8 April 2018 – We have hopped and moved the show we planned to have this week back to next week in order to have the ACA expert, Charles Gaba (ACASignups.net, @Charles_Gaba)on to update everyone on the latest chaos surrounding the ACA.
Because of the recent ruling by a Federal judge in the Northern District of Texas, the ACA is back on uncertain ground. No one is surprised. Trump is swerving all over the place first into the total, immediate destruction of the ACA and then veering back to say that his incredible new plan will come out right after he is re-elected. Even McConnell isn’t humoring Trump this time, which should be your first clue. But don’t worry, “preexisting conditions will be covered.” Of course, insurance companies will be able to charge whatever they feel like in order to issue the coverage but Trump is positive that will work for everyone. Well, at least all the billionaires. The rest of us can just use the hospital emergency room, right?
In the last block of the show, Will and I chat about Nancy Pelosi, 2020 candidates, leadership from Gen X and Millennials and the books, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: a Life and the essential new book, Broad Band. It’s all connected…kind of. Cheers! – Arliss
9 April 2018 – Democrats are finally learning that Secretaries of State are more critical than even governors in state elections so we are lucky to have elections expert and Indiana State Democratic SOS candidate, Jim Harper for the interview. Jim is a strong candidate for Indiana and the videos on his FB page reinforce why he is a great choice both for progressive and moderate Democrats.
Will is talking about elections and the fall-out in Catalonia. The Germans are standing-up for the Catalans and the UK may be as well. We’ll see. Meanwhile, Russia continues to play in that sandbox exclusively to incite chaos.
I give some background on the decennial Census to set it in some context for the current national conversation around the re-inclusion of the citizenship question. Just as an FYI – there is an even bigger problem with the 2020 Census…funding. No kidding. The GOP is using funding to impair the Census and suppress votes. There simply is no line they will not cross.
At the top of the show I discuss the Netroots Radio plan of action in case Robert Mueller is fired. Additionally, I recommend that everyone sign-up with MoveOn.org to register for notification of a local action in your area. Until next week, carrots! – Arliss
4 December 2017 – Though Will is still on vacation, I am joined by two of our associates. Basically, we came at the subject of framing from many different directions throughout the show. I start with a fairly deep dive into dynamic scoring. I know––you can’t wait, right?!? While scoring methodology is one of those suuuuuppppper dry subjects, dynamic scoring in important because of the framing space it supposedly grants to Republicans and because this frame is so good at getting us to take our eyes off the carrot. Paying attention to what actually matters in this reality means that we MUST STOP talking about deficits and stay focused on our values, on the real economy and on the welfare and happiness of our people – and by that I mean #AllOfUs.
Hopping Mad Associate, Alexis Dent, is up next. For those of you who are regular listeners, you will notice that Joel has changed his name to Alexis and he begins his block by briefly telling us about that before talking about the current conversation which is everywhere these days, sexual harassment. Alexis is not sharing or commenting upon the latest stories or scandals, rather he is talking about what he believes to be a shift in some of the long-standing victim-blaming agendas and his concern about the inevitable backlash. He also takes a few minutes to address the fact that not all victims are women and while this is a time for women to have their say, all of those who have been the victims of predators are to be believed, supported and empowered.
HM Associate David Paquette is back with us again to keep diving into health insurance related issues. This time he uses an excellent framing, likening health insurance to the fire department. I did not know anything about the insurance industry efficiency scoring of fire departments but Dave explains it well and appropriately. He moves from there to a discussion of the use of emergency rooms as primary insurance of last resort and how The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) came into being. Another fascinating story I did not know. Dave ties all of this back to the Donor’s Relief Bill, currently known as the Republican Tax Plan, in a very timely way.
In Extra Mad I close out the show with a terrific article, from SplinterNews.com, by Raúl Carrillo (@RaulACarrillo), of New Economy Project, and Jesse Myerson, of Hoosier Action, The Dangerous Myth of ‘Taxpayer Money’. This is an outstanding article about framing and how we talk about public money from the point of view of two experienced and accomplished activists. I recommend that you read it and share it WIDE.
16 October 2017 – Charles Gaba (@charles_gaba) comes back again to explain why Trump’s latest move against the ACA is so incredibly dangerous. This time, however, there are some really specific things we can be doing to help to keep the ACA from imploding. Join the Indivisible ACA Sign-up Project (@2018ACASignUps) and get involved on the ground with GetAmericaCovered.org. As I mention at the end of the interview, Charles is a national resource who is taking time away from his real job to maintain expertise and educate us in all kinds of ways on all the subjects associated with the ACA. Please go to Charle’s excellent website ACA Signups and support him. He is certainly supporting millions of us.
At the top of the show I talk a bit about the fires in my in my hometown of Santa Rosa.Will talks about the hate that Trump is sending out and pushing right into Will’s home and that of every LGBTQ person in the country.
I have handed-off my main block to Will and Joel. Will will tell you about it below. For all the years and years it will take to rebuild, I remain #SonomaCountyProud. Carrots! – Arliss
For my block, we discussed millennials, guns, and regulation. Millennials aren’t willing to accept the all-or-nothing dichotomy we’ve been handed on the gun debate. We’re perfectly willing to let people keep their guns, but also perfectly willing to enact heavy restrictions such as a national gun registry, a ban on offenders convicted of domestic violence owning weapons, mental health screening, and gun insurance. This fact, that we tend to be both pro-guns and pro-gun control, confuses people. Due to time, I cut this block from the broadcast edition, but it’s in our podcast.
For Joel’s block, we discussed the upcoming 2018 elections, the metrics beforehand, and what we can do to actually win.
31 July 2017 – [Note: this post was, somehow, erased from our site. We have republished to the site as of 20 September 2017.] We were incredibly lucky to have just the right interview guest at just the right time, Amanda Werner (@wamandajd), Arbitration Campaign Manager for Americans for Financial Reform & Public Citizen, was with us to talk about the dangerous efforts, by Congress, to overturn the new arbitration rule just published by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB). In the first half of the interview Amanda gets into some great detail about why forced arbitration is problematic and why some communities are particularly impacted. In the second half we get into the politics of the rule and explain why it is essential that you get involved in this very winnable fight.
At the top of the show I talk with Will a bit about the letter sent by the American Psychoanalytic Association to its members clarifying their long-held position that as medical professionals they have a “duty to warn” and that they see this duty as particularly relevant due to the observable behavior of President Trump.
And speaking of observable, impulsive, antagonistic, aggressive behavior…
This week Trump thought he could change DoD policy with a 140 character tweet in which he attempted to ban transgendered individuals from serving in the armed forces…where they are already serving…by the thousands. The Pentagon was blindsided and made it clear that DoD policy is not now and never will be issued via tweet. Will spoke both about the organizational issues and the personal struggles of the trans community. Trump’s efforts to feed hatred are despicable and, frankly, just another bit of evidence that he is mentally ill and unfit to serve as president.
Just before the interview with Amanda Werner, I reviewed the mission and successes of the CFPB. I also talk a bit about their enemies. In government, of course, no good deed goes unpunished so Congressman Jeb Hensarling, in an especially personal and vicious manner, is directly attacking CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Hensarling really despises Cordray because Cordray is so good at his job. Which is proof that it is absolutely essential that, like other regulators, the CFPB remain insulated from the political process as much as is reasonable. The GOP is looking for every possible opening to diminish this critically important agency. As we did with the ACA, we must, we simply MUST fight to defend the CFPB at every turn.
And so it goes. No rest for the victorious! Carrots! – Arliss
28 February 2017 – Indivisible Southeast Indiana (@IndivisibleSEIN on Twitter and Indivisible Southeast Indiana on FB) met on Sunday, 19 February, for our second meeting. We gathered in the home of one of the organizers and decided that we needed to act immediately. One week later, on Sunday, 26 February we hosted a “Where’s Waldo” themed constituent town hall.We invited Congressman Luke Messer (R – IN-6) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN). Both declined to come. In fact, neither held any open-to-the-public town halls or events anywhere during this recess. We persisted.
Our Where’s Todd? Where’s Luke? Town Hall was held in front of the lovely and historic Ohio County Courthouse (the oldest in continuous operation in Indiana) located in little Rising Sun, Indiana (population 2304). Sunday was cold but sunny and with little notice and very little publicity in this red, red corner of Indiana, about fifty people turned up. In San Francisco this would be an embarrassing turnout but in Rising Sun it was exceptional and you could feel the excitement in the air. We even had (briefly) a tiny Trump contingent but they left when they didn’t draw attention or a fight.
The event featured life-sized Todd and Luke Waldos, lots of handmade signs and really darling Waldo scarves that one of the organizes made and handed out. Several planned speakers told their two-minute stories and then other attendees asked to speak and we were thrilled to have them. The thing which most struck me was how well informed these voters are and how wide ranging their issues of concern.
For Hopping Mad I recorded a brief interview with two of the organizers, Rebecca Barhorst and Christine Craig, just after the meeting on the 19th and then the entire town hall on the 26th. I think what people had to say during the town hall was as important as any of the interviews we have done on this show. I think you will enjoy this and when you imagine what people are thinking about in these midwestern states, remember what you heard here today. Carrots! – Arliss
PS – For anyone wondering, the show will remain on hiatus for another few weeks. Will may try to host a show on his own but I will again be unavailable. I went in for surgery, as I had previously mentioned, on 6 February but the surgeon found a conflict in the diagnostic reports just a few minutes before the surgery was supposed to begin. I was floating on a cloud by this point but, as I understand it, the decision was made to run another entire battery of (hideous) tests over the following two weeks. Ultimately, those tests confirmed the original diagnosis and I go back in for the originally planned surgery on Thursday, 2 March, which means I will be down for the count for a while. Already I have a backlog of things I want to talk about so by the time I am back with you I will be brimming over. Take care of yourselves. I miss you already!
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:
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!
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
16 July 2016 – We are here in St. Louis at Netroots Nation and, as usual, it’s remarkable. On Friday we sat down for a truly wonderful interview with Lady Ashley Gregory, of QT POC STL, and Capella Marissa Huniwalt of the Metro Trans Umbrella Group. Together these two organizations work symbiotically to empower the queer and trans community of St. Louis. The Metro Trans Umbrella Group delivers against their CAVE (Community, Advocacy, Visibility, Education) Priorities in genuinely impressive ways including providing nationally certified trainings to hospitals, universities and community organizations on providing trans related services and on interacting with trans individuals. They have recently also built and opened the first Trans Memorial Garden in the nation. I especially love the quote they have on a sign there, “They thought they could bury us. They did not know we were seeds.”
Speaking of seeds, QT POC STL grew out of the swirl of emotions following the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. The QT POC community needed a place to talk and to organize. From that beginning an organization has grown. As Lady Ashley says during the interview (paraphrased here), “When they go to write history books in the future, Ferguson will figure prominently.” There is no question of this and QT POC STL is just one of the examples of how the nation has been forever changed by the activism which was trigged initially by the murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
This episode of Hopping Mad is exclusively dedicated to the articulate, informative, exceptional interview and we thank our guests. – Carrots! Arliss
25 April 2016 – Rachel Hutchison of Irreverent Testimony joined me as a guest host because Arliss is on vacation.
Today we started with a tiny bit of coverage on the Scottish elections. Our UK listeners will note that I didn’t talk much about Nicola and that’s because I’m saving a full segment for her next week when I talk about the Scottish elections on May 5th. Only when those are over and done with will I give Brexit my full attention.
Then Rachel and I followed with a discussion of LGBT strategy when it comes to elections as well as a discussion about how we take state governments back.
Our interview was with social worker Molly Judson, who’s been on the front lines for just over two decades. Because of the subject matter, LGBT children and teens who’ve been enslaved right here in the US, this was one of the hardest interviews I’ve ever done. Molly deals with these issues directly. Looking at the ways that LGBT teens are being enslaved is extremely bleak – but it doesn’t have to be that way. Especially if we’re all vigilant and become involved. Even the smallest effort at this point will be better than the wall of silence we face. Call your senator or congressman’s office, and ask them why the trafficking of LGBT youth isn’t a priority. Silence is deadly but you can be a part of the change we need.
The following resources were provided to us by Molly and we hope they’ll be useful in combating the scourges of bigotry, trafficking and modern slavery in the United States.
National Runaway Hotline (www.1800runaway.org):
1-800-RUNAWAY
Resources and support for runaway youth and their families
Trevor Project (www.thetrevorproject.org) – LGBTQ Crisis Line – Counselors trained in areas of support specific to LGBTQ issues
1-866-488-7368 – Hotline
1-202-304-1200 – Textline
Human Trafficking Resource Center(https:traffickingresourcecenter.org)
Hotline – if you are a victim of trafficking or suspect someone is being trafficked, please call the hotline:
1-888-373-7888 – National Human Trafficking Hotline
Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (www.combathumantrafficking.org) – lots of research and ways to get involved in anti-human trafficking efforts. Based in Colorado, the Laboratory is one of the most well-respected research organizations.
They also help run the Human Trafficking Hotline for Colorado – 1-866-455-5075 (if you or someone you know is or is suspected of being trafficked in Colorado, there are many resources available)
Trans Lifeline – translifeline.org – suicide and crisis line for trans*-identified individuals
1-877-565-8860 – US
1-877-330-6366 – Canada
True Colors Fund – 40toNone Day is April 27, 2016 – go to the website (truecolorsfund.org) to sign up for advocacy efforts.
