8 O'Clock Buzz

In an act recognized only by the United States and Israel, Morocco’s invasion and “annexation” of the territory of Western Sahara is an act of modern colonization, according to Mubarak Awad, founder of Nonviolence International. Why does the U. S. acknowledge this act, but decry the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, Awad wants to know.

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The House of Representatives recently passed the near-record NDAA, National Defense Authorization Act, one step in funding the military. But instead of passing with a large bi-partisan vote as has happened for the past 60 years, amendments added by conservatives eliminating funding of military trans healthcare, abortion care, and diversity made the vote unusually close, according to Lindsay Koshgarian, Program Director of the National Priorities Project, a non-profit with goals of fighting for a U.S. federal budget that prioritizes peace, economic security and shared prosperity.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and 1neofmani (Breyon Sommerville), talking Black wealth and property ownership with Noel Barnes from Barnes Realty Group, Social Change Agent Dominique Christian and Author and Poet Poetic Ye (Damion Catledge).

More about Noel Barnes and his business at http://www.barnesrealtygroup.org/ 

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

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Physicians for Social Responsibility — Wisconsin, has an extensive goal of protecting Wisconsin residents from man-made environmental health threats: from nuclear radiation from power plants to nuclear weapons, climate change, environmental health issues, water contamination from corporate farming, and more. Steering committee member and retired physician Paula Rogge talks about the issues and some local activities by the group this summer.

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Nothing has shaped the culture of America more profoundly than the African diaspora.  From the West Africans captured and brought here against their will, to the liberated slaves after the Civil War, to the postwar migrations to industrial cities, to protests for black equality, the experience of Black America resounds through all of the United States’ history, music, art and culture.

In 2021, the bell hooks center in Berea, Kentucky named Milwaukee’s Rosy Petri as their first-ever artist-in-residence.  On her drive to her new post, Petri took the long way, traveling alone, over 1,400 miles through the South for over a month to her new post in Appalachia. Along the way, she documented her journey in a series of photographs she has entitled, “American Altars,” which is on exhibit through September 1st at Madison’s Arts and Literature Laboratory.  Rosy Petri joins us now by phone.

Rosy’s exhibit “American Altars” is on exhibit through September 1st on the mezzanine level of the Arts and Literature Laboratory at 111 South Livingston Street in Madison.  

 

Image by Rosy Petri via Art Lit Lab

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In August of 2018, the Madison area experienced the mother of all flash floods: a literally off-the-charts deluge of over 12 inches of rainfall within less than an hour.  Get used to it, climatologists warned us:  with climate change, such storms may become common over the next decades.

Now here we are, five years later, in the midst of what the U.S. Drought Monitor calls an “extreme drought.”  Could our mercurial climate bring us not only more flash floods, but flash droughts as well?  Jason Otkin, an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies thinks so, and he joins us now by phone to tell us more.

 

Image by Luis Iranzo Navarro-Olivares from Pixabay

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For years, environmental advocates have urged state and federal governments to do something about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS.  Called “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment, PFAS chemicals have been linked to liver disease and immunodeficiency disorders.

In the 2023-2025 biennial budget, the Wisconsin Legislature finally acted, authorizing 125 million dollars in cleanup grants to PFAS-affected communities. But, as with everything coming out of the Republican-led state legislature, there’s a catch.  Senate Bill 312, the authorizing legislation that allows the state to actually spend that PFAS remediation money, also includes provisions that weaken the state Department of Natural Resources’ ability to regulate polluters who spill PFAS into the state’s waters.

Peter Burress is the Government Affairs Manager for Wisconsin Conservation Voters, and he joins us now in the studio.

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

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Democracy is fragile. Perhaps John Quincy Adams put it best in 1814 when he wrote, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”

A recent New York Times story revealed that Trump and a coalition of right-wing organizations are planning to vastly expand presidential power if voters return him to the White House in 2024. Dubbed Project 2025, the initiative would result in, among other things, a presidency that is no longer subject to the system of checks and balances inherent in our constitutional democracy, and allow Trump to bring independent federal agencies under presidential authority. Thursday’s 8 O’Clock Buzz host Tony Castañeda talks with former executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Matt Rothschild about the people, organizations and money behind the authoritarian push coming from the right, and how their bizzare interpretation of the “unitary executive theory” could allow Trump to amass unprecedented power as president.  Additionally, Matt and Tony kvetch about the slow-moving Special Counsel’s January 6th investigation, and why Wisconsin’s fake electors have yet to be prosecuted.

Here’s how to contact state and local officials to demand that they prosecute Wisconsin’s false electors for potential violations of state law:

Ismael Ozanne – Dane County District Attorney

Phone: 608-266-4211

Josh Kaul – Wisconsin Attorney General

Phone 608-266-1221

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi and 1neofmani (Breyon Sommerville), talking about what’s going on in this world,  joined in the half with Poetic Ye (Damion Catledge).

Saturday (7/22) Afternoon Events:

Urban Triage Picnic https://urbantriage.org/about/events/annual-summer-kick-back 

ULGM Unity Picnic https://ulgm.org/events/july-22nd-2023-unity-picnic/

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

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247 years ago, thirteen British colonies divorced themselves from Mother England to become what now number 50 supposedly United States.  While the borders are arbitrary, the political and sometimes cultural differences between states are real, to say nothing of the more nebulous ideas like a “state of mind” or a “state of being.”  Madison’s Broom Street Theater – which is not now, and never has been, on Broom Street – chose this moment to riff on the state of the States, with a series of short plays entitled “Our Home States.”  Joining us now by phone is Broom Street Theater Managing Director, Doug Reed.  Doug, welcome back to the show.  Also joining us is Broom Street Artistic Director Maria Dahlman.

Go to bstonline.org for more information, schedules and ticketing

Image by Andreas Glöckner from Pixabay

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