Strange Sound

In this special episode I talk about the three major crises currently confronting us: the crisis of democracy, the COVID crisis, and the climate crisis, and how each fuels the other two. 

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This week I talk about (a) how far we've come over twenty years and (b) how screwed we are for not moving faster, as the Supreme Court seems poised to overrule Chevron deference and fulfill Bannon's dream of destroying what's left of the administrative state.

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In this special episode I look back at the 9/11 attacks of twenty years ago, the decades of war and abuse that followed, and share my thoughts on what the fuck it all means. 

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This week I talk about Biden's follow through on his promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, with a brief overview of the conflict and the imperial context within which it persisted for two decades. 

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With a first-strike, first-use nuclear weapons policy in place for decades, it's a miracle we're still here. This week I talk about Dan Ellsberg's important book "The Doomsday Machine", what it tells us about this policy, and what we need to do to stop this madness.

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Our corporate-friendly government has always fallen short when it comes to helping poor and working people. This week I talk about how policies like postal banking can begin to turn that ship around.

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This week I talk about the political football the right has made out of COVID vaccines, PPE, and other aspects of the pandemic, and how reminiscent this obsession is with their climate skepticism. 

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This week I talk about the Biden Administration's decision to tighten sanctions on Cuba and how that reflects their continuing support for the imperial project. 

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Richard Branson's ridiculous sub-orbital flight last week was an illustration of how irritating billionaires can be. This week I talk about how the problem is not so much the billionaires themselves as the system that creates and nurtures them. 

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This week I talk about workers resisting a return to crappy jobs and the degree to which that resistance is scaring capital silly. Also, a quick take on New York's 22nd congressional district. 

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On the same week notorious war criminal Donald Rumsfeld died, President Biden bombed Iraq and Syria for the second time while pulling troops out of Afghanistan. This week I talk about our endless imperial adventures and the role the mainstream media plays in perpetuating them. 

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This week I argue that, whatever else we do to build a more progressive and responsive society, we cannot afford to ignore the right's current efforts to make full-blown autocratic rule a reality in the United States.

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This week I talk about the back-and-forth between Biden and Putin at last week's summit, how it's discussed in the mainstream media, and how Putin could do better with his what-about-ism. 

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This week I talk about America's obsession with foreign adversaries, the sickening sameness of our foreign policy from administration to administration, and the infuriating attack on Ilhan Omar this past week. 

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Hyper-aggressive policing and mass imprisonment, like militarist foreign policy, imposes unacceptable costs on society while failing to make anyone safe. I talk about the political economy of these failed models.

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This week I talk about the disclosure of a planning document from the 1950s contemplating nuclear war, then discuss the terrifying history of our nuclear arsenal and what we can do to stop the madness. 

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Revisiting the Israel/Palestine conflict, I take a kind of deep dive into its history and attempt to make the case (as a layman) that Israel's resort to force is their way of avoiding good faith negotiations. We should not underwrite this. 

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This week I talk about the latest chapter in Israel's war on the Palestinian people, offer my own perspective on the conflict's history, and suggest what we as Americans might do to address it. 

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This week I rant against the corporate media's obsession with redeeming right-wing Republicans like Liz Cheney and their general love for a grisly thing called bipartisanship. Also, my apology for misstating Adam Toledo's age in Episode 60. 

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This week I talk about the Biden Administration's policy on Cuba and how it reflects their broader tendency to toe the imperial line that's been in place my whole life and longer, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. 

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This week I talk about the Minneapolis Police Department, its history of abuse against people of color, and how it is no exception in this regard, plus some thoughts about what we might do about this DNA-level sickness.

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This week I talk about Biden's plan to remove combat troops from Afghanistan by this September, what that might look like, and how we got there in the first place, plus some venting about the police murder of Adam Toledo. 

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This week I talk about the gradual progress we have made in sending left-leaning representatives to Congress and how the path forward will require (wait for it!) organizing, organizing, and more organizing. 

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This week I talk about the recent mass shootings and my thoughts on the semantic problems with the more expansive interpretations of the Second Amendment, plus a few words about the Chauvin trial. 

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This week I jump into the corporate press's favorite topic, immigration at the southern border, and talk a little about the factors behind the current "crisis", its recent history, and what the fuck we can do about it. 

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This week I share my Furious Rant about the police response to the shootings in Georgia, then talk a bit about unequal justice in the United States and its consequences. 

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This week I briefly update my rant about the availability of vaccinations, read my Furious Rant on the American Rescue Plan, then talk about taxing the fertilizer out of the ultra rich as a way of saving democracy. 

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This week I read my Furious Rant on Biden's blob-compliant foreign policy, then get into the weeds a little bit about how it reflects the typical imperial stance of Democratic party administrations over many decades. 

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This week I share my Furious Rant about how I and millions of my fellow Americans haven't received the COVID vaccine yet, and how we're not likely to for some time. Then I talk about why. 

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This week I read my Furious Rant about the political price we pay for not doing enough organizing, then I dive into the NY-22 Congressional Race and how we might have easily rescued that seat from the abyss of Trumpist Republicanism. 

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This week I read my Furious Rant blog post on the Trump impeachment 2.0, entitled "Bad Side of Buchanan", then ramble on a bit after that. Give it a listen and tell me what you think. 

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This week I introduce my new project, tentatively entitled "Furious Rants": a reading of my political blog post for the current week, soon to be available on a separate feed. Please enjoy, like, share, etc. 

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Since the start of 2021, more than 100 voter suppression measures have been introduced in 28 states, fueled by Trump and the GOP's voter fraud lies. I talk about this, the COVID vaccine mess, and some other stuff. 

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Glad as I am to see Trump off the premises, it's not too early to examine the Biden administration's initial positions on foreign policy and what they portend. I look at this and talk a bit about the broken vaccine distribution program.

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After a lifetime of hearing claptrap about how all of our unnecessary wars have been about defending the republic, we finally have an example of people actually doing this in Washington D.C. 

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This week's Trump-led insurrectionist attack against the U.S. Congress is good evidence that the POTUS fat suit needs some taking in. I talk about this and what should be done about it. 

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To mark the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, I draw a straight line from this criminal act through My Lai, Nisour Square, and Trump's 2017 Yemen Raid to recent raids in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. 

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Joe Biden had little to say about foreign policy, at least in substantive terms, during the 2020 campaign, but his approach is now taking shape with the recent naming of his "national security" team. I talk about this briefly and give an even shorter update on the New York 22nd District race. 

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Trump's claim of winning the 2020 election by a landslide works if you only count the votes of white people ... which was the way it worked back in the "good old days" when America was "great". This week I talk about Trump's white landslide (or avalanche, if you will) plus some stuff about left strategy. 

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With more than 3,000 Americans dying of COVID every day and millions facing loss of unemployment benefits and possible eviction, the Federal Government can't seem to pull itself together enough to offer relief. I talk about this and other related frustrations, many of which I'm sure you share.

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The Trump Administration is working overtime to lock-in key policies before they leave Washington. This week I look at some of the foreign policy implications of this effort and how even the stuff that doesn't seem too bad is, well, kind of bad. 

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Democratic in-fighting in the wake of disappointing down-ballot results have focused largely on ideological differences. I try to make the argument that it may be more about a candidate's willingness to fight for his/her constituents.

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The only chance we have of getting any relief from the federal government is by flipping those two Georgia Senate seats blue. I talk about this issue, as well as the ongoing standoff over New York's 22nd Congressional district and why that race demonstrates that every vote counts. 

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Help people vote in Georgia"

It's no secret that Donald Trump's original plan in running for president was to lose, cry fraud, then build a media empire on the resulting aggrievement. He appears now to be returning to that plan as the end of his accidental presidency looms. 

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Biden's apparent electoral victory is due in large measure to the efforts of activists in the progressive movements on the ground to secure his majority. I talk about this and how pundits have the wrong end of the stick regarding Black and Latinx voters. 

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The Republican Party has been playing a long game to hedge against the erosion of white power as America's demographics shift. I talk in broad strokes about the various pieces of this toxic enterprise and how it has become more overt in recent years. 

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This week I look at the second and final presidential debate with a focus on foreign policy issues in general and Korea in particular.  Not clear what to expect, but it's not looking good, folks. 

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This past week's dueling town halls offered little to cheer about. In this episode I look at Trump's Rolling COVID Review tour and dissect one of his most repeated lies about health coverage. 

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Our presidential and vice-presidential debates are contested on very narrow ideological ground, reflecting a consensus that significantly favors the right. I talk about this phenomenon in light of the recent Pence-Harris debate, and touch on Trump's recent Hulk-like posing. 

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With the president in Walter Reed battling COVID-19, I talk about how this health crisis affects all of us, how insane that first debate was, and how we need to battle the two dragons Nina Turner warned us about - neo-fascism and neo-liberalism - in the right order. 

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Justice Ginsburg's hope that her successor would be chosen by the next president seems doomed to predictable failure. I talk about the fulfillment of the right's judicial project in the Trump era and why we should organize and vote on this issue. 

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This week I talk a bit about how death happens in nursing homes, COVID or no, then go on a tear about the late Justice Ginsberg (RIP) and lament her decision not to retire in 2013. 

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The Biden campaign got all happy last week about an endorsement by serial child poisoner Rick Snyder, former governor of Michigan. I talk about this and about web-driven riot paranoia in my home town of New Hartford, NY. 

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The Trump administration is undermining confidence in the upcoming election, setting the predicate for challenging the results on the basis of false claims about mail-in ballots. This week, I suggest that the best way around this may be early voting. 

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As we're treated to the somewhat horrifying spectacle of major party conventions in the time of COVID, I look at the question of presidential accountability and when, if ever, we will see it. 

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At a time when we need to pull together like never before, some older leftists have seen fit to lecture their younger counterparts on what to do on election day. This week I express my disagreement, then give my reasons for what my sorry ass plans to do. 

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Donald Trump didn't invent the Republican party's obsession with mythical election fraud, but he has notched it up to a new level. In this episode I talk about the actual fraud he's attempting to foist on American voters.  

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So many institutions in our society would make more sense if they were collectively owned and operated by the communities they serve. This week I talk about why private ownership of public goods is not such a good idea. 

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Some of the people lamenting the loss of Rep. John Lewis are the same folks who played an instrumental role in rolling back the achievement he bled for more than fifty years ago. This week I talk briefly about how to truly honor this great and good man. 

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When some of the biggest corporations on the planet start climbing onto the Black Lives Matter movement, it tells us something about what works in American politics. This week I talk about that and why these people are still total asshats. 

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In this episode of Strange Sound, I look at white privilege from a personal perspective as someone who grew up in a monochrome small town (a.k.a. Land of a Thousand Mulligans) and talk about how that bears on the current conversation about race. 

More Stuff: Book suggestions for white people

From a strictly political standpoint, white supremacy in America is kind of a four-legged stool. I take a brief look at the four legs and offer some thoughts on how we might move forward towards a more diverse, progressive nation. 

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This week I consider the age old question of which strategy progressives should pursue - direct action or elections. Hint: we need to do both, and the last three weeks of street protests have shown us why. 

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For decades conservatives have tried to paint the left as wine-sipping elitists out of touch with the common man (and yes, I mean man). I look at the present-day manifestation of that familiar trope and attempt to trace its Nixonian provenance. 

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More than most of his predecessors, this president appears to have a very expansive notion of the powers of his office. In this episode I encourage my dear listeners not to feed the troll, so to speak, by suggesting that he can do shit that he ... well ... can't do. Like cancel election day. Or outstay his term. 

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Unimpressed by Joe Biden's "bold ideas" on foreign policy? Hard question to answer, since he hasn't offered any. In this installment of Strange Sound, I ponder Biden's reluctance to go on the record about key issues of war and diplomacy and suggest some possible reasons for it. 

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America's health care dance is a kind of morbid two-step: step one is the trauma of the illness itself; step two is paying the bill for step one. In this episode I talk about the second trauma, my own experience with it, and what that suggests about the bankruptcy of our public health system. 

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With an accusation of sexual violence lodged against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, this seems like a good time to consider his relative merits as a candidate and where this crazy campaign is taking us. I try to apply some recent historical perspective to the phenomenon of Biden as well as our successes and failures as a mass progressive movement. 

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In this episode of Strange Sound I talk about the s-word. No, not THAT s-word ... the other one. Socialism! You know, the thing that keeps saving capitalism every ten years or so. That one. 

How much of a difference can a good ground game make in an election? This episode of Strange Sound offers my personal perspective on this question, starting with the McGovern campaign and the strangest introductory speech ever made. 

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As presidential candidates, both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have put forward wealth tax proposals. In this episode of Strange Sound I share some thoughts on this issue and discuss the current wealth tax that almost everyone pays but no one talks about.  

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