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PODCAST REVIEW: Deconstructed by The Intercept

The Deconstructed podcast by The Intercept dives into the controversy that has emerged in the days following the winter storm in Texas and subsequent power failure.

Ryan Hedrick

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Millions of Texans are dealing with the aftermath of a relentless winter storm that knocked out power and left some without running water. The storm is also being blamed for at least 26 deaths. Unfortunately, politics have taken center stage following the catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid.

The state is rich in fossil fuels and renewable power, so the power grid has been free from federal oversight for decades. The Deconstructed podcast by The Intercept dives into the controversy that has emerged in the days following the storm and subsequent power failure.

Host Ryan Grim spoke to former congressional candidate Mike Siegel and former Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, about how the state’s power grid collapsed and whether this event could have been prevented.

The episode seeks to blame state Republicans who gained control of the Texas House of Representatives in the early part of the century. The show suggests the party devised a gerrymandering scheme that ultimately resulted in an experiment in deregulation that led to the great energy collapse of 2021.

O’Rourke blasted the state’s Republican party saying that there are some politicians in the state government who are “in the highest positions of public trust who just fundamentally don’t believe in government.” While O’Rourke believes the state’s GOP party is to blame, those on the other side feel the Green New Deal is the culprit.

The argument may be flawed given the fact the deal has not become federal law yet. Fox and other Right-wing networks spent a majority of last week blaming frozen wind turbines for the state’s power failure.

“Unbeknownst to most people, the Green New Deal came to Texas, the power grid in the state became totally reliant on windmills,” said Tucker Carlson during his Feb. 16 show. “Then it got cold and the windmills broke, because that’s what happens in the Green New Deal.”

During a two-day period, windmills or wind turbines were mentioned more than 100 times on Fox News and Fox Business, according to TVEyes, a media monitoring service.

“The windmills failed, like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died,” Carlson continued. “Green energy inevitably means blackouts.”

The State of Texas is not immune from major winter storms. According to data gathered by the National Weather Service, most of Texas gets less than an inch of snow per year on average. West Texas, places like Amarillo and El Paso, gets more snow than the rest of the state.

“It wasn’t as if Texas didn’t know cold winters were possible,” Grimm said. “In 1989 a cold snap crashed below zero and caused major power outages. “In 2011, it happened again which forced rolling power blackouts across the state. Politics got us into this mess, and only politics will get us out.”

Mike Siegel, a teacher, and civil rights attorney came up short in his first run for a Texas congressional seat in 2018 and 2020 claims state Republicans have sold residents out by controlling big oil and big gas.

“This is a catastrophic failure of Republican governance,” Siegel said. “Going back 20 years or more when they supported deregulation, allowing for an electrical system that’s basically on-demand spot bidding, these energy providers are basically buying energy on the market and so the price goes up ten-thousand percent. That is just business as usual in Texas.”

Siegel said 10 years ago the state had a major freeze where the recommendation that came out of that was that the state need to weatherize the grid and the facilities and Republican leaders never followed through on that plan.

“We have frozen wells, frozen lines, and that’s a big part of our electrical grid here in Texas,” he said. “Most of our reserve energy that is supposed to come through for us at a time like this, didn’t come online. They (Republicans) would never look at themselves in the mirror. Governor Abbott would never admit to failure.”

Siegel said the GOP’S cover-up was to blanket right-wing news outlets and create the narrative that the Green New Deal. 

Each week the Intercept’s Washington D.C. bureau brings you one important or overlooked story from the political world. Bureau Chief Ryan Grimes and a rotating cast of journalists, politicians, academics, and historians tell you what the media is missing.

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Sports Talkers Podcast: Danny Parkins, 670 The Score

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Danny Parkins opens up to Stephen Strom about why he is so passionate about defending Chicago. He also gives his best career advice and explains why a best friend is more important sometimes than an agent.

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PODCAST REVIEW: Millennial Money with Shannah Compton Game

Game spotlights rental evictions and how those evictions are impacting the economy. To discuss this issue Game talks to Shabana Baksh, Real Estate Attorney at K&L Gates LLP, and Tendayi Kapfidze, Chief Economist at LendingTree.

Ryan Hedrick

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No one could have predicted what the COVID-19 pandemic was going to do to the economy. Some of the unintended consequences from the spread of last year’s virus include millions of people getting behind in either rent or mortgage payments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about 10 million people were behind in their rent payments at the beginning of the month.

Recently, President Joe Biden extended the federal eviction moratorium through the end of the month. The Millennial Money podcast withShannah Compton Game spotlights rental evictions and how those evictions are impacting the economy. To discuss this issue Game talks to Shabana Baksh, Real Estate Attorney at K&L Gates LLP, and Tendayi Kapfidze, Chief Economist at LendingTree.

“This temporary moratorium extends some of these vital protections to millions of renters that are at risk of eviction,” said Baksh. “They are also state and local moratoriums that remain in effect who may not qualify for assistance under the federal guidelines.”

Landlords across the country have been put in a tough situation with continuing moratoriums at the federal, state, and local levels. The typical delinquent renter owes nearly $6,000, according to a report published from Moody’s Analytics. The $900 billion relief package passed in December provided $25 billion for both landlords and renters.

“What we have seen happening since the economic crisis related to the coronavirus is that a lot of people who have been affected in terms of the industries that have been adversely affected such as travel, tourism, restaurants, and places where people have to engage directly, a lot of those people happen to be renters,” Kapfidze said,  “So obviously if you are not getting paid and not getting income it is a challenge to pay for your rent.”

To qualify for the funds, which are being disbursed by states and can be used for past and present rent, a renter must show that they suffered financial hardship due to the pandemic, have incomes below 80 percent of their median income and are at risk of becoming homeless.

“Right now, renters and owners find themselves in a significant cash crunch,” said Baksh. “We are entering into the second year of this pandemic and many renters are just accruing late fees and debt and so we are seeing a large buildup of these late payments. With that said, there are policies in place to protect renters and homeowners from being evicted and provide them with rental relief.”

Landlords still must pay mortgages on these properties that are not collecting rent. Lenders started the foreclosure process on 5,999 U.S. properties in February 2021, up 15 percent from last month but down 78 percent from a year ago. The highest foreclosure rates in Utah, Delaware, and Florida.

Lenders repossessed 1,545 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures in February 2021, up 8 percent from last month but still down 85 from last year. 

“Renters should alert their landlords of their inability to pay their rent,” said Baksh. “Have an honest and open conversation with them about your situation. Try to seek a solution, landlords may be willing to negotiate during this tough time and agree to payment arrangements.”

 The one thing that renters should know about eviction moratoriums is that they do not dissolve you of the responsibility of paying your landlord.

“The devil is in the details,” said Kapfidze. “Eviction moratorium, it means that if you are the renters you are accumulating debt, you are still under contract if you are renting, and you still have an obligation to pay your bill. “In terms of the rental relief funds there are different structures of plans, but the money is not always easy to access.”

To learn more about the Millennial Money podcast with Shannah Compton Game click here

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PODCAST REVIEW: Consider This from NPR

Consider This podcast from NPR hosted by Mary Louis Kelly, hosted a conversation with several people from the Asian American community and organizations about steps that are being taken to protect people from becoming victims of senseless violence.

Ryan Hedrick

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There is a movement to raise awareness about the threat of violence against Asian Americans living in the United States. Last week, a 21-year-old white man murdered six women of Asian descent and two other people at Atlanta area massage businesses. Robert Aaron Long told police that his killing spree was not motivate by race by rather by his sex addiction.

The incident has motivated discussions and rallies over the past several days. Consider This podcast from NPR hosted by Mary Louise Kelly, hosted a conversation with several people from the Asian American community and organizations about steps that are being taken to protect people from becoming victims of senseless violence.

The podcast documents several incidents that did not make national news headlines. In San Francisco, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was out for a morning walk when out of nowhere, a man shoved him violently to the ground. He died two days later. It was not the only attack like that in the region.

A local resident who is sick and tired of seeing violence carried out against his community is getting involved.  JoJo Au launched a fundraiser to hire armed private security guards to patrol her own neighborhood, Oakland’s Chinatown. She has raised almost a hundred thousand dollars.

“Honestly, I didn’t know that it was going to spread like wildfire,” said JoJo Au. “And so many people were so concerned about it and wanted to do something, but they didn’t know what. You know, the merchants, they even say they feel safer. Some of the shoppers here, they feel safer. So, you know, I’m glad that I did this.”

Kelly said the pattern is clear – Asian American communities are being terrorized by harassment and violence. “Consider this – all those crimes you just heard about happened this year before a man in Georgia shot and killed eight people, most of whom were women of Asian descent.”

A group called Stop AAPI Hate tracks violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Since the start of the pandemic, they have received reports of nearly 4,000 hate incidents across the United States. 

Connie Chung Joe is CEO of a legal aid group, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles.

“Almost half of them are coming from California,” Chung said. “Another thing is that women are targeted more than twice as often as men. And then we are seeing a spate of hate and violence targeted at our seniors.

Chung said the Asian American that she knows are advising their parents and grandparents to stay in the house. “Even for things like daily walks or trips to the grocery store. So, folks are really worried about this. And there’s also a lot of outrage about why this is still allowed to happen in our society?”

Ben Nguyen is a Georgia state representative. Her district covers part of Atlanta and DeKalb County. She believes that Robert Long killed the women because of hate and nothing else.

“We know that these are three businesses that are Asian-owned,” Nguyen said. “We know that most people who work there are Asian. And I think for anyone who lives in Atlanta and you hear the word massage parlor, that there is an understanding that perhaps there are other sex worker-related things that take place in these massage parlors. And it’s largely accepted.”

Federally, there is an effort to address violence against Asian American communities. One of the leaders of that effort is Congresswoman Grace Meng, Democrat from New York. She’s introduced legislation on the issue. Her district covers parts of New York City and Queens. We spoke this week before the shootings in Georgia.

“People are scared. People are literally telling their elderly parents and grandparents, “do not go out,” said Meng.  “You know, we’ll buy groceries for you. I had a mom – that night when I heard about that incident, she had seen it on the news, and she texted me. She said, that’s it; I’m not letting my kids play outside anymore.” 

The U.S. Department of Justice could choose to bring federal hate crime charges against Long if they uncover any evidence to prove Long targeted the victims specifically because of their race.

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