Voices: River City

A note to all of our listeners: VOICES: River City is moving back to its weekly format, given that all four hosts are working full-time and the world is becoming a terribly busy place again. We will be providing some patron perks in the future, including meet-ups, so we hope you'll continue to support our work!

We also take a moment to mention the alarming rise in far-right groups putting up flyers doxxing members of the Sacramento community, and threatening physical harm.

For the meat of the show, we're discussing Governor Gavin Newsom's final bill signings of the year:

 

The big one that stood out to us was how many huge L's the state's law enforcement lobby took this session, with the following new legislation:

 

- Cops now cannot legally block journalists from covering protests

- The state's Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training can now decertify officers for wrongdoing, effectively kicking them out of the profession

- Californians now have increased access to police misconduct records

- There are new massive restraints on when cops can shoot protesters with rubber bullets

 

Newsom only vetoed some 8% of the bills that crossed his desk, but there were a few doozies in that mix. Take, for instance, freshman Assemblymember Alex Lee's bill to keep virtual public comment options for the state's large cities and counties. What the hell, man?

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

Today we're discussing:  

- A man fleeing California for Texas because it has grown too "communistic" 

- Why Christopher Columbus sucked 

- Mark Zuckerberg's platform from Hell 

And we also have an important announcement.

Enjoy!

We're joined by friend and sometimes-host Elliot, a member of the Sacramento Tenants Union, to discuss the lifting of California's eviction moratorium, and what that means for our region and the state's most vulnerable communities.

Who is at risk of eviction? More people than our electeds would care to admit.

We also touch on the various ways that people have won strong renters' protections throughout the world.

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

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

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.  

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.

We're unlocking this episode since Councilmember Valenzuela is joining us to discuss a terribly dangerous action by Caltrans that's putting lives at risk.

And they're doing it all at the request of District 3 Councilmember Jeff Harris, who doesn't even represent the constituents around the highways.

Want to tell Caltrans you don't approve of their behavior? Contact them here.

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

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

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.  

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.

Want to view/hear the full episode? Become a patron today!

The lede is buried deep in this episode, but we have a wildly worthwhile conversation on the way to the good stuff.  

We're discussing the disturbing trend of unconstitutional city and state demolitions of unhoused communities throughout the Sacramento region. 

But which Sacramento City Councilmember is to blame beyond Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol?

Today, homelessness expert and cohost Shannon Dominguez-Stevens walks us through this year's homeless deaths report, how to support our unhoused neighbors and how a new Sacramento lawsuit could halt the city's $100 million plan to address homelessness.

 

We also discuss an absurd push poll leveled against Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela (here's her letter to constituents about it). The poll, which was sent to registered voters in the councilmember's district, called Valenzuela an "avowed Democratic Socialist" and tried to paint her as an ineffective politician.

 

Whoever wanted this smear campaign done paid Democratic consultant Jonathan Brown of Sextant Strategies to carry it out.

 

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

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

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.  

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.

[Want to view/hear the full episode? Become a patron today!]

A quick update in the post-failed-recall era: Governor Newsom in the last week has addressed three bills that needed signing on his desk, to mixed results.

The good? He signed a bill targeting Amazon and protecting employees who want to take breaks--you know, like human beings. The bad? He's fucked farm labor unions who wanted to have vote by mail elections (you know, the kind that state Democrats celebrate in our primary and general elections). Now they're marching across the state to French Laundry, in hopes of finding and speaking with the multimillionaire governor.

He also signed a bill tinkering with single-family zoning in the state, which is fine but by no means a game-changer for progressives.

(See a list of Newsom's potential progressive bill signings here.)

As we look forward to the start of the 2022 election cycle, it's profoundly important for socialists and progressives to identify which state Democrats have been disappointing at the Capitol, and to find real progressives to push them out of office. CalMatters's California Legislator Tracker is a good start in the process, and they plan to incorporate even more info in the future:

How campaign contributions might influence lawmakers’ decisions

How many gifts legislators receive from special interests

Whether lawmakers are showing up for important votes

This is the kind of thing folks need in a state where the GOP is fully neutered and the term 'Democrat' has become so broad it's lost its meaning. Keep an eye out for lefties like our friends at Dabyreak PAC, who are identifying the right folks to primary all the Democrats who aren't fighting for the people of California.

Speaking of Democrats who are nowhere near as progressive as they deign to be, President Joe Biden's goons at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have been caught abusing the 15,000 Haitians at the Texas border. The White House has said that they'll stop using ICE agents on horseback from now on, presumably because you can't whip other human beings from inside a car, but that doesn't mean that the human rights abuses are about to end any time soon.

A Natomas Unified School District high school had a college-credit civics teacher so well loved that they advertised a student-made video about him on their website.

 

Last spring, that same teacher was voted to deliver the commencement speech to the graduating class.

 

But today?

 

Today, Superintendent Chris Evans has scrubbed that teacher's video from the website, posting instead a 30-minute interview he held with a far-right agitator who once said that Jews owned the banks.

 

We're joined by equity educator Sonia Lewis to discuss the ridiculous story of how a Sacramento school district sided with proto-fascist agitators from Project Veritas in smearing one of the district's most well loved teachers.

 

We also touch on what Sacramento media got wrong in covering this ridiculous story.

 

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

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

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.  

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.

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

Today we do a post-mortem on the absolute drubbing of the California GOP in Governor Gavin Newsom's recall election.

Does it mean anything at all for Democrats in 2022? (No.) Is the California GOP beyond repair? (Yes.) Will Governor Newsom make some bold, progressive moves with his new momentum? (Doubtful.)

What a way to spend nearly $300 million and nearly a year of our lives.

Today we're joined by Kula Koenig and Andi Bianchi of Social Justice Politicorps to discuss their new political report card.

Kula and Andi are asking Sacramento county residents--particularly those from marginalized and underrepresented communities--to grade city and county electeds on their performance this year.

Ready to grade your electeds? You can find the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialjusticeSac2021

You can also learn more about the region's political arc at SJPC's blog.

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

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

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.  

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.