Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 17

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 17 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
This is episode 17 of the Bluegrass Blues podcast.
0:04
I'm Jesse. And I'm Amy. Well, we're in the last,
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pretty much last week of December, so that means
0:21
the year's coming to a close. And I think it's
0:25
time that we just like look at the past year
0:27
because so much happened. in what is relatively
0:31
a short time. But so much bad happens, so we
0:35
should always pay attention to what we've been
0:38
through just so we know what we should expect
0:41
in the year to come. And so that we all work
0:45
on regulating our nervous systems and doing radical
0:47
self -care so that we can get out there and fight
0:50
all of the fascism that we're facing. Right,
0:53
and there's a lot of that to fight. Let's go
0:57
back to the beginning of the year. I retired
0:59
late last year. I came back to Louisville in
1:04
January of this year. And one of the things that
1:09
happened in January was that there was just craziness
1:11
going on because of what was going on in the
1:13
federal government because they cut SNAP benefits.
1:17
Well, let's talk about the big thing that happened
1:19
in January. Oh, the inauguration, of course.
1:22
Boo! Well, yeah, we didn't learn from the first
1:29
four years of the Trump administration. And for
1:33
some reason, people voted him in in 2024. Racism,
1:40
sexism, much? That helped a lot. Plus just greed
1:44
on behalf of the billionaires. But anyway, he
1:49
was reelected. He went into office in January.
1:53
He didn't like create another demonstration where
1:56
people attacked the Capitol because. No, all
1:59
those people have since been pardoned. Yeah.
2:02
You know, it's like, well, crime, crime pays
2:06
in the Trump administration. So that's where
2:08
we are now. And when he took office in January,
2:12
there were, you know, people were. I think willing
2:17
to give him the benefit of a doubt. I don't know
2:19
why, because he's always been a bad person. Well,
2:22
because he lied. He made promises. Your cost
2:25
of living is going to go down, and you're going
2:28
to be safer, and we're going to get rid of all
2:29
the illegal aliens. But the thing is, he always
2:34
lied. Anyway, we're going to get back to that
2:38
eventually. What happened in January? Let's see.
2:42
Significant rise towards authoritarianism immediately.
2:46
Right, yeah. He decided that he was going to
2:48
sign executive orders, just bypassing Congress
2:53
and bypassing the courts. It could have been
3:00
regulated better if Republicans in Congress decided
3:04
to do their jobs, which they didn't do. So they
3:08
let him get away with it. Well, and all the architects,
3:11
the billionaire bros, architects of the Project
3:14
2025 implementation, which he lied about and
3:17
said he didn't know anything about, they all
3:20
started then, too. Right. That's because, well,
3:23
he bought in a cabinet of incredibly incompetent
3:27
people. Just let's name a few. Elon Musk. Elon
3:32
Musk. And Doge. Doge. Stephen Miller. Well, let's
3:36
go specifically into the people. Elon Musk and
3:39
Doge. Elon Musk, the only reason he joined the
3:41
government was to... Make money. Well, make money,
3:44
but also get access to information that people...
3:46
To make money. Well, to make him more money.
3:49
Yeah. And he now has... let's see, what's his
3:52
fortune, close to half a trillion dollars. Half
3:55
a trillion, that's my math. He's made so much
3:58
money since Trump was inaugurated. Right, and
4:01
the thing with Doge was that it was a complete
4:03
failure. It didn't bring the cuts that they said
4:07
it was going to bring, which is good because
4:08
the cuts they wanted to bring were horrible.
4:12
It was just a way for Elon and other South African
4:16
billionaires to grab information. Yeah, Peter
4:19
Thiel. To grab information on the American public.
4:22
And to create a surveillance state. But also
4:25
to benefit themselves. Oh, totally. It's all
4:27
about the money. It's all about their money.
4:29
So they did that. And in the meantime, what things
4:33
that happened in January were, well. Because
4:37
of the economic fallout, there was talk of a
4:40
shutdown. There have been millions of losses
4:43
in state revenues. Social services were being
4:48
attacked because there were delays on SNAP, which
4:51
are the food stamps program. And funding going
4:55
for women and children was halted because that
4:59
just - The government decided not to pay that
5:01
anymore, which really hit state budgets. Federal
5:05
workers were under siege by the Doge idiocy.
5:12
And people didn't understand that 93 % of federal
5:16
workers are outside of Washington, D .C. What
5:19
did we see, 23 ,500 federal workers in Kentucky?
5:23
That's right. That's the number of people who
5:26
are paid by the federal government who work in
5:28
Kentucky. And that is a major employer in this
5:32
state. Again, people voted against their interest
5:37
and they voted to cut programs that were actually
5:40
benefiting them. We keep saying this and it's
5:46
still true. Kentucky is one of the poorest states
5:50
in the country. And Kentucky is one of the states
5:53
that rely the most on federal funding. And it's
5:57
one of these states where... People here like
6:01
to complain about life in the blue states, but
6:05
the blue states are sending the tax revenues
6:07
that are paying for Kentuckians. So people in
6:11
the state are a bunch of moochers. If they want
6:13
to use those terms, they are taking money from
6:16
another place. They're not paying it out themselves.
6:19
They get more from the government than they contribute
6:21
to the government. And their thanks is that they
6:26
bring in a government that... hurts them yeah
6:29
uh it just doesn't well and um i just want to
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mention that you told me that you were looking
6:34
at all the states that are the best ones to retire
6:38
in kentucky's number 50 50 50 out of 50 states
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kentucky is the worst state to retire in because
6:47
of uh there's the issue of affordability there's
6:50
the issue of public services and there's the
6:53
issue of health and health care is really low
6:55
and It irritates me that I have to say that Kentucky
7:01
is worse off than Mississippi and worse off than
7:05
Alabama and worse off than Louisiana. But that's
7:08
the reality we're going through. And I'm retired
7:12
in Kentucky. Like, let's see, I could have retired
7:15
in D .C., which is a better place for retirees.
7:19
Or I could have retired in California. Or I could
7:22
have retired in New York. But I'm in Kentucky
7:24
because this is where my family is. Kentucky
7:28
is the worst place to retire in the country.
7:31
So, right for me. All right, let's go back to
7:36
our month -by -month calendar. So that was January.
7:40
In February, the government decided that they
7:44
were going to cut research funding at the University
7:46
of Kentucky because of DEI issues. The University
7:55
of Kentucky lost tens of millions of dollars.
7:57
And what they were doing wasn't like putting
8:01
together this conspiracy to bring minorities
8:04
into whatever. They were actually doing research
8:08
into cancer and heart disease and addiction.
8:11
And that NIH funding cut just was taken away.
8:17
And not only are we making people stupider, or
8:23
making people sicker. And this is on the federal
8:26
level. In February, they froze just budget freezes.
8:34
And again, when the federal government cuts funding,
8:37
how does Kentucky deal with that? They have to
8:40
do things on the state level. But during this
8:43
same time, as they're talking about cutting federal
8:46
funding, The Republicans in the Kentucky state
8:49
legislature are talking about cutting state income
8:52
tax. So you're not going to have any money to
8:55
do anything in a state with people who are really
8:58
poor. So you're going to do even less with that.
9:02
And in terms of cutting funding, why are you
9:07
cutting funding? They say to reduce the tax burden.
9:11
On wealthy, on the uber wealthy. Well, they pretend
9:14
that they're giving people in the state some
9:17
kind of tax break where they'll have, quote,
9:20
more money to spend on things that they want
9:23
to spend it on. But the tax breaks they'll get
9:27
will probably be like maybe a month of groceries,
9:30
if anything. And while they're cutting this funding,
9:38
they're also cutting SNAP programs and nutrition
9:40
programs. They're changing the OSHA rules, which
9:45
protect workers from bad things happening in
9:50
the workplace. And in February, they also cut
9:53
fair housing grants. So now people don't have
9:56
a place to live. And these are federal policies.
10:01
People keep thinking that... There are people
10:04
who say things like, the things that happen in
10:06
Washington don't affect me. That's just... Bullshit.
10:11
It's a stupid approach to look at things, but
10:14
it also is... what the Republicans in the legislature
10:19
need to keep abusing the people of this state.
10:23
Well, and, you know, we have one of the sickest
10:25
states in the nation, too. You know, lung cancer
10:30
is very high, adult toothlessness rate highest
10:33
in the country, all kinds of problems. And we
10:36
have rural hospitals that are really, really...
10:41
and we're concerned that they're going to be
10:43
shutting down. And then where are people going
10:45
to even go for health care? Right. And going
10:49
back to that idea of Kentucky being the worst
10:51
place to retire in when your health care is already
10:55
bad and you're doing things on the federal level
10:59
to make it worse, then there are fewer reasons
11:04
to actually hope for the best. Again, you've
11:10
got a state legislature that is following pretty
11:13
much the MAGA playbook, which is, I don't know
11:16
what it is, but I'm against it. And I'm going
11:19
to make sure that no one can get it because I
11:22
think poor people or I think brown people or
11:26
I think immigrants are getting these things.
11:28
So if they're getting it, I don't want them to
11:31
get it. So I'm going to destroy it for everyone.
11:35
ignorant, closed -minded approach to looking
11:38
at what social services are and what the function
11:41
of social services are going to be. So we've
11:45
gotten to March and we're already in bad shape.
11:47
Well, I want to say one good thing. On March
11:50
4th, a bunch of us went to the Kentucky State
11:53
Capitol for the rally for our human rights. Jesse
11:57
and I and my daughter went and that felt good.
12:01
It was part of the 50501, the 5051 movement,
12:06
and Indivisible, and a bunch of progressive movements
12:09
that have really gotten stronger this year. Right,
12:12
and one of the things I want to point out from
12:15
that rally that we were at, and we pointed this
12:20
out over this past year, is when there are rallies
12:24
by liberal groups, the local media... always
12:28
fails to cover it in the right way they always
12:31
underestimate the number of people at these rallies
12:34
um they also seem to like just minimize the impact
12:40
of like uh the example like when we back in march
12:44
when we went to that rally in um in frankfurt
12:47
um we were there there were about a thousand
12:51
people there but when we looked at the coverage
12:53
the next day They were saying that there were
12:55
200 people at the rally. And, you know, I know
13:00
how to estimate a crowd. That's years of practice.
13:03
I've been doing this. I've been going to places
13:05
and trying to figure out what the crowd is. And
13:08
I know that I'm underestimating when I'm looking
13:11
at this group of people. But there's a difference
13:15
between me estimating there are 1 ,000 people
13:19
at a rally and a reporter for a news organization
13:23
that actually gets broadcast to thousands, hundreds
13:27
of thousands of people through the state, who
13:29
says there are only 200 people at the same protest.
13:33
And that was pretty much the way protests were
13:37
covered throughout the year, that they were always
13:39
estimated, underestimated, especially when they
13:42
were involved in liberal groups, whereas when
13:44
there's a conservative rally... like there was
13:47
after Charlie Kirk was killed on the University
13:50
of Louisville campus. There was a rally on the
13:53
University of Louisville campus, and I saw the
13:57
picture of that rally, and they overestimated
13:59
the number of people there. Why is that, Jesse?
14:03
Because they don't want to offend the... the
14:08
ruling class, I guess. And they're all owned
14:11
by these conservative corporations. Right, yeah.
14:15
The local paper is owned by Gannett, and Gannett's
14:18
concern is more about... Not pissing off Trump?
14:21
No, about having bonuses for its executives.
14:24
When you look at why people are doing things,
14:28
you always, and this is what I learned when I
14:30
worked at the Wall Street Journal, you always
14:32
have to look at what's the money involved and
14:35
where's the money going and who benefits from
14:38
it. So, again, if we look at what the federal
14:42
government has been doing. We have to look at
14:45
not only where the money is being taken from,
14:47
but where's the money going? And the money is
14:49
going to billionaires. And throughout the year,
14:54
I've been keeping track of, you know, just every
14:57
now and then looking at the Forbes list of billionaires.
15:00
And the last time I looked, the top 10 billionaires
15:03
in this country had a combined net worth of almost
15:10
$2 .5 trillion. There are 10 humans in America
15:16
who have $2 .5 trillion of funding, and they
15:22
feel that they actually need more. That's why
15:27
Elon Musk was involved in the government. That's
15:30
why Peter Thiel is involved in government. And
15:33
it's not about cutting wasteful spending, because
15:36
their very existence is wasteful spending. What
15:43
they're cutting is programs that actually improve
15:47
people's lives and they don't care because it's
15:52
money coming out of their pocket and they can't
15:56
spend the money they have in a thousand lifetimes.
16:02
But they want to make sure that no one else can
16:04
spend it. So, Jesse, have you seen anything anywhere
16:07
that sort of looks at these 10 billionaires or
16:09
the Trump family and assesses what their net
16:13
worth was on January 1, 2025 and what their net
16:16
worth is now in December 2025? Yeah, you can
16:19
just look. Every day, Forbes does a list of the...
16:24
the top billionaires in the world and it's like
16:27
it's not a story it's just a chart where it gives
16:30
you who the number one billionaire is and like
16:33
number one through whatever number of billionaires
16:36
there are and it does like a daily thing where
16:40
you can see how much they'll make in a day and
16:43
there's some people who can make a billion dollars
16:45
in a day just because their stock moved in a
16:48
certain way so You know, Musk is the one who's
16:53
the most egregious about it. But the other billionaires
16:55
are like Larry Ellison, who people don't know
16:59
is the second richest man in the world. And by
17:02
the time you get to, like, name a billionaire,
17:06
Jeff Bezos, you're probably going to like the
17:09
sixth richest person in the world. So there are
17:12
all these people ahead of him who, again, they're
17:16
making so much money or they've made so much
17:19
money. uh from the labor of the people that they're
17:22
taking away uh uh like resources from and they're
17:28
never going to give it back you know like Well,
17:31
let's go through the rest. March. Yeah, we're
17:34
in March. So there was, we talked about the cutting
17:38
money for Kentucky. Let's see, there were admissions
17:44
and diversity issues in the University of Kentucky.
17:47
And because they had like a diversity program
17:50
that was under attack. There were like FEMA funds
17:56
had to be reinstated because the government didn't
17:59
want to give those. from past disasters in the
18:02
state. In addition to the funding cuts, they
18:09
started funding or cutting money for things like
18:13
Louisville Public Media, the Corporation for
18:16
Public Broadcasting. That just continued throughout
18:21
the year, well, throughout March. Let's go to
18:26
April and see what happens. Well, I want to talk
18:28
about April 5th. That was our big national hands
18:31
-off protest day. And there were hands -off protests
18:34
all over Kentucky. Of course, they were underrepresented,
18:38
but... they really i mean there were people coming
18:41
out at rallies i brought a lot of people out
18:43
here in louisville that had never been to a rally
18:46
before and it really did it does energize people
18:48
to see that they're not alone um and it and then
18:52
it gets them you know involved in you know protecting
18:57
our democracy well i think the other thing too
19:00
is that people don't necessarily know how to
19:04
demonstrate or you know they There's some intimidation,
19:08
which again is this corruption on the right where
19:13
they say if you go to a rally, a liberal -related
19:16
rally, there will be violence and you will be
19:19
attacked. And I mean, this is stuff that was
19:22
said in Louisville years ago when Black Lives
19:25
Matter rallies were going on where people were
19:28
pretty much demonstrating in a small area of
19:33
downtown. But if you talk to anybody who didn't
19:36
live in the city, they would talk about, oh,
19:38
I can't go into Louisville because there's nothing
19:40
but crime. And, you know, they're rioting downtown.
19:43
And it's like this is all stuff that you're making
19:47
up in your head. This doesn't exist. These are
19:50
peaceful demonstrations. If there is any disturbance,
19:57
it's usually something that the police have begun.
19:59
So anyway, we did have some. peaceful demonstrations
20:03
in Kentucky this year and that went into April.
20:08
The other thing that happened in April was that
20:11
there were more budget cuts like there were all
20:15
these energy programs that were planned for Kentucky
20:18
because they were talking about new forms of
20:22
energy, but the Trump administration has decided
20:26
that we want to restore or build back the coal
20:31
industry because that was another promise they
20:33
made that coal was going to be king again, which
20:37
it's not because no one wants coal. But we also
20:42
had all these programs going on in the state
20:44
designed to explore alternate forms of energy
20:48
those were cut now that's millions of dollars
20:51
that's thousands of jobs billions of dollars
20:55
of economic impact right right and you know this
20:58
all again falls under what elon musk was doing
21:02
with doge they were cutting uh government programs
21:05
uh and the state has to like just make its way
21:10
through this but again we have a republican legislature
21:13
that doesn't hasn't been looking out for the
21:17
needs of its constituents it's just been looking
21:20
out for the needs of whoever gives them the biggest
21:23
campaign donation these days so we're already
21:27
in April and things continue to be bad so let's
21:32
go look at May and in May there are cuts to Medicare
21:37
or Medicaid and SNAP so that When you cut funding
21:42
like that on the federal level, again, it has
21:44
to be addressed on the state level. And again,
21:49
we're in a poor state and we have Republicans
21:52
who keep cutting the income tax and not coming
21:56
up with any other ways of serving the people
21:59
of the state. One out of five Kentucky children
22:04
are hungry, and that's probably a conservative
22:06
estimate. Conservative as in MAGA or conservative
22:10
as in reasonable estimate? No, I think it's underreporting.
22:15
I think there are more children that are hungry
22:17
than one out of five in Kentucky. Certainly this
22:21
year. But again, we're doing more to make children's
22:30
lives harder. So they were cutting Medicaid.
22:34
They're cutting SNAP. What else? They cut education
22:38
funding. Not only that, for K -12 funding, but
22:43
they did cuts in the Pell Grants, which are for
22:47
higher education. Oh, and we can't forget, the
22:52
tariffs were starting to really show up in April.
22:58
Oh, no, in May. The result of the tariffs by
23:04
the Trump administration, of course, was to end
23:09
up creating a situation where we were going to,
23:12
well, the Trump lie was that the country where
23:18
the products were coming from was going to pay
23:21
for the tariffs, which isn't true because the
23:23
consumer pays for tariffs. Again, we shouldn't
23:28
have to explain these basic things about the
23:30
economy. These are things that we should get
23:32
out of our local media instead of an approach
23:37
to a story where it says, the Trump administration
23:40
says that this is going to happen in terms of
23:43
who's paying the tariffs. Meanwhile, the Democrats
23:46
are saying this is going to happen in terms of
23:48
consumers paying the tariffs. And they just throw
23:51
up their arms and say, well, we don't know what
23:54
the answer is. It's all on you as a consumer
23:57
to figure it out. And Kentucky is a very trade
24:00
-reliant state. You know, we have soybean farmers
24:03
that export their soybeans. We have spirits with
24:08
the bourbon distilleries and coal and steel and
24:14
automotive plants. All of this has been hit.
24:19
by these tariffs. Right. And the biggest example,
24:24
I guess, with the tariffs having a huge impact
24:26
here is on the bourbon industry. Because there
24:31
was a certain point where Canada just decided,
24:34
we're not going to get Kentucky bourbon anymore.
24:37
And that was a huge hit for this year. But it's
24:41
not only the bourbon industry that's affected
24:44
by that, because if you look at the elements
24:45
into making bourbon, you have people who are
24:49
pulling the barrels together. You have to get
24:52
the crops in order to create the mash that will
24:56
be used in terms of coming up with a product.
25:01
And there are all these storage costs. But again,
25:05
since the tariffs pretty much doubled the price
25:11
of bourbon outside of the United States, people
25:14
just decided, well, We don't need this. I'll
25:17
drink Irish whiskey or scotch. Canadian club.
25:21
Canadian club. I mean, I will say that Rand Paul
25:24
is against tariffs, and he calls them what they
25:28
are, which is tax. They're taxes. And I've read
25:32
studies that basically say that Kentucky, the
25:36
average taxpayer in Kentucky next year is going
25:39
to pay at least $1 ,100 more. on taxes because
25:43
of the tariffs. This is just taxes in general,
25:45
just because of the tariffs. And we're not even
25:48
talking about groceries. We're not talking about
25:50
health care tax. Right, and we haven't even gotten
25:54
into, which we'll get into later, just the health
25:57
care portion of this. So anyway, that's, you
26:01
know, snap cuts were in May. Not a pretty thing.
26:03
Tax policy, which, you know, the tax cuts that
26:08
were. passed in 2017 that benefited the wealthy,
26:14
those cuts didn't go away. Those cuts just were
26:18
extended. That's when I lost my federal job working
26:23
for low -income families around the country to
26:25
build wealth. Bye. You know, having savings accounts,
26:30
buying homes, starting small businesses, going
26:33
to college. That whole program was so effective.
26:37
It was a $25 million grant program. The ROI was
26:42
just astronomical on the program. ROI meaning?
26:45
Return on investment. Yeah, and these are programs,
26:50
again, that are important to actually... building
26:53
community, making people... Getting people off
26:56
of welfare, getting people off of government
26:58
benefits, getting them self -sufficient. Right,
27:01
but instead what they decided to do was extend
27:04
tax cuts for the rich, for the people who really
27:08
don't need these tax cuts. And, you know, by...
27:13
Cutting taxes at the federal level again. You
27:16
shift the burden to the state level Again, Kentucky
27:19
is poor. Yeah is a poor state and it relies on
27:22
other states Blue states to pay its cost But
27:28
you know and not only that there was just the
27:32
idea that They were scaling down taxes to the
27:35
point where it created a hospital crisis where
27:40
If you don't have the money to run hospitals,
27:43
you don't operate a hospital. You just close
27:45
it down. And where are you going to close it?
27:47
It's going to be in a rural area where people
27:51
are driving a long way just to get to the hospital
27:54
now. And now they're going to close that hospital,
27:57
which means that they're going to drive even
27:59
farther to find the next hospital. And depending
28:03
on the severity of your illness or whatever,
28:07
the fatality rate is going to increase just because
28:10
you can't get access to good health facilities
28:14
in a reasonable time. Yeah, and maternal health.
28:18
has really been impacted. Also, Kentucky is one
28:22
of the most restrictive states for abortion,
28:25
and so you have these cuts with your medical
28:29
providers, and then you have cuts on reproductive
28:31
care, and you have to drive further and further.
28:33
And not everyone in the state has access to reliable
28:36
transportation. Right, yeah. That's the other
28:39
thing, that when you're cutting everything else,
28:44
that means you're also cutting... Things like
28:46
funding for roads. So the roads aren't as good
28:49
as they are if there's a disaster. And gas prices
28:51
have really gone up. Yeah, right. Which, you
28:54
know, we have to talk about Trump's speech this
28:58
week where he was saying that everything was
29:01
beautiful and, you know, it's all a conspiracy
29:03
by Democrats. If people think the economy's bad,
29:08
it's because the Democrats say it's bad and it's
29:10
not because... It's Joe Biden's fault. Right.
29:13
It's, you know, the second he took office, everything
29:16
that he did in terms of Trump, he blamed anything
29:21
bad he blamed on the previous administration.
29:24
Even when he got deep into, we're now in May
29:28
and he's still complaining about things that
29:30
the Biden administration allegedly did, which
29:33
were. It was a total lie. The Biden administration
29:37
left him a really good economy, really strong
29:42
economy. There was, okay, I'm going to swear,
29:45
there was no way to fuck it up. And he essentially
29:49
said, hold my beer, watch this. Well, and he's
29:52
been enabled by the entire Republican Party,
29:55
local, state, and federal. And to a certain extent
30:00
by his judges that he... approved in the judicial
30:04
system, not all of them. We've had a complete
30:07
collapse of all three branches of government,
30:10
as well as the fourth estate, the media. Right,
30:12
and that's a whole other subject. So let's go
30:16
to June, or is there more? Is there any good
30:18
news in June? Let's see. There was a... Oh, that's
30:22
when the... Well, the big thing in June was the
30:26
big, beautiful bill enacted. So that led to concerns
30:31
about cuts in Medicaid and SNAP and other programs,
30:34
caused health care issues and food insecurity
30:38
along with losses of jobs. Shifts in education
30:42
funding. I've got really, I've got good stuff
30:45
on this one. Oh, good. We need some good stuff.
30:48
Well, no, it's not good. But fact, this is from
30:52
the Center for American Progress, and they put
30:54
out an article on August 6th. But on July 4th,
30:59
Trump signed the Congressional Republicans One
31:02
Big Beautiful Care Act. So how does it affect
31:05
Medicaid and the cost of health care in Kentucky?
31:10
So significant premium cost increases, right?
31:15
Right, which is like, it could be thousands of
31:18
dollars a month. Right, so a 55 -year -old earning
31:21
nearly $63 ,000 per year in Kentucky will see
31:25
their annual premium costs increase by at least
31:29
$3 ,870 on average. And then in terms of cuts
31:35
to Medicaid and loss of health insurance coverage,
31:39
It's going to increase, of course, out -of -pocket
31:42
health care costs for families and a lot of folks.
31:46
And again, that comes back at the end of the
31:49
year. People are not even going to be able to
31:52
afford the Affordable Care Act. Increase in uncompensated
31:55
care costs. We've been talking about the hospitals.
31:59
Four rural hospitals already were at immediate
32:02
risk of closure before the passage of the big
32:05
bullshit bill. And now the Medicaid cuts will
32:08
accelerate the crisis, worsening the financial
32:11
viability of these essential providers. So let's
32:15
talk about cuts to food assistance and higher
32:17
grocery costs. bill puts 50 ,000 people in Kentucky
32:24
at immediate risk of losing some of their SNAP
32:29
benefits, right? It elevates hunger. and raises
32:34
costs of grocery for millions of people at a
32:37
time when food prices are already rising due
32:39
to his tariffs. So the cost of grocery items
32:43
have already risen by more than 5 % since the
32:46
start of the year. Snap retailers, 540 grocery
32:51
stores and other Snap retailers in Kentucky are
32:56
facing increased risk of financial instability.
33:00
due to decreased business from SNAP recipients.
33:03
We talked about job losses. All of this is because
33:06
of the big bullshit bill. Medicaid and SNAP cuts
33:09
will cause the loss of an estimated 28 ,600 jobs
33:14
in Kentucky in 2029. And the state and local
33:20
governments are going to lose an estimated of
33:23
$240 million in tax revenue. squeezing their
33:28
budgets for vital services like education and
33:31
social services, increase in state expenditures.
33:36
So the cost share for Kentucky is going to be
33:41
about an estimated $115 million for SNAP. And
33:47
their SNAP... So basically the SNAP increase
33:51
on Kentuckians is going to be about $49 .3 million
33:56
starting in 2027. Now, it also impacts our energy
34:02
costs. So higher household electricity costs.
34:06
So electricity costs in Kentucky are going up
34:10
by an average of $70 per year starting next year.
34:15
higher costs for energy efficient home improvements
34:19
so this report says by the end of 2025 families
34:24
should expect to pay $2 ,000 more to replace
34:27
a heating ventilation and air conditioning unit
34:30
and a hundred and twelve hundred dollars more
34:33
for upgrades to windows and insulation in their
34:36
homes right And then lastly, more expensive student
34:40
loan payments. This one just kills me. So it
34:45
limits the repayment plan options for student
34:48
loan borrowers starting in 2026. And it's going
34:52
to force, get this, the average student loan
34:56
payment in Kentucky, the average increase is
35:00
going to be $210 a month. And it's going to go
35:04
up to $370 a month, more per month, for student
35:09
loan payments because of the bullshit bill. Mortgage
35:12
costs are also going to go up an average of $340
35:17
annually or approximately $10 ,150 over a typical
35:22
30 -year loan period. And then increased costs
35:26
for small business loans. Small business, you
35:29
know, they drive our economy. loans are going
35:34
up an average of $510 annually, which approximates
35:40
$5 ,420 over the length of an average fixed rate
35:46
loan. This is a complete shit show. This is anything
35:50
but a big, beautiful bill. All it does is make
35:54
the billionaires richer. And that was the whole
35:57
point because the billionaires are the ones who
35:58
contributed the most to, well... Some will say
36:02
that billionaires contributed to the Democratic
36:04
campaign, but the billionaires who are now running
36:09
the country, they're the ones who, like, I don't
36:14
know if you saw this week, but was it Miriam
36:16
Adelson? Oh, yeah. She was giving a speech at
36:22
some conservative gathering with Trump. At the
36:27
end of the speech, she said he should run for
36:30
four more years and that she would give him $250
36:33
million to run. You know, it's like, oh, well,
36:37
there's a bribe right there. Oh, totally. In
36:40
front of everybody. Well, just think about all
36:42
the pardons now, all these criminals that have
36:45
been pardoned all year. I mean, I'll give you,
36:48
Trump, a million dollars if you pardon me. And
36:51
then all these other people that have been swindled
36:53
by them are affected, too. Right. But let's go
36:55
back to our calendar. Oh, yeah, because we had
36:58
so much fun in June. Yeah. What happened in July?
37:01
Let's see. Let's see. Well, again, it's still
37:07
the big, beautiful bill. Right. Terrible. Let's
37:11
see. It cuts in Medicaid. The result of it were
37:15
like $38 billion over 10 years. The bill also
37:20
increased the cost of SNAP, food stamps, work
37:24
requirements were added. The funding for public
37:28
broadcasting was cut. just more challenges for
37:34
the healthcare industry because, let's see, the
37:38
cuts in Medicaid funding in Kentucky actually
37:45
affect about 200 ,000 people. and puts a strain
37:50
on rural hospitals. The SNAP program, you still
37:53
have people trying to get food and they can't
37:56
because their food stamps are being cut. The
37:59
work requirements, which I find interesting.
38:02
Whenever Republicans do these things about allegedly
38:06
improving the economy or when there are benefit
38:10
programs, they put these work requirements on
38:13
the people who are supposed to get the benefits.
38:17
The thing is that most of this funding isn't
38:19
going to adults. It's going to children, and
38:21
children don't work. So if you're not going to
38:24
give their parents the money to take care of
38:27
them because you're creating all these barriers,
38:30
then the children are going to go starving. they're
38:35
going out of their way to make sure children
38:38
are suffering. Like they're taking away their
38:40
food, they're taking away their education, and
38:44
they're taking away their health care. So, you
38:47
know, it's just... It just gets worse every time
38:51
you think of what they're doing. By the way,
38:53
I just saw this stat. I was talking about the
38:57
student loan and how they're going to go up an
38:58
average of $210 a month. More than 600 ,000 Kentuckians
39:03
owe a total of $20 .3 billion in student loans.
39:07
This is major. And, okay, I'm going to go off
39:12
on another tangent here and complain about billionaires.
39:16
But, you know, if, let's say, What was the number
39:20
you gave, $28 billion for student loans? Let's
39:24
see, $20 .3 billion. Okay, so let's use Jeff
39:29
Bezos as an example here. If he gave away 10
39:33
% of his money to pay all those student loans,
39:36
he would still have more than $200 billion. So
39:40
why are we allowing this to happen? take and
39:49
take and never give back and they'll say they
39:52
give back because they have these foundations
39:54
but you do the numbers on the foundation and
39:57
the amount of money they're giving is nothing
39:59
as I've said before it's like they found change
40:04
in their couch it'd be the equivalent of me finding
40:08
a quarter in the couch and giving it to a homeless
40:10
person when they like make a million -dollar
40:13
donation to some organization or a multi -hundred
40:17
-thousand -dollar donation to an organization.
40:19
Speaking of kids, too, I mean, Title I, the grant
40:23
program for high -poverty school districts, that
40:25
provided $274 million across 70 % of Kentucky's
40:31
public schools. That's going to be canceled.
40:33
$56 million in Kentucky federal COVID education
40:37
grants were canceled. Letcher County Schools
40:43
had used $3 million of this funding to purchase
40:46
25 new buses after flooding had destroyed houses,
40:49
you know, a couple of years ago. Our libraries,
40:53
our critical libraries, are being cut. The Humanities
40:58
Council, nearly half of AmeriCorps grant funding
41:01
is threatened with elimination. And, you know,
41:05
for me in the nonprofit sector, we really...
41:09
rely on AmeriCorps. I mean, we had 700 sites
41:12
and 5 ,200 members and volunteers in Kentucky
41:15
last year. And that really helps us bolster our
41:19
work because we're already under -resourced anyway,
41:22
right? What else? Job Corps. The administration
41:27
closed operations at 99 of 123 job corps centers,
41:32
which provides free education, job training,
41:35
and residential living for low -income youth
41:37
between the ages of 16 and 24. So it's just,
41:42
across the board, terrible for Kentuckians. Right,
41:45
and it doesn't get any better as we move along
41:48
in the year, because we'll go to August and what
41:51
happens in August. um more funding cuts and policy
41:55
changes from the trump administration that affect
41:57
public health and education and clean energy
42:00
and food assistance and you know again they keep
42:04
cutting these programs on the federal level the
42:08
states are reliant on these programs and if you
42:12
cut if you keep cutting then You're not only
42:16
slowing the growth of the state, you're actually
42:18
making things even more difficult for economic
42:21
development. The only logic to it is that, okay,
42:30
we're taking this money because we want to give
42:32
it to billionaires. But just in terms of the
42:35
people in the state, again, people are just getting
42:39
screwed over by... All these health crises to
42:43
use. Opioid use, tobacco use remains our leading
42:47
cause of preventable death. And millions of dollars
42:50
from the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health for
42:53
tobacco cessation programs canceled. Right. And
42:57
as the CDC cuts public health funding and public
43:01
health infrastructure, the only result from that
43:05
is that people are going to be sicker and the
43:07
death rate is going to be higher. But they're
43:12
cutting everything that makes life better. They're
43:15
cutting education, they're cutting cost for clean
43:19
energy. We've already talked about this cuts
43:23
to the SNAP benefits. And now we're getting into
43:26
the August where the discussion was on whether
43:29
or not the government should close because that
43:32
was on the horizon and people were looking at
43:35
that. And again, when government closes, it doesn't
43:42
affect the rich people, it affects the poor people.
43:46
So, you know, these are some of the things that
43:48
they went through in August. And if you looked
43:50
at the Courier -Journal or the Lexington Herald
43:53
-Leader, you'd have more detailed stories on
43:56
this. And while I'm discussing this, a really
43:59
good source of information is the Kentucky Center
44:01
for Economic Policy, because they've been...
44:05
covering this closely and they really do I would
44:09
say it's a nonpartisan approach to it's just
44:13
looking at numbers and you know numbers don't
44:15
lie you can adjust numbers you can trick play
44:20
with them but if you really look at the true
44:23
numbers the numbers will tell you what's happening
44:25
and what's happening in this state isn't isn't
44:28
good so we get into September And the government
44:32
shutdown is even more of a bigger concern. Or
44:36
it's just, you know, if, let's see, I think in
44:41
September Bashir said that if there was a shutdown,
44:46
that would affect 600 ,000 people in Kentucky
44:51
who got food stamps. And Head Start programs
44:55
were also in trouble if there was no federal
44:58
funding. In the meantime, that big bullshit bill
45:04
was going to cut $38 billion from the Medicaid
45:08
program over 10 years. That affected 210 ,000
45:12
Kentuckians. Higher tariffs are still going.
45:17
The Social Security Administration, they were
45:21
talking about making cuts to that program, which
45:25
affected federal workers. Also, when you're talking
45:31
about cutting federal workers, it's not just
45:33
the agencies that give you money or that are
45:38
in charge of distributing certain things to the
45:42
population, but just little things you don't
45:45
think about. With state parks or national parks
45:50
being closed because their workers are on leave,
45:55
and we haven't even talked about the... air traffic
45:58
system right you know we've had some horrible
46:01
air traffic disasters now it might not might
46:05
not be related to the cuts in federal funding
46:09
but the it doesn't those cuts do not contribute
46:12
to anything that's just being safer in there
46:15
right yeah it's you know i'm The two airports
46:20
I've used the most recently were the Louisville
46:24
Airport and the DC Airport and this year both
46:27
had major air crashes. You know, I think the
46:32
first time it happened, that was in D .C. back
46:35
in January, just after Trump was inaugurated.
46:38
And he blamed the Biden administration for the
46:41
crash. It's like, no. The UPS crash here, though,
46:44
is not related to a cut of aircraft. No, that
46:48
was just, that was more of a... It was a corporate
46:50
decision to keep a very old... airplane airplane
46:54
going without proper maintenance right and yeah
46:57
that that was definitely a maintenance issue
47:00
and that affected you know that affected us here
47:03
because we had to like shelter in place when
47:06
the plane crashed because the toxic fumes it
47:10
was giving off were spread all over the city
47:12
yeah so we knew people who had died on the ground
47:15
yeah so uh it's you know just we're in september
47:19
right yeah that's Just more bad stuff happening.
47:24
The state's revenues are down. SNAP is in trouble.
47:28
Head Start's in trouble. Even senior meals are
47:31
getting cut back because of what they're doing.
47:36
So is there any hope in October? Well, we had
47:41
a big No Kings rally. I mean, again, underreported,
47:45
but very powerful across the nation, all across
47:48
the state of Kentucky on October 18th. people
47:51
showed up in force. We didn't quite get, you
47:54
know, the 3 .5 % that we wanted to get, which
47:58
shows sort of a tipping point, but it was good.
48:01
I was at the demonstration in Colorado for that,
48:06
so I was in Denver. Huge gathering, lots of people
48:10
were really... enthusiastic there was no violence
48:15
and I would say that the only people who were
48:18
trying to instigate violence were the maggots
48:21
yeah that's who it was they were like at the
48:24
out at the corners like yelling and screaming
48:27
and being idiots meanwhile people are like demonstrating
48:32
because there is a threat to our existence as
48:35
Americans right but the MAGA people don't see
48:40
that they they just I don't understand what's
48:44
going on with them. I've tried to figure out
48:47
what their thought process is, but the answer
48:50
is there's no thought process. Well, I mean,
48:53
when you start to see Marjorie... Taylor Greene
48:55
peeling off, major, major maggot proponent. Again,
49:02
I am looking for these cracks and I'm seeing
49:05
cracks as the year goes on. Right, and the cracks
49:08
are, with Marjorie Taylor Greene, I think that's
49:12
an opportunistic crack. I think she sees that
49:14
she wants to be in office in a different capacity.
49:19
and she realizes that Mag is in trouble. Jump
49:24
ship now. Yeah, right. There's one podcast group
49:28
that says, be sure to burn the lifeboats. And
49:32
you're seeing Republicans now go for the lifeboats.
49:37
And Marjorie Taylor Greene is the perfect example
49:39
of that because she was the craziest person in
49:42
terms of just being a total MAGA supporter. And
49:47
I think that if we're going to talk about the
49:52
media coverage, I think the media has been...
49:57
irresponsibly fair. It's like, how do I say this
50:00
the right way? She shouldn't be getting the treatment
50:03
she's getting because she should be treated as
50:05
a pariah. She did bad things. She was a racist.
50:09
She was anti -Semite because, remember the Jewish
50:13
space lasers? She was insane. And now she's doing
50:19
the, oh, I didn't know any better routine, which
50:22
is just... The media has not been our friend
50:25
this year. No, it hasn't. And, you know, I saw,
50:30
I tried to watch the 60 Minutes interview with
50:33
her, and I just couldn't tolerate it. And, you
50:37
know, it became like a pissing contest between
50:39
her and Leslie Stahl, where, you know, it's like,
50:44
just childish arguments at a certain point, where...
50:52
She was saying that Leslie Stahl wasn't being
50:54
fair to her and Leslie Stahl was saying, well,
50:56
I guess I'm being fair to you. And it's just
50:58
a pointless argument because the fact of having
51:01
Marjorie Taylor Greene on as a legitimate news
51:04
source is a joke. And that's like more of the
51:08
media. That's going to get a lot more views for
51:12
the 60 Minutes, though. Yeah, well, it gets the
51:14
clicks, it gets the views, you know, whatever.
51:17
Charlie Kirk got the clicks, Trump gets the clicks.
51:20
The media's doing very well this year. All right,
51:22
we're still in October. Oh, God, we're in October.
51:25
So, yeah, people, let's see. 23 ,500 federal
51:31
employees were furloughed in the state without
51:34
pay because of the... That was the shutdown.
51:39
The SNAP benefits, they were paid, but then there
51:43
were going to be delays in November. Head Start
51:46
programs were closed. Energy projects were ended.
51:50
Public services weren't available. And small
51:53
businesses were just getting screwed over. And,
51:55
you know, the economy was doing horribly. And
52:01
this is October. We're still in 2025. This has
52:05
been like... Just a terrible year for everything.
52:10
And then we get into November with, let's see,
52:15
again, more cuts in SNAP benefits. The WIC program
52:20
is under attack. Head Start programs are under
52:23
attack. Demands at food banks increased. I think,
52:28
let's see, more than half a million Kentuckians
52:32
were... denied benefits I think it was more like
52:35
600 ,000 but again these are just the effects
52:41
of what's going on at the federal level on what's
52:47
happening with us individually is just we're
52:51
really getting screwed over by our by the people
52:55
we elect and you know it's not only the Republican
52:58
side, we have to criticize the Democrats for
53:01
this because we're now in November. Where is
53:04
the Democratic Party? There have been so many
53:08
opportunities to call out all of this bullshit.
53:12
We haven't even talked about the Epstein files.
53:14
You know, child rapist in office, right? Where
53:18
is the Democratic Party? Yeah, why aren't they
53:21
jumping on everything? Well, not only that, it's
53:25
like... Again, we're in November, so the big
53:29
elections in November were the New York mayor's
53:31
race, the Virginia governor's race, which Democrats
53:35
actually outperformed and won. But in the New
53:40
York mayor's race, the Democratic leadership
53:43
wasn't behind the Democratic candidate because
53:47
they were beholden to money again. well, they
53:55
were holding it to money. Zoran Mondami was considered
54:00
too radical, but we're in a situation where the
54:07
right is too radical. I don't think Mondami is
54:10
doing or saying anything that's outside the realm.
54:14
Affordability. That's not very radical to be
54:17
focusing on affordability. Yeah, we should be
54:19
able to. pay rent we should be able to buy food
54:22
we should be able to get our kids through school
54:25
and we shouldn't have to like think that if we
54:30
miss a day of work we'll get fired and then we're
54:33
going to be in the poorhouse but that's where
54:35
we are these days um also we we were very disappointed
54:39
that it was seven democratic uh senators that
54:43
peeled off stop the shutdown and open up government
54:47
again? Right. And the thing about them was that
54:49
none of them were up for reelection. So they
54:51
not only screwed over the constituents, they
54:56
are cowards because they're either retiring,
55:00
they're not running again, or they're not up
55:02
for election until like 2028. And they're hoping
55:05
that people forget Biden, which is typical of
55:09
the American electorate attention span. Very
55:12
short term. Yeah, it's like... If I don't see
55:15
what's going on today, if I'm looking at the
55:18
price of eggs and they're too much, then I'm
55:21
going to vote for a rapist instead of a prosecutor.
55:25
That's where... the American mindset is. But
55:28
the other galling thing was that they actually,
55:32
we talked about this, they actually thought that
55:35
the Republicans would bring up the Affordable
55:39
Care Act thing for the subsidies not to expire,
55:42
right? And we were both like, oh, shit. No, it's
55:46
like, well, the first question that came to my
55:50
mind when that happened was when they said that
55:52
that was the reason they were ending the shutdown.
55:55
I can only think, are you stupid? Republicans
55:58
lie. They will lie to you, and they will lie
56:03
to you up until the minute they stab you in the
56:05
back. And guess what hasn't happened and is not
56:07
going to happen in 2025? What? Those subsidies
56:11
are going to expire. Oh, the subsidies are expiring.
56:14
Yeah, I hear there are podcasters who are actually,
56:19
I've been talking about that all year, that,
56:22
you know. And the amount of money that people
56:25
are paying is like they would have to get another
56:29
part -time job to pay for the subsidies that
56:32
they're losing. If they're going to have the
56:35
same amount of coverage, they have to get another
56:37
job. And there are people working two and three
56:39
jobs now. They can't afford to, you know, pay
56:44
for these things or afford health care because
56:47
their companies aren't providing health care,
56:49
because the billionaires who own the companies
56:52
don't give their workers health care. Well, and
56:55
again, the small businesses, which are really
56:57
the economic engine of many of our communities,
57:00
I have a very close relative who did vote for
57:03
Trump, and he and his wife are on the Affordable
57:07
Care Act, on the exchange, and their premiums
57:10
are doubling. I mean, over $1 ,000 more a month.
57:15
This is a small business owner. Right. And when
57:18
you say $1 ,000 a month, that's $12 ,000 a year.
57:21
More. Okay. All right. That's right. Yeah. So
57:24
how can people afford any of this? It's just
57:30
ridiculous. I do want to mention that there was
57:34
a boycott that was organized around the country.
57:38
I haven't seen the results of the boycott. In
57:41
terms of Thanksgiving spending, Amazon and Home
57:46
Depot and Target were targeted. I do think Thanksgiving
57:49
sales might have been up, as I read, because
57:52
there were so many deep discounts that were offered
57:55
on Good Friday and Cyber Monday or whatever.
57:59
So why were Amazon and Home Depot and Target
58:02
targeted? All of them have capitulated on DEI,
58:05
you know, various. Trump things as opposed to
58:09
a place like Costco, which hasn't. And Costco
58:13
is seeing a record year in revenue. Because they
58:16
understand what their consumers want. And, you
58:19
know, the thing about Amazon, too, and Home Depot
58:22
is that they actually donated to Trump's destruction
58:25
of the east wing of the White House because they
58:30
just wanted to be in good stead with... I don't
58:37
know. I can't explain it. It's all about money.
58:43
Come on. Everything's about money. For very few.
58:50
Screw the rest of us. The thing is that what
58:55
Trump is building is just so tasteless. Well,
59:02
you've seen the pictures of the White House where
59:04
he's put gold trim on everything. Yeah. Now he's
59:07
renaming the Kennedy Center. Oh, God. Yeah. I
59:11
think they've done it. Trump -Kennedy Center.
59:15
Yeah. Why? Why? What is his... Well, he replaced
59:20
all the board directors, so of course it's a
59:23
rubber stamp. Jesse, we didn't talk about the
59:25
Epstein files enough. Oh, yeah. Well, let's talk
59:27
about that. Let's see, should we get to December?
59:30
Yeah, go to December. Let's get through the year.
59:34
It's been a tough year. Patience. Okay. All right,
59:40
the shutdown. We're talking about the impact
59:44
of the shutdown. SNAP benefits and food insecurity
59:48
increased. Federal workers... either lost jobs
59:53
or were furloughed and about 20 almost 24 ,000
59:56
people were affected by that. All the services
1:00:00
that we had were disrupted because of the because
1:00:05
of the shutdown and the reduced spending on the
1:00:10
federal government actually had a bad impact
1:00:13
on the state spending. And we now have a $150
1:00:18
million deficit that we're facing. Yeah, yeah.
1:00:22
It's like nothing good has happened this year.
1:00:26
Or I'm trying to be fair and trying to think
1:00:31
of something good that happened. Well, I guess
1:00:34
the only good thing that happened recently for
1:00:37
Kentucky was the... the uh state senate race
1:00:40
gary clemens won yeah that was um and he won
1:00:44
by a huge amount 73 right yeah so you know that's
1:00:50
that's a good sign but does that apply no he
1:00:53
did he did run for an open seat from david yates
1:00:57
who was also a democrat right but his opponent
1:01:00
was a republican who said horrible things about
1:01:02
women right I think there was probably one other
1:01:05
candidate, like a libertarian, who got maybe
1:01:07
2 % of the vote. But, you know, that's a good
1:01:11
sign, but that's something we would expect in
1:01:15
the Louisville area, that a Democrat's going
1:01:19
to win, and a Democrat has won big in Louisville.
1:01:23
Hopefully that's a sign that people in the state
1:01:27
are waking up to the fact that... the Republicans
1:01:31
aren't serving their interests. But we have to
1:01:34
go back to the fact that the Democrats in the
1:01:37
state haven't served their interests either.
1:01:38
Because as we talked about throughout the year,
1:01:41
Morgan McGarvey should have been out in the state
1:01:45
doing town halls when the Republicans weren't
1:01:49
showing up for them and saying. Your Republican
1:01:52
candidate is a coward. He's not going to address
1:01:56
your issues. Well, I wouldn't even go there.
1:01:59
There's so much data on the impacts of this horrible
1:02:02
administration and Republicans on every single
1:02:05
county in the state. Yeah, we can go through
1:02:08
that, but we also have to point out that the
1:02:09
Republican doesn't even show up. Right, and not
1:02:13
only not showing up, they ridicule anybody who
1:02:16
demands a meeting. When they do show up, well,
1:02:24
they never show up in Kentucky. I mean, when
1:02:26
they show up in other states, they get yelled
1:02:27
at. I'm sure that's what the Kentuckians were
1:02:29
thinking. And I don't know why the Democratic
1:02:33
leadership in this state didn't just slap McGarvey
1:02:37
in the head and say, get out there and talk to
1:02:39
the people. But anyway, well, let's go to the
1:02:43
Epstein files because that's... So they still
1:02:46
haven't been released. it doesn't look like they're
1:02:48
going to be released fully and they were supposed
1:02:50
to be released today because this was the deadline
1:02:53
but again we knew that they were going to do
1:02:55
it because we know that the trump administration
1:02:58
is either Well, they're delaying as much as possible
1:03:02
because we know that Trump is all over the Epstein
1:03:04
files. And we also know that what they're doing
1:03:08
is probably going through the files and taking
1:03:09
Trump's name out of every page that Trump's name
1:03:12
is on. So when you have these thousands and thousands
1:03:15
of pages of data, which is being redacted, but
1:03:20
the thing is, all the information is out there.
1:03:26
And no matter what they release, We will have
1:03:30
information coming from other places saying,
1:03:33
well, you see this thing where they put black
1:03:36
marks over every name? Well, here are the list
1:03:38
of names because it was in another document.
1:03:40
Trump couldn't release those files. He couldn't
1:03:43
release those files the day he got in office.
1:03:45
And he didn't release them because he's in them.
1:03:50
Right. He's all over them. And the impact on
1:03:52
Kentucky. Thomas Massey, of course. has been
1:03:55
a champion for the women who were raped as children.
1:04:00
Right. And the releasing of the Epstein file.
1:04:04
And let's also point out that Massey is being
1:04:07
attacked by Trump. Right. Because he's not...
1:04:10
I wonder what the other Republican congressmen
1:04:15
in this state are thinking or doing. Because
1:04:18
Massey... Well, Andy Barr is a Trumper and he's
1:04:22
going to run for Senate. Right, and he's already
1:04:25
got on his website or his campaign site about
1:04:31
all the things he cares about. And I saw that
1:04:33
one of the things on his campaign site was making
1:04:36
sure that trans girls aren't playing in sports,
1:04:43
which is like, the numbers aren't there. It's
1:04:48
not worth the effort. But that's something that
1:04:52
he can get the, the stupid people to get riled
1:04:57
up over. Okay, here I'm going to go on another
1:05:03
tangent, but little girls play baseball. It's
1:05:09
like the Little League World Series has girls
1:05:12
playing baseball, so the idea that boys and girls
1:05:14
don't play together in youth sports is totally
1:05:19
absurd. This is a non -issue. It's a non -issue
1:05:26
that's been enforced by the Republican Party
1:05:29
to keep you distracted from things that really
1:05:32
matter, like the fact that all of your tax dollars
1:05:35
are not going to provide services for you. It's
1:05:39
going to fatten the bank accounts of billionaires.
1:05:45
Yeah, so. So what do we do now? What do we do
1:05:49
now? I do want to say something. I went to a
1:05:53
really powerful training last night for the Community
1:05:58
Defense Network, and hundreds of people here
1:06:03
in Louisville are being trained to accompany
1:06:07
our Latinx neighbors. so that they can be safe
1:06:12
in their homes, they can be safe in their workplaces,
1:06:16
they can be safe at school, they can be safe
1:06:18
when they're receiving services. We learned a
1:06:21
lot about the kind of warrant that ICE needs
1:06:26
to produce to enter a facility. It's a judicial
1:06:29
warrant. It has to have a judge's signature.
1:06:32
When you say a facility, do you mean like a home
1:06:34
or like a public building? Any of those. Okay.
1:06:37
Yeah. All kinds of things. It's all nonviolent,
1:06:43
etc. But a lot of people are showing up because
1:06:48
we absolutely want to do something. These deportations
1:06:52
of our neighbors. I'm a Jewish person. I mean,
1:06:56
I totally think about Germany and other places
1:07:00
in the 30s. So I can't set aside. I am, just
1:07:06
personally, I've done a lot of... good work in
1:07:11
terms of exercise in terms of nutrition and in
1:07:15
terms of meditation and self -care because you
1:07:19
know just doom scrolling already jacks up my
1:07:23
nervous system and i'm in fight or flight like
1:07:25
immediately and i know a lot of us are very overwhelmed
1:07:28
but again um that is one of the things that this
1:07:33
administration is trying to do is overwhelm us
1:07:36
so that we're like we can't get out of our houses
1:07:38
so we have got to take care of ourselves so that
1:07:41
we can show up and take care of each other take
1:07:44
care of our neighbors and take care of our our
1:07:47
democracy because a lot is at stake yeah i agree
1:07:51
with that it's i i should be going to these courses
1:07:57
on um how to protect your neighbors. I know that
1:08:01
when I was in D .C. it was pretty much a weekly
1:08:05
or maybe a nightly event where people would be
1:08:08
standing on the corner at the waterfront train
1:08:11
station near where I live and they would be demonstrating
1:08:15
against ice and you know they would just be ringing
1:08:18
bells and holding signs and making noise and
1:08:23
the police were there and D .C. police I would
1:08:27
say are very tolerant of things whereas you go
1:08:32
to other states and the police will like crack
1:08:34
your head. But DC police are there to maintain
1:08:39
order which is another reason why you don't need
1:08:42
soldiers in Washington DC. That's just unnecessary.
1:08:48
But then you don't need soldiers in Oregon. You
1:08:52
don't need soldiers in Los Angeles. the administration
1:08:56
is creating this situation where they want people
1:09:00
to get shot by uh federal federal people they
1:09:04
they want something bad to happen because then
1:09:07
they can like really crack down i did want to
1:09:11
mention jesse that um we are looking for bilingual
1:09:14
people to step up there's there's a lot of work
1:09:17
being done for hotlines and getting out information
1:09:20
called know your rights things are done in spanish
1:09:24
as well as in english and we're looking for bilingual
1:09:27
people to to put a couple hours in here and there
1:09:30
and do some volunteer work. So if you're listening
1:09:34
to this, if you're in the Louisville area, go
1:09:38
ahead and direct message us and I can connect
1:09:40
you to the right folks. That's a good idea. It's
1:09:45
really needed because Louisville is made up of
1:09:48
a lot of immigrants. You'd be surprised at the
1:09:50
different immigrant populations. We've been a
1:09:51
welcoming city historically. We were a welcoming
1:09:54
city until the mayor sold us out to ICE. that's
1:10:00
inexcusable as well. And that's another example
1:10:03
of the failure of the Democratic Party in this
1:10:06
state because they should be rallying to protect
1:10:10
people and to, you know, to protect the people
1:10:14
who actually support them. And this doesn't mean
1:10:17
like letting... People who can't vote in the
1:10:20
country vote because they can't. If you look
1:10:22
at the numbers, the people who are most likely
1:10:26
to abuse the voting system are Republicans. That's
1:10:30
the reality of things. But instead, they pretend
1:10:34
that there are all these foreign arrivals all
1:10:40
of a sudden just walking up to the polls and
1:10:42
demanding that they be allowed to take part in
1:10:47
the election. That's not true. So I want to say
1:10:53
happy holidays to everybody and happy New Year.
1:10:58
We have work to do. I personally think we really
1:11:02
need to be working locally for our midterm elections
1:11:06
in 2026. We need to. ensure that we have free
1:11:10
and fair elections next fall. I don't know that
1:11:14
in my lifetime there has been a more important
1:11:17
time to get involved than right now. That's probably
1:11:22
true. I'm trying to think, well in my lifetime
1:11:26
we had the Civil Rights Movement and that was
1:11:29
the time we got through and I'll say that things
1:11:35
are bad now. but things were bad in the 1960s
1:11:38
and we survived that and we you know we can survive
1:11:43
this and we've had robber barons we've you know
1:11:46
listen to heather read heather cox richardson
1:11:49
she she puts everything out there historically
1:11:51
right but but we can't We've got to show up now.
1:11:55
There is a place for everyone. You don't have
1:11:59
to go to a rally if you have social anxiety.
1:12:01
You can write postcards. There are so many things
1:12:04
to do. So plug in. Right. And so I think this
1:12:09
is our last podcast for the year. We'll be back
1:12:12
in January for more fun and games. And let's
1:12:17
hope that 2026 is better than 2025. I'm hoping.
1:12:22
I'm up for that. So thanks for listening, people.
1:12:26
Again, just subscribe to the podcast and share
1:12:32
this with others if you want to just get the
1:12:36
word out on ways that you can be active in supporting
1:12:40
our communities. Take care, everybody. Bye. Thank
1:12:55
you.