Gary Jenkins, who brought us Negroes to Hire, joins us again tonight with another compelling and carefully crafted documentary about Kansas, slavery and the Civil War. With Freedom Seekers: Stories from the Western Underground Railroad, Jenkins traces the history of “Bloody Kansas,” and its place in the abolitionist movement. The Kansas Territory was key in the balance of the states before the Civil War, as neighboring Missouri was a slave state, bordered by two free states, Illinois and Iowa.

It’s not clear how the general strike called by the Occupy Oakland general assembly for Wednesday, November 2, will fare. The protesters passed the resolution in the haze of the brutal crackdown last week on their encampment, where police used rubber bullets, flash grenades and other projectiles.

In this second segment, I examine the history of the idea of “socialism,” tracing out how the ideal of an egalitarian society has animated religious as well as secular movements for change. I also discuss the relationship of “socialism” to the state, and how the caricatured understanding of this relationship—where socialism is synonymous with ‘Big Government’—gets in the way of imagining a bottom-up, 21st century socialism. At the same time, I emphasize the pitfalls of isolated experiments without a framework for engaging politically with the larger economic context.

Do we know what the President’s goals are, outside of getting a “win”?

These are the hard-fought rights that Gov. Walker’s measure would basically take away from public employees – the ability to bargain in their interest for appropriate pay, benefits and working conditions. These rights were won with blood.

Ryan Grim and Arthur Delaney do the nation another excellent service today by examining what the world would be like without Social Security. It isn’t too hard to imagine – you just have to dive back into the pre-1930s history books. And you will see the world of the poorhouse, the last refuge for the elderly and the infirm, the farms run by private charities which provided a dour and often cruel existence for those on the edges of society.

At the turn of the 20th century, North Dakota’s population was mostly rural farmers, yet a small number of powerful corporate interests dominated the state’s politics and finances. The farmers took back political power with the founding of the Nonpartisan League. The Nonpartisan League started with a clear, precise platform that was simple to understand. The NPL asked supporters to sign a pledge to support the platform, and it expected them to support candidates endorsed by the NPL, regardless of political party, in order to create and maintain a tight association which could work toward a single goal.

The NPL was one of the most powerful political organizations in American history and the speed of its rise to power was unprecedented. The organization was formed in 1915 by two men sitting around a kitchen table. By 1918, it had taken complete control of the government of North Dakota and enacted much of its platform. Its success and failures hold a wealth of lessons for anyone interested in political organizations.

While conservatives are whining about Obama not going to Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day, they’re missing the fullness of the celebration. Accounts of the earliest Memorial Day celebration (years before they celebrated it at Arlington) note that the day included a march of veterans, speeches, decorating graves, and a barbecue. That’s right: a barbecue.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can celebrate Memorial Day without one. YMMV (Your Menu May Vary), but you have to fire up the grill to really celebrate Memorial Day the way the founders intended.

Jimmy Driftwood sings The Battle of New Orleans. What’s on your mind tonight?