0:00

Welcome to Worst Year Ever, A production

0:02

of I Heart Radio

0:10

Together Everything.

0:14

So don't don't. America's

0:21

back, baby. Yeah,

0:24

we're doing it. We're doing it. We

0:27

are long national nightmares over.

0:29

Uh, Joseph Robinette

0:31

Biden is bringing America

0:34

back, making it great for the next

0:36

time after it wasn't great for

0:39

a while, but now it will be again, And

0:41

I for one am excited. I'm

0:44

Robert Evans, and this is no longer the worst

0:46

year ever because we have solved all of our problems.

0:50

Great ye to

0:53

year. Yeah, we done,

0:55

We've done it. Believe

0:57

you. I agree. I leave.

1:00

I'm Katie Stole. By the way, kid,

1:03

I hadn't mentioned Hi,

1:06

guys, what

1:08

who else is here? Who else is joining

1:10

us? Co host? I think Robert

1:13

Evans? And there

1:15

we go. I was just um,

1:22

I want to start with a question for you guys

1:24

before we dig in. How are you feeling

1:27

on today, the day that Donald Trump

1:30

finally became president? I mean happy,

1:32

happy, last day of Donald Trump. I

1:37

mean we we delayed

1:40

recording today so that we could watch his farewell

1:42

address, and we all agreed

1:44

that he almost seemed sort

1:46

of presidential, but then snuck in all of

1:49

his usual I

1:51

mean I wouldn't. I'd

1:54

say less, he seemed presidential and more.

1:56

I was just kind of surprised that he made it eighteen

1:58

minutes without an explo us at death threat. Yeah,

2:03

which was like, oh, for actively

2:06

trying to incite violence right now,

2:09

I mean passively justifying

2:11

all of the violence of several hundred years of American

2:13

imperialism by talking about

2:15

how rad it is that we stole this

2:18

land. So that, yeah, not great,

2:20

but for him it is a step forward.

2:22

Yeah. Um, I

2:24

have been thinking all day today

2:27

about uh,

2:29

the day after the election, and

2:32

you guys all know that Biden's

2:35

not my guy. I'm not thrilled, although

2:37

we are going to talk about some of the stuff that he

2:39

is going to hit the ground running that seems positive

2:42

in many ways, um, and

2:44

all of that, but I just I do

2:46

feel relief today. I feel relief

2:48

that we have one more day

2:51

until he is no longer the president,

2:54

and and we survived it. These

2:56

four years have gone by incredibly

2:58

slow and incredibly fast, and it's

3:00

shown just how much damage

3:02

can be done, you know, but

3:05

also how much damage was already done.

3:07

And I'm ready to get to work. That's

3:10

how I feel, and I wanted to start with that kind of

3:12

positive message to everybody.

3:15

We love positivity. We love positivity

3:18

from you and positivity from our beautiful

3:21

president. Um, beautiful president

3:23

gorgeous, which is the same thing. We're

3:25

doing great. Yeah,

3:27

so I think we I don't know, there's a few things

3:29

to go into. I think some some of

3:32

what is necessary is I guess

3:34

um talking about some of the stuff that

3:37

is planned for from the Biden administration

3:39

for his first day in office, in first hundred

3:42

days in office, and I kind of wanted to start

3:44

with something that's just in the last couple of days

3:46

started being passed around really heavily around

3:48

the internet, um, which is that Biden

3:51

is Biden and his

3:53

people have talked several times about

3:56

UM vetoing the

3:59

Keystone XL pipeline, and

4:02

uh, this is it's it's

4:04

very complicated, like the actual story of what's

4:06

going on. So you'll generally

4:08

see one of two things when people talk

4:10

about this online. One is either folks

4:12

being like Biden is has like

4:15

confirmed that he's going to veto

4:18

the Keystone pipeline on day one, and and

4:20

for a little bit of background, that was the pipeline that passes

4:22

through North and South Dakota that Standing Rock

4:25

was protesting. It goes up to Alberta in

4:27

Canada and it it is supposed to transfer

4:30

a shipload of bitumen, which

4:32

is like oil rich sand

4:34

and ship. That is a way

4:36

to get a lot of extra oil out of the

4:38

earth, but also produces I think something like more

4:41

emissions than the standard

4:44

kind of just because of the process. A

4:46

lot is good, Yeah,

4:49

a lot is great. The more emissions the

4:51

better because who likes the winter, right? Um.

4:54

Now, the other downside to transporting

4:57

oil this way through a pipeline is that

5:00

UM pipelines a hundred percent of the time

5:02

leak and spill tens

5:04

of thousands of gallons of oil

5:07

into uh waterways

5:10

that people need in order to not die. And

5:13

this one actually did have a spill. Did

5:17

Yeah? I was gonna say, when has that ever

5:19

happened regularly? Yeah? It happens every

5:21

single time with every single pipeline UM.

5:25

And Yeah, so that that's a

5:27

big part of why, like the the

5:29

indigenous folks at Standing Rock who

5:31

were kind of the core of of organizing

5:33

and planning that like we're up in arms because

5:35

like you know, we need

5:38

this water to not die of dehydration.

5:40

And you're going to pour poison into it, and

5:43

then the pipeline poured poison and

5:46

we know because we know, because we know what will happen. We

5:48

know, I mean

5:50

the water, sure, but then ecosystems, uh,

5:53

you know, wildlife, all of it. And

5:55

you know in addition to the fact that, like one

5:57

of the things defenders of pipelines will point it is that

5:59

well, but it's better for the environment

6:01

on the whole than the traditional way of

6:03

just transporting like fuel through trucks

6:06

and stuff, because you do have less emissions

6:08

with the pipeline. It just pollutes the

6:10

area around the pipeline as opposed to polluting

6:12

the entire atmosphere. And I guess that's

6:14

technically true, but again, like

6:17

number one doesn't really make

6:19

it okay to poison people's water, and number

6:22

two, what you're actually doing

6:24

is allowing the process of killing

6:26

the atmosphere with fossil

6:28

fuels to continue even longer. Yeah,

6:31

you're saying, look, it's the lesser

6:33

of two evils. Will know. Actually,

6:36

the better solution would be all these other alternative

6:39

energy sources to be explored. Also,

6:42

that's a better answer for the

6:44

other justification for it, which is jobs creations,

6:46

a lot of jobs creation. And

6:49

it's very funny

6:53

ahead, it's very it's funny that you bring

6:55

that up and appropriate that you bring that up, because obviously,

6:58

when it became clear that Joe Biden was going

7:00

to be the president, UM, the Canadians

7:03

in Alberta in particular and in the

7:05

government albert I should say, started freaking the

7:07

fuck out because this is a big economic

7:10

thing for Alberta in particular. UM,

7:13

they have made a lot of like

7:16

they're they're like they've even threatened to sue the US government

7:19

if Biden does this thing that he said he's gonna do.

7:21

UM. But they have also they have also

7:24

done their best to get in on the green

7:26

energy and job creation train. So

7:28

like they've they've been basically sending back counter

7:31

offers and sometimes some people who are very more

7:33

critical of Biden online you'll see them say, like, he's

7:35

going to approve the pipeline.

7:37

He's just going to approve the green version of the pipeline

7:39

that Alberta has pushed. And what they have promised

7:42

is will make sure that the pipeline is

7:44

a constructed and operated

7:46

using renewable energy. UM,

7:48

so it'll be transporting, it'll

7:50

be transporting fossil fuel, but will

7:53

build the thing with with renewable

7:56

energy. It poison

8:00

oil tube um, and we're

8:02

going to only use Union labor um.

8:05

Oh my god, it's it's and

8:07

that is the offer they've made. And it's one of

8:09

those things again, it kind of depends on how we don't

8:11

know what's going to happen, and what you

8:14

think is going to happen kind of depends on how cynical you are,

8:16

because I've I've heard two things

8:18

in the articles I've read from the Biden administration. One

8:20

is that an article reporting on how Biden's

8:22

going to veto at day one one of someone

8:24

from the campaign responded and said, well, that's

8:27

based on an old um

8:29

presentation that we put out and didn't really give any

8:31

more context than that. And another thing that's come out is like

8:33

when um Alberta

8:36

kind of came back with this or when you know, the

8:38

company making it came back with this like green poison

8:41

pipeline plan, someone

8:43

from the Biden UH campaign

8:45

was like, so nothing so

8:47

far, Like there's no change to Biden's promise

8:50

to to veto the pipeline, So I don't

8:52

know what's gonna happen. It doesn't seem like anybody does.

8:55

Um, it would not be the least Joe

8:57

Biden thing in the world to approve a

8:59

green in fossil fuel pipeline.

9:03

That said that, in fairness,

9:06

he is not even really he has not

9:08

commented on that my knowledge,

9:10

and so far seems poised to still veto

9:12

the pipeline. So I'm gonna give before I like

9:15

land either way, I'm gonna give the dude a chance

9:17

to do the good thing, and that

9:19

pipeline, I'll say that I got. I

9:21

also read somewhere in some article

9:24

that specific

9:27

item might not happen tomorrow.

9:30

Originally that was part of the conversation,

9:32

like he's going to hit the ground running with these two things,

9:35

the other thing being immigration reform, which we

9:37

will also talk about. Um. But

9:40

so I think that if something was to get

9:42

pushed tomorrow, it might be that, uh,

9:45

for all these things that you would

9:47

be something he could do. He would not

9:49

need anyone else's approval, because the Obama

9:51

administration canceled

9:53

the approval for the pipeline and then Trump

9:55

reapproved it and ship so Biden

9:58

could unilaterally the know

10:00

that like that is a thing he doesn't need anyone's help

10:02

to do. And if you just look at the other

10:04

stuff he's promised to do day one in his first hundred

10:06

days, it's one of relatively few things that he

10:08

can kind of do completely on

10:10

his own, um, because he's going to be facing, as

10:13

you can imagine, um, pretty much complete

10:16

blockading from the Republicans on most

10:18

other stuff as much as they can also

10:21

in uh also in July, the

10:24

Supreme Court also ruled against the

10:27

pipeline getting a perfect to continue.

10:30

It should be a real easy

10:32

win to give at least something to the

10:34

left, like, but

10:37

again, he is Joe Biden. You know. Well, at the same time,

10:39

it's like, okay, it seems it

10:41

seems like, well, you don't even necessarily

10:43

need to to to do this

10:46

because the Supreme Court is already uh

10:49

blocked it. So it's almost

10:51

like, well, what specifically

10:53

did they block? Was it some like uh

10:56

way that it was being built,

10:58

you know, or um, yeah, they didn't take

11:00

into account a certain fish species,

11:03

um, And uh so this this

11:06

it might continue and that might be taken care

11:08

of, and then it will still be a problem. Yeah.

11:10

I just feel like that still leaves

11:12

room for there to be some compromise.

11:15

Some alternative way of proceeding with the building.

11:18

So right, Yeah, I didn't entire

11:21

as many as many people saying

11:24

don't build this pipeline is

11:26

good? Yes, but man,

11:29

that green energy building, it's so good.

11:33

Yeah, the great, it's very silly. UM.

11:35

It would be good if Biden

11:37

kills the pipeline, the keystone at

11:40

least, like that would be a thing he would do that. I

11:42

would say, good, good, good on you, Joe,

11:44

and it would

11:46

be good optics. We'll see what actually happens.

11:49

I think we've laid out that, Like it's

11:51

kind of impossible to know if that's what he will

11:53

actually do. UM. Now,

11:55

in terms of other hundred day stuff, UM,

11:58

Biden has announced a few things that he's going to do right

12:00

away, some of which he can do and probably will do one

12:02

day one UM. He's promised around

12:04

a dozen executive actions on his first

12:07

day in office, including a mask mandate

12:09

on federal property and for interstate

12:11

travel. UM. Extending a nationwide

12:13

restriction on home evictions and foreclosures,

12:15

which I'm sure we'll have a bunch of holes, you know,

12:18

as all of the eviction moratoriums have. It's

12:20

better than nothing, UM, a continuation

12:22

of the pause on student loan payments. Um.

12:25

And he's also going to push for passing the one point

12:27

nine trillion dollar COVID nineteen relief

12:30

legislation package, which is, you

12:32

know, not what people were promised are

12:34

e the two thousand dollars, but also has a bunch

12:36

of really good stuff in it. We'll see if it actually gets

12:38

to pass. But the thing that excites me most about that actually

12:41

is removing the uh

12:43

I don't know if loophole's even the right way to term it, but making

12:45

it illegal to pay uh

12:48

disabled people less. Um.

12:51

It's it's good to not let them like. That's

12:53

even in some ways a bigger deal than the raising

12:56

the minimum wage. To me, is like crack

13:00

down on that legal disparity that has never

13:02

made any sense and has always been used

13:04

to exploit and abuse. Yeah,

13:07

it's just cruel it's just cruelty.

13:09

Yeah, it's it's just unreasoning, unthinking

13:12

cruelty. Um. And

13:14

it would be good if that weren't around anymore.

13:16

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Fully

13:19

chip away at the cruelty would be nice. And

13:21

what I have seen some some like

13:23

UM Disability Rights Active is

13:25

pointing out, is that another thing that needs to change

13:28

is at least either removing or raising

13:30

the cap on how many assets someone

13:32

can have to receive disability, because right

13:34

now it's very low, and it can actually the that

13:37

can stop people who are disabled from,

13:39

for example, saving up enough money to buy

13:41

a much better wheelchair that improves

13:43

their quality of life, because if they have, they if

13:46

you are yeah, if

13:48

you are receiving disability, which basically

13:50

pays you barely enough to survive, right

13:53

that's the idea. If you can't work, the government

13:55

will pay you barely enough to survive. But

13:58

if you are able to don't know if

14:00

there working some sort of side gig or whatever

14:02

a crew enough money to have over

14:04

I think it's like two thousand dollars or something in like liquid

14:06

assets. It's it's a very low number. You lose

14:09

your disability um, which means if

14:11

people try to like save up for a high quality

14:13

wheelchair or something that will massively improve their

14:15

quality of life and isn't covered by you

14:17

know, Medicare or whatever they're on, they can

14:19

lose their disability um.

14:22

Because if you have you know, a couple of grand clearly

14:24

you're not disabled anymore. Um. Yeah, it's

14:27

hard, it's it's horror and it's

14:29

I I am not at all, um, anything

14:32

close to an expert on this. I'm just trying kind

14:34

of been trying to keep track on what people who

14:36

are UM advocates in this

14:38

community are are saying. But like, yeah, it's a

14:40

horrible problem. It seems like it seems

14:42

like something that needs to be changed immediately. Um.

14:45

I don't know that it will because that that part is not

14:47

does not seem to be on the docket, but it

14:49

seems like reducing or ending

14:52

the disparity between minimum wage would

14:54

be maybe a step towards addressing that

14:56

injustice as well. Thank

14:59

you for that explanation. Yeah. Um,

15:02

other ship that Biden is planning to

15:04

do right away is rejoined the Paris Climate

15:06

Agreement, which I do think he can do kind

15:08

of unit, which is like, again, not enough

15:12

but better. Yeah, it's symbolic,

15:14

but good gesture to do right out

15:16

of the gates. Yeah. I

15:20

don't want to say virtue signaling,

15:22

but it is a signal uh

15:24

that uh we're

15:27

uh not yeah, we're

15:29

reversing course at

15:31

least I don't know. You know, you gotta

15:34

go, you gotta take what you can get. It's

15:36

a very expected move. Yeah,

15:40

holy, unsurprising. You

15:42

just need to back it up with actual yeah,

15:45

like for example, not building a pipeline

15:47

with green energy and

15:51

yeah, and if those two things

15:53

actually do happen day one, you know,

15:55

rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement blocking

15:57

the pipeline, that's a sign that,

16:00

like we actually see meaningful,

16:03

meaningful movement on

16:05

climate change that isn't purely for

16:07

show, which would be good because the

16:10

death of all life on earth thing. Well

16:12

yeah,

16:12

yeah,

16:16

so we'll see. Um what's

16:18

not for show? Um? Or I mean it

16:20

might be for show for them, but what is not

16:22

just a show? We thing we'll actually do something? Yeah,

16:25

is ending the Trump's Muslim ban on

16:27

travel restriction from

16:30

Syria, I ran Iraq, Sudan, Libya,

16:32

Somalia and Yemen, A richary

16:34

in Nigeria, mean Mark Kyrgyzstan in Tanzania.

16:37

Um, that would immediately help a lot

16:39

of people in their families. And Robert, I heard

16:41

that it wasn't a band or a Muslim ban. I

16:43

heard it was something else, some

16:46

other way to say it. But I think it's just we

16:48

finally figured out what was going on. Um,

16:50

oh good, what's going

16:52

on? No longer we

16:55

no longer have to have a racist

16:57

immigration ban. Good good, And

16:59

that is you know when I talk about trying to be actually

17:02

fair, like none of us are fans of Joe

17:04

Biden or the Democratic Party and are in fact

17:06

pretty consistently and explicitly

17:08

critical of them. That's an unequivocal

17:10

good. Um. Yeah, so

17:13

I'm moved on board. Yeah, I'm

17:15

glad that that will happen. It's positive

17:17

we vote for them in the hopes that they

17:19

do these things that we can all agree

17:22

on, and that we can also pull them further

17:24

left let damage than the alternative.

17:27

Um, and like is

17:29

immigration stuff, yeah, and like

17:32

it's it's it's helpful I think in these especially

17:34

these coming days and weeks to sort

17:36

of check out, um like

17:38

a never Trumper reaction to

17:42

what Biden does because like,

17:44

for example, UM, with his immigration

17:46

plan, David Froom Access,

17:48

David Access of Evil Froom,

17:51

very America's greatest mind,

17:53

the greatest mind of were a true wordsmith

17:56

is resistant to Biden's immigration

17:59

plans because, uh, it's

18:01

the only options after this are

18:03

overwhelming mass immigration

18:06

constantly or massed attentions

18:08

for immigrants. And it's like, well, if David from

18:10

is thinking that, then maybe it's actually good.

18:13

Um, if that's what he thinks. The

18:15

solution is um and his reaction

18:17

to a plan the angrier Joe Biden makes

18:19

David from the more pleased.

18:22

I will be with the Biden Yeah,

18:24

exactly, like to see to see any

18:26

like Lincoln project Goo will be like, oh Biden's

18:28

too this is too much like okay, then good

18:31

good yeah. Um, we

18:34

need to take a quick break and then when

18:36

we come back you can dig

18:38

into the immigration stuff. Zyga plan

18:41

beautiful. Yeah. You know who else

18:43

pisses off David Frome. Don't

18:46

say Raytheon because I don't think that's true. No, not

18:49

Raytheon, but our other sponsors do because

18:51

are one of our vettings for sponsors

18:53

is that they have at least one employee who

18:56

has done an upper decker in David Frome's

18:58

bathroom. We

19:00

require photographic evidence of

19:02

that. Yeah, it's definitely. I mean the

19:04

my pillow guy does offer deckers in literally

19:07

every bathroom he used. Um

19:10

anyway, listen to These products

19:13

are represented by companies that have people

19:15

who have shat in the top of David Froom's toilet.

19:26

Everything down, Uh,

19:31

we're back. Whose

19:36

pillow is no longer being so bed?

19:38

Bathroom

19:40

or you know, you

19:42

just gotta take these Winsfair

19:47

is like, oh no, no, yeah,

19:50

we don't want to. We don't want the martial

19:52

law pillows. We want

19:54

the fascist military coup

19:57

pillow. Wayfair is beloved

19:59

of mac guest supporters. I'm positive it's

20:02

gotta be. Well, it wasn't

20:04

Wayfair the one where there was a conspiracy that they

20:06

were selling children in the in the furniture.

20:09

Yes, there is. That's my boy.

20:12

I guess that's that's some Q territory anyway.

20:16

Joe Biden's immigration plan as promised.

20:19

Yeah, I mean, I think we can all agree.

20:21

Incredibly erotic, Yeah, kili

20:24

erotic after

20:27

dark m hm, So

20:31

Bun's so he's gonna build a wall. Um,

20:34

he's gonna make Canada pay for this one.

20:38

Well, finally, and this is where I'm a hundred

20:40

percent backing Joe, because we need to stop

20:42

the Canadian menace from coming down to our don't

20:46

you know it? Um? Yeah, oh

20:50

my god, there's one in the room.

20:53

Um. His his immigration

20:56

bill. Uh. It's

20:58

pretty good, you know, it's

21:00

pretty big. Yeah, it's a huge improvement.

21:03

It's great. One of the things that I like

21:06

about it is it's similar in a lot of ways

21:08

to an immigration bill that was pushed but not

21:10

passed during Obama's second term.

21:13

One of the big differences is that that bill,

21:15

in order to try to please the Republicans who are

21:17

unpleasable, UM, included a bunch of

21:19

extra money for border defenses

21:22

and wallshit. And this does not now

21:24

obviously, if it is ever going to

21:26

get past, I'm sure they'll add a bunch of horrible

21:28

bullshit for order patrol. But they're

21:31

not starting there, which is nice.

21:34

It's like more hardball than I expected.

21:36

It's like what Cody you always talk about, you know,

21:38

you don't You don't start with a compromise.

21:41

You start with what you want, exactly

21:44

what you want, maybe even a little more at

21:46

more. Uh. Yeah. This his bill

21:49

provides uh an eight year path

21:51

to citizenship for around

21:53

I think it was eleven million people uh

21:56

currently without legal status. Um,

21:59

and uh even a shorter

22:01

path I guess for dreamers,

22:04

which is great. Let's see.

22:07

I believe this is from the a P. Under the legislation,

22:10

those living in the US as of January one

22:13

without legal status would have a five year path of

22:15

temporary legal status or a green card if they pass

22:17

background checks, pay taxes, and fulfill

22:19

other basic requirements. From there, it's

22:21

a three year path to naturalization. Um.

22:24

And yeah, for some immigrants the process could

22:26

be quicker. The so called dreamers,

22:28

the young people who arrived in the US illegally as

22:30

children, as well as agricultural workers

22:33

and people under temperary protective status could qualify

22:35

more immediately for green cards. Um,

22:38

it's great. I think that that's great.

22:41

So it's so unbelievable

22:44

David Froome read this is like, this is

22:46

gonna lead to mass attentions of immigrants

22:48

and caravans. He

22:51

didn't take caravans, to be fair, I give

22:57

it at most six months before

22:59

we have another big caravans scare on

23:01

the right, So it's absolutely

23:03

coming. Oh. It also provides

23:06

grants for workforce development

23:08

and English language learning. Yeah,

23:11

I love It's there's a lot that's good

23:14

in here. Like I think everyone knows, I'm

23:16

borders shouldn't exist in nation

23:19

States shouldn't either, guy,

23:21

But that's not on the docket right

23:23

now. And it seems like it makes

23:25

life less shitty for a lot of people

23:27

who currently have to deal with more bullshit

23:29

than I can imagine. Um,

23:31

So I'm I'm down with it. Yeah.

23:35

I I wish I had someone

23:37

here that we could call, uh right

23:39

now to talk about this, because I think this probably

23:42

means a lot to a lot of people. Were

23:44

very privileged white all

23:46

of us sitting here talking about this, and

23:48

I'm very aware of it. But this, this has been

23:51

a hammer over the head of people

23:54

for four years, uh, and

23:56

so many stories of people who

24:00

can't even confide in their friends

24:02

that that they're undocumented

24:05

UM and living

24:07

double lives in a way. And

24:09

if if you

24:11

are one of them right now, I

24:14

hope you're feeling a little sense of hope.

24:17

Yeah, I mean I can say

24:20

you know, as I brought up a couple of times, I spent most

24:22

of the last year and change living with a

24:25

Chinese national who who is

24:28

has a green card UM and

24:30

had to deal with a massive surge

24:32

in the amount of bullshit and like like

24:34

a number of different scares where she thought she was going

24:36

to be forced out of the country

24:39

UM, despite doing everything the legal

24:41

way, and obviously she herself acknowledged

24:44

she's in the in the higher like

24:46

the more privileged class of people who are trying

24:48

to immigrate like by the book, UM.

24:51

But prior to the election. Her thing was like,

24:54

I'm not going to be able to stay here if

24:56

Trump wins a second term. Um,

24:58

And you know that's it's if

25:01

things were that hard for her as

25:03

again, someone who had a

25:05

stable job, who owns a house,

25:08

um, who had gone through everything the

25:10

legal way. People who didn't have that option

25:12

because, for example, that area

25:15

they lived in Guatemala was rendered damn

25:17

near uninhabitable by climate change, and there was no

25:19

way for them to get a job, and so they had to come somewhere

25:21

where they could get food for their family. Um

25:24

it I imagine it's it seems

25:26

like everything in here will make them

25:28

deal with at least less bullshit, right, I

25:30

don't know, like what else you can really

25:33

hope for after the last four years,

25:35

that some very marginalized

25:38

and abused people will have less shipped

25:40

to deal with. Yeah,

25:42

and I mean, uh yes,

25:45

just less ship. I mean also reunifying

25:47

the families, the borders, A lot of stuff of

25:50

that's just like Biden's

25:52

instinct seems to be to reverse Trump,

25:55

reverse Trump. Um, and

25:58

a lot of that is going to mean a

26:00

kind of a reverse Biden too, um,

26:02

Like he's reflexively uh like

26:07

reversing trump stuff and reacting to that.

26:09

And you know a lot of Trump stuff is kind of an

26:11

extension of all presidencies.

26:14

Um. And so I think that's generally

26:17

a good sign to UM. And it's gonna

26:19

be it's gonna be fascinating to see,

26:21

UM how the conversation

26:24

changes on the right UM from

26:27

uh, well we

26:29

were fine with we're fine with immigrants as

26:31

long as you come here legally, UM, And

26:33

this plan is gives

26:36

that option. So but

26:38

they're gonna hate that. They got to change how they talk

26:40

about it, like, yeah, what it's okay,

26:42

It's sure, that's legal, but it shouldn't be legal. And

26:46

it's it's the kind of thing where there will be positives

26:48

and negatives of that, because the positive is

26:50

that they will have to be more open with

26:52

their racism. The negative is that they

26:54

will be more open with their racism. UM.

26:57

So you know, nothing's

26:59

ever as clear a positive

27:02

as we want. But I think the like,

27:04

what this means is that we'll

27:06

actually have someone in the

27:08

White House who is going to do the bare

27:10

minimum to fight for

27:13

things to be somewhat less shitty for a

27:15

group of people who have dealt with

27:17

too much shit in their lives. Already and that's a

27:19

good thing. Um. And it makes it

27:21

easier for everyone else to fight for them too,

27:23

because the administration is not actively

27:26

trying to murder these people, just

27:28

passively sometimes at least

27:30

people. Yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see how Biden's

27:33

foreign policy. We

27:35

we for sure will And obviously,

27:37

like the threat of you know, more

27:39

functional coups than we're enacted

27:42

during the Trump administration is the thing to be worried

27:44

about when we talk about refugees coming to the US.

27:47

You know, what happens with Biden and Venezuela,

27:49

What happens with Biden and Bolivia?

27:51

Yeah, what happens with Biden and Um,

27:54

I don't know, a bunch of places that all

27:56

over the damn world really, what happens

27:59

with Biden and Iran? Right, like, but I

28:01

mean, yea, even like Biden and like you know, there

28:03

is and for a lot more China

28:05

conflict, a lot more Russia conflict. Um,

28:08

as soon as you know, as soon as Trump's gone, it's

28:10

gonna be like, well now we can take

28:12

on Putin and then well what does that mean?

28:15

Um? Yeah, exactly. And it's the kind

28:17

of thing like right now, you've got some people in the Biden

28:19

administration calling what China is doing

28:21

to the weaker's, which is the Muslim population

28:23

that they've massively They've put huge

28:26

numbers of people of concentration camps, calling it a genocide,

28:29

which I don't think is necessarily unfair,

28:31

but I'm worried it's it's going to

28:33

presage some of the same Biden

28:36

style international sanctioning

28:38

that we've seen in the past, which isn't

28:41

an effective way to push political change

28:43

generally, and often, I mean almost

28:45

always just hurts poor people in

28:47

the countries that we sanction. Now, China

28:50

is more resistant to sanctions

28:52

than anywhere else we could sanction because they're

28:54

China. Um, it's not

28:56

like sanctioning Iraq, but it's

28:59

still I think there's a pretty good chance

29:01

I'm going to assume, unless proven

29:03

otherwise, that any actions we take there

29:05

are mainly just going to hurt poor people who have nothing

29:07

to do with the government's policies on the wakers, because

29:09

that's a pretty safe thing to assume about

29:11

that sort of usually how it goes, doesn't

29:13

it. Yeah, it's always like of

29:16

the time. Yeah,

29:20

And there's are already senators Democratic

29:23

senators talking about using

29:25

sanctions more aggressively. Yeah. Um

29:27

yeah, which yeah,

29:30

yeah, yeah to normal, back to

29:32

back to back to back to basics.

29:34

America's back. We're

29:38

back, and we're gonna build back, better,

29:41

build better, better back be

29:43

best building best said

29:47

it. I'm sorry I have to contribute

29:50

something. The refugee ship,

29:52

which I shouldn't call the refugee ship, but the positive

29:55

changes, Like we're currently at like

29:57

a historic low of the number of refugees

29:59

West will admit, which is like fifteen thousand this

30:01

year under Trump, um, which is about

30:03

as tightly as he could lock it down. And

30:05

I don't know how many are going to be let in under

30:08

Biden, but it seems like they're math

30:11

significantly loosening things. They're opening up processing

30:13

centers in other countries to allow people

30:16

who are at risk in countries outside

30:18

of the United States to go to processing

30:21

centers in order to get refugeevs

30:23

is and come in legally. Um

30:25

that's good, right,

30:28

that's good, it's good. Yeah,

30:30

Like we like helping, helping.

30:33

Yeah, I'm a big fan of

30:36

again things not being a shitty for refugees

30:38

because I've known a lot of them and it sucks to be

30:40

a refugee. Um.

30:43

Yeah, it's it's it's

30:45

a push. You're like, Okay, we'll help the

30:47

refugees, and next we'll be like, well, we won't help

30:49

create refugees, and then yeah, yeah,

30:51

I mean that's too much to hope for from Biden

30:55

again, back to the conversation of two minutes

30:57

ago. Yeah, but these

31:00

are positives. There are there are

31:02

a number of positives, you know, Um,

31:06

and so you know we got you know, we

31:08

got getting Congress. It's it's just like

31:12

using this to do all of these good

31:14

things and make sure they happen, and

31:17

do even more good things and use Congress

31:20

to do things to to show that things

31:22

can happen that are good, and then

31:24

maybe you get more seats in two

31:27

instead of losing them. I

31:31

still think unlikely. But but

31:33

we'll see, we'll see, we will see.

31:36

We will, won't we two more years?

31:40

Two more years? Um?

31:42

Yeah? Right

31:44

now, I mean, you know, there's a couple

31:47

of number one in terms of like when we

31:49

talk about what actually is going to happen day one, we

31:51

should note that because we've been chatting

31:53

about what Biden's promised to do on day one.

31:56

When Trump came into office, he promised

31:58

on day one that he was going to repeal and play Obamacare

32:01

and begin constructing the wall on the border of

32:03

Mexico, and neither of those things happened on

32:05

day one. To Katie's tweet,

32:07

he did not up. He

32:09

didn't lock her never locked her up.

32:12

Yeah, I think that's really important to keep

32:14

him.

32:16

We sort of have a majority.

32:20

Yeah, it's it's better than

32:24

independence. Um

32:26

and yeah.

32:29

And it's just a

32:31

reminder to keep expectations.

32:35

You know, there's this well,

32:37

I guess anybody listening to this show probably

32:39

doesn't have the highest of expectations. It's medically

32:42

impossible for my expectations. I

32:45

don't know. I just see it so much on social media

32:47

now, people being excited, and I always feel like the

32:49

buzz kill. It's like, well, guys,

32:52

like, no,

32:54

don't be excited about anything in politics

32:57

ever, don't ever ever, no matter

32:59

who, no, Like, whatever

33:01

good happens. And I do think a number of things

33:03

that are positive and wouldn't have happened under Trump

33:06

will happen, and things will be easier

33:08

for a lot of marginalized people than they would

33:10

have been with another four years of Trump. That said,

33:13

everything good that happens will be less

33:15

good than it sounded before on paper, before

33:17

it actually got rammed through, you know, the

33:19

government, and we it will.

33:22

It will be four years of compromises and frustration

33:24

more than anything else if you're somebody who actually

33:27

cares about the reality of what's happening, as opposed

33:29

to the first article that gets dropped about what they planned

33:31

to do before they actually can suxist succeed

33:33

in slamming it through. Yeah. I always

33:35

remember that the government's bad. It's

33:37

bad. It's a bad system. But

33:40

they're not on your side. They're not on

33:42

your side. Most of them don't care about you,

33:45

and the ones that do care about you are more

33:47

often incompetent than they are able

33:49

to capably. Yeah.

33:53

Yeah, the good ones are very bad. Yeah,

33:56

and the bad ones are very good

33:58

at being bad. And that's

34:00

why our systems perfect. Yeah.

34:03

I started with good, good

34:05

intentions, but don't

34:07

stick around the world. And then there's

34:10

ah, yeah, then there's the actual fascists.

34:12

Yeah right, these

34:15

weird evil dorks. That's

34:21

a I think, um, a

34:23

possible positive about all

34:25

these uh do dweeps. Um.

34:28

Trump had decades and decades

34:30

of publicity

34:33

and uh quote unquote

34:35

charm. He's an entertainer, he's

34:37

good at getting attention doing these things and building

34:40

up his brand. Um, and he's entertaining

34:42

to watch. He's you know, all the

34:44

things we know about him. Um.

34:46

Holly and Crews are two of the people who are really

34:48

clearly trying to like Harness the populism

34:51

the right the quote right wing populism.

34:53

Um, and Holly's boring,

34:56

dweep. I

34:58

still don't know what he sounds like. Um.

35:01

And Ted Cruz has been for

35:03

a couple of years really trying to do like

35:05

the Trump Twitter thing, like I'm I'm

35:08

the culture warrior on Twitter and

35:10

I'm owning the Libs. He's

35:12

really bad at it. Um. And nobody

35:14

likes him, even the people who have to pretend,

35:17

Yeah, it's not going to work for them.

35:21

Being the least fusible man in America. I

35:23

was gonna say, yeah,

35:27

I mean, it's one of those like I

35:29

don't think, because I think everyone

35:31

who has been paying attention is looking for

35:34

the next authoritarian who tries

35:36

to take power in this country. You know, the

35:38

guy who, if we're unlucky,

35:41

will be smarter and better at inspiring

35:43

personal loyalty than Donald Trump, who

35:46

was bad at that for the record,

35:48

Um, too good, but still not

35:50

great at it. And I

35:53

don't think Holly or Cruise are

35:55

Gates as someone met Gates as someone who worries

35:57

me. But I don't think it's him either. I don't think we've seen

35:59

that person yet, at least not in a way that it's

36:01

it's obvious whom.

36:05

Yeah. I don't think Crenshaw has got

36:08

the actual charisma, nor

36:10

nor do I think he's evil enough. Um,

36:13

I think, yeah, he's shrewd. He's shrewd.

36:15

He's been able to sort of he's not an idiot.

36:17

Yeah, Yeah, he's been able

36:19

to sort of weirdly navigate the

36:22

past couple of years, Um, to not come

36:24

out like a Holly or

36:26

a Cruise. Yeah. Yeah,

36:29

Tucker, I don't know if he's interested in

36:31

that. The other argument against

36:33

that worries me. Tucker worries

36:35

me too, But um he At

36:40

the beginning of Donald Trump's

36:42

political career, there

36:44

is at least some portion of people

36:47

on the left who did

36:49

not view him as

36:52

as or left. Greenwald loves

36:54

him, view him. I don't know what I'm called.

36:56

Yeah, but

37:00

after especially after these four years, Nope,

37:04

you are either and you either love

37:06

Tucker Carlson or you really really hate him.

37:08

I don't know that they're swinging of people in

37:10

the middle, you know what I mean? Maybe?

37:12

Yeah, I think he plays the next

37:15

now. He approached it because he has like he

37:17

is effect quote unquote effective

37:20

um and aware of

37:22

the necessity to co opt

37:25

left wing sort of populist rhetoric

37:28

and concepts and package them in a

37:30

xenophobic right wing context

37:33

and try to sell that to people. And I have seen

37:35

people sort of react to that positively,

37:38

um in certain occasions, like Wow, I can't

37:40

believe I agree with Tucker Carlson and that kind of stuff.

37:43

And I think it's just important to keep reminding people that

37:45

he is a liar, he's full of shit, he's

37:47

doing it on purpose. M

37:50

Yeah. I also don't know if he's necessarily even interested in

37:52

that, although he A report

37:55

from like earlier today is that

37:57

he met with George W. Bush

38:00

in uh Gasparilla

38:02

Island, Florida. So, oh

38:06

god, I do think that. I

38:09

do. I do worry about it. I worry about

38:11

the next one and what

38:14

kind of like if the if the Republican

38:17

Party wants to win the next presidential

38:19

election, who are they going to

38:21

rally behind? They

38:26

need all these people that Trump that support

38:28

Trumps. They need it, so they

38:30

can't allow a split to me if they're going

38:33

to have power again. So what

38:35

what do you do? You you have to embrace

38:37

them or not, you

38:39

know, right, And like you look at polls of like who

38:42

do you want to run for president Republicans and it's just

38:44

like Trump Trump

38:47

Junior. It's Ivanka. Um

38:52

really really really download on that list. Um,

38:55

we've got to take a quick break. But this is an

38:57

interesting place to pick up because I want

38:59

to talk about um, yeah, and

39:02

I want to talk about what kind of come Josh Holly

39:04

has. Yeah, that's a really important thing to really

39:06

get. And as as a spoiler, I'm

39:08

just gonna eat one word spoiler. Really

39:12

atrocious side part hairstyle

39:14

when yeah, I mean that all factors into

39:16

my one word spoiler, which is spiders.

39:21

All right, there's some mad together

39:30

everything. So don't and

39:34

we're back, as promised from those

39:36

ads. I love keeping promises

39:39

promises kept. We

39:42

did keep the promise of being

39:44

the worst year ever so far, so

39:46

far, I think we're gonna make worse.

39:49

I've got my fingers cross guys that.

39:52

Um oh yeah, I only

39:54

promised the truth. I Robert

39:57

has more stuff to dig into,

40:00

but real quick, I just wanted

40:02

to pick up a ree left off on that conversation because

40:04

it's it's interesting as

40:07

as of today, Mitch McConnell

40:10

is saying that Donald Trump

40:13

did and Congress members of Congress

40:16

did uh urge people

40:19

to riot basically, Um,

40:21

I don't know exact quote. He has come

40:23

that and and he has signaled

40:26

that he would vote guilty

40:28

uh in in proceedings. Uh

40:30

And this isn't an attempt to distance

40:33

themselves from Donald Trump. And I just

40:35

think that that's a really interesting given the

40:37

reality of the situation for them in their party.

40:40

You know, Mitch

40:43

McConnell has clearly always hated

40:45

Donald Trump, yeah, and

40:47

didn't want to deal with the bullshit that he's had

40:49

to deal with because Donald Mitch McConnell

40:52

is a very very

40:54

simple and by the books kind

40:56

of authoritarian who wants to do his destroying

40:59

of people's lives quietly in a room with pens

41:02

um and paper, and Donald Trump

41:04

likes to shout it and which McConnell

41:06

thinks that's ghosh, And uh

41:09

so I think he's he sees now

41:11

that he's taking he is taking a bit of a gamble

41:13

which is more than I because he's not a huge

41:16

gambler, Mitch. Um, because he

41:18

is gambling that it's the right thing to do

41:20

for the future of his ability to

41:22

wield power in the Republican Party's ability

41:25

to wield power to push against

41:27

Trump and the kind of what all

41:29

I guess we could call the Q and on right, you

41:31

know, within the Republican Party. Um,

41:33

he's it seems like this is him saying that, like,

41:36

we have to actually push back against these people

41:38

because they're damaging to our ability to hold

41:40

power. Which he might be right on. Um, he

41:42

might be wrong on I don't I don't know yet, but it is

41:44

interesting that he made that calculation. Yeah, yeah,

41:47

and like up to this point to like it's

41:50

that you know, he's been able to do it for four years,

41:52

like collaborate and you allow,

41:54

and then when it's time to go, you're

41:57

like, oh waituh too far.

42:00

He also made it very clear, well it's

42:02

pretty even in the Senate, we have a very

42:04

clear mandate that we need

42:07

to compromise. Um.

42:10

I just wanted to throw this out. Also, I

42:12

just keep thinking about again today he called

42:14

Donald Trump called uh the China

42:17

virus. Mitch McConnell. Fucking's

42:20

his wife is Taiwanese, which is

42:22

not Chinese from

42:25

you know, but still the racist, the

42:28

racist rhetorics are outing this president,

42:31

uh and and him and just all

42:33

these four years just swallowing

42:35

it, you know. Yeah, yeah,

42:37

yeah, I mean that's you know, yeah, that's

42:39

what it is. You like at

42:43

Yeah, he swallowed it so that he could spit

42:45

out bauts um.

42:49

You know, this

42:51

isn't some hard hitting point, but I just

42:53

keep everything I've just been thinking about that,

42:57

yeah, And I mean it's it's a lot of people,

43:00

you know, Ted Cruz went

43:02

to bat for years for the guy who accused

43:04

his dad of murdering the president and called

43:07

his wife ugly continues

43:10

He's ruined his career. They're

43:12

spineless wretches. Um

43:15

Like there, nobody has ever liked Ted

43:17

Cruz, and I include his wife and children.

43:20

That yeah, the most before yeah,

43:22

the most unlikable. Uh.

43:25

Everyone hates him. Who wasn't Everyone

43:27

who agrees with him and works with him

43:29

despises him. Even the people that vote

43:31

for him hate him. I forget who it was, but it was

43:34

a Republican congress person who said, like, I like

43:36

Ted Cruise more than all of my colleagues,

43:38

and I fucking hate Ted Cruz. And

43:42

another his former roommate who has been

43:44

in college who has been like a ceaseless

43:46

critic of Cruiz. Um. My other

43:48

favorite Cruise quote was like, if I the

43:50

fact that he believes abhorrent things is bad,

43:52

sure, but if Ted Cruz believed

43:54

every single thing that I believed, I would only

43:57

hate him one percent less. That's how odious

43:59

he is, just as in his personality.

44:01

That's it was. Lindsey Graham said,

44:04

yeah, it was. If you killed Ted Cruise

44:06

on the floor of the Senate and the trial was in the Senate and

44:08

nobody would convict you. It's amazing

44:11

how everyone hates him everyone.

44:17

If his wife was the president and he

44:20

was murdered on the Senate, I think she would

44:22

vote to pardon the killers. And

44:27

look, that would be a bipartisan pardon. I wouldn't

44:30

complain, but it is something we can all come together

44:32

on. Let's start yeah

44:36

and healing by slamming Ted Cruz.

44:41

Jesus, what trash

44:43

person um, beautiful

44:45

man. There's some other in terms of other good

44:48

stuff that Joe bide. The

44:50

Joe abides is gonna gonna throw

44:52

end he's promised

44:54

to repeal or he's promised to fight because he can't

44:56

do and like, obviously it would be an act of Congress

44:58

to repeal the two seven teen tax cuts,

45:01

which unfairly favor the

45:03

wealthy UM, and it would be good

45:05

if that could be reversed and we

45:07

could take more money from the very wealthy

45:10

UM and put it in into projects

45:12

that helped the very not wealthy. Although

45:15

this being America, most of that money will

45:17

be funded back into the police of the military,

45:19

so you know, pyrate victory, but

45:21

still I broadly support

45:23

it. Uh. In terms of the he's also promised

45:26

to um alter or push to

45:28

alter the Violence Against Women Act to offer

45:30

more protections for transgender women in particular,

45:33

UM, which is great. UH. He wants to

45:36

push to pass the Equality Act, which to add

45:38

more protections for LGBT people in general. He's

45:40

made a number of statements specifically

45:42

about trans rights, including repealing the

45:44

trans military ban enacted by Trump

45:46

UM, which you know, depending on how you feel about the military,

45:49

is a mixed bag. But he's also UM agreed

45:51

to restore Obama era guidance

45:54

for transgender students in schools, which

45:56

will protect students access to sports bathrooms

45:58

and locker rooms. UM, you know,

46:00

to use those in accordance with their gender identity, which

46:03

is very good. Um. Again,

46:06

something that will make life a

46:08

bit less shitty for very marginalized

46:10

people. Um. And also he

46:14

has chosen Rachel Levine,

46:17

a trans woman, Dr. Rachel Levine,

46:19

uh, to serve as

46:22

an Assistant Secretary for Health at the U s

46:24

Department of Health and Human Services, which

46:26

is a really that's

46:29

great. That's the first first known trans

46:31

person. Um. Yeah,

46:33

yeah, and it's um it's nice to uh,

46:37

you know, be able to pair that with actual

46:39

policy. Yeah, it's not

46:41

it's not like the lip service representation

46:44

UM one might see sometimes.

46:46

It's like, no, we're doing this and we're also like

46:49

actually actively doing things

46:51

that will help every day people.

46:54

UM. Yeah,

46:56

it's good. It's it's

46:59

really good. Um

47:02

that things are Yeah, those

47:04

are things that are are positive. You know. I

47:06

I just I don't even I don't have any

47:08

notes on that, assuming he actually he actually

47:11

goes through that. Just like it's good that um.

47:13

Um we have our first Indigenous

47:16

Secretary of the Interior who will hopefully understand

47:18

some of the issues faced by those people and

47:21

some of the traditional biases

47:23

that are system has against

47:25

their sovereignty um and

47:27

and that things will maybe move in a positive direction

47:29

there as well, fingers crossed. We'll see.

47:32

UM. I do want to

47:34

talk about guns a little bit, UM,

47:36

because Biden has one of the things I am happy about.

47:38

I was worried, and we've talked about this a bit that

47:41

we were going to see the dims because

47:43

Biden had talked about this a few times, making a

47:45

major initial push for gun control and

47:48

throwing in some hard like an attempt

47:50

to make a an assault weapons ban um

47:53

in his first you know, hundred days, which I think

47:56

would be a bad move, regardless of your opinion

47:58

on assault weapons UM. Banning them

48:00

as not nearly cannot possibly,

48:02

if you're a reasonable person, be argued

48:04

to be in the same level of urgency

48:07

as action on climate change UM,

48:10

or as action on COVID nineteen

48:12

relief, or as I think

48:14

action on immigration to be honest, um.

48:17

And it seems broadly speaking,

48:19

like he's not going to be focusing on throwing

48:22

anything huge through Congress on guns before

48:24

he makes that stuff happen,

48:26

which is good because you have a limited amount of

48:28

political capital in your hundred days and a limited

48:30

number of things that you can do. UM. In

48:33

terms of what he has talked about doing in his first huntry

48:35

days, one of them is um reducing

48:37

what a lot of people on the liberals

48:39

will call loopholes in the gun background check system.

48:41

There are some loopholes. Um. There was a shooter

48:44

in Aurora a year or two ago who like

48:47

wasn't allowed to own a gun, and the

48:49

cops just like sent him a letter asking him to turn

48:51

it in and then he went on a shooting spree and killed like five

48:53

people. Um letter. Yeah,

48:56

they sent him a letter being like, Hey, you bought a gun

48:58

in your a felon or I think you have a history

49:00

of domestic beach. You're not allowed to have the gun that we know you

49:02

bought, that we let you buy because we didn't notice

49:04

it in time. Please give it back. Who

49:07

opens their mail, let alone mail? Um,

49:12

So like that sort of stuff. Absolutely, like

49:14

there there and and there have been a number of

49:17

other cases of shooters of people who have

49:19

have had access to firearms who buy the letter

49:21

of the law shouldn't have because the system

49:23

of background is really fucked up. And I'm very supportive

49:25

of fixing that. I will state that sometimes

49:27

When people talk about loopholes, they talk about like the guns

49:30

show loophole, which is not a thing. Um.

49:32

Certain states allow what are called um

49:35

um personal sales

49:37

um to happen. So if you're not a gun dealer, if

49:40

you sell less than things like five thousand dollars worth of

49:42

guns a year, you can make personal transfers

49:44

without a background check. And the laws are

49:46

at least initially were supposed to be in place

49:48

so that people could like give guns to their kids or

49:50

family members or whatever, or as gifts

49:52

without having to deal with the complex legal process.

49:55

Um, they have been massively in a lot

49:57

of cases um uh used

50:00

by people in order to facilitate criminal

50:02

transfer a firearms or transfer firearms to cartel's

50:05

UM. So like again, I think that

50:07

is something that should be looked at. Is but but it's not

50:10

a loophole. It's explicitly the law in a number

50:12

of states like Texas allows you to transfer guns

50:14

that way. UM. And I don't know, like it's

50:16

the kind of thing where if there were to be a national law to

50:18

band that, no one really knows how the Supreme

50:21

Court would land on it. UM.

50:23

I push against calling it a loophole, but I'm

50:25

not against changing those laws so that

50:27

everyone has to pass a background checked by a gun

50:29

for sure. Um. One thing I

50:32

am less certain about, and

50:34

and in fact pretty critical of, is um

50:36

Biden wanting to repeal liability

50:38

protection for gun manufacturers, which would allow

50:40

Americans to sue the firearms industry if a gun

50:43

is used in a crime. Um. Which

50:45

seems odd to me because you can't sue the people

50:47

making alcohol or cars if you

50:49

know there's a drunk driving incident.

50:51

I think maybe, I think there's some room to talk

50:54

about when companies have specifically

50:56

been pushing ads that because

50:58

there have been gun companies that have pushed ads that are

51:01

on the edge of urging violence or on the

51:03

Yeah, and I do think there's

51:06

that, Absolutely is a conversation that should

51:08

be had, And there's some room to talk about what

51:10

kind of advertising you're allowed to advertising.

51:16

Yeah, that's

51:18

that's a really slippery slope.

51:21

Otherwise, and there are

51:23

and when we talk about tobacco versus the gun

51:25

industry, there are some similarities that should be discussed,

51:28

one of them being that the gun industry has consistently

51:30

lobbied to make it harder and in some cases

51:33

impossible to study the problems

51:35

of of gun violence and study

51:37

how certain laws might affect and

51:39

reduce gun violence. UM, and

51:42

that there is there is very fair reason to

51:44

be critical and to say that something not

51:46

wildly dissimilar to what was done to

51:49

the tobacco industry, there should be some changes

51:51

made to how the gun industry

51:54

is allowed to operate. UM,

51:56

because they have done a lot of really shady

51:58

shit. Um. The thing that most

52:00

comes to mind, and and and and I'm saying

52:02

a lot of shady ship, not just in terms

52:04

of like inciting violence, but shady

52:06

ship that has specifically harmed gun

52:09

uh gun users. UM. I can think about

52:11

the company Taurus. One of the reasons I always advise

52:13

people against buying a tourist firearm

52:15

is that for years tourists

52:17

made put something like a million guns

52:19

onto the US market that had safeties

52:22

that didn't work, and in a lot of cases, people's

52:24

guns would fire without them while

52:26

the safeties were engaged, and people died

52:29

because their weapons fired when they should not have.

52:32

And they never had to issue a recall

52:34

because of laws that the gun industry

52:36

is lobbied for. And so I'm not saying there

52:39

needs to be significant change. I

52:41

don't think allowing people to suit a

52:43

gun company because you know, they get the

52:46

loved one get shot with a smith and Smith and Wesson

52:48

is necessarily the right call, but

52:50

absolutely changes need to be made. It seems

52:52

like a good time to just

52:55

mention that the n r A did file

52:57

for bankruptcy and

52:59

then a few days ago. Yeah,

53:01

it does seem like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

53:04

No, I mean it seems

53:06

like it seems like a general like

53:08

you know, sometimes it's just like, yeah, we'll file

53:11

for bankruptcy, like that's a good business decision

53:13

for us, and then they'll be fine. Um,

53:16

but we will see I'm

53:18

just getting out there when we're

53:20

talking, you're talking about the you know,

53:22

gun industry and and and you

53:25

know, yeah,

53:28

I can't think of many organizations that

53:30

have done more harm to the cause of um

53:33

gun rights than the n r A. To be honest,

53:36

Um, the worst idea

53:38

they ever had was turning ownership

53:40

of firearms, which is as protected as

53:42

your right to free speech, into a culture war

53:45

issue between left and right. Um

53:48

bastards on the n r A. Not yet.

53:50

There's a very good there's a whole season

53:53

of the wonderful podcast Gangster Capitalism

53:55

that does that gives a very very fair and talks

53:58

to a lot of reformers within the inn

54:00

r A and and people who have left because of

54:02

their frustrations and rage at the

54:05

rampant and unbelievable

54:07

corruption within that organization. UM,

54:10

in addition to just like the way in which they

54:12

have incited the culture war, UM

54:15

and I recommend listening to that season of Gangster

54:17

Capitalism if you want to really understand just how

54:19

hard, how comprehensively bad off an

54:21

organization the n r A has become, UM.

54:25

And they didn't always used to be. They used to just be like, we

54:27

think Americans should know how to

54:29

shoot accurately and safely, and that's

54:31

all we're about. UM changed

54:33

in the sixties with the similar rights movement,

54:36

right, not just that. You know, we talked

54:38

about in our two parter on

54:40

the Border Patrol, and we talked about how

54:42

the first head of the Border Patrol that militarized

54:45

the border patrol was a dude who murdered

54:48

um, a Mexican immigrant

54:50

when he was like a teenager, and did several

54:52

years in prison and then join and became the head of the Border

54:55

Patrol and militarized it. He was also

54:57

the first head of the n r A that started pushing

54:59

it towards being an engine of the culture

55:01

war because he was a fascist. Yeah.

55:07

For more, check out the song Raymond

55:09

Cassiano by the Drive By Truckers.

55:11

Gives a pretty good overview of some things. But yeah,

55:14

I don't know, I think that, Uh,

55:17

I'm interested in what Biden is

55:19

actually going to do on guns because it just based

55:22

on the way Congress is now, at least for the next

55:24

two years, unless they get a supermajority in two

55:27

I think it's unlikely that they're going to

55:29

get the kind of assault weapons band that he talked about

55:31

on the campaign trail. He has a lot of power

55:33

to use things like to change the way the a t f

55:36

UM goes after gun violations,

55:38

and like there are certain things like pistol uh

55:41

like like like like

55:43

the gun that I have right here, which

55:45

is legally a pistol um. Yeah,

55:49

that's that's a handgun legally because this thing

55:51

on the back is not a stock, it's a brace. And

55:54

the a t f could just choose

55:56

to make this illegal without being

55:59

registered as a short barreld rifle. And I'm

56:01

not necessarily I don't think there's I actually has seen no

56:03

reason for short barreld rifles to be regulated

56:05

more than long ones. They're not any more dangerous.

56:08

Um from a perspective of violent crime.

56:10

Uh, it's really just a hold over from the gangster era.

56:13

But that is the kind of thing that Biden could change

56:15

and order the a t F to start altering

56:17

the way that they cracked down on without

56:19

needing any sort of congressional approval. So I

56:21

I see when I think about gun action

56:24

under Biden, I think more of it, at

56:26

least initially, is going to take the form of the stuff

56:28

he doesn't need to get through Congress,

56:30

or stuff like fixing background check problems

56:33

that you could get I think passed

56:35

through Congress.

56:38

Yeah, most every even most gun

56:40

owners want that. Yeah, it's

56:42

probably a good

56:44

strategic way to approach this

56:47

if that's how it turns out. But he does.

56:50

Yeah. There's also I feel

56:52

like even like I feel like Betto

56:55

kind of scared uh damns

56:57

in general about guns. Um

57:00

like his utter failure. Yeah, you

57:02

shouldn't. You shouldn't go hard against guns

57:04

and Texas because every liberal and leftist

57:06

in Texas I know is strapped as hell exactly.

57:09

Um, And uh, you know, uh,

57:12

fewer mass shootings during a pandemic. Um.

57:16

So I don't know, yeah yeah, and

57:19

and a lot more millions of new

57:21

gun owners um. Which there

57:23

was just a gallop pole out that showed that support

57:26

for significant gun control

57:28

measures like an assault weapons ban is actually the lowest

57:30

it's been since sixteen, and even five

57:33

percent lower among Democrats. Um.

57:35

Because a lot of people in this last year suddenly

57:37

thought for the first time about, oh, maybe I need a

57:39

gun, um. Yeah. And

57:42

that has included people in places like California

57:44

who are like, oh, actually it's harder than I thought to buy

57:46

one legal. Yeah.

57:49

Yeah. A lot of people are getting mad that it takes

57:51

so long. It's like, well, that's isn't that good?

57:54

It's good? Right, Yeah,

57:57

we're on the same page about that. No, I

57:59

mean I I It's like, maybe maybe we should think

58:01

about the fact that it is frustrating that all of

58:03

these heavily armed fascists

58:05

and quasi fascists and neo fascists

58:08

have arsenals and it's very difficult

58:10

for everyone else to catch up now that they

58:12

realize the danger is here. And perhaps

58:14

that is something that should be thought about when

58:16

we think about gun control. Yeah.

58:20

Um. Anyway,

58:22

anyway, that's all I want to say about guns. Um,

58:25

we should move on today

58:28

today, Well, it's about time

58:31

for us to wrap the show up.

58:33

Um. Today, when

58:35

this drops will be the inauguration.

58:39

We are hoping it goes smoothly.

58:42

Um. I just read earlier

58:45

today, we read that to National Guards

58:47

soldiers assigned to

58:50

Washington, d C. For the inauguration

58:52

had been removed over um, you know,

58:54

inappropriate posts and texts

58:58

about the event. Um uh.

59:00

And I guess now I'm just seeing a line that the

59:02

APES reported that twelve

59:05

troops now have been removed

59:08

or flagged by way of a tip line. I'm

59:12

all of them, got all of them on the

59:14

twenty five thousand. Yeah,

59:19

yeah, if good

59:22

luck tomorrow or today when you're listening,

59:24

hopefully all all of it has

59:26

gone well. If

59:29

not, we'll probably be recording an emergency

59:31

episode. But

59:34

I'm not even you know what I ristened,

59:36

what I just said, I'm not even putting that out there. Yeah,

59:39

it's a it was a positive episode

59:42

today. It was a positive

59:44

episode, and I am positive that

59:47

we will never have a problem with white nationalism

59:49

in the military or in the ranks of our police again.

59:52

The only twenty eight cops and I don't know several

59:54

dozen service people, uh, with

59:56

those leanings were all at the Capitol, and they're all

59:58

going to go to jail. And there's no one else left in the

1:00:00

country in those positions who holds

1:00:02

those beliefs. Yeah,

1:00:06

mission accomplished. Give

1:00:09

me a banner in an aircraft carrier. Put me on

1:00:11

the gerald for the aircraft carrier that doesn't

1:00:13

Let's do it. Yeah,

1:00:16

uh oh

1:00:20

yeah, let's We're gonna quickly. You

1:00:22

know this is unrelated to Joseph

1:00:24

Robin and Biden Jr. J RB or

1:00:27

Donald Jnald Trump.

1:00:32

Uh, TESLA is looking for

1:00:34

a new position. Um, I'm gonna read

1:00:36

the whole thing. Tesla

1:00:40

Energy Support specialists handle a variety of

1:00:42

customer issues while delivering on world class

1:00:44

customer service. The role of a specialist

1:00:46

is to resolve or escalate complaints

1:00:49

through appropriate channels and address

1:00:52

social media escalations directed

1:00:54

at the CEO with critical thinking.

1:01:00

He's hiring someone to deal with his trolls

1:01:02

on Twitter, protect me from people posting.

1:01:06

Just do what I did. I just altered

1:01:08

my notifications that I only get notifications

1:01:11

when people I follow respond to me, and my

1:01:13

life is back. Absolutely.

1:01:19

Yeah. That nobody should be on

1:01:21

then I know when um,

1:01:24

my friends don't like my tweet though it

1:01:28

really stands out. But

1:01:31

Ellen can't do that. I do. There

1:01:34

was a great tweet recently. There was someone posting it,

1:01:36

like in the mid two thousand's on Tumblr. Uh.

1:01:39

Whenever like a meme had reached a

1:01:41

certain level of penetration, Denny's would

1:01:43

repurpose it and then we would know that the meme was

1:01:45

dead. And we all hated Denny's, but they played

1:01:47

a critical role in our in our meme

1:01:49

ecosystem, and now on Twitter,

1:01:51

the same role is performed by the wealthiest

1:01:53

man in human history, the

1:01:58

new Denny's, the new Daies.

1:02:02

Um. Oh man, there's one

1:02:05

last beautiful thing that I just found on

1:02:07

the website none of us should use. Well,

1:02:09

it's actually just cuts from a scene in politics article.

1:02:11

But several Republican lawmakers

1:02:13

who are alleged to have been involved in the rally that preceded

1:02:16

the deadly riot on the US capital have sought clemency

1:02:18

from Trump before he leaves office. But after

1:02:20

all that with his legal advisors for several hours

1:02:22

on Saturday at the President decided he would not grant

1:02:25

them. According to to people who plans

1:02:28

people. Yeah, we're

1:02:32

waiting for the pardons list today.

1:02:35

There will be fingers crossed. Joe Exotic

1:02:37

is on there um for

1:02:40

Joe Exotic. When I was looking at Yehs

1:02:43

earlier, it seems good. I would like him

1:02:45

to get one more shot. At Carol Baskins Um

1:02:49

those Republican lawmakers who asked, ye would

1:02:52

it seems like he's not going to be pardoning

1:02:54

himself because he wasn't told

1:02:57

that after the riot. It would make

1:02:59

him look guilty, So we'll

1:03:01

see. Yeah, that's the funniest

1:03:03

part of it. Really shot himself

1:03:05

in the foot there, didn't he he was. He's

1:03:08

clearly only doing it because it might lead

1:03:10

to him getting charged for inciting

1:03:12

and insurrection, which is the funniest.

1:03:15

Like he's so on brand with all

1:03:17

this ship with just like he ends

1:03:19

office not just with hundreds of thousands dead

1:03:21

and with the national economy and

1:03:24

civil society and tatters, but also the people

1:03:26

who believed in him the most and we're most willing

1:03:28

to go to bat with him, are now while staring at

1:03:30

decades in federal prison, and he's just abandoning

1:03:33

them. So funny, perfect.

1:03:35

On the very end, he's living art

1:03:37

it's amazing. Yeah,

1:03:40

alright, guys, I think that's it for us

1:03:43

today. You can check out

1:03:45

our pod. Yes, she

1:03:47

just yes, that's thank

1:03:50

you, Sylvie. I couldn't agree with you more. Follow us

1:03:52

on worsh at Worst your part. That's

1:03:55

that's what this is and that's who we are.

1:03:57

Hard to say worsh your pod, we're

1:04:00

sheer part. It's very great,

1:04:04

Pie. I would

1:04:06

let's do a whole pod dedicated to Worcester

1:04:08

Shire sauce, mainly dedicated to figuring

1:04:11

out how we're supposed to say it and what the funk

1:04:13

you're supposed to put it on? Shot,

1:04:16

Sophie, Let's get a pitch out. Let's get

1:04:18

a pitch out to corporate. This is all we're doing

1:04:20

now, we're now this is our last politics

1:04:22

episode. Everything from here on is

1:04:25

Worcester Wooster

1:04:29

Posters.

1:04:31

All right, we're the Worsters podcast

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now right, Everything

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So

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Worstyer Ever is a production of I Heart Radio.

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For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit

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the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.