Wade Rathke:
209 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingWADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
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Episodes
The Bolivian Election Mystery
November 20, 2020 14:53 - 3 minutes - 4.75 MBNew Orleans In the United States now we wait and watch while President Trump stoops to historically new lows in trying to subvert the vote of the people and resist the inevitable that he lost the election to Biden at the Electoral College and by a more than a five million vote drubbing. Having …
Hipsters of the World Unite
November 19, 2020 17:01 - 2 minutes - 3.97 MBNew Orleans Hipsters are absolutely not taking over the world, but it’s hard not to find them almost all over the world. MoveHub, an international shipping company got some free marketing buzz by putting out a “hipster index” over the last couple of years. They use five factors: coffee shops, record stores, tattoo parlors, …
Clock Ticking on Trump Expiration Date
November 18, 2020 18:16 - 2 minutes - 3.82 MBNew Orleans The Trump meltdown is going from the dangerous to the ridiculous to the absurd now, and then back again to the dangerous. Everyone knows Trump has lost, but the foot dragging of sycophants fearful of tweeting reprisals continues to attempt to try to disguise the fact that the emperor no longer has …
Macron Protests Too Much on Anti-Islamic Actions
November 17, 2020 18:44 - 3 minutes - 4.73 MBNew Orleans Ben Smith, formerly of Politico, joined the New York Times over the last year as their media columnist and has quickly become a must-read in my book. His sources are amazing, his scoops unique, and his perspective wide-ranging and invaluable. The Times seems to know this, not only because they give him …
Essential Workers and Pay Equity
November 16, 2020 19:03 - 2 minutes - 3.93 MBNew Orleans In a moment of youthful recklessness more than fifty years ago, I allowed myself to get into one of those dangerous political conversations with the father of a woman I was seeing. He was a good, decent guy and Republican to the core, even in those days when Louisiana was deep, deep …
The Fat Man is Singing
November 15, 2020 20:21 - 2 minutes - 3.41 MBPearl River The Monday Night Football expression that “it’s not over until the fat lady sings,” has thankfully been retired given the lack of appreciation for opera in our current culture and the increasing sensitivity towards different body types, thanks goodness. Nonetheless, despite all of the theories, conjectures, and people waking up screaming in the […] The post The Fat Man is Singing appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Moving Forward on US Healthcare
November 14, 2020 18:02 - 2 minutes - 4.05 MBNew Orleans Breaking away from a meeting with our new tenant organizers at a table in front of Publix grocery store in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, I had to find a place quiet enough to talk to Rosemarie Day about her take on expanding universal healthcare on Wade’s World . Walking down an […] The post Moving Forward on US Healthcare appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Georgia, Ground Zero for the Senate
November 13, 2020 18:04 - 3 minutes - 4.3 MBAtlanta It took five hours and half a tank of gas for me and two organizers for the ACORN Tenants Union in Atlanta to visit more than a dozen apartment complexes in five different counties around metro Atlanta and the perimeter. The day had started in misty fog but ended in clear skies, bright sunlight, […] The post Georgia, Ground Zero for the Senate appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Oh, No, Now O’Keefe Goes Postal
November 12, 2020 16:23 - 3 minutes - 4.77 MBAtlanta Attorney General Barr, Senator Lindsay Graham and other Republican hardline Trump apologists made quite a bit of a story told by a postal worker in Pennsylvania that he had overheard co-workers discussing ways to backdate ballots received late, so that they would be counted in the recent US presidential election. The egg is […] The post Oh, No, Now O’Keefe Goes Postal appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Pandemic Changes Could be Permanent
November 11, 2020 18:02 - 3 minutes - 4.17 MBChicago Understand me clearly. I was lucky. I had a dawn run from Columbus to Chicago and then onto Atlanta in the weirdness of travel during the pandemic. It made sense to stay as close to the airport as possible, and I ended up at a Hampton Inn, now a Hilton property, there between the […] The post Pandemic Changes Could be Permanent appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
People Move On, Politicians Stuck in Place
November 10, 2020 16:20 - 2 minutes - 3.93 MBColumbus It’s hard to call Ohio a battleground state once you look out the window and see Columbus in the rearview mirror. Trump-Pence signs dominate the roadways and car bumpers. Few Biden-Harris signs can be seen until you traverse some of the towns along the way. Dublin, Ohio, not far out from the state capitol […] The post People Move On, Politicians Stuck in Place appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Georgia on My Mind
November 09, 2020 16:00 - 2 minutes - 3.43 MBWashington, DC In politics there is always tomorrow, not necessarily for the same candidate or party, but the people will be served after a fashion, and the positions will be filled. In this election, the peoples’ favorite wasn’t the reconstruction of the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, not matter how fragile or temporary, […] The post Georgia on My Mind appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Uniting People to Force Accountability on Developers
November 07, 2020 18:30 - 2 minutes - 4.03 MBPearl River As part of the 50th anniversary of ACORN, we’ve talked to various leaders and organizers of ACORN over the years about their reflections on the organization and their time. In that vein we talked to Steuart Pittman on Wade’s World. Steuart recounted his path with ACORN. He had hired on in Chicago after […] The post Uniting People to Force Accountability on Developers appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Other Votes Matter Too
November 06, 2020 19:11 - 2 minutes - 3.68 MBNew Orleans The election news and the lessons buried underneath the votes will continue to emerge, likely with better focus in coming weeks and months, but there are some voter verdicts that speak to some doors closing and some opening. Trigger warning: it’s a mixed bag of good and bad news. For the more […] The post Other Votes Matter Too appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Watch Out, Moxie Marlinspike!
November 05, 2020 19:14 - 3 minutes - 5.4 MBNew Orleans I’ve been a fan of Moxie Marlinspike since I first became acquainted with his encryption work years ago. Ok, I admit, I also liked his name and his general thumb to the nose to the tech world, the military-industrial complex (remember them), and of course the police and governmental forces that want […] The post Watch Out, Moxie Marlinspike! appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Confirmation Bias and Election Lessons
November 04, 2020 19:45 - 3 minutes - 4.17 MBNew Orleans An economist has won the Nobel Prize in no small part for identifying the problem of “confirmation bias.” Simply put, we tend to find evidence that confirms our bias, and are often unable to sort out the facts from our predilections. We all do it, and that may be part of the problem […] The post Confirmation Bias and Election Lessons appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
My Call: Trump Loses to Biden
November 03, 2020 16:21 - 3 minutes - 4.43 MBNew Orleans This is Election Day in the USA. Polls are open. I’m calling this election decisively for former Vice-President Joe Biden, making President Donald Trump the loser. I’ve worked and worried about this election for months and years, but all the signs I see, and many that have concerned me in the past, […] The post My Call: Trump Loses to Biden appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Pre-Election Apocalypse Warnings
November 02, 2020 18:01 - 2 minutes - 3.79 MBNew Orleans It isn’t news that America has been increasingly divided with the wounds pushed open wider and wider by the president. As the hours’ count down to the election, we have to wonder if Humpty-Dumpty can be put together, and, if so, what it might take to do so. The signs aren’t encouraging. […] The post Pre-Election Apocalypse Warnings appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Classy Populism
November 01, 2020 15:45 - 3 minutes - 4.12 MBNew Orleans I’ve read a shelf of books about populism over the years from my heroes with the Texas Alliance to the embarrassment of Tom Watson’s racism in Georgia. As an organizer, I thought there was plenty to learn, and I’ve appreciated the lessons buried in the books. Only later in life did I learn […] The post Classy Populism appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Republicans Swamp Battlegrounds on Voter Registration
November 01, 2020 01:46 - 3 minutes - 4.23 MBNew Orleans We’re at Halloween, there’s a blue moon, and it’s a super-scary time with the election only days and hours away. What me worry? Hell, yes! I’m still fretting and fuming over various voter registration campaigns having, until very, very recently, ceded the work in the field to become zoombies, tele-workers, texters, and […] The post Republicans Swamp Battlegrounds on Voter Registration appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Unemployed are Precarious, Not Gigging
October 31, 2020 01:39 - 2 minutes - 3.86 MBNew Orleans There was a special section in the New York Times recently where their reporters did a follow-up with workers from all around America that they had talked to during the pandemic to see how they were faring now. That was a super depressing read! The bottom line was clear. Unemployed workers were […] The post Unemployed are Precarious, Not Gigging appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Hurricane Lessons: Gas Stoves, Oak Trees, Power, and Climate
October 29, 2020 14:26 - 2 minutes - 3.72 MBNew Orleans Storms around Labor Day get my full attention. Betsy hit hard in the fall of 1965 right after school began and took more than a week to get everything back in gear. Katrina in 2005 hit at the end of August and decimated the city of New Orleans in what is now […] The post Hurricane Lessons: Gas Stoves, Oak Trees, Power, and Climate appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Loofah and the ACORN Farm
October 27, 2020 16:47 - 2 minutes - 3.4 MBNew Orleans The half-acre ACORN Farm has been in production in the Lower 9thWard of New Orleans for the last seven years or so. Initially part of the city’s Grow Green initiative to utilize land lots decimated by Hurricane Katrina, we have gradually moved from renter to owner, finally completing the process at the […] The post Loofah and the ACORN Farm appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Red State Battles for the Future
October 26, 2020 16:27 - 2 minutes - 3.71 MBNew Orleans We have a sign up for Adrian Perkins in the grass strip between our fence and our street in New Orleans. We have a sign up along a piece of ground right across the Pearl River in Mississippi for Mike Espy. Both are running for seats in the US Senate. We have […] The post Red State Battles for the Future appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Nat LaCour and Labor’s Legacy
October 25, 2020 17:58 - 4 minutes - 5.86 MBPearl River In the more than forty years that I have known Nat LaCour, I had never known his full name was Nathaniel Hawthorne LaCour until I regrettably had to read his obituary when he passed away recently at 82 years of age. I bet there was a great story behind that name for an […] The post Nat LaCour and Labor’s Legacy appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Productive Incoherence and Thinking Differently about Change
October 24, 2020 17:48 - 3 minutes - 5.12 MBPearl River A book entitled, The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics, arrives in the mail with the word SEX in capital red letters along with obsession slightly smaller, and I didn’t know whether to take the cover off or cry uncle, having been lured by the word, “politics,” into reading the book […] The post Productive Incoherence and Thinking Differently about Change appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Police Plus Shots Equal Feet on the Street
October 23, 2020 17:27 - 3 minutes - 4.2 MBLittle Rock About twenty Georgia State University School of Social Work students watched the film, The Organizer, in Atlanta recently. I zoomed in for a questions-and-answers session after it finished. The first question was straightforward: how would I compare the work of ACORN with the Black Lives Matter? The answer isn’t simple or short, because […] The post Police Plus Shots Equal Feet on the Street appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Vote Tripling
October 22, 2020 15:46 - 2 minutes - 3.92 MBLittle Rock In recent months I have been on a weekly voting call focusing on stopping voter suppression and increasing turnout in the US election on November 3rd. Some of the participants with voter registrations in battleground states complain from time to time about the daily deluge of texts coming their way. Living in a […] The post Vote Tripling appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Support Protests in Nigeria!
October 20, 2020 20:06 - 2 minutes - 4.07 MBNew Orleans It’s small world. Marva Burnett, the president of ACORN Canada and ACORN International, visited several cities in Nigeria last year with her church group. She met a young man named Edem Etido in Port Harcourt, a large city much farther southwest from Lagos, the mega-city, but also along the Gulf of Guinea, […] The post Support Protests in Nigeria! appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Want to Feel Better? Give!
October 19, 2020 16:26 - 3 minutes - 4.16 MBChNew Orleans Finally, a cure for Covid-19 pandemic depression! I can’t believe that the president hasn’t been screaming the news at the top of his compromised lungs now. If you want to feel good, just give! It works for either a political candidate or a charity. If you want a suggestion of a charity, […] The post Want to Feel Better? Give! appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Trump Campaign’s Secret Weapon: Door Knocking!
October 18, 2020 18:35 - 3 minutes - 4.5 MBPearl River With hardly two weeks before the election in the United States, it’s down to the wire. It will be interesting and important to see the final strategy and tactics each campaign employs. Biden will be trying to protect his polling lead. Trump will be desperately trying to play catchup. There are definitely some […] The post Trump Campaign’s Secret Weapon: Door Knocking! appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Progressive Christianity
October 17, 2020 18:43 - 3 minutes - 5.25 MBPearl River These days the phrase “progressive Christianity” sounds like a contradiction in terms, opposites attracting in the same sentence or something like that, or perhaps the last of a dying breed. Not so, says Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a religious activist, organizer, and author of Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity, who I spoke to at length […] The post Progressive Christianity appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Payment is Coming Due for a Deal with the Devil
October 16, 2020 17:22 - 2 minutes - 3.9 MBNew Orleans We’re on the election countdown, but, frankly, that’s been the case for almost four years, so in some sense, what’s new? The polls don’t look good for the president, either nationally or in many of the battleground states. Some Republicans, like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse are even […] The post Payment is Coming Due for a Deal with the Devil appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Supreme Charade
October 14, 2020 16:39 - 3 minutes - 4.15 MBNew Orleans There’s a bitter irony to the current charade called a confirmation hearing for a new justice to join the United States Supreme Court. All of the players, including the nominee, pretend their concern is for the rule of law and the bedrock of the Constitution, while proving with every action and word […] The post Supreme Charade appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Scary Police Crowd Control Tactics
October 13, 2020 16:30 - 3 minutes - 4.61 MBNew Orleans My ears perked up as I was listening to a radio broadcaster in Austin relate a story about a novel and dangerous police crowd control tactic used to break up a demonstration. In his telling, a mobile squad of police bicycle cops swooped down on the protestors at breakneck speed, sending protestors […] The post Scary Police Crowd Control Tactics appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Trump Coup Threats are a Diversion
October 12, 2020 17:16 - 3 minutes - 4.67 MBNew Orleans I’ll admit when I find myself agreeing, almost point by point, with Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist for the New York Times, I have to put my head in my hands for a temperature check to make sure I’m still of sound mind and body. Nonetheless, I’ll also admit that I read […] The post Trump Coup Threats are a Diversion appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Community Radio on the Frontlines
October 11, 2020 15:35 - 3 minutes - 2.93 MBPearl River The Grassroots Radio Coalition is a loose confederation of various progressive community radio stations around the country. We got involved with them when, to our surprise, they had an annual gathering in Hot Springs, Arkansas, of all places a couple of years ago. Then, more recently, they screened The Organizer at their […] The post Community Radio on the Frontlines appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Prison Everywhere Around You
October 10, 2020 17:53 - 3 minutes - 4.49 MBPearl River Talking to Victoria Law on Wade’s World about the book, Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, that she co-authored with Maya Schenwar, it was hard to escape the sense that “prison culture” has lapped up on the beach of one major institution after another. Of course, as she […] The post Prison Everywhere Around You appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
What the New York Times Gets Right and Wrong About ACORN
October 07, 2020 20:43 - 5 minutes - 7.85 MBNew Orleans P.T. Barnum, the famous 19th century impresario and huckster from Bridgeport, Connecticut is often quoted as saying, “Any kind of publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name right.” In that sense, I have read with interest Jim Rutenberg’s piece on the attack on voting in the New York […] The post What the New York Times Gets Right and Wrong About ACORN appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Database Voter Suppression Strategy
October 06, 2020 16:58 - 4 minutes - 6.69 MBNew Orleans We all know it’s bad, and then we find out that it’s even worse than we imagined. Sharing the Voter Purge Project’s recently released report on consistent errors in the voter purge lists in states, red and blue, it is clear that this whole “system” of “cleaning” the lists is broken, state […] The post Database Voter Suppression Strategy appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Stopping Purges as Voter Registration Deadlines Hit
October 05, 2020 18:48 - 2 minutes - 3.7 MBNew Orleans We’re on the countdown to the election now. October 5th marks the last voter registration day for the majority of states. The flipping of pages on the calendar from now until Election Day on November 5th is a march towards the end of registration for all but those states with same day […] The post Stopping Purges as Voter Registration Deadlines Hit appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Memories and Milestones
October 04, 2020 18:02 - 3 minutes - 5.28 MBPearl River Tenants all over the world are facing a huge crisis as the dual scourges of the pandemic and economic depression confront them daily. In some industrialized countries, eviction moratoria have staved off some of the pending crisis, but millions still face the problem and more millions are on the move as they run […] The post Memories and Milestones appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
White Christian Privilege
October 03, 2020 21:13 - 3 minutes - 4.33 MBAtlanta As always, there are things you know, things you think you know, and then the dreaded assumptions that mask as both, but are neither. It’s those assumptions that Professor Khyati Joshi of Fairleigh Dickerson University in Virginia surgically attacks in her book, White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America, all […] The post White Christian Privilege appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
The Trumps Go Viral
October 02, 2020 19:01 - 3 minutes - 5 MBAtlanta You can’t make this stuff up! What an unbelievable year and election season hammered by both the economic depression and the pandemic. And, now, darned if the White House isn’t a coronavirus hotspot! Both Donald and Melania Trump have now tested positive, as has former communications boss and longtime close personal and political aide, […] The post The Trumps Go Viral appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Donnybrook Debate
October 01, 2020 18:17 - 3 minutes - 4.39 MBAtlanta What a fiasco! This was no debate. This was a barnyard brawl. Once it was over the question was not whether Joe Biden had won, but how much Donald Trump had lost. Maybe Trump’s base liked his bullyboy show, but it hardly matters at one level because his base shrank literally before our […] The post Donnybrook Debate appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Marathon Protests
September 30, 2020 18:02 - 2 minutes - 3.86 MBNew Orleans There’s something strange and different happening in the world of protests. The average bystander is unlikely to have noticed this, but as a practitioner in this trade, I couldn’t avoid recognizing a subtle, but surprising global trend: marathon protests. Once upon a time, it was all about the numbers. Crowd claims and […] The post Marathon Protests appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Getting the Lead Out
September 29, 2020 19:12 - 3 minutes - 4.2 MBNew Orleans We have to take progress where we can get it in these dark days at perhaps the tail end of the Trump administration. There are scores of last-minute aberrations from muscling an appointment to the Supreme Court to further eroding labor law protections that are hitting fourth gear and heading for the wall. […] The post Getting the Lead Out appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Trump Life: Death, Yes, Taxes, No!
September 28, 2020 18:25 - 3 minutes - 4.35 MBNew Orleans I had an elementary school teacher whose constant rejoinder was that “the only thing certain in life was death and taxes.” At a tender age, neither absolute means much. What are taxes? When is death? As we age, we find out way too much about both of these inevitabilities. It turns out […] The post Trump Life: Death, Yes, Taxes, No! appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Conspiracies Cut Both Ways in Retarding the Vote
September 27, 2020 16:41 - 3 minutes - 4.35 MBPearl River The gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson used to have a patented expression as he wrote about everything from Las Vegas to political conventions. He would write, “…and then it got weird” in his fear-and-loathing reports. One thing we can truly say about this election season is that it has absolutely gotten weird. This […] The post Conspiracies Cut Both Ways in Retarding the Vote appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.
Cruel and Usual Punishment for Prisoners
September 26, 2020 16:39 - 3 minutes - 4.56 MBPearl River Just when you might think things can’t get any worse, it turns out you don’t know half of it. At least, that’s how I felt visiting with Professor Nick Zaller on Wade’s World. Zaller is a well-regarded and oft-cited researcher and professor of public health at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences […] The post Cruel and Usual Punishment for Prisoners appeared first on Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog.