Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 24

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 24 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Hey, this is Amy, and it's the Bluegrass Blues
0:03
podcast, episode 24. And I'm Jesse. Well, we're
0:16
several days away, or past the No Kings rallies
0:21
that took place across America. I think it was
0:24
estimated at 8 million people across the country.
0:27
I saw between 8 and 10 million. Yeah, that sounds
0:30
about right. And we went to the Louisville rally.
0:36
It was an impressive gathering. I personally
0:42
estimated between, I'd say, 15 ,000 to 20 ,000
0:46
people were in downtown Louisville. We have bad
0:50
media coverage here, which we've talked about
0:52
many times, and I saw that WDRB made reference
0:55
to hundreds of people. But the thing was that
1:00
I have not seen a demonstration that big in the
1:03
city before, and some of the things that struck
1:07
me was that... I didn't see any police presence,
1:10
which I find interesting because when we had
1:13
the Breonna Taylor demonstrations, the police
1:16
were all over the place with guns ready to...
1:18
Yeah, these were mostly white people, I think,
1:20
at the No Kings rally. Right, and one of the
1:22
things I saw in the coverage of it was that there
1:26
were these right -wing influencers going around
1:29
trying to start trouble in the No Kings rally,
1:33
and they were asking this woman... how come there
1:36
are no black people here aren't they supposed
1:38
to be represented and she gave a very good explanation
1:41
she said well if you have a lot of black people
1:43
here and the black people are aware of this the
1:45
police will show up and they will like start
1:47
cracking heads right so it's not necessarily
1:50
black people's fight to begin with because white
1:54
people put Donald Trump in office by huge numbers.
1:57
But I actually did see some cops on bicycles,
2:02
you know, but they were really helping the community
2:05
defense network security people sort of block
2:08
off the roads as we were crossing the roads and
2:10
stuff. So very friendly. police presence on bicycles,
2:16
keeping people safe. That's good. I don't know
2:19
if the police were routing traffic or diverting
2:22
traffic, but when we were in the early part of
2:24
the rally, there were cars like going right down,
2:27
what was it, Jefferson Street or is it Jefferson
2:30
or was it? Liberty, Jefferson. Okay, there were
2:33
cars coming across like because people were on
2:35
one side of the street rallying and then they
2:38
were on the other side of the street, but there
2:39
were cars coming through until. everything started
2:42
officially and I saw a cordon of people like
2:45
block the traffic right and direct it anywhere
2:48
but I didn't see they didn't look like police
2:50
officers to me so that I found interesting as
2:52
well yeah I think it was all search people because
2:55
the police usually will well this is one of the
2:59
things that did bother me about this the police
3:01
if they're there they should be doing things
3:03
like directing traffic and making sure the people
3:06
participating in the rallies are safe But again,
3:09
you saw a few police. I didn't see any. And there
3:13
was volunteers who rerouted the traffic. And
3:15
it did stop traffic for a while because there
3:18
was a march from, was that City Hall where it
3:21
started? Yeah, it went around City Hall. They
3:24
called it Metro Hall. Metro Hall, yeah. And so
3:26
they went around the courthouse and they came
3:29
down probably Market Street and then went down
3:33
again. there were people, if you were looking
3:37
north at the crowd, there were still people south
3:41
starting the walk. So that's why I put the number
3:45
at least, I'd say 15 ,000 people were there.
3:49
But why were we there? That's the question you
3:53
have to ask. And it's because the Trump administration
3:55
has done so many bad things that people are finally
4:00
waking up. A lot of people are waking up. um
4:04
like you were talking today about gas prices
4:07
yeah i filled up and i you know i i either go
4:10
to costco or kroger because i have discounts
4:14
at you know at both places At Kroger today, the
4:18
gas price was $4 .39 a gallon, and I got my little
4:22
10 cents off because I spent so much money there.
4:25
So for my little Honda Accord, 16 gallons cost
4:29
me $71 today to fill up my car. Never, ever have
4:35
I spent that much money on gasoline for my car.
4:40
And, you know, I can probably afford it. You
4:43
know, I've got some savings and whatnot. How
4:47
are people affording this? And then every time
4:49
I go to the grocery store, everything is so expensive.
4:53
I rarely get out of the grocery store spending
4:56
less than $100. Right. Same with me. And you
5:00
look at the basket that you go out with, and
5:02
it's like, wait a minute, that can't be $100
5:05
worth of food when it's only like two bags that
5:08
you're filling up. And I think that's another
5:11
reason why the No Kings rallies are getting more
5:14
and more people. Gas prices are ridiculously
5:17
high because of the war that Trump started. Food
5:21
prices are high and they're going to go higher
5:23
because of the war that Trump started. Medicaid,
5:28
you know, all the health, all the health stuff.
5:31
I think in Kentucky, we're now going to have
5:36
copays for Medicaid, both for prescription drugs
5:40
and for office visits. Now, they're not going
5:42
to be really high copays, but there were zero
5:45
dollar copays before. And, you know, these are
5:48
these are people who live in poverty. Again,
5:53
I think people are just seeing rising health
5:55
care costs, food costs, gasoline costs, etc.
5:59
Housing costs are very high also. Well, it's
6:03
because of this crazy man in the White House.
6:06
I don't know if you saw his tweet today about
6:09
the end of civilization in Iran. If they don't
6:14
do something literally within the next three
6:17
hours, he's threatened to blow them up. You know,
6:22
there are so many scary implications to this.
6:25
But it's also the fact that if he goes through
6:28
with this, he's committing a war crime. And everyone
6:32
knows it's a war crime. But how do you, what
6:35
is the world going to do about this? Because
6:37
we already see that the Republicans aren't going
6:41
to do a damn thing. I see that one House person
6:44
has started like an impeachment. drive, a woman
6:49
in, I forget what state she's in, but she's introducing,
6:54
she's saying that the 25th Amendment should be
6:56
applied to the Trump administration or to Donald
6:59
Trump himself. And what is that? That's the 25th
7:02
Amendment is when the president is incapable
7:04
of carrying out the duties of the office, then
7:08
the cabinet can, I believe, make a recommendation
7:15
to Congress to get rid of him, and they would
7:17
do that. But Trump has so many sycophants in
7:21
his cabinet that that's not going to happen.
7:25
The other part of it, too, is since we're talking
7:27
about sycophants in the cabinet, two of his biggest
7:30
sycophants have been fired. That would be Pam
7:32
Bondi as Attorney General and Kristi Noem as
7:36
Homeland Security top person. And, you know,
7:41
they were... very loyal to Trump and everything
7:45
he does, and they were the first to go out despite
7:50
their groveling for Trump. They have the wrong
7:54
genitalia. Right, that's right. I think I'm going
7:57
to use this weird word here, and it's going to
7:59
sound worse than it is, but this is a homosocial
8:02
administration, and what I mean by that is that...
8:06
They only feel comfortable when they are surrounded
8:09
by other men. White male supremacy. And this
8:12
is, Hegseth has proved this because in the U
8:17
.S. military, he is not allowing the promotion
8:20
of women. He's not allowing the promotion of
8:23
minorities. He's firing black people, women,
8:27
minorities, and he's promoting white male Christians,
8:31
which to me is another. ominous sign because
8:36
that's the the whole mentality of the far right
8:41
christian is that we want a war in iran and we
8:45
want to blow up iran because we want jesus to
8:49
come down and and you know it'll be the rapture
8:52
and all the non -believers will be left on it's
8:58
like the left behind series all the non -believers
9:00
will be on earth and all the believers will be
9:03
transported magically up into heaven uh as as
9:09
the reward for being true christians but the
9:11
the other side of this too is that they're not
9:15
true christians that you know if you follow the
9:17
teachings of christ and the pope and the pope
9:20
talked about peace yeah it's like what they're
9:23
doing is anathema to what the bible says and
9:27
they they just Don't care. Thou shalt not kill.
9:31
Thou shalt not commit adultery. They've got that
9:35
whole list going. Well, the other thing you said
9:38
about the military is also scary, which is that
9:41
Hegseth may be building up his force to stage
9:45
a coup. That's right, yeah. Which is terrifying.
9:49
And it's not necessarily a coup against Donald
9:52
Trump. It's a coup involving the next midterm
9:56
election. If you look at the numbers, Trump is
10:00
doing badly everywhere. One of the things that
10:02
surprised me this week was I looked up what Trump's
10:06
approval rating is in Kentucky, and he's at 47%,
10:12
which, you know, I was shocked. I thought he
10:16
would be way above 50%. But Kentucky is, to me,
10:22
that shows that people are aware of what's going
10:24
on in this state, which is... promising, but
10:29
you know, we have elections coming up. So what's,
10:32
for example, what's going to happen in the districts
10:38
where the Republican candidates don't talk to
10:41
their constituents? Are the constituents going
10:44
to pay them for that or, you know, like pay them
10:47
back for it and vote them out of office? What's
10:51
going to happen in Thomas Massey's district?
10:53
Because Massey has been totally on Trump's case
10:57
about all the evil shit Trump's been doing with
11:01
the Epstein files and everything else. Well,
11:06
his constituents, they continue to support him.
11:09
And I would think it's a promising event if Massey
11:14
wins again, because that shows that Trump is
11:17
not invincible here. Well, and we're seeing Democrats
11:20
win and heavily. Republican districts that supported
11:24
Trump. But have we seen it in this state? That's
11:28
the issue. But to see it in Texas or Florida
11:32
and other places where Mar -a -Lago is, that's
11:37
a big deal. The state rep for Mar -a -Lago is
11:40
now a Democrat and that was an area that Trump
11:43
won by just overwhelmingly. And Democrats across
11:49
the country are seeing some advantages, but there
11:55
are problems too because the Democrats, especially
11:59
the corporate Democrats, are still taking money
12:04
from people they shouldn't be taking money from.
12:06
Their concern seems to be more about appeasing
12:09
the rich donors as opposed to dealing with the
12:13
problems that their constituents are facing.
12:15
I saw something this week where Cory Booker in
12:20
New Jersey was on some podcast with a liberal
12:24
podcaster, and they were just ripping him for
12:27
being a tool of AIPAC. And what's AIPAC, Jesse?
12:32
The Israeli lobby. It's big donors to all candidates,
12:38
but its interests are more Israel than they would
12:44
say. They wouldn't say that, but their interest
12:46
has seemed to be more Israel than the well -being
12:50
of Americans. But they have the money to throw
12:55
around, and the billionaires have the money to
12:57
throw around to the Trump administration. So
13:01
we've got a lot of things to deal with. I also
13:05
think that... that the ICE raids and these detention
13:10
facilities, these concentration camps, I think
13:13
that's bringing out more people too. And I just
13:17
wanted to mention to people in Louisville that
13:20
ICE is here. I'm going to read you something
13:25
from a signal chat that I'm on. Today was a bad
13:29
day at ISAP. ISAP stands for Intensive Supervision
13:33
Appearance Program. It's an ICE program. They're
13:37
at 931 South 3rd Street, which is very close
13:41
to where Jesse and I live in Louisville. It could
13:45
have been worse had not one of our defenders
13:47
been on patrol there. She was able to video the
13:50
entire abduction. Our defender realized that
13:54
the neighbor who had dropped off the woman was
13:56
still in the parking lot waiting for her return,
13:59
but our defender was there alone. So we went
14:02
out with a quick ask to other people in our group.
14:07
and other defenders showed up within minutes.
14:09
Then with a Spanish speaker from the hotline
14:12
on her speakerphone, our defender approached
14:16
the neighbor who had dropped off the woman, and
14:19
we found out that it was his mother who had been
14:22
abducted. disbelief was voiced, tears shed, and
14:27
our defenders remained present with him until
14:30
he could speak. She asked if he needed a hug,
14:33
and he did. He said he had seen her when he pulled
14:36
into the lot and thought maybe she was a helper
14:39
of some kind. He smiled and thanked her for being
14:43
there. Today was a bad day, but it could have
14:45
been worse. We're having a lot of bad days. Louisville
14:49
is not a special place. This is happening everywhere.
14:53
And for those of you in cities across our state
14:56
and across the country, don't be deluded to the
15:00
fact that ice isn't in your city. Yeah, maybe
15:04
it's not Minneapolis, but it's happening everywhere.
15:08
And I just want to encourage people, especially
15:11
Spanish speakers. We need Spanish speakers because...
15:15
That is the community that's mostly being impacted,
15:17
and we need people to help us talk to people,
15:21
children whose parents are ripped away from them,
15:24
et cetera. We also need people just to go and
15:27
take video and document this because we are not
15:32
letting this go silently and invisibly. So again,
15:37
Louisville Surge, S -U -R -J, if you're elsewhere
15:40
in the state and you want to know. what's happening
15:44
in your cities, I'm sure that Louisville Surge
15:47
could point you in the direction of what's happening
15:49
across the state. In fact, I know that they're
15:52
doing that. And just to be clear, it's not just
15:56
Spanish speakers who are in danger of being taken
16:00
away. It's people of color. That's what it comes
16:05
down to because I have a friend who lives in
16:07
one of the mountain states who... we were talking
16:11
about like flying up to Arizona just for to meet
16:16
up and you know say hi and I had things to do
16:20
I was planning to do some things in Arizona this
16:23
friend was planning to do some things in Arizona
16:25
as well but I couldn't go because I the reasons
16:30
for me going to Arizona didn't come through and
16:33
this friend didn't go because well This friend
16:39
is American -born and has been in this country
16:43
her whole life. But she's Asian, of Asian heritage.
16:51
She's fully American, but of Asian heritage.
16:56
She's aware that they take away Americans. If
17:00
you're a person of color and if they are in a
17:04
mood, they will hassle you. And you see these
17:09
other things where people in other countries
17:12
aren't coming to America because ICE is picking
17:15
up tourists. uh it's like you know someone saves
17:19
money to go on vacation in the united states
17:21
and they're in the states and some ice agent
17:23
picks them up and puts them in detention this
17:26
has happened um so you know they're arresting
17:29
like they're they're taking away people who are
17:33
visiting they're taking away people who are american
17:36
citizens but their focus is on taking away people
17:40
who are of color and they don't know like you
17:44
don't know if someone's um here legally or not
17:47
right but they're just picking up anybody and
17:50
taking them away and there's we've seen a lot
17:53
of police brutality i mean i just keep seeing
17:56
videos of of ice brutality or police brutality
17:59
well ice ice brutality just you know um It's
18:03
very devastating. And also, I want to mention,
18:06
as a Jewish person, watching protesters in Israel
18:11
get beaten up by the police in Israel, it's just
18:14
really been devastating to watch. I just read
18:18
today that a synagogue was bombed in Iran, and
18:24
Iran reports that it was the United States. It's
18:28
not confirmed right now. you know all of this
18:32
stuff about you know this iran war and everything
18:35
that's going on and then anti -semitism here
18:39
and I think, is it Penn State? Now universities
18:43
are being asked to show lists of their Jewish
18:47
faculty and students. I mean, where have we heard
18:51
this happen before? It didn't go very well in
18:55
history. Let's just say it was Nazi Germany.
18:58
Yeah, it was Nazi Germany. So there are parallels
19:01
that we don't want to see, and we're seeing them
19:04
now. And it's, you know, it's this... And I just
19:09
had a Passover Seder, you know, and it's all
19:12
about the Exodus and next year in Jerusalem.
19:16
But, you know, a lot of us really are really
19:21
questioning, actually, our loyalty to Israel
19:24
as it is. We're not happy with the way that the
19:29
settler violence is going in the West Bank. Actually,
19:33
there was just a law passed now that if you are
19:37
deemed a domestic terrorist as a Palestinian
19:40
in Israel, you can get the death penalty. And
19:43
that is not applied to Jewish people in Israel.
19:46
That's amazing. So as a Jewish person, I'm just,
19:49
I don't know, I'm just... I try to stay up. Today
19:53
I was at Bernheim Forest working with kids for
19:56
spring break and teaching them about beavers
19:59
and, you know, scat, tracking animals and stuff
20:04
like that. And that was my happy place. But it's
20:07
rough out there, you guys. I know it. I know
20:10
you're feeling it too. Yeah, and it's not, you
20:14
know, we see that there are signs of hope. around
20:18
the country, as you said earlier, that there
20:21
are elections that are going in favor of non
20:24
-Trump candidates, which is good. But again,
20:28
this is a matter of, are we going to make it
20:33
to the next election? It's a very scary time
20:40
in this country right now, and we just don't
20:44
know. What's going to happen? We haven't even
20:48
talked about the reason that the Iran bombing
20:54
took place. The reason we attacked Iran is because
20:57
he wanted to divert attention from the Epstein
20:59
files. Right. I ran from the Epstein files. Right,
21:04
yeah. But it's that idea that... You know, the
21:08
Epstein files was the most important thing going
21:11
on in the country. Do you ever hear about it
21:13
right now? No, because we're all obsessed with
21:16
Iran, which we shouldn't be, but that's the whole
21:18
point. That's why the attention has been diverted.
21:21
That was an intentional move to get Epstein files
21:24
out of the news. And when this is over, when
21:28
Iran is over, will it be over? Who knows? They'll
21:31
try to extend it as long as they can, and they'll
21:33
extend it into... the 2026 election right for
21:37
sure to make sure that they can say that oh we're
21:41
under terrorist threat and we can't have elections
21:44
this year and that that's the coup that's what
21:47
The plan would be. And, you know, the Republicans
21:50
that are enabling him and the judiciary, I mean,
21:53
Congress, et cetera. It's just mind boggling
21:56
to me. Plus, when you're in a state like Kentucky,
21:59
you know, our legislative session has been winding
22:02
down and it wasn't a good year for for bills.
22:06
You know, chemical companies that make pesticides,
22:09
you know, they're not going to be regulated.
22:12
They don't have to report. They won't be sued.
22:14
One of the things that I read in the legislation
22:16
was that. if they put out a product that causes
22:20
physical harm to people we can't sue because
22:23
the state legislature probably in the pocket
22:27
of the pesticide industry has decided that you
22:31
know lives are less important than uh these businesses
22:35
yeah and in the legislature we had the the legislature
22:40
passed this broad election bill with changes
22:43
for immigrants and donation limits and it was
22:46
it's pretty whack um unfortunately many of us
22:50
have been trying to have previously convicted
22:54
felons be able to vote again and now uh you know
22:58
the administration of just the administrative
23:01
office of the courts has to send kentucky's board
23:05
of elections an all -time list of people convicted
23:07
convicted of felonies including those pursuing
23:11
appeals and establishing their ineligible to
23:14
vote. And you know that there are more black
23:16
people per capita. That's the whole point. Right.
23:19
So they're not allowed to vote. So let's be logical
23:23
here. If Donald Trump resided in Kentucky, would
23:26
he be able to vote under that law? And the answer
23:29
is yes, he'll vote under that law because the
23:32
law is racist. Exactly. He's a convicted felon
23:34
for 34 times over. Also, candidates now running
23:38
in judicial races. can publicly discuss their
23:42
political affiliation, though races would remain
23:46
nonpartisan on ballots. Why do you think that?
23:49
But what do you mean by that? Because one of
23:51
the questions I would have anyone on the ballot
23:53
is, if I'm at any... event i'm going to ask you
23:58
know it's like a candidate forum and there are
24:01
candidates from you know non what non -designated
24:04
parties i would ask them who did you vote for
24:06
in the 2024 election yeah and that you know that
24:11
will determine who i'm going to vote for so i
24:14
i'm not sure what the the point of that is well
24:17
i think in a red state i think it just um i think
24:21
it's going to show you that they're going to
24:23
rule on the side of uh pro -life for example
24:28
you know like they're going to rule the way that
24:31
you want them to rule when it's very obvious
24:33
what their political affiliation is so what's
24:36
the point of the law that's because right now
24:38
we have more elections i'm noticing that are
24:42
non Non -party related. So, again, I think I
24:50
want to know what party the person's with. And
24:53
this law seems to say that we'll tell you what
24:57
party the person's with. Is that a bad law or
25:00
a good law? I don't think it's a good law. Especially
25:03
with how partisan we are. They may be a terrible
25:06
judicial candidate. And then they're going to
25:09
be in your party and you're going to vote for
25:10
them. I don't think that's good. I would agree
25:13
with that. But is it better that you don't know
25:16
what they're standing for and you're voting for
25:18
someone who you don't know? You think, well,
25:21
this person is, let's say. a woman on the Democratic
25:27
ticket, or I vote for the man on the Republican
25:30
ticket, and then I find out that the woman on
25:32
the Democratic ticket is a MAGA supporter. But
25:34
you're a black man in an urban area in Kentucky,
25:36
so you're a rarity, and what we have here in
25:40
this little blue dot is a rarity. I think the
25:43
rest of the state, it's not going to be good.
25:46
But even, okay, I, we have. But we can. Yeah.
25:50
The other thing that I want to mention is they're
25:53
raising campaign contribution limits in Kentucky
25:57
races. So $2 ,200 per candidate per election,
26:02
$5 ,000 for a political party per year. It's
26:06
going up because there are higher federal limits
26:09
now, $3 ,500 per candidate and $10 ,000 for a
26:12
political party. And for those of us who are
26:15
fighting Citizens United because there's so much
26:17
money in this, it's just making it worse. And
26:20
you're just going to have to be richer and whiter
26:22
to win any kind of public office anyways. Which
26:27
is kind of what it is now, right? Yeah. We're
26:30
good with letting wealthy people choose our elected
26:33
officials. That's the bottom line. And let's
26:36
emphasize this point that if gas prices are $4
26:42
.90 in Kentucky, wealthy people, that doesn't
26:45
affect them at all. If food prices are through
26:48
the roof, wealthy people, it doesn't affect at
26:51
all. It's like a rounding error. One of the things
26:55
that's been talked about, and we discussed this
26:57
earlier, was there are moves, I think Elizabeth
27:00
Warren is behind it, to increase the wealth tax
27:04
on billionaires. And my understanding is that
27:08
if your net worth is over a billion dollars,
27:13
you would get a 3 % tax, which... is when you
27:18
think about it, it's really nothing. But the
27:20
amount of money that would bring in, given all
27:22
the billionaires that we have in this country,
27:24
would fund all of the programs, all of the social
27:29
programs that are being cut by the Trump administration
27:32
and being funded, the cuts in the Trump administration
27:35
are being used to fund the war effort. And, you
27:38
know, he talked about increasing the Defense
27:41
Department budget. I'm not going to call it the
27:43
War Department. I refuse. But he's talking about
27:46
increasing that budget to $1 .5 billion. Trillion.
27:50
Trillion dollars, yes, I'm sorry. Like $1 .5
27:53
billion is nothing. We're spending more than
27:56
a billion a day in Iran. Right, so we've got
27:59
that going on. And this idea that we can't afford
28:06
social programs is just ridiculous. One of the
28:13
things I hate doing in life now is listening
28:15
to anything coming out of the Trump administration.
28:19
Oh, okay, there was just a message on my screen
28:25
that Tucker Carlson said MAGA is evil or something,
28:30
which, okay, that's weird. But anyway, what was
28:34
I saying? I just got distracted. By Tucker. Oh,
28:38
no, about before that. Anyway, the 3 % wealth
28:44
tax. Yeah, I did some calculations and I was
28:49
looking at the richest person in America right
28:52
now is Elon Musk. And his fortune is like over
28:56
$850 billion. And if you apply a 3 % wealth tax
29:01
to him, the amount he pays is less than $3 billion,
29:05
which means that it... No, I'm sorry. It's less
29:09
than $30 billion. So that means that the amount
29:14
of money you would get from him would be minuscule
29:18
compared to what his overall fortune is and would
29:21
do so much to improve the lives of so many people
29:24
in this country. And, you know, so you've got
29:28
him at almost a trillion dollars. You've got
29:30
Zuckerberg and Bezos and all those other, like...
29:35
plutocrats is what they are, they would not feel
29:39
this wealth tax at all. A 3 % tax on me or you,
29:44
we would notice. But for a billionaire, that's
29:47
nothing. And they're fighting it. They don't
29:51
want to pay the minuscule amount of money that
29:55
would help this country get better. But then
29:58
they're supporting an administration that is
30:01
doing everything it can to destroy democracy.
30:04
Right. So are the, I mean, it's now at the point
30:09
where billionaires are the biggest threat to
30:11
democracy. And, you know, if without billionaires,
30:13
I don't think Trump wins elections. Without billionaires,
30:17
I think the world is probably a better place.
30:21
But the billionaires will say that they are.
30:25
You know, they're job creators and, you know,
30:27
they pull out all this other bullshit that they
30:29
talk about. You know, what is it, Zuckerberg,
30:34
Mark Zuckerberg, his companies have been found
30:37
guilty of actually harming the lives of children.
30:41
But he's appealing that because, you know, he's
30:44
a scumbag. And it just continues and continues.
30:50
And the billionaires have bought up all the media
30:53
companies. um they're buying up everything that
30:58
you know we care about and not letting people
31:01
have access to it so there's this uh there's
31:07
just something overly wrong with the country
31:10
right now. I also, you know, I've had asthma
31:13
my whole life and we live in the Ohio River Valley
31:16
and I had mentioned that Dan's, Senator Dan,
31:19
State Senator Dan Syme years ago had eliminated
31:23
our vehicle emissions testing, which is so dumb
31:25
because our air just stinks. I can always tell
31:29
when I come into Louisville because it starts
31:30
smelling really bad and polluted. But now, you
31:35
know, we've got... Again, when Trump goes after
31:40
clean alternative energy, right? And he wants
31:44
to remove all the regulations on coal, right?
31:50
It's killing us. We already have like the biggest
31:53
lung cancer. I think we're the highest lung cancer
31:56
rates. In the country. Yes, in Kentucky. Yeah,
31:59
because we produce tobacco. We used to. We still
32:03
have more smokers here than almost ever. Yeah,
32:05
that's right. More smokers anywhere in the country,
32:07
right. And, you know, you combine that with the
32:11
fact that they're shutting down hospitals, they're
32:13
taking away the ability to teach children. Well,
32:18
and without gas money, I mean, let's face it,
32:20
that's going to remove access for a lot of people
32:24
to get to health care anyway because you're not
32:26
going to be able to afford to drive. Right, and
32:28
so you're not only... You can't drive to where
32:31
you want to go, but the fact is that where you
32:34
want to go is going to be farther away than it
32:36
used to be because they have to close the hospitals.
32:39
So we've got like a... It's a shit show. Yeah,
32:44
yeah. And it's not looking... You know, I would
32:48
like to say that there is some hopefulness here.
32:50
And I would like to say that. Yeah, we've seen
32:52
cracks. And, you know, we've seen cracks in the
32:56
White House with these firings of these loyal
32:59
women. And there's more to come. Did you mention
33:02
Tulsi Gabbard? Yeah, that's a name that's on
33:05
the list. But, you know, it's easy for Trump
33:08
and his boys, his homosocial administration to,
33:13
you know, just. do these horrible things. There's
33:18
one thing I was thinking about in terms of the
33:20
Iran situation, and that's the Secretary of State,
33:24
Marco Rubio, was giving speeches about how Iran
33:30
has been... wasting its money funding its military
33:33
activities and not paying for social programs
33:37
for its people. Sounds familiar. Yeah, I mean,
33:39
do they not see the irony in anything they say?
33:43
Because do they not understand how stupid they
33:45
sound? But they obviously don't because while
33:49
Marco is talking about Iran, they're not using
33:53
their funds to help their people. We're not using
33:56
our money to help our people. We're using our
33:58
money to... Give to more billionaires. And we're
34:01
killing our people by sending them to this unjust
34:04
war in Iran and not being able to afford health
34:07
care and all the other things. Right. And, you
34:10
know, the military is doing weird things, too,
34:13
because I think you saw the flyby story in Tennessee
34:16
where the helicopters hovered over the King's
34:21
Rally and they flew to Kid Rock's house. Right.
34:24
The reason I raised that is because they were
34:26
based in Kentucky at Fort King. fort campbell
34:29
right and you know and the the army was going
34:33
to do an investigation as to why they did that
34:35
because they weren't authorized to do it and
34:39
hegseth said no well no don't do that we we're
34:42
cool with it because those are our people so
34:45
you know these these guys are evil they are and
34:48
they're uh they're uh And they're going to keep
34:52
doing what they're doing until they're voted
34:54
out of office. And we need, for people, people
34:59
have to wake up. I think what I'm reading is
35:04
we really need to start flooding the streets
35:06
every day. We can't wait a quarter to have another
35:10
No Kings rally. Well, isn't the next rally supposed
35:12
to be May 1st, the May Day rally? Oh, yeah, there
35:15
is a May Day rally. That's like, don't go to
35:17
work that day or something? Yeah, that's right.
35:18
That's important. Yeah. So, Jesse, you did something
35:23
really fun yesterday with your family. I want
35:25
you to share it with all of us. Oh, yeah. We
35:28
went to Indianapolis because that's where the
35:31
Final Four took place. Men's? Men's Final Four.
35:35
I was going to go to the Women's Final Four in
35:38
Phoenix if... Louisville had gotten there, and
35:42
Louisville didn't get there. So that eliminated
35:45
my... So Louisville and Kentucky women made it
35:49
to the Sweet 16. And the men did not. Right.
35:52
But if you look at the coverage, the Louisville
35:55
men and Kentucky men still get all the coverage,
35:57
while the women are completely ignored. And anyway,
36:01
so we went up to the men's tournament. Kentucky
36:05
and Louisville are not in that either. uh but
36:09
we went to the fan fest and what it is is just
36:12
like uh the nba and a lot of corporate sponsors
36:17
have took over the convention center and they
36:19
had all these events and like fun things for
36:23
kids to do like um had sports uh related challenges
36:29
they gave away free stuff there were games all
36:33
over the place that the kids could play We watched
36:37
a three -on -three basketball tournament for
36:40
a while and it was it was a really good day to
36:44
be with family and It's it's also just something
36:49
to divert attention from the bad things that
36:54
are happening in the country. So that was worth
36:56
doing. I have two grandchildren. The boys had
36:59
a lot of fun. I went with their dad. My brother
37:02
is a reporter for ESPN, so I saw him there. He
37:07
was covering the game. Cool. That's awesome.
37:11
It's good to see family. We saw them in another
37:15
place. We weren't in a place where we... we're
37:19
at home we were visiting somewhere but we're
37:23
close enough that we can get up to see each other
37:25
and that's good that is good and we saw another
37:28
documentary very different oh yeah there was
37:31
a i really hated it jesse i'm i'm really sorry
37:34
that i watched it it was yeah murdering glitterball
37:38
murder in glitterball city and the reason we
37:41
watched it amy and i and my wife watched it uh
37:44
together is because It happened around the event
37:49
that it centers on is a murder that took place
37:53
in a house that's a block and a half from where
37:56
I live on 4th Street. And the whole overall,
38:00
the overarching message is that two gay guys
38:04
were living together. They got a third gay guy.
38:08
A lot of drugs. Yeah, a lot of drugs were involved.
38:11
They killed him. buried him in the basement of
38:15
their house. Broke his bones. He broke his bones.
38:17
And put him in a... Container, storage container.
38:20
Yes. And buried him in the house. And the reason
38:23
that the police eventually found it out was because
38:25
they had a fight. And when the homeowner called
38:30
the police on his lover... and the lover ratted
38:34
him out and said well um take him up yeah there's
38:38
a body but the the interesting thing was that
38:41
the uh there was a trial uh the um one person
38:46
was convicted the other person was not convicted
38:49
of murder but they was convicted of another thing
38:52
and this all takes place Around the block from
38:58
where I live. The event itself happened before
39:00
we moved to Louisville. You were in Louisville
39:02
at the time. I was in Louisville, but I wasn't
39:04
in this neighborhood. Yeah, we weren't in the
39:06
neighborhood. But this was, I walked by the house
39:09
like, and when I take these long walks through
39:11
the city every other day or every day, and I
39:14
always walk by this house and I didn't know the
39:16
history behind it. But the reason we don't like
39:19
this documentary, and oh, it's called Murdering
39:24
Glitter Ball City. because the glitter ball for
39:27
discos was invented in Kentucky, in Louisville.
39:30
Right. So that's why this is Glitter Ball City.
39:33
And it's an HBO documentary. David Domeney basically
39:37
sold the rights of this. Was it HBO? He sold
39:41
it to HBO. And David runs tours here in Old Louisville.
39:45
They have like a haunted house tour and all that
39:48
kind of stuff. He's written some books. About
39:50
ghost stories. And I'm not crazy about his writing.
39:54
And I think he's an opportunist and things. And
39:56
I felt like this documentary was so sorted. And
40:00
the characters. that they brought into the documentary.
40:05
I mean, you would just think all of us are like
40:08
400 pounds, toothless, idiots. And ignorant.
40:13
Total ignorance. Not like you look at them and
40:17
say, well, that person's an idiot. The person
40:19
uses... The words come out of their mouth saying
40:24
that they're an idiot. Like there's one person
40:26
who says, well, I don't read those books because
40:28
there's all those words and my eyes keep moving
40:30
and it hurts my head. And I think, oh, fuck,
40:33
what's going on here? And then they introduce
40:35
a guy. Is it a pawn shop that they have? Yeah,
40:39
it's across the street from Churchill Downs.
40:41
Yeah, but it had absolutely nothing to do with
40:44
it. The story, no connection. But they were just
40:46
weird people. They were weird people. They were
40:48
very weird people. they found some really good
40:51
weird people yeah there were lots of weird people
40:53
and that's that's the impression you get if you
40:54
watch the documentary that We're all dumbasses.
40:59
It's like deliverance in Louisville. It's left
41:02
-wing deliverance. And it's sad. The whole thing
41:11
around the drugs is really sad. The guy that
41:13
was murdered, he was a beautiful homosexual man
41:17
from eastern Kentucky. And he came to Louisville
41:22
and he was selling drugs and part of that whole
41:25
epidemic. and got caught up with these crazy
41:28
guys. The other thing I really hated was that
41:30
the guy that's now in jail forever, in prison
41:33
forever, you know, he did have some justice system
41:37
placements. In other words, he had broken the
41:42
law and he looked weird, right? Yeah, spiked
41:46
head, spiked hair. And then the guy that didn't
41:50
stay in jail and who has... since disappeared,
41:53
changed his name, nobody knows where he is now
41:55
and he's alive, he looked like, you know, a white
41:59
kind of male office worker, you know, white collar
42:04
worker and stuff. But he was, they both were
42:07
guilty. There's no doubt about it. Yeah, they're
42:08
both guilty. Well, yeah, the fact that this is,
42:11
this is what I would call a no -brainer because
42:14
if... If I went to Amy's house and killed somebody
42:20
and she knew about it and helped me bury the
42:23
guy, we're both guilty. We're both guilty. And
42:27
the fact that they murdered this guy the year
42:30
before and like six months later, they decided
42:33
to rat each other out shows that... you know,
42:38
they're both guilty because they could have come
42:40
in any, like, three days after the murder and
42:42
said, hey, there's a body in my basement, and
42:44
he did it. Yeah. But they just held it off. And
42:47
then you have these weird people in the neighborhood
42:50
talking about how houses are haunted and ghosts
42:54
and things like that. It's just, it's so dumb.
42:57
But the haunted house thing is a tour thing here.
43:00
Yes. Like, every year they do this. Well, that's
43:02
his tour thing. That's David Domney's tour, yeah,
43:04
where they go around and they talk about the
43:06
ghost of, Old Louisville. And every house has
43:10
like some kind of story behind it. But the people
43:14
in the documentary actually believe that there
43:18
are ghosts in their house. And it was, you know,
43:20
it was one of these things where, yeah, we don't
43:23
recommend it. Thumbs down. Thanks a lot, Jesse,
43:26
for making me watch this thing. Yes, yes, it's
43:29
my fault. But there was another documentary on,
43:32
which has nothing to do with... Kentucky it was
43:36
on Henry David Thoreau and it's a three -part
43:39
series on PBS and it's just about Thoreau and
43:44
the reason I'm talking about this is because
43:47
my cousin is in the second episode talking about
43:51
Thoreau and the reason is this is a old family
43:55
history but my brother and I have different fathers
44:00
but my brother's father had a brother who was
44:05
in jail in the 1950s. And he was in jail with
44:09
Malcolm X before Malcolm X was, when Malcolm
44:12
X was Malcolm Little. And this uncle actually
44:18
introduced Malcolm X to Thoreau. And so that's
44:22
where some of his civil disobedience ideas came
44:25
from. And so my cousin's there talking about
44:28
this and it's like, it's weird to see like a
44:31
family member on a major documentary but there
44:35
he is and um so that was that's just interesting
44:40
just a little there's been a lot of like hollywood
44:44
interest in Sort of tied to my life. Yeah, that's
44:48
so true. Pretty soon you're going to be the protagonist
44:51
in a major blockbuster. Yeah, I'm looking forward
44:54
to that. But we did have Ethan Hawke and Maya
44:58
Hawke film a movie in our house about three years
45:02
ago. I have a little bit of a crush on Ethan
45:06
Hawke, by the way. Yeah, a lot of people see
45:08
that. A lot of women do. He's kind of cool. I
45:11
like Maya, too. Yeah, I got to meet Ethan. I
45:15
didn't get to meet Maya, but I got to meet Ethan
45:17
and his team and his wife. And they took really
45:22
good care of your house. They did, yeah. They
45:24
put us out of the house for a few days. They
45:27
paid us for using the house. They did things
45:31
like moved furniture around. But if you see the
45:35
movie, the movie's called Wildcat, by the way.
45:37
About Flannery O 'Connor. Yeah, it's the life
45:40
of Flannery O 'Connor, and it's about the short
45:42
story she wrote. And the confusion in the movie
45:45
is that they use the same characters in Flannery
45:48
O 'Connor's story as the same actors are acting
45:54
as the people who participate in her short stories.
45:58
I liked it. Yeah, we give that a thumbs up. We
46:03
give Murder in Glitter Ball City a thumbs down.
46:06
Right. So that's our look at our little cultural
46:12
effort. There you go. Yeah. So I was out at Bernheim
46:18
today, and it's spring break here, and all kinds
46:23
of kids were out in nature, and it just made
46:27
me so happy. Was this like grade school or high
46:31
school? There were kids of all ages with their
46:35
parents, but I think the camp is for grade school
46:40
kids primarily, yeah. And I just love seeing
46:45
kids and their families out in nature. The weather
46:48
is so beautiful right now. It's like crisp air
46:52
and it's sunny and hopefully things won't freeze
46:56
because I have a plot in our community garden
47:00
here in Old Louisville and I have beets, cabbage,
47:04
kale and radishes coming up. it better not freeze
47:08
okay uh i'm sure well it's it's supposed to get
47:11
into the 70s and 80s later this week but i think
47:14
it goes down to the 60s next week yes but yeah
47:17
yeah i really prefer i can't say i i guess i
47:23
prefer warm weather than cold weather uh but
47:26
it if it goes above like 90 then i got a problem
47:30
especially for day after day yeah yeah which
47:33
is louisville yeah in the summer like last summer
47:36
i would uh take walks early in the morning because
47:39
uh it'd be like in the 80s very early but then
47:43
again in the 90s in the afternoon and it's really
47:45
hard to walk i usually walk like at least five
47:47
miles and five miles in a in 90 degree weather
47:51
is not fun no but uh 80 degrees it's fine and
47:55
when i lived in San Francisco a few years ago,
47:58
I thought that was perfect weather because it
48:01
was always 60 degrees. It seemed like winter,
48:05
spring, summer. There's one part in San Francisco
48:09
where it does get very hot. That's usually October.
48:12
But otherwise, the weather is walking weather
48:17
every day. I would walk to work. I lived like
48:20
a mile from the office. And I would, on weekends,
48:27
I would just walk from my house to probably the
48:30
Golden Gate Bridge, which is a very substantial
48:32
walk. But, you know, I got to see a lot of stuff.
48:35
And I really enjoy doing that. It's the way I
48:39
stay healthy because I don't go vegan. And you're
48:42
a vegan. And I'm vegan. Oh, my God. I had to
48:44
go vegan because of health issues. Speaking of
48:47
walking, my son and I took a great hike. Right
48:51
now, wildflowers are out. They're so prolific.
48:56
And my favorite trails right now for wildflowers
48:59
in the Kentucky -Anna area, the Louisville metro
49:02
area, are in Charlestown State Park, Indiana.
49:06
So it's right across. 25 minutes, maybe. And
49:11
I'm telling you guys, Virginia bluebells, trillium,
49:16
Dutchman's breeches, trout lilies, wood poppies,
49:21
everything is out right now. So I would definitely
49:24
encourage you to be healthy, move your body,
49:28
get out in nature, do things that stop doom scrolling.
49:33
But do pay attention and try to be active and
49:36
be of service in your community because our neighbors
49:39
really need it. us right now right and it's not
49:42
anything that's going to be the the issue isn't
49:46
going to be resolved anytime soon because as
49:48
long as this administration is in power things
49:52
are going to get worse and I you know I I'm usually
49:56
a pessimistic person but I'm really I think I'm
49:59
accurate on this one because There's just consistent
50:02
badness. And I'm not a pessimist, but I'm not
50:05
feeling too good today. This whole 8 o 'clock
50:09
p .m. deadline so that he can obliterate a whole
50:12
country. I don't know. I just never thought in
50:17
my lifetime we'd be dealing with something like
50:20
this. Plus, you know what? Vance is in Hungary.
50:24
Yeah, trying to get support for Orban. Yeah,
50:28
another dictator. I know. This is just consistent.
50:32
And here's the thing. Even if Trump is forced
50:37
out of office, J .D. Vance is president. But
50:40
he's not popular. Oh yeah, but Trump's not popular
50:43
except among the MAGA. They're like rabid. There's
50:48
this rabid popularity for Trump that doesn't
50:50
exist for Vance because We've discussed this
50:53
before. J .D. Vance has gone by four different
50:56
names, I think. Oh, and did you see that he just
50:59
wrote another... Changed his religion, yeah.
51:00
Well, he just wrote another book, and he puts
51:02
a picture of a church. The church doesn't know
51:05
who he is. He's never stepped foot in that church.
51:08
Well, it's also about converting to Catholicism,
51:10
and the church isn't a Catholic church. So, you
51:12
know, it's... and this is such a liar but he's
51:16
a liar but he's uh a liar that's owned by the
51:19
uh peter thiel and and um yeah who's the other
51:23
guy uh who's he's owned by um um yeah and uh
51:29
elon yeah yeah for sure so yeah he's at point
51:33
his interest is making a lot of money is yeah
51:36
he's made a lot of money he's going to make a
51:38
lot of money but trump has made like billions
51:41
of dollars as president I'm not even going to
51:45
go into the... And plus insider trading. Look
51:47
what's happened with the market manipulation
51:49
and all the people that are inside making all
51:52
that money. Well, it's not only that it's insider
51:54
trading, but we can tell from what's happening
51:57
in the stock market that Trump is telling people
52:00
stuff before it happens. They go out and they
52:04
buy stocks knowing how they're going to go. And
52:06
when Trump makes the announcement, the stock...
52:09
It increases. These people make a lot of money.
52:12
They dump it as soon as they make their profit.
52:14
And then like two days later, what Trump says
52:17
he's going to do, he doesn't do, or he just completely
52:20
changes the calculation. And this happened several
52:24
times during the Iran invasion. I mean, Martha
52:27
Stewart is quaint compared to this. What did
52:31
she do? Oh, she did insider trading too. Yeah,
52:33
she went to jail. To a nice jail. Well, Minimum
52:37
Security Country Club, kind of like where Maxwell
52:39
is right now. Did you know that, I didn't realize
52:45
this until this year or last year, that Ghislaine
52:48
Maxwell is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, who
52:51
was a corrupt journalist in the UK. Robert Maxwell
52:55
owned a bunch of papers. He was like, if you
52:58
have Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell was equal,
53:01
except the difference is that Robert Maxwell
53:03
got caught and got put in jail, whereas Murdoch
53:07
is smart enough to not get caught. But anyway,
53:12
Maxwell was this tabloid owner in the UK, and
53:16
I... didn't realize till this year or early last
53:21
year that she's his daughter. So she's, you know,
53:25
it's like the corruption has gone from generation
53:28
to generation in that case. And she must have
53:32
something on Trump because he's been very acquiescent
53:37
to her. Yes. So we should stay tuned on that
53:41
because either she's going to end up dead or
53:44
she's going to rat him out. And it also will
53:49
be interesting to see what happens with the Epstein
53:51
files now that we have a new attorney general.
53:54
Because Pam Bondi did everything she could to
53:57
avoid putting the information out. Yeah, but
54:00
so will this guy. Yeah, he will. He's a bro.
54:02
He's a white bro. But he's also Trump's personal
54:06
attorney. Exactly. He's probably in the files.
54:10
Yeah, I'm sure. You know, you should always,
54:14
like, in general, people, if you want something
54:17
interesting to do, just, like, type your name
54:19
into the Epstein Files, see if your name comes
54:21
up. Because there are a lot of people who are
54:24
doing that and finding that they are there. And
54:28
these are, there's so many famous people in the
54:31
Epstein Files. It's just so, so many famous people,
54:35
so many rich people. Stephen Hawking. Yeah. Yeah,
54:39
he's in it. It just seems like everybody's in
54:44
it. I think Naomi Campbell, the model is there,
54:48
Alan Dershowitz, which everybody expected to
54:50
be there. But there's this, in the Epstein files,
54:55
I think it said that Bill Gates asked Epstein
55:00
for a medication to deal with a sexually transmitted
55:05
disease. I mean, this is... These are just staggering
55:09
things that are coming out. But, you know, they're
55:12
still, how do I say this? The billionaires are
55:18
still billionaires. Nothing is affecting them.
55:22
They feel like they can do anything. The Iran
55:24
war is going to enrich them more. Yeah, Trump
55:26
is doing everything to make sure that they make
55:28
more money. If they make more money, then they're
55:30
going to donate more money to the Republicans
55:33
in Congress. For all intents and purposes, the
55:43
thing they do in the next election is not vote
55:45
for Republicans, but also to deal with Democrats
55:49
who are taking billionaire money because they
55:52
obviously don't care about their constituents
55:54
either. I think we should wrap this up. I do,
55:58
too. Sorry, guys. I mean, I don't mean to apologize.
56:01
It's just bad. I'm usually much more upbeat.
56:06
I think I'm tired, so maybe I'll take a nap now.
56:10
But I'm sure that there must be something hopeful
56:16
out there. And if anyone's listening to this,
56:19
why don't you put a comment in our... And our
56:23
post and just let us know what you think or whether
56:26
we're off base. Where are you hiking? I want
56:28
to go. Me? No, I want people to post where they're
56:32
hiking so I can go. Yeah, let us know what you're
56:35
doing. Let us know if you were at the protest.
56:39
Waterfront Wednesday is starting up later this
56:41
month. I look forward to that. Right, free concerts
56:44
on the waterfront. That's right. So there are
56:46
things to look forward to. If the world exists.
56:50
Yeah, let's just see if we can get through tonight.
56:52
Right. That's how bad things are. Okay, so. See
56:55
ya. We'll be back. It's so hot. Maybe. Our closing
57:03
music is by John Chamberlain.