Zipcode Zero

Today’s guest is former Congressman Mike Capuano, who represented Massachuetts’s 7th Congressional District from 1999 to 2019.

I pick Mike’s brain on a wide range of issues, including, of course, Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, what he thinks of Matt Gaetz’s demands, whether or not we should abolish the Senate and what he thinks of an old proposal to combine Boston, Cambridge and Somerville

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for all you listeners and your ability to follow, like and share the show. We’re coming up on our annual t-shirt contest which I’m excited to share more details about in the future. For now, enjoy the show.

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Representative Capuano previously served as a member of Congress for twenty years, initially representing the interest of the 8th District. Following redistricting in 2013, he was elected to serve the 7th District of Massachusetts including his native Somerville, parts of Boston, Cambridge, and Milton, and the communities of Chelsea, Everett, and Randolph. Capuano began his life in political office as a member of the Somerville Board of Alderman at age 25, where he would write one of the first sanctuary cities ordinances in the country. He eventually ran successfully for Mayor in 1989, a role which he held until 1999 when he was elected to Congress. During his time in Washington, Representative Capuano was a passionate advocate for urban issues, founding five Congressional caucuses including one each for former Mayors, Community Health Centers, and Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, as well as Sudan and Korea. He was also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and long-time advocate for a single-payer health care system. He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Financial Services committee. During his tenure, he helped to secure federal funding for affordable housing redevelopment in Roxbury, increased resources for community health centers and medical research, and major transit investment like the Boston area Green Line extension. He earned his BA from Dartmouth College and JD from Boston College.
Twitter
@mikecapuano

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“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longa be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. " - John F. Kennedy, 1961

For over half a century, from the end of the Second World War to the turn of the millennium, avoiding nuclear war has been a key pillar of American foreign policy – guided by arms agreements, communication and common sense.

But today, many of those controls have faded away or ceased to exist – and the Bullet of Atomic Scientists – has warned we’re closer to the nuclear precipice than we have ever been before. 90 seconds to midnight, to use their terminology.

In fact in one of the most recent near misses, in the steppes of Eastern Europe, U.S. intelligence officials estimated that in the fall of 2022 it came down to the flip of a coin as to whether or not Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon to stave off a Ukrainian offensive.

So how did we get here? Why has the fear of nuclear catastrophe faded from the public imagination even as the threat has increased? And what the hell happened in Ukraine that brought us so close to the edge? Today I am joined by The New York Times' W.J. Hennigan to discuss.
Bill, as he goes by, is serving as the lead writer for an ambitious, NYT series on nuclear threats and the challenges our world faces in combating proliferation. Bill has deep expertise covering the U.S. military and national security issues. He has reported from more than two dozen countries across five continents, covering war, the arms trade and the lives of American service members.

Bill come to the Times from Time magazine, where he was most recently a senior correspondent. In 2021, he received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense for his series on the role of the U.S. military throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year he was part of a reporting team that received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington Correspondence on the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath. Before joining Time in 2017, Bill worked for more than eight years at The Los Angeles Times, where he covered the Pentagon and the defense industry. He has earned several awards and citations, including the Associated Press Media Editors Award for international perspective and the National Press Club’s Michael A. Dornheim Award, and he was part of a team of journalists who won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting.
Twitter: @wjhenn
At The Brink Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/07/opinion/nuclear-weapons-nytimes.html

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Urban Deer Hunt: https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Over the last decade we’ve seen the rise of a wide range of social justice movements, from Occupy Wall Street to Me Too to Black Lives Matter. Where are those movements now and what impact have they had?

In his new book “How the Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement” Freddie DeBoer explores these questions. Freddie argues that in the digital age, social movements flare up but then lose steam through a lack of tangible goals, the inherent moderating effects of our established institutions and political parties, and the lack of any real grassroots movement in contemporary America. Hidden beneath the rhetoric of the oppressed and the symbolism of the downtrodden lies the inconvenient fact that those doing the organizing, messaging, protesting, and campaigning are predominantly drawn from this country’s more upwardly mobile educated classes.

DeBoer lays out an alternative vision for how society’s winners can contribute to social justice movements without taking them over, and how activists and their organizations can become more resistant to the influence of elites, nonprofits, corporations, and political parties. He argues that only by organizing around class rather than empty gestures can we begin the hard work of changing minds and driving policy.

In my conversation with Freddie we discuss his takes on why the Bernie Sanders campaigns failed, illiberalism and intolerance among the activist left, the quiet expiration of the Child Tax Credit, why Freddie favors a much more open immigration policy, and more.

I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please remember to like, follow and share the show. Enjoy
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Bio:
Fredrik deBoer is the author of The Cult of Smart, a book about meritocracy, education, and the potential for a more humane society. It was selected by New York magazine as one of its Ten Best Books of 2020. He holds a PhD in English from Purdue University, where he concentrated on assessment of student learning. He lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend and his cat Suavecito.
Book:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-Elites-Ate-the-Social-Justice-Movement/Fredrik-deBoer/9781668016015
Substack:
https://substack.com/@freddiedeboer

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Clinton Friedrichs is a former Republican Hill staffer who worked for Representative Will Hurt (R-TX), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE). He joins Zipcode Zero to talk about his perspective on the presidential and down ballot elections.
Topics include:
- JD Vance and a (possibly) changing GOP
- Kamala Harris's strategy and vision vs. that of Donald Trump
- The impact of immigration
- Races to look out for in Ohio and Texas
- Possible election outcomes in Congress and what that means for either candidate's legislative agenda
- When we can expect to know the results of the election
And much more.

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt: https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Robert Powell is a co-founder of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, a non-profit, in September 2017. The purpose of the organization is the scientific study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Affiliation with the organization is open to all individuals with a background in science, the military, or law enforcement.

Powell has a BS degree in Chemistry and is a former collegiate debater. He has 28 years experience in engineering management in the semiconductor industry. While working at Advanced Micro Devices, Robert has taken numerous internal courses related to device physics, design of experiments and statistical analysis. He helped Advanced Micro Devices develop its first flash memory technology that is used in today’s flash cards for cameras, PCs, video cameras, and other products.

Robert's experience includes managing a state-of-the-art chemistry laboratory and managing a Research and Development group that worked on nanotechnology using atomic force microscopes, near-field optical microscopy, and other techniques. Robert is also a co-holder of four patents related to nanotechnology.

Robert Powell was the former Director of Research at MUFON from 2007-2017 and created MUFON's Science Review Board in 2012. He is one of two authors of the detailed radar/witness report on the “Stephenville Lights,” as well as the SCU report "UAP: 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico". Robert is a member of the Society for Scientific Exploration, the UFODATA project and the National Space Society. He is active with FOIA requests to various government organizations to obtain information on historical cases and is a co-author of the book, 'UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry,' published in 2012. Robert currently resides in Austin, Texas.
Website
https://www.explorescu.org/
Twitter
@rpowell2u
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Music
Urban Deer Hunt: https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt
E.T. Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I59-nWBJXRs

Show Info
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Twitter
@KevinAMaley
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Email
[email protected]
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Music
Urban Deer Hunt: https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt