Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 15

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 15 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
This is the Bluegrass Blues Podcast, Episode
0:03
15. I'm Jesse. And I'm Amy. I think you're hearing
0:12
trains in the background. Well, that's a good
0:15
little segment here because we can talk about
0:17
travel. And we haven't been doing this for a
0:21
few weeks because, well, Amy's been out of the
0:24
country. And it'd be interesting to see where
0:26
you've been and what you've seen. Cool. Yeah,
0:29
I took my son who just graduated from college
0:31
to Italy. He wanted to go to Rome for his graduation
0:36
present. Yes, I'm a good mom. And we spent about
0:41
a week and a half in Italy and Rome. We went
0:46
to the Amalfi Coast. We went to Pompeii. We went
0:50
to Naples. And we had a really great time. It
0:54
was very nice to be away from U .S. politics.
0:57
I actually had a screen. rule because my son
1:02
is 23 and is on a screen like a lot. So the screen
1:08
rule was that when we were walking and when we
1:12
were eating out and about, no phones except for
1:17
if we're using them as cameras. And then he could
1:21
do whatever he wanted when we were back at the
1:22
Airbnb at night. And that was lovely. We had
1:25
a great time. And my son's favorite three things
1:29
on the trip were, there is this awesome hike
1:34
called the Path of the Gods in the Amalfi Coast.
1:38
It's up on the... cliffs of the Amalfi Coast
1:42
and it's absolutely gorgeous. I hiked part of
1:45
it with him and then he did the whole thing and
1:47
was so proud of himself. The second favorite
1:50
was the Colosseum. We went there at night initially
1:55
and walked all around the Roman Forum and the
1:58
Colosseum and Trevi Fountain and boy the ruins
2:02
are just so cool and they're all illuminated
2:04
at night and then during the day we did some
2:08
tours there and it was really interesting i don't
2:11
know if you knew this Jesse but they at the coliseum
2:16
at one time i think there were 75 000 people
2:20
that could watch the gore in the coliseum and
2:24
sometimes they flooded the um the the bottom
2:30
of the coliseum to mimic naval warfare like I
2:36
do recall that they were just going crazy in
2:41
those days and you know I I've been to Italy
2:45
a couple of times you know the steps of the Spanish
2:48
steps are really beautiful. I once saw, what do
2:51
you call it, a murmuration of sparrows you know
2:54
those birds that like looks like a dark cloud
2:57
and I can imagine someone seeing that in like
3:00
the 16th and 17th century and thinking that there
3:05
was some evil spirit going on because you know
3:08
it's just a very weird look also went to the
3:10
Vatican one Christmas took my wife and kid there.
3:14
Italy's really a beautiful place and I you know
3:17
it's I'm sure you saw other Americans there.
3:21
I just wondered how they approached this scene
3:27
because Americans don't get a good reputation
3:29
when they go across the pond, as they say. Well,
3:33
I mean, tourism is a big deal. And it was after
3:37
peak tourist season. It was in November. And
3:39
so people were really happy to see us. And we
3:43
talked a lot to folks and spent money eating.
3:47
eating cannolis and all the good things um so
3:50
actually people were very happy to see us though
3:54
the conversations we did get in um you know it
3:57
was pretty uh It was very apparent that we were
4:01
progressive and we were anti -Trump and most
4:04
everyone we talked to were sympathetic to us,
4:08
including, you know, drivers and, you know, taxi
4:11
drivers, etc. So we did have some really interesting
4:15
conversations. And one thing I did notice being
4:19
there as a woman in my early 60s is I could walk
4:24
at night. and feel really safe. And one of the
4:28
things I always think about when I'm in Europe
4:30
in general is the fact that there are just so
4:34
few firearms. I do not walk in my own neighborhood
4:38
in Louisville at night and I hear gunshots in
4:41
my neighborhood. So, you know, you think about
4:45
those things when you're across the pond and,
4:47
you know, sort of reflecting on pros and cons.
4:50
Now, I will say that the... The third favorite
4:53
was Pompeii, and we were in some very recent
4:56
excavation things where we were seeing new frescoes,
5:01
and it was awesome. But the gentleman who was
5:06
a third -generation Pompeii tour guide did tell
5:09
us that the economy is not good, and it's really
5:13
difficult to have jobs outside of tourism. I
5:18
didn't do a deep dive into Italy's economy, but
5:21
it didn't sound so easy to get a good job. Right,
5:26
it's too bad. Yeah, and tourism is a huge thing
5:30
over in Europe. We would see lots of things happening
5:35
there, and it's probably part of the reason.
5:41
Tourism is falling off is because Americans aren't
5:44
going anywhere because we can't afford to go
5:46
anywhere anymore. You know the cost of living
5:50
here is increasing and although it's not supposed
5:52
to be People are talking about you know just
5:57
people are just trying to get by these days.
6:00
And I will say, you know, flying during the shutdown
6:03
was a little, you know, we flew out of O 'Hare.
6:06
O 'Hare was really hit with a lot of, you know,
6:10
flight cancellations. But we did find out that
6:13
most of those flights or all the flight cancellations
6:16
were domestic flights. And we had flown to Iceland
6:20
on the way to Italy. And once we were, you know,
6:23
on an international flight, we were. Not affected.
6:26
Did you fly out the day that the UPS plane crashed
6:29
in Louisville? Yes, I did. So that might have
6:31
had some impact too on the air traffic. A lot
6:34
of people called me panicked because initially
6:37
we didn't know whether it was a cargo flight
6:39
or a passenger flight. And people didn't know
6:41
that I wasn't flying out of... What are we called
6:46
now? Muhammad Ali International Airport. Yeah,
6:50
right. And because we drove to O 'Hare, we were
6:53
driving when all this happened, and I started
6:55
getting a flood of calls and texts like, are
6:57
you okay? Are you okay? But I will tell you that
7:01
my ex -husband worked at Grade A at a place that...
7:07
was hit and two women young women who worked
7:10
there were killed one was a single mom at least
7:13
one they might have both been single moms and
7:16
my ex -husband knew them and he waited to tell
7:19
us until we got back from our trip about knowing
7:22
these these wonderful women who were killed. Well
7:25
you weren't here when it happened but one of
7:28
the things that we first heard about it because
7:31
We got an emergency message on our phones, you
7:35
know, that emergency broadcast system kind of
7:37
thing, which said something's happened at the
7:40
airport. Stay inside. Shelter in place. Yeah,
7:43
shelter in place. And so, you know, I immediately
7:47
like looked around, saw what was going on, saw
7:49
that there was an airplane crash. And then you
7:52
look out the window and there's just this huge
7:54
cloud of black smoke coming over the city. It
7:58
was to the east of us. But you could tell that
8:01
it was one of these things where the cloud was
8:04
just continually going over the city. Right.
8:07
So it was very scary. There were how many, like...
8:11
Like a couple hundred thousand. I don't know.
8:14
There was a ton of fuel in it, right? Because
8:16
they were going to fly all the way to Hawaii.
8:18
Right, right. It was a full flight. If you saw
8:21
all the coverage of it since, it's obviously
8:25
mechanical failure because all the pilots had
8:28
tons of experience flying that model of airplane.
8:31
The plane had some issues before concerning maintenance.
8:36
And if you see the video or pictures of the...
8:41
the plane taking off you see the the engine falling
8:45
off and when I saw some pilot analyze what was
8:51
happening that engine fell off when it fell off
8:54
the other engine it's supposed to be able to
8:56
fly on like one engine and it's a three engine
8:59
plane the second engine was sputtering on takeoff
9:03
while the first engine was falling off and the
9:06
third engine didn't have enough power to get
9:08
it above like 30 feet then it crashed and it
9:11
you know it had people like we were stuck inside
9:15
until the next day i walked the next day and
9:18
there were no um The black cloud was gone, but
9:23
they're going to be doing repair on that area
9:26
forever. It went through buildings. It hit a
9:31
petroleum recycling plant. So just from the pollution
9:35
standpoint, it's really bad. And they're still
9:39
doing maintenance work there. Traffic was stopped.
9:43
And it killed. I think 14 people on the ground
9:47
and the three pilots, as you said, two died near
9:52
where your former husband worked. Tragic. It
9:57
makes you kind of paranoid about flying. You
10:00
flew that day. You didn't know exactly what was
10:03
going on. I'm actually going to be flying next
10:07
week. I'm going to fly from here to Washington,
10:12
D .C. and then go up to New York City for Thanksgiving,
10:17
spend Thanksgiving with my family. I still have
10:21
family in Brooklyn. My nieces and nephews live
10:24
there. And so I'll be there for a few days, and
10:27
then I'm going to fly back here. My advantage,
10:31
I guess, is that air traffic control is back
10:35
in order because the shutdown is finished for
10:39
now. And the airport I'm flying into from here
10:45
is one where there was a plane crash. At the
10:48
first week of Trump's term, there was a plane
10:51
crash in the Potomac where a helicopter hit a
10:56
plane that was landing at the airport. And it
10:59
was where I live in my home in Washington. I
11:04
have a co -op there. I have a view of the airport,
11:08
so if I had been there, I probably could have
11:10
seen the plane crash. And I hate thinking about
11:14
that when I'm flying because I have this paranoia
11:16
about flight in general because, to me, the logic
11:19
of a multi -ton piece of metal in the air does
11:23
not make sense. But I'm going to fly anyway.
11:27
And I'm going to go there, then I'm going to
11:30
take the train up to New York. and see the family.
11:34
And, you know, New York's been in the news recently
11:36
because of Zohran Mamdani winning the New York
11:40
mayoral race. That was amazing because it was
11:45
pretty much a reaction against billionaires and
11:49
against the super wealthy. Zohran, as everyone
11:52
knows, is a democratic socialist. And Attica
11:57
Scott actually did a piece on just being a Black
12:02
woman in the South and what it meant to her as
12:06
a Black woman living in Louisville, paying attention.
12:09
The Democratic Socialist, as she says, has proven
12:12
for years that it's the pulse on people's priorities.
12:15
Mamdani wants to freeze rent, implement a $30
12:17
minimum wage, and offer free public transportation.
12:20
And those are really good things to talk about.
12:24
But, you know, the other side of this is that...
12:29
Congress yesterday passed this resolution that,
12:32
I'm going to read it, Congress denounces socialism
12:36
in all its forms and opposes the implementation
12:38
of socialist policies in the United States, which
12:42
is totally stupid. Because by saying this, you're
12:48
saying, okay, we're denouncing socialism, we
12:50
don't want any socialism at all. which means
12:54
well that means you don't want Social Security
12:56
that's socialism you don't want Medicare that's
12:59
socialism um you don't want the government doing
13:03
anything and we've already proven that just being
13:07
a totally capitalist society doesn't work for
13:10
the great majority of the population it's great
13:13
for the like 0 .1 % at the top income levels
13:19
because they're just raking in all the dough.
13:21
But people on the lower economic scales are just
13:27
getting screwed over with this current administration.
13:32
And the fact that 86 Democrats voted for this
13:37
is just, it's appalling because I'd like to think
13:41
if I were a representative in Congress, I would
13:44
have had a speech on the floor of Congress and
13:46
I would have said, look, I'm not voting for this
13:48
because it's just a stupid bill. And I would
13:51
go through these lists of, okay, you're voting
13:53
for this. You're saying that you don't want Social
13:56
Security anymore. Why should people elect you?
13:58
You're voting for this. You say you shouldn't
14:00
have Medicare. Why should people vote for you?
14:04
Just the fact that 86 Democrats voted for that
14:06
is just appalling. But not Morgan. That's right.
14:11
I was very surprised by Morgan McGarvey, actually.
14:16
And he didn't abstain either. He voted no on
14:18
it, which is, to his credit, that was the right
14:22
vote. It's, you know, socialism in... Republican
14:28
terms is like the great evil. They don't know
14:32
the difference between socialism and communism.
14:34
They don't know the difference between socialism
14:36
and fascism. These are just words that make no
14:40
sense to them. And we're going through this whole
14:44
idea of the distribution of wealth. And there
14:49
should be a fairer distribution of wealth, which
14:51
is one of the tenets of socialism. And I'm not
14:54
saying this because I'm a socialist. I'm just
14:56
saying this because... I understand what's going
14:58
on here. We already have the distribution of
15:02
wealth, and the distribution of wealth in this
15:04
country is going to the very, very rich. And
15:07
what can we do? How are we supposed to approach
15:13
this? That's a question that is going to be sticking
15:17
with us for a while. Well, and I want to address
15:20
that later in the podcast, too. something that
15:24
we can do around Thanksgiving time. And let's
15:28
see, what else? Well, the other thing, you know,
15:31
again, I'm going to New York. It's now Mamdani
15:33
is the mayor of New York. And I don't know if
15:37
you saw this, but yesterday someone posted on
15:44
X, formerly Twitter, now Elon Musk's little...
15:50
propaganda too. Who just negotiated his trillion
15:53
dollar seller package. Yes, we should talk about
15:56
that too. I actually am doing this thing where
16:00
I'm looking up where the billionaires are. Forbes
16:04
actually does a daily update on the wealth of
16:07
the billionaire class. Musk is at something like
16:13
$460 billion, almost a half a trillion dollars.
16:18
And the next four, Jeff Bezos is on the list,
16:22
and he's the fourth richest person in the world,
16:25
and he has a mere... 230 billion dollars um just
16:31
the that that is what the redistribution of wealth
16:34
has done in this country yeah yeah well it's
16:37
uh it's it's Musk then it's um i think it's um
16:41
the guy who runs cbs now i forget his name um
16:45
and then it's uh larry larry's uh a google executive
16:52
is third larry page and then it's um Bezos, Jeff
16:58
Bezos. And these are just the top four. And of
17:03
the four, between the four of them, they have
17:06
a trillion dollars. That's four people. I just
17:12
have to wrap this around in my brain. Four people
17:15
in this country have a combined wealth of a trillion
17:19
dollars. We're trying to figure out how to make
17:24
ends meet. Feed children. Feed children, feed
17:29
our families, how to pay for medical expenses,
17:32
which is what the whole shutdown was about. It
17:37
was about Medicare, not Medicare, but the Affordable
17:40
Care Act. But that wasn't what the shutdown was
17:44
about, because the Democratic part of the shutdown
17:49
was about that. Right? The shutdown also was
17:55
largely a Republican. Well, yeah, but the Republicans
17:58
were blaming the Democrats for the shutdown because
18:00
the Democrats were focused on the idea of making
18:04
health care affordable for everyone. If you look
18:09
at what's happened now, this is the season when
18:13
people are supposed to sign up for the ACA. So
18:16
if you were paying X amount last year, your policies
18:22
are going to at least double this year because
18:25
there's no barrier to, or the benefits you were
18:31
getting from the government are disappearing
18:33
because... as the result of that uh bill that
18:36
passed earlier the big beautiful bill um that
18:41
actually is taking away the money that have gone
18:43
to health care expenses and you know uh where
18:49
we're at this point where people are you can't
18:53
afford medicine like i'm i'm going through some
18:56
health issues now because i'm getting older and
18:59
i had a recent CAT scan that showed some trouble
19:05
with like plaque in the heart and the beginnings
19:08
of an aneurysm. And, you know, these are things
19:12
I have to worry about, just the cost of dealing
19:15
with this. Now, I'm on Medicare, so I am covered
19:18
for a good bulk of this. But if I were on the
19:22
ACA, my options are to like go into whatever
19:26
financial resources I have or die. And that's
19:33
the option for most Americans right now, where
19:36
there are people who were paying a certain amount
19:40
of money every year for their health care, and
19:43
now maybe they were paying... $500 a month, which
19:47
is a lot of money, but now it's going to $1 ,000
19:50
or $2 ,000 a month. Yeah, my brother is a small
19:52
business owner up over in the Floyd County, and
19:55
their premiums are doubling, and that's common.
19:58
He's also a Trump, he was a Trump voter too.
20:02
Speaking of which, Marjorie Taylor Greene, let's
20:06
talk about her and what's happened to her as
20:09
a result of these rising health insurance prices.
20:12
Well, she's actually announced yesterday that
20:15
she's going to leave Congress because of, well,
20:19
she's leaving Congress. She didn't really give
20:22
a reason, but the reasons that she has sort of
20:26
hinted at were. She found that the health care
20:31
costs are going too high for her children. She's
20:34
in Congress, and she has like that gold -plated
20:37
health care act where Congress will pay for everything
20:40
if you are a congressional person or if you're
20:42
in the immediate family or whatever. But if you're
20:46
a child of a congressperson, you are being hit
20:49
with the whole cost of dealing with the after
20:54
effects of the big bullshit bill. So that's one
20:59
thing that she was all tied up about. The other
21:03
thing she was tied up about was the Epstein files,
21:07
which, you know, there's been a lot of really
21:12
atrocious comments on, you know, it's like certain
21:18
magas are so engulfed in Trump that now they're
21:23
saying that. pedophilia isn't such a bad thing
21:26
child rape yeah that's yeah right that's you
21:30
know i i don't know if you saw megan kelly the
21:32
other day where she said that you know 15 isn't
21:37
the same as five or 15 isn't the same as eight
21:39
or uh jeffrey epstein really wasn't a pedophile
21:43
because he was going for 13 year old girls not
21:46
eight -year -olds and i i sat there and i thought
21:49
I'm going to swear now, what the fuck is wrong
21:52
with you? There's this idea that especially the
21:58
MAGA people are now saying things like, oh, it's
22:02
not so bad, or, oh, he wasn't really molesting
22:07
children. Their euphemism is having sex with
22:13
underage girls, but that's just rape. They're
22:16
raping children. The fact that they will say
22:21
this with a straight face after all their years
22:24
of complaining about things like Obama wearing
22:27
a tan jacket and, you know... Fear and greed.
22:32
Yeah, yeah. These people are making so much money.
22:34
Yeah, it's just... It's disgusting. It's horrible.
22:38
But, well, back to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She
22:41
was very active in trying to get the Epstein
22:44
files out and still is. And the Congress has
22:49
passed it, which, you know, if we're going to
22:52
get to the Epstein file issue, Donald Trump could
22:56
just release the files tomorrow. You know, we
22:59
are going through this whole rigmarole of, you
23:02
know, let's have a House vote on this. The House
23:05
passes it. Let's have a Senate vote on this.
23:08
The Senate passes it. Well, now we have to go
23:10
to the Justice Department to see if there are
23:12
things that we should release because of national
23:14
security. And then maybe the president will sign
23:20
off on it. But the reality is Donald Trump could
23:24
have released those files the day he came into
23:26
office, and he didn't. And you know why I know
23:30
this? Because he released the files on Martin
23:32
Luther King, and he released the files on John
23:35
F. Kennedy's assassination. So what they're saying
23:38
is just... Well, it goes along with the bullshit
23:41
bill. They are consistent on their bullshit,
23:43
at least. Well, and we just learned about Venezuela
23:46
possibly going to war with Venezuela. Every day,
23:49
again, there's some distracting piece of news
23:53
that distracts us from the release of the full,
23:57
unredacted release of the Epstein files. But
24:00
I do have friends, Jesse, that wonder, like,
24:03
okay, so they get released. We already know that
24:06
he's a 34 times convicted. felon and grabbed
24:10
her by the pussy and like the whole thing what's
24:12
it gonna matter uh it matters because raping
24:16
children is wrong people who rape children are
24:19
monsters and if we're willing to accept a monster
24:23
as uh our president then we have failed as a
24:27
country, we've failed as a society, we are moral
24:30
failures. And child rape really does transcend
24:33
partisanship, doesn't it? Well, remember when
24:37
the guy went into Washington to shoot up the
24:40
pizza parlor because allegedly Hillary Clinton
24:45
had a child sex ring in the basement of, what
24:49
is it, I forget the name of the pizza parlor,
24:52
but I lived in Washington, I know it. I just
24:57
thought that that was, how could that person
25:00
be so stupid? Like, okay, I'm going to go in
25:02
and rescue these children from this child predator
25:05
ring. That was a MAGA thought. That was what
25:10
MAGA was putting out there. And now MAGA doesn't
25:13
see anything wrong with their president, the
25:18
person they put in office, doing the evil that
25:22
they accused Hillary Clinton of doing. they just
25:25
see nothing wrong with that because we have a
25:27
distinction between an 8 -year -old and a 15
25:29
-year -old. This is just madness. But this is
25:36
the time we're living in. And back to Marjorie
25:38
Taylor Greene. She was very open. She was very
25:44
open about getting the Epstein files released,
25:46
and now she's quitting Congress. I'm sure there's
25:51
an ulterior motive to this. There have been rumors
25:54
that she's seeking higher office, maybe a Senate
25:57
seat in Georgia. She's been doing the rounds
26:00
of the talk shows where she comes off as like
26:04
a normal person. Remember when she was talking
26:09
about Jewish space lasers and every other conspiracy
26:13
theory, and she's now saying, oh, I was duped.
26:16
Well, if you were duped by something like that,
26:18
you shouldn't be. running for office. You shouldn't
26:21
be seeking higher office, but that's where we
26:24
are. Sarah Palin? Yeah, well, Sarah Palin, she's,
26:29
actually she's probably worse than Sarah Palin
26:32
because Sarah Palin pretended to be sane for
26:36
a little while, but she was greedy. Marjorie
26:39
Taylor Greene was just saying the most absurd
26:41
Crazy stuff and getting into fights with other
26:45
congresswomen, you know the nails issue with
26:48
Jasmine Crockett or you know mocking Ocasio Cortez
26:55
in the on the floor of the house, so She's leaving
26:59
but she's doing this redemption tour on the news
27:05
programs, which is kind of appalling. Anyway,
27:11
I'm going to New York, and there was another
27:13
Mondami thing that came up that I thought was
27:16
worth noting. I don't know if you saw this, but
27:22
yesterday there was this thing on X where it
27:26
was saying, "BREAKING: Zoran Mamdani to require
27:30
all New York elementary school students to learn
27:32
Arabic numerals." Now, that was done by some,
27:37
I think, some betting website or something, some
27:41
betting company. And it was a pickup of another
27:45
post by a guy who said the same thing. And that
27:51
post got 14 million views. 14 million people,
27:54
like, reacted to it. And there were thousands
27:57
of comments. And the comments were, you know,
28:01
oh, this is proof that Zohran Mamdani is going to
28:03
put... Sharia law in New York City and he's going
28:07
to have all the children learning the Quran and
28:10
all this other weird stuff and honestly children
28:15
should learn Arabic numbers by the time they're
28:18
five years old they should know it before they're
28:20
in kindergarten their parents should be teaching
28:22
it to them while they're in the cradle while
28:25
they're nursing because Arabic numbers are the
28:29
numbers we use today I just, it's just, there's
28:36
just so, that is just so stupid. And I saw it
28:41
and I thought, I feel bad because I saw the post
28:45
and I thought, this is a joke, but people aren't
28:48
going to get it. And there's going to be all
28:50
these people going nuts about, you know, the
28:52
evils of Islamic rule and Sharia law and putting
28:57
Korans and replacing the Bible with the Koran.
29:02
I think this shows, how do I say this delicately,
29:07
the ignorance of the American populace. And that
29:10
made me think of the, there's this thing in the
29:17
school system where there's a report, and I'm
29:20
trying to find it, yeah, in the Courier -Journal
29:24
this week, it said that Kids in Jefferson County
29:28
public schools are really doing badly. I'm going
29:34
to read this directly from the Courier -Journal.
29:36
It says 49 % of elementary school students were
29:39
proficient in the state or distinguished in reading,
29:43
while just 36 % in Jefferson County schools achieved
29:48
that standard. On math assessments... In the
29:52
state, 43 % of elementary school students were
29:55
proficient or distinguished, but 31 % of Jefferson
29:58
County schools students were. And in science,
30:02
37 % in the state are proficient, with 25 % in
30:07
Jefferson County schools. And those are horrible
30:11
numbers. Those are a sign that people are not
30:15
learning anything. And I think that's a reflection
30:18
of the school system, but it's also the reflection
30:20
of... These efforts to take money away from public
30:25
schools. But let's go back to socialism. Funding
30:29
public schools is a form of socialism. And the
30:33
Department of Education now is like... taking
30:37
away masters of public health, all these master's
30:41
degrees and stuff. They're like not going to,
30:43
I don't know. The U .S. Department of Education?
30:46
Yes. Well, the U .S. Department of Education
30:48
is run by the woman who used to run the wrestling,
30:52
WWE, the World Wrestling Enterprise. You know,
30:57
we have a secretary of education who would go
31:03
into the ring and do fake fights with... other
31:07
wrestlers. It's like a president. Donald Trump
31:10
used to go into the WWE rings and do these fake
31:13
fights with people. And, you know, that's really
31:18
stupid, but it also reflects the intellect of
31:25
our leaders in this country when you put people
31:29
who are incompetent in their jobs in these important
31:32
jobs. You know, you have a secretary of health
31:36
who has brain worms. His brain was eaten by worms.
31:43
Or the other way around, that's how he would
31:45
say it. But that's the person who's... supposed
31:51
to look out for our health. Now they've asterisked
31:55
that vaccines cause autism on the HHS websites.
31:59
CDC, actually. CDC is run by Mehmet Oz. Dr. Oz,
32:07
who was just offering all these ridiculous remedies
32:12
for diseases. They're all TV personalities. Yes,
32:18
let's talk about Mehmet Oz. You know, he's a
32:20
Muslim. So is he introducing Sharia law in the
32:24
CDC? I don't know. I mean, if you're going to
32:27
go that stupid, then let's go all the way. Let's
32:31
look at all the other people. And it's really
32:34
unfortunate because I also saw that Kentucky
32:38
adults, maybe 22 % read below a third grade level.
32:45
and 14 % have very low literacy skills and that's
32:49
the Appalachian Learning Initiative has that
32:52
and the National Center for education statistics.
32:56
We're 45th in the country for education overall.
33:00
So you were comparing Jefferson County to the
33:03
rest of the state, but the whole state is at
33:06
the bottom. And it wasn't always like this because
33:09
we had CARA, the Kentucky Education Reform Act,
33:13
was in the early 90s, and it did a lot to raise
33:17
the educational standards in Kentucky, but it's
33:22
just been going down and down over the last several
33:24
years. years in fact I just I was reading an
33:27
article in the Paducah Sun that The Kentucky
33:33
Secretary of State, Republican Michael Adams,
33:37
was even lamenting about the fact that our populace
33:41
is now so focused on Fox News and national personalities
33:45
that we're not focused on very core issues that
33:49
we really have problems with, which is our education
33:52
system and housing, even. So I thought that was
33:56
very interesting that he was bringing this up.
33:58
It makes me wonder whether he is... Higher office
34:03
when Beshear leaves. I haven't seen his name
34:06
mentioned among candidates for governor. But
34:09
if he's not looking for higher office, just the
34:14
fact that a Republican is saying these things
34:17
is showing, hey, we're really in bad shape. The
34:21
Democrats can say this every day, every minute,
34:26
and it'll be written off as, oh, you're just
34:28
a bunch of... I'm going to go back to the stupidity
34:31
here. You're just a bunch of socialists. And
34:35
it doesn't register until a Republican says it,
34:38
even though the Democrats have been saying it
34:40
for years and years. But now, oh, this must be
34:44
real because Republicans saying it. Right. Well,
34:46
and I do want to say I tend to be a little more
34:49
optimistic than you, but I am seeing a lot more
34:52
cracks in the Republican Party. I'm seeing a
34:55
lot more fissures. candidates for the midterm
35:01
elections in 26 being aligned with Trump. So
35:06
I don't know. This is giving me hope, Jesse.
35:08
Yeah, I'm cynical most of the time, but I'm also
35:13
seeing cracks in that wall of, I'm going to say
35:18
a wall of stupidity, where I think the farmers
35:23
are beginning to come to their senses because
35:25
they were... I've said this before, and I don't
35:30
understand. Everybody who voted in the last presidential
35:35
election was alive when Donald Trump was president
35:39
the first time. And they saw all the horrors
35:43
of what happened then, and eight years later
35:46
they decide, ooh, I want that again. Even though
35:49
farmers were burned the first time he was there,
35:51
even though... The health of America was completely
35:56
wiped out because of COVID, because he didn't
35:59
do anything to stop COVID. And hundreds of thousands
36:03
of Americans, close to a million Americans, died
36:05
of COVID. Worldwide, it was worse. And the United
36:09
States is the country that leads on helping the
36:12
rest of the world avoid these things. But it
36:14
just took forever to come up with... Well, you
36:19
know, it actually happened fast, but it took
36:21
longer than it should have because MAGA people
36:24
were doing things like saying, well, I'm not
36:27
going to wear a mask because I can't breathe.
36:30
I have a mask on. And today we're looking at
36:33
people with like ICE and Border Patrol wearing
36:37
masks in the cities. These are MAGA people who
36:41
were. eight years ago saying i'm not wearing
36:43
a mask because i can't have a hard time breathing
36:46
now they're masked because money money money
36:49
money money plus power and taking you know taking
36:52
people out of the country they're they're brutal
36:55
so everything they said in the past going back
36:59
to the my favorite word is now they were willing
37:04
to let americans die back during the Trump administration,
37:09
the first Trump administration, because they
37:12
felt that any mask on their face was an infringement
37:16
on their rights. Now they're wearing a mask because
37:20
they want to take away the rights of, they want
37:22
to infringe on the rights of others. So there's
37:25
this, I think that's a crack that people are
37:28
seeing. I think that You know, there are people
37:32
who are saying, I didn't vote for this. But I
37:35
think this is a Marjorie Taylor Greene kind of
37:37
response because I didn't vote for this. They're
37:41
saying I didn't vote for this because I didn't
37:43
expect it to affect me. I thought it was going
37:46
to get those people. And one thing they didn't
37:49
realize was that the autocrats and the billionaires.
37:53
think they are those people. That's who they
37:57
were aiming at. That's the people who got all
37:59
the money, who got all the benefits of this administration.
38:03
You read stories daily where people who were
38:08
pardoned by Trump are now going back to jail
38:11
for doing the same thing they did before they
38:13
got pardoned. And I think people are also seeing
38:18
that. They're realizing that You know, that's
38:20
evil. They're seeing that the person who told
38:24
them that he was going to release the Epstein
38:26
files on day one has been doing everything to
38:30
keep them hidden. And who said the grocery prices
38:33
were going to go down when he was elected. Gas
38:35
prices are going to go down and everything's
38:38
going to be great and America's going to be respected.
38:41
They were all lies. And I think people... You
38:45
know, there's a certain percentage of the population
38:47
that's never going to get it. And they say things
38:50
like, well, I don't know why you Democrats want
38:55
the Epstein file to release because you know
38:58
that there are Democrats in it. And my answer
39:00
to that is, fuck those guys. Yeah, release the
39:03
files, fuck those guys, because they are evil.
39:07
This is not, there's no party affiliation on
39:13
this issue. if you're going to advocate for people
39:18
who are molesting, not molesting, raping children,
39:21
then you have to, like, if that's what your belief
39:26
is, if you're so caught up in the MAGA mindset
39:31
that you can't tell wrong from right, or you're
39:35
willing to forgive wrong on one side, but attack
39:39
people on the other side because they want to
39:41
help people, you know, like, Going back to that
39:46
socialism argument, yes, we should be funding
39:49
public schools. Yes, we should be paying for
39:52
people's health care, making health care something
39:54
manageable. Medicare for all is the right answer
39:58
here. Snap. Yeah, we should not be taking food
40:02
out of the mouths of children. We should not
40:05
be taking money away from foreign programs that
40:08
are keeping kids alive on the other side of the
40:10
world. This is just... Pure evil, if you support
40:16
MAGA at this point, if you're supporting this
40:18
administration at this point, you've got, and
40:23
if you say you're Christian, you've got a lot
40:26
of answering to do when you die and if you go
40:29
to heaven, if heaven exists. You're going to
40:31
have to explain a lot of things because that's
40:34
not the ticket to getting to heaven. I don't
40:39
know if you saw this, but I think it was last
40:41
week or the week before, someone as a test called
40:46
up churches around the country and said, well,
40:50
there was another state, and they called the
40:53
churches in their area, and they were pretending
40:57
to be a mother who was looking for formula for
41:01
her child. And these churches were saying, you're
41:07
not a member of the church, so we're not going
41:08
to help you. The same person called a mosque,
41:11
and the mosque, the imam at the mosque said,
41:17
sure, where are you? We're going to deliver your
41:21
formula. There's this disconnect among Christians
41:27
that goes against everything they are supposed
41:32
to have believed in. It's another example of
41:37
the, it's not Christianity, it's Christian nationalism,
41:43
which is a foundation for the Trump administration.
41:47
They've taken advantage of a bunch of religious
41:49
people and they promised them not salvation,
41:55
but they promised them retribution, which is,
41:58
you know, it's like vengeance as opposed to compassion
42:02
or, you know. Intolerance is the key instead
42:07
of tolerance. Jesse, we haven't mentioned the
42:11
fact that there was that video with Mark Kelly
42:15
and several other senators who had been in the
42:21
armed forces of some kind, and Trump didn't like
42:26
what they had to say, and then he called for
42:27
their execution. Right. These senators or these
42:31
congressional Democrats were saying, We were
42:35
in the military. We served our country. And our
42:39
military code says that you do not follow illegal
42:43
orders. It's just a simple thing. If an order
42:48
is illegal, you have no duty to follow that.
42:51
And the courts will support you on this. And
42:54
Donald Trump, who's putting troops in New York,
42:58
well, trying to put troops in New York. But has
43:02
put them in Portland, in Chicago, in San Francisco,
43:05
in Los Angeles, in Charlotte. Memphis? I think
43:11
it was Charlotte. Charlotte was the most recent
43:14
ones. And who has these ICE agents or these Border
43:19
Patrol people pulling people out of their cars.
43:24
Total racial profiling. All racial profiling.
43:28
And just like... grabbing American citizens,
43:32
separating families from children. And they...
43:36
I think I'm missing my point here, but this is...
43:41
He called for the execution of these people.
43:44
Right, he called for the execution of these people.
43:46
And the reaction, again, wasn't... what the fuck
43:51
is wrong with you? The reaction is, or the way
43:55
the major media played is, Donald Trump made
43:59
a controversial statement as opposed to, Donald
44:02
Trump is doing fascist things or calling for
44:06
fascist actions. And must be impeached immediately.
44:11
Right, and I think that's one of the terrors
44:14
that the Trump administration has because...
44:17
He was impeached twice in his first term. He's
44:22
got to be impeached again if Congress is taken
44:25
over by Democrats. Will the Republicans in this
44:29
cycle realize that we have to stop this, or are
44:35
they going to let it keep going? Because it's
44:38
getting to the point where the Republican Party
44:40
should be abolished. They are just being really...
44:47
taking a road that is anti -ethical, I forget
44:53
the word, but against what everything Americans
44:55
suppose. Antithetical. Antithetical. You know,
44:58
and it's not the same. It's a false equivalence
45:01
to say that I'm not happy with the Democratic
45:03
Party right after you just said that. Right.
45:05
I'm not happy with the Democratic Party, but
45:08
we're not. murderers, starvation. Rapist. Well,
45:14
there might be some rapists as we get the Epstein
45:16
files. I want to tell you a few more reasons
45:18
why I'm hopeful. So yeah, we're seeing cracks
45:22
in the Republican Party, which is great. The
45:26
other thing I'm seeing is because of these high
45:29
prices of food and shelter and clothing, we're
45:33
seeing local nonprofits who... are having a much
45:36
more difficult time getting grant funds right
45:40
because of the way that the federal government
45:41
is is stacked up against non -profits right now
45:45
but people are showing up big time for their
45:48
food pantries their local food pantries and so
45:50
i just want to give a shout out to all of the
45:53
folks on the ground that are getting those winter
45:56
coats together it's cold and people are going
45:59
to be cold and We have a lot of people who are
46:02
unhoused, and we have a lot of people who are
46:03
hungry. And people really are showing up for
46:07
this, and it really gives me hope. I'm on the
46:11
board of directors of Feed Louisville. And we
46:15
have just launched a no waste, no hunger campaign
46:19
to make this season a little fuller for everyone.
46:23
And we have all these participating partners,
46:27
lots of restaurants that you go to, Cafe Lulu,
46:30
Four Pegs, Biscuit Belly, Grasso Grasso, Mayan
46:35
Cafe, The Fishery, The Fat Lamb, 1020, Heine
46:39
Bros. All these folks are going to be donating
46:45
proceeds. We already have all these partners
46:48
that give us food and our chefs repurpose the
46:52
food and get our food out to feeding partners
46:54
who are working with hungry people every day.
47:00
A quarter of all food in Kentucky goes to waste,
47:03
while one out of six Kentuckians are food insecure,
47:07
which means they're starving, they're hungry,
47:10
right? So I'm really proud of this organization,
47:13
and I'd really love to invite all of you, as
47:17
you're looking at your year -end charitable contributions,
47:21
to think locally and to act locally and to support
47:25
your local nonprofits. Another thing I wanted
47:30
to just share personally is I think that I've
47:34
come up with the three things that I'm super
47:39
focused on as a resistor. You know, one is, yes,
47:44
I'm showing up for rallies, and it feels really
47:47
good to show up at rallies. I know that some
47:51
people don't think that they're, you know, effective,
47:54
but these last... rallies that we had we had
47:57
you know just under three percent of the American
48:01
populace showed up for the last no kings rallies
48:04
and you know we need three and a half percent
48:08
to really show that we might be at a tipping
48:11
point for you know, really breaking into this
48:16
fascistic authoritarian regime. So showing up
48:19
for rallies. The second one is building local
48:23
community, you know, really increasing local
48:26
involvement. We've got work on the ground on
48:31
immigration justice and showing up and being
48:35
eyes and ears for ICE. We've got lots of folks
48:38
on the ground tackling, you know, as I said,
48:41
food insecurity or hunger issues, housing, etc.
48:46
And so that feels really good to build local
48:49
community and to act locally. That's where our
48:52
power really is. And then third, leaning into
48:56
my joy. Poet Mary Oliver says that joy is not
49:01
meant to be a crumb. I fully agree with her.
49:08
I love music. My last name means song in Hebrew.
49:13
And I love music. I sing. I grew up singing with
49:17
my mom. I just found out that your vagus nerve,
49:21
apparently, your... Tension and all that nervous
49:26
stuff gets relaxed when you sing. And I didn't
49:29
even know that. I just knew it always felt good.
49:32
And this week I had the most magical, I've had
49:36
the most magical musical week. I scored four
49:39
free tickets to go see I'm With Her at the Ryman,
49:43
the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It
49:47
used to be the site of the Grand Ole Opry. The
49:49
acoustics are awesome. The history is awesome.
49:52
And it was a perfect show. It was a perfect show.
49:56
They were completely in sync with one another
49:59
harmonically. Their musicianship was superb.
50:02
Jason Isbell came out for an encore and sang
50:05
with them. I mean, perfect. Can you tell me what
50:08
kind of music that is? Yeah, it's bluegrass.
50:11
So Sarah Jarose, Sarah Watkins from Nickel Creek
50:15
and other endeavors, and Aoife O'Donovan. And
50:20
they're all... really talented singer -songwriters
50:24
in their own rights. And Sarah DeRose, oh my
50:28
gosh, she oozes music. It looks so effortless.
50:32
She plays all kinds of different instruments.
50:34
She's a child prodigy. And it was perfect. How
50:39
often do you go to a perfect concert? It was
50:41
perfect. Then I drove home to Louisville, and
50:45
then I drove to St. Louis the next day because
50:47
this fabulous indie, indie folk, I guess, guy.
50:53
His name is Jose Gonzalez and I heard him on
50:56
WFPK. He lives in Sweden and he has a really
51:00
interesting story. His family were South American
51:05
and they had to flee South America because of
51:08
a coup d 'etat and got... sanctuary from the
51:12
Swedish embassy in Brazil. And they moved to
51:17
Brazil in the 70s. And then Jose Gonzalez was
51:20
born in the 70s. But he is... They moved to Sweden
51:25
or to Brazil? Sweden. They went to Brazil and
51:27
got the Swedish embassy to grant them asylum
51:30
to Sweden. So these Latin American intellectuals
51:36
and altruists and all this stuff, they now live
51:40
in Sweden. And he is super talented. Really good
51:44
crowd in St. Louis for Jose Gonzalez. Look him
51:47
up. He really sings about opening up your heart.
51:50
And he really played music that just... Everybody
51:55
was like in sync with each other and swaying
51:57
in the room. It was really beautiful. And then
52:00
tomorrow, I sing in another Voces Nove concert
52:04
at the Cathedral of the Assumption, and it's
52:08
called Celestial. And the Cathedral of the Assumption
52:11
has these gorgeous stars painted on the ceiling
52:15
of the cathedral. And we're singing songs about
52:18
the sun and the moon and the stars and the planets.
52:22
And I'm even playing a water glass. to simulate
52:25
the sounds that stars make, and we have different
52:29
tones that we've tuned the water glasses to.
52:34
Mine is A. So you've got to come out and hear
52:38
us. If we get this out, come to Voces Nove. It's
52:41
a concert, 3 p .m. Sunday. What is tomorrow?
52:45
Sunday. The 23rd. The 23rd at the Cathedral of
52:48
the Assumption. So all of these things, Jesse,
52:51
and... And then I also have a big action, but
52:54
do you want to say something? Well, my fun things
52:58
to do are, I've been going to sporting events
53:00
for the past couple of weeks. I went to the Louisville
53:04
versus Kentucky women's basketball game today.
53:07
It was a disappointment as a Louisville fan,
53:10
but it was a great basketball game. There had
53:11
to be. at least 8 ,000 people at the Yum Center
53:15
for this. And that's, you know, Louisville's
53:17
always been a great city for women's basketball.
53:20
So that was what I did this week. Last week,
53:23
I went to the first round of the NCAA soccer
53:27
tournament, women's soccer tournament, where
53:29
Louisville played Kentucky again. That was a
53:33
really great match because... It went through
53:36
the normal time. Then they had to do two overtime
53:39
periods. Then they did a shootout, and Louisville
53:42
won on the shootout. Oh, that's so cool. So that
53:45
was one. And the thing was, it was $10 to go
53:48
in. So I took my son and my grandson to that.
53:52
And there was this little playground where the
53:55
kid could play whenever he wanted to. He was
53:58
making friends all over the place. We were watching
54:01
some really good soccer, some really good women's
54:03
athletes. And it was fun. And the week before
54:07
that, the ACC field hockey tournament was in
54:11
Louisville. So I went to a couple of those matches.
54:15
Louisville didn't do well there, but the fact
54:18
that they got into the playoffs at all was great.
54:21
And, you know, that was free. And women's volleyball.
54:26
Women's volleyball, I think they're like the
54:28
number six ranked team in the country. So good.
54:31
So women's sports is really huge in Louisville,
54:34
and they really take it seriously here. The fact
54:38
that they can fill the Yum Center for a women's
54:41
basketball game is amazing. The volleyball team
54:44
sometimes goes to the Yum Center. They do very
54:46
well. They have their own arena. I've been to
54:49
that arena. It's really loud, but it's always
54:52
packed. And the thing about these sporting events
54:57
is... Families can afford it. If you're looking
55:00
for affordability, these are the things that
55:02
you can take your kids to. They're actually watching
55:05
athletics. A kid can learn the basics of sports
55:09
by watching these sports. And you don't have
55:12
to spend a lot of money for it. Like last week,
55:15
I think, the Louisville men's basketball team
55:18
played Kentucky. And I looked up the price because
55:22
I thought, oh, maybe I want to go to this. A
55:25
ticket to the men's basketball game against Kentucky
55:28
was $1 ,000. And, you know, that's way beyond
55:34
anything anybody can afford, except if you're
55:37
very rich or if you're a rabid fan where you
55:40
can't control yourself. You know, I spend $20
55:44
to go to the women's basketball game, spend $10
55:47
to go to the women's soccer game, spend nothing
55:49
to go to the field hockey game. And during the
55:52
baseball season, Louisville sports is very cheap.
55:56
I mean, I walked into free baseball games, and
56:00
that team went to the College World Series. When
56:04
you're looking at things to do for fun, you're
56:07
also looking for affordability because this is
56:09
the time to look for these things. And you don't
56:12
have to go to like Cincinnati or Indianapolis
56:15
to see the professional teams. Just hang around
56:18
locally and watch the sporting events here because
56:21
they're really affordable. You can take the whole
56:24
family and it's a lot of fun. It is. So I'm going
56:28
to talk about a big action for everyone to know
56:30
about. This is taking place. from Tuesday before
56:34
Thanksgiving to the Tuesday after. And it's called
56:39
WeAin'tBuyingIt .com. WeAin'tBuyingIt .com. We'll
56:45
put the link after the podcast. Basically, it's
56:50
saying pause on shopping from major companies
56:53
that are enabling this administration. And it's
56:58
got this action is taking direct aim at Target
57:01
for caving to this administration's biased attacks
57:04
on DEI. home depot for allowing and colluding
57:09
with ice to kidnap our neighbors on their properties
57:13
and amazon for funding this administration to
57:17
secure their own corporate tax cuts so if you
57:22
could Really think about changing your behavior
57:24
this week and Black Friday and everything. Go
57:27
ahead and support your local small business this
57:31
week and every week. You know, I'm even thinking
57:35
of buying my groceries before Tuesday for Thanksgiving
57:38
so that I don't have to shop it. you know, Kroger
57:42
and these big national grocery chains. So really
57:45
consider using your money really wisely this
57:49
week and please try not to spend it on these
57:52
major companies that are enabling these horrible
57:56
policies. And just to add to that, these are
57:59
boycotts and these boycotts do work because...
58:03
Look at what happened with Jimmy Kimmel and Disney.
58:06
They got rid of him because Trump said to get
58:11
rid of him. And then people like canceled their
58:14
Disney subscriptions and stopped going to Disneyland.
58:18
And Kimmel's back on the air. These things are
58:21
effective, you know, because as we've learned.
58:25
corporate America the only thing that matters
58:28
is profit and money and if they don't get the
58:31
profit and they don't get the money number one
58:33
the executives don't get their bonuses their
58:37
stock options go down and their boards of directors
58:41
decide what maybe we should get rid of you and
58:43
get someone else to get these numbers coming
58:46
back up so The website says this really well
58:50
too. They say when you join the We Ain't Buying
58:52
It movement, you commit to mobilize your consumer
58:56
power, spend with intention, center family and
59:01
community, support black immigrant and... persons
59:05
of color -owned businesses, support retailers
59:08
that have stood firm in democracy. It's time
59:12
to put our money where our values are. For too
59:16
long, we've funded companies that take our communities
59:19
for granted, disrespect our dignity, and ignore
59:23
our needs. Join the movement now. Again, this
59:27
is weaintbuyingit .com. Right, and I think next
59:32
week Amazon has its big Black Friday thing. Black
59:36
Friday and Cyber Monday and all the things. Don't
59:40
participate. Buy locally. Support mutual aid.
59:45
You're preserving your community by buying locally.
59:51
Jeff Bezos doesn't need another billion dollars.
59:54
He'll be fine. As I keep saying with these billionaires,
1:00:00
if they give away 99 % of their wealth, Elon
1:00:05
Musk still has $5 billion. Jeff Bezos still has
1:00:09
$2 billion. Mark Zuckerberg still has $2 billion.
1:00:15
It's giving away 99 % of their wealth. They're
1:00:18
still billionaires. They're still billionaires.
1:00:19
That's what you're saying. Yeah, they're still
1:00:20
billionaires. It will not... For them, it's just
1:00:26
a matter of who's got the biggest bankroll. Yes,
1:00:33
you like the way I did that. It will hit them
1:00:40
in the sense that their egos will be shattered,
1:00:44
but they're still going to walk away with billions
1:00:47
of dollars. They don't need the money. They shouldn't
1:00:51
get the money. And they'll say that, oh, if you
1:00:55
do this, then you're going to hurt our workers.
1:00:57
Well, it's their fault because they should be
1:00:59
paying their workers a decent salary. Absolutely.
1:01:02
And let's see. We've got Thanksgiving coming
1:01:06
up this week. We really wish everyone a happy
1:01:09
and healthy Thanksgiving with your family, with
1:01:12
your friends. I hope you have enough to eat.
1:01:17
And that we all look for things and can see things
1:01:22
that we are grateful for. I'm grateful to you,
1:01:25
Jesse. Thank you. And I'm thankful that we're
1:01:27
able to do this every couple of weeks just to,
1:01:30
if anything, reinventing. And I think there are
1:01:34
a lot of people out there who... probably are
1:01:37
venting the same way. And you're not alone. Yeah,
1:01:41
and, you know, if you have, like, doubts on what
1:01:44
your thought process is or if you're looking
1:01:47
for the right words, we hope that these words
1:01:49
that we give you will help you in your counter
1:01:53
-arguments, if necessary, when you're talking
1:01:55
to, as they say, crazy Uncle Liberty over the
1:01:59
Thanksgiving dinner. Good luck with that. Yeah.
1:02:02
Thanks, everybody. Bye. Our closing music is
1:02:09
by John Chamberlain.