8 O'Clock Buzz

All the presidential candidates say they support Social Security… but do they? Linda Benesch from Social Security Works talks about the candidates plans: how some claim the need to “cut Social Security to save it”. Benesch says that’s the call by the wealthy to austerity when the U.S. can afford the Social Security.

“Medicare for All” has been the call for some, but not all, of the Democratic candidates for the past several years. Dr. Laurel Mark, Madison member of Physicians for a National Health Program, talks about “single payer” healthcare, how it can come about, and what needs to be “upgraded” in Medicare to make it work.

Jan talks with Carrie Sedlak, Executive Director of Fairshare CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Coalition, about their efforts to bring fresh produce to the Madison are and, in the process, help support local organic farmers. Their “Find your Farmer” event will be on March 22 at the Monona Terrace, and interested parties can sign up prior at their website.

Multimedia artist Alanna Stapleton is wrapping up her Residency at the Madison Public Library’s Bubbler program.  Over the course of the last month and a half, she’s focused on helping document community expertise through low-cost, accessible media, like zines, posters, comics and animated computer images.  Alanna Stapleton joined the Monday Buzz on February 17, 2020.

In the United States, we seem to have unlimited faith in technology, adding new software and high-tech intermediaries into many facets of our lives that were previously performed with lower-tech solutions.  Every complication, every connection to a network, however, opens up new avenues for things to go wrong, either through random malfunctions or through deliberate and malicious hacking. If we’re talking about a glitching supermarket scanner, it’s likely no big deal, but what if we’re talking about a voting machine?  Despite recent technological scares, such as alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and the failure of vote-counting apps in the 2020 Iowa Caucuses, the United States lags behind many other countries when it comes to cybersecurity of its electoral system. Scott Shackelford is an Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics at Indiana University and he is the Director, of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance.  He joined the Monday Buzz on February 17, 2020.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that appears to have begun in the Hubei province of China, many countries have instituted travel bans to and from China in an attempt to contain the virus.  As misinformation and rumor regarding the pandemic spreads, it runs the risk of stoking other ills, namely xenophobia and racism. There’s a long, uncomfortable history of illness-related panics resulting in discrimination against minorities, including most recently with the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014.  Kevin J.A. Thomas is a Professor of Sociology, Demography, and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He has studied the Ebola virus, and he thinks there are some important lessons for us.

Does campaign money grow on trees? At times it seems so, according to Thomas Ferguson, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the U of Mass, Boston and economist for the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He talks about campaign money and candidates’ strategies for getting votes.

Mary Jo Walter and David Williams from the group “No F-35 Action Faction” talk about their continued efforts to keep the F-35 fighter planes out of Madison air space. They are planning on holding an informational picket for Tammy Baldwin on Saturday, February 15, from 1:30-3:30 at Cargo Coffee on East Washington Ave.

How can a peace plan be attained with only one side in the “negotiations”? That’s one of the questions asked by Ramzy Baroud, Editor of “The Palestine Chronicle” and author of the book “These Chains Will be Broken”. He discusses Trump’s gift to Israel.

In January of 2020, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that countries cannot deport refugees seeking asylum due to life-threatening conditions caused by climate change.  The case involved Ioane Teitota, a native of the island nation of Kiribati, who unsuccessfully sought asylum in New Zealand due to rising sea levels in his home country. Although a majority of the U.N. Committee voted to deny Teitota’s claim, the ruling marks the first time that the Human Rights Committee has acknowledged the impacts of climate change on basic human rights.  Here to explain the implications of the ruling is Sumudu Atapattu, Director of Research Centers at the UW Law School.