Voices: River City

Voices: River City

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Voices: River City episodes

  • TEASER: 164 - The slander of Skyler Henry by the coward Howard Chan
    [To hear/view the full episode, become a patron today!]
    Ah, what a lovely month of rest it's been. Did we miss anything?
    Not much to report from the VOICES: crew, other than the fact that our cohost Skyler has a new job at city hall with Sacramento's socialist councilmember, Katie Valenzuela.
    Fox News covered it. Then City Manager Howard Chan threw a fit. And City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood asked the city council to vote to file a restraining order against Skyler. They obliged, with an 8-1 vote. End of story?
    Not even close.
    A judge laughed the city out of the courtroom, denying them even a temporary restraining order.
    Not to be pushed around, Skyler and a team of fierce labor and civil rights attorneys filed an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the city for their attempt to infringe on his First Amendment rights. This will be addressed by a judge on July 12, but already things aren't looking good for Chan, Wood, and city council's eight members hellbent on silencing anyone who criticizes them.
    In the meantime, Skyler is working at City Hall. And we assume the City Manager is holding Zoom meetings from his closet.
    There is so, so much more to this ridiculous case. Allow us to fill you in on the details.
    10 min
  • 163 - Omar Ameen's immoral ICE detention, with federal defense attorney Rachelle Barbour (6.1.2021)
    Omar Ameen, a father of four and Iraqi refugee who had made his home in Sacramento, was handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department last month after he proved in an historic extradition case that he was in Turkey at the time of a 2014 killing of an Iraqi police officer.
    Now Sacramento residents and concerned Americans are fighting to get Ameen released so that he can be with his family while he fights ICE's bogus charges.
    Today we're talking with federal defense attorney Rachelle Barbour about the gross injustice surrounding Ameen's case and subsequent detention.
    Want to help get Omar Ameen released? Learn more here: http://www.freeomarameen.com/
    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune
    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity
    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.
    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.
    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.
    1 hr 7 min
  • TEASER: 162 - A year after George Floyd's murder (5.28.2021)
    [To view/hear the full episode, become a patron today!]
     
    For all the California legislature's claims that they're champions of progressive politics, neither the super-duper Democratic majority Assembly nor the Senate pay their interns. This has a warped affect on who is able to be an intern at the Capitol--and, thus, gain the skills, connections and access to future positions in state politics--with affluent folks whose parents can pay their rent more likely to be able to afford six months without income. Unsurprisingly, this class divide correlates with race and gender representation in unpaid internships.
     
    As we've often said, just because you're a Democrat does not mean you're progressive (see Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon's awful quotes in the Sacramento Bee on the issue). So it is somewhat refreshing to see folks with money throwing their weight behind progressives, even when they run against other Democrats. But will the millionaires really save us? Or do we need to focus on organizing and movement building? In the state Capitol, staffers are long overdue to unionize--and they may want to include unpaid interns in their organizing efforts.
     
    Speaking of organizing, this week marked the one-year anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd. Have organizing efforts made a difference in how we approach public safety? In a number of northern California cities, the answer is, it's complicated.
     
    Here in Sacramento, the People's Budget has pulled together quite the coalition of groups calling for a defunding of the Sacramento Police Department, even while most city leaders are trying to increase police spending. Dr Flo presented the Measure U Committee's recommendations for a drop in cop funds. Will city leaders listen to the will of the people? We're set to find out on June 15.
    5 min
  • 161 - Asmaa AbuMezied on the Israeli attacks on Gaza (5.25.2021)
    Today we're speaking with Asmaa AbuMezied, who joins us from the Gaza Strip to discuss Israel's human rights abuses against Palestinians, and what United States citizens can do to help stop them.
    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune
    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity
    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.
    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.
    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.
    1 hr 6 min
  • TEASER: 160 - Kempa killed Carole Baskin (5.21.2021)
    [To see/hear the full episode, become a patron today!]
    Governor Gavin Newsom has a new budget proposal ready to go, but the lack of funding for public health has people scratching their heads, especially coming out of a pandemic (which isn’t all the way over yet, by the way).
    As the state of California poises to open up on June 15, it does seem like there are a few reasons to be cautiously optimistic. Many areas in Sacramento have high vaccination rates, cases are down around the state, and San Francisco General Hospital is reporting zero inpatient COVID cases for the first time since the pandemic began. 
    Folks everywhere are preparing to get back to business as usual, as the Center for Disease Control loosens mask restrictions and California businesses begin to discuss maskless integration for vaccinated people. For many Californians, this is an exciting prospect, and the idea fo going back to life as usual is welcome, but some remain pensive.
    Many Californians not only refuse the vaccine, but also are willing to believe dangerous lies that endanger the people around them. Now that most of us are vaxxed, we appear likely to be safe but what about our more vulnerable folks? Immunocompromised family and friends? Is it really time to just go right back to it? Can we trust ourselves as a society to do that yet?
    6 min
  • 159 - Yeah well that's just, like, your opinion editor, man (5.18.2021)

    We're joined this episode by special (and invisible) guest, Sac Snark!

    In California media news, Gil Duran is mysteriously stepping down from his position as Opinion Editor at the Sacramento Bee. This comes in the months after his high-profile Twitter spats and bizarre opinion pieces targeting the region's leftists, followed by weeks of uncharacteristic quiet from the former press secretary for Governor Jerry Brown.

    Duran has a long history of fighting against working class Californians in favor of capitalists and establishment politicians (a history we'll happily discuss). He's also ruled his opinion pages with an iron fist, which is why it's notable that, the day he announced his departure from the Bee, the paper published a great piece by a young opinion staffer on the importance of demilitarizing the region's police.

     
    Who is the interim head of the Editorial Board? We thought you'd never ask.
     
    Over the weekend people throughout the world took to the streets to protest the war crimes and genocide being committed by apartheid Israel against Palestinians. Demonstrations in California saw unprecedented numbers come out in support of Palestine, including in Sacramento. Skyler tells us about what he saw here locally. 
     
    The United States gives Israel nearly $4 billion in military funding annually, so we are directly connected to the atrocities taking place abroad. That's why it's important to finally see prominent politicians speaking out against it. Even Sacramento, we had both councilmembers Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang (who retweeted this) come out in support of Palestine.
     
    You know who didn't? President Joe Biden. But we shouldn't be surprised; the man has for decades supported the apartheid Israeli state's actions.
     

    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:

    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune

    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity

    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.

    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.

    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

    1 hr 1 min
  • TEASER: 158 - Identity politics in blue, protofascism in red
    [To hear/view the full episode, become a patron today!]
    We start with the news that Sacramento District 5 2022 candidate Caity Maple has endorsed District 1 Councilmember Angelique Ashby for Dr Richard Pan's soon-to-be-vacated California state Senate seat. Maple has supported a number of progressive causes, so it has surprised a number of people to see her support for Ashby, who has a long history of being pro-cop, anti-homeless and against CalCare for all (AB 1400).
    On Maple's public post, Ashby made a bizarre comment against criticism of the endorsement, saying, "If people don't vote for Caity because she supports another democrat female then they aren't very "progressive."
    This move highlights a number of concerns for the D5 candidate. Is she trying to be everything for everyone? Maple has done incredible work over the last year with Sac SOUP, but there are already some campaign contribution concerns, in that she's taken money from union-busting, school-closing dirtbag Jay Hansen ($250) and attorney Thomas B Sheridan, whose card room took $150,000-$300,000 in coronavirus stimulus support months after authorities shut it down ($500).
    On a different note, the nation's Republicans continue their slide toward protofascism and cultism, with the GOP voting Liz Cheney out of party leadership for her stance against Trump's behavior, and QAnon enthusiast/xenophobe Marjorie Taylor Greene haranguing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the halls of Congress for not, uh, debating her. Here in California, a Republican city councilmember in Temecula referred to the coronavirus as the "China virus" in an email to the mayor (this is the same woman who likened herself to Rosa Parks over her refusal to wear a mask).
    The California GOP is the least of our troubles, however, with barely half a million dollars on hand. California Democrats, meanwhile, have over 30 times that. And yet for some reason party leadership continues to feel as if they must take money from the state's prison guards ($100,000, most recently). Anyone ready to start a new party yet?
    4 min
  • 157 - Timothy Spikestrip McVeigh (5.11.2021)
    It's been quite a week for the region's law enforcement, with one Sacramento police officer facing two counts of filing a fake police report and another looking at domestic violence charges. (The latter was involved in a December 2019 police shooting of a man's dog outside the Midtown Safeway, for which the city had to pay $99,000.) Is this an aberrant streak of cop misconduct in the region, or is Sac PD leadership finally responding to public pressure?
    On the county level, meanwhile, we're seeing the creation of a new oversight commission to keep tabs on the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. Whether it will have any teeth is yet to be determined.
     
    It's also budget time in the region, so we're having serious discussions over how much money should be going to our violent, erratic and inefficient police force. Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela is pushing back against the proposed budget, asking for a drop in $30.5 million to the cops (to our 2019-20 funding levels), and an investment in things that actually serve the people of Sacramento.
     
    Finally, a man in federal court pleaded not guilty to an 'eco-terrorism' case some two decades old. Federal prosecutors want to paint Joseph Dibee as a ghastly terrorist, but the real story is much more nuanced. We'll keep an eye on this case as it moves forward.
     
    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune
    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity
    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.
    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.
    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.
    1 hr
  • 156 - Councilmember Katie Valenzuela discusses the city manager vote (5.7.2021)
    [NOTE: We've unlocked this special Friday episode for public consumption]
    We're joined today by Councilmember Katie Valenzuela to discuss the city's controversial vote to give City Manager Howard Chan a 21 percent raise. The vote was unanimous--meaning that both progressive councilmembers Valenzuela and Mai Vang landed in favor of it--raising the ire of a number of progressives.
    We also briefly touch on the inner workings of the city, and how hard Valenzuela had to push to get the police 'use of force' vote on the agenda.
    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune
    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity
    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am (and this episode will have a special run Friday after work, as well as late Saturday morning).
    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.
    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.
    1 hr
  • 155 - Old habits die hard (5.4.2021)
    Cities and counties throughout the US are listening to their constituencies and moving funding away from their police departments and toward programs that actually serve the community. Sacramento? Not so much. Next year the city is set to fund the equivalent of five new cops. Per Mayor Darrell Steinberg:
    "I'm not for 'defunding,'" Steinberg said. "There are some things that are part of running a city, like collective bargaining and binding arbitration, and genuine needs for the police department."
     
    Lovely.
     
    For what it's worth, the city is finally taking a look at police use of force, voting on Tuesday on whether it will be acceptable only as a "last resort." The level of pushback from city bureaucrats on this has been absurd, but electeds are pushing through. This one might have a chance. Contact your council member to make sure they land on the right side of history.
     
    We also discuss with Dr Flo the shift from vaccine scarcity toward vaccine abundance, and what that means for California in terms of public health.
     
    Oh, and remember when that awful Junipero Serra statue that was torn down by black bloc last summer in Capitol Park? It's likely gonna be replaced by something that pays respect to our indigenous neighbors.
     
    Who said direct action didn't ever accomplish anything?
     
    Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always:
    Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune
    Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity
    Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am.
    Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to [email protected] and we'll make it happen.
    And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.
    1 hr

About Voices: River City

From the publisher's feed

Voices: River City is an independent, socialist news podcast based out of Sacramento, discussing California politics. Local radio listeners can hear us Tuesdays at 5 pm on KUTZ 103.1, with a second…