underline one thing - which is the other thing that we saw over the last couple of years is that the Republicans were doing a much better job than we were at building a bench. They were so much better. So in King County, they'd kind of given up to some degree the State Legislature. But what they were doing was they were back-filling in Hospital District Commissions, on Water Districts, in City Councils, and School Boards. They were doing a much better job fixating and getting people running in those places, which then made these - yes, they're smaller offices - but they had a huge impact. They were more conservative. And it was flying under the radar because we were like, "Oh, good, we've got the governor." Finally in 2017 with Manka like, "We've got the State Legislature - good enough." And then people were getting deeply hurt in their communities by what was happening there. So that was one of the biggest things for us where we were like, "This is clear." Also, just to put it out there, the King County GOP has 10 times the amount of money that we do at King County Democrats. They are better funded than we are because, again, people know to give to somebody who's running for Congress, they know to give to their candidates, but the regular Democrat wasn't investing in the infrastructure. I often describe the party as candidates and campaigns are the jazz. As a party, we're supposed to be the steady drum beat. Whoever shows up and says, "I'm willing to put my name on the ballot, I'm willing to run, I align with your values," our job is to show up with volunteers, to show up with resources to say like, "We understand the lay of the land, we know the communities here, and we've got your back." That is our job. [00:27:08] Crystal Fincher: People want to get involved or learn more, where can they contact you or the King County Democrats? [00:27:14] Shasti Conrad: Our website is kcdems.org. And then my email is chair@kcdems.org. And I'm always happy to answer questions, or if you folks have ideas in their communities that they want to amplify, get up to me. And there are 17 legislative districts in King County - all of them have Democratic Party organizations. And we love to have people get linked into their Democratic LD organizations as well. [00:27:43] Crystal Fincher: One thing a lot of people talk about, especially here in King County, is there are Democrats, there are Democratic Socialists, there's the People's Party - there's a lot of people who are on the left politically but may not identify as Democrats either - because just in the City in particular, just kind of everybody's a Democrat, that's kind of taken for granted. But other people on purpose have felt like the Democratic Party is not the place for them and they want another home. How do you view them or candidates running under - who are not officially Democrats, but who may hold values that a lot of Democrats agree with and a lot of people on the left agree with - how do you work through that? [00:28:29] Shasti Conrad: Well, I think people might know that I worked on Bernie Sanders' campaign both in 2016 and 2020. I consider myself a strong progressive and align with a lot of the values of, like you said, folks who are the Working Families Party, or People's Party, or DSA. And I think for us leftists and progressives, we have to build the coalition. And so I think there's room for those organizations to exist, but what I always like to remind people is - for better, for worse, we are currently a two-party system. That's just the reality of what we have. And sure, I would love to do all kinds of other things, but I recognize that the Democratic Party - that's what we had. That is the most solid party organization that represents the most people. If you believe in democracy, that's what we have. And so I am an institutionalist in the sense that I believe it is our job to go into these institutions, into the infrastructure, and try to change them from within. I've done the work on the outside, and there's a place and a role for that, but you also - these institutions are what stay. And so I believe that it is valuable to try to work with the party to try to change it, to open it up, to build the coalition so that more people who identify and feel comfort with DSA and People's Party and Working Families Party - that they feel welcomed back into the Democratic Party - because I think that's how we're going to win, is if we build that broad coalition. And so I'm in full support. I understand why people may not have wanted to work with the Democratic Party before. But I am trying to lead a millennial, Gen Z, woman of color organization. I'm trying to do the work to change it so that it doesn't feel as - it's not as traumatic or painful as it has been previously. And that is what I have - put my stake in the ground, and what I really believe in, and I'm trying to fix. [00:30:46] Crystal Fincher: Do you see your role as the Chair of the Democrats, or just should the Democrats, in your opinion, be supporting candidates who may not share the label, but who are sharing the values? [00:31:05] Shasti Conrad: Absolutely. Look, I look at it as it's somewhat of a marketing issue. My job is to understand why someone would not want to choose our brand. It is to understand that and to be able to recognize, what are the ways in which we can change that to be more appealing to a broader base of people - who for the most part, you look at the Venn diagram of it all, for the most part, probably share 90% of our values. And so what is it that we need to fix internally and externally? Sort of an outward facing front, but also internally, what do we need to change that will welcome those people back in? I believe you can hold - two things can be true at once. You can be a proud DSA member, a proud member of the People's Party or Working Families Party, and also work with us in the Democratic Party. I mean, that's how we get things done. That's how we move the needle. At the end of the day, we are the caucus that you're going to have to work with to get things done once you get into office. So that's my hope, is that we can better build something that people want to be a part of, even as they hold these different identities. [00:32:26] Crystal Fincher: I managed campaigns for a long time, so I went to lots of different LD meetings with several different candidates - that's just a thing that you do. And man, these meetings are oftentimes horrible things to go to. Lots of great people doing great work, lots of great volunteers, but in the past has been the exception and not the rule for the meeting not - the meeting to be relevant. You go in there, you hear people arguing, using Robert's Rules of Order. You see these long marathon hours, multiple hours, long endorsement meetings. You hear people just like yipping and yapping at each other. Sometimes you hear people with microaggressions or macroaggressions. And so a lot of people will dip their toe into their local LD and just not feel like it has been the best use of their time. Like, "Hey, I'd rather watch a movie instead of listening to someone debate one tiny element of one thing for 20 minutes using Robert's Rules of Order." What do you say to people who have looked at the Democratic Party locally and been like, "I tried it before, it didn't quite work out, it may not be a place for me." [00:33:53] Shasti Conrad: I mean, look, I get it. And I hear them. And I've felt that way. Like we talked about earlier, I came back into the party and into Washington State politics in 2016. And I remember going to these LD meetings where there was like 100+ people. And then I watched over the next few months as those numbers dwindled because people wanted to do something, they wanted to be actively involved. And the Democratic Party offered them nothing. What it offered them was, like you said, Robert's Rules of Order, people getting completely wrapped around the axle on some minutia that didn't really matter. It wasn't open and accessible to the average person by any means. And particularly to people of color and younger people who it's like - I'm trying to survive here. I'm trying- [00:34:42] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and people with disabilities, parents. Yeah. [00:34:47] Shasti Conrad: Yes. I mean, in some ways, the pandemic has given us the opportunity of being able to do things in a way that are slightly more accessible in that - before, I would hear parents - it's like you'd have a meeting at 7:00 PM in Renton, that's right in the middle of bedtime and dinner and all of that. And so at least now we are able to do it where it's like, "Hey, hop on online and we'll make it easier." But I would say like, "Look, I get it. And what I am trying to do as the first woman of color chair for this organization is I'm trying to rebuild an organization that is welcoming. That is a safe space for everybody. That it's not about power gate-keeping." I'm like, "Hey, you want to come in and do some work?" Come on in. There's power for you too." And we have to do this work because we're fighting against fascism, we're fighting against authoritarianism. And I think also come on back - we want to welcome you back in. I want to know how it didn't work and I want to make it better. I had a call with a woman of color who's running for school board up in the northern part of the County two weeks ago. And she was talking about the endorsement process and how awful she had been treated by a couple of these LDs. And I was like, "Tell me, because I want to go and fix it." And like, "Let me go help you hold these folks accountable. Help me demystify the process." For better or for worse, I feel like I've gotten a PhD in this weird party stuff. And the reason why that matters is because I am here to be a resource to help change the way that it works, but also to help explain it. To help be able to say, "Hey, here's the side door. Let me help show you the way and how you can make this work and get done what you want to get done." And I believe that we're doing that. I mean, you've gotten involved, Crystal, in some ways in helping us. And you said you would never - I remember when we first met - you were like, "I'm done with the party." And you've been helping out here and there because I think we're making those changes and we're doing that work.  And it's not perfect, by any means, but I can't do it alone. I think that's also what I really want to be clear. When it's just me, I can't make the changes and I can't do the work that needs to get done. And so I need more people who are also committed to these types of changes to come in and help me build an organization that is of value to everyone that is a part of our community and not just for the few. That same way of doing things doesn't work. One of the things I am most proud of is - in 2019, we endorsed and we supported people like Tammy Morales, Shaun Scott. We supported people who - other places weren't. And Shaun didn't win, but he has gone on to do all kinds of amazing work in the community. And last year, with the State Legislature, we replaced Democrats with more progressive Democrats, more Democrats of color, and that shifted and changed the type of legislation we were able to get passed. [00:38:03] Crystal Fincher: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we don't get capital gains without those changes, we don't get a number of the progressive policies - some of the environmental policy, certainly the police accountability legislation - that doesn't happen without the changes on the Democratic side to more progressive people that were there. And I think you bring up a great point. I mean, you talk about me - and I don't know that I've talked a lot about this on the podcast - but certainly have had major frustrations with the party, consider myself a progressive and continue to have frustrations with the party, particularly on the national level. But when there are people in places, and just FYI, these local Democratic organizations, they're actually all their own organizations. They're part of a master organization, but it actually is not like a company with branches - they have a lot more autonomy than that. So there's actually a lot that can be done in shaping these local party organizations - how they're composed, the leadership that is in there, and how they can interact with and serve their communities. And the Democratic Party has resources. It's a party of resources and those resources certainly can be helpful in getting people elected. So if we can use those resources in the right way to get the right people to make the right decisions and in the right position with the appropriate power to do so, that's a good thing. And I think what I saw in you was, "Okay, there is someone willing to work and willing to push in the right direction." So if there is a tool available, with resources behind it, that can actually be a force for good, Hey, I'm willing to help have it be a force for good. Would I do that if - I wasn't doing that - I'd said that I was not going to do that unless I saw that. Had not seen that up to that point and was skeptical that I would, but certainly here at the local level with you being involved and willing to push in the right direction. And a lot of times bend over backwards to make the process more accessible to more people - is helpful. And to help the local LD organizations move in that direction too and be spaces that are inclusive and open enough to even have leadership that understands the ability and the potential and how to be more inclusive and continue walking down that road. So that's how you hooked me in - was my ability to see you doing the work. And so if someone's willing to do that, I am willing to help. I do have some skills and talents that I can use to be helpful. And so I appreciate that. So if there are other people who are perhaps considering where they are going to be investing their time and talent, this is certainly an option and one that can be consequential in who gets elected, and what decisions are made, and what policies pass. With that said, the accountability piece is also important and holding people accountable - both within the party, within the party organization, and with electeds - and seeing you be serious about that was another reason why I got involved because, man, was I sick of just watching people do ridiculous, buck wild, out of pocket things - and in some instances, unethical things that - [00:41:57] Shasti Conrad: Yeah. It's not fair to ask someone to come in and be a part of something that you know is going to be traumatizing for them. So we have a recruitment problem and we have a retention problem. And so that is where it is both on the doing the outreach, getting out into the community, but it's also creating a culture of accountability and creating these spaces that are welcoming and conducive for all kinds of people to be able to do work that they find meaningful and can be proud of. And my subversive reasons for being in this role is because I know that the Democratic Party is an organization that has to change from within. It just does. And so we need more people to become members of these LDs who then can vote. And if they become Precinct Committee Officers, they can vote on leadership. They can choose people to lead in a way that backs up their values and is going to take these organizations in a direction that they want. If you're just railing from the outside, nothing changes. That's just where we're at. So that's why I think it's so important to come back in and I'm doing everything I can to try to create a place at King County Democrats where people who want to do good work can do that. [00:43:14] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And it's worth pointing out that, to your point, PCOs or Precinct Committee Officers, kind of the most grassroots party position that there is - you're like a neighborhood captain - they vote on appointments of elected officials. When there's a vacancy in the Legislature and on some County Councils, they vote for those replacements. And those votes are pretty well-attended in Seattle, but I will tell you, in many of the LDs here in King County, those votes often don't include more than 30 people. [00:43:55] Shasti Conrad: Our good friend, Representative Jesse Johnson - that's how he was picked for - down in the 30th LD. And he's wonderful and that's great, but 30 people were able to make that decision. And so it's absolutely an incredibly important role to play. I first got involved when I was running for an appointment to fill Pramila Jayapal's State Senate seat. And so about 100 some odd people voted on who became the State Senator - and that was Rebecca Saldaña, another wonderful elected official. But look, this stuff actually matters. A third of the State Legislature was picked by PCOs. It's not a small number - so it's really important. So if you become a Precinct Committee Officer, you get to vote on leadership within the party, you potentially get to choose elected officials, and you get to volunteer and knock doors in your community and get to be a leader in your neighborhood. That's pretty cool, and I think a really fun way to get to participate in democracy. [00:44:55] Crystal Fincher: Sounds good. Thank you so much. [00:44:57] Shasti Conrad: Thank you. This has been fun. [00:44:58] Crystal Fincher: I thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks on KVRU 105.7 FM. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistance from Shannon Cheng. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar, be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes.  Thanks for tuning in and we'll talk to you next time.

Mike Wong, vice president of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace, joins us to talk about reports that China is making plans to build a naval base in Equatorial Guinea and how the U.S. is repeating Cold War narratives about threats to the U.S. because a rival has a foothold in the Atlantic. We talk about the nebulous nature of these claims, which are sourced from anonymous intelligence officials, and contradicting reports that there is no visible construction in the area. We also talk about how we need to be ready to live in a multipolar world and learn to cooperate with emerging powers.Ariel Gold, co-executive director at Code Pink, talks to us about ongoing violence in Palestine, where settlers killed a 16-year-old after an attack on border police, and how the continuing occupation and displacement of Palestinians fuels this violence. We also talk about the spat between Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and the Democratic Socialists of America, who are withholding their 2022 endorsement of Bowman after posing with Israeli PM Naftali Bennett and supporting the funding of the Iron Dome program.Tina Landis, environmental and social activist and the author of the book “Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism,” talks to us about a report revealing that the U.S. Navy has been polluting Hawaii's water resources for decades due to leaking underground fuel tanks, how the Navy has not properly addressed this issue, how the problem of military installations and pollution is not only confined to this case, and how the military in general is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Ron Placone, comedian and host of "Get Your News On With Ron," talks to us about Joe Biden hosting a Democracy Summit at the White House and the particulars of who does and who does not get invited, Jen Psaki talking about the new way in which Americans can get their COVID-19 test refunded by their insurance company and navigating the labyrinth of private healthcare, and Devin Nunes resigning from Congress after 19 years to be a part of Trump's new media company.

Jussie Smollett takes the stand. What if he was telling the truth all along? Ben riffs. And Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa--the dean of council Democratic Socialists--takes us to the "map room". In short, everything you need to know about the city council ward re-mapping process. It's not pretty, folks.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, Max and Jake react to, and laugh at, highlights from the Democratic Socialists of America's convention.   Pick up your "All I Want For Christmas Is A Full Forensic Audit" Shirts Today! https://store.conservative-daily.com/products/christmas-forensic-audit-tee   Join Today's FaxBlast and STOP Biden from kicking Patriots out of the military! https://conservative-daily.com/FaxCampaign?id=3771 If you want to support the show, you can donate here: http://bit.ly/cd-donate The RE:AWAKENING series is a Christian docuseries set to be released November 15th! The film is the product of Patriot filmmakers Joy and Matthew Thayer, owners of Spero Pictures, who also produced "The Trump I Know." This film is a must watch for every Proud American as it details the truth surrounding the Cabal agenda that has been unleashed on us all. Go to https://reawakeningseries.com/ and use promo code CD21 when you pre-order RE:AWAKENING for 10% off and to be entered for a chance to WIN 2 WIP tickets to the REAWAKEN AMERICA TOUR and get an exclusive BACKSTAGE PASS to meet Gen. Flynn and the other speakers. ($1,000 value). Today's podcast is again sponsored by AirMedCare Network! Do you live in a rural area that's hard to reach by road? Do you like to hike or spend a lot of time outdoors? Health insurance wont always cover the cost of an emergency medical flight. But with AirMedCare Network, you're covered! For as little as $85 per year, your WHOLE household will be covered in case you ever need an air medical transport. And if you use Promo Code DAILY, you will receive up to a $50 eGift Card back when you sign up today! You can sign up right here: https://www.airmedcarenetwork.com/daily If you want to support Mike Lindell and our show, use promo code CD21 to get up to 66% off at https://www.mypillow.com/radiospecials or by placing your order over the phone at 800-872-0627. When you use promo code CD21, a Queen Sized MyPillow is just $29, the cheapest it has ever been! Make sure you Like, Comment, and Share! Text FREEDOM to 89517 to get added to our text list to receive notifications when we go Live! Please make sure you join our newsletter to receive our action alerts: https://bit.ly/joinconservativedaily Conservative Daily is on Rumble! https://rumble.com/user/ConservativeDaily We are now also going to be streaming on dlive! Check us out here: https://dlive.tv/ConservativeDaily Click here to donate: http://bit.ly/cd-donate Subscribe to our daily podcast at Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/ConservativeDailyPodcast on Google Podcasts (for Android users): https://bit.ly/CDPodcastGoogle We are also available on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/2wD8YleiBM8bu0l3ahBLDN And on Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/conservative-daily-podcast/PC:37034 And on iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-conservative-daily-podcast-53710765/ on TuneIn: https://tunein.com/radio/Conservative-Daily-Podcast-p1350272/ And on Podbean: https://conservative.podbean.com/ And now also on Audible! https://www.audible.com/pd/Conservative-Daily-Podcast-Podcast/B08JJQQ4M Support Joe Oltmann in his legal battle against Eric Coomer: https://givesendgo.com/defendjoeoltmann    

Not content with the multi-billion-dollar bailout of pensions included in the American Rescue Plan passed earlier this year, Democratic Socialists are now demanding that taxpayers rescue the pension plans of their union buddies.

An all-new special episode of The Rundown, guest hosted by Jack Peterson! Today--Grace Symes talks to long-COVID patients about their struggle for recognition and benefits. Dan Goeser covers the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict and visits a subsequent protest in Brooklyn. Then, Dan profiles a recent NYU graduate, Illapa Sairitupac, who is running for State Senate in District 26 as a Democratic Socialist. Adelaide Miller covers the recent Student Government Assembly with NYU leadership members. Ruby Naylor takes a look at Newark, NJ's recent policy to stop releasing public mugshots. Lyssia Gingins, Selina Xue, and Sachin Sundar attend a protest by Alabama mine workers outside climate change contributing (and NYU board beneficiary) BlackRock Inc. HQ. All this and more on a Thanksgiving-week Rundown!

Pastor Bill: [0:05] Hello and welcome to season 3 episode 54 of the Berean Manifesto; Faith, Hope, and Love for the Modern Christian. I'm Pastor Bill and I'm joined with Pastor Newms, we're having a little bit of live issues this evening so if that keeps up then basically what we'll do is, I will record the video and then we can push the video out for you guys to watch if you are more of a visual person and then the audio recordings are separate from what goes out live and then so that will come out on Wednesday night without any problem. So tonight we are talking about an interesting topic that I don't want to talk about, Newms doesn't want to talk about, but we don't really pick the topics. I pray and I listen to what I think God wants us to talk about and I try to keep my ears open to hear what God wants us to be discussing. And so tonight we are talking about, for those programs that are more sensitive - hominid ownership. For those that aren't, basically we're talking about slavery. And I know there's there's a lot of contention over historical slavery and what the Bible... What The Narrative of the Bible is in relation to slavery, and a lot of people saying the Bible endorses slavery and is okay with slavery and that means God's okay with slavery, and on and on and on and and all of these issues. And our scripture for the night has nothing to do with the overall general theme of slavery, but has to do with one issue of slavery that we will discuss as part of what we're talking about tonight and so it's Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender,” and so that's more talking about the indentured servanthood part of slavery that we see a lot of expressed in the Bible. But then also we see the hardcore slavery in the Bible as well we see, um Moses will say things like, go and raze the city r a z e the city and enslave you know all of the young women and kill all the men and and blah blah blah, and so the Jewish people were definitely taking slaves, and we see that the Israelites themselves were living in slavery in Egypt for. How many hundreds of years was it? 300? 500? Hundreds of years they were in slavery in Egypt before before they were delivered from Egypt. And we see in the New Testament where it talks about you know we're no longer slaves to sin and so slavery is this this topic that's woven throughout the whole Bible and, and so there's there's there's stuff there to talk about but there's also a lot of Mine Fields and so I thought, we should... you know what.. we should warm up before we keep going but Newms is brain is like. Newms is laser focused on trying to figure out what's going on. Pastor Newms: [4:27] I'm trying not to be. I'm listening and you haven't said anything that needs my input yet. Pastor Bill: [4:35] But we can't warm up if your laser. Pastor Newms: [4:37] I am no no I'm I'm completely here. Trust me, I've been more laser focused on other things in the past times when I might or might not have been running dungeons during this broadcast so I mean this isn't that big of a deal it's just something's really really really wrong and, yeah. Pastor Bill: [5:02] There's nothing we can do about it we just have to record it and then we can push it out. Pastor Newms: [5:06] But we can't upload it in the same way it doesn't work that way on certain of the channels it doesn't do the same thing so. Pastor Bill: [5:26] Okay so how was your week. Pastor Newms: [5:30] Week was pretty good. I had a lot of work this week, was one of my weeks where I have meetings with the execs and so It was, you know, busy because of that but overall it was pretty good. Pretty standard week nothing too spectacular I didn't do anything crazy I did okay so I guess this is a little crazy, I started making bread again which I haven't made bread in said excuse me several several years. And decided this past week to give it a shot again to start trying to make. Bread and so that was good. It turned out pretty well I think so that was fun. Aside from that that's kind of kind of all I did this week. And the problem is is the people that are trying to watch have no idea what's going on because they can't get full sentences from us because we're dropping two-thirds of our stuff so that's why everyone keeps saying things because they, we're literally dropping 66 percent of our of our frames. Pastor Bill: [7:26] All right so how was your week Pastor Bill. Well my week was interesting I don't remember if we talked about it last week about my car the car breaking down. Pastor Newms: [7:37] I don't remember if we did or not. Pastor Bill: [7:41] So the Acura broke down, not this Thursday we just had, but the Thursday before that the the Acura broke down, and that's not awesome because that's our one family car and I worked on it worked on it worked on it couldn't figure out what was wrong with it it's now sitting at a shop. Now I'm getting an alert from teams that my network quality is poor on what I'm sending to you. Pastor Newms: [8:22] It might actually be a Restream issue, I'm hearing there's actually eight reports of Restream issues in the last 10 minutes on Down Detector so there's a chance that it's actually not on our end. But yeah Sunday night's here we go. Pastor Bill: [8:46] Yeah so then we try to get a rental car and that was a no-go Uber apparently over books. For what rental cars they have like we drove to Richardson the closest Uber rental place to pick up the car that we had, reserved and received confirmation for only to find out that they had reserved and sent confirmation to 35 different people for the one car that they had available for the service. And since it's an hour and a half drive we obviously weren't the first people to show up because you know we're not insane we don't hate ourselves we're not going to get up at 6 a.m. to drive to Richardson I guess if we really really really wanted the car we could, um so that's all through but then we found a car to buy so now we have a car that we can drive a 2012 Chevy Traverse so and then once we get our Acura fixed, then we'll have two cars one car for the, Lyft and Uber that Bat-Brains A Bat Brain has been doing and then we'll use the Chevy Traverse as a family vehicle so well actually have two vehicles and be able to do all the things that, a family with two vehicles can do, which will be nice. So that was pretty much my week not a lot of normalcy and a lot of getting up and moving around which my body really doesn't like and so yeah that was my week. So alright let's time for work getting to know the pastor's it's your turn. Pastor Newms: [10:39] Is my turn yeah. Pastor Bill: [10:41] And I just want to preface this by saying Paster Newms, I know that you love my mother with all of your heart. Pastor Newms: [10:51] I do. Pastor Bill: [10:53] And she's a she's a wonderful woman and I have to let you know she does watch these videos, not live she watches him afterwards. Specifically so that she can fast-forward past getting to know the pastor's, and skips everything up until we're done with getting to know the pastor's, so that she can just get into what's going on and I thought I'd let you know that you guys are sympatico there. Pastor Newms: [11:27] It's a terrible terrible. Pastor Bill: [11:31] A terrible bit. Pastor Newms: [11:32] It's a terrible bit that I don't like but it is what it is casual like a lot of things in life. Pastor Bill: [11:41] Is vanities. Pastor Newms: [11:43] Surprising and yes the issue is on Restream because my internet connection is currently at 1 gig up and and. Pastor Bill: [11:51] Oh my gosh we don't need to keep talking about it. Pastor Newms: [11:54] You know we really do cuz it's all I'm going to be able to think about because. You know it's it's in and out in and out in and out so yeah kind of Okay so if you could have 50 pounds of anything other than money what would you want. Pastor Bill: [12:23] And I can do anything with this 50 pounds that I want and it can come from where I specify. Pastor Newms: [12:32] Fifty pounds of anything what do you want. Pastor Bill: [12:36] So I'm going to take 50 pounds of this belly fat and and remove it from my belly and throw it away. Pastor Newms: [12:45] Now it didn't say you could do so safely so now you are dead congratulations. Pastor Bill: [12:51] I've always had this stinkin belly always always it's always it's not you know it gets bigger proportionate to how old I am but I've always had this belly sticking out in front of me regardless. My whole life I've had this but you know a belly sticking out the older I get the bigger the belly yet but it's always been, you know like I'll meet people and and I'll be like oh wow you know eventually the top will come up I weigh this much and they're like you know, seen your face and and seen you from behind you don't look like you'd weigh that much but then I see the belly and I'm like yeah I do, I don't know how I get graced with such voluptuous. Spare tire here but here it is. Pastor Newms: [13:39] The love shoe is spare tire so. Pastor Bill: [13:44] Earlier earlier I called myself a dish a full rack of ribs. Pastor Newms: [13:52] All right 50 pounds of anything I'd have to say no that's not where your brain is going no that's not what we're going to say. Let's just go easy I want 50 pounds of gold. Pastor Bill: [14:10] Gold. What are you going to do with 50 pounds of gold? Pastor Newms: [14:11] Of solid gold well I'm going to sell it. Pastor Bill: [14:18] So like a brick how much does a brick of gold weigh. Pastor Newms: [14:21] 50 lb depends on the size of the brick I'm assuming. Pastor Bill: [14:28] No, there's a standard brick size. Pastor Newms: [14:31] So is there a standard gold brick. 40 troy ounces or 27 pounds no I get a brick and a little more because it's 27.4 pounds. Pastor Bill: [14:49] 40 troy ounces which is 400 regular ounces 27.4 pounds and, maybe not currently but that is valued at about 750,000 u.s. dollars and for those of you listening abroad that's about 11.33 kilograms. Pastor Newms: [15:14] So I'll take I'll take I'll take the one in three four nine tenths or whatever that would be blocks of gold and. Pastor Bill: [15:25] See you on bricks bars strips and slips of just gold not gold pressed latinum just. Pastor Newms: [15:34] Well gold-pressed latinum doesn't work, fictional Universe what I love what I love I was I was watching something I was on YouTube, and it was like how much is a piece of latinum like a gold-pressed latinum, yeah how much is a slip worth how much is a bar worth how in modern. And what they found is they can't answer it and looking through the show, um they specifically we're looking at DS9 but they couldn't figure out what it's actually worth because nothing that they use gold-pressed latinum from, is a valid thing in today's society that you could compare it to, cases of root beer, but they couldn't truly even score that due to the fact of since it was original bottled root beer not replicated, and it had to be shipped across the Galaxy they can't even, like equate that because what is shipping cost in modern so they couldn't. The person who was doing the video was like we don't we don't know. Pastor Bill: [17:10] So I can actually narrow that down some some more for you there the gold and the gold pressed latinum is worthless, it's literally just worthless because it's they can get anywhere in the universe the actual latinum that's inside of it is a liquid. Um there are slips strips. I'm missing one. Pastor Newms: [17:39] I think it was just slips trips and bars. Pastor Bill: [17:42] Sub strips bars bricks and. Anyway the smallest unit the slip if you take a medicine dropper you know like 44 liquid that has one drop. Of liquid latinum inside of it the slip right okay for, ha ha of land on beige or. Is worth five bars. Pastor Newms: [18:22] Yes yes. Pastor Bill: [18:23] Of gold-pressed latinum that is what is that 100 Acre 10 10 acres per hectacre or is it 100 acres per. Pastor Newms: [18:34] The person that I was watching said it's not a real measurement that's used in the show when they talk about the land on beige or. Pastor Bill: [18:46] Don't they use ha. Pastor Newms: [18:47] It's some other measurements. Pastor Bill: [18:51] Okay that does confuse things a bit more than. Pastor Newms: [18:54] That's why they were like there's nothing we can and they're like even if we could figure out how much the land would be worth there's a big difference between Landon rural Texas and Landon rule. Pastor Bill: [19:08] Tennessee yeah. Pastor Newms: [19:11] So you can't really. Pastor Bill: [19:13] Now there is the one episode where. Morn is involved it's a more heavy episode actually more side in the episode but it's a morn episode. Get that through your head and there's the issue of gold bricks, um that were stolen from the royal family of some planet and I'm trying to dance around the details so I don't spoil it too much for you for when we get there we'll because we're watching through DS9. Pastor Newms: [19:49] Cuz I've never finished it. Pastor Bill: [19:52] So basically the long and short of it is they finally find the stolen goods. Except someone has drained all the latinum from them, and basically it was enough value that cork was like I can retire from the bar I can buy the moon I've always wanted heck I can buy multiple moons I never need to work again, and it's just this little container that's like smaller than a smart car, and that cork is in it and he's like breaking open the bricks of gold just and their powdering away and he's crying and and just that pile of. Pastor Newms: [20:38] Goodbye Moon. Pastor Bill: [20:39] Goodbye multiple moons. Pastor Newms: [20:41] Nice it is interesting when you when you take a show like that and they just inflate something and then almost purposely make it to where you can never know what it actually means. Pastor Bill: [20:55] And it doesn't help that you know in that Universe the main society were following, has basically given up monetary anything they don't live in a monetary system anymore it's all a, socialistic communism that is democratically-elected like their Democratic Socialist stick communism, um if you blend it all the best parts of, all of that together. Pastor Newms: [21:24] That's what's fun about a fictional universe is you can do that. Pastor Bill: [21:27] You can do that in a fixture universe and set an example for the real-world look at and aspire to, um which is not what Gene Roddenberry intended but is where the producers of the show went when mr. Roddenberry died. Pastor Newms: [21:44] Now he meant it. Pastor Bill: [21:46] Let's make something for people to Aspire to. Pastor Newms: [21:48] He was a known communist that's all I'm saying. Pastor Bill: [21:50] No he will but he wasn't interested in giving something good to Aspire to he was interested in shoving down your throat why capitalism doesn't work, and why we should be communist that was that was Roddenberry's thing but then after Roddenberry yeah. Okay I think we're sufficiently warmed up what do you think. Pastor Newms: [22:11] I think I want to keep talking about Star Trek and not the actual topic. Pastor Bill: [22:15] And not the actual topic to the topic tonight is it. Pastor Newms: [22:17] We could shift to the Kardashians and then get to the topic. Pastor Bill: [22:21] We really good if you missed it so far we're talking about slavery okay and so the way we're going to start this conversation about slavery Pastor Newms. I'm going to take two minutes. And give a comprehensive defense on the merits and value of slavery. Pastor Newms: [22:53] Why no we do. Pastor Bill: [22:54] Okay because we need to here we go and go. Pastor Newms: [23:03] I'm not going to sit here in silence for two minutes because there's nothing good about it if that's where the joke comes in you're really just going to she's going to sit there for two minutes y'all two minutes of dead air while I have to talk, because he's talking about what's good about slavery which is not I have do not have him you did, for those in radio land he's just quietly sitting there because there are no good merits, and he knows that I have to talk if he's not going to because we can't have dead air on a podcast for 2 minutes. And so he's continuing to look at the camera, I hope he adjusted his beard slightly and nodded but there is there is nothing being talked about because there is nothing good. I think that's two minutes cuz that's not how time works no okay okay. Doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo are you really going to wait the full two minutes okay we're going to wait the full two minutes okay. And now we are playing with a candle which is not to say that candles are the good parts of. Pastor Bill: [24:58] Okay so there you go that is a comprehensive list of all the value and merits of slavery okay slavery is bad. There is no need to debate, the value of slavery or whether it was ever right or whether it was ever good or there's this happened in the Bible that happened in the Bible, slavery bad, now we can go back and we can look at the Bible and we can talk about well this happened and this happened and that happened. But if this is your first time with the Berean Manifesto then you're gonna need to know that when we look back at things that happened in the Old Testament we don't take them out of context, we leave them in their context and we go okay that happened, at that time to those people is that a moral statement on how we should live today. And most likely, most likely the answer is not going to be yes because we're not them and we're not living in a, Warfare ridden Society where it's our city has to fight against your city or our City's going to be destroyed and your city is going to take us as slaves, that we don't live that life we are not those people, we can't look at their situation through the lens of our situation and say well that's an endorsement of slavery from the Bible, because it's not that's that's not how the Bible works newms and I were talking earlier about, um in reference to well why doesn't the Bible can dim slavery why doesn't say slavery is bad. And in some ways it talks about slavery being bad it talks about you know the borrower is a slave to the lender in, in the New Testament it talks about you know you were slaves to sin and Jesus came to set you free it is for Freedom that Christ set you free, and the New Testament talks about you know touches on especially Peter the writings of Peter if you become a Believer while you are a slave, then just trust God and continue living the life that you're in okay, and it's the issue is not honestly it's not whether or not the Bible does or doesn't endorse slavery it's that what the Bible he's doing is missed okay the Bible does not exist and we touched on this in a different concept last week, the Bible does not exist necessarily to challenge your cultural worldview. It exists to bring you the gospel and the basics of what you need to know to understand what salvation is, it does not exist to tell your culture. How to live or to change the world view of your culture that's not what the Bible is for, if you want to weaponize the Bible and try to get people to adhere to your culture because of what the Bible says, then you're using it wrong, the Bible should not be a weapon the Bible should not be an idol the Bible should not be a dust Gathering might eaten piece of nothing that's sitting on your shelf, you know you got to use it you gotta use it appropriately you gotta use it in context right and so, when we talk about slavery and we talk about the kinds of slavery that are mentioned in the Bible yes there's the absolute reprehensible you captured someone they are your slave you are treating them poorly like the Egyptians did you the Israelites like the Israelites did to foreigners from time to time and then you've got another type of slavery which is indentured servant Hood, Venture that servant is that the right word. Pastor Newms: [29:49] Indentured servant is the. Pastor Bill: [29:51] Serve servitude indentured servitude not serve it as in servanthood but it's service servitude. Pastor Newms: [29:57] Oh I heard. Pastor Bill: [29:59] Indentured servitude and basically what indentured servitude is is you have this debt that you can't pay, and so you go and you borrow money from this lender to pay the debt except you have nothing to give the lender, and so since you don't have a job you don't have money you don't have any way to make money you then become an unpaid employee, of this person you live in their household you do what they tell you to do for a certain amount of time in order to pay off the debt you owe to them because of the money that you borrowed, indentured servitude. And when Proverbs 22:7 says the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender, this is specifically what this is talking about indentured servitude and we still have this today, um and thankfully for the Constitution United States of America and then lots of countries following suit, we no longer have debtors prisons, debtors prisons were I go to Wells Fargo when I'll borrow some money if I can't make my monthly payments then I could take you to jail until someone makes my monthly payments for me. That's debtors prison and there's a parable in Matthew, I didn't write down the reference a parable in Matthew where Jesus is talking about a man who owed a debt to the king, and the king called in the debt and the man couldn't pay it and so the king said Okay I want I want you guys to sell this man sell his wife and sell his children, into slavery so I can get my money and the man was like no no please have mercy on me please have mercy me in the king said okay, you go on you go ahead and figure out a way to get me the money and the man went to someone who owed him money and had the man thrown into prison because he couldn't pay him, where the where he would be then be tortured until someone could pay his debt this is debtors prison this is an idea that people have had for a long long long long time, but we basically live in the same institutionalized, indentured servant hood that servitude that the Bible uses the word slavery for. Not saying there's not the bad kind of slavery in the Bible we already acknowledged that and this kind of slavery is bad too, but it still happens people still willingly become an indentured servant, of some conglomerate to provide money for their lives now, we in the capitalist system we have what is basically soft slavery, where your boss says you got to come and give me this amount of hours and I will give you a certain amount of money and trade, this is a type of slavery this is a soft, slavery any contract that you enter into with another person that isn't 100% mutually beneficial and 100%, agreed upon on every term and doesn't lift and encourage and edify both parties lives, is a form of soft slavery. So if you're working. Pastor Newms: [33:46] I prefer the term wage slavery then soft slavery. Pastor Bill: [33:50] Wage slavery Works to I've never heard anybody call it wage slavery before but okay. Pastor Newms: [33:56] It's actually the common term being used Now by social lists interesting. Pastor Bill: [34:01] Never heard it before yes they should work harder and getting their social lists public published so I can read them. Because I never heard that term before okay um and then we have. Deeper and darker versions of soft slavery. Um for instance the contracts that actors signed to be in Marvel movies. You can only say this list of things, you cannot say this list of things you can only eat this these things you can only go to these places you must be here here and here when I say that you must be here and here and here, you must weigh this amount of this amount for every way in regardless and even if we do surprise weigh-ins you better not be announced over, you have to do this you can't do that you had all on and on and on these Marvel contracts are, tantamount to slavery that these people are somehow. Pastor Newms: [35:11] Disney's even worse I think for their child actors. Pastor Bill: [35:14] Yes Disney with a child actress K-pop K-pop has long had a history of it's just straight slavery, it's not if we're not even play like these Studio these people sign away their lives to be a Slave, for however long the country just 7 years 10 years so that when the contracts over the hope is they'll have made a name for themselves and then can have a, a career in the industry. Pastor Newms: [35:43] Yep a lot of music is like that sadly even in America. Pastor Bill: [35:46] So we we still have slavery that we look at and go oh yeah it's just the way things are done. Absolutely I don't know how I got back off the topic but we had we were talking earlier about divorce you and I and. In relation to things the Bible says that God is not necessarily for but then tells you how to. Pastor Newms: [36:15] I forgot that conversation. Pastor Bill: [36:17] So we were talking about divorce because the Bible that God doesn't specifically say in the Bible I'm anti-slavery don't own another human being. Um but he does it is stated that God is against divorce and yet because, the people in the cultures that God met with, to give the law to in to give the word to and all this stuff because they had hard hearts and were a stubborn people that wanted divorce even though it wasn't something got approved of. He allowed it. And even gave them you know. Stipulations on if you're gonna then at least do it this way you know, and so it's God is against if you know and so nobody looks at the Bible and goes well God endorses divorce, because he told them how to do divorces everybody looks to the bottom and goes yeah Gods against divorce it's messy it's wrong it's bad, and yeah he told them here's how you minimize the damage of divorce if you do it this way, it's going to be better it's not going to be great, right but then you got people look in the Bible and going got endorse his divorce got sorry got invoices endorses slavery because dedicated uh or God endorses abortion because, there was this this one thing about women if a man thinks his wife is cheating on him then he should go and do this thing. Let's just not have a Bible works. Pastor Newms: [38:03] Yeah and the Bible says things like you know all men are created in God's image you know men humankind, in God's image you know it talks about how in the can Revelation it talks about, every tribe Every Nation we're all in heaven together you know things like that so it's evident by. Guessing and you know assumptions that you know God views all humans as valid and I think. Pastor Bill: [38:42] Well now you're touching on Rachel slavery witch isn't even mentioned the Bible at all there's not one example of racial slavery anywhere in the Bible. Pastor Newms: [38:53] Well I don't mean even racial slavery it when all tribes are doing something because a lot of it was classist. Pastor Bill: [38:59] Okay well it's just where my brain went when you said you know we're all the same we're all good my mind automatically equates that to ya all races are the same we're all equal we're all. Pastor Newms: [39:11] Even even a lot of a lot of the older versions of slavery were not racial slavery they were, class slavery like what you're talking about in certain cultures there's a caste system. Pastor Bill: [39:30] I just I just want. Pastor Newms: [39:31] You know things like that. Pastor Bill: [39:32] Tack on to what I'm saying there when I think about race I've it's like it's like um. [39:42] It's not. Pastor Newms: [39:46] Don't ask me I don't know what you're talking about. Pastor Bill: [39:49] What are those frozen treats that are nice cream but they're frozen and you eat them popsicles, it's like popsicles popsicles come in different colors and flavors but they all the same thing and they're all delicious. Pastor Newms: [40:06] No that's not true I'm sorry. Pastor Bill: [40:07] Races races the same way we come in different colors and we come in different flavors. Pastor Newms: [40:12] Behind that no because the Tangerine there's no reason to have Tangerine popsicles I'm sorry like I can't agree with you. Pastor Bill: [40:19] Well that's just your color if flavor wrist opinion you flavor rest but they're all they're all pops. Pastor Newms: [40:25] I agree and at some point in the last 15 minutes the stream fixed itself so it had to be restream because we didn't do anything. Pastor Bill: [40:36] So welcome we're talking about Popsicles tonight. Pastor Newms: [40:39] I just looked I just looked at the screen and I look down and it's green and, are dropped frames are dropping we're down at like 50 something percent and so at some point it fixed itself I don't know when but. Pastor Bill: [40:58] The people are researching went oh crap we gotta fix our stuff man. Pastor Newms: [41:02] Yeah it's probably what it was, or twitch just wasn't sure we were going with the slavery topic so they didn't want us to actually post it yet no like okay now they're not going the right we thought okay cool just let the stream go through. Pastor Bill: [41:18] Slavery bad slavery bad. People good. We love people. I like saying. Pastor Newms: [41:28] I understand. Pastor Bill: [41:33] Biggs says slave popsicle. See one popsicle can't enslave the other popsicle there popsicles are all equal. Pastor Newms: [41:45] What about the Popsicles that are stuck together and then you have to break them apart is that breaking up a marriage. Pastor Bill: [41:50] Those are married and you've instituted a divorce you evil being. Pastor Newms: [41:53] Oh that's just rude I'm sorry. All right yeah so I mean that's that's that's that's all I wanted to say. Pastor Bill: [42:19] Try Jesus don't try me. Pastor Newms: [42:25] So that's one of my favorite songs and it's all about ignoring a Biblical principle which is don't beat people up but at a point of it it says. Pastor Bill: [42:37] Lay hands upon them swiftly. Pastor Newms: [42:39] Yeah the there's a, there's a there's a part in it that says I know what the Bible says about getting slapped but that part of the Bible just don't sit right with me, try Jesus not me and we had a we had a friend in our game that we play, who some stuff happened and he did something he shouldn't have done and he's apologizing about it and I was like nah nah nah it's been this kind of week we going to kill him anyway, even though you were in the wrong to begin with because you're one of us, and they put your their hands on you so I'm going to go put my hands on them and, needless to say I was not the good example and actually said please do not tell feet which is Bill's name in the game that I am saying this because he will get onto me later, but, let's do it and then I posted that song could go see Jesus I'm will kill your ship I'ma blow I'm gonna blow your boat, but um. Pastor Bill: [43:52] I remember wondering that war with Q over their leader doing what he did with the homophobic slurs and all that, and they were like you're a Christian you're being a hypocrite what about what would Jesus do, and I and I said well he given his history he's likely to make a weapon. And beat you with it and that's the Jesus you're getting out of me right now. Pastor Newms: [44:22] Yeah I was not a strong suit day for you you are a little upset that day. Pastor Bill: [44:28] That day that two weeks I was very upset. Pastor Newms: [44:31] Well he said things that were inappropriate and not just he insulted women. People I mean it was a whole it was a whole thing like anyway um and that's one of the things we have to do as Christians is stand up for, people and treat them how Jesus would treat them which sometimes is taking their offenses and, defending them now in a video. Pastor Bill: [45:01] If you think. Pastor Newms: [45:02] And people up is easy. Pastor Bill: [45:04] That's social justice and Christianity are incompatible then I think you misunderstand both. Because Christianity is heavily rooted in social justice and you cannot turn a blind eye to this to to the struggles of your brother. And say that you love God at the same time that's not Christianity. Pastor Newms: [45:41] And and that's a huge thing in talking about slavery standing up for those that are, oppressed, still you know your people who are stuck in the darkest forms of slavery that are current in today's society of owning humans and trafficking them and such, we have to stand up against that, and you can't turn a blind eye to it we were talking the other day about something and someone brought up you know do you know how many Indians Native Americans disappear every year off of reservations, and no one ever hears from them and you know, it's one of those things where it's like sadly and it's ridiculous and, you know we have to stand against those kinds of things and help where we can. Pastor Bill: [46:44] You know when the government set up reservations, and said we're going to gift you this land the bulk of Native American people from what I've, been taught and read and heard we're on board cool we can govern ourselves we can look after our own stuff that it. It was it was just another example of a really really bad idea, because instead of embracing people, and using their knowledge and and elevating them to places of leadership and learning from their wisdom and incorporating them into our culture and, you know helping look after these people we created these little islands of. Not quite self-sustaining cultures that now. They deal with these issues of like you said people going missing and nobody getting a chance to hear about it somebody was taking pictures of what they pay in the grocery store for things like ketchup, it was like six bucks for just a regular jar of ketchup and and on and on and on I all these really heavily inflated prices because, everything has to be imported or exported from their reservation because they're not considered part of u.s. territory. And so they've they're literally there's this choke hold, on these reservations in the people that are living there and and if you if you live near that and you think that's not your problem and you're a Christian then. You need to think again, did there's this is just as there's things that are not right and when we say things like well if only the government would love to church do its job, that's that's deflecting only say That's supposed to be the church's job. Your church is it getting involved that's deflecting the things that are supposed to be the church's job. It's supposed to be the church is job I am the church you are the church. Every Christian every believer makes up the church things that are supposed to be the church's job that's you and I as Believers responsibility. You and I are supposed to be leading programs to feed the poor, take care of widows and orphans to look out for the underprivileged the disenfranchised the prisoner, the slave I mean literally go read what Jesus said where were you when I was hungry, when I was thirsty when I was poor and naked when I was in prison and sick where were you. Because it is your responsibility and is my responsibility. And when we talk about things like slavery and we automatically think physical slavery. We haven't missed the point. But we need to expand what we're thinking about because there are people that are spiritually in slavery, to alcoholism drugs sex addiction poverty it's all around us. And it's our job as individuals that make up the church. To bring the good news to people that are enslaved to the darkness not with the attempt to change their world view. It's not our job to stand on the street corner and revolutionize the way someone sees the world. It's our job to bring the cold a blanket and show them that they are loved and that they do have value. That is the beginning of the Gospel words come later worldview comes later. That's all I have to say about slavery had no idea where that was going to go tonight but I think I think we finally caught a a stream of Direction there. The Berean Manifesto we record live every Sunday evening and when technology allows us, it goes well and you can watch it live with us at 6:30 p.m. Central Standard Time We stream to YouTube twitch and Facebook once again when the technology works right, however we record the audio for this separately from what we stream live and so the audio is recorded and does come out on Wednesday nights as a, podcast at 7 p.m. Central Standard Time anywhere that you get your podcasts you can find the Berean Manifesto there, we bring you faith hope and love for the, modern Christian so hopefully you can come back and join us either in future to listen a future podcast or joining us live where you can. Enjoy the things that don't make it into the Final Cut, um podcast and see the technical difficulties that we face not that newms can stop talking about it long enough for it to not show up on the podcast because I ain't going through and editing all that out that's way too much work, um and you can come and feel the awkwardness with us when we feel like the Holy Spirit wants us to talk about things like slavery, Joy yeah, and then you can actually participate in the chat via twitch Facebook YouTube and it'll all stream into our Discord server where I have it open here so I can you can be a part of the conversation as the questions bring rare bottles. Literally be a part of the conversation so yeah we'd like for more people to come and be a part of what's going on so, join us sometime we'd love to have you here now that my life is reached well that of that I've got my car problems figured out for the moment perhaps we'll do some gaming with the pastor's this week, and so you can come hang out with us on Twitch Pastor newms is channel on Twitch you can go to EKK.house to find out more about how you can get a hold of us and what channels were using when we are live, and we love you guys we honestly want to bring a focus on faith hope and love and grow together and encourage everyone, to not just blindly believe what you're taught or what we teach you, but to be Berean digging in the scriptures for yourself I hope you have a great week and I love you guys. Pastor Newms: Stay safe out there. Pastor Bill: And Until next time...

Yesterday, Boyd sat down with Democratic Socialist Ben Burgis. Lots of listeners loved the discussion, but some wondered what he was thinking talking with someone so different politically. Boyd chats about the value of listening to, and not challenging, those with whom you may have significant disagreements. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam hosts Jamelle Bouie, opinion columnist at the New York Times and co-host of the Unclear and Present Danger podcast, to wrap up the week in news! And in the second half, Sam is joined by Jamie Peck, in her triumphant return to MR (!) and Jorge Rocha, co-hosts of the Everybody Loves Communism podcast! Jamelle starts off with a dive into his new 90's political-military thrillers podcast, before he and Sam get into the state of the Build Back Better bill, as it passes a House vote after a late night, in which Kevin McCarthy showed us why talking filibusters, while they force us to hear from some of the worst people, is drastically better than invoking cloture. Next, they get into the content of the bill, walking through the expansion in SALT deductions as an annoyingly large part of the $1.75 trillion package, as well as looking at the state of the Manchin and Sinema votes, and whether Democratic leadership successfully got rid of everything they didn't want, and included everything they did want. They also discuss the impact the passing of the bill is already having on the approval of the Democrats (other than Biden), and what this means heading into a midterm in which the GOP, simply by nature of re-gerrymandering borders, have picked up at least five very necessary seats. They wrap up the interview by touching on Bouie's recent piece for the NYT on structural racism, its relationship to capitalism's reliance on inequality, and what it would mean for remnants of racism in a truly restructured and redistributed society. Then, Jamie and Jorge hop on to discuss a variety of important audio projects they're working on, before getting into the state of the US's Democratic Socialist movement, and why, in the wake of the incredible leftist and abolitionist organizing that we saw with the George Floyd uprisings and COVID pandemic, the DSA has an essential task of taking a look outside of explicitly electoral organizing. Sam also covers John Kennedy misunderstanding comrade as a term of endearment in his fear-mongering during Saule Omarova's confirmation hearing. And in the Fun Half: After breaking down the announcement of the Rittenhouse decision, and the hypocrisy of the right screaming about being silenced when called racist, but being fully behind the murder of protesters. Next, Sam and the MR crew cover Kevin McCarthy's campaign to keep his house leadership position, centering the important issues of God and fentanyl in his country, Jordan Pederson reminds us that if you don't acknowledge structures, then no problem can structural, and Ben Shapiro says propaganda can't be animated. A Denver journalist takes on the incredibly low standards for Lauren Boebert, plus, your IMs!   Purchase tickets for the live show in Boston on January 16th HERE! https://thewilbur.com/artist/majority-report/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here. Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ (Merch issues and concerns can be addressed here: majorityreportstore@mirrorimage.com) You can now watch the livestream on Twitch Check out today's sponsors: sunsetlakecbd is a majority employee owned farm in Vermont, producing 100% pesticide free CBD products. Great company, great product and fans of the show! Use code Leftisbest and get 20% off at http://www.sunsetlakecbd.com. And now Sunset Lake CBD has donated $2500 to the Nurses strike fund, and we encourage MR listeners to help if they can. Here's a link to where folks can donate: https://forms.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/ Tushy: Hello Tushy cleans your butt with a precise stream of fresh water for just $79. It attaches to your existing toilet – requires NO electricity or additional plumbing – and cuts toilet paper use by 80% – so the Hello Tushy bidet pays for itself in a few months. Go to hellotushy.com/majority to get 10% off today! Support the St. Vincent Nurses today as they continue to strike for a fair contract! https://action.massnurses.org/we-stand-with-st-vincents-nurses/ Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Subscribe to AM Quickie writer Corey Pein's podcast News from Nowhere, at https://www.patreon.com/newsfromnowhere Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! Subscribe to Matt's other show Literary Hangover on Patreon! Check out The Letterhack's upcoming Kickstarter project for his new graphic novel! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milagrocomic/milagro-heroe-de-las-calles Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel! Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! Check out The Nomiki Show live at 3 pm ET on YouTube at patreon.com/thenomikishow Check out Jamie's podcast, The Antifada, at patreon.com/theantifada, on iTunes, or at twitch.tv/theantifada (streaming every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm ET!) Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Follow Jamie's record label House of Feelings here (and check out her DJ set tonight at Wonderville in Brooklyn here!) Follow North Brooklyn DSA here!  

The city of Minneapolis will start a recount Friday of ballots in the Ward 2 City Council race. Candidate Yusra Arab lost the race to Democratic Socialists of America candidate Robin Wonsley Worlobah by just 19 votes in the final round of ballots. Arab has said she wants to make sure that all votes are counted. Wonsley Worlobah has said she is confident of her win.  This is an MPR News morning update for Tuesday, November 16, 2021. Hosted by Cathy Wurzer. Our theme music is by Gary Meister.

www.commsolutionsmn.com- Usually our odd-year elections are met with a collective yawn... but not so this year. We know that next to no one votes, so it becomes easy for the activists to motivate their base to get out there and vote. Even in Minneapolis (which has been running to the left at a full clip), has decisively voted down the measure to replace the Police Department with a department of Public Safety. It turns out that people like to be safe... who knew? Even their city council saw a bunch of turnover, but the results are confusing. The Ward 2 Green Party candidate (who supported dismantling the police department) lost to the Democratic Socialist (who also supported the effort to dismantle). I really don't understand. There were other weird results too. Anti-CRT school board candidates did very well across the state of Minnesota. We run down the list. We try to take a stab at deciphering Ranked Choice Voting. No dice, but it's funny to hear us try. No wonder we can't keep any of it straight. We really should take more care to protect our electoral system. Also, Robbinsdale Public Schools are putting a vaccine mandate into place for all staff. Sure, they are voting on it at the November 15th school board meeting, but keep in mind that they have been talking with the teacher's unions to come to a consensus. It's also not applied equally, as each union has a different consequences for non-compliance. Have you checked out our Spotify playlist? At the beginning of each episode, Jason quotes some song lyrics that have to do with the subject matter of the podcast. Andrew never knows what they are, but now he can… and so can you! We've launched the Spotify playlist: “Community Solutions Music From the Podcast!” You can listen to Roundabout from Yes after listing to Episode 30 on Roundabouts… or kick back and enjoy a rocking playlist just for the thrill of it. We add a new song every week. Subscribe and enjoy! Don't forget that you can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify!

"Changing the Future with India Walton... Buffalo drew attention this election season after first-time candidate, long-time activist, India Walton won the Democratic primary, positioning her to become this Democratic city's first African American woman and first Democratic Socialist mayor."

The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests. "Changing the Future with India Walton... Buffalo drew attention this election season after first-time candidate, long-time activist, India Walton won the Democratic primary, positioning her to become this Democratic city's first African American woman and first Democratic Socialist mayor." Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 at http://Patreon.com/theLFShow

The F-Word is released bi-weekly featuring timely commentaries by Laura Flanders and guests."Changing the Future with India Walton... Buffalo drew attention this election season after first-time candidate, long-time activist, India Walton won the Democratic primary, positioning her to become this Democratic city's first African American woman and first Democratic Socialist mayor."Flex your media muscles, become a monthly sustaining member for $3, $5, $12 

This week, Jon and Bron discuss the Astroworld fiasco, help a listener gain some confidence, and laugh at the absurdity that occurred at the Democratic Socialist convention. Get 20% Off and Free Shipping at Manscaped.com with code: DADDYISSUES20Follow us on Instagram @daddy_issuespodcast and Twitter @daddy_issuespod

On this Wednesday episode of THE POLITICRAT daily podcast: Omar Moore on part 2 of Election Night in the USA—the aftermath. Plus: A deep dive in some of the election races including the remarkable though unsurprising predicament of India Walton, the Democratic Socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York. And: Exactly one year after the 2020 election. November 3, 2021. Please get involved! Call President Biden on the WH comments line: 202-456-1111 and call U.S. senators at 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121. Tell the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act and the For The People Act. FREE: SUBSCRIBE NOW TO THE BRAND NEW POLITICRAT DAILY PODCAST NEWSLETTER!! Extra content, audio, analysis, exclusive essays for subscribers only, plus special offers and discounts on merchandise at The Politicrat Daily Podcast online store. Something new and informative EVERY DAY!! Subscribe FREE at https://politicrat.substack.com Buy podcast merchandise (all designed by Omar Moore) and lots more at The Politicrat Daily Podcast Store: https://the/politicrat.myshopify.com The Politicrat YouTube page: bit.ly/3bfWk6V The Politicrat Facebook page: bit.ly/3bU1O7c The Politicrat blog: https://politicrat.politics.blog PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to this to this podcast! Follow/tweet Omar at: https://twitter.com/thepopcornreel

Support the show by becoming a member as a monthly supporter for $3 $5 or more at https://Patreon.com/theLFShow  We do not accept corporate or government funding.  We rely on you!  Full Episode Notes are posted at Patreon.com/theLFShow for members and non-members.Eyes across the nation are on the mayoral election in Buffalo, New York, where insurgent candidate India Walton could become the first Black woman—and first Democratic Socialist—to lead the city. Laura Flanders first interviewed Walton in 2019 as part of a profile of community organizations in that city. Two years later in June 2021, Walton shocked the Democratic establishment when she won Buffalo's Democratic primary. Supporters say her win speaks to the strength of grassroots organizing around the city's plans for its economic future  and signals a shift in power at the local level. But Buffalo's four-term incumbent Byron Brown, also a Democrat, challenged Walton's primary victory, and ran as a write-in candidate. Will the election prove to be a referendum on centrist versus progressive Democrats? And what has it been like to be Walton, in this campaign? Flanders returned to Buffalo for an interview with Walton just as the first time candidate was receiving support from Rep Ocasio Cortez and Senators Schumer and Gillebrand but the state party chairman had just compared her to David Duke and Democratic Governor Hochul had refused to take a position. What is the significance of this election?Guests:India Walton, Mayoral Candidate, Democrat, Buffalo, NYJesse Myerson, Communications Director, India Walton CampaignDrisana Hughes, Campaign Manager, India Walton CampaignChristopher P. Scanlon, South District Council Member, Buffalo, New YorkLouisa Pocheco, Chair of Western New York Chapter, Working Families PartyDivya Sundaram, New York Working Families PartyJay Jacobs, New York State Democratic Committee Chair

You're listening to Revolutions Per Minute live from the new WBAI studios, a socialist radio show and podcast from members of New York City Democratic Socialists of America. The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with 95,000 members nationwide and NYC-DSA is its biggest chapter. We are run by our 9,000+ members and organizers who are working together to build democratic socialism in all five boroughs. A UAW worker on strike at a John Deere facility in Iowa was killed on the picket lines early this morning. We send our love and solidarity to his loved ones and his ten thousand union brothers and sisters still out there fighting for a dignified life. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. Unionization efforts and the strike wave continue to spread. Amazon workers in Staten Island announced an NLRB petition earlier this week. Thousands of academic workers unionized at the University of Pittsburgh while thousands more at Harvard today launched a three day work stoppage. Columbia academic workers walked out today are prepared to hit the picket lines next week here in New York. 45,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have authorized a strike. NYC-DSA members this past weekend stood in solidarity with 2,000 healthcare workers on strike at Catholic Mercy Hospital in Buffalo. We'll hear from Charlie Baker on this struggle and the rally for DSA endorsed Mayoral candidate India Walton. Dozens of DSA candidates are running in races across the country from Massachusetts to New York to Florida. Jorge from Joel Brooks campaign in Jersey City joins to discuss their city council campaign in its final week. We'll also hear a special report from Lee on the victorious struggle led by NYC-DSA Ecosocialist Working Group to prevent a fracked gas power plant from being built in Astoria.

What can the mayoral election in Buffalo, NY tell us about the current rifts between the center and the left in the Democratic party nationwide? On Today's Show:Robert McCarthy, political reporter at The Buffalo News, discusses the mayoral race in there, in which the incumbent Byron Brown is running a write-in campaign urging voters to support him, despite his loss to India Walton in the Democratic primary.

https://youtu.be/CNKHDifCOc0 The only viable definition of monopoly is a grant of privilege from the government. It therefore becomes quite clear that it is impossible for the government to decrease monopoly by passing punitive laws. Th e only way for the government to decrease monopoly, if that is the desideratum, is to remove its own monopoly grants. The antitrust laws, therefore, do not in the least “diminish monopoly.” What they do accomplish is to impose a continual, capricious harassment of efficient business enterprise. Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, p. 1117 Odysee BitChute Spotify Minds Flote Archive

If you find value in the content, please consider donating to my PayPal KeithKnight590@gmail.com LBRY: https://lbry.tv/@KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone:b BitChute: KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone https://www.bitchute.com/channel/keithknightdonttreadonanyone/ Minds: https://www.minds.com/KeithKnightDontTreadOnAnyone/ MeWe: mewe.com/i/keithknight25 Flote: https://flote.app/VoluntaryistKeith Gab: https://gab.com/Voluntarykeith Twitter: @an_capitalist The Libertarian Institute: https://libertarianinstitute.org/dont-tread-on-anyone/ One Great Work Network: https://www.onegreatworknetwork.com/keith-knight

Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa--the dean of city council Democratic Socialists--returns to tell you everything you need to know about Mayor Lightfoot's bizarre comments at a recent meeting with Latino caucus members. Those comments include the claim that's she's a better mayor than Mayor Harold Washington (which is like Alex Caruso saying he's better than Michael Jordan) and that she's done a "fuck ton" for the Black wards. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A strike wave is spreading across the United States. Thousands of nurses, carpenters, miners, factory workers, teachers and other workers are taking a stand against the big shots who steal the fruits of our labor. Unionization drives of academic, healthcare, and media workers have brought tens of thousands of new brothers and sisters into the organized labor movement. 60,000 IATSE film workers have authorized a sector strike in the entertainment industry as the hundreds of thousands of members in entertainment unions like SAG, WGA, and the DGA alongside the Democratic Socialists of America have committed to standing in solidarity. Has labor begun to turn the tide against capital in the United States? While Red for Ed and higher education unions across the country have launched major strikes of hundreds of thousands of workers united with their students over the past three years, the public sector stasis has yet to be broken in the heart of American social democracy. DSA members and other socialist labor organizers are preparing to bring the education strike wave to New York City. A huge coalition is building for the New Deal for CUNY. PSC, NYC-DSA, and YDSA organizers at CUNY campuses are uniting for a plan that will pay academic workers a living wage and make CUNY tuition free. As a historian and union worker and organizers at CUNY this fight is personal to me. NYC-DSA Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest spoke with us at NYC-DSA convention about the New Deal for CUNY and a potential political strike to make that happen. We'll also talk with my comrades in PSC and hear from YDSA organizers.

Progressives have had a lot of legislative setbacks in Washington, D.C. lately. Political commentator and author Ben Burgis joins Boyd to talk about what has gone right and what he thinks Democratic Socialists and Progressives should do to get their policies enacted. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caleb Maupin is a journalist who is the author of the new book BreadTube Serves Imperialism: Examining The New Brand of Internet Psuedo-Socialism. On the show we discuss what BreadTube (or LeftTube) is, and how it has ties to the likes of Steven Hassan, Jacobin and the Democratic Socialists of America. We discuss BreadTube influencers like Vaush and Thought Slime, and draw parallels between BreadTube, The Young Turks (TYT), the Gravel Teens, and Green Party corruption. Caleb also responds to criticisms about his attending a conference with Alexander Dugin in 2018, and that Caleb is a "Nazbol" who engages in "class reductionism." Join the conversation! Submit questions to guests by becoming a PRIMO RADICAL patron for only $1 a month on Patreon: https://patreon.com/primoradicalSubscribe to PRIMO RADICAL on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!https://primoradical.com/ https://facebook.com/primoradical/ https://twitter.com/primoradical/ https://instagram.com/primoradical/https://minds.com/primoradical/https://youtube.com/c/primoradical/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/primonutmeg)

Today, homelessness expert and cohost Shannon Dominguez-Stevens walks us through this year's homeless deaths report, how to support our unhoused neighbors and how a new Sacramento lawsuit could halt the city's $100 million plan to address homelessness.   We also discuss an absurd push poll leveled against Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela (here's her letter to constituents about it). The poll, which was sent to registered voters in the councilmember's district, called Valenzuela an "avowed Democratic Socialist" and tried to paint her as an ineffective politician.   Whoever wanted this smear campaign done paid Democratic consultant Jonathan Brown of Sextant Strategies to carry it out.   Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity   Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.   If you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to info@voicesrivercity.com and we'll make it happen.   And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.  

The final episode features co-hosts Hannah Perez-Postman and Adam Brock and their guest speakers, Candi Cdebaca and Yoshi Silverstein. They discuss environmental justice and how to create equal access and rights to a healthy environment, including land, water, air, and food through the lens of Shmita. You will also hear what brought them to their work as activists and what we all can do to contribute to and organize for a more just society for everyone. Candi Cdebaca- Member of the Denver City Council, 9th District. CdeBaca is a proud fifth-generation native of northeast Denver, Colorado, and a graduate of Manual High School and the University of Denver. Raised by a single mother and grandparents, Candi understands the importance of tight-knit communities and stepping up for neighbors in need. Candi is also the first LGBTQ Latina and first Democratic Socialist to serve on Denver City Council. She is a fierce advocate for justice and against the criminalization of poverty, environmental racism, and the displacement of Denver's black and brown communities. Yoshi Silverstein- Founder and Executive Director, Mitsui Collective. Yoshi is a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew and an educator, coach, speaker, husband, and father. Yoshi was Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon from its launch through its first four cohorts, catalyzing the growth and leadership of over 60 emerging professionals working across the US and Canada in the realm of Jewish relationship to land, food, culture, climate, and community. He holds over two decades of experience in both Jewish and secular outdoor, food, farming, and environmental education.

Co-hosts Will Beaman, Natalie Smith, and Maxximilian Seijo discuss recent critiques of the Sunrise Movement by influential members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on social media and in the pages of Jacobin Magazine. Problematizing the DSAers destructive zero-sum rhetoric regarding the allegedly correct “theory of change,” the gang suggests an alternative mode for organizational provisioning, rooted in neither the sovereignty of a dues-paying membership structure nor the sovereignty of “outside” donors. It is impossible to take part in an interdependent social organization that knows no externality because everyone is responsible to everyone else, whether inside or outside a particular organization. Misunderstanding inter-organizational dependence, the Superstructure co-hosts argue, has led these writers to accuse Sunrise of “social disembeddedness,” a reactionary charge with little basis in reality. In contrast, the Superstructure team proffers a self-consciously generative and analogical model of social coordination that opens organizational activity to diversity and difference. Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting. http://flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com Twitter: @actualflirting

Co-hosts Will Beaman, Natalie Smith, and Maxximilian Seijo discuss recent critiques of the Sunrise Movement by influential members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on social media and in the pages of Jacobin Magazine. Problematizing the DSAers destructive zero-sum rhetoric regarding the allegedly correct “theory of change,” the gang suggests an alternative mode for organizational provisioning, rooted in neither the sovereignty of a dues-paying membership structure nor the sovereignty of “outside” donors. It is impossible to take part in an interdependent social organization that knows no externality because everyone is responsible to everyone else, whether inside or outside a particular organization. Misunderstanding inter-organizational dependence, the Superstructure co-hosts argue, has led these writers to accuse Sunrise of “social disembeddedness,” a reactionary charge with little basis in reality. In contrast, the Superstructure team proffers a self-consciously generative and analogical model of social coordination that opens organizational activity to diversity and difference.Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.http://flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.comTwitter: @actualflirting

Our Hosts Linqua Franqa and Dope KNife have a chat with Democratic Socialist candidate for Minniapolis city council, Robin Wonsley Worlobah about their journey to running for office, police brutality and the need for rent control Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Today Crystal is joined by a very special co-host and KIRO 7 political reporter, Essex Porter! They cover what happened in this week's primary elections, whether or not there were any real upsets or surprises, and we may see over the next few months heading into the November general election. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal on Twitter at @finchfrii, and find Essex at @EssexKIRO7.    Resources “Harrell, González will likely compete to be next Seattle mayor” by David Kroman from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2021/08/harrell-gonzalez-will-likely-compete-be-next-seattle-mayor  “Incumbent Pete Holmes slips to third place in Seattle city attorney race after Thursday's ballot count” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/incumbent-pete-holmes-slips-to-third-place-in-seattle-city-attorney-race-after-thursdays-ballot-count/  “6 takeaways from ballots counted Tuesday in Seattle area's 2021 primary election” by Jim Brunner from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/6-takeaways-from-ballots-counted-tuesday-in-seattles-2021-primary-election/  “Primary election results: Harrell, González lead mayor's race” by Crosscut Staff: https://crosscut.com/politics/2021/08/primary-election-results-harrell-gonzalez-lead-mayors-race  Read Hacks & Wonks interviews with candidates that are likely to move on to the November election: Mayoral candidate, Lorena González: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/f9428eab/conversation-with-lorena-gonzalez-city-council-president-and-mayoral-candidate  District 9 City Council candidate, Nikkita Oliver: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/300d5a84/nikkita-oliver-activist-organizer-city-council-candidate  District 9 City Council candidate, Sara Nelson: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/29584c47/discussion-with-sara-nelson-city-council-candidate  City Attorney candidate, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/20c5baf6/nicole-thomas-kennedy-candidate-for-city-attorney  King County Executive, Dow Constantine: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/1e6eecae/a-chat-with-dow-constantine-king-county-executive  King County Executive candidate, Senator Joe Nguyen: https://www.officialhacksandwonks.com/listenpodcast/episode/1e38d0ac/meet-senator-and-kc-exec-candidate-joe-nguyen-again    Transcript Crystal Fincher: [00:00:00] Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows, where we review the news of the week. Welcome to the program - I'm extremely happy and excited to welcome today's co-host, KIRO-7 political reporter, Essex Porter. Hey Essex! Essex Porter: [00:00:54] Hello, and good to be here. Crystal Fincher: [00:00:57] Excellent to have you here. Well, I'm thrilled to have you on the program. You are known to everyone as the person who lets us know what's going on with politics here locally on TV. So we just had a big primary election earlier this week and we have vote-in-mail here in the state, so we don't get all of the results on Election Day. We get them in batches in the days - on Election Day and throughout the week. Usually most races are clear by the end of the week, and most races are clear with one or two hanging in the balance. So I guess, starting with the mayor's race, what was your feeling on just the result that we got? Essex Porter: [00:01:45] The result was not surprising. We expected former City Council President Bruce Harrell to be in the lead on election night and he is. We pretty much expected current City Council President Lorena González to come in second and make the November ballot - and she did. The other two - three and four - Colleen Echohawk, number three, Jessyn Farrell, number four. That was pretty much expected as well. And the Northwest Progressive Institute poll pretty much nailed where they would come in. I think they were tied pretty much in that poll, or close to tied in that poll. And that's exactly the order they showed up in. So we have the November election matchup that we expected, but we'll see if there are surprises between now and November. It's a long time away. Crystal Fincher: [00:02:41] It is a long time away - a lot of communication yet to go. Where we stand today, and today we're recording this Friday morning - people will be starting to listen to this on Friday afternoon. We still have yesterday's results. We don't have the Friday results in yet. There are probably going to be another 20,000-ish votes counted today in Seattle is what we're anticipating. But as it stands right now, Bruce Harrell is just shy of 37% - 36.9%. And then Lorena González is at just shy of 30%, so 29.6%. With Colleen Echohawk further behind, in third place, but at 9% - I think that's further behind than a lot of people expected her to be. Some of the polling showed that she was closer, that she had a potentially significant upside after people heard her message and how she talked about herself. Why do you think that that result didn't line up with expectations? Essex Porter: [00:03:46] Well, yeah, interestingly and the only poll I'd really seen, was the public one by Northwest Progressive Institute, which had her roughly where she is ending up, as I recall. I think it had her right at 8%, but there was a large number of undecided people in the race. Perhaps for Colleen Echohawk, who has been a very strong candidate when you see her in person - but of course it's hard to meet everybody in person, and you really have to get a message out there when you are someone who has not been in the headlines of the public eye for as long as Councilmembers Harrell and González had been. Now Colleen Echohawk has a very public profile, she's just not as well-known. And I think the result can be heartening for her and her supporters, and can point certainly to a future in Seattle politics, even if she's not going to be on the ballot this November. Crystal Fincher: [00:05:00] Absolutely, and I think you nailed it. It really is, for people who pay attention to politics - a number of people who listen to this podcast are more plugged-in than the average person when it comes to political news. So we can - we're more exposed, we're more in tune with all the news coming out - where the candidates stand, who they are, what their histories are. But the average Seattle voter is not us. We are abnormal. The biggest opponent for a candidate is not the person or people who they are running against. It's everything else in a voter's life that is competing for attention. There's a lot going on right now in the world. We're dealing with a pandemic, people are figuring out what they're doing with their kids and school and work and home and remote, and just a lot going on, in addition to everything else that's going on in life. And so lots of people don't start paying attention until they notice that they get their ballot in the mail and their voter's pamphlet. And in that time, you really have to communicate really effectively with a message that penetrates and captures people's attention. Certainly that's simpler to do when there's familiarity with a candidate. So people who had been Councilmembers and incumbents enjoyed that. They'd been on ballots before, voters were already familiar with them. People who voters weren't very familiar with in the mayor's race, they just didn't seem to - their message didn't seem to penetrate. So, but as we've seen with a lot of other races, this can certainly set someone up for a future successful race, now that they're more widely known, more broadly known, and people have gotten a little bit more of a chance to get to know who they are. Essex Porter: [00:06:44] I got to talk to a few voters on the day before the election and on Election Day. The sense I got from voters was certainly - coming out of this pandemic and having a nice weather summer, and for, at the time before the election - things were relaxing and people were enjoying getting out, enjoying maybe taking a little bit of a vacation trip. I talked to one person, I asked him why he was voting so late, "I'm voting so late because I just moved and I needed to get the ballot at the new address. Soon as I got it, I came and I voted." People have things going on in their lives. But what's one of the thoughts I have is that - I wonder if the atmosphere will be changing. Because in the last few days of the election and this week and continuing on, there is more concern about COVID. There is more of a restrictive attitude as the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID begins to impact our lives here in the Seattle area and the Northwest. There is a concern that the psychological, if not physical opening we have, will be closing back down. That may also be on voters' minds as they go into November. That will be one of the things that's overhanging that vote as they make choices. Crystal Fincher: [00:08:12] The Delta variant is here and prevalent. So we'll see how that continues to line up. Another interesting thing I was looking at is obviously - we have the Compassion Seattle initiative coming up on the November ballot, and we had the major candidates basically all line up on one side or the other of the initiative. And that acted as a dividing line between where candidates stood. Are they more of a law and order-focus candidate, looking at issues that may bring more criminalization or certainly codify some criminalization of homelessness into the City Charter with sweeps, in addition to some other elements and in that - Essex Porter: [00:09:01] And I have to say, that's one of the arguments over Compassion Seattle - as to whether it does criminalize homelessness and poverty. Whether it does make it more likely and give more approval to sweeps. I mean that's going to be one of the big debating points. There are supporters of Compassion Seattle who don't necessarily see it that particular way. Crystal Fincher: [00:09:27] Absolutely. And certainly the language about it, right? Compassion Seattle - this is a compassionate solution to this challenge that we're facing. Everyone seems to agree that it's a problem. Which part of that they find to be the problem is up in the air. Is it that they have to see and deal with people being homeless? Is it that they are feeling uncomfortable about it and wanting them to be removed, or swept, or other things happen? Is it an issue of services? Certainly the initiative does address services. People talk about how effective that is and is it really more than what we're doing now? And many people say that it is 1% more perhaps, but perhaps more restrictive, but - Essex Porter: [00:10:18] And as I talk to voters - and again, this is a small number of voters I'm talking with, as I'm working on deadline and meeting people at random at the ballot box. But as I talked to voters, when they mentioned homelessness, all the voters I talked with started out with a feeling of compassion for those who are homeless, who may be forced to sleep on the streets, or camp in a tent. And then as you listened to them, even if they didn't say who they liked in the mayor's race, it was clear that they kind of divided. There were people who spoke compassionately about those who are homeless, who felt to me - is that they would be more inclined to support Bruce Harrell. There are others who talked very much the same way, who felt to me - they would be more inclined to support Lorena González or Colleen Echohawk. The Northwest Progressive Institute poll has Compassion Seattle at, I think, it's 61% support. So it just seems to me, there's a lot of people across the mayoral candidate spectrum who support Compassion Seattle. It may not be that a vote for one person as mayor is a vote against Compassion Seattle. That's what it will be interesting to see work out in November. Crystal Fincher: [00:11:48] It'll be interesting to see it work out in November. And interesting to see how the vote share was turned out based on where the candidates were at. Candidates who supported Compassion Seattle got more votes than candidates who didn't in the primary. But we do have Bruce Harrell who said that he is supportive of Charter Amendment 29 and Lorena González who opposes it. Essex Porter: [00:12:16] Yeah, that's going to be one of the key things that differentiates those candidates, because there's actually a lot that's alike about those two candidates. But we'll be looking for what the differences are. Crystal Fincher: [00:12:24] Will be interesting to see how that turns out. We also got results in the City Council races. I don't think many people are too surprised to see Teresa Mosqueda, the incumbent, in Position 8 with 56%. Kenneth Wilson is going to also make it through to the general, at 17%, but that race is looking pretty settled. In the Position 9 race, Sara Nelson is in the lead as we speak, with 42%, followed by Nikkita Oliver - they have 36%. And then Brianna Thomas in third place, with just about 14%. So it looks like Nikkita Oliver and Sara Nelson are making it through to the general - two very different candidates. Two other candidates who line up on opposite sides of the Compassion Seattle debate, they're on different sides on the JumpStart tax, the head tax, many different things. So that certainly is going to be a race where voters have a clear choice. Essex Porter: [00:13:31] Yeah. Now that is absolutely true, and I talked briefly with Sara Nelson before the election, because by total coincidence, she doorbelled my house. And you look through the doorbell camera and think, "Hey, that's somebody I recognize," but when we talked, at least the public polling did not have her in the lead in this race. She sounded very concerned, and while I haven't spoken with her after the election, I suspect there are few people as surprised as she is, that she did so well in this race - that she has a strong lead at over 40% of the vote. And this race, I think, will be probably more for the folks who are interested in policy, and follow policy - because they do differ so much on policy. They are both seasoned at creating policy, and evaluating policy, and taking stance on policy. So it's going to be going to be a very policy-oriented City Council race. Because they diverge very much, ideologically, people are going to have that choice you're talking about. Crystal Fincher: [00:15:05] Yeah, I mean, Nikkita has certainly talked a lot about policy. And one of the nice things about that race is that it has been so policy-focused - in their debates, especially with Brianna Thomas, there were definitive policies, plans laid out. I think it's going to be interesting to see the contrast between Nikkita and Sara. I interviewed both of them earlier, we'll link both of those interviews in the show notes to this show, but very different approaches. It feels like they're taking different stances to even the conversation about policy. Essex Porter: [00:15:45] I think Sara Nelson will be running a message that, "I'm a business woman. I've been at City Hall. I've worked policy in City Hall. I'm a business woman too. So I know how what happens at City Hall impacts business. I don't necessarily have all the answers, but you can be comfortable with my approach and my thought process." I suspect that's the kind of message that she'll be trying to get out there. Crystal Fincher: [00:16:17] I anticipate the same, and I anticipate to see a lot of the downtown and business interests that have traditionally been associated with the Chamber to consolidate around her. And to see a lot of the more progressive interests consolidate around Nikkita. We'll see how that goes. Essex Porter: [00:16:38] That might be the race that's not going to be settled by Friday after the November election. Crystal Fincher: [00:16:43] After the November election, that may be tight, but we'll see. Now there is a race that, as we sit here on Friday morning, still is not decided. Not enough for either, for any of the candidates, to have definitively declared victory or conceded and that is the City Attorney's race. And my goodness, is this a race? So as we are sitting here, after the results release on Thursday - Ann Davison is at 34.5%, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy is at 33.19%, Pete Holmes is at 32.02%. Talking to the campaigns, it looks like they're anticipating 25,000-40,000 more ballots perhaps. But this is an unusual situation, in that the incumbent Pete Holmes is now trailing - unless he significantly improves his vote share in today's count, it's looking like he's not going to make it through the primary. Essex Porter: [00:17:54] This is, at the moment, the classic example of late votes lean left. The total on election night had Holmes in third place. The total on Wednesday night had Holmes moving up just barely to second place. And now, the total on Thursday night, where the late ballots are finally counted - those ballots that went in the mail on Monday maybe, or went in the mail on Sunday, some of the ballots that went into drop boxes late on Tuesday - those are the ballots that have been counted. And they push Nicole Thomas-Kennedy ahead of Pete Holmes again. We both have seen it often - once that trend gets started, it doesn't reverse - the Friday ballots just confirm it. Crystal Fincher: [00:18:49] Yeah, they do. So it is looking highly unlikely that Pete Holmes is going to end up making it through. The other thing is that they're strongly trending for Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in yesterday's count. If you look at just yesterday's count, there were just over 28,000 ballots counted yesterday. Nicole Thomas-Kennedy got 37% of those ballots, Ann Davison 33%, and Pete Holmes 29%. So it's just - that trend is going to have to move sharply. And when you start thinking about what it's going to take to close that gap, you start looking at numbers, he's going to have to clear 35% to closer to 40% of the remaining ballots to look like he has a shot. That just doesn't seem consistent with anything that we've seen so far. Essex Porter: [00:19:45] Yes, exactly. So now we have to contemplate what happened to Pete Holmes? Here's a three term incumbent, taking a position on criminalizing poverty, basically, that a lot of people favor. I mean, his criticism is that he is not tough enough on people for petty crimes like shoplifting or petty theft. But his stance has been to focus on those he perceives as true dangers in society, and that's not most of the people who come across for misdemeanors. Most of those are not necessarily violent crimes. So he's taken a stance that a lot of people on the left would support, but somehow that wasn't enough? Crystal Fincher: [00:20:40] Well, it's interesting, because he certainly, when he came into office, he certainly came in as someone who was more reform-minded from his predecessor - in talking about stopping prosecuting some marijuana, crimes, stopping - being more friendly to nightlife and entertainment venues, that kind of thing. But what Nicole Thomas-Kennedy spent a lot of time talking about was there have been certain areas where they stopped that focus, but my goodness, there's still a lot of criminalization of poverty. And prosecutions of what seemed to be misdemeanors that are so minor that it's certainly costing the City more to prosecute it, than they're getting from the prosecution. And that criminalizing people in that situation actually is more likely to make the problem worse and more expensive to solve, than to fix it. So she has talked more about addressing root causes, taking an approach that helps get people on the right track, as opposed to just criminalize people and have them going in and out. So he took heat for not being progressive enough and for criminalizing poverty too much on one end. On the other end was for people who think he's just been too soft on crime, look at everything happening, you've got people going for that, "Seattle is dying" narrative. And just on the hard side saying, "Oh, he's a liberal and letting everyone off, and crime is running rampant." But then there's also people saying, "I just see ..." I think it doesn't help that a lot of people associate, wrongly, I should point out, wrongly associate homelessness with criminality. People who are unhoused are more likely to be victims of crimes, than they are to perpetrate them. I also think a lot of people don't understand that he is dealing with misdemeanors and that felonies, or most serious crime, is handled from the King County Prosecutor. So I think he's also taking heat for a lot of people's perception that crime is up, and some types of crimes are up. Overall crime is down, some violent crimes are up. So he's also taking heat for that perception. And then also, he just didn't really seem to care about campaigning for a while, until it became clear he was in danger. And then it seemed to be too little too late, with some faux pas added in some late interviews and statements. Essex Porter: [00:23:20] Yeah, I haven't taken a look at the crime numbers, even for the non-violent crime, so I can't immediately confirm that overall crime is down. And it may not matter, unfortunately, exactly what the numbers are, because it is what the feeling is, right? Crystal Fincher: [00:23:45] The perception - exactly. Essex Porter: [00:23:47] It's the perception. I spoke with Ann Davison after the election, and one of the phrases that she uses and I think is going to be at center of her campaign, is that she's going to, "Center the victims," and that's the language she uses. It's going to be a victim-centered approach. I think that's the kind of approach on public safety issues - because we're going to have public safety issues that are going to be headlines about some terribly unfortunate things that happen between now and November, that will be happening every week. When she talks about centering victims, I think that is going to be a strong counter to Nicole Thomas-Kennedy if she is in the November election, who is going to be talking about a wholesale change. She calls it abolition, and people are going to be weighing again, the stark contrast between Ann Davison, who maybe will take a more conservative approach than many people would like, and Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who may be taking a more progressive approach than many people feel comfortable with. It's going to be which person can make people feel comfortable with their approach to public safety. Crystal Fincher: [00:25:22] Yeah, absolutely. And basically, Pete Holmes not making it through the primary, as looks likely - certainly we'll have a much clearer idea about that after today's results. But if you're asking me, it doesn't look good for Pete Holmes. It's - there's an admission that what is going on now hasn't worked. And so people want a new approach - is that new approach more of a, "Hey, let's just crack down on people and arrest them, get them in jail," or is it, "Let's treat some of the root causes." And I think, as you articulated, Ann Davison's position and what she may be talking about. I think Nicole Thomas-Kennedy is going to be focusing a lot on what we have done hasn't worked. And what we hear proposed is more of exactly what has not worked on this level. A lot of clarifying and educating that we aren't talking about violent crimes. And that's where a lot of the disdain and discomfort comes, when people think, "Well, we can't just have people assaulting people on the street and facing no penalty. And what are we doing?" And that's a scary prospect for a lot of people. So I think hearing her talk about, "Okay, what does this mean in the role of City Attorney. And how do we change our approach?" I think that's going to be a really interesting and enlightening dialogue. I think people are going to hear some things from both candidates that are different than what they were expecting. So it'll be interesting to see how this continues to evolve through the general, but I'm excited about the conversation that will happen because of this race. Essex Porter: [00:27:11] Yeah, and I think it's going to get some national attention as well, because I think, more than the mayor's race, it'll be a clearer choice of where Seattle wants to go. Crystal Fincher: [00:27:23] Absolutely. And I mean, Hey, we're in the City who has a socialist on the City Council, who the DSA is not just a synonym for the Downtown Seattle Association, it's the Democratic Socialist. And they are a significant force here. We have a candidate who identifies as an abolitionist proudly, who is making it through a primary, beating the incumbent. So, I mean, this is, even for people in a primary election, which is usually a more conservative voting group compared to a general election voting group, there's a lot of receptivity to Nicole Thomas-Kennedy's message, which I think was surprising to a number of people. But I think people need to understand that there is a feeling that what has happened isn't working. And people do want reductions in crime, people do want to feel safer. But it's just, what is it that actually does make us safer? And that conversation and the details and the contours of it are one I'm excited to have. Essex Porter: [00:28:39] Yeah. Crystal Fincher: [00:28:41] Well, I think we are coming up on our time. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to join us today, Essex on July ... Geez, listen to me - Essex Porter: [00:28:52] It's already August. Crystal Fincher: [00:28:52] I'm going to edit that. Essex Porter: [00:28:55] Don't edit that. Crystal Fincher: [00:28:57] I'm totally editing that. Maybe I'm editing that. I'm all over the place, but I appreciate you listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, August 6th, 2021. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler and our wonderful co-host today was KIRO-7 political reporter, Essex Porter. You can find Essex on Twitter @EssexKIRO7. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I, and now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Just type "Hacks & Wonks" into the search bar, be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our mid-week show delivered to your podcast feed. While you're there, leave a review, it really helps us out. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time. Essex Porter: [00:29:50] Bye-bye.

Eric Mann is in conversation with James Burke about lessons learned from the Just-Concluded New York City Mayor and City Council Elections: - On June 22nd, New Yorkers voted across the state in primary races New York City the largest city council in the U.S. (51 council members) voted to elected a new Mayor, new council members, borough presidents, District Attorney, and Comptroller - DSA and progressive/left groups worked from Buffalo to Brooklyn to elect socialist candidates aligned with Defund the Police, Green New Deal, and other key issues like social housing and funding for mass transportation - New York City voters experimented with Ranked Choice Voting which for the first time allowed voters to choose up to 5 candidates on their ballots - AOC and her affiliated PAC made key endorsements but failed to win the Mayor's race in which Eric Adams and former NYPD officer won on a campaign built on public safety - Progressive organizations put forward various slates of City Council endorsements, often overlapping in their endorsements. In some cases, as with the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists, an endorsement comes with different types of institutional support, from strategy consulting to volunteers to fundraising assistance. - The New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), meanwhile, supported only six candidates in separate Council districts, concentrating resources on those who explicitly identify as socialists and noting that “12% of the City Council could be socialist.” Despite progressives losing the NYC Mayor's race in Buffalo, India Walton is on the path to becoming the mayor of Buffalo, New York – the first socialist mayor elected to a US city since 1960, when mayor Frank Zeidler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin left office. James Burke, a long-time organizer in Harlem who worked on city council races will offer his insights into the role of progressives trying to impact the electoral arena and answer Eric's and your questions.

Democratic Socialists of America convention meets to promote Democratic Party / New US coronavirus surge is growing faster than the spring and summer waves of 2020 / US gymnast Simone Biles, the Olympic games and “the weight of the world”

If you want to know what the so-called Democratic Socialists have in mind for the United States, you need only look ninety miles south of Florida. Ever since 1959, Cuba has been ruled by the sort of government that modern leftists crave. If you want to see how well this Socialist Utopia works, you need only look at the demonstrations that rocked Cuban cities. The best way to assist the downtrodden Cuban people escape Socialism is for our government to support those demonstrators. This episode explores the reasons that modern leftists are so enthralled with the Communist regime in Cuba, and urges President Biden to throw the weight of the United States behind the overthrow of the Communists. To read the essays, please refer to https://www.tfp.org/president-biden-end-cubas-communist-regime-once-and-for-all/, https://www.returntoorder.org/2021/07/why-leftists-keep-backing-cubas-communist-regime/, and https://www.tfp.org/10-reasons-to-reject-socialism/. To add your name to our petition drive, please go to www.tfp.org/freecuba.

After announcing their bill, Senators Murphy, Sanders, and Lee discussed the need for Congress to take back its powers and the dangers of forever wars. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced a bill to curb the president's war powers, emergency powers, and ability to sell weapons. They held a press conference today highlighting the need to think twice before going to war. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Protests have erupted in Cuba against its decades-long communist government, with many protestors upset about the economy and the country's response to COVID-19. You can see American flags everywhere during the demonstrations...but how should the US respond to them? Political commentator Ben Burgis argues that the best way to help people is to backoff and end sanctions against the island nation. Guest Host: Greg Skourdas See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the July 4 weekend, the largest ransomware attack in history occurred, affecting hundreds of businesses and showing just how vulnerable society has become to cyberattacks. Daily rocket and drone attacks on the U.S. in Iraq are increasing, and one analyst says Iran has effectively declared war on the U.S. there. But America seems unwilling to respond and ready to retreat. Satellite images show China constructing 119 new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles, which significantly boosts the Asian giant as a nuclear threat. We also talk about the European Union using kid gloves to punish German car makers that break EU rules, the Biden administration warning Israel to stop demolishing terrorists' homes, the concerning progress in China's space program, America's NSA illegally spying on Tucker Carlson, and American socialists joining forces with foreign socialists to bring down America's government. Links [00:40] Ransomware Attack (7 minutes) “A Cyberattack Against a U.S. Company Triggers a Chain Reaction” “Cyberattacks Expose Our Fragile World” “America's Achilles' Heel—and Germany” [08:00] Iran Attacks U.S. in Iraq (7 minutes) “America's Greatest Defeat—Iran's Victory” [14:50] China Nuclear (6 minutes) “Russia, China and a World of Nuclear Weapons” Nuclear Armageddon Is ‘At the Door' [21:05] NSA Attacks Tucker Carlson (8 minutes) “The Barack Obama Mystery” [29:00] EU vs. German Car Makers (3 minutes) “World's Greatest Danger: Germany Domineers Over Europe Again” [32:20] U.S. vs. Israel (8 minutes) “Is the Fall of East Jerusalem Imminent?” [40:30] China in Space ( 7 minutes) “Space: The Final Military Frontier” Russia and China in Prophecy [47:30] U.S. Socialism (7 minutes) “Democratic Socialists of America Embrace Nicolás Maduro's Socialist Dictatorship” “What the World Needs to Learn From Venezuela

Please help us make the show better - answer this anonymous 5 question survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aeH1H3-1LBi_lBfXsNkxCt_oeN5SS8yUVW1y-gGUMjg/edit?usp=sharing  In Episode 10, Pat talks to Dan Pecora, member of Central CT DSA's Tenant Organizing Commission about how to organize tenants to push back against the mass evictions that now threaten to leave 15% of the US adult renter population out on the street. Dan Pecora, in concert with members of his DSA group and others, was able to successfully petition Connecticut state legislature to pass a Right to Counsel bill, ensuring that tenants who face evictions could have representation during evictions cases. Because of the fact that housing cases are tried in the Civil Court system across the US, public defenders are not provided. Very few families who are facing eviction tend to have resources to hire an attorney. The bill that Dan Pecora discusses with Pat changes that fact and guarantees that families have a fighting chance in court. A number of other benefits of Tenant Unions are discussed: petitioning landlords for safer, better maintained apartments, pushing back against exorbitant rent strikes, and an increased sense of community in apartment complexes.  You can find a link to Dan Pecora's podcast, Snowflake Sports, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snowflake-sports-podcast/id1476612592 The TDS Podcast is mixed and mastered by C Money Burns at Cosmic Black in Portland, Maine. For inquiries on audio production, mixing, mastering and post for podcasts and music, please contact cmoneyburns@gmail.com or say "hi" on Twitter @cmoneyburns. Covid relief, tenant organizing, Rent Control, Eviction Moratorium, Tenant Unions, Central CT DSA, Waterbury, CT, Hartford, CT, Landlords, Right to Counsel, Housing Justice, Homelessness Crisis, Democratic Socialists of America, Housing Court --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/trickledownsocialism/support

After a memorable primary night, NY1 political director Bob Hardt joined Errol to analyze the initial results of the Democratic primary for mayor, from Eric Adams' sizable lead in the unofficial tally of first-choice votes to Andrew Yang conceding after coming in fourth. They discussed what comes next, how ranked-choice voting will play out and whether Maya Wiley or Kathryn Garcia have a chance. They also talked about the race for Manhattan district attorney and how City Council candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America fared.   Check out full primary night results here.   JOIN THE CONVERSATION   Join the conversation, weigh in on Twitter using the hashtag #NY1YouDecide or give us a call at 212-379-3440 and leave a message. And let Errol who you voted for and why. Send an email to YourStoryNY1@charter.com

As the G7 Summit wraps up in the United Kingdom, the blueprint for a kinder, gentler, more generous  capitalism is being floated. It's being called the Cornwall Consensus. Meanwhile, in Canada, a democratic socialist organisation has popped up during the pandemic and is attracting a lot of attention. This week, we plumb the depths of … Read More Read More

In this episode we interview Rawan and Fathi, co-founders of decolonizepalestine.com. Rawan is the co-founder of decolonizepalestine.com. While studying political science, Middle Eastern studies and Arabic at university, Rawan organized for Students for Justice in Palestine and the Democratic Socialists of America before moving to Palestine and working for a feminist organization in Ramallah. Fathi Nemer is a political scientist, activist, and co-founder of decolonizepalestine.com. He is a former teaching fellow at the Democracy and Human Rights program at Birzeit University. He specializes in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, decolonization and discursive resistance. In this episode we talk about their recently launched website decolonizepalestine.com. We also talk about a recent events in occupied Palestine, the fight to #SaveSheikhJarrah, and a number of the myths that get deployed by zionists in support of the state of Israel's policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. We also talk about what decolonization means for them in relation to Palestine and why the latest ceasefire represents a significant step forward in the Palestinian struggle for liberation in their estimation.  Finally they talk about several ways people around the world can support the struggle for Palestinian Liberation and organizations that folks can support financially as well. Make sure to check out decolonizepalestine.com yourself if you haven't yet, and support them on patreon.  Some articles referenced on the episode: If they steal Sheikh Jarrah by Mohammed El-Kurd Dispossession and Eviction in Jerusalem: The cases and stories of Sheikh Jarrah  The Genocide of the Palestinian People: An International Law and Human Rights Perspective  Can Palestinian Men be Victims? Gendering Israel's War on Gaza By Maya Mikdashi  Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power  And of course if you appreciate the work that we do here, and are able, please support us on patreon as well.

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined—from Ramallah, Palestine—by Rawan Eid and Fathi Nimer, creators of the resource hub Decolonize Palestine. Previously, Rawan organized for Students for Justice in Palestine and the Democratic Socialists of America. After moving to Palestine, she began working for a feminist organization in Ramallah and attending meetings at a local youth group dedicated to sharing Palestinians’ stories and providing a space for discussion. Fathi Nimer is a political scientist, activist, and a former teaching fellow at the Democracy and Human Rights program at Birzeit University. Rawan and Fathi describe the lessons they've drawn from their personal lives in creating Decolonize Palestine, and how the long arm of Israeli apartheid has impacted and dictated their day to day experiences—from accessing identification cards, the difficulties they face in traveling to Jerusalem from their home in Ramallah, and even something as simple as having a pet. We examine how far the discourse on Palestine has shifted in the last few years, and recent weeks after the recent massacre in Gaza, and what this means for efforts to confront the occupation both on the ground in occupied Palestine and elsewhere in the world. Fathi describes how academic work has been stymied by the occupation, including calculated efforts by Israel to prevent countless students from leaving the blockaded Gaza Strip in order to study abroad. We also discuss Israel's historical media censorship inside occupied Palestine and the state's violent attacks on journalists and those engaging in political activity. Rawan and Fathi highlight the recent wave of lynchings of Palestinians and the IDF's mass arrests in Lydd, named "Operation Law and Order" and how this is meant to send a message to Palestinians across occupied Palestine that should they rise up in protest that the state will respond with force. Finally, the crew talks about ways you can get involved and resources you can access to get better informed about the situation on the ground as well as the historical context that brought us here today. Follow Rawan on @RiverToSea48, and Fathi @AManInTheSun. For your go-to resource on all things Palestine make sure to visit decolonizepalestine.com and support their work at patreon.com/decolonizepalestine List of Palestine-related donation causes: Palestine Children’s Relief Fund Palestine Red Crescent Society  BuildPalestine Middle East Children’s Alliance Medical Aid for Palestinians Al Makassed Hospital/Jerusalem Hospitals United Palestinian Appeal  Taawon Political resources: Palestine Youth Movement National Students for Justice in Palestine  US Campaign for Palestinian rights  Adalah Legal Center  Al Haq BDS Adalah-NY campaign for boycott of Israel If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!

Kumars and Roqayah are joined this week by India Walton, a registered nurse, community organizer and candidate for mayor of Buffalo, New York. She is a founder and former executive director of Fruit Belt community land trust, an historic grassroots housing justice organization, and also former lead community organizer for Open Buffalo’s Opportunity and Justice coalition. She’s already picked up endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America and New York’s Working Families Party. They call her the unofficial Mayor of Buffalo, she’s just looking to make it super official. We talk to India about her ideas for transforming the city of Buffalo, including her ideas around policing and public safety, housing, food access, COVID response and more. If you want to support India's campaign, you can volunteer or donate. If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!

This week, Roqayah and Kumars are joined by returning guest Sydney Ghazarian and first timer Ashik Siddique, both climate organizers with the Democratic Socialists of America’s Ecosocialist Working Group and coordinators for DSA’s Green New Deal and PRO Act campaigns. Syd is the Los Angeles-based founder of the Ecosocialist Working Group and previously came on the show to tackle everything from racism in the environmentalist movement to what we can learn from indigenous-led pipeline blockades, as well as her article in In These Times outlining an agenda for escalating climate organizing through labor tactics. Ashik serves on the steering committee of the Ecosocialist Working Group and is a research analyst with the National Priorities Project, an initiative of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.  After Ashik shares a bit about his personal path to organizing and the left, the gang jumps into the history of US labor law and breaks down how the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the House of Representatives in 2020 and again on March 9, 2021, would fundamentally alter it, from legalizing secondary strikes to extending labor protections to undocumented immigrants. Syd and Ashik discuss the emerging coalition between unions and the socialist left, as well as the concrete ways the PRO Act would have impacted the unionization efforts of Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama. Visit proact.dsausa.org to sign up for phone banking in states whose senators do not yet support the bill.  Follow Ashik on Twitter @ahSHEEK and Syd @SydneyAzari. You can also follow the DSA Ecosocialist Working Group @DSAecosocialism and find out more about how to get involved in this campaign as well as their future efforts here.  To keep up with what is happening in Palestine and to learn more about ways you can help, visit the Electronic Intifada and Decolonize Palestine. If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!

FreedomToons, Clips of the Week, Social Credit Vaccine Passports, 5 Questions for Democratic Socialists, Liz Wheeler and Glenn Beck     FreedomToons Ben and Jerry's: Wokest Brand Armstrong and Getty Clips of the Week (COW) The Truth About 'Vaccine Passports' 5 Questions To Ask "Democratic Socialists" | Liz Wheeler App designed to TATTLE on others in China seems oddly like…Twitter?!   Ben and Jerry's: Wokest Brand https://youtu.be/BK8eiibIu9A 180,256 views FreedomToons 593K subscribers Never has there been, nor will there be, a brand more woke than Ben and Jerry's http://patreon.com/freedomtoons​ –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Music: Sugar Zone - Silent Partner https://youtu.be/F3TzxXfoEHo​​​​ –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– https://freesound.org/people/scampsie​...   Armstrong and Getty Clips of the Week (COW) For a great archive of The Armstrong and Getty Show visit- http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-armstrong-and-getty-show  Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/aandgshow/ Twitter- Armstrong and Getty @AandGShow   This show comes recommended by our latest ACU PH.D. Alumni Jeffrey A Snell. Thanks Jeffrey. Send us your great show ideas at- americanconservativeuniversity@americanconservativeuniversity.com   The Truth About 'Vaccine Passports' https://youtu.be/xcmZG0H4HzE 713,431 views Paul Joseph Watson 1.88M subscribers Social credit score via the back door? INTRO MUSIC: Sagittarius V - Lucidator: http://sagittariusvmusic.bandcamp.com​ NEW MERCH: https://www.pjwshop.com/​ DONATE: https://www.subscribestar.com/paul-jo...​ CASH APP: https://cash.app/£PaulJosephWatson​ SUMMIT NEWS: http://summit.news/newsletter​ BITCOIN WALLET: 3EMQG9EhPkoFbX5F19RTGZs8rPqGYm2mp9 BITCOIN CASH WALLET: qrxhqz9ka423v68qwc7nyqc88q3mx9ea5gcpz88a0l LITECOIN WALLET: MSs2rWgM571WM3zUnL255gccoQAdz9L6CG ETHEREUM WALLET: 0x21221F5da5e70F46Bbfa755f89e312daDa51f115 Odysee: https://odysee.com/@PaulJosephWatson:5​ Anything Goes: https://www.youtube.com/AnythingGoesC...​ Parler: https://parler.com/profile/PJW/posts​ Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/pauljosephwa...​ Telegram: https://t.me/pjwnews​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet​ Minds: https://www.minds.com/PaulJosephWatson​ Gab: https://gab.com/PrisonPlanet   5 Questions To Ask "Democratic Socialists" | Liz Wheeler https://youtu.be/YBXhLUj5N0s 165,029 views Young America's Foundation 477K subscribers Leftists use the phrase "democratic socialism" to try and disguise the truly destructive policies that they support. It's up to young conservatives to see through the Left's attempts to impose a top-down socialist rule across America. @Liz Wheeler​ has five questions that you NEED to ask your leftist peers in order to break down their arguments. -- Click now to connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngamerica...​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaf​​​​​​​​​​​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaf_/​​​​​​​ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/yafgaming​​​​​​​​ https://yaf.org​​​     App designed to TATTLE on others in China seems oddly like…Twitter?! https://youtu.be/o1BVRiFKink Glenn Beck 565K subscribers The Chinese government just launched a new app for citizens designed to help them tattle on others — specifically, to report citizens unsupportive of the Communist Party, its policies, or its leaders. But Glenn says we’re not too far off from something like this here, in America. In fact, Glenn says there are scary similarities between what this app is designed to do and one of our very own big tech giants — Twitter. ► Click HERE to subscribe to Glenn Beck https://bit.ly/2UVLqhL​ ►Click HERE to subscribe to BlazeTV: https://www.blazetv.com/glenn​ Connect with Glenn on Social Media: http://twitter.com/glennbeck​ http://instagram.com/glennbeck​ http://facebook.com/glennbeck

Air Date 7/30/2019 Today we take a look at the ongoing debate about socialism between socialists and non-socialists alike, including discussion of tactical strategies on where to set our goals and how to get from here to there Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  MEMBERSHIP (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content) SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: John Nichols on Bernie and Socialism - Start Making Sense - Air Date 6-19-19 Bernie Sanders gave an important speech on socialism last week, and our John Nichols spoke with him about it -- beforehand. Ch. 2: Astra Taylor on Socialism, Democracy and Liberalism - Jacobin Radio The Dig with Daniel Denvir - Air Date 7-5-19 Socialism has grown a lot because of demonization. The Left has a war to lose - left policies are the direction of progress and the world is leaning that way - but without proper education and fighting it will take a lot longer. Ch. 3: Democratic Socialists and President Bernie with Meagan Day - This Is Hell with Chuck Mertz - Air Date 3-13-19 In the long run, democratic socialism wants to end capitalism - to empower working people. It's not just New Deal liberals - its pushing further. Massive momentum is on the Democratic Socialist side and collective action will win. Ch. 4: David Harvey On The Limits of Social Democracy and of the Welfare State - The Real News - Air Date 7-8-19 The main alternative to neoliberalism is the proposed renewal of social democracy, such as in the form of Bernie Sanders' proposals. But to move forward we need to discuss the limits of a welfare state that ultimately does not change class relations Ch. 5: Why Bernie Talks About the New Deal with Seth Ackerman - Jacobin Radio - The Vast Majority with Micah Uetricht - Air Date 6-25-19 Was the New Deal socialist? Yes and no. Bernie is pointing to the central model of most democratic socialist-style governments - he points to the good policies of democratic socialism instead of strict definitions. Ch. 6: Democratic Socialism and How We Can Get There with Richard Wolff - The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow - Air Date 6-15-19 Bernie's solutions, while admirable and helpful, are merely reforms of a fundamentally broken and contradictory system. Reforms set us up for inevitable roll-back by the powerful as we've seen since FDR. Ch. 7: Bhaskar Sunkara on the possibilities of socialism in America - This is Hell - Air Date 5-21-19 Bhaskar Sunkara explores a path to socialism in America - as capitalism collapses and pulls politics towards the right, the promise of a worker-driven, democratic society built on equality and justice can be won by a broad, working-class movement Ch. 8: Bernie Sanders Speech Connects Democratic Socialism with the New Deal - The Michael Brooks Show - Air Date 6-22-19 Bernie is calling out the massive power disparities in the US and what policies we can work towards - an Economic Bill of Rights. VOICEMAILS Ch. 9: Fighting climate change means fighting capitalism - Jesse from Boston FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 10: Final comments on the connection between political debates and parenting advice MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Over the Fence - Delray Cicle Veroni - Cicle Kadde PolyCoat - The Cabinetmaker The Rampart - Castle Danger Wingspan - Bayou Birds Stale Case - Darby Turning - Lathe Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent SHOW IMAGE Lorie Shaull , Flickr | License (Modifications: Cropped)   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Listen on iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Alexa Devices | +more Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunes and Stitcher!