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In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee shares some sociologically informed observations on camping and depressed rural communities based on his recent travels through the southland. In the second half of the episode, Jaffee and Phillips discuss the loss by Nina Turner for the Congressional seat in Ohio, the extended moratorium on evictions, and the bipartisan infrastructure bill making its way through Congress. The episode ends with the regular “Not The Onion” segment on vaccination behavior.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Phillips has the opportunity to share his experiences traveling to Las Vegas and southern Utah and wrapping it in socio-political context. This includes reference to climate change, police practices, and rental car nightmares. There is also the bout with Covid-like symptoms on his return. The episode ends with some discussion of the implications of the latest Delta-variant-charged spike in cases.  

In this special “on the road” edition of Civil Discord, Jaffee reports on two significant political developments as he travels through Alabama and Mississippi. The first is the ongoing strike, now exceeding 100 days, by the United Mine Workers in Brookwood, Alabama against the Warrior Met corporation. The second segment takes us to Jackson Mississippi, home of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO, aka “the Pink House”) which is at the center of the upcoming case to be heard on abortion by the Supreme Court. Jaffee interviews one of the co-organizers, Derenda Hancock, of the Pink House Defenders, a volunteer organization of escorts for women seeking the services of the JWHO in the face of anti-abortion protesters outside the facility.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips focus on crime and criminal justice issues. More specifically, in the first half, Phillips discusses the sharps rise in violence crime across the US and some potential explanations. In the second half, he turns to the decriminalization of drug use and possession in Oregon and the implications of this policy for policing and carceral trends.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Phillips (sans Jaffee) is joined by regular guest Daniel Cronrath, professor of political science at Florida State College at Jacksonville. They begin by discussing the aftermath of the Orange Crush festival, an event for largely African American college students hosted by Jacksonville. This segues into a conversation about the shameful state of race relations in the city. They next turn to a push by Catholic bishops in the United States to deny communion to pro-choice politicians—including the President of the United States. Next, they examine the new Florida “ideological diversity” law that was passed to address the presumed problem of “liberal indoctrination” in university classrooms. Both Phillips and Cronrath affirm the importance of ideological diversity, but not in the manner the law presumes. They close by speculating about the prospects of a progressive infrastructure bill.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips do a deep dive into the Critical Race Theory controversy. The first episode discusses the rule passed by the Florida Board of Education and the motivations and implications. In the second half, the conversation turns to the actual meaning of Critical Race Theory,  the basic tenets, and some of the legitimate criticisms. The episode ends with another "This Is Not The Onion" segment focusing on the Amazon pacification strategy known as AmaZEN!  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips begin with an update on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. The conversation then turns to Biden’s effort to pass an infrastructure bill,  the unsolicited capitulation by Biden, and the role of the ever-destructive Joe Manchin. After a musical break featuring Gil Scott-Heron’s classic, “Whitey on the Moon”, in honor of Jeff Bezos, the second half is devoted to a discussion of an industrial policy bill for which there is bipartisan support, largely on the basis of anti-China cold war sentiment, and then Phillips shares some thoughts on the Fauci email revelations. The episode ends with the Jaffee sharing a “Not The Onion” piece on your “friendscape”.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee (sans Phillips) is joined by very special guest Ranna Abduljawad, a Palestinian activist and Executive Vice President of the Arab American Community Center of Jacksonville, FL. Abduljawad discusses the source of the Palestinian struggle and the widespread misconceptions about the Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance including the day-to-day living conditions for Palestinians, the recent confrontation between the Israeli military and the Palestinian resistance, role of Hamas, US foreign policy toward Israel, and future prospects for the Palestinian movement.[NOTE: audio difficulties in the first half of the episode are resolved in the second half].    

In this episode, Jaffee and Phillips begin with a consideration of the Biden legislative proposals and the current state of the infrastructure bill (American Jobs Plan). In the second half, attention turns to the return of the Wuhan China lab-leak hypothesis as the source of Covid-19, and the plausibility of this explanation.  The episode ends with a brief discussion of the implications of the Republican Party divisions in Arizona over voter fraud in Maricopa county.    

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips spend the first half of the episode discussing the Israeli-Palestinian situation. The second half is devoted to the presumed labor shortage impacting businesses seeking to recruit workers, and the factors that might be contributing to why some people have decided to sit out of the labor market at this time.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips begin with a discussion of some foreign policy items – the situation in Israel and the migration to the US border from the Northern Triangle. In the second half, they turn to some recent research on race versus class framing of social policy, the Liz Cheney affair, and the Biden announcement lifting intellectual property rights on the US manufactured vaccines.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips are joined by a very special guest, Dr. Marcie Jaffee, Ph.D. in Biochemistry from MIT, who explains the science of a virus and how vaccines work, while also providing a critical analysis of the way the Covid-19 science has proceeded, the development of the vaccines, the drawbacks to getting vaccinated, and the potentially negative, but insufficiently reported, side-effects.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee is joined by regular guest Daniel Cronrath, Professor of Political Science at Florida State College at Jacksonville. In the first half the discussion centers on the proposed withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan after twenty futile years, and the larger shape of US foreign/military policy. In the second half, Cronrath shares his well-informed perspective on guns, gun violence and gun control with consideration of an upcoming case coming before the Supreme Court.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee begins the first segment with a consideration of the extreme level of police violence and killing in the United States, and the lack of progress in addressing this epidemic. In the second segment, Phillips discusses his concerns about Covid-19 science and the problems with arriving at evidence-based conclusions in general.  

Jaffee and Phillips devote the first half of this episode of Civil Discord to a discussion of the vote against union representation at the Amazon facility in Alabama. In the second half, they turn to the announcement by the CDC on the pausing of the J&J vaccine and the police killing of Daunte Wright in Minneapolis.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, there is some preliminary commentary on the idiocy of Mitch McConnell’s statement on the role of corporations in politics, and the ability of restaurant chains to accommodate a $15 minimum wage. Jaffee and Phillips then devote the remainder of the episode to discussion of the Biden infrastructure bill. What is in it, what makes it special, pros and cons, reasons for support and opposition, the inclusion of the corporate tax proposal, the likelihood of its passage, and whether it represents a serious departure from the neoliberal philosophy on the role of government.  

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips began the program with some personal tales on the Covid-19 situation, why it was no surprise that Georgia corporations declined to oppose the anti-democratic voting restrictions passed into law, and reaction to a report that Baltimore is dropping prosecution of low-level crimes.  In the second half of the episode, Jaffee goes not an extended exegesis, mercifully interrupted by questions from Phillips, on the Suez Canal Evergreen container vessel mishap and what it says about the larger neoliberal global economy.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips devote the first half to a discussion of recent CDC changes in guidelines for schools, a discovery on how mutant variants of the virus have evolved, tax evasion by the wealthy, the state of the Senate filibuster, and potential benefits of an infrastructure bill. The second half turns to foreign policy, with Jaffee providing some critical analysis of the early Biden foreign policy direction vis-à-vis China.    

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips are joined by frequent guest Daniel Cronrath, Professor of Political Science at the Florida State College in Jacksonville. (FSCJ). In the first half of the episode the discussion centers around the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, positive and negatives, and its significance for broader progressive policy moving forward as well as the macroeconomic consequences. In the second half of the episode, the shift moves to the various forms of perverse and morbid pieces of legislation moving through Republican dominated legislatures.

In this episode of Civil Discord, Jaffee and Phillips discuss their experience receiving the first Pfizer vaccine shot and issues related to vaccine distribution and access. In the second half, the discussion turns to the Democratic Party handling of the $1.9 trillion relief package and the failure to secure the $15 minimum wage provision. The episode concludes with thoughts on the state of the economy and the likelihood of inflationary pressures.