Rethinking Politics

107: Current News & Pandemic Amnesty?

In this episode we hit a variety of topics: Thanks to the Fed, interest rates are going up and yet Inflation remains very high. The housing market is on the brink of collapse. The midterm elections are happening right now and the Supreme Court is back in session. Paul Pelosi was injured and there is a lot of speculation around it. Then finally we spend a lot of time discussing an Atlantic article calling for "Pandemic Amnesty". 

 

CNN Article:   
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/11/05/politics/fact-check-biden-midterms-2022/index.html   

The Atlantic Article:  
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod

106: Critical Theory Is Critically Flawed

Everyone has heard about the rise of CRT or Critical Race Theory which is often vaguely defined as the "Woke" version of viewing racism. But there is much more to Critical Theory than just the race aspect. It is in fact a much broader umbrella with a surprisingly lengthy origin story and many iterations that have crept into almost every nook and cranny of the modern western world. We discuss the flaws in its methods that will help you deal with critical theory wherever you find it.

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: GR Stocks on Unsplash

105: Current News & Marijuana Law Reform

We are back!! And we have so many current events to discuss that we didn't have time to discuss them all, but we still managed to hit big ticket items like Elon Musk's ongoing bid to buy twitter and updates on the war in Ukraine. Then we focus most of our time on President Biden's announcement on Marijuana and the ramifications of such an unexpected move. 

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: manish panghal on Unsplash

104: Immigration Revisited

Last week Governor DeSantis sent a plane of 50 immigrants to the island of Martha's Vineyard.  This led to a myriad of media responses and political grandstanding. But while many have taken the time to throw the opposing party under the bus, too few have focused on why this happened in the first place. So we went ahead and looked at what is going on at our southern border and whether or not there really is an immigration crisis.

   

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Greg Bulla on Unsplash

 

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/20/immigration-biden-border/       

https://www.rescue.org/topic/refugees-america#:~:text=The%20president%20in%20consultation%20with,and%20just%2015%2C000%20for%202021      

https://news.yahoo.com/illegal-immigration-soars-under-biden-200400500.html 

103: Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, and The Era of Fact Checkers

Who decides what's true? That's a nuanced question, but who decides what people get to share is much clearer. We talk about social media companies and the role they play in controlling information and how they go about it. We also discuss the high-profile issue where they got it horribly wrong with Covid-19.

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Deeksha Pahariya on Unsplash

102: Biden, Trump, and the Collapse of our Economic Bubble?

Is President Biden making a PR comeback? Will Trump face criminal charges after the FBI raid? Are we heading towards a housing and financial crisis that will make 2008 look small in comparison? Is Brad actually funny? In this episode we discuss all of this except the last one, which we already knew the answer to. 

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

101: Student Loan Forgiveness

Back in episode 30 we discussed the systemic problems with the student loan system and what could be done to fix it. In this episode, we talk about the specifics of the student loan forgiveness plan (including several parts that are more important than the 10,000-20,000 that is forgiven), and whether or not these changes will fix or make the systemic problems worse.

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

100: Climate Change Philosophy

In this 100th episode of our podcast, we take a look at another eternally divisive subject: Climate Change. Of course we do this in the way everyone will expect: we focus on the philosophy and principles behind the rhetoric and the prejudice stopping us from having a real conversation about the issue. 

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

99: Dutch Farmers & The Coming Famine

The people in Sri Lanka are starving and just ousted their President. In Argentina, inflation is over 70% and their interest rate is 69%. The Netherlands new environmental policy is set to force over 10,000 Dutch farmers to close up shop. If you are somewhere relatively prosperous and productive, be grateful. Today we look at why these events are happening and the disasters they may cause in the near future. 

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Carmen Meurer on Unsplash

Sources:

http://spectator.com.au/2022/07/dutch-tolerance-vs-the-great-reset/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62335287

https://humboldt.global/top-agricultural-exporters/

98: The Inflation Reduction Act

Remember when President Biden's three trillion dollar "Build Back Better" died in congress? Well after some closed door deals with Senator Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, it looks like a much smaller 700 billion dollar climate change bill has a chance in congress. In this episode we break down what is in the bill going through the main changes to environmental policy, healthcare, and (the biggest surprise in the bill), innovative new taxes. 

 

Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin Macleod
Photo: Senator Manchin from manchin.senate.gov

 

Referenced Article:
How the Schumer-Manchin climate bill might impact you and change the U.S.