The Left Place

Our Republic is Hanging on by Its Fingernails

Happy Fourth of July! Check out James Earl Jones reading Frederick Douglass's icon speech "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" [https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/3/what_to_the_slave_is_4th] Of course, we're still in the midst of the pandemic, and some students in Alabama have decided to have a little fun by holding "COVID parties" [https://abcnews.go.com/US/alabama-students-throwing-covid-parties-infected-officials/story?id=71552514] to bet on who gets sick first. Is this only happening in America, or are kids in other countries this stupid? I know most other world leaders aren't as clueless as our AWOL president [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/02/trump-coronavirus-awol-crisis-leon-panetta]. What if COVID is another of Mother Nature's ways of pushing back against our environmental degradation? I pondered that in an article I published this week [https://liberalamerica.org/2020/07/02/tm-what-if-covid-just-nature-pushing-back-against-degradation/].    Trump went to Mt. Rushmore on Friday to deliver a real whopper of a speech replete with threats, racism, and jingoism [https://www.npr.org/2020/07/04/887222928/trump-flouts-virus-rules-warns-of-new-far-left-fascism-in-speech-ahead-of-july-4]. Of course he did it at the foot of a sculpture a former Ku Klux Klan sympathizer [https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/2/nick_tilsen_mount_rushmore_trump] carved. The Oglala Sioux tribe [https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/watch-native-american-protesters-reclaimed-the-road-to-donald-trumps-speech-at-mount-rushmore/] of S.D. voted to ban Trump [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oglala-sioux-donald-trump-mount-rushmore-fourth-of-july-event-a9601041.html] from their sacred land. But, hey, when has the U.S. ever respected Indigenous rights?    So now that ICE has started gassing refugees [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/02/cuban-migrants-detention-ice-facility-new-mexico] detained at our Southern border, will your Fox-so-called-News-loving Uncle Ralph finally concede we've been running concentration camps [http://liberalamerica.life/2019/06/21/tm-we-are-already-3-goose-steps-road-fascism/]?    Now the Wildlife Services is on our radar after The Guardian this week broke a story about the agency surreptitiously planting cyanide bombs [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/26/cyanide-bombs-wildfire-services-idaho] close to residences.   Finally, folks, we have officially hit the halfway mark of 2020. This November, the republic is at stake. If you are not registered to vote, register now [https://www.vote.org/register-to-vote/]. The Republican voter-suppression machine is running full bore, so we need all hands on deck knowing millions are going to have their votes stolen. No matter what you think about Joe Biden and the Democratic party, the alternative is Donald Trump. There is no third option. None. It's Biden or Trump. No matter what you might feel about Biden's voting record while in the Senate, the conservative positions he took on some issues, he will not cancel your civil rights, like Trump. He will not court right-wing dictators and white supremacists, like Trump. He will not take away our healthcare, like Trump and the Republican party seeks to do. He will not kiss up to the so-called "religious" right. He will not try to prevent you from exercising your constitutional rights. He will not call climate change a "hoax". He will not prevent you from getting an education. He will not ignore a pandemic. But as optimistic we must be Biden will defeat Trump, we must not be complacent. We must keep pushing Biden to the left so this ship headed for the cliff can be turned around.  It's about values.

Are all the changes making your head spin yet?

Thank you for tuning in to another episode. What a week! If there was still any doubt Donald Trump is a traitor, there was another example this week when the New York Times published a story about his being briefed on a Russian military intelligence unit offering Taliban-linked militants bounties [https://liberalamerica.org/2020/06/27/tm-trump-knew-russian-bounty-us-soldiers-did-nothing/] for killing foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including Americans, and doing nothing about it [https://www.politicususa.com/2020/06/26/trump-putin-bounty-us-troops.html/amp]. Amid the movement the BLM protests are fomenting, statues [https://www.thebeststuffonline.net/tm-colonizers-racists-statues-coming-down-even-roosevelt/] https://www.thebeststuffonline.net/tm-colonizers-racists-statues-coming-down-even-roosevelt/to confederate generals and colonizers are coming down [https://www.thedailybeast.com/charlestons-john-c-calhoun-statue-was-being-taken-down-overnight] all over the world.   And this is not making members of the so-called "boogaloo" militias too happy, which is particularly concerning since many of them have infiltrated the U.S. military [https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/boogaloo-militia-members-have-infiltrated-the-us-military-and-theyre-aiming-to-overthrow-the-american-government/] itching for civil war. In (dire) climate news, the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet. In fact, the small Siberian town, Verkhoyansk, north of the Arctic Circle, recently reported 100.4 degrees [https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/this-scares-me-arctic-hits-more-than-100-degrees-fahrenheit-hottest-temperature-on-record/] Fahrenheit. What is it normally this time of year? A whopping 68. In better news, the House of Representatives passed a bill to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-statehood-washingtondc-v-idUSKBN23X2NQ].  The question is, will Mitch McConnell even let it get to the Senate floor? Since it would mean giving full representation to a city that votes mostly for Democrats, don't count on it. Speaking of Republicans. Aren't they always talking about "fraud" and waste with social safety nets? They're always screaming about people blowing their SNAP benefits and financial assistance on frivolity. But what about the wealthy blowing and their tax breaks? They don't spend their government handouts irresponsibly? Thanks to Republican budget cuts and pressure, the IRS has scaled back auditing wealthy tax cheats [https://trofire.com/2019/01/06/republicans-force-irs-to-audit-poor-people-and-ignore-wealthy-tax-cheats/] and ramped-up auditing the poor [https://www.salon.com/2018/12/26/ho-ho-ho-irs-cuts-audits-of-rich-steps-up-audits-of-poor-after-budget-cuts/]. Nothing like keeping it fair. And of course, as the US leads the world in confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Trump administration is interested in testing less. Funding for 13 testing sites, including those in states with spiking cases [https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/06/pence-dallas-church-jeffress-coronavirus/], will end this month [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/us-coronavirus-testing-sites-federal-support-cut-officials-alarm] despite experts' warnings against it. I conclude the show with a timeline [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/trump-coronavirus-timeline/] Mother Jones magazine published chronicling the coronavirus saga from when Trump was first informed to last month. Prepare to be pissed off. Stay well, listeners! Thanks for listening. @tedmillar [https://twitter.com/tedmillar]

Happy Juneteenth!

This is our twentieth episode! Thank you, listeners, for your support (and patience). Today is Juneteeth. And if you don't know what that is, click here [https://youtu.be/iu6ntwHws5g]. Contrary to what Donald Trump said about "nobody had ever heard of it" before he "made Juneteenth very famous", Juneteenth is actually a paid holiday in several states. New York [https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/cuomo-to-propose-making-juneteenth-a-ny-state-holiday/2468851/] has now--NOW!--joined them. I say let's swap European Imperial Aggression Day (aka "Columbus Day") for Juneteenth [https://youtu.be/iu6ntwHws5g] and celebrate our slaves' emancipation instead of a colonial rapist, murderer, and slaver. This year, Juneteenth comes at a time of historic civil unrest. Since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, police have murdered another black man named Rayshard Brooks [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/atlanta-police-shooting-rayshard-brooks-wendys]. The story of his death is enraging. If you don't know much about it, click the link and have your blood pressure medication handy. There's also been a spate of African American hangings [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/fbi-department-of-justice-robert-fuller-malcolm-harsch-cases] lately the FBI and DOJ are supposedly "reviewing". Under this administration, I wouldn't hold my breath. It has made its Faustian bargain with white supremacists, corporations, and the so-called "religious" right.  But there was also some glimmer of hope this week after the conservative-majority SCOTUS ruled LGBTQ+ employees [https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/jun/15/supreme-court-civil-rights-law-lgbtq] are protected from workplace discrimination [http://liberalamerica.org/2020/06/16/scotus-shocks-nation-anti-lgbtq-discrimination-ruling/] under the Civil Rights Act. This came days after HHS capitulated to the “religious right” and announced it would be overturning Obama-era transgender protections [https://apnews.com/bae1456be55955aab379a3541391f93b] against sex discrimination in health care [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html]. Then the SCOTUS shocked us again when it told Trump it was prohibited from ending the DACA program [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/us/trump-daca-supreme-court.html].     After Pacific Gas & Electric has admitted killing 84, why isn't it getting the death penalty of which conservatives are so fond? After all if, "corporations are people [https://www.thomhartmann.com/articles/2001/12/restore-democracy-first-abolish-corporate-personhood]" under the 14th Amendment [https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv], as the Supreme Court has functionally agreed they are, shouldn't PGE should get the corporate death penalty [https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/why-isnt-pge-getting-the-death-penalty/]? Are you a front-line worker interested in appearing on the podcast? Tweet me: @tedmillar [https://twitter.com/tedmillar]. Ditto if you're Canadian or have some first-hand insight into the Canadian healthcare system. * Poem: "Bear In Mind" by John Martin [https://www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3Fp=11078.html] * Song: "No More Auction Block For Me [https://youtu.be/SfbpsmbxE2c]" performed by Odetta"   * Song: "Freedom Day [https://youtu.be/Un9EOjbUWVA]"

Change is in the air (unfortunately so is the virus)

What a week in America!  So much went on. We're still protesting in the streets over police brutality, which the police are meeting with--what else?--more brutality [http://liberalamerica.org/2020/06/10/police-attacks-on-the-press-surge-during-black-lives-matter-protests-video/].  Something we need to be very mindful of is the government's inclination toward authoritarianism at times of unrest, which we're seeing now after the DOJ floated the possibility of using the coronavirus to suspend Americans' due process rights [http://liberalamerica.org/2020/03/21/tm-fascism-alert-doj-seeks-to-use-coronavirus-to-suspend-habeas-corpus/]. A NY judge recently used the protests as a pretext for suspending protesters' rights [http://liberalamerica.org/2020/06/08/tm-fascism-alert-ny-judge-suspends-protesters-habeas-corpus-rights/].   But as I've said before, these protests are different. Governors, mayors, and county executives all over the country are signing police reform bills [https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protests-06-12-20/h_1883c06ae7111d464540af751cbd297e]. It's not enough, but it's a start. The protests must continue (peacefully) or gains will be for naught. The grift in the White House is not news to us, but how about DT Jr.'s trip to Mongolia last year to hunt argali sheep [https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/474046-mongolian-government-retroactively-granted-trump-jr-rare-permit]? Yeah, that cost American taxpayers $76,859.36 [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/501985-trump-jrs-mongolia-hunting-trip-cost-75k-in-secret-service-protection] in Secret Service protection at a time we are approaching historic rates of unemployment and the gap between rich and poor is widening.    As if the Trump administration isn't doing enough to unravel and destroy the nation, this week it finalized a rule overturning Obama-era protections for transgender people [https://apnews.com/bae1456be55955aab379a3541391f93b] against sex discrimination in health care. Is this "making America great"? If it is, what does crappy look like? I'd hate to live in that country. Speaking of crappy countries, the US has 5% of the world' population, yet we just, in two weeks, hit the two million [https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/11/dr_craig_spencer] mark in confirmed coronavirus cases [https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/may/28/coronavirus-map-us-latest-cases-state-by-state]. 2,000,000!  In two weeks. Although it is reportedly canceled [https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/trump-canceled-his-tulsa-rally-because-he-didnt-want-to-face-the-counter-protesters-ex-obama-aide/], Trump originally wanted to kick off his return to the trail with a rally in Tulsa, OK [https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre] on Junteenth. But he's not racist. Nooooo. And, finally, republicans are running full-tilt voter suppression [https://liberalamerica.org/2020/06/12/tm-with-eye-november-republicans-run-full-tilt-voter-suppression/] as we get closer to November. Ready? Registered to vote?         Take a listen to the question I asked Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan on Thom Hartmann's radio show [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RoZS1oYXJ0bWFubi1yZXBvcnQ/episode/Z2lkOi8vYXJ0MTktZXBpc29kZS1sb2NhdG9yL1YwL1dOMWVqUGVacXB4NUhWVWxfQkVnSGJKbDRPZVhpa3pkV1Z2djItMUZiVm8?ep=14] last week (at 20:39 [https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RoZS1oYXJ0bWFubi1yZXBvcnQ/episode/Z2lkOi8vYXJ0MTktZXBpc29kZS1sb2NhdG9yL1YwL1dOMWVqUGVacXB4NUhWVWxfQkVnSGJKbDRPZVhpa3pkV1Z2djItMUZiVm8?ep=14]).

Kieck Week!

My old friend Frank Kieck joins me this week to read from his forthcoming book The Son of Macabre: The Man With a Thousand Passions and discusses film, music, and writing. Enjoy!