- 4 months ago
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00:00:00Hello, everyone. I'm Tom Bickel, and I'm here with my co-host, Matt Nissenoff. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Politipod Live. Welcome to our second episode as we discuss politics and current events. Matt, would you like to start us off with our first topic?
00:00:19Let's do. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us, hopefully joining us again, and making our little Wednesday visits a regular part of your day. We're going to start off with international news and talk a little bit more about actually what we haven't talked about yet, which is Israel and Gaza. Something light to start off with.
00:00:45There's actually some news in that you may have heard the... There's apparently an agreement between Trump and Netanyahu to bring about a peace plan. There's a 20-point peace plan, and they have agreed that this is the thing to pursue now.
00:01:07There's a thing that Trump does about talking with one side in order to resolve conflicts. He speaks with Putin about how to resolve Ukraine. He speaks to Netanyahu about how to resolve Gaza.
00:01:22It'd be nice if maybe some other people, perhaps even the actual people, perhaps even the actual people who are both involved, both sides that are involved. But we get what we get with Donald. And here we are in Gaza with a 20-point plan.
00:01:38And so where does that take us? I don't know, really. I don't think that there's much of an... I don't know that there's... You know, he's trying to make... Trump is trying to act as if he's a great peacemaker of our times.
00:01:59He claims that he's solved a dozen different conflicts, and he's a man of peace. And that's why there are troops in American cities.
00:02:10There's National Guard and ICE troops marching into our local cities because he's a man of great peace. And we'll see if there can be maybe a 20... Let's make it a two-point plan and just get ICE and the National Guard out of our cities.
00:02:26There's an idea. I'll float that out there and see if... You know, that could get you a Nobel Peace Prize if you did something like that.
00:02:36But with... Back to the... Back to Israel and Gaza, there's... The flotilla that was sent there, something like 44... Or people from 44 different nations were a part of the flotilla.
00:02:54Flotilla was diverted. There's a lot of concern about where these people are, what's happening to them.
00:03:00The Israeli government says, oh, don't worry, they're safe. Okay, well, let's hope so.
00:03:06All they were doing was taking a flotilla with humanitarian aid to help those in Gaza.
00:03:14And, you know, so hopefully there's no... Nothing that's happened to them that's severe.
00:03:23That they're just... What would be better would to let them go through.
00:03:27Check the boat. See if there's anything that's not humanitarian.
00:03:30If there is, take it out. Let them go on their way and deliver the humanitarian things.
00:03:35We don't know what the upshot of that is yet.
00:03:38But all of that adds into the issue.
00:03:42And it's actually, you know, I'm Jewish.
00:03:46And when I was raised in the 70s and 80s, we were...
00:03:53We looked at Israel as a very positive thing.
00:03:59And this was in the days of the, you know, raid on Entebbe and some very things that they were done that were considered, frankly, pretty miraculous for a young nation to be able to even try, much less actually achieve.
00:04:17So there was a lot of pride about that.
00:04:19And then at some point, and I think that can be traced directly to the election of Netanyahu, but after that, there's not so much to be proud about.
00:04:32And that's really heartbreaking. It's very difficult to...
00:04:37I wouldn't want to do something that showed support for Netanyahu.
00:04:41I just wouldn't want to do that.
00:04:43And at the same time, the violence that's going on in Gaza now,
00:04:48the thing that the violence that led to the violence there now, all of it is very...
00:04:55It's just heartbreaking to see.
00:05:00Absolutely. There's no winners here.
00:05:05It's terrible.
00:05:07You cover a lot of ground out of the gate, Matt.
00:05:11So let me catch up and get a word in edgewise on some of these.
00:05:15Because, yeah, Gaza, I feel like you put your finger on it when you said Trump always goes in with one side.
00:05:26And, you know, obviously it's the better to connive against the third party if you do that.
00:05:32And I don't know what saved Ukraine from that so much as maybe having allies in Europe and things like that,
00:05:41a strong counterweight that he couldn't just ignore.
00:05:43Maybe that made the difference.
00:05:45But I thought he was going to go in there and, you know, like you said, shut it down in a day by going,
00:05:50hey, Ukraine, time's up.
00:05:53You know, we're shutting off.
00:05:54And by the way, thanks for getting me impeached, which wasn't Ukraine's fault.
00:05:59But anyway, so that's what I...
00:06:04That's where my brain goes on that.
00:06:09Netanyahu, yeah.
00:06:10Yeah.
00:06:12Having a politician get a hold of your country and bring it low and make you ashamed instead of proud in the span of, you know,
00:06:20several years, I just can't relate.
00:06:23I can't imagine what that's like.
00:06:27So, you know, you have my sympathy there.
00:06:31Yeah.
00:06:33And I don't know.
00:06:34I had a conversation recently about Palestine and Israel.
00:06:40And it's just like a lava lamp.
00:06:42Nothing ever settles.
00:06:43Nothing is ever settled.
00:06:45If something good starts to happen over here, something else, the ass falls out of it over there,
00:06:49catches on fire at some third location, and it just refuses to be solved.
00:06:57And for hundreds of years, I mean, they know that the Americans are temporary.
00:07:04On the larger picture, the British came and went, and the Americans have come and they'll go.
00:07:14And, you know, who's next will come and go?
00:07:16And so the combatants, if you will, don't have to resolve it because of somebody coming from the outside,
00:07:23because they know that they'll stay or they'll go or they're out of here, you know, whenever.
00:07:29Right.
00:07:29And that makes it so that it's really up to the combatants if they're willing to come to a resolution.
00:07:37And there's certainly not any time soon.
00:07:41Yet there's for a couple of decades now, there's been the idea of a two-state solution.
00:07:45And honestly, I'm having some real trouble with that idea now, too.
00:07:52At one time, I was definitely, I definitely believed it and thought, oh, well, there's the solution.
00:07:57That will mean that everybody will have something and everybody will be able to be, they may not get everything they want,
00:08:04but they'll have, they'll each have their own state and each party can do something with that.
00:08:09But with all the things that have happened most recently, I don't know that that will be, I don't know that that will do it.
00:08:17I don't know, it's not two sides who are arguing the same thing.
00:08:22It's not two sides saying if we just had a homeland, you know, we can be happy and we can make things happen.
00:08:28And what's being said is, it seems, one side saying, well, we're not going to give up anything that we have.
00:08:37And the other side saying, well, we want to drive all the rest of you in and we want to drive the Jews into the sea.
00:08:44And when I hear that, I think, oh, that means kill them.
00:08:47Because between the river, the Jordan River and the sea, the Mediterranean Sea, if you drive somebody from those areas, there's nowhere to go but the Mediterranean.
00:08:59My understanding is there's an interpretation out there that says, oh, well, that doesn't mean kill them.
00:09:06It just means force them out.
00:09:07Okay, well, that is certainly not killing things, that's great, but not killing people is great, but that whole idea of where do you, what is it that will actually make both sides happy?
00:09:24And what can be done that would actually resolve the, whatever the real issue is?
00:09:40Well, I wish I could say I had something to offer.
00:09:44I wish I had an idea or at least something to say, well, here's what I would like to say, but I don't.
00:09:50I don't have any idea and I don't, don't know what would make both sides happy.
00:09:57And I don't think it would come in 20 parts.
00:10:01I will say that.
00:10:03Well, let me ask you this.
00:10:05Do you think it's a good thing that Gaza has been, that, you know, Palestine has been recognized by France and the UK and these other, and now what was it, Australia?
00:10:17Do you think that's a good thing?
00:10:18Do you think that I read somewhere, for example, that some people thought that nothing was really extracted in return for that recognition?
00:10:27It was sort of freely given and there were no, for example, like, I forget the word, but, you know, an agreement to do this and that or thus and so to, to hold certain, to, anyway,
00:10:42there were certain negotiations or acquisitions that weren't gleaned from that and some people thought that was a loss.
00:10:51Yeah, that, I don't know that that's the case.
00:10:54I know that somebody said that, but I don't think that it's necessarily the case.
00:10:58I think that's the reaction those countries are having to trying to move forward some sort of deal and Israel's not agreeing to it.
00:11:08Not that they shouldn't, but they're not going to, and I think that these are the countries, this is their reaction.
00:11:20If you're not going to budge, then we have to do something.
00:11:23And the next thing is recognize the Palestinian state.
00:11:27And also, it's not just Gaza.
00:11:29The Gaza and the West Bank have been given to the Palestinians for how many years since that agreement?
00:11:37So those two areas, the catch is there's the political party difference.
00:11:43The Palestinian Authority was removed from Gaza or chased out of Gaza by Hamas.
00:11:51So Hamas won the election to be, to represent Gaza because they ran off the competition.
00:12:01So, but they did, they ran off and they moved to the West Bank.
00:12:05So the Palestinian Authority is in the West Bank and Hamas is in Gaza.
00:12:09And so there's not a unity within the two parts.
00:12:14So there's another, you know, there's another difficulty to figure out how to address.
00:12:22Can they somehow act as one?
00:12:27Do they have to, how do they function with each other?
00:12:33And it doesn't seem that that's functioning either.
00:12:36So, hard to say.
00:12:45Yeah.
00:12:46Well said.
00:12:50Okay.
00:12:51So, you think they're going, what do you think, how far do you think that flotilla is going to get?
00:12:56Well, as I say, they've already sort of stopped it and steered it into another direction and taken,
00:13:00or apparently have taken the people with them or to another location.
00:13:07I don't think they've announced where they are.
00:13:10The, I, they, in this case is the Israeli, Israeli government.
00:13:16I, they said something about everybody's okay.
00:13:19Everybody's concerned because one of the people is Greta Thunberg.
00:13:22So, someone who is a very high profile person.
00:13:26So, people are saying it as, oh, what's happening with Greta?
00:13:30But they mean the whole group.
00:13:33Or hopefully they do.
00:13:36But, so the Israelis are apparently saying, oh, they're safe.
00:13:40And that's all they'll say.
00:13:42They won't say much more right now until they, I guess, actually release them, hopefully soon.
00:13:47But there's, I don't have any other information on that.
00:13:52Gotcha.
00:13:52Gotcha.
00:13:53Okay.
00:13:56So, as easy as that is to resolve, I think we have a few more minutes to solve another problem.
00:14:09And is, let's see here.
00:14:15What's the next thing we can take a few minutes on?
00:14:20Oh, this, and this is going back to the discussion we had last week on immigration policy in the U.S.
00:14:32and ICE troops and National Guard troops and all these military forces that are being directed inside our country as part of Trump's war on America.
00:14:47We have the latest, which is almost a keystone cop version of ICE.
00:14:56And that is, you may have seen the video on TV or on YouTube or somewhere where there's a young man doing food delivery on his bicycle.
00:15:09And he rides up and he rides up and he says, you know, F Trump.
00:15:16And there's about, I don't know, 30 or 40 of these police or ICE or whoever it was.
00:15:25And he rides right up to him, says it, starts riding away.
00:15:31And actually, as he starts riding away, he drops his wallet.
00:15:34So he has to take a second to bend, to jump off his bike, to grab his wallet.
00:15:41And when he does, one of the officers screams, you know, get him.
00:15:46And about 12 or 13 of the officers start bolting after this kid on this bike.
00:15:54And he zooms away.
00:15:56He's able to cut across the road and behind another bicyclist.
00:16:02And while there's 12 of them or however many there were, he's able to get around the corner and shoot up the street and escape.
00:16:11I think we might have that video as well.
00:16:16Is that...
00:16:17If we do, Matt, absolutely.
00:16:18Give me just a moment here.
00:16:20But I'm afraid there might be a...
00:16:21Oh, no.
00:16:21Oh, no.
00:16:22Oh, no.
00:16:22Oh, no.
00:16:23Oh, no.
00:16:24Oh, no.
00:16:25Oh, no.
00:16:26Oh, no.
00:16:56All right.
00:17:02Well, as you can tell, the orientation was somehow wrong there,
00:17:08but I think you get the idea.
00:17:11Go ahead.
00:17:12Yeah, do look at the private chat if you get a sec, Tom.
00:17:15Yeah, the orientation, I'm not certain how we can –
00:17:19it's something we can adjust,
00:17:21but if you see something down there, it's possible.
00:17:24Well, yeah, but, I mean, it brings up that whole concept of the Keystone Cops to me.
00:17:31You know, all we needed was the right music under it,
00:17:34and it becomes a silent movie version of the Keystone Cops, you know,
00:17:40blindly chasing after a guy bumping into each other, knocking each other over,
00:17:46jump over the wheel, whatever it is.
00:17:48Right.
00:17:48They come so close.
00:17:50Exactly.
00:17:51And you can hear what they're saying.
00:17:54Yeah.
00:17:55And they're bumbling and they're stumbling,
00:17:57and one or two of them I think almost went down.
00:17:59I'm not sure if anybody actually face-planted, but it was pretty close.
00:18:03And they almost had him, but he got away.
00:18:06You know, I've heard it pointed out, and I tend to agree that it's very funny.
00:18:12You know, the first thing that came to my mind was the Benny Hill music,
00:18:16like Yakety Sax, you know,
00:18:18and it's hilarious, but on the other hand, if they'd have caught this guy,
00:18:26they would have injured him for no reason, for no provocation other than,
00:18:31hey, fuck you, guy.
00:18:32And that's, you know, they'll take you down and break your clavicle and stomp you into the dirt.
00:18:40That's where we're at.
00:18:41So in that sense, it's not as funny.
00:18:44And I don't know.
00:18:47That's an excellent point.
00:18:49It's not only is that true, but that's what happened here in New York a couple of days ago,
00:18:54where an ICE agent, you know, they've taken up positions in the hallways of the courts.
00:19:00So as folks who are immigrants are coming for their day in court and to talk to a judge
00:19:07and to see what they need to do to move things forward on what they're doing
00:19:11as far as trying to gain access to the country legally,
00:19:16they walk out after the, you know, after the court date is over
00:19:21and they're jumped by ICE in the hallway as they're walking out.
00:19:27There's that case that you may have seen the video of where the ICE guys were trying to grab someone.
00:19:34They sort of half pinned him down to the ground
00:19:37and the ICE guy dropped his gun, his pistol went out of his hand across the street
00:19:48and he grabs it and starts pointing it at the people who are standing on the sidewalk witnessing the whole thing.
00:19:56Right.
00:19:56Not threatening other than witnessing.
00:19:59Exactly.
00:20:00Exactly.
00:20:00So now I guess it's illegal to, well, Trump's definition of illegal.
00:20:07To look at something that's happening.
00:20:11It's, and, but it, but you're right.
00:20:13I mean, there's, there's a humorous aspect to it, but it's really serious.
00:20:16And it's such a violation of everything.
00:20:18You can't say anything.
00:20:20So the freedom of speech is out.
00:20:22You can't look now or you'll be possibly shot in the face.
00:20:27It's, it's, it's beyond time.
00:20:31This is, this is, there's the, it's a problem.
00:20:33And it's beyond time that there's something that, you know,
00:20:38we've got to figure out what we need to do about it because this is not going to simply go away.
00:20:45Isn't it just a sign of the times though, that it's, everything in the news is both hilarious and terrifying.
00:20:52You know, our president's a buffoon, but when he makes mistakes, it's terrifying.
00:20:58Cause it, you know, it has such a, it cuts such a wide swath by design.
00:21:03There's no way to get away from it.
00:21:04And it's a, it's a great time to be alive, Matt.
00:21:07Yeah.
00:21:08Right.
00:21:08Well, there was a time when presidents didn't actually get involved with individuals.
00:21:15You know, they didn't make their decisions based on who they didn't like.
00:21:20They didn't make their decisions on what company they want to try to take over.
00:21:24They don't try to shake down companies in lawsuits so that they get millions of dollars.
00:21:31These were things that didn't happen.
00:21:34Right.
00:21:34Up till now and this, oh, and the most recent thing would be the government shutdown.
00:21:40This negotiating, which goes through time and again, you know, it's, it's not something new,
00:21:48but the way it was handled this time, once again, with, you know, here's, here's Trump with the project 2025 agenda and trying to dismantle government.
00:22:02Make it good time too.
00:22:03Make it good time too.
00:22:04Exactly.
00:22:05Yeah.
00:22:05Right.
00:22:05Right.
00:22:06And he's doing it so quickly.
00:22:12Please continue to finish your thought.
00:22:15I didn't mean to interrupt you.
00:22:16No problem.
00:22:17So the, the project 2025 was a plan that's been put together, not by Trump, but over 30, 20, 30 years by conservative think tanks and by the conservative wing of the political spectrum.
00:22:32And I don't know that they ever really thought they could do it, but they were sort of always planning and sort of saying, what could we do?
00:22:41You know, what is the pipe dream that we would love to see of taking apart government brick by brick?
00:22:48And with the Trump in office, they've been able to actually pursue it.
00:22:55And they have that whole thing of firing government employees.
00:22:58They've brought that back as a threat because of the shutdown.
00:23:02They said, oh, okay, well, we're going to shut down the government.
00:23:05And because we are able to do it, it will allow us to fire, you know, tens of thousands or a hundred thousands more of people who are on the government employment or government employees.
00:23:19And we can do that as part of the shutdown, the government's out, we have to cut people and they won't hire them back.
00:23:25The, the long-term damage, not even realizing it in the short term, but the long-term damage to what government is and how it works and the services it provides is going to be devastating to the country.
00:23:42I mean, this is, uh, Trump's, um, dismantling of what we, not only what we know, but what actually works.
00:23:51If there's a thing that works, he wants to make certain it's stamped out of existence because it's not labeled a Trump company or a Trump product.
00:24:00Uh, and so then if somehow something survives, he'll then run around saying that he saved it, that it was his, you know, oh, I'm, it's all because of me.
00:24:12Uh, you know, uh, you know, that didn't get shut down because somebody stopped me from doing it.
00:24:16So therefore it was my saving them.
00:24:19Exactly.
00:24:20He does that with absolutely everything where he winds up taking both sides of the issue and different speeches.
00:24:25So then no matter what actually happens, he can say, well, I'm victorious.
00:24:31I'm the ruler who makes things happen.
00:24:34Yeah.
00:24:35I've watched him play that trick for about 10 years now.
00:24:38And it's just the gambit of a person who can't do any real good.
00:24:44He can't do any real, achieve any real achievements.
00:24:47So the only thing he can do is threaten a thing and then not destroy it and pat himself on the back for, you know, like, uh, preventing seven wars.
00:24:57Uh, sure.
00:24:59So that's, that's what I chalk that up to.
00:25:02It's, it's an old gimmick.
00:25:03I don't know why people still fall, still fall for it, uh, why it still works for him, but, uh, that's part of the magic.
00:25:10That's show biz, I guess.
00:25:13Yeah.
00:25:13Well, it's certainly something.
00:25:15And, you know, with this government shutdown, uh, this threat that they're going to fire employees,
00:25:20they have been hacking off entire limbs of the government for the last eight months, hot and heavy for the first, like, six, they were just like, you there, get out, you know, uh, and, uh, shutting down USAID and, uh, I mean, any number of acronyms.
00:25:38It's just whole swaths of people and departments gone, like just lightning strikes.
00:25:46Now you're going to threaten that, oh, if you don't do what I say, I'm going to fire people.
00:25:51Well, I mean, okay.
00:25:53Um, it seems like a hollow threat to me, not that he won't do it, but that he's going to do it anyway, has been doing it anyway.
00:26:00So it, it does take the sting out of that as a threat.
00:26:05Um, I never understood how and why government workers don't get paid when the government shuts down.
00:26:13If they, if you have to show up, then I'm sure they know when you were there.
00:26:18I don't understand how people don't get paid.
00:26:20Um, I don't know how that works.
00:26:22I guess I'm just not smart enough.
00:26:24Uh, but it is, uh, uh, it is, uh, slightly comforting that, uh, ICE workers will be out there pummeling immigrants for free.
00:26:36Uh, so hopefully they don't make their car payments.
00:26:39I, that's, uh, you got to take your satisfaction in these things where you can, Matt.
00:26:45So yeah, this government shutdown, I, how long do you think it's going to be?
00:26:51What's the over under, Matt?
00:26:52Oh my goodness.
00:26:55Um, you know, I have no idea.
00:26:57I understand that there was some, uh, an attempt by the Republican house to pass a stop gap that would allow things to start up again.
00:27:07But it was for something like four weeks or something like that.
00:27:11Uh, and it was the democratic senators that said, if you're going to take away people's healthcare and you're going to take away benefits that the American people have,
00:27:22people benefit from, uh, then we're not going to agree.
00:27:27Uh, so they stopped that one.
00:27:30So it could be for, you know, this could be one of the longer ones.
00:27:34That means a couple of months, um, which, you know, you think it might go months, eh?
00:27:41Oh yeah.
00:27:42Yeah.
00:27:43I do.
00:27:43Uh, some of these are resolved within weeks and then everything just jumps right back in.
00:27:48Uh, but you know, the, is it because of the stakes are so high because, uh, is it because you think that, uh, Democrats are more emboldened because of maybe the nature of the threat that we haven't faced before?
00:28:02What do you think so?
00:28:03What do you chalk that up to?
00:28:05Well, I think that the Democrats actually do have, uh, uh, uh, some form of a leverage in this negotiation.
00:28:12And since Trump has been so, uh, so, you know, untractable in anything, everything that he does, uh, with the Democrats and how he, uh, has been, uh, so unable to do anything truly partisan.
00:28:32Uh, I think the Democrats are saying, okay, well, we're going to get the American people on our side with this.
00:28:39We're going to stick with holding off on this as long as we can, because we know that if the American people start getting a sense of where the problem's really coming from, uh, maybe this is a way that we'll refocus folks so that they get the point, uh, that this is what's happening here.
00:28:59And the Republicans don't really want to resolve it either.
00:29:02I don't think because they're back up to the whole, because of all the things that they're doing, gone back to firing people.
00:29:08And, you know, this just gives them an excuse to do the things that they are part of their project 2025.
00:29:15Yeah.
00:29:16There's no, you know, there's no, and until I think it's until the people react that, uh, you're not going to see much resolved.
00:29:27Hmm.
00:29:27Interesting.
00:29:32Yeah.
00:29:32I just can't get over the fact that they're, they're doing this anyway.
00:29:35They're, you know, running around with hacksaws, just cutting off everything.
00:29:38They, they damn well, please.
00:29:40And some stuff, you know, intentionally out of spite and some thoughtless, I don't know.
00:29:46So I just can't get past the lack of the threat when they're going to do it anyway.
00:29:52But I feel like, well, and they think so simplistically about it, you know?
00:29:57The whole thing of, there's right.
00:30:00Oh, in the healthcare, there's a health sector.
00:30:03There's a project about transgenic mice.
00:30:07Uh, so it's misinterpreted as they're turning the, the, they're, they're making the mice
00:30:16transgender.
00:30:17Right.
00:30:18Because the word trans is part of both words.
00:30:20They can't comprehend what the difference is.
00:30:23And so, oh, you see, this is a threat to the social order.
00:30:28Well, this is their hot button.
00:30:30You know, this is the, this is the way they're able to whip people up because they know they
00:30:34certainly can't win on the actual issues.
00:30:37So they need to turn to that sort of social, uh, culture war, uh, battles.
00:30:43And so then they apply it to anything, whether it's real or not, uh, those transgender, you
00:30:48know, turning those mice transgender, that's a horrible abomination against, uh, you know,
00:30:53the, um, against God or the gods or whoever it is.
00:30:57And they are, you know, yeah, I was going to say it's, it's a, there's a very gauzy limit
00:31:06between when we stopped as a country, as a political ecosphere, when we stopped spinning
00:31:14and just started outright lying, that was the beginning of the fascism because it, uh, it,
00:31:20it always ends up with these people over here are taking food out of your mouth.
00:31:27And money out of your pocket and they're raping your women and all these terrible things.
00:31:31It always becomes that it always, anyway.
00:31:34And so I think if we want to get back to this country is ever going to get back together,
00:31:39we're going to have to work out some method of agreeing on the reality and truth again.
00:31:46Because right now that shit is bonkers, buck wild, long gone out the barn door, way out
00:31:54of control.
00:31:54And they just, they just making up things that don't even, not even rooted in, you know,
00:32:00good lies have a grain of truth in them.
00:32:03That's what makes them so easy to take.
00:32:05This is just wholesale, whole cloth.
00:32:08You know what I mean?
00:32:09Storytelling.
00:32:10And, and it's, it's not that they don't care if anybody checks or excuse me, it's not that
00:32:15they're worried anybody's going to check.
00:32:16Nobody, they don't care if anybody checks, because they've, I guess, I don't know, have
00:32:21they anti-socialized research and fact-based, you know, if you go and quote the Encyclopedia
00:32:30Britannica to some of these people, they shun you, you know, they act like you're woke.
00:32:34Oh, you're woke.
00:32:35And that's it.
00:32:36And we're done talking.
00:32:37And yeah, we're going to have to, we're going to have to get all back on the same, on the
00:32:43same truth boat before this is over.
00:32:46Well, I mean, soybean farmers, see if they're into truth, you know, you can't gild that lily.
00:32:54You can't lie that well that these guys are going to get paid at the end of the season.
00:32:59That's a lie.
00:33:00You can't back up.
00:33:02Right.
00:33:03Right.
00:33:04Well, right.
00:33:05I mean, but, and at the same time, I think the issue is that, as you pointed out, the
00:33:12truth is not a requirement anymore for them.
00:33:15They just want to, they want to believe what they're told because that allows for them to
00:33:22be on that side.
00:33:26And so how do you get from there back to things that we can all agree on or facts that we can
00:33:32all agree on based on evidence or something like crazy as, as crazy as evidence.
00:33:38But how do you get back to that?
00:33:40And I, that's a hard one.
00:33:43I don't know how that could be done or how that would work.
00:33:49My thought is, is kind of tracing it back to its root.
00:33:52The whole reason they have to lie about what's happening and what it means is because they've
00:33:58lost their way politically.
00:33:59They don't have new ideas.
00:34:01They don't have good ideas that people care about.
00:34:03They lose on met on, on the actual policy.
00:34:07I think they lose all the time.
00:34:09Every time they get power, they just utterly just F things up to the, to the maximum.
00:34:16And then they leave it in a smoldering heap for the next Democrat to come clean up.
00:34:24Um, I mean, Biden inherited, uh, COVID and Obama inherited, uh, Bush's plummeting, you know,
00:34:35economy, uh, the 2008 crash.
00:34:40Um, anyway, Clinton inherited, Clinton inherited an incredibly large deficit and decided to attack
00:34:49it and he did, um, I guess, I guess to finish, to finish him off my point, uh, I got a little
00:34:58lost there in the weeds, but the fact is they lost their way politically.
00:35:01They don't have any good ideas.
00:35:02And so they can't, they can't tell the truth for God's sake.
00:35:06Why would you do that?
00:35:07There's no, there's no, nothing good down that road.
00:35:09All they want to do is outlaw, you know, gays and, uh, all these terrible things.
00:35:15And, and to the massive people generally, it is unpopular and the world is moving in a different
00:35:23direction, or at least I thought it was, or at least it was trying to, but I think that's
00:35:27why they find themselves so far out in the weeds that they have to lie because their message
00:35:31isn't popular and they can't figure out how, uh, you know, they had a chance to, um, they've
00:35:37had a couple of chances to turn around, go back to the woodshed, retool things and come
00:35:42back better than ever instead they got, you know, uh, bought out at bargain basement prices
00:35:48by Donald Trump's bullshit machine.
00:35:51And, uh, so this is all they have left.
00:35:53So I think to get back out of that, um, you just have to let their, the, the, you know,
00:36:00the snake catch its tail and start eating, uh, until it figures it out.
00:36:05Like, like I said, the soybean farmers, they're getting the raw truth of it.
00:36:09They've figured out exactly what these policies will get you.
00:36:11A lot of other people are farther removed, but, uh, and they, they can pretend that, oh yeah,
00:36:18gas isn't more than it used to be, or, you know, groceries aren't more than they used to
00:36:21be.
00:36:21Everything's fine.
00:36:22Everything's fine.
00:36:24All the while the water is just rising, you know, slowly.
00:36:28And, uh, you know, they're starting to pay their mortgage with their credit card and,
00:36:32uh, can't afford tires.
00:36:35And you just have to let them, but by then the entire country is going to be in a ditch.
00:36:39Who knows what they're going to wreck next.
00:36:41They can, can, will, and do irreparable harm.
00:36:44And we can't just sit by and watch and wait for the, some people for the flames to finally
00:36:49lick at their toes so that they can appreciate it.
00:36:53Um, I don't know how much we have that kind of time.
00:36:56Right.
00:36:57And that's, I, I do agree with that point because you're, you mentioned the farmers,
00:37:02the farmers absolutely are screwed.
00:37:04Uh, it's a story folks who are selling to, uh, China and India and all these other locations.
00:37:10And all of those deals are going to stop or they're going to become too expensive due
00:37:14to the tariff stuff.
00:37:15Uh, and so a lot of farmers are going to feel a lot of pain, uh, when the season's over.
00:37:23He had to sell, I'll remind you, he had to subsidize them in his first term and, uh, and
00:37:29it seemed to work well for him.
00:37:30He didn't, I didn't see any farmers jumping ship or complaining about it, but I was thinking
00:37:34to myself, okay, that's fine.
00:37:36They're getting paid, but you'd rather have customers out in the world than you would a
00:37:42big daddy in the government.
00:37:44Because once your customers go elsewhere and all you've got to big daddy's money, what
00:37:50happens when big daddy stops paying you, uh, or can't pay you or pays somebody else or
00:37:56something like that.
00:37:57And you want to go back to those customers, like they might want to go back to China as
00:38:01a market.
00:38:03Not anymore, bub, they've gone.
00:38:05Well, we'll see.
00:38:06Yeah.
00:38:07I mean, we'll see what actually happens, but here's the thing.
00:38:10I mean, yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:38:12He did do subsidies for farmers.
00:38:14He, he's going to do that again, uh, when he's not doing it, he'll say that it's, you
00:38:22know, whatever he would do, whatever bad term he can think of, cause he works on bad and
00:38:26good, right?
00:38:27Oh, it is a bad thing.
00:38:28It is communism.
00:38:29It is, you know, whatever he wants to say.
00:38:32And then when he does it, he says, oh, I'm sending you a check.
00:38:36You know, you're getting something with my signature on it.
00:38:38You should be happy, um, that kind of thing.
00:38:41And that's the way he is able to, but, but they accept it.
00:38:46The farmers voted for Trump, uh, I think as a whole, uh, that you go back and look at
00:38:51the results.
00:38:52They, they voted for the guy.
00:38:54I mean, a lot of these folks who are being, uh, there, there's a percentage of folks being
00:38:58grabbed by ice, all of who, them, their families voted for Trump and they're terribly
00:39:04surprised, uh, by what's happening.
00:39:07Uh, but, um, I feel like they heard what they wanted to hear.
00:39:11Right.
00:39:12Exactly.
00:39:12Will, will they actually change what they do?
00:39:15Will they actually change their vote this time?
00:39:17You know, a shocking thing that I saw was, uh, if you remember the, uh, gun violence in
00:39:23Uvalde, where a guy walked into a school and started shooting kids and the police came
00:39:31and set up in the hallways, but were too scared to, or at least the, the person leading the
00:39:36police, uh, was too scared to give the command to go in, uh, and sat in the hallway and listened
00:39:42to kids getting shot, getting killed.
00:39:45Yeah.
00:39:45Um, after that incident, the first election cycle after that event, uh, the Republicans
00:39:52won straight ticket.
00:39:53The people in Uvalde voted for Republicans on the federal, the state, the local, the local
00:40:00level, if you can imagine, uh, that you'd think that maybe there'd be some, some sort
00:40:07of, uh, determination to change things and see what could be done to resolve, uh, to make
00:40:12things better, but didn't happen.
00:40:15They all voted straight Republican again.
00:40:18I can't, I can't wrap my mind around that.
00:40:20Why do you think they did that?
00:40:22I, man, if I could tell you that, uh, you don't have a theory.
00:40:28Okay.
00:40:29I thought maybe usually pretty, you know, got a theory.
00:40:31Uh, so I wanted to check, make sure I wasn't missing something.
00:40:35Yeah.
00:40:35I mean, the only theory I can think of is that they are just so, um, you might say
00:40:43brainwashed, you might say focused.
00:40:45I don't know what word you want to use there, but they're so.
00:40:48Maybe they're just, that's Republicans is pretty much all you have in a red area.
00:40:52I don't know.
00:40:53It must've been.
00:40:54I mean, I, I believe that even one of the parents of, uh, one of the children was running
00:40:59as a, as a candidate.
00:41:01So you can't say it was that they didn't have choice.
00:41:04Um, they didn't have a choice.
00:41:07Um, but it's so that whole thing that you were talking about, sort of that mindset is
00:41:16so intractable.
00:41:22There's just no, there's no getting around it or breaking it.
00:41:26I guess.
00:41:27See that that's what, that's where I'm stuck on your theory for people changing.
00:41:32I mean, I, I mean, I would hope they would sure.
00:41:34Uh, but what, what will it take to actually bring us back to that, changing that mindset
00:41:44from the social culture wars, which is the reason they do it, as you pointed out, was
00:41:49because they can't win on the issues and they certainly can't win on policy.
00:41:54Um, so that idea of figuring out the thing that helps to divide people to get them into
00:42:01power, they're not going to help to change that.
00:42:04I guess, I guess to me, it, uh, there's a parallel where I keep going back to the soybean farmers,
00:42:12but it's such an easy, you know, they're suffering from the policy and they, they can't ignore
00:42:17it.
00:42:17It's not something like transgenders where they don't know anybody like that or gays where
00:42:22they don't know anybody who admits to being gay in their life.
00:42:24And so they think they can just have their opinions and never have to square them with
00:42:29reality.
00:42:30Uh, this, just like the soybean farmer and the lack of a buyer, um, Republicans seem to
00:42:38change when it matters to them.
00:42:40If their kid comes out and says, I'm transgender, well, do you still want to hit him with your
00:42:46truck?
00:42:46You know, uh, or do you still love your kid and realize that, well, maybe if they're gay
00:42:52or the transgender or non-binary or different, or, uh, you know, like to listen to, uh, bad
00:42:59bunny or whoever, um, you know, then they have to reconcile with reality.
00:43:04And that's not just something theoretical.
00:43:06You bitch about down at the bar or over tea with your friends.
00:43:10Um, it becomes practical and you have to say, okay, well, I still hate my child.
00:43:16You know, or I, uh, they're just not right.
00:43:19Or you have to knuckle under and stop being such a pain in the ass about theoretical things.
00:43:26And what, like I say, once it becomes real.
00:43:29So that's why I say the consequences have to, uh, are going to have to land and make it
00:43:34real for, for these people who think that it's just really cool to, you know, shoot gun,
00:43:41uh, shoot fishing boats out of the water or just whatever nightmare number 973, um, pick,
00:43:49pick one at random anyway.
00:43:51And so people have to, they have to reconcile these things, but nobody has to reconcile it
00:43:56when it's all theoretical, when it's all just social media and posturing among your friends
00:44:01and, uh, when it's not real, but when it becomes real and you meet your, your uncle at Thanksgiving
00:44:08and he demands, you know, that you're either cool with them or you're not.
00:44:14And you have to, you have to make some adjustments or not.
00:44:19And a lot of people, they finally see the light when it, when it becomes practical and real for them
00:44:24and they have to deal with it.
00:44:26So I'm hoping that I don't know what else, I don't know what else could possibly work.
00:44:33Well, as then the question becomes first, actually my initial reaction was to say,
00:44:40you're saying it is real.
00:44:42And that brings us back to the original issue that we started the show with.
00:44:46You're always trying to blame the Jews.
00:44:48I hear you.
00:44:48Um, but, um, the, the, the, the thing that I'm thinking of is how do we show that?
00:44:56And that, how do we, um, what, what, where's the proof in that theory, which would be, I,
00:45:04the only time people have a opportunity to hold, uh, elected officials accountable is an election.
00:45:13Right.
00:45:13And so that means that 2026 will be the proof of the pudding.
00:45:18If there's enough pain that's caused prior to that point, or if the pain is delayed past that,
00:45:24then what do you do then?
00:45:26I guess, look at 2028.
00:45:28Um, but the, the proof comes every two years or every four years, uh, when there's an election
00:45:37for the federal level positions.
00:45:40Um, so there, there's the way to check in on what you're thinking, Tom, or these, what the,
00:45:47the, the theory that you have on this, the first time that we'll be able to check on it and is in
00:45:51about a year in November of 2026.
00:45:54There's that, there's that.
00:45:56And that sounds so damned far away.
00:45:59Uh, who knows what the landscape is going to be like, uh, by then there's political in political
00:46:06time.
00:46:07That's a decade, you know what I mean?
00:46:0913 months from now or whatever it is.
00:46:11Uh, and so, yeah, who knows what foul chicanery will have been dreamt of.
00:46:18And about 60% of this bullshit goes through.
00:46:21So that's not encouraging whatever between now and then that's a lot of bullshit, uh, that
00:46:27can be wrought.
00:46:28So I, I did, I tend to despair a little bit for 2026 and not only because of the chicanery
00:46:34of those who would do evil, but by the floppiness of those who are supposed to fucking protect
00:46:41us, excuse me, against it.
00:46:44Um, those who are supposed to be in our corner, those who are servants of the people.
00:46:49And by and large, I think the people are pretty dissatisfied with, uh, what is supposed to
00:46:55be our esteemed counterattack, uh, politically.
00:46:59And, uh, so I worry, I worry for on both fronts, both that there will be, uh, things attempted
00:47:06and that they will be poorly defended.
00:47:09I don't, I see precious few showing the imagination and the spirit and the metal to embrace this
00:47:19fight.
00:47:19And it's, uh, it's, um, it's all the marbles, you know what I mean?
00:47:26So, uh, and on the other hand, there are indicators that, uh, we don't have to wait 13 months for.
00:47:34There are special elections going on all the time.
00:47:36I'm sure you know better than I do.
00:47:38Uh, that are always showing which way the wind is blowing.
00:47:41There's little political wind socks, uh, guiding the way.
00:47:45And it seems like Dems are overperforming even when, uh, there's nonsense afoot.
00:47:50And that is encouraging.
00:47:51I think enough people are seeing that this here is some bullshit.
00:47:57And, uh, I think they'll remember well enough when it comes time to vote.
00:48:01I don't think they'll sit on their hands as some of us, many of us, all of us at one point
00:48:05or another have been known to do.
00:48:07Uh, but hopefully there's nothing, there's nothing else we can do except to get the citizens
00:48:13to act like citizens again.
00:48:15And for them slash us, again, it becomes practical.
00:48:20I've sat out a few votes that I shouldn't have.
00:48:22I've been lazy, too lazy to look up issues or get involved.
00:48:26And this is what it, this is what it wreaks.
00:48:29It wreaks havoc.
00:48:29It wreaks rot.
00:48:30It wreaks corruption.
00:48:32And, uh, so me, just like the hypocritical Republican that I love to revile, um, I will
00:48:41change my tune when it matters to me practically.
00:48:44When the rubber meets my road, uh, or vice versa or both or which way you have it.
00:48:49Um, you know what I mean?
00:48:51When it becomes practical to me, I will, uh, adjust my thinking.
00:48:56Um, and here we are in the, in the damn ditch.
00:48:58So I think it's time to adjust our thinking, get more civic minded, get more involved, understand
00:49:04what's going on instead of just believing whatever comes across the airwaves on a TV channel
00:49:10that makes you feel better.
00:49:12No, you should demand better than that.
00:49:14And we should.
00:49:14And if, until we do, this is what we get.
00:49:18Fair point.
00:49:19Fair point.
00:49:19So, so it sounds like what you are saying is that you, um, are planning to vote in 2026.
00:49:30Oh, I plan to vote and care and, uh, protest and get involved to some degree.
00:49:36Absolutely.
00:49:36And you're going to get out to vote for Prop 50 out there in California?
00:49:41Uh, if I was in California, I absolutely would.
00:49:43Uh, I think, yeah, I think it comes, uh, much like this shutdown.
00:49:49Uh, Democrats have got to start painting outside the lines, coloring outside the lines, uh, thinking
00:49:56outside the box, uh, whatever euphemism you like.
00:50:00They have to start getting excited, energized, and doing things, shaking things up.
00:50:06Um, there, we've been incredibly stodgy in the face of just how many months, Matt, how
00:50:13many months upon months of, of just diabolical, you know, terror and fear for the fate of this
00:50:21country.
00:50:21Have we just sat around and waited, hoped, hoped the wind would blow in a different direction?
00:50:27We're way, um, we're way behind the curve, in my opinion.
00:50:31We should have had, uh, this Gavin Newsom Twitter shit.
00:50:35We should have been doing, I think I may have said this before.
00:50:38We should have been doing that two weeks after Trump started blowing his horn the way he does.
00:50:42All his arm waving and, and headline grabbing.
00:50:46We should have been onto that.
00:50:47We should have, about 10 days, I gave him 10 days of grace period.
00:50:50We should have had to be really stunned and like, hey, what's this guy's doing?
00:50:55And, uh, hi there.
00:50:58And yet we didn't.
00:51:00So it has gone on for a little bit anyway.
00:51:04And, uh, excuse me, had a technical difficulty anyway.
00:51:08And so, sorry, Matt, you know what?
00:51:12Let's, let me pause for your, your views.
00:51:14It's a visual medium, Tom.
00:51:16Uh, so I, I, it's, I would say that first of all, um, yes, you're right.
00:51:24Everybody should have expected that he would do his worst.
00:51:27Everyone should have been ready for it and had something to, you know, had a plan in place.
00:51:31Um, but they didn't.
00:51:33And they just said, well, he won.
00:51:35So he's going to get to do the stuff that he wants to do.
00:51:38Um, that's what's scary about this recent meeting of the generals that Pete, uh, Hegseth put together and, and had his little event where he brought in a couple of hundred generals and admirals from all over the world and brought them together so that he could give his, give a lecture on the warrior ethos.
00:52:02Um, so I guess that's, uh, something that he knows something about, I guess, um, he has an idea of what one is anyway.
00:52:14He may not know what it really is, but he, he has an theory and, and he, he, he provided it to these generals and, uh, even had Trump come out, you know, after complaining about people not being physically fit enough and needing physical training daily, if not twice daily.
00:52:35Uh, he then brought out Donald Trump to lumber onto the stage in his, uh, what is he supposed to be?
00:52:44Five foot 12 and 120 pounds or something.
00:52:48I don't know what it was, but he, he's, uh, he came out with his, uh, his warrior physique and also gave some words of wisdom to the generals.
00:52:59Now you see videos of it and the generals are not applauding.
00:53:03They're not acting like a MAGA rally.
00:53:06And I think that was certainly upsetting to both Pete and Donald.
00:53:13Um, hugely gratifying to me.
00:53:16These things come up, I'm sorry to interrupt, but these things have been, uh, threatened before and, uh, you never know what's going to happen or, you know, uh, these catastrophic things where thousands of people are,
00:53:29they're laid off, for example, they come to fruition and they happen.
00:53:31And then, uh, in the, in the dustup, we had a good week that we knew this was going to happen.
00:53:36Why get generals all together in one room?
00:53:39Uh, you know what I mean?
00:53:41Uh, what could they possibly be plotting?
00:53:43And then it turned out to be a QVC infomercial for, you know, some cheap, uh, disguise of manhood and warrior ethos by a guy who can't do a pull-up.
00:53:59And, um, anyway, I'm just, for as evil as I was worried this would be, uh, I'm thrilled and relieved that it was as inept and pathetic as it was.
00:54:10No notes.
00:54:12Do it again.
00:54:13It was like his military parade.
00:54:18Right.
00:54:19Thought it was going to be something, you know, terrible.
00:54:22And, uh, and it was, but in a good way.
00:54:24Right, right.
00:54:27In the way you want terrible to be for that scenario in America.
00:54:31Um, yeah, I, I do have a little, little bit of a doubt in my mind.
00:54:36And that is you bring 800 generals together.
00:54:39You can't expect them to act like a MAGA crowd because they think of themselves as generals.
00:54:45And they think of themselves as having a certain position and status.
00:54:48And they're not going to go wildly applauding yet.
00:54:53My concern is that when the military gets involved, they will, it is, it is not uncommon for them to initially say,
00:55:04and particularly tell the press, uh, that they do not have any interest in pursuing the silliness or they won't follow illegal orders.
00:55:13Or they, you know, they, they come out and say, this is not something that we're going to be swayed by.
00:55:19And yet three to five days later, without a press release, uh, they can start doing things that they think will make the boss happy.
00:55:28Cause the guy is still their boss.
00:55:32So what is it that we will see?
00:55:35And that's what, that I, if nothing happens, then that will be great.
00:55:42Uh, will something happen?
00:55:44And that's what we've got to, that, that we don't have any control over.
00:55:49We'll see what ha what actually does happen or what comes from it.
00:55:52Uh, but these guys allegedly were, you know, vetted and even given certain talking points or hats or whatever it was they were given, uh, before they attended.
00:56:05Uh, and they were vetted to, uh, be to, uh, Pete Hegseth's liking.
00:56:12So what does that mean?
00:56:17In other words, I hope it's as silly as you say, you know, as, as you presented.
00:56:22I certainly hope that that's the end of it, which can also happen.
00:56:26Usually if Trump, uh, uh, or his people do something that falls flat on its face and they see that it falls flat on its face in public, they'll at least temporarily stop doing it.
00:56:39Uh, they'll come up with some excuse for having done it.
00:56:44And then they hold back for, sometimes they'll just stop it.
00:56:49Sometimes they'll just hold back and try again in six months later to see what kind of response it gets, uh, then.
00:56:55So, as you say, we've got a little bit of time in front of us and they're going to make use of that time, uh, let's hope as ineptly as they handle this rally.
00:57:09Yeah, indeed.
00:57:13You know, the courts, the courts are promising, except for that one court at the top that gets to tell all the other courts what courts can do and can't do.
00:57:23So, yeah, it's a, it's a tumble dry of, uh, possibilities.
00:57:33Right, right.
00:57:34Not all of them good.
00:57:36Too true.
00:57:37And we don't know until after, you know, it was McConnell's plans to usurp the Supreme Court worked out.
00:57:49Um, I mean, he won in that respect.
00:57:52Uh, so now we've got to deal with this court for 20, 30, 40 years.
00:57:59Maybe 40 is over saying it, but, but 20 years anyway.
00:58:03Uh, 20, 30 years.
00:58:04Yeah, for sure.
00:58:05For a good long time.
00:58:06So, yeah.
00:58:10Um, and then when Trump got in and wound up naming two or three extra Supreme Court justices, horrible.
00:58:18So, that puts us in.
00:58:20Yeah, and I, uh, I hold Obama, I hold Obama responsible for that personally.
00:58:24Uh, when, uh, they took that Merrick Garland, uh, the Senate wouldn't, uh, do the advise and consent thing that they're bound to do.
00:58:34And he just whistled past it.
00:58:37Uh, I would have been throwing some flags on plays.
00:58:39I like to think he's the big constitutional scholar.
00:58:42He couldn't think of a way to, you know, uh, stand on his two feet and demand more.
00:58:49Uh, I, I can't believe there was no way out of that, that we just cough up a Supreme Court seat and keep moving.
00:58:57But it's what we did.
00:58:58Well, and McConnell, you know, McGonnell, uh, McConnell had gamed that out as well.
00:59:06So, it wasn't just, you're making a valid point, I think.
00:59:11Absolutely true.
00:59:12I hear you.
00:59:12But it wasn't Obama simply not doing something as opposed to, he didn't, he did not do that.
00:59:19That is true.
00:59:20But he also had somebody who was determined on blockading whatever he did do and who had planned, as I said, for a long time, how to, he figured out how he wanted to, uh, pervert the court.
00:59:34And he did.
00:59:35I hear that.
00:59:41Well, let's see what else is going on here.
00:59:45Um,
00:59:46Um, is there anything that is particularly of an issue that you wanted to bring up?
00:59:56Any kind of moronic sort of thing?
01:00:02Nothing new for me tonight on that front.
01:00:04Uh, just, uh, just sticking to the current events tonight.
01:00:09Okay.
01:00:10Um, what I can do is I can take a minute or two if it's okay.
01:00:15Absolutely.
01:00:16Talk to me.
01:00:17You mentioned earlier about the elections that there's always an election happening somewhere in America.
01:00:22That's our friends at election central like to say that, uh, election central in combination with bullet a pod, let you know when elections are coming up.
01:00:33So as we discussed, there's actually local elections happening constantly all over the country and happening every week.
01:00:42So somewhere, somebody's getting a chance to vote and they need to, uh, well, as you suggested earlier, they need to pick up on that opportunity.
01:00:52And some things that are coming up, uh, in October, uh, October 7th, let's see.
01:01:00So next week on October 7th, uh, we'll have Juneau, Alaska having as general, um, municipal elections.
01:01:11So local elections, I believe there are two particular spots that are contested, uh, there's a district, uh, district two and a board of education physicians that are contested elections.
01:01:23And then two others that are not, uh, and a couple of valid questions as well.
01:01:27So they have one valid question where they're talking about, uh, reducing taxes on essential products.
01:01:36And then there's another, um, valid question that puts together a seasonal tax that is only in part of the year.
01:01:48You know, the, the, in Alaska, there's the fishing industry.
01:01:51There's a year, a part of the year, that's the season to go catching fish.
01:01:55There's a part of the season, the part of the year, that's not the time to go out and go fish.
01:02:00Um, so they're, they're, they put together a proposal that would increase the tax during the season and then would reduce the tax, uh, when they're out of season.
01:02:12Um, and that's going to help with modifying the reduction in the other tax as well.
01:02:22So they're trying to make up for the, the one tax reduction by having another issue that raises a tax.
01:02:30So I guess it's more about what specific issue is, what specific goods are being, uh, addressed.
01:02:37So that's happening up in Juneau.
01:02:39If you're a Juneau voter, your date of vote is October 7th.
01:02:42Make certain you get out and vote.
01:02:44Uh, there's a couple of things happening down south in Alabama.
01:02:47There's Birmingham and also the Birmingham City School District.
01:02:52Uh, the city election is actually a runoff where they're having a runoff general election.
01:02:57I should, I guess you should mention the, the terms that I'm saying, uh, uh, to be as clear as possible.
01:03:03There's primary elections where each of the parties pick who they want to run in the general election.
01:03:09There's general elections where the parties run against each other to elect somebody for an elected seat.
01:03:16Uh, some places have multiple candidates in an election in the general election.
01:03:22They allow multiple candidates and then have another election, a runoff election, where the top two people from the first general election go head to head.
01:03:33If no one gets over 50% of the vote, um, different places do it differently, but there's, there's some of the things that exist.
01:03:41And then there's also special elections if someone resigns or dies, or if there's a particular reason, um, then there's a special election held to fill the seat.
01:03:53So those are sort of the four general, uh, categories or the four election categories that I'm talking about.
01:04:00Um, so Birmingham, Alabama on October 7th has a general runoff election.
01:04:07And at the same time, the school board's taking advantage of there being an election and having its own general runoff election.
01:04:16I believe I mentioned last week that Iowa has local elections and they split them up.
01:04:22There was one day that they already went and had some, some of the local places went with their elections.
01:04:27And now there's the other folks who didn't have their local general elections, uh, that they're having them in Iowa on October 7th.
01:04:35So check your local listings on your local election and then remember to get registered and go vote.
01:04:43Uh, also I'll mention, oh, the special primary for Tennessee's seventh congressional.
01:04:51Uh, there's a, you mentioned the special elections for congressional candidates.
01:04:56Well, there's one of those coming up and that's happening in Tennessee on October 7th.
01:05:02And, oh, some, another, uh, another state with some local elections coming up.
01:05:08That would be Texas.
01:05:10So big old state and a lot of places having local elections in Texas on October 11th.
01:05:18So Texas voters get to those polls and, uh, oh, I'll mention one other one, one other for right now.
01:05:28And that's in Oklahoma.
01:05:29Oklahoma city has a special election set for October 14th.
01:05:37So there's an opportunity for some folks down in Oklahoma city to make their voice heard and get out and vote.
01:05:44Uh, thanks for listening.
01:05:45That's election central.
01:05:55All right.
01:05:56Thanks, Matt.
01:05:57So, uh, onto the next, uh, I suppose.
01:06:02What do you think about, uh, YouTube's, uh, settlement out of court?
01:06:07Yeah, that was Trump extorting some money again.
01:06:12So another couple of million dollars that, uh, he's been able to shake loose from a company and, uh, through settlement, not have actually anything happen to the company, but they're making certain that there's a bunch of money, uh, for a settlement.
01:06:28And of course, I think that each time he does it, he's doing it for his own personal gain.
01:06:36This is not a president looking to rule the country.
01:06:42This is not somebody who's governing the country.
01:06:46Uh, it's somebody who's seeing an opportunity and shaking down companies as part of that, uh, proud tradition that he started.
01:06:53Uh, and this is another, uh, another one of those.
01:06:58Um, and also, I mean, there's some lesser, uh, incidents as well.
01:07:02There's this guy who runs Live Nation.
01:07:05If you know Live Nation, they're one of the ticketing companies, the, the, the companies that make, uh, tickets available for events.
01:07:14Right.
01:07:15They run the event, they set the ticket price, et cetera.
01:07:18And apparently the CEO of the company, I don't know his name off the top of my head, but the CEO of Live Nation recently said, you know, people pay tens of thousands of dollars for season tickets for basketball teams.
01:07:34But they get angry when I try to charge $800 for a Beyonce concert.
01:07:42And think back just a couple of decades ago, it was on, uh, MTV.
01:07:51Once upon a time, there was a thing called MTV.
01:07:53It was about music videos.
01:07:56Uh, if you can remember that far back before they went into programming and putting on shows instead of music videos.
01:08:03Um, and they did an interview with Kurt Cobain.
01:08:09And they mentioned the price that Madonna was charging for her tickets.
01:08:15And it was like $35, 35.
01:08:19Yeah.
01:08:19So yeah, exactly.
01:08:2035, something like 35 bucks.
01:08:22Uh, and Kurt Cobain's face absolutely registered shock.
01:08:27He just absolutely, he was like, we were debating whether or not to charge $20, you know, who would have thought to charge 40 or 50 or 35 or 40, you know, who, who gets away with that?
01:08:41Uh, and now this guy is talking about how he should be charging 800 for tickets.
01:08:45Uh, and where's the response?
01:08:49What can we do to live nation to rattle their tree?
01:08:54You know, it's a good question.
01:08:55Uh, if, uh, I mean that even if scalpers weren't a part of it, what can you do?
01:09:03I mean, uh, it's heartening that just recently we've had the ability to make Disney and ABC pay a price for, uh, selling out Jimmy Kimmel.
01:09:13That was, uh, that was encouraging.
01:09:16So, uh, can we turn that around and use it against someone else?
01:09:21I mean, with politicians, like you say, we do it on election day.
01:09:24How do you, how do you purple NURPL live nation?
01:09:29I don't know.
01:09:30Um, the, the answers have got to be out there.
01:09:34I mean, it's got to start with not buying tickets, I guess, but I don't know where it goes from there.
01:09:40And I don't know how to achieve that.
01:09:42I think you make an excellent point.
01:09:43Absolutely true.
01:09:45And the Kimmel model, I guess we should call it, uh, is actually spot on.
01:09:52You can't change politicians till election, but you can register your discontent because that is actually a thing and that's important.
01:10:02And people see that and they react to it.
01:10:05Uh, so if you want the powers that be to get a message, you know, work to change them as best you can, when you can,
01:10:14but don't hesitate to make your feelings known and to do something that also involves larger groups of people doing the same.
01:10:24Uh, because, uh, I believe that what was mentioned in our first episode as well was, uh, economics have, uh, can make the point much better than sometimes we can just do so with speaking.
01:10:40Yeah, it's just, uh, like politics though.
01:10:43You have to organize or you don't, uh, you don't make a dent.
01:10:47Too true.
01:10:48Organizing is where it's at.
01:10:52Well, if you can't, if you don't have money, you've got to do something.
01:10:56And neither one of us can fund a campaign yet.
01:10:59So until then.
01:11:01That, that is very true.
01:11:03You know, I'll tell you, um, there's another disturbing pattern.
01:11:05Now that we're talking about this, I'm just seeing patterns like rain, man, uh, but in the first Trump term, I feel like the media was tougher.
01:11:17And then they completely folded in the second term, Washington post was doing proud work.
01:11:23I was thrilled to be a subscriber of the Washington post.
01:11:26They're counting all his lies and keeping a, you know, a day by day tally.
01:11:30That's fantastic.
01:11:31And they're covering him like a cheap suit.
01:11:33They're just all over him.
01:11:34Fantastic.
01:11:35Everybody, they're criticizing him right where he needs to be criticized, how he needs.
01:11:39And now, same guy owned it, right?
01:11:44Bezos still owned it.
01:11:45This time around, he decides he's not going to, he's not going to endorse Kamala Harris.
01:11:50Uh, okay, fine.
01:11:52Okay.
01:11:53Um, I guess we'll just endorse this steaming pile of shit instead.
01:11:59And then he also throws down the edict that we're not going to do this kind of coverage.
01:12:03We're going to cover like personal liberties and stuff goes kind of quasi libertarian and his edict.
01:12:08I mean, why this time around?
01:12:11There were mergers in the last Trump, uh, administration that everybody had to sweat.
01:12:17Uh, is it because he's hired and there are no, I mean, listen, there weren't a lot of adults in the room the first time around, but you had a few apparently for all the good they did.
01:12:28Uh, but this time around, it's complete sycophant clown show.
01:12:34Nobody's qualified to be in their position.
01:12:36They're there only because he put them there and that keeps them nice and loyal, I guess, which I hope it keeps them loyal enough to go to jail because some of them will, uh, unless all goes really into the tank.
01:12:49Uh, but I don't understand why in the second term that the media crumbled the way they did and that, uh, I mean, who else, who else hasn't fared well?
01:13:01Uh, Republicans have been terrible from the get.
01:13:05They've, they raced to the bottom.
01:13:07They're equally as bad now as then.
01:13:09They just have more, uh, more fortuitous circumstances, uh, to let their mold really grow deep roots.
01:13:19And so, I don't know.
01:13:20I don't understand.
01:13:21I thought I had another pillar of the community that I can't exactly cite right now that is just dog shit in the second coming of Trump where it was so, I thought, fairly stellar in the first, uh, first term.
01:13:34I can't explain it.
01:13:35Can you?
01:13:38Well, I can try.
01:13:41I honestly, I, I, I see.
01:13:44So yeah, well, but I, I see your, you, you make an excellent point.
01:13:50Uh, at the same time, I think the media overall in his first term had no idea what was happening.
01:13:58He was hitting them from an angle that they hadn't been hit on before.
01:14:02They were used to, whether you agree or disagree, you're going to keep your access by, you know, the media would keep his access by sometimes not asking the hard questions and sometimes letting things go.
01:14:19Um, and yet he was hitting them broadside full.
01:14:26You know, you're the enemy of the state and you're this thing that is evil and must be defeated no matter what they did.
01:14:34So they were kind of trying to bend over to sort of, oh, I'm sorry, bend backwards to accommodate things.
01:14:42I'll stop you when you're wrong.
01:14:46Um, and they were trying to accommodate to allow for that, allow access type of thinking.
01:14:53True, true, true that, true that.
01:14:56I just, I guess I don't remember the, uh, they never fired anybody off the air for him that I recall.
01:15:03They didn't, they certainly didn't knuckle under the tunes of millions of dollars in completely winnable lawsuits, uh, to facilitate basically a, a very complex bribe.
01:15:14So, so they weren't princes before it though.
01:15:19You're right.
01:15:19They carried a lot of water for him.
01:15:20He brought them a lot of viewers and hits and things like that.
01:15:24And eventually right around January 6th, they got the message that, Hey, this guy may not be so good for the country.
01:15:30Uh, but it was way too late.
01:15:32We're all, we're all late on these things.
01:15:34Yeah, I said, yeah, I, I, so you're absolutely right about the money stuff, the settlements, uh, that sort of craziness only happens now.
01:15:45But I also think that they missed the point the first time around.
01:15:50And if, if, if there was more of a reaction in the opposite direction the first time, would that has, how, how would the second term have played out?
01:16:02Would it have played out, uh, if there was more of a recognizing the situation and responding to it, countering it, as opposed to trying to figure a way to work with it?
01:16:14Uh, which is what they functionally did, uh, this time.
01:16:20Yeah, you're absolutely right.
01:16:20I got no idea who these people are, who, who are making these settlements, tens of millions of dollars, uh, with the idea of, oh, this will, you know, I, do they think they're, they're placating him?
01:16:35Or do they think that somehow this means he won't double back and come back again, that he won't find something else to sue them over?
01:16:43Um, pretty ridiculous.
01:16:47Yeah, I think these are, I think these are pencil necks at county jail.
01:16:51They've never, never encountered something like this.
01:16:54And they think if you just give him your lunch money, then he'll be happy because he has your lunch money and everything will be fine.
01:17:00And it's like, Hey, I want more lunch money.
01:17:03I think eventually they're going to learn.
01:17:06Uh, but I think maybe they won't.
01:17:08I don't know.
01:17:08I don't know.
01:17:09I think, uh, I don't think they expected that it would pay him off and it would just make him more, uh, aggressive rather than less.
01:17:19But that's until you, until you don't know until, you know, and now they know.
01:17:25Right.
01:17:25Right.
01:17:26And now we'll see what it's when they start getting hit back, uh, hit again for another settlement.
01:17:32Let's see what they do that time.
01:17:33If they actually get the point that they need to, somebody needs to, or if they're so scared and so malleable that they'll just give it to them again.
01:17:44They'll just give them more.
01:17:45Yep.
01:17:45Um, you know, um, you know, that ballroom is not going to build itself, pal.
01:17:56So why don't we do our check-in on the Epstein list, uh, and we'll wrap up here with our count up of the unredacted Epstein list.
01:18:10Uh, you may recall, we keep track of that here, um, Polidipod Live.
01:18:17And days since the unredacted Epstein list has not been released, we are at day 3,760.
01:18:26And counting up, I did say it's a count up, not a count down, because we have no idea when it will end.
01:18:32So, um, for all of you not keeping track, here's the numbers.
01:18:44All right.
01:18:45I think that brings our second episode to its end.
01:18:51Uh, we certainly would like to thank you for tuning in to watch us here on Polidipod Live, where we get a chance to talk politics.
01:19:04Absolutely.
01:19:05I want to thank everybody for tuning in.
01:19:06It's been a thrill and a pleasure to, uh, to talk, uh, through the day's events and the week's events with, uh, with you, Matt.
01:19:13And, uh, I look forward to doing it again next week at, uh, 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, on Wednesday night.
01:19:22Yep.
01:19:22Polidipod Live's on Wednesday night.
01:19:24And also, there's the podcast, Polidipod, that is on SoundCloud.com slash Polidipod.
01:19:32And that's also out on a monthly basis.
01:19:35You can always check that out.
01:19:36That's the Political Humor podcast, where we try to make fun of stuff with sketches and one-liners.
01:19:42Uh, and the Election Central reports are also there for you to keep involved and to know when things are, when elections are coming up.
01:19:51Uh, and then, uh, as both Tom and I have said, uh, we're, we welcome you here at Wednesdays, uh, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific for Polidipod Live.
01:20:05Thank you, Matt.
01:20:06And thank you, everyone, for tuning in.
01:20:08Good night.
01:20:12Good night.
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