#1350 Reach For The Good Ideas That Are Just Lying Around (Disaster Capitalism)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2020
⏱️ 125 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Air Date 5/21/2020
Today we take a look at the classic battle between good and... not evil exactly but worse than just 'bad'... 'malicious indifference to suffering in the pursuit of ideology over real-world outcomes' maybe?... as seen through the lens of trying to destroy or save the US Post Office, the battle for basic labor rights and protections and the struggle to define the revolutionary change we are going to experience on the back end of the pandemic for either good or ill.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: USPS - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Air Date 5-10-20
As the U.S. Postal Service faces financial catastrophe, John Oliver discusses why the service is so important, what brought it to this point, and what we can do to help.
Ch. 2: Far from a loser, the post office is a money-making operation - Jim Hightower - Air Date 4-21-20
Antigovernment ideologues and privatization dogmatists hate the very word “public” and they’ve long sought to demonize the US Postal Service, undercut its popular support, and finally dismantle it.
President Trump has lashed out at the U.S. Postal Service as the pandemic brings it to the brink of collapse and more people than ever are relying on the mail.
Ch. 4: Is Postal Banking a Good Idea? - David Pakman Show - Air Date 05-14-18
Audience question: Is postal banking a good idea?
Ch. 5: Should Trump be America’s Postal Potentate? - Jim Hightower - Air Date 5-7-20
The humble Post Office is a community fixture, a civic inheritance, a rural lifeline, and one of the last vestiges of a shared civic culture in America.
The revolutionary history of May Day is recognized around the world in a way that should inspire workers in the United States to continue their fight.
Ch. 7: Mike Elk on Frontline Worker Rights - CounterSpin - Air Date 4-10-20
Mike Elk discusses essential workers and the power of labor and strikes.
Ch. 8: Food Workers and the Virus - Belabored by Dissent Magazine - Air Date 5-9-20
We talk with Raj Patel, research professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and the author of Stuffed and Starved.
Ch. 9: Charles Derber Upstairs/Downstairs Economy - Unauthorized Disclosure - Air Date 4-5-20
Charles Derber on whether the pandemic may significantly alter the structure of the economy in the United States.
It’s a historic stimulus bill that will finally offer some financial relief to those affected by the coronavirus outbreak. But will Americans be able to prove they’re mature enough to spend it responsibly?
Ch. 11: Ricardo Salvador on the Food System & COVID-19 - CounterSpin - Air Date 5-8-20
As for food workers—farm laborers, meatpackers, grocery and restaurant workers—how can they be deemed “essential” and yet treated as expendable?
Ch. 12: Demand Congress Pass The #PeoplesBailout via ThePeoplesBailout.org
Go to The People’s Bailout dot org to easily write and call your members of Congress demanding they take effective, inclusive, equitable and preventative legislative action.
Ch. 13: Coronavirus Capitalism and How to Beat It - The Intercept - Air Date 3-16-20
This video is about the ways the still-unfolding COVID-19 crisis is already remaking our sense of the possible.
Ch. 14: The Georgia Experiment - Social Distance - Air Date 4-30-20
Staff writer and Georgia native Amanda Mull join to talk about the political forces pushing to reopen her home state.
Ch. 15: A New Economy for a post-COVID world - Progressive Faith Sermons - Dr. Roger Ray - Air Date 5-3-20
As President Trump and many states’ governors are pushing (largely minority) workers to go back to work in unsafe conditions for less than a living wage in the midst of a pandemic, is the word “revolution” too strong to use or is it not quite enough?
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 16: Final comments on the best-laid intentions
TAKE ACTION!
Write & Call Your Members of Congress & MORE at ThePeoplesBailout.org
Follow @_PeoplesBailout on Twitter
Spread the word with #PeoplesBailout on social media
EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE
The Bailout is Working - For the Rich (ProPublica)
Retail workers at Amazon and Whole Foods coordinate sick-out to protest Covid-19 conditions (The Guardian)
For immigrants without legal status, federal coronavirus relief is out of reach (Vox)
Essential workers still lack basic safety protections on the job (Vox)
Millions Of Americans Have Lost Health Insurance As Unemployment Soars (NPR)
Vote safely by mail in November? Not so fast, say Republicans (The Guardian)
Republicans plan to spend at least $20 million to combat voting rights lawsuits in 2020 (Vox)
Want To Jump-Start The Economy? Include A Green New Deal In The Stimulus Package (Forbes)
Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna Unveil Essential Workers Bill of Rights (Warren.senate.gov)
Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Ed Markey to introduce a Senate bill to give Americans $2,000 a month until the coronavirus crisis ends (Business Insider)
Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- PolyCoat - The Cabinetmaker
- Turning to You - Landsman Duets
- The Spinnet - Castle Danger
- Contrarian - Sketchbook
- Turning - Lathe
- Eventual Victory - Codebreaker
- Haena - Cloud Harbor
- Our Fingers Cold - K2
- Homegrown - The Pine Barrens
- Take a Tiny Train - Ray Catcher
- Vengeful - Warmbody
- Chilvat - Lillehammer
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Bestful F Podcast, in which we shall learn |
| 0:07.3 | about the classic battle between good and, I don't know, malicious indifference to suffering |
| 0:13.1 | in the pursuit of ideology over real-world outcomes. |
| 0:16.1 | It's more accurate than good versus evil. |
| 0:19.1 | As seen through the lens of trying to destroy or save the US Post Office, on one hand, |
| 0:25.2 | the struggle to define the revolutionary change we are almost certainly going to experience |
| 0:31.1 | on the back end of the pandemic for either good or ill. |
| 0:35.6 | This is another of my double episodes that I've started making almost by accident, two |
| 0:39.5 | topics, though intimately connected with one another. |
| 0:43.0 | Twice the length, it's two for the price of two, basically. |
| 0:47.0 | As I said, we're going to start by looking at the systematic attack on the post office, |
| 0:52.0 | and smoothly transition into the attacks on working people everywhere, and wrap up with |
| 0:57.6 | a big picture look at the battle for the future taking place right now in the chaos of |
| 1:03.2 | the pandemic, because this is exactly the kind of thing that creates inflection points |
| 1:08.3 | in history, and we need to be aware of that and ready for that, and there to make our voices |
| 1:13.7 | heard so that the future can reflect our values. |
| 1:17.5 | And I've got to say, a lot of the best stuff is toward the end of today's episode. |
| 1:21.5 | So you're really not going to want to skip out on that. |
| 1:25.1 | Why did I put the good stuff at the end, or if you or people may hear it? |
| 1:28.7 | I have my reasons, so trust me. |
| 1:31.5 | Clips today come from last week tonight, Jim Hightower, Democracy Now, The David Pakman |
| 1:37.0 | Show, The Real News, Counter-Spin, Bill Labord, Unauthorized Disclosure, The Topical From |
... |
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