Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 20

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 20 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:01
Hello, this is the 20th episode of the Bluegrass
0:04
Blues podcast. I'm Amy. And I'm Jesse. Have you
0:15
been out in the snow recently? Because it's just
0:19
like been a nightmare in Louisville. Everyone
0:22
out there, we all know that we've just gone through
0:24
this major snowstorm that's cut across the country.
0:28
It's created like huge snow drifts. There's ice
0:31
all over the roads. And I've been out driving
0:35
in the past couple of days. You know, the roads
0:39
are drivable, but the sidewalks are impossible
0:42
to walk down. If you're going on a walk just
0:45
in general, you have to walk in the street. And
0:48
Amy, you had something horrible happen on your
0:51
block. Well, it could have been worse, but yes,
0:54
a water main broke right on my block in Old Louisville,
1:00
and we had sort of a torrent of muddy water that
1:05
rose all the way to almost flood our cars on
1:09
the street, but it did not flood the cars, so
1:12
that's what I'm really grateful about. Also,
1:14
it wasn't wastewater. It was drinking water.
1:16
I'm grateful about that. We didn't have a boil
1:19
advisory, but... we boiled anyway um and there's
1:23
still a big gaping hole uh on the street right
1:26
around the corner from my house right i was driving
1:29
this morning and i was actually going in your
1:31
direction and saw that they had closed off the
1:33
road so there's been a lot of road construction
1:36
in louisville in general so every Other day,
1:40
there's a new barrier that makes it impossible
1:42
to get anywhere. But everything's fine at your
1:46
place now? Well, it's very difficult to get in
1:49
and out. And, you know, sidewalks, residential
1:52
sidewalks are the responsibility of the property
1:55
owner. And I would say it's a bit hit or miss
1:57
in Old Louisville as to whether those property
2:00
owners typically, I hate to say this, but typically
2:03
landlords of rental property are not consistent
2:07
with, you know, making sure. sure that the sidewalk
2:09
is safe. And a lot of the homeowners who are,
2:13
you know, the homeowners themselves have been
2:15
plowing, you know, shoveling their sidewalks
2:18
so that we can walk safely. Right. I noticed
2:21
that there were certain streets where if it's
2:23
like an apartment complex, they have shoveled
2:26
the streets. But if it's not an apartment complex,
2:28
people aren't going out to do anything. I've
2:31
like cleared off a small patch in front of my
2:34
place. But if you look at my block. i'm probably
2:37
one of two people who've done that and if you
2:40
go where we park our cars like in the alley way
2:44
behind the house that's all ice right now so
2:47
it's very dangerous to walk out there i've almost
2:49
wiped out well and also you know we have this
2:52
exit for old louisville off of i -65 north And
2:57
I was driving on the interstates last night back
3:00
from my choir rehearsal and just around. And
3:02
there's still like snow, icy snow on the sides
3:08
of the lanes on the interstate. And not all the
3:12
exit ramps are properly plowed. So I couldn't
3:16
get out of the lane onto the exit ramp to get
3:19
onto this, you know, onto the exit. And I got...
3:23
honked at almost hit by a car because I just
3:27
I couldn't navigate around the ice yeah and well
3:31
yeah it's the ice is a problem not only in driving
3:35
but ice is a problem in being in our neighborhoods
3:38
and we're talking about a different kind of ice
3:40
where you know we've been seeing all this stuff
3:44
going on in Minnesota they're doing the the border
3:50
agents are doing all kinds of horrible things
3:52
but People tend to think this is only in other
3:55
places, but as you pointed out, it happened in
3:58
Louisville this week. Yeah, in our neighborhood.
4:00
Just yesterday, there was an abduction, a violent
4:05
abduction of a gentleman with a valid work permit.
4:10
And it was north of Old Louisville and just north
4:14
of Old Louisville. And he was violently wrestled
4:18
to the ground and a knee was put on his back
4:21
as he... was arrested and taken away, and he
4:25
was just voluntarily coming into work to be sure
4:29
that he could give money to his family for their
4:32
groceries. So they don't know where he is, and
4:35
they don't have money for their groceries. This
4:38
is completely illegal and indefensible. And I've
4:42
just got to say, as someone who is working with
4:47
LSURJ, L -S -U -R -J, Louisville Showing Up for
4:51
Racial Justice, and our Community Defense Network.
4:55
If you haven't gotten involved yet, now's...
4:58
a really good time for you to do that we've got
5:01
a 24 -hour hotline that we really need help with
5:04
especially if you're a spanish speaker and this
5:07
community defense hotline is our go -to hotline
5:10
with any sightings of ice today i went to several
5:15
i went to a family health center and several
5:19
latinx restaurants and grocery stores and i handed
5:22
out these flyers that are bilingual about you
5:26
have constitutional rights, do not open the door
5:29
if an immigration officer comes to your home,
5:32
etc. And we've got the community defense hotline
5:35
number, which I'm just going to go ahead and
5:36
say, everyone needs to have this hotline number.
5:39
It's 502 -830 -9... And the thing about the flyers
5:48
that you say you have, they're really the size
5:50
of business cards. So it's not something where
5:53
you have to pull out this big piece of paper
5:55
to weed through. It's very concise in terms of
5:59
what your rights are as a citizen or as an immigrant
6:03
who's here legally or as anyone who walks this
6:07
street. Deserves due process. We keep talking
6:11
about like they're picking up people off the
6:14
streets and they're picking up immigrants. But
6:16
we haven't been saying that this is racial profiling
6:22
at its worst. And they are consistently doing
6:26
this. And, you know, what, two years ago, racial
6:28
profiling was seen as something that was inexcusable.
6:31
And now it's just the basic mode of operation
6:35
for these. these guns who like come from other
6:40
places who don't live in the state and they just
6:43
um they've invaded they're they are invaders
6:46
they are and um we're just they're the gestapo
6:50
i mean you know we're supposed to uh accept this
6:53
as you know as being the new normal and i think
6:59
that's a problem we're facing where people are
7:01
seeing this now as a new normal and not questioning
7:04
it But it's not only the problem at the federal
7:09
level. We have problems at the state level because
7:12
the state legislature is also imposing all these
7:16
weird new laws against us. They are. But before
7:21
we get that, I wanted to talk about a specific
7:23
case of racial profiling in Louisville. This
7:27
is from Louisville Public Media on January 27th.
7:31
In Louisville, half the people charged last year
7:34
in license plate... cases were black. About a
7:39
quarter of Louisvillians are black. Half of the
7:43
folks that have been arrested using flock cameras
7:46
are black. And, you know, most of the cameras
7:51
are in majority minority neighborhoods. So they're
7:54
racial profiling, Jesse. Right. That's one of
7:59
the things that we keep noticing is that when
8:01
police actions take take hold they are more focused
8:05
on the minority communities and these flock cameras
8:09
for people who don't understand what that means
8:11
those are cameras that are essentially like tracking
8:14
people on the roads i think they were used for
8:17
speed but they're also used to give tickets when
8:21
like someone runs a light or something so the
8:25
The logic of this is that they say 50 % of the
8:28
people arrested are black. And if 50 % of the
8:34
people are black and the black community makes
8:38
up, what, 25 % of the Lula population? What that
8:42
means is that they're putting the flock cameras
8:44
in the minority neighborhoods. They're doing
8:46
that more, which should be a sign for people
8:51
to just realize that, yes, there is still racial
8:54
discrimination going on in the police department,
8:57
that the target is people of color. And this
9:02
all fits into the... what I feel is the acceptability
9:06
of ICE by our mayor, because if he's allowing
9:11
this camera surveillance to take place in minority
9:16
communities, that shows he doesn't care about
9:19
that minority community. Since he's let ICE run
9:22
rampant in the city, that means he doesn't care
9:24
about the immigrant community here. That's correct.
9:27
So he's going for the white vote. So what does
9:30
this say about the white population in Louisville?
9:32
Are they willing to accept this? And I don't
9:35
think everybody is, because as you say, there
9:38
are people who are volunteering with El Surge,
9:41
who are out there in the streets. In the demonstrations
9:44
I've gone to... It's been pretty much maybe 90
9:48
% white. Yeah. Well, an L -surge is for white
9:52
people to be standing up for racial justice because
9:56
our black and brown... Friends and neighbors
9:58
have always borne the brunt of this work. And
10:02
I just want to say about Mayor Greenberg, Attica
10:06
Scott has a really good substack now, and I am
10:09
paying for her. It's a very modest price to have
10:13
her voice out there. And she says to Mayor Greenberg,
10:17
we need to end the complicity with ICE, publicly
10:20
declare that LNPD will not act as immigration
10:24
enforcement. And she also says remove... flock
10:27
cameras and prohibit their use for immigration
10:31
enforcement so these are local things that you
10:35
can do and I'll talk about more of those in a
10:39
second we are right now Jesse as you know in
10:43
the state legislative session it's a long session
10:47
and it's a shit show I gotta say for a number
10:53
of reasons. You know, we have a Republican super
10:55
majority. The budget bill is terrible. House
11:01
Bill 500 is terrible for working families. Here
11:04
are a few examples of why it's terrible. It cuts
11:07
financial aid and higher ed. It cuts school bus
11:11
funding, which if you're a Louisvillian, you
11:13
know what a cluster that was last year. It freezes
11:17
K -12 education funding. It fails to account
11:21
for extreme federal cuts to SNAP. That's food
11:24
stamps. It fails to account for extreme federal
11:27
cuts to Medicaid, leaving 35 rural hospitals
11:31
at risk of closure. So we've really got to step
11:35
up and be calling our state reps and senators
11:39
to not have this draconian budget bill. And then
11:45
there's other crazy legislation like expanding
11:49
concealed carry to 18 to 20 -year -olds in Kentucky.
11:55
Which is another bright idea from the Republican
11:58
legislature. Again, this idea that you have to
12:05
arm yourself because there are invaders. And
12:08
that's what the Republicans are saying, essentially.
12:13
They're creating this situation in which if everybody's
12:18
armed and everybody discharges a weapon, but
12:21
I think one of the keys here is that if they
12:25
could get away with it, they would say that they
12:28
were going to reduce the age of gun ownership
12:32
from 21 to 18. they would say for white people,
12:36
because let's look at the reality of it. If a
12:39
black person has a gun and is concealed carrying,
12:43
the likelihood of getting shot is, I would say,
12:46
much higher than it is for a white person with
12:49
a gun. Right. And, you know, this whole, I don't
12:53
even know what they... why they're introducing
12:55
this bill when their their president the republican
12:59
president donald trump has said that you shouldn't
13:02
go anywhere with a gun you shouldn't be outdoors
13:03
with a gun and well they'll say that well he
13:07
said you shouldn't be in a demonstration with
13:08
a gun but What's the point of the concealed carry
13:12
law if you're not allowed to carry a gun concealed
13:16
wherever you go? Well, and Alex Preddy got shot.
13:19
He had had a concealed carry, a permit, a legal
13:22
permit, and they took the gun and they still
13:24
shot him 10 times. Also in the state legislature,
13:29
Senate Bill 86, this is from Senator Philip Wheeler,
13:33
a Republican of Pikeville. He wants to... Require
13:38
Kentucky State Police and local sheriff and police
13:41
agencies throughout the state to enter into formal
13:44
agreements with ICE. Terrible, terrible idea.
13:48
And I don't know if you all know how to do this,
13:51
but the Legislative Research Commission, I'll
13:54
look up the phone number. There's an 800 number.
13:56
They exist to hear from you, from us, the constituents.
14:02
And we can call when they're open. Ours are really
14:06
good. I think it's till 8 p .m., but we'll look
14:08
that up. So you can call and say, I disagree.
14:14
I want my state senator and my state rep to vote
14:17
against House bill or Senate bill XYZ, and they
14:21
will relay that to your representative and senator.
14:25
So this is a way, while the legislature is open
14:29
right now, for you to have a say, and it's really
14:33
important. But I think you have to also look
14:35
at the fact that this legislature is going out
14:40
of its way to do things undercover. Yeah. Because
14:43
that whole thing with the gun issue. The construction,
14:47
too. Well, with the gun issue. announced that
14:51
they were going to send it to committee like
14:53
the day before, which no one knew because the
14:56
public isn't allowed in the legislature because
15:01
they've closed it off for renovations. So legislators
15:05
are meeting somewhere else. They have announced
15:08
in terms of the gun bill, they said like the
15:12
day before that they were going to move it to
15:14
this committee that no one knew about. So there's
15:16
no time to organize to deal with it. And then
15:19
the next day, the legislator passed it. It went
15:23
through the legislature. So people have to be
15:26
aware that you can't wait on things like this.
15:30
There has to be a way to immediately contact
15:32
your representative because. Right now, the Kentucky
15:36
legislature, run by Republicans, a super majority,
15:39
is just railroading things through. They are
15:42
just sending things through. They're not letting
15:44
people know what's going on. And when people
15:47
find out, well, it's already a loss. So then
15:49
you have to go through the whole process of undoing
15:52
this law, which takes longer than actually putting
15:55
it out there. That's, you know, this thing with
15:58
the... The guns, this thing with how they're
16:02
taking money away from rural areas, which is
16:07
another issue that sort of bothers me because,
16:09
yes, people in Louisville are being hurt by this,
16:14
but people in the rural communities are being
16:16
hurt even more by this. Their voices are either
16:22
not being heard or their legislators are not
16:25
dealing with them because, I mean, who's had
16:28
a town hall meeting in various communities other
16:33
than, I think, Massey has had one in his district.
16:37
Our Democratic representative here has had town
16:41
halls, but I don't think anyone else has. congressmen
16:47
do we have senators they're not showing up for
16:50
town halls so do they the question is do they
16:54
know if their constituents care about these things
16:56
or what their feelings are on these things but
16:59
the second part is do they even care what their
17:01
constituents think right so the lrc the legislative
17:05
research commission the phone number is 1 -800
17:12
372 -7181, and they also have an Espanol number,
17:16
so you can push the number for Spanish and leave
17:21
messages there. This is a really important tool
17:24
right now. Another terrible bill is Senate Bill
17:28
1, which basically Frankfurt, these Republicans
17:33
in Frankfurt, want to take... all of the decision
17:38
-making out of our elected school board members
17:41
and put it on our superintendent. By the way,
17:44
our superintendent does not want that power.
17:48
He says he should not have that power. But, you
17:51
know, again, racial profiling is part of this
17:54
too, I think, Jesse, don't you? Oh, yeah. But
17:57
the thing is our superintendent is also a new
18:00
person, so he wasn't around. Yeah, he's black,
18:02
but he wasn't around when the... discussion began
18:05
it's like they're imposing something on him and
18:09
he's coming from another school district another
18:11
part of the country which is probably doing it
18:14
right but the legislature here has decided that
18:18
they're going to just impose their stupidity
18:21
on the rest of the state. Well, and they want
18:24
to set him up for failure, right? So that they
18:26
can have charter schools. Right. So they can
18:29
say that, look, we're giving him all this responsibility.
18:33
We're taking the responsibility from the school
18:34
board. When he fails, then we can take over the
18:37
school system. Exactly. That is the point. That's
18:39
it. And we just seem to be walking into this.
18:43
And there's another legislator. It's some woman
18:46
who's introduced a law. that's going to ban the
18:51
teaching of DEI from grade school through high
18:57
school. So here's another concept of... We don't
19:03
like history or what history has shown us. So
19:06
instead of dealing with the past and learning
19:09
from it, we're going to ignore it altogether
19:11
and pretend it didn't happen. So to me, that's
19:15
the sign of a very stupid person. So whoever
19:19
this legislator is who's introducing this must
19:22
be an idiot. Maybe I'm being shrill here. I don't
19:29
know. I want to mention another terrible bill,
19:31
House Bill 76. This is a bill that would make
19:34
proof of citizenship or lawful status a condition
19:38
for pretrial release. And what this means is
19:41
under House Bill 76, this is again from Attica,
19:45
someone arrested and charged with a crime. could
19:49
be held simply because they can't immediately
19:52
produce documents proving that they're a U .S.
19:56
citizen or lawfully permitted to be here, even
19:59
if they pose no flight risk or safety threat.
20:03
Oh, and the bill also requires local jails to
20:07
immediately notify DHS, the Department of Homeland
20:11
Security, when someone can't produce those papers.
20:15
Again, taking away due process from us, from
20:20
our neighbors, it's just completely unconstitutional
20:24
and illegal. And we need to understand what's
20:28
happening in our own legislature right now. So
20:31
I would definitely go to legislature .ky .gov.
20:36
Take a look, read the news. If you can find it,
20:39
read Attica Scott's Substack and other folks
20:43
like the Kentucky Lantern. And please, you know,
20:47
get your calls and your emails in. Right. One
20:51
thing we should point out, I think we're... getting
20:54
to this now is that we've been giving a lot of
20:57
information and you know people are probably
21:00
out there thinking well i don't have time to
21:02
like go out into the cold and do this i've got
21:05
to work and i i don't know what i can do But
21:08
there have been, like, these national forums
21:11
that you can just, just Zoom meetings that you
21:15
can log into to listen for an hour or two, just
21:19
to get an overview of what's going on. Because,
21:22
what, didn't L -Search have one last? Yes, they
21:26
did. And a lot of our trainings are actually
21:30
filling up because more and more people are joining
21:33
LSURJ's Community Defense Network. But still,
21:38
take a look. Look for LSURJ, Louisville, surj
21:42
.org, I believe, on the web. There's a good Facebook
21:46
page. There's tons of information to plug in.
21:49
And there's also Indivisible. They're very active.
21:52
Take a look at them, 505. We've talked about
21:55
before. And Jesse, you mentioned to me about
22:00
a Zoom call about press freedoms. Yeah. Last
22:04
this Monday, the NABJ held a sort of like a town
22:09
hall on freedom of the press. And it was led
22:12
by Roland Martin, who used to be on television
22:15
a lot, but he's not there anymore. And what he
22:20
was talking about or what it was. A number of,
22:24
let's see, the thing was called Not on Our Watch
22:29
in National Town Hall on press freedom. And it
22:33
involved, it was put on by the National Association
22:37
of Black Journalists, NABJ, which is a national
22:42
organization that I was a member of. I didn't
22:47
renew my membership because I'm not in the profession
22:50
anymore. These are, you know, the recent arrests
22:56
of journalists in Minneapolis. They were pretty
23:02
much all black journalists who were arrested
23:04
here. So that's another sign that there's this
23:07
enormous amount of racism that's going on in
23:10
the country right now on the federal level. Don
23:15
Lemon was arrested because, for those who don't
23:19
know, there was a protest at a church in Minneapolis.
23:22
And the reason the protest occurred in Minneapolis
23:25
was because the pastor of the church runs ICE
23:29
in Minneapolis, which is like this alleged man
23:34
of God is persecuting... Our most vulnerable
23:40
citizens. Honestly, this guy would persecute
23:44
Jesus. If Jesus came to America today, this guy
23:49
who runs a church would make sure that his family
23:54
and his family would be harassed, he would be
23:59
harassed, or he would be put in jail, shipped
24:02
off to some who knows what. Because if you say
24:07
that ICE wouldn't do that, If you say ICE wouldn't
24:09
do that, they busted a five -year -old boy last
24:12
week. And they're constantly using children as
24:16
bait to get their parents, which is creating
24:19
all this terror at schools. And I was looking
24:23
at something where this... This comedian had
24:27
created his own little ice reporting thing where
24:31
people could call him and tell them, you know,
24:35
like, report on people. So he got this call from
24:38
a teacher, a kindergarten teacher somewhere in
24:41
the East Coast. And the woman said, well, yeah,
24:45
the boy was born here, but I think his parents
24:47
are illegals. And she wanted the parents deported.
24:52
And it's like... This is a teacher. So this woman
24:56
is a Nazi. She is a Nazi. She is what we saw
25:01
in Germany back in the 30s, where people would
25:04
inform on their neighbors because they believed
25:09
in what the government was doing. So here she
25:11
is. The guy is... He's playing it straight through
25:15
this whole process. And at one point he says,
25:18
well, I checked it out and I'm sure you'd be
25:21
glad to know that the family is here legally
25:23
and that the little boy is not a threat to national
25:27
security. And she got pissed off because she
25:30
said he was being sarcastic with her. And sarcasm
25:37
isn't enough for this woman who called this in.
25:41
These are the people doing this now. These aren't
25:43
like ICE agents. These are Americans who are
25:46
turning in their neighbors, which is what this
25:48
administration wants you to do. And I just want
25:50
to also say, I listened to a really good interview
25:53
with Ava DuVernay, the filmmaker, and Timothy
25:57
Snyder, who wrote the book On Tyranny, which
26:00
is really worth reading. And it's important.
26:04
Yes, it is like the Gestapo. It is like, and
26:08
I'm Jewish, and I'm terrified for my friends
26:11
and neighbors, and it's just horrible. But this
26:14
is also reflective of the racism that we've had
26:17
in this country forever. You know, we've had
26:21
slavery, we had Jim Crow, we had urban renewal,
26:24
all these things. So a lot of people of color
26:27
and black folk are saying, don't call it the
26:29
Gestapo. I mean, this is America. It is the Gestapo.
26:34
We're now sanitizing the evil, and that's the
26:43
next step to let evil win. If you say it's not
26:45
as bad as it is, then it becomes acceptable.
26:50
Going back to this black journalism conference,
26:54
one of the things that struck me at the very
26:57
end of it, the moderator said, was talking about...
27:02
Things aren't like they were in the past where
27:04
you had newspaper owners who actually cared about
27:08
freedom of the press and the community. And he
27:11
specifically mentioned the Binghams in Louisville
27:13
at the Courier Journal. And, you know, it's like
27:17
that was back, the Binghams were... for all my
27:21
criticisms of them in the past. The Binghams
27:24
were in the forefront in dealing with human rights
27:28
and civil rights. Good local reporting. Yeah,
27:31
they did deep local reporting. They didn't care
27:34
about, like, oh, we're going to, as Gannett does,
27:38
and I know this for a fact, Gannett cares more
27:40
about, we don't want to offend anybody, so that
27:43
way people won't, like, not read us because we're
27:47
not offensive. So they just sanitize everything.
27:50
The Binghams were saying that discrimination
27:53
is wrong, busing is right, people should be,
27:57
you know, all these racist attitudes should not,
28:01
are wrong. But that's like the past. That's when
28:07
the Binghams sold out was almost 50 years, no,
28:10
30 years ago, 40 years ago. So we're, it's...
28:15
And then, just to the icing on the cake for me
28:19
is this, when you look at local coverage of the
28:22
demonstrations, and you pointed this out to me,
28:26
I think WDRB did a piece last week on another
28:30
demonstration in Louisville against ICE, but
28:33
there were like six people who were... Anti -demonstration.
28:37
They start the piece with those six people. They
28:41
started the piece with six people. For one, they
28:43
never tell you how many people were actually
28:44
at the demonstration. So I don't know if there
28:48
were 100 people or 1 ,000 people at this demonstration,
28:50
but they found six people. And they decided to
28:53
make them the equivalent of all the other people
28:56
in this demonstration. And the people who they
28:58
interviewed in support of the administration
29:02
and support of ICE. they came off as well they
29:07
came off to me as morons but you know there's
29:10
no no challenging them there they don't know
29:14
what they were talking about but instead of like
29:17
just giving us some kind of balanced coverage
29:20
they saw oh they're here a bunch of people who
29:23
are making noise so let's report on them instead
29:25
of deal with what the demonstration was about
29:28
so that's another example of We used to have
29:33
better news coverage. We don't have that anymore.
29:37
You can't rely on any of the major media organizations,
29:41
as I've said this before, because they're now
29:44
owned by billionaires and they have their own
29:47
interest. My former owner at the Washington Post
29:53
has completely sold out that paper, and today
29:56
they announced layoffs of like 100 or more people.
30:03
And I've known about that for a while because
30:06
I do keep in touch with people at the Post, but
30:08
they just announced that they're going to get
30:11
rid of people, which is part of the... It's the
30:16
aim of this administration. Yeah, but the reason
30:18
they give is because the Post isn't making enough
30:21
money. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. He
30:26
has enough money. At a certain point, that argument
30:33
that there's not enough money is bullshit. As
30:39
I've said before, he can get the change out of
30:41
his couch and fund the post for like a year or
30:45
two. But he's not going to do that because he's
30:48
a tool of the Trump administration. But he has
30:52
a financial interest because... Amazon Web Services
30:56
is like very heavily involved in the surveillance
31:01
world. That's the reality. He has a space company
31:06
that he wants to get contracts for to go, you
31:09
know, to do what Elon Musk is doing out with
31:11
SpaceX. Jeff Bezos, I think it's Blue Origin
31:16
is the name of his space company. The greed has
31:20
really had such a corrupting influence with these
31:24
oligarchs. It's even beyond greed now. It's this
31:29
sense that they feel that they are gods. And
31:32
whatever money comes to them, they feel they
31:36
deserve. And it's like you're not going to get
31:39
any argument from them. But in terms of actually
31:43
doing... public service, they are not doing that.
31:47
And, you know, they will give you, you'll see
31:52
an announcement where Jeff Bezos gave a million
31:54
dollars to something, and I've done pieces on
31:56
this on our website, where, you know, I just
31:59
look at what he's donating, compare it to what
32:03
the equivalent would be of the median income
32:07
Kentuckian donating, and what he is giving to
32:10
organizations getting all this great coverage.
32:14
is essentially pennies to him. He's not giving
32:16
money, he's giving pennies. And he's expecting
32:22
praise for it, as all the billionaires are. I
32:25
want to segue from what you just said about public
32:27
service, because one of the things that I don't
32:30
want people to think is that we're just overly
32:32
partisan here. It just happens to be that Kentucky
32:36
has a super majority in the legislature, and
32:39
a lot of those legislators are harming. working
32:42
families here. But there is a Democrat that I
32:45
want to call out, and that's Daniel Grossberg.
32:48
I know him. And he's the state rep for District
32:52
30. And, you know, he sexually harassed women.
32:57
The owner of Foxy's in Louisville confirmed the
33:00
claims that Grossberg would inappropriately touch
33:03
workers, insult them, use foul language, and
33:07
offered women to have sex with him. What's Foxy's?
33:10
Foxy's is one of those. the, you know, girly
33:13
clubs here. So it's a strip club. Yeah, it's
33:15
a strip club. Okay. And then other claims involved
33:17
Grossberg making inappropriate comments to female
33:20
workers in Frankfurt. So we were going to have
33:24
a hearing. The women were going to, you know,
33:26
several women were lined up to discuss this.
33:31
And instead of doing that, they just, oh, and
33:35
Bashir did call on him to resign. Basically what
33:40
happened is he was slapped on his little finger
33:46
and charged $2 ,000. A $2 ,000 fine to make it
33:51
all go away. This is not right. And this is another
33:56
example of women not being listened to. If you
33:59
don't think as a woman that your rights are not
34:04
being eroded, you've got to pay more attention.
34:07
Roe v. Wade was overturned. The Epstein files,
34:10
they still haven't released all of the files.
34:12
The women still haven't gotten their say. And
34:16
here we have a gross... state rep who was just
34:20
fined two thousand dollars and and he can't gets
34:23
to continue to do his job and let's just say
34:25
that um people are under the well the trumpers
34:29
especially are under the impression that we're
34:31
we're talking about the epstein files because
34:34
we're trying to get to hold trump and that's
34:36
now the the point of the epstein files is that
34:40
anyone who's there who has abused women Raped
34:45
children. Raped children. Yeah, I misspoke. I'm
34:48
using your words. Yes, and that's the other problem.
34:51
You have to be very clear on what happened. They
34:54
have raped children, and they are in the Epstein
34:59
files. There are Democrats and there are Republicans.
35:03
I say get them all. Just get rid of all of them.
35:06
It doesn't matter what party they're with. It
35:08
doesn't matter how much money they've got. They
35:10
should be in jail. Just as this representative
35:13
here, who's a Democrat, should be out of office.
35:17
And it's up to his constituents now to get rid
35:21
of him because obviously the legislature is not
35:25
going to get rid of him and the powers that exist.
35:29
In the Democratic Party, in the Republican Party,
35:32
are not going to deal with people who are miscreants.
35:34
I mean, Al Franken had to leave the Senate for
35:38
things that weren't as bad as what Daniel Grossberg
35:42
has been doing here. Or things that aren't as
35:44
bad as what happened in the Epstein files. Because,
35:47
you know, these are the molestation of children.
35:51
Right. So, you know, we have to stop. Looking
35:56
at these, whenever someone comes to you and says,
35:59
well, you're just after Trump on the Epstein
36:01
files because he's a Republican, that's not the
36:04
case. If Bill Clinton is there and if Bill Clinton
36:06
has done things, he should go to jail. And if
36:09
Bill Gates, who was in close contact with Epstein,
36:15
if he was there, if Elon Musk was there, they
36:18
should be in jail. So this isn't a partisan issue.
36:25
Except the Republicans have made it a partisan
36:27
issue. But this is an issue of morality. And
36:30
we've already seen that. Republicans have no
36:34
morality. Well, and we have a Democratic mayor
36:38
here, Craig Greenberg, in Louisville, and budgets
36:40
are moral documents. And, you know, it's clear
36:43
that the mayor's priorities are misplaced. One
36:46
of the examples is this $6 million land purchase
36:51
for a 92 -acre first responder training center.
36:55
And, again, reading Attica Scott's substack,
36:59
in plain terms, this is a massive police training.
37:02
compound right and like the notorious cop city
37:06
in Atlanta and one of the things that she says
37:09
is that Louisville's already pouring money into
37:13
law enforcement at record levels. In fact, the
37:16
fiscal 2025 budget allots nearly a half a billion
37:21
dollars to public safety and a whopping $242
37:26
million to the police department alone, which
37:29
is a $20 million jump in one year. By contrast,
37:34
only $25 million total is allocated for affordable
37:38
housing. In that same... budget that's 242 million
37:42
versus 25 million dollars this is immoral right
37:46
and but the other part of this too is that economically
37:49
if you invested in other things than police you
37:54
would have lower crime rates because if people
37:57
have homes or if people have food they're not
38:01
struggling they're not stealing to get it you
38:03
know yes there are people who do this because
38:05
they're bad people but the the attacks that we're
38:09
seeing are not on as the the person in the white
38:15
house it's not like these rabidly violent criminals
38:19
coming in from other countries these are people
38:22
who are doing daily work they're like just trying
38:25
to get make enough money to feed their families
38:28
but because they came in a different way they
38:31
are considered um major criminals unlike the
38:36
people who Trump is pardoning for major crimes.
38:41
Like, he pardoned a drug lord and then he goes
38:45
off and seizes the president of Venezuela saying
38:50
he's a drug lord. We've seen and it's documented
38:54
that if you're rich enough in this country, you
38:58
can buy a pardon from Donald Trump if you've
39:00
been convicted on a federal charge. This means...
39:04
that states have to start charging people because
39:07
the president can't pardon people who are convicted
39:10
of state crimes. Yeah, and I wanted to put this
39:13
cop city in context. You know, researchers have
39:18
found that all of this money that's going into
39:21
the SWATification, you know, the armor and firepower,
39:26
has not made our streets safer or reduced crime.
39:30
But it does erode community trust and funnel
39:33
money. into weapons and tactics rather than prevention,
39:37
which is exactly what you're talking about. Well,
39:40
the other part of this, too, is when you talk
39:42
about crime, you also have to talk about prisons
39:45
and who owns the prisons these days. Prisons
39:49
are now corporations. They're not, in some cases,
39:52
they're not run by states. They're run by corporations.
39:57
it's in the interest of the prison to have more
40:00
people there because it's more money for them
40:02
so in turn these prisons can do things like um
40:07
you know we've seen the television shows the
40:10
fictional television shows where There are judges
40:15
who put people in jail because they say they
40:19
committed crimes, but they're innocent, but the
40:21
prison needs more people because the judge has
40:23
an investment in this. Now that's on television,
40:26
but that happens in real life as well. There
40:28
are judges throughout this country who are convicting
40:31
people, sending them off to jail because the
40:33
judge has a financial interest in the prison.
40:36
So there's that part of it too, and I'm sure
40:39
our legislature is not going to do anything to
40:41
address that. Because it's a Republican -led
40:45
legislature, and I would imagine that they have
40:47
money in the prison system. Well, I want to go
40:49
back to some practical and political moral things
40:52
that we can do, and then I want us to talk about
40:55
Kentucky's Grammy winners and whatever else fun
40:58
that you want to talk about. But it's really
41:01
important to ground ourself in what solidarity
41:04
looks like in action. So, again, the urgency
41:07
is now. Things are happening rapidly across the
41:13
country, and this is all coordinated and very
41:16
organized, and we have got to keep people alive.
41:20
So practically, you know, building community
41:23
defense, training volunteers in legal accompaniment.
41:27
We need bilingual speakers for our LSURGE hotline.
41:31
These are measurable, immediate actions that
41:34
reduce harm right now. It's past time to wait
41:38
for leadership, for politicians, for all the
41:42
things, right? Now, politically, when mayors
41:45
and governors quietly cooperate with federal
41:47
enforcement, call them out. When universities
41:50
or local agencies share data or facilities with
41:53
ICE, demand answers. So we use the ballot box,
41:57
too, when officials refuse to act. And Attica
42:02
says, Kentucky's legislature is being weaponized.
42:06
This is not hypothetical. The Kentucky General
42:10
Assembly is a battleground for anti -immigrant
42:13
policy. And if you want to see these bills get
42:17
overturned, you've got to take action. You've
42:20
got to call the Legislative Research Commission,
42:23
right? And we've talked about what to say to
42:27
Mayor Greenberg. Well, to our governor. Protect
42:30
Kentuckians without militarizing our streets.
42:33
Protection does not equal occupation and refuse
42:37
any state cooperation that turns local jails
42:40
into deportation pipelines. And then for Congressman
42:45
Morgan McGarvey, your favorite, and for U .S.
42:49
Senators McConnell and Paul, work with colleagues
42:52
to end abusive federal practices, including serious
42:55
oversight of DHS and ICE. In fact, work with
42:59
your colleagues to abolish ICE and end qualified
43:02
immunity. So there's a lot of things that we
43:06
can do. And that's kind of my role in the podcast
43:09
is for you not to lose heart and lose hope. Again,
43:14
we are stepping up in numbers that Donald Trump
43:18
and his Project 2025 people and these Republicans
43:22
around the country were not expecting. And we've
43:26
got to be really persistent and consistent with
43:29
our work. Okay. Oh, I just got this message that
43:35
Mitch McConnell is recovering after he checked
43:39
himself into the hospital. on flu -like symptoms
43:42
so mitch is uh he's still in the hospital and
43:46
you know this is i'm sure this is one of the
43:49
reasons he's not running because he is physically
43:52
unable to be a senator yeah and um but you know
43:57
he's in the hospital again every other week he's
43:59
falling down yeah oh every other month he's like
44:03
having press conferences and losing his train
44:06
of thought and just freezing there so Well, next
44:10
year is the election for his position. No, it's
44:14
this year. It's this year, and everyone, we cannot
44:19
assume that we are going to have free and fair
44:22
elections for these midterms. You've seen Trump
44:25
talk about nationalizing the elections. The good
44:28
news right now is that even in Kentucky, the
44:32
lawmakers are saying, no, you know, this is a
44:34
state function. But we have got to ensure free
44:38
and fair elections or things really are going
44:41
to be horrible for much longer. I will give the
44:44
legislature some credit for not deciding to redraw
44:50
the congressional maps because that was something
44:53
that... was very possible. But I think what's
44:57
happening is that Republicans everywhere are
45:00
seeing that the Trump magic doesn't work anymore
45:03
because you look at what happened in Texas. There
45:07
was a state Senate race in Texas this last week
45:10
where the district which went 17 points for Trump
45:16
completely turned around and went 14 points for
45:18
the Democrat. So it's like a 30 -point shift.
45:22
If Republicans are losing elections in safe Republican
45:26
seats in Texas, there is hope for Kentucky. There
45:31
is hope for people out in the rural areas who
45:35
by now should be fed up with everything that's
45:38
going on and should by now realize that. the
45:42
reasons they can't get health care or they can't
45:45
feed their children or they you know or if a
45:49
disaster happens in their district they can't
45:51
get federal help they should know by now that
45:54
this is because of the republican party since
45:56
the republican party is who they put in office
45:59
so you have to see what happens in the next election
46:03
i I will be amazed if Kentucky, Kentucky's not
46:08
going to turn blue in the next election. We know
46:11
that. But it'll be interesting to see if any
46:13
part of the state sees a shift because I think
46:17
there's still a possibility in the Lexington
46:19
district that Andy Barr's not running for anymore.
46:22
There should be a strong Democratic candidate
46:25
because that district is vulnerable. If you look
46:28
at the election cycles, that district has gone
46:31
Democratic more than... in some cases, more than
46:35
Louisville has. Again, people can't say, I don't
46:41
pay attention to politics, because that's an
46:45
unjustifiable cop -out these days. They have
46:48
to actually know what's going on. They should
46:51
be able to go into the voting booth if they let
46:54
you vote, because that's the other thing. What
46:57
was the law that they were trying to pass recently?
47:02
Oh, yeah. It was aimed at women. Well, they didn't
47:06
say it was aimed at women, but it was. But the
47:08
essence of the law is that if your name doesn't
47:13
match the name on your birth certificate, you
47:16
can't vote. Now, what does that mean for married
47:18
women? Because they have changed their names.
47:21
All their documents, current documents, are with
47:24
married names. If they're supposed to use the
47:27
name on their birth certificate, By design, this
47:31
law means that they can't vote. Right. So we
47:34
have to see how this is going to play out. I'm
47:36
one of many. Yeah, we have to see how this plays
47:38
out. And I would advise people to especially
47:41
go to their primary elections this year just
47:44
to see what kind of, what's a good word for this,
47:47
fuckery they're trying to pull off on us. If
47:52
you're going into waiting for November to cast
47:55
your vote and then you get to the polling place
47:58
and they say, I'm sorry, the name on your driver's
48:01
license doesn't match the name on our voting
48:03
records or the name on your birth certificate
48:05
doesn't match the voting record, you can't vote.
48:08
There's nothing you can do because that's that
48:12
day and you can't vote the next day because they're
48:15
not going to let you. So people have to be aware
48:17
of these things, especially women have to be
48:19
aware of this this year. Yeah, so I really want
48:23
to lift up the two Kentuckians who won Grammys
48:27
this week. Tyler Childers, he won his first,
48:31
and Chris Stapleton won his 12th. I don't know
48:35
country music at all. Well, and Tyler Childers
48:38
is actually very progressive, and he has done
48:42
a lot. Actually, I think Silas House wrote lyrics
48:48
to one of his songs, and it was about just embracing
48:52
our diverse sexual orientations and being inclusive
48:58
and things like that, which you don't hear a
49:00
lot for country music. Who's Silas House? Silas
49:03
House was our poet laureate in Kentucky. He's
49:06
a gay man. He's written unbelievably awesome
49:09
novels. Everyone should read Silas House, including
49:12
you, Jesse. He's awesome. I've been told. Okay.
49:16
So I don't know their music at all. Is it like
49:21
your typical country? It's country. Okay. It's
49:25
full country. Right. And this was at this week's
49:28
Grammys, right? Yes. The recent Grammys. Yes.
49:31
That's good. I mean, it puts Kentucky on the
49:33
map again. Well, we've always been. You're always
49:35
on the map, and you're always big in the entertainment
49:38
field. And, you know, the Grammy Awards this
49:44
year were kind of interesting because there were
49:46
a lot of speeches that specifically referred
49:50
to Ice and the evils that they're doing. Billie
49:53
Eilish. Billie Eilish. Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny was
49:57
awesome. Yeah. And I know a bunch of others.
50:01
I saw clips of them making, you know, Ice was
50:05
the subject to be discussed. There'll be... Interesting
50:09
to see what happens in the Emmy Awards and in
50:13
the Oscars this year, because I expect that there
50:16
will be a lot of these kinds of speeches or comments
50:20
where, you know, a lot of the entertainers are...
50:24
Well, you know, Bad Bunny making his speech was
50:27
interesting because he was speaking at one point.
50:30
He didn't have a word. He knew the Spanish word.
50:33
He didn't know the English word. But the thing
50:37
about Bad Bunny is... The MAGA morons will say,
50:42
well, he's not an American. Well, yes, he is.
50:44
He's Puerto Rican. Puerto Rico is America. It's
50:47
part of America. That brings me back to the time
50:50
when Donald Trump went down to Puerto Rico after
50:52
the hurricane, and someone said that he wanted
50:56
to speak to the president of Puerto Rico. That's
51:00
him. He's the president of Puerto Rico. And I
51:02
don't know if you all have seen the teaser clip
51:04
for what he's going to do at the halftime at
51:07
the Super Bowl. But he basically has a little
51:11
video. You should definitely look at it. It's
51:13
the America that I love. Trump or bad bunny.
51:15
No, no, bad bunny. Bad bunny. And he's dancing
51:19
with everybody in this video. He is dancing with
51:22
men, with women. He's dancing with gay people,
51:26
straight people, trans people. It is so awesome.
51:30
It is so inclusive. It'll make you feel so good
51:33
to watch this little teaser. And everybody, watch
51:36
him at the Super Bowl. Oh, and another thing
51:39
around entertainment. I've been told that all
51:41
of us should watch Becoming, the movie about
51:44
Michelle Obama. And everybody, of course, should
51:47
not watch the Melania film. I didn't know there
51:50
was a movie about Michelle Obama. Is this new?
51:52
Yeah, I think it must be based on her book. Isn't
51:55
that what her book is called? I think that's
51:57
the title of her book. And I'm seeing all these
52:00
things about the Melania documentary has just
52:04
been a bomb. Right. Which was funded by Jeff
52:07
Bezos. So let's remember that. And the reviews
52:11
have been horrible. And there was also, you know,
52:15
one of the things that Donald Trump keeps saying
52:17
is that liberals are paying demonstrators to
52:20
show up for things. I saw that there was something
52:24
on, there was one service that was trying to
52:28
give people $50 to attend the Melania movie in
52:32
Washington, D .C. So, you know, whenever you
52:37
hear the Republicans say that the Democrats are
52:39
doing something that sounds shady, for one, they're
52:43
making it up, and for two, it's something the
52:45
Republicans are doing at that time. their efforts
52:53
are. So, yeah. Oh, and by the way, when we were
52:58
talking about entertainers, I don't know if you
53:00
heard Springsteen's song about Minneapolis, and
53:04
Billy Bragg came out with a great song, and all
53:07
kinds of singer -songwriters are coming out with
53:10
songs against ICE, against this authoritarian
53:12
regime. It's really exciting. It'll be interesting
53:15
to see what happens. Mary Gauthier, really good
53:18
one. Who's that? She's a singer -songwriter,
53:21
Mary Gauthier. Oh, she's so good. Check her out.
53:24
Her song's great. It'll be interesting to see
53:26
what happens this weekend because this is Super
53:29
Bowl weekend, and we make references to sports
53:33
when we do this, but it's the CLC Hawks against
53:37
the New England Patriots. And as we said, Bad
53:41
Bunny is the halftime show. I saw that, of course,
53:46
the right wing is going to have their own halftime
53:48
show on a different channel at the same time
53:51
as Bad Bunny because they're dicks. I mean, that's
53:55
the only word I can think of. It won't be nearly
53:58
as good. Yeah, and I'm sure they'll get someone
54:00
like Kid Rock, which is, you know, he's never
54:03
going to do a halftime show. But it's this...
54:06
We are in this phase where we're in two different
54:10
countries, and there's one part of the country,
54:13
you know, I feel we're dealing with reality,
54:17
and the other part is just dealing with this
54:19
fantasy world where they're... They're constantly
54:23
in fear. And I think that makes them cowards.
54:26
They're just always afraid. They have to have
54:29
guns. They have to be white. They have to be
54:32
white. And if there's, you know, it's like...
54:34
Men have to be married to women. Men have to
54:37
be in charge of the household. Women shouldn't
54:40
be working. Men can't play women's sports. Right.
54:43
You know, that kind of thing. So, I'm going to
54:47
go off on a tangent here. But when, you know...
54:50
Boys and girls play little league baseball together
54:52
and boys and girls are playing sports together
54:55
before like they get into While they're in elementary
54:59
school. They're in the same thing because they're
55:01
essentially the same physical condition until
55:05
a certain age, but you know the I the the anti
55:11
I this this whole thing about trans athletes
55:16
is a waste of It's a distraction. Yeah, it's
55:20
a distraction from things that are really going...
55:24
Well, it's a distraction, but it's also another
55:27
example of racist, sexist, homophobic behavior
55:33
dominating a certain political party. Yeah, targeting
55:37
vulnerable people who are not criminals. Right,
55:39
and it's like, okay, we're going to... Andy Barr
55:44
is running on this anti... boys and girls sports
55:48
ticket which you know it the numbers aren't there
55:53
to make this an an issue that oh it's a pretend
55:58
issue well it's an issue for the people who are
56:01
involved yes but in terms of the numbers the
56:05
numbers don't generate the the outrage that And
56:10
the media picks up on these. Because it's an
56:13
easy story. It's easy. Like, oh, okay, boys and
56:16
girls sports. I think I spoke about this before,
56:20
but I was in San Francisco when there was this
56:24
whole issue about a trans athlete playing volleyball.
56:28
And it's like Donald Trump got involved in that
56:32
as well. And there was one... special thing where
56:36
this athlete spiked the ball and it hit the player
56:40
on the other side in the face. And, you know,
56:43
the right wing reaction was, oh, no, this guy,
56:46
he almost killed this woman playing volleyball.
56:49
He shouldn't be allowed to play. I saw the play.
56:52
I saw when it hit her in the face and I saw the
56:55
woman laugh after it happened because it's just
56:57
like it was a volleyball play. So this idea that
57:02
there's danger is. something that's made up by
57:05
the right wing. They are, I don't know what they're
57:09
afraid of, but they're afraid of everything.
57:12
Well, they want to consolidate their power and
57:15
their money with their white friends and families.
57:18
But why do poor white people in rural areas fall
57:24
for this? Because they are, the fact that they
57:29
think that Donald Trump cares about them is...
57:31
It's absurd. I think it's human nature to want
57:34
to find an other and to put that other, that
57:38
separation is not real. We're all one human race,
57:43
you know, one species. But I think it is human
57:46
nature to otherize and then, you know, have hierarchies.
57:51
And I think that the Republicans really play
57:54
on that with rural and lower income white voters.
57:57
And the result is that rural and lower income
58:01
white. Voters are in worse shape than they were
58:04
when Democrats were in office. I really like
58:07
what's happening with progressives and the message
58:11
that, okay, so you voted for Trump, and now you're
58:15
really upset. Like, you really see what's going
58:17
on. You do not want executions of people like
58:20
Rene Good and Alex Priddy happening. Come on.
58:25
Like, come on board. Join us. We're not going
58:28
to shame you. We're not going to, you know, just
58:30
come. Now's the time. And I'm encouraged by the
58:34
fact that Trump's numbers, approval numbers,
58:37
keep declining and that more and more white voters
58:41
who voted for him, oh, and certainly black voters
58:44
who voted for him, and certainly Latinx voters
58:47
or immigrant voters that voted for him are waking
58:49
up. Just come around. Do the right thing. Look
58:54
out for your neighbors. Let's get these people
58:57
out of office this fall and really keep fighting
59:01
this authoritarian regime that's taking away
59:04
all of our human rights. Just one little note
59:10
on that portion. It's unfortunate that it took
59:14
two white people to get shot before people reacted
59:17
to this. I went to a vigil in our neighborhood
59:21
the other night, and they listed people's names,
59:25
Latinx people, people who've died in the detention
59:28
facilities, children who've died, and most of
59:31
them are not white people. Right, they're either
59:33
black or they're Hispanic. And people don't know
59:35
their names. Yeah, people don't know their names,
59:37
but, you know, it takes two white people getting
59:40
shot for... Executed. That's right, executed
59:44
for people to react. So that's... That's on this
59:48
country. That's something that we should be ashamed
59:51
of. We are a racist country. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
59:54
Anyway, Super Bowl weekend, what are you doing
59:58
this weekend? Well, I can't say that because
1:00:03
I don't want anyone to be harmed, but there are
1:00:05
some watching parties because this Bad Bunny
1:00:09
Super Bowl. halftime show is a really big deal
1:00:12
and and some of us community defenders are actually
1:00:14
going to be out in the cold so that people uh
1:00:17
immigrants and people who like football and bad
1:00:21
bunny can watch it safely for god's sakes uh
1:00:24
so i'm probably going to be doing that which
1:00:28
is an honor and a privilege i'm personally going
1:00:31
to be indoors it is very cold right now um yeah
1:00:36
so um I think we've covered a lot of things here
1:00:39
today, and we're an hour into this already. Thanks
1:00:44
for joining us. Okay, well, thanks, everybody.
1:00:47
We will be back in a couple of weeks. Do one
1:00:52
thing. Yeah, yeah. Share this with people you
1:00:55
know. We will put some links on the webpage to
1:01:00
references of what we talked about. And we will
1:01:04
see you all next time. Bye. Our closing music
1:01:11
is by John Chamberlain.