2980 - Biden off the Rails, Progressives v. Leadership & New Primary Schedule w/ Ryan Grim

It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ryan Grim, DC Bureau Chief at the Intercept, to round up the week in news, including discussions on the freight rail labor contract, the progressives’ role in the debate (and the Democratic party writ large), and Biden’s changes to the election cycle – but first, Emma and Sam run through updates on the Fed still losing the fight to booming labor numbers, the Georgia runoff, Boebert’s recount, and the end of free speech on Twitter, before diving into CNN’s recent coverage of the freight railers’ bargaining process. Ryan Grim then joins as he dives right into walking backward through the freight railers’ contract bargaining process, first exploring the corporation-enforced lockout and the companies’ attempt to impose a new contract on their workers, before jumping back to the story of the last few years with these companies cutting a third of the workforce, shifting towards streamlined, just-in-time processes (and really long trains), and creating such a brittle and non-redundant system that they feared would fall apart with a single sick day. Next, Ryan jumps into the leadup to Biden’s role in forcing this contract on the freight railers, following a narrow rejection of a previous version, and how he planned this maneuver around the midterms. Emma, Sam, and Ryan also tackle the progressives’ role in the vote, exploring what about voting to force a contract on workers could be progressive, why a split bill may not have actually hindered the fight very much, and why the Democrats refused to push the GOP into a touch position, before wrapping up with a discussion on Biden’s decision to shift around the primary schedule and the impact it could have.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma break down the court ruling that made Amazon managers in Staten Island read out a court decision to their employees telling them they can't union bust, as well as the state of the Georgia runoffs now that the Georgia Lieutenant Governor refused to vote for Herschel Walker. Then they dive into the Kanye West-Info Wars fiasco, and the right wing's cringe-defensive crouch response. Plus, your calls and IM's!

Check out Ryan's work at the Intercept: https://theintercept.com/staff/ryangrim/

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