We’ve Got Issues

We’ve Got Issues

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288Episodes
Politics

Focusing on issues, not tweets, Raw Story and AlterNet’s Joshua Holland and Liz Preza talk politics with academics, newsmakers and progressive journalists.

Episodes

October 22, 2021

An armed Black militia claimed it stood against tyranny — the backlash was swift

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a rundown of the many lawsuits and scandals swirling around Facebook and its senior leadership. It's possible that the company that has contributed so much to the decline of liberal democracy may finally be facing a reckoning. 
 
Then we are joined by USA Today reporter Will Carless to talk about the Not Fucking Around Coalition, a black militia that grabbed headlines and caused a lot of controversy during the summer of Black Lives Matter protests before its enigmatic leader was brought up on questionable charges--and then silenced by the courts--which effectively killed the group's momentum. 
 
Finally, we speak with George Washington University political scientist Ethan Porter about the effectiveness and limitations of fact-checking in an era of hyper-polarized, "post-truth" politics. 
 
Playlist
Bee Gees: "Jive Talkin"
The Secret Sisters: "Dust Cain't Kill Me"
Cowboy Junkies: "Sweet Jane"
 
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October 15, 2021

‘Accountability is coming‘: Greg Sargent on the Jan. 6 Select Committee

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at an internal Department of Homeland Security report detailing how senior officials politicized the agency's response to Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon and directed DHS intelligence personnel to embrace bogus right-wing conspiracy theories about antifa. 
 
We then continue to focus on Portland with Nation contributor Zoë Carpenter, who wrote about how the right's relentless propaganda about The Rose City's supposed crises is not only influencing mainstream reporting but also infecting local politics and threatening to derail necessary reforms that activists have long been fighting for. 
 
And then we are joined by Greg Sargent of the Washington Post to talk about Democratic attempts to thread the needle within their own caucus and get Joe Biden's agenda passed, look ahead to some key races this year and next and give us an update on the January 6 Select Committee's wide-ranging probe into the GOP's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
 
Playlist
Noah and the Whale: "5 Years Time"
Jah9: "The Marijuana"
Alabama Shakes: "I Ain't the Same"
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October 1, 2021

Empathy battles schadenfreude when anti-vaxxers die from Covid

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with his ongoing quest to find some positive developments in our dystopian present. 

 
Then we are joined by Lili Loofbourow to talk about the growing popularity and moral ambiguity of the Herman Cain Awards, which chronicle the Covid deaths of hardcore anti-vaxxers and belligerent anti-maskers in great detail. 
 
And finally veteran border reporter Melissa del Bosque joins us to explain how Border Patrol officials work with right-wing media outlets to help craft their narrative of a border that's perennially in crisis in order to undermine Democrats and support their hardline immigration policies.  
 
Playlist
Lil Nas X: "Jolene"
Beck: "Satellite of Love"
Epic Symphonic Rock: "Kashmir"
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September 24, 2021

Saving Democracy Isn‘t Sexy

Joshua Holland kicks off this week arguing that getting stressed out by the endless stories about the Democratic agenda teetering on the precipice isn't going to help--and offers some reasons to be optimistic they'll get a big package of good stuff through. 
 
Then we speak with HuffPost Senior Reporter Jennifer Bendery about the Biden Administration's early successes making the federal judiciary more reflective of America after four years of Trump appointing mostly white, male wingnuts to the bench. 
 
Finally, we are joined by Cerin Lindgrensavage, an attorney with the advocacy group Protect Democracy, to talk about how Trump's egregious abuses of executive power may have created a rare opportunity for Congress to wrench some power back from an executive branch that was consolidating it in dangerous ways long before Trump came along. 
 
Playlist
Lenka: "Trouble Is A Friend"
Satellite and the Harpoonist: "Satellite Man"
Woody Guthrie: "Jesus Christ"
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September 17, 2021

MAGA sets its sights on another key democracy | Lessons from the CA recall

Joshua Holland kicks off this week's show with a look at some fresh crime statistics that blow up some of the media's favorite narratives.   
 
Then we're joined by HuffPost reporter Travis Waldron to talk about the growing ties between key figures in the MAGA movement and their allies in Brazil, which is standing up to a very Trumpian threat to its young democracy. 
 
Finally, Democratic strategist Dante Atkins tells us about what lessons we should take away from California Governor Gavin Newsom's landslide victory in this week's recall vote, and what some of the pundits have gotten terribly wrong.

 

Playlist
KRS-One: "Sound of da Police"
Cat Clyde: "Like a Wave"
Gangstagrass Tonez: "Long Hard Times to Come"

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September 10, 2021

How the rural north came to embrace the Confederacy

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a report from Portland, where locals argue with their Fox News-loving parents over whether their city has really been burned to the ground -- and fail to convince them that it hasn't.
 
Then we are joined by Will Wilkinson, a senior fellow, at the Progressive Policy Institute, to talk about how America's growing urban-rural divide -- and rural America's embrace of Southern Culture -- are redrawing our ideological battle lines from their traditional North-South axis. 
 
Playlist
Gramatik: "The Unfallen Kingdom"
Lil' Troy: "Wanna Be A Baller"
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September 3, 2021

Disinformation expert: We‘re witnessing a ‘global far-right power-grab‘

Believe it or not, Joshua Holland has yet more grievances with the mainstream media's coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and he kicks off this week's show airing them.

Then we are joined by Imani Gandy, Rewire News Group's senior legal editor, to talk about how Texas Republicans are effectively banning abortion. No matter how extreme and ridiculous you thought this new law was, Imani will surprise you with some of the details. A really creative but of wingnuttery. 
 
Then we speak with TruthOrFiction.com Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, who explains why you might notice the same belligerent right-wing activists shouting about masks and CRT at multiple school board meetings and then protesting against vaccines in a bunch of other locations--and why they represent one element in a much broader attempt to subvert pluralistic democracy. 
 
Playlist
Lily Allen: "F You"
N.W.A: "Fuck Tha Police"
Gnarls Barkley: "Gone Daddy Gone"
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August 27, 2021

Here’s what people who take Covid seriously should know about their risk with Delta

This week, we are joined once again by Dr. Stephanie Langel from Duke University's Center for Human Systems Immunology. But this time, we're going to change things up a bit and ignore the loud minority who "do their own research" on Youtube and focus instead on what people who take Covid seriously should know about this new phase of the pandemic. 

Then we welcome Eric Boehlert, founder and editor of Press Run, back to the show to talk about why ostensibly neutral journalists feel so comfortable offering their own, often poorly informed opinions about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan-- and how that editorializing is skewing public perceptions about the end of a fruitless 20-year war.

 

Playlist
Lord Huron: "Mine Forever"
Wet Leg: "Chaise Longue"
The Civil Wars: "Billie Jean"

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August 20, 2021

America’s pro-war press is losing its collective mind over Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show arguing that political reporters' desperate desire to prove to their critics on the right that they weren't biased against Donald Trump is leading many of them to create a narrative of crisis around the Biden administration. Working the refs is as effective as ever.
 
Then we decided to go outside the box and welcome a guest to discuss Afghanistan who doesn't have undisclosed ties to the defense industry and isn't an advocate for permanent war. Stephen Miles,. executive director of Win Without War, joins us to have a very different conversation than they're having over on the cable news networks. 

 

Playlist
The Cranberries: "Zombie"
System Of A Down: "Boom!"
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth

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August 13, 2021

Tucker Carlson is mainstreaming the far-right’s infatuation with Viktor Orbán

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with an accountability moment and a look at some things that he got so very wrong this week. 
 
Then Michigan Advance Editor-in-Chief Susan Demas joins us to talk about how responsible Americans are losing their patience with the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers who are prolonging the Covid-19 pandemic and potentially threatening the rest of us with new variants. 
 
And finally, journalist and author Sarah Posner discusses the religious right's infatuation with autocratic leaders in the former Soviet states. She explains that Fox News's efforts to sell Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán to its conservative viewers is the culmination of a years-long project to soften Orbán's image in the West. 
 

Playlist

  • Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: "Rumors"
  • Emily Wolfe: "Holy Roller"
  • Nirvana: "The Man Who Sold The World"

 

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