If you’ve happened to tune in to MSNBC or CNN on a day when a massive hurricane is not pummeling a coastal region, you might think that the only major news in this country concerns the many legal issues facing a certain former president of the United States. But, according to this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, John Stoehr, there are plenty of other pressing political issues worth analyzing. First, we examine the recent mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, including what it tells us about the white supremacy movement and how the right-wing actually benefits politically from these events. Then, we discuss whether the reversal of Roe v. Wade has placated Republicans or if it has just paved the way for restricting other basic freedoms like contraception. And yes, we still manage to sneak in a few minutes to talk about the upcoming trials of the 45th president.

Narrator 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

John Stoehr (JS) 00:20 - I think our rhetoric would be much healthier if we dropped the whole idea of America being a special place, because we're not that different from other democracies. And we'd know this if we, if we paid attention to other democracies, but, you know, Americans typically don't.

Narrator 00:34 - If you've happened to tune into MSNBC or CNN on a day when a massive hurricane is not pummeling a coastal region, you might think that the only major news in this country concerns the many legal issues facing a certain former president of the United States. But according to this week's guest on Sea Change Radio John Stoehr, there are plenty of other pressing political issues worth analyzing. First, we examine the recent mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, including what it tells us about the white supremacy movement and how the right wing actually benefits politically from these events. Then we discuss whether the reversal of Roe v Wade has placated Republicans, or if it has just paved the way for restricting other basic freedoms like contraception. And yes, we still manage to sneak in a few minutes to talk about the upcoming trials of the 45th President. I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by John Stoehr. He is the founder of the editorial board. People should go to editorial board.com to check it out. John, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

John Stoehr (JS) 01:57 - Thanks for having me again, Alex.

 Alex Wise (AW) 01:58 - Always a pleasure to talk to you, my friend. So first I feel like we should probably give the latest mass shooting its due. The Jacksonville massacre was ugly, as they all are, but the politics of this one were unavoidable because it happened right in the state where Ron DeSantis is running for president and, and it had race and guns and pretty much all the terrible stuff that were faced with, with a, the candidacy of a DeSantis. So anybody who hasn't been following it, give us a little summary of it and your analysis if you can.

John Stoehr (JS)  02:38 - Sure. Well, uh, on August 26th, a 21 year old white supremacist entered a Dollar Store in Jacksonville, Florida, and, uh, he shot three black people to death before shooting himself to death. Um, he, uh, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, an AR 15, and a semi-automatic pistol, a Glock, uh, that he had purchased legally, uh, even though he was involved in domestic violence incident in 2016. And he was involuntarily committed, uh, for a mental health examination. The year following, um, basically my, my thesis is that, um, this shooter, whose name I don't use, um, because I don't want to glorify him, uh, is part of what I think of as the Republican Party's para paramilitary wing. These are people who are reacting to liberal values and democratic politics in that they believe liberal values and democratic politics are a threat to their way of life. Um, I tend to think of these, uh, and another piece in the editorial board, I describe him as one of what,