Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 16

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 16 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the Bluegrass Blues Podcast, Episode
0:03
16. I'm Amy. And I'm Jesse. Well, we're back
0:15
after a holiday weekend where there was lots
0:18
of food being shared by some people. So how was
0:22
your holiday? My holiday was very chill this
0:25
year. I had my core family and two... girlfriends
0:30
over um and it was kind of pot luck i just really
0:33
made the turkey and it was delicious and i've
0:36
already made like the post thanksgiving turkey
0:39
vegetable soup with all the bones and yeah i
0:43
think we're almost done with leftovers now how
0:46
about you well i was in new york and washington
0:49
dc for the holiday and Well, you know, in New
0:54
York, it's the first time I've been back home
0:56
in a lot of years because of my work and because
0:59
of just where I've lived. I've spent recent Thanksgivings
1:05
in Arizona, in California, in Kentucky. But my
1:10
home is New York, or I consider my home New York
1:12
because that's where I was raised. So this was
1:15
the first time I've been there in, it has to
1:17
be at least five years. It was at the apartment
1:22
that my niece now owns in Brooklyn. It was the
1:29
apartment my mother first moved into more than
1:32
50 years ago, so this apartment has been in the
1:34
family for 50 years. It's an apartment complex,
1:39
and we have two apartments there. The second
1:42
apartment our family has been in for at least
1:44
30 years, and my nephew is now there, and I was
1:49
the one too. get that apartment originally but
1:52
thanksgiving it was good to be with family
1:55
again it was very mellow we don't have political
1:59
discussions we just enjoy each other's company
2:02
we talk about things that happen the older people
2:05
talk about how they were raised and compare it
2:08
to how the younger people have been raised the
2:12
downside for me though was that because i have
2:15
to because of health issues i have to be on a
2:17
vegan diet from now on So that was a very difficult
2:22
Thanksgiving to get through because there's all
2:24
this food that I just couldn't eat. And I was
2:30
down to, I think, collard greens and a vegan
2:34
chili that my niece made because she heard that
2:39
I couldn't eat anything other than vegan food.
2:42
Why are you on a vegan diet, Jesse? I've been
2:45
having some... health issues it's they might
2:50
well have some kidney issues the kidney doctor
2:54
said I should go on a completely meatless diet
2:56
or no animal product diet and I went through
3:00
a recent scan and I have to go to another another
3:04
cat scan next week because they found like plaque
3:08
buildup in the heart valves and the beginnings
3:11
of a possible aneurysm, so I'm going to go in
3:14
for a more significant scan next week, or actually
3:18
Monday, and we'll just figure out what really
3:22
is going on there. But, you know, those are just
3:27
issues I'm going to have to deal with, and I
3:30
feel fine. That's the thing. I feel fine. I don't
3:33
feel like I'm unhealthy, but... I've had medical
3:37
incidents this year, so I should be careful with
3:40
things like that. But anyway, New York was good
3:45
being back in New York because it was the holiday
3:48
weekend, which means that you go to downtown
3:51
or you go to Manhattan, go around Rockefeller
3:55
Center, go to look at all the displays that they've
3:58
put up there, watch all the people who are clamoring
4:01
for. buying stuff at these fancy shops like the
4:06
Cartier and the Tiffany, yeah, all those things.
4:12
So lots of people out there, very crowded. It
4:16
was good to be in New York. I was there for maybe,
4:19
oh, let's see, I got to Washington on a Tuesday.
4:24
Wednesday I was in New York through Sunday. Then
4:27
I came back to Washington on Monday. Flew back
4:32
to Louisville on Tuesday. So I've been here this
4:34
week. You mentioned Washington was pretty interesting.
4:38
Yeah. That's where the alleged insurrection is
4:45
supposed to be taking place that Trump has called
4:47
out the National Guard and troops for. And, well,
4:51
when I was going home after I went to a vegan
4:56
restaurant in Washington, which was really good.
4:58
Yeah. As I got off the metro at my stop, I got
5:04
upstairs and there was an anti -ice demonstration.
5:08
There were people holding signs. They were making
5:11
whistles. There were police cars all around.
5:14
This was near the Safeway at the waterfront metro
5:16
station. Cops were going on their megaphones
5:19
in their cars saying, get out of the street.
5:24
reassuring to see that people are actually out
5:26
there you know dealing with these issues that
5:31
affect everyone that people actually care enough
5:34
to challenge authority on unjust issues which
5:40
You know, it's the way it should be done and
5:43
people really should take it seriously. But in
5:45
some places they don't take it seriously. Like,
5:48
for example, our Metro Council here in Louisville.
5:51
Right. So the Courier -Journal just reported.
5:55
today that Louisville rejects mask ban for law
5:58
enforcement, including ICE. And the ordinance
6:02
failed by a 12 to 13 vote with one council member,
6:06
Marcus Winkler, a Democrat voting present. And
6:10
then all of the Republicans were joined by Brent
6:14
Ackerson, the sole Democrat to join all the Republicans
6:18
in voting against it. It's really disappointing.
6:22
Right. Well, it's frustrating that these are
6:25
Democrats who are selling out the community because
6:27
we have this consistent betrayal by Democrats.
6:34
I can't think of any other word for it because,
6:37
you know, the mayor has announced that ICE can
6:39
come in and do whatever they want. He's not going
6:41
to stop them. He doesn't believe, maybe he doesn't
6:45
believe they're doing anything wrong. I don't
6:46
know. That's just ICE is targeting minority communities
6:51
and immigrant communities. And we all know this.
6:54
And, you know, people are worried about just
6:57
being taken off the streets, even if they are
7:00
American citizens, because ISIS has been taking
7:02
American citizens off the street. And the fact
7:05
that and our congressman who, you know, has he
7:11
still has to. pay for that Charlie Kirk vote
7:15
where he voted that the resolution that said
7:18
Charlie Kirk is a good guy which you know that's
7:21
just it's absurd because anyone who has paid
7:25
attention to anything Charlie Kirk said knows
7:28
that he is racist a homophobe a sexist and he
7:33
hides his he hid his ideology under this Christian
7:37
nationalism flag so it's like if you're challenging
7:41
him you're challenging religion and it's God's
7:44
will and all that which goes over well in this
7:47
state but I do want to say, I want to give kudos
7:51
to J .P. Leninger. He's our Metro Council person,
7:55
Jesse, here in Old Louisville. And basically,
7:59
this was his proposed legislation to change Louisville's
8:03
existing ban on wearing facial coverings. He
8:07
says, Yeah, and I don't understand why. my cops
8:36
would want to hide their faces to begin with.
8:39
You know, if they're performing a public service,
8:41
they should be proud of what they're doing and
8:44
they should be showing their faces because they
8:46
want people to know that here's a face you can
8:48
trust. And obviously when you put a mask on,
8:51
this is the idea that, oh, I don't want people
8:55
to know who I am because... because I will be
8:59
held accountable for my illegal actions. And
9:02
I'm going off on a tangent here, but I don't
9:05
know if you ever saw the HBO series Watchmen.
9:08
It was based on the Watchmen comic book, but
9:12
a more up -to -date version. And in that series,
9:16
there were also cops who put masks on their faces
9:21
because they didn't want to be identified by.
9:25
the populace for whatever things they did so
9:28
this is and the other thing since i'm going on
9:32
this list of complaints but you know the people
9:36
who are wearing masks with ice are probably the
9:39
same people who during COVID said they weren't
9:41
going to put on a mask because it was against
9:42
their against their freedom, their civil liberties.
9:47
So they violate civil liberties when it works
9:50
for them. They are calling for civil liberties
9:53
when it affects them individually. And just the
10:00
fact that the Metro Council did what it did and
10:04
two Democrats, those two Democratic votes, if
10:07
the person had not voted and the other person
10:11
had voted in favor of it, then we would see the
10:14
faces of the people who are persecuting others
10:17
in our community. But I don't know what their
10:23
inspiration was for not voting to ban masks.
10:27
Because we're racist? Even progressive blue law?
10:31
Yeah, well, that brings us now to the fact that
10:34
we have elections coming up, and this is the
10:36
time where you get people who are supposed to
10:40
represent your interests. You know, we've been
10:44
talking about the Senate races and the congressional
10:48
races, and I think we mentioned last time that
10:52
Amy McGrath is running again for the U .S. Senate,
10:56
seeking Mitch McConnell's seat. And this week,
11:01
Charles Booker announced that he was going to
11:05
run. And the thing is, when they ran in the past
11:11
elections, I voted for them both times, and they
11:14
lost by huge margins. So the question is, why
11:18
don't they run for things that they can win?
11:21
It just is a mind -boggling question for me,
11:25
because honestly, Charles Booker should be running
11:28
for either Morgan McGarvey's seat, or he should
11:31
be running for mayor against Greenberg. You know,
11:35
primary these guys to show that... The community
11:38
wants new leadership, and the community deserves
11:41
not being betrayed by the people who are elected
11:44
to serve the community. Because McGarvey, you
11:49
know, like I said, he did the Charlie Kirk thing.
11:52
And you know that Attica Scott, who's a black
11:54
woman that you have a lot of, you really... She's
11:58
amazing, and we've been reading her stuff and
12:01
highlighting her, but she did primary Morgan
12:04
for Congress, and she didn't get close. Because
12:08
the Kentucky Democratic establishment is probably
12:12
against her. Morgan has done whatever he had
12:17
to do to be the congressman. He was a golden
12:19
white boy from Anchorage. Greenberg is doing
12:26
whatever he has to do to be mayor. But they're
12:30
not serving the community. They're serving the
12:34
interests of the moneyed class in Louisville.
12:37
And we go into these discussions about economics
12:42
and about, well, you know, just... different
12:45
things, but they're not representing the people
12:48
who are in this community. And the thing is that
12:51
Louisville is more affluent than the rest of
12:54
the state. And, you know, the rest of the state...
12:56
Well, Lexington is affluent. Oh, more affluent.
12:58
Okay, yeah. Lexington has the only billionaire
13:00
in Kentucky, so that makes them more affluent
13:03
than Louisville. But in terms of just the general
13:06
population, Kentucky's a very poor state. Kentucky
13:11
is a very poor white state because the white
13:14
population makes up 80 % of the people in this
13:18
state. And they're going to vote for, let's face
13:26
it, they're going to vote for the Republican,
13:27
even though it doesn't represent their interest.
13:30
And you have to wonder, do they not understand
13:35
what is going on? We talked about this earlier,
13:42
but there was this quote by Lyndon Johnson that
13:45
if you have, all you have to do is tell a poor
13:49
white person that he's better than the best black
13:53
person, and you can just pick their pockets.
13:57
And if you tell them it enough, they're going
13:59
to open their pockets to you and just let you
14:01
take their money. And that's where we are now
14:04
with the situation with Donald Trump. Like, he
14:07
conned. a lot of poor white people that the issue
14:12
wasn't that Elon Musk is a trillion, a half a
14:17
trillionaire, or that I did this recently where
14:21
I just took a look at, I think the four, yeah,
14:24
the four richest people in America have a combined
14:27
income of a trillion dollars. And I did a post
14:32
on our website about Let's say these four people
14:37
decided that they were going to pay for a state
14:39
budget for one year and they picked Kentucky
14:42
as the state. That would cost them $22 billion.
14:45
And then let's compare that to, you know, let's
14:48
do a proportional representation of what the
14:51
typical Louisville or Kentucky resident has in
14:56
terms of median income. And if you looked at
15:00
it from a proportion basis, that $22 billion
15:03
for the trillionaires, would be proportionately
15:08
less than what the normal Kentuckian pays for
15:11
income tax every year. And the state legislature,
15:14
by the way, is looking at reducing the state
15:16
income tax even more. Which makes no sense, but
15:19
it's the typical Republican move that you're
15:23
taxed too much, so we're going to stop this tax
15:27
burden on you, and we're going to... Make it
15:32
so that you don't pay the taxes, which is a lie,
15:34
because if you take that tax burden away, you're
15:36
taking away services like building roads, like
15:39
paying for schools, like paying for health care.
15:46
But again, the typical Kentucky voter is probably
15:50
just going to look and say, oh, well, I'm going
15:52
to have. $10 more in my pocket at the end of
15:55
the week. Well, your bills are like $100 a week,
15:59
so how is that going to help you at all? Well,
16:01
and I want to go back to what you were saying
16:03
about we constantly are pondering why do people
16:07
consistently vote against their interests? And
16:11
Paul Krugman has an interesting article out today
16:13
on Substack called MAGA's Affordability Crisis
16:17
Will Soon Get Worse and Trump's Numbers Will
16:20
Continue to Slide, which, you know. please you
16:24
know but he has he has three reasons he uh why
16:27
republicans um perhaps are voting against their
16:33
best interests and he he mentions a political
16:37
scientist suzanne metler And so Mettler asked
16:42
why so many people who are dependent on government
16:45
social programs vote for conservatives who want
16:47
to slash those programs, right? And she focused
16:50
in particular on Kentucky, our state, where 28
16:54
% of the population is covered by Medicaid. Yet,
16:57
as we know, they gave Trump a more than 30 -point
17:01
margin last year, right? So here's this quick
17:05
analysis of her study. Why do people do this?
17:10
First, many people who benefit from government
17:13
social programs don't actually think of them
17:15
as social programs, right? They earned it, right?
17:18
They earned it. These are entitlements. Well,
17:21
they say, I've heard Social Security recipients
17:23
say, well, I paid into this all my career, so
17:27
I deserve to get this money. It is a social program.
17:29
Right. It's socialism. Right. And then second,
17:33
oops, I lost that for a second. Hang on. Second,
17:42
she says that recipients of means -tested government
17:48
benefits, such as Medicaid and food stamps, are
17:50
relatively poor, less educated, and often fail
17:53
to vote, right? And then the third point that
17:57
he adds, and then we want to go back to race
17:59
in a second, but third point, most Americans
18:02
aren't close followers of policy debates, right?
18:05
Telling them how an election promise is likely
18:08
to affect their future benefits simply doesn't
18:10
register for most people. And frankly, people
18:15
are working really hard to put food on the table
18:18
and to get their kids to school and et cetera.
18:21
So not everybody is like a wonk like we are.
18:24
No, but you have to get into the fourth point,
18:27
which Krugman doesn't address. And that's also,
18:29
I think, a flaw among the... the intellectual
18:32
class of the liberal side, is that they never
18:35
account race for anything. There's this saying
18:39
that annoys me when someone says, well, I don't
18:43
see race. Yeah, I have a black friend. Yeah,
18:46
right. Well, I see that everywhere. And if you
18:49
don't see it, you're lying. And if you're lying
18:52
about it, then you're lying about, you know,
18:55
you can't be trusted on anything you say. You
18:58
know, race is an issue here. And the fact, and
19:01
you go back to Lyndon Johnson quote, that, you
19:04
know, tell a poor white guy that he's better
19:06
than the best black guy. And the pockets are
19:11
open. And Trump has shown that that's what's
19:13
going to happen. I've been seeing these... desperate
19:19
pleas by farmers about, you know, oh no, our
19:24
farm's suffering and our farm's going to collapse
19:26
and it's all because of these tariffs. And you
19:30
can't, I can't sympathize with them because they,
19:35
as I've said many times, these people who, the
19:39
people who voted in the last election were alive
19:41
in Donald Trump. was president the first time
19:43
and they saw what he did the first time and he
19:46
screwed over farmers the first time he was president
19:49
right so you would think that farmers would say
19:52
oh that guy screwed me i'm not going to vote
19:55
for him because i'm i you know i just know that
19:59
he's going to screw me again which he was going
20:01
to do no matter what instead they decided that
20:05
oh um There's a black woman running for president,
20:08
and I don't want a black person or a female being
20:11
my president. And I saw someone actually say,
20:15
ask, why did you vote for Trump when you knew
20:18
that this was going to happen? He said, I didn't
20:20
have a choice. And yes, you did have a choice.
20:24
The choice was blatantly obvious there, that
20:28
you had the choice between a felon. or a prosecutor.
20:32
So you're going to pick the felon. You have a
20:34
person who defends people from rapists against
20:39
a rapist. And you have a child rapist. Yeah.
20:40
So it has to be either race or sex is the issue,
20:46
which brings us back to the Kentucky race, the
20:50
Kentucky Senate race. I personally think that
20:54
Charles Booker should not be running for Senate.
20:58
He should be running for Congress here. He should
21:00
be running against Morgan McGarvey. And he should
21:03
be running against Craig Greenberg because they've
21:07
already shown that they're going to sell out
21:08
the community. And they do it no problem at all.
21:13
Who's the... Amy McGrath. should not be running
21:17
for Senate. She should be running for the seat
21:19
that Andy Barr is giving up because she ran against
21:23
Andy Barr before, and it was a close election
21:25
by Kentucky standards. And she's in a blue area
21:31
that's, you know, it's just ripe for returning
21:34
to another blue state. Instead, you're going
21:37
to have more... noted Republicans running against
21:43
lesser -known Democrats running and the election
21:47
you know we need every seat we can get and we're
21:52
not getting them partly because people are not
21:55
being steered to the right seats or maybe their
21:57
egos are saying well I'm too good to be mayor
22:00
or I'm too good to be a congressman I want to
22:01
be a senator That makes no sense. And also stepping
22:06
stones, people. Right, yeah. You run for these
22:10
lower offices to build up your resume. Then you
22:14
run for the higher offices. Like Obama did. Yeah,
22:18
when you've shown that you can deliver on your
22:20
promises. Obama started as a community organizer.
22:23
I think he was in the state legislature. Then
22:26
he got into Congress as a senator. And then he
22:29
became president. And a lot of people say, well,
22:31
that was because he was black. Okay, idiots,
22:34
you can say that. But it's because he's shown
22:37
that he could make progress as he moved along.
22:40
And let's not forget the fact that Obama won
22:44
because George Bush was such a horrible president,
22:46
that George Bush had us in an economic disaster.
22:50
And it's like, to me, it was like... voters looked
22:55
at Obama almost like a janitor to clean up the
22:58
mess that the previous guy left. And as he was
23:01
cleaning up the mess, they were criticizing him
23:03
for other things. They criticized him because
23:08
he wore a tan suit. His birth certificate. Yeah,
23:12
his birth certificate, which was all Trump. We
23:16
have candidates here who don't seem to... know
23:24
that you're needed in these other positions.
23:27
You're needed in a position you can win. And
23:30
even if you don't win, you're going to make the
23:33
election close, which will make the next person
23:35
think, oh, there's a way to get this. And I see
23:37
what the mistakes were in this previous campaign.
23:40
But instead, we'll go back to Amy McGrath and
23:44
Booker running for Senate. Kentucky is 81 % white.
23:51
8 % black. So Booker doesn't have a chance at
23:54
a statewide race. Daniel Cameron won a statewide
23:58
race because I think no one knew what his race
24:00
was at the time. And he was the handpicked person
24:04
by Mitch McConnell. So the party wasn't going
24:06
to do anything against him. But I would bet if
24:08
you looked at his election numbers, they're probably
24:12
narrower than what the other election numbers
24:15
were because he's a black candidate. And the
24:17
only way to me, McGrath or Booker can win is
24:22
if Cameron is the nominee for the Senate. Because
24:26
then the racist and sexist in the state won't
24:31
know what to do. And they'll just, maybe they'll
24:34
actually look and see, oh, this person is actually
24:37
going to like. Cares about affordability. Right,
24:39
right. Cares about my housing, my health care,
24:41
food. Right. Education. And we know that Cameron
24:45
is a McConnell puppet. So, you know. I don't
24:50
know why they don't look at that. And that's
24:52
the flaw of the state Democratic Party, which
24:55
doesn't even have a headquarters now. How desperate
24:59
can you be when you don't even have a headquarters?
25:02
They just sold their building like, what, last
25:05
week or the week before. And I just want to segue
25:09
a little bit. Next week's a really big week,
25:11
maybe. because the U .S. Senate is going to vote
25:15
on extending these Affordable Care Act health
25:18
subsidies for three years. Jesse, I don't know
25:21
that you believe that they're going to even vote
25:23
next week. I've learned not to trust anything
25:26
Republicans say, and I think that was a con that
25:29
they performed on those Senate Democrats who
25:32
said, okay, we're going to stop the shutdown,
25:37
the government shutdown, because we were promised
25:39
that they're going to vote for whatever. I just
25:43
think Republicans lie all the time. And they're
25:46
not going to vote on it. And if they do vote
25:48
on it, it's going to be something that's going
25:50
to be meaningless because whatever they vote
25:53
on has to be approved by the House. And the House
25:55
isn't going to approve anything involving affordable
25:58
care. Right. And, you know, back to affordability,
26:02
a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan health
26:05
organization KFF showed that nearly 60 % of Affordable
26:10
Care Act marketplace enrollees. could not cover
26:14
the cost of a $300 annual increase in their premiums,
26:18
while an additional 20 % said they couldn't afford
26:22
a $1 ,000 jump in prices per year. So Americans
26:26
are really struggling. Right, but they're voting
26:30
for the wrong people, because if there were Democrats
26:33
in charge... We wouldn't be discussing this.
26:36
We would be discussing what color suit the Democrat
26:40
wore or whether or not the Democratic woman had
26:44
been dating, slept her way to the top. That's
26:47
the way the Republicans work. They never deal
26:51
with real issues. They make it cultural issues.
26:56
They make it sex issues, and they make it race
26:58
issues. Meanwhile, the Democrats are actually
27:02
dealing with economic. Right. Affordability.
27:06
We saw Mamdani take off in New York. Right. And
27:10
he took off in New York, which is the most expensive
27:13
city in the country. Well, maybe there's something
27:16
in California that's more expensive. But New
27:18
York is where most, I think, where most of the
27:21
billionaires in the country live. And he's right
27:25
in attacking the affordability because... Why
27:29
do people need to live in $20 million penthouse
27:33
suites when there are people on the streets starving?
27:36
Or why do they have to shop at the luxury stores
27:44
when kids can't get lunch at school? And there
27:51
is this logic to what Mandami has said. The cost
27:57
of living in New York is ridiculous, and that's
27:59
been an issue ever since I was a kid. Me too.
28:03
When I lived there in the 80s, I shared a bedroom
28:07
with a woman, and then there was another woman
28:10
in the bedroom, and to share the bedroom, and
28:13
this was back in 1990, I was spending $850 a
28:21
month to share a bedroom. Right, yeah. Yeah,
28:24
and that's New York. That's the way things happen
28:28
there. Anyone who owns a place in New York is
28:31
probably subletting it to multiple people who
28:34
can't afford to live anywhere else. I also had
28:36
to sell my, well, I didn't want my car in New
28:38
York because the public transportation is so
28:40
great. But to park my car back then, 30 -something
28:44
years ago, would have been more expensive than
28:47
paying rent here in Louisville. Yeah. Yeah, the
28:50
cost of New York is, well, people will say, well,
28:54
New Yorkers make so much more, but even proportionately,
28:57
they don't. It's not an affordable place to live.
29:02
But that's why Mondami won, that he wasn't talking
29:06
about... Well, he wasn't talking about racial
29:11
issues. He was talking about economic issues
29:14
and how New Yorkers are affected. He was right
29:18
in saying that, you know, bus service should
29:20
be free. Okay, let's keep people paying for the
29:24
metro or the subway, but buses, people should
29:28
be able to get on a bus and just go around the
29:30
city. And we should be taxing the very rich even
29:34
more because... they can afford it it doesn't
29:37
no matter how much you tax them i'll go back
29:41
to this i keep saying this if you if you took
29:45
away 99 of elon musk's wealth he would still
29:49
have four billion dollars and you know can you
29:53
live on four billion dollars i i think i can
29:55
um i think most people now everybody can live
29:59
on four billion dollars but people can't live
30:02
on the minimum wage that we're getting. $7 .25.
30:06
That's in Kentucky, but that's also the... It's
30:08
the national minimum wage. Yeah. It's just crazy.
30:12
And it's been that for at least 16 years. Right.
30:15
And it's something where you just have to think,
30:18
what is wrong with... our representatives or
30:22
the people we were electing to serve our interests
30:25
when they're letting things like this keep going.
30:28
They don't want rich people to pay taxes. They
30:33
don't want poor people to have more than a minimum
30:37
wage of $7 .25 an hour, which is nothing a week.
30:42
They don't want just... services that you know
30:48
health services they want people to pay for medical
30:51
expenses whereas other countries are you know
30:54
it's you can live in other countries other countries
30:57
have better qualities of life and other countries
31:00
have longer longevity than we do because we're
31:04
paying an absurd amount of money every month
31:07
for our health care I don't know if you've noticed
31:11
this, but to go to a specialist maybe three years
31:15
ago, maybe it was $50. Now it's $75. Four years
31:20
ago, it was $25. And my kids now are having some
31:25
medical issues. They need to go to the dentist
31:28
or go to the dermatologist. They're not even
31:31
going to doctors because that co -pay is $75.
31:36
And, you know, they're making poverty level wages.
31:38
I just want to bring something back to Kentucky
31:40
about affordability. There's a great organization
31:44
called the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.
31:46
And Jason Bailey is the executive director of
31:49
that. And it goes back to what you're talking
31:50
about, about getting rich people to pay their
31:53
fair share. He talks about a bunch of strategies
31:56
to increase job quality by improving wages and
32:00
strengthening affordable housing and fighting
32:03
rising health care costs. He says a key part
32:06
of implementing these strategies is balancing
32:08
Kentucky's upside down tax code that has resulted
32:13
in the richest 5 % of Kentuckians paying an astounding
32:18
$3 .4 billion less a year in state and federal
32:24
taxes than they were just a decade ago. So they're
32:27
also looking at... you know, decreasing the income
32:30
tax or maybe eliminating the income tax. And
32:33
the billionaires and multimillionaires, which
32:36
is what we have mostly in Kentucky, they're not
32:39
paying their fair share. A windfall tax on the
32:42
wealthy that asks those at the top to pay what
32:45
they owe would go a long way in funding the investments
32:48
requiring new resources in our state. And the
32:52
thing, too, about an income tax is that it...
32:56
really doesn't address the wealth that people
32:58
have because income taxes aren't based on your
33:02
net worth or your net wealth. It's based on what
33:05
your income is. So let's say there's a CEO in
33:08
Kentucky who has decided that he'll take a modest
33:14
salary of $100 ,000 a year, but he'll get all
33:18
the stock options that measure in the millions
33:21
of dollars a year. he's going to pay the tax
33:24
on the $100 ,000, not on the millions. And that's
33:29
just, there has to be some way that you can,
33:31
well, talk about wealth taxes. There should be
33:35
a wealth tax. You shouldn't be able to just give
33:38
your children every cent you've got without any
33:41
payment to the state or city that helped you
33:47
get all that money. Well, and that's institutional
33:52
racism, too, the intergenerational wealth transfer.
33:56
Given that there have been so many barriers like
33:59
homeownership for black and brown communities,
34:02
and then you don't have this intergenerational
34:04
wealth transfer, you're just always going to
34:07
be stuck at the bottom of the economic. you know
34:09
pie right and if you're stuck at the bottom of
34:12
the economic pie then you're not going to get
34:14
a piece of anything because they're going to
34:16
not only are they not going to get anything they're
34:18
going to take things away from you like i'll
34:21
throw out this example um the louisville public
34:24
schools just announced that they're going to
34:25
be closing schools and if you look at the schools
34:29
that are going to be closed they are predominantly
34:31
black or predominantly minority schools whereas
34:34
you know the white schools are never bothered
34:37
but it's So like a kid who's walking to school
34:41
now will have to go to a school three miles away
34:44
from where they live. And that's another example
34:48
of why certain politicians should be running
34:52
for offices that are actually more applicable
34:55
to the citizens that they want to serve. Because
34:58
the public school situation is a mayor. The mayor
35:03
is in back of some, has strong influence on this.
35:07
So he should be. or whoever's mayor should be
35:10
able to say, this is unacceptable, we have to
35:12
look for another solution to this. Maybe we increase
35:16
property taxes, which will drive people crazy,
35:18
but it gives more revenue to the schools. Instead,
35:23
we're dealing with a state legislature, as you
35:26
say, that's going to cut the income tax. Not
35:30
raise the minimum wage. Not raise the minimum
35:32
wage and, you know, take away other benefits.
35:35
Not address affordable housing. Not address health
35:38
care. Health care. Yeah, they're just going to
35:40
keep taking money away from poor people, giving
35:42
it to rich people because rich people will donate
35:46
to their campaigns. Right. Oh, speaking of that,
35:49
this is a tangent, but this week, you know, there
35:52
was another Trump pardon of a terrible criminal
35:55
that did terrible things. And what I kept wondering
35:58
was, like, How much does it cost? Like, do you
36:02
just give Trump $5 million for a pardon? Like,
36:06
how much do these pardons cost? Well, I know
36:09
one example. There was someone who was convicted
36:12
of a heinous crime. Trump gave him a pardon after
36:15
the guy's mother gave Trump a million -dollar
36:18
donation. So that's the going rate, a million
36:20
dollars to buy your freedom for being complete.
36:25
evil person. And if you look at the list of people
36:28
who Trump has pardoned, a lot of them are going
36:31
back to jail for crimes that are even worse than
36:33
what they did before. A lot of people were swindlers.
36:36
A lot of people were violent. They were like
36:39
the J6ers. Right. And they're back in jail. And
36:45
Trump will probably pardon them again. Trump
36:48
is... I hate to talk about this guy, but I have
36:51
to. You know, the... The bombing of fishermen
36:54
in Venezuela. Yeah. He's saying that the reason
36:58
to do that is because they're bringing drugs
37:00
up to the United States and they're killing millions
37:04
of Americans, which, no, that's not true. They're
37:06
probably bringing coke up to Don Jr., but they're
37:09
not bringing, like, these drugs that they're
37:11
talking about. Meanwhile, Trump has pardoned,
37:14
was it the former president of... some Central
37:17
American country who was truly the major drug
37:21
lord. And you have to wonder, okay, what was
37:24
the buy there? How much did he spend to get that
37:27
pardon? These backroom deals are disgusting.
37:31
It's killing us. Yeah, everything that we're
37:34
hearing. And it's just, you know, why can't we
37:38
pay for health care? Why can't we pay for...
37:42
services for women. Why can't we pay for... Post
37:45
-secondary education. Yeah. College, well, not
37:50
college, but community college should be free.
37:53
We shouldn't be paying for this. Instead of paying
37:56
for public education, which I think is also part
38:00
of this scam. It's a strategy. Yeah, it's a strategy.
38:04
Yeah, where they don't know, as you said, in
38:06
that list that Krugman gave, where people don't
38:08
know what to vote for or they don't bother to
38:11
vote at all. It's because they don't understand
38:13
what's going on and how it has an effect on them.
38:17
So we're going to go through this. Well, we're
38:21
still going to be dealing with this, even though
38:23
sometimes there are signs that things are improving
38:26
because of the Tennessee election that happened
38:29
this week. very close in a district that Trump
38:33
won by 30 points. And the midterm elections are
38:37
coming up, although did you see that Texas, the
38:39
Supreme Court, granted Texas the right to add
38:42
those five Republican seats. But California is
38:45
also going to do the same thing. So I think it's
38:47
going to balance out. And, you know, all blue
38:50
states should do what red states are doing. Let's
38:53
just redistrict. That's the other thing. The
38:56
representation is also racist in the red states
39:00
because places like Alabama and Mississippi,
39:04
they have very large black populations, but they
39:07
don't have any representation for those populations.
39:10
It just doesn't add up, but it's because the
39:14
districts have been drawn so that that representation
39:18
is diluted. And that's what Republicans in Kentucky
39:21
are planning to do by getting rid of the Democratic
39:24
seat in Jefferson County, the Democratic congressional
39:29
seat. But, you know, if they do that, then there's
39:35
no representation for black people at all. And,
39:38
well, right now I can say the same thing because
39:40
of what McGarvey and what... the mayor have done,
39:44
Greenberg have done. So I want to pivot. I wanted
39:48
to thank Jesse for, because he was out of town
39:52
over Thanksgiving weekend, I scored some really
39:57
great tickets for UofL women's basketball games
40:00
over the weekend. I went on Friday night and
40:02
I went on Sunday. And I was right behind the
40:05
basket. So I saw all the fouls and I saw all
40:08
the swooshes and the three -pointers like right
40:10
in front of me. Oh, my God, those are great seats,
40:13
Jesse. That was so much fun. And the women are
40:16
so good. They're good. And I went to the game
40:18
last night where they played South Carolina,
40:20
which is like in the top five teams in the country,
40:23
and they almost won. It was literally there was
40:27
a three -point shot. Had they hit the shot, that
40:30
would have been the game and it would have been
40:31
over. But you have to just in terms of just entertainment
40:37
and in terms of sports. And I say this many times
40:41
that Louisville offers a lot in terms of affordability
40:45
in the sports that people can take their families
40:47
to. Because, you know, we were talking about
40:50
going to Cincinnati for a football game probably
40:52
in December. And the cheapest ticket is $80 for,
40:58
I'm sure, a bad seat. I can go to a UofL football
41:02
game for $20, or I can go to a women's basketball
41:05
game for $20. We had the women's field hockey
41:10
tournament here. It was free. You could go into
41:12
that. The Louisville women are great at volleyball,
41:16
and they're going to be in the tournament, so
41:19
that's going to be affordable. During the baseball
41:22
season, I would go into the stadium here. I would
41:27
go to the gate and say, how much does this cost?
41:30
And they'd say, just go in. It's free. So, you
41:33
know, you want to take your family to things
41:35
and you think it's not affordable. There are
41:38
plenty of sports here which are, you know, these
41:40
are the people playing in Louisville are people
41:44
who are going to be in professional sports in
41:46
a couple of years. So see them while you can
41:48
because this is the cheapest. the cheapest availability
41:53
you'll ever have to see them. Jesse is wearing
41:55
a Cardinal jersey as he speaks. So Big Blue Nation,
41:59
you know, my son graduated from UK, and my daughter
42:02
graduated from UofL. So, hey, I support all of
42:07
the Kentucky teams. Yeah, well, I'm a Louisville
42:10
person because my son and my daughter -in -law
42:13
went to the University of Louisville. I get it.
42:16
And I might as well bring this up. When I was
42:18
working for the Courier -Journal, The rabid reactions
42:24
of fans on both sides was amazing because people
42:28
would count the number of lines we would write
42:30
about each team. And if there were more lines
42:33
for Kentucky than there were for Louisville,
42:35
we'd be accused of bias and just horrible things
42:39
that we were in the pocket of whatever the other
42:42
team was. And I did apply to be the... one of
42:48
the editors here in Louisville at the Courier
42:50
-Journal years ago. And I just flat out said,
42:55
I'm supporting Louisville. I don't care. That's
42:58
my team. I'm going to go with them. So I'm sure
43:01
that was a factor in not getting the job, among
43:03
other things. Could have been. Yeah. So I'd like
43:08
to talk about some positive things that we can
43:11
do over the holiday season. As you know, a lot
43:13
of people are suffering. It's very cold outside.
43:16
And I think that our power lies right here in
43:20
our local communities. So mutual aid is really
43:24
big right now. If there's any way for you to
43:26
step up and help feed, clothe, and shelter people,
43:29
like the basics. Do you have extra things lying
43:32
around? Blankets? coats you haven't worn in forever,
43:36
you know, toothpaste, et cetera. Bring those
43:39
to your local nonprofits. I also wanted to mention
43:43
that LSURGE, Louisville Showing Up for Racial
43:46
Justice, that's a Louisville organization. They're
43:49
on Facebook, probably Instagram, but I know they're
43:52
on Facebook. They're hosting another community
43:55
defense training in Louisville in a couple weeks
43:58
and I'm going and basically what this does is
44:01
it trains people to and it's white people to
44:05
accompany our brown and black brothers and sisters
44:09
neighbors in doing whatever they need to be safe
44:15
and to make sure that their constituents can
44:18
go to work, go to school safely, be home safely,
44:22
go to their churches safely, etc. So this community
44:26
defense training is going to be very powerful.
44:29
And Jesse, my dad fell a couple weeks ago, and
44:33
he's going to be 88 years old. And I got to tell
44:37
you, he got really good care at the hospital.
44:41
He was at Baptist Health. And now he's at a rehab
44:45
facility because he's got to, you know, put.
44:48
pressure on this leg and learn how to walk again
44:51
and it's very painful and i've got to tell you
44:54
i mean first of all i've got to thank i want
44:56
to thank all the nurses and all the professionals
44:58
that the department of education is trying to
45:01
scrub your professional status that's bullshit
45:05
and we all know it that's the federal department
45:08
of education yes yeah so but what i really want
45:11
to do is thank all of our health care providers
45:13
i know you're under a great deal of stress And
45:16
at the assisted living facility and the rehab
45:18
facility, and even the hospital, everyone was
45:22
short -staffed. Most of the people, almost all
45:25
the people working at the rehab facility are
45:27
people of color, and they're beautiful human
45:31
beings. They really care, but they're under -resourced,
45:33
they're underpaid, you know, and they don't get
45:37
thanked. So if you're visiting a relative at
45:41
these facilities, please... Please thank the
45:44
workers there. They are doing a great job under
45:46
very terrible conditions, frankly. Right. And
45:49
in some cases, the workers are the only people
45:52
that the residents see because their families
45:55
are gone. Right. So, you know, you have to wonder.
46:00
who's caring for people in these end -of -life
46:03
stages. They're all black and brown people caring
46:06
for them. Right, and they're immigrants, and
46:08
they come to America for a better life. And that's
46:13
the interesting thing when you talk about, you
46:15
know, people in America say that the American
46:20
dream is dead, but people who are coming to this
46:23
country see the American dream still, and they're
46:26
coming because this is still a place of opportunity.
46:30
Again, these are Republican talking points where
46:34
they're saying that everything's worse than it
46:36
was, and we want to go back to the days where
46:39
America was great, which is sort of a... Slavery.
46:42
Yeah, well, slavery, women being oppressed, women
46:47
can't vote. Indigenous people. People who didn't
46:50
own land couldn't vote. Right. So it's not about
46:54
going back to a better time, because there was
46:57
no real better time. And honestly, in my lifetime,
47:03
up until Trump became president, that was the
47:06
best time to be in America, alive in America.
47:09
When Trump became president, everything just
47:11
went bad again. So we have to just remember that
47:17
this still is the land of opportunity, that if
47:21
we make the changes that we have to make, and
47:24
to me, that involves just... getting rid of the
47:27
Republican Party. Yeah, we have to have good
47:30
people running for these offices that they can
47:32
win. Right, and the good people who are running
47:35
for office should realize what the offices are
47:37
that they should be running for instead of...
47:40
Trying to soothe their own egos or, you know,
47:43
just. And I don't want to say that about Charles
47:46
Booker. He's a really great guy. I've known him
47:49
a long time and his team is really great. So
47:53
I'm sure, you know, they're looking at the data.
47:56
They must think that he has a possibility of
47:58
winning. Although, you know, we know that insanity
48:01
is when you do the same things over and over
48:03
expecting a different result. It just seems unlikely
48:06
that it's possible for him to win. But I don't
48:10
know. it's ego driven i really i think he is
48:12
a true public servant but i that's probably true
48:16
but i do think that to be a public servant you
48:19
should be in an office that makes you a public
48:22
servant as opposed to not winning the office
48:25
and just being a person on the sidelines yelling
48:29
at the uh at the wall of uh resistance and you
48:33
know being the mayor of louisville is an influential
48:36
position being the congressman in this district.
48:41
We talked about this early in our podcast where
48:44
I really feel that if Charles Booker had been
48:48
the representative for this district instead
48:50
of Morgan McGarvey, Charles Booker would have
48:53
been out in the state doing the town hall meetings
48:56
that Morgan McGarvey wouldn't do. Republicans
48:58
weren't having town hall meetings because they
49:01
were afraid of being yelled at by their constituents.
49:04
And I could see... Charles Booker out there going
49:08
to these remote counties, the people would never
49:13
vote for him, the people would never agree with
49:15
him, but he would have a presence there where
49:17
he'd say, your Republican legislator is a coward
49:22
because he won't talk to you. I'm here to talk
49:25
to you. And I'm here to listen to you. And I
49:27
know that you're hurting. I know that things
49:29
are expensive now. And I know that you're disappointed
49:32
in health care costs and food costs and energy
49:35
costs because of the data centers and all the
49:37
things. I mean, that's really what he does so
49:40
well. He does listen to people. And he has gone
49:43
around the state in the past. But if he goes
49:46
around the state as a congressman, as someone
49:48
in the U .S. House of Representatives, then he
49:51
could be involved in getting legislation passed
49:53
that will actually result in improvements for
49:57
people, as opposed to signing off on Charlie
50:00
Kirk is a good guy referenda, or as opposed to
50:06
signing off on, or even being at the city council
50:10
level, which I don't think he should go that
50:13
far down. The fact that our Metro Council voted
50:17
to let masked people seize people off the streets
50:21
shows that there has to be a change there as
50:24
well. I didn't know that the Metro Council was
50:28
so evenly divided, though, that there were almost
50:30
as many Republicans as Democrats on it, which
50:35
is a sign that Louisville really isn't the blue
50:39
mecca that everybody thinks it is. And Charles,
50:42
I think, was a Metro Council member. I think
50:45
he was too. But anyway, I think we should let
50:48
people go and bake their cookies and do all the
50:52
holiday things, get their kids through school
50:55
and have a good time. We've had a beautiful snowfall
50:59
here. It's been so pretty. But I know winter's
51:02
not your favorite season. No, I don't like winter.
51:05
Make those soups, wear those sweaters. Enjoy
51:09
yourselves. Right. And also keep listening to
51:12
this podcast. And if you know people who might
51:16
be interested in what's going on in Kentucky,
51:18
recommend this to them because we'll keep doing
51:22
this. I mean, we don't have a huge audience,
51:24
but we do have opinions. And the whole point
51:27
is to get information out to people so they understand
51:30
that these are the things that we care about.
51:34
And we're sure that a lot of you care about it,
51:36
too. Until next time, so long, everybody. See
51:41
ya. Our closing music is by John Chamberlain.