Hopping Mad With Will Mcleod & Arliss Bunny

13 June 2016 - We always think our interview guest is going to give us a strong interview but there is no way to predict when an interview is going to be breathtaking. Ariella Barker, advocate and activist for persons with disabilities (PwDs) gave us a truly stunning, erudite and heartfelt interview. It is no surprise that this is our longest interview to date. Ariella had a lot to say and all of it was important. I tracked Ariella down after I read her 18 May blog post, "'Berned' by Bernie," which was suddenly all over my Twitter timeline one day. You. Must. Read. This. Blog. Post. There is a reason it went viral. Even more than this post though, I was astonished by the revelatory honesty and genuine humanity of Ariella's blog as a whole. She goes by "shiksappeal" on Wordpress and that is only one of the lovely things about her. I always gravitate to smart people who can laugh at themselves. Ariella is my kind of person. I guarantee you will learn an astonishing amount abou

6 June 2016 - Will and I were unable to record a new episode this week so we are reprising our episode from March which featured Alexis Goldstein of Americans for Financial Reform. Alexis gave us a truly exceptional interview on Dodd-Frank and given that our interview last week was on the foreclosure crisis, with David Dayen, we thought touching back to our conversation with Alexis made sense. You can go here for our original episode notes. We will be back next week with an all new Hopping Mad. - Arliss

30 May 2016 - I have a house rabbit named David Dayen. That's how highly I think of our guest this week. Dayen is a highly respected financial news and economics journalist for a reason. He finds a way to make even the most dry and dense topics understandable while also making it absolutely clear why we should all care. David's first book, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud (also on Audible.com here), is meticulously researched and a deep dive into the foreclosure crisis. Typical of David he found a unique way into the story through the lens and lives of three regular people who, instead of going quietly into the dark of foreclosure shame, chose to shine a revelatory light. Whatever you know about the foreclosure crisis sprouted, quite directly, from the questions Lisa, Michael and Lynn asked and the shocking answers they unearthed. Heroes are those who run into the fire, into the storm, to bring others to safety. Chain of Title is a

23 May 2016 – Middle East expert Landon Shroder (@LandonShroder) has returned to talk to us about the work being done to counter-message ISIS. His new company and foundation, Applied Mathematics, combines the skills of experienced foreign policy experts with the messaging genius of marketing professionals to create authentic, high quality content which will provide a counter-weight against on-line, violent, extremist media. Will starts off the show with a story about flags. Because they had nothing better to do with their lives, Spanish soccer authorities tried to ban the Catalan flag, the Estelada, from being waved by fans during a championship match. Will then goes on to talk about the tremendously dangerous environment which now exists for ALL women as a result of the new anti-trans, bathroom laws in North Carolina. Women across the nation have already come under active threat and it’s only going to get worse. Bathroom vigilantes are coming to a bathroom near you. I begin with the extravaganza that is E

16 May 2016 - When you have Mark Potok, from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), on for the interview, you already know it's going to be a good show. Mark is the editor of the SPLC quarterly journal, Intelligence Report and most of this interview is based upon an article he and Don Terry wrote for the Winter issue, Margins to the Mainstream. While Mark is one of the leading experts in the country on extremism (and we will have him back in a few weeks on that very subject) this article took a look at the conspiracy theories which have seeped into the mainstream of politics from the radical right. In this, the season of Trump, it seemed apropos. Will takes a thoughtful stroll around democracy. Once initially ensconced, most citizens tend to think of democracy as a done deal but it is a process and, certainly, both in North America and in Europe, it is undergoing change, some good and some bad. Will knows where he wants to go and that's what he's "on about" today. I'm off on

9 May 2016 - This week on Hopping Mad we had two guests for an extended interview which we dubbed our Pundit Primer. Greg Dworkin (DemFromCT at dKos and Twitter) and Driftglass ( his own blog and Mr_Electrico on Twitter). Greg starts most weekday mornings on the popular Netroots Radio show and podcast, Kagro in the Morning with David Waldman. Driftglass joins Bluegal on the podcast The Professional Left, which also airs on Netroots Radio. These are both shows I can honestly say I never miss and I encourage you to give them a listen if you have not done so in the past. Both Greg and Driftglass are long-time pundit watchers and they both put various pundits into context and make us laugh. Just perfect. [Note: at the bottom of this blog post we have included some links Greg sent us which evidence the work of some of those pundits we discuss.] Will took a look at the Scottish election results which show what might happen to the Democratic Party if we decide to slide to the right. Scottish Labour is in trouble

2 May 2016 - Even more than in the past there is this nexus between the progressive movement and the labor movement in the US. This week we were joined for the interview by the Chief Economist of the AFL-CIO, the deeply knowledgable Dr. William Spriggs. Dr. Spriggs kindly gave us an unusually long and detailed interview and we highly recommend visiting some of the pages, to which I refer during our talk. They are on the excellent website of the AFL-CIO here, here, here and here. At the top of the show Will fills us in on what is going on with the protestors who have just taken the Iraqi Parliament. Later in the show he gives us the promised update on the Scottish elections which will take place on 5 May. I start out on the newly released anti-austerity budget which has just been announced by the Trudeau government in Canada. I come back a bit later to give a lot of detail about the very aggressive Vision 2030 economic plan aimed at weaning Saudi Arabia off of its dependence on oil. Headed by favorite son De

Rachel Hutchiston of irreverent testimony joined me as a guest host, because Arliss is on vacation. Today we started with a tiny bit of coverage on the Scottish elections. Our UK listeners will note that I didn't talk much about Nicola, and that's because I'm saving a full segment for her next week, as I talk about the Scottish elections on May 5th. Only when those are over and done with will I give Brexit my full attention. That was followed by a discussion of LGBT strategy when it comes to elections, and a discussion about how we take state governments back with Rachel. Our interview was with social worker Molly Judson, who's been on the front lines for just over two decades. This was one of the hardest interviews I've ever done, because of the subject matter: LGBT children and teens who've been enslaved right here in the US. Molly deals with these issues directly. Looking at the ways that LGBT teens are being enslaved is extremely bleak - but it doesn't have to be that

Arliss is on vacation for two weeks, but we've decided to go ahead with the show. For a little fun, Tom Cheevers of the Coffee Cast joined us, along with Tom and Rachel of Irreverent testimony. Our frenetic conversation ran the fullest possible gamut, from Religion, to the chaos of the GOP primary, to Terrorism and then to Feminism. Great fun was had by all as we fought through some of the tougher issues we're dealing with in the modern world. Next week, Rachel will be back for a regular format program, including an interview with a very special guest. We'll be covering LGBT issues in depth, so tune in, you won't want to miss it. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you all next week.

11 April 2016 – Every time I hear DeRay McKesson speak or read an article he has written I am again convinced that we need someone like this running every major city in America. Our interview with the Baltimore Mayoral candidate, civil rights activist and educator reveals him to be a holistic thinker, a realist and a revolutionary all at the same time. If you don’t already, you must follow him on Twitter at @deray. Will has referred to DeRay’s platform on past shows and, if you have not already done so, go and read a plan for an American city that is grounded in what works and the mechanisms for scaling already tested, functional programs. At the top of the show I talk about the realities of presidential campaign financing which Bernie consistently avoids. I have to admit, I see him differently after his utter failure at the interview in New York and his, frankly, unforgivable (from my perspective) remark about Hillary. I don’t know if he realizes how very differently women heard him. For me, Bernie has cros

4 April 2016 – Most of us have a short list of “desert island” authors and I have to admit that award-winning author Matt Rees has been on my list since I stumbled across his novel, The Collaborator of Bethlehem, early in 2007. Reading Matt’s work over the years has changed my perspective and every time I re-read one of his books I find that once again I am seeing part of the world in a new way. In the interview today we spend most of our time on Matt’s newest book, The Ambassador, which he wrote with co-author Yehuda Avner. You will likely recognize Mr. Avner’s name as he was the well-known Israeli diplomat and advisor to Prime Ministers who passed away just this past year. In the interview Matt talks to us about both the process and the fabric of his thoughts on writing. Matt was born in Wales, grew up in London, went to university in the States and then worked as a journalist, briefly covering Wall Street but then for nearly fifteen years in Jerusalem much of that as the Time Magazine Jerusalem Bureau Chie

28 March 2016 - In the interest of full disclosure, as a Rabbit American I admit a bias on the topic of rabbit welfare. Toward that end Will and I were able to have attorney Mara Hurwitt join the show to talk about the legal complexities and issues related to rabbits. Mara is a long-time educator for the House Rabbit Society, a leading international rabbit rescue organization. Mara has provided pro bono legal support for a variety of animal welfare organizations and has worked at the Federal level to protect wild horse herds (which, in my opinion should be considered a national treasure). Rabbits are the third most abandoned domestic animal in the nation yet few municipal facilities or private rescue organizations are both equipped and knowledgable enough to meet their special needs. Rabbit abuse is rampant and seems to be on the increase but things are changing and Mara is a part of making that happen. Will begins the show with the newest in crazy from North Carolina. Later in the show he brings the history

21 March 2016 – This week we take a deep dive into Dodd-Frank. As I have been promising for the past several weeks, I start out with a fast but fairly detailed backgrounder on the legislation itself. Then, our guest, Alexis Goldstein updates us on where we are today with the implementation process. Alexis is a Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for Financial Reform and has been in the thick of the Dodd-Frank battle from back in her days with Occupy the SEC when she co-authored a 325-page Comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging them to write rules for a strong version of the Volker Rule. Seriously, that’s my kind of banking wonk. During our conversation Alexis referred to a link at Bloomberg and that is here for your easy reference. Will begins the show talking about Bernie’s Town Hall on the Navajo reservation, while correcting the record. President Russell Begaye had a “very good” discussion with Bernie, where he talked with the Senator about the need for a cabinet-level position for

14 March 2016 - I follow many media sources on economics but none more closely than I do Frances Coppola. Frances' insight on banking fraud, regulation and on the Greek crisis has contributed significantly to my thinking on these subjects. Having her on the show to talk about Brexit is especially exciting for me and I know you will be bowled over by her as well. Her blog, Coppola Comment and other writings, at The Guardian, the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes and her appearances on the BBC provide an accessible clarity rare among financial industry wonks. Will is breaking news today on the Agent Orange crisis on the San Carlos Apache reservation lands in Arizona. The Environmental Protection Agency is apparently stepping up to finally (thirty years after the fact) mitigate extreme adverse impact. At the top of the show Will talks about working to focus on the big issues, the real issues in the campaign and not getting lost in the weeds of a single comment. I finish my financial instrument backgr

This week, Arliss talked derivatives while I did a quick numbers update on the primary. We were joined by guests and friends of the show Rachel Hutchison and Travis Rosen of Irreverent Testimony. We had a raucous round table where we talked Bernie, Hillary, and the future of the democratic party, all of it circling around the question "How do we come together as a party." We also talked about the poor leadership of our party.

29 February 2016 - This week, we talked Iranian, Irish, and Scottish elections. I discussed Labour's demise in Scotland, and talked about how they've never recovered from the death of Donald Dewar. It looks as if Labour is heading for yet another defeat in the upcoming Holyrood elections. Arliss went over some banking terms (I know! What could possibly be more exciting?) because the jargon of the financial industry is a language of obfuscation. In order for us to understand what the heck these people are talking about, we need to learn what is essentially a separate language. That's by design. If nobody can understand the words Banksters use to describe what they're doing, then nobody can legislate against them. This is the first of a multi-part series which will get deeply into the weeds of banking reform. Following that, we had a fantastic conversation with Charles Gaba (aka Brainwrap) of acasignups.net, who talked about the massive entity that is the US healthcare system and some of t

22 February 2016 - This week Will and I ended up with so much to say that we did the whole show ourselves. I open with an update on the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and I follow that with a quick take on economic canaries, Maersk and CSX. Will follows me with news about the terrific campaign of DeRay Mckesson in the mayoral race in Baltimore. DeRay has released spectacular position papers and proposals and is running the kind of campaign which deserves to draw support from progressives across the nation. I'm up next with answers to listener questions relating to the article, "It's Not About the Debt," by Chad Stone. I get into some detail about why using debt-to-GDP ratio as a metric makes no logical sense. As part of my explanation I draw from the excellent Levy Economics Institute Working Paper (Number 603), "Does Excessive Sovereign Debt Really Hurt Growth? A Critique of This Time It's Different, by Reinhart and Rogoff." We also mark the passing of the gifted author

8 February 2016 – I love political detail. The nitty gritty, pixel level parts that combine to render something one can only see fully by stepping back. Jesse LaGreca (@JesseLaGreca on Twitter and MinistryOfTruth on Daily Kos) gave us some excellent, granular information on the seats most likely to help Democrats to flip the Senate. He also got into gerrymandering, the GOP Presidential nominees and why running away from Obama and the word “liberal” doesn’t fly with the Democratic Party base. Will reminded us that Trayvon Martin would have turned 21 this week. Will also gave a nod to the Sanders campaign for policing their Reddit and banning attacks on Hillary. Will then goes on to compare the Scottish YES campaign to the current Sanders campaign. (“You say you want a revolution….”) I start out the show with an update on the rapid changes coming for the Iranian economy and the real challenges faced by Iranian banks. Later in the show I try to answer listener Peter’s questions about how to talk about deficits

Arliss is ill this weekend, and yet another victim of what’s being called “Hell Plague 2016.” Having no voice, she was unable to join us this week. Landon Shroder and I spent the hour discussing candidates positions, the Iranian perspective, and what comes after ISIS. We talked about ISIS’ own propaganda, and what we’re doing to counteract it.

Arliss explains the current economic news, while Will discusses a proposed Scottish Spaceport.