20 August 2018 – Will is off today due to a family emergency and our expected interview has been rescheduled so it’s just me and I thought I would try to get a jump start on our coming Puerto Rico interview show. In trying to understand what is going on with the economy and, therefore, the post-Maria recovery in Puerto Rico, I kept tripping over one thing again and again, a group of SCOTUS rulings collectively called the Insular Cases. I decided to get into it and, as it turns out, there’s a reason almost everything in PR funnels back to this one point. These Insular Cases are, in no small part, why PR is struggling so much today. Along the way I discovered a couple of interesting stories and one of them was wonderful. I’ll give you a little on Isabel Gonzáles now and hope to track someone down who can tell us more about her life. Isabel was the Rosa Parks of her time and she contributed greatly to the granting of full US citizenship to all Puerto Ricans. Obviously, it should be the right of PR to decide on becoming a state or becoming fully sovereign but in the meantime, the people should have all the benefits afforded all US citizens, which is still not the case. Anyway, that’s all for another day. Many Carrots! – Arliss
Category: First Nations
Standing Rock & Suiting Up
5 December 2016 – It’s time to suit-up. The coming battle will be extraordinarily difficult emotionally, physically, economically, politically and, well, in every other way imaginable. But we are still here and while they may have a choke-hold on power, that hold is fragile. Now that they will have the responsibility of leadership squarely on their shoulders it will not take long for them to be exposed as the king who wore no clothes. They will be naked and we will be in our best battle armor. We fight. We keep fighting. We never, never, never lose hope. This week the show is about the fight. It is about the future.
Our interview is with Neeta Lind (navajo on Daily Kos). Neeta is the Director of Community at Daily Kos where she blogs about native American issues. Today she is filling us in on the battle between the Standing Rock Sioux, the US federal government and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). We felt this interview was so important that Will gave up his block so that more of the interview would fit into the broadcast version of the show. What is happening at Standing Rock is intersectional in many ways, the rights of indigenous people, environmental racism, sex trafficking, abuse of women, clean water, religious freedom, broken treaties, climate change and militarized police forces are all issues which have ended up being part of the Standing Rock resistance. I recommend this video which speaks to some of these matters. If you want to help, Neeta recommended this link as the place to start: The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s DAPL page.
At the top of the show I provide an update on scheduling for future shows as we know it at this time. Will and I will be celebrating the holidays with our families so there will be no show on 26 December or 2 January. I will be traveling on business so there will also not be a new show on either the 16th or 23rd of January. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, I am finally having the surgery to resolve my health issues in February so there will be no new show on the 13th or 20th of February. What we really need is a third member of the Hopping Mad team. If you would like to volunteer or know someone who would be a terrific addition, please let us know. The show is an enormous amount of work but also very rewarding so think on it and let us know.
Also at the top I touch on my perspective on going forward. I do not plan to hyperventilate about every drop of acid which will be pouring from the firehose of the administration of President Collect* Trump. Also, I won’t be spending much time on the battle within the Democratic party. None of those things move us forward and my eyes are firmly on survival and building for future victory. I do think that Keith Ellison will be helpful as DNC chair and this is his agenda. Will elaborated on my thinking by observing that the President Collect is exceptionally good at getting the media and the Left to pay attention to his tweets and overlook many of his actions. Here on Hopping Mad, we won’t be doing that. BUT – I did promise you a link to Markos’ post which is a perfect summary of how I feel, just in case you are in any doubt.
In my big block I go through a list of the organizations which will truly be on the front lines and ask that listeners join at least one – and by join I don’t mean signing-up for their email list or sending a contribution. I mean working. Because that is what it will take. Below are the links I promised to include:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and SPLC Teaching Tolerance
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU Local Affiliates
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and CPJ Advocacy
American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee (ADC) and the ADC Voter Protection Unit
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and HRC Volunteer
The National Organization for Women (NOW) and NOW Actions
National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and NARAL State Affiliates
Planned Parenthood Action (PPAct), PPAct Local and PPAct Communities
So, as I said at the beginning, suit-up. Many Carrots of the Season! – Arliss
* David Waldman, of Kagro in the Morning fame, accidentally coined this term when he had a Freudian slip while trying to say “President Elect.” President Collect is more accurate so I think I will keep it for a while. Thanks, David!
Social Security Works!, Charlotte & Banks
26 September 2016 – We are finally back up to full power this week and have a truly terrific interview with Alex Lawson of Social Security Works! Because our listeners already have heard me talk about the mechanics of how Social Security works, Alex was free to wade out into the weeds where the world gets really interesting. He went into a great deal of detail about the dirty underbelly that the lying liars are trying so hard to keep us from seeing when they promote the privatization of Social Security. He also recommended that we take a side trip to the link for Social Security Spotlight where the (excellent) website lays out the economic impact of Social Security state by state.
At the top of the show Will talked about the importance and joy of celebrating Bi Visibility Day. I was especially caught by his pointing out why it is that the largest group within the LGBTQ community is also the most ignored. For my opening section I was less cheerful in giving an update on the latest news from the protectors gathered on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation along the Cannonball River. Like Keystone XL before it, the Dakota Access Pipeline is an enormous environmental threat and its construction has already caused the bulldozing of burial grounds, sacred sites and the locations of historic villages. Pressure from around the world has caused the Obama administration to reconsider but the project is by no means stopped. We must join in demanding an end to this and all similar pipeline projects.
Will then really spent time time getting into the role that journalism is playing in the protests in Charlotte. That journalists have stopped operating as journalists and now are only feeding the clicks necessary to support advertising has destroyed one of the cornerstones of our democracy. When the people lose their voice, they lose hope and then where do they turn?
I spend just a few minutes talking about how banks create money and why new money is pulled out of central banks by private sector banks instead of being pushed out as is the common view.
One last note, if you haven’t checked us, ImHoppingMad, out on Instagram yet, the six Team Arliss bunnies are now there providing their own brief comments on politics, economics and, of course, carrots. Carrots! – Arliss
Reprise: Alexis Goldstein & Dodd-Frank
6 June 2016 – Will and I were unable to record a new episode this week so we are reprising our episode from March which featured Alexis Goldstein of Americans for Financial Reform. Alexis gave us a truly exceptional interview on Dodd-Frank and given that our interview last week was on the foreclosure crisis, with David Dayen, we thought touching back to our conversation with Alexis made sense.
You can go here for our original episode notes.
We will be back next week with an all new Hopping Mad. – Arliss
Download here.
Dodd-Frank with Alexis Goldstein
21 March 2016 – This week we take a deep dive into Dodd-Frank. As I have been promising for the past several weeks, I start out with a fast but fairly detailed backgrounder on the legislation itself. Then, our guest, Alexis Goldstein updates us on where we are today with the implementation process. Alexis is a Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for Financial Reform and has been in the thick of the Dodd-Frank battle from back in her days with Occupy the SEC when she co-authored a 325-page Comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging them to write rules for a strong version of the Volker Rule. Seriously, that’s my kind of banking wonk. During our conversation Alexis referred to a link at Bloomberg and that is here for your easy reference.
Will begins the show talking about Bernie’s Town Hall on the Navajo reservation, while correcting the record. President Russell Begaye had a “very good” discussion with Bernie, where he talked with the Senator about the need for a cabinet-level position for Native Americans, which could cut across various federal agencies, asked that Native Governments be respected as sovereign entities, and asked that the government honor its treaty obligations. While President Begaye spoke in glowing terms about the Senator’s visit, he has not endorsed any presidential candidate in the 2016 election, contrary to claims being made online.
Will also made some noise about the deafening silence in the aftermath of the execution-style murder of three young black Muslims in Fort Wayne, Indiana in late February.
Here the daffodils are up in the front yard and the tulips are coming on right behind them. I hope it is equally beautiful wherever you may be. – Carrots! Arliss
WOW! Frances Coppola on Brexit
14 March 2016 – I follow many media sources on economics but none more closely than I do Frances Coppola. Frances’ insight on banking fraud, regulation and on the Greek crisis has contributed significantly to my thinking on these subjects. Having her on the show to talk about Brexit is especially exciting for me and I know you will be bowled over by her as well. Her blog, Coppola Comment and other writings, at The Guardian, the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes and her appearances on the BBC provide an accessible clarity rare among financial industry wonks.
Will is breaking news today on the Agent Orange crisis on the San Carlos Apache reservation lands in Arizona. The Environmental Protection Agency is apparently stepping up to finally (thirty years after the fact) mitigate extreme adverse impact. At the top of the show Will talks about working to focus on the big issues, the real issues in the campaign and not getting lost in the weeds of a single comment.
I finish my financial instrument backgrounders by talking about mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. Whew! I also update on the Finnish economy which, sadly, is not being held aloft by Angry Birds. Is the Finnish economy “Finnished?”
Once again, our interstitial music is by the wonderful Irish American band, Bua. Buy their album. You won’t be sorry. – Carrots! Arliss
Comcast Data Caps, What is Money?, and Hawaiian Independence
9 November 2015 – Today on Hopping Mad, Arliss was unavailable to record the intro, but was still able to cover her usual financial beat, explaining the power of a fiat currency. Will covered Comcast’s Data Caps, and our guest was Professor Francis Boyle, Human Rights Lawyer and International Law Expert. He explained that the Hawaiian situation is unique, as the laws which apply to Native Americans apparently do not apply to Native Hawaiians. Unfortunately, his time was limited, so there is no Extra Mad section this week. But the good news is that we’re now on both Stitcher and iTunes! For those of you who prefer the direct RSS feed it is https://www.buzzsprout.com/50892.rss.
Thanks for listening, Everyone. I promise I’ll write a bio portion for my part of the site soon.
-Will
Podcast for 28 September 2015 – Challenges Abound
This podcast was tough. The combination of our learning curve and strange technical issues was exhausting. Eventually, both Will and I ran out of time. We also ran over time. If you heard the podcast when it aired on Netroots Radio you immediately noticed that the introduction was trimmed, there was no interstitial music, there was no opening chatter between Will and I and Will’s comments on the Catholic church were both fascinating and lightening fast. Will, who handles the editing, had to cut seven minutes out so everything not absolutely necessary got thrown overboard. Obviously, we made rookie mistakes.
The good news is that it’s a podcast (and does not air live, for now) so I was able to do a new edit on Friday night. (It would have been done much earlier in the week but I have a demanding job and Will spent his week at the dentist…don’t ask. Ouch!) The “extended” edit (Director’s Cut, lol) has returned our full opening, the chatter we recorded but did not use in the podcast that aired and the interstitial music to the proper places.
Sadly, because we could no longer stay awake last Friday, when we were recording, we each ended up recording our “blocks” separately so there is no exchange between us when Will is talking about the Church or when I am talking about Serra. This isn’t how we planned it it’s just how it ended up. We’ll improve.
The whole process really does make me realize how spoiled we were just popping in twice a week and doing guest spots on The After Show. Both Will and I are full of ideas and we love the freedom of our own show but we are learning by doing and that always adds in a Jack-in-the-Box full of surprises.
The Pope Canonized the Devil and Walk for the Ancestors Responded with Grace
I was supposed to be talking about the Vatican Bank this week. I was all set. Then I read that Pope Frances, while in the United States, was going to canonize Fr. Junipero Serra. I lost my mind. Once I located it again I called Will and we changed the entire direction of the show. Will gave us a quick-march through Catholic history as it relates to the broadest social, and especially political, impact of the Catholic church as an institution.
I explained who Junipero Serra was and trust me when I say I provided the PG version. This man was very, very bad and the examples I include are just the tip of the Serra iceberg. I am not stretching the truth or embellishing the facts when I tell you that Serra was both cruel and genocidal. Now he’s also a Catholic “saint.”
Our interview was with the wonderful Caroline Ward Holland. Like so many people in the indigenous nations in California, Caroline could not rest easy knowing that Serra was to be raised up and canonized while the stories of her ancestors, their whispers and cries, were to continue to be ignored. This is especially disconcerting coming from a Pope who had so recently apologized for the outsized impact of colonization on the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Apparently, he was not also looking to the north.
Caroline and her son are walking 650 miles, visiting every mission in California, to draw light and focus to the stories not being told of the tens of thousands of people who were enslaved, abused, ripped from their cultural foundations and died. Caroline’s vision, Walk for the Ancestors, is a genuinely beautiful story. You can follow the Walk on Facebook at Walk for the Ancestors 2015. Please do. – Carrots! Arliss