8 O'Clock Buzz

Migrant apple processors in Washington state continue to struggle to get adequate PPE from their employers against COVID-19. They live in bunk-bed sleeping dorms with 8-12 people in a small space and travel to work in 15 passenger vans, all without adequate protection. Edgar Franks, Political and Campaign Director of Familias Unidas por La Justicia describes their issues.

Jan Miyasaki touches base with Martha Hennessey, one of four members of the “Kings Bay Plowshares 7” Catholic protestors who are to be sentenced this week for their part in anti-nuclear, anti-war protests at the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base on April 4th, 2018. Martha relates her story of the “crimes”, charges, and sentences that may await the protestors.

CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning) at Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University studies youth civic engagement, and the recent election has provide data for new studies performed by that group. Gathering information from vote tallies, U.S. Election Project’s total votes cast, and other sources has led to good metrics on Gen-Z youth voting turnout (53-56%)candidate choice (58% for Biden in Wisconsin) and other youth engagement information. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Director, gives details.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Damita Brown (in exile)…

Where we’re going now: talking about the election and the work ahead of us with Mahnker Dahnweih, Community Power Building Director from Freedom, Inc. The election brought us a great stride for Black women everywhere, there’s still much to do and lots of change to make in the fight for social justice and police reform on a local and national level.

Participate in their city budget priorities survey.

Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr

John Kruth is co-founder and the main songwriter of New York-based world music ensemble TriBeCaStan and the author of biographies of Townes Van Zandt, Roy Orbison and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. One of the musicians he admires most is infamous for not being as famous as it seems he would deserve: triple threat–songwriter, folk picker, and incendiary Strat player–Richard Thompson. This week, Kruth’s interview, Richard Thompson: Why Don’t They Know, appears this week on the music journalism website Please Kill Me.

Photo by Caio Silva on Unsplash

Back in April, Madison’s Arts and Literature Laboratory announced its first-ever Midwest Video Poetry Festival.  The idea was to bring together one of humanity’s oldest art forms together with one of its newest, and to expand the audience for both.  Originally conceived as an in-person screening event, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a change in plans, and the event will now be livestreamed on A.L.L’s YouTube channel, with 36 short film poems, on November 19th and 20th.  Genia Daniels is the literary arts director for A.L.L., and is the festival organizer.  She joins us now by phone.  Natalie Cook is a filmmaker and poet from Brooklyn, New York.  Natalie’s work,  Backwards God, screens on November 20th.

 

 

On November 6, Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly Robin Vos ordered the Assembly Committee on Elections to investigate Wisconsin’s general election on November 3rd.  With no substantiation, the Rochester Republican Speaker repeated vague claims of “mail-in ballot dumps” and “voter fraud” to call for subpoenas, “so that every Wisconsin citizen knows their vote counted.”  The claims mirror those swirling through the rumor mill, including similar complaints coming out of the Trump campaign.  Howard Hardee is the election integrity reporter for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and he joins now to help debunk these falsehoods.

 

With the exception of the President and his small cadre of toadies and conspiracy theorists, nearly everyone else in the world welcomed Joe Biden as President-elect of the United States.  That victory, uncertain early on Election Night, became more sure as votes trickled in over the next few days from places like Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Atlanta.  Overall, turnout hit 66% of eligible voters, the highest in the United States since 1900.  Sam Fulwood III is a fellow at the American University Department of Government, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a columnist at ThinkProgress.  For 30 years, he reported for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Los Angeles Times.  He joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on November 11, 2020.

“Keep building interest in politics throughout the year” — according to Kevin Alexander Gray, community organizer and co-author of “Killing Trayvons” and “The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama”. On this election day where the the results are still up in the air, Kevin Alexander Gray reminds us all of the importance of local issues, local activists, and year-round political actions.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Damita Brown (in exile)… (Re)Introducing and catching up with activist and organizer Christine Nobiss from Great Plains Action Society, joining Tuesday Buzz as an co-host and talking the election, indigenous and women’s issues.

In the second half, Professor Robert Alexander from the Institute for Civics and Public Policy at Ohio Northern University and author of Representation and the Electoral College, joins to talk about election process, electoral politics and how it all works!

Photo by Jonathan J Miner