Chapo Trap House - 850 - Enter the Battle Box feat. Kath Krueger & Mina Parkison (7/15/24)

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT AND THEY SHOT AT ME! Kath joins us today to review a somewhat eventful week, from Trump’s shooting and the various reactions to it, to more extremely statesmanlike appearances from Joe Biden, to ol’ JD from the holler makin’ it all the way to vice presidential nominee, we’ve got a lot to go over. PLUS, we’re joined for a bonus interview by Middle Tennessee DSA’s Mina Parkinson to hear about their project abolishing medical debt through QUILT, as well as the right-wing Daily Wire led assault on sexual education and books in general in the Volunteer State. AND: Live show at the DNC with True Anon. Park West Chicago, August 21st. Tickets on sale TODAY, JULY 16th, at 10am CST. This link should go live then, get your tickets asap! https://www.axs.com/events/629724/chapo-x-trueanon-live-at-the-dnc-tickets NEW MERCH SHOP UP AT: www.chapotraphous.store All links for QUILT projects, DONATE NOW: Campaign Page: quilt-tn.com/debt QUILT Website: quilt-tn.com QUILT Instagram: @quilt_tn DSA Middle TN Instagram: @MidTN DSA Follow Mina @getinthedevice

All I'm gonna make is hip chompin' All I'm gonna make is hip chompin' We are in. Okay. So, you know, it's one of the most historic days in history. You know, as I always say, it's times like this where you wish you were a calendar. You do always say that. Yeah, I've always said that. But, you know, a lot of people were

looking to us. This is one of the greatest in terms of scale, not the best thing to ever happen. But like one of the biggest historical events ever. You saw all the journalists who were saying things like, wow, talk about days that are going to be recorded. And you were looking to us, you know, going, well, it's the biggest event of the year.

Where's the greatest joke of the year? And we wanted to save it for the show. We've been in the lab for several days, working on a joke, working on the perfect topical joke about Trump shooting. Um, and I'm, I think I'm ready to present it. Let's hear it. Okay. So, um, if for the start of this joke, I'm Obama for the first part.

I'm Obama. I'm first part, I'm Obama. I'm going to divide the country. And then for the second part of the joke, I'm the guy who shot Trump in the joke, not my personal life. Hold my beer. That's what he says to Obama saying I'm going to divide the country. And there, there it is. Feel free to use that at your office, your place of work if you're a little color worker.

Your AA meeting. You're not that, no. Keep that away from there. If you're a prisoner, use this on the yard. Use it on Grindr, use it on Raya, use it wherever. Just enjoy, because we worked really hard on it. And we hope you like it. Well, folks, it's Monday, July 15th.

Will Medica here. I'm back in the stew. I'm back out on the West Coast. And to follow up on Felix, this is a time that we couldn't be more thrilled to do the show. It's just like Newsweek magazine. They're living up to the name. This was a week of news. Yeah, they they may as well call themselves like NewsHour because that's how often it's happening. I mean, like I just want to say, like, I don't know.

I don't know if you've been following on Twitter, but Amber Rallo, Matt's wife, has, you know, updated everyone on their. Matt had a little bit of a hiccup yesterday, but I just want to assure all our listeners, he was not seriously lingered at the battle box. Yeah. Former Chrisman not seriously lingered. Former Chrisman. But yeah, he'll be back to the battle box shortly.

And I would like to say, and talk about best jokes about Trump shooting. Matt got off the best post about Trump getting shot from the hospital. Yeah, no, it was really good. And I said, there are people who had great days, no hospital visits at all. They didn't even have to put on a bandaid.

That's how good their day was. And all they could come up with was, oh, he's doing Gangnam Style. Like, oh, I know what I'm going to be talking about in my better health session. Just bullshit, no one had it. Damn, think about all of the Halloween costumes that are, actually, that's a free one.

Shriek some ketchup on your face. Which for most of your listeners, they've already got it there. They just need to find a suit second hand. I welcome you today's guest, Catherine Krieger. Hello. Hello. Nepotism girlfriend. Yes, I read the subreddit. Shut the fuck up. You're still a subreddit? No. Don't look for it. I was laughing all last night about getting accidentally shot by the Secret Service at a Trump rally. And you wake up on, you cross the river, and you wake up on the, you've rode ahead to the other side, you wake up, and then there's just a sea of McDoubles. I mean like what is heaven supposed to look like? If it's Burger King, I'm saying let me do the other place. And a smiling shrub just welcoming you to Valhalla.

And I also, I really, the other guy, not the shooter, the other guy who was killed after the shooting, his last reply on Twitter was to Cat Turd. Well, has Cat Turd said anything? I feel like Cat Turd should put out a statement being like, this is the last thing that crossed this guy's mind was I hope Cat Turd said anything? I feel like Cat Turd should put out a statement being like, the last thing that crossed this guy's mind was I hope Cat Turd 2 responds. And I saw just yesterday, someone shared this, someone replied to his reply to Cat Turd saying, you are a legend, sir, following.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Man, now I'm thinking about like how many followers I would get if I died tomorrow. That almost makes it worth it.

Well, I don't know. There's some initial reactions to it. Wow. There's too much to talk about. I mean, we're going to get to Biden's best week ever, but culminating with probably the best thing that's ever happened to Donald Trump. But Catherine and I were in a car driving up Mulholland Drive on the way to a wedding yesterday. Shout out Paul and Lauren when we got the news that someone took a shot at Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania.

Wow. What can you say? I mean my initial reaction was how are you gonna be from Western Wow, what can you say? I mean my initial reaction was how are you gonna be from Western, Pennsylvania? And be that bad a shot and then come to find out that this guy had been kicked out of his high school rifle club For being terrible at shooting. I have to say like when a guy who looks like that is really shitty at guns It's like damn like how do you not like curse God? If you like you have one of those like huge foreheads like what do you like like curse God? If you like, you have one of those like huge foreheads, like one of the, like a, like a- Long flowing mane of greasy hair.

Worst type of hair. Yeah. Where it's like partially balding, but like long and wispy. Like, and God forbid you can never shave your head because no one wants to see more of that skull. And usually the consolation for guys who look that fucked up is like they've made up history's greatest shots.

You know, there is, there, there, there's that like one Canadian guy that throws off the average, the guy who like, uh, got one of the longest sniper kills ever. And he just, you know, he like looks normal, but for the most part, like Carlos, uh, Hitchcock or whatever the fuck his name was, the most part, like Carlos Hitchcock or whatever the fuck his name was, the guy from Vietnam, Simo Holick, they looked awful. They looked disgusting. And they all, of course, later in life,

Carlos Hitchcock and Simo Holick, they had further mitigating factors. All those guys had horrible burns or got into car they, all those guys had like horrible burns or got into car accidents, but they looked bad before that. But who looked like that and you got kicked out of the rifle club. Like, what do you do? What do you even get into? You can't join a monastery.

There's none of that. Well, what you get into is taking a shot at the president. Yeah. How is that? We were talking to Grace from Grow Girl God yesterday and she said when she saw the saw that saw the profile the shooter here her heart sank because she knew instantly that this was a kid who played magic the gathering and the magic to gather very bad for the community. Now my my second reaction on the way to the wedding, seeing the news of this is, in America, nobody wants to work anymore.

Nobody wants to work anymore. I'm talking about the shooter, the Secret Service, the state police, it's just nobody wants to work anymore, everyone's cutting back. No one has heard of a.45 caliber gun anymore. You know, like really, would be assassins in this country have such an awful record? Yeah, I don't so the Secret Service like they had a they had a bead on this guy like before he shot like they saw this horrible looking man.

He was already in the scope. Well like I you know even if like he didn't have a visible rifle and I was a sniper and I saw him. I would be like, I'm just gonna put my scope on him just for fun. I hope I can kill this guy because of how awful he looks. But then thankfully he like pulled out a gun and the Secret Service guy was like, yes. But I think, I don't know, like he got, everyone has a bad day, you know?

I've certainly blown it in Counter-Strike Like forget about Rainbow Six siege. I'm not even good at that game That is that is that's probably what real life is more like Rainbow Six siege. It's probably not a lot like Counter-Strike it's probably a lot more like siege and Siege is so hard and there are so many angles and you fucking press Q and you take out a drone. That's probably what was going on. He was like, oh, I have the shot. I'm gonna kill this ugly guy.

And then he, you know, he pressed his, I saw on Twitter someone said he was wearing a Kabbalic bracelet. He pressed his Kabbalic bracelet and he opened up, you know, like a scroll down menu to talk to Yahweh and he's like, I don't want this. And then the guy had already shot the teleprompter and he was like, fuck. Oh no. Honestly, iconic, like very early 2000s celebrity to be trying to bring Kabbalah back. Yeah. Madonna. Yeah. Britney Spears did it for a minute there.

I think it's just like he was honestly just wearing like a normal like, you know, one of those operator bracelets we've never heard of where it's like, oh, you wear this like red and black Livestrong bracelet in honor of like the Navy SEAL who was sentenced to one year for flattening an entire Okinawan family with an osprey that he was driving drunk. And we have to get this guy out of Leavenworth. But like, just like crazy people on Twitter were like, oh, it's a Jewish thing. Because there are so many Jewish snipers in America.

And I guess my final thought about the Trump shooting and like this is this is this is one of these things that like it seems to happen a lot in this country of like apocryphal era defining moments that apocryphal apocryphal apocryphal. Okay. All right. I'm just trying to introduce a mispronunciation then. Well, it wouldn't be the first time, at least for me. But no, what I would say is that it just seems to be one of these supposedly earth shattering moments where everything changes that I have, like, at the same time, a bone deep feeling that will change nothing and people will mostly forget about by next week.

No, yeah, it's not fucking 1982. Everyone's like locked in to whatever they think. Like, OK, the Obama to Trump to Biden voters, they were already going to vote for Trump this time, you know? I guess, like, yeah, my initial reaction was if it wasn't already set before, it is almost

impossible to imagine Trump losing this election now. And this is this is a sentiment borne out by like anonymous comments made by like almost every senior Democrat over the last day or two. It's like this is the last thing we wanted to happen. Yeah. They're just like, yeah, we're resigned ourselves to him winning this election. It's like, oh, okay.

I'm sorry, the media of him like with blood shrieked on his dumb face and then like like fist pumping, like it's the only thing that made me like, you know, immediately have inside job voices because like, or vibes, not voices. I was also having, I have inside job voices in my head a lot. One of Catherine's alters was, but yeah, like, I mean, yeah, like you said, the photo, the photo is all people are gonna remember of this and it's all of this gonna matter cause it's gonna be like every

Re-election campaign photo. Well, that's what I thought online ceramics is putting it out on a shirt for some reason That's what I thought until the president made the best speech ever That saved America Thankfully former Trump is not seriously injured In America, we resolve our differences at the battle box. Yep. Speeches can change the world, especially now. Former Trump seriously injured at ballot box, at battle box, battle bots. There were multiple takes at that. And they got the one where he goes, thankfully former Trump is not seriously injured. Uh, we, as Americans, we solve our problems at the battle box.

Then they tried to, the people who run Biden's account on Twitter tried to like, they did this really sneaky thing where they took the funniest lines from the speech, like seriously injured in battle box and like retranscribe them to what they thought they were supposed to be where they're like they had Biden say on Twitter American politics should never be a battlefield or god forbid a killing

field and it's like no I heard him he said American politics should never be a little battle fella god forbid There's some good reactions I feel like some of you saw DJ Academics live reaction. He was like, they're shooting Uncle Trump.

Yeah, I like I like 50 cents reaction. Oh, yeah. We put Trump's face over the Die Trying album while he was playing many. Many, many orcs. It wouldn't have gone like that. It wouldn't have gone down like that. If the shooter was a jock, that's all I'm saying. Five centimeters for glory.

Yeah. I just, so the shooter, I do appreciate him being like just sort of like the type of fuck up that every kind of American can recognize. Because I feel like if it was too far in the other direction, like if he was either like he was, you know, he subscribed to Jeff T. Drik or, you know, too far in the other way where it was like all like black songs and stupid bullshit you've never heard of. And they're like, if you eat peanuts, you're gay. It's where they put all the gay stuff in If it was too far in any direction, you know bad I'm not saying Civil War people are too lazy for that

But like a worse outcome tons of really annoying posts You know more tension but because this guy was he didn, I don't even think he knows who the president is. He's like, he was that type of guy. He, he was a registered Republican who like gave $15 to a pro Biden pack the day that he was inaugurated. So just like a confi, like he doesn't know what's going on. I think he did both those things by accident, like register as a Republican and give money to Biden. He just checked the wrong box. Yeah. He was like, oh, damn it. Oh, I thought it was a slot machine.

The worst take I saw was Alex Garland vindicated. Oh, no. Absolute worst take. Absolute worst take because if you were vindicated, the last 20 minutes of the movie would have happened. That would have been vindication. Then I would be like, credit where credit's due. Yeah, and there was no, famously, what that movie is about,

you have to cycle out the old women to bring in new women. That's what that movie's about. It's like, this bitch is pretty old. She's starting to look a little busted. Yeah, let's get a new woman. Let's get to look a little busted. Yeah, let's get a new woman. Let's get Priscilla in here. There aren't any new women. They're just not making it.

Let's introduce a new woman in 72 hours. Well, I've got a woman here I'd like to introduce. Did you guys see Melania Trump's statement about her husband getting shot? This is real Latina shit. It's one of the best statements It's one of the best statements I've seen. So I'd like to read a little from it now. I'm thinking of you now, my fellow Americans. We have always been a unique nation. America, the fabric of our gentle nation is

tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one. All right. When I watched the violet bullet strike my husband Donald, I realized my life. She wasn't there. She wasn't there. She hasn't been there for any of his campaign or his trial for the record. She's been DMing a certain high schooler

from Western Pennsylvania. Think about how disappointed she must be. She was so close. She was so close to being free forever. She was so fucking close. And then 72 hours later, it's like, you have to have dinner with JD Vance. Let's talk about that in a second. But yeah, she says, when I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life and Baron's life were on the brink of devastating change. I like she

doesn't mention Donald Eric. We were on the brink of devastating change. I am grateful to the brave Secret Service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband To the families of the innocent victims who are now suffering from this heinous act I humbly offer my sincerest sympathy You need to summon your inner strength for such a terrible for such a terrible reason saddens me a Monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine machine. Recognize him? Yeah, she's being like, it's true.

Yeah. No, that's a normal reaction to have when you see my husband. You shouldn't do it. You should like a better or better angels prevail. A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine, attempted to wring out Donald's passion, his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration. He does. He does love Macho Man. He does love music. Yeah, he loves music.

That was the one thing where it's like, okay, she does kinda know him, you know? He loves Macho Man, YMCA, the cat soundtrack, and Phantom of the Opera. He's like, he loves music the way a baby loves music. Like, he loves happy, happy when you know it. The core facets of my husband's life, his human side, were buried below the political machine. This is poetry.

This is so weird. Does she have a chapbook coming out? Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times. TK years. Someone filled us in. Let us not forget the differing opinions policy and political games are inferior to love. Our personal, our personal, structural and life commitment until death is at serious risk. Political concepts are simple when compared to us human beings. She she actually might have written this.

Yeah, this is yeah, this seems like it was run through chat GPT or Google Translate. That is the product of like, you know, someone who the weird way that they did education in those countries, couple big countries, how it should be, where it's like, you had to, you had to do some weird test. You have to translate. I don't it's like, you had to, you had to do some weird tests. Uh, you have to translate, uh, I don't know, like, uh,

Tolstoy would be considered like reactionary probably, right? You'd have to translate some other guy and then they would be like, you know, no, this was, she was raised during, you know, this was before the fall of the USSR. And so they probably put her into like a polytechnic school for 13 year olds where they learn how to write like this. I think they sent her to the Red Sparrow school. Yeah. It's very, it's very moving.

It's like Michelle Bungler could move me like that. Michelle, if this- She would put it like, my husband's passion for music, his current Spotify top 10 is. Yeah, yeah. With Jill, like if this happened with Jill, she would just post like a GIF of a cartoon cat prank. Oh, we're hoping my husband gets better.

She's posting a BoJack Horseman meme. Yeah. Saying like, what you has us sad because your husband got shot. Yeah, but this is beautiful. We are you know politics is simple compared to the complexity of our lives. Political concepts is inferior. Political concepts are simple when compared to us human beings. Of all of these things the greatest of which could be love for people including your loved ones who are close to you. We are all humans and fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another.

American politics are the only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness, and empathy are necessities. And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together while we are here in this earthly realm. I mean, you can't say that the shooter wasn't expressing whatever he thought his passion was. Yeah.

You know, unlike I think we have a real passion gap in, you know, American news. They don't know what they want to do. So you know, I think we should commend him for chasing something. You know, all those movies that girls post screenshots of. Not all girls. Name one. A certain type of girl. Oh, thank you for saying not all girls. Well, yeah, because there are different kinds. There's like a million of them. There's different kinds of girls. But a certain type of girl posts, they love posting screenshots of movies where it's like, you know, a really narrow-shouldered man and a beautiful gorgeous knockout, babe, and

it's in black and white and the girl is saying something like But isn't love giving up all the things that make you temporal or some bullshit, you know that type of shit All those movies are made in like Slovenia or the Czech Republic. Just like porn. Yeah, yeah. Well, they, you know, after the fall of communism, they went from making that to Fuck Team Five. Yeah.

But... When's the sequel coming out, by the way? Please understand, I do not know. Fuck Team Five is the name of the team. It's not the name of the group. Common misconception. Yeah. Now I'm thinking about like fuck team

five, but they have to do what like the Marvel franchise does, where it's like they have to keep digging deeper for more and more. Like they're doing they're doing like the the Eternals, but fuck team five. So it's like.

Yeah, Kumbell is getting like horrific silicone shots into his cock. Well, you know, like the news continues because like outside Trump getting his ear a shot. We do have a VP announcement today. Yeah, that's right. Chappell is responding to news that happened today. It's possible.

It's it's Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, a longtime friend of the show. Remember, he'll believe all these episodes. It's Ohio Senator JD Vance. A long time friend of the show, remember our Hillbilly LZ episode. And I just like to say, I feel this pick because as someone who was also a southern boy whose mother sold him to the circus

and who currently wears a beard to hide how fat his face is, I find this a very relatable VP pick and I think it's a kudos to Trump for doing it. He's thinking outside the box. This is um is La Trump choking This is so this is you could not make a worse pit this sucks Within hours. I was reminded that JD Vance is in a group chat with a bunch of 15 year old gropers

is in a group chat with a bunch of 15 year old gropers. Josh, edit your venom and post it to screenshots. And it's just, it's sickening. He's like, hey fam, I'm standing on business. Hey fam, I'm focusing them. Can you send me a picture of you with your shirt off so I can send you, so I know what size you are? My first thought was Glenn Close has to be really upset because they're going to make her wear the fat suit that she wore for the movie on the campaign trail again.

And she didn't she she had to go that ugly for a film. Poor, poor thing. And then she still didn't win the Oscar. JD Vance in the group chat. Cool, great. But I meant one of the way. group chat, cool grape or Ahmed, bring it to the wait house. It's just like, what if Trump does live Parnas again? You know, they were like, okay, your president now you said you wouldn't do live Parnas again. You did it. What the fuck? And he gets impeached or like again, health reason or whatever, right? Something happens. Um,

you know, a kid with a more normal skull shoots Don't think that should happen, but I I'm a threat of big moment for phrenology Well, what if you know he's incapacitated would wear the other JD Vance would be We've never seen a president that unpopular It. It would be like worse than Francois Hollande. Right? Like, there's no way. The biggest loser in the VP sweepstakes, not the first version to point this out,

but Tim Scott. Tim Scott got married. He got married to pick this up, and what's he gonna do now? Oh my, imagine being the fucking poor beard he made. He had to look a pussy in the eye for the first time in his life. Imagine the trauma, the generational trauma that will cause. That like, it probably is like, it's the same tone as on Game of Thrones, Tyrion and Sansa's wedding.

Oh man. Oh man. Just probably the same baseline feeling. Oh man, that's so sad. Like he's, the moment he probably got, he probably found out like a day before, right? And he's like, god damn it. And the woman he's marrying, he's like, what?

What's wrong? And he's like, I have cancer. I also like before I got like the news notification about him picking vans, I got one about like, Marco Rubio says he's not the pick. And like, was that ever being thought of? It would be like, it would be like Jeb Bush being like, it's not gonna be me this time. Yeah, no, that would, like. By the way, I've heard that Trump does not like men with facial hair, and I really hope he makes JD shave his beard.

Oh my God, that would be. Speaking of skull shapes that we're gonna get to see. He's gonna make JD shave it, and then be like, oh my God, what the fuck? Put it back, put it back. He's gonna, like, charter the last Concord in the world and charter a Concord flight at Mach 2 from America to South Korea for like life saving buccal fat removal surgery. This is like in the early days of dating Will I was like oh I want to see you with your

face shaved you know like what was the last time you were cleanly shaved? And I, you know, it's toxic. He went as far as joking that I would just shave a stripe out of it while he was sleeping. Um, but I, but I know that where that ever to happen, the relationship would fall apart. Unfortunately, I'm committed to this. It would be like the scene in force majeure where, you know, or he runs away from the table, I'd be like, I can't come back from this. It's just three moves along faster than we can record episodes. I still really do want to talk because I missed last Thursday's show because I was traveling. But like I was just I was ready to be raring to go to talk about talk about Biden's week

because there was a moment last week before it was at the NATO press conference where he referred to President Zelensky as President Putin. The one thing you don't want to do. Yeah. The 75th anniversary of NATO conference referring to Zelensky as Putin. The one thing you don't want to do. Yeah. The 75th anniversary of NATO conference, referring to Zelensky as Putin. Two weeks after NATO officially told Zelensky, like, hey, that was cool how you, like two thirds of your male population has died for us. You're actually too corrupt to join NATO.

You can join if you win the war. The thing that's impossible to fucking do now. And then like to add insult to injury, Joe calls him Putin. So I saw, yeah, so I saw his Putin gaffe and this was before his. But for President Putin, want to beat him so bad His eyes his eyes went so wide yeah

Yeah, like even he knew he's like oh Brother I stepped in he was like yeah I guarantee like I'm sure you saw the thing about like how his aides even print out like walk Take one step in front of the other to Reach stage. I'm sure they wrote like really big on the teleprompter like do not call him Putin do not Do not well you shouldn't just put the word Putin on the teleprompter that's asking for trouble but so like yeah, that was before his his his prepared remarks and press conference, which, you know, I've been assured from luminaries such as Lawrence O'Donnell, was the best addressed on foreign policy that a president has ever

given. It's like being taught international relations by the most learned scholar in the world. It was in depth. He had a mastery of the issues. He talked, you know, unscripted. And you know, there's a few bumps along the road. But I wanted to say when I saw him refer to Zelensky as Putin, I got this, like, sinking feeling in my stomach that the fun was soon to be over. Right. Like I was like, we had our fun with this, but like this I keep thinking this can't go on.

Then, like a half an hour later, I'm like, nope, it's going on. It's not going to stop. And what I want to say is- The fun will never end. The fun will never end. But what I want to say is that like, you know, over the last week or so, we saw this like nascent sort of like,

trying to jumpstart an effort among Democratic Party grandies to switch out the ticket, to get Biden to step down and either give it to Kamala or someone else. Or Felix Biederman. I'm not still not old enough. Still not. And what I want to say about that is that because I had the feeling that the fun was going to stop, I started developing an intense contempt and hatred for everyone in the Democratic Party, especially the pod save America

Johns, especially the pod save America guys call it out, who are desperately trying to swap out Biden at the top of the tip ticket. No, no, you cannot get out of this. This is what you want. Why the ticket? Yeah, you bought it. Yeah. Enjoy it.

No takes these Macs. Yeah, it's like, OK, you broke it. You buy it, you broke it, you buy it. All the stuff you said in 2020 and 2021 where it's like, he's the only guy. He's gonna restore the soul of the nation. Does that stop being true just because he doesn't know who anybody around him is? No, this is what you wanted.

Stick with your guy. Yeah. Yeah. it's too risky. It's too risky right now to change the ticket. No, you're stuck with it. And I hate their I hate everyone's cringing attempts to walk this back after nine fucking years of this shit. Nine years of this shit. He was already out to lunch during his first campaign.

Give us Biden. This is what we got. You're not getting out of this. And also, I think like, what I really felt was like, the only good outcome in this election, you know, short of both of them, you know, paying the ferryman, riding on ahead, crossing the shining river, the only productive political, morally, strategically, spiritually, the only thing worth rooting for in this election is that Joe Biden's suffering continues. Is that he must continue to suffer and be humiliated and to have the capstone on his life be a legacy destroying humiliation, the likes of which is unprecedented in American

history. Yes. Months more of horrific humiliations. I didn't think we could get much worse. And then he said, battle box and battle. Just, and we're going to get worse than that. It's going to get better. It's going to get better.

And then for him to lose and then for him to live exactly long enough to get to Trump's inauguration. And then he dies. And that's his legacy. That's, I mean, it's still not quite what he deserves, but it's pretty close. It's pretty good. I mean, like, I'm like, it's a thing

that is a very realistic possibility, and this is the closest we're ever gonna get to justice in this country. And we're seeing it, We're living through it now. And a few other highlights from the Biden press conference that I thought were wonderful. My favorite moment of the press conference is when he said, my numbers are better in Israel than they are here. Yeah. That was so good.

Which is not even fucking true. It's not even true. Israel is not even fucking true. Israel is the only country on the planet outside the United States of America that likes Trump. Yeah. Well, they want Trump more than Biden. They want Trump more than Biden. Miriam Adelson just gave Trump like 30 billion dollars. Well, yeah, that shows how much the bear hug strategy is working.

He like, he like, he torpedoed probably like his best shot against Trump was young voters. He torpedoed it for Israel and they don't even fucking like him. They fucking hate him. And the other the other big thing to come out of the press conference in the last week or so that I got to talk about is that scoop in White House meetings, Sanders press top aides for Biden to outlawed a hundred day agenda for working class, including medical debt forgiveness. Sanders and AOC threw Biden a huge political lifeline and want progressive agenda at the center of the campaign.

See Biden as best chance for their policies and policies as Biden's best way out. Yeah, see, this is what a great calculation. This is win win because on one hand you get to marry yourself to an incredibly unpopular, historically fucking unpopular candidate. And your political project. You, your political project, every candidate that comes after you in your mold, you get to marry them to one of the most unpopular presidents ever. One of the most farcical, unpopular presidents who tarnish everyone

associated with him as fucking liars, as completely dishonest, as concealing everything from the American people. You get to associate yourself with that forever. Um, you get to lose. You get to associate yourself with that forever. You get to lose. You get to be blamed for that. But then, you know, on the other side, if he wins, he also gets to not do those things. He also gets to not do those things, which is why is he not doing them now? Like, is he like, like, is the assumption like he's going to get super

majorities in both houses? I mean, congressional polling is like it's surprisingly skewing Democratic despite Biden. But like it's just like in either event, I don't know. He's he's not a man of action, I would say.

This is how you know Biden knows he's going to lose or the people around him know he's going to lose. Same with, he's been called the most progressive president in history, but anytime he does stuff like, you remember when he was like, oh, I would love to sign the Pro Act. And it's like, that's how you know it's never even getting out of committee. It's never going to get a vote. Yeah, like he only supports progressive, you know, a progressive policy agenda when he knows that like there's no risk of it ever even crossing his desk. Coming out, spending that hot fire, being like, we're getting rid of medical debt.

Okay, sure. And like, he didn't even get rid of student debt. Like what? like, he didn't even get rid of students. What? But yeah, like for fucking for Bernie and AOC, this is like, this is the equivalent of being on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg and being like, look, we made a deal with the captain that's going to pay off when

we get to New York. Like, trust me, we're going to be in a real position to build a better ship when we arrive in New York. Just as soon as we get out of the North Atlantic. Yeah, we're going to we get out of the North Atlantic. Yeah, we're going to be in charge of this ship here. And this is a politically smart bargaining chip that we have.

When you say gathering, you're like, oh, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times. Shame on me again. Shame on you again. Wait, what? President Putin? Yeah. Yeah. Like, OK, I know America is certainly not France as far as the thank you thank God for that like as far as the the institutional strength or organization You know much less the raw numbers of the left in France, right?

it's like They're very far ahead of us and who knows if we could ever get there but Melanchon if he's shown anything, he's shown that like, not immediately folding and going, okay, I'm gonna push this enormously fucking unpopular doomed president to the left. That it's a smarter choice to maybe, I don't know, in the short run, make things a little harder for yourself by not marrying yourself to this incredibly unpopular

figure that voters might reward you for some integrity later as they have. But no, no, God forbid, God forbid anything difficult is done. God forbid you make any stance that alienates anyone that pisses anyone off. And I know, I know that like, like people have said, oh, if they called for Biden to resign, then the party would consolidate around him. First of all, oh, wait, so he wouldn't do it? Like what's happening now? Who gives a fuck? Second of all, they don't even have to say anything. They don't even, they don't have to go, they don't have to go. You know, they don't have to go and make that the entire focus of their output

that Biden has to leave. But they just don't have to fucking glaze him like they are. Yeah. That's such a bad fucking unforced error. It reminds me of like and I think of this often there was like you know after Joe Biden won the first time you know the only time

there was like a big piece in Polit Joe Biden won the first time, you know, the only time, there was like a big piece in like Politico or something where What's His Face came out and was like, like all of the like NAACP, all of these like black voter groups were like, all right, you can't keep counting on us forever. After they had already like delivered their voters to Biden, they were like, our bargaining position is better than ever. And Biden just told them to fuck off because he was like, you already gave me the thing that was your bargaining chip.

Yeah. And by the way, one of my favorite things over the last couple of weeks, as people began to be more adamant in their like, you know, like people with longstanding Democratic credentials started to like tentatively come out first through first through ventriloquizing George Clooney to get George Clooney to say something that they were like, yeah, of course, we've all known he's been brain dead for weeks now. But thank God George Clooney finally said something. The Casa Migos guy. It's good.

It's much better than Jose Cuervo. Brought to you by those who drink it. But then the reaction of the Biden fedeqin, the Biden loyalists, the way they are pushing down the black voter button, I'm seeing nothing but white people just being like, y'all notice anything about all the people talking calm about Biden dropping out? And that sounds pretty quiet to me.

And it's like, wait a second, the people who want him to drop out want him to be replaced with Kamala Harris And they're like that's racist misogynistic and ableist Well, and also sorry like if you want the Democrats to win that's better for black voters and like and I'm radically And then they're talking about they're like they're like, you know, like the especially about the Pod John's This is this is my favorite. This is my favorite thing This is this is more delicious than vanilla ice cream. It's like all the people who are like these rich white bros who probably don't even wash their legs and smell like wet dogs and don't season their food.

Like they're rich and like they're gonna be like insulated from any of the evil things that Trump is gonna do. And they just hate that Biden humbled himself to select the black woman as his running mate. And he stepped aside and like black women are the sole of the Democratic party. And this is astonishing to do at a time when Joe Biden has a lower approval rating among black people than any Democratic president in modern history. He's going into an election with a, like based on polls,

the lowest percentage of approval among black voters in American modern American history. A super majority before the debate, a super majority of black voters wanted him replaced. It just, I mean, talk about people saying things without anything to back it up. That who's that guy who did I previously know him for doing for fantasies about Kamala Harris eating Mike Pence. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, no, I don't think so. know him for doing vor fantasies about Kamala Harris eating Mike Pence. Do you know who I'm talking about? No, no, I don't think so.

Would I'm going to get in trouble if I try to say his name because I don't remember it. But he's he's just like he's like a regular shitty left liberal pundit. And he was like, he just flat out said, well, black people are with him. And then just every poll shows that's completely not fucking true. Like it just it's so shitty. It's so shitty and fucking cowardly and just racist. I'm sorry. Repulsive to have this shitty, stupid opinion

that is like you're just doing it to preserve your own access. So you can go to the White House Christmas party and then saying, actually this really stupid thing I think, I copied it from black people. And I'm doing it as a favor to them. And it's not even fucking true. This incredibly stupid thing I think, well you would be surprised to know

it was invented by black people. Like okay. And like also, but it's also setting up the, setting up the logical followup would be surprised to know it was invented by black people. Like, OK. And like also, but it's also setting up the setting up the logical follow up. We'd be like this horrible candidate that's going to who, like literally, if we replaced him, would be with anyone would probably beat Donald Trump. He's like the only guy that could lose to Donald Trump even after Donald Trump got shot. They're like, yeah, you can thank black people for that.

It's just like the government made about this. Have you thought this out? Yeah, the government made about this is like the Democrats have spent so much of the last nine months talking about human shields that you can tell they're starting to see the appeal of it. Yeah. They also already punched this button. Remember, like the first campaign around, it was like vote like a black woman.

Yeah, just the entire thing, the entire way these people talk about like black voters, like they're a combination of Spartans and like oracles of Dilffar. It's so fucking weird. It's so fucking strange. Just to like go back to Bernie and AOC. Didn't AOC just like begrudgingly acknowledge that Israel's committing a genocide. How do you do that and then go, but the guy and the guy doing it is great.

He's going to assign the pro act. Yeah. Real. I saw this guy, I saw one of these like sort of like liberal democratic mouthpieces guy. I think it was Wajah Ali. And he was on Democracy Now. And like he was there to speak to the position of why Biden can't drop out. It's too risky. He's our he's our candidate.

He's our nominee. Which, again, this is a position I support and agree with here. I'm on his side as far as that goes. But in making the case, he was like, yes, like, I think obviously what's happening in Gaza is a huge stain on his record and it's something that I would qualify as genocide. And it's a moral stain on his presidency. It's like, yeah, you could say the Holocaust was a moral stain on Hitler's legacy as well. You know, just like, how do you, how do you got to vote for a real election?

What is the compartmentalization that leads you to admit that like, yeah, he is doing a genocide right now, but like we still got to vote for him. You know? Yeah. It does not withstand one second of scrutiny. It is just so self-contradictory. It cannot be.

And also AOC, you know, in response to what they was like Politico, were like all the news reports that are coming out, like quoting anonymous senior Democratic officials who are just like basically saying, don't even have the election. It's over. We've resigned ourselves to a second Trump term. And then her comment on that was like, oh, like if you're resigned to this, it's time for you to step down and be replaced with someone who's willing to fight against this horrible dictatorship or whatever. So... Wait, it's like who has to resign now? Like who needs to step down?

What? Yeah. What? Yeah. What like under what condition is it's like who has to resign now? Like who needs to step down? What? Yeah. What? Like under what condition is it good to tell someone to leave? Yeah. Oh, when they're when they're actively deleterious to the ticket and the political project.

Interesting. If you don't, if you don't vote for Biden, the genocide just got 10 feet, 10 months longer. Oh man. But yeah, like it has been wonderful seeing I mean, like, look, the Pod Save America guys, it's not they're not just stealing our jokes and showing for our but they're not just plagiarizing our book. I mean, the people responding to them are plagiarizing them talking about us four years ago. Yeah.

Doesn't it feel nice to just like not be lumped in with with pod bros for once? Like you you guys for one rare time are not being lumped in with, oh, white pod bros. Well, they're actually, they're actually, I've been looking, they're hurting the brand. I've actually been looking around. They've been calling me a black woman. I, I, I didn't want to say anything.

I didn't want to brag about it. I'm not a braggadocious person, but a lot of you know, blue wave and 1959s were like this guy is a black woman with what he knows, uh, how good he is at voting. We love him and I was like, thank you. Thank you. Finally someone knows they said, look at all the mean things he said about these awful rich white pod people. He, this man is mixed race. He's Russian and German. We love him.

Yeah, no, we stand against Michael Clayton. You are not replacing Joe Biden on this ticket. We stand against him. Biden shield wall. We must take the battle box. Like I know for some of you, this election isn't a big deal. This election is the only thing between America being a little battle fella and not being a little battle fella. I mean, maybe if you're rich and white and make all your income from a podcast and we're born between the years 1982 to 1990 and you're white and you're in entertainment and you're

bi-coastal and you do a podcast with other white men, then maybe it's not a big deal for America to be a little battle fellow. Because you're rich. But for me, a black woman? Who's a white man? Who has a podcast? It's not. Probably the first guy killed in the battle box.

All right, well, the reading series today, I'm gonna give you the headline and then the author, but like, you know, it's one of our favorite authors. The headline, Felix, it touches on our favorite historical cliche. Headline, American Caesar, Pennsylvania Rubicon. Oh, fuck off. Fuck. Oh, my God. By Rod Dreher for the European Conservative. Ooh. Yes. How's he gonna make this gay?

He's like, I had to watch six hours of gay porn to arrive at this take for some reason. To understand what Trump went through, I put myself into a giant PVC box and I got farted on by a woman in a dog mask. So Rod writes, the annals of American history will have the annals more like anyone. Yeah. The the annals of American history will have few

artifacts as potent as the iconic image taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci of a bloodied but defiant Trump rising from a symbolic grave, fist raved and framed by an American flag. This election is likely over. Trump went down as a fat mouthing, a fat mouthing politician. What? Yeah. A fat mouthing politician and rose as a pagan demigod. If Jesus Christ and George Washington came down from heaven to replace Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, Trump would still likely win in a landslide. Now, though, even Shakespeare would have hesitated to write a script like this.

That is that is mixing metaphors on a level that is just like he's naming the big three right off the bat. Yeah. Also, like, you know, he's a he's a convert Catholic and he's saying, like, I wouldn't vote for Jesus Orthodox. Oh, sorry. Sorry know, he's a he's a convert Catholic and he's saying, like, I wouldn't vote for Jesus Orthodox. Oh, sorry. Sorry. After converting to Catholicism. I don't care.

He's on his third or fourth conversion by now. Send this man to conversion therapy. Well, I mean, when he says he rose a pagan demigod, maybe Rod is getting into Hellenism. Oh, or he's he ran into Varg. Yeah. Well, he's he ran into Varg Yeah, he's a man about Europe Yeah I mean he probably like he probably got kicked out of like some weird Hungarian party where like a 27 year old man was telling him about how gay blues clues is now and

He ran into this dynamo of a man who lives in his car next to a field And he was like tell me about your ideas. He moved in for a few months. When Trump rose from what could have been his deathbed, had the bullet passed only a millimeter or more to the right and pumped the air with his fist, shouting, fight, fight, fight. I felt the sense of electricity pass down my spine.

See, I cannot read everything he writes as gay as hell. You're getting pumped, you're rising from your bed. I don't know. He got butterflies like his crush touched him. Many Americans no doubt did and many European conservatives too. Sick and tired of left wing bullying. It is early yet and we don't know the writing. We don't know at this writing what the motivations of the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks might

have been. I like that they gave him in the middle name to get the full assassin, the full assassin profile. You got to have three names. You got to have three names. Might have been. Yet speaking emotionally and people vote on emotions more than on dispassionate reasoning. This is what it feels like to me.

This is the pattern that I see. And then there's a long list of bullet points. The first one of which is they wouldn't leave evangelical Christian Jack Phillips alone to bake his cakes and run his business. What? Oh my God. He's still talking about that. He's still talking about it. They won't let parents remove pornographic books from school library. I mean, like he just goes on and this is the long list of, you know, Rod, Bogeyman. Then he says, who are they? Not a conspiracy. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy. It's all out in the open now. This is the American ruling past, ruling class. In part, what the American neo reactionary thinker Curtis Yarvin

calls the cathedral. They run the institutions, even the woke military, which fewer and fewer normal young men want to join now. Yeah, fewer and fewer normal young men want to join now. Yeah. Fewer and fewer young men would want to join the military because of wokeness and not just the military. Yeah. Oh, by the way, Felix, I know you love the like the VGA day style photo of the guys coming back from Operation Protective Guardian, like kissing their wives and being like, it was really traumatic. They fired, they They fired they fired back a few times Oh, they said the Navy is figuring out how to deal with these guys trauma. Oh My god, that's how you know, the military is too woke now It's just like the fucking lieutenant Top Gun wouldn't do that and he had friends who died

His friend died and then he almost killed that friend's son. Yeah Going on here. He says whatever is, Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci's staggeringly powerful image of a bloodied Trump with the flag called to mind the famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima in the waning days of World War II. Calm down. Calm down, Rod. Okay. I know someone who's at full mass right now. Was it like 30,000 Marines died in like the first hour of Iwo Jima? Like, all right. Yeah, versus one like 62 year old died by accident.

It's amazing that that man even lived through the COVID epidemic. So this he's been on borrowed time for a long time. The Rosenst install shot marks the beginning of Pax Americana and the rise of the American empire masquerading as a republic. I guess I guess Arad has been reading Gore Vidal as well.

The Vucci image, more of plagiarism of your life. The Vucci image, by contrast, comes at the end of the same with a drained and divided American retreat from the world and from its own founding principles. The two images side by side are mythic bookends to what looks like a multi volume history

of the rise and fall of a great nation. That America operated as an empire under the form of liberal democracy only goes to show that history, unlike God, writes crooked with straight lines. What? Melania speaks English as like her 12th language and was way more coherent. She's sad that Trump didn't die and she did a better job like capturing this moment. Billy's time is more articulate and less like, again, she's not mixing 10 different metaphors in a Vitamix like Rod is doing right now.

It's just so jumbled. You really shouldn't cut your prep with anything. You know, when it was time to, you know, sit strong and valiantly forge, Trump knew that he was four yards away from a touchdown. But when the bases are loaded and you bunt, you don't just win 15 love. His election is sure to be a slam dunk. Now, he says, the young man who tried to kill Trump might have thought he was going to save America from Caesar.

It is entirely possible that in doing so and failing, he will have delivered the country into the hands of one and the revolting behavior of the American ruling class and its woke Janissaries. I got another another piece of history we're throwing in here. What makes them Janissaries? Like are they being kidnapped as children and like being trained in woke schools? And the revolting behavior of the American ruling class and its woke Janissaries,

who spent the past 40 years marching through the institutions, will have inclined most of us toward welcoming him. I hope I'm wrong. Again, it's early yet, but yesterday felt like a Rubicon moment. Why do you hope you're wrong? Isn't that what you want? He's like, he's like, he's like the right wing version of all the like every single major Democratic politician has to issue a statement over the past couple of days being

like we pray for his speedy recovery and we reject political violence and all this forms. He's like the day before this happened, you were telling everyone he was Hitler Part Two. Why are you hoping for his speedy recovery? Shakespeare saved me from what I want. So he says, yeah, we have all been wondering for some years now if the center would hold. Now we're about to find out. So he's throwing in some Yates there at the end as well. Just how many literate and historical references.

Yeah, how many cliches can you possibly pack in? It's like you don't want the center as well. Just how many literate and historical references? Yeah, how many cliches can you possibly pack in? You don't want the center to hold. You're saying that America is run by a group of, I don't know, I guess, marauding pedophiles who act disgusting and are killing the Republic. But I really hope they hold on. I really hope they're able to withstand this. What are you saying?

Rod is desperately trying to communicate to his falcon, but it's just he's not going to get any response. He's just flown away. He's flown the coop never to return. But, you know, this election, it's it's it's it's a deuce. But, you know, Trump is serving for love right now In that photo Trump was serving on slow key he was You know that could have gone really badly for him like all that motion

Yeah, like but like his hair hair looks perfect I thought he was really impressed and the Secret Service shuffling him off the stage Like he's you know, he's like six five and weighs three thousand pounds So like he could have easily lost his balance and fallen over and crushed a Secret Service guy Yeah kills in the line of duty What do you guys think is the thing with the shoes is did he actually get knocked out of his shoes by the Secret Service? Or my theory is he takes his little shoes He's off when he gives a speech to let the piggies breathe while he's standing up there for an hour and a half

What okay were the shoes were they like dress shoes or were they like what were they they were Skechers? They were they were they were those shoes with rollerblades Yeah, they were kind of standard dress shoes. If they were like leather sold standard dress shoes, I mean, those rallies are like four hours long. He goes for fucking ever. It does suck dick to like stand around like an asshole in like leather sold dress shoes. So he probably like, yeah, they probably developed a hologram that makes it look like he's dress shoes. So he probably like, yeah, they probably developed

a hologram that makes it look like he's wearing shoes. He's totally barefoot. Every man in Congress now does. It's legal, it's legal. It's legal. But Biden is the only candidate who promises to legalize barefoot. And that's why he's staying in the race

and why we all are duty bound to support him. It's our job to win this election, not his. Legalize it. It's our job to win this election, not his. Legalize it. It's our job to win the presidency for Joe Biden, not his. He is, when a commander falls on the battlefield, you pick up the mantle of responsibility and you take it over. It's like Spears in Band of Brothers.

And we're all Spears. We're all Spears. Biden is, who was the guy who went, was it Compton, who like went crazy during the war? Oh yeah, the Neil McDonough character. Yeah, but Compton. And then he did terrible things in Tennessee. He did some really bad stuff when he got back home.

All right. Well, to close out the show, we have some announcements. We do got some announcements. We got some big things to announce. Big things coming. Big things coming. Watch this space. Or rather watch this space tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Central Time because tickets will be going on a sale for our first live show this year. It is Chappo Trap House. Well, the mobile contingent of Chappo Trap House and Truenon will be in Chicago

at the Park West Theater on August 24th for the Democratic Convention. Yeah. Join us in the smoke filled room where we will be setting the course for the future of the Democratic Party, which is Joe Biden, by the way, where there we I want to be clear. We are going to Chicago to support Joe Biden. Yes. Fight any effort to get him off the ticket.

Yes. We will start a riot if they replace Joe Biden. If they if they if they overturn the will of dozens of Democratic voters in the primary, we will start a riot. We will start a riot in 1968 all over again. You guys are going to be like the Brooks Brothers guys who descended on Florida to make George Bush win, except, I don't know, you wear chambray shirts. The Felix Brothers riot. I have been mastering the art of hypnosis, and I will use the full force of the Chicago

police department to come down on anyone who tries to install the madman who gassed his own people, gruesome Gavin. We didn't vote for him. Oh my God. I missed this one. Uh, Biden defends his rhetoric and interview following assassination attempt on Trump, but says it was a mistake to use the word bullseye. I nailed it. The wins. The wins just keep coming.

Damn. No one has been better equipped for this moment. Anyway, just more details on that. Yeah. 10 AM tomorrow. There'll be a ticket link in the description of this. I think this episode will come out before then, but there's no presale. There's no anything. It's just tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Tuesday. What day is tomorrow? July 16th. The show Park West, Chicago, August 21st, Chapa with Truenon. We haven't figured out exactly what the show is going to be, but we'll all be there. It's bound to be quite exciting. Is it 10 a.m. God's time, aka Central Standard Time? Yes, exactly.

Great. And then, number two most important announcement, new merch on sale. New Chapo Trap House merch, including our famous Zapata oil hat. Our new merch can be available, can be found and bought at chapotraphouse.com slash store. And we'll have some new merch drops coming up soon, including some movie mindset gear. I hope you all will enjoy. Store lives at chapotraphouse.store now, starting with some classics,

new designs rolling out through the rest of the year. All right, well, until next time. We wanna kick it over to our interview. Oh yeah, we have a bonus interview at the back end of this episode, but until next time, just pray for the country, just pray we don't cross that Rubicon Just if you find a Rubicon, just take a dip in it. It's hot out. Yeah, but yeah, cross it don't cross the Rubicon

Don't fly into the Death Star Use the force and Stifler's mom Stifler's mom Battlebot motherfuckers. Yes get Get out of the battle, fella. Don't be a battle, fella. Shinji, fight with the battle, fella. I'm ballsleeping that battle, fella.

Alright, everyone. Thanks to Catherine for joining us, and please enjoy this bonus interview with Mina Parkinson. I ain't free, well it don't worry me It don't worry me Come on everybody Don't worry me Death's people is free from pain Greetings friends, we got some bonus content coming at you here You may remember from a while back when we toured the South One of the cities we performed was in Nashville,

Tennessee. And while we were there, we met my current guest who tabled at our show and then escorted us out on the town to a night at Santa's Pub for a legendary night of country karaoke. So please welcome to the show Mina Parkinson. Mina, welcome. Hi. Thank you so much for letting me speak on here. Well, Mina, I know you're working on a little project you guys are cooking up down there in Music City. Why don't you tell us about what's going on in Nashville right now and what you're working on?

So kind of like the immediate moment that we're focusing on right now is our new project called Burn Debt Not Books. It's through, I'm a member of Middle Tennessee, Democratic Socialists of America, and our campaign is called Quilt, and our new project underneath that umbrella is called Burn Debt Not Books. So what we are doing is we are helping raise $10,000 to abolish $1 million worth of medical debt

here in Tennessee. So how does that work? How does $10,000 erase $1 million of medical debt? Yeah, it's pretty fucked up, huh? So the way that medical debt works, or I should say the way that medical debt is collected is a combination of a few different things. It reminds me a lot

of like a Ponzi scheme and a few other like supply side economics, let's say. And so the way that it works is that you have your hospital, you have your provider, you owe them money. Say you just had a really large surgery, you owe them now $100,000. You start paying them if you're somebody like me who also owes tens of thousand dollars of medical debt, then what will happen is your hospital, your provider gets impatient and decides, you know what, I am going to package up this person's debt along with all these other people's debt and I'm going to sell it to another company usually a debt collection company and they will sell that for pennies on the dollar so you know I might have a hundred thousand

dollars of debt combined with you know ten other people who also have a hundred thousand dollars debt they sell it for an extremely small amount so they can get their money right now because they have whatever that they need to do. And then this debt collection company gets that for significantly cheaper. The amount that you owe doesn't change whatsoever. What that now means is you are now paying this debt collection agency, this insurance company, the same amount, the same amount every single month. And if you are somebody who has medical debt, you've likely experienced the harassment, the haranguing that

you get from medical debt collection agencies. And then that continues. It isn't just like that one stop, they'll continue to do that. Once they've made their profit, you know, they'll they'll buy it for pennies on the dollar. Once they've made their profit off of that, what they might now do is sell it to another debt collection agency. And then the cycle continues until they've squeezed enough blood out of the stone until they've made as much money as possible out of just fractions of fractions of dollars that they've spent. And now they have made a profit. And you continue to owe the same amount that you always have.

Pay close attention entrepreneurs, there is so much wonderful profit to be made in the world of medical catastrophe and collateralized debt resale. But how has the campaign gone so far? And like, how do you go about erasing this medical debt? Or just buying it back? Yeah, great question. So to answer your first question, it's going really well. So we launched back in late June, officially on June 21st, but our really big kickoff was on June 22nd.

Since then, we've already raised just like $9 short of $6,000. So we are confirmed to be abolishing $600,000 worth of debt. So every dollar is $100 worth of medical debt that we're going to be abolishing. I know, right? And this affects the poorest people in our state. And one of the, you know, I speak to a lot of people, one of the leading causes for homelessness is, are things like medical debt. It's the reason why people are prevented from getting back into a place where they can live, getting a stable job. In terms of actually purchasing it, so there is a group,

and I definitely advocate for other people who are interested in this project, to reach out to them and start their own campaigns. It's called Undo Medical Debt. They actually handle all of the purchasing of that medical debt. There's been some groups across the country. I'm thinking of one specifically in Pennsylvania that was able to raise a bunch of money and abolish, similarly, a lot of medical debt for the people who need it the most. Now, you mentioned that in conjunction with Middle Tennessee

DSA and Quilt, the name of the campaign is Burn Dead, not books. Now I knew Nashville was music city. But what's the deal? Why do they hate books so much? We got to get rid of all the books, just because music is just too powerful. No more books. What's going on with that? We're done with that shit. That book shit. I'm done with it. What's going on with that? We're done with that shit. That book shit, I'm done with it.

So I mean, what we're seeing right now is across all of Tennessee. I mean, just this past weekend and going to be continuing throughout the rest of the month are these neo-Nazi groups who are harassing people. We have really high profile politicians who are opposed to anything queer related in any sort of library. I mean, there are states in this country where you basically have to go there with a driver's license in order to access the library now. And Tennessee is really accelerating close to that. I mean, there has been a lot of violence against queer people, not just in my state, but in other states across this country. So, you know, the moniker

in itself is in reference to the fact that we are seeing book bannings across this state, and we're seeing them across the rest of this country, too. Do you have any examples of books that have been banned or attempted to be banned from Tennessee public libraries? I mean, basically anything that has to do with sexual education. And we're not talking about like queer identities or, you know, gender or anything like that, but like literally like trying to like anatomy books, things that talk about reproduction.

I mean, sexual education in this country is abysmal, but especially in places like the South. It's pretty alarming the ways that like people don't have sexual education anymore. And now those types of books are being banned from libraries, you know, being banned from curriculums in schools just generally, where now it's an absence only education, where we all know and probably have experienced like you can tell kids not to have sex, they're still

like high schoolers, high schoolers are still high schoolers, like it's still going to happen. And the best thing that you can do is just have people prepared and equipped with knowledge. So you don't have, you know, there is a rising case. It's not, it hasn't outpaced other, uh, other identity or other sexual orientations, but among straight people, especially young straight people, a lot of people are starting to contract HIV, which is now developing into AIDS because they simply don't have the type of sexual education and the knowledge that people probably like, I'm, I'll be turning 32 later this week. And even though I, you know,

I've grown up here, I had a pretty standard sexual education. And that's just about like, the anatomy and, and the body and things like that, let alone any sort of like fictional depictions of queer people generally. Right. I mean, good luck studying ancient Greek pottery if you live in Tennessee in the near future. But yeah, like I've been very disturbed by, you know, like bookbinding efforts. Like what's more than that is like you said, the attack on sexual health and sexual education, but it seems to be all being done under the banner of banning pornography and associating any depiction of human sexuality or even just

any of the sharing of any knowledge about basic human anatomy or sexuality with pornography and with the sexualizing of children. And what do you got, what are you doing to fight back on that front in terms of preserving knowledge and public education and just access to books and reflect the range of human experience and culture? Yeah, this is, so I'll give an example. Like we try to do as many community education events as possible.

So, you know, you are, I don't know if you're a fan of this movie, but I certainly am. Paris is Burning. We had a great screening of that weekend. The classic, the seminal classic, Paris is Burning. If any listener has not heard that yet or seen it yet, I should say they need to that yet or seen it yet, I should say they need to finish listening to this podcast and then go watch it. But in terms of like education and things like that. So I mentioned that I was part of quilt. So quilt is an acronym. It stands for Queers United and Liberating Tennessee. Really the main project of that is to develop queer people into organizers, into labor organizers, into housing organizers, into leaders of their community so that they can actually be equipped to be part of these fights.

Historically, these are the kinds of people, queer people, I should be specific, who have been left out of these fights, who have been marginalized from the labor movement, from the housing movement, and have had their rights compromised. So like, for example, we have an organizing school that's going on right now. It's been going on for, gosh, several months at this point. It won't be ending until like early October. But going over those like basic organizing skills that queer people and organizers generally need to know. And also like I will say for the Burn Debt Not Books campaign. I mean,

this is this is very much like hearkening back to as a queer person as a trans woman, like our history, this is lesbians and gays support the miners if you know another movie rec, if you've never seen Pride, fantastic fantastic yeah go watch it and as long as we're talking about it everyone watch Paris is burning pride but then also watch Robert Altman's Nashville the movie that gets even more relevant given the events of the weekend but we'll be talking about that on the main show Mina I want to say like you said like some of these basic organizing tactics I'm just wondering like when you say that like what do you mean because I also want to say, like, you said, like some of these basic organizing tactics, I'm just wondering, like, when you say that, like, what do you mean?

Because I also want to mention the fact that being a national, you're you find yourself sort of if you're involved in queer organizing or queer education, you find yourself somewhat in the crosshairs of local national media conglomerate, The Daily Wire. So I'm just wondering, like, what are the kind of organizing that you can do to organize like against these, you know, these mountain backs and charlatans? So I, you know, I'm a big believer in, in kind of these dual fronts of the labor, you know, you have a job, you have a house, you need to defend these things and you need to be part of a union as, as best you can, you need to form and cultivate those skills. So you can do anything as basic as like how to have a one-on-one conversation to like

actually get your coworker to do something. So you're not just this, you know, armchair Marxist sort of like, you know, waxing poetically about the normies who probably have like the same issues as you do going on to things like how does your, you do, going on to things like, how does your, you know, where are the points of control, points of control or points of power within, you know, your housing complex? Who can help? Who can't? Who's opposed to, you know, what you are trying to do and who's supportive? How can you leverage those types of things into building a successful campaign? And, you know, you, you had mentioned, uh, our good friends, uh, the daily wire, Maddie Walsh and Shapiro, uh, no longer Candace Owens, I

suppose, uh, no longer. She's entered free agency. Freelancing is a hell of a gig, you know? Yeah. freelancing is a hell of a gig, you know? Yeah. So, uh, I mean, this has been going on for several years. Uh, you know, when I initially pitched this to, uh, Chris, you know, this was way back a few years ago, and then I followed up since we started this campaign.

But you know, that had, you know, they have really started to stir the pot over the past few years and it's become kind of a boiling cauldron at this point. I will give the digested version of the most recent events. So last year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center was subpoenaed, so to speak, by our state's attorney general to hand over thousands of unredacted medical documents. So this includes people's names, medical records, conversations that they've had with doctors, pictures, things like that of trans people

or supposed trans people who had taken- This is the state doing this. So I guess that's that if the state does it, it doesn't violate HIPAA or medical privacy laws. Well, there was a report that was released on April 16. I have it right here. It's called how state attorneys generals target transgender youth and adults by weaponizing the Medicaid program and their health oversight

authority. And Vanderbilt University was actually the first one identified in that because they really rolled over and showed their soft pink belly. Basically the state's attorney general just asked really nice and said, can you hand over all of these unredacted medical documents pretty please? And they did it. There's like a three, there's like a three- Politeness, it goes a long way. I know, I know. That's that Southern gentleman. So they just handed over these documents. And this was actually, you know, the reason why I brought this up is because the daily

wire was the ones who really started to provoke this even back in, what was that? 2021, there was the rally to end child mutilation. Uh, there's a, there's a funny quote from me in a bunch of newspapers. I'm glad they finally came out against circumcision. I know literally I was making that joke the whole time and nobody thought it was as funny when we were counter protesting. I got quoted in quoted in some newspaper that was like, like, why are you here? Like, how do you feel about

being here today? I was like, well, it's Friday, I wish I didn't have to do this. But here I am. So like, yeah, like, obviously, the, the context of the portrait you paint here, you know, like, especially if you are queer or trans youth or adults, or really anyone can seem or trans youth or adult or really anyone, can seem quite intimidating or everyone's feeling a great deal of anxiety and fear at this current moment. And I'm just wondering, what is any advice do you have to people or young people of any gender or sexual orientation, but particularly young queer and trans people who

are feeling intensely vulnerable right now? Do you have any advice about how to fight back or how to deal with that? Or just how to like what to feel right now? Or how to like not let, I'm sorry, how not to let action that can counter feeling? Yeah, you know I first started organizing several years ago and really queer organizing was the thing that really made me hopeful about the world. I think if that there are any sort of similar projects, whether it is focusing on queer issues specifically or not, if there are housing campaigns, if there are labor campaigns, I think you

need to not stare at the internet all the time and have these constant fears about what's going to be taken away from you. Being able to do something about it, being able to fight is the thing that will keep you going. And even if you are a young kid, even if you are, you know, a teenager who's listening to this, like, you deserve to be here. And, you know, I think that there's, there's that old quote that's like, you know, the moral arc of history bends towards justice. Yeah. The thing that we like to append on the end of that is the moral arc of history been towards justice, but it does not bend on its own. It's going to take a hell of a lot of us to get our hands on it and start making the world that we want to live in. Amina, before we let you go here, for anyone listening to this right now, if they would like

to contribute or get involved in any way in the band of Burnt Dead, Not Books or Middle Tennessee DSA or Quilt like, what should they do? Where should they go? Sure. So we can we can start at the top. If you would like to very kindly contribute to our campaign, you can head to quilt dash tn.com slash debt. And I'll make sure to send all these links and stuff over to after this. So you can head to quilt-tn.com slash debt.

You can also follow Quilt on Instagram as well. I believe it's Quilt underscore TN. As well as you can follow, you can follow me on Twitter too at get in the device. So if you have any questions. You have any device related questions about, you know, how to fit in, does it, is it a two seater or four seater? What kind of device we're talking here? Please follow us at get in the device.

Look, we're not talking about bottom surgery today. All right, I know this is about healthcare. Okay. So follow those. Um, yeah, go to quilt dash DN dot T N.com to learn more about what quilt is doing to get in contact with us. Um, and there are links to, uh, middle T N DSA, uh, as well, uh, which is, you know, I was one of the founders of the chapter. I've been

involved ever since and it's one of the greatest things that I've ever been a part of and it is that thing that keeps me going and I definitely advocate for people to get involved in not just, you know, the organizing that I'm doing but the organizing that other people are doing across this country even if you're not in Tennessee. I guess my last question is book related. Like if there's anyone out there who like what are you doing to I mean, are there resources available for people who want to have access to not just books about sexual education, but just good books

that are currently on the chopping block of, you know, a kind of noxious culture war? Are there book related resources that people can avail themselves of? You know, personally, I am not super aware of those types of things. I would probably contact your library to see what books are on those lists, uh, and then just sort of go from there. You know, I will also plug it myself selfishly, but I am a bookmaker as well. Um, so if there is any sort of book that you would like made that is perhaps banned in your local library or is very hard to find, check me out. It is one of my three jobs. So if you would like a handmade book, please

reach out. I got a lot of medical debt, so I have to have a lot of jobs. They're going to get that $50 a month for the rest of my. All right. Well, I mean, best of luck with the campaign, best of luck with the bookmaking and shout out to everyone in Music City, Tennessee involved. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. Thank you.

Cheers. Bye. All the links will be available in the episode description.