Coming From Left Field (Video)

Greg and Pat have a one-on-one discussion about Biden's first six months as president. How is he doing at the end of his first semester?  We discuss his executive orders, COVID, border crisis, economics, bipartisan cooperation, foreign policy, defense,  media coverage, and a grade.

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com

#Biden6months

#GregGodels

#PatCummings

Greg and Pat welcome noted author, Geoffrey Fox, to discuss his soon-to-be-released book, "Rabble!" about the Paris Commune. The demise of the commune was both tragic and predictable. The events of 150 years ago lit a fire of reform and hope that still burns.

Some pictures of the Paris Commune 1871 from the Library of Congress:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KZNWxJHEP5eB3wkE6

Geoffrey's new book, "Rabble!":

https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/historical/rabble/

Background on the Paris Commune:

https://geoffreyfox.com/2021/05/the-paris-commune-and-the-crisis-of-imperialism/

Other books by Geoffrey Fox:

https://go.authorsguild.org/members/854

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com

#GeoffreyFox

#Rabble!

#ParisCommune

#GregGodels

#PatCummings

#1871

Greg and Pat welcome friend of the show, Richard Hollwedel, to discuss the Sven Lindquvist 1992 book, “Exterminate All the Brutes” which was recently made into a  HBO four-part documentary series directed by Raoul Peck. The book and documentary delves deeply into the legacy of European colonialism from the Americas to Africa.

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com 

#RaoulPeck

Greg and Pat welcome Kay Tillow, a veteran union activist from Louisville, is executive director of the Nurses Professional Organization. She and the NPO have spent 21 years battling to organize nurses who work for Louisville-based Norton Healthcare, Kentucky's most extensive health care system. Most recently, Kay has turned her attention to supporting a single-payer health care system.

Link to Kentuckians for Single-Payer Health Care: http://kyhealthcare.org/author/kay

Information on July 24, 22021 March for Medicare for All: http://kyhealthcare.org/posts/louisville-and-20-other-cities-plan-march-for-medicare-for-all-july-24-2021 

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com 

Errata:  (25:00) Pat said "63% of doctors support a public option". The correct percent is 73%.

Greg and Pat welcome Stephen Gowans, an independent political analyst from Ottawa and author of several acclaimed books: Washington's Long War on Syria (2017), Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea's Struggle for Freedom (2018) and  Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East: From European Colony to US Power Projection Platform (2019)

Link to Stephen’s blog: https://gowans.blog/

Errata: (17:32) Pat sai:

# A Beachhead in the Middle East

Greg and Pat welcome the poets Janice O’Mahony and Kevin Miller for conversation and reading of selective poems that cover current events, politics, and other matters.

Books by Janice O’Mahony

Whidbey Island: Reflections on People & the Land (2014) by Elizabeth Guss, Janice O'Mahony, Mary Richardson  (available at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/ )

Books by Kevin Miller

Light That Whispers Morning (1994), Everywhere Was Far (1998), Home & Away (2008) and Vanish (2020) (available at https://www.kingsbookstore.com/ )

Poem Index:

(05:24_Kevin) Alive So Who Is Complaining

(09:08_Janice) Just Wondering

(15:58_Kevin) After Pogroms Ending In River

(19:10_Janice) Intake At The Veterans Center

(26:00_Kevin) The United State Of Dog Fish

(30:56_Janice) Selma 1986

(36:08_Janice) I Got Nothing

(40:10_Kevin) Consider Religion

(42:11_Janice) The Poem That Led To My Arrest

(52:07_Kevin) Vanish

(53:52_Janice) Our Place

Poem Greg mentioned:

https://muvs.org/en/topics/literary-quotes/bertolt-brecht-concerning-the-infanticide-marie-farrar-1922-en/

Link to Greg's blog: ZZ's Blog

http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com

Greg and Pat welcome Dr. Toni Gilpin, author of "The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland." Dr. Gilpin is a labor historian, writer, and activist who holds a Ph.D in American History from Yale University.  Her writing has been published in progressive media outlets and labor-connected journals like Jacobin and In These Times, and she was the recipient of the 2018 Debra Bernhardt Award for Labor Journalism.

Order the book:

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com

# TheLongDeepGrudge

Greg and Pat welcome Dr. Jennifer Berkshire,  co-author with Dr. Jack Schneider of "A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School." Dr. Berkshire writes about education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Baffler, and other publications.  She and Dr. Schneider are co-hosts of the educational policy podcast "Have You Heard." 

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School: https://thenewpress.com/books/wolf-schoolhouse-door

Have You Heard Podcast: https://haveyouheardblog.com/have-you-heard/

Link to Greg's blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com

#AWolfSchoolhouseDoor

Greg and Pat welcome an American historian Dr. Roger Keeran.  Dr. Keeran is now Professor Emeritus of the Empire State College at SUNY after retiring in 2013.  He has taught successively at Cornell, Princeton, Rutgers, and the New York State University. A specialist of Labor and Policy studies published, in 1980, The Communist Party and the Auto Workers Unions.  Dr. Keeran demonstrates the extent to which the very formation of a solid and permanent industrial union in the automobile industry depended upon the dedication of a cadre of individuals whose own social vision far transcended the union movement itself.

• Dr. Keeran's book, The Communist Party and the Auto Workers' Union, is available from International Publishers

Greg and Pat welcome good friend Richard (a.k.a “Hoss”) Hollwedel.  We discuss Bessemer Alabama Amazon warehouse workers making a final push toward unionizing, Jeff Bezo’s business blueprint that is sorting our country into “winner-take-all” and “left-behind” places, some thoughts of unions, capitalism, and a little Karl Marx for good measure too.  Hoss brings to the conversation a few decades of competing with the Amazon model in book sales and distribution and a rich family history of working in union shops.

Link to Greg's blog: ZZ's Blog