Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by two organizers with the Southwest Louisiana chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America: Phil Peterson, an activist, organizer, and educator based in Lake Charles Louisiana, and Megan Romer, also an organizer, writer, and educator based in the neighboring city of Lafayette, Louisiana. After introducing listeners to their communities and their personal paths to organizing, Phil and Megan describe the devastation on the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Laura as DSA SWLA and allied groups like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief continue their recovery efforts despite a lack of interest from national media.
Phil discusses his experience of being displaced by the storm and the significance of Louisiana activists as innovators at the vanguard of climate struggle, and Megan explains the key lessons we can learn from DSA SWLA about organizing during a pandemic, along with the convoluted local politics behind the city of Lafayette’s refusal to accept refugees from Lake Charles in the aftermath of the police killing of 31-year-old Trayford Pellegrin on August 21. The gang highlights the willful abdication of responsibility by Louisiana’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and the dire implications of local authorities’ decision to lift mandatory evacuation orders for the majority-black, heavily working class people of Lake Charles and the surrounding area, over 10,000 of whom are now forced by FEMA to pay out of pocket to subsidize New Orleans’s otherwise failing hotels.
You can follow Phil on Twitter @Sadsackjacobin and Megan @meganromer. To keep abreast of Southwest Louisiana DSA’s activities and to check for updates on how you can help, follow them on Twitter as well @DSASWLA, and donate to their GoFundMe here.
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Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by Kimberly Galindo, lead organizer for Southern California’s High Desert region with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, an alliance of over 40 civil society organizations providing support to immigrant communities. Kimberly starts off by describing about her own political development growing up undocumented and later becoming a DACA recipient. She gives listeners an introduction to ICIJ’s various aid projects and advocacy campaigns since the start of the pandemic, recounting their spectacular direct action at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento California, where 14 undocumented organizers and immigration attorneys were arrested after chaining themselves to Gavin Newsom’s front gate demanding an end to ICE transfers and the release of those behind bars as coronavirus runs roughshod through the US prison system.
Kimberly talks about her work acting as a liaison with detainees at the privately-owned Adelanto Detention Facility, detailing what she’s seen and heard of the conditions there. Kimberly and Kumars discuss a number of recent news items that throw the Trump administration’s genocidal immigration agenda into sharp relief, including reports of mass, nonconsensual hysterectomies performed in a Georgia ICE facility, and Kimberly shares her perspective on the flaws of DACA, Barack Obama’s legacy in immigrant communities, and the resonance of immigrant struggles in a moment of unprecedented visibility for the politics of prison-industrial complex abolition.
You can follow ICIJ on Twitter @IC4IJ and learn more about their work at ic4ij.org, and you can donate to their Adelanto bond fund here.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!
Roqayah is off this week, so Kumars is joined from the top of the hour by returning guest Madeline Peltz, senior researcher at Media Matters for America and the world’s foremost expert on Tucker Carlson. Madeline is best known for combing through the Fox News host’s weekly guest spots on the talk radio program of C-list shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, exposing a history of openly bigoted statements that put Carlson’s seeming descent into white nationalism in its proper context. Madeline breaks down several of her recent articles for Media Matters on the revolving door between the Trump administration and conservative media personalities as well as how One America News Network and Fox News are covering the QAnon movement and the rise of white nationalism generally. Madeline begins by discussing her explosive report on former OANN correspondent Emily Miller, who was appointed FDA spokesperson by Trump and fired 11 days later, shortly after Madeline’s reporting. Madeline and Kumars review the responses of Carlson and other Fox hosts to the Kenosha shooting, including Sean Hannity, whose lawyer is involved in Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense. Madeline and Kumars investigate whether Trump really has ditched Fox for OANN, round out the conversation by updating listeners on the campaign urging corporate advertisers to boycott “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” taking stock of the efficacy and limits of boycotts targeting far-right media.
You can follow Madeline on Twitter @peltzmadeline and keep up with her work at mediamatters.org.
If you want to support the show and receive access to tons of bonus content, subscribe on our Patreon for as little as $5 a month. Also, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. We can't do this show without your support!!!