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Matt Connarton
  • 4 months ago

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00:00:00Hi, I'm Tom Bickel here with my co-host Matt Nissenoff. Thank you for joining us for Politipod
00:00:06Live. Welcome to our first episode as we discuss politics and current events. Matt, would you like
00:00:12to start us off with the first topic? Let's kick off. And yes, welcome everyone. Welcome to our
00:00:18first show. We're very glad that you decided to give it a chance. We are starting off tonight
00:00:24with Charlie Kirk and his shooting and the aftermath of that, which is what we are looking
00:00:31at now. The memorial service, which took place, had a lot of things I haven't seen at funerals
00:00:42before. I've not gone to a funeral and had multimedia presentations and pyrotechnics as people come
00:00:53out to talk. And then it kind of was, for lack of better terms, unseemly, I thought, with
00:01:02the fireworks and everything going off. I think it detracted from having a memorial, from moralizing
00:01:13a person that it was meant for. What do you think, Tom? Absolutely. I have to agree with
00:01:23you there. It was not the most reverent ceremony. I mean, it had the air of a WWE undercard.
00:01:33You know, I feel bad for Charlie Kirk's wife. She just lost her husband. Out of the blue,
00:01:40victim of violence, terrible. There was some reverence there. It was humanity there to be
00:01:45mined and explored. And instead, you had just the opposite. From the fireworks when she took
00:01:55the stage, I mean, okay. And then she had this sort of, I didn't catch all of her speech, but
00:02:05she had this, she had a message in there that anybody could agree with. Love, not hate. You
00:02:10can't beat hate with hate. And then, of course, they had to bring on your headliner. You know
00:02:16him, you love him. He had to step on her glory as a sympathetic figure. He had to go on after
00:02:23her. He had to follow her in a showbiz sense, which is really crass. And on top of that,
00:02:28he stepped on her message. You know, her message of love. He's like, nope, I hate them. I hate
00:02:33them. I hope they fall down and hit their heads on something sharp. Sorry. He said sorry
00:02:39from the stage. Like, anyways, hugely disrespectful to the woman herself. I don't know. That's the
00:02:46first thing off the top of my head. And yeah, just like the fireworks. I was thinking to
00:02:53myself, what, no t-shirt cannon? I mean, they had merch for Pete's sake. It's just, anyway,
00:03:00that was my thought. That was, yeah. And that was maybe over the, I think there's a good case
00:03:06to say that's a little over the top. And although in her message, she has said that she forgave
00:03:14the person who did the shooting, which I think is actually, she's following through on what she said
00:03:23her principles are, that she has a very strong faith and forgiveness as part of that. And she
00:03:29was forgiving him. So there's, that's actually kind of hopeful. I think if she's going to stick
00:03:36to that as the new leader of the media empire there, I think if she pursues that honestly, then
00:03:45that could be a big, a big step. But as you say, the issue is there's that other foot that's dragging
00:03:52behind. And that's Donald Trump who really needs there to be hate. So he is going to pursue hate
00:04:01because he needs it. Or at least he feels he needs it. And he does pursue it very vigorously.
00:04:09So we'll see just like all of the, oh, the leftists are doing this and the leftists are doing that.
00:04:16Usually when he complains about somebody doing something that's not himself, he is, it's a tell.
00:04:24He's telling you the things he does and the way he acts and the way his followers are, he's messaging
00:04:31them to act in the same way. So we'll see if that, how that plays out. And we'll see if that doesn't
00:04:38obliterate her message and kind of outweigh her actions. I don't know. We'll certainly see.
00:04:45Yeah, well, I'm sure it's to be seen. It just seems like a fundraising opportunity that people
00:04:54don't want to miss. And the dual, it has the dual benefit of also taking this false narrative to its
00:05:04fullest extent. You know, these people have to pay. And it's not even the people, if you have to
00:05:11assign people to one person who goes crazy with a gun, you have to, and they're choosing to beat
00:05:20people over the head who don't deserve it. There were no trans people involved. There were no left
00:05:25leaners involved, to the best of our knowledge. And you, unfortunately, knowledge is suspect because
00:05:31Kash Patel is in charge of the FBI. And I don't think he's either intelligent or, you know, has
00:05:38integrity. Integris? I don't trust his integrity or his intelligence. And I can't, you can't trust
00:05:44anything they've said. They've jumped wrong every time. They help perpetuate this, which is just
00:05:48other dark side of the moon wrong for a law enforcement agency. They at least pay lip service
00:05:57to it. I'm not saying they're always scrupulous, you know, FBI, but they always, they always seem to
00:06:02be trying. And they, they, they at least in, in lip service adhere to these principles. And I have no
00:06:11doubt that most time all, not all the time, but most of the time, they probably live up to it anyway. And
00:06:16then for them to just about face and before there is a suspect, before there is a real evidence, and then
00:06:24when the evidence, before they do that, before there is any reason to know anything, they blame, they blame
00:06:30a group. And then when the evidence does come in, it gets contorted to still blame that group, even
00:06:36through ignorance. I mean, the, the markings on the bullet casings, that is one rookie 101 stuff. I would
00:06:42know better than to do that. Anyway, that's all propaganda. Yeah. That's all part of the propaganda
00:06:47thing. At first they said the shooter was obviously trans. Then it became, well, he, he wrote things on the
00:06:54bullet shells. And then that came to, oh, actually he had a roommate who was trans. So obviously the
00:07:00trans, and it was, it was, every step is always somehow related, but not actually the truth, which
00:07:09is what really suffers in these things. And that's, is that a, you're right. It's not going to change
00:07:17anytime soon. Maybe it will change in a couple of years, but we don't see that changing while
00:07:23well, this group of folks are there. And if I may, please. Well, I was just going to make
00:07:31note of how nefarious it is in the aftermath of something like that. The, we just don't know
00:07:39what the truth is. And the human mind is just hungry for information. We're looking for someone
00:07:44to tell us what assigned meaning to this. Uh, and then it's just makes it, people are so have such a
00:07:51propensity to believe the first thing they hear. And then a lot of people shut off. I think they
00:07:56don't read the papers anymore. They just pass socially. They, uh, you know, natter to each
00:08:01other. They, we do, we all discuss the news. Uh, and then it gets into, uh, a bubble. Uh, and then
00:08:08when the real news does come out, a lot of people stay misinformed anyway, it's pernicious
00:08:13because people are so, uh, vulnerable to it. Yeah. Excellent point. Yep. I agree. And also
00:08:20it brings up that whole issue of, uh, the Trump folks and who are his followers and the people
00:08:27he's put in positions of power. Uh, there's the whole thing with this, uh, Mr. Homan. You got
00:08:36anything to say about that guy? That guy, Mr. Homan. Uh, I've seen this human thumb talking on the
00:08:47Sunday shows, no, any number of times. And he's always super silliest. He always, uh, talks down
00:08:55to anyone and everyone in front of him. Uh, and he has this false confidence of ignorance. He does. I
00:09:02don't think he knows what he doesn't know. Anyway, just a, so super sweet guy personality wise, very
00:09:08charming. Uh, and he's in charge. He's the borders are, he's in charge of, you know, the agencies that
00:09:15are at the vanguard of harm in this country. Uh, anyway. And, uh, so he's a terrible person in my
00:09:22estimation. I haven't enjoyed him. And then to hear that he's got, he took a bag, a literal bag of cash.
00:09:30I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess. Why innovate when you're doing fraud? You got,
00:09:37he's probably, you know, I'm sure this, it wasn't his first bag of loot. Uh, and so, yeah, he probably
00:09:44had, you gotta, you gotta work volume, I guess, get them in, get them out. And, but for him to
00:09:51have taken this money and then for it to be covered up anyway, it's a trifold sandwich of
00:09:58fraud and corruption. Uh, that's what I think. Uh, how's it strike you? It seemed, yeah, exactly.
00:10:05And, and we're, the, the amount isn't even what's important is the fact that he's taking
00:10:10bribes. Now it happened to be what, $50,000, uh, something like that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
00:10:17That's more than enough. Uh, that's, that's, that's, that's pretty good. Um, here in New
00:10:24York, we had a case where, uh, someone had from the Adams, uh, a volunteer of Eric Adams,
00:10:35uh, current mayor and not future mayor, was saying that, uh, after an event that she had
00:10:44gone up to a reporter who she had been talking with and, and had some, uh, professional relationship
00:10:51with and offered her potato chips. And when the reporter said, I'm not really hungry. She
00:10:58said, here, here, take the potato chips. And, uh, later the reporter looked inside the bag
00:11:05and found a envelope full of cash. It was actually only 300. So I dunno, maybe the, maybe the amount
00:11:15has something, has some sort of, uh, uh, something to say about that, but it was, it was $300 and
00:11:22in one hundreds and twenties. And, um, it's she, the reporter to her credit did try to return
00:11:31it. She immediately said, no, this is not something I can take and you have to take it back. And she
00:11:35wouldn't, um, you have to have it, we're friends or something along those lines. Um, but there
00:11:40is that sort of, that sort of corruption where just the idea of, oh, here's, here's a big pile
00:11:48of money. I, I should take it. And, um, there's, it's really disheartening to think that that's,
00:11:56uh, that that's so prevalent at this time.
00:12:00Yeah. I, I read about that story hugely. And it just, this is one of the reasons I have
00:12:06started reading the news is because about one in 10 stories is absolutely hilarious or mind
00:12:11boggling. And this is one of those, you rarely get to see the bride, you know what I mean?
00:12:18And to see one go off, uh, or be, you know, documented by a journalist, uh, it's just fascinating.
00:12:24Uh, but I, and I have to wonder what went wrong here. Did she simply think was like this,
00:12:34this reporter is not going to sell her principles for the first time for what, what'd you say? 300
00:12:41clams a day and a half salary or something for some, you know, reporter probably. Uh, now if it was the
00:12:49fifth time she'd been bribed and it's just something that keeps that is keeping going,
00:12:54you know, I could see that, you know, like a, a regular, a payment plan, I could see that, uh,
00:13:00if it was someone, but I, so I have to wonder if this lady picked out the wrong reporter,
00:13:05maybe all the white reporters, uh, you know, anyway, nevermind. That was a stupid thought. I
00:13:11going to strangle it before it draws a breath. Um, yeah, that it, she was a white reporter.
00:13:19And let me, before, before that gets any farther, what I was going to say is, uh, I understand that
00:13:23the, the lady carrying the chip bag full of money was Asian. I was going to make a white people look
00:13:29all alike to a different race. That's as terrible, but not that anyway, I think the home and bribery was
00:13:36all white people, if that makes sense. Right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Willing to own it up to
00:13:41that. Uh, anyway, so speaking about, I just wonder if she was going to the wrong reporter, maybe she, uh,
00:13:48uh, I don't know, didn't get all the sleep she needed that day or what went wrong there. I don't get it.
00:13:56Too true. And the, but to the reporter's credit, she immediately said, this is not okay.
00:14:01And you don't get that at a home in or any of the people, uh, on the current administration.
00:14:08They just accept it. Okay, great. I'm going to take it. I'm going to take the cash and run.
00:14:13Um, and that's because that, that snake starts from the head and that rock goes down. Uh, so to who's
00:14:22there. So what does that, you know, so the other issue with Trump was the UN speech that he gave
00:14:30and how that one, there was a big deal about how the escalator didn't work when he and Melania got
00:14:36on it to go up to the chambers and some guy from Fox said that they should, that, that the US should
00:14:43bomb the UN headquarters in response, which is Jesse waters. Yeah. Whoever. Yeah. Whichever. Why? I mean,
00:14:51they're interchangeable in my mind. I don't watch that show or I don't watch that network. So I don't,
00:14:56uh, don't know, but he did say it. And here we're talking, uh, you know, for all the flowery talk
00:15:04about how we need to not have political violence. Uh, you've got a guy on Fox one day who talks about
00:15:11lethal injections for the homeless. Yeah. Right. Uh, that we should just kill them. And then the next
00:15:18day is this guy talking about bombing the UN because an escalator didn't work. Um, uh, so
00:15:25where is that stuff coming from? I mean, I don't think people who work for Fox are Antifa. I don't
00:15:30think there's any evidence for that. I don't think that there's any, uh, possibility of that being the
00:15:36case. Uh, so where's the political violence coming from, uh, in, uh, so, but that does bring us,
00:15:44I think to, uh, Trump's war on America. I think that it's continuing. He's already brought military
00:15:51troops, uh, into Los Angeles, into, um, it was down, I think in Baltimore. And then now he's talking about
00:16:02Chicago, uh, and Memphis. So another place that, um, you may not have thought of because it's a red
00:16:12state, but I believe Memphis is, um, Memphis is perhaps a little bit more blue as far as the
00:16:20the county goes. And so here we go again, it's going to be Memphis, then Chicago, then,
00:16:28uh, you know, folks in New York are expecting the national guard any week now. And it's going to
00:16:37mostly it there's, there's no sign that Trump's going to, uh, come to his senses and start, uh,
00:16:42following the rule of law, uh, and not bringing us military forces into, uh, American cities. Um,
00:16:52so I'm afraid that is going to continue. Um, and we're not going to see it probably,
00:17:01we're not going to see that change till he leaves. I think once he's gone, maybe there'll be some
00:17:06semblance of, um, trying to repair what has been done or at the very least not continuing it. Uh, I
00:17:16don't know who the Republican nominee will be. So I'm not, I can't say that with a hundred percent
00:17:22certainty right now. Uh, but I think we will see a sort of ratcheting down of the political violence
00:17:31that's coming from the right and alt-right and maybe we can repair the damage that's been done.
00:17:39I would hope. Man, that's a, that is a hopeful note. Uh, but then again, I mean, we're talking
00:17:48medium term here. Well, yeah, it's, uh,
00:17:56yeah, I, I apologize. I'm, I'm live from New York. So sometimes you'll hear that was a fire truck
00:18:04going by police. So I was going to, I was going to ignore it and then let them let people wonder
00:18:09which of us it was, uh, uh, coming from. But, uh, you know, you started out by talking about the,
00:18:17the national guard being deployed to peaceful cities. I mean, that, that alone is borderline
00:18:23dystopian nightmare. You know what I mean? If that's not a dystopian movie, uh, it's,
00:18:29it's at least a mini series and anyway, and if there's anybody left to be able to put together
00:18:38television shows. Yeah. I mean, it's hard for me to say anything. Right. But it's hard for me to
00:18:44generate anything beyond that. I mean, I feel like it's self-explanatory. How bad is it? Well,
00:18:50the national guard, um, and then that's before you even get to ice, at least the national guard has some
00:18:56level of professionalism and training ice is just, I feel like, I think it's just a bunch of
00:19:02moonlighting prison guards and you know, who knows, who knows there, you can't see their faces.
00:19:08That's part of the problem. Uh, you know, so basically you've got goon squads in Walmart khakis.
00:19:17They're not well-trained. Uh, these people are likely to do something stupid at their earliest
00:19:23ability. Uh, I haven't had a chance to research it yet. I saw on my phone
00:19:29a story recently where they shot up some car and said the guy was driving at us. And then video came
00:19:33out a day later that I haven't seen the video, but the story that accompanied it, uh, stated that it, uh,
00:19:42it contradicted what the original story was from the agents on the scene. And they can't ask the guy
00:19:48that allegedly drove at him cause he's shot full of holes and dead. Um, and so you have these,
00:19:54it's only going to happen more. Why would they stop? They've got a huge budget. They got a budget,
00:19:59the size of Texas that they can afford badges. They won't have them, but they can afford them now.
00:20:07It's only, they're only going to be better funded. They're going to have bigger toys.
00:20:10Excuse me, bigger toys. Anyway, so I despair for it, uh, for this country and, uh, Congress doesn't
00:20:19seem to know what to do about it. Whoever is supposed to check this stuff and save us is not
00:20:24doing the job. Anyway. Well, yeah. And that's the, and part of it is these are not guys who are
00:20:29trained. They're given some training when they sign up, but it's everybody, it's open to Dean Cain.
00:20:36It's open to anyone who walks off the street who needs a couple of books. Right. It's not somebody
00:20:43who's law enforcement. Um, and yet they're able to do what they do because the local law enforcement
00:20:51is not exactly going to chase them down. Uh, I've heard of a handful of cases where tow truck drivers
00:20:57will, uh, if, if they can find them, the tow truck drivers will go up and grab the cars if they're
00:21:02black in the street and, um, take the tow away their cars, which is interesting. Probably the
00:21:09first sign of some sort of resistance. Um, but not the correct thing, which is for the police to
00:21:15arrest these guys for, uh, pretending to be law enforcement. Uh, there is an, uh, maybe another
00:21:21sign of resistance is what's happening out in California. Uh, which is they are, have, or just
00:21:29are about to pass something for getting ICE people to have to show their face. They won't be able to
00:21:36wear masks. And that's a, I think that's a, that's an excellent start. Uh, it's not going to solve the
00:21:43problem, but it certainly is one of the starting things, uh, that we can, that that's achievable and
00:21:49can make a difference because if these guys are not going to be able to pretend to be ISIS with their faces
00:21:55covered, uh, then maybe, uh, they're going to be a little bit more open to, uh, accepting responsibility
00:22:01or at least being held responsible, uh, for their actions. Uh, when they take another kid with cancer and
00:22:10take them off to a holding cell and, or if they take somebody who's been a citizen for years
00:22:16and have no actionable information, but go through with what they're told to do,
00:22:23uh, because they're trying to throw some scare into someone.
00:22:26Well, they're throwing a scare into people. They're also trying to fill quotas. There's a,
00:22:29there's an impossible to meet quota on these folks every day. And they're just grabbing whoever
00:22:35bodies, bodies, bodies, people's, and you know, you, people think you, well, they'll just take you in. And,
00:22:39uh, they release you if you pass. No, these people are getting there. They're getting the
00:22:44shit beat out of them. They're getting pounded into the street. They're getting joints wrenched.
00:22:48They're not going to walk the same ever again. You know, these are old, some old guy, like 80 years
00:22:53old at a car wash. They threw him to the ground, like a sack of potatoes, busted them all up, bruised,
00:23:00swelling, terrible looking injuries over pushing 80, whatever he was. Um, so it's not no harm,
00:23:08no foul. It's not okay to be grabbed off the bloody street, uh, by, and not by cops even,
00:23:16just by some schmuck in a mask and a hat, a proud boy from, you know, your, your local proud boy
00:23:23association. Um, here's the thing that bothers me. Not only are citizens getting roughed up,
00:23:30these, this is why you don't become a vigilante. And these are barely cops in any sense to my way of
00:23:37thinking because no badge, no number. That's just, that's just some dude to me. He can,
00:23:43I can write police on my shirt. It doesn't make me the police and people have been victimized by fake
00:23:49officers. Uh, I don't know how much, probably as much as there are, you know, uh, once is too many,
00:23:55one time is too many. Uh, yeah, exactly. And so I'm afraid I'm worried about the day when people just
00:24:02start shooting at these ice officers, uh, cause it's going to be on, uh, and, and then the government's
00:24:09going to drop the hammer. Cause you know, they're waiting to, uh, so it's just, it's just a powder
00:24:14keg and I'm amazed. It hasn't gone any worse than it is. Well, they've already, they've already done
00:24:18that. Well, they've already, the, the government has already tried to use that excuse. There's this
00:24:23issue down in Dallas where there was somebody apparently with a gun on top of an ice facility
00:24:30and the administration went to straight to Fox to decry the whores of the ice personnel being
00:24:39targeted when actually the only people shot in that incident were people who were detainees.
00:24:46Two detainees were killed and some others wounded, a third person wounded, uh, and none of them
00:24:53ice personnel. I want to say, I read a report or a headline at least about an hour ago. That's the,
00:24:59they, they walked that back and said only one person had been killed. So I'm not sure. Uh,
00:25:03it's just something I read. Oh, gotcha. Well, I sure hope it's right. We over the next coming days,
00:25:10we'll find out what actually happened. Yeah. Well, and I certainly hope that your, your,
00:25:14that your report was right and that it was only one person. Uh, but once again, isn't one too many?
00:25:20Absolutely. One's too many. I, but I'd like to take the opportunity to briefly point out again,
00:25:25that in the aftermath of things, especially shootings, the reporting from law enforcement
00:25:32and journalism journalists often wrong. I don't know what to tell you. I'm sure these people are
00:25:38doing their best. It's just a fact of the, of the way these things happen. This is a terrible way.
00:25:45I'm not exactly nailing the phrasing here, but it's just of a piece. It always happens that way.
00:25:50And you have to wait for the revised story before you can base your thinking. And it, you know,
00:25:56you have to give it 12 hours or 24 or 36 and with a cool head and a competent, you know, hand at the
00:26:03till, not what we've got going on now. Yeah. It takes time to get the facts straight, uh, because you
00:26:08have to figure it short through what is rumor, what is true. Uh, and you can't do that instantaneously.
00:26:14And that's, as you point out legitimate problem, certainly, uh, with needing things to say for 24
00:26:20hours a day, seven days a week, that's what happens. Honestly, I don't think that it's missing. I don't
00:26:28think it's disinformation. I think it's just trying to rush to give something. And that's its own problem.
00:26:34Uh, but I don't think it's, it's, I don't think, uh, that the initial reports are necessarily trying
00:26:41to spin things one way or another. It's just, they have, they got something and they want to
00:26:46make certain that they're first to report it. Um, and so that's a, that's a different issue.
00:26:51That's a different problem. Uh, but it's, it's a different thing, uh, than what's coming from the
00:26:58administration. The other issue there is, uh, and we touched on it very briefly. I wanted two examples
00:27:04of what is the resistance. What is it that can be done, uh, in response to the situation we're in.
00:27:12And so there are some good moves by the states. There's the example of California and requiring
00:27:18masks, uh, are not, uh, that requiring that masks not be worn, uh, by ICE agents. Uh, and
00:27:26what else can be done now? Let me give you a timeline that I see, or at least I imagine,
00:27:33uh, to be the case. Uh, and then please tell me what you think. Um, but I think that there is a place
00:27:41for the 2026 election and the 2028 election. I do think that an idea that you have mentioned before,
00:27:48uh, which is a general strike, uh, is something that would be, uh, would be influential. I think that
00:28:00economics is very much a, a lever of how things are taken care of here.
00:28:05Jim, Jim, I, exactly, exactly. Um, and so if, if we, if we can put together these marches,
00:28:15which we've seen in, uh, even the, not only just the big places, but even the small towns where
00:28:22they're getting dozens and scores of people, uh, to show up, uh, it says something that says that
00:28:28this is really, uh, the concerns that these things are bringing up are genuine. They're going so far
00:28:33down, uh, that they are getting into the towns, uh, and the villages and people are responding to it.
00:28:40And that says that a collective action like a general strike, uh, I think would very clearly
00:28:48affect, uh, the economic system. And that would in turn get a lot of people's attention
00:28:53and get a lot of people worried. And, uh, instead of people staying home to collect the boo-boos,
00:29:01uh, people getting into the streets and acting, uh, is the next step in what would be a resistance,
00:29:11uh, and does it go on to something else from there that will have to be seen and how the reaction,
00:29:18uh, to these steps, um, happen, take place.
00:29:23Absolutely. Um, you know, you, you covered a lot of territory there. Uh, Gavin Newsom
00:29:31is not a perfect person, not a perfect politician, although he may be the perfect politician with
00:29:37the teeth and the hair. Uh, but you know, but he's not my ideal, uh, but he has been doing just the
00:29:45Lord's work. If I'm, if this atheist may say, uh, in refuting and rebuking the Trump administration,
00:29:53on a wavelength with the tone that they use, uh, and it's a, it's a code that few, too few have
00:30:02cracked yet. Too few have cracked this code in how to respond, respond effectively to one Donald
00:30:08John Trump. And he's doing that right. We've needed someone to talk a little shit to this guy. You know
00:30:17what I mean? A little bit. Uh, and this knock-kneed, pencil-neck, poindexter attitude that most of
00:30:24these starched-up politicians have a pro, both Republican and Democrat, nobody had this guy's number.
00:30:32Finally, Gavin Newsom is, we should have been doing this two weeks into his bit in, in 2015.
00:30:38That we should have, that's how slow we are and look where it's brought us. Uh, anyway,
00:30:43so I applaud Gavin Newsom for getting that right. Uh, he's been wrong on a lot of other things,
00:30:47so I'm not, I'm not. Well, let me, let me, let me disagree with you slightly on that.
00:30:51Okay, please. I live to be corrected. Okay, no problem. I, I, I think, um, for, well,
00:30:57I will agree with you that Newsom is doing a positive thing by responding on the, in the way
00:31:03that he is. He's mocking him. He's, uh, Newsom is mocking Trump and- On his own terms. That's,
00:31:11yeah, exactly. And that, and that is something that I think, uh, people want to not only want to see,
00:31:16but also kind of makes it clear to, um, both sides, you know, all of a sudden what Newsom does,
00:31:24all of a sudden the conservatives are besides themselves and don't understand how he could
00:31:28do that. And what about decorum? And what about all these things? Um, and they're seeing what we've
00:31:34been seeing, uh, for the last, I don't know, 10 years. Yeah. Uh, but I will say this, I mean, the,
00:31:42the initial counter in his own manner, uh, was done in Trump's own manner was done by Rubio.
00:31:52Remember Mark Rubio back in the, uh, 16 election came up for like three weeks and tried to do his
00:32:01Yeah, exactly. Some, somebody, you know, he's always been that polished sort of trying to pass as,
00:32:07uh, uh, uh, the, uh, the, the statesman. Uh, but then he took like this three week detour where he
00:32:15tried to be the mean and nasty guy and tried to say things, tried to talk crap about Trump. And,
00:32:20um, he even kind of got loose and kind of got into it. Isn't that where Little Hands came from?
00:32:26Yeah. Well, I think that was after it was in response. Um, but what it also did was flopped. It just,
00:32:35no, nobody accepted it from him. Um, nobody thought that it was, you know, they saw that it was just a
00:32:42silly pretense. Um, and it was, and it, it was a belly flop for a Rubio. Um, another one, but yeah,
00:32:52they just don't have, they can't crack the code. They're not built for it. None of these guys are
00:32:56tough guys. None of them are fighters. They're used to groveling, I guess. I mean, from, I just say
00:33:02this from appearances, they seem like they're used to groveling to, I don't know, rich people. Uh,
00:33:08or at least, I don't know. Uh, but being tough, rarely do they seem to be good at it and, uh,
00:33:15to do it charismatically politically. I feel like, uh, Chris Christie took a swing. I feel like a lot
00:33:22of people took him on, but most of them, I mean, uh, you're right. Marco Rubio was a notable in his
00:33:28effort, but, uh, several tried and they just, they just couldn't do it. Plus Trump has a mastery of
00:33:34the media that they also, every time I remember Chris Christie had, uh, uh, an announcement to
00:33:41make some big announcement. He was going to own the news day and Trump came out like half an hour
00:33:45the night before or something like that and totally swamped him. And I, he just did that to everybody.
00:33:50He had, he was, he was too good on too many levels and they were too inept.
00:33:54Well, I, I would never say that Trump was a master of anything. Uh, and that includes golf,
00:34:01but it also extends into a political wisdom. I don't think he's a master of it. I think that,
00:34:07uh, he might be, I mean, I mean, what I mean to say is there, there's a tactic that they use that
00:34:13works that everyone else has comparatively been too slow to catch up to. I don't, I don't mean to
00:34:18throw any adoration or praise on the guy, believe me. But that's the thing. So what I would say is,
00:34:25look at Gingrich when he came in, uh, on, uh, taking over Congress from the Democrats when he ran,
00:34:32the way part of his tactics, uh, were to undermine the opponent. So in other words,
00:34:38Gingrich sent out, you, you may, may know this, may not that, that in that election for Congress,
00:34:43uh, Gingrich sent out, uh, tapes, cassette tapes. If you remember cassette tapes,
00:34:50he sent out cassette tapes to everybody running as a Republican and they had instructions on them,
00:34:56uh, on how to campaign, what to say, what tact to take in, in, in, in, when you were, uh, running
00:35:04against a Democrat, that kind of thing. And part of it was always attack their strength because people
00:35:12don't expect that. And of course, in some cases they won't even respond because they'll think,
00:35:18oh, well, they're talking about the thing I'm strongest on. I don't need to respond at the time.
00:35:23They thought that, um, I think maybe they've learned their lesson since then, uh, because it was
00:35:30effective, uh, because people took that message. And as you said, people don't always look into the
00:35:35details and go into digging into what the, you know, what, what things are beyond sort of that
00:35:42initial reaction. Uh, and people took that and said, oh, well then the other candidate must not have
00:35:48anything to offer or isn't really good on that issue, uh, even though it's their best issue,
00:35:53that kind of thing. Uh, so that idea of being, of undermining, uh, has been around. And I think
00:36:00that there were people who like, uh, Roger Stone and, uh, the Nixon guy, um, Roy Cohn, yeah, thank you.
00:36:14I keep forgetting that guy's name, uh, Roy Cohn and, uh, Roger Stone, that they took the tactics
00:36:23of Nixon and gave them to Trump and then just said, but remember not to back down.
00:36:30So it was more as, you know, Nixon at some point or another, when Baker went to him and said, you've
00:36:35got to really, you know, you, you gotta resign. This is done. The Watergate thing, you, you, you can't,
00:36:41we're going to have to convict you. So quit. Uh, and that's what Nixon did. But now it's not that
00:36:49Trump is always on the attack. He doesn't, uh, apologize. He doesn't go, uh, doesn't back down.
00:36:55And that's seen as strength. Uh, and now the Republican establishment, what's left of it,
00:37:03uh, kind of goes and falls in line behind him. So there's no, uh, Howard Baker to go to him and say,
00:37:09look, this is really, you know, this is detrimental to the country. This is not, um, acceptable.
00:37:17And nobody's going to say that to him, especially in this second term where he has mostly lackeys
00:37:26behind, you know, in that first term, he did hire the establishment people. He did hire people
00:37:31who were as a chief of staff at the white house, who had some standing in the establishment, that
00:37:37kind of thing. Um, and he, he, he learned his lesson. He really did learn it well too. Now it's all
00:37:47lackeys. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, cause then that means it's, it's going a place where we've
00:37:52not been before, uh, or certainly haven't been any time in the past, uh, uh, in, in, in a very long
00:38:00time, if ever. Um, so that's a problem. Um, that's not going to be, it's not easy to just emulate it,
00:38:09to defeat it. And the question is, what is there to defeat it? And I wish I had the answer to that.
00:38:15Uh, but I certainly don't, um, I wish somebody had the answer to that because nobody, as you pointed
00:38:21out, nobody seems to, I mean, you, you look at what's supposed to be the opposition. You look at
00:38:25Schumer, uh, Chuck Schumer in the Senate, uh, the minority leader and who's, uh, when it, when it came to
00:38:33the Trump first budget, there was talk about, well, how do you resist it? And Schumer was like, well, we're
00:38:38going to pass it. And then we're going to see what they do. And if people don't like it, then they can vote
00:38:42them out. Um, so not that that isn't the old way of doing things and something that would,
00:38:52what used to be a way to counter the opposition was to let them do what they're going to do and
00:38:59then let the people decide. Uh, but as I said, it's not the 1950s anymore. It's not something that we can
00:39:06handle by just laying back and waiting. It's way too late already. Yeah. And the question is,
00:39:13as it gets worse, how much more do you have to do in order to counter, uh, where we are?
00:39:21You know, you bring it back full circle, uh, and just something you mentioned before is a general
00:39:25strike. I gotta tell you, I'm pretty enamored of the idea. I think it's a good idea. I think we need
00:39:31something big, you know, something that involves like, like protests, but if all those people did
00:39:38something more innately and, you know, valuable, uh, more productive. And, uh, I think walking off the
00:39:45job, uh, as a show of force, uh, I think we'll go a long way with, you know, and it's nonviolent.
00:39:54Uh, I think we're, we need to keep, uh, keep our eye on the ball as far as being nonviolent, but
00:40:00we can't, protests alone won't do it. Um, and on the other hand, anyway, so we haven't done enough
00:40:09yet. And I feel like that is a good first step. I think it's doable. Uh, I think it would, I mean,
00:40:15look at the success people have had, uh, but with the backlash with Jimmy Kimmel, uh, and his show
00:40:22being taken off the air for almost a week. Um, they came back around pretty quickly
00:40:27and to punch a hole in an authoritarian's veneer like that is very powerful. And that's just a TV
00:40:34show. Uh, if you, people can't, you can't get swaths of people, not, if you can't get them to show up
00:40:40for work, people are going to start making phone calls. And, uh, you know, this is all well and good
00:40:46while, uh, while they're fleecing the masses, but when the masses turn around, I think it'd be a
00:40:51different story. Anyway, what do you think? I, I, you know, I don't hear anybody talking about this.
00:40:55It makes me feel like a crazy person. Uh, what do you mean? Please, uh, well, actually I, I have
00:41:07been thinking about it more and I do think you have, um, you have an excellent point. If there's
00:41:12something that's going to be a nonviolent response, but one that needs to be heavy enough to make a
00:41:20difference. And the way you can do that most, you know, prominently is to go for economics. Uh, go to
00:41:30what will cause someone, uh, who is based their life on being wealthy, uh, and say, well, okay,
00:41:38you're not going to get as much all of a sudden what happens, uh, and they get very involved on
00:41:44their end, uh, to see what you can do. So if there were, I, so I don't know if anybody has called for
00:41:52a general strike. I think at one point there was a discussion, a particular day had been offered out
00:41:58or sent out by in, in, at least in some political circles, there were, uh, uh, talk about a particular
00:42:04day to do a general strike. I don't know if it ever got any support or if it, it certainly didn't
00:42:10take place. So, uh, maybe there's some, so, so people have talked about it. It's something that
00:42:16can certainly be put forward and not be, um, let me say that another way. There's, there's a way it
00:42:23could be put forward with credibility. Yeah. So, yeah. So there's something to look at.
00:42:34Yeah. Uh, and one thing that occurred to me while you're speaking is that, uh, I, I was taken back
00:42:40in time to the last time we had a show of some sort of force in this country, other than the protests,
00:42:45uh, recently that have been, I've been very happy to see, but the George Floyd, when you finally get
00:42:52people into the streets and you, they still don't feel heard, they start rioting. And I feel like
00:43:01even, you know what, even a finer thought on that, uh, more anyway, um,
00:43:09you can't, there are people who are protesting who are being, uh, you get heckled and, uh, sometimes
00:43:17attacked by counter protesters. But a lot of times, uh, people will protest in a,
00:43:22you know, maybe a Portland and the cops will shoot them with rubber bullets in the face.
00:43:28Uh, journalists get shot in the face. Politicians get shot with these rubber bullets and injured.
00:43:34You know, I've read, uh, somewhere that you're supposed to shoot rubber bullets at the asphalt.
00:43:38And then the ricochet shrapnel is supposed to hit people in the body and brush them back.
00:43:44You're not supposed to go full bore into the skull with it. Otherwise it's not as non lethal.
00:43:51I know, you know, I haven't, I haven't taken a college course on it, but it seemed pretty reasonable
00:43:56anyway. And so given the danger of protesting, I wouldn't send my dear saintly old grandma out to
00:44:03protest in any hotly contested, you know, so far we've been lucky, but people get knocked down.
00:44:09And I think we've all seen the video of a old guy, uh, older gentleman, tall, slender cops gave
00:44:15him a shove as they do, except this guy would have had little bird bones and big lanky dude fell
00:44:22over backwards, cracked his noggin. And that's the last thing he ever did. All he was doing was hanging
00:44:27out, talking to these guys, absolutely no threat. And so given the vulnerability, the, the propensity
00:44:36for danger in even a simple protest, again, from counter protesters, uh, goon squads, hello. Uh,
00:44:44they're not just going to, they're not just going to keep it to the current demographic they're
00:44:48bothering. They're definitely going to turn on you and other categories. Um, but given the danger,
00:44:53the inherent potential for danger in protesting, a general strike where, what are they going to do?
00:44:59You know, you're not, if you're not out there doing something, e.g. working, you, you're not,
00:45:05you're not going to be a victim of violence, vigilante violence, state violence, you're safe.
00:45:12Take a sick day, you know, do it once. You don't have, it doesn't have to be a lifestyle, uh, or maybe
00:45:18it could take a week or a month. Who knows? I don't know. And I know a lot of people can't afford that,
00:45:22but we have to do something. And anyway, so I, I just thought the, the sliver of danger that there
00:45:29is an even peaceful protesting makes this idea, uh, a little more attractive.
00:45:37Absolutely. Um, fair point. We'll have to see what actually happens. Uh, and hopefully we'll,
00:45:45we'll, as you say, find a nonviolent way to get through. And these things with, you know,
00:45:51people who seem fragile, uh, being the targets, uh, because they're easier to target, because it's
00:45:57easier to push over a guy 80 years old, uh, than it is to, um, to do some other things. Or, you know,
00:46:05there's, there's, when it's, uh, um, people who are wandering around, um, ready to react,
00:46:13then that's a different, all of a sudden there's kind of, well, let's hold off on, you know,
00:46:19let's hold off on some things. Um, so how, how people make their displeasure known, obviously,
00:46:27uh, if it's done in numbers, if it's done with a large group, uh, then that's going to be a
00:46:33different thing than if it's just a handful of people, uh, folks like us, elderly, elder,
00:46:41elderly people, uh, who are just, uh, standing in a corner.
00:46:44Hey, wait, wait, wait, just a damn minute.
00:46:50You know, Matt, uh, I see by the clock on the wall, it's time for our next, uh, for our segment,
00:46:54uh, election central. Would you like to take it away from there?
00:46:59Absolutely. Uh, Politipod live in combination with election central, uh, wants you to know about
00:47:04upcoming elections. We were talking earlier. I mentioned that 2026, 2028, I think are still
00:47:09important, uh, things that will happen that are steps that are necessary to get through,
00:47:14uh, to not be scared of, uh, but a lot of folks don't know that there's elections that are happening
00:47:21every week in America somewhere. There's an election going on, uh, and it never ends.
00:47:30Yeah. It's, it's, there's local elections. Sure. You don't know about them maybe because there's
00:47:34the big federal presidential election every four years. And of course, because it's not a nationwide,
00:47:42everybody's talking about every newspaper, every television station, every radio say everybody wants
00:47:48to give their take and try to maybe bring it down to their community, uh, to report about it. But
00:47:54there's everybody's talking about it. So you cannot get away with, uh, not knowing about it. Uh, but
00:48:00there's local level of elections that happen, uh, as I say, every week across the country. Uh, and so
00:48:07I like to try to get word out about the ones that are coming up as opposed to just giving results. I
00:48:14give you a couple of results too, but, uh, try to get you to hear about it beforehand. And if you happen
00:48:20to know somebody in the area that's mentioned, strike up a conversation about it. Let them know that
00:48:25it is coming up. Uh, for instance, uh, on September 28th, uh, if you know, someone from Puerto Rico,
00:48:31uh, there's the representative district 31, and they're having a special election. Uh, the seat
00:48:40holder had, uh, run for mayor of a particular town and won the election. So the seat as a representative
00:48:48is open. Uh, so they need to hold a special election to fill the seat. And so if you want to
00:48:55you are on Puerto Rico and you're in the 31st district for representatives, um, the day to
00:49:03vote is September, the day, the day for you to be heard is September 28th. That's another
00:49:09thing. That's why I mentioned the elections before, uh, because this is actually how you
00:49:14hold people accountable, uh, when they're in political office during the time they're there.
00:49:20Uh, they, you know, it's good to tell them what you think and it's good for them to hear.
00:49:25And there'll be some that will listen. There'll be some who won't, uh, because the only actual
00:49:30accountability is at the ballot box. Uh, so you have to go and you have to vote and voting
00:49:36every time, uh, is what sends the message of what you want, uh, and organizing for it to
00:49:43get your friends to go and vote too, uh, is a good idea. Yeah. That's the way you get
00:49:47the point across. Uh, there are actually, there's a bunch of elections coming up down
00:49:51in the South on October 7th. Uh, Birmingham, Alabama has a general election in North Carolina.
00:49:59They've got local elections all across the state that are happening. So if you know someone
00:50:02in North Carolina, talk to them about what's going on in their area. See if there's an election
00:50:06on October 7th, uh, encourage them to go out and vote. There's a special primary in Tennessee's
00:50:127th congressional district. Uh, Mark Green, Republican Mark Green quit. Uh, and it's apparently
00:50:19for a position in the private sector. Uh, so that means the seats available. So October 7th,
00:50:26go out and vote if you're in Tennessee's 7th congressional district. Uh, also on the 7th, uh, Juneau, Alaska
00:50:34has its general municipal elections. So local elections, assembly district two, and the board
00:50:40of education are actually competitive. Uh, there's, I think four seats on the ballot, two
00:50:45are uncontested, uh, and the district two and board of elections are actually contested elections.
00:50:51So get out and vote. And then there's also some valid propositions. Uh, they are, they have
00:50:58a cap on taxes. It is Alaska. They have a cap on taxes on the ballot. Uh, the second is to
00:51:06reduce taxes on essential goods and utilities. And then the third one is to create a seasonal
00:51:13tax, uh, that is increased for three or four months out of the year and then reduced, uh,
00:51:19when they're not in their season. Uh, and that's to make up, uh, for the loss of tax revenue
00:51:25from prop two. So there's a lot going on up there. Uh, make certain you get out to the
00:51:30polls if, uh, you're in Juneau, uh, and, uh, October 7th comes around. Should I go with
00:51:39a couple of more? Absolutely. We can, I think you might have something
00:51:44for, uh, Grayalva's election in Arizona, uh, that, uh, down in Arizona's 7th Congressional
00:51:52District, uh, uh, Raul Grayalva, uh, the seated, uh, Congressman, uh, passed. He died, uh, while
00:52:01in office. Uh, and we certainly offer condolences to his family and friends and constituents. Uh,
00:52:07uh, but there was a election to fill the seat and the winner, uh, was a elected official
00:52:12and, uh, representative Grayalva's daughter, uh, Adlita Grayalva. And she won. Oh yeah. Oh
00:52:22yeah. No, I kid you not. Um, she won actually very handily. She won, uh, 70% of the vote. Uh,
00:52:30the Republican had just under 30%, uh, and there were at least, well, actually there were
00:52:3711 other candidates, nine who are right-ins, uh, who didn't get a whole lot. And then there
00:52:42was a green candidate, uh, and, uh, uh, fourth, uh, an unlisted party candidate, uh, who, uh,
00:52:51the green and the unlisted actually got tens of thousands of votes, uh, but not enough to
00:52:56touch, uh, the two main candidates, the Republican, uh, and the Democrat. Uh, in Colorado city
00:53:05of Creed, there's actually a recall of the mayor and one of the trustees and they, in
00:53:13looking at, so in a number of places, not everywhere, but in a number of places, there's, uh, the
00:53:19ability to recall elected officials and you have to get a certain percentage of the voters
00:53:27from the previous election, uh, to, so you get 20% of the election, uh, uh, uh, 20% of
00:53:35the people, uh, who voted in the previous election. If you get that number of signatures, then a
00:53:41recall can be held. Gotcha. So I'm not too sharp on the topic, but I did live through the Gray
00:53:47Davis years in California. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Um, well
00:53:54in, in Colorado, uh, in Creed, Colorado, they have that, uh, similar system. Uh, it is a
00:54:01recall thing. And, and the person looking at the recall vote, uh, or the, the recall request,
00:54:07uh, said, you know, they have enough valid signatures. So we got to go forward with this
00:54:12recall, uh, they said, but they, she also said the reasons that they're listing, I have
00:54:18no idea what's going on with that. That's nothing to do with me. I don't make my decision
00:54:22based on the, the, uh, what people allege, but they did get the valid signatures. So we're
00:54:28going to go ahead with the election. Uh, and there are only one person, uh, for each of the
00:54:34seats running if the recall passed. So the ballads in half, you first vote on, should there
00:54:41be a recall? And then you also vote on if the recall passes, do you want this candidate
00:54:47or that candidate? In this case, there were no contest, there were the, neither of them
00:54:52were contested. So it was, if you vote for the recall, then you put in this other person
00:54:57yes or no. Uh, and both recalls passed heavy percentages, uh, voting to have the recall go
00:55:05through, uh, and the uncontested candidates win. So they have a new mayor and a new, um,
00:55:12uh, new trustee. And that's Erica Roden is going to be mayor and Tom Roden is going to
00:55:21be the trustee. Uh, so once again, got to go out and vote. Um, October 14th in DeForest,
00:55:30Wisconsin. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, and that's right. I, um, um, I think that not only these
00:55:37local elections, uh, going on around the country, but also, as I said earlier in 26 and I believe
00:55:43in 28, it's going to actually matter. Uh, that's why they're so desperate to make it a scary thing.
00:55:49That's why they're so desperate to do congressional redistricting in the middle of a, uh, uh, 10 year
00:55:55period, because they're scared. They're scared of your voting and they are going to do and say
00:56:01anything to try to scare you so that you don't. Uh, so that makes it even more important there.
00:56:07That's the tell, you know, their tell is that they're so scared. They're trying to stop you from
00:56:12voting. And that's why it's even more important to get out and do it. Um, I'll tell you, I'll skip
00:56:18down, uh, to the last one just to mention that Iowa has to go to the polls for local elections,
00:56:25uh, across the state. And there's going to be, some of them are doing it on October 28th and others
00:56:31are doing it on October 7th. So check your local listings for the election in Iowa, uh, if you are
00:56:38an Iowa, uh, citizen who is, uh, registered to vote. And that's your election central report, uh, from Politipod Live.
00:56:49Great work, Matt. Thank you for that, man. How about that Jimmy Kimmel, huh?
00:56:56I bet you he votes.
00:56:59Yeah, I bet he does. Yeah. Uh, so, you know, pour one out for, uh, for old Jimmy. He made it back in
00:57:06less than a week. I mean, uh, what started out as a pretty fearsome, uh, piece of overreach by the
00:57:14government. He's smelling like roses today. What's your take? Well, yeah, I think it's,
00:57:20the reaction was what was really important in there. I think, uh, while we're speculating on
00:57:27the reason and it was a certainly a threat to the First Amendment. Um, but I don't know what they
00:57:34actually talked about. I don't think we'll ever really know, uh, what the, you know, behind the
00:57:41scenes discussion was about, uh, but I'm certainly glad that he, and that the First Amendment came
00:57:48out the winner, uh, and that he was back on. I mean, he gave a very emotion. I watched the monologue.
00:57:54Um, it wasn't, uh, it certainly wasn't about humor. It was very, um, heartfelt. And in fact,
00:58:05he even teared up a couple of times, I believe genuinely, uh, moved by the, the issues that he
00:58:11was talking about, First Amendment and other issues. Um, so, uh, it's nice to see, it's nice to see one
00:58:18of the good guys win. Uh, and I think that's what that, uh, has, that's what, that's what we're seeing
00:58:25here is that he got back on the air. Uh, there are still, he did mention there's about 20% of the
00:58:32stations, uh, that have not taken him back on yet. Uh, they are clearly, you know, they're, they're
00:58:41clearly saying things like, oh, he has to do this or he has to do that. So they're looking for concessions,
00:58:46uh, from him, from certain things or to say certain things. Uh, and that is a shame.
00:58:56It's a shame that they have to go there, uh, when he clearly has made his apology, genuine,
00:59:02heartfelt apologies, uh, even for, uh, things that may have been perceived that he was saying and not
00:59:10actually said. Uh, but he even, you know, he didn't address that. He just said, here, I'm,
00:59:15um, I really, uh, want to apologize. And he took it to some, uh, emotional places as well.
00:59:24Yeah. You know, um, uh, I, uh, I want to say like an hour ago, I just happened to see that somebody
00:59:32had requested, like, uh, I want to say, um, shareholders or somebody on that side of the fence
00:59:37for ABC had requested documents from those who made the decision to, uh, to fire Jimmy Kimmel.
00:59:46They're questioning that the, the thought process there. And you know, if documents get requested,
00:59:52if you got documents get provided, maybe we will find out just, uh, what the thinking,
00:59:56what the thought process was there. So you never know what's going to come out.
01:00:01I think that's more likely with government where you have to keep records and you have to turn them
01:00:06over. You know, even in that case, they, sometimes there are people who try to hide them and destroy
01:00:11them. Uh, I don't think when you're asking a private company for internal documents, there's much luck of
01:00:18that actually happening, but you know, sometimes there's somebody who's also on that side who wants
01:00:23to do it. Yeah. All it takes is one to leak. Yeah. You never know. I mean, uh, look, uh, we got
01:00:30Jeffrey Epstein's birthday cards. So all things are possible.
01:00:37It's possible. We'll have to see. It would be interesting to see what, uh, what actually went
01:00:41on into that instead of just speculating. And, um, uh, you know, a lot of people are saying a lot of
01:00:47things, just like we talked about earlier with the media, uh, that wants to get the word out quick.
01:00:54There's also people who want to stir the pot with their perception, you know, with their,
01:00:59where they're coming from and starting a rumor nowadays, a lot easier than it was a long time
01:01:06ago. And now it just takes a couple of keystrokes and you can send it out to
01:01:09a hundred thousand people, which is our viewership, right? It's about a hundred,
01:01:15a hundred thousand. I think so.
01:01:19Just a little, but, uh, yeah, right. But it's, it's, it's easier nowadays to start a podcast or to start a
01:01:27video channel and, and get out your opinions. And some people are more genuine than others.
01:01:36So there are a lot of people saying a lot of things right now, and I don't think we know what
01:01:40really is happening or what's, uh, what's behind it.
01:01:46I think we pretty much did cover the media and talking about them.
01:01:53That speaking of media, somebody who just came out with a new book hitting the media circuit to
01:02:00promote their book, uh, is Kamala Harris, vice president Harris. And I don't know if you have
01:02:09any thoughts on that or what you're thinking, man, I got a, I got a lot of thoughts on that. Um,
01:02:17it's, you know, it's another politician with another book and I'm, I'm unimpressed with it for a couple of
01:02:23reasons. Uh, I wish, I wish we had, I wish she was a president now instead of the wooden stump that
01:02:30is, uh, on the other hand, I feel like, uh, the American people, at least I did. I feel like I'm not
01:02:38alone, wanted her to be a little more passionate, go a little further, I think. And, uh, she came across
01:02:45pretty careful. Uh, and so it's, it's that sort of dynamic that when she comes out with a new book
01:02:52and it's a kind of a chatty little tell all about how, uh, you know, Gavin Newsom and Pete Buttigieg
01:02:59acted behind the scenes. That's not what I'm looking for in a politician these days. We need help.
01:03:06We need leadership. We need people to take passionate, strident positions and actions.
01:03:13This is the same old, same old political nonsense that I think people, uh, are sick of from her.
01:03:22And, you know, she wants you to pay $22.95 for it. Uh, John Bolton came out with a book six,
01:03:31eight, 12 months after he was in office with, you know, supposed blockbuster reveals,
01:03:37buddy, you're a public servant. Tell us now, you know what I mean?
01:03:41This Tom Homan bullshit. What if 10 months from now, you know, somebody, uh, somebody has a book.
01:03:49Oh, by the way, Tom Homan's a fraud. He's a criminal. He's been on the take since before
01:03:54he got an office. Come read it all about it. And my latest, you know, are you kidding me anyway? So
01:04:03for her to come out with a book, um, for what, and she's not running for governor. She's not running
01:04:08for anything. She doesn't want to hear your questions about it. I saw her on Maddo and
01:04:12she was like, nah, I'm not into it. Fine. The what, of what consequence are you then?
01:04:19Anyway, uh, I get, so I'm sick of politicians and their books. I'm predisposed against that. When
01:04:25I heard she had a book, I was like, perfect. I'm very negative on it. I'm not giving her a chance.
01:04:30Um, she had her shot. It wasn't perfect. She was kind of, uh, anyway, it's complicated. I don't blame
01:04:38her for everything, but I'm over it. I'm over her. She, I didn't love the swing she took. And again,
01:04:44we need someone passionate. We need people thinking new thoughts and ideas. This country is ready to be
01:04:50led in an anti-fascist direction in an anti-Trump direction. And we're all just, I feel like we're all
01:04:57just vibrating, ready, you know, with energy, ready to put it somewhere. And very few of us,
01:05:03I mean, Gavin Newsom is the high water mark at this point and he's done some great shit, but it's
01:05:07mostly Twitter. Um, let's get, let's get active. Let's get busy. Let's get productive. Let's do things.
01:05:15There are things people can do. These are the finest minds. These are our public servants. Uh,
01:05:21they're rich because of us. They're comfortable because of us and they're failing us. This
01:05:27country is under threat. I've been told my whole life, these are our ideals. And by golly,
01:05:31we mean it. We'll fight, kill and die for them. And you can't even get some of these folks to
01:05:37send a disciplined tweet and, you know, and put some thought into it. And how can I serve these
01:05:44people? And how can I save this mother loving country? And I, anyway, I'm not feeling it. So
01:05:49Kamala, I'm not even, I'm not going to worry about it. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. So, uh,
01:05:57I'd say two things. One, the Gavin Newsom thing, I think he's, as you have pointed out,
01:06:02he's making a stand, which hasn't been done. So therefore it's very noteworthy. Uh, and it's
01:06:07certainly doing the thing that, uh, doing a thing that is positive. Uh, I don't think he'll wind up as
01:06:13the nominee for the party. I think he's peaking way too early. I think he's going to burn out long
01:06:19before the primaries. Uh, but I, I'm sure he'll be in it. I mean, I expect, uh, Gavin Newsom, I expect,
01:06:26uh, from, uh, Illinois, Pritzker, Governor Pritzker, I'm sure he will jump in. Um, there's a,
01:06:34you know, a half dozen people who will, because, uh, we don't really have a leader of the party. So
01:06:40there's, there's going to be a lot of people saying, okay, well, I want to, I want to do that.
01:06:44I want to lead the party. And to do that, I'll be the nominee. Um, you know, I, years ago, I was
01:06:52hoping that Elizabeth Warren would have wound up not just winning Iowa, but having won the nomination.
01:07:00So if she were to jump into the race, personally, I'd be very happy about that. Uh, that would be
01:07:05somebody I'd be very happy to support again. Um, but it's so far in, uh, even a week in political time,
01:07:14uh, a week is a lifetime. And we're so far away from that right now. Uh, so that we can't, I don't
01:07:22think everybody will be happy to make a prediction, but I don't think we'll have any sort of a clear
01:07:27picture until, uh, much closer to the time that we, um, that the primaries actually take place. Um,
01:07:38so I, I just wanted to say that about, uh, about Mr. Newsom, uh, Governor Newsom, uh, and, and the,
01:07:45the Democrats, uh, as far as the next presidential, uh, campaign.
01:07:51There's, um, so I'll tell you what, I'll jump to some international news for a moment, if that's
01:08:06all right. Sounds good. We'll, we'll talk about some things happening around the world. Uh,
01:08:12we'll keep this, uh, pretty short, I gather. Uh, but there are issues with what Russia is doing.
01:08:20Speaking of presidents and speaking of international, uh, things, um, Russia and its actions,
01:08:29uh, sort of against NATO countries to test things out, putting planes, uh, or drones into Poland
01:08:36and Estonia. Oh, that minor issue. Yeah, right, right. Exactly. Um,
01:08:43um, so, and, and also apparently Moldova is going to have an election this weekend. It's going to be
01:08:54on Sunday. Uh, and the president of Moldova has said that Russia's interfering with elections there.
01:09:03So once again, another thing to be worried about, there's not just, uh, the military access, uh, the
01:09:09military, uh, issues of the drones getting into NATO air spaces, but also things like interfering with
01:09:17elections, which we know they do. We know they did it here. It's not a surprise they'd be doing it in
01:09:22Moldova. Uh, but the question is what can be done about it? And, uh, that I, I don't know. I don't have
01:09:29an answer for that, but it's important that it's known that it's happening. Um, I guess there's also
01:09:37the UK, um, in the UK, there's been the issues of the labor government, which I think, uh, a lot of
01:09:46people outside of the UK saw the labor government when the election and thought, well, that's a, a big
01:09:54change from the previous government that the conservatives who had been in, um, government.
01:10:00And I think that what folks on the outside may not have been so cognizant or, or, or just saw
01:10:12sort of the picture from the outside. Uh, they didn't realize, and I, and what I'm saying is that
01:10:19it was the conservatives who lost, not the labor that won, even though it was a large increase in
01:10:26labor, uh, MPs. I think that what really happened, what was, what was, what happened was the conservative
01:10:33party fell apart. Uh, they fell apart because the reform party, uh, the even more right, uh, the alt-right
01:10:40wing, uh, that started as a different party, a Trumpite type party, uh, with, uh, Farage at the head
01:10:49of it, uh, was able to pick up on most of that support, uh, but it depleted the conservatives
01:10:56almost into a third party. I mean, they came very close to, to really being completely wiped out. They
01:11:02didn't, they are still the opposition, uh, but they were, they took heavy losses. And I think in that
01:11:12with so many people shifting to reform, labor won because of that more than that they just outright
01:11:18won it. Um, the problem with that is now that they're in power, there's things happening to
01:11:27them that wouldn't have happened to someone who was, um, who's just somebody who had won outright on
01:11:37their, uh, their particular merits. Right. So a whole bunch of several, several, uh, of the cabinet
01:11:44have had to resign. The deputy prime minister had to resign, uh, another, uh, another cabinet member.
01:11:53And then, uh, now the conservatives are trying to target, uh, another, uh, member, the chief of staff
01:12:02or, or Keir Starmer, who is the prime minister, his chief of staff is now being targeted by the
01:12:07conservatives for actions that he took, uh, a couple of years back. And they're trying, trying to bring it
01:12:13back up and try to, uh, make something out of it. Um, even though it's an issue that was resolved years
01:12:21ago with a commission that find the guy for what he did. Um, and that pulled up. Yeah, that's, uh, that's,
01:12:35that's the thing we're going to talk about next is, is Epstein. Um, speaking of people who have
01:12:39difficulties for their administrations that are popping up from years ago,
01:12:45there's always the Epstein list to talk about because, uh, that should not be forgotten. Please
01:12:51go ahead and, uh, uh, bring it up. Yeah. It's, it's just, just to remind folks, uh, the Epstein list,
01:13:00the unredacted Epstein list has not been released for 3,753 days at this point. Uh, so we'll see how long
01:13:09that number increases. And if we ever see the unredacted Epstein list, exactly. There you go.
01:13:18Thank you. Uh, and, uh, so that's, we'll just, let's leave that up for a minute or two while we talk
01:13:23about whatever we talk about because many issues, yeah, because many issues, um, that we've talked
01:13:30about, there are some with the administration that they'll bring up or talk about or want to bring
01:13:36because they're trying to, because Trump is trying to distract, uh, from the Epstein list and how many
01:13:43days has gone without having released the unredacted version. So we can leave this up for, I guess,
01:13:50a minute or two and let's see if folks have something to say about that or, uh, indeed, if you have any
01:13:58comments about it, is there anything about the Epstein list that you'd like to mention?
01:14:01You know, uh, the first thing that comes to mind about the Epstein list is the way it's been
01:14:07backburnered a bit and people haven't forgotten about it, but Charlie Kirk blew up and kept blowing
01:14:13up in the public, in the public, uh, consciousness. And, uh, you know, it's hard to, uh, it's, it's a,
01:14:22it's a tactic of this administration to have so many fires that, uh, you can't keep track of them all.
01:14:27However, uh, I still think the, the Epstein list still has legs. I think it's gonna continue to
01:14:33be a problem and, uh, I, and, and long may it be a problem, long may it run. So I think it's kind
01:14:41of halfway to the back burner, but I think it's, uh, I don't think it's going away.
01:14:46I think you make a fair point. It is out there. It has not in the, and the unredacted version has
01:14:52not been released for 3,753 days as of today. Um, and I think we'll wrap up in a few minutes,
01:15:04maybe another five or 10 minutes, but that in that time, we'll want to touch on one other issue,
01:15:10at least, which is New York and what's happening there with the mayor's race. Is that fair enough?
01:15:15Absolutely. Excellent. So, uh, there is a general election for the mayor of New York coming up in
01:15:23November, uh, for the November general election. And it's been very, it's, it's not only been, uh,
01:15:34very interesting for political people, people with political, uh, a political bent, but also
01:15:40because of the issues within the democratic party of the establishment Democrats.
01:15:50And I haven't thought of a different word. I haven't thought of a different word other than
01:15:54establishment, but I've got to come up with something better than that. Um, and the, I guess
01:16:00you'll say progressive or what's the word that's used sometimes, um, reform, I guess.
01:16:07Yeah. And, um, so the, the, the big issue has been that, uh, Zoran Mamadani, who is a assembly member
01:16:19from Astoria, that's Queens, uh, a portion of Queens. He was an assembly member in the state, uh,
01:16:26assembly and he's a democratic socialist. And up to the primary, which I got to tell you,
01:16:36which used to be a scary term until we saw what good old capitalist Republicans do.
01:16:42And so people are like, well, tell me a little bit more about this democratic socialism.
01:16:47I'm willing to try anything once.
01:16:49Right. Right. Well, and, and even more so, I think it's because he's not actually taking, um,
01:16:57positions that are so bizarre and so out of the world of politics nowadays. Uh, you know,
01:17:03you, you, you, what are, what are his positions? The positions are to make the buses free.
01:17:09Well, which is a bit innovative. It's a bit different. Uh, you know, it's almost radical. It's,
01:17:14it's, it's, it's different.
01:17:16It was actually, it was actually, it was actually piloted. It was actually piloted here. Uh, I believe
01:17:23by the de Blasio administration. Uh, they did the, they did it for a brief time just to see how it
01:17:29would affect not only ridership, but also if it could be done. And basically they found out that
01:17:36it could, so it's not even radical. Right. Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, you want to talk,
01:17:42we want to talk about redefining radical. He wants to own a few stores in the city, which would have
01:17:47been really easy for, uh, some start shirt Republican and the followers who believe him to
01:17:54make hay of, make political hay of, because it sounds a little out there. Oh, the government,
01:17:59ah, it's socialism, uh, and, and communism and fascism and Marxism and, uh, you know, whatever,
01:18:07any ism they can think of. They, they don't worry about definitions anymore. Anyway,
01:18:10it's so easily slandered by the other side until now the U S federal government is owning portions
01:18:18of what Intel and these other corporations now, now we're all socialist might as well be, you know,
01:18:26I mean, how can you rail against it when we're doing it on a federal scale? So, I mean, again,
01:18:32what is capitalism doing for you? It's not even living up to its own hype. You know, it's not about
01:18:38the best product. It's not about the lowest price on the market. It's about fixing the system six
01:18:44ways from Sunday. I think people, if they're, if they're not open to something different, they should be.
01:18:51That's right. And then when it's not actually, as you point out, it's not even radical stuff
01:18:55and it actually kind of makes sense. And it's not, um, uh, not the extreme that everybody desperately,
01:19:04everybody is against it desperately. And I mean, even the Democrats, even some Democrats,
01:19:09I know some folks, uh, who I've spoken with on social media, uh, folks who have been dyed in the wool
01:19:16Democrats, um, who are not in New York, uh, who say, Oh my God, this is a horrible thing. And it will
01:19:23change everything. And nobody will ever vote for a Democrat again. And all that kind of stuff.
01:19:27And you say, well, you know, you ever heard of a guy named Bernie Sanders, you know,
01:19:33started off as a democratic socialism mayor. Okay. So maybe, uh, the, the, maybe the tent is big enough.
01:19:42Yeah. Uh, that, uh, having, uh, uh, a second democratic socialist mayor is not such a, um,
01:19:50irreparable thing. I mean, it's not going to do nearly any sort of, um, uh, it's going to happen.
01:19:57It looks like it. So my point was up to the primary, everybody was saying how horrible it was.
01:20:04Everybody was saying, he doesn't have a chance. He's going to get wiped out in the primary.
01:20:08Uh, the establishment had brought in this guy who was a former governor, for God's sake,
01:20:15from a legendary family, uh, the Cuomo family, and even a guy who himself had been governor.
01:20:20And, um, there was no way the, the, the, that the other guy could possibly manage to take on such an
01:20:28important figure. Uh, hadn't lived in New York city for 30 years, but that's not the sort of thing where
01:20:33you worry about, uh, when you're in a primary and, um, up to about a half an hour after the polls closed,
01:20:43that was the conventional wisdom. Everybody was saying, nobody believed, uh, anything differently.
01:20:49And then when it got about an hour into the period after the primary closed, um, all of a sudden
01:20:57some results started coming out and all of a sudden it was, oh, looks like he's going to win.
01:21:02He's not just going to, he's not, you know, not only going to be able to take him on, he's going to
01:21:06beat him and he's going to really give him a spanking. Uh, it's not going to be, uh, even terribly close.
01:21:12Um, and then all of a sudden that's when the hand wringing came up and all the, uh, oh, well,
01:21:18you know, Cuomo just didn't run a good enough campaign. And then Cuomo came out and said, yeah,
01:21:22you know, my, my advisors were not that really good. And, uh, so, uh, it wasn't a good campaign
01:21:28because of the advisor. And then a couple of days later, he said, well, actually it was me.
01:21:32Okay. So it was me. I didn't do it well. Yeah. Cause you look like a schmuck. If you can't own up
01:21:37to your own responsibility, it's your campaign win, lose or draw. Oh, I had some bad pizza.
01:21:43It's the dog's fault. What are you talking about? I mean, what a, what a pathetic, pathetic display.
01:21:50He had a couple of days to think about it. It sounds like, and, uh, realized how weak he sounded.
01:21:55Oh, my mom's fault. What are you talking about? And to me, and it was such an opportunity.
01:22:03I'm sorry. I just, I think I just jumped in on you. So rude of me, but while I'm doing it,
01:22:07uh, uh, he, um, the fact that it was a great example and opportunity for Democrats to punk out
01:22:19and they, they lived up to the stereotypical, you know, they, they had a great opportunity to embrace,
01:22:27uh, a winner, a winner in a local primary. And they all stood back. Like he was, you know,
01:22:33like he was radioactive. Nobody wanted to endorse him. Nobody wanted to admit that the, you know,
01:22:40the Titan in the, uh, the party lost to, to, you know, David law, uh, uh, beat Goliath and they
01:22:49couldn't, I don't know. It was, it was just terrible. And it reminds me of David Hogg, who is another young,
01:22:54up and coming aspiring politician. He, uh, he was, uh, what was he elected to vice president of the
01:23:01Democratic party, something like that. And then they shit him out. One of the vice chairs. Yeah.
01:23:06Yeah. Uh, and, uh, you know, and then they railroaded him out of there. I don't know what went down,
01:23:12but this party is needs terribly young talent and they seem incredibly allergic to it when it comes
01:23:21and climbs up their legs and sits on their lap and they reject it. And we can't keep doing that.
01:23:26There's so many things. I don't know. It, it bugs me and it just smacks of that. This, uh,
01:23:31you're too good for the winning candidate. Get with it, get behind your people.
01:23:37Excellent point. Yeah, that is an excellent point. And that's part of, um, you know,
01:23:42you mentioned David Hogg and the party structure, and that's another thing that's gonna
01:23:47be up for grabs in 2026 in that primary election. Not the, not the general, but in the primary,
01:23:54uh, there's very hyper-local seats, things called county committee, um, the, the governing body of a
01:24:01local party. So the county's version of the, uh, Democratic party, uh, and the Republicans have it as
01:24:09well. And, um, those seats will also be up. So having a say in the party and how they run themselves,
01:24:18uh, is possible to affect by becoming part of the party structure. Uh, it's not a, it's, you know,
01:24:25it's a volunteer position. You do one or two things. It's not terribly complex. Uh, it's not a full-time,
01:24:31not even a part-time, a, a occasional sort of thing. Um, but you can have a say in your local party,
01:24:38uh, on a very influential level, uh, by involving yourself on the county committee. Uh, and so the
01:24:44step above that, one or two steps above that, uh, is what you were talking about with, uh, being on the
01:24:50national party's committee, uh, that runs things, uh, and David Hogg is, was in and now is out, uh, because he
01:24:58is, uh, uh, talking about challenging some of the incumbents in elections, um, which even without
01:25:07being on the, even without being a vice chair, he's still doing. Uh, he has, uh, encouraged candidates
01:25:14to run in different parts of the country. Uh, and, uh, that election I mentioned earlier, the Arizona
01:25:21Congressional 7 district, uh, was a race where in the primary, uh, one of, um, one of David Hogg,
01:25:28um, followers, um, was in on that race, uh, and in that case did not win. Uh, but that's, that's not
01:25:41something that's, when you're doing that kind of an action, it's not going to be everything all the
01:25:46time. You're going to have to work at it and you're going to have to gain stuff. You're going to have to
01:25:50gain seats and you're going to have to gain votes. Um, so it's not going to happen automatically.
01:25:56Uh, and that's, you know, what you got to commit to. If you're willing to commit to it, then you can,
01:26:02uh, build up to it. Yeah. And so, yeah, that's why I'm not a politician.
01:26:09You don't, you don't think you could do it. Oh, I'm, I'm sure I can't, I'm not disciplined. I can't,
01:26:14I don't have discipline for, uh, the day to day. Look at me, look at my exercise patterns.
01:26:19They speak for themselves.
01:26:24Well, I think you should give it a go. I mean, I, I happen to run for the county committee here,
01:26:29uh, in my part of New York and I will run again, uh, in 2026. But, um, it's, as I say, it's, it's so,
01:26:39it's because it's a part, uh, extremely part-time, like one or two things, uh, in a year in, in a,
01:26:47in a two, during a two-year cycle that you have to really do, uh, but you can still do some good
01:26:53by trying to build community in your neighborhood by, uh, being that person and maybe not pursuing
01:27:00the, you know, not doing what you, you might think a government official does, uh, but as a party
01:27:06official, uh, doing some positive things in your community and getting people to meet and know
01:27:11and talk to each other and maybe even follow through on, uh, some concerns that they have,
01:27:17at least getting them connected to the people who can do something about it. Uh, that's,
01:27:23that's a possibility when you have that, when you have that, powerful. Yeah. And with that said,
01:27:31I think that, uh, we should thank you all, those who's visited during, uh, those, uh, you,
01:27:39those of you who are still here, uh, that we greatly appreciate that you take the time to join us,
01:27:44uh, that you to listen to what we have to say, and we'll be back. We are set to do this on Wednesdays at
01:27:519 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific time, uh, so please feel free to join us, uh, and pass the word on,
01:28:00to friends, families, and foes. Go ahead and tell somebody you don't like. That's fine too.
01:28:04And everyone would be greatly appreciated. Um, and Tom, is there anything else you want to
01:28:15add in? Uh, no, sir. No, sir. That's it from us. Uh, thank you for, uh, you know, I would like to add,
01:28:20uh, that we, uh, we also are involved with, uh, uh, comedy podcast based on political current events
01:28:27called, uh, Politipod. I want to plug that and, uh, invite people to check it out. It's, uh,
01:28:32this has been discussion. That's more of humor, uh, humor based. I think you'll like it if you try it.
01:28:38Anyway, thanks for tuning in today. I want to thank everybody who's, uh, who stopped by to check us out.
01:28:42Yeah, I heard of that too. It's, I believe it's, uh, soundcloud.com slash politipod
01:28:49is the political humor podcast. And then there's this politipod live, uh, same branding, different
01:28:58subjects, uh, and whichever is your, whatever is your flavor. If you like hearing people talk,
01:29:04join us here. If you like a little bit of humor sketches, one-liners, uh, and the election central
01:29:10is on there as well. So you can know when you're, when elections are happening, uh, please join us
01:29:15either or, or both. Not to be missed. Thank you so much, Tom. Thank you, folks. And we'll, uh,
01:29:24we'll see you next Wednesday, 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. Good night. Good night, folks.
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