Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 14

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 14 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Hello, welcome to episode 14 of the Bluegrass
0:03
Blues podcast. This is Amy. And I'm Jesse. Alright,
0:17
it's been a few days. We were all thinking about
0:21
what happened last week with the No King's
0:24
protest. It's kind of interesting. We were in
0:27
different parts of the country for this. Louisville
0:31
and I was in Colorado so why don't you start
0:34
since this is a Kentucky podcast tell me what
0:36
happened in Louisville. It was so exciting and
0:40
fun and joyful and nonviolent and you know there
0:46
were unicorns and there were frogs and and Garfield
0:50
was a feline against fascism and I think over
0:55
8 ,000 people showed up in Louisville. We had
0:59
more than one protest. There was one down at
1:01
the Belvedere, and then there were a couple,
1:03
I think, in St. Matthew's, Frankfort Avenue area.
1:06
And then we had over a dozen statewide. So we
1:10
were all over the state protesting. No kings
1:13
in America. Yeah, I hear that there were, well,
1:16
there was one in Frankfort at the Capitol. And
1:20
there was even one in Bardstown, which, you know,
1:22
that's not the place you'd expect a big protest
1:26
crowd, but we have some relatives who were there
1:29
for the Bardstown protests. Well, you did the
1:34
marching, or were you with the marching? I did.
1:35
Were you with the speeches? I was with all of
1:38
it, and I carried my ukulele, and I played This
1:41
Land is Your Land like about a million times.
1:44
And then I apologized to everyone around me for
1:47
only learning the one song for the march and
1:50
that I would learn more than one song for the
1:52
next march. But nobody seemed to care. It was
1:55
jubilant. It was a gorgeous day. You know, and
2:00
we, of course, did the chants like, Whose streets?
2:03
Our streets. Whose streets? Our streets. And
2:05
what does democracy look like? This is what democracy
2:10
looks like. It was just fantastic. All of us
2:15
were hopeful that, and you can talk about Denver,
2:17
but we had wanted over 12 million people to protest
2:22
because that's around the 3 % that we apparently
2:26
need to topple the authoritarian regime. Is that
2:30
something you'd heard too? Well, the number is
2:32
3 .5%, and I think it's based on studies of protests
2:36
in other countries where... When you get crowds
2:41
that consist of 3 .5 % of the population, that's
2:46
when you know that the regime in charge is on
2:50
its way out, that it's happened in other countries.
2:54
And I don't know if it applies here, but it does
3:00
kind of show that... Well, the coverage has been
3:05
sort of spotty on what it looks like because
3:08
I remember looking at the photo you sent of the
3:12
rally in Louisville. It was on WHAS. And the
3:16
headline or the main stories began with thousands
3:21
of people protested in Louisville. But the photo
3:24
showed about 12 people on the Belvedere. I know
3:29
that in these situations, what happens is news
3:33
organizations send photographers early to an
3:36
event to get prepared, but the photographer will
3:39
shoot some photos just to have something in the
3:41
bag before the actual demonstration begins. So
3:44
you got this photo of 12 people on the Belvedere,
3:49
and you have the text saying thousands of people
3:52
appeared. And the end result is that someone
3:55
reading the story... is going to look and say,
3:58
well, there weren't thousands of people. There
4:00
aren't even a dozen people here. You're lying
4:02
to me, which is the problem that the media faces,
4:05
that people's perception is that they're being
4:10
lied to by media organizations. But the reality
4:15
is that these events do happen, and media organizations
4:18
underplay them. I think the greatest example
4:22
of that was the New York Times, the Sunday Times
4:25
print edition this week, because there were,
4:29
like we said, there were probably 8 million people
4:31
all over the country. It's the kind of thing
4:35
where if 8 million Americans are out in the streets
4:38
protesting, you would think that that's the top
4:40
story on every newspaper in America. The New
4:44
York Times had it under the fold, and for anyone
4:46
who understands the print paper concept. If
4:50
it's under the fold, that means it's not such
4:52
a big deal. It's interesting, but it's not something
4:55
to get all riled up about. But, you know, in
4:57
New York, you have hundreds of thousands of people
4:59
protesting. In Kentucky, you had thousands of
5:05
people protesting. I was in Denver for the Kings
5:10
rally, so I was at the state capitol. And one
5:13
of the things I saw was ... we get there. They're
5:17
stopping traffic because, you know, people just
5:20
can't get into it. You see this huge crowd of
5:22
people surrounding the Capitol. We get out of
5:27
the car, and we're senior citizens, so it takes
5:30
us a while to get along or move along these days.
5:33
But we have to walk several blocks in order to
5:36
get to the state Capitol. We were going to meet
5:39
a friend of mine at this big obelisk in the middle
5:42
of the grounds. And, you know, it's hard to find
5:46
people when there are 30 ,000 people all around
5:49
you. So as we're going in to see the demonstration,
5:54
and there were great signs, lots of positive
5:58
energy. You know, it's like just people are dressed
6:03
in very strange costumes. So there was a festive
6:07
atmosphere about it. As we're going into the
6:11
heart of the crowd, there was this MAGA person.
6:18
You know, there's one MAGA person who's at the
6:21
fringes yelling at people and his gimmick was,
6:25
oh, we should praise Charlie Kirk and all this
6:28
other stuff. Charlie Kirk, the right winger who
6:31
got shot and is now trying to be martyrized by
6:36
the right wing. But anyway, he's talking about
6:39
Charlie Kirk and I'm watching the media people
6:42
and 30 ,000 people. and you have one guy who's
6:47
protesting against the 30 000 people with the
6:50
right-wing talking points and the media camera
6:53
is focused on the one guy so you know proportionately
6:56
you're getting another distortion of reality
7:00
where it looks like uh we're doing this oh there
7:04
are 30 000 people and but their opinions vary
7:08
from right to left on what the importance of
7:10
this is whereas it's only one person who happened
7:14
to be loud and doing a contrarian view. And that's
7:19
where the media people go, which is, I think,
7:24
a failure. That's Denver media. So you've got
7:27
Denver media screwing up on that aspect of it.
7:30
You've got Louisville media screwing up on the
7:33
photo use. And you've got the New York Times
7:35
screwing up on its placement of the story. So
7:39
there's just this... disconnect from reality.
7:44
And you wanted to mention MSNBC too. Yeah, I
7:47
happened to watch MSNBC the next day. Well, later
7:51
that last week, I was in Arizona. in Phoenix,
7:57
in the Phoenix area. So I was with relatives
8:00
and they watched television news. I cannot stand
8:04
to watch television news, but they are loyal
8:07
television news viewers and they have on MSNBC
8:09
for hours and hours in the day. And MSNBC was
8:14
talking about the rally in Los Angeles. And so
8:21
they have a reporter. Again, it's early before
8:24
the rally actually begins, so they're a scattering
8:27
of people. Again, which leaves the impression
8:31
that, oh, no one's going to be there because
8:32
they're early, and there's only a few people.
8:36
So the reporter can just walk in, and there's
8:38
open field, and you can go to anybody. And he's
8:41
pretty much grabbing anyone who's walking by
8:43
at the time. As the reporter is in the field,
8:48
the anchor, who's like, you know, how anchors
8:51
talk to reporters in the field, the anchor for
8:55
some... ridiculous reason asked the reporter,
8:58
do you feel like you're in danger? Which was
9:01
the Republican talking point, that this was going
9:03
to be a violent demonstration, that you weren't
9:07
going to be safe if you go there because there
9:09
were all these radical lefties about to try to
9:11
overthrow the government, ready to riot, ready
9:14
to throw down and start all kinds of... You've
9:16
been paid to show up. Yeah, paid by Soros. Jesus.
9:21
uh you know i'm still waiting for my Soros check
9:24
i'm sure you're waiting for yours too but the
9:27
the anchor had the audacity to ask that question
9:31
when there was you were seeing people in these
9:35
funny costumes and it was obvious that there
9:38
was no problems or no problems were going to
9:40
be there but the anchor asks the stupid question
9:43
not because I don't think she believed that there
9:46
was any danger. I think she was trying to introduce
9:48
this Republican talking point to get the reporter
9:52
to say, oh, no, that's just a stupid Republican
9:54
talking point. But they never said that. The
9:57
reporter said, no, I feel fine. There's no problem
9:59
here, which wasn't enough. You have to say that
10:02
the reason the question was asked was because
10:04
the propagandists in the Republican Party or
10:07
the MAGA wing of America were... what Mike Johnson
10:12
was saying, this was a hate America rally, they
10:15
wanted more than anything for there to be violence
10:18
so they could send in the troops and declare
10:20
martial law. What the Republicans want is a civil
10:25
war. They really want a fighting, shooting civil
10:30
war where they can send troops in and crack the
10:34
heads of left -wingers. It's a peaceful demonstration.
10:39
It's a peaceful rally. This is one of the, given
10:43
the number of people, this is a very tame event.
10:48
And I've been to other rallies. I've been to
10:51
rallies in Washington that have had hundreds
10:53
or thousands of people in the streets of D .C.
10:58
I was at the Women's March in D .C. I was at
11:02
a march that was against gun violence in D .C.
11:07
Pennsylvania Avenue was packed with people. There
11:10
was no danger. But January 6th happens and these
11:17
are conservatives. These are like MAGA morons
11:20
running around, busting into the Capitol, assaulting
11:26
police officers. And the right wing says, oh,
11:29
they're patriots. They're just patriots. That
11:31
was the hate America insurrection, really, and
11:34
they've all been pardoned. Right, they've all
11:35
been pardoned, and they're all forgiven for everything
11:38
they do, but now the Republicans are saying,
11:41
oh, this was a hate America rally, and it wasn't.
11:43
It was a rally to... try to preserve American
11:46
values because it's obvious that this administration
11:49
doesn't believe in American values or in what
11:53
the United States stands for. They're an authoritarian
11:55
regime who just want oppression. They want white
12:02
supremacy. Right. Well, speaking of white supremacy,
12:05
we had this unfortunate... Act a few days ago
12:09
in Frankfurt and Midway, Kentucky, around central
12:13
Kentucky, around Frankfurt, where the Ku Klux
12:16
Klan littered the towns with uh nazi propaganda
12:22
white supremacy propaganda i didn't see the content
12:25
of the posters because uh on tv news everything
12:29
was turned upside down so they just look like
12:32
blank pieces of paper which is another problem
12:34
with tv news or with the media in general is
12:38
that they're they hide these Truly evil things
12:42
from public view so you see just paper on the
12:45
ground and you think well That's just a paper
12:48
on the ground. So what's what's the big deal?
12:49
Yeah, so they're lettering Yeah, that's Nazi
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lettering. I mean that's that's as far as it
12:55
goes what you eat But you turn the paper around
12:57
and they never turn the paper around because
13:00
they think it's offensive and if it's offensive
13:02
That's why you should see it. It's this this
13:07
sort of media mentality where they don't want
13:10
to show you certain things because they consider
13:12
offensive, but the people who are committing
13:14
these atrocities are getting away with just these
13:18
huge offenses that people are seeing no matter
13:21
what. And I will give another example of this.
13:24
After the rally, Donald Trump had this AI video
13:28
of him in a... in a crown, in a fighter jet,
13:32
flying over demonstrators, and he's dumping,
13:37
I have to say, he's dumping shit on them. And,
13:40
you know, I saw, like, I'll attach the video
13:46
to this podcast at the end so people can see
13:50
what happened there. When I saw the headlines
13:55
in various newspapers, it was saying Donald Trump
13:58
has a controversial ad where he's flying a fighter
14:02
jet. It never says... He's dumping his human
14:05
excrement all over the American people. He's
14:07
shitting on America. Yeah, he's shitting on America.
14:10
And, you know, it's... this sort of like, I've
14:13
seen this term, the enshitification of America.
14:16
This is what Donald Trump is doing. But they
14:19
don't show that because they don't want to offend
14:21
people. So you don't want to offend people because
14:24
the Nazis are putting Klan flyers in the streets
14:29
of Frankfurt. You don't want to offend people
14:31
because Donald Trump is shitting on America.
14:33
You don't want to offend people by, you know,
14:37
by saying that, asking stupid questions about
14:42
do you feel that it's dangerous to be where you
14:45
are, which just pours into the paranoia of the
14:51
right wing. And as a result, everything is so
14:55
sanitized in favor of the Trump presidency and
15:02
in favor of MAGA and in favor of just these atrocious
15:08
people that... You don't think that they're a
15:11
danger at all. They just think that, oh, well,
15:13
they're saying that the right wing is doing this,
15:18
but the left wing is doing this. And the Republicans
15:21
are saying the left wing is having a hate America
15:23
rally, while the left wing is saying that the
15:29
Republicans are fascist. And I don't know who's
15:32
to decide. Just give the people really what's
15:36
going on. You should show. Donald Trump taking
15:38
a dump on America. You should show the evil of
15:43
the pamphlet that the Klan is putting in our
15:46
streets that children can pick up and see, the
15:50
Donald Trump video children can see. I have to
15:57
go one more step on the media itself. Again,
16:02
more on MSNBC, which is considered the left wing,
16:07
or the leftist media. In primetime, they have
16:13
this panel discussion, and one of the panelists
16:16
is Michael Steele, who's the former head of the
16:20
RNC, the Republican National Committee. black
16:23
guy. He was appointed by the Republicans during
16:26
the Obama administration because Republicans
16:28
wanted a black guy to show that they actually
16:31
cared about black people, which they don't. So
16:33
Michael Steele, a Republican, a right -winger
16:37
on the allegedly liberal network MSNBC, is, you
16:44
know, he's giving this impression that Republicans
16:46
really are against, true Republicans are really
16:49
against the evils of the Trump regime. But in
16:54
the course of his segment, he refers to this
16:58
article in Politico that says that, you know,
17:01
we should be careful about the left wing Democrats
17:05
getting into power because they're going to do
17:07
the abuses that Trump is doing, which. Where's
17:11
the justification for that? Where does that come
17:13
from? We've had Democratic presidents. We had
17:16
Obama in the White House when Republicans were
17:19
saying he was going to do all kinds of evil things
17:22
like introduce Sharia law because he was secretly
17:25
a Muslim and that he hated America. Or Bill Clinton
17:30
was going to do all these awful things. Or Joe
17:34
Biden was being a fascist. This is what Republicans
17:37
were saying. Michael Steele was behind a lot
17:42
of that stuff that happened during the Clinton
17:44
administration and especially during the Obama
17:47
administration and now he's on MSNBC reading
17:51
this story saying oh These things are bad with
17:55
Republicans in power because they're abusing
17:56
power. But we have to be careful because Democrats
17:59
will get into power and they'll start abusing
18:01
power because now they can get away with it.
18:03
It's just ridiculous. So, Jesse, I want to segue
18:07
to this image of the White House being demolished.
18:12
Why? Why haven't Democrats just been holding
18:16
press conferences right in front of the demolition
18:20
site? Why do the Republicans continue to win
18:25
the framing war? Because I think the news organizations
18:29
are afraid of being sued by Donald Trump. Because
18:32
we've seen in the... past year that uh who's
18:37
acquiesced to Donald Trump. ABC has given him
18:39
millions of dollars the New York no uh the um
18:43
what was it CBS has given him millions of dollars
18:46
various outlets are paying him off even though
18:50
if they took these cases to court trump would
18:53
lose you know a judge will stop this but because
18:57
of uh corporate interest and because of the impact
19:01
on the stock market ABC, New York Times was sued
19:08
by them. They're fighting, but that's a rarity.
19:12
Universities have been sued by him, and they're
19:15
paying him off. He's an extortion racket. And
19:20
I don't know why. Well, Democrats should have
19:26
been in front of the White House as it was being
19:28
torn down. The People's House. It's the People's
19:31
House. I'm going to be very offensive here, but
19:35
to me it's almost like Al-Qaeda going and doing
19:38
a demolition on the White House. If A -Qaeda
19:41
had actually succeeded in what it wanted to do
19:44
back on September 11, 2001, one of their targets
19:47
was the White House, and they were going to fly
19:49
a plane into it. Donald Trump essentially has
19:53
flown his Republican plane, which he's probably
19:56
bought from, gotten from Qatar. Which
19:58
shit keeps coming out of, apparently. Right.
20:00
And he's destroyed the East Wing of the White
20:04
House. You know, he's taken a classic facade
20:09
that's been built with, if you look and if you
20:13
see pictures of it, it's like this, it contained
20:15
marble floors and old wood paneling, which is
20:19
very... It's expensive, but it's also something
20:23
you really want for building a house, something
20:26
really structurally sound and very elegant. And
20:30
in proportion with the White House itself. Right,
20:34
and he's decided that he's going to build a ballroom.
20:37
He doesn't have a plan. There isn't even a plan
20:40
registered on what this ballroom is going to
20:42
be. It's just he went in, he tore down the White
20:44
House, and no one's... This is a fault of law
20:49
of the Democratic Party. This is something where
20:51
they should have been out in front of the construction
20:54
site every day, every hour, and they should be
20:57
saying, look, this guy is destroying the White
21:00
House. This is American science. With the sound
21:02
of the demolition, with the sight of the demolition.
21:06
you know, coughing on the, you know, smoke coming
21:09
out of the demolition. I just don't understand.
21:12
Where are they? I don't know. I don't know what
21:14
they're doing. And one of the things about the
21:16
demolition of the White House is I lived in Washington.
21:19
I was working for the Washington Post. And during
21:22
the Trump administration, one of the things,
21:25
if you've been to Washington, and a lot of people
21:27
have been there, I'm sure a lot of listeners
21:29
have been there, but when you go to Washington,
21:32
you walk along Pennsylvania Avenue, and there's
21:35
a fence, and behind the fence you can see the
21:37
White House. And it's just... Something you like
21:41
get your kids you take your pictures in front
21:43
of the White House It shows that you've been
21:45
to America's capital. You've seen the place that
21:48
the president lives. This is important This is
21:51
part of American history. This is something that
21:53
you want to have in your family album When Donald
21:57
Trump was president the first time he put barricades
22:01
in front of the White House so you couldn't see
22:03
it from Pennsylvania Avenue. So now he's tearing
22:07
down the White House. Okay, I'm going to say
22:12
it, but if Obama had done it, they would be apoplectic
22:20
about it. The Republicans would be just on Fox
22:24
News. Because they win at the framing wars every
22:27
time. Yeah, it's a framing war, and it's something
22:31
where I will also say Democrats don't have a
22:36
propaganda channel. Republicans have a propaganda
22:39
channel, and it's called Fox News, and it's anything
22:42
that's owned by Rupert Murdoch, who now runs
22:44
American media. It's just that. And then the
22:50
price tag, the $300 million price tag now. While,
22:54
you know, children are going hungry and we're
22:56
losing our health care and special ed. And we're
22:59
in the middle of a government shutdown. Right.
23:02
Let's call it what it is. Jeffrey Epstein shutdown.
23:06
Because the reason the government is closed isn't
23:09
because they're fighting over what the finances
23:13
will be or what the budget is. The reason the
23:16
government is closed is because Michael. Mike
23:18
Johnson, who's the Speaker of the House, doesn't
23:21
want to vote on the Epstein files. And what he's
23:24
done is he's made sure that the duly elected
23:29
representative from Arizona isn't being installed.
23:32
He's on TV saying, well, we can't install because
23:35
the government's closed and Congress isn't meeting.
23:39
Whereas, in the past months, whenever Republicans
23:43
win elections... They get installed. They go
23:47
through the whole process. So it's all a lie.
23:50
The Republicans are constantly lying. And now
23:53
we're in this phase where, like you say, this
23:58
teardown of the White House, which American media
24:03
should also be appalled by, but it's Donald Trump,
24:07
so it's acceptable, I guess. And, you know, as
24:11
I said, there's no plan for the ballroom itself
24:15
because you are supposed to have, like, construction
24:18
permits and you're supposed to have, like, a
24:21
plan. Well, and you're supposed to go through
24:22
the historical preservation. Right, right. Like,
24:25
there are steps. Historical preservation. I live
24:28
in a historical preservation area, and we had
24:32
to put a balcony on our... Well, we have a balcony,
24:37
and we wanted to put a new railing on the balcony.
24:41
And we couldn't do it unless we went through
24:44
the historical preservation process where we
24:47
had to draw the plans. We had to deliver it to
24:51
this board. They were going to look it over,
24:54
and they were going to say yes or no. There was
24:57
another incident on this block that I live where
25:01
someone was putting in a new balcony. They didn't
25:03
go through the process, and they got a stop work
25:07
notice. on their house. So for close to a year,
25:14
there was this half -built balcony just across
25:18
the way from where I live. It was really ugly,
25:20
and it didn't get repaired until like a couple
25:23
of weeks ago because it was in time for the art
25:27
show, which is this big event in Louisville.
25:31
You wanted the neighborhood to look nice, so
25:34
they allowed the construction of this balcony
25:36
that they had rejected because it didn't go through
25:39
the historical preservation process. So that's
25:42
Louisville, Kentucky. That's a small... On a
25:44
pedestrian court. Right, right. But meanwhile,
25:47
we're tearing down the White House at an expense
25:50
of hundreds of millions of dollars to build a
25:53
vanity project for... The king. Yeah, that's
25:56
right. Now what you've seen is... It's Versailles.
25:58
You've seen the White House. You've seen he puts
26:00
gold... trim on everything. Because he's not
26:04
going to leave. He doesn't intend to leave. But
26:08
he's old and he'll probably die off eventually.
26:13
But it's still going to be a Republican in power
26:16
even if he died in office. We'd have J .D. Vance
26:20
in the White House. Maybe he's as tasteless as
26:24
Trump is. But we're just kind of stuck where
26:27
we are right now because We don't have representatives
26:31
fighting for us. My complaints about our local
26:36
representative have been consistent. He should
26:38
be out in the various districts in which Republicans
26:43
aren't having town hall meetings. He should be
26:46
out there doing the town hall meetings, but he
26:48
doesn't. He does town hall meetings in Louisville,
26:52
which is like, okay, this is safe. I'm not going
26:54
to offend anybody. The result of that is that
26:58
the Republicans in this state are eventually
27:00
going to take away his seat because they're going
27:02
to redistrict Louisville so that it doesn't have
27:05
a Democratic representative. Right. And, you
27:09
know, if you look at the demographics of Kentucky,
27:12
the state is, what, 81 % white and maybe 9 %
27:17
black, and the rest are Asian and Hispanic. There's
27:23
going to be no representative of minorities in
27:26
this state because it's all going to be Republican.
27:29
And there's no effort by Democrats on the state
27:34
level, on the local level, or on the national
27:37
level to just... Throw off the boxing gloves
27:41
and just start fist fighting right because that's
27:44
what they should be doing. Speaking of and I want
27:46
to go back to the price tag of 300 million Argentina
27:50
during the shutdown let's talk about the 40 billion
27:55
dollar bailout of Argentina. Why? because Scott
28:00
Bessent the Treasury Secretary he has friends
28:04
who have invested into Argentine bonds and so
28:08
the Argentine economy is going to collapse eventually
28:11
and you know it's it's something that people
28:14
in Kentucky probably don't care about even though
28:18
health care is being taken away and food uh food
28:22
benefits the stat program is being taken away
28:24
uh and you know other things that preserve preserve
28:29
like the quality of life right in this state
28:33
are going to be taken away but we're sending
28:36
it was 20 billion dollars now it's 40 billion
28:39
dollars and we're giving that to Argentina not
28:42
because we really care about Argentina uh you
28:45
know does the Trump administration care about
28:47
Latin America? No unless there's like a MAGA person
28:51
in charge and then he will like acquiesce to
28:55
whatever that MAGA person wants but even in that
28:59
instance they're not going to send money unless
29:03
There are very rich people in America who have
29:06
a financial stake in these areas. So Bessent,
29:11
who, here's the best part. He used to work for
29:16
George Soros. Of course, I was just doing my
29:22
own research on this because that's what I do.
29:26
I was a former journalist, so I'm looking up
29:29
stuff. And I'm always looking for these flaws
29:31
in stories. But anyway, he worked for George
29:33
Soros when the issue with George Soros made him
29:37
the... hated among the ruling classes was George
29:43
Soros made a bet against the UK pound and as
29:47
a result the pound dropped in value but Soros
29:51
ended up getting billions of dollars as a result.
29:53
Bessent was the guy who was in Soros' with Soros
29:57
doing this and now he's in the Trump administration
30:00
which when the Trump administration decides it's
30:04
going to attack liberals He says they're funded
30:07
by George Soros. So this is all absurd. Anyway,
30:11
Bessent's friends have invested in Argentina.
30:14
They have huge investments in Argentina. So you
30:18
prop up Argentina by sending them $40 billion.
30:21
His friends will be able to take their money
30:23
out before the collapse happens. And then they
30:27
have their money. I'm sure that the Trump administration
30:31
is being paid off. I'm sure someone's getting
30:33
a payout out of this. And when everything collapses
30:36
in Argentina, the American citizens who don't
30:41
have health care, don't have food. are living
30:45
day to day. They don't even have a good paycheck.
30:50
That's who's going to be hurt, not the rich people
30:53
here and not the leaders in power of Argentina.
30:57
Speaking of that, we're seeing that consumer
31:00
prices in September rose to a pace not seen since
31:05
January. You know, we're going into the holidays,
31:09
Jesse, and people are starting to think about
31:12
Thanksgiving and their meals and everything.
31:14
And these price tags at the grocery stores are
31:17
just horrendous. Right. Didn't Trump win because
31:22
he was going to reduce food prices? Right. I
31:25
think I remember that. Do you remember it? Yeah.
31:30
And the farmers with the beef. Yes, let's go
31:33
back to Argentina. Trump has said he's going
31:35
to get beef from Argentina when American beef
31:38
farmers are struggling. He's going to bring in
31:42
beef that will be from Argentina that's cheaper
31:45
than American beef, so American beef farmers
31:47
are going to keep struggling. But I will take
31:50
this one step further. Farmers are overwhelmingly
31:53
voted for Donald Trump, which it blows my mind
31:58
because... The farmers who are complaining today
32:04
were aware of what was going on when Trump was
32:08
president the first time and when he screwed
32:10
farmers then. And so they voted for him again.
32:13
So now soybeans, which was a huge crop in America,
32:17
they're like no sales at all because Trump has
32:20
offended China. So China's going to Latin America
32:23
for soybeans. Beef prices are going up. So Trump
32:28
has decided, okay, let's bring in some Argentine
32:30
beef. So let's give more money to Argentina to
32:34
prop up their government so they can pay off
32:36
the billionaires in the United States who have
32:39
invested in Argentina. And, you know, there's
32:44
going to be no health care, no food stamps, and
32:48
we're coming into Thanksgiving when people are
32:50
going to realize my children are starving. And
32:53
I don't have the money to pay for this. And the
32:56
government's closed. So we're not going to get
32:59
money from them. What does this mean for Social
33:02
Security? You know, they say that Social Security
33:04
is going to be fine. But the Republicans have
33:07
consistently talked about getting rid of Social
33:09
Security or making it like something that Wall
33:12
Street will take over as opposed to the government
33:15
will take over. We're in a lot of trouble. I'm
33:20
kind of getting depressed now. Well, I don't
33:23
want you to be depressed. I want to say a couple
33:25
of positive things. One is that... Before you
33:30
say positive things, I have to still be negative.
33:34
Because we were talking about health care, and
33:38
there was a story recently about Republicans
33:41
in Kentucky are trying to pass a law that removed
33:46
fluoride from water. And by the way, when I ran
33:49
for state representative in 2006, And one of
33:54
the things that I researched, because my dad
33:56
was a periodontist, was that Kentucky has the
33:59
highest adult toothlessness rate in the country.
34:04
So already we don't have teeth, right? Right,
34:07
yeah. We're all rotten. Right. And? And now we're
34:10
going to remove fluoride from the water because...
34:15
Why are we removing fluoride from water? It's
34:19
like wearing helmets. It's because we have...
34:23
Government overreach. But we also have an insane
34:28
person running the U .S. Health Department. Yeah,
34:33
fluoride causes autism. That's coming. Fluoride
34:36
causes autism. Vaccines cause autism. Tylenol.
34:40
Tylenol causes autism. Fluoride is bad for you,
34:45
and vaccines are going to kill you. Now, this
34:50
comes from a secretary of health who's a heroin
34:53
addict. Now, we would say he used to be a heroin
34:58
addict. No, but in alcoholism, if you're an alcoholic,
35:02
if you were and you're recovering, you're still
35:04
a recovering alcoholic. So let's say a recovering
35:07
heroin addict who had worms in his brain. He
35:11
had worms in his brain. His brain was being eaten
35:13
by worms. That's a line in a Pink Floyd song
35:17
about someone going insane. And he chainsawed
35:22
the head off a whale. He took a dead bear and
35:27
put it in his car and left it in Central Park.
35:30
And let's get to the vulgar part. He's a rapist.
35:35
And this is the Secretary of Health who's telling
35:37
people that vaccines are bad for you. Doing stuff,
35:44
putting stuff in, you know, help everything that
35:47
you're doing to improve people's health is supposed
35:50
to be bad for you. And he ran for president.
35:53
And he has a following, and now he's Secretary
35:56
of Health. And so I'm sure I have a point here,
36:01
but it goes back to the, let's make America toothless.
36:05
He gave out these MAHA hats, make America healthy
36:11
again. But everything they're doing is to take
36:16
away health care. And this is where it really
36:20
comes down to. It's not about what these health
36:25
benefits are. It's about the cost and how can
36:27
you get the money to billionaires instead of
36:29
to the people who need them, the people who are
36:32
paying taxes. That's so interesting because I
36:37
did just see an article about kids in one of
36:42
the Nordic... one of the Scandinavian countries,
36:45
and how they noticed that when those kids went
36:49
outside and had fresh air and were playing outside.
36:54
And, you know, of course, their education system
36:57
is very much superior to ours. Their health care
37:00
systems, you know, their tax rates are higher
37:03
than ours, but their quality of life is so much
37:06
higher. But these kids are so much healthier.
37:11
Basically, what I was reading was, but there's
37:14
no money to be made on these healthy kids. Like,
37:16
why do we want healthy kids? Because then they're
37:18
not going to go to the doctors, and they're not
37:20
going to have drugs, and they're not going to
37:21
buy packaged foods. So you're saying there's
37:24
no money to be made because... Well, they're
37:27
healthy. Oh, so the medical establishment won't
37:31
get money. The pharmaceutical companies won't
37:35
get money. The food industry will live healthfully.
37:38
I mean, think about it right now, Jesse. When
37:40
you have a shortage of cash, do you buy fresh
37:45
organic produce or do you buy Kraft mac and cheese?
37:50
If you have a shortage of cash, you go to the
37:53
Dollar General. And you buy whatever is cheapest.
37:57
Yeah, whatever you can afford. And I grew up
38:01
poor in Brooklyn. And, you know, it was like
38:04
dinner was chicken wings and something from a
38:09
box. And it was about having your stomach full
38:14
at night. It wasn't about the health quality
38:16
of these foods. It was about not starving. Now,
38:20
we're getting to the point where. We're not even
38:24
going to deal with the not starving. We're just
38:25
going to starve people to death. And we're taking
38:28
away SNAP benefits so that people like Elon Musk
38:31
can get bigger tax breaks. Elon Musk, who has
38:34
what his fortune is now $430 billion. Or Larry
38:40
Ellison, the number two richest man in the world.
38:43
He's going to get tax breaks and he just bought
38:45
CBS. So now he controls that media system. Another
38:50
billionaire. You got Jeff Bezos. He runs the
38:53
Washington Post. And all of them are apparently
38:56
funding the ballroom. Did you notice the corporate
38:58
names that are financing the ballroom? I have
39:01
not noticed the names, but that sounds like something
39:04
we should have expected, where it's really about
39:07
rich people figuring out ways to continue to
39:10
be rich. And they really don't give a damn about
39:14
it. And Trump is suing so that he can get his
39:16
$230 million back from all the lawsuits. have
39:20
been falsely perpetrated against him. Well, let's
39:23
not say falsely because the lawsuits are legitimate.
39:26
Yeah, right, right, right. If you say the word
39:28
falsely, then you give the impression that, oh,
39:32
this is, Trump says he's been falsely accused.
39:35
He's a con man. He's always been a con man. I've
39:39
said this many times. I grew up in New York in
39:41
the 70s. I've been a witness of Donald Trump
39:46
in action from forever. God, it's 50 years. 50
39:51
years of Donald Trump. And he is the same person
39:56
now as he was back in the days when he was out
40:00
partying with Jeffrey Epstein. And having sex
40:02
with underage girls. Not having sex with ... molesting.
40:07
Molesting. You can't have sex with underage children.
40:11
See, it's all about wording. It's like he was
40:15
having sex with young victims. No, he was raping
40:18
little girls. He and Jeffrey Epstein were doing
40:21
this as Prince Andrew, who's now trying to say
40:26
that Prince Andrew was, I think they just revealed
40:30
that Prince Andrew in England, who was an Epstein
40:33
client, it was just revealed that when the woman,
40:37
the young woman who accused him of rape, Andrew
40:42
had investigators look into her. So, you know,
40:47
we have to watch. how we say things and we have
40:50
to be very concise in our language because by
40:53
neutralizing what we say, we allow the expansion
41:02
of evil because it sounds nicer than what it
41:06
really is. So grown men don't have sex with underage
41:11
girls. Grown men rape children. That's what that
41:16
is. And that's how it should be approached. But
41:18
again, the problem in media circles is that we're
41:22
looking for language that's not going to upset
41:24
people as they eat their oatmeal in the morning.
41:27
So we go for the neutral language that sort of,
41:31
you know, what's the word? It sort of sanitizes.
41:36
Well, we do on the left, but it's not very sanitized
41:40
on the right against Democrats. What do you mean
41:43
by that? Well, I just, the language, I mean,
41:46
actually dropping shit on America. I mean, that's
41:49
not sanitary, you know? Right, that's right.
41:52
That's kind of vile. But the problem here is
41:56
that the media on the leftist media, quote unquote,
42:01
never uses those words. It never says that. If,
42:04
you know, I hate doing this, but if Obama had
42:09
done it, Fox News would have said Barack Obama
42:14
is dumping shit on Americans. They would have
42:15
found a way to use those words or to use something
42:19
very close to it. But the left media, and there
42:23
is no, that's another mistake I'm making, there
42:26
is no left media. That doesn't exist. The mainstream
42:31
media. Doesn't want to offend. Well, Fox News
42:36
is mainstream media. Fox News, but it used to
42:40
be extreme. It's mainstream now. Yeah, because
42:43
the country has moved from what it used to be
42:46
to a very right -wing nation. If you look at,
42:51
you compare this country to any other country
42:54
in the world. And we lived in Europe for several
42:59
years. A Democrat in the United States at that
43:04
time was the equivalent of a conservative in
43:07
Europe, which means that a Republican was beyond
43:12
comprehension in a European country because they
43:17
were just so far to the right. And we have steadily
43:22
gone to the right, and there has been no curb
43:26
on what the right is doing. And we have no leaders
43:30
who are going to stop this. Do we hear Chuck
43:34
Schumer complaining about the building of the
43:36
ballroom? I don't know. Maybe he did, but that
43:40
doesn't appear on anything. We don't hear Hakeem
43:44
Jeffries talking about the building of the ballroom.
43:46
Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries won't even
43:49
endorse the mayoral candidate in New York, who
43:52
is definitely a democratic socialist, a Bernie
43:57
Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez type of person.
44:02
they don't want to offend the people on the right.
44:05
Or they don't want to offend the money people
44:08
who are going to pay for their campaigns. Right.
44:11
So yesterday I had a really beautiful day. My
44:17
son had a birthday and we went to the Red River
44:20
Gorge and we did this amazing hike to see Gray's
44:24
Arch. So Kentucky... What's Gray's Arch? It's
44:29
a natural formed arch that, you know, over hundreds
44:34
of millions of years, not just in the past 6,000
44:37
years, right? Well, you know, the earth
44:40
is only 6 ,000. Exactly. But this natural arch
44:43
has been. formed by water and so you can hike
44:47
up to it and it's a stone arch and there are
44:51
all these like cliff caves and there are rhododendrons
44:56
it's very very lush some old trees in there just
45:00
gorgeous hike yesterday great views of the gorge
45:06
Right now, it's really, really beautiful out.
45:08
October is just such a beautiful month here.
45:11
So get out in nature. I told my son yesterday
45:15
that one of the things that will never fail him
45:18
is just getting out in nature. If people disappoint
45:21
him, which they will, we will. We are complicated
45:24
human beings. Go out in nature because she heals
45:28
and she's wonderful to be around. The other thing
45:31
I told him was... that the gorge almost got flooded
45:34
for a dam project by the Army Corps of Engineers
45:37
over 50 years ago. And the Sierra Club went door
45:44
to door to people who lived in the Red River
45:46
Gorge area and talked to them about, do you want
45:51
this dammed up? And they explained what the ramifications
45:55
would be and things like that. And People Power,
45:58
this was a grassroots campaign, and I think it
46:00
was... the first campaign that really defeated
46:03
a project by the Army Corps of Engineers. And
46:06
it now, people from all over the world come to
46:09
the Red River Gorge to go rock climbing. It is
46:13
a destination, and we make a lot of money on
46:16
tourism there because it is absolutely exquisitely
46:19
beautiful. So I was really happy to get to go
46:22
there. Is that a state thing or is it a federal
46:27
thing? Just, you know, in terms of the... the
46:29
closure of the federal government. It's not affected
46:32
by that. Right. I mean, that's interesting. I've
46:35
now been affected a couple times because I'm
46:37
such a nature girl. One was I was up in Michigan
46:40
and I wanted to get my forever pass to national
46:44
parks. That's something you can get when you're
46:46
62. I think it's like 85 bucks or something.
46:48
And I was at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
46:52
and they were closed. And this week was the Orionids.
46:58
meteor shower every year we rotate into debris
47:03
left from Haley's comet and it it generates these
47:07
amazing meteor showers and I was told like that
47:10
what we see these fireballs the debris is
47:15
like no bigger than the size of a thumb, you
47:19
know, of a fingernail. And it just makes these
47:22
incredible meteor showers. And I went down to
47:26
Mammoth Cave because it's an international dark
47:30
sky area. It doesn't have light pollution. And
47:34
it's a really great place to see the stars. and
47:37
meteor showers. But there were no facilities
47:40
open. You couldn't go to the bathroom. The visitor
47:43
center was closed. I was just glad that we could
47:46
drive in and just put our blanket down and look
47:49
up at the stars in the middle of the night for
47:51
hours. I thought it might have been gated shut,
47:54
but it wasn't. So, yeah. You can access a national
48:02
park. We drove in, and it wasn't gated. Now,
48:07
you can't do a cave tour. You know, those things
48:11
are definitely closed down. And, you know, I
48:14
think about people like me who would take my
48:17
family on these trips and you'd plan months ahead,
48:20
a year ahead, and all those vacations are now
48:24
altered because of the closure of these federal
48:27
spaces. And as you're traveling, you also have
48:30
the problems with just air travel in general
48:33
because... TSA is under, TSA people won't be
48:38
paid or air traffic controllers won't be paid.
48:42
My trip to Denver, it was the worst airplane
48:47
flight I've been on in years. And it may not
48:52
be related to the TSA, but I don't know. I don't
48:55
know if they would have like steered us around.
48:58
The problem that we had was as we're flying from
49:01
Louisville to Denver, Everything's smooth, and
49:05
then we get into Nebraska, and you look out the
49:07
window, and on our right, there are these very
49:12
ugly, huge clouds. And this is what's amazing.
49:18
When I was on the plane, I got a tornado alert
49:22
on my phone. Even though my phone was not supposed
49:25
to do that, my phone started buzzing, and I looked,
49:29
and it said, there's a tornado. find cover. So
49:34
I look out the window over Nebraska and there
49:37
are these huge ugly looking clouds and as a as
49:42
a person in a plane I'm thinking okay the clouds
49:44
are over there the sky is clear over there obviously
49:48
we're going to like go around the clouds but
49:52
it was like what was that going on a bear hunt
49:55
that children's book we can't go over it we can't
49:59
go under it let's go through it. And we went
50:01
through these clouds and it was, you know, the
50:04
bouncing and the thing I hate most in any flight
50:08
is when you take a dip and you feel like you're
50:10
rising out of your seat. That happened. And so,
50:14
you know, I'm thinking, is this because the TSA,
50:18
not the TSA, the air traffic controllers aren't
50:20
working and we're just going for the simplest
50:23
way to get through this storm or maybe this is
50:25
something they normally do. I'm flying out of
50:27
Chicago O 'Hare, which is... I think one of the
50:31
world's, yeah. It is the world's busiest airport.
50:35
So, and I'm nervous about it. I'm doing an international
50:38
flight in a week and a half or so. Where are
50:41
you going? Italy. Oh. Yeah. Wow. Again with my
50:44
son. They have air traffic control in Europe.
50:47
Yeah, I'm really excited about that. It's just
50:49
sort of getting out of Chicago and then getting
50:52
over there. That's concerning to me. But I want
50:56
to stay positive, if that's okay, because it
50:58
is very easy to be critical right now and justifiable.
51:03
I do want to say that... You know, these rallies
51:07
do make a difference, but we can go further,
51:11
and we really need to go further. And now there's
51:16
a group called BlackOutTheSystem .com, Black
51:20
Out the System. And what they're talking about
51:24
is basically shutting down the U .S. economy.
51:30
That's positive. Well, the reason why is, you
51:34
know, removing our labor, our spending, our financial
51:37
support, forcing the system to listen, right?
51:40
Because we're being oppressed. by this system.
51:45
And it seems like just follow the money. It's
51:48
like all money speaks kind of thing. So the next,
51:52
this boycott is November 25th to December 2nd.
51:57
So if you think about Black Friday and Black
52:00
Monday and all those things. Basically, we're
52:04
asking people, they're asking people not to support
52:08
big business. Definitely support your local,
52:13
locally owned stores, community owned stores,
52:16
community. It's about community, but it's not
52:19
about... supporting corporate America now they
52:23
go further which i there's privilege involved
52:26
here they say no work no spending no travel no
52:30
projects no events no restaurants no backing
52:33
out so um for people who have privilege who can
52:37
not you know not show up to work you know without
52:41
worrying about losing their job and things like
52:43
that or not travel because of work and things
52:47
like that um that that's i I think it could be
52:51
very powerful because it's all about the money.
52:53
Again, when is that? It's November 25th to December
52:57
2nd. That's the next one. So is that after or
52:59
before Thanksgiving? It's before Thanksgiving,
53:01
through that weekend. Okay, so it must be after
53:05
Thanksgiving because December is not Thanksgiving.
53:09
Well, November 25th to December 2nd. Okay, I
53:12
think Thanksgiving is the 22nd. No, I don't think
53:15
so. My daughter's birthday is, yeah, no, I think
53:18
it's the 27th. Okay. Yeah, so it starts before
53:21
Thanksgiving. I'm going to be flying then to,
53:25
I'm going to take a trip to D .C. Why would I
53:28
do that? And then I'm going to take a trip to
53:30
New York, so I'm going to do that. My family,
53:33
I'm going to do a family Thanksgiving. With my
53:36
family in the New York area. It's the Tuesday
53:39
before Thanksgiving to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
53:42
And that's how you get that whole weekend of
53:45
all those deals by Amazon and Apple and all the
53:49
corporations. Really do try not to spend a lot
53:54
of money that week. And really, we've got to
53:58
see them suffer. Okay. Let's see. Any more bright
54:04
news you have? Well, that's the big one. But
54:07
stay in community. Oh, I do want to share. I
54:10
saw this really inspiring video by Jane Goodall
54:14
right before she died. And I know that she was
54:18
speaking to us, you know, from the grave, really.
54:21
And what she basically says is, well, one thing
54:24
she does say is she would love to ship. Trump
54:28
and Musk and Bezos and all these bad people up
54:32
to Mars and, you know, get rid of them. That
54:34
was kind of entertaining. They're never going
54:36
to Mars. But what she says is that each of us
54:39
matters and that each of us has a contribution
54:44
to make. And we may not know what that is, but
54:46
to keep being out there and, you know, doing
54:50
our best because each of us has value. And I
54:54
think it's really important. For a lot of people
54:57
who didn't show up at the rallies because they
55:00
were afraid, no judgment for me at all. These
55:04
rallies are not for everybody, but some of those
55:06
people I know gave money instead of going. They
55:10
might be immunocompromised. There are reasons
55:12
that people don't go into crowds, right? sensory
55:16
issues so there are all kinds of ways for us
55:19
to participate in fighting fascism and I think
55:23
it's really important that we realize that each
55:25
of us has a role to play and just one little
55:31
bright thing I'd like to make a reference to
55:33
I've been trying to get this cheesecake from
55:37
this place called Big Nita's Cheesecake in Louisville.
55:40
And there was a story about it in local media.
55:44
I think it was in the Courier Journal and in
55:46
another local outlet, which says that this place
55:49
is just impossible to get cheesecake from because
55:53
it's so popular that people line up hours before
55:57
the place opens. And the cheesecake just goes
56:02
immediately. This week, actually yesterday, I
56:07
walked from my home in Old Louisville up to Main
56:11
Street in the eastern part of the city, and they
56:18
were already sold out. Okay, so I got to Big
56:22
Nita's, and I looked at the store was closed.
56:26
It was Thursday. They're only open on Friday,
56:34
Saturday, and Sunday. And you know how most stores
56:39
have hours of operation. Their hours of operation
56:43
are essentially, we're going to open at this
56:45
time, and we're going to stay open until all
56:47
the cheesecakes are sold out. Right. And they
56:50
are constantly sold out. On Saturday, they're
56:53
just open from 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. or until sold
56:56
out. And Sunday, 11. a .m. to 1 p .m. That's
56:59
two hours, or until sold out. Right, and today
57:03
they were opened from 1 to 6, or supposedly that.
57:06
Friday, 1 to 6, or until sold out. Yeah, and
57:09
when I got there, the sign yesterday said sold
57:15
out. So one of these days I'm going to get there,
57:18
and I'm going to get a cheesecake, and I'm going
57:20
to see if it's worth the wait. And judging from
57:25
all the reviews of it, it's definitely worth
57:27
the wait. Support your small, locally -owned
57:30
business. No matter how short it's open. Yeah.
57:34
They have pre -orders available right now, so
57:37
you should get online and maybe order something
57:38
in advance. Cheesecake in advance. You know,
57:42
you would just like to walk up. I really prefer
57:45
the, I'm going to walk up and just get something,
57:47
and that'll be it. And you were walking seven
57:50
miles, so you deserve a slice of cheesecake.
57:53
It was a 7-mile walk from my house and back
57:56
to Big Nita's. But I ended up going to Jeff's
58:01
Donuts at Paris Town Hall. They're pretty good.
58:04
People keep buying locally owned while you have
58:09
the money to do it. I will get my cheesecake
58:13
one of these days. Yes, we look forward to hearing
58:15
all about that, Jesse. You know, it's the simple
58:19
pleasures. Indeed. And I don't have to worry
58:21
about politics or anything. I just, like, pig
58:23
out. That'll be good. So we're almost an hour
58:27
into this podcast. I think it's time we wrap
58:31
it up. All right. See you all in a couple of
58:33
weeks. Take good care. And people go to our website.
58:36
That's thebluegrassbluespodcast .com. I'll have
58:42
this podcast up on it. And read our blog posts.
58:46
Jesse writes almost every single one of those,
58:49
and they're awesome. And they're almost daily.
58:51
I try to do it daily. If I can't do it daily,
58:54
I'll do multiple blog posts in a day. So thanks
59:01
for listening, and we will be back in a couple
59:04
of weeks. Bye. Bye. Our closing music is by John
59:12
Chamberlain.