Air Date 1/23/2024 The recent discovery of hundreds of bodies buried behind a jail in unmarked graves sparks a renewed discussion about the futility and counter-productiveness of our system of incarceration and the context of our history that has brought us to this point. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Transcript Join our Discord community!  Related Episodes:   #1313 Why Prison Abolition is not Nearly as Scary as it Sounds  SHOW NOTES Ch. 1:  Families in disbelief after hundreds of bodies found buried behind Mississippi jail - PBS NewsHour - Air Date 1-10-24 The discovery of 215 bodies buried in unmarked graves behind a jail outside of Jackson, Mississippi, has left a community in disbelief. The families are angry they were never notified of the deaths and how their loved ones are buried Ch. 2: The Most Infamous Jail in America - Olurinatti - Air Date 3-29-23 Bail reform is essential in the fight to close horrible pre-trial detention centers like Rikers Island. ....   EDUCATE YOURSELF & SHARE 8 Ways You Can Advocate for Justice Reform in 2024 (Vera) Prison and Jail Reform (Brennan Center for Justice) Criminal Justice Reform (Equal Justice Initiative) Cutting Jail and Prison Populations (Brennan Center for Justice) Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman   MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE:  Description: Photograph of the outside of Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. Barbed wire lines the fences of the entrance in front of the dark gray cement building with tinted windows. Credit: "A sagebrush sea change from behind barbed wire" by U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0 | Changes: Cropped     GO TO FULL SHOW NOTES

#1605 Our Prison System is a Demonstrable Failure

Expertly-curated progressive politics, news, and culture produced by leftist humans, not algorithms or AI. This is an award-winning podcast that dives deeply into a wide range of national and international issues facing society and governments. We draw from hundreds of sources of progressive news and commentary. Est. 2006.

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Air Date 5/1/2024 The past, present, and future of tackling the uselessness of extreme wealth by exposing and closing tax avoidance loopholes and pushing for a culture change to embrace the need for a more equal society. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Clips and Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community!  SHOW NOTES Ch. 1:  What Happens When You Tax Billionaires at 90 Percent? - The Hartmann Report - Air Date 6-3-23 We did it before, and the result was the creation of the world’s first and largest middle class and a level of peace and prosperity that held its own until Ronald Reagan took a meat-axe to it… Ch. 2: #TaxBillionaires w/ Robert Reich, Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and more - Americans for Tax Fairness - Air Date 4 -18-22 If you think school teachers shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than billionaires, join us to learn how you can join in on the fight to #TaxBillionaires! Ch. 3: Wealth Tax Part 1 - Pullback - Air Date 4-11-23 Should we be taxing Scrooge-McDuck wealth? Can we? We talk with friend of the pod Fariya Mohiuddin, a Senior Program Officer with the International Budget Partnership's Tax Equity Program, and our favourite tax justice researcher and activist. Ch. 4: No One Should Have More Than 10 Million Pounds | Ash Sarkar meets Ingrid Robeyns - Novara Media - Air Date 2-4-24 If you're serious about alleviating poverty, as most liberals claim to be, should there be a cap on how wealthy one person can be?   SEE FULL SHOW NOTES  FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 12: Final comments on anger and irrationality in war and politics  MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE: Description: A protester holds a sign that says “Tax the Rich” Credit: “We have a right to the city. Tax the rich.” by dignidadrebelde, Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0 | Changes: Cropped   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

#1625 Society of Extreme Wealth and its Discontents: Tax avoidance, wealth inequality and the detrimental effects felt by us all

Get full, weekly bonus shows! Air Date: 4-29-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss:  - how the film 'Civil War'  intentionally avoids any specifics about the "why", and in doing so becomes a perfect encapsulation of the Amanda Principle™ - how "the view from nowhere" journalism is supposed to be straight down the middle and fact-based, but is actually rife with bias and ends up representing the dominant culture - that America and its culture has been steeped in war and violence since it's inception - the similarities between modern America and Germany in 1933 REFERENCES:  Americans Have Enjoyed Imagining Civil War for a Long, Long Time  How to Both-Sides a “Civil War”  Alex Garland's Civil War Plays Both Sides  Opinion: Is the US on the brink of another civil war?  ‘Civil War’ and the Dangerous Myth of ‘Unbiased’ Journalism  America Isn’t Nazi Germany, but It Looks a Little Like 1933  Modern Mathematics Confronts Its White, Patriarchal Past  Join our Discord Server  Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Produced by: Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft  Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Review the show on Apple Podcasts!

Bonus Sample #301 War Is the Continuation of Policy with Other Means

Original Air Date 9/14/2022 Today, we take a look at the history and hysteria behind debt and debt forgiveness while Biden is canceling student debt and opponents of the idea are reacting in the most predictable way possible because they misunderstand the relationship between debt and morality. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Get AD FREE Shows and Bonus Content) Join our Discord community!  SHOW NOTES Ch. 1:  Cancel It All: Debt Collective's Astra Taylor on Biden Plan & Need for Full Student Debt Relief - Democracy Now! - Air Date 8-25-22 We speak to Astra Taylor, writer, filmmaker, and co-director of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors and one of the original advocates for a debt jubilee that would cancel all student debt. Ch. 2:  Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis - The Intercept - Air Date 8-22-22 The Intercept’s new documentary, “Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis,” profiles Black women educators and activists struggling under the weight of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, in student loan debt. Ch. 3: Hidden History of Student Debt - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 8-25-22 Many woke up to find news that $10k of their student debt would be forgiven, Thom Hartmann and Jefferson Smith break down what this means and what happens next. Ch. 4:  Bidens Big Student Debt Announcement: PITOTWIU for the Indebted Masses - Unf*cking The Republic - Air Date 8-28-22 Max breaks down the politics, the details, and biggest misses of the Biden student debt relief plan and why it’s in danger of being PITOTWIU   SEE FULL SHOW NOTES  FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 11: Final comments on morality and money  MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE:  Description: A dark gray, 3D image of the word "DEBT" sits in a white void, a connected chain and open shackle with an open padlock lie in front of it. Credit: "3D Shackled Debt" by Chris Potter, Flickr | License: CC by 2.0 | Changes: Enlarged with more white background   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

#1513 The Morality of Debt and Forgiveness (Throwback)

Air Date 4/24/2024 Only by understanding the past can we understand the present and the histories of Cuba and Haiti have very stark lessons to impart about the cruelty of the Cuba embargo, the repercussions of imperial exploitation, and the dangers that arise amid dysfunctional democracy. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Clips and Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community!  SHOW NOTES Ch. 1:  On Cuba and Haiti The Fight for Liberation & Self-Determination in the Caribbean - Revolutionary Left Radio - Air Date 4-4-24 Musa Springer, Erica Caines, & Onyesonwu Chatoyer from Hood Communist discuss their participation in The Second International Meeting of Theoretical Publications of Left Parties and Movements and discuss history and present events playing out in Haiti. Ch. 2:  Havana Syndrome How the Biden Administration Is Driving Cubans Into Misery - Deconstructed - Air Date 3-22-24 Ryan Grim delves into the complexities of Cuba’s current economic crisis with Andrés Pertierra, a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean. Ch. 3:  Havana Syndrome How the Biden Administration Is Driving Cubans Into Misery Part 2 - Deconstructed - Air Date 3-22-24 Ch. 4: Empire's Laboratory— How 2004 U.S.-Backed Coup Destabilized Haiti & Led to Current Crisis - Democracy Now! - Air Date 3-11-24 "The root of this crisis is not last week, it's not this week, it's not even Ariel Henry. But we have to go back to 2004 with the coup-d'état," says Pierre.   SEE FULL SHOW NOTES  FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 11: Final comments on the dangers of unrepresentative, unresponsive government  MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE:  Description: Photo of a protester in 2007 holding a large cloth sign that says “Solidarity…Haiti YES! Occupation NO. Canada-US-U.N. OUT of Haiti” Credit: “Solidarity - Haiti Yes - Occupation No” by Robert Thivierge, Flickr | License: CC BY-SA 2.0 | Changes: Cropped   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com

#1624 Island Fervor: Cuba and Haiti Struggle for Economic and Political Self-Determination in the Face of Respective Histories of Exploitation and Embargo

BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Clips and Shows + No Ads!) Air Date: 4-22-24 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon and Erin discuss: - How Israeli citizens and government officials use of the US's settler-colonialist past, westward expansion, and religious fundamentalism to justify their own settler expansion   - How the members of the extreme right are put in positions of power within the Israeli government, which is then used to validate the settler's actions - The role racist propaganda and intergenerational trauma play in convincing Israelis of the righteousness of their settler-colonialist actions - The societal dangers of living in an ethnostate combined with feeling of specialness that comes from generations of victimhood REFERENCES:  The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors  The grandmother who wants to lead Israelis back to a Gaza without Palestinians  A debate over Israel-Palestine curriculum flares at Berkeley schools   Join our Discord Server  Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Produced by: Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft  Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Review the show on Apple Podcasts!

#1605 Our Prison System is a Demonstrable Failure

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