Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 28

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 28 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the Bluegrass Blues podcast episode
0:03
28. This is Amy and I'm Jesse Well, it's been
0:15
two weeks since our last podcast and we've had
0:19
a primary election which had some interesting
0:23
results just not only locally in Louisville and
0:28
in Kentucky, but of national importance. And
0:32
the big one for Kentucky really was the Thomas
0:37
Massey primary in the 4th Congressional District,
0:40
where Massey, who everyone knows, is a Trump
0:45
I won't say he's a Trump critic because he votes
0:48
with Trump and the Republican Party. Over 90
0:50
% of the time. Yeah, so that's not like what
0:53
you would call a rebel to the cause. I wouldn't
0:56
even say he's a Trump antagonist. He leans libertarian
1:01
and he has his own viewpoint and he's not going
1:04
to be swayed to just lockstep with all the Republicans.
1:11
raping children and putting the nation in more
1:16
debt and getting into unjust wars. Right, and
1:19
the person who beat him will do that. Yeah, and
1:24
stated that very publicly. So, you know, the
1:27
Massey election, first of all, you can now refer
1:31
to the GOP as the ghastly, odious party because
1:35
if you look at what they've been doing, they've
1:37
been... Well, they're responsible for closing
1:41
hospitals. They're responsible for taking money
1:44
away from people. They're responsible for putting...
1:47
billionaires in charge or just they're destroying
1:50
the environment i just listened to that story
1:52
about big bend national park in texas and how
1:55
they're gonna build this wall on our side and
1:59
it's just gonna cut off all the wildlife that's
2:02
gonna cut off the river from anyway they're they're
2:04
terrible with it as we know in cold country yeah
2:07
and uh you know the Other part of this is, too,
2:12
there's a war going on. And they're just rubber
2:15
stamping it. Right. And it's like they've given
2:18
up. Why are they even in office if they're going
2:20
to do nothing? That's the question. They're making
2:22
a lot of money. A lot. Right. And the thing about
2:27
Republican politics, I guess it's politics in
2:29
general, is that when a person serves in office
2:32
for a long time, when they leave office, they
2:35
have a gushy job with whatever. section of the
2:39
economy they've been benefiting, so they get
2:42
hired as lobbyists. But in this election, it
2:47
also says something about the people in Massey's
2:50
district, or Republicans in Massey's district,
2:52
where... We keep saying this, but this is not
2:56
a rich state. This is a very poor state. It's
2:59
at the bottom of a lot of lists in terms of health,
3:01
in terms of education, in terms of economic security.
3:07
And we keep voting for these horrible, they keep
3:11
voting for these horrible, horrible people. Well,
3:13
and we're seeing this all over the country. We
3:15
saw that Cornyn, a very established and esteemed
3:20
Republican senator. That's John Cornyn. Texas.
3:23
Right. Was beat by Ken Paxton. Multiple felon.
3:28
And a psychopath. He's the Attorney General of
3:32
Texas. Right. And $90 million was spent on that
3:38
race by the Republican Party to keep Cornyn.
3:41
So I think Senate Republicans are feeling really
3:45
upset with Trump. But are they going to do anything?
3:47
No. Well, also, you have to remember that Bill
3:50
Cassidy in Louisiana also lost his primary because,
3:54
I mean, he's another one to only vote with Trump
3:57
like 95 % of the time. I think Cornyn was 99
4:01
.2 % voting with Trump. Yeah. But I'm sure that
4:06
there's something with Trump, you know, that
4:08
there's nothing ideological about what he does.
4:11
It's all about greed and money and how is he
4:13
going to benefit. I get this feeling that some...
4:16
And ego. Yeah. I mean, really, you have a no
4:19
king sign still since 1776 still up at your house.
4:25
He is king, right? I mean, look what he's doing
4:28
in D .C. King of the Republicans. King of Republicans.
4:30
And I have two no -king signs on my house, and
4:34
they're going to stay until he's gone. But, you
4:37
know, these... It's very disappointing that voters
4:43
still are under his thumb. Why do you think that
4:48
is? Republican voters. He still has sway. Why?
4:52
Because he says... what they want to hear But
4:56
their grocery prices are going up. Their gas
4:59
prices are going up. Memorial Day was terrible.
5:03
I was out traveling and the hospitality industry
5:05
didn't do well because of gas prices. People
5:07
aren't going anywhere. So why isn't that translating
5:12
into any anti -Trump sentiment? Well, I think
5:16
we have to look at, first of all, who's voting
5:19
and look at the voter numbers. That is a very
5:21
good point. Because if I look... If I'm correct,
5:25
I think the turnout for the last primary, for
5:28
the Kentucky primary, overall state turnout was
5:31
26%, which, if you do the math, means that three
5:36
out of four people, voters, didn't show up for
5:39
this primary. And if only 25 % of the state is
5:44
going to show up, that 25 % are... 25 % of registered
5:50
voters. Right, of registered voters. Three out
5:52
of four registered voters did not go to the polls.
5:56
And, you know, it's easy to sort of just blame
5:58
people. But I think it's deeper than that. I
6:02
think, of course, the media has a lot to do with
6:04
this. And I think the parties on both sides,
6:08
you know, especially on the Democratic side in
6:10
a state like Kentucky, I mean, we are not getting
6:13
out the vote. Right, right. And we're going to
6:15
get into the Democrats. failures very soon but
6:19
the it's well democratic voters don't show up
6:23
to support democrats or republican voters uh
6:27
well on both sides no one is showing up to support
6:30
their candidates and and but the what bothers
6:36
me too is that people complain about politicians
6:40
And they don't show up to do something about
6:42
it. They have the power to do this. And nothing
6:45
is happening. Or it's like, well, you know. And
6:49
these stupid, I'm sorry I'm using the word stupid,
6:52
but these stupid excuses like, well, my vote
6:55
doesn't matter, or, well, they're all the same,
6:58
why should I vote? Well, the reason you should
7:01
vote is because you're trying, if they're all
7:03
the same, vote for someone who's not them, or
7:05
vote for someone who stands up for your beliefs.
7:08
That's what happened, like, in New York with
7:10
Mondami. and with Ocasio -Cortez, people were
7:14
voting for what they believed in, and those candidates
7:16
represented what they wanted out of their government.
7:20
Plus, Kentucky, you know, we used to have terrible
7:23
restrictions on voting access. We were one of
7:28
very few states that just had in -person voting
7:30
on the day of the election from 6 a .m. to 6
7:33
p .m. Terrible. And since COVID, you know, we've
7:38
really opened it up, and you can do absentee
7:40
voting. and you can do it with an excuse, you
7:42
can do it without an excuse. You can do early
7:44
voting. Early voting. So, you know, again, that
7:47
means that access barriers are being removed.
7:50
And people aren't coming. Yeah, and I'll give
7:53
an example because, did you vote on election
7:55
day? I did. Okay, I voted early. I voted on,
7:57
I think it was the Thursday before election day.
8:00
And I went to Paristown Hall. Paristown Point.
8:05
Paristown Point, yeah. there were two people
8:09
there, me and one other voter. And this is like,
8:12
it's right there. You can come from anywhere
8:15
in the city to vote anywhere, and they gave you
8:17
various locations to go. And if I'm the only
8:22
one, there are only two people there at... well,
8:25
I probably went around 11 o 'clock in the morning.
8:28
You know, at lunch break, you can jump over,
8:31
hit any of these sites, and they're conveniently
8:34
located close to where you work or where you're
8:37
at school or whatever, and no one's showing up.
8:40
Well, and I voted about 11 .40 a .m. just before
8:43
lunch break on Election Day, and I would say
8:47
four people. Right. Maybe. That's on election
8:51
day. On election day. And I remember going to,
8:54
I think the last year, last year when we voted
8:57
for president, I went to look at sites. And it
9:01
was another situation for some reason where I
9:05
might have been early voting or it might have
9:07
been election day, but I could vote. In any place
9:09
I wanted to vote, I didn't have to go to the
9:11
specific place. That wouldn't have been on Election
9:14
Day then. Okay, then it must have been a primary.
9:16
So I went on the primary, and I went by the airport,
9:20
which I think a lot of people go to Bowman Field.
9:23
That's a small commuter airport in Louisville.
9:27
And the line was like, it was raining, and the
9:31
line was just... Totally absurd. It went forever.
9:36
And I thought, well, I don't want to stand in
9:37
line for a couple of hours. So I just drove to
9:40
another site and I voted there. And there are
9:42
people who are going to see long lines in these
9:44
situations and think, well, I tried. It was too
9:47
long to wait. Again, just to clarify, you wouldn't
9:50
have been able to do that on a primary election
9:52
day or a general election day. You would have
9:55
been early. Because when you vote on election
9:57
day, you have to know exactly where your polling
10:00
place is. place you can go I wonder why that
10:04
is because it just it why not just let people
10:07
vote wherever they can as long as they're registered
10:09
and as long as they're in the database you know
10:11
it's not like we're not like in 1942 where you
10:16
know you had to prove where you lived or whatever
10:18
we have computers we have well and when you walk
10:22
into the voting place you know then they ask
10:25
you what precinct you're in so you have to know
10:28
even more data which is what precinct you're
10:30
in now once you get to the right voting place,
10:33
they will look you up and they'll point the direction
10:35
to the direction of where your ballot is. And
10:39
because they're doing that because each polling
10:42
place has a different candidate list. Like if
10:46
you're voting for council, you're not going to
10:49
get the council for other parts of the city.
10:51
You're going to get the part that represents
10:52
your part of the city. Or state rep would be...
10:57
That way, state senate, things like that. Yeah,
11:00
and I'm just wondering, we were talking about
11:04
Massey, but what's he going to do next? Because
11:06
I see that he's registered to run in the next
11:09
election. He is, and I thought that it was funny
11:12
that he and Marjorie Green Taylor, Marjorie Taylor
11:17
Green, are in Costa Rica, or were just in Costa
11:20
Rica together, and they just took pictures with
11:23
each other. So they're colluding. Oh, my God.
11:27
You can't make this stuff up. They're probably
11:29
plotting to take over the Republican Party, which,
11:31
you know, I'm going to say this now, is not a
11:34
good thing. Because they're also, they are both
11:38
people I would never vote for. But I have to
11:41
say, I was surprised that Massey lost in his
11:43
district because, you know, he's been serving
11:46
them for quite a while. And it's obvious that...
11:53
Big money, really big money went into his election.
11:57
It shouldn't. The amount of money they spent
11:59
on Massey's primaries, the amount of election
12:02
you should spend for election day. And it's just
12:06
ridiculous. So now the 4th Congressional District
12:09
has a choice between a rabid Trump supporter
12:12
and I don't know who's running against on the
12:15
Democratic side, honestly. I don't know either.
12:17
It's a pretty red district. So we'll have to
12:21
see what happens there. Anyway, that's... I think
12:25
we've... So let's talk about the Louisville mayoral
12:27
race. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, that was...
12:30
How do we start? Well, I'm excited that Shameka
12:35
Parrish -Wright got the second most amount of
12:38
votes. That means that she's on the ballot with
12:41
Craig Greenberg. Right, yeah. And those are the
12:44
only two people on the ballot. So it's... a democrat
12:47
no i won't call greenberg a democrat i will call
12:50
him a pseudo -republican No, I'd call him a pseudo
12:55
-Republican. I don't know if he's even pseudo.
12:57
Yeah, but he's got the D by his name. And then
13:02
you've got Shamika, who is of the Democratic
13:05
Socialist stripe. She would be like someone who's
13:09
voting with Mandami and with Ocasio -Cortez and
13:13
Bernie Sanders. Well, and I just want to say
13:14
that she is truly a candidate of the people,
13:18
for the people, by the people. And we are seeing
13:22
the same class war played out in Louisville,
13:25
Kentucky, that we're seeing all over the country.
13:28
Greenberg is the establishment candidate. The
13:31
Republican Party did not work hard to, you know.
13:36
put anyone up to defeat him and shamika parish
13:40
wright is a community organizer she's out there
13:43
she has she is a black woman she has faced homelessness
13:47
she has faced all kinds of issues associated
13:51
with poverty she runs a non -profit uh that that
13:56
deals with justice issues and things like that
13:59
for me i mean if we it's insanity to vote for
14:03
these same people over and over and expect different
14:06
results. We're not going to get them. But we
14:08
would with Shameka Parish, right? The way that
14:10
New York City is with Mamdani. And, well, the
14:15
reason that we don't have... I guess the reason
14:20
we don't have the enthusiasm for, like, a Mandami
14:23
kind of person here is because the parties are
14:28
so entrenched in what they want, and they've
14:30
decided that... We're going to put these people
14:32
in office. You really don't have a voice. We'll
14:35
pretend you have a voice. But we know what the
14:39
outcome is going to be ahead of time. And I think
14:44
that when you're in that kind of situation, as
14:46
the candidate opposing that, you have to really
14:49
go hard at the party itself. You have to go hard
14:52
at what's wrong with the politics of our community.
14:56
Right. And Attica Scott does a really good job
14:58
of that. She does. Excellent. She had a piece
15:02
on Substack, which we'll link on, just how the
15:05
Democrats in the Louisville area, the Democratic
15:08
Party in Louisville, have failed us. Well, not
15:11
just in Louisville. Statewide, yeah. She does
15:15
the math. I mean, in 2016 in the Kentucky House,
15:21
Democrats held 53 seats. And 10 years later,
15:25
in 2026, Democrats hold 20 seats. So net loss
15:31
over a decade in the House, 33 seats. The Kentucky
15:36
Senate. Ten years ago, Democrats held 11 seats.
15:40
Now, Democrats hold six seats. So that's 38 legislative
15:46
seats, 38 votes, 38 voices, 38 opportunities
15:51
to stop bad bills or advance good ones gone in
15:54
10 years. Where is the Democratic Party? Plus,
15:57
let's look at the constitutional offices. Secretary
16:01
of State, Republican. Attorney General, Republican.
16:05
Auditor, Republican. Treasurer, Republican. Commissioner
16:09
of Agriculture. Guess what they are? Republicans?
16:13
Yeah, good guess, Jesse. We've got the governor.
16:17
He's a nice guy. He's a good guy. I like him.
16:20
But all of his vetoes are even overridden by
16:23
the supermajority. But let's point out why the
16:25
governor isn't a Republican. And we've said this
16:28
before, because when Andy Beshear is... piece
16:32
of a political family. Steve Beshear was the
16:36
governor of Kentucky. And Andy Beshear was running
16:39
against Matt Bevin, who everyone thought was
16:41
a total asshole. I think I read an interview
16:45
once where after Bevin lost his election, a Republican,
16:50
a leading Republican was asked, why do you think
16:52
Bevin lost? And he said something like, well,
16:54
no one wants to vote for an asshole. Yeah, but
16:56
why is it happening on the federal? Why is this
17:00
happening? Why does Trump? still have so much
17:02
power. He's an asshole. He's worse than an asshole.
17:04
He's a child rapist. Trump has so much power
17:07
because the Republican Party doesn't stop him.
17:09
And, you know, I was alive during Watergate.
17:12
I remember Watergate very quickly, and Republicans
17:15
stood up to the president then. And they weren't
17:17
afraid of the backlash that would... So why are
17:22
they voting for assholes like Paxton? Why are
17:24
they voting for, you know, there are assholes
17:27
everywhere in the Republican Party that are winning.
17:29
Yeah, but the thing about the assholes in the
17:31
Republican Party is that they're getting worse
17:33
and they're still winning. That's the problem.
17:36
Bevin might even have won during the Trump era,
17:41
honestly. Well, Bevin, that's a good point. But
17:46
yeah, because Bevin was hated by everybody. But
17:51
there wasn't a Trump around to push him through.
17:55
So Bashir got through on that. Bashir got through
17:59
because there was no Trump -like candidate. That
18:03
was during the Biden administration when Bashir
18:05
won his first? No, maybe it was his first Trump
18:09
administration. We'll have to look it up. But
18:10
during the second Bashir win. To me, and I'm
18:16
sure to everyone who pays attention to politics,
18:19
the reason he won is obvious. He was running
18:21
against a black guy. And a black person is going
18:26
to have a hard time winning a state -wide race
18:29
in Kentucky. Well, so we've got Shemeika Parrish
18:33
-Wright in Louisville, and now we have Charles
18:35
Booker as the Democratic candidate for Mitch
18:40
McConnell's open seat. You know, Jesse, it just
18:45
boggles my mind that we are still here, that
18:49
racism is still as rampant as ever. And I just,
18:55
I don't know, why haven't we gotten beyond this?
18:58
It's skin color. It's nothing. Well, it's propaganda
19:02
also. And I'm going to blame media for this.
19:05
Oh, well, get this. Trump was the president when
19:08
Andy Beshear was first elected. But that was
19:11
also during COVID. Yeah. Well, it was in 2019.
19:15
It was before COVID. Oh, just before COVID. But
19:17
I just don't think he was the Trump that we know
19:19
now. Right. Yeah. He's so emboldened. No, 2019
19:24
was post -COVID, wasn't it? No, it was pre -COVID.
19:27
Oh, right. It started in 2020. Yeah, okay. So,
19:29
yeah, that's right. Okay, so go ahead, though.
19:32
I forget what I was saying, but anyway. Charles
19:35
Booker, race, skin color. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's
19:39
going to be... I hate to be cynical. I don't
19:43
want us to be cynical. I want everyone to get
19:45
out and get out the vote for Charles Booker and
19:49
Shameka Parrish Wright. We cannot afford cynicism.
19:53
So what should their message be? That's the question.
19:56
We're here for the people. I mean, don't look,
19:58
it goes beyond skin deep. I mean, we care about
20:03
affordable housing. We care about the price of
20:06
gas and groceries. We care about solving the
20:11
opioid epidemic. We care about criminal justice
20:14
reform. We care about... you know, ice taking
20:17
our neighbors, and we care about these data centers
20:20
that are going to pollute our water and make
20:23
our energy rates go up. Why aren't those things
20:25
that would resonate with people? Well, I think
20:27
the phrasing of it, too, has to change. It's
20:30
like people have to, or these candidates have
20:34
to say, I see you, I know what you want to do,
20:37
I am you, right? I am you. And the people running
20:40
on the Republican side don't see you. They aren't
20:44
you. And they're just, you know, where the money
20:47
goes is to the Republicans because we have billionaires
20:50
like Jeff Bezos, who what last week said when
20:54
asked about the why he shouldn't pay more taxes
20:57
because, you know, like schoolteachers in Queens,
21:00
Queens is in New York, schoolteachers in Queens.
21:03
trying to struggle. His answer is, well, if I
21:06
pay more taxes, then it's not going to help that
21:09
school teacher in Queens. That's just total bullshit.
21:12
It is. It's total bullshit. But again, that's
21:15
huge money. Jeff Bezos has a quarter of a billion
21:18
dollars. That he can just spend and throw to
21:21
whoever he wants. A quarter of a billion? No,
21:23
I'm sorry, a quarter of a trillion dollars. You
21:26
know, the numbers. It might even be more than
21:28
that now that it comes. See, that's how much,
21:29
that's how staggering it is. Where, you know,
21:32
if I said a quarter of a billion dollars, that
21:35
should be enough to say, wow, this is ridiculous.
21:38
But he's got a quarter of a trillion dollars.
21:40
Honestly, the money, the money, since Citizens
21:43
United, you know, every day I'm getting, you
21:46
know, solicitations for money and it wears people
21:50
out. There's just, and then all this money that
21:53
could be going to build housing, right? To repair
21:57
roads, to make sure that our rural hospitals
22:01
don't close, right? And that people get healthcare.
22:04
It just seems just such a waste to me. Yeah.
22:07
And going back to the Louisville mayoral race,
22:11
it's not just people like us who are pissed off
22:15
at our party. Republicans are pissed off at the
22:19
Louisville Republican Party because they didn't
22:21
support their candidate because the fix was in.
22:25
They decided that they wanted Greenberg in office.
22:29
And I saw this quote where it blew my mind where
22:33
someone said, you know, Greenberg really works
22:37
well with Republicans. in in the legislature
22:39
and i'm thinking well you you mean the republicans
22:42
who are taking away your health care you mean
22:44
the republicans who are like taking away disaster
22:46
services or the republicans who want your children
22:50
to not be educated uh this is this is a good
22:54
thing this is supposed to be a good thing the
22:56
greenberg the the person who has let ice into
23:00
louisville and just, like, he's encouraging it.
23:05
He will say he hasn't encouraged it, but the
23:08
fact that he's letting paramilitary assholes
23:12
run around the city and just steal people off
23:16
the streets, kidnap people off the streets. Well,
23:18
and I want to tell you, I'm on a thread for community
23:22
defense. And once again, we got a chat today
23:29
about three agents from DHS in tactical gear
23:34
walking around a neighborhood in the 40222 zip
23:39
code, which is eastern Louisville, which is eastern
23:42
Jefferson County. People, this is happening every
23:46
day here, every day. And the mayor doesn't say
23:50
a word about it. Whereas if you go to Minneapolis
23:53
or to Chicago or to New York or, you know, other
23:58
big cities that have ice invading. those mayors
24:02
are like, look, we're going to defend our people.
24:04
If these guys come in with their masks and if
24:07
they kidnap people, we're going to do something
24:09
about it. Whereas Greenberg's like, okay, go
24:11
ahead, people. You're cool. Let's just go around
24:14
and terrorize. Well, and I want to get very specific
24:17
about one issue that's really, really bothering
24:22
me with the mayor. So the Arthur Street Hotel,
24:27
which we know is in our neighborhood. If you
24:30
will. Arthur Street Hotel is just off the Arthur
24:33
Street exit on I -65. So it's really close to
24:38
UofL. It's pretty, it's pretty, you can see it
24:41
from the highway. And then if you're going to
24:44
like sporting events at UofL and stuff, Papa
24:47
John's Stadium, or it's not Papa John's anymore.
24:49
It's L &M. stadium um you'll see this right so
24:53
it's it's not hidden away in the west end you
24:56
know um and so all they so in the 1 .1 billion
25:01
dollar budget that the mayor just unveiled The
25:05
shelter needs about $1 million to continue operating,
25:09
but it was eliminated. So it will shut down.
25:14
And it helps hundreds of people every year experiencing
25:17
homelessness to secure permanent housing. And
25:20
I know them well because Feed Louisville was
25:24
born out of a relationship in the pandemic. with
25:28
Arthur Street Hotel to feed unhoused people.
25:32
Because, you know, when the pandemic happened,
25:34
everything shut down. And so feed, there are
25:38
so many ramifications to closing something like
25:41
this, right? Do we need another motel? All I
25:45
keep seeing are hotels being built. I mean, really?
25:48
What are we going to do with these people? I
25:50
think they're building a hotel. Well, no, not
25:52
building a hotel, but they're going to convert
25:53
the Humana building to a 1 ,000 -room hotel.
25:55
Oh, I read that. Yeah. So, like, okay, we don't
25:59
need more hotel space, but we do need space for
26:02
people who are struggling. And there's no effort
26:06
to help people who are struggling, partly because
26:08
they're not voters. they aren't able to vote
26:13
because they have no residents to like list as
26:16
their as their home. Right. And I just want to
26:20
mention that Shamika Parrish -Wright, you know,
26:23
she is the executive director of Vocal Kentucky,
26:26
and they work a lot on these justice issues.
26:28
And she has been very vocal about talking about
26:33
the lives of people that are going to be affected
26:36
if this place closes. So, you know, it's just
26:40
another example of a developer mayor at Steve
26:44
Poe's data center that's going to Steve Poe is
26:49
a kind of greatly hated developer in town by
26:54
people who understand the classism and the segregation
26:59
that has happened in this town. He's going to
27:01
make a lot of money on a data center that is
27:04
going to raise our utility rates, poison our
27:07
water. And Greenberg, they are just, they're
27:11
buds. And, well, the other thing about data centers
27:13
is that the people have no voice in where they're
27:16
going either. And they're going into the communities
27:19
that are going to suffer the most, the communities
27:21
with the issues with housing and with education
27:25
and with health. Well, and we see rural communities
27:27
now. I mean, there's an enormous one being planned
27:31
in eastern Kentucky now. And the good news is
27:35
it seems like some graph... really strong grassroots
27:38
efforts by you know non -partisan efforts are
27:42
happening but you know this is a lot of money
27:45
it's hard to fight this stuff yeah and especially
27:48
if you have a mayor or people in charge that
27:50
are in in on it you know right and i will also
27:54
blame a couple more functions that should be
27:58
performing better but don't the first is that
28:01
we had our mayoral race and our council race
28:04
was non -partisan which For the first time, ever.
28:08
For the first time, and it was passed by Republicans
28:10
in Frankfurt. Right. And I think it's just Louisville
28:15
that was affected by that. I'm not sure, but
28:17
I'd have to look that up. But the idea that you
28:20
would have a nonpartisan ballot and not, just
28:24
not, even on the ballot, you could have a...
28:26
what you call a nonpartisan ballot where you
28:28
put everybody on and list their party affiliation.
28:32
Because if it's nonpartisan, it doesn't matter
28:35
what you're voting for, but they don't even tell
28:38
you the party affiliation of the people who are
28:40
running. So, you know, you're just stuck with,
28:43
it's a mystery. You don't know what, if you put
28:47
a D or an R behind someone's name, you do know
28:50
at least what they're going to, what their general...
28:54
process of thought is they don't list that at
28:57
all so this is a very cynical play it since it's
29:01
only Louisville because we know Louisville's
29:03
the big blue dot in this and very democratic
29:06
and so just breaking it down right so by Frankfurt
29:10
which has always been a tension between Louisville
29:13
and Frankfurt although Louisville who overly
29:16
funds the state with our tax revenues. There's
29:19
always been... Well, it's like the same on the
29:22
national level where the blue cities and blue
29:25
states are the ones who are funding the red states.
29:28
And the red states are saying, don't take our
29:30
money, don't take our money. Well, the blue states
29:32
are giving you money. And the blue states are
29:35
now the enemy because... Why? Because we're giving
29:38
you money? Because they're woke. Yeah, because...
29:40
They support... Black people, brown people. And
29:45
they support people, and they believe that women
29:49
should have rights. Oh, really? Reproductive
29:50
freedom? Oh, God, no. And maybe no detention
29:53
facilities or kidnapping facilities. And they're
29:56
not talking about putting Bibles in the schools
29:58
every five minutes or the Ten Commandments on
30:00
the lawn or whatever. I don't know. So that's
30:04
one problem. The other problem. I always go back
30:07
to the media for the problem here, and the Courier
30:10
-Journal is failing us severely. They decided
30:15
a while back that they weren't going to endorse
30:18
candidates or give any information on why you
30:21
should vote for one person or another. And I
30:25
think I said this in the last podcast. I just
30:28
came from the San Francisco Chronicle a couple
30:30
of years, well, not even, maybe less than two
30:33
years ago. called up the Chronicle before their
30:38
primary, and they had very detailed reasons on
30:43
all the candidates running, why you should support
30:46
them, and then they gave an endorsement at the
30:48
bottom. We have no idea who's running in our
30:50
elections anymore. All we know is that there
30:53
are names that are sort of familiar and we're
30:56
looking for those names. And the Courier Journal
30:59
doesn't tell us who these people are, where they
31:01
come from, what their background is, what money
31:04
they have, what their public service has been
31:07
in the past. That's just, that's totally irresponsible.
31:11
But that's what they've decided to do. So you've
31:15
got a political system that, doesn't advocate
31:20
for their candidates on both the Republican and
31:23
the Democratic side. You've got a news system
31:27
that doesn't let you know who's running. So I
31:30
can see why people are frustrated. But when you
31:34
put all these things together, that's another
31:37
reason why voter turnout is so low. Because people
31:39
are essentially saying, I don't know what's going
31:41
on. I don't know what I should be doing. And
31:44
people aren't following politics every day. every
31:47
day. They follow it around election time. That's
31:50
the time you're supposed to tell them everything
31:52
they need to know. And the Courier -Journal isn't
31:54
doing that. You're right. And I want to go back
31:57
to the Kentucky Democratic Party one more time.
32:01
Attica Scott finishes her, she concludes her
32:04
Substack article. She says, Kentucky Democrats,
32:08
the right lesson is not to wait for the National
32:10
Party to save us. Well, that's so true. What's
32:13
the National Party doing? Right. Well, they did
32:15
their autopsy. Exactly. The right lesson is to
32:18
do our own honest accounting, to look at who
32:21
we've centered, who we've abandoned, and that's
32:24
a lot of people, what we've built and what we've
32:27
let rot, and then do the hard, unglamorous work
32:31
of building to win, building to last. That starts
32:34
with an autopsy, real one. and a willingness
32:37
to admit that this current democratic iteration
32:40
ain't working. We don't need another press release,
32:44
website redesign, or another damn text message.
32:49
Or another fundraising damn text message. Give
32:53
me $5, give me $10. For what? Yeah, we're not
32:57
seeing the... The return on our investment as
33:03
voters. This is hard work. It's unglamorous.
33:06
It's gritty. And, well, let's see. The Democratic
33:11
Party is failing us. The media is failing us.
33:15
And what we're ending up with is a poor state
33:18
with, you know. Terrible health outcomes, which
33:22
I want us to talk about. Yeah. You want to go
33:24
there now? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, so. This
33:27
is like a personal thing because it happened
33:30
to me and I had a really bad health episode last
33:34
week and it was my fault. So I'll say that to
33:38
begin with. I drove from Ohio to Louisville.
33:44
last two Sundays ago. From your college reunion
33:48
at Ohio Westman. Yeah, my 50th college reunion.
33:51
And I drove home. I rented a car, drove back
33:54
home. When I got home from Ohio, it was in the
33:59
mid 80s. So I like. drop my stuff off at home,
34:03
and then I decide, okay, I'll drive to the airport
34:05
and walk home because the airport's three and
34:08
a half miles from where I live, and I do a five
34:12
-mile walk pretty much every day. And so drop
34:15
the car off, walk in the heat. It's 80 degrees,
34:19
and it's, well, it's 80 degrees, and I'm wearing
34:23
a sweatshirt and sweatpants. Mid -80s. which
34:27
is totally stupid. So the result is major dehydration
34:30
and severely low blood pressure. And I'm on blood
34:34
pressure medicine because my blood pressure a
34:38
year and a half ago was severely high. So I get
34:42
home and I'm feeling kind of woozy. And, you
34:46
know, you check your blood pressure and it's
34:47
like, oh, it's like. 90 over something, which
34:50
is bad because normal blood pressure is 120 over
34:53
80. And I rest a little. And then later in the
34:57
day, I decide, okay, I'm going to fill out all
34:59
my exercise requirements for the day. So that
35:03
night I'm on the Peloton sweating. And then I
35:06
realized I'm really dizzy. I'm really dizzy.
35:10
My left side is feeling kind of tingly and I'm
35:14
throwing up. That's signs of either heat exhaustion,
35:18
heat stroke, or stroke. But I didn't do anything.
35:22
I powered through it, went to bed, and the next
35:27
day I called my doctor. I go to my doctor on
35:29
Tuesday and explain everything that's happened.
35:34
I'm feeling a little better by then. And she
35:36
says, you should go to the hospital to get an
35:38
MRI. If you're tingling, that's a sign of possible
35:43
mini -stroke, and that's not good. So make the
35:47
arrangements for the appointment. But on Tuesday
35:53
night, again, I overdid it. I filled my rings.
35:58
I was sweaty. And I keep my bedroom really hot.
36:03
It's 90 degrees. I'm sorry. I just can't deal
36:07
with reality on these things. I had a couple
36:11
of gummies and that night I went to the bathroom
36:15
around 3 in the morning and all of a sudden,
36:20
all I know is I'm on the floor, my head is bleeding,
36:25
there's blood on my chest, there's blood in the
36:29
bathtub because I hit my head on the bathtub
36:30
and I get up to look in the mirror and my face
36:35
is covered in blood, my chest has blood all over
36:38
it and I... pass out again. I black out. And
36:40
in a few minutes after that, I realize I'm on
36:44
the floor. How did I get here? So I get up a
36:47
second time. And as I'm stepping, I fall down
36:51
again, black out third time. So, you know, all
36:54
this combination of heat, low blood pressure,
36:58
gummies, and just I'm bleeding and I hurt my
37:02
shoulder. So I recover from that. When I get
37:07
up the next morning, I clean the bathroom because
37:09
it looks like a murder scene. It really did look
37:12
like a murder scene. And I figure, okay, I'll
37:17
get my MRI. And I got this schedule. They scheduled
37:22
my MRI. The first message they sent me said 9
37:26
o 'clock a .m. Friday. I said, okay, that's cool.
37:29
I can walk to the hospital from there, from my
37:32
house, which is maybe two miles away. So I then
37:38
later get a message that afternoon saying, your
37:42
appointment is at 9 p .m. on a Friday. Very odd
37:47
to have an MRI at 9 p .m. on a Friday night.
37:49
Right, yeah. I mean, come on. Obviously someone
37:52
screwed up and typed the wrong thing or hit the
37:54
wrong button. So I call and I say, tell me, 9
37:58
a .m., 9 p .m., what is it? And they said, oh,
38:01
it's really 9 p .m. And, okay. 9 o 'clock p .m.
38:06
on a Friday night before a holiday. Was that
38:09
the holiday weekend last week? Yes. Okay. So
38:12
you know what that means in a hospital environment.
38:16
So I get to the hospital. It's 9 o 'clock. There's
38:19
no one there. So I have to, like, track down
38:21
someone to, like, say, hey, I have a scheduled
38:23
MRI. They take me in, give me the MRI. My shoulder,
38:27
I hurt my shoulder in the fall, so I thought.
38:29
Well, while I'm here, I'll go to the emergency
38:31
room. And my son drove me to the hospital, so
38:33
he sat with me. So they take blood, and they
38:38
give me an x -ray. And then around that time,
38:43
the computer system goes down. It's like a major
38:47
hospital. The computer system goes down, or that's
38:49
what they tell me. And so I'm waiting there.
38:52
The computers come back up, and I have to get
38:55
a CT scan. for my shoulder and my chest to make
38:59
sure there's no clots or anything. The CT scanner
39:03
goes down for three hours. At 3 o 'clock in the
39:07
morning, I tell my son, go home, I will figure
39:09
it out. So I get my CT scan. At 6 a .m.? at 6
39:17
a .m., and it's clear, and they say, well, okay,
39:21
nothing's bad, you know, no clots, no brain bleed,
39:26
no signs of stroke, and your arm, yeah, it looks
39:30
like you aggravated an injury from the past,
39:33
and I thought, oh, I did hurt my shoulder like
39:36
10 years ago when I fell off a bicycle in Washington,
39:39
D .C., so. No medication. I got some, like, maybe
39:44
some pills earlier in the evening, but no prescription
39:48
for any painkillers or anything like that. They
39:50
just said, put some ice on it. And so I still
39:53
have a hurt shoulder, and I put ice on it every
39:57
night, and it's, like, really badly painful.
40:00
But the thing I thought at the end of all this
40:04
is that, for one, don't eat gummies anymore.
40:11
They're closing rural hospitals throughout Kentucky.
40:14
And if they're closing all the rural hospitals,
40:17
where are people going to go? They're going to
40:18
come to Louisville. And if my experience, like
40:22
in a normal emergency room. Louisville and Lexington.
40:25
Louisville and Lexington. If it's that, if what's
40:29
happening at the Louisville hospital. continues
40:32
to happen or if that's the way it normally is
40:34
because I don't know what how emergencies I know
40:38
that emergencies rooms are always busy but if
40:41
it's going to take all night for me to do something
40:43
like that what's going to happen when all these
40:46
people who have no hospitals have to come to
40:48
Louisville to get treatment for their emergencies
40:51
it's going to be madness and let's go back to
40:54
whose fault this is it's the Republican Party's
40:57
fault it's because they're closing what I think
41:01
In Louisville or in Kentucky, I think they're
41:04
closing at least 35 or that's the thought that
41:06
35 rural hospitals are going to close in this
41:09
state. And Louisville is going to lose more hospitals
41:12
than any other state in the country. Not Louisville,
41:15
Kentucky. I'm sorry, Kentucky. I'm sorry, Kentucky.
41:17
Well, and I was just thinking about how the closure
41:21
of I -65 where the hospitals are all located
41:25
off of, right? we're going to have a closure
41:29
of about, I think it's two miles? Two months.
41:31
Yeah, two months. Two months this summer. The
41:33
distance is at least a two -mile clip of I -65,
41:38
which leads us into I -71, I -75, takes us to
41:43
Cincinnati. The Watterson. Yeah, the Watterson
41:46
Expressway. This is going to be a nightmare.
41:49
And this means that trucks and cars. People could
41:55
bypass by driving to Watterson, but they're going
41:58
to come right through. Old Louisville? Yeah.
42:01
So Jesse lives in a house that was built in 1892.
42:05
So we have the most contiguous Victorian houses
42:10
in any neighborhood in the country. And then
42:13
we have all these protections around, like keeping
42:18
the historic glass and keeping all this stuff.
42:21
These houses are not meant for thousands of trucks
42:25
to go by every day. And people's foundations
42:28
are disrupted. Their windows break. All kinds
42:34
of structural damage is caused because of this.
42:38
And then hospitals. I mean, not to mention, how
42:40
are people going to get to these hospitals? It's
42:43
going to be really tricky. We should also reiterate
42:45
that when you went to vote last time, they had
42:49
closed off the access to the voting. the voting
42:52
facility. Yeah. So that wasn't my polling location,
42:57
but it was another one in our neighborhood. And
43:00
that was the day that the city or whoever, I
43:04
think it is the city, decided to close Ormsby,
43:09
which is the street it was on, and do all this
43:13
construction. And so people literally couldn't
43:15
get to their polling location. That was really...
43:18
very poor timing or if we want to be a little
43:22
cynical you know don't let those black people
43:26
vote right because if they vote then they won't
43:29
let us do things like put data centers in their
43:31
communities right or you know it's it's I'm not
43:36
that sounds conspiracy theory -ish but I think
43:40
it I don't think they're even smart enough to
43:42
do conspiracies. I just think they think, oh,
43:45
well, if we do it there, it's not going to hurt
43:47
the people that we care about. So let's just
43:50
do it. And if they complain... What? Are they
43:53
going to vote us out? No, because they don't
43:55
show up for the polls. Well, I think it's time
43:58
for some uplifting comments. And I want to just
44:02
talk about, I just did a trip to the Garden of
44:05
the Gods. It's in the Shawnee National Forest
44:08
in southern Illinois, right across the Ohio River,
44:11
just north of Paducah, actually. So about a three
44:16
-hour drive from Louisville, not very far. Beautiful,
44:21
beautiful place. Amazing rock formations, views,
44:26
waterfalls, flora, fauna, you know, camping opportunities.
44:31
It was really awesome. And I had this experience
44:35
on Memorial Day weekend, very different from
44:38
Jesse's experience. On the Saturday, it had been
44:42
raining a lot, as anyone in the state knows.
44:45
God, it has really been raining. Of course we
44:48
needed rain. It just didn't stop. And so we were
44:53
camping. My tent leaked. My rain fly, which is
44:56
supposed to be waterproof, was not waterproof.
44:59
And so we got a lot of water in the tent. So
45:01
we decided to pack up a night early. And I was
45:05
driving out of the campsite, and I have a very
45:07
low car. It's a little Honda Accord. And I scraped
45:13
against some sticks and sticks and stones, perhaps,
45:17
on my way out of the campsite. And it bent the
45:20
undercarriage, like this plastic part, you know,
45:23
that covers the undercarriage of my car. And
45:26
it's Saturday, and I have a three -and -a -half
45:29
-hour drive home. And it's Memorial Day weekend,
45:33
and I'm like, oh, my God, are there going to
45:35
be any auto mechanics? And plus, it's very rural
45:39
out there in southern Illinois. But I didn't
45:41
lose hope. I just we found a gas station, you
45:45
know, and went to a gas station. And there were
45:48
these three guys, you know, with with baseball
45:51
caps getting stuff at the gas station. And I
45:56
just walked in and I just said, hey, do any of
45:59
you live around here? And I told them about my
46:01
low car and what I had done. And all three of
46:06
these gentlemen. to a fault they just said well
46:11
i can fix it and then one of them said i have
46:13
zip ties and another one said i have this i have
46:16
this so these are customers in a gas station
46:19
that were going off to probably a cookout at
46:22
their aunt's house and they took um They took
46:27
firewood that was out front of the gas station.
46:30
And they said, you know, drive up on this firewood.
46:34
So one of my front tires was up on firewood.
46:36
And all of a sudden, this big guy is under my
46:39
car. I mean, I was just thinking, what if the
46:42
car shifts on the firewood? This guy's dead.
46:46
So he's under my car. And then another guy handing
46:49
him the zip ties is under the car. And then the
46:51
other guy was like looking. And he was on the
46:54
ground. One of them had really nice. clothes
46:56
on and within 10 minutes they fixed my car I'm
47:00
I'm serious and they they got out and I was like
47:02
can I buy you some beer can I you know can I
47:05
pay you and they were just overjoyed to be of
47:08
service to me I mean overjoyed as much as I was
47:12
and you know what I was thinking and Jesse you
47:15
know you probably don't think these things as
47:17
much as I do but I was thinking I'll bet you
47:21
these guys don't vote the way I do. And this
47:24
country is so polarized now for so many reasons.
47:28
And at the end of the day, we're all just human
47:31
beings. And they jumped at the opportunity to
47:34
be of service, right? And so I really encourage
47:37
us not to lose our humanity and to always...
47:41
always welcome each other and welcome conversations.
47:45
I mean, I just read that, you know, Trump's polling
47:47
is so low among the white working class, which
47:50
is odd because all of his candidates just won.
47:54
But, you know, there's so much that we have in
47:58
common. There's more than we have in common that
48:00
we don't have in common. Okay, now I have another
48:02
fun story. So I have always wanted to go to Paducah,
48:06
Kentucky. I know, imagine that, Paducah, Kentucky.
48:09
Small city in western Kentucky, but I've always
48:12
wanted to go, and they have the National Quilt
48:14
Museum. When I go to the Kentucky State Fair
48:17
every year, I always see the quilts. They are
48:19
so cool. And I went to the National Quilt Museum
48:23
and the quilts did not disappoint. They're from
48:26
all over the world. They are such works of art.
48:29
And then the downtown of Paducah is very LGBTQIA
48:33
friendly. They have stickers in front of the
48:36
establishment saying LGBTQIA. welcome and blah
48:41
blah blah they had these gorgeous murals painted
48:45
along the flood wall next to the Ohio River sort
48:49
of sharing pictorially about the story of Paducah
48:53
and then they had like signs in front of each
48:56
of the murals it was so awesome and then I went
49:00
to a local coffee shop called Etcetera and it
49:04
you know, very prominently displays LGBTQIA friendly.
49:08
The guys in there were so nice to me. We talked
49:11
a lot. And Paducah just, it just, oh, and I went
49:15
to Big Eddie's. big eddies for lunch it's like
49:19
a soul food restaurant and every i was there
49:22
on sunday of memorial day weekend everyone was
49:24
coming after church the black folk were coming
49:27
from after church the white folk were coming
49:30
after church and it was like a community in there
49:33
you didn't see it was just everybody was having
49:36
so much fun and the food was really good you
49:38
all i mean cobblers and pecan pie and derby pie
49:41
and fried chicken and fried catfish and hush
49:44
puppies and all the things you can't eat anymore
49:46
Jesse and with me and my gluten -free diet I
49:50
just eschewed it for one day because I really
49:53
wanted some hush puppies and they did not disappoint.
49:56
So I had fun. Yeah, and what you're describing
49:59
is the reality that we all have so much in common.
50:03
It's like we're not sitting in our bunkers ready
50:07
to punch out anybody who's coming in with another
50:11
opinion. I mean, people will get together and
50:14
they will support each other when people are
50:16
in trouble. I've seen stories recently where
50:19
there was something that they were circulating
50:21
where... somewhere in Alabama, a black woman
50:26
was at the doctor's office with her baby and
50:29
they told her to fill out paperwork and she couldn't
50:32
hold the baby and do the paperwork at the same
50:34
time. So this old white guy just took the kid
50:36
and just... held it while she was filling out
50:39
the paperwork. And that was a national news story.
50:41
I think it appeared on... And why is that a national
50:45
news story? I like the story. We need more stories
50:48
like that. But why would an old white man holding
50:52
a black child make national news? Because the...
50:57
media figures believe that we're so polarized
51:00
that we hate everybody we hate each other that
51:02
we're not going to do like decent human interactions
51:05
that we're just going to like oh you got a baby
51:08
that's not my color i'm gonna i'm not gonna help
51:10
you at all this is this is again an example of
51:14
bad media i mean i want it i want these human
51:17
interest stories please don't you know i understand
51:20
but you have to see what's the motivation of
51:22
the news organization doing that and Oh, and
51:26
so I guess I'll go into the next part where...
51:32
There's some local interesting stuff happening
51:35
here, too, in terms of entertainment. Shakespeare
51:37
in the Park began in Central Park in Old Louisville.
51:41
It's the oldest free Shakespeare festival anywhere
51:45
in the country. They do at least four plays during
51:49
the summer. They're starting out this year with
51:52
As You Like It, and there are a couple of other
51:55
things I saw on the schedule. Later in the summer,
51:59
they're going to do Romeo and Juliet. And then
52:01
they're going to do a dance interpretation of
52:03
Hamlet and Ophelia. Now, I go to all the plays
52:08
when I'm here, but the bottom line is I don't
52:11
understand or like Shakespeare in reality. Well,
52:17
we read it as kids, right, in high school. Didn't
52:20
understand it. Well, I just didn't understand
52:24
the language. There were words. It was like,
52:26
okay, I see words. I know what each individual
52:29
word means, but I have no idea what they're talking
52:32
about. You don't even know what each individual
52:33
word means in Old English. Oh, right, because
52:35
it's a different language. And so I read that,
52:38
and we have to read it in high school, and we
52:41
have to pass our test and all that other stuff.
52:43
And I got by with it. But over the years, I keep
52:46
going to Shakespeare. Like I've been to Broadway
52:48
plays where they're doing Macbeth. And I've been
52:53
to lots of Shakespeare in the Park here. And
52:56
I think within the past few years, I finally
52:59
understand what's going on. And now I know I
53:03
don't like it because Shakespeare is... There's
53:07
racist elements, a lot of racist elements, read
53:10
Othello. There are sexist elements, read anything.
53:15
There are anti -Semitic elements, read The Merchant
53:19
of Venice. And it's good to now understand why
53:24
I don't like it, because the messages that are
53:26
being given out are really, well, they're just
53:31
archaic and also offensive. For example, last
53:38
year I went to see Hamlet at Shakespeare in the
53:40
Park, and it was the first time I understood
53:42
it. I realized that, oh, Hamlet's a psychopath.
53:46
you know he's having these hallucinations and
53:49
he's planning to kill his uncle and he I mean
53:53
he's right his uncle did do all the bad stuff
53:55
but he's he's just killing people along the way
53:58
you know Ophelia is which they're doing the dance
54:02
musical interpretation of this year but she's
54:04
being abused and he's oh the the Hampton production
54:09
they did last year was really interesting because
54:10
Hamlet was played as by a woman yeah so that
54:14
was really fascinating and that me understand
54:17
the play a little more I don't know why but I
54:19
I could connect with it more that way even though
54:22
over the years it's like Hamlet's a teenage psychopath
54:25
or look at Romeo and Juliet which is going to
54:27
be playing here this year this is like child
54:30
pornography it's like pedophilia although they're
54:33
both 14 or so the idea that these 14 year olds
54:37
are so in love that they're going to go kill
54:39
each other because they're so much in love. Meanwhile,
54:41
their families are fighting all the time. That's
54:44
like, oh, why don't we set it then to make it
54:47
more... Kill each other or kill themselves? They
54:49
kill themselves in Romeo and Juliet, the poison.
54:53
You said kill each other. Oh, right. Well, it's
54:55
actually killing each other because they are
54:57
so much in love. But I think if you, for example,
55:03
set Romeo and Juliet in... Eastern Kentucky,
55:06
Hatfields and McCoys. That's the plot right there.
55:11
Democrats and Republicans. Right, yeah. Men and
55:13
women. So anyway, this year I'm going to see
55:17
them. I will see all the plays again. But I was
55:20
thinking, you know, there is, I don't know if
55:26
people know that these books exist, but there's
55:28
a series of Shakespearean -influenced plays.
55:34
based on Star Wars. And right now I'm reading
55:37
The Empire Striketh Back by William Shakespeare.
55:43
And so to close this episode, because we're being
55:46
really silly now, I'm going to read an excerpt
55:48
from The Empire Striketh Back by William
55:53
Shakespeare's The Empire Strike at the Back.
55:55
This is Act II, Scene 7. The scene is set in
55:59
the Dagobah system. The protagonists are Luke
56:03
and R2 -D2, and I'm going to begin with Luke.
56:08
What misadventure have I seen today? Our sensors
56:11
spied no cities or machines within this system
56:13
desolate. The life forms plenty. As we made our
56:17
way unto the planet's atmosphere, all went awry.
56:19
My X -Wing ship began to shake and groan. My
56:22
scopes had failed, and I did blindly spin into
56:24
a landing doomed to end with strife. tis almost
56:28
fortunate that i did land within this swampy
56:30
bog where now the ship in part ways sunk for
56:34
i had hit the ground my ship and droid and even
56:37
my own self might have been crushed and everything
56:40
destroyed but now my ship is fixed in the mire
56:43
and how it shall come out i cannot tell was this
56:46
first trouble all i would endure nay nay it seemeth
56:50
fate did not see fit to send pains singular but
56:53
multiple Fate hath provided pains abundantly,
56:57
for this is not the end of our distress. As R2
57:00
and I headed for the shore, he fell into the
57:02
water, wheels to scope, and was assaulted by
57:05
a mighty beast. I swallowed whole and disappeared
57:08
from sight. For seeming ages I did search for
57:11
him, but to no avail. And then, with frightful
57:14
scream, he was ejected from the swamp as fast
57:16
as proton -filled torpedoes from their shaft.
57:19
Above my head he sailed well o 'er the ground,
57:22
and landed in a heap of dirt and grime. was only
57:25
for his metal tasting shell the little droid
57:27
shall live to see tomorrow so much misfortune
57:31
after all this pain i should feel grateful still
57:33
to have my life but now we are marooned within
57:36
a place where neither friend nor contact may
57:38
be found I should have listened to the wise R2
57:41
when he said coming here would work us well.
57:43
Our camp is now set up, our food prepared. My
57:46
faithful R2 charges up its power, its semblance
57:50
of good order we present. But I have neither
57:52
stomach nor desire to sit down to a hale and
57:56
hearty feast. More pressing too, I must this
58:00
Yoda find. Indeed, if that good man doth e 'en
58:03
exist, look round about R2. Is this place not
58:07
unlikely for a Jedi master's home? Tis strange,
58:11
tis passing strange, tis pitiful. R2. Beep squeak.
58:18
Love it. That's fun. So go have some fun, everyone.
58:23
Especially if you have free Shakespeare in your
58:27
park, adjacent to your house. You know, pour
58:32
a cold drink, go on out, and have a good time.
58:36
Yeah, yeah. Play is important. Play is important.
58:41
You know, and read Shakespeare. If you don't
58:44
like Shakespeare, read The Empire Strikes at
58:46
the Back. Yeah, for sure. I guess that's an endorsement,
58:49
and we should get paid for that, but we're not
58:50
going to. All right. See you in a couple weeks.
58:53
Yep. Bye. Bye. Our closing music is by John Chamberlain
59:01
Thank you.