political limerick   by Skip Tenczar

Fox News is Donald Trump’s sucker,
On his butt they shamelessly pucker.
They won’t carry the hearing 
Cause they might be fearing
It’ll offend their golden boy Tucker.
​
​We discuss with our panel the January 6 hearing, and the most graphic descriptions. “I was sliding in people’s blood”, as recounted by one of the Capitol police officers. The testimony was very personal, and described unprecedented violence, with all of it pointing to Trump. The Republican party should be held accountable for condoning and excusing the violence. This includes the mass shootings.
The obstacle to this approach is the Senate. The gun violence experienced by Americans is due to a misinterpretation of the 2nd. Amendment, which presumes a right to weapons. Rather, the current interpretation is a threat. We are living with a government by an armed, fascistic minority, and the filibuster reinforces this. Changes are needed, not only in voting patterns, but also in how the Supreme Court is perceived. Perhaps it is time to see its role as advisory, rather than decisive.

Our panel: 

Stephen Pimpare  is a poverty expert and is currently the director of the Public Service and Nonprofit Leadership Program at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of The New Victorians: Poverty, Politics, and Propaganda in Two Gilded Ages (2004); A People’s History of Poverty in America (2008); and Ghettos, Tramps, and Welfare Queens: Down and Out on the Silver Screen(2017) and Politics for Social Workers (2021)
Lincoln Mitchell teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.He covers the politics of NYC and San Francisco as well as International politics. He is the author of seven books and is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, the San Francisco Examiner and Brussels Morning.
Dave Levinathal  is deputy Washington Bureau chief for Insider, where he writes about the nexus of politics, policy and power in the nation's capital and helps manage the bureau's team of 12 journalists.From 2020 to 2021, Dave was Insider's senior Washington correspondent. Prior to joining Insider's Washington Bureau, Dave served as editor-at-large for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization in Washington, DC. During his seven years there, Dave's work as an editor and reporter won numerous honors, including the Goldsmith Prize, Edward R. Murrow Award, National Headliner Award, Kaleidoscope Award and EPPY Award.
Russell Muirhead is the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy (Princeton 2020), which charts the way power-seekers marshal conspiratorial fabrications to elevate themselves and at the same time degrade democratic institutions. Muirhead has also written books on party polarization in American politics (The Promise of Party, 2014), and the moral meaning of work in democracy (Just Work, 2004). He is an veteran moderator of Aspen seminars. Before Dartmouth, Muirhead taught at Harvard, Williams College, and the University of Texas at Austin. Russ is currently a state representative in the NH House representing Hanover NH

Part 1:
We talk with Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, and the Voice of TX, the dean of the Austin Press Corps.
We discuss the Uvalde massacre of the children and teachers.
The House has passed a 21year old age limit for the purchase of high capacity weapons and ammunition. It is anticipated that the Republicans in the Senate will not go along, despite the pleas by the victims, doctors, and the victims’ families. The Republicans are beholden to the gun groups. There are two anti-gun messengers in Texas: Matthew McConaughey and Beto O’Rourke. Both talked about responsible gun ownership.
It is telling that officeholders have NOT been punished by voters.
​Part 2:
We talk with Bill Curry and Harold Meyerson. Curry is a two-time candidate for governor of Connecticut, and Meyerson is the editor of The American Prospect
“Don’t concede and election before it is run” This is the sentiment that Curry urges, despite all the doom saying about the 2022 elections.
We discuss what voters will remember before voting. There are several topics that might weigh heavily: Buffalo and Uvaldi, the insurrection, inflation.
We also talk about sustainable energy initiatives, and compare the US with Australia. We also discuss housing problems in the US.

Part 1:
We talk with Rob Wolfe, editor of the Washington Monthly. We discuss the way that gay individuals have been targeted by the general public and the government for persecution. Many people were outed involuntarily, to be humiliated, and to lose their livelihoods, friends, and sometimes their lives. When heterosexual bad behavior is condoned or simply shrugged aside, homosexuals have been persecuted for simply existing. This had implications for people in the age of AIDS. The disease was not mentioned or acknowledged, and the consequences were tragic for many.
Part 2:
We meet with Jonathan Feingold, Professor at Boston University,
#RaceClass Ep. 6, Part A | Race Matters After Admissions: Equality Requires Diversity
​#RaceClass is launching a 6-part series on affirmative action. But we’re taking an unconventional turn. Rather than focus on affirmative action itself, we’re exploring how *race matters* before affirmative action arrives. Specifically, we’ll ask how race mattersbefore, during, and after university admissions. Why? Because we can’t know affirmative action until we know the backdrop it intervenes against.
To kick things off, we explore how racial diversity serves a key equality function. Specifically, racial diversity safeguards each student’s right to enjoy the benefits of university membership. Put differently, when white students are over-represented on a college campus, that demographic reality – coupled with pervasive presumptions about who “belongs” – creates a “racial preference” for white students. One might say affirmative action, by buffering against that over-representation, promotes racial equality on campus.

 Part 1:
Peter Greene, Senior Education Contributor at Forbes Magazine talks to us about The forgiveness of loans for Corinthian students.
There has been a lot of information revealed about the various schemes that Corinthian used to convince students to take on loans, and the lack of real education and placement services. The total amount of Corinthian student debt is about $ 5.8 B.
Part 2:
​We talk with Dr. Ana Malinow about the Medicare “Advantage” plans being marketed, and what they represent.
Medicare costs are discussed and explained. We learn about risk scores, upcoding, and capitation. We also learn about the trend to privatize Medicare.

Part one:
We talk with ROBERT KUTTNER
Can we regulate capitalism?
After Hyper-Globalization  What should the next trading system be? Can we restore the capacity of the U.S. to produce—and of all nations to regulate capitalism?  
Hyper-globalization is dead, killed by the rise of China, the supply chain catastrophe, the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the belated recognition that ultra-free trade was mainly designed to serve financial elites. 
https://prospect.org/economy/after-hyper-globalization/
Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest book is The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy. In addition to writing for the Prospect, he writes for HuffPost, The Boston Globe, and The New York Review of Books.


Part two: Colleges next
College is now in their sights: We talk with Kathryn Joyce, an investigative reporter at Salon, and the author of two books: "The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption" and "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement.”
Now the far right is coming for college too — with taxpayer-funded "classical education" 
​Republicans are channeling tax dollars to right-wing institutes at colleges across the nation. What's the endgame? https://www.salon.com/2022/05/31/exclusive-now-the-far-right-is-coming-for-college-too--with-taxpayer-funded-classical-education/
We talk about the schools where this has been introduced, in Florida, Tennessee, and other states. Tax money is being used.

Part 1:
a conversation with Ben Miller, President of wellbeingtrust.org and chair of the advisory board of Inseparable, two leading mental health organizations.
​We discuss the blame being placed on people with mental illness whenever a violent event takes place. In fact, there is no correlation with violence and mental illness. Politicians take no responsibility for not helping people who need mental health care. We discuss the trauma that survivors endure as a result of these events.
Part 2:
We have a discussion with Ellen Bravo and Larry Miller, union organizers and authors of a new book “Standing Up”.
We discuss the need for workers to organize in order to be able to insist on their rights. Who benefits from the current situation: disenfranchisement, divisiveness, chaos. It is the people who profit from keeping workers apart from each other who want to keep the status quo. But Union demographics are changing, and younger workers are organizing.

Brian Bilston  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7767279-america-is-a-gun-england-is-a-cup-of-teaPart 1:
We discuss the massacre in Texas, and the fact that the perpetrator had bought his weapons and ammunition legally. Abbott had preciously slashed $211 M from the mental health oversight agency. However, it is the case that mentally ill people are more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators of gun deaths.
Weapons are part of the MAGA cult, and they proved it by the attendance of the NRA convention in Houston, days after the event, though weapons were not allowed in the meeting venues. There were plenty of opportunities to buy during the convention, however. Policies pursued after such horrific events have made it ever easier to buy weapons.
​Part 2:
We discuss how political economics have brought about shortages, especially shortages of baby formula, and other staples. The government has guaranteed monopoly to Abbott Manufacturing, But we continue to put faith in the “free market”, and when it fails, the administration is blamed.
There are many consequences of COVID: long Covid, medical bankrupties, general depression among people, especially the young.
Lincoln Mitchell teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.He covers the politics of NYC and San Francisco as well as International politics. He is the author of seven books and is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, the San Francisco Examiner and Brussels Morning.
Val Endress received her B.S. and M.A. from Ball State University. She then earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1996.Endress is an Associate Professor of Communications at Rhode Island College. Endress is part of Rhode Island College's role in the American Democracy Project, and the driving force behind DebateWatch 2004 & 2008, Open Books-Open Minds project, and the VISTA/AMERICORPS Service Learning program. She is also a well-respected political analyst for the Rhode Island news media.
Robert Hennelly Award-winning investigative journalist, broadcast and print reporter for more than 30 years, covering federal, state and local politics, public policy, labor, the environment, law enforcement and national security. Currently Robert writes for Salon.com and InsiderNJ.com and author of Stuck Nation. Bob previously worked for WNYC and NJ public radio
Alex Sammon a staff writer at The American Prospect. He’s a former columnist and feature writer for the New Republic and former contributing politics writer at Pacific Standard. His work has also appeared in n+1, Wired, and Mother Jones.