Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's the week of July sixth, twenty twenty five, and
this is what's on the People's News this week is
a special best of People's News Canada and TIFFs, the
convicted felon wants to have a war with Iran, summaries
of the Texas Legislative session, and a story of how
(00:25):
medicaid saves someone's life which will now be taken away.
And finally, in these dark days that we're in, I
have a set of guidelines for when you are confronted
by Trump's secret police or ice. You have rights and
you need to know your rights. All this and more
on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the
(00:48):
People's News, and the People's News starts now. This is
Steve Gallington, producer and host for the People's News. One
of the things that I got in preparation for going
to the No King's rally on June fourteenth was a
(01:11):
presentation from the ACLU, which I want to repeat the
information from for you. In light of the convicted felon
opening up Alligator Alcatraz and the Republican House and Senate
passing this big, ugly, expensive, devastating bill, among those things
is one hundred and thirty five billion dollars for increased
(01:35):
secret police activity or ICE funding. And so you have
rights when dealing with the police or ICE, no matter
or immigration status. Number one, if they do not have
a warrant, an arrest warrant or a search warrant, you
do not have to open the door for the police
(01:56):
or ICE. You do not have to answer any questions
about status or country of origin. The right to remain
silent is protected under the fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
You have the right to ask to see a lawyer.
You have the right to refuse searches of your person
(02:17):
and your car if the police do not suspect a crime.
This is the fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Never sign
anything without knowing what it says. And you have a
right to record what happens. And if you're hearing this
and you can speak and read Spanish, the People's News
(02:40):
would love for you to read the script in Spanish,
so we can accompany that with this as well. So
be safe out there, look out for each other, and
we will get through this together. When you put a criminal,
a convicted felon into the White House, you get criminality.
(03:01):
You get law breaking and convicted felon. Donald Trump continued
his illegal tariffs, which are making their way through the courts.
Until he's forced to remove those tariffs, He's going to
continue to break the law. And this week convicted felon
Donald Trump sign an order doubling tariffs on steel and
(03:23):
aluminum imports to fifty percent. Canadian and Mexican officials and
the European Union called foul, as this violates the earlier
agreements that they had with Trump. This will raise prices
on everything across the board. We talked again to Richard Messon,
(03:45):
executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public
Policy and former CEO of the Alberta Patroleum Marketing Commission.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I mean the effects have been huge. Our government foul.
We had an election and the party that was leading
for the previous year didn't win because of concerns around
Trump tariffs and how we would react. So it's been
huge from a political point of view, and then from
(04:16):
an economic point of view. We released statistics today that
showed I think it was in March, our exports to
the US dropped seventeen percent and our imports from the
US dropped eleven percent, and so it's having a big
economic impact for Canadian businesses and consumers and US businesses
(04:36):
and consumers as well.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Currently an electric prime minister. It seems like people went
for what he was. He's trying to stand up to
the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Is that Yeah, I think both parties were doing that.
It's just a question about who probably had the best
ability to do that. And of course the Liberal government
had been in power for ten years and a lot
of people knew the cabinet ministers who elected and things
like that. I think they went for the safer choice
(05:11):
as opposed to the changing out the parties completely. And
so yeah, it's a big deal. I think Canada is
trying to figure out how to deal with this because
a lot of it still doesn't make any sense to us.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
One thing is one thing that will fall out of
the elations with DP. I thought INDP, a lot of
people include myself thought in DP would maybe make a
dip in the selection as past election.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, and they didn't do very well because everybody decided
to either go with the Liberals, you know, and try
and give them as strong amandate as possible, or the
Conservatives and the NDP kind of got wiped out. So yeah,
quite a big change from what we expected, you know,
at the end of last year.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Where did we go from here? I don't think Americans
really understand the fix that Canada can have on their
buying power here in the States.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, the one of this week. I mean there's a
new one every day, it seems. But the moving the
steel and aluminum tariffs to fifty percent is just wild
because you don't have the ability to produce aluminum. You
don't have the box site in the US, and so
you get sixty percent of the aluminum that you use
(06:36):
from Canada. You can't get it anywhere else, and so
all you're doing is adding a cost to American consumers
and hurting jobs all the way along the line. I
don't none of us understand what the endgame is here.
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
What the long the longer the longer this goes, the
you know what, as long as this goes, how hard
will it hit Canadians.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's hitting us hard, you know. Like I said, the
exports have dropped a lot in the first month where
it really got clear that the tariffs were being implemented.
Investment isn't happening. There's a lot of uncertainty. There's you know,
been layoffs and lots of different companies. The steel and
the aluminum thing, if that carries through, is going to
(07:29):
be even worse. And so yeah, and plus you know,
now most Canadians don't trust the US anymore. Right, we
are trying to figure out how we're going to change
our relationship with the US and how we're going to
build relationships with the rest of the world because we
don't trust you as a reliable partner, because you make
(07:50):
decisions that don't make any sense and there's no ability
for us to negotiate with you to get to a
good answer because you keep changing what you want.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And unions here have been saying that this is going
to be great for unions and their jobs to come
back to back to the United States, which adults, I
really don't see that happening personally, but the unions here
seem to, at least some of them seem to be
supporting these tear if they're being put in place.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, there seemed to be some like in the auto sector.
But when I listen to the people from Canada in
the auto sector, they say that the integration we have
is the most efficient way, and it creates the most jobs,
which allows us to compete against the world better than
if we're separate. And it's you know, not possible for
(08:45):
US plants to ramp up production and Canadian plants to
close quickly. Right All that takes time. You have to
spend billions of dollars to build new assembly lines. You
have to, you know. So what's happening right now is disruption.
And the more this carries on, the more layoffs are happening.
(09:06):
And there's already been a bunch and of course auto
sales are going down because auto prices are going up.
And that's kind of the only unions that seem to
be supporting this that we hear about. If you think
about the steel and aluminum folks, there's no ability to
ramp up production in the US. There's you know, Canada
(09:26):
has been a reliable supplier for a very long time,
and it's not like you have a bunch of idle
capacity sitting there waiting to be turned on. You just don't.
And so if the fact that the tariffs are going
to fifty percent on your biggest supplier has to mean
that prices are going up for all the rest of
the value chain and for consumers in the US.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Well, how will Carney answers this if he went to
Washington and it seemed where we left it seemed like
he had it gained some type of guidance on made
some type of network and with Trump. But I guess
we're squere one again.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
What are howzy?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
What's what's the alternatives now? What you know? Because I've
heard that Canadian business now looking to other sources or
the places to sell.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, We're we're trying to reduce internal barriers in
our country to you know, improve trade amongst our provinces,
and we're working to improve trade with Europe and Asia
and other markets. And Canada has many free trade agreements
already with those places, and all of them want to
improve trade with US as well because of the tariffs
(10:46):
that the US has put on them. So you know,
I think over time, a lot of trade will you know,
move away from the US and move to other parts
of the world. But you know that doesn't happen quickly
because you've got to chain and all your supply chains,
and it's you got to make sure your ports can
handle it, and and all those things it's it's totally different,
(11:07):
and so it's going to take time for that to happen.
In the meantime, there's a lot of disruption.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
What happens with what happens with so called the pipeline
they were coming from coming from the oil it was
coming from Canada to the US. What happens with all
these all these treaties that had been worked on for years, Well, so.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Far there's been no impacts on oil or gas, which
is a demonstration of how reliant you are on us before.
You know, back in January that the differential between our
heavy oil and West Texas was around fourteen dollars a barrel.
When Trump's starting to threaten the tariffs, that differential widened
(11:52):
a bit. But because you guys are so short heavy
oil right now, the differential has been as low as
eight dollars a barrel in the line few days. And
that proves that you need our oil and you're willing
to pay for it, pay up for it because you
don't have alternatives. And so this is the again the
goofy part about it. It's not like the US produces
(12:14):
heavy oil. You don't. You get it from Venezuela. You
get it from Columbia, you get it from Canada and Mexico,
and if if you're not going to allow it to
flow freely, then you're going to be short. And so
because the refiners are desperate to get that oil, they're
paying a higher price now than they did before it
all started. The other thing is travel from Canada to
(12:37):
the US is way down. I mean people are not
going there. Even people who own homes are not going there.
It's going to hurt your tours in sector a lot,
because we're your biggest tourists, and you know it's Canadians
are are angry and this isn't gonna you know, there's
no even if you wanted to. The relationship is damaged
(12:59):
and won't be fixed quickly. But there's no sign of
wanting to fix it because you imposed higher cares and
stealing ALUMO a couple days ago for no reason. So
there's a lot of Canadians who are pretty pissed.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That was Richard Massan, executive fellow at the University of
Calgary School of Public Policy and former CEO of the
Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission. The United States has bombed three
of Iran's nuclear installations and four other installations at the
direction of the corrupt and criminal convicted felon Donald Trump.
(13:35):
The Council on American Islamic Relations CARE, the nation's largest
Muslims civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned Trump's attack
on Iran as an illegal and unjustified active war that
prioritizes the wishes of Benjamin Netanyahu over the American people
and threatens to drag our nation into a wider war
(13:57):
in the region. We talked with Kareem Zagna with the
Iranian American Community of Texas.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yes, sir, well you started. First of all, thank you
for having me Richard. Obviously, no regime change can be
done from the sky, you know, it has to come
from the street of Iran and Tehran. People have to
change the regime. No one can change the regime. Unfortunately,
this war started while the n cri I, the resistance
(14:32):
group that an m K that they they've been they've
been against the regime since actually today, forty six years ago,
when the first time them K and the people of
Iran in the street, they have a peaceful demonstration against
(14:52):
the regime. After the Romeni came in power and tried
to hijack the great relie that the Iranian people has
for against the previous dictatorship monarchy. So they had a
peaceful demonstration against them and a new government of the
mono laws that they were just trying to hijack all
(15:15):
the freedom and democracy that the people fight for. And
then the regime started killing them. They killed one hundred
and twenty over the three years, they killed about one
hundred thousand people, and then on nineteen eighty eight they
killed about thirty thousand political prisoner. So that's what happened.
(15:38):
And now now the war started, which is as the
head of the head of the NCRI and said this.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
We know the United States history of envolvement in Iran.
We know they were part of the coup that brought
in the show in the past. So how so how
how are you supporting any type of regime change right now?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, the regime change has to come with the with
within bay Irain and people. We don't need the intervention
of any foreign foreign government, uh, because the people of
Iran are the boots on the ground. They can change
it if they don't intervene.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
The thing is the like ahead of the n c R,
the group that we're supporting, our community supporting We are
in foury estates in the United States. We are supporting
them because they are capable of doing the regime change
in Iran, because they are in is a resistance unit
that all over the Iran So, like I said, the coup,
(16:50):
the coup they did it was, it was the wrong
against the democratic government of doctor Musadek. However, those time change,
that's not gonna happen. They're not going to be able
to install anything against the bill of Iranian people. For example,
the son of the previous dictator that it was overthrown
(17:11):
by the people. Saw that guy is just every time
the Iranian people have uprising, he jumped in trying to
trying to do what Romani did when hijack the hijack
the Iranian people revolution in nineteen seventy nine. So he
thinks that's the time that he's gonna hijack it. That's
not gonna happen. So Iranian people are ready to overthrow
(17:34):
the regime. Like Miss Mariam Gradually, the head of the
NCR said many many times, no war, no appeasement. The
third option is changed. Supporting Iranian people, United States and
Western governments Western country should support the Iranian people and
(17:55):
the resistance units to overthrow the regime in I need
no weapon, no boots on the ground needed to change
the regime.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
How do you know you can come in and you
are you you're firmly back on roan. How are they
feeling and all the people that you know there, what
their thoughts are right now?
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Well, the people in the people iron they they are
hoping that you know that they're going over through the regime.
They are against the regime. Not now it being it
being the demonstration at uprising. It's been going on for years,
like I said today, forty forty four years ago when
they had a huge demonstration against for many and this
(18:39):
this government for for for hijacking the revolution and then
they kill them. But now they are against against them.
They have uprising all over the country. And now they
don't have the like I told you the last time,
they don't have water, they don't have exicity, they don't
have the bread on the on the table. And on
(19:00):
top of that this this war started, which they they
don't need this war, this war, it was not necessary
when when the change within is very possible. Another word,
the this head of the snake, which is the Iranian regime.
(19:21):
Since the war is start by by kase And and
the Israel and a lot of innocent people died. That
was not necessary. And this said it was the head
of the snake was in Tehran. That's the one that
the war has to be, has to focus on. And
as you see now forty years of appeacement brought us
(19:44):
to this war, which was not necessary. If they if
the Western country was paying attention to suggestion of the
n cr I and Miss Madame Roger Vives had a
ten point planned, the war was not necessary to to
focus on the main main problem, which is this regime,
that is the suppressing the ring and people and meddling
(20:05):
in the region and all these proxies. They're spending all
the money to on the proxies and on the atomic project,
which has become a major problem. By the way, all
this project, all this atomic project was it was revealed
since two thousand and three by n c r I,
by Amy King. The majority didn't have they're the one
(20:29):
who revealed it. And in the same time they believed
the ideology of the regime is one hundred times more
dangerous than even nuclear bomb just because that's that's how
they may they may use it.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
They may they may use those bombs. So you're saying
so you're saying you believe that they have that Aloe
right now has the ability to make a nuclear nuclear bomb.
Which we heard the same rhetoric when Vinyl States stated
that a lot had to pass even make.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
We what I'm what. I'm saying that the regime trying
to make the atomic bomb, and it's very dangerous regime
and the only way to solve this problem is regime
change in Iran by the people of Iran. Regime cannot
(21:23):
be changed from sky. Regime has to be changed with
the boots on the ground, which are the Iranian people
at the resistance units. They are all over Iran. The
United States should support this as an alternative to overthrow
the regime because this regime only has to be changed
(21:45):
from within, and the United States should should support the
Iranian people and the rights to confront the IRGC as
a tourist organization. They are and change and they'd be
able to change the regime in A.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Press conference is to be held at the Pentagon on
Sunday the twenty third to give the reasoning behind the
assault outside of Israel. The world intelligence community has stated
that there has been no proof that Iran was a
threat the corrupt and criminal Republican Trump administration in order
(22:26):
to distract the American people away from the lawlessness of
Donald Trump and him taking bribes from anyone and everyone
he can and to pay for the billionaire tax cuts
that the Republicans are proposing. There are massive Medicaid cuts
(22:46):
before the US Senate that will strip healthcare and independence
from thousands of disabled Texans. One accomplished, longtime advocate is
telling her Medicaid story to Texas senators and urging others
to join her. John Mueller reports.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Nancy Kroter of Boston is one of seventy million covered
by Medicaid, but Croter is also someone who has told
her story for decades to score wins for the Texas
disability community and the attendants who care for them. This week,
as the US House passed the biggest budget cuts to
Medicaid in history and it now moves to the Senate,
crod is again using her voice to tell senators what
(23:27):
Medicaid does for her and urging others to join her.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I've worked hard.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
I'm to the point where I own my own house,
I have services, and to lose.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
That would be to lose my livelihood and to be
desperately placed in an assisted living or something.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Kroder is sixty seven and has a progressive muscular disease
called spinal muscular atrophy. She's lived years beyond anyone's expectations,
she says, and owes it all up to her Medicaid
attendant care, which will be imperiled if the cuts become law.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
Involves so many programs.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
For young, for old, for.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Different types of disabilities, and it's just a multi use tool,
and if you start losing pieces of that tool.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
That's part of your independence that you're losing. And I
don't think it's felt as if that's a.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
Big deal by anybody in.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
The upper echelon that thinks, well, you know, you're okay.
You're in a wheelchair, and nedkid does a lot more
different things than just a wheelchair, and our long akers
don't even understand that. The sad part of this is
that we all already have a wounded community because a
(25:07):
lot of medical facilities, adopts and providers are going out
of business.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Don't want anything to do.
Speaker 7 (25:16):
With make cake because they're not getting decent reimbursement rates
from the Medicaid mountain, and for me personally, it would
mean you know, devastation, of course, but the lowest thing
(25:38):
on the totem po would have to be an institution
to go into and that would just be the death.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Nail Kroter found the power of speaking up in the
nineteen eighties. It was years before the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She got involved in the movement to make public transit
in Austin, Texas accessible not only for people with disabilities,
but also seniors and families with strollers for instance. It
was a victory and she found out the power of
(26:07):
her own voice. She's been awarded for her work ever
since and has continued speaking up across the state, sometimes
telling her story to policymakers or often being the only
disability perspective present at a meeting or serving on an
advisory board. Crowder was part of the push that got
the last legislature to boost community attendant pay for the
(26:28):
disabled and seniors in twenty twenty three. Last week, members
of Crowder's group Adaptive Texas were among three hundred wheelchairs
and their supporters in the US Capitol twenty seven of
them were arrested for bringing a House committee to a
halt demanding they not touch medicaid. This week, Crowder encouraged
(26:49):
listeners to call their Texas senators to tell their own
stories and their families and friends stories on how important
medicaid is to them.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
It really fills you up with the sense of boldness
and strength and compassion because you've done what was right.
And you know, when people complain about things, I'm just
(27:19):
I look at him like, and what have you done?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Done it?
Speaker 7 (27:24):
Not to be mean, but I've got to put it
back in their hands.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
To reach Texas senators' offices, called the US Capitol Switchboard
at two zero two two two four three one two
one for the People's News. This is John Muller.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Reporting in twenty seventeen, constituent calls flipped one Senator John McCain,
who voted against party lines saving the Affordable Care Act.
So what can we do in the face of all
this awlessness and corruption? Call the Capital switchboard at two
two two two four three one two one and demand
(28:09):
that your representatives save medicaid.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
The People's News is people powered news. We are free
to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised
as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes of The
(28:34):
People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast.
Thanks for listening, Hi. This is Steve Gallington, producer and
host for the People's News. One of the things that
I got in preparation for going to the No King's
rally on June fourteenth was a presentation from the ACLU
(28:56):
which I want to repeat the information from four you
in light of the convicted felon opening up Alligator Alcatraz
and the Republican House and Senate passing this big, ugly, expensive,
devastating bill. Among those things is one hundred and thirty
five billion dollars for increased secret police activity or ICE funding.
(29:21):
And so you have rights when dealing with the police
or ICE, no matter your immigration status. Number one, if
they do not have a warrant, an arrest warrant or
a search warrant, you do not have to open the
door for the police or ICE. You do not have
(29:42):
to answer any questions about status or country of origin.
The right to remain silent is protected under the fifth
Amendment of the Constitution. You have the right to ask
to see a lawyer. You have the right to refuse
searches of your person and your car if the police
(30:02):
do not suspect a crime. This is the fourth Amendment
of the Constitution. Never sign anything without knowing what it says.
And you have a right to record what happens. And
if you're hearing this and you can speak and read Spanish,
the People's News would love for you to read the
(30:24):
script in Spanish, so we can accompany that with this
as well. So be safe out there, look out for
each other, and we will get through this together. As
the Texas Legislature wrapped up its eighty ninth session, there
was a mix of environmental progress and missed opportunities. In
(30:46):
a state where fossil fuel interests holds significant sway, Environment
Texas is celebrating a string of victories in stopping major
threats to clean energy and local environmental protections while helping
to advance a number of positive bills. We talked to
Luke Metzger, Executive Director of Environment Texas.
Speaker 9 (31:06):
Yeah, fortunately there are a lot of positives, you know,
I think most noteworthy is what the legislature didn't do.
There were a number of bills that passed the Texas
Senate that would have gutted wind and solar energy in
the state by assessing onerous new fees and instituting discriminatory
(31:28):
permitting requirements and even outright bands of some technologies. And thankfully,
you know, while they passed the Senate, they ended up
dying in the state House. And that's great news because,
of course Texas, you know, our rulable energy industry is booming.
We are generating more and more clean wind and solar
(31:52):
power and battery storage every day, and that is critical
for our climate and for our environment. By offsetting emissions
from you know, polluting fossil fuel power plants, and so
by the legislator not throwing a wrench in the works,
you know, that boom can continue, and that is a
(32:14):
you know, a really bright spot you know, for Texas's
environment and climate action. So really good news that they
didn't gut and you know, grind renewable energy development to
a halt. They also took some positive steps forward for
clean energy, including making it easier to install solar panels
(32:36):
on your own home by streamlining the permitting process, as
well as adopting some good measures to increase the environmental
responsibility of wind, solar, and batteries at the end of
their lives. So, for example, a new bill was passed
(32:57):
to make sure that when batteries in their useful life
that they're decommissioned properly and removed from the land and
dealt with properly, and so that was good news, as
well as new recycling requirements for wind and solar panels
at the end of their lives, and so all in all,
(33:19):
you know, I think from a clean energy perspective, we
took steps forward. The other thing I would mention that's
more of a mixed bag on the energy front is
the Texas Energy Fund. That was something that was created
two years ago, and the idea was to create a
ten billion dollar fund to invest in energy, mostly giving
(33:40):
you know, grants and loans to build new gas power plants.
And of course, you know, we think that was you know,
the wrong direction. We don't want at a time that
we're facing a climate crisis, we don't want to be
you know, adding more fuel to the fire by you know,
subsidizing you know, more methane gas power plants. However, there's
a right spot in that program in that about eighteen
(34:04):
percent of the money is supposed to go to provide
funds for backup power at critical infrastructure, So that's like
nursing homes, wastewater treatment plants, things like that, will get
funding to install solar batteries as well as kind of
you know, gas generators. But that could mean you know
(34:24):
several you know, thousands of megawatts of additional kind of
clean energy behind the meter that will help make sure
that you know, those you know, critical infrastructure are able
to keep the lights on, keep the power on when
there are outages, as well as be producing power you know,
throughout the year onto the grid. So that that was
(34:45):
definitely a bright spot as well in terms of energy.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well.
Speaker 9 (34:48):
Yeah, so the other things I would point out is,
uh Texas became the first red state, you know, pending
the governor's approval of legislation to give people the right
to repair their consumer electronics. And I think, you know,
many of us have had the experience where a product,
you know, a cell phone or other things needs repair,
(35:12):
but we're only only able to take it to the
authorized dealer to get the repair, and that means that
often the price of repair is very expensive, or you
get pressured to instead of repairing it, just buy a
brand new phone, even though your you know, old phone
is perfectly fine with with just a small repair. And
(35:32):
you know, the problem is that a lot of manufacturers
make it very difficult for you to fix your products,
and they much rather sell you something new, and so
they would hold the tools or the software. They prevent
third party dealers from you know, fixing your things, and
so that as a result, that means we end up
throwing away, you know, huge amounts of electronic waste or
(35:57):
electronic products every every day in the United States, something like,
you know, six hundred thousand cell phones get thrown away
every day in the US. And those are you know,
good products that we could be refurbishing and reusing, but
instead a lot of those parts, which you know, includes
the toxic components, get thrown into our our landfills where
(36:20):
they could in pollute the environment. And so a bill
by representatives GEO could pree we own would make sure
that Texans actually have the right to repair their own
of their own electronic products. And you know, again Texas
would be the first, uh, you know, Republican led state
in America to do that. There's about six or seven
(36:43):
other states around the country that have done at first,
but that would really be good news for helping reduce
electronic waste. And then I think the other thing I
would highlight is action of water. Of course, you know,
the legislature past legislation that would invest more than twenty
(37:03):
two billion dollars in water infrastructure in the state, and
that is a bit of a mixed bag as well.
The good news is that a lot of that money
will be used to repair leaking municipal water mains. You know,
in Houston in particular, has a big problem. You know,
enough water is lost from leaky pipes in Houston to
(37:27):
meet the annual water needs of the city of Fort Worth.
So a huge amount of water is being wasted. And
so a lot of this money will go to kind
of fix those leaks, which is great, as well as
to promote some other kind of water conservation measures. On
the other hand, you know, a lot of the money
will likely go to more questionable in you know, water
(37:49):
supply strategies, many of which can have you know, some
harm for the environment. Including you know, massive new reservoir projects,
you know, ocean desalination products, which can generally require huge
amounts of electricity to uh kind of treat and and
that you know, more electricity use means more carbon emissions basically.
(38:13):
And then with ocean de sal you also have this
concentrated brine that is you know, pretty toxic to marine
life that it's often kind of disposed of and you know,
sensitive estuaries. So that is I think problematic as well
as there's a new move to use oil and gas
waste water and try and treat it to the levels
(38:34):
that we could inject it into our rivers or aquifers,
but that that technology is still in its infancy and
very unclear that we can do that safely. So I
think that you know, again a lot of good in
that water infrastructure build, but also a lot a lot
of things that are potentially harmful to the environment as well.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That was Luke Metzker of Environment Texas. You can reach
the organization at Environment Texas put together dot org. The
Texas legislative session is over and a lot got done
and a lot didn't get done. To help us sort
out the good from the bad. We talked to Raoul Shrevanissen,
(39:20):
director of Government Performance and Fiscal Policy with Texas twenty
thirty six.
Speaker 10 (39:25):
You know, you go into every session and there's always
different different issues that generate consternation for both sides of
the aisle.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
But I mean, I.
Speaker 10 (39:36):
Think if there was a takeaway on this session in
terms of what got done and what was positive, I
mean the legislature did. It was clear that they prioritized
a lot of the fundamentals around infrastructure and trying to
strengthen our workforce, and that came through with the investments
(39:57):
they made in the state budget, specifically big big moves
around investing in water infrastructure and the one point seven
billion dollars in new dollars as well as the one
billion dollars and dedicated funding that'll be before voters this November.
And I think, you know, we're talking about workforce and education.
(40:19):
There's the money that was put towards HB two, the
eight point five billion dollars, and how as well as
you know, the money that'll go towards improving PSTC Texas
State Technical College and allowing them to have the capital
needs to expand their career technology program. Career in technical
education programming.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
On that same on that same end, teachers are still
these teachers union have stated that we're still behind on
pay because it took so long to try to even
get get teachers a raise.
Speaker 10 (40:56):
And I mean, I understand that. I know that the
budget in HB two, sorry excuse me for HB two,
that the plan is to include over four billion dollars
is at four pay raises. In terms of how that's allocated,
I know that there was a debate on how that
ends up and where that how that's allocated through the
(41:17):
various methods that they have, things like the teacher and
centem avelotment. But you know, I know that, uh you
know again this is these are these decisions that the
legislators made in terms of trying to decide how to
allocate those resources, you know, in terms of those specific
kind of pots of money and different priorities within that area.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
One of the biggest things that came out of this
legislator session was vouchers, the vouncer program, and that got passed.
That was one of the that was one of the
Governor's main one of its main sticking points this this
session was they get vouchers passed.
Speaker 10 (41:57):
That's right, that's right, and they were able to do that.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
But how is that going to affect? I mean a
lot of schools, especially public schools, are scared that that's
going to cut their budget as far as operating, especially
Houston Independent School District here in Houston. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 7 (42:16):
No.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
I think a lot of how that is going to
work out. I mean, the reality is this is this
is the first time and you know they're putting in
there's one billion dollars that's additionally going to be going
into this, and I mean I think a lot of
it will just depend on how what implementation looks like,
(42:40):
because like I said, it's it is a new program.
But I think I mean, I hate to say that,
but I mean, well it's kind of a we'll see
how this will go. I mean, you know, the bill
passed obviously, like the legislature was a different composition this
time that was more open to passing this priority. So,
(43:03):
like I said, I think we're gonna have to wait
and see how implementation of that, of of the Educational
Savings Account program will go.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
This is an extremely conservative legislative session we passed. Also,
we also passed some laws, bills are dealing with religion,
especially one that that Garners putting the Ten Commandments in schools,
which is gonna immediately get lawsuits file as soon as
(43:34):
they try to put that in schools, even though the
way it's practice is somebody has to donate the scriptures
or whatever to put in those schools. You know what,
other what other what other, the other controversial bills that
would pass along that line that or that people would
be upset about. Oh, also having prayer time.
Speaker 10 (43:56):
I mean a lot of I mean, a lot of
what we've focused on has been more towards kind of
improving systems at the state level. And so I mean
to the extent you know, there was a lot of
legislations that generated a lot of controversy. You mentioned some
of them. There were a lot of initiatives related to
DEI and other social and other types of programs that
(44:23):
are not programs but issues that had some more clearly partisan,
more clearly partisan breakdowns on how people generally support it.
I mean, truthfully, like I said, I think our focus
is more on like trying to on working, like I said,
(44:46):
a lot of government, how to improve government and the
systems that are there but I mean, to your point,
there was a lot of stuff that was controversial and
had very strong partisan, a very sharp partisan divides on
those given legislative issues. But I mean, I mean you
mentioned some of them, and I mean, you know, without
(45:12):
trying to be too glib, but it is a very
it is I think it's a reflection of the electoral
makeup of the or the makeup of the chambers and
the leadership in the state right now. And so I
think that's what you see with the types of legislation
that's moving forward.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
But immediately, like a lot of money is going to
go to childcare here in Texas. That's a good thing,
I believe.
Speaker 10 (45:43):
Oh for sure, for sure. Sorry, and I didn't mean
to cut you off there. You can finish your course there, No, No,
that was it.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
That was it. I mean, I'm just I'm saying that
a lot of money eight point five billion dollars is
going into the school for school churn, which is you know,
as a positive that came out of this session.
Speaker 10 (46:03):
Yeah, and there was another one hundred million dollars that
was added for increased access for subsidized childcare. But legislatures
trying to figure out how to solve the issues of
and have some more long term solutions to how to
deal with our childcare issues excuse me across the state.
(46:25):
And you know, we're some bills that were passed to
try to dive into that, including some to form this
quad agency initiative as well as others to improve the
data interoperability among the relevant you know, education and helping
human service, some workforce agencies that are all kind of
touching this ecosystem of childcare as well. So that's something
(46:48):
to look out for over the next few years because again,
I think there's a lot of interest in trying to
address that those problems as well.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
In higher education, a lot of schools, not you know,
with the exception of let's say University of Texas system
and and the Texas and M system, a lot of
schools were fighting for extra funding for their schools. How
did that go?
Speaker 10 (47:15):
I think the way? I mean with higher education funding,
I think, uh, it's it's hard to generalize in a
general sense. I mean, there was there's always been a
general pushback on a lot of what are deemed at
special uh special items, and so you know, higher education
institutions and those are the things that they'll go with
the regular formula and see structure that the legislature UH
(47:41):
works around in terms of funding higher educ for the
four year institutions and for for for four year institutions
as well as excuse me, like health related institutions as well.
But you know some of the notable things in higher education,
I mean, we the legislature last session passed a big
(48:02):
reform of value fund community colleges to a system that
would be based on outcomes that were more tied to
regional and state workforce needs. And that legislation that passed
with huge bipartisan agreement last time antacuse me, unanimously, And
(48:23):
so when you're looking this session, they followed up by
ensuring that system. They passed a bill to for the
refined the definitions and kind of tweaked the refinements to
those formulas, and they showed a commitment to that those
finance reforms by fully funding it with over two point
five billion dollars to fully fund that and the existing
(48:44):
outcomes that the community colleges have already shown in the
last two years since the bill became long. Also, the
legislature put in money were up to one point three
billion dollars more for university research in the Texas University Fund,
which was a pre by voters last session or last
(49:04):
in November twenty three, and this was to help many
of our up and coming research universities that aren't you know,
in the in the ut that can't access the prom
University Fund the way a UT or a M can.
But and so this Texas University Fund, they have put
(49:25):
in some contingency money for up to one point three
billion dollars and the two for the next two universities
that will be qualifying that are expected to qualify to
to be eligible for that research dollars. And so our
current understanding is that Texas State is going to be
one of those that will be newly eligible as well
as Texas A and im Corpus Christie. And these are
(49:48):
really big investments in in university research and trying to
you know, strengthen our university research ecosystem and in Texas.
So that's that's exciting. And like I said, I mean
that continued commitment to community college finance is also very
(50:11):
promising and trying to have a more a a higher
education system that's more responsive to what people need as
well as the labor markets. Both a regional and state
level need.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
When will that hurt that we're adding, we're to smaller
schools in general, will they will they see some of
that money also.
Speaker 10 (50:36):
In terms of community colleges or four years vote. Well,
so it's it's it's different sets of money. I mean
for community colleges, it's it's this is a formula system,
and so it's based on projections.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (50:48):
The old community college system was just with ninety five
percent based on enrollment, and so the incentive was just
to fill up the classrooms, I mean, to oversimplified a bit.
And then at four your institutions, the the formulas are
I mean, like the the money is more focused on
(51:09):
on on research and that's to bring again, uh, some
of the more advanced research and uh, some of the
best and brightest to our university campus is not just
at UT and A and M, but again to our
other up and coming uh you know peer one and
uh near near tier one institutions across the state. You know,
(51:29):
like University of Houston is part of our is one
of the main beneficiaries of this new Texas University Fund
and uh, I mean, and so it's been a big
deal to have them and having this additional money in
that university fund will actually you know, when the tech,
when Texas State, or when Texas A and M Corpus Christians,
you know, meets the the requisite levels, the milestones to
(51:53):
be eligible for that funding, it won't end up being
a deal where everybody there's more people fighting over that
same size pie. Having that additional money in the find
will ensure the pies bigger, ensure that we're just you know,
able to support more research at these institutions.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
That was Raoul Shrinavison, Director of Government Performance and Fiscal
Policy with Texas twenty thirty six. Texas twenty thirty six
is a nonprofit public policy organization committed to building long term,
data driven strategies to insert Texas's prosperity up to its
bi centennial and beyond. They can be reached at Texas
(52:33):
twenty thirty six dot org. Hi. This is Steve Gallington,
producer and host for The People's News. One of the
things that I got in preparation for going to the
No King's rally on June fourteenth was a presentation from
the ACLU, which I want to repeat the information from
(52:55):
for you. In light of the convicted felon opening up
Alligator Alcatraz, and the Republican House and Senate passing this big, ugly, expensive,
devastating bill. Among those things is one hundred and thirty
five billion dollars for increased secret police activity or ICE funding.
(53:17):
And so you have rights when dealing with the police
or ice no matter your immigration status. Number one, if
they do not have a warrant, an arrest warrant or
a search warrant, you do not have to open the
door for the police or ice. You do not have
(53:38):
to answer any questions about status or country of origin.
The right to remain silent is protected under the fifth
Amendment of the Constitution. You have the right to ask
to see a lawyer. You have the right to refuse
searches of your person and your car if the police
(53:58):
do not suspect a crime. This is the fourth Amendment
of the Constitution. Never sign anything without knowing what it says.
And you have a right to record what happens. And
if you're hearing this and you can speak and read Spanish,
the People's News would love for you to read the
(54:20):
script in Spanish, so we can accompany that with this
as well. So be safe out there, look out for
each other, and we will get through this together. Hi,
this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
If you have a story that needs to be told,
(54:41):
come to us. We accept fully produced audio, written material.
Or just give us the idea and we will run
with it. Shiny new one hour episodes of The People's
News drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast hosted
by Speaker dot com and linked to my webs site
Gallington dot com. There is a school of thought out
(55:04):
there that says to defeat corruption, criminality, and cruelty, we
also need to become corrupt, criminal, and cruel. To my
very core, I do not believe that to be the case,
so I look for inspiration from others. Let's take a
(55:25):
listen to what Martin Luther King said about fighting a
illegal and corrupt and criminal enemy. One of the things
I constantly returned to during dark times in my personal
and public life is a collection of sermons written by
Martin Luther King Junior, called Strength to Love, and specifically
(55:48):
a sermon on loving your enemies. I'm reading an excerpt
from that sermon. To our most bitter opponents, we say
We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our
capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force
with soul force. Do to us what you will, and
(56:09):
we shall continue to love you. We cannot, in all
good conscious obey your unjust laws, because non cooperation with
evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good.
Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you.
Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at
(56:30):
the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead,
and we shall still love you. But be ye assured
that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.
One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves.
We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that
(56:50):
we shall win you in the process, and our victory
will be a double victory. Love is the most durable
power in the world. The People's News is a production
of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah, and is protected by
copyright laws. All the information broadcast on air and online,
(57:11):
as well as published in both print and or online,
including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs, and videos, are
protected by these copyright and other state and federal intellectual
property laws. Therefore, you may not use our content in
any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
(57:32):
or posting on the Internet without the expressed written permission
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our material in printed or electronic grochures, newsletters, or flyers,
as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
(57:53):
at gallington dot com. Thank you,
It's the week of July sixth, twenty twenty five, and
this is what's on the People's News this week is
a special best of People's News Canada and TIFFs, the
convicted felon wants to have a war with Iran, summaries
of the Texas Legislative session, and a story of how
(00:25):
medicaid saves someone's life which will now be taken away.
And finally, in these dark days that we're in, I
have a set of guidelines for when you are confronted
by Trump's secret police or ice. You have rights and
you need to know your rights. All this and more
on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This is the
(00:48):
People's News, and the People's News starts now. This is
Steve Gallington, producer and host for the People's News. One
of the things that I got in preparation for going
to the No King's rally on June fourteenth was a
(01:11):
presentation from the ACLU, which I want to repeat the
information from for you. In light of the convicted felon
opening up Alligator Alcatraz and the Republican House and Senate
passing this big, ugly, expensive, devastating bill, among those things
is one hundred and thirty five billion dollars for increased
(01:35):
secret police activity or ICE funding. And so you have
rights when dealing with the police or ICE, no matter
or immigration status. Number one, if they do not have
a warrant, an arrest warrant or a search warrant, you
do not have to open the door for the police
(01:56):
or ICE. You do not have to answer any questions
about status or country of origin. The right to remain
silent is protected under the fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
You have the right to ask to see a lawyer.
You have the right to refuse searches of your person
(02:17):
and your car if the police do not suspect a crime.
This is the fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Never sign
anything without knowing what it says. And you have a
right to record what happens. And if you're hearing this
and you can speak and read Spanish, the People's News
(02:40):
would love for you to read the script in Spanish,
so we can accompany that with this as well. So
be safe out there, look out for each other, and
we will get through this together. When you put a criminal,
a convicted felon into the White House, you get criminality.
(03:01):
You get law breaking and convicted felon. Donald Trump continued
his illegal tariffs, which are making their way through the courts.
Until he's forced to remove those tariffs, He's going to
continue to break the law. And this week convicted felon
Donald Trump sign an order doubling tariffs on steel and
(03:23):
aluminum imports to fifty percent. Canadian and Mexican officials and
the European Union called foul, as this violates the earlier
agreements that they had with Trump. This will raise prices
on everything across the board. We talked again to Richard Messon,
(03:45):
executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public
Policy and former CEO of the Alberta Patroleum Marketing Commission.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I mean the effects have been huge. Our government foul.
We had an election and the party that was leading
for the previous year didn't win because of concerns around
Trump tariffs and how we would react. So it's been
huge from a political point of view, and then from
(04:16):
an economic point of view. We released statistics today that
showed I think it was in March, our exports to
the US dropped seventeen percent and our imports from the
US dropped eleven percent, and so it's having a big
economic impact for Canadian businesses and consumers and US businesses
(04:36):
and consumers as well.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Currently an electric prime minister. It seems like people went
for what he was. He's trying to stand up to
the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Is that Yeah, I think both parties were doing that.
It's just a question about who probably had the best
ability to do that. And of course the Liberal government
had been in power for ten years and a lot
of people knew the cabinet ministers who elected and things
like that. I think they went for the safer choice
(05:11):
as opposed to the changing out the parties completely. And
so yeah, it's a big deal. I think Canada is
trying to figure out how to deal with this because
a lot of it still doesn't make any sense to us.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
One thing is one thing that will fall out of
the elations with DP. I thought INDP, a lot of
people include myself thought in DP would maybe make a
dip in the selection as past election.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, and they didn't do very well because everybody decided
to either go with the Liberals, you know, and try
and give them as strong amandate as possible, or the
Conservatives and the NDP kind of got wiped out. So yeah,
quite a big change from what we expected, you know,
at the end of last year.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Where did we go from here? I don't think Americans
really understand the fix that Canada can have on their
buying power here in the States.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, the one of this week. I mean there's a
new one every day, it seems. But the moving the
steel and aluminum tariffs to fifty percent is just wild
because you don't have the ability to produce aluminum. You
don't have the box site in the US, and so
you get sixty percent of the aluminum that you use
(06:36):
from Canada. You can't get it anywhere else, and so
all you're doing is adding a cost to American consumers
and hurting jobs all the way along the line. I
don't none of us understand what the endgame is here.
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
What the long the longer the longer this goes, the
you know what, as long as this goes, how hard
will it hit Canadians.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's hitting us hard, you know. Like I said, the
exports have dropped a lot in the first month where
it really got clear that the tariffs were being implemented.
Investment isn't happening. There's a lot of uncertainty. There's you know,
been layoffs and lots of different companies. The steel and
the aluminum thing, if that carries through, is going to
(07:29):
be even worse. And so yeah, and plus you know,
now most Canadians don't trust the US anymore. Right, we
are trying to figure out how we're going to change
our relationship with the US and how we're going to
build relationships with the rest of the world because we
don't trust you as a reliable partner, because you make
(07:50):
decisions that don't make any sense and there's no ability
for us to negotiate with you to get to a
good answer because you keep changing what you want.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And unions here have been saying that this is going
to be great for unions and their jobs to come
back to back to the United States, which adults, I
really don't see that happening personally, but the unions here
seem to, at least some of them seem to be
supporting these tear if they're being put in place.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, there seemed to be some like in the auto sector.
But when I listen to the people from Canada in
the auto sector, they say that the integration we have
is the most efficient way, and it creates the most jobs,
which allows us to compete against the world better than
if we're separate. And it's you know, not possible for
(08:45):
US plants to ramp up production and Canadian plants to
close quickly. Right All that takes time. You have to
spend billions of dollars to build new assembly lines. You
have to, you know. So what's happening right now is disruption.
And the more this carries on, the more layoffs are happening.
(09:06):
And there's already been a bunch and of course auto
sales are going down because auto prices are going up.
And that's kind of the only unions that seem to
be supporting this that we hear about. If you think
about the steel and aluminum folks, there's no ability to
ramp up production in the US. There's you know, Canada
(09:26):
has been a reliable supplier for a very long time,
and it's not like you have a bunch of idle
capacity sitting there waiting to be turned on. You just don't.
And so if the fact that the tariffs are going
to fifty percent on your biggest supplier has to mean
that prices are going up for all the rest of
the value chain and for consumers in the US.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Well, how will Carney answers this if he went to
Washington and it seemed where we left it seemed like
he had it gained some type of guidance on made
some type of network and with Trump. But I guess
we're squere one again.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
What are howzy?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
What's what's the alternatives now? What you know? Because I've
heard that Canadian business now looking to other sources or
the places to sell.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah. Absolutely, We're we're trying to reduce internal barriers in
our country to you know, improve trade amongst our provinces,
and we're working to improve trade with Europe and Asia
and other markets. And Canada has many free trade agreements
already with those places, and all of them want to
improve trade with US as well because of the tariffs
(10:46):
that the US has put on them. So you know,
I think over time, a lot of trade will you know,
move away from the US and move to other parts
of the world. But you know that doesn't happen quickly
because you've got to chain and all your supply chains,
and it's you got to make sure your ports can
handle it, and and all those things it's it's totally different,
(11:07):
and so it's going to take time for that to happen.
In the meantime, there's a lot of disruption.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
What happens with what happens with so called the pipeline
they were coming from coming from the oil it was
coming from Canada to the US. What happens with all
these all these treaties that had been worked on for years, Well, so.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Far there's been no impacts on oil or gas, which
is a demonstration of how reliant you are on us before.
You know, back in January that the differential between our
heavy oil and West Texas was around fourteen dollars a barrel.
When Trump's starting to threaten the tariffs, that differential widened
(11:52):
a bit. But because you guys are so short heavy
oil right now, the differential has been as low as
eight dollars a barrel in the line few days. And
that proves that you need our oil and you're willing
to pay for it, pay up for it because you
don't have alternatives. And so this is the again the
goofy part about it. It's not like the US produces
(12:14):
heavy oil. You don't. You get it from Venezuela. You
get it from Columbia, you get it from Canada and Mexico,
and if if you're not going to allow it to
flow freely, then you're going to be short. And so
because the refiners are desperate to get that oil, they're
paying a higher price now than they did before it
all started. The other thing is travel from Canada to
(12:37):
the US is way down. I mean people are not
going there. Even people who own homes are not going there.
It's going to hurt your tours in sector a lot,
because we're your biggest tourists, and you know it's Canadians
are are angry and this isn't gonna you know, there's
no even if you wanted to. The relationship is damaged
(12:59):
and won't be fixed quickly. But there's no sign of
wanting to fix it because you imposed higher cares and
stealing ALUMO a couple days ago for no reason. So
there's a lot of Canadians who are pretty pissed.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That was Richard Massan, executive fellow at the University of
Calgary School of Public Policy and former CEO of the
Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission. The United States has bombed three
of Iran's nuclear installations and four other installations at the
direction of the corrupt and criminal convicted felon Donald Trump.
(13:35):
The Council on American Islamic Relations CARE, the nation's largest
Muslims civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned Trump's attack
on Iran as an illegal and unjustified active war that
prioritizes the wishes of Benjamin Netanyahu over the American people
and threatens to drag our nation into a wider war
(13:57):
in the region. We talked with Kareem Zagna with the
Iranian American Community of Texas.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Yes, sir, well you started. First of all, thank you
for having me Richard. Obviously, no regime change can be
done from the sky, you know, it has to come
from the street of Iran and Tehran. People have to
change the regime. No one can change the regime. Unfortunately,
this war started while the n cri I, the resistance
(14:32):
group that an m K that they they've been they've
been against the regime since actually today, forty six years ago,
when the first time them K and the people of
Iran in the street, they have a peaceful demonstration against
(14:52):
the regime. After the Romeni came in power and tried
to hijack the great relie that the Iranian people has
for against the previous dictatorship monarchy. So they had a
peaceful demonstration against them and a new government of the
mono laws that they were just trying to hijack all
(15:15):
the freedom and democracy that the people fight for. And
then the regime started killing them. They killed one hundred
and twenty over the three years, they killed about one
hundred thousand people, and then on nineteen eighty eight they
killed about thirty thousand political prisoner. So that's what happened.
(15:38):
And now now the war started, which is as the
head of the head of the NCRI and said this.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
We know the United States history of envolvement in Iran.
We know they were part of the coup that brought
in the show in the past. So how so how
how are you supporting any type of regime change right now?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, the regime change has to come with the with
within bay Irain and people. We don't need the intervention
of any foreign foreign government, uh, because the people of
Iran are the boots on the ground. They can change
it if they don't intervene.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
The thing is the like ahead of the n c R,
the group that we're supporting, our community supporting We are
in foury estates in the United States. We are supporting
them because they are capable of doing the regime change
in Iran, because they are in is a resistance unit
that all over the Iran So, like I said, the coup,
(16:50):
the coup they did it was, it was the wrong
against the democratic government of doctor Musadek. However, those time change,
that's not gonna happen. They're not going to be able
to install anything against the bill of Iranian people. For example,
the son of the previous dictator that it was overthrown
(17:11):
by the people. Saw that guy is just every time
the Iranian people have uprising, he jumped in trying to
trying to do what Romani did when hijack the hijack
the Iranian people revolution in nineteen seventy nine. So he
thinks that's the time that he's gonna hijack it. That's
not gonna happen. So Iranian people are ready to overthrow
(17:34):
the regime. Like Miss Mariam Gradually, the head of the
NCR said many many times, no war, no appeasement. The
third option is changed. Supporting Iranian people, United States and
Western governments Western country should support the Iranian people and
(17:55):
the resistance units to overthrow the regime in I need
no weapon, no boots on the ground needed to change
the regime.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
How do you know you can come in and you
are you you're firmly back on roan. How are they
feeling and all the people that you know there, what
their thoughts are right now?
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Well, the people in the people iron they they are
hoping that you know that they're going over through the regime.
They are against the regime. Not now it being it
being the demonstration at uprising. It's been going on for years,
like I said today, forty forty four years ago when
they had a huge demonstration against for many and this
(18:39):
this government for for for hijacking the revolution and then
they kill them. But now they are against against them.
They have uprising all over the country. And now they
don't have the like I told you the last time,
they don't have water, they don't have exicity, they don't
have the bread on the on the table. And on
(19:00):
top of that this this war started, which they they
don't need this war, this war, it was not necessary
when when the change within is very possible. Another word,
the this head of the snake, which is the Iranian regime.
(19:21):
Since the war is start by by kase And and
the Israel and a lot of innocent people died. That
was not necessary. And this said it was the head
of the snake was in Tehran. That's the one that
the war has to be, has to focus on. And
as you see now forty years of appeacement brought us
(19:44):
to this war, which was not necessary. If they if
the Western country was paying attention to suggestion of the
n cr I and Miss Madame Roger Vives had a
ten point planned, the war was not necessary to to
focus on the main main problem, which is this regime,
that is the suppressing the ring and people and meddling
(20:05):
in the region and all these proxies. They're spending all
the money to on the proxies and on the atomic project,
which has become a major problem. By the way, all
this project, all this atomic project was it was revealed
since two thousand and three by n c r I,
by Amy King. The majority didn't have they're the one
(20:29):
who revealed it. And in the same time they believed
the ideology of the regime is one hundred times more
dangerous than even nuclear bomb just because that's that's how
they may they may use it.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
They may they may use those bombs. So you're saying
so you're saying you believe that they have that Aloe
right now has the ability to make a nuclear nuclear bomb.
Which we heard the same rhetoric when Vinyl States stated
that a lot had to pass even make.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
We what I'm what. I'm saying that the regime trying
to make the atomic bomb, and it's very dangerous regime
and the only way to solve this problem is regime
change in Iran by the people of Iran. Regime cannot
(21:23):
be changed from sky. Regime has to be changed with
the boots on the ground, which are the Iranian people
at the resistance units. They are all over Iran. The
United States should support this as an alternative to overthrow
the regime because this regime only has to be changed
(21:45):
from within, and the United States should should support the
Iranian people and the rights to confront the IRGC as
a tourist organization. They are and change and they'd be
able to change the regime in A.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Press conference is to be held at the Pentagon on
Sunday the twenty third to give the reasoning behind the
assault outside of Israel. The world intelligence community has stated
that there has been no proof that Iran was a
threat the corrupt and criminal Republican Trump administration in order
(22:26):
to distract the American people away from the lawlessness of
Donald Trump and him taking bribes from anyone and everyone
he can and to pay for the billionaire tax cuts
that the Republicans are proposing. There are massive Medicaid cuts
(22:46):
before the US Senate that will strip healthcare and independence
from thousands of disabled Texans. One accomplished, longtime advocate is
telling her Medicaid story to Texas senators and urging others
to join her. John Mueller reports.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Nancy Kroter of Boston is one of seventy million covered
by Medicaid, but Croter is also someone who has told
her story for decades to score wins for the Texas
disability community and the attendants who care for them. This week,
as the US House passed the biggest budget cuts to
Medicaid in history and it now moves to the Senate,
crod is again using her voice to tell senators what
(23:27):
Medicaid does for her and urging others to join her.
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I've worked hard.
Speaker 7 (23:33):
I'm to the point where I own my own house,
I have services, and to lose.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
That would be to lose my livelihood and to be
desperately placed in an assisted living or something.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Kroder is sixty seven and has a progressive muscular disease
called spinal muscular atrophy. She's lived years beyond anyone's expectations,
she says, and owes it all up to her Medicaid
attendant care, which will be imperiled if the cuts become law.
Speaker 7 (24:09):
Involves so many programs.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
For young, for old, for.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
Different types of disabilities, and it's just a multi use tool,
and if you start losing pieces of that tool.
Speaker 7 (24:28):
That's part of your independence that you're losing. And I
don't think it's felt as if that's a.
Speaker 8 (24:36):
Big deal by anybody in.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
The upper echelon that thinks, well, you know, you're okay.
You're in a wheelchair, and nedkid does a lot more
different things than just a wheelchair, and our long akers
don't even understand that. The sad part of this is
that we all already have a wounded community because a
(25:07):
lot of medical facilities, adopts and providers are going out
of business.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Don't want anything to do.
Speaker 7 (25:16):
With make cake because they're not getting decent reimbursement rates
from the Medicaid mountain, and for me personally, it would
mean you know, devastation, of course, but the lowest thing
(25:38):
on the totem po would have to be an institution
to go into and that would just be the death.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Nail Kroter found the power of speaking up in the
nineteen eighties. It was years before the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She got involved in the movement to make public transit
in Austin, Texas accessible not only for people with disabilities,
but also seniors and families with strollers for instance. It
was a victory and she found out the power of
(26:07):
her own voice. She's been awarded for her work ever
since and has continued speaking up across the state, sometimes
telling her story to policymakers or often being the only
disability perspective present at a meeting or serving on an
advisory board. Crowder was part of the push that got
the last legislature to boost community attendant pay for the
(26:28):
disabled and seniors in twenty twenty three. Last week, members
of Crowder's group Adaptive Texas were among three hundred wheelchairs
and their supporters in the US Capitol twenty seven of
them were arrested for bringing a House committee to a
halt demanding they not touch medicaid. This week, Crowder encouraged
(26:49):
listeners to call their Texas senators to tell their own
stories and their families and friends stories on how important
medicaid is to them.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
It really fills you up with the sense of boldness
and strength and compassion because you've done what was right.
And you know, when people complain about things, I'm just
(27:19):
I look at him like, and what have you done?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Done it?
Speaker 7 (27:24):
Not to be mean, but I've got to put it
back in their hands.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
To reach Texas senators' offices, called the US Capitol Switchboard
at two zero two two two four three one two
one for the People's News. This is John Muller.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Reporting in twenty seventeen, constituent calls flipped one Senator John McCain,
who voted against party lines saving the Affordable Care Act.
So what can we do in the face of all
this awlessness and corruption? Call the Capital switchboard at two
two two two four three one two one and demand
(28:09):
that your representatives save medicaid.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
The People's News is people powered news. We are free
to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised
as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes of The
(28:34):
People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast.
Thanks for listening, Hi. This is Steve Gallington, producer and
host for the People's News. One of the things that
I got in preparation for going to the No King's
rally on June fourteenth was a presentation from the ACLU
(28:56):
which I want to repeat the information from four you
in light of the convicted felon opening up Alligator Alcatraz
and the Republican House and Senate passing this big, ugly, expensive,
devastating bill. Among those things is one hundred and thirty
five billion dollars for increased secret police activity or ICE funding.
(29:21):
And so you have rights when dealing with the police
or ICE, no matter your immigration status. Number one, if
they do not have a warrant, an arrest warrant or
a search warrant, you do not have to open the
door for the police or ICE. You do not have
(29:42):
to answer any questions about status or country of origin.
The right to remain silent is protected under the fifth
Amendment of the Constitution. You have the right to ask
to see a lawyer. You have the right to refuse
searches of your person and your car if the police
(30:02):
do not suspect a crime. This is the fourth Amendment
of the Constitution. Never sign anything without knowing what it says.
And you have a right to record what happens. And
if you're hearing this and you can speak and read Spanish,
the People's News would love for you to read the
(30:24):
script in Spanish, so we can accompany that with this
as well. So be safe out there, look out for
each other, and we will get through this together. As
the Texas Legislature wrapped up its eighty ninth session, there
was a mix of environmental progress and missed opportunities. In
(30:46):
a state where fossil fuel interests holds significant sway, Environment
Texas is celebrating a string of victories in stopping major
threats to clean energy and local environmental protections while helping
to advance a number of positive bills. We talked to
Luke Metzger, Executive Director of Environment Texas.
Speaker 9 (31:06):
Yeah, fortunately there are a lot of positives, you know,
I think most noteworthy is what the legislature didn't do.
There were a number of bills that passed the Texas
Senate that would have gutted wind and solar energy in
the state by assessing onerous new fees and instituting discriminatory
(31:28):
permitting requirements and even outright bands of some technologies. And thankfully,
you know, while they passed the Senate, they ended up
dying in the state House. And that's great news because,
of course Texas, you know, our rulable energy industry is booming.
We are generating more and more clean wind and solar
(31:52):
power and battery storage every day, and that is critical
for our climate and for our environment. By offsetting emissions
from you know, polluting fossil fuel power plants, and so
by the legislator not throwing a wrench in the works,
you know, that boom can continue, and that is a
(32:14):
you know, a really bright spot you know, for Texas's
environment and climate action. So really good news that they
didn't gut and you know, grind renewable energy development to
a halt. They also took some positive steps forward for
clean energy, including making it easier to install solar panels
(32:36):
on your own home by streamlining the permitting process, as
well as adopting some good measures to increase the environmental
responsibility of wind, solar, and batteries at the end of
their lives. So, for example, a new bill was passed
(32:57):
to make sure that when batteries in their useful life
that they're decommissioned properly and removed from the land and
dealt with properly, and so that was good news, as
well as new recycling requirements for wind and solar panels
at the end of their lives, and so all in all,
(33:19):
you know, I think from a clean energy perspective, we
took steps forward. The other thing I would mention that's
more of a mixed bag on the energy front is
the Texas Energy Fund. That was something that was created
two years ago, and the idea was to create a
ten billion dollar fund to invest in energy, mostly giving
(33:40):
you know, grants and loans to build new gas power plants.
And of course, you know, we think that was you know,
the wrong direction. We don't want at a time that
we're facing a climate crisis, we don't want to be
you know, adding more fuel to the fire by you know,
subsidizing you know, more methane gas power plants. However, there's
a right spot in that program in that about eighteen
(34:04):
percent of the money is supposed to go to provide
funds for backup power at critical infrastructure, So that's like
nursing homes, wastewater treatment plants, things like that, will get
funding to install solar batteries as well as kind of
you know, gas generators. But that could mean you know
(34:24):
several you know, thousands of megawatts of additional kind of
clean energy behind the meter that will help make sure
that you know, those you know, critical infrastructure are able
to keep the lights on, keep the power on when
there are outages, as well as be producing power you know,
throughout the year onto the grid. So that that was
(34:45):
definitely a bright spot as well in terms of energy.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well.
Speaker 9 (34:48):
Yeah, so the other things I would point out is,
uh Texas became the first red state, you know, pending
the governor's approval of legislation to give people the right
to repair their consumer electronics. And I think, you know,
many of us have had the experience where a product,
you know, a cell phone or other things needs repair,
(35:12):
but we're only only able to take it to the
authorized dealer to get the repair, and that means that
often the price of repair is very expensive, or you
get pressured to instead of repairing it, just buy a
brand new phone, even though your you know, old phone
is perfectly fine with with just a small repair. And
(35:32):
you know, the problem is that a lot of manufacturers
make it very difficult for you to fix your products,
and they much rather sell you something new, and so
they would hold the tools or the software. They prevent
third party dealers from you know, fixing your things, and
so that as a result, that means we end up
throwing away, you know, huge amounts of electronic waste or
(35:57):
electronic products every every day in the United States, something like,
you know, six hundred thousand cell phones get thrown away
every day in the US. And those are you know,
good products that we could be refurbishing and reusing, but
instead a lot of those parts, which you know, includes
the toxic components, get thrown into our our landfills where
(36:20):
they could in pollute the environment. And so a bill
by representatives GEO could pree we own would make sure
that Texans actually have the right to repair their own
of their own electronic products. And you know, again Texas
would be the first, uh, you know, Republican led state
in America to do that. There's about six or seven
(36:43):
other states around the country that have done at first,
but that would really be good news for helping reduce
electronic waste. And then I think the other thing I
would highlight is action of water. Of course, you know,
the legislature past legislation that would invest more than twenty
(37:03):
two billion dollars in water infrastructure in the state, and
that is a bit of a mixed bag as well.
The good news is that a lot of that money
will be used to repair leaking municipal water mains. You know,
in Houston in particular, has a big problem. You know,
enough water is lost from leaky pipes in Houston to
(37:27):
meet the annual water needs of the city of Fort Worth.
So a huge amount of water is being wasted. And
so a lot of this money will go to kind
of fix those leaks, which is great, as well as
to promote some other kind of water conservation measures. On
the other hand, you know, a lot of the money
will likely go to more questionable in you know, water
(37:49):
supply strategies, many of which can have you know, some
harm for the environment. Including you know, massive new reservoir projects,
you know, ocean desalination products, which can generally require huge
amounts of electricity to uh kind of treat and and
that you know, more electricity use means more carbon emissions basically.
(38:13):
And then with ocean de sal you also have this
concentrated brine that is you know, pretty toxic to marine
life that it's often kind of disposed of and you know,
sensitive estuaries. So that is I think problematic as well
as there's a new move to use oil and gas
waste water and try and treat it to the levels
(38:34):
that we could inject it into our rivers or aquifers,
but that that technology is still in its infancy and
very unclear that we can do that safely. So I
think that you know, again a lot of good in
that water infrastructure build, but also a lot a lot
of things that are potentially harmful to the environment as well.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That was Luke Metzker of Environment Texas. You can reach
the organization at Environment Texas put together dot org. The
Texas legislative session is over and a lot got done
and a lot didn't get done. To help us sort
out the good from the bad. We talked to Raoul Shrevanissen,
(39:20):
director of Government Performance and Fiscal Policy with Texas twenty
thirty six.
Speaker 10 (39:25):
You know, you go into every session and there's always
different different issues that generate consternation for both sides of
the aisle.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
But I mean, I.
Speaker 10 (39:36):
Think if there was a takeaway on this session in
terms of what got done and what was positive, I
mean the legislature did. It was clear that they prioritized
a lot of the fundamentals around infrastructure and trying to
strengthen our workforce, and that came through with the investments
(39:57):
they made in the state budget, specifically big big moves
around investing in water infrastructure and the one point seven
billion dollars in new dollars as well as the one
billion dollars and dedicated funding that'll be before voters this November.
And I think, you know, we're talking about workforce and education.
(40:19):
There's the money that was put towards HB two, the
eight point five billion dollars, and how as well as
you know, the money that'll go towards improving PSTC Texas
State Technical College and allowing them to have the capital
needs to expand their career technology program. Career in technical
education programming.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
On that same on that same end, teachers are still
these teachers union have stated that we're still behind on
pay because it took so long to try to even
get get teachers a raise.
Speaker 10 (40:56):
And I mean, I understand that. I know that the
budget in HB two, sorry excuse me for HB two,
that the plan is to include over four billion dollars
is at four pay raises. In terms of how that's allocated,
I know that there was a debate on how that
ends up and where that how that's allocated through the
(41:17):
various methods that they have, things like the teacher and
centem avelotment. But you know, I know that, uh you
know again this is these are these decisions that the
legislators made in terms of trying to decide how to
allocate those resources, you know, in terms of those specific
kind of pots of money and different priorities within that area.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
One of the biggest things that came out of this
legislator session was vouchers, the vouncer program, and that got passed.
That was one of the that was one of the
Governor's main one of its main sticking points this this
session was they get vouchers passed.
Speaker 10 (41:57):
That's right, that's right, and they were able to do that.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
But how is that going to affect? I mean a
lot of schools, especially public schools, are scared that that's
going to cut their budget as far as operating, especially
Houston Independent School District here in Houston. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 7 (42:16):
No.
Speaker 10 (42:16):
I think a lot of how that is going to
work out. I mean, the reality is this is this
is the first time and you know they're putting in
there's one billion dollars that's additionally going to be going
into this, and I mean I think a lot of
it will just depend on how what implementation looks like,
(42:40):
because like I said, it's it is a new program.
But I think I mean, I hate to say that,
but I mean, well it's kind of a we'll see
how this will go. I mean, you know, the bill
passed obviously, like the legislature was a different composition this
time that was more open to passing this priority. So,
(43:03):
like I said, I think we're gonna have to wait
and see how implementation of that, of of the Educational
Savings Account program will go.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
This is an extremely conservative legislative session we passed. Also,
we also passed some laws, bills are dealing with religion,
especially one that that Garners putting the Ten Commandments in schools,
which is gonna immediately get lawsuits file as soon as
(43:34):
they try to put that in schools, even though the
way it's practice is somebody has to donate the scriptures
or whatever to put in those schools. You know what,
other what other what other, the other controversial bills that
would pass along that line that or that people would
be upset about. Oh, also having prayer time.
Speaker 10 (43:56):
I mean a lot of I mean, a lot of
what we've focused on has been more towards kind of
improving systems at the state level. And so I mean
to the extent you know, there was a lot of
legislations that generated a lot of controversy. You mentioned some
of them. There were a lot of initiatives related to
DEI and other social and other types of programs that
(44:23):
are not programs but issues that had some more clearly partisan,
more clearly partisan breakdowns on how people generally support it.
I mean, truthfully, like I said, I think our focus
is more on like trying to on working, like I said,
(44:46):
a lot of government, how to improve government and the
systems that are there but I mean, to your point,
there was a lot of stuff that was controversial and
had very strong partisan, a very sharp partisan divides on
those given legislative issues. But I mean, I mean you
mentioned some of them, and I mean, you know, without
(45:12):
trying to be too glib, but it is a very
it is I think it's a reflection of the electoral
makeup of the or the makeup of the chambers and
the leadership in the state right now. And so I
think that's what you see with the types of legislation
that's moving forward.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
But immediately, like a lot of money is going to
go to childcare here in Texas. That's a good thing,
I believe.
Speaker 10 (45:43):
Oh for sure, for sure. Sorry, and I didn't mean
to cut you off there. You can finish your course there, No, No,
that was it.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
That was it. I mean, I'm just I'm saying that
a lot of money eight point five billion dollars is
going into the school for school churn, which is you know,
as a positive that came out of this session.
Speaker 10 (46:03):
Yeah, and there was another one hundred million dollars that
was added for increased access for subsidized childcare. But legislatures
trying to figure out how to solve the issues of
and have some more long term solutions to how to
deal with our childcare issues excuse me across the state.
(46:25):
And you know, we're some bills that were passed to
try to dive into that, including some to form this
quad agency initiative as well as others to improve the
data interoperability among the relevant you know, education and helping
human service, some workforce agencies that are all kind of
touching this ecosystem of childcare as well. So that's something
(46:48):
to look out for over the next few years because again,
I think there's a lot of interest in trying to
address that those problems as well.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
In higher education, a lot of schools, not you know,
with the exception of let's say University of Texas system
and and the Texas and M system, a lot of
schools were fighting for extra funding for their schools. How
did that go?
Speaker 10 (47:15):
I think the way? I mean with higher education funding,
I think, uh, it's it's hard to generalize in a
general sense. I mean, there was there's always been a
general pushback on a lot of what are deemed at
special uh special items, and so you know, higher education
institutions and those are the things that they'll go with
the regular formula and see structure that the legislature UH
(47:41):
works around in terms of funding higher educ for the
four year institutions and for for for four year institutions
as well as excuse me, like health related institutions as well.
But you know some of the notable things in higher education,
I mean, we the legislature last session passed a big
(48:02):
reform of value fund community colleges to a system that
would be based on outcomes that were more tied to
regional and state workforce needs. And that legislation that passed
with huge bipartisan agreement last time antacuse me, unanimously, And
(48:23):
so when you're looking this session, they followed up by
ensuring that system. They passed a bill to for the
refined the definitions and kind of tweaked the refinements to
those formulas, and they showed a commitment to that those
finance reforms by fully funding it with over two point
five billion dollars to fully fund that and the existing
(48:44):
outcomes that the community colleges have already shown in the
last two years since the bill became long. Also, the
legislature put in money were up to one point three
billion dollars more for university research in the Texas University Fund,
which was a pre by voters last session or last
(49:04):
in November twenty three, and this was to help many
of our up and coming research universities that aren't you know,
in the in the ut that can't access the prom
University Fund the way a UT or a M can.
But and so this Texas University Fund, they have put
(49:25):
in some contingency money for up to one point three
billion dollars and the two for the next two universities
that will be qualifying that are expected to qualify to
to be eligible for that research dollars. And so our
current understanding is that Texas State is going to be
one of those that will be newly eligible as well
as Texas A and im Corpus Christie. And these are
(49:48):
really big investments in in university research and trying to
you know, strengthen our university research ecosystem and in Texas.
So that's that's exciting. And like I said, I mean
that continued commitment to community college finance is also very
(50:11):
promising and trying to have a more a a higher
education system that's more responsive to what people need as
well as the labor markets. Both a regional and state
level need.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
When will that hurt that we're adding, we're to smaller
schools in general, will they will they see some of
that money also.
Speaker 10 (50:36):
In terms of community colleges or four years vote. Well,
so it's it's it's different sets of money. I mean
for community colleges, it's it's this is a formula system,
and so it's based on projections.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Uh.
Speaker 10 (50:48):
The old community college system was just with ninety five
percent based on enrollment, and so the incentive was just
to fill up the classrooms, I mean, to oversimplified a bit.
And then at four your institutions, the the formulas are
I mean, like the the money is more focused on
(51:09):
on on research and that's to bring again, uh, some
of the more advanced research and uh, some of the
best and brightest to our university campus is not just
at UT and A and M, but again to our
other up and coming uh you know peer one and
uh near near tier one institutions across the state. You know,
(51:29):
like University of Houston is part of our is one
of the main beneficiaries of this new Texas University Fund
and uh, I mean, and so it's been a big
deal to have them and having this additional money in
that university fund will actually you know, when the tech,
when Texas State, or when Texas A and M Corpus Christians,
you know, meets the the requisite levels, the milestones to
(51:53):
be eligible for that funding, it won't end up being
a deal where everybody there's more people fighting over that
same size pie. Having that additional money in the find
will ensure the pies bigger, ensure that we're just you know,
able to support more research at these institutions.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
That was Raoul Shrinavison, Director of Government Performance and Fiscal
Policy with Texas twenty thirty six. Texas twenty thirty six
is a nonprofit public policy organization committed to building long term,
data driven strategies to insert Texas's prosperity up to its
bi centennial and beyond. They can be reached at Texas
(52:33):
twenty thirty six dot org. Hi. This is Steve Gallington,
producer and host for The People's News. One of the
things that I got in preparation for going to the
No King's rally on June fourteenth was a presentation from
the ACLU, which I want to repeat the information from
(52:55):
for you. In light of the convicted felon opening up
Alligator Alcatraz, and the Republican House and Senate passing this big, ugly, expensive,
devastating bill. Among those things is one hundred and thirty
five billion dollars for increased secret police activity or ICE funding.
(53:17):
And so you have rights when dealing with the police
or ice no matter your immigration status. Number one, if
they do not have a warrant, an arrest warrant or
a search warrant, you do not have to open the
door for the police or ice. You do not have
(53:38):
to answer any questions about status or country of origin.
The right to remain silent is protected under the fifth
Amendment of the Constitution. You have the right to ask
to see a lawyer. You have the right to refuse
searches of your person and your car if the police
(53:58):
do not suspect a crime. This is the fourth Amendment
of the Constitution. Never sign anything without knowing what it says.
And you have a right to record what happens. And
if you're hearing this and you can speak and read Spanish,
the People's News would love for you to read the
(54:20):
script in Spanish, so we can accompany that with this
as well. So be safe out there, look out for
each other, and we will get through this together. Hi,
this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
If you have a story that needs to be told,
(54:41):
come to us. We accept fully produced audio, written material.
Or just give us the idea and we will run
with it. Shiny new one hour episodes of The People's
News drop each Sunday on The People's News podcast hosted
by Speaker dot com and linked to my webs site
Gallington dot com. There is a school of thought out
(55:04):
there that says to defeat corruption, criminality, and cruelty, we
also need to become corrupt, criminal, and cruel. To my
very core, I do not believe that to be the case,
so I look for inspiration from others. Let's take a
(55:25):
listen to what Martin Luther King said about fighting a
illegal and corrupt and criminal enemy. One of the things
I constantly returned to during dark times in my personal
and public life is a collection of sermons written by
Martin Luther King Junior, called Strength to Love, and specifically
(55:48):
a sermon on loving your enemies. I'm reading an excerpt
from that sermon. To our most bitter opponents, we say
We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our
capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force
with soul force. Do to us what you will, and
(56:09):
we shall continue to love you. We cannot, in all
good conscious obey your unjust laws, because non cooperation with
evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good.
Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you.
Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at
(56:30):
the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead,
and we shall still love you. But be ye assured
that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.
One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves.
We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that
(56:50):
we shall win you in the process, and our victory
will be a double victory. Love is the most durable
power in the world. The People's News is a production
of Steve Gallington and Richard Hannah, and is protected by
copyright laws. All the information broadcast on air and online,
(57:11):
as well as published in both print and or online,
including articles, audio clips, illustrations, graphics, photographs, and videos, are
protected by these copyright and other state and federal intellectual
property laws. Therefore, you may not use our content in
any prohibited way, including reproducing, publishing, transmitting, selling, rewriting, broadcasting,
(57:32):
or posting on the Internet without the expressed written permission
of the People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
our material in printed or electronic grochures, newsletters, or flyers,
as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
permission to use copyrighted material, email Steve Gallington at Steve
(57:53):
at gallington dot com. Thank you,
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