Voices: River City

Voices: River City

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Voices: River City episodes

  • TEASER: 144 - Thank you, but no cops (3.26.2021)
    [To view/listen to the full episode, become a patron today!]
    This week the Sacramento Bee lauded the libs in this piece elevating the ever problematic police reform approach coming straight out of the city of Sacramento. We take some time to unpack the absurdities, amplify the truth to power takes, and generally get a tad yelly.
    Speaking of the city, where is Sacramento County in all of this? The're also talking about alternatives to policing. Our friend Delphine breaks it all down for us in this Facebook post. Some big decisions are coming up at the county level, and input is paramount to making sure accountability and transparency move us forward. Remember: Sacramento County held community meetings on this topic while the city was busy hiring a cop to do the work all on her own.
    We can't talk about local police issues without the giant elephant in the room: Darrell Steinberg isn't the new Attorney General, but the Bay Area's Rob Bonta is. We'll talk about what we think about Newsom's choice.
    4 min
  • 143 - A century of losing (3.23.2021)
    We start today's episode with a talk on COVID-19 and vaccinations in northern California. Nearly 15 million jabs have been administered throughout the state, and folks are beginning to talk about when and how to get back to "normal."
     
    Dr Flo leads a discussion on what a vaccination means for returning to society, wearing masks, what we can reasonably look forward to, and what we should be holding off on for a little while longer.
     
    Then we turn to the Democrats. Skyler recently wrote an opinion piece at VOICES: River City on why America's blue party should embrace sweeping, progressive reforms if they want to hold onto the US Senate and House in 2022.
     
    We take a look back at the Democrats over the course of the last several decades. What, if anything, did they do well? Where have they failed their constituents? Why do progressives think candidates like Biden are so dangerous to the party? Are the Democrats simply trying to lose on purpose? "Joe Biden fucking sucks," says Skyler, simply so we have a place to link to this damning 2018 Jacobin essay tracing the president's troubling history in US politics.
     
    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 4 min
  • TEASER: 142 - On fighting white supremacy (3.19.2021)
    [To listen to the full episode, become a patron today!]
    After a white gunman in Atlanta targeted Asian massage parlors this week, killing eight people, the US is again faced with its ingrained racism and white supremacy. Here in California, where the AAPI community makes up about 15 percent of the state's 40 million people, the response is one of deep grief, but little surprise. We have a long, long history of both anti-Asian racism and misogyny in this country, and this week's devastating shooting is one more point on a large pattern. 
    Just this week an elderly Chinese woman in San Francisco had to beat back an attacker. We had Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang on the show last week to discuss anti-AAPI animus in Sacramento, and didn't come close to covering every example of it in our region. Mai and other leaders in the AAPI community held a vigil for the victims in Atlanta Wednesday night at city hall.
    It's long past time for us to look more deeply at the anti-AAPI sentiment baked into the fabric of this country, and to work to extricate it. That starts, among other places, in US media.
    This week marks the third anniversary of the night that Sacramento police officers killed Stephon Clark in his grandmother's backyard. Has there been any justice in his name in the time that's passed? It can be hard to stay optimistic when the district attorney who assassinated Clark's character on national television while relieving the cops who killed him of any responsibility won reelection in 2018. Or when the state's Attorney General, who also refused to charge Clark's killers, is now serving in the federal government as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Remember the Sacramento mayor who said, the day Clark's life was taken, that he would not question the actions of the cops who killed him? Rumors abound that Governor Gavin Newsom is on the edge of giving him the state's top cop position.
    What might we have to look forward to? The Sacramento Bee's editorial board believes we ought to fight for a number of police reform bills. 
    But we've got a better idea. It rhymes with schmee-schmund the schmolice. 
    Besides, what's the use in taking local media seriously when a TV station will have this guy on to complain about his daughter learning about Black Lives Matter?
    14 min
  • 141 - Dr Beatrice Tetteh on equity gaps in the vaccine rollout (3.16.2021)
    Today we're joined by Dr. Beatrice Tetteh, a pediatrician based in the South Sacramento/Pocket area. She’s been involved in an effort to get vaccines to folks in underserved communities that have been hit the hardest by COVID-19.
     
    As the vaccines come into supply and the government clears more people to begin receiving them, slow rollout and manufacturing concerns continue. Transit workers, anyone 16 and over with health concerns, unhoused folks, janitors, food service workers and others are now technically on the list of those eligible to receive the poke, but that doesn’t mean we have the resources to roll that out tomorrow. Even programs like the one in South Sac are single-day pop-ups rather than ongoing clinics residents can visit as their schedule allows. 
     
    As it stands, about 20 percent of Californians are at least partially vaccinated, with the number closer to one in four adults. President Biden has declared everyone will be eligible to receive the shot by May 1.
     
    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
  • TEASER: 140 - The thin red line (3.12.2021)
    [To listen to/view the full episode, become a patron today!]
    California Governor Gavin Newsom gave his state-of-the-state speech Tuesday night in Dodger Stadium, and the reception has been... mixed. Did he really "meet the moment" with COVID? How has he addressed homelessness, which was his pet issue in 2020? Although he didn't ever say the word “recall," it appears that it’s likely to move forward and is clearly at the front of his mind.  
    In happier news, advocates were victorious this week in convincing the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to cancel plans to expand the county jail. It's a big win for groups such as Decarcerate Sacramento and the People's Budget.
    Finally, some attention has now been aimed at the Sacramento City Fire Department for allegedly being a hostile and unfriendly work environment for anyone who isn’t a cis-het, white frat guy--a giant shock no one could have anticipated. People of color and women are leaving the department and are not being quiet about it on their way out, putting the department on defense. Will the fire department be able to save itself from criticism similar to that leveled at law enforcement?
    4 min
  • 139 - The hairy area (3.9.2021)
    Today we begin with the pleasantly surprising rise in popularity of universal basic income--a policy which former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs tested in his city, to phenomenal results. Friend of the show Erika Smith mentions in the Los Angeles Times that the city of Compton is on its way to piloting a similar program. To date, more than 40 mayors have joined Tubbs in Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.
    Could this be the start of something on a large scale?
    For some reason California transportation authorities have decided that Sacramentans need some new lanes on Highway 50 passing over downtown Sacramento. That's why they moved the Sunday farmers' market to Arden Arcade, as well as why they're now displacing unhoused folks from under the freeway. We discuss what that means for our neighbors out in the elements, as well as why some are viewing this as an 'early test' for District 4 Councilmember Katie Valenzuela. 
    We also take a moment to discuss the city's (long overdue) proposed resolution to circumvent the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in favor of keeping warming centers open indefinitely.
     
    In this document, city leaders seem to be rebranding these locations as 'triage centers' which could potentially be a good thing. Done right, these locations could help establish trust and build rapport with people who have come to expect nothing from their local government.
     
    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
  • TEASER: 138 - Councilmember Mai Vang on racism (3.5.2021)
    [To view/listen to the full episode, become a patron here!]
    We're joined by Sacramento District 8 Councilmember Mai Vang to discuss the rise in racism against the API community, and what we can do about it.  
    It's also the two-year anniversary of the night Sacramento police illegally kettled and arrested 84 people (including clergy and press) at a demonstration in East Sacramento protesting District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert's refusal to charge the cops who killed Stephon Clark in his grandma's back yard. Flo discusses what happened that evening.
    7 min
  • 137 - On Aggie Square and displacement, with Tamika L'Ecluse (3.2.2021)
    Today we're joined by Tamika L'Ecluse of Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, a grassroots collective that is fighting the displacement that is sure to follow if Oak Park's Aggie Square is to continue as planned with no serious community benefits in place. SIWD last December sued to stop UC Davis's construction of the project since the school refused to continuously engage with community members on how it would could help mitigate gentrification and rent increases in the area.
    Furious with SIWD's dedication to protecting the surrounding neighborhood, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other city leaders threw city lawyers into the fray last week, ensuring that our tax dollars once again go to fighting the most vulnerable among us.
     
    Want to help fight the mayor and the tone-deaf leaders at UC Davis? Contribute to SIWD's legal fund, and then call your council member and tell them you don't approve of the city using tax dollars to fight its own people. 
    Speaking of the region's burgeoning housing crisis, another unhoused neighbor died this weekend in Cesar Chavez Plaza, and Councilmember Katie Valenzuela is calling for serious action.
     
    Unfortunately, the mayor, the city manager and the county board of supervisors do not seem to care. In fact, the downtown warming center that could have saved this man's life was still closed the evening after he passed, and City Manager Howard Chan is set to try to divert money away from warming centers at this week's city council meeting.
     
    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.
    59 min
  • TEASER: 136 - Democrats behaving badly (2.26.2021)

    [If you want to view/listen to the full episode, become a patron here!]

    Over the course of Democrat Anthony Rendon's tenure as Speaker of the California Assembly, his wife has taken in over $500,000 from corporations who were concurrently fighting big battles in the state legislature. The biggest donor? For-profit utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, which is responsible for multiple California wildfires, including the Camp Fire, which killed over 85 people in northern California. After the company filed for bankruptcy--they were on the line for $30 billion in wildfire liabilities--California Democrats bailed the company out in a lightning-quick two weeks of legislating.  

    Meanwhile, former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla illegally gave a $35 million no-bid contract to a public affairs firm called SKD Knickerbocker--which has referred to itself as a part of "Team Biden"--for voter outreach efforts in the 2020 election. Padilla, a Democrat, is now a US Senator.  

    And let us not forget all of the no-bid contracts Governor Gavin Newsom has been meting out to his healthcare industry friends--who have contributed massive sums to his political campaigns--throughout the coronavirus pandemic.  

    On a local level, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department released footage of an incident last January that resulted in the deaths of a man, a sheriff's deputy and a police dog. After a brief car chase, the cops shot out the back window of the man's vehicle and literally threw their dog into his vehicle. When they then went to drag him out of his car, a shootout ensued. Seems they may have escalated the situation.  

    Want to make a difference? Contact your county supervisor and tell them you support a fully funded, 24/7 first response alternative to police. And that you want that money to come from the sheriff's department.  

    Oh, and support Senate Bill 271 so we can elect Skyler as sheriff.

    4 min
  • 135 - Kula Koenig of Social Justice Politicorps (2.23.2021)

    We're joined today by friend of the show Kula Koenig, founder of Social Justice Politicorps, a grassroots operation dedicated to raising social justice narratives in discussions over how county, city and school board governments work in the Sacramento region.

    We discuss how a deepening rift between progressives and moderates is starting to form in the region, and what that means for the future of movement politics.

    Kula also shares with us her newest project, the Social Justice Now PAC, which aims to help elect radical voices into elected office throughout the region. (Want to help them succeed? Contribute here.)

    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…