Voices: River City

In which we take a moment to express gratitude for all the volunteers and campaign workers that have been working so, so hard to improve our living conditions and get the right folks into office. You guys are literal heroes and we are thankful for you! The crew talks Trump, Biden and their thoughts on America’s decision come Election Day. Your homework is this fantastic newsletter on the likelihood of a Biden win: https://kendallkaut.substack.com/p/why-joe-biden-is-going-t... Thanks for listening and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacpodcast #sacramentopodcasts #sacpod #electionday #electionday2020 #fuckfascism #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice #f12

In which Nailah helps us out by stepping in to cover Shannon’s part of the sign off We’re joined by Sacramento City Unified School District candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips, who are running in areas 4 and 7, respectively. They share with us why they’ve been moved to run for office during such an acrimonious time between the existing board and the teachers union, and discuss the ways the district has historically failed students of color. We also discus...s education in the time of COVID, the long overdue removal of cops in our schools, and how one particular newspaper columnist simply has it wrong on SCUSD’s challenges and solutions. Finally, we take a moment to congratulate Dr Flo and the countless other advocates who worked tirelessly to make Sacramento the first city in the nation to incorporate prevention in its definition of public safety. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacramentopodcasts #sacpodcast #sacpodcasts #scusd #nocopsinschools #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice #preventionworks

We’re joined by Sacramento City Unified School District candidates Nailah Pope-Harden and Lavinia Grace Phillips, who are running in areas 4 and 7, respectively. They share with us why they’ve been moved to run for office during such an acrimonious time between the existing board and the teachers union, and discuss the ways the district has historically failed students of color. We also discuss education in the time of COVID, the long overdue removal of cops in our schools, a...nd how one particular newspaper columnist simply has it wrong on SCUSD’s challenges and solutions. Finally, we take a moment to congratulate Dr Flo and the countless other advocates who worked tirelessly to make #Sacramento the first city in the nation to incorporate prevention into its definition of public safety. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-10/

In which we take a moment to appreciate the poets in the Sac Bee’s comment section for the piece regarding the State of Jefferson Friends and family of Willie Brown Jr., the 38-year-old Sacramento man found hanging from a basketball hoop last week, continue to process their grief while demanding answers to what happened. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department claims that it was a suicide attempt, but people are worried that these circumstances reflect a pattern in the US... last summer of Black men found hanging in public spaces. Brown, a father of four, is still alive but not exhibiting brain activity. If you’d like to help his family, they have started a GoFundMe. We also take some time this episode to talk about the right-wing madness taking place a few hours north of Sacramento in Shasta County, where State of Jefferson crazies are finding new and creative ways to intimidate and threaten a county board of supervisors that is simply trying to mitigate the threat of coronavirus. (For further reading on this absurd story, check out this piece in Bloomberg.) Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacpodcast #sacramentopodcasts #sacpodcasts #blacklivesmatter #racialjustice #racialequity #covidiots #branchcovidians #obamunism #f12 #abolishthepolice #defundthepolice

Friends and family of Willie Brown Jr., the 38-year-old Sacramento man found hanging from a basketball hoop last week, continue to process their grief while demanding answers to what happened. The Sacramento County Sheriffs Department claims that it was a suicide attempt, but people are worried that these circumstances reflect a pattern in the US last summer of Black men found hanging in public spaces. Brown, a father of four, was still alive when found but was not exhibit...ing brain activity in the hospital. He has since passed. If you’d like to help his family, they have started a GoFundMe. We also take some time this episode to talk about the right-wing madness taking place a few hours north of Sacramento in Shasta County California, where State of Jefferson crazies are finding new and creative ways to intimidate and threaten a county board of supervisors that is simply trying to mitigate the threat of coronavirus. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-10/

In which we find out that Flo doesn’t vote until the last minute because she actually enjoys getting campaign mailers We’ve got just eleven days until election day, so the crew takes some time to reflect on Thursday evening’s final presidential debate. We also discuss a couple of late-breaking tidbits of Sacramento news:... County Supervisors Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy are calling for county CEO Nav Gill to resign after his latest flub in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Also joining the chorus is District 3 candidate Gregg Fishman. It turns out that Mayor Darrell Steinberg wasn’t up-front with the people of Sacramento about the legal possibility of a third (or even fourth) term at the helm of the city if his Measure A ‘strong mayor’ power grab is successful. Thanks for listening, happy birthday to Skyler and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacpodcast #noonmeasurea #yesonmeasurec #windkillsallthebirds #covidiots #f12 #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice

We’ve got just eleven days until election day, so the crew takes some time to reflect on Thursday evening’s final presidential debate between Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden. We also discuss a couple of late-breaking tidbits of #Sacramento news: - Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy are calling for county CEO Nav Gill to resign after his latest flub in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Also joining the chorus is District 3 candidate Gregg Fishman for S...upervisor. - It turns out that Mayor Darrell Steinberg wasn’t up-front with the people of Sacramento about the legal possibility of a third (or even fourth) term at the helm of the city if his Measure A ‘strong mayor’ power grab is successful. Thanks for listening, happy birthday to Skyler and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-10/

Sacramento County CEO Nav Gill last week held a meeting with Over 40 top county staff, in which few wore masks. Now, one attendee has tested positive for COVID-19. That’s why these two county supervisors are requesting his resignation.

In which, in honor of our 100th episode, we look back at some of our favorite moments of the show so far It’s our 100th episode! We take some time to look back on our work during an absolutely wild year, and to thank the godfather of the VOICES: River City podcast, Anthony Siino, for his pioneering work in the first 22 episodes (seriously, go back and listen to them they’re works of art). Then we get into some current events.... Did you hear the one about the Bay Area archbishop exorcising the spot where a Junipero Serra statue was torn down over the summer? As that went down, the city of San Francisco held discussions on renaming 44 of its public schools schools, including ones named after George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein. (Mayor London Breed didn’t seem to approve.) Speaking of Feinstein, the California Democratic senator is now facing calls to step down after her buddy-buddy behavior with GOP colleagues at the Amy Coney Barrett hearing. Has anyone else seen a resurgence of this SNL skit in the last couple of days? We have. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacpodcast #sacpodcasts #exorcism #diannefeinsteinsucks #f12 #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice #housingjustice

It's our 100th episode! We take some time to look back on our work during an absolutely wild year, and to thank the godfather of the VOICES: River City podcast, Anthony Siino, for his pioneering work in the first 22 episodes (seriously, go back and listen to them -- they're works of art). Then we get into some current events. Did you hear the one about the Bay Area archbishop exorcising the spot where a Junipero Serra statue was torn down over the summer? As that went down, t...he city of San Francisco held discussions on renaming 44 of its public schools schools, including ones named after George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein. (Mayor London Breed didn't seem to approve.) Speaking of Feinstein, the #California Democratic senator is now facing calls to step down after her buddy-buddy behavior with #GOP colleagues at the Amy Coney Barrett hearing. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-10/

It's a new special Patreon patron episode! Dr Flo guides us through a discussion on the lies our history teachers taught us growing up, and we examine the possibility of a second civil war: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-special-42902254

This week the LAPD went hog-wild on reveling Los Angeles Lakers fans, 'exploding' one young man's eyeball and knocking eight teeth out of another's mouth. We're not sure how many times the community needs to have these conversations before we see that the cops are not going to stop their violence against Americans, and that the only answer is to cut their funding in favor of more humane public safety and public health programming. But the California State Senate certainly has...n't gotten the message yet. Last month they allowed #AB66--which would have put an end to police use of both gas and the projectiles that maimed the young Lakers fans and so many demonstrators over the summer--to die without a vote. On Tuesday Governor Gavin Newsom's 'policing advisors' put out recommendations against cops using these weapons against Californians. Forgive us if we don't see the police taking these 'recommendations' seriously. Newsom this year signed a few modest police reforms into law, but refused to pass stronger legislation, such as a law that would have created funding for a pilot program for alternative first-response programs. Oh, and a quick update on Sacramento City Council's District 8 race between Mai Vang for City Council, District 8 and Pastor Les Simmons: In an act of desperation, the Simmons campaign has accepted the help of the state's realtors, to the tune of $76,000. Now, surprise-surprise, Simmons has changed his tune on #MeasureC, the fight for real rent control. This unfortunate move will inexorably affect how the people of District 8 view the pastor. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-99/

In which Kempa’s true feelings about Phil Serna are finally revealed The California GOP is thumbing its nose at state law, dropping unofficial ‘ballot drop boxes’ (which they’ve marked as ‘official’) throughout Orange County and other regions in California. Often, these drop boxes are placed at churches and gun ranges. Naturally, the California Attorney General and Secretary of State are upset about this, but GOP representatives such as Hector Barajas don’t appear to care, an...d are even refusing to say how many drop boxes are out there, or where they might be located. All of this appears to stem from the classic GOP accusations against Democrats of ballot harvesting, which they say constitutes voter fraud. They consider very legal means of ballot drop-offssuch as signing off on your envelope for a particular person to drop off your votesas illegal. But that’s not the case here in California, or elsewhere in the US. In some ways, this appears to be one more example of the death rattle of California’s GOP. The party continues to shrink in relation to Democratic registration, and the nation’s usual deep-pocketed contributors for Republican elections all but consider the state a lost cause. More than 75% of the state’s Assembly members are now Democrats, and four of the 11 remaining GOP seats in the state Senate (there are just 40 senators in total) are also in serious trouble. Three of these four districts now have more registered Democrats than Republicans. We also take this moment to talk about the Republican Party on a national level, and how voter suppression is necessary for their survival. They’ve always had fascist tendencies, and we’re watching it all in action here in 2020. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Patreon: patreon.com/voicesrivercity Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. #sacramentopodcast #sacpodcast #defundthepolice #abolishthepolice #fuckthegop #2020election #jarjarbinks

The California Republican Party is thumbing its nose at state law, dropping unofficial 'ballot drop boxes' (which they've marked as 'official') throughout Orange County and other regions in the state. Often, these drop boxes are placed at churches and gun ranges. Naturally, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla are upset about this, but #GOP talkers such as Hector Barajas don't appear to care, and are even refusing to say how many drop... boxes are out there, or where they might be located. All of this appears to stem from the classic GOP accusations against the Democratic Party of "ballot harvesting," which they say constitutes voter fraud. They consider very legal means of ballot drop-offs--such as signing off on your envelope for a particular person to drop off your votes--as illegal. But that's not the case here in #California, or elsewhere in the US. You might remember the Project Veritas video claiming that Rep. Ilhan Omar was participating in voter fraud in Minnesota. In fact, it came out that the PV team appeared to try to bribe people to lie and say they were committing actual fraud for the Democratic politician. In some ways, this appears to be one more example of the death rattle of California's GOP. The party continues to shrink in relation to Democratic registration, and the nation's usual deep-pocketed contributors for Republican elections all but consider the state a lost cause. More than 75% of the state's Assembly members are now Democrats, and four of the 11 remaining GOP seats in the state Senate (there are just 40 senators in total) are also in serious trouble. Three of these four districts now have more registered Democrats than Republicans. We also take this moment to talk about the GOP on a national level, and how voter suppression is necessary for their survival. They've always had fascist tendencies, and we're watching it all in action here in 2020. Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @guillotine4you, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes. https://voicesrivercity.com//voices-river-city-episode-98/