Episode

5/4 DC’s Revolving Door and Amazon’s Union Push After LDJ5 w/ Jeff Hauser & Jordan Flowers

May 4, 2022

Sam and Emma host Jeff Hauser, the head of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Jordan Flowers, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and The Congress of Essential Workers. First, Sam and Emma dive into the Ohio primaries, as JD Vance comes out on top to fight Tim Ryan, Nina Turner comes up short once again, and Biden’s dance around abortion while McConnell straight-up refuses to address anything but the leak. Jeff, Sam, and Emma begin with Hauser’s thoughts on the implications of the SCOTUS leak, particularly with his history working at the DOJ, diving into the need for progressive and center-left organizers to keep this central to political discourse. Next, they dive into his work as head of the Revolving Door Project, looking at the cyclical path followed by the Democratic consultant class, between working to develop policy for the party and working to get around that policy for corporations, and diving into the examples they’ve been tracking in the Biden administration, and whether that has anything to do with the Democrats’ refusal to actually stick up to corporate crime, despite the incredible popularity such action would have. They then dive further into active Democratic inaction, particularly in the realms of supply chain economics and reproductive rights, looking at other, incredibly popular moves that Democratic leadership could (and likely won’t) make, including putting on corporate pressure in the fight for consumers against price gouging, and pushing back against an antagonistic Supreme Court and forcing big decisions, even if they lose. Jordan Flowers then joins, diving into the creation and cultivation of the Amazon Labor Union and Congress of Essential Workers, before looking at the mixed bag that was the recent round of ALU elections for the LDJ-5 storage center, discussing the roles of part-time employment and storage duties played in giving Amazon easier ability to display union-busting propaganda. They also look at the incredible success of the unions, discussing today’s visit of his co-founders to the White House, and what the fight looks like going forwards.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma dive into the two democratic reactions to the Roe v. Wade decision: the first being putting it on midterm voters (as Biden did) and the second being the profoundly ahistorical tactic of blaming “Trump Republicans” (as Schumer and Pelosi did) for the extremist result. Grant Stinchfield for some reason sees KBJ as the source of the leak, definitely not because of her race or gender but for other, nonexistent reasons. Ronald Raygun reflects on various developments in Democrats’ ability to talk about serious issues, as he, Emma, and Sam look at Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s continued ability to stir passion in her base, and Aaron from Chicago dives into the role of the Supreme Court in general. Crowder dives into his views on the diverse tastes of rapists, and our favorite Men’s Rights activist calls to explore his take on the abortion topic (it’s not as bad as you’d think, but everything else he says is). Plus, your calls and IMs!

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