Out d’Coup Podcast

Another day. Kind of a rambly show today all. We're back to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly in state and national politics. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s show, we'll get into a little news tonight. Lots going on, of course, but after this past Friday's show, I just can't seem to stop thinking about what we've done to education, our kids, and our culture. What's on your mind? If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

A container ship hits the Fracis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore causes the bridge to collapse and six workers to lose their lives. After John Fetterman stakes out hawkish support for Israel and distances himself from progressives, his staff is leaving him in droves. Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman died this week. Let that signal the passing of one of the more destructive factions and ideologies in the Democratic Party. NBC hires then fires Ronna McDaniel the election-denying, former head of the GOP, School absences have exploded and continue in the post-COVID world. University of Florida is going after faculty members that they thing “interferred” with the university’s new Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education - the newly establish beachhead for so-called “classical education” and the “Western canon” - one of the buzzwords used by Christian nationalist and far-right activists seeking to whitewash American education and bolster a white, Christian, and celebratory narrative. Boston University’s administration had some suggestions for faculty members during the current strike by graduate students: Have AI do the work instead. A new Indiana law will require professors to promote “Intellectual diversity” - of face disciplinary actions. What does that mean? It means entertaining even fascist ideas as just another set of ideas. Was Hitler wrong? Well, let’s look at argument for and against Nazism, shall we? The University of Kentucky’s presidents seeks to disband their Faculty Senate and turn decision-making over to the university’s Board of Trustees. Bucks County sues Big Oil for lying about the climate crisis. PA’s Primary is right around the corner. We’ll give you the dates and deadlines you need to know.

Just about a month from the PA primaries. Climate crisis in the headlines. Federal chaos and local right-wing movements. Yes, it's an election year. We're back to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly in state and national politics. Imagine that. Another “nail-biting’ vote to prevent a government shutdown before tonight’s midnight deadline. This is the dramatic sit-com version of politics that the Republicans want to keep renewing. Lots of not so good news on the climate crisis front. wage war on electric vehiclessuccessfully gutted new building codes John Fetterman The United States falls out of the top 20 happiest countries for the first time since the annual World Happiness Report began in 2012 by the United Nations. Gee. I wonder why. And young people are leading the unhappiness charge. Several new strike votes in higher education. The Washington Post runs the bio of new Palisades School District School Board Member, Linda Wenhold. How does a local school board member get a full profile in the Washington Post? Well, apparently it helps if you take and teach classes with the Christian Nationalist Patriot Academy, advocate for your school district to teach that America’s true history is a Christian nation, and argue that attempts to make schools welcoming and accessible for all kids are secret plots to Marxists and secular leftists to destroy America. Bucks County Beacon announces it’s first annual Beacon Fest to support the work of the Beacon and bring trouble-makers of all sorts together! The event will be on June 1 @ Snipes Farm in Morrisville, PA. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

At least 112 hungry and desperate Palestinians were killed early Thursday morning trying to get much needed food and medical aid. Some of the dead were gunned down by Israeli troops, others were run over by the aid trucks attempting to flee the scene. In a huge announcement, Starbucks officially announced that it will no longer work to oppose unionization efforts by its employees. Now that nearly 400 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, and founder and former CEO, Howard Shultz, is no longer running the company, it seems that Starbucks Workers United will now be heading to contract negotiations in good faith. In a joint statement, Starbucks and Workers United said they will, “begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve … collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners” Thousands of academic workers are on strike at York University in Toronto. On Thursday, members of other unions across Ontario joined the picket lines in support of their striking brothers and sisters. Last week, the Pennridge School District - the first in the nation to hire the Hillsdale-inspired Vermillion Education to rewrite their social studies and English curriculum through a Christian nationalist lens - officially scrapped the Hillsdale proposed curriculum. An Illinois court has kicked Trump of this year’s Republican Primary ballot, all but assuring another round of Supreme Court decisions. The order has been put on hold pending appeal. Early voting has already begun in the state. Mitch McConnell announced he’s retiring from Senate leadership after this year’s election. Let the all out Senate Republican civil war commence. “Uncommitted” is set to win two delegates from Michigan as the protest over Biden’s unwillingness to stop the Israeli government’s genocidal war in Gaza. Washington State’s largest labor union - the United Food and Commercial Worker - has endorsed “uncommitted” in this year’s Democratic Primary. In one of the most brazen statements of late from Big Oil, Exxon scolded the world in a recent interview in Fortune magazine saying that Exxon and other fossil fuel companies are not to blame for the climate crisis. Who is? Everyone else but them it appears. Exxon CEO Darren Woods told the magazine, “the world waited too long” to develop green technologies and that "people who are generating the emissions need to be aware … and pay the price." Who are those people? You guessed it, you and me. Treacherous blizzard is bearing down on the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. The storm is expected to dump up to 10 feet of snow with winds already peaking at 145 mph. The Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas has now become the second largest wildfire in U.S. history, burning more than a million acres of land just north of Amarillo - an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island. Former professor at Albert Einstein College to cover all future medical school tuition.

On today’s show, I welcome Steve Oross and Lorrie McKinley to the show. Steve Oross is an Associate Professor of psychology at Kutztown University and as listeners of this show will recall, in Fall 2021 Steve Oross was denied ADA accommodations by Kutztown University’s administration. Oross had a heart transplant in February 2021. Following months of physical therapy and treatment, his doctors cleared him to return to work in Fall 2021 provided that he taught his classes online given that COVID was still rampant and would pose a significant risk to his life. Rather than providing Oross with accommodations, the administration said the only way they would allow him to return to work would be if he taught in-person. Rather than risk his life or being forced to go on unpaid leave pr losing his job, Oross decided to fight. Thanks to his determination and the amazing advocacy of his attorney, Lorrie McKinley, Oross won his case. Steve’s experience has led him to wider spheres of advocacy as well. Steve is a Team Member with the World Health Network focusing on Legal Action for Policy Change. He has also become involved in the Organ Donation Awareness Corporation which is a student-led organ donation advocacy group with chapters in NYC and Nashville, Tennessee, involving other students from around the country. He will be participating in a series of webinars with this group focused on promoting organ donation among young adults. Lorrie McKinley, is one of the few lawyers in the Philadelphia area with undisputed expertise in both employment law and special education advocacy and litigation. She is a passionate, bold and creative advocate with a long track record of protecting the civil rights of employees and students under the nation’s civil rights law at every level of the state and federal courts. Lorrie is widely recognized for her contributions in the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act as well as her advocacy on behalf of children with special needs. Prior to entering private practice in 1997, Lorrie served as Project Head for the Employment Law Project at Community Legal Services, Inc. in Philadelphia. In 1997 she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving constitutional due process issues for people receiving medical benefits pursuant to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act. Her work in that case is highlighted in an exhibit in the Supreme Court Section of the United States Constitution Center in Philadelphia. For over a decade, Lorrie has been selected by her peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America.” Since 2008, she has also been listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Thompsons Reuters based on peer recognition and professional achievement. LINKS: https://casetext.com/case/oross-v-kutztown-univhttps://www.mckinleyryan.com/https://bit.ly/49PcBNLhttps://bit.ly/3h9EuqZhttps://www.disabilityrightspa.org/ If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s show, we'll get into a little news tonight. We had Kathryn Joyce on the show this past Friday, so we're swapping our Monday for a news roundup. What's on your mind? If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s episode, I welcome Kathryn Joyce to the program. We'll be talking about her recent article in Vanity Fair, "How the Far Right Took Over a Pennsylvania School Board - And How Parents Took It Back." Yes, we're talking about the Pennridge School Board and the unexpected and game-changing victory by the Pennridge Community Alliance candidates this past fall that flipped five open seats on the board. Kathryn Joyce is an investigative editor at In These Times, a freelance investigative reporter, and the author of two books: The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption and Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Kathryn was formerly a reporter with Type Investigations and Salon, a contributing editor at The New Republic, and a contributing writer at Highline. Her work has also appeared in numerous publications including Mother Jones, The Marshall Project, Longreads, The New York Times Magazine, Vox, The American Prospect, The Intercept, The Nation, Cosmopolitan, Adirondack Life, The Atlantic, Ms., The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and many others. She is formerly the editor of Political Research Associates’ quarterly magazine The Public Eye, and teaches as an adjunct lecturer in Brooklyn College’s political science department. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s show, you probably already heard the news. Taylor Swift won the Super Bowl. Yup, that's what happened. Meanwhile, our democracy continues to deteriorate and our collective politics get more unhinged. All the more reason to get with the people in your communities and continue to organize on principles of care. What's on your mind? Would love to know. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s show, we’re taking a break from our focus on PA and head north to the Central New York region…yes, the place I grew up. We’ll be talking to James Meyers, a Democrat running for the New York State Senate in the 53rd District. The 53rd is significantly different following New York’s redistricting in 2022. The district now includes my hometown of Utica, NY. Meyers hopes to defeat Republican Joseph Griffo in this fall’s general election. Meyers is running for the 53rd New York State Senate District with the aim of bringing a fresh approach to representing Central New Yorkers in their state government. He is a veteran with a strong background in service and leadership. Meyers grew up in a working-class environment in Upstate New York in a family who dedicated their professional lives to the service of others. After graduating from SUNY Brockport via an ROTC scholarship with a degree in history, he accepted a commission into active service as an intelligence officer in the United States Army. He currently holds the rank of Major in the Army Reserve. While serving in the U.S. Army Reserve, he earned a master’s degree in strategic intelligence. His military service led to a position with Alion Science and Technology, a government contracting firm in Rome, NY where he was responsible for the management and completion of million-dollar projects. His love for central New York, the influence of his family, his education, military career and civilian experience, James is motivated to serve our community with the same passion and dedication he has and continues to serve our country. Meyers is running on a platform of transparency, accountability, and putting the needs of his constituents first. He is an advocate for public safety, economic development, and accessible and affordable healthcare. LINKS: https://www.james-meyers.com/ https://twitter.com/MeyersforNYhttps://www.instagram.com/meyersforstatesenatehttps://www.facebook.com/meyersforsenate If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

Can you believe it's already February?!? What's going on folks? We'll get into some of the good, the bad, and ugly in state and national politics. Today: If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On today’s show, we're throwing off the blankets and diving into 2024. What's happening in your neck of the woods? If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

It's been quite a year and I think we can all use a little rest before the 2024 election season kicks off. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On tonight’s show, I welcome Ashli Giles-Perkins and Adrienne King to the show. Ashli is a staff attorney with the Education Law Center and Adrienne King is the President and Founder of the PairUp Society and a parent of two children in the Pennridge School district. Today we’ll be talking about the discrimination complaint against the Pennridge School Districts filed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The complaint charges that the Pennridge School District has discriminated against LGBTQ+ students and students of color in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. We’ll talk about what all that means and the history of ongoing and systemic discrimination in the districts. And, we’ll talk about what the election of a new school board majority may mean for how this complaint addressed. Ashli Giles-Perkins joined the Philadelphia office of the Education Law Center in October 2020 as an Independence Foundation Public Interest Law Fellow. Ashli’s work centers on addressing the significant educational injustices for youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in the Philadelphia area who enter, reside in, and leave residential facilities. Ashli provides representation of students and families, training for families and communities, and significant outreach to stakeholders to ensure oversight, accountability, and access to quality education for system-involved youth. Originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut, Ashli graduated with a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a certificate in child & family law, as well as with an M.Ed. in cultural educational policy studies from Loyola Chicago’s School of Education. While at Loyola, Ashli interned with Advocates for Children of New York and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Adrienne King is a wife, mother of two daughters in the Pennridge School District, and an outspoken leader and advocate in the community. Adrienne founded The PairUP Society , a 501c3 non-profit organization after experiencing difficulties in her children's school district and realizing the difficulties of navigating that system for her and other underrepresented students and their families. The PairUp Society helps build community among underrepresented students and their families and provide them with resources to advocate for their needs while also activating allies to provide support. Adrienne holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, MS in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs from Temple University and leadership certifications from Duke University and Cornell University. Adrienne and her family currently reside in Perkasie, PA where she is committed to putting roots down in their community and doing the work to create a sense of psychological safety, belonging and inclusion for all community members LINKS https://bit.ly/3GBhHAP If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

It's been a minute. But that doesn't mean the world has stopped. Welcome to the Friday Politics Roundup. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

Elon Musk rips off the mask and jumps on the antisemitic conspiracy bandwagon on that platform formerly known as Twitter. Yeah, the one he owns. New Republican Christian nationalist Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson calls the separation between church and state a “misnomer” and a “misunderstanding” of the true intent of the Founders. A judge has cleared the way for a slew of lawsuits against Meta and other tech giants to go forward. 42 state attorneys general and multiple school districts are suing the companies as knowingly designing their platforms to be addictive for kids, despite knowing about the harm those platforms induce. Pennridge School District faces a new federal Civil Rights complaint over “the district’s ongoing discriminatory policies, practices, and an environment perceived as hostile due to ongoing race- and sex-based harassment.” The outgoing school board majority only poured fuel on the fires of discrimination, enacting overtly discriminatory policies. Central Bucks School Board votes to give outgoing superintendent Abram Lucabaugh a $712,000 golden parachute after he abruptly resigned following the results of this month’s elections. Newly elected school board members say, not so fast. A federal judge also ordered Lucabaugh not to delete any documents related to a federal lawsuit alleging retaliation against Central Bucks teacher Andre Burgess, who filed a federal discrimination complaint on behalf of a transgender student. Doylestown’s own Pink has teamed up with PEN American to give away more than 2,000 banned books during her shows in Florida this week. Book recommendations: Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World; Rebecca Campbell, Aboreality; Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. We’re here for the fight and we need you. Become a patron for the price of a good beer once a month. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

On this episode, I'll be talking with Jennifer Cohn about her article "Moms for Liberty and the Dominionist Assault on America's 'Education Mountain'," published in the Bucks County Beacon. Cohen unmasks the extremist, Christian nationalist agenda shared by Moms for Liberty and organizations on the radical Christian right. We'll also talk about significant losses by Moms for Liberty-backed school board candidates in this November's elections - both here in PA and across the country. Does this signal the beginning of the end of Moms for Liberty and Christian nationalists? Or, will they double-down on their radical agenda heading into the 2024 presidential election? Jennifer Cohn is an attorney, election integrity advocate, and political essayist. In addition to writing on elections and Christian nationalism for the Bucks County Beacon, her writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Who What Why, The Independent, TYT Investigates, The Brad Blog, and Salon. You can follow Jennifer on the platform formally known as Twitter at @jennycohn1 and on Mastodon at jennycohn@toad.social. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

Raging Chicken's Friday Politics Roundup for November 11, 2023. This week I am joined by Cyril Mychalejko, Editor-in-Chief of the Bucks County Beacon. We'll be diving into the results of the election results from Tuesday. We say HUGE wins in school boards and county offices across Bucks County. Both Pennridge and Central Bucks school boards flipped! There were also significant wins in the State Supreme Court and other judicial elections. We'll get into it all. You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/7XzfKUWCmh

It's Election Day Eve here in Pennsylvania. In Bucks County the future of our schools are at stake. Abortion rights are at stake. Our elections are at stake. Deep breaths everyone. If we want a progressive future, we need progressive media. Support pull-no-punches, homegrown progressive media today by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month. Simply go to Patreon.com/RCPress. Help keep the media in the movement and the movement in the media. Become a patron for as little as $5/month by going to Patreon.com/RCPress. Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u

Raging Chicken's Friday Politics Roundup for November 3, 2023. We're here to break down the good, the bad, and the ugly in state and national politics. This week, we're focused on the critical election this coming Tuesday, Nov. 7 - at stake the future of school boards in Pennridge, Central Bucks, Council Rock, and others. Not only that, but protection for abortion and voting rights is on the ballot with control of the PA Supreme Court up for grabs. Also, the fight to keep a Democratic Party majority on the Bucks County Board of Commissioners is alive and well. Key links: https://www.pennridgecommunityalliance.com/https://www.cbsdneighborsunited.com/https://www.togetherforcouncilrock.org/https://bucksdemocrats.org/candidates/ You can support this show by becoming a patron for as little as $5/month at https://www.patreon.com/rcpress. Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/7XzfKUWCmh