Alex Lawson on Social Security & Disability, Audrey Sasson on Antisemitism

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(image: Social Security Works)

This week on CounterSpin: Social Security is not just about the ability of individuals and families to stay afloat; it's an acknowledgement that all of us are more secure when hardship is relieved. Well, to hell with that, says the Trump administration—pushing a rule change to take Social Security benefits out of the reach of millions of people with disabilities. Never mind that it's already hard to qualify, never mind that cutting benefits for many disabled people means taking them out of the workforce, never mind that people will die—and by "never mind," I mean it can't mind much to corporate media, based on their relative disinterest in the story we'll talk about with Alex Lawson, executive director of the group Social Security Works.

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(cc photo: Iryna Yafimchyk/Working Families)

Also on the show: Elite media call themselves caring about the problem of antisemitism, but how deeply? Recent attacks on Jewish people in the New York area have led to demands for increased policing in Jewish communities. But harder questions about what defines a "Jewish community," and what it would mean to truly value their "safety," are going unexplored—by the press corps, that is, not by communities, who have long seen a shared future across religious and ethnic lines, and are standing up for that, even as others suggest they divide and hunker down. We'll talk with Audrey Sasson, executive director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

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