Ron Placone’s ambitious podcast reflects a polymath’s interests.

The mission statement for Ron Placone’s One Thousand is right there in the name: Interview a thousand people.

The newest episode features Zeynab Day. Zeynab’s background and work experiences are both diverse and universal. Topics include overpolicing in Appalachia; geology / Greg Graffin; and (of course) the duopoly.

From the episode description: “Zeynab Day is a campaigner, activist and journalist. She’s also a mom and an entrepreneur. She’s lived many lives and overcome many obstacles. We’ve crossed paths in similar circles and seen experiments succeed and fail. We reflect on that and more. Also, given some circumstances in my personal life, there’s a beautiful coincidence to the timing of this episode.”

Previous One Thousand guests have included Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs), Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Report), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), and Cory Doctorow.

Of possible interest: “Sit in a parking lot at Whole Foods and block the rich people from getting their groceries.”; Dems Refuse to Change Course, Even to Avoid Fascism

Ten past posts about this November.

Here are ten posts about politics from the past few years:

Sadly, not a John Carpenter movie.

“We will have tremendous difficulty to face sustainability challenges if we stay stuck within the rule of the current economic game.”

— Timothee Parrique, degrowth economist

Of possible interest: Beyond Growth

“Taking weird seriously and keeping seriously weird.”

From Portland Radio Project:

“For our latest Community Voices segment, we were joined by WPU President Christine Lassiter. This all-inclusive organization “…discovers, promotes, and nurtures the creators and risk-takers that Keep Portland Weird.”

“We did a deep dive into what is weird? and discussed the various ways that WPU offers not only the weird, but the community at large, an opportunity to explore, embrace and celebrate what makes Portland so very special.

“Upcoming projects and events (you’ll hear a whole lot more when you listen to the interview below but here’s a quick recap):

• Mural project – WPU is working with Portland Street Art Alliance

• Weird database – one-stop-shop for all things weird on the WPU website

• Portland Spirit Cruise – 2 special 90’s themed cruises, May 9 and May 23, showcasing the best of Portland’s weird with proceeds benefitting WPU (and Portland Winter Light Festival) – grab your tickets here and cruise along with The Unipiper, Una the Mermaid, Aurelia Stardancer and MORE!

• Portland Weird Fest – 1st weird fest of its kind in PDX (what?!) – Sept 7 at Oak Park

• Realms Unknown – immersive fantasy festival – Sept 20-22 at Lewis River Golf Course – day passes & weekend passes available here”

Of possible interest: We Need to Talk About the Tents

The organization behind On Strike! talks with the UAW president.

“In this exclusive interview with Shawn Fain, the President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), we spoke about the union’s historic victory last week in Chattanooga at the Volkswagen plant, with a stunning 73 percent of workers voting yes.

“The Chattanooga victory was driven by bottom-up, rank-and-file organizing, and it was inspired by the record gains won by last year’s UAW strike of the Big 3 automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.

“You’ll also get to hear from UAW rank-and-file members on what they think about how things are going, with their own criticisms of last year’s Stand Up Strike and proposals for what needs to be done.

“This isn’t like other interviews on UAW. On Strike asked Fain questions that labor leaders almost never get asked, including about the war on Gaza, his position on Biden, this year’s presidential election, and the need for a new party for working people.

“In the interview, Fain justifies the UAW endorsement of Biden on the basis of fearing a second Trump Presidency. But invoking lesser evilism as an argument to vote for Biden turns reality and history on its head. The Democratic Party, because of its decades of betraying working people, has been the best builder of Trumpism.”

Of possible interest: WTF Happened to Medicare for All?

If you’re neither Red nor Blue, the deck is stacked against you.

“The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has a compilation of ballot access laws that affect presidential elections. It was revised recently. It shows the deadline for qualified parties to certify their presidential nominees in each state. The vast majority of such deadlines are in September.

“However, a quick look at the NASS compilation reveals that it may not be entirely up-to-date. The entry for California says a new party needs registration of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, and it must have it by 135 days before the primary. But in 2014, the law was changed, and now requires registration of .33% of the total number of registered voters. Also the deadline is in July, a much later deadline than the old law.

“I only checked the NASS chart for three states, so there may be other bits of out-of-date information.”

— Richard Winger, Ballot Access News

Summary Ballot Access Laws President April 2024

360KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Of possible interest: Dems Refuse to Change Course, Even to Avoid Fascism

Portland activist legend Greg Kafoury knows how to tell a story.

I first learned of Greg Kafoury from an appearance in the Ralph Nader documentary An Unreasonable Man. More recently, I saw him speak at a Portland showing of Atomic Bamboozle.

I stumbled across this speech on storytelling, and committed to watching the whole thing when Kafoury quoted Clarence Darrow:

“Every lawsuit at its heart is class struggle.”

Modern Monetary Theory is ready for its close-up.

This documentary will be on theater screens, Apple, and Amazon in May. After that, it’ll be free on Kanopy.com.

Of possible interest: MMT for M4A with Fadhel Kaboub

Tonight, Jill Stein, Claudia De La Cruz, and others get into the issues.

I’m pretty excited about this. Substantive debate is vanishingly rare.

“Join us for the live broadcast of the Free & Equal Presidential Debate, co-moderated by Christina Tobin and Jason Palmer, from Chelsea Television Studios in New York City, NY on February 29th from 8-10 PM EST. This event marks a critical moment in the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential election, spotlighting a diverse range of candidates chosen by a public poll in the Free & Equal Election Assistant Blockchain Beta Application.

Confirmed candidates include:

Jill Stein – Green Party

Chase Oliver – Libertarian Party

Lars Mapstead – Libertarian Party

Jasmine Sherman – Unicorn Party

Claudia De La Cruz – Socialist Party

Invited:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Independent

Cornel West – Independent

This debate is part of the “Free & Equal 2024 Presidential Debate Series,” a series of publicly funded debates designed to present candidates from across the political spectrum to the American public.”

Of possible interest: Dems Refuse to Change Course, Even to Avoid Fascism