This is our twentieth episode!
Thank you, listeners, for your support (and patience).
Today is Juneteeth. And if you don't know what that is, click here.
Contrary to what Donald Trump said about "nobody had ever heard of it" before he "made Juneteenth very famous", Juneteenth is actually a paid holiday in several states. New York has now--NOW!--joined them. I say let's swap European Imperial Aggression Day (aka "Columbus Day") for Juneteenth and celebrate our slaves' emancipation instead of a colonial rapist, murderer, and slaver.
This year, Juneteenth comes at a time of historic civil unrest. Since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, police have murdered another black man named Rayshard Brooks. The story of his death is enraging. If you don't know much about it, click the link and have your blood pressure medication handy.
There's also been a spate of African American hangings lately the FBI and DOJ are supposedly "reviewing". Under this administration, I wouldn't hold my breath. It has made its Faustian bargain with white supremacists, corporations, and the so-called "religious" right.
But there was also some glimmer of hope this week after the conservative-majority SCOTUS ruled LGBTQ+ employees are protected from workplace discrimination under the Civil Rights Act. This came days after HHS capitulated to the “religious right” and announced it would be overturning Obama-era transgender protections against sex discrimination in health care. Then the SCOTUS shocked us again when it told Trump it was prohibited from ending the DACA program.
After Pacific Gas & Electric has admitted killing 84, why isn't it getting the death penalty of which conservatives are so fond? After all if, "corporations are people" under the 14th Amendment, as the Supreme Court has functionally agreed they are, shouldn't PGE should get the corporate death penalty?
Are you a front-line worker interested in appearing on the podcast? Tweet me: @tedmillar. Ditto if you're Canadian or have some first-hand insight into the Canadian healthcare system.
Poem: "Bear In Mind" by John Martin
Song: "No More Auction Block For Me" performed by Odetta"
Song: "Freedom Day"
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