Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 27

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The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Episode 27 · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

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This is episode 27 of the Bluegrass Blues podcast.
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I'm Jesse. And I'm Amy. It's election day in
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Louisville. The polls are open. People are trying
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to get to their voting place. I voted actually
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last Thursday, but you voted today, right? I
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did. It's primary day today in Kentucky. I was
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really dismayed to see that there is road construction
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being done in front of the Arthur Kling Center
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here in Old Louisville, which has a lot of black
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voters going to that polling location. And it
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has been extremely difficult for people to get
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to the polling location. And Jesse and I, we've
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been talking a lot over the past few, many podcasts
0:55
about the importance of free and fair elections.
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And I was just really upset to see that this
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particular one is almost inaccessible to voters,
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particularly in a large minority district. Yeah,
1:10
and it makes you wonder what's happening in the
1:12
West End. If it's happening here, which does
1:14
have a mix of people, you can imagine that there
1:17
are probably things going on in the West End
1:19
that we don't know about and that no one's talking
1:21
about. And there is no excuse for... The city
1:28
knows. The city knows. That it's election day.
1:31
Like, there's no school today. It's a big day.
1:33
There's no school. They know people are out to
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vote. And they decide on this day that, oh, we
1:39
have to fix this road in front of this polling
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place at this time. We couldn't have done it
1:44
tomorrow. We could have done it last week. Well,
1:47
and I also, I had reached out to our Metro Council
1:50
member, J .P. Leninger, about paving Ormsby,
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this particular street, because the I -65, the
1:58
big interstate that goes adjacent to our neighborhood,
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is about to close for a couple months. this summer.
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And a lot of us are using Ormsby to just get
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out of the neighborhood. But the stretch with
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all the potholes, that's not being fixed today.
2:14
There's no polling location there. It's the block
2:18
that the polling location is on that's blocked.
2:21
Right. And so it makes you wonder, yeah, who's
2:24
really responsible for this? But we'll get to
2:28
this in a few minutes. But the real election
2:31
issue in Kentucky today is the Thomas And we're
2:35
going to talk about the Louisville mayoral election.
2:38
That's a big deal. But nationally, nationally,
2:40
I was listening to NPR this morning on my way
2:45
to do some volunteer work. And Thomas Massey
2:49
was like his election. He he represents. What
2:54
district number is it? Congressional district
2:57
number for Northern Kentucky. I'll look it up.
3:00
Okay. So he's a Republican. He basically tracks
3:05
with Trump on, God, I would say 98 % of the issues,
3:09
maybe 95 % of the issues, such as Second Amendment
3:13
rights and immigration enforcement and all that.
3:18
But he has definitely been a champion of... child
3:23
rape survivors from Epstein's corruption. And
3:30
he wants to release the Epstein files. And this
3:32
has not been favorable to President Trump. And
3:35
now almost $33 million has been spent on the
3:40
campaign, largely to unseat Thomas Massey for
3:44
his disobedience. Trump. Well, it's not just
3:47
the Epstein files. He's also been voting against
3:49
things like the big beautiful bill. Well, I'm
3:52
going to call it the big bullshit bill because
3:53
that's what it is. But it will be interesting
3:58
to me to see. I think this is the most important
4:00
race in Kentucky right now. And I would never
4:03
vote for Thomas Massey in any situation except
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for this one. If I were out voting, if I were
4:10
allowed to vote as a Republican, would you? You
4:13
have to vote within your party during this election.
4:16
But if I were voting as a Republican, I would
4:18
be voting for Massey. But Trump's people have,
4:22
as you said, spent $33 million on the campaign,
4:27
which is, as you said, the most in history. They've
4:30
also sent Pete Hesbeth to his district today
4:34
to rally. One of the major drunks in the Trump
4:39
administration is out there. And sexual addict.
4:42
And sexual offenders because he has the reputation
4:45
for sexual harassment. Right. So, you know, it's
4:51
the anti -molestation candidate versus the molesters.
4:57
Yeah. And I don't know who Massey's opponent
5:00
is. Yeah, right. But it doesn't matter to me
5:03
because I don't care. Right. If it was an election
5:09
between Massey and a Democrat, I would support
5:11
the Democrat. But for this election, just for
5:15
what Massey has done, and the fact that there
5:17
is that voice that is within that party saying
5:22
we shouldn't be doing this or we should be responsible
5:25
in finding out who's been abusing people. Raping
5:31
children. Yeah, raping children. I keep forgetting.
5:35
I mean, you know, this is supposed to be a democracy
5:38
and we are supposed to have debate. We are supposed
5:41
to be challenging the executive branch. We're
5:45
supposed to have discourse. And this is just
5:48
another example of Trump wanting to be a strong
5:51
man, like the people that he loves, Netanyahu,
5:54
Putin, Orban, whatever, and just squashing dissent
5:58
in his own party. And we're seeing that it's
6:00
largely working. Because what was it? North Carolina
6:05
Senate candidate, he was voted out. I forget.
6:08
I would have to look that up too. But there was
6:10
a senator who has been voting against Trump within
6:14
the Republican Party. He had a primary this week
6:17
and he's out. He just lost his election. So this
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is really important. And you can say that, oh,
6:28
these are the Trump people and they're doing
6:29
all this bad stuff. I have to also point to the
6:34
voters in that district. What are the voters
6:37
doing? If the voters in Thomas Massie's district,
6:41
who's representing the fourth congressional district,
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if they are cool with child rapists and... oligarchs
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and kleptomaniacs because the Trump administration
6:55
and the members of the Trump administration have
6:57
been stealing money right and left. I think Trump
7:01
has made a few billion dollars since he got into
7:04
office. Plus, I always was brought up by listening
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to Republicans say that they were the fiscal
7:12
conservatives. They're the fiscal conservatives.
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Well, Massey and Rand Paul are... lean more libertarian
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and they don't, they truly don't want huge government
7:24
and they don't want to rack up all this debt
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and they're not in favor of the Iran war and
7:29
spending all this money on the big bullshit bill
7:32
and they're being squashed. Right. And, but let's
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also say that Thomas Massey would be someone
7:38
that Democrats would not vote for in a normal
7:41
environment. Absolutely not. But you know, as
7:45
a woman and as, as a woman with a daughter, you
7:48
know, White men in power standing up for women,
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I'm in. Yes, I'm a Democrat. I wouldn't vote
7:57
for him, but kudos to him. Yeah, to Massey. Because,
8:02
again, he has been the voice of the... Which,
8:07
you know, the Epstein files are not coming up
8:09
in the news. It's totally buried. Right. Well,
8:12
that's because there is always a way to divert
8:14
attention. And it was the big issue for the MAGA
8:19
Republicans who are going to vote in Massey's
8:21
district. That's one of the things they wanted,
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because that was the whole campaign of Trump
8:27
that, oh, we're going to release the Epstein
8:28
files because Joe Biden won't do it. And we're
8:32
going to. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a big. proponent
8:35
of all that too. And she's out of Congress. She's
8:38
out of Congress. And the Democrats have been
8:41
calling for it. But, you know, no one's listening
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to the Democrats and they won't listen to them
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until the voters decide to do the right thing.
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Or maybe the voters want children to be molested.
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If that's where we're going. Honestly, I think
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it's going to depend on where are the voters
9:02
getting their information from. And as we know,
9:04
the media has been horrible. But if they only
9:08
watch Fox News and read Fox News, then it's very
9:14
likely that they will vote for Gal Ryan because
9:16
they're in with Trump. We'll see. But this is
9:21
the election result that we have to watch out
9:24
for tonight. And also, let's point out, this
9:29
is the primary. There's still a general election.
9:31
But the candidate who wins in the primary goes
9:35
to the general election. And I think technically,
9:39
if Massey doesn't win, he could run as an independent.
9:45
that which people have done in the past. So we're
9:48
going to have to look at that in the future.
9:50
But the Republican Party pretty much dominates
9:53
this state. Yeah. With the exception of the governor's
9:56
office and the lieutenant governor, everyone
9:59
else is Republican. Yeah. Also, Jesse, Mitch
10:04
McConnell is retiring this fall. And as we know,
10:08
there have been a lot of Democrats that are stepping
10:12
up to take his seat as well. well as Republicans.
10:16
Andy Barr has been endorsed by Trump. It'll be
10:20
very interesting to see who wins, the Republican
10:23
and the Democratic. You're talking about the
10:26
Senate primary? Yes. Okay, because the frontrunners
10:30
in the Democratic primary are Charles Booker
10:32
and Amy McGrath. Right. But Charles Booker, I
10:35
think he's more of a frontrunner than McGrath.
10:37
Yeah, yeah. And that's who I voted for. Right.
10:40
Oh, and we should point out, in the way the Kentucky
10:42
vote takes place, you get a ballot. If you're
10:46
a Democrat, you get a Democratic ballot. If you're
10:49
Republican, you get a Republican ballot. If you're
10:52
not affiliated with any party, the only ballot
10:56
you can vote on is the ballot for the mayoral
10:59
race. Right. Because the mayoral race this year
11:01
is, for some reason, they've made it— Well, the
11:05
supermajority in the legislature in 2024 stated
11:09
that all mayoral elections across the state are
11:12
now nonpartisan. And the reason they did that
11:14
is because of the Kentucky race. probably doesn't
11:19
maybe it affects the lexington race i don't know
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what's going on there but in uh louisville in
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particular yeah um it's uh one are we still talking
11:31
about massey and we've gone to charles booker
11:35
for senate and we're going to be watching that
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um but let's go to mayor yeah but let's first
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talk about the structure of the mayoral ballot
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the mayoral ballot is as i said non -partisan
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which for One, I have no reason why they're doing
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this because I want to know what party the candidates
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are feeling. Well, they're doing it because they're
11:56
basically putting more onus on the voters to
12:03
do their research, which is a good idea to do
12:06
your research. But again, things are hidden now
12:08
from voters. Okay, I would slightly disagree
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with that because... You can do your own research,
12:14
but you should be able to do the own research
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for the candidate in your party, the one you
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care about. Right. It's obfuscated. If you're
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looking at the Louisville ballot in particular...
12:25
First of all, there's no identification of what
12:28
party these people are going with, whether they
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are Democrats or Republicans or Independents
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or, you know, Bozo the Clown Party. So that's
12:38
at a disadvantage. The ballot is not in alphabetical
12:42
order. So, you know, if you have an idea of what
12:46
candidate you want to vote for, you have to look
12:49
through all the names. And there are at least,
12:51
what, 10 people on the Democrat ballot? Of course,
12:55
Shameka Parrish -Wright is at the very bottom.
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Well, we should say who Shameka Parrish -Wright
13:00
is before we go on. Well, she's a black woman
13:03
running for mayor, serves in the state legislature.
13:07
No, Metro Council. Metro Council, I'm sorry.
13:09
And she's very popular in the West End. Well,
13:13
she's very popular across the city for any of
13:16
us who've been in the trenches of social justice
13:18
work. Shameka Parrish -Wright. is authentic,
13:22
she is a community organizer, she shows up, she
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runs. She is representing Louisville as a Metro
13:29
Council member. She has been unhoused. She has
13:32
had hunger issues. She relates to what a lot
13:37
of the people in this city, affordability issues,
13:39
et cetera. She's super smart, and she actually
13:43
serves on the board of Feed Louisville with me.
13:46
But I've seen her. She's shown up for decades
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for this city to make it better. And what is
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interesting about Shamika in this race is that
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her name is the very last one in the ballot.
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And there's no logic to the order of the ballot
14:05
because it's not an alphabetical order. You'd
14:08
either put it in alphabetical order by the first
14:10
name of the candidate or the last name of the
14:12
candidate. There's no party identification, so
14:15
you don't know what you're voting for. As I said
14:17
earlier, you could be voting for someone to represent
14:20
clowns, and you don't know that. We both believe
14:25
that this is intentional, that the reason they
14:27
put Shemeika at the bottom is because Greenberg,
14:30
who is our mayor, Craig Greenberg, has decided
14:33
that he's going to manipulate things. He obviously...
14:40
I would like to know, for one, who put the ballot
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together. Who orders the ballot? We looked it
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up, and it was not easy to find out. Is it the
14:49
State Board of Elections? Is it our county clerk's
14:52
office? We just don't know, and the question
14:55
has never been raised. As far as I can tell,
14:58
it's never been raised by anyone in Louisville
15:00
media. One of the other horrible things about
15:04
this election, the mayoral election in specific,
15:07
is that The Courier -Journal, our local paper,
15:10
has decided that they're not going to do endorsements
15:12
anymore. You know, that's the function of a local
15:15
newspaper, to let people know who's running for
15:18
office, what their positions are, and whether
15:22
they are, you know, and they will give an endorsement
15:27
as to whether... But as we know, you were at
15:29
the Washington Post, and under Bezos' leadership...
15:33
They didn't endorse for president. But that was
15:36
the first, and Louisville's been doing this for
15:38
years, because I remember when they started doing
15:40
it, and I was wondering, what's the point? Is
15:43
it a Gannett issue? I think it would partly be
15:48
a Gannett issue, but I also think it's an issue
15:50
because I know for a fact that the Louisville
15:54
publisher, not the editor -in -chief, the publisher,
15:58
the person above her, essentially told me when
16:02
I applied for the job years ago, a job in Louisville
16:05
years ago, that they don't want to piss anybody
16:07
off. Right, exactly. They want to play it down
16:10
the middle. And that is just totally irresponsible,
16:13
and it's totally bad journalism. I came from
16:16
the San Francisco Chronicle. That was my last
16:18
job. And they put their endorsements out this...
16:23
before the election came, and the way they did
16:25
it was they would look at all the races. They
16:28
wouldn't just do one big story on all the races
16:31
and say, vote for this person, vote for this
16:32
person. They would do a story on each race, and
16:36
they would say, these are the candidates. This
16:38
is why, these are the pros and cons of these
16:41
candidates, and at the very bottom of the story,
16:43
or somewhere very in the headline at the bottom,
16:47
they would say, this is who you should vote for.
16:50
Louisville doesn't do that. That's either...
16:52
which I don't think is the case because reporters
16:55
and especially columnists want to give their
17:00
opinions out to the people. And it's not necessarily
17:05
an issue within the Gannett organization because
17:09
I'm sure that there are papers within the Gannett
17:12
chain that are giving endorsements. But there's
17:17
this... certain cowardice in the Courier Journal
17:20
that they won't do that and I really haven't
17:23
seen any endorsements in any Louisville media
17:25
if I can unless you've seen them. No. I mean,
17:29
obviously, Craig Greenberg is the frontrunner.
17:33
He is the moneyed candidate. He is the establishment
17:36
candidate. He is the mayor right now. And he
17:38
is the mayor. He is the incumbent. You know,
17:41
I personally have been very disappointed in him
17:44
for a number of issues, but largely just, you
17:47
know, he promised. to create over 10 ,000 affordable
17:52
housing units. It hasn't been done. He talked
17:55
a lot about the segregated city, which we're
17:59
one of the most segregated cities in the country,
18:02
and working across lines and getting input from
18:05
folks in the West End and stuff. And it's same
18:09
old, same old. It's like status quo from the
18:12
moneyed people. He has more money than every
18:15
other candidate by far. I'm going to just point
18:19
out, too, that this isn't the only day that people
18:22
could have voted in Louisville. The voting actually
18:25
started much earlier, like last week, early in
18:28
the week. They were allowing people to vote if
18:31
they had to be out of town on Election Day. By
18:34
Thursday, they were letting people vote early
18:37
if they wanted to. And to be honest, I voted
18:41
early. I voted on Thursday morning. There were
18:46
only two people there, me and some other person.
18:48
So for people who are thinking about the next
18:53
election, because it's too late to talk about
18:56
it now, but if you have concerns about whether
18:59
you're going to have access to your vote, vote
19:02
early. Just get it out of the way. If you're
19:04
going to have to vote on a Tuesday and then go
19:07
to work, vote on a Thursday before the election
19:11
and before you go to work. number one there aren't
19:15
as many people there number two you won't have
19:17
this Okay, here comes the swear word. This bullshit
19:20
construction in front of election places where,
19:24
oh, so we have to do it today. We can't do it
19:28
any other time. Right, and if you did wait until
19:30
today, you only have between 6 a .m. and 6 p
19:34
.m. Now, if you're in line a little before 6
19:36
p .m., you still get to vote. Right, right. So
19:38
we'll see what the results of this election are
19:42
because this is an important election. Yeah,
19:49
that's right. And Greenberg represents corporations.
19:51
Well, and I also want to mention, many of you
19:55
know that I'm deeply involved with conservation
19:57
efforts and I'm concerned about climate change
20:00
and, you know, fought the pipeline that is going
20:04
through Bernheim Forest, for example. And I was
20:08
very dismayed to see that in the Courier -Journal
20:11
on May 6th, Greenberg again looks to defund Louisville
20:15
conservation programs. All I've heard the Greenberg
20:19
office say is that we're a heat, you know, we
20:22
have a heat island here, we need to plant more
20:24
trees, and it'll lead to better health outcomes
20:29
and stuff like that. But now he's actually proposing
20:33
conservation budgets for the 2027 fiscal year
20:36
that will be the lowest in Louisville Metro government
20:39
history. So you say one thing and you do something
20:42
else, I can't stand that. Well, this is where
20:45
the voters should react. And the question is,
20:48
are the voters even aware of these things? We
20:51
can criticize politicians in general, but at
20:57
a certain point, people are responsible for making
21:00
the effort, at least make an effort to find out
21:03
what's going on. We'll see what's going to happen
21:05
today, but there's just so much that we have
21:10
to keep... working on and there's so much that
21:14
we have to hand responsibility to the voters
21:17
as well in a Thomas Massie election in a Greenberg
21:22
election and I have another office I have another
21:24
issue that I want to raise for people and that
21:27
is that I'm very dismayed to about what's happening
21:33
with state representative Daniel Grossberg who
21:37
has faced all kinds of pressure to drop his reelection
21:41
bid and resign because he is a sexual harasser
21:45
and it may even be worse than that. There may
21:47
be assault involved because there is a woman
21:51
reported by the Lexington Herald -Leader. who
21:55
said that he assaulted her in 2005, and she was
21:59
18, a freshman at the college he went to while
22:02
he was a 26 -year -old senior. So he has all
22:06
kinds of repeated allegations by women who we
22:10
should be listening to, just like in the Epstein
22:12
files, and really nothing has happened. I think
22:16
what happened was... You know, he's excommunicated
22:19
from party events for nearly two years. There
22:23
was a settlement, but he still gets to run. So
22:28
we have to point out that he's a Democrat. We
22:31
can't. And this is this is also important to
22:35
note that. We are against anyone who abuses people
22:40
or anyone who takes advantage of their status
22:44
and power to make people suffer. Another white
22:47
male getting away with it. Cassie Lyles, by the
22:50
way, is running against him, running a really
22:54
strong race. She works with JCPS. She's been
22:58
involved in politics for a long time. I know
23:01
her personally. I really hope she unseats him
23:04
in the primary. Democratic Party here is also
23:08
against him. So it's not that Democrats are supporting
23:11
this or unlike Republicans rallying around the
23:15
candidate. It's almost like it's a parallel to
23:20
the situation, I'm going to refer again to California,
23:22
where U .S. Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned from
23:26
the House in April because he had the same kind
23:31
of accusations, sexual assault, sexual misconduct.
23:35
Democrats just ripped him, ripped him totally.
23:40
He was running for governor. He actually was
23:42
a frontrunner in the California governor's race,
23:45
and he pulled out because of what he did. So
23:50
if you go for that, if that's the situation,
23:53
and if California can act like that, I hope Kentuckians
23:57
aren't thinking, well, it's Californians, so
23:59
they don't know anything. We're going to vote
24:00
our own way. support this guy but i i just see
24:05
this as another example of Not letting anybody
24:09
get away with these abuses and crimes. Well,
24:13
and I do want to lift up our U .S. Rep. Morgan
24:17
McGarvey, who's not your favorite person. But,
24:19
you know, he called on Grossberg to resign in
24:22
September 2024. And he called his behavior disgusting
24:24
and beyond unacceptable. And he said constituents
24:28
must vote him out. So we're really hoping that
24:31
Cassie Lyles wins today. I don't think there's
24:35
a Republican running. So if Cassie wins today.
24:38
then she's in the general, unopposed. 30th state
24:43
representative district. District 30. There's
24:47
more than one candidate, I believe, in that category.
24:49
And is this a situation where the top two go
24:52
to the next election? No, no. This would be the
24:55
Democrat wins goes all the way. It's the mayoral
25:00
race where the top two vote -getters are sent
25:04
into the final election in November. It's election
25:09
day. We'll see what's happening. The turnout,
25:11
actually, stories I've read today indicate the
25:14
turnout's been pretty high. And now I was there
25:16
at about 11 .35, and it was really quiet in my
25:22
polling location. Now that's right before lunch
25:25
hour, but I was kind of hoping to see a more
25:28
steady stream of people. Right. So we'll see.
25:30
Also, the polls close, I think, around 7 o 'clock.
25:34
6. 6 o 'clock. So we'll see what happens. We
25:38
must point out that if you are in line at six
25:41
o 'clock and like if you're in line at five fifty
25:45
nine, you get to vote no matter how long the
25:48
line is. If you're there after six o 'clock.
25:51
you're out of luck, and you'll have to wait for
25:53
the next election. Again, this is an interesting
25:56
election season. There are abusers. There are
26:01
so many issues that have to be addressed. But
26:04
there are also other issues going on in Kentucky,
26:07
like... There's a lawsuit. You know about this
26:10
lawsuit, is that right? So there's this Human
26:14
Life Protection Act. That's one of the strictest
26:18
anti -abortion laws in the country here in Kentucky,
26:23
Yahoo. And three Jewish women basically have
26:28
been represented, too. argue that it violates
26:32
their faith for them not to be able to pursue
26:35
in vitro fertilization, but this this law basically
26:39
says that life starts at fertilization and so
26:44
IVF has been struck down. And the good news is
26:49
that Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards struck
26:52
down parts of this Human Life Protection Act
26:55
and called it uh overreaching and vague and you
27:01
know our hope is that uh these women and you
27:07
know more openings here for not only ivf but
27:10
to really be tackling this very strict abortion
27:14
law and the abortion law the reason this is happening
27:19
is because this supreme court Undead Roe v. Wade.
27:23
And it went to the states. And we're looking
27:26
at these... Oh, and I want to mention something,
27:30
Jesse, that our Attorney General, that Kentucky's
27:34
Attorney General, who is a Republican... is asking
27:40
the Louisville judge to reconsider his ruling
27:43
that the state's definition of human life is
27:47
void because it's too vague. So he's getting
27:49
pressure from the Republican administration.
27:52
As we would expect, because that's what they
27:55
do. And this is another result of the Supreme
27:58
Court's, the U .S. Supreme Court, not the state
28:03
Supreme Court, the U .S. Supreme Court's how
28:08
do you say this correctly, essentially abusing
28:11
women. That's what that is. Oh, for sure. And
28:15
this is also, even Election Day is an example
28:18
of the Supreme Court abusing minorities because
28:20
they passed this law that allows redistricting
28:23
throughout the country. And, you know, it's one
28:28
of the many things that bothers me about the
28:30
Supreme Court is that there is a black man on
28:33
the court who is... He's like watching the Steven
28:39
character in Django Unchained. Anyone who's seen
28:43
that movie knows what I'm talking about. I'm
28:46
going to refer to him as, well, it's Clarence
28:48
Thomas, but I'm going to refer to him as Uncle
28:50
Thomas. Because what he's done is, well, first
28:55
of all, he's taking away the rights of women.
28:57
He's taking away the rights of minorities because
28:59
there are fewer... black candidates or fewer
29:04
black districts, and I think Atticus Scott's
29:06
addressed this many times, where if you look
29:14
at the way a map, look at a map, and you would
29:17
figure that each state has a certain number of
29:20
districts. If you are being fair, you want to
29:24
draw your districts so that you're representing
29:27
the best. representing what the state is. For
29:31
example, if you look at an election map in Louisville,
29:34
you see these huge swaths of space that are red.
29:39
Across the segregated city. But you also see
29:45
these little chunks of blue in the map. And to
29:48
people that, looking at the map, think, oh, it's
29:51
all red, and there's this little piece of blue,
29:53
so it must be overwhelmingly a Republican state.
29:57
The reason the chunks of blue are small is because
30:00
those chunks of blue probably contain five or
30:02
six of the red chunks in terms of population.
30:05
And what the Supreme Court is essentially allowing
30:08
states, particularly in the South, to do is redraw
30:13
the map so you are diluting the representation
30:15
for the black community. Louisville, if you look
30:19
at the Kentucky map, and just in terms of Democratic
30:22
and Republican, Louisville is blue. Lexington
30:27
is blue. The surrounding areas will be red. They're
30:31
going to redraw the map so they cut the Louisville
30:34
portion to go into the red area, reducing the
30:38
number of people that can vote and expanding
30:41
the number of people who are in the red area.
30:44
So essentially disenfranchising huge swaths of
30:48
the population. And if you look at the way the
30:50
maps are also drawn, the states that are mostly
30:53
doing this to dilute black representation are
30:56
the Confederacy. Right. I've got to say it. That
31:00
whole line when I was growing up was, the South
31:03
shall rise again. The South has risen again.
31:06
This is real. And I just want to mention that
31:09
the case is Louisiana versus Calais. It's a redistricting
31:14
case that began as a Voting Rights Act dispute.
31:18
And so basically, Attica Scott in her Substack
31:23
article basically says... Pay attention, Kentucky,
31:27
because what's happening here is analysis shows
31:31
for months that gutting Section 2 of this act
31:35
means Republican -controlled legislatures across
31:38
10 southern states could eliminate nearly 200
31:42
state legislative seats currently held by Democrats,
31:47
a vast number representing majority black districts.
31:51
Her own district that she represented has been
31:54
cut in half. And that was for West Louisville.
31:58
And so basically when black legislators lose
32:01
their seats, our communities lose their policy
32:04
outcomes. It's that direct, right? So the things
32:07
that we care about, health care, affordable housing,
32:10
you know. abortion rights, like all the things
32:14
are affected by this racist ruling. And she says
32:21
that the argument before the nation's highest
32:23
court is that remedying discrimination is discrimination.
32:27
That's her quote. She's right. And it's also,
32:30
you look at it on... People are looking at these
32:34
things on the local level, and we know that that's
32:36
true. But when you think about it and combine
32:40
it into the national level, what this means is
32:43
that the Congressional Black Caucus, for example,
32:45
is shrinking. Not because people are voting against
32:49
the people they support. It's because districts
32:52
are being redrawn to make sure that those districts
32:54
don't have representation. And she says nearly
32:57
half of all black majority legislative districts
33:00
in the South could disappear. And it's happening.
33:06
So the other part of this. since I'm on another
33:11
one of my rants, is that it's happening and it's
33:15
not being stopped. And while people like Uncle
33:20
Thomas are getting their money and being paid
33:24
off by the billionaires, because it also is about,
33:26
there's this thing about wealth. Things are designed
33:32
so that rich people get richer. not not that
33:36
so billionaires have more billions of dollars
33:38
poor people get screwed and you redraw things
33:43
for example um we're talking about why is this
33:47
important we've got these issues with like the
33:51
building of data centers in in the state where
33:54
i we know and i constantly see because i'm on
33:57
facebook and i i don't like facebook but i'm
33:59
on it but there continually stories about people
34:03
who are against these data centers because they
34:06
are environmentally bad. They increase the utility
34:11
prices for people. They damage the aquifer so
34:14
people have less water. They're talking about
34:19
building a data center in the black areas of
34:23
Louisville. Steve Poe's company. This is why,
34:27
who's Steve Poe? He's a big developer that is
34:30
very reviled, particularly in West Louisville,
34:35
because he just has a tendency to go into West
34:38
Louisville for profit. Not, not, I mean, he basically
34:44
has a public forum and then the Louisville Metro
34:47
Planning Commission, which is stacked with developers
34:50
like him, they do what they want to do anyway
34:53
for profit. Well, and the reason this happens,
34:55
and let's go back to election day, is because
34:58
people can't vote for people who will protect
35:00
them. because maps are being redrawn to dilute
35:05
the voices or dilute the voting power of people
35:08
affected by these decisions. And the mayor basically
35:13
appoints a lot of the people on the Louisville
35:15
Metro Planning Commission. And the mayor is a
35:18
developer. And this is a hit. You know, the Planning
35:23
Commission has a history. So one of the things
35:26
Attica Scott says, which I totally agree with,
35:28
is, you know, people have to run for the Planning
35:32
Commission, for school board, for all of these
35:35
seats so that we can turn policy around and have
35:39
better health care and have voting. rights and
35:42
have reproductive freedom, etc. Yeah, but in
35:45
addition to voting for these various offices,
35:48
you have to vote for things like the mayor. Because
35:52
as you say, the mayor appoints a lot of these
35:53
people. And if you don't have the representation
35:56
because your district has been redrawn or something,
36:01
this is not something that's based on reality.
36:06
It's based on how do we manipulate the votes.
36:10
The people who we don't like or the people who
36:13
we want to oppress remain oppressed while the
36:15
people who are funding me or whatever get the
36:20
access to everything that they want to get. Right.
36:24
So, what next? Do we want to talk about what
36:30
we've been doing lately? Yeah, I think so. Because
36:33
you've been out of the country, right? I have.
36:36
I took my daughter and we went to Costa Rica
36:39
for an eco -tourism trip. Was that the way it
36:44
was billed? Well, I curated it, yeah. But that
36:48
was the intention. Costa Rica, you know, what's
36:52
so impressive to me about Costa Rica, first of
36:54
all, it's in Central America. They don't have
36:56
a military. They have a very high literacy rate.
36:59
And in the early 1970s, as a poor country, they
37:04
looked at their natural resources, the leadership.
37:07
This is real leadership with intention. And they
37:10
decided to really start protecting and conserving
37:14
the environment because of the tremendous biodiversity
37:17
that they have in this small country. And it
37:20
really shows. I think that tourism is definitely
37:25
the leading economic driver for Costa Rica. It's
37:29
relatively safe. You do see a lot of U .S. expats
37:33
moving down there. Not because of the environment,
37:37
because it's a lot cheaper to live there. It
37:39
was cheaper. I noticed that it wasn't as cheap
37:44
as I thought it was billed to be. I think prices
37:47
are going up. But that's supply and demand. That's
37:49
how the market works. And it also could be because
37:51
a lot of US expats are going there and they have
37:56
more money. Yeah. And you raise the prices when
37:58
the consumer can afford things. So we... Basically,
38:04
we went to two national parks. Well, we went
38:08
to a cloud forest, which there are very few cloud
38:10
forests in the world. And what you see there
38:14
is really unique. We saw four different types
38:17
of monkeys. We saw mammals that are endemic to
38:22
Costa Rica. We saw snakes. We saw frogs. We saw...
38:27
Unbelievable birds, like just in a tree near
38:30
where we were staying, we saw a yellow -throated
38:32
toucan. You know, you think of the Froot Loops
38:34
toucan, you know, that I grew up seeing on the
38:36
cereal bus. Toucan Sam. There he was, or she
38:41
was, in the tree where we were staying, as well
38:44
as scarlet macaws. We saw so much wildlife and
38:50
so many beautiful flora as well. And then we
38:55
went snorkeling at what's called Canyo Island.
38:58
It's a protected island, and they're doing some
39:02
research. But what Costa Rica does is to get
39:07
into these areas, like the cloud forest and this
39:10
national park we went to in the south. They limit
39:13
the number of people that go there, much like
39:15
the Galapagos does in Ecuador, which I've also
39:18
been to, which was also totally amazing because
39:21
of this intentional leadership to preserve things,
39:24
the environment and the wildlife. And you have
39:28
to go with a guide as well. And so there are
39:31
very small groups going in here, so we're not
39:34
destroying the environment. And we just saw things
39:38
that you would never see. Well, a lot of it is
39:43
not endemic to where we live right now. So we
39:45
had a really, really great time. And honestly,
39:49
I didn't really want to come back. How was your
39:51
travel? Any issues with getting on the plane?
39:55
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, everything was easy.
39:59
We've talked about this before, about how difficult
40:02
it is with TSA doing whatever they're doing.
40:05
Well, we're two white women, too. Yeah, because
40:07
I... I've said this before, that I have a couple
40:11
of friends who are not white, who are afraid
40:16
to travel these days. We have a friend that we
40:20
know, we've known for years, met in Belgium.
40:24
She's of Indian descent. And she was going to
40:30
fly to visit us a couple of weeks ago, but was
40:33
afraid of TSA. She canceled her trip because
40:36
she was afraid to go to the airport because TSA
40:39
was acting up in Washington, D .C. And I've got
40:42
another friend in Denver who's of Asian descent
40:44
who was born in this country who was going to
40:48
travel down to Arizona but decided not to because
40:51
ICE and all those other border people have decided
40:58
that they're going to just stop everyone with
41:02
a minority background. And there was a story
41:05
this week that is showing that a lot of the detentions
41:08
being done by ICE and by the U .S. government
41:12
under the Trump administration, they're illegal
41:15
detentions. There is no reason for doing it.
41:17
So travel is not good if you're in the air or...
41:23
you know, something that has to go through the
41:26
U .S. government. Oh, and I did want to tell
41:28
you that the woman that ran the inn that we were
41:32
at near Corcovado National Park in the south
41:34
part of Costa Rica, she runs this inn, she meets
41:37
people from all over the world, and we befriended
41:40
her, and she has a friend who's visited her at
41:44
the inn who's from Indiana, of all places, and
41:47
she wanted to come visit him in Indianapolis,
41:50
and of course she cannot. she cannot come she
41:54
cannot get a visa granted you know brown skin
41:58
Costa Rican woman this isn't right and it's not
42:01
about people like coming into the country to
42:04
to stay it's about people coming to the country
42:08
to visit who are going to spend money but they
42:12
can't or they won't because this government has
42:16
made it so not not but it's made it dangerous
42:21
for people to come to the country. I met two
42:23
young people from Nicaragua. They were managing
42:26
the inn that we stayed at when we were in the
42:29
cloud forest. And they're from Nicaragua. They
42:32
love their country. Obviously, there are structural
42:35
issues that make it difficult to live there.
42:40
But, you know, they were critical of the United
42:42
States and the history of what we've done to
42:46
Nicaragua and other countries in Central America.
42:49
And, you know, it's so refreshing when you travel,
42:53
Jesse, you know this. You meet people from other
42:56
places with fresh perspectives. And it's very
43:00
humbling, too, to, you know, you grow up in this
43:03
American exceptionalism and all that kind of
43:06
stuff, and you meet people from Nicaragua who
43:09
love their country, who have family in the country,
43:11
are not at all interested in visiting the United
43:15
States for a variety of reasons. Well, I had
43:19
another thought, and I was going to go on another
43:22
track, but let's stay on this track for a second.
43:24
I was looking at a story this week about the
43:27
World Cup. And the World Cup is going to be the
43:30
huge worldwide soccer match considered the...
43:34
I hate to say this to Americans, but it is the
43:36
greatest sporting event in the world. And I'm
43:38
not a soccer fan. Just the numbers prove that
43:42
out. The numbers prove that the World Cup soccer
43:45
is the big, and football is what the sport is.
43:48
We have American football. Football is life,
43:51
by the way. Football is life, as they said. And
43:54
Ted Lasso. And Danny, by the way, the guy that
43:57
plays Danny, he's now joined a professional football
44:01
league. That's interesting. Well, anyway, the
44:04
World Cup, we're talking about just people visiting.
44:10
The World Cup, as I said, is the biggest sporting
44:12
event in America. In the world. It's in the world,
44:17
but it's actually taking place in the United
44:18
States and Canada this year, and they're not
44:21
able to sell tickets. because people are afraid
44:25
to come to the United States. I've been to a
44:29
World Cup. I went to the Women's World Cup in
44:32
France. Yeah, I was in Denmark during a World
44:35
Cup. It's insane. It's like it's the Olympics,
44:40
but on a bigger scale because it's just people
44:44
are going nuts. It's football fans from everywhere.
44:47
When I was in Europe, I lived in Europe for a
44:50
number of years, and when I was in Europe, The
44:52
World Cup was so important that they would ban...
44:56
fans from other countries because they knew these
44:58
fans were going to create riots. I remember when
45:01
it was in Germany and they wouldn't let the Brits
45:03
in because the Brits have this notorious reputation
45:06
for going to other countries and trashing them.
45:09
That's what they did. I was in Paris during one
45:12
and I do remember it was on and you could just
45:15
walk the streets of Paris. No one was in the
45:18
streets. Everyone was there watching the World
45:20
Cup. Right. But it's going to be in America.
45:23
This was a chance for... country to present its
45:27
best face to the rest of the world and what we
45:29
presented is the image of a fascist rulership
45:35
that is going to oppress going to put you in
45:38
jail if you show up right and to be honest they're
45:42
not just doing this to brown people they're doing
45:43
this to people not to white people are coming
45:47
from other countries so The United States is
45:50
in a bad situation now in terms of its perception
45:54
in the rest of the world. But anyway, and let's
46:01
be honest, the people who are running the World
46:02
Cup are just as corrupt as our administration
46:05
because the world... Cup leaders, FIFA is the
46:10
governing body for the World Cup or governing
46:14
body for international soccer. They gave Trump
46:17
a peace prize, the FIFA peace prize, just to
46:22
appease this little tin pot dictator. So the
46:28
World Cup is being screwed over. People aren't
46:30
buying tickets and the tickets. honestly are
46:33
really expensive. They're like $1 ,000 for a
46:37
ticket. They're almost, they're about the same
46:40
as a Super Bowl ticket, which is a ridiculous
46:42
amount of money. And the United States is, well,
46:45
they're losing a lot of money because people
46:48
aren't coming to U .S. stadiums, which means
46:50
that hotels aren't filling up, which means restaurants
46:52
are going to have the business that they could
46:54
have had because we have decided to be... We
46:59
are now perceived as assholes in the rest of
47:01
the world, and this is what's going to happen.
47:03
So we'll see how this goes, but tickets may be,
47:07
at some point, they may be giving away tickets
47:09
in certain places just so the image of a match,
47:16
a match with no fans in the stands is going to
47:19
look really bad. So we'll see how this goes.
47:23
But anyway, you've done your travel. I also traveled
47:27
this past weekend. Yes, you did. You had a big
47:28
weekend. Yeah, I went to my 50th reunion, college
47:35
reunion, and it was up at Ohio Wesleyan. That's
47:39
in central Ohio, just north of Columbus, in a
47:42
town called Delaware. I drove by myself from
47:47
Louisville to Ohio. It's a three -and -a -half
47:51
-hour drive, according to the Google Maps, I
47:56
tend to, like, have a lead foot so I can do it
47:59
in three. Isn't that dangerous as a black man
48:02
going through rural Ohio? Not really because
48:05
I was going really fast and people were passing
48:09
me. Yeah, as long as someone's going faster,
48:12
man, that's my role. You can do whatever you
48:13
want, yeah. So I drove up to Ohio for my 50th
48:17
reunion. It's interesting to see people, well,
48:22
first of all, getting up into Delaware, Ohio
48:24
is, it was just this, a return to the past, and
48:32
it's a past I don't remember. That's the thing.
48:35
I had been on that campus. That's a half a century
48:38
agency. Yeah, I'd been there 50 years ago. I'd
48:41
been back maybe twice since I graduated. And
48:46
how did you get to go there, by the way? Well,
48:50
when I applied for college, I went to high school
48:52
in Maine, but when I applied for college, I got
48:56
accepted by several, and I think the choice came
49:01
down to Drexel University in Philadelphia and
49:05
Ohio Wesleyan. Both were offering scholarships,
49:08
but Drexel was more math -focused. I looked at
49:15
the list of math courses, and I didn't understand
49:17
the words. So I decided, okay, maybe I should
49:19
do something else. So I went to Ohio Wesleyan.
49:21
That's where I majored in journalism and French,
49:25
which was the right major for me because I ended
49:29
up working in a French -speaking country. As
49:33
a very high -ranking journalist, newspaper journalist.
49:36
We can get into that eventually. It was fascinating
49:43
because when I got there, and this was something
49:46
I didn't expect, the minute I stepped on campus
49:50
and saw someone, they said, we were just talking
49:54
about you. And I was thinking, what? You know,
49:57
it's 50 years. There's a group of people on a
50:00
table, and the first person says, we were just
50:03
talking about you, which to me is amazing because
50:06
I didn't think people would remember me. And
50:10
they, you know, they asked, well, we were just
50:13
talking about you. Is it true you were on Jeopardy?
50:16
And I was on Jeopardy. So it's just that idea
50:20
that people were actually talking about me. And
50:22
it was like a return to those college days because
50:27
it was, the first thing was a lunch that we all
50:31
went to. And what happened was all the black
50:34
kids sat with the black kids. All the black 72
50:38
-year -olds sat with us. Well, yeah, they're
50:41
still kids to me. All the white kids sat with
50:44
the white kids, and I sat by myself because that
50:47
was my thing in college. I was not, I won't say
50:52
I wasn't sociable. I was just very shy and uneasy
50:56
about being around people. Has that changed much
50:59
over 50 years? No, because at the reunion, all
51:02
the black kids sat with the black kids, all the
51:04
white kids sat with the white kids, and I sat
51:06
by myself. The more things change. No, it's all
51:12
the same, but it was interesting just to go back
51:14
and see how much things have changed at the school.
51:19
It was definitely worth doing, and the thing
51:24
you're expecting when you go to something like
51:25
a 50th reunion who's there, but who's died. And
51:31
one person I was expecting to be there died on
51:34
the day of the reunion. Was she on her way? She
51:37
had told everybody that she was coming, and she
51:40
just died. The union was Friday and Saturday.
51:45
She died on Saturday. That was weird, but there
51:51
were also people who still remembered me, and
51:54
there were other people who were in my orbit,
52:01
where we were the shy kids, we would be sitting
52:05
away from other people, and we connected again,
52:09
which I felt was really important. we were able
52:13
to recount stories that each of us had forgotten
52:16
from those years. And just the idea that what
52:20
people remember or what people are most involved
52:24
in or their fond memories are things that I was
52:28
part of. And that's good. Like, I used to work
52:31
in the kitchen washing dishes because I was poor.
52:36
And there was another girl working in the kitchen.
52:40
I scooped ice cream. No, we were cleaning dishes.
52:43
Ice cream. I got ice cream all over my arms.
52:46
It sticks to you. It's really gross. But yes,
52:48
washing dishes is worse. And we were talking
52:50
about things like, you know how when you're in
52:53
a student cafeteria, they have a conveyor belt
52:55
that takes the dishes back to the dish room?
52:59
We used to treat the conveyor belt as a surfboard
53:02
and just ride the conveyor belt. That's crazy.
53:05
And she was telling me that that was one of the
53:07
great... moments of her college career. She was
53:13
involved in museum management in Arkansas. And
53:21
I have a bunch of pins from my school. I have
53:25
photos of me with the mascot. The Ohio Wesleyan
53:30
mascot is the battling bishop because it's a
53:33
Wesleyan university and he's a bishop, which
53:36
is... Totally. You know, how can you be another
53:39
sporting team from another university and take?
53:43
a battling bishop seriously but I have a picture
53:47
of myself with the bishop and the bishop has
53:50
this scowl on my face which is the scowl that
53:53
I usually have on my face so we took pictures
53:55
together and it's like okay he was pretending
53:58
to be me I wasn't pretending to be him there
54:01
was also an art show much like the Saint James
54:03
art show here in downtown Delaware not related
54:06
to the reunion but It took up as much space,
54:11
anyone who's in Louisville knows the St. James
54:13
Art Show. That show in Delaware, Ohio took up
54:18
as much space as the St. James and Belgravia
54:21
Court portions of our art show. So that was interesting
54:27
to see. I bought a bunch of stuff for my grandchildren.
54:32
Nice. So they have like little... little what
54:36
do you call them uh dolls or or like uh puppy
54:40
not uh yeah they're dolls of um of animals with
54:46
uh uh an oh woo on the uh and that's how it's
54:51
spelled oh which struck me as really weird because
54:55
50 years ago when we said oh we were mocking
54:58
the school we thought that this is stupid oh
55:01
woo and then today it's what the school is called
55:05
because the university president uses that term
55:08
there are t -shirts all over campus that use
55:12
that term so it was good seeing people from the
55:17
past and we recounted a lot of not only recounting
55:20
stories from the past, but talking about certain
55:23
things that we're doing, talking about our careers,
55:26
where we've been. And it's, you know, a lot of
55:30
people have died. A lot of people have had some
55:32
really serious drug issues. Some people committed
55:37
suicide. But others became very successful, and
55:41
they were leaders in their profession. Thank
55:43
you. Honestly, yes, like me. I was a leader in
55:47
my profession. I also talked with another person
55:49
from my class who was a leader in our profession,
55:53
both journalists. And, you know, we recounted
55:57
stories about not only the past, but about what
56:01
has happened in life in general these days. It
56:06
was definitely worth all the time I spent there.
56:10
I was reluctant to go, as you should be, because
56:13
I went to my 50th high school reunion in Maine
56:16
four years ago, of course, because four years.
56:21
And I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I got to see
56:26
where people were. One of the people, I shouldn't
56:31
say this, but someone I had a crush on. now has
56:35
seven children and ten grandchildren. And I couldn't
56:39
handle seven children and ten grandchildren.
56:41
It's a good thing you parted ways. Oh, yeah.
56:43
But it was good seeing her again. And it sounds
56:46
like you've been impressed with both schools.
56:50
too, currently. You saw it at OU. Yes. I think
56:56
it's a good school. I would recommend it. It's
56:59
a liberal arts college. Liberal arts colleges
57:01
are under attack in America today. If you read
57:04
the stories, they're cutting... humanities programs
57:07
and these other things that... All the DEI, all
57:11
the equity, all the African American studies,
57:14
indigenous studies, women's studies. Yeah, but
57:17
I will donate to my school. It's like I should
57:22
donate because I did get scholarships to go there
57:25
and grants. And it's important to carry it on
57:30
for the next generation. And it's just amazing
57:33
that it's 50 years. One other thing I want to
57:36
say about this is the drive from here to Ohio
57:40
and back. I have really big problems with the
57:45
transportation system here, the road system,
57:47
because there are a couple of things that bother
57:50
me about driving. I haven't done a long, what,
57:55
it's like a 300 -mile drive in... Wow, it's been
58:01
almost a decade. I don't think I've done it since
58:04
I lived in... Oh! The longest drive I think I
58:08
lasted was when I was in Europe, and I would
58:10
drive from Belgium to Germany. That was pretty
58:14
substantial. Not as long as OU, but when I was
58:17
growing up, after I got out of college, I would
58:21
drive from Florida to New York, or I drove from
58:25
Pennsylvania to Kentucky. But maybe the past...
58:33
20 years. Well, you've also used a lot of public
58:35
transportation because you've lived in cities
58:38
with really good public transportation. Unlike
58:40
Louisville, it has sucked your public transportation.
58:43
But you don't drive here. You walk everywhere.
58:46
Yeah, yeah. But the thing about driving on a
58:49
cross -country trip is I'm used to driving in
58:53
Germany now. And in Germany, they have the Autobahn,
58:56
as everyone knows. And there is no speed limit
58:59
at all. So, you know, 100 miles an hour is not
59:03
atypical of German driving. And occasionally
59:06
I would not be paying attention to the speedometer.
59:10
And I'd look down and it's like, oh, that's 95.
59:12
I think I better slow down. But the one, well,
59:17
there are many other things. But in my opinion,
59:22
the interstate should have a minimum speed limit.
59:27
because if people are doing like 70 is probably
59:31
the peak speed in Ohio to Kentucky. I've been
59:37
in places where the top speed is 80 or 90 in
59:41
America. In Europe, as I said, it's unlimited.
59:44
You just go. But there's no minimum speed limit,
59:47
which is very dangerous because you have people
59:49
going 45 on a 70. Well, another difference, though,
59:54
Jesse, is the infrastructure improvements and
59:58
the investments in infrastructure in those countries
1:00:01
in Europe. I'll contrast that with my driving
1:00:05
experience in Costa Rica. There were a lot of
1:00:07
potholes. There were a lot of scooters going
1:00:09
in and out. and the speed limits were lower,
1:00:12
and it was a good thing because some of these
1:00:16
potholes would have just swallowed up our whole
1:00:18
car. Yeah, I know. But in a country like America,
1:00:22
you should be able to drive. That takes tax dollars.
1:00:27
Yeah, it takes tax dollars. It's the stuff that...
1:00:30
Let's get back to the elections. It's the stuff
1:00:33
you vote politicians in office for. Well, and
1:00:35
I'd like to see really good trains and really
1:00:37
good buses. Right, you go into any other country,
1:00:41
the train system is just... You don't want to
1:00:45
drive in those countries because you don't have
1:00:46
to. You don't have to. I would constantly take
1:00:50
trains from Belgium to England or from Belgium
1:00:53
to France. take no time at all because it reaches
1:00:56
top speed of 200 miles an hour which is outrageous
1:01:00
and Amtrak doesn't even come close to that but
1:01:03
the other side of this is that Amtrak is not
1:01:06
a really expansive system because we should have
1:01:10
an Amtrak train running through Louisville. You
1:01:12
can hear in the background, I'm sure, if you're
1:01:14
listening, a train whistle. That's not Amtrak.
1:01:18
No, it is not. That's a freight train, but that
1:01:21
shows that there's a rail here. You can use it.
1:01:24
Why don't we have these kind of services in this
1:01:27
country? And the other thing I would say is Kentucky
1:01:32
is a really beautiful state. It is amazing. If
1:01:35
you've driven in Ohio, where it's nothing but
1:01:38
flat and just, what's the word, nondescript,
1:01:44
boring, and then you cross the border in Kentucky
1:01:48
and it's just these rolling hills with lots of
1:01:51
green. It's just an amazingly beautiful state.
1:01:54
And I've learned recently that the glaciers during
1:01:58
the last ice age, they basically... pushed a
1:02:02
lot of flora and, you know, let the fauna down
1:02:05
from, you know, Canada and things like that.
1:02:08
And it stops above us. So you had these geologic
1:02:14
formations and, you know, I'm going out and camping
1:02:16
everywhere. I'm looking at all of it. And I'm
1:02:18
about to go to the Garden of the Gods this week,
1:02:20
which is southern Illinois. And then you have
1:02:23
it at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. And then
1:02:26
I went to Hocking Hills, Ohio, which is the foothills
1:02:29
of the Appalachian Mountains. All of those cool
1:02:32
rock formations and hills and everything are
1:02:35
because those glaciers came down and they pushed
1:02:39
the stuff. But it's really flat in Illinois,
1:02:43
central Illinois, central Ohio, and central Indiana
1:02:46
because of these glaciers. But Kentucky, they
1:02:50
didn't make it down this far. Which is good.
1:02:52
The other cool thing about Kentucky that you
1:02:54
may not know is that we have the second most
1:02:58
shoreline. waterways to Alaska in all 50 states
1:03:06
Kentucky would you believe that and it's because
1:03:08
of our hilly topography all these little hills
1:03:13
and stuff so we have more creeks and more streams
1:03:16
and more rivers in this small state than any
1:03:22
other state but Alaska. Wow. That's a fun fact,
1:03:25
right? And Alaska is the biggest state in the
1:03:28
country by far. Right. So anyway, the travel
1:03:34
is good. And we did one thing about travel. I
1:03:37
talked to a couple of people about travel. with
1:03:42
one person who had studied in Beirut in the older
1:03:46
days, way before the... She was there just before
1:03:53
the revolution. If you were growing up in the
1:03:58
70s, every other week there was a story that
1:04:01
said car bomb explodes in Beirut. Right. So she
1:04:04
was there, and we were at a table with a person
1:04:09
who worked for the State Department in North
1:04:12
Africa and in the Middle East. And in both cases,
1:04:17
we were just saying, you know, people have to
1:04:20
get out of their country. They have to see what
1:04:24
the rest of the world is. There are a lot of
1:04:28
people in America who just think that everything
1:04:30
is great here and there's nothing to worry about.
1:04:35
The medical system is better overseas. The transportation
1:04:38
system is better. Life expectancy is longer.
1:04:42
Life expectancy, education. The racial divide
1:04:46
is less. The gender divide. In Western European
1:04:49
countries. Although with immigrants coming in
1:04:52
and the anti -immigrant. Right, that's Brexit.
1:04:55
That's the reason for Brexit. But again, that
1:05:00
takes privilege, Jesse, to be able to travel,
1:05:03
right? Right. Yeah. And it takes privilege and
1:05:06
money. And we have a government that is not allowing
1:05:10
people to actually live decently. Or move freely.
1:05:15
Move freely. So there are a lot of things that
1:05:19
we have to evaluate in how we do things. And
1:05:23
I guess I'm going to circle back to say... This
1:05:26
is why elections are important. This is why people
1:05:29
need to get out and vote. Because there's a whole
1:05:32
world out there that has, you know, we have problems
1:05:35
in America. There are other countries that have
1:05:38
figured out the answers. They have problems too.
1:05:41
But we cannot just bury our heads in the sand
1:05:45
and say, you know. I'm going to swear again.
1:05:49
I'm thinking of Team America. America, fuck yeah.
1:05:52
No, it's not going to work that way. There are
1:05:55
so many more things to do, so many more places
1:05:56
to see. That's true. I think we better wrap this
1:05:59
up because this is going to be our longest podcast.
1:06:02
Wow. On primary election day in Kentucky. So
1:06:07
hopefully we're going to get some good results
1:06:09
tonight. Are you going to a watch party for anybody?
1:06:12
No. Oh, you're going to be here alone, all by
1:06:14
yourself? My wife will be here. Okay, well, that's
1:06:17
good. But I'm not going to watch anything. I
1:06:19
may go to Charles Booker's. Or I may go to Schumacher
1:06:21
Parish Rites. Well, if you send me the address,
1:06:25
I might consider showing up for that. Well, I
1:06:27
will do that. I'm glad we spoke. Yeah, thank
1:06:29
you. Thanks, everyone. So long. Our closing music
1:06:35
is by John Chamberlain.