Memphis-based singer-songwriter Julien Baker's star is rising in the music world. She also identifies as queer, Christian, socialist — like our host, Sarah Ngu. There have been high-profile interviews with her by the New York Times, NPR, etc. mostly focusing on her music. But we wanted to focus on religion. This far-reaching interview explores the early influence of Christian hardcore and church groups, how she thinks about Acts and makes ethical purchasing decisions for herself and her crew, and her conversations with Trump-supporting family members in Appalachia. If you're a fan of Religious Socialism, please visit our Patreon page and support our podcast. We will also be posting the full, unedited 2-hour interview as an exclusive for our patrons. For each according to their ability, or give what you can! https://www.patreon.com/religioussocialismpodcast

North Carolina Piedmont DSA stands with UNC Chapel Hill graduate student worker Maya Little, who was arrested last week for demonstrating the true meaning of UNC’s monument to white supremacy, Silent Sam. By contextualizing this racist statue with red paint and her own blood, Little sent a clear message to UNC’s moderate liberal leadership and reactionary Board of Governors, who have chosen to ignore students and community members, appease neoconfederate and racist groups, and mobilize the police to surveil, infiltrate, and disrupt protesters. Silent Sam must fall.

NCPDSA calls for any judicial or UNC Honor Court charges against Little to be dropped. Fighting against white supremacy is not a crime; it models the utmost honorable character. Additionally, we call for Chancellor Carol Folt to acknowledge the harm her leadership has caused students and the community and to accept responsibility for the racists threats against Little’s life which Folt’s inaction has permitted. Silent Sam must be removed from campus immediately.

– NC Piedmont DSA Steering Committee

See why Colorado teachers walked out and what they are demanding. https://youtu.be/5b4Q7Pi36bE

Carolina Cares (or House Bill 662) purports to close the insurance gap and provide health insurance to those who can’t afford it. Yet the bill fails to address the most pressing healthcare concerns, because it does not go far enough to address North Carolinians’ needs.

Free at the point of service

The bill operates on the same faulty logic as much of the current healthcare system: it assumes that people need to “get their skin in the game” by paying some money for healthcare. If it’s free, the bill’s architects claim, people will abuse the healthcare system.

But people already have their skin in this game: it’s literally their lives on the line. Their taxes also fund government healthcare programs, among other things. But more fundamentally, healthcare is a human right, and our healthcare system should aim to provide care to all even if it was expensive.

Luckily, though, studies have found that “there is little direct evidence suggesting that connecting premium costs to health outcomes...will greatly improve health behavior.” In other words, requiring payment has no benefits for health—just for corporate profits. In truth, studies show that requiring payment simply prevents people from seeking any care, not just expensive care. To improve health outcomes, we must aim for a system that is free at the point of service.

But this bill goes the other direction. As the bill stands, those above 50 percent of the federal poverty line would have to pay 2 percent of their monthly income as coinsurance—a provision that not only fails to help the uninsured, but also adversely affects existing Medicaid beneficiaries.

No work requirement

Carolina Cares also contains an unnecessary, fallacious, and cruel work requirement, stipulating that only those who are “employed or engaged in activities to promote employment” are qualified.

To start, this requirement is just more fine print complicating who can and cannot receive care. Those complications, in turn, place an administrative burden on both providers and consumers.

For consumers, the problems arise when employment structures create payment burdens. Seasonal workers or people who are self-employed may fall out of coverage quickly, because the bill stipulates that your coverage is suspended if you don’t pay premiums for 60 days. It also requires consumers to pay all backed premiums before being reinstated, which could prevent those with lower incomes from ever being able to receive Medicaid again.

On the provider side, the administrative work diverts money that could be spent on patients to paperwork. It’s also unlikely that North Carolina will allocate any additional funds to state Medicaid offices—which are, unsurprisingly, already understaffed—lengthening application and enrollment times and further harming Medicaid users.

On top of that, there are more unemployed people than there are jobs in the majority of North Carolina counties—especially the rural ones. The North Carolina Justice Center reports that there are “nine unemployed workers for every job opening” in Hyde County, for instance. These findings aren’t unusual, either. The number of people who are “choosing” not to work is small. Those who don’t have jobs are retired, disabled, or busy parenting or going to school.

And those who were “out of work” were “more likely to be older (aged 51 to 64 years), more likely to be in fair or poor health, have a chronic mental health condition, or a physical or mental functional limitation,” one expert wrote. “It’s possible that some who report being unable to work might be caught up in new work requirements and lose their coverage. That would be a tragedy, because having a disability or illness likely leaves individuals especially vulnerable to deteriorations in health.”

The work requirement also puts those with criminal records at risk. Those who were formerly incarcerated have well-known difficulties finding employment (not to mention housing and other services). Harming their ability to receive healthcare is simply cruel.

Lastly, according to Andrea Callow from Families USA, work requirements are illegal. Instituting them would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, as it would disproportionately impact people with disabilities—whether or not they receive disability from the government. Medicare was originally designed as a welfare program to provide insurance; adding a work requirement turns it into a punitive employment program.

Dealing with the underinsured

Medicaid expansion with a work requirement will do nothing to address other fundamental failings of healthcare system.

The first is the number of people who are underinsured with terrible, high-deductible plans that prevent them from receiving any real kind of care. To quote from one paper on Medicare and Medicaid:

“As of late 2016, 28 percent of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 who were insured all year were underinsured—or an estimated 41 million people. This is more than double the rate in 2003 when the measure was first introduced in the survey, and is up significantly from 23 percent (31 million people) in 2014. Rates climbed across most coverage sources, and, among privately insured, were highest among people with individual market coverage, most of whom have plans through the marketplaces. Half (52%) of underinsured adults reported problems with medical bills or debt and more than two of five (45%) reported not getting needed care because of cost.”

Second is all of the other factors that inhibit people from receiving quality healthcare. Insurance only goes so far, because lack of reliable transportation; lack of disposable income to spend on quality housing and affordable food, exercise options, and other factors in good health; inability to take time off work to go to the doctor; and just finding nearby healthcare providers, especially in rural counties, all present sizable barriers. Current trendy options to reduce those, like wellness programs provided by employers, have not been effective.

Aim higher

Often, Carolina Cares supporters claim that we should support the bill because “it’s the only thing that will pass.” But passing a bad bill that institutes work requirements, expands administrative budgets, and backs bad healthcare logic will not help North Carolinians. We must push back against this slide into the kind of thinking that gave us our current, failing system, and demand something better.

Heather Kim and Ross Gains
NC Piedmont DSA members

These comments were delivered by NC Piedmont DSA member Jake Stanley at a Durham City Council meeting on April 18.

I am here representing the North Carolina Piedmont chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, a sponsoring partner of the Demilitarize Durham2Palestine campaign.

As democratic socialists, we believe in government truly by, for, and of the people. We are fighting alongside the groups here today to transform our country so everyone—particularly Black, indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ, Muslim, and other oppressed communities—can thrive, not merely survive on the scraps of a wildly unequal capitalist system.

Freedom from the fear of state violence is essential to creating that thriving society. But as we have seen in the past decade in the streets of Ferguson, Chicago, and Baltimore, the sidewalks of Staten Island, the neighborhoods of South Sacramento, and countless places in between, Black and Brown people are disproportionately threatened and killed by law enforcement. The militarization of police—municipal and county forces that look more and more like an army—compounds this systemic problem.

We reject the idea that US police, from leadership to officers, have anything to learn from the Israeli military or police, the enforcement arm of a racist apartheid state and violent settler colonial project. We are encouraged by Durham’s efforts to reform the police toward support of and accountability to Durhamites, especially our communities of color, although we agree with Mayor Schewel and the council that there is much more to do.

We want to focus on improving other measures of public safety, like affordable housing and healthcare, strong public education, and a livable wage.

Therefore, we join the call for the Durham City Council to create a new policy that unconditionally bars police training exchanges with Israel or other foreign militaries and police.

Thank you.

Jake Stanley
NC Piedmont DSA member

Bylaws Protocols, Community Guidelines, and FAQ Slack Guide dsafortcollins@gmail.com

Juan Carlos Ruiz is co-founder of the New Sanctuary Movement, a network of churches and synagogues that offer resources to undocumented immigrants in New York City. He began his career as a Catholic priest, but was excommunicated after getting involved with leftist politics in the Catholic Worker Movement. In this far-reaching interview, he discusses his work with immigrants in the Trump era, the effect that US intervention coupled with corporate interests have had on Mexico and Honduras, and the role that history should play in our discourse around immigrant rights. If you're interested in what Ruiz has to say, also check out his op-ed in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/17/undocumented-immigration-stories-human-rights-mexico-how-i-got-here Also, if you’re a fan of Religious Socialism, please visit our Patreon page and support our podcast. From each according to their ability, or give us what you can! https://www.patreon.com/religioussocialismpodcast

Date March 20th

Location: Xanadu, Idaho Burners Alliance

Time: 7 PM

Boise DSA is holding its first election! We are electing 4 positions:

• 2 Spokespersons

  • Primary contacts for media

• Treasurer

  • Responsible for tracking chapter finances

  • Chair of the Finance Committee

• Secretary

  • Responsible for archiving committee minutes and other important records

  • Chair of Records Committee

All elected members must participate in the Steering Committee

Nominations will be accepted at the election. Members may nominate themselves. Elections will use the the Schulze Method.

New York Times Article:

war_begins_nyt.pdf

Minutes:

Boise Democratic Socialists of America

Special Election Meeting

Burner’s Alliance Xanadu Building

3/20/2018, 7pm

Facilitator: Rachel

Scribe: Alex

Present: Andrew, Ashley, Rachel, Marr, Chris, Robert, Sammi, Kent, Ty, Alex, Ryan

MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:17pm

AGENDA WAS APPROVED

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Ashley: we have a direct contact with the field director with Reclaim Idaho and have discussed what other chapters are doing with Medicaid. Because of commonly shared values, we propose the establishment of a working group for Medicaid.

Passed

We propose a meeting to be held in the next month for Medicaid expansion

Passed

Update: Governor candidate open forum BSU Student Union building 5:30-6:30

Andrew, Ashley, Rachel: We propose the formation of an education working group

Passed

12th of April 7pm Boise Public Library for first meeting

Kent: I propose the formation for a direct action working group.

Passed

Proposal in conjunction with other socialist organizations around the nation, we hope to distribute literature to the migrant working community.

Sammi: NSP reading update: we finished “Kill All Normies”. We are now reading Engel’s Utopian and Scientific Socialism.

Alex: Do we want to join the DSA bioregional chapter?

Amendment: tread lightly and push for consensus voting process. Boise DSA members participate on a volunteer basis.

Passed

Matt: Action item proposal: In three weeks, on the weekend, start on one end of the greenbelt, clean up waste, and hand out fliers for the DSA.

Passed

Sammi: We can also clean up table rock and other landmarks

Andrew: Steering committee meetings will be held on the first week of every month. The next will be on April 4th at Goldy’s Corner in Boise at 7pm. Working Groups will coordinate and report to the steering committee

EXPLANATION OF VOTING PROCEDURE

Andrew: We have four positions open. Ashley created the ballot. We will select our nominations by rank through mathematical symbolization of inequalities. The votes will then be put into an algorithm that will select the median representative.

OPEN NOMINATIONS

Treasurer

Chris- Nominated by Robert

Rachel- Nominated by Ashley

Secretary

Andrew- Nominated by Ashley

Spokespersons

Sammi- Nominated by Dave

Ashley- Nominated by Andrew

Alex- Nominated by Dave

RESULTS

Treasurer: Rachel

Secretary: Andrew

Spokesperson: Sammi, Ashley

NEXT MEETING:

4/17 Xanadu, Time TBA

IRAQ INVASION DISCUSSION:

Andrew led discussion for the critique of the Invasion of Iraq on the anniversary.

Date March 31st

Movie + Social

Location Xanadu, Idaho Burners Alliance

Time 8-11 PM

We will be watching the movie Trumpland: Kill All Normies based on the book Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle. Bring drinks, snacks, and friends to watch and discuss the movie. How culturally and politically powerful is the Alt-Right? How accurate is Nagle's analysis of the left's role in fueling the Alt-Right? How can the left create a rival movement? Join us!

Description of Kill All Normies from Zero Books:

Recent years have seen a revival of the heated culture wars of the 1990s, but this time its battle ground is the internet. On one side the "alt right" ranges from the once obscure neo-reactionary and white separatist movements, to geeky subcultures like 4chan, to more mainstream manifestations such as the Trump-supporting gay libertarian Milo Yiannopolous. On the other side, a culture of struggle sessions and virtue signalling lurks behind a therapeutic language of trigger warnings and safe spaces. The feminist side of the online culture wars has its equally geeky subcultures right through to its mainstream expression. Kill All Normies explores some of the cultural genealogies and past parallels of these styles and subcultures, drawing from transgressive styles of 60s libertinism and conservative movements, to make the case for a rejection of the perpetual cultural turn.