Voices: River City

Voices: River City

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Voices: River City episodes

  • TEASER: 134 - Texas goes dark (2.19.2021)

    [To listen to/view the full episode, become a patron here!]

    The gang talks about Democrats scoring political points on the Texas rolling blackouts, which left up to 4 million people without electricity in freezing temperatures, and last summer's California blackouts, which Republicans used to score political points as well.

    But these blackouts aren't a red or blue problem; they're a capitalism problem.

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

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

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

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

    5 min
  • 133 - Extremely thick and incredibly big (2.16.2021)
    We start the show with a moment for Mark Bell, a deeply impressive poet/author who spent years in the streets of Sacramento.
     
    We then reluctantly discuss this piece by the Bee's Opinion Editor Gil Duran, wherein he lobs many bombs toward good people, and offers up an entire menu of awful takes. Take one quick scroll through his Twitter feed and you'll find that our guy has simply lost the plot.
     
    Finally, we take a look at The push to reopen schools in California, and what that means for all of us.
     

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

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

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

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

    1 hr 1 min
  • TEASER: 132 - Dis-appointing (2.12.2021)

    [To hear/view the full episode, become a patron here today!]

    Governor Gavin Newsom will perhaps soon be appointing a replacement for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. But first Becerra needs to get by Senate Republicans who are eyeing him as their target Biden appointment to shoot down.

    Canada recently listed the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. And it appears the US Justice Department is beginning to reach the same conclusion, arresting five Proud Boys for conspiracy in relation to the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Here locally, the "Hangtown Santa" (yeesh) associated with the terrorist group was this week appointed to the El Dorado County Veterans Affairs Commission. 
     
    You know, for a left-leaning state, California sure does seem to coddle the far-right while using dangerous language and draconian enforcement against leftist organizers.
    5 min
  • 131 - On state-sanctioned violence (2.9.2021)

    We're joined today by friend and longtime human rights advocate Niki to discuss the long history of state-sanctioned violence against people experiencing homelessness.

    Last Saturday a group of demonstrators went to Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg's house, chalked his driveway, and put signs and placards on his lawn to honor the hundreds of people who have died in the streets over the mayor's four-year tenure. They also appear to have piled brush over a waste management receptacle outside his building, and broken a security camera and homemade piece of art.

    They mayor says they threw rocks at his door and called out threats. Demonstrators who were there say that did not happen.

    Naturally, the Very Serious People of Sacramento are making a show of the vandalism, calling it "political terrorism" and claiming that the fight to protect unhoused neighbors from state-sanctioned violence is no different than the violence committed by far-right Proud Boys and white supremacists.
     
    Sacramento Bee Opinion Editor Gil Duran got very mad at all sorts of people on his Twitter before ultimately getting ratio'd for a public call-out of District 4 Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who had been volunteering at a warming shelter when the demonstration outside Steinberg's house took place. Duran wrote an opinion piece under the editorial board's byline threatening to sic the Sacramento Police Department on the "terrorists" responsible.
     
    Under Mayor Steinberg, homeless deaths have increased each year in Sacramento County--with an annual report counting 124 in 2017, 132 in 2018 and 138 in 2019. Last month, multiple people died in the streets as a result of a storm with 60-plus mile an hour winds. The the city shut down its warming centers the day of the storm due to the weather not meeting temperature qualifications in the winter shelter program. The city continues to clear out encampments despite pleas from people experiencing homelessness for the city to stop destroying their homes and taking their possessions.
     

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

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

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

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

    57 min
  • TEASER: 130 - The numbers game (2.5.2021)

    [To view/listen to the full episode, become a patron here today]

    The gang discusses all the ways the city and county work to harm their constituencies through budgets.

    We also touch on Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is the future of the Republican Party incarnate.

    6 min
  • 129 - Ousters (2.2.2021)

    We start this one with a quick coronavirus update from resident epidemiologist Dr Flo. It's a complex moment, with cases beginning to drop, multiple vaccines rolling out and Governor Gavin Newsom reopening California, despite some dangerous new strains of the virus spreading throughout the country.

    Speaking of Newsom, a Republican push is nearing the finish line in a signature-gathering campaign to recall the governor, with GOP staples like former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and John Cox (who lost to Newsom by a whopping 24 points in 2018) seizing upon the momentum of rage-filled rightwing animus and threats leveled against the governor.

    Newsom's not the only politician facing calls to leave office. After a damning piece in the Sacramento Bee outlined City Manager Howard Chan's failure to open warming centers the night a raging storm with 60 mph winds killed at least four people in the streets, city council is facing a rising chorus for Chan's firing. The Sacramento Homeless Union is also calling for Mayor Darrell Steinberg to step down.

    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 thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

    1 hr
  • 127 - Elegy for the California GOP (1.26.2021)

    What is the future of the Republican Party? Is it now the party of Trump, in the form of far-right insurrectionists and conspiracy theories? Or is it a more moderated, Mitt Romney style of small government fiscal conservatives? 

    No matter who wins the fight for the soul of the party in California, the state's GOP is as good as dead, with no potential for growth in either direction. Here in Sacramento the party took a step toward the fringe, with far-right Proud Boy Jeffrey Perrine being elected into the county's GOP leadership. 
     
    At first it didn't matter to the county GOP that Perrine was in the boy's club identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. But when Perrine doubled down on a 2018 quote of his saying, "all the illegals trying to jump over our border, we should be smashing their heads into the concrete," that was simply too much. If he doesn't resign, Perrine will be removed by county party leadership in February.
     
    Throw some popcorn into the microwave, because this party's death spiral is far from finished.
     
    In other news, did you hear about the wins in Sacramento city housing and homelessness activism last week? 
     
    After years of fighting it, Sacramento City Council OK'd 'safe ground' sites to be placed throughout the city for people experiencing homelessness to camp in tents or live in tiny houses. (The lone vote against it? District 2's Sean Loloee.)
     
    Council also unanimously agreed to make it so that any single-unit parcel of land within the city can now have up to four separate units of housing. This is a potentially impactful move that few cities have ever passed, and--oddly--has added Sacramento to conversations on progressive housing policy. 
     

    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 thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.

    59 min
  • 126 - Copaganda (1.22.2021)

    We're joined by civil rights attorney Tifanei Ressl-Moyer to discuss a memorable week in Sacramento policing.

    The night before Sacramento area residents planned to march against fascist Proud Boys, the Sacramento Police Department terrorized anti-fascists, tearing through their homes and arresting people under questionable pretenses.

    This, ironically, took place just hours before Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn was scheduled to argue in a city council meeting that his police force did not treat anti-fascists any worse than they do Proud Boys and other far-right groups. 

    The people of Sacramento did not buy it, with dozens of residents who'd dealt first-hand with police violence in recent years calling in to express their disgust with the department's presentation.

    Countering the cops' narrative, District 4 Councilmember Katie Valenzuela shared footage of police violence leveled against Sacramentans last year as they fought for racial justice.

    The day following the city council meeting, Sac PD displayed more fascist behavior, stopping a vehicle at gunpoint and detaining the three unarmed young women inside for nearly an hour. 

    During the stop, police tweeted that they'd found explosives in the car, with Chief Hahn excitedly telling councilmembers the same thing. This was a lie. 

    The cops then stole the women's phones and cited the driver for a cracked windshield.

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

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

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

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

     

    1 hr 28 min
  • 125 - Miracle in Merced (1.19.2021)

    Surprising absolutely no one, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones recently admitted that some of his deputies attended the January 6 Trump rally in Washington, DC.

    News also broke over the weekend that three local federal employees were under investigation for going out to the nation's capital to attend the rally.  They've already confirmed that a local DEA agent was in fact a part of the Capitol siege. The other two under investigation are a DHS officer and someone with the FBI at an "administrative" role.

    Again, surprising no one.
     
    We also take a look at Bertha Perez's heartening Merced City Council win, aided by her local Democratic Socialists of America chapter and progressive labor groups. Perez's story is amazing. She used to be a lifelong Republican in a family of Republicans. But when she got a job as a custodian at the local university, she began to view the world increasingly through the lens of class politics. Now she's a DSA member serving on her city's council. Her story shows us two important things:
     
    1. There is an increasingly clear road map for socialists on how to gain power in the United States, and
    2. Conservative-leaning workers are very much reachable 
     

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

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

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

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

    54 min

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…