Author: theMFP
By That I Mean – Episode 33: More Participation Is The Answer
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The supersized 33rd BY THAT I MEAN podcast is action-packed with news that the news didn’t give you. Ikoi Hiroe and Seth Pierson discuss inspiring citizens and politicians in Texas fighting a Republican crusade to legislatively ban abortion, a defense contractor leaking details of the secret government and warped priorities of America’s post-9/11 “security” state, and how to navigate the perfect storm of broken systems that currently stand in the way of progress. Finally, we update you on what’s going on in Egypt – where a democratic revolution ended a dictatorship, elections resulted in an oppressive religious theocracy, and the theocracy was deposed by a military coup.
If you learned something from this show, tweet Seth @mfpseth and listen to more BY THAT I MEAN by subscribing to our podcast on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mildly-frumpy-protagonist/id439572026?mt=2
If you like this show, rate us and write an iTunes review – and like us at facebook.com/bythatimean
BY THAT I MEAN is a production of the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, CA.
By That I Mean – Episode 32: I Can Have My Helicopter Pick Up My Boat!
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The BY THAT I MEAN podcast now has a 32nd flavor and a new host, the excellent Ikoi Hiroe! America operates with broken 20th century systems in the 21st century, and if we don’t vote we’ll have our ability to control our government taken away from us. We have so much to unpack, and so much to unlearn. The Supreme Court nullified a large part of the Voting Rights Act the day before it killed DOMA, and it may try to destroy affirmative action next.
If you listen to this show, you can tweet Seth @mfpseth and you can hear more BY THAT I MEAN by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes! If you like this show, rate us and write an iTunes review – and like us at facebook.com/bythatimean
BY THAT I MEAN is a production of the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, CA.
By That I Mean – Episode 31: Ice Cream Is A Plot Of The Illuminati
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In the thirty-oneth BY THAT I MEAN podcast, Asia and Seth create a conspiracy theorist dating website, deepen the mystery of Asia’s nipple fear, and say goodbye to a raging sorority sociopath. Also, Guantanamo detainees are hunger striking – most of them.
If you listen to this show, you can tweet Seth @mfpseth and you can hear more BY THAT I MEAN by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes! If you like this show, rate us and write an iTunes review – and like us at facebook.com/bythatimean
BY THAT I MEAN is a production of the MFP Studio in Los Angeles, CA.
The Voting Rights Act and DOMA are Dead, and John Lewis is Alive
At the end of a resounding and thunderous two days for this country, I am reminded of a speech given in 1996 by civil rights hero and Congressman John Lewis. He helped form the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was one of the Freedom Riders who publicly and peacefully defied segregation, and he was nearly beaten to death by racist assholes trying to keep Jim Crow in US law now and forever in the 1950s and 60s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches).
But he didn’t stop fighting for basic freedom after the Voting Rights Act (which he lived to see the US Supreme Court murder) and Civil Rights Act were signed, or after he became a Congressman in the 80s. In the 1990s when Democrats nationwide were running to the right (most have never run back), John Lewis saw exactly what the “Defense of Marriage Act” was and nailed it to the fucking wall before it ever got voted out of Congress, before it was ever signed into American law by that self-serving corporate toady masquerading as an elder statesman Bill Clinton.
In case you ever need help divining or recalibrating your moral orientation, John Lewis’s compass tends to point true north.*
“Why do you not want your fellow men and women, your fellow Americans to be happy? Why do you attack them? Why do you want to destroy the love they hold in their hearts? Why do you want to crush their hopes, their dreams, their longings, their aspirations? We are talking about human beings, people like you, people who want to get married, buy a house, and spend their lives with the one they love. They have done no wrong.
I will not turn my back on another American. I will not oppress my fellow human being. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Mr. Chairman, I have known racism. I have known bigotry. This bill stinks of the same fear, hatred and intolerance. It should not be called the Defense of Marriage Act. It should be called the defense of mean-spirited bigots act.”
Two end notes and that asterisk:
*Except, unfortunately, he did the 09/2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that launched America’s Forever War against a tactic… only one Congressman, California’s Barbara Lee, was brave enough to vote against the AUMF.
1) Watch this video clip of most of John Lewis’s 1996 DOMA soliloquy here and remain completely unmoved. I dare ya. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MorAz0WqR9c
2) From his Wikipedia page: “John Lewis opposed the U.S. waging of the 1991 Gulf War, NAFTA, and the 2000 trade agreement with China that passed the House. Lewis opposed the Clinton administration on NAFTA and welfare reform. After welfare reform passed, Lewis was described as outraged; he said, ‘Where is the sense of decency? What does it profit a great nation to conquer the world, only to lose its soul?'”
By That I Mean – Episode 30: Let’s Fact-Check These Children
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