Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 21

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 21 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
This is episode 21 of the Bluegrass Blues podcast.
0:03
I'm Jesse. And I'm Amy. It sounds like the planes
0:15
are active today. right on the flight path, so
0:18
we will hear planes coming over, and it's usually
0:22
FedEx coming over. No, UPS. Oh, right, UPS. We're
0:26
a big hub. Yeah, we're the big hub. So you'll
0:29
hear airlines landing in the background, but
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anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about
0:34
today. We're going to talk about the month of
0:38
February, and it is Black History Month. Can't
0:42
you tell by all the good stuff that's happening
0:44
in the country? Or by all the amazing comments
0:49
we're getting. But it is Black History Month.
0:52
There are plenty of things to be aware of this
0:58
month. But I think the important thing to look
1:01
at is just what is the history. And there was
1:05
a historical thing that happened. Was it today?
1:08
Jesse Jackson died. So, I mean, he was a huge
1:13
figure in the civil rights movement. He was there
1:19
when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. He ran
1:22
for president and was actually a viable candidate
1:27
when he ran for president. And the thing was
1:33
that when he was alive and when he was in his
1:37
prime, If you wanted to ask a question about
1:40
the black community, that was the person you
1:42
would go to. He was just like sort of the designated
1:45
black person for all of media. But he's left
1:50
a long legacy. He created Operation Push. He
1:55
did keep just the idea of civil rights in the
1:59
forefront all these years. And that seems to
2:02
have been... It's been sort of whittled away,
2:07
not the idea of civil rights, but the support
2:09
of civil rights is being whittled away every
2:12
day. And we see that with, well, just the basic
2:17
one where we have ICE running around in all our
2:22
communities, seizing people who are brown or
2:25
persecuting people who are black. You have Donald
2:32
Trump portraying the Obamas as apes. Right. And
2:36
that works for him. And the thing is that, you
2:40
know, he cast the Obamas as apes at the end of
2:46
some childish video, which he constantly posts.
2:49
And he says that it was done by a staffer. So
2:52
you ask anyone in the administration, well, was
2:56
that staffer fired? No, there's no word on that
2:59
at all. And then we've got Andy Barr here, and
3:03
he just released a 30 -second ad, and basically
3:08
he's running for Mitch McConnell's Senate seat.
3:11
He's pictured on a farm. The sun is shining.
3:14
There is a barn and an American flag behind him,
3:16
and he says, you know what DEI really stands
3:21
for? He says, smiling, dumb. Evil indoctrination.
3:26
Black History Month. Well, the thing that I find
3:30
interesting about this is that Anibar has decided
3:33
that racism is going to work for him. And that
3:36
is his belief in terms of what the people of
3:40
Kentucky are all about. If that's true, then
3:42
we are in a really sad state. But I'm sure he's
3:46
looking at the numbers and he's figuring, okay,
3:48
the white population of Kentucky is 80%. That's
3:53
the votes he has to get right now. And he figures
3:56
that if he's in a three -way race against, well,
4:01
three people who are going to deny black history,
4:03
including a black person, that would be David
4:05
Cameron, that seems to be his logic for running.
4:12
And this is, you know, it's typical of politicians
4:15
in certain places. If you're on the right, you
4:18
move as far to the right as you can. For the
4:21
primary, you get the true believers. And then
4:24
when the general election rolls around, you go
4:27
toward the middle. There is no middle anymore.
4:30
The middle has swung so far to the right that
4:34
the middle is the right. And at the end of his
4:37
ad, listen to this, he says, I'm Andy Barr. It's
4:41
not a sin to be white. It's not against the law
4:45
to be male. And it shouldn't be disqualifying
4:48
to be a Christian. I'm Andy Barr, and I approve
4:52
this message to give woke liberals something
4:55
else to cry about. And what is this? crying.
5:00
It's like, okay, he's going to inflict pain is
5:03
what he wants to do. And again, he is believing
5:08
that the people of Kentucky support this, which
5:12
is very troubling because if he's right, then
5:16
there's no hope for us. It would be nice if the
5:22
people of the state proved he was wrong. And
5:24
there is some Well, in other parts of the country,
5:29
there is some indication that the MAGA fever
5:31
is breaking. If you look at special elections
5:34
throughout the country, Democrats have been winning
5:37
by huge margins. And not only winning by huge
5:41
margins, they're winning in places that went
5:43
for Trump overwhelmingly in the last election.
5:47
So there is a major shift. We haven't seen this
5:51
shift. In Kentucky? Well, we have sort of seen
5:54
it because we did have an election here in Louisville
5:56
recently, and a former union official was elected
6:00
to the state senate state rep. Yeah, Gary Clemens.
6:03
Yeah. And Jesse, you were telling me something
6:07
really interesting earlier about... You know,
6:10
this talks about sort of hate and the history
6:13
of hate. I'd love for you to just... Yeah, well,
6:16
there's, you know, if you look at American history,
6:19
it's, you know... And I think it's human history.
6:21
Yeah, human history, American history, there's
6:24
this foundation of progression through hatred.
6:29
So if you look at American history... People
6:32
come from another place. Actually, immigrants
6:36
come from another country. They find that the
6:40
Native American population is here, and instead
6:44
of respecting that population, they kill them.
6:47
They just decided to wipe them out and brought
6:50
in specific diseases. They brought in guns. They
6:56
brought in Christianity. They did everything
6:59
they could to eliminate. the ethnicity of the
7:03
Native Americans. And the result of that is that
7:06
Native Americans are now confined to a specific
7:09
part of the country where ICE agents are now
7:13
stopping in Native Americans. It's like this
7:15
is the peak in absurdity where ICE agents, who
7:21
are all the children of immigrants, are going
7:23
to harass Native Americans who... Like, this
7:28
is where they're from. Yeah, and I just want
7:30
to mention as a naturalist that if you think
7:32
about indigenous... peoples and the wisdom that
7:36
they impart. They are one with the land. They
7:39
are one with water and soil and sky. And there's
7:43
this humility with regards to our planet. And
7:48
then you have the colonizers come and it's, you
7:51
know, just for profit. It's for people. They
7:54
subjugate. They subjugate the land. They oppress
7:58
people. You could talk about slavery now. And
8:02
the thing is that if you look at the issue of
8:04
slavery, that was one of the great scars on American
8:08
history, but you have a whole portion of the
8:12
population who thinks that it was okay, and they
8:15
still think it was okay. But, you know, that...
8:19
Slavery then leads into things like Reconstruction
8:22
and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, where black
8:25
people were actually given rights and the Klan
8:29
decided they were going to take it away. So you've
8:32
got that part of American history going. But
8:34
when the Civil Rights Movement was going on back
8:38
in the early to mid -20th century, we also had
8:42
the scare against communism. And that was another...
8:48
like focus of hatred where okay we can unify
8:53
as a country to hate these this group now because
8:56
that's communism and communism is bad And that
9:01
went through, actually through the 70s, the 80s,
9:04
90s, up into the fall of the Berlin Wall, where
9:08
communism didn't become an issue. Well, and I
9:10
think the residual attacks on socialists now.
9:14
Right. But even in that, people were against
9:19
communism. And they didn't know what it was because
9:22
if you ask a person what's a socialist, they
9:25
don't know what that means. They just know it's
9:27
a bad word. And when communism died, then who
9:32
was there to hate? And now it's become liberals.
9:36
I think that's the whole thing. Well, and you
9:38
mentioned, you know, of course, 9 -11. Right,
9:41
yeah, we had the Muslim hatred that was going
9:44
on. That still goes on today with the ICE. intrusion
9:50
into our neighborhoods so you know there's this
9:53
consistency of hatred in American history that
9:56
has gotten us to this point now where Because
10:01
we've run out of other groups to hate, we're
10:03
now directing our hate inwards. And I, you know,
10:06
I would like to overlay the fact that sexism
10:09
has been an overlay with all of this as well.
10:12
And, you know, Roe v. Wade was overturned and
10:15
we've been fighting to get the Epstein files
10:18
released. And we even have, you know, U .S. Representative
10:22
Thomas Massey here of Kentucky, like the only
10:25
Republican who is really pushing to get the Epstein
10:30
files. files released, and he's been called a
10:33
moron by Trump, and something happened this month
10:37
at the Lincoln Day dinner in Oldham County where
10:40
Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne yanked the
10:43
microphone off the podium as U .S. Representative
10:48
Thomas Massey was saying, the chain of command
10:51
does not go to the commander -in -chief when
10:53
you are a congressman. You work not for the Speaker
10:57
of the House. You work for the people. And then
11:01
he was called a moron and booed offstage. The
11:04
thing, too, about Massey is you look at politicians
11:09
and you wonder, well, what's their popularity
11:12
in their districts? And I just did a quick search,
11:16
and it looks like Massey's approval rating in
11:19
his district is about 44%, which is less than
11:22
the majority, but it's... If you compare it to
11:25
the approval rating of Congress in general, that's
11:28
like at 14%. So Massey's doing a lot better than
11:33
Congress is in general. And the thing is, I'm
11:37
not a Thomas Massey fan. If I had the choice
11:42
to vote for him and someone, a Democrat, I'm
11:45
going to vote for a Democrat. But if he's the
11:48
choice you have and he's the only one standing
11:50
up to this administration, then... He deserves
11:55
to still be in Congress because there are no
11:58
Republican voices who are doing what he's doing.
12:01
And again, I'm not a Massey fan, but what he's
12:08
doing is defending children. And you have to
12:12
give credit to that because we have a lot of
12:14
billionaires who are, as the Epstein files have
12:17
shown, they feel that they are immune to any
12:21
kind of... repercussions for any of the evil
12:25
they do and we can get into more of that later
12:27
but this is a person who's standing up to the
12:32
billionaire class or to the powerful and he's
12:36
getting ostracized by people within his own party
12:39
in this state which raises a big question because
12:43
this state has a high level of child abuse and
12:46
child rape so The people who are against Massey
12:52
are, in essence, saying that they're for child
12:55
abuse. Child rape. Child rape. So, you know,
12:58
these are things that you can... I give Massey
13:03
the benefit of a doubt on all of this because
13:05
he is standing up to authoritarian power and...
13:11
And the patriarchy in this case. Billionaire
13:14
patriarchy in this case. So we can talk about
13:17
Massey actually standing up for the rights of
13:21
children, which is good, but then we're still
13:25
in Black History Month, and I'm sure Massey is
13:27
not going to... be a big fan of Black History
13:30
Month. But even with that, there's a Republican
13:33
legislator, a state senator. Donald Douglas from
13:37
Nicholasville. Yeah, and he's a black guy, but
13:40
he's also introduced a law. Senate Bill 72. Yeah,
13:46
that will... prevent, well, will allow doctors
13:51
to refuse to treat patients based on their ethical
13:55
or religious beliefs. Religious, moral, or ethical
13:58
principles. Right. Their consciences. Yeah, so
14:01
this is, it's, well, we know what that means.
14:06
He wants trans people to not be treated. That's
14:10
essentially it, because that's what Andy Barr
14:12
is running on in his platform when Andy Barr
14:15
says things like, we don't want... boys and girls
14:18
sports which you know it's not just that it's
14:21
abortion care yeah you know everything involving
14:24
everything involving women's rights and women's
14:28
uh bodies um that is um it's just like they can
14:34
decide what they want to do with other people's
14:36
bodies but they also are deciding that they're
14:39
not going to treat other people's bodies so And
14:43
what is amazing about this is that this is a
14:47
black person, and he doesn't seem to realize
14:49
that a doctor can say, well, I don't want to
14:52
treat black people because it's not part of my
14:57
ethical beliefs or whatever. And there are people
14:59
who will do things like that because I was listening
15:03
to... Or I was reading something where there
15:06
was like a nurse who was breaking the bones of
15:10
black babies And this is like These are the horrors
15:16
we have to deal with and I'm sure you all heard
15:18
that train in the background, but there are things
15:21
that we are dealing with these days that It just
15:26
is showing that we're sort of declining as moral
15:30
right moral responsibilities another thing i
15:33
noticed jesse is you know we've been talking
15:35
about how in our state legislature right now
15:38
it's very difficult for the public to have access
15:41
to legislators uh to committee you know discussions
15:45
etc and you know i was reading about these national
15:50
right -wing pushes to pass medical conscience
15:53
laws and And I read that a staff member from
15:57
an influential Christian legal organization called
16:00
Alliance Defending Freedom sat with Douglas in
16:04
the committee hearing earlier this week in support
16:06
of the bill. So somehow the people in this state
16:10
who have real issues are not allowed to participate
16:14
in our legislative process. But you have this
16:18
lobbyist who wants to take our health care rights
16:20
away, who's sitting with our state senator. I
16:24
wonder how much he pays them. Yeah, well, these
16:26
are all contributions. You know, the lobbyists
16:29
are paying for, well, the lobbyists have the
16:31
money of very rich people to pay for politicians
16:33
to do what they want them to do. And, you know,
16:39
there's also just the whole budget issue that
16:42
we have to get into as well. Right. You know,
16:45
there's, what, what's like three, two and a half
16:48
billion dollars or three billion dollars? Yeah.
16:51
So, you know, the budget is a moral document.
16:54
And I just wanted to mention that we, Jesse and
16:57
I, have a really good state senator who's Senator
17:00
Keturah Heron, who, by the way, is the first
17:03
out queer person in the state legislature. And
17:08
she entered in 2022. And she's incredibly thoughtful.
17:16
If you're in our district here in Old Louisville
17:19
and the surrounding areas, she sends out a weekly
17:23
email blast about legislative updates, and it's
17:27
a really good way to stay abreast of what's happening.
17:30
But essentially, and I'm going to sort of speak
17:34
from an article by Jason Bailey, who's the president
17:37
of the Kentucky Center for Economic Progress.
17:40
Let's see if I got that right. I think I did.
17:43
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. So, you
17:47
know, basically the Republicans who have a supermajority
17:52
in the Kentucky state legislature want to pass
17:56
a bare -bones budget that contains huge cuts
18:00
despite leaving more than a billion dollars in
18:03
projected revenue unspent. And as a finance person,
18:07
basically... every state is supposed to have
18:11
a reserve, right? And typically the reserve is,
18:16
say, 10 % of the budget is held in reserve. Well,
18:19
right now, our reserve trust fund sits at $3
18:23
.7 billion, which is 24 % of the state revenues,
18:29
far exceeding the 10 % necessary, right? And
18:33
so what they're doing is they're starving. They're
18:37
starving. Kentuckians, right? And basically this
18:40
budget, it basically spends $800 million less
18:46
than needed to fund Medicaid. It puts 35 rural
18:51
hospitals at risk. It does not include costs
18:54
for SNAP food assistance that have been passed
18:57
on to the states by the federal government. It
19:01
cuts higher ed again. putting funding for those
19:04
institutions 43 % below inflation in just 2008
19:09
levels, and it cut SEEK payments to K -12 education
19:15
by over $100 million, continuing 20 years of
19:20
state disinvestment in Kentucky public schools.
19:24
So, you know, you've got this poor state, and
19:27
we've got very high cancer rates, all kinds of
19:31
issues. And the Republicans don't want to fund
19:35
the state. Plus, not only that, they keep lowering
19:39
the income tax of the richest people in the state.
19:44
And the reduction of the top income tax rate
19:47
from 5 % in 2022 to 3 .5 % today costs us...
19:53
$2 .1 billion a year. Money that can do a lot
19:58
to improve the quality of life in the state.
20:00
But people don't know this. We're not educated
20:03
about it, and we don't know how to vote for the
20:07
people who will represent us in the state. And
20:10
the other thing, too, and this is still going
20:11
on, but the legislature is pretty much banning
20:15
the public from participating because they've
20:17
closed off certain access to... meetings since
20:20
they've done this renovation of the Capitol.
20:23
Right. Well, and the other thing I want to say
20:25
is there was a poll done that reveals that Kentuckians
20:28
want legislators to have different priorities.
20:31
Only 28 % said lawmakers should focus on reducing
20:35
taxes for everyone, even if most of the benefits
20:38
go to the wealthy, while 72 % said legislators
20:42
should focus instead on improving schools, improving
20:46
health care, and bringing down the cost of living.
20:49
Okay, and we should emphasize here that legislators
20:52
in Kentucky means politicians. Not politicians,
20:59
but Republican politicians, because if Democrats
21:02
were in charge... A lot of this stuff would be
21:06
going through, like the funding would be going
21:09
through, the funding would be there for the communities,
21:12
but you have a super majority of Republicans
21:14
in the legislature. They are following the designs
21:19
and will of what the president wants, and that
21:26
isn't necessarily what the people want. As we
21:30
know, and we can get into the Epstein files later,
21:33
but the Epstein files are full of Donald Trump
21:37
and full of Donald Trump supporters, and it's
21:39
full of very rich people. We noticed one of the
21:42
billionaires not in the Epstein files was George
21:44
Soros. Yes, the bane of the Republican right
21:49
is not one of the Epstein files people, which
21:52
says something about the morality of the people
21:55
in the Epstein files. It also says that... George
21:58
Soros is not the evil person that the right says
22:02
he is because the evil people are on the right.
22:05
And you look at the names that are coming out,
22:08
they're all Trump supporters, they're all Trump
22:11
financiers, they're all Trump flunkies. And,
22:15
you know, these are, it's scary if you, anyone
22:18
who's paying attention to what's coming out of
22:20
the Epstein files should be horrified by. The
22:24
names of the people showing up, because these
22:26
are the richest people in the world. These are
22:29
the most powerful people in the world, and these
22:31
are the most well -known people. They're not
22:33
only in politics. They're in business. They're
22:36
in academia. They are everywhere. It was interesting,
22:40
Jesse, you lived in Belgium, and I noticed that
22:44
Europe is taking a far harsher stance of Europeans.
22:48
The former Prince Andrew, for example, shows
22:51
up in the Epstein file. and they seem to really
22:54
be taking it a lot more seriously than we are.
22:57
No, they're actually firing people in the British
22:59
government. I think there's an ambassador who's
23:01
out of a job. They're also looking at royal families
23:05
in other countries. There are other billionaires,
23:09
global billionaires who... are in the files and
23:13
the names that are showing up. It's kind of odd,
23:17
but if you look at the richest people on the
23:20
Forbes billionaire list, you're going to see
23:22
a lot of people who are in the Epstein files.
23:26
I'm just glancing through. For example, I don't
23:30
see Warren Buffett. You see Bill Gates and you
23:33
see Jeff Bezos and you see Elon Musk. And they
23:41
see the emails that they were sending to Epstein,
23:44
and some of them are just horrific because they're
23:49
talking about molesting children. It's like in
23:52
couched words, but the idea is that, oh, bring
23:56
your harem with you, as one billionaire wrote
23:58
to Epstein, or others saying, when's the next
24:02
party? I think Elon Musk was asking when the
24:05
next big... party is but it's not only that it's
24:09
people who are you know who maintained contact
24:13
with him even after they knew that he had been
24:18
arrested and prosecuted and convicted for raping
24:22
children so there's there's just that that idea
24:26
that the very rich are very Yeah, but I would
24:33
extend it to the Republican Party. You know,
24:36
this immorality I want to bring local now. So
24:39
Louisville Metro Council, we have our Metro Council
24:44
representative in District 6 is Democrat J .P.
24:48
Leninger, and he brought a proposal that would
24:51
have made it illegal in Louisville for people
24:53
to wear masks in public for the purpose of concealing
24:57
their occupation. So in other words, it would
25:00
have applied to local, state, and federal law
25:02
enforcement, including ICE agents. And it failed.
25:07
Metro Council overturned this and did not approve
25:11
this mask ban. I find that completely... and
25:18
sad, and we should be firing these people at
25:22
a local level. Well, it's not only that they're
25:23
allowing them to remain masked, they're also
25:27
essentially allowing them to not be identified
25:30
at all because they don't put their names on
25:32
their uniforms. They're just these people who
25:37
come out of nowhere, probably former, you know,
25:41
they're probably the people who were invading
25:42
the Capitol on January 6th. You've got these
25:47
people who, well, the ICE agents are going into
25:51
communities. They're disrupting life in general.
25:56
The administration has no... respect for anything.
26:01
And the detention facilities that are expanding,
26:03
they're taking warehouse space, including here
26:06
in Louisville, across the nation, and they're
26:09
going to repurpose these warehouses into detention
26:12
facilities. And of course, these detention facilities
26:14
are owned by rich people. So it's a for -profit,
26:19
cruel... unbelievable practice. And I just wanted
26:23
to mention that, you know, with my work in El
26:26
Surge, Louisville showing up for racial justice,
26:29
I accompanied a woman who was here with a work
26:33
visa and has two children whom I believe were
26:37
born here. And she had a court date in federal
26:40
court and we accompanied her and we were looking
26:44
out for ICE. The good news was ICE didn't show
26:47
up that day and she got an extension. to stay
26:50
here. The bad news is this woman was absolutely
26:54
terrified. She wasn't going to come to court
26:57
and then she couldn't get out of her car for
27:00
a while. And it is so wrong what is happening
27:03
to human beings in our communities. It is so
27:06
wrong. These are humans. These are our neighbors.
27:10
And I just find it completely unconscionable.
27:12
Well, I also find it unconscionable that our
27:15
mayor has done nothing to prevent this and actually
27:18
has encouraged this because this is allegedly
27:22
a Democratic mayor. And instead of, you know,
27:27
you could either like even slow walking something.
27:32
He's not doing that. He's just saying, OK, come
27:34
on in. Do what you must. And ICE is running around
27:38
all of Louisville. They are. And, in fact, many
27:44
of us here in Louisville go to Hawk's Corner.
27:46
It used to be a pharmacy in Germantown. And there
27:50
was a Cuban chef there that was taken by ICE
27:52
right from work. uh you know just a couple weeks
27:55
ago and and in our neighborhood there we we've
27:59
had ice activity i just want to mention while
28:01
i'm thinking of it that we want everybody in
28:04
the louisville metropolitan area to know this
28:06
hotline number if you see any ice activity if
28:11
you could call our hotline at 502 -830 -9398
28:19
and give us information how many people what
28:22
what do the cars look like what are they wearing
28:24
what kind of weapons are they are they carrying
28:27
and the location that would be really helpful
28:31
we have a 24 -hour hotline and more and more
28:34
louisvillians are stepping up to get trained
28:36
in community defense so please have that hotline
28:41
number ready and Let us know if you see any ice.
28:46
Right. And they are, the ice is everywhere here.
28:50
They are. So we can't. Don't fool yourselves
28:52
that it's over there in Minneapolis, St. Paul,
28:55
or over there in another city. It's right here.
28:59
It's all over the state. But one of the reasons
29:01
you know about it in other places is because
29:03
there is better media. I know. In other places.
29:06
Right. And. Let's talk about that. Well, yeah.
29:10
Well, there's. Well. Everyone knows my frustration
29:15
with the local paper. I used to work here. It's
29:21
just a disappointment when you see things, and
29:24
we've talked about this many times, where there
29:26
are activities happen that are either against
29:33
ICE or whatever, and they're never reported.
29:35
When there are large gatherings of people, the
29:38
numbers are underreported or it's not reported
29:41
at all. We've had major demonstrations here that
29:45
have had very minimal coverage. And, you know,
29:48
this is not just a problem with the local paper.
29:53
This is a problem with national papers. Guess
29:58
this is the time to talk about the Washington
30:00
Post because that was one of my former jobs and
30:04
I was at the post when Jeff Bezos took over I
30:09
was at the Wall Street Journal before that and
30:13
just The news was last week that the Washington
30:19
Post Essentially fired a third of its staff a
30:22
third of its reporting staff. So that is It's
30:28
now fewer people or fewer reporters at the Post
30:32
than when Jeff Bezos took over. And Jeff Bezos'
30:37
hiring or Jeff Bezos' takeover was supposed to
30:42
ensure the expansion of the Washington Post.
30:46
And when Bezos took over, the Post was doing
30:53
some very important work. And it was getting
30:57
a lot of notices. More people were reading. If
31:00
you look at the historical trend, the Post had
31:05
at one point more readers than the New York Times
31:09
did. And this was soon after Bezos took over.
31:13
Because at that time, the Post was doing stories
31:16
that people were really reading. And the fact
31:20
was that this was the first Trump administration.
31:24
And the Post numbers were huge during that time.
31:27
And was Marty Baron in charge? Marty Baron was
31:29
in charge of the Post. So you look at that in
31:31
hindsight. Then Bezos decides that, well, Bezos
31:39
pays like $250 million for the Post. And when
31:43
Marty Baron left, they bought in a new editor,
31:49
Sally Busby, who was... Doing fine. She was doing
31:53
fine. The Post was still doing great work. But
31:57
then Bezos hires this guy from News Corp named
32:01
Will Lewis. And he was... We're not related.
32:06
We're both Lewises, but we're not related. He
32:09
was in London the same time I was in London,
32:12
but he was working for a different News Corp
32:14
operation. And during that time, he was... one
32:21
of the people responsible for just destroying
32:24
a bunch of emails that were needed for an investigation
32:27
into rupert murdoch's news organizations coverage
32:33
of certain stories because they were hacking
32:36
illegally hacking the phones of people and the
32:40
the horror story here was that there was one
32:42
phone that was a girl who was murdered they people
32:46
couldn't find her the News Corp people hacked
32:50
her phone, making police think that she was still
32:53
alive. But they were just getting information.
32:56
They were also hacking the phones of very famous
32:59
people like Hugh Grant and Prince Harry. And
33:05
the government said, don't destroy the emails.
33:07
And Will Lewis essentially destroyed the emails.
33:11
So he does that in London. His reward is he's
33:16
sent to become the publisher of the Wall Street
33:19
Journal. And so he does that a few years. Then
33:23
he's brought on to the Washington Post by Jeff
33:27
Bezos, where he introduces the, you know, it
33:32
used to be democracy dies in darkness, but then
33:34
they changed their slogan to something like markets
33:39
and business and whatever. The slogan was essentially
33:45
what the Wall Street Journal slogan was. And
33:49
Will Lewis brought in a bunch of people from
33:51
the journal to run the Post. One of the things
33:55
he said when he started was that the reason the
33:59
Post was losing readers was because we weren't
34:02
writing about what people wanted to read. what
34:09
people want to read is what the Trump administration
34:11
is doing. And that was essentially, you know,
34:15
they'll say it wasn't, but Bezos has been more
34:19
acquiescence to the Trump administration now
34:22
than he was before. And so they gave this argument
34:27
that, okay, you're not writing what people want
34:30
to read, but they're doing things like. not endorsing
34:34
Kamala Harris. There was an endorsement for Kamala
34:37
Harris ready to go. Either Bezos or Will Lewis
34:41
said, no, don't run that. So this is the first
34:44
line where they're just completely not respecting
34:47
the views of... They're readers. Well, they have
34:51
no journalistic integrity anymore because of
34:55
this. They're bought by this billionaire in this
34:59
country. Right. And my thoughts on Bezos when
35:03
he bought the Post was the Post needed help.
35:05
He said he wasn't going to interfere. He didn't
35:08
interfere during the Marty Barron tenure. When
35:11
Trump was elected the second time, he... Bezos
35:15
does the Melania documentary. Bezos does the
35:18
donations to the East Wing destruction. Oh, and
35:24
he didn't endorse, remember? He did what? He
35:27
wouldn't endorse. He took away endorsements.
35:30
Oh, yeah, that was the Kamala Harris endorsement
35:33
that was taken away. And then, like, as the readership
35:39
goes down because people are pissed off at the
35:41
things that the Post was doing by not covering
35:43
the Trump administration, by not giving the endorsements,
35:47
by changing their policy because that didn't
35:50
represent the financial interest of Jeff Bezos.
35:53
So, you know, that just completely makes the
35:57
numbers go down. And as a result of that. you
36:02
lose the readership. And readership goes down,
36:08
so it's steadily going down. And again, they're
36:12
blaming the reporters for not covering things
36:15
that people want to read when they're essentially...
36:19
The things that people want to read, they're
36:21
not letting the reporters report. Right. And,
36:23
you know, look at the defections at CBS now,
36:27
CBS News, like just media in general. We really
36:30
are looking a lot more like an authoritarian
36:33
state. Right. And the other part of it, too,
36:36
is that one of the arguments they're using for
36:38
getting rid of the people at The Washington Post
36:40
was that it was losing $100 million a year. comment
36:46
reminded me of I'm going to go into classic movies
36:50
now but there's a line in Citizen Kane where
36:53
Charles Foster Kane played by Orson Welles is
36:56
talking with his guardian who's been who took
37:00
him from his home when he was a little boy because
37:02
they lived on like an oil oil field that made
37:07
Kane millions and millions of dollars and so
37:10
this Guardian, who's also watching the money,
37:14
is complaining that Kane has bought this newspaper
37:17
where he's losing a million dollars a year. And
37:21
there's this really great speech, and I'll include
37:25
that clip in the post on this, but there's a
37:29
speech that Kane gives about... being a rich
37:32
person and representing the interest of people
37:35
who can't defend themselves. So this is like
37:38
very idealistic in the past. The Guardian has
37:45
said that, okay, you're losing a million dollars
37:47
a year. And Kane essentially says, okay, I know
37:52
I'm going to lose a million dollars a year. I
37:54
know I'm going to lose a million dollars next
37:57
year. I'm probably going to lose a million dollars
37:59
the year after that. And at this rate... I'll
38:03
run out of money in 60 years. So I took that
38:06
perspective and I decided, okay, what does this
38:09
mean in terms of Jeff Bezos? So it's like the
38:15
Washington Post is losing $100 million a year
38:18
if Jeff Bezos is like Kane. Let's say they lose
38:23
$100 million again next year and $100 million
38:26
a year after that. At that rate... Jeff Bezos
38:32
would run out of money in 2 ,000 years. And so,
38:35
you know, there's just this idea that he's so
38:39
wealthy and they're giving us this bullshit argument
38:42
about losing money when, you know, this is what
38:46
they're losing in a year is, as I've said in
38:49
many times, it's the change in Jeff Bezos' couch.
38:53
And they could easily, easily, easily handle
38:57
the finances on this. if they're doing a public
39:01
service. No, it's corruption. Well, it's corruption,
39:05
but it's the idea that wealth has taken over,
39:07
and it's still just running rampant through everything
39:13
we do these days, and that's what controls us.
39:16
That's where we have... Again, billionaires who
39:20
are buying politicians. Well, you know, we saw,
39:24
what is it, Elon Musk put $10 million into Nate
39:28
Morris' campaign. And let's, Elon Musk, let's
39:32
talk about this billionaire. He now has $800
39:35
billion. He's like $200 billion from a trillion
39:39
dollars. And he's putting like, you said, $10
39:43
million into Nate Morris' campaign. That's nothing.
39:47
That's a penny. That's pennies. A shopping cart
39:52
at Aldi. Right. We are just like, we've talked
39:58
about the budget and how Kentuckians are suffering
40:03
because of the budget crisis. It shouldn't be
40:07
a budget crisis, by the way. We have money. But
40:09
the thing is, there is no crisis. That's the
40:12
thing. The concept that there's money there,
40:17
but you're not giving it to the population. You're
40:21
giving it to a couple of very rich people. A
40:25
couple of very rich people who think they can
40:26
get away with anything they want to do because
40:28
they're very rich people. So, you know, we've
40:35
got to really just, as citizens, we have to...
40:40
understand that we do have the power to stop
40:42
these things yeah and if we go out and vote and
40:45
they're going to do everything they can to stop
40:47
us from right like me with this is it called
40:50
the same act if if if women don't have the same
40:56
name that's on their birth certificate we may
41:00
not be able to vote. Can you imagine all of,
41:03
well, and some men, my first husband changed
41:05
his name too. But if your name is not the same
41:09
as on your birth certificate, you may not have
41:11
the right to vote. Right. You'll go into the,
41:13
I think in a lot of cases you will be able to
41:16
vote, but if they decide that. If the Republicans
41:19
decide, okay, we're not going to let people in
41:22
this district vote because we know they're going
41:24
to vote for Democrats, they can get away with
41:27
that under this SAVE Act. Just like as people
41:30
go into the polls, they'll give them their information,
41:34
they'll ask for their ballot, and if the SAVE
41:36
Act is followed strictly, then if your name on
41:41
your driver's license or if your name on your
41:43
poll... figures isn't the same as your birth
41:50
certificate then they'll say you can't vote and
41:52
there's no time for you to like actually appeal
41:55
this if you like you don't know and you're going
41:57
into vote that day and you get there and they
42:01
say oh your name isn't the same which also they're
42:04
trying to make it harder for you to vote by mail
42:07
and you know already in Kentucky we had such
42:12
draconian laws around voting it was just 6am
42:15
to 6pm whatever your time, you know, Eastern
42:19
and Central time here. We didn't have all these
42:22
other options that have opened up since the pandemic,
42:25
mail -in voting, early voting, et cetera. So
42:27
we really, I want to, I know that it gets overwhelming
42:32
when we talk about all this stuff. And I do want
42:35
to mention surge again, the Louisville showing
42:39
up for racial justice. And then we can talk about
42:42
the basketball game we went to, but so. Louisville's
42:46
showing up for racial justice. I want to tell
42:48
you, like, I want to read a quote. And this goes
42:52
back to Black History Month for me, too. The
42:54
battle is and always has been a battle for the
42:57
hearts and minds of white people in this country.
43:00
The fight against racism is our issue. It's not
43:05
something that we're called on to help people
43:08
of color with. We need to become involved with
43:11
it as if our lives depended on it because really,
43:15
in truth, they do. And that is a quote by Ian
43:19
Brayden, who is a famous white civil rights activist,
43:22
journalist, and educator here in Kentucky. So
43:25
I mentioned... lsurge louisvillesurge .org they
43:29
also have a big facebook present presence and
43:33
very specifically and i have a lot of friends
43:36
that are really getting involved and i'm so excited
43:38
about it we have tons of upcoming trainings and
43:42
actions on february 16th there's an online community
43:45
defense training on february 18th there's another
43:50
community defense training this one's in person
43:53
On the 28th of February, we have nonviolent civil
43:56
disobedience and direct action training. On March
44:00
9th, we have another community defense training.
44:03
And on March 15th, we have another nonviolent
44:06
civil disobedience and direct action training.
44:08
The reason I mention this to you is I am still
44:12
having conversations with white friends who don't
44:15
know what to do. What can I do? I don't know
44:17
what to do. So I'm telling you, there are so
44:20
many things to do. And if you want to do something
44:22
with a very organized... organization that is
44:27
really making an impact, sign up for one of these
44:31
trainings at louisvillesurge .org. Oh, let's
44:36
see, there's another plane flying overhead. By
44:39
the way, I just want to make a commentary about
44:41
all the planes that are flying overhead. So again,
44:44
we're a big UPS hub, right? One of the ways that
44:49
we have power is by using our money wisely and
44:54
boycotting corporations owned by billionaires
44:58
that are supporting Trump, right? So all of these
45:01
planes are basically carrying our shit. People's
45:04
Amazon stuff. All the stuff that we're buying
45:08
from Walmart .com, Amazon .com, all the things,
45:11
right? So I would love for us to be thinking
45:15
much more carefully about where our money is
45:18
going, buying less shit, going and I have been
45:23
getting amazing stuff at swap meets, at thrift
45:27
stores, etc. I know it sounds quaint. But this
45:31
is people power. Where we spend our money is
45:35
power. And so anyway, I'd love to also not have
45:40
as much plain noise above my house all day long.
45:43
And all night long. Right. Especially during
45:47
the holidays. That's when it's really bad. But
45:49
yeah, like you said, UPS is a big air carrier
45:54
here. It's very busy. which ordinarily would
45:58
be a good thing, but the other side of this too
46:00
is that UPS is fired. dismissed a bunch of people,
46:07
and that's because Amazon decided that they weren't
46:10
going to use the UPS as much. And you'll start
46:13
to see a lot more Amazon trucks now. They're
46:16
not using the UPS or FedEx anymore. They've got
46:19
their own transportation. Right, and that means
46:22
that they're reducing the number of jobs in Kentucky
46:25
as a result of this. Well, and then you add on
46:28
AI and, you know, who needs people anymore? But
46:31
anyway, let's go to UofL women's basketball.
46:34
Okay, that's worth doing. We went to the game
46:37
this weekend, and they won again, which is great.
46:41
They're so good. The team is very good. The men's
46:44
team is also very good, but the women's team
46:47
is, in terms of rankings, it's higher ranked
46:51
in women's basketball than the men's team is
46:54
in men's basketball. The men's team is probably
46:56
in the top 25 in the country. The women's team
47:00
is in the top 10. The advantages for season ticket
47:06
holders like me is that if the women's team remains
47:12
in the top 16 by the time of the tournament,
47:15
they will get to host the first two rounds of
47:17
the tournament, which is a big deal. They haven't
47:20
done that in, I think it's three years now. And
47:24
in the past, I've gone to the tournament when
47:26
it was here. It's just, you know, you're getting
47:29
the... just love going to tournaments i went
47:33
to the women's tournament i think it was in 2022
47:35
and in columbus ohio if the women's team gets
47:41
into the final four this year i plan to go to
47:43
the tournament in the final four in phoenix but
47:48
just this accessibility to a very popular team
47:53
if you as amy can attest that The crowds are
47:59
huge. It's one of the bigger draws in women's
48:05
basketball. I think the last game we went to,
48:07
there were at least 9 ,000 or 10 ,000 people.
48:10
And this is in Louisville in an evening. Lots
48:14
of kids. It's very family -friendly. And the
48:18
basketball is just really, really well done.
48:21
The team is a really good team. Your son and
48:24
your grandsons are going to go. Yeah, I've been
48:28
with my son. I'm planning to take my grandsons
48:30
this weekend. So there are things to do to divert
48:38
your attention from all the bad things going
48:40
on in the world. So I would say if there are
48:42
sports you like to do, do those. I was looking
48:45
at getting a membership at the YMCA. That's,
48:51
you know, I can walk to the Y from here. It's
48:54
a local arts organization. There are just lots
48:58
of local stuff. Go to the museums here. The museums
49:02
here are great. And back to Black History Month,
49:05
we've got the Muhammad Ali Museum, which is,
49:08
you know, one of the great figures in the world
49:14
in professional sports and also a person who
49:17
was from Louisville. If you go back to the women's
49:21
games, at the beginning of the fourth quarter,
49:23
they always rally the crowd by showing a clip
49:27
of Muhammad Ali saying what a great city Louisville,
49:29
Kentucky is. It's the greatest city in the world.
49:33
He's predicting that they're going to be another
49:35
world champion from Louisville, Kentucky. And
49:38
that gets the crowd really going. But there are
49:41
so many things to do here. There are things that
49:45
you can do to... divert your attention from all
49:48
the bad things that are going on. And sometimes
49:50
you really need that. Oh, you know what? I might
49:54
as well do a couple of plugs for things that
49:57
I'm involved with. I helped found a local group
50:03
called Jewish Louisvillians for Peace. partner
50:07
with local Palestinians to elevate the conversation
50:11
about what's really happening in Palestine so
50:16
that we can support peace one day. Anyway, we
50:21
have a film that we're co -sponsoring with a
50:25
couple of other organizations like the Justice
50:29
for All People's Justice Center. And the film
50:34
is No Other Land. And it's a very thoughtful
50:39
film about what's happening in Palestine. It's
50:42
on March 8th at First Unitarian. And it's free.
50:48
And we also have a panel and a local Palestinian
50:51
woman who's a physician and a local Jewish Israeli,
50:56
former Israeli woman who's a professor at UofL
50:59
is going to be on the panel. That's going to
51:01
be great. And then with Voces Nove, I just want
51:06
to tell you where it is. So on March 15th, it's
51:09
at 3 p .m., this concert. It's the regional premiere
51:12
of a work called Creation by Dan Forrest, who
51:16
is an unbelievable composer. I feel like this
51:19
is such an epic piece of work. We are also going
51:23
to be accompanied by a small orchestra, and it's
51:28
at St. Michael Catholic Church. 3705 Stone Lakes
51:33
Drive in Louisville. And you can purchase tickets
51:36
at vocesnovelouisville .org. I promise you, if
51:39
you want to have a spiritual experience with
51:45
singing and orchestra and this gorgeous, gorgeous
51:50
piece of music, come join us on March 15th. Okay.
51:53
So that's, you know, again, there are things
51:57
that... We can't let the constant barrage of
52:01
news get us down. So things like going to these
52:04
basketball games, going to concerts, taking part
52:08
in museums. You have to cleanse your mind from
52:12
all the other things going on in the arena these
52:16
days. What else do we have? I think that's it.
52:22
And, you know, again, we're in the middle of
52:25
Black History Month. If you have other things
52:28
you want to share, please come to our website,
52:31
thebluegrassbluespodcast .com. Let us know how
52:35
we're doing and let us know what you'd like to
52:38
be hearing. And we will post links to pretty
52:41
much whatever we refer to at the bottom of this
52:44
on our webpage. Plus, we do have this on YouTube,
52:49
and there are other outlets. I think this also
52:53
appears on Apple News or Apple Podcasts. So we
53:00
have outlets. Is it on Spotify now? It should
53:03
be. It should be, yeah. So listen. Share with
53:07
your friends. Share. We're so fun. Give us ideas,
53:10
because we are going to do this for as long as
53:14
we can. And that's it for this week. Take care.
53:19
So long. Our closing music is by John Chamberlain.