Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 18

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 18 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the Bluegrass Blues Podcast, episode
0:03
18, first episode in 2026. I'm Amy. And I'm Jesse.
0:18
You're right, this is the first episode of 2026,
0:21
so that means we just had a couple of holidays.
0:23
So, did you do anything interesting during Christmas
0:27
or New Year's? Well, I celebrate Hanukkah. I
0:31
did have people, we ate potato latkes and lit
0:35
the menorahs candles, and that was a lot of fun.
0:39
And then my family went to Odenton, Maryland,
0:44
which is where my stepsister's family is. And
0:47
we just hung out with them. And they live really
0:50
close to Baltimore. And we went to Baltimore.
0:53
There's a farmer's market actually in Baltimore
0:55
that goes year round. It was really cold when
0:58
we went. I think I've been to that farmer's market.
1:01
Oh, it's really good. niece's mother um sells
1:08
pies there like these little tiny pies oh yeah
1:11
and my niece sells chai there and they had a
1:15
really long line because their chai is super
1:18
good um and then we you know we went out for
1:22
seafood one night and did you go to the harbor
1:24
or we didn't go to the harbor yeah we went to
1:28
a woman -owned seafood i think was called angie's
1:30
place um and we met the owner and she They have
1:35
a great business, and it was delicious. Good.
1:39
Yeah, I had family over after Christmas. My niece
1:44
came in from New Jersey. But, you know, leading
1:47
up to Christmas, we did the visit to Terry's
1:50
family, my wife's family, out in the country,
1:54
neighboring county, out in the woods. That was
1:57
fun because about maybe 25 to 30 people showed
2:00
up for this Christmas Eve dinner. And Christmas
2:05
Day was just very mellow. Went over to visit
2:08
the grandchildren and watch them have fun. And
2:13
that weekend, we went to a Bengals game in Cincinnati
2:19
because my niece's son is a big Bengals fan,
2:24
even though he lives in New Jersey. Plus, my
2:27
son's wife is a huge Bengals fan. parked in Covington
2:35
and walked over the bridge that looks like the
2:37
Brooklyn Bridge and the nephew didn't know that
2:42
we were going to the game he was just he's a
2:44
big fan he got dressed up because we said we're
2:47
going to go to the stadium to take some pictures
2:49
but we don't think there's game today but when
2:52
we get there there's all these people in Bengals
2:55
outfits heading for the stadium and so Like as
2:59
we walked toward the stadium, someone says, anyone
3:02
need tickets? And the kid asked, can we get tickets?
3:04
And I said, nah, don't worry about it. We'll
3:06
just go inside and see if we can take some pictures.
3:09
Then we got inside and he realized that this
3:12
was real and we had really nice seats. So it
3:16
was just great. You know, the weather was really
3:19
good. Not too cold, although I bought a blanket
3:23
at the stadium. The Bengals won convincingly,
3:28
and everybody was happy. So that was a well -spent
3:33
Christmas for everyone. I found out, too, that
3:38
your family and my family both had vegan Hoppin'
3:41
John and collard greens and cornbread. Yeah,
3:45
it's kind of difficult to get to the holidays
3:48
on a vegan diet because when you go to other
3:50
people's houses, it's turkey and ham and all
3:53
the stuff that's... Really tastes good, but really
3:58
is bad for me now. Right. So I, you know, I think
4:02
I had maybe something that was not dairy or meat
4:07
when I was at the family gathering in the country,
4:12
but since then I've just been on this. just vegan
4:16
well not kick it's what the doctor says i have
4:19
to do the rest of your life you look good by
4:21
the way yeah okay you do that's what they do
4:24
it is a sacrifice i don't know yeah and um you
4:27
know it's like when everyone is here we went
4:30
to um What do you call it? The post to get pizzas
4:34
for the family, but I couldn't have the pizza.
4:36
So I got a salad. That's not as fun as pizza.
4:40
I think pizza is probably my favorite food ever.
4:43
And there's still pizza in the refrigerator that
4:46
I can't touch. So that's where we are. But, you
4:50
know, the holidays were good. I'm glad we got
4:53
through it. We're now in 2026, which... 2025
4:58
was so bad that you just hope things get better
5:01
this year. But there must be something that people
5:07
can do just to get ready for this year. And I
5:10
think you have a list of things that we wanted
5:12
to talk about. Obviously, a lot of us were really
5:15
setting some intentions about what we're going
5:17
to do in 2026, of course, to ensure free and
5:22
fair elections for the midterms and to fight.
5:26
this autocracy, and we're going to talk about
5:28
some of the things that have already happened
5:30
in this very short month. It's January 6th right
5:34
now, which is a dreaded day in our history. This
5:40
is a historic day. It's not a dread. It's really
5:43
one of the key dates in American history. It
5:46
really does rank up there with September 11th.
5:49
Yeah. Because there has been... Except the insurrection
5:52
here was caused by... Our own president. Yeah,
5:56
right. Well, yeah, I mean, obviously that was
6:00
the cause. And the fact that he did that, tried
6:05
to overthrow the government, which is what Jack
6:07
Smith was saying in his testimony. Jack Smith,
6:09
the former prosecutor, was investigating Trump
6:12
for, you know, it's easy to say what he's investigating
6:16
Trump for because Trump has done every crime
6:18
that you can think of. But so Jack Smith is.
6:23
testified that it wasn't like something that
6:26
he was innocent, that the current president was
6:29
innocent of. He was an instigator of the violence,
6:32
which MAGA and Republicans don't want to hear
6:37
and don't want to deal with. Although Mike Pence
6:40
was targeted, the legislators were targeted.
6:43
I mean, what a shit show. But the legislators
6:46
who were targeted, the Republicans... still voted
6:50
to keep didn't didn't vote to impeach him right
6:52
um they didn't vote to do anything because as
6:55
mitch mcconnell said uh the democrats will take
6:59
care of it it's like mitch knew that he didn't
7:02
have them that there weren't the votes there
7:04
unless the republicans well i think we're going
7:07
to talk a lot about following the money uh everything's
7:10
followed the money these days but before we get
7:13
into all that i just i want to start the new
7:15
year um on a positive note, which is just kind
7:20
of my jam. You know, I have to work on my mindset.
7:25
I have to take care of myself so that I can be
7:27
effective. And we need to remember that we have
7:31
the numbers and we have the power. And for now,
7:34
we still elect these people. And so we need to
7:39
show up at the voting locations. put our ballots
7:44
in. So I just want to mention, I saw a really
7:48
nice short video by Robert Reich. He's been doing
7:51
a really great job, like Heather Cox Richardson.
7:53
He's been doing great things to help us save
7:59
our democracy. And it's very short video. He
8:02
had five things. He listed five things that we
8:06
can do. And of course, there are more. But Not
8:09
all of us want to go to rallies, but the first
8:12
one is attend protests. It's not enough, but
8:15
it is something. It is something. And yes, the
8:19
media doesn't cover it as well as they should,
8:22
but it has a lot of importance to show that we
8:27
have solidarity and that people are resisting
8:31
the regime. So attend protests. I point out that
8:35
I saw recently that... Some people in Europe
8:39
are wondering why we don't just have a general
8:41
strike. Right. Because that's how they dealt
8:43
with their dictatorships in the past. I'm wondering
8:47
if that's coming. There has been no indication
8:51
of it yet. I haven't heard anyone say that. I
8:54
hear people say, okay, let's do a protest on
8:57
the weekend. The weekend protests really don't
9:01
affect businesses that much. But if you had a
9:04
general strike, which, you know, I... I was in
9:08
France one I've been in France and in Europe
9:11
and I was at it One day they had a general strike
9:14
in France when I was studying there. Couldn't
9:17
get mail for as long as I was there. When I was
9:21
in Europe, they just called a strike one day
9:23
when we were flying from one town to another.
9:26
So we got stuck in another place and had to get
9:29
a bus there. But the mentality of striking in
9:32
Europe is so much different than it is here.
9:34
Well, a lot of the countries are more homogeneous,
9:37
Jesse, and they also have social safety nets
9:40
and less of a... racial and income wealth gap
9:44
than we do and honestly you've got you've we've
9:48
cratered the middle class and so to expect low
9:51
-income people single moms to strike when they've
9:54
got three jobs and they're supporting their kids
9:57
and trying to put food on the table I honestly
10:00
I have a lot of compassion for people here they
10:03
can't lose their jobs they can't lose their health
10:05
care talk about health care it's tied to your
10:08
workplace if you strike and you get fired you
10:11
don't have healthcare so I think it's a different
10:13
culture there's also the issue where You work
10:17
at places where you don't get health care in
10:19
this country. You said people are working three
10:25
jobs. No one should have to work three jobs to
10:27
have a decent quality of living, but that's where
10:30
we are now because the minimum wage hasn't changed,
10:33
which we've talked about in the past. It's the
10:35
same as at least two decades since it's been
10:39
increased. And you're right. People don't have
10:44
the... ability to take a day off work because
10:49
they're stuck in the trap that they've been sort
10:53
of put in by the powers that be and you know
10:58
I hate saying that but there is this underlying
11:01
thing to realize that very rich people don't
11:08
work the way very poor people work. And they
11:12
say they, you know, they say, well, we're on
11:14
call all the time. But no, they aren't doing
11:18
the labor that the typical laborer does for minimum
11:23
wage and working three jobs. And you have to
11:26
work three jobs in order to survive, even in
11:29
Kentucky. Like, can you imagine living in somewhere
11:31
like California or New York? And you can't. The
11:36
cost of living is so much different. I was looking
11:38
at a chart. today about like um rent like how
11:42
much does it cost to rent a one -bedroom apartment
11:44
and in new york it's like four thousand dollars
11:47
but if you go to another country it's like 250
11:50
a month so you know there's that yes there's
11:54
this huge wealth gap even among nations but within
11:58
this country there's an even bigger wealth gap
12:01
and i've posted on this a number of times about
12:05
what billionaires are doing here. And I think
12:08
in my last count, the top eight billionaires
12:11
in this country, maybe the top 10, have $2 trillion
12:16
among them. And Elon Musk has $750 billion of
12:21
those dollars. So, you know, there's no excuse
12:25
for anyone being, there's no excuse for
12:29
centibillionaires. There's no excuse for... billionaires
12:31
who were in the tens of billions of dollars.
12:34
And if they gave up, as I've said many times,
12:37
if Elon Musk gave up 99 % of his wealth, he'd
12:40
still have $7 billion. So how can you not live
12:44
on that? But anyway, I do think that these differences
12:48
should be mentioned. You know, I do think that
12:52
we could have, you know, privileged white people
12:55
show up and strike. I mean, privileged white
12:57
people have a lot of disposable income. And so
13:00
if they were to strike or if they were to boycott
13:03
more companies like Target or Home Depot or Amazon,
13:06
that, you know, again, follow the money. If they
13:09
make an impact, that's great. Yeah, but honestly,
13:13
privileged white people, don't they benefit from
13:15
the current situation? Well, yeah. And vote for
13:19
these folks. Yeah. All right, number two, that
13:22
was attend protests. Number two, make calls to
13:24
your elected officials. If you don't have the
13:29
Five Calls app, I really recommend that you download
13:32
it. It is free. Today, I plug in my location
13:37
and... Basically, they say what's important to
13:41
you, and they have really salient strategies,
13:44
topics, and then they make it super easy with
13:48
language and content for you to call up your
13:52
legislator. They have the phone number, they
13:54
have their name, and then they have content for
13:57
you to choose from. Today, the homepage for me
14:00
was Stop the Military Escalation with Venezuela.
14:04
demand the release of the Epstein case files,
14:07
stop the dismantling of the National Center for
14:11
Atmospheric Research, protect funding and access
14:14
to gender -affirming care, and extend the Affordable
14:18
Care Act premium tax credits. So these are really
14:21
salient, and they just make it so easy for you.
14:25
So take a look at that Five Calls app. It's amazing.
14:30
If we could all be using that on a regular basis,
14:33
it really will make a difference. And I posted
14:36
something about this on my Facebook page today.
14:39
And I have a friend who sings with me in choir
14:41
who lives in Indiana. And she was like, she thanked
14:44
me for the prompt. She did make her call to her
14:47
legislators in Indiana. And she said, but I don't
14:50
really think it's going to make a difference.
14:52
And I reminded her that Indiana state legislators
14:56
bucked. the Trump regime and did not redistrict
15:00
the way that Trump at all wanted them to. And
15:05
so, you know, the cracks are happening and the
15:09
red states are cracking and we need to do it
15:12
in the red states just as badly as we need to
15:14
do it in the blue states, don't you think? Well,
15:16
the red states are cracking because the red states
15:18
are being harder hit than they realize. It's
15:21
sad to say, but a lot of people in red states
15:24
thought that this was about uh dealing doing
15:27
bad things to brown people i i can't say it any
15:31
other way it's they thought that if you're going
15:36
to, well, you know, they thought, okay, we're
15:38
going to get rid of all the immigrants who do
15:43
all the work, and how are we going to deal with
15:46
that? Well, they thought, well, if all the immigrants
15:48
are gone, then you're going to put black people
15:50
back in the cornfields. Yeah, the black jobs,
15:54
as Trump said, which, you know, he's got a black
15:57
job now. I loved how Obama said he had a black
16:00
job. But, you know, it's just, this is what,
16:04
the people in red states have voted for they're
16:08
getting hit harder and instead of addressing
16:12
their legislators who by the way don't show up
16:16
for town hall meetings because i i can't think
16:18
of maybe massey has had one but massey is on
16:22
the outs with trump so i can see him doing a
16:25
town hall but other um representatives in this
16:29
state who other than massey and probably um are
16:34
Our guy here, McGarvey. Morgan McGarvey, whom
16:37
you love. Anyway. Number three is attend town
16:41
halls if they exist. And, you know, along with
16:45
that is, you know, joining local resistance groups.
16:48
I have mentioned that I'm part of a community
16:50
defense network. And I show up and I put my yellow
16:54
baseball cap and my orange vest on. And for two
16:58
hours, I just... stand around an organization
17:02
that does amazing work for our Latinx community
17:05
and make sure that ICE doesn't come. and take
17:10
people away. And we get trained. It's nonviolent.
17:13
We know exactly what to do to help folks. So
17:17
to build solidarity and power, join those local
17:21
resistance groups. Number four, boycott corporations
17:24
and organizations that support Trump. By the
17:28
way, Jesse, I was really impressed with Hilton
17:30
in Minnesota. The hotel company? Yeah, the hotel
17:35
company. They are not allowing ice on their premises.
17:40
You know, a lot of, if you pay attention, friends,
17:42
you notice a lot of brown people working in,
17:45
cleaning up your rooms, cleaning up your meals,
17:50
cleaning up after the white folk. And at hotels,
17:54
there are a lot of brown folks that are hired
17:57
to make that hum. And Hilton took a stand. So
18:00
we can support Hilton and we can support. support
18:02
Costco, and we can support Penzi Spices and Lowe's
18:06
rather than Home Depot. It is not difficult to
18:11
find organizations and corporations that support
18:13
our democracy. And again, show us the money.
18:18
It's all about the money. So spend your money
18:21
wisely. So that's number four. And when you're
18:23
talking about the places to boycott, it would
18:26
include Amazon in that. Amazon. The idea that
18:31
the Amazon convenience is something that everybody
18:35
now offers. So if you went to the website of
18:37
a place that you wanted to buy something from,
18:40
you could order it from the specific retailer
18:44
as opposed to going through Amazon, which takes
18:47
a cut and which sends that cut to Donald Trump.
18:50
Right. And then five is protect the most vulnerable
18:52
in your community. I mentioned what I'm doing
18:55
with this community defense network. We have
18:58
a lot of people to feed. I mentioned I'm on the
19:01
board of Feed Louisville. We are getting thousands
19:03
of meals out every month to unhoused people with
19:07
our feeding partners. We have a lot of restaurants
19:10
and grocery stores that are donating food to
19:13
us. It is an amazing operation. And so hunger,
19:17
you know, the basics, hunger and shelter and...
19:21
emergency utility assistance. It's really cold
19:24
right now and people need some emergency utility
19:27
assistance because all those energy costs are
19:30
going up somewhat because of these humongous
19:33
data centers. But there are concrete ways to
19:38
do good and never forget that. And please don't
19:42
get overwhelmed or so cynical to believe that
19:46
you don't have a voice and that you don't matter.
19:48
You do. I agree with that because votes do matter.
19:53
Votes still matter until they take them away
19:56
from us. And I know that the administration wants
20:00
to take away the vote from people because they
20:02
sent around this memorandum from the Justice
20:05
Department asking states to voluntarily take
20:10
people off voting lists that they think aren't
20:13
legal voters. To me, that's just another step
20:17
toward rigging the elections. And to think that
20:23
this administration would not rig elections is
20:26
just an absurdity because they'll do that definitely.
20:32
And Jesse, I wanted to mention one more thing
20:34
that I was really heartened to see. So we've
20:38
been talking about individuals and what individuals
20:40
can do, right? Well, I saw this coalition of
20:44
business leaders dedicated to protecting and
20:46
renewing American democracy, and it's called
20:50
the Leadership Now Project. Now project. And
20:56
they have really good solutions for their leaders
21:00
to take in terms of who to support, who not to
21:05
support, where to spend your money, how to talk
21:08
to your employees to drive positive solutions
21:12
to influence policy, respond to risks, and protect
21:16
our democracy. I was really excited to see this.
21:18
I'd love to see your company. listed as one of
21:23
many, many companies in this Leadership Now project.
21:27
It would be interesting to know what companies
21:31
are involved. It would be nice if we knew there
21:34
were Fortune 500 companies because they have
21:36
more clout than any other businesses do. But
21:40
I'm sure there's resistance on all levels, in
21:46
all corporations. It just depends on... Who are
21:49
the people in the suites, in the C -suite? And
21:52
again, how much money are they making? Because
21:55
you have to look at the numbers. And anyone who's
21:58
going to benefit from whatever the administration
22:01
does is not going to allow their employees to
22:05
register their voices. You see that during union
22:10
drives. People will try to form a union. The
22:15
company will go out of its way to... say that
22:18
if you bring a union in, then we will lose jobs,
22:21
which that's a lie. That's a lie. If you have
22:25
the merchandise that people want to buy, they're
22:31
going to buy it from you. And it doesn't matter
22:33
if you're unionized or not unionized. But it
22:36
does matter on the employee level because the
22:39
union does guarantee. certain protections that
22:43
you don't get from just a regular working atmosphere.
22:47
And I can assure you that a lot of the brown
22:50
people that are being targeted are not in unions,
22:52
they're being exploited and underpaid, and they
22:55
have more dangerous jobs than a lot of us would
22:58
want. Well, and the people who are not in unions
23:02
are in companies that don't want unions there.
23:04
And they can exploit them because It's easy to
23:09
do. There's no protection. So we have to just
23:14
be aware of what people are going through, why
23:19
they're going through it, and what things they
23:22
can do to protect themselves. Given that, you
23:25
know, we're at the point where you can't trust
23:29
the federal government to do the right thing
23:32
because it's not in... their individual financial
23:38
interests to do the right thing. And we have
23:41
to be realistic about the fact that certain things
23:45
are happening today not because they are national
23:48
security issues, but because there are people
23:51
who have a lot of money. And they want more money.
23:54
And when you break government and then want to
23:57
privatize anything, watch who they're privatizing
24:00
with. Watch who the people are that are now taking
24:03
over the jails and all the things that government
24:07
used to do. Right. I think I read recently that
24:11
some billionaire is now getting the... um assets
24:16
or some of the american side of tick tock which
24:20
is you know i think it's i might be larry ellison
24:23
who's the second or third richest man in the
24:25
country and so it's he also owns cbs and they
24:30
bought barry weiss in to undermine right uh reporting
24:34
in general right so all these outlets that we
24:38
have to send messages through are now being taken
24:42
over by billionaires right That's why people
24:45
power this grassroots stuff, really. We've got
24:47
to do it. Yeah, but we have to figure out where
24:51
to do it. That's the issue, because if you go
24:54
on what used to be Twitter, that's just a cesspool.
24:58
It's a cesspool of racism and hatred, and it
25:02
reflects the owner of Twitter, who's a cesspool
25:06
as a human. Substack is good. blue sky people
25:10
are going to right that's uh as long as they're
25:13
not like affiliated with facebook or twitter
25:15
right uh it's probably the best ways to go because
25:18
facebook you know mark zuckerberg is sold as
25:22
sold to the trump administration as well right
25:24
uh the person who uh once said that uh what was
25:27
their their um motto was do no harm either that
25:32
was facebook or it was google And now those guys
25:36
are in the top five richest people in the world.
25:39
Doing harm. Doing harm. Doing excessive harm.
25:42
Not only to just the democratic system, but they're
25:47
doing harm to kids. They're harming children.
25:52
They're splitting up people because whatever
25:59
the algorithm says. is what people are going
26:02
to read so if you are on the MAGA spectrum and
26:07
if you use any of these services all of your
26:10
information is going to be oriented toward that
26:13
that mindset I know that when I go through it's
26:18
just a completely different thing it's all the
26:20
liberal side of things where you know if I see
26:24
something that's MAGA that supports MAGA I'm
26:28
either not going to click on it or I'm going
26:30
to click and say, don't show me this anymore.
26:32
So I know that there are people who don't realize
26:35
that you can click on things and say, don't show
26:38
me this anymore. But for the most part, I would
26:41
imagine most people just get the feeds that they
26:44
get and they're used to whatever is coming through.
26:47
So if something says that, let's use an absurd
26:51
example, that There's a certain person in a certain
26:55
government who's a major drug dealer, and we're
26:59
going to get rid of them. You'll get different
27:03
perspectives on that if you go on any of these
27:07
social media. My son and I were watching the
27:11
Steelers -Ravens game, and so this is a big sports
27:16
channel. you know, millions of people watching
27:20
this football game. And every time or many times
27:23
that a commercial would come up, it would be
27:26
for a Crohn's disease medication. And I was talking
27:31
to my son. I'm like, Gabe, they are targeting
27:34
me through these commercials, these very expensive
27:38
ads. I can assure you that the millions of people
27:41
across the country are not seeing a Crohn's medication
27:44
from a pharmaceutical company. And that really.
27:48
It just is so disturbing. Are you sure about
27:50
that? I am so sure. It's an NFL game, so that
27:53
would be a national... I know, but I think the
27:57
local media company, whoever has the whoever's
28:00
airing has local spots. Yeah, right. And so I
28:05
think that the algorithm is even affecting what
28:07
we see locally. Well, it's also interesting because
28:10
that means a lot of people have Crohn's disease,
28:12
which you wouldn't think of offhand. Well, I
28:14
don't think they do. What I'm saying is I don't
28:17
think a lot of people have Crohn's disease. if
28:21
we went around to a lot of people's households,
28:23
they weren't seeing this Renvoke commercial for
28:27
people with Crohn's disease. That's what I'm
28:30
saying. I think it's targeted at me. Okay. That's
28:34
a possibility. I would think that more likely
28:38
in an internet interface than in a national broadcast
28:42
interface. But again, I agree with you. If there
28:45
are local ads, then there will be local companies
28:48
that are targeting. the people in this area right
28:52
but they're they're targeting you okay they are
28:54
anyway what's next uh let's see well we were
28:58
talking about um oh well since we were talking
29:02
about this idea of um messaging to get people
29:08
to fall for something, let's talk about Venezuela.
29:12
Because, you know, people will say that there's
29:15
no connection of Venezuela to Kentucky, but there
29:17
is because the training for the Venezuelan invasion
29:22
and extraction of the president was done down
29:26
in Fort Campbell. So this is a Kentucky issue.
29:32
They've decided that this is the place where
29:34
you're going to stage these kidnappings of foreign
29:39
leaders. And, you know, the argument, well, let's
29:46
say the argument that the administration is using
29:50
is that this guy was head of a narco -terrorism
29:54
country and that we had to get rid of him because
30:04
all the money is, well, you know, we have to
30:07
get rid of them because drugs are killing people
30:09
in the United States. So, you know. So who did
30:12
he pardon? If that's the case. Okay, why did
30:16
he pardon the president of Honduras who was convicted
30:19
of importing cocaine into the U .S.? How much
30:22
cocaine? I don't know, but he got, according
30:26
to what I've been reading, he's got a million
30:28
dollar bribe from one of the big drug kingpins.
30:36
Oh, it's like 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras
30:40
and into the U .S. This is someone Trump pardoned.
30:43
Yes. And he also pardoned the founder of the
30:46
Silk Road dark web marketplace, which... let's
30:52
see, it made it possible for $214 million in
30:55
illegal drug sales. And that person was serving
30:57
a life sentence. He got pardoned. There's a Chicago
31:01
gang leader who was convicted of drugs and violence.
31:07
He had a life sentence. He was pardoned by Trump.
31:10
His sentence was commuted. There was a Baltimore
31:13
drug dealer who ran a multi -million dollar cocaine
31:16
ring. He was pardoned by Trump this past May.
31:20
And let's see, there's the CEO of Roc Nation,
31:24
who was convicted in 1994 for conspiracy to distribute
31:27
narcotics, was pardoned by Trump, but that was
31:30
in his first term. You got a million dollars,
31:34
I'll pardon you. Well, yeah, what was it I saw
31:37
the last time we were talking? There was a person
31:40
who was pardoned because his mother gave Trump
31:44
a million -dollar donation. Right. Again, this
31:48
is... So let's talk about why they really went
31:51
into Venezuela. Oh, for the oil. Of course. Venezuela
31:54
is one of, I think it's an OPEC member, and it's
31:57
one of the biggest oil producers in the world.
32:01
And it's money. It's total money. Let's seize
32:06
this because... Trump and his cronies will make
32:10
more money. You know that somehow this is going
32:13
to get into his pocket. Of course. The cash is
32:15
going to be in his pocket or in the pockets of
32:17
his children or in the pocket of his son -in
32:20
-law. Jared Kushner has been doing all kinds
32:23
of stuff around the world, so you wonder. Are
32:26
his fingers involved in this one as well? Yeah,
32:28
and Trump has said, you are going to take over
32:31
the running of Venezuela, and we're going to
32:33
invest billions of dollars in this failing oil
32:36
infrastructure. I mean, he's just outright saying
32:39
it. Yeah, but it comes to the point of what's
32:45
Congress doing about it, which brings us back
32:47
to the whole process where he was supposed to
32:50
get congressional approval to pull anything like
32:52
this. Haven't heard a word. I think I read that
32:56
Mitch McConnell was saying, yes, it's the right
32:58
thing to do, and Andy Barr also said it's the
33:01
right thing to do. Morgan McGarvey, our congressman,
33:06
said that he didn't get congressional approval.
33:10
Who's the other Republican congressman? Massey.
33:13
Massey, yeah. Rand Paul was against it. Yeah,
33:16
so it's... In Kentucky, it's the usual suspects
33:20
in this case where Rand Paul and Massey are going
33:23
to do things that are going to piss Trump off.
33:25
So he's going to threaten to have them primaried.
33:31
And then we've got the last one, which is McGarvey,
33:36
who has really no voice because the Democrats
33:39
have no power. None of the other Republican congressmen
33:44
in this country, in this state have said anything
33:46
against it, which is troublesome because, you
33:51
know, it also goes back to this idea of drug
33:55
abuse and drug. You know, there is a drug problem
33:57
in Kentucky. There's a huge drug problem. And
34:02
it was. mostly brought about by American corporations,
34:06
the Sacklers. And, you know, they're not going
34:11
to jail for anything. In fact, their billions
34:13
of dollars or millions of dollars is still in
34:16
their pockets. I mean, they were sued and they
34:19
did have to pay out a fine. But again, the fine
34:24
doesn't take away the millions and millions of
34:26
dollars they've made. So what's the point of
34:29
fining them if... it's not going to affect them
34:33
uh it's it's like nice symbolically but in terms
34:37
of reality they're not going to miss lunch or
34:41
they're not going to lose a meal because of this
34:43
i wanted to just reiterate that um you know this
34:48
the Delta force that went in and kidnapped Maduro
34:52
and his wife. It's the 160th Special Operations
34:56
Aviation Regiment, which is called SOAR, which
34:59
is based in Fort Campbell. They're also known
35:01
as the Night Stalkers. They also famously took
35:06
part in the raid on Osama bin Laden's camp. compound
35:10
in 2011 and have been involved in countless other
35:13
missions right and that makes sense because that's
35:17
what their job is to do this but um you know
35:21
when we went in for Osama bin Laden we've been
35:24
looking for him forever right and he was responsible
35:27
for the attacks on the world trade center and
35:30
those airplanes and it was And it was something
35:33
that George Bush, who was president, did not
35:35
accomplish. Let's reiterate this. It was a Democrat
35:39
who caught Osama bin Laden. It wasn't a Republican
35:42
who, you know, does the bluster. Well, and toppled
35:47
Saddam Hussein with a lie about having weapons
35:50
of mass destruction. Which weren't there. Right.
35:53
But, you know, here's the thing. I think we were
35:59
better conditioned to accept those invasions
36:02
because they did affect us directly. Like the
36:06
World Trade Center, as I've said before, I worked
36:09
across the street from the World Trade Center.
36:12
I was there too. I was almost there when it happened,
36:16
but I was late getting to my office. So I saw
36:21
the planes hit the building on TV, and I knew
36:24
I wasn't going to be working there that day because
36:25
I knew where the emergency facility was going
36:28
to be. But again, the World Trade Center and
36:32
Osama bin Laden, Americans could get behind that.
36:36
Yes, we want him dead. We want him out. Saddam
36:44
Hussein and Iraq. Yes, he was a bad person. The
36:49
reason for invading them was because George Bush
36:54
Jr. said that he tried to kill his father. That's
36:59
kind of very Star Wars and Luke Skywalker kind
37:02
of stuff. But again, we were conditioned. There
37:06
was some lead -up. so that the American people
37:09
would think, okay, this is something we have
37:12
to go in. A Kentucky woman is behind bars charged
37:14
with... Okay. Sorry. Some Kentucky woman got
37:17
charged with something. Yeah, we're going to
37:19
talk about that. A woman had an abortion and
37:22
was put in jail here. We'll get there. But with
37:25
the invasion of Iraq, we were conditioned better
37:30
to go into Iraq. This was something that just
37:33
came out of nowhere. This whole idea of... I
37:37
didn't know we were mad at Venezuela. No, we
37:39
did, you know, we did attack those ships and
37:43
kill all the people on them. Yeah, we did, but
37:45
under this guise of them bringing drugs into
37:48
the United States when, in reality, those ships
37:51
weren't coming to the United States, they were
37:53
going to Europe, which, you know, then let the
37:55
Europeans bomb them. But the drugs that are coming
37:59
into the United States are coming through Mexico
38:01
and from China. So are we going to invade Mexico
38:04
next? That raises that question. I'm sure Latin
38:09
America is looking at what's happening. They're
38:12
always talking about Cuba next. They're always
38:15
talking about Cuba. But the other side of this
38:18
is we have to start looking at Greenland because
38:22
Trump says he wants Greenland. And that's not
38:26
a Latin American country. That's Denmark that
38:30
you have to deal with. seize Greenland. We're
38:35
destroying the NATO alliance. We're actually
38:38
declaring war on NATO and what's going to happen
38:42
there. So, you know, there's a lot of... bad
38:47
connotations about what we've just done in Venezuela
38:50
and the fact that... And by the way, we don't
38:52
have a really good history of this in Latin America.
38:57
Yeah, the Banana Republic, that was something
39:02
we created because, what, Dole was the banana
39:05
company, I think, or Chiquita. One of those banana
39:08
companies didn't like the way the governments
39:11
were running, so they had the United States just
39:13
go in and take over. We're in this very odd situation
39:19
where military intervention is not only going
39:23
to be done on this hemisphere, but if things
39:26
get out of hand or if the administration considers
39:29
things getting out of hand in this country, they're
39:32
going to have military in the streets, which
39:34
they already do, like Los Angeles or Portland.
39:38
Chicago. They talk about New York, D .C. When
39:44
did we become, when were Americans willing to
39:48
accept that the military would take over? The,
39:51
you know, the, how do I say this delicately?
39:56
The assholes who keep talking about owning their
39:59
guns and, you know, protecting America from this
40:03
illegal intrusion by the government. I don't
40:08
hear a word from them now. So everything they've
40:13
said for the past 50 years is bullshit. And we're
40:18
now in this phase where Americans are now going
40:22
to be at the end of guns because the American
40:25
president wants a dictatorship. I wanted to just
40:32
mention we've been talking a lot about the big
40:34
bullshit bill. And, of course, those subsidies
40:37
for the Affordable Care Act have expired and
40:41
people are really suffering. From KFF Health
40:46
News on January 2nd, they basically said that
40:50
the big bullshit bill. may lead to, and we've
40:52
mentioned it, but they quantify it, may lead
40:55
to 338 rural hospitals closing nationwide, including
41:00
35 in Kentucky. 35 rural hospitals may close
41:06
in Kentucky. That's more than 10 % of the number
41:10
nationwide. So with that and the Affordable Care
41:16
Act and all that stuff, we are really in big
41:19
trouble here. Well, not only that, we have a
41:21
person who's Secretary of Health who is taking
41:24
away, like... vaccines and right treatments and
41:29
you know they're dying back you know that that
41:33
was a cured disease there was I'm pretty sure
41:36
there was a year where there were no new cases
41:38
of measles reported right because people were
41:41
getting vaccinated but you have this this this
41:46
psychopath in the health department you know
41:49
the guy Everything you can say that's bad about
41:54
a person, you can say about the current Secretary
41:56
of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He's a heroin
42:02
addict. He does crazy things. His family, the
42:06
Kennedy family, thinks he's out of control. And
42:11
he's supremely unqualified to head HHS. But he
42:15
appealed to Trump. That's the thing. He was willing
42:19
to bow to the knee to this dictator. And he's
42:24
lining his pockets now. Right, I'm sure he is.
42:28
I'm sure he's probably doing something like selling
42:30
supplements or he's involved in some supplement
42:33
company because that's what these right -wing...
42:38
fanatics do. They buy supplements. They talk
42:42
about having to be in their bunkers for when
42:47
the revolution happens or whatever. So this is
42:52
the craziness we're dealing with now. And it's
42:54
something that, let's say, in the fantasy world
43:00
that the Democrat won the last election. We wouldn't
43:06
be talking about any of this. We wouldn't be
43:08
talking about invasions of Venezuela. We wouldn't
43:12
be talking about taking over Greenland. People
43:14
losing their health insurance. Right, yeah. The
43:18
economy would still be strong. You wouldn't have
43:21
had the tariffs. And we have these invaders in
43:25
our country who are seizing people off the streets.
43:27
This would not happen under a Democratic president.
43:31
Which, again... is the fault of the people who
43:35
voted for this administration. And we can't let
43:38
them off when they say, oh, I was voting for
43:42
the economy. No, you weren't. No, you weren't.
43:45
You were voting to hurt people. And when it started
43:49
hurting you, then you decided that, oh, this
43:52
is bad. But it's not Trump's fault. It's the
43:55
fault of the Democrats. I don't know. I want
43:58
to stay on the health care. platform a little
44:02
bit longer. You know, reproductive health, abortion
44:06
is part of reproductive health, a woman's right
44:10
to choose. And Jesse, why don't you tell us a
44:13
little bit about what has just happened in Kentucky?
44:17
Well, there's a woman in Kentucky who was arrested
44:20
recently for, well, she got a medical abortion.
44:26
She bought pills online to Let's see, I'm trying
44:31
to find the story. But she bought an abortion
44:36
pill. She was pregnant. She miscarried as a result
44:42
of the abortion pill. And now she's in jail because
44:47
she told... someone at a health facility that
44:50
she had an abort she had a medical abortion medically
44:54
induced abortion and the medical facility told
44:57
the police and now she's incarcerated which i'm
45:00
not going to blame the medical facility because
45:02
they have to do this if someone reports a crime
45:04
you have to report it to the police or you become
45:09
an accomplice to the crime right so I don't know
45:13
why she told anyone there, but anyway, she was
45:17
arrested. She's in jail now for having an abortion.
45:22
Now, we see that the story says that they found
45:29
the body in a grave and the fetus was developed.
45:36
But it doesn't say if the fetus was viable, which
45:39
is something different. Would the fetus have
45:42
existed outside of the womb if it had been born
45:45
at that time? And if it's viable, yes. If it's
45:50
not viable, no. I'm guessing that it probably
45:54
was not viable, but it was developed. But we
45:57
haven't had good reporting on it yet. Right,
45:59
because... I don't know why. It's the law. It's
46:02
the law. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the response
46:06
you get. But what happens when the law is unjust?
46:09
Right. Yeah, we're incarcerating women for taking
46:12
control of their health when their choices are
46:16
removed. Right, and we've seen stories about
46:19
Republican women who've gone to hospitals when
46:23
they are having difficulty in their pregnancy
46:26
and finding out that... the hospital won't help
46:29
them because even though the fetus will kill
46:33
them, the law says that they can't abort. So
46:36
women are bleeding out in parking lots. That's
46:41
happened. And there's nothing that the medical
46:46
facilities in this state or in any other state
46:50
that has banned abortion can do. You have to
46:52
leave the state in order to get an abortion.
46:55
And some states are tracking people. Just like
46:59
if a woman people see is pregnant and she goes
47:02
out of town, she comes back and she's not pregnant,
47:05
the people in her vicinity are supposed to report
47:08
her to the police. The enforcers. That's like...
47:12
1930s Germany. Yeah. It's, you know, have your
47:15
neighbors rat out you. And that's what this government
47:21
wants. It wants a nation of rats. So I want to
47:25
mention a health article that I saw that is actually
47:29
really good news. UK, the University of Kentucky,
47:33
is the first in the nation to treat small cell
47:36
lung cancer patients with a new immunotherapy.
47:39
And this is in the Kentucky Lantern on January
47:43
5th. And this could be a game changer. Dr. Howe
47:49
at the Markey Cancer Center has basically done,
47:54
he has treated the first patient in the country
47:58
with a novel drug currently in the early stages
48:01
of human trials. And it's really important that...
48:06
this work is really really important to us lung
48:09
cancer is the leading cause of death in Kentucky
48:12
and Kentucky has the highest the second highest
48:16
rate of smoking in the nation behind only West
48:19
Virginia and also So the rate of new lung cancer
48:25
cases is much higher than the national average.
48:28
And more people, 17 % of adult Kentuckians smoke,
48:32
which is significantly higher than the national
48:35
rate of 11%. So I was really excited to see that
48:41
the university has... money to conduct research
48:46
that may save people's lives. Right. As long
48:51
as they stay in the good graces of the federal
48:53
government, they will keep that money. like a
49:01
leader in new cases of lung cancer and it's because
49:05
of smoking there's you know tobacco smoke as
49:08
you said this is like the second highest rate
49:10
of smoking in the country secondhand smoke you
49:14
know we keep forgetting that non -smokers are
49:17
affected by the smoke that's around them and
49:20
of course there's workplace exposure and that's
49:23
working in the coal mines lots of lung diseases
49:27
and cancer related to that. And we live in the
49:31
Ohio River Valley, and as you know, we had a
49:34
state senator several years ago. His name was
49:37
Dan Syme, and he eliminated the vehicle emissions
49:41
testing statewide. So now you can... drive around
49:46
with a faulty muffler belch black smoke out there
49:51
and you don't even have to get tested anymore
49:53
your car doesn't have to be tested your car doesn't
49:57
need to get as an individual yes would probably
49:59
have to be tested at some point when you're coughing
50:02
all the time you can't figure out why right and
50:05
there you know i i see the um If you look at
50:09
your weather app on your phone, you'll see the
50:11
days when you're not supposed to breathe. It's
50:14
a lot, especially in the summertime here. When
50:16
you're flying into Louisville, you can see the
50:19
smoke billowing out of one of the plants on the
50:22
other part of the city. They're supposed to have
50:25
scrubbers. We won some legislation about putting
50:30
scrubbers in the stacks, and all of that is collapsing
50:34
as well. Just when you were talking about the
50:37
whole health issue, I've had a lot of health
50:42
problems recently, and it's just so difficult
50:46
to find a doctor here just to begin with. So,
50:48
yes, it's great that we're getting research dollars
50:52
to do this, but... There has to be a better medical
50:57
system in general just to get things done, because
51:00
I'm sure you've faced this before, but if you
51:03
want to get an appointment with a doctor these
51:05
days, your wait can be months in Louisville.
51:12
I've been in D .C. and I've been in California,
51:15
and when I needed a doctor, I would just go to
51:18
a certain app. look up the local doctors see
51:22
what times are available and just plug in a thing
51:26
Make an appointment and that'd be within the
51:30
week. I'm looking in those cities, but here if
51:34
you miss an appointment It'll be months before
51:37
you can reschedule an appointment and to get
51:41
an appointment in the first place that may take
51:44
months as well and I ran into that situation
51:47
this past year because I had an appointment for
51:51
my kidneys, to check my kidneys in October, and
51:57
I had to be out of town that week, so I rescheduled
52:01
and I think, okay, I'll probably do it the next
52:03
day or the day after. Turns out I couldn't get
52:06
another appointment until December. So that's
52:09
just, that just seems so wrong. It does. But
52:14
that's the way it is here. And the fact that
52:17
you say that... As a result of the big beautiful
52:20
bullshit bill, 30 % or 10 % of the closures of
52:26
hospitals is going to happen in Kentucky. That
52:29
means that it's going to be even harder to get
52:31
appointments because there are other facilities
52:33
where people are going to need services, and
52:36
they have to go somewhere. Well, and these rural
52:38
hospitals already had to have adequate transportation
52:41
to get to that rural hospital. It's going to
52:44
be much farther away to get care, and you may
52:47
die on the way. It's just ridiculous. Now, Jesse,
52:52
you wanted to talk about... taking people off
52:55
the voter rolls, 11 states. Oh, yeah. The Justice
53:01
Department sent a memo to all the states saying
53:06
that they want them to look at their voting rolls
53:10
and to report any voters that look like they're
53:14
illegitimate, which, you know, that's... What's
53:20
illegitimate? What is that? That's the question.
53:22
What is that? And who has the resources to determine
53:27
what is legitimate? Right, because if you're
53:29
on the voter rolls, you've gotten this through
53:34
the drivers. You get your driver's license, they
53:37
ask you to register to vote or whatever. I've
53:40
been registered to vote in Kentucky for years
53:42
since I've been here. I'm beginning to think
53:48
the fact that I've lived in other places, would
53:51
they say that because I lived on my address was
53:55
once reported in San Francisco, I have another
53:57
address that's reported in Washington, D .C.,
53:59
are they going to look at my voting role or my
54:03
voting record here and say, Oh, he's been in
54:07
other states. And you happen to be African American.
54:09
I'm sure that won't play anything into it. It's
54:13
that idea that, is my vote safe? Because they're
54:17
making up something that they say is going for
54:23
voter fraud, but is in reality a way to get rid
54:29
of people from the polls who are going to vote
54:32
against the current. regime and you can bet that
54:35
if we're purged right there aren't going to be
54:38
staff 24 7 to take our calls so that we can fight
54:44
it and get back on the voter roll there's no
54:46
way it's not only that the fact that Someone
54:48
is going to go to vote, and when they get there,
54:51
they're going to find out that they've been taken
54:53
off the rolls. Right. And I'm sure that they're
54:55
not going to send messages to people when they
54:59
take them off the rolls. Well, you know, it happened
55:00
here with the citizenship ceremony. We had a
55:03
bunch of people ready to become citizens, and
55:06
they showed up where they were supposed to show
55:08
up, and none of them were allowed to become citizens
55:11
that day. They were deported? They weren't deported,
55:15
but they weren't. They weren't admitted as citizens.
55:17
But essentially what we're talking about, I mean,
55:20
and what recourse did they have? So, yes, people,
55:23
first of all, it's so hard to get people to show
55:26
up at the polls anyway, let's be honest. So you
55:29
do this voter outreach and get out the vote efforts
55:33
and all this stuff, and you get people there
55:35
only to find that they can't even vote. So we've
55:38
really got work to do leading up to these midterm
55:41
elections. This is a huge, huge... thing that
55:44
we have, an opportunity that we have, hopefully,
55:48
in early November of this year. The question,
55:50
though, will be in Kentucky in particular, will
55:54
the legislature try to get rid of the Democratic
55:56
seat in Louisville? Because Republicans have
55:59
been talking about redistricting here, even though
56:02
Indiana has shown that Republicans, there are
56:05
Republicans who will stand up for voter rights.
56:08
And they didn't do the... redistricting issue,
56:13
even though that's what the government wanted?
56:15
Well, and the other problem is, as we found out,
56:17
the capital is undergoing a $300 million. The
56:22
state capital in Kentucky is undergoing a $300
56:25
million renovation, and we have a $186 million
56:30
deficit. And what that means, practically speaking,
56:35
is... legislation is going to be discussed and
56:39
voted on without the general public having any
56:43
access. Only certified reporters and the legislators
56:49
and their staff. No lobbyists, no general public.
56:54
That's really scary. Right. And they can, you
56:57
know, they have the choice of saying what is
56:59
a legitimate reporter as well. Right. So, you
57:01
know, if they see someone who's been reporting.
57:04
Fox News gets in. Right. Global public media
57:07
doesn't get in. Yeah. But, you know, and also
57:10
the fact that they're spending $300 million to
57:13
renovate. the capital when people are starving
57:16
and when people are losing their health insurance.
57:20
You saw Massachusetts and Connecticut. I mean,
57:22
some of these states are taking monies to prevent
57:26
those loss of subsidies. Like there are so many
57:29
things you could do with $300 million in the
57:32
Commonwealth of Kentucky to improve people's
57:35
lives. And I kind of wonder what the improvements
57:38
they're going to make to the capital. are going
57:43
to be as a result of this. But the question is,
57:48
is this the time to spend $300 million on this
57:51
kind of thing when you have people who are losing
57:55
their health care, losing jobs because the result
58:00
of the Trump tariffs? We've lost jobs in major
58:04
industries here, particularly in the bourbon
58:06
industry. And I'm sure, I don't know, but I would
58:13
imagine that the legislators have gotten a raise
58:16
recently or something. Anyway, the money is going
58:20
to what seems to be the wrong places. Now they
58:24
can say that, well, I wonder, is the Capitol
58:28
an unsafe building? Because that's the only criterion
58:32
I would think would be necessary to decide whether
58:36
or not to spend money on renovations. If this
58:38
is just to get better video boards in the legislative
58:45
chambers, then they've survived this long. Without
58:50
them, they can wait another year or two. But
58:53
it just looks wrong. It looks wrong. When you
58:58
have a poor state, and we've said this many times,
59:01
that this is one of the poorest states in the
59:03
country. But you can spend $300 million to renovate
59:07
the Capitol. That just seems to be a waste of
59:10
money. I think we should wrap up, even though
59:14
I'm so used to wrapping up on a positive note.
59:17
Did you have anything else you wanted to talk
59:19
about? Well, I could talk about Louisville women's
59:22
basketball, because I'm really happy about that.
59:24
I have season tickets, and I've talked about
59:26
this before, but they're now ranked number 10
59:29
in the country. Wow. I want to go with you. Let's
59:34
plan that. But I've been to two games over the
59:39
holiday. They won both handily. They've beaten
59:43
some important teams. Your seats are fire, too.
59:47
Yeah, the great seats. But the last game I was
59:51
at, I think there were at least 9 ,000 to 10
59:53
,000 people there. Wow. It's a Virginia Tech
59:56
game last Sunday, and it was a decent time. I
1:00:03
went by myself because I couldn't find someone
1:00:06
to go with. You didn't ask. Okay. Next time.
1:00:08
Next time. All right. But, you know, I'm looking
1:00:12
forward to this season. I'm hoping they go to
1:00:17
the final four because if they go to the final
1:00:19
four, I'm going to fly to Phoenix to watch that.
1:00:22
You can take me to that, too. Yeah, that would
1:00:24
be great. But that's my ray of hope right now.
1:00:30
I love that. It's just seeing good basketball,
1:00:33
women's sports, which doesn't get enough credit.
1:00:37
Louisville has some of the best women's sports
1:00:39
in the country. We should appreciate that. And
1:00:43
know the history of Title IX and how important
1:00:48
that has been for women. Something good that's
1:00:52
happening that sort of diverts attention from
1:00:56
all the bad that's happening. So that's my positive
1:00:59
for this broadcast. All right, everybody. Happy
1:01:03
New Year. Boy, take care of yourselves, and we'll
1:01:07
talk with you in a couple of weeks. Yeah, let's
1:01:09
hope this year is better than last year. So see
1:01:14
you all around soon. Bye. Bye. Our closing music
1:01:19
is by John Chamberlain.