The Blue Ridge Breakdown

January 6, FDR, and the Fight for the Four FreedomsIn this episode of The Blue Ridge Breakdown, host Troy Miller is joined by historian Professor Harvey J. Kaye to reclaim January 6 as more than a symbol of democratic rupture.On January 6, 1941—eighty-five years before the Capitol insurrection—Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union address introducing the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Those ideas became the moral foundation of the New Deal and America’s fight against fascism.Miller and Kaye trace a democratic through-line from Thomas Paine to Abraham Lincoln to FDR, examining how economic inequality, oligarchy, and historical amnesia have repeatedly threatened democracy—and how earlier generations fought back through labor rights, social programs, and an expansive vision of freedom.Rather than surrender January 6 to insurrectionists, this conversation argues for reclaiming it as a reminder of democracy’s unfinished promise—and the economic rights required to sustain it.Guest: Harvey J. Kaye, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Green BayBooks: The Fight for the Four Freedoms; Thomas Paine and the Promise of America Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of The Blue Ridge Breakdown, host Troy Miller speaks with freshwater biologist Than Hitt of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition about clean water, cancer rates, wetlands, data centers, and why what goes into our rivers never stays there. From selenium contamination to AI-driven data center water use, this conversation explores how science, policy, and profit shape life downstream—in West Virginia and beyond. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

The Republican healthcare plan came out yesterday, December 10 -- which is essentially to give tax breaks to billionaires and let average Americans fight directly with health insurers. But WHY is our system in such DESPERATE need of FIXING? What are the factors driving America's healthcare deficiencies? What explains why we don't guarantee every American a right to healthcare? I sit down with @thomhartmann to discuss. Since the first program was developed in Bismarck's conservative Germany in the 1880s, EVERY SINGLE developed country in the WORLD has figured out how to guarantee healthcare to its citizens... except the United States of America. #oligarchy #healthcare #politics #economics #america #history Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Sabrina Davis -- Policy and Communications Specialist for Social Security Works and Senior Youth Correspondent for The Blue Ridge Breakdown -- joins to discuss aging and what it means to be "chopped" and "unc" and why Social Security is so important for everyone -- young people and "chopped" people alike. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

In November we've seen big wins from coast to coast and real electoral demands for "affordability" and economic populism -- and at the same time now HALF of US GDP is driven by the AI bubble.  ⁨@TheZeroHourwithRJEskow⁩  joins to discuss what these stories tell us about how voters are rejecting the billionaires' political program even as the billionaires double down on strip mining America. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

WV Citizen Action Group Organizing Manager and Healthcare Lead Mindy Holcomb joins to talk about how the government shutdown is hurting West Virginians -- and how Republican policies will keep hurting West Virginians even when it re-opens. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Joined by labor and employment attorney and DNC committee member Sam Petsonk to discuss how West Virginia can tackle the affordability crisis and start to make healthcare affordable again by expanding the Public Employee Insurance Agency health plans to businesses and individuals. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Continuing my conversation with Professor Harvey J. Kaye about Thomas Paine, agrarian justice, social security, Paine's faith, why conservatives tried to erase Paine and what every single progressive movement in American history has had in common Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

An in-depth conversation with historian, author, and professor Harvey J. Kaye, author of "Thomas Paine and the Promise of America" about Thomas Paine's life from his childhood as the son of a corset maker, to sparking the American Revolution with "Common Sense," to birthing the foundations of Social Democracy and attempts to suppress his legacy all the way to his mysterious final resting place. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

A conversation with Nancy Altman of Social Security Works about Social Security yesterday, today and tomorrow, including: the real and imaginary threats to Social Security; why some people want to destroy it (and steal your hard earned money); and what we can do to shore up and expand the program for generations to come. Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Earlier today (October 1, 2025) I talked with Richard (RJ) Eskow about how so-called “Artificial Intelligence” and the economics around it have very real impacts and extracts from everybody. You’ll hear about things I won’t link to, but I will screenshot to — like OpenAI’s announcement of Sora 2. Amounting to, in my view, “yes we can imagine more than you can the harm this technology may do, and we are ready to profit from it anyway.” The conversation scratches a lot of surfaces but there’s a few things while I was listening back that I wanted to make sure folks had direct links to. Full disclosure, I produced both of these. * On the data center based electronic frontier of so-called “AI,” we’re the cattle, and that’s nothing new. Check out this conversation with Yasha Levine back in July of 2018. * And what’re the robber barons of the 21st century imagining to do with their hoards? Well, they’re pretty sure there’ll be a cataclysm and even then it seems their only concern is how to retain their hoard. (It is this author’s opinion very much that we all need to actually get on Team Human.) Beyond all that, when push comes to shove it’s also hitting us all right where it hurts and we all are paying up whether any of it pans out or not. Just search “ai centers electricity” and let Google’s “AI” confess. There’s a lot more in our “intelligent conversation” — so give it watch, listen, share — and let us know at the Blue Ridge Breakdown what you’d like to learn more about that we touched on or completely missed in this conversation, or other things. If you don’t already sign up for more and we welcome paid subscriptions even as we figure out what we can offer y’all above and beyond the free subscription. With thanks and in solidarity, Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

America’s number one progressive talk radio host and New York Times-bestselling author Thom Hartmann joins to discuss the rise of authoritarianism in America and why it’s not “too late” for America to turn back to small-d democracy. His new book (out September 23, 2025) is The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink. Topics of our conversation include:* how billionaires built a social and political infrastructure that spans from state legislatures to national media outlets * why billionaires depend on a permanent underclass of citizens and politics of division* what we can learn from the history of authoritarianism in other countries* how the Democratic Party lost its sense of identity and its small-d democratic 20th-century roots* why we need to take over the Democratic Party from below and how you can get involvedCheck out the whole thing and stay tuned for more from The Blue Ridge Breakdown - and if you don’t already, make sure to subscribe to Thom Hartmann and The Hartmann Report right here on Substack. Other books discussed in this include The Hidden History of Monopoly ; The Hidden History of Oligarchy : and The Hidden History of Big Brother. All available through your local bookstore or here!With thanks and in solidarity, Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

This was a real pleasure! For those of you who don’t know, Progressive Democrats of America recently launched a chapter in West Virginia and I am honored to serve on the steering committee for our chapter. On July 8th, PDA West Virginia invited Prof. Harvey Kaye and PDA Executive Director Alan Minsky to join to discuss their work on the 21st century Economic Bill of Rights that led up to West Virginia’s Democratic Party adopting it both by resolution and into our 2024 party platform (pictured below).We’re not sure how it’s already most of the way through July, but we plan on getting back into more regularly posting to here, even if it is content that is not *exclusive* to here. There’s a few other projects that have been stewing too and I look forward to writing and talking about those more on The Blue Ridge Breakdown. At this point we’re just shy of 250 subscribers, and we’re well on our way to 1500 followers! I appreciate each of you for adding The Blue Ridge Breakdown into your media diet. If you like what you get from us — or you want to encourage us to pick up our output — help spread the word, and/ or donate if you’re so inclined! Your donations mean a lot and go a long way, even if you only give a little. As always — with thanks and in solidarity, Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

What the big ugly budget bill means for WV and Appalachia? Medicaid cuts for us and tax breaks to billionaire coastal elites.Call your reps and tell them hell no! Hands off our rural healthcare! Hands off Medicaid!Congressional switchboard is: (202) 224-3121 Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

So much to discuss, but the main threads here are how big money and corporate monopolies have rigged both our trade agreements and our political system against working people. At the state level in West Virginia I talk about how Governor Patrick Morrisey seems to endure humiliation after humiliation from getting snubbed on flood relief in Southern West Virginia to getting “fat-shamed” last week by RFK Jr. Speaking of RFK Jr. and the food dye ban in West Virginia: I want to be crystal clear, I want to get toxins out of our consumer products. But I think we need to do so by enforcing a strong precautionary principle that bans the sale of products until the products are proven safe. It seems to me that the current law would still allow a corporation to leak Yellow #5 directly into the Kanawha River and people’s drinking water from a poorly regulated above-ground storage tank. I want them to address the dozens of drinking water violations so that people can drink their damn tap water!On another note about West Virginia flood relief, I talk briefly about the community organizing and mutual aid that Blue Jay Rising is doing in the coalfields, putting both the state government and FEMA to shame, in my opinion. Learn more about that at this short documentary produced by 100 Days In Appalachia:The real problem with our regulatory system is not that we have too many regulations and rules — it’s that the rules and regulations have been written by corporate lobbyists, hired by the most profitable companies, to ensure that our political system re-enforces their profits. I talk a little bit about this bill in context of Jefferson County, West Virginia WV House passes amended version of Morrisey’s microgrid, data center bill sans requirements for coal. This just seems to be another in a long line of bad ideas from Charleston that have the potential to completely undercut Jefferson County’s thoroughbred horse economy, and I talk about some of the nitty gritty of the thoroughbred industry and it’s relationship to the casino in Jefferson County. I also give a crash course on how corporations and companies went from historically being legal fictions chartered by people breaking bread together to do business, to today where now they are “persons” protected by our U.S. Constitution with unlimited speech via profits, and how that naturally has lead to a corporate capture of our political system. Finally, I read off from a conversation I had with Elon Musk’s LLM “Grok” on the prompt: “what legislative actions would be most appropriate for West Virginia to secure the rights laid out in the 21st century Economic Bill of Rights?” I have to say, these proposals are really quite moderate, and I hope that the fact that the messenger is Grok means that maybe some Republican legislators can accept that these are reasonable proposals… I dare to dream!There’s a lot more in the video, so I hope you check out the whole thing and let us know what resonates with YOU! And finally, a reminder to find a rally near you on April 5, 2025 and make sure your voice is heard! You matter, your neighbors matter, and collectively WE matter a hell of a lot more than any corporate bottom line or half-baked idea from Elon Musk of what civilization should be. Onwards, Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

It’s been a moment since I sat down and recorded something, so today is a bit more rant than news. I start off talking about the issue of running “government like a business,” namely that businesses are not homogeneous and are profit-seeking entities, not service providers. For a business, providing service is simply a thing they do to create profit. But more than that, the type of business they’re actually running America like is called “private equity.”They’re behaving exactly like the private equity firms that acquired and then demolished Toys R Us, Sears, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and countless other businesses that have been dismantled and liquidated to pursue easy profit for private equity firms. Now they’re taking clear aim at the USPS (the creation of which is an enumerated power to Congress in the Constitution before the entire Executive Branch), Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Amtrak, SNAP, WIC… go down the line, they see a failing business instead of an essential service provider. And they’re gonna dismantle and privatize each and every service that working people rely on in America. Segueing from there, I then read extensively from this speech by Otto von Bismarck, delivered March 15, 1884 (141 years ago, this weekend) in support of Germany’s world-first Worker’s Compensation program. The whole problem is rooted in the question: does the state have the responsibility to care for its helpless fellow citizens, or does it not?[…]The question is, where do the justifiable limits of state socialism lie? Without such a boundary we could not manage our affairs. Each law for poor relief is socialism. There are states that distance themselves so far from socialism that poor laws do not exist at all. I remind you of France. From these conditions in France the theories of the remarkable social politician, Léon Say, whom Herr Bamberger referred to, are quite naturally accounted for. This man expresses the French view that every French citizen has the right to starve and that the state has no responsibility to hinder him in the exercise of his right.I encourage you to check out the whole speech and ask yourself why the conservative position in America is exactly the same as among the 19th century German aristocracy, and in why Democrats are constantly told we must moderate when the party already messages largely to the right of Bismarck. Then I discuss the economic concepts of “velocity of money” and the “multiplier effect,” in contrast to the economic policies we are currently living through. I also discuss how “profits” themselves are a form of economic waste and raise the conundrum of why stimulus checks for workers are called inflationary but tax breaks for the rich aren’t? Either those tax breaks aren’t inflationary because the money doesn’t circulate in the economy (which would be bad), or it is inflationary because they’re re-investing all their hoards of money. The only other option is that inflation might not be driven entirely by spending and the volume of money in an economy. I personally think that inflation in the U.S. is generally not driven by “too much money chasing too few goods,” and I also don’t believe these billionaires re-invest the hundreds of billions that they claim to do. The whole story is bogus, in my opinion.Finally, I call for Democrats to start fighting for a vision beyond “Trump bad” or “Elon bad” — namely I call for national Democrats to adopt and start fighting coherently and cogently for a 21st century Economic Bill of Rights. Every 80 years or so the fight between oligarchy and democracy comes to a head in United States history. That moment is now. We either present a vision of how to move democracy forward and deliver for everyone, or we cede the next 80 years to the oligarchs and economic royalists. So, those are the main themes of today’s Blue Ridge Breakdown. What do you think? What’s the appropriate role of government? Are profits a form of economic waste? Thanks, as always — Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s video essay focuses on the most recent disastrous flooding in West Virginia and how it connects directly to climate change, and why we need to be urgently building infrastructure to adapt to a warmer world. FIRST, please check out this resource from Blue Jay Rising with a list of how we can help with flood relief in southern West Virginia. https://www.facebook.com/bluejayrisingorgSecond, and to the gist of the video, I cited this early on: NASA’s article on atmospheric warming and moisture (who knows how long this link will stay live?) Since the late 1800s, global average surface temperatures have increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius). Data from satellites, weather balloons, and ground measurements confirm the amount of atmospheric water vapor is increasing as the climate warms. (The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report states total atmospheric water vapor is increasing 1 to 2% per decade.) For every degree Celsius that Earth’s atmospheric temperature rises, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere can increase by about 7%, according to the laws of thermodynamics.From Caity Coyne’s reporting at West Virginia Watch, a sentiment that would be heartwarming if it weren’t from the state’s governor: Morrisey said a bright spot in the ongoing devastation across the coalfields was how West Virginians — and those from outside the state — have stepped up to help their community through donations and cleanup efforts. He said bottled water had been donated from multiple residents who were spared from the floods. Other donations came in from as far away as Texas.“I saw so much volunteer efforts and food and water and people that cared so much. That’s the West Virginia way,” Morrisey said. “… We thank everyone who is putting themselves in harm’s [way] to save the lives of their neighbors. There’s no substitute for that — people acting selflessly to help their fellow West Virginians.”In terms of climate science news, I reference this recent article about a Spanish research team’s discovery of methane deposits releasing under the Antarctic.For more on the nitty-gritty of climate change and the history of humanity, please do check out the Third Edition of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight — I don’t want this to be an advertisement so I’ll simply suggest you can either buy it wherever you buy your books (shop local!) or support your local public library by checking it out there! As always, thank you for listening, watching, reading, sharing, subscribing and so on! Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s commentary starts with some brief discussion about the WV Legislative session, and a reminder to check out: Improving West Virginia’s Competitiveness: How the Mountain State Matches Up With Our Region Where It Matters Most.Find more about the “school choice” discussion in West Virginia here, from Amelia Ferrell Knisely at West Virginia Watch: Morrisey pushes school choice; lawmakers face ‘balancing act’ as counties lose public schools. More on the push to bring AI data centers to West Virginia, from WV Delegate Tristan Leavitt: https://x.com/leavittforwv/status/1889308231492641204 As I’ve written before about how automation destroyed labor in the coal fields: Why Don’t Coal Barons Support Immigration Like They Used To? I also discuss at some length the issues with fighting for the myth of the “free market” — it’s a bit like inventing a better car by assuming a world without friction or gravity. And finally, I talked about this book I helped Thom Hartmann write: The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy. (And relatedly, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power)My main point today is that when we wrote that book just four years ago, we were looking at both a ‘public sector Big Brother” and a ‘private sector Big Brother’. Importantly the Public Sector Big Brother can theoretically be kept in check by virtue of the structure of our democratic republic; but, Private Sector Big Brother is unaccountable to anyone except investors, and can only be kept in check through government guard rails and regulations that protect citizens from unscrupulous would-be Private Sector Big Brother. Thanks for reading The Blue Ridge Breakdown! This post is public so feel free to share it.And now we are seeing now is what happens when those guard rails aren’t strong enough: Elon Musk has become “Big Bro”, and he is merging government surveillance and information sets with his corporate surveillance and information sets, with the sole motivation of creating more profit for Elon Musk and capturing the market for Elon Musk’s corporations. Democracy isn’t dying in darkness — it is drowning in profit. Thank you all as always! Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s video begins with a brief discussion about WV Governor Patrick Morrisey’s plan for “Backyard Brawl” / Race to the bottom. Please check out this report from WV Center on Budget and Policy, “Improving West Virginia’s Competitiveness: How the Mountain State Matches Up With Our Region Where It Matter Most”. Spoiler alert: Morrisey’s “Backward Brawl” ideas are not going to address West Virginia’s competitiveness in almost any of the ways that would matter most.The bulk of the video (starting around 3 minutes and 50 seconds in) I spend talking about this story and what I see as the implications: OpenAI exploring Stargate data center options in 16 states// Company aiming to develop up to ten gigawatt-scale campuses . It reminds me of Amazon’s HQ2 search: Amazon reaps a treasure trove of data with its HQ2 search. And it reminds me of this: Yasha Levine: On The Electronic Frontier, We're All CattleVery simply, in my view, the Silicon Valley “broligarchs” are doing nothing less than trying to turn the entire country into the Appalachian coalfields of the early 20th century. They aim to get states to bend over backward to accommodate Silicon Valley profits, and in my view I don’t see Silicon Valley proposing much innovation aside from “give us more free stuff to scale up our product so we can sell our product for profit.” The Musk-Bezos War on Collective Bargaining// When Biden’s NLRB began to restore workers’ rights, the world’s richest men moved to shut down the NLRB altogether.For more on what the early 20th century coalfields looked like, check out some of the other essays on the Blue Ridge Breakdown: Why Don’t Coal Barons Support Immigration Like They Used To? Lessons for Labor & Community: A Century of Power Ebb and Flow in Appalachia’s CoalfieldsCronies for Appalachian Oligarchs Celebrate Heroes of Southern OligarchyThank you all again! Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe

It seems to me that if you’re hocking a cryptocurrency, it would really pay off to undermine the U.S. dollar and the full faith and credit of the United States government. I talk about that at around the three-minute mark. What do you think? Is that a wild-eyed conspiracy theory or a clean explanation of how they plan to benefit from this chaos?Before that, I briefly go through some great WV and Appalachia-based news outlets that I highly recommend subscribers of this Substack check out too. West Virginia WatchMountain State SpotlightAppalachian VoicesWheeling Free Press I know I’m missing some, but I also just want to get this post out the door! Please help add who/what I’m missing in the comments. I’ll keep a running list on a separate post. In solidarity and with thanks, Troy Get full access to The Blue Ridge Breakdown at blueridgebreakdown.substack.com/subscribe