Barbara Kittridge
The GOP Just Can't Quit Trump

This week on POLITICAL MOTIVES we explore the GOP’s inability to break from the toxic lies of Trump as the former President faces the upcoming indictment of the Trump Organization. We will discuss the ongoing legal jeopardy Rudy Giuliani is facing having already lost his license to practice law in the state of New York. We also are going to examine how the Republican platform of small government has life and death consequences for voters in states like Florida and Texas where lack of regulation and enforcement have resulted in vastly different public health threats. Finally, we will wrap up with a discussion on the progress of the American Jobs Act and the fate of a bipartisan infrastructure bill after President Biden’s pronouncement of an agreement with a group of 10 Democratic and Republican Senators.

The GOP Just Can't Quit Trump
Barbara Kittridge
Putin, The Bishops and Bipartisanship

This week on POLITICAL MOTIVES we review President Biden’s G7 Trip and the success of his summit with Vladimir Putin. We will also discuss the rather disingenuous pronouncements of some US Catholic Bishops who are threatening to stop giving communion to President Biden given his pro-choice stance, a move that is quickly angering rank and file members of the Catholic Church. We will get into the latest dinner theatre, oh I mean bipartisan talks, on the Hill concerning the American Jobs Act and the For The People Act and discuss how bipartisanship doesn’t seem to be working so well for Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). We will also look at the over 500 criminal court proceedings against the 1/6 Capitol Insurrectionists and look at how it appears that a case for conspiracy is being built facing some of the ring leaders including none other than Roger Stone.

Putin, The Bishops and Bipartisanship
Barbara Kittridge
The Pervasive Rot of Trumpism in the Department ...

This week on POLITICAL MOTIVES, we discuss the challenges facing the Department of Justice as multiple abuses of subpoena power come to light. The news broken by the New York Times reports that Donald Trump used the DOJ to launch a series of supposed leak investigations into the House Intelligence Committee members, including Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Trump General Counsel Don McGahn. Apple revealed the data requests that were fulfilled in 2018. Based on the timings its clear the Justice Department must have renewed the gag order attached to Apple for several years. It would appear that Apple was prevented from revealing the existence of the subpoenas and data collection requests. It is believed that this was part of a larger leak investigation looking into Russia investigations early in Trump’s Administration.

The Pervasive Rot of Trumpism in the Department of Justice
Barbara Kittridge
Betraying Democracy: The Myth of the Filibuster ...

This week we look at statements from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) indicating he will block passage of HR1 (The For the People Act) and the infrastructure package or The American Jobs Act as well as reforming the Filibuster, putting at risk both the American ideal of Democracy and our economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. We will discuss the ludicrous reversal of an assault weapons ban in California by a partisan judge. We have also had yet another week of the Republican party spreading The Big Lie as we face the genuine threat of sliding into autocracy. We will also delve into the historical background of the Filibuster and explain how this Jim Crowe era rule threatens to undermine our very Democracy leading to Minority Rule.

Betraying Democracy: The Myth of the Filibuster and the Danger of Minority Rule
Barbara Kittridge
Reconciling Racism: The Case for Reparations

This week on the 100th Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 we will discuss the ongoing attempts to ignore the painful history of systemic racism in America. Why the “Red Summer” a period of brutal, racially motivated violence in America has been largely forgotten and the need for America to redress the economic and emotional toll of these racist attacks via the payment of Reparations to the families and communities destroyed by this racial cleansing.

We will also look at the GOP’s attempt at ignoring another violent and painful chapter in our more recent history as Republican Senators led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked the establishment of a commission to review the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection and violent coup attempt by Trump loyalists who attacked our Capitol spurred on by Trump’s “Big Lie.”

Reconciling Racism: The Case for Reparations

Minimum Wage

THE FIGHT FOR FIFTEEN

THE FIGHT FOR FIFTEEN

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that increasing the minimum wage would impact 32 million workers – that is almost 20% of all Americans. Now keep in mind that the last time we saw an increase in the federal minimum wage was in July of 2009. More than 11 years without an increase. In that same time period, we saw the cost of living, driven largely by housing and health care cost increases, go up 20%. This is not a sustainable situation. The massive disparity between the current minimum wage and the cost of living is stark. To note, there is not a single state in the country where the current minimum wage affords the ability to rent a two-bedroom home. Not one state.