Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 566: Minimum Rage

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

CLIPS CLIPS CLIPS (our clips channel) Show Notes  

Today's show is brought to you by AdamandEve.com. Go to AdamandEve.com right now and you'll get 50% off just about any item. All you have to do is enter the code word GLORY, G-L-O-R-Y, at checkout. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. Recording live from Gloriole Studios and beyond, this is Cognitive Dissonance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence

to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. Too many topics that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical. It's political. And there is no welcome mat. This is episode 566 of Cognitive Dissonance, Cecil. Cecil. Yeah.

Nothing really terrible happened all week. Cecil, Cecil, some good news. Some good news, actually. I don't, I was, I was thinking, because, you know, we always, the last several years. Year, the last year. Every week, we come on, every week,

and it's like, what fresh hell is there to offer? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was thinking about that this morning. And I was like, I mean, like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine got approved. Like that is on the cusp of being approved and it was shown to be effective. And it's effective against some of the variants

that the other vaccines are less effective on. And I was seeing, I saw the news about boosters, how they're already planning on boosters and they have these ideas for how to make boosters more effective against some of these other variants. I saw other good news this week where they were showing that a lot of the different places all over the United States, the number of new cases are dropping pretty dramatically throughout the United States. Many of the places across the United States are green. So many of the States are green, meaning that in Illinois, they dropped over a thousand new cases. There was less, a thousand less new cases in a week. It was 2,700 and 1,700 this week. And so it's like, you know, I don't know if that's a day or if they're talking about, you know, if that's, I don't, I don't know exactly how it works, but you know what I mean? I don't, I actually tried not to get involved in the stat stuff for all this stuff

because it's a rabbit hole where you just fucking feel really shitty afterwards. So I didn't want to do it for this, but it was one of those moments. And there's a lot of that coming out. There's word coming out about vaccines and the way that people in the population are now starting to become less and less sick

because of them and because of measures we've put in place that have helped protect people. So I think it's all good. It's like all good stuff. I read a great article in the Times about how the Pfizer vaccine is already having a dramatic impact in the UK. That nursing home deaths and infections are actually,

they're declining at a rate that is outpacing the rate of decline in the general population, which is amazing because that's one of the most vulnerable populations. It's like, I didn't know what to complain about Cecil. I wasn't, I haven't been ass clenchingly scared for like seven or eight days. It's amazing.

At this rate, see, so my hemorrhoids are going to heal. Are you fucking kidding? Let's not go too far. No, I am not really going to. I mean, it's been a whole year of clenching. Have you ever heard the fable of the scorpion and the frog? What? The scorpion

wants to get across the river, so he asks the frog to carry him across, but the frog's like, well, what's in it for me? And the scorpion's like, alright, how about five bucks? And the frog says, make it twenty. The scorpion's like, ten. The frog goes, alright, fine, fifteen. And the scorpion's

like, all right, fine, 15. And halfway across the river, the frog feels this terrible pain on his back and the scorpion stung him, you know? And the frog's like, well, what the hell? We're both going to drown now. And they both did. What the hell is the point of that story? So this story comes from the New York Times. Democrats big tent helped them win. Now it threatens Biden's agenda. So this is a real interesting and it's an interesting article. It's a bummer of an article. it's an interesting article. It's a bummer of an article.

Really, for like a hot minute, the moderates and the progressives came together, right? They came together and they fucking, they did the fucking handshake where one hand is above the other hand and they fucking kumbaya'd and they fucking beat their fucking bongo drums

and they had a little circle and it was beautiful. And then they, because I mean, you had to defeat Trump. If there was ever, if there was ever a rallying cry that moderates and progressives could get behind, it was, can we just end fascism and then fight amongst ourselves? I feel the same way.

I felt like, you know, when we were watching all that happen, there was a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth about Biden, but they were willing to do it just to get rid of Trump. They were willing to say, fucking fine,

let's just get rid of Trump. And there's a lot of people who I watch and who I listen to and who are, you know, very progressive, very far left

that I think I glean some good ideas from that I agree with and say, yeah, I was kind of on that boat I, I think I, I glean some good ideas from that I, I agree with and say, yeah, I was kind of on that boat too. I was like, you know what? There's a lot of people I wanted more. In fact, I want to say everybody, but Marianne I wanted more than Biden. But it was like, when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, Biden was better than anything else that the right was going to offer us, right? Biden was better than, because the right was just offering fucking Trump. And so it made sense.

But at the same time, there was a lot of promises made and a lot of ways in which that they tried to coax that vote from me and from other progressives. You know, I definitely think when we think about progressive policies, one of the things we've got to, I think that the way the Democrats are going to lose and the way the Democrats are going to,

are going to shoot themselves in the foot is by not going after the most popular things that most people in the United States want right now. And when you think about what the most important things are, most people want Medicare for all. And it's not by, it's by a large margin. Medicare for all in the United States is 69%. But can we pause real quick and talk about,

not that, but the 69% problem. Part of the problem in this country is our electoral college problem. If you wonder why 69% is not an overwhelming majority, remember that things don't get done because most people in most of the country want it. It has to matter. Location matters. So if you're a representative, if you're a senator, if you're a House of Representatives representative, this is hyper geographical. So it doesn't scale out in the same way because most people live in New York and California and a handful of other places where population density. And it's so fucking frustrating because these little tiny geographies, rather than the bulk of the population, drag us down.

They are part of the reason that we are not going to get things that are overwhelmingly numerically popular because they're popular at a statistical high level, 30,000 feet level, but all the decisions get made at this fucking insanely hyper parochial level. But in this case, you have all the pieces in place to pass, hopefully, more progressive things because you don't need any of that stuff right now, right? So right now you have the house, you have the presidency, and if you get fucking mansion

and fucking cinema on board for one fucking thing, you can get all the people in the Senate to vote along with one vote. So you technically have the votes. And several of these places across the country want some of these very progressive things. For instance, Arkansas last year, maybe two years ago,

they passed a minimum wage law down there. Yeah. They passed a minimum wage law. They raised their minimum wage to, I want to say it was like $11 an hour or something like that. So there's people in the United States that are, and it's not just them. Florida did the same thing. Seattle. Yeah. Missouri, 62% of Missouri

voters approved an initiative to raise the federal rate to $12 an hour. Arkansas, 68% of their voters voted for $11 an hour. And Democrats, it said Democrats struggled in Florida, but in November, and Democrats, it said Democrats struggled in Florida, but in November, 60% of voters did a $15 an hour wage by 2026 in Florida. So you're talking about states that have Republican leadership, that have Republican leaders, but if you're doing things for those people

that they want, and they clearly want that, right? Minimum wages, That's a progressive policy. So is Medicare for all is too, but you have all progressives in there. There's a bunch of other progressive policies that are overwhelmingly wanted by the public. 84% of Americans want paid maternity leave. 84%, that's bigger than, you know,

these tiny little silos of people. It's just bigger than that. 74% want government-funded healthcare. 57% want free college tuition for state schools. Hell, even universal basic income has a 28% approval rating across the country. You're talking about, these are all hyper-progressive policies.

And if you looked at this in a strategic sense and said, you know what? We're going to put these things up. And you know what, Tom? They're not going to pass. Nope. They're not going to pass. Nope. But you know what you get to do in 2002? You get to go back to all those constituencies where all those people in that area wanted those things, and they got to crawl on the carpet and tell everybody why they didn't get those things. Why didn't you pass those things? I feel like America is so used to not getting what America clearly wants. Like 64% of Americans support gun control laws. 64% based on a 2017 study, a Pew research study, 64% are in support of stricter gun control laws, and we never pass them.

We never do. It's so fucking frustrating. We never try. Yeah. We never try. We don't even try. Americans are overwhelmingly, numerically in support of these things. I don't know what the answer to

this problem is because you get, you know, I do think part of the problem is you get this one House of Representatives guy and he represents a more conservative district. And so you got to fucking whip his votes because they don't all fucking necessarily vote on party lines. And then, you know, you got to get the fucking Senate, you got to end this fucking filibuster. Otherwise, everything is still, you still got to get the support of at least 10 of the fucking Republicans or break the fucking filibuster. So even controlling the Senate doesn't necessarily mean much of anything except for that. You can call a vote on it unless you break the filibuster. Can you filibuster the vote on the filibuster? I don't know. And like

mansion, that would be so fucking funny. That would be so great. Like we're going to, Can you filibuster the vote on the filibuster? I don't know. And like Manchin won't. That would be so fucking funny. That would be so great. Like we're going to break the filibuster. We request a filibuster. There's one guy just reading the fucking newspaper or whatever. And now I shall read Green Eggs and Ham. Oh, God.

It's so ridiculous. The whole system, it's so clearly, your point is so well taken the system does not support the will of the people and it doesn't support the will of the people for so many structural reasons that you can have things that have 60 and 70 support and it might not matter because like you might get fucking a guy like Manchin who represents a more conservative district in fucking Western Virginia. West Virginia. Sorry. Wherever.

Doesn't matter. Fucking a coal state, you know. Whatever. And so is he going to go along with the rest of the party? Maybe on some things, maybe not on others. All of a sudden, that motherfucker has become one of the most important men in America. become one of the most important men in America. Somehow, some fucking moderate Democrat from fucking West fucking Virginia

has become one of the most powerful men in all of America just because he's got the cock block vote. Yeah, because he's got his, he's the one vote. He's more important than Kamala Harris. Yeah, for sure. He's more important. For sure. You got to convince him

because she's going to vote for this stuff. There's no way. I mean, of course she's going to vote for this stuff. There's no way. I mean, of course she's going to vote for this stuff. Get the hell out of here. She's not going to do the fucking like Roman thumbs down from up there. Are you kidding me? All of this, she wants all this stuff.

And the thing is, is like, Tom, 48 Democrats want pretty much all this stuff too. And constituents for many of the Republicans want this stuff too. And constituents for many of the Republicans want this stuff too. And you know what you got to do? And I think this is, you know, it's playing dirty, but the Republicans for years made abortion a wedge issue. I think you've got to start making these things wedge issues.

Thank you. Where you're just going and you just say, you know what? We're not talking about anything else. Because you walk into one of these fucking town halls with Marjorie Taylor Greene or any of these other fucking yahoos with their fucking boots on and their big hats

and their fucking big buckles and they're all sitting there. You walk into there and you say, you just look into the mic, you clear your throat and you say, they're coming to take your guns. And they will cheer and scream and vote you in. That's all you got to say. Or they're killing babies, right? Those two fucking things that they say, they're killing babies. They're, they're, they're, they want to take your guns. That will immediately energize an entire

population to go out and vote. It will energize an entire population. Well, guess what? You could energize those same people. If you turn these into your wedge issues. It's a wage issue. It's different. Yeah, what? Wedge, wage. Do you think the Democrats have the skill to create a wedge issue, a social wedge issue?

I don't know. The Republicans have the advantage of the church, right? And the churches are on the side, and that's such a powerful social dynamic. And I wonder if the Democrats have... Got to get Hollywood in on it. And the Jews. We got to get the Hollywood and the Jews.

It's the same thing. I don't know why I said two things. That's the same thing. And the Rothschilds. If we get them involved, Tom. We got to get the lizard people. You got to start carving faces off babies. And the more you do that,

the more people want minimum wage. I don't know. Do you know what I wonder, man? Shouldn't we get to referendums? Man, I wish. I wish. Shouldn't we float these things by, I don't really understand why we don't.

And I say that with real sincerity. I don't really understand why some things are decided by referendum and other things. Yeah, I am not a law talking guy either. So I don't know. Are not? Yeah. But it seems to me like, especially for things like Medicare for all.

And shouldn't we poll the fucking people and do what the people want? Yeah. I mean, if you're my fucking representative. Yeah. Yeah. It's our money, man. Yeah. Like, fuck you. You get to make all the budgetary decisions. Yeah. Yeah. It's our money, man. Yeah. Like, fuck you.

You get to make all the budgetary decisions. Make one decision. Ask us all in the country and see if all of us vote for it. Because the moment you fucking turn the lights off and everybody doesn't know

who voted for what. Yeah. Let me tell you something, man. You know, it was a fucking heartbreaking thing I read today on, it was a tweet and I don't remember where I saw it,

but there was this heartbreaking thing I read today about this poor woman who, you know, she lost a child in a car accident and her husband, you know, she had a great job, a union job, and they had money in the bank and they still had a huge debt that came up about it. And then the medical bills got paid and then they got pain and suffering for the loss of their child. And the medical bills got paid and then they got pain and suffering for the loss of their child and the medical bills, the medical company,

the insurance company went after them for that pain and suffering and took it from them to pay the medical bills that they paid. So they took their pain and suffering money away.

Like, I mean, like they got paid and it was a meager amount of money for losing a child too. It wasn't like a fucking, it wasn't like a million dollars. It was under $200,000. And that's only possible. And I only know this because I happen to have kids, but that's only possible because if you've got a kid, so like if I die tomorrow,

my debts die with me. So if I die tomorrow, my wife doesn't have to pay any of my debts. That's not how it works. She would have to pay my debts out of my estate if I had an estate. But my insurance, for example, is separate from my estate. So if I had an insurance, she would get the insurance and she would not have to pay my debts from that estate. What's different about medical bills, interestingly, is as a parent, you have to basically say, I am accepting financial responsibility on behalf of this other person. Yeah. So because this person is little and they don't have income,

then I have to sign off and say, I am accepting the financial burden of this care. And so that financial burden shifts to me. So the kid fucking dies. Unlike with grownups, the bills don't die with them. That's so unbelievable. Right? Can you imagine being a grieving parent and then having die with them. That's so unbelievable. Right?

Could you imagine how being a grieving parent and then having to pay a bill? It's unbelievable. And then the fact, just the very fact that you can't just spend time grieving and you have to be like, oh, guess what? I got to pay a bunch of bills. In a civilized countries all over the world,

they don't do that to you. No, no. But here in America, that happens to you. And there's a reason why a bunch of 69% of the people in this country want that. there's a reason why a bunch of 69% of the people in this country want that. There's a reason why Tom, there's a reason why 66% want minimum wage right now. Currently the minimum wage is 66% of us are living on minimum wage, man. No, you know, there's 1.6 million people in the United States right now that are on minimum wage right now,

but there's, uh, I looked it up today and the amount of people in the workforce that are working, it's 42% of American workers make less than $15 an hour. Holy shit. 42% of American workers make less. Holy shit. Are you serious? Dead serious. Dead serious. Fucking nearly half of us are making less than 50. Yeah. Oh my. And then you've also got to consider that that stops right there just like the poverty line. We've talked about the poverty line in the past. We were like, oh man, the poverty

line stops there. It doesn't mean you're fucking rich the moment you cross that line. No. It's not like $16 an hour and you're fucking living it up and buying fucking Bugattis. Yeah. You're still incredibly you still have an incredible hard life. Right. Right. If you're $1 over the poverty line, you still have an incredible hard life. If you're still incredibly, you still have an incredible hard life, right? If you're $1 over the poverty line, you still have an incredible hard life.

If you're $1 over the earned income credit, you still have an incredibly hard life. If you're $1 over the fucking minimum wage, it's not that it's fucking making your life super easy. Right. Because you have a fucking extra dollar. Yeah. making your life super easy because you have a fucking extra dollar. I mean, the amount of money that they're talking about here is with a full-time job,

you're making $31,200 a year at $15 an hour. If you're working full-time 40 hours a week. If you're working full-time 40 hours a week, that's $31. Now, the GOP's suggesting right now, because they're coming out with,

they know that this, they know this is a fucking popular thing, right? So the GOP knows it's popular. So Cotton and Romney, they come up with their own upgrade to minimum wage to $10 an hour. Get the fuck out of here. $10 an hour is still well under

what it would be raised for inflation. 15, by the way, is well under what it would be for raised for inflation. 15, by the way, is well under what it should be for a raise for inflation a couple times throughout the life of the minimum wage. But that's only $20,000, $20,800 annually if it's $10 an hour. $20,800. That's fucking ridiculous. It's unbelievable. And there's a guy by the name of Senator Thune.

Did you see this this week when he tweeted out? Senator Thune said, he said, well, when I was in school, I was bussing tables and I was making $6 an hour. Well, they did that for,

they raised that up to look for how much that was based on inflation. It was $24 an hour he was making back then. And minimum wage back then was $2.65 an hour and that's $10.63 an hour

for inflation, which is still more than the Republicans want you to have. Right now. It's still more. It's still more. It's unbelievable.

And the thing is, everybody's ship rises. We know this. It's not like there are places where the minimum wage is $15 an hour and it did not cripple

their fucking economies. It did not drive businesses into fucking economies. It did not drive businesses into fucking poverty. Because if I own a coffee shop, $15 an hour is a lot to pay my fucking employees. I get that. You're like a mom and pop coffee shop at 15 bucks, but you got to figure more people are buying your coffee now. Your revenue is going to go up to cover that expense because more people have more expendable fucking income. The people who need it.

Right. The people who will spend it the most will have more money. buy coffee at my coffee shop and make it more possible for me to pay my employees a living fucking wage. And if I am a,

if I am an employer that actually has fucking resources and I've got a bunch of people at $15, $16 an hour, all of a sudden, I've got to give all those at 15, $16 an hour, all of a sudden I've got to give all those people raises, right? Because I'm paying the same as fucking folding sweaters part-time at the gap. So I got to pay, give all those people raises. So everybody's

rises and not in an inflationary way. The Republicans will tell you that this just creates inflation, right? That this, this, all this does is devalue the dollar. Everybody's ship goes up, and $15 simply becomes the same de facto amount. But study after study after study shows that that's just not true. What this does is it creates more economic churn. And economic churn at the lower and mid-level of the economy is the key to a robust middle class. We know it. It's the reason we have in America, a middle class. We have an American middle class because in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, when our economy was really soaring and exploding and blowing up, we had a tremendous amount of consumer churn. And that's what created the American middle class. Yep. Yep. And the one thing,

the one argument I heard against it, which had a little sway with me was, this is going to affect single mothers more than it's going to affect other people because it raises the cost for childcare. Because a lot of the people in the childcare industry are making less than $15 an hour. And it's going to, because are making less than $15 an hour. And it's going to, because the average is about $11 an hour. That's about what they make. It's going to raise the cost of that up because they're going to have to pay for it. But then I just think to myself, well, that's why you need universal pre-K.

Right. That's why you need that. You need the government to step in and do that. Because here's the thing, folks. We pay regardless, okay? Whether you're going to pay a little extra for your Starbucks, which you probably won't even notice, right? You probably won't notice the more you pay for your big Mac, the more you pay for your Starbucks, the more you pay for your Culver's butter burger. Doesn't matter. All that stuff's going to be, you're

going to have to pay a little extra for that. Maybe, maybe you'll notice it, but guess what? We fucking subsidize every one of those people who can't make ends meet right now we pay them snap benefits we pay for their cobra insurance we pay for all the stuff that we pay for all that with all that money's already coming out of the governmental it's coming out of the governmental tit right now you know what i mean like in the future you're gonna instead of us paying for that with our tax dollars, you're going to let the corporations that make all this money chip in more by paying more wages, and we're off the hook for it. Well, it's like the Medicare for all thing. People are like, oh, my taxes will go up.

Yeah, but your fucking premiums will go away. Away. Away. That's really far away. That's the place they should go. You spend a huge amount in premiums. They paint the issue as, you know, if we do this, these other things are going to cost more. Yeah, but I'll get a raise.

So, okay, I'll have more money to spend. Hey, man, I'd hate for that to have some more money. That would be shitty. And the other pieces of this article where they're talking about the other different things that they're thinking about doing. I know Biden is waffling on the canceling of student debt. Let me tell you, I've paid my fair share of student debt.

I've paid a lot of money into student debt. I am still in student debt from college, okay? And I paid a lot of money into this system. If they did 10, or even if I was out of the bracket that said that I wasn't able to get it, I wouldn't care. I would want those people to get something off.

You know what they could do? You know, another option is, and I don't know why nobody has said this, just cancel the interest on it, right? Maybe I still have to pay it back, but make it so I don't have to pay interest on it at least. And then, you know, you don't lose that money. I'm still paying it back, but at least I'm making headway because right now I'm not making any headway. I'm still,

I'm still not, you know, the amount of money I owe at the end of every year is comical in comparison every year. It's pretty much because the interest rate on it isn't high, but I don't have super high payments. And so, you know, it's a long loan. I have this for a long time. And so it's a long loan. Biden is talking about canceling $10,000 of student loan debt. He is supporting that. And I will say, the studies show that that's kind of a great amount. That's very doable as far as the economic impact. And that has a disproportionate, canceling $10,000 worth of student loans means that, and there was, there was some, there's some numbers that came out

recently about this that were interesting. So $10,000 is kind of a fucking butter zone. It's a really like, yeah, it would be great if it was 50,000, it'd be great if it was just, you know, we should have fucking education. It should just be fucking free. That's what we should have. But if we can't get that done and we get $10,000, that has a massive impact on primarily people of color and people of lower socioeconomic status, right? There's an enormous number of people who go to school and do not finish school. Those people still have student loan debt, but

they're usually the ones with $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 worth of student loan debt and not $50,000, $60,000, $100,000 worth of student loan debt. Those people typically finish their education. People go to school for a short period of time and then for many number of reasons don't finish school. They're saddled with that debt without the corresponding increase in income that comes with their education. We don't think about that. We think about an education as a completed task. And then once you complete your education, you have the benefit financially of getting the job that corresponds to the education. But so many people have eight, nine, 10, 11, $12,000 worth of debt that's crippling because they're working

that $7 an hour minimum wage job because they had to drop out of school to support their fucking family, right? So it is a massive impact. $10,000 would have a massive economic impact on the most vulnerable, financially vulnerable people. We should make that fucking happen. Like we should, there's no reason not to make that happen. There's a lot of progressive policies that

they could enact that are bipartisan progressive policies. They are bipartisan in the sense that there are plenty of people on the other side that would benefit just as well. And it's like we talked about with UBI. When we had those conversations about UBI, we were both on the like, man, I don't know, because everybody hates welfare. But at the same time, if everybody's getting it, it's not welfare.

Right. And some people see that and they think, wow, that's a big deal. And it changes people's lives. It would change people's lives. There is some ways to change people's lives for the better

and they're bipartisan and they're ultra popular. And I think if you put somebody's feet to the fire, you can get some of this stuff done. Or if you can't, you can at least force them to try to do it in the future if you can really turn it into a wedge issue. Yeah, part of the reason this doesn't happen, Cecil,

is that the Republicans and many of the fucking really moderate Democrats, they are not working for the constituent individuals. You're right. They are working for donors. So it doesn't fucking make a lick of difference. They're working for their top 10%, man. The Republican Party is about protecting the cash value of the working top 5, 6, 2, 3%. That's what they're there. That's what they're in it for. And they're working to make their

fucking donors happy and to make fucking rich people happy. And the way that they do that is to fucking work up the yokels. And they've as much as fucking said it, Trump as much as fucking said it when he's like, I love the uneducated. Right. He came out and said it. He basically said, I'm going to use uneducated people in order to create a voting base of fucking ignorance in order to give my rich friends what they want. We're not giving poor people what they want. There's plenty of poor people on the right. Like your whole point. It's because of those two issues. You're right though. They do work for this. They work for a tiny percentage, Tom. They work for a tiny percentage of the people. But I think, you know, there are some people out there that keep on bringing this up. I mean,

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not shut up about it. And she's attacking people, not attacking, but she's certainly pointing out the parts of the left that aren't agreeing with her and that have bad arguments. And she's doing a good job of it.

And I know there's others that are doing it too. And we've got to amplify their voices and make sure that other people recognize that those are progressive policies that span Republican and Democrat. There are progressives in the Republican Party. They exist, man. They want some of this shit. In the immortal words of William Wallace, freedom! I do, Cecil, I do want to take a quick shot at AOC though, because when it was really cold in her home state of New York,

she took a vacation down to Texas recently. Unbelievable, Tom. You know, and she, I don't know if she had to bring family or what. I didn't see the text message exchanges, but. Right. You know, she took that. She got on an airplane and left the cold and the snow of New York in the middle of the winter to go to the beautiful, warm state of Texas.

She raised more money and did more. That was such a great thing to do. It was such an amazing thing. Such a great thing to do. And it's one of those, and you know, whether it's done out of spite or not, it doesn't matter because it was good stuff. Right.

Yeah. But the thing is that like, you can't show me the thing. See, so like, it's a great point, but you can't show me up in a fucking like morality contest if you're just, if everybody's doing the right thing. Yeah. If everybody's doing the right thing, then when I show up and do the right thing,

it's not glaringly obvious that the other guy wasn't doing it. That's all it takes. Like what, what did she do? Even if it was all strategy like what was the strategy well she did the right thing right in front of me she made me watch while she did what i supposed to do yeah face yeah that guy showed up and he did my job dude how how amazing is it the ted cruz's neighbors don't even like him? I know. They leaked his shit.

They're just like, I wonder if it wasn't just like a text message. It was actually one of those, because you could send little soundbites to people. So it's just, you guys want to come with us to Cancun. Her fucking mom group hates her so much. It's so great. Nobody likes them. It's so great. Nobody likes them. It's so mean. How mean is that?

These are the people she wanted to vacation with. I can't. What that means, Cecil, she has no close friends. She doesn't. She doesn't. She must not because there are people, there's only maybe,

I would say maybe five different people in my life that I would be like, I would take a vacation with them. Right. I mean, there's a small group. Yeah. And I certainly wouldn't text them and be like, yeah, why don't you come down to wherever the fuck we are in some weird place. Right. It's going to be some far away place. I wouldn't text them to do that. And she went out of it like, oh, it's just so delicious.

It's so delicious. The people in my life that I would consider going on a vacation with, I could send an accidental dick pic to, right? And be like, oopsie doopsie. And they'd be like, ribbing and teasing, right? But it wouldn't be... I could send my bank statements to these people.

Right? There's no... It's complete trust. But the idea that it gets right to the press, New York times. Unbelievable. I love the Ted Cruz came home and he's like,

these people linked. I'm so, I might feel so betrayed. Now we're saying like, they're actually like, get the fuck out of here. Now we're saying they're acting like assholes.

Like, Oh, they're being mean to me. Why is that? I mean, other people, they're being mean to me. Why is that? I mean to other people, but then they were mean back. He's such an asshole. I'm so happy. I'm always so happy when he's in the news and getting fucking dragged to the mud.

I'm always doing little claps. I'm always like, clappy, clappy, clappy, because I just see his fat, ugly face getting dragged to the mud, and I'm just happy. I'm just clapping, clapping because I just see his fat, ugly face getting dragged to the mud. And I'm just happy. I'm just happy. What I do think is going to be wonderful this year, because I just think it's going to happen. I think it's already starting to happen, is you've got all these like populist, rabble-rousing dipshits who think that they can do like Trump. And none of them will get the same bizarre Teflon grace that Trump has been given. Nope, nope.

They're all going to take this flamboyant, belligerent, bellicose fucking attitude, and they'll get a little traction from it. But inevitably, they'll fuck up and there'll be a scandal. And unlike Trump, who's the only person for whom scandals somehow did not matter, it'll ruin all of them. It'll just ruin all of them one by one. Do you know why though? Because Ted Cruz admitted it was a defeat, right? Ted Cruz,

Ted Cruz came back and cause he's, you know, while I hate him, he's at least rational enough to know he got his ass kicked. He got true. He got dragged, right? Yep. Trump instead would just be like, I never got dragged. What are you talking about? Right. No, I never happened. I never even went to Cancun.

Cancun's not even a place. I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't even know what you're talking about. I was here the whole time passing. I was throwing fucking paper towels. What do you mean they don't need paper towels? What do you know? What do you mean they don't need paper towels?

But no, seriously, I hope of all the things that would make Texas blue is a blue Texas. You know, of all the things, it's when the weather map makes it blue, it turns blue. It's like blue for real, you know? Bale.

If I had to rank all the different types of bale, it would go like this. Number one, Christian bail. Number two, hay bail. Hay bail is also a great way to greet Christian bail. Hay bail. And in last place, jail bail. All right, this story comes from NPR.org.

This is actually a reason to be proud of our home state, Cecil. Right. Really proud. Illinois becomes first state to eliminate cash bail. Illinois Governor Pritzker signed a bill on Monday that makes Illinois the first state in the country to abolish cash bail payments for jail release for people who have been arrested and are waiting for their case to be heard. This is, as the article notes, and has always been a poor people tax. That is what it is. This is a poor people tax that sticks people in fucking jail until they fucking shell out some fucking money so they can go to trial.

It is horrible. It is horrible. And this, I do want to say too, this is the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act. It's part of Illinois House Bill 3653. It's a whole criminal justice reform bill that Illinois passed. It's kind of fucking great. So like maybe some other states that aren't doing these things should pay attention. These should have always been minimum standards, right? It requires police body cams by 2025 on all officers. It requires police officers to be licensed by the state. Pause and think for a second that your police officers did not have to be licensed before that.

That like if you're a fucking realtor, you have to get a license. You got to take a weekend class or two and you're a fucking realtor, you have to get a license. You got to take a weekend or class or two and you get a fucking realtor's license. Somebody hands you a gun. I will sell this house today. I will sell this house today. That's what you do. You just go there and clean a house. I will beat this man today.

I will beat this man to death. That's true though. It is. That's the same. To be honest, that's what Pritzker said though. He didn't the same well and then to be honest that's what prince kirk said though yeah he didn't say i beat this man to death what he did say was he said this is protest to legislation it's essentially protest to legislation it it it started in the streets and now there are there's a movement out there to stop some of these horrible things that we have going that are literally just punishing black and brown and poor communities.

Yep. The licensing thing, here's why the licensing thing is so great. If I'm a shithead cop and I have my be a cop license and I go out and I beat the shit out of somebody, but I'm still protected because the law actually has a lot of very significant protections against the police. I can still have my license revoked. And if I have my license revoked, what that prevents is me just saying, fine, I got fired from this community. I'm going to go be a cop in the next community over, which happens all the fucking time. But now the state can strip that person of their license,

rendering them unable to work in the state anymore as a cop. And it also would create a database, a state database that, you know, maybe if I'm in the fucking great state of, I almost said Indiana and great state together. If I am in the garbage meth state of Indiana and somebody's like, hey, I want to be a cop in your horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, cesspool stink state of wretchedness and despair. Maybe. And then you look at him and you say, why? Why though? Why on earth would you want to be here?

Why would you? Are you made of meth? Like what is happening in your life right now? It makes you, are you a meth snowman? I don't understand why you're here. You want to be a cop? Do you like the smell of pastures and meth? I don't understand.

Who immigrates to fucking Indiana? Who looks at a fucking map of the United States and is like, okay, I didn't either throw an errant dart or lose a bet. And I ended up in Indiana. Lose a bet is the way you do it. Or you lose your job as vice president. Those are the only other ways that you wind up back in Indiana. But yeah, cash bail, man, that's fucking awful. And it's over.

The only bail you have to post now is if it's like a violent felony or murder or domestic yeah yeah and and cash bail is is a way in which to convince poor people to plea bargain it is a it is a way to relieve the courts of a burden of trying these people actually. Right? It basically creates a streamline for these people that don't want to spend the two years in jail to plea bargain. Yeah. So they go to them and they say, look, you could either spend as much time as it takes for you to prove yourself innocent because that's what it is. Yep. Yep. Right? We have to remember that we have a system here in this country that says you are proven As much time as it takes for you to prove yourself innocent, because that's what it is, right?

We have to remember that we have a system here in this country that says you are proven innocent until you're proven guilty, right? You're innocent until proven guilty. We have that system here, but that's not how it works. We keep you in jail, which essentially proves, is proving you guilty until you can prove you're innocent. Why would you be in jail if you weren't guilty, Cecil? Exactly. All the time. Until you can prove your innocence. Why would you be in jail if you weren't guilty, Cecil? Exactly.

It's outrageous thing to think. And then they look at the judge and the judge says something to the effect of, well, you could either go back to this holding pen or go to some horrible county jail or city jail for X amount of time until we can hear and try your case, or I can give you time served and a felony or whatever. And then what are you taking? And then you don't realize the impact that these things have on your future,

the criminal record that's going to give you. It's going to keep you in a place where you could possibly never, ever get out of a poverty. Because the thing is, is if you couldn't afford the $500 bail now, you're not going to afford it with a criminal record. It's not like that's going to make your life better after you get out. It's not going to improve your chances of getting a job or doing any of these things. And so we're creating, we're just basically creating a poor factory. That's all it is. It's just over and over and over. I saw this interesting study where they had a company,

not a company, a non-profit. They went out of their way to collect money to pay for people's bail. They had a bail fund where people would donate and then they would go to anybody who needed it, could send them a message, and then they would post their bail.

Now, the argument that a lot of these people have is that if they don't have your money, you don't have any skin in the game, you're going to skip bail, right? That's the argument. That's the reason why it exists is because it's trying to get you go back to court 90 of the people whose bail they gave came back 90 with no skin in the game at all no skin in the game yeah only under five percent of the people that they've bailed out of jail were actually convicted of a crime all the rest of those people weren't even guilty. Got let off. All the rest of those people because we didn't have the evidence because we just arrest people and then we hold them. And just being arrested, a couple of things to think about too. I thought about myself. I am the sole breadwinner for my family. If I got arrested and thrown into jail,

the sole breadwinner for my family. If I got arrested and thrown into jail, and for whatever reason, I couldn't make bail, my job does not have to keep employing me, and many will not. So I get thrown into jail. It's not like, oh, I get thrown into jail, and I am the only one who suffers deprivation. My family no longer has the benefit of my fucking income anymore. So how are my wife and kids supposed to support themselves with no notice? All of a sudden, I'm just blink of an eye gone. And I'm just,

I'm in jail for however long and I lose my job. So I have no job to fucking come back to even if I'm found not guilty. We are supposed to have a right to a speedy trial in this country. But the reality is we don't.

People get thrown in county jails and they sit and fucking languish. And they languish sometimes for years before their trial comes up. For literal years before their trials come up. So just getting found not guilty of a crime or acquitted of a crime because of the bail system does not mean that your life isn't ruined. Doesn't mean that you didn't lose your job. And, you know, lose your job. Right, you're right. Fucking maybe lose your spouse

who doesn't want to fucking wait for two years or get killed in prison. People die in fucking prison all the time. Not prison, in jail. Or they get fucking cold. Or they, yeah, they kill themselves. I can't imagine the despair I would feel. Yeah. I can't imagine getting, if I got thrown in jail tomorrow, the lives it would affect would

fucking ripple and ripple and ripple. And that's true of so many people. It's true of so many people. Yeah, it's absolutely. And cash bail is one of those systems that we have in place. The reason why it was even implemented back in the day was it was implemented in a way to make sure that you came back, like you said, like we said, came back to jail, but it was also a case by case basis, right? So they would look at you and they would say, how much can you afford? And then they would charge you that so you could actually get out of jail. And then you would come back presumably because it was a lot of money to you. Right. And so a lot of money to you is different from a lot of money from somebody on the West side, which is different from somebody in Lincoln

Park, which is different from somebody in Logan Square, which is different than somebody in the South Loop. It's different all over because everybody has different levels of income. And so, and they're in different classes. You know, you get somebody who might have to pay a million dollars and that might not be a big deal to them, right? There could be a possibility where it's not a big deal to them, but then there's other people where the, you know, $50 is too much. People can't make $500 bail all the time. That happens and they stay in jail because their family cannot scrape that together. They can't get that money together. And, you know, I know that there's going to be people out there that'll say, well, you know, you might just be letting somebody out

who doesn't, you know, who might, who might be guilty of a crime. That's the risk of living in a free society, folks. That's what the risk is, right? We have to presume people are innocent before they are proven guilty. We can't just think they're guilty and hold them. That's literally against the Constitution, man. It's literally against all of the things that we think. It's the antithesis of a free society. When you immediately presume guilt and you say, well, there's a chance that person is bad. This is a minority report, man.

We're not pre-deciding if people are guilty or not. We're not floating in a fucking sensory deprivation tank and dreaming our way through our justice system. Yeah, you can't do that to people. You don't, if you don't,

and there's a great way to figure this out. And it's make sure that there is a hearing for people you want to keep. And now that hearing has to happen right away and there has to be evidence to keep them in jail. There has to be, it's not just hearsay evidence.

It's not just garbage evidence. It has to be real evidence to keep somebody in. You have to have something like, yeah, the guy who just carjacked five people that the police followed around with their fucking light on them and their camera and the news crews are following. And he hijacks five or six cars trying to get away thinking this is GTA 5. Yeah, that guy's probably not getting out of jail.

But petty drug crime? Yep. You got to pay $500 for a petty drug crime? Which is almost all of it. And this bill specifically carves out violent offenses and domestic abuse. Yeah. It specifically carves those things out. So bail reforms in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. have showed that the elimination of cash bail had little to no increase in crime. Yeah. So- Yeah. They've done this in other places.

They've done this on a smaller scale in certain cities, and there has not been an impact on crime. So it's fucking fear tactics, man. It's that, it's that like, oh, what if we let a, you know, rapist out? Well, rape's a violent crime. We're not letting rapists out. We're letting some fucking dime bag guy out. And here's the thing, rape, rapists are out right now. Right. Yeah, true. They're out right now. You know what I mean? Like we, but this is a minority report. So I can't put them away unless they do something that we catch them doing. And the police are notoriously bad at catching people doing stuff. They are.

What they are good at is convincing you to do it, convincing you to cop to a plea under duress. That's what they're good at. That's what they're really good at. That's what they're really good at. And that's what they get. That's what they get with this system. That's what they're really good at. And that's what they get. That's what they get with this system. They don't get it the other way.

And so it's super important. It's a law coercion system. It really is. It really is. And so the other thing that happens too is that there's a big, huge industry in bail bonds. And bail bonds is a predatory industry, predatory against people of color,

people of low income, because they charge you interest on this stuff. Yeah, you might not have five. It's a fucking, it's the same thing as a fucking check cashing place or whatever the logo, or it's a fucking car loan place. That's what fucking bail bonds is.

It's just a way to get you to fucking have to pay money. You don't fucking have to. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's all is a ringing fucking you to fucking have to pay money. You don't fucking have to. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's all is a ringing fucking blood from a stone every fucking day. And they got a huge fucking lobby here and they got a ton of people that love them and they get a bunch of people. But here in Illinois, evidently, they didn't have enough power to swing their dick and

stop this. And so it's huge. It's huge for them. Bully for that. Bully for fucking Illinois, man. Yeah. I'm proud of us. I am proud of us too. How for fucking Illinois, man. Yeah. I'm proud of us. How often do we get to say that? I'm proud of us.

I'm proud of us, too. I'm happy. When I saw that this week, I was gleeful. Yep. It's a really big deal. Since I was a child, I've been naturally inquisitive. As I grew, I poured countless hours into a number of conspiracy theories. Some of these theories I believe, and some of these theories I don't. But some of them I do. And lately, I've been wondering, is there a secret race of reptile

people controlling our governments and enslaving humanity? We'll see. So this story comes to the New York Times behind the Nashville bombing, a conspiracy theorist stewing about the government. So the Nashville bombing, they pretty quickly figured out that it was Anthony Warner, but more details have come out about who this guy is. And see, so like through this story in here, because no shit, this guy was motivated in part by David fucking Ike reptile people.

We reptile people, Tom. I, I, I have to say this. I have to say this. This is why it is. It has never,

say this. I have to say this. This is why it is. It has never, the subject of fucking reality has never fucking mattered as much as it does right now. Right now, right now we are at a place David Ike. We read David Ike three years ago on a lark as a fucking joke because there's a, there's a threshold and David Ike is the, I mean, like he's that threshold where if you read this out loud and you don't say this is crazy, there's nothing left that you'll say that's too crazy for week. That was a fucking poll.

The audience. What's the craziest thing we can read. Right. And that's what came back. Not just a tiny few amount of people that resoundingly came back to us. And we're at a place where the reptile people shit is mixed in with the QAnon shit, which is mixed in with white supremacy, which is fucking dabbled in with fucking Trumpism, which just stormed the fucking Capitol.

And we are- Which is anti-vax. Yeah. And we're at a place where you can't say something anymore. This is actually important to me. Like you can't say something anymore that sounds too crazy to be believed.

We're post, we're in a post-reality moment. And if we continue down the path of accepting what a world that is a post-truth, post-reality moment looks like, we are fucking doomed. We are fucking, we are, just call the whole thing off. Just call the whole fucking thing off. Reality has to matter.

We have to come back to reality. We have to come back to, that's so crazy. It's not worth talking about. There have to be things that we have to get away from this idea that, that, um, all opinions matter and everything's equally valid and they were just talking and yeah, all that reality has to matter. Telling me that fucking space aliens that live in our, look like our bodies and they're reptilians and they're from a constellation of stars with monatomic fourth energy gold or whatever.

If I can't, if you say that and it doesn't sound so insane that believing it beggars the imagination, there's no difference between the fiction section and the nonfiction section anymore. We've just mixed all the pages together

and we're fucked, man. We are absolutely fucked. Because I'll tell you what, there are people who know what reality is and they will use this. They will use these people. Well, I mean, we can scroll back to last week when we were talking about the death

of that horrible human being, Rush Limbaugh. Yes, yeah. And Rush Limbaugh flirted with dozens of shitty conspiracies throughout his time. He was a birther. He was a birther, man. Yeah. He pushed that narrative.

He pushed that narrative like crazy. Birtherism is a racist, shitty narrative to make it look like somebody doesn't deserve a position that they have because they're not from here. They need to go back

where they came from. It's a fucking 100% racist. He denied up until his dying day the reality of smoking's ties to lung cancer.

He died of lung cancer still smoking. Yeah. Absolutely. You're talking about a guy who has... What? But trust me, Smoking's ties to lung cancer. He died of lung cancer, still smoking. Yeah, absolutely. You were talking about a guy who has, but, but trust me, Rush knew all the fucking problems with that.

He knew it. He knew all the problems with birtherism too. Yeah. Rush was smarter than that. Rush knew that stuff. He knew it. He didn't believe birtherism. No.

He knew it was an awesome way to discredit somebody he didn't like. So he used it. And it's because all that stuff opened up, all the different types of news and information opened up with the changing of the fairness doctrine, right? With that sort of thing, when that happened, that's how Rush got his start. And that sort of thing is where there's some way for people to say, no, this is true and this is not true

and you can't push the boundaries outside of truth. Well, we've seen what happens when you take the regulator off of that for too long. There's just truth. Truth needs to have some sort of regulation, some sort of regulator valve on it. It's gotta have teeth, man. There's gotta be something there.

Yeah. Because right now what we're seeing is tons of people, not just, and this is not a got to have teeth, man. There's got to be something there. Yeah. Because right now, what we're seeing is tons of people, not just, and this is not a small amount of people, man. The reason why we read that book and laughed about it

because we thought it was a tiny amount of people believed it. There's a guy who made a bomb big enough to blow up part of Nashville who believed it.

Yep. He was willing to blow himself up. He killed himself. He ended his own life in the fervent belief in complete bat shithit fucking crazy nonsense. The Capitol was stormed by a bunch of people who believe in batshit crazy nonsense.

One of the tools that we have to continue to use and we have to continue to push is lawsuits, man. We talked about this a few weeks ago on the show. Lawsuits. We got to sue those fuckers, sue all that nonsense, all that fucking garbage purveying. It can't be silly, fun times anymore. Things have gotten serious. Bombs are going off. You know, like the Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States, he rose to prominence because he was a lead investigator and prosecutor after the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma City. That's where he cut his fucking teeth. And the reason that he was nominated as attorney general is because domestic terrorism, that's Americans killing other fucking Americans, is, according to all of our national agencies, security agencies, that's our number one threat.

And it is existential. It is an existential threat. And underlying all of that is a reality crisis. We have a reality crisis right now. And the tools that we have available to us to dement reality are incredibly powerful. They are more powerful than we are individually. Collective action has to be taken.

I'll tell you, that fucking Dominion voting systems, they are going after every single one of those people that promoted those lies. Good. Every single one, and they are going to fucking take so much money from those places. They're going to,

I can't imagine them not winning because you know that they got all those tapes and you know that they have access to all those tapes through, I'm sure through, the moment you call a lawsuit and you ask them to produce that stuff, I'm sure that there's got to be some way

that they have to produce it, right? Say, I would have to produce it. And so all that stuff has to be produced. And suddenly all that stuff starts getting produced. You start seeing these hosts dancing and stepping over lines. You're not going to survive it. Even the cost of defending those lawsuits is going to be crippling. Just crippling.

Yeah, those people are going to have a real hard time. That one fucking wacko pillow guy made a whole documentary this last week. Did he really? A couple of weeks ago, he made a whole documentary, Tom, about how the voting systems. He's still pushing that shit?

He's still pushing it and he's going to get, I mean, they're going to take all his pillows. They're going to make a pillow fort and they're going to make him stay in it forever. You think this is a big pillow fight? I don't know. He's swinging his

my pillows around. He's got a pair of nunchuck pillows. He's like, never bring a deposition to a pillow fight, bitches.

Misophonia warning. Skip one minute and three seconds to avoid. Oh, hi, everyone. This stuff is awesome. But this stuff is spicy. The bedroom is even better. So that's almost anyone I am for 50% off. And then I haven't really loaded on the free stuff.

And then I have loads of free stuff. I go to Arbuckle Glory, I check out, and get hand-tanzalizing free gifts. A second item for him, a special item for her, and a third item to welcome. Anyway, I'm sick of spicy movies. Movies. Plus reshipping.

That's glory. G-L-O-R-Y Africa Glory. Check it out at adamandeve.com Watermelon not good. Whoa. Hey,

what? Uh, Kevin, why? You've betrayed my trust. It's just a little bit of porn. No one ever care that you are yanking it in a shower. Savage yourself.

All you want. Do not touch my lineup. This is achievable, babe. Those are sandwich bags. Yeah, they work so good. My whole life is cursed. So is it weird if I finish? This story comes from people.com. Mom who makes $150,000 a month from OnlyFans says Catholic school expelled her three sons because of her page. So, I mean, this is just like one of those like milquetoast Catholics can't stand sexuality and want to punish women's stories, right? Right. The best part about this story for me though, and the reason I put it in the notes

is because the way that it was found right is some dad was trolling around jerking off to her only fans and then was like wait a minute haven't i seen that woman in the car pool and then would that be hilarious i know you from somewhere you look familiar and your hand just starts drifting south like like automatically oh so some dad some dad is on only fans right from the school and he finds her on only fans and it's like wait a minute i know her from the fucking pta or whatever and then he goes to his wife and i have to just wonder like all right i am outraged i am. I am. Honey, honey, come in here. I was jerking off to OnlyFans. And you know what?

It turns out it's the mom down the street and not. Did you know these people are real people? Honey, these are real people that I've been jerking off to. Hold on. Did I say me? I meant Bill down the street told me that she's on OnlyFans. I was doing a research project. Yeah exactly oh I was just uh. Social experiment

it's weird cause I saw her there and then someone had mentioned it on her Facebook well I don't know how we're Facebook friends anyway no you can't look at my phone oh Jesus it's so amazing you know and it's so funny too

because it's that weird repressed shit that fucking only Catholics can do wrong. You know? Catholics do it so wrong, so bad all the time where they're just in back diddling boys saying she posed with a completely dressed and her cleavage was showing.

Get her out of here. Get her out of here. What? Human sexuality? That's for the kids. Wait. Wait. I didn't say that.

I see dirtier pictures on Adult Swim. Get the hell out of here. This is a JCPenney catalog level. It totally is, man. It's JCPenney. It's not even, there's no boobies. Yeah.

According to the article, she has a handful of tasteful nudes but nothing even pornographic she's making a boudoir photo what yeah exactly boudoir photos that people do it's like it's it's it's commonplace this is this is not you're gonna get you're gonna kick three kids out of school well now mom's hot so the kids can't go to school what but wait say that out loud patreon goal what level to get ian to do a boudoir oh for fuck oh can i be a patron of our own show what level do we got level ian jump in? Ian, you got to chime in, buddy. Ian, chime in and tell us what level you need to be at for you to do a full boudoir shoot. I want poses.

I'll pay for the wardrobe, too. He's got some weird thing with him and a microphone and a soundboard. And he's got a boosty Aeon. Oh, good stuff. Good stuff. No. Okay, maybe.

Like 6,000 in an episode. So we want to thank our patrons. Of course, we want to thank all our patrons. We want to thank our newest patrons, Julie Thad, my least favorite patron, Dan, non-binary,

omnisexual, satanic socialist in Republican clothing. That is fucking baller. Is that Kathy's? Is that what that means? Christopher, Dr. Bitch the Bitch Doctor. Heather and Cheryl, thank you so much for your generous donations.

We really, really do truly appreciate you guys are the guys who pay Ian's salary. You help us pay for all the expenses that come with paying for a podcast to get it to you easier and more frequently. So thank you so much for your generous

donations. We can't do the podcast without you. If you were on the fence about being a patron, we ask you to become a patron if you enjoy the show. We got a message from Craig and Craig sent in an image we're going to post on this week's show notes. This image is pretty funny. It's one of those cartoons. Good little cartoon. It's a great silly cartoon. It's good. Thank you, Craig. I liked it. Got a message from Leon and Leon says, hey, I heard you guys talking about that Colorado City, Texas guy.

I feel like putting this guy in the limelight isn't the best idea. The guy's a nobody. He was a mayor of a city less than 5,000 people. You know, why? He says, basically, you're just giving this guy a limelight. What do you guys think? And I want to say a couple of things. The first is, you know, I don't think that his position is different from many people on the far right. I don't think his position is one of those positions that's so alien that it's a joke. I, in fact, think his position is way more mainstream with people on the right than we would give it credit for. I think there's a lot of bootstrappers on the right that think that no one owes you anything and, oh gosh, poor baby,

your heat went off and then they don't give a shit about you or, oh, your pipes froze. Well, you should have had fucking homeowner's insurance. That's your fault. Oh, you didn't have wet, warm clothes. Well, you got to be prepared. That's your fault. I don't think that that's an alien belief. I don't think that's such a strange belief that calling attention to something so stupid is a bad thing. No, I don't either. And this story also like,

it got national attention. So we didn't amplify it. And I think to your point, it's important because it's emblematic of the callousness of the Republican mindset. So, no, Tom and I actually disagree. We genuinely disagree. And this happens with a lot of things.

Like, we have a bigger audience than a lot of the people we play clips for. But we don't play their clips because we think that they are saying something that, you know, is so funny or so unique. Instead, we think that the problem is, is that these voices are actually echoing what all the large voices are echoing. They're just saying it with a less of a filter, right? So these, all these people in all the Republicans in Congress would never say what this mayor said, but they all, in some way, believe it and enforce policies and create rhetoric that matches it. They're saying it with a little less of a filter. That's all.

Got an image. This is from Seth, and it is about the Texas cold snap. It's great, actually. What was that show? That 70s show. That 70 show. Yeah, it's a that 70 show image. This is great. This is from Lucky. Lucky McChancey sent this in. Great name.

This is an image of Ted Cruz. His statement from his Mexico trip. So fucking amazing and funny. You don't want to find it. It is really good. It took me a minute. C-Slide, explain it to me. It's great. Find it on this week's show notes, 566. We got a message from Mary and Mary said, you know, just wanted to thank you guys for explaining that, you know, Texas isn't built for the cold. And then Mary went on to explain that there's so many other things that, you know, that, that, you know, we're not down there, so we don't know, but you know, uh, toilet bowl, water freezing in the toilet. There's a, they don't own any kind of

heavy clothing that some people don't own. And some, and none of the thrift stores have any of that secondhand gear, even regular stores aren't stocked with cold weather gear. They just don't have it. And so it's, it's a, it it's very bad. Their house, somebody's house, she knew was averaging 28 degrees until their power came on 50 hours later, 50 hours. And Tom, did you see the people? Cause they have this weird fucking rootin' tootin' system for you to get your heat and shit. Some people had $16,000 heating bills. Electric bills, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. After the deregulation, it allows you to buy your energy from any number of energy suppliers, and you can gamble.

Some people choose to get a fixed rate on their wattage, but other people, they roll the dice, and they have basically a price that fluctuates based on demand and an adjustable rate. And I mean, they kick the fucking thing up through the roof. $16,000? I'm the man in falling down at a $16,000 bill. I'm leaving my car in the middle of the road. I'm getting a shotgun. I'm going to walk up the street. I'm going to find who I would be so radicalized by that. Yep. That's insane. That is absolutely insane. The governor did say like, we're going to fix that.

Like we're just, that's not going to, people are not going to have to pay that. It's just straight up gouging. How is that different? Like, how is that different than during a crisis? You can't like kick the cost of bottled water up. Like that's not allowed. Like you can't, you even, because you'd be selling, you know, in the middle of a hurricane or some shit, you'd be selling fucking bottles of water for 20 bucks to thirsty people. It's illegal. Gouging like that in a crisis is illegal. So it's gonna that in a crisis is illegal. So it's going to end up getting kicked back for the same reason. A bunch of people sent in messages

for when I talked about Zenni last week. And I don't remember if I talked about it on the stream or if I talked about it in the show, but I talked about how I went to the eye doctor and the eye doctor, I had to pay an exorbitant amount of money to the eye doctor. And I was complaining about how much I went to the eye doctor and the eye doctor, I had to pay an exorbitant amount of money to the eye doctor. And, uh, and I was complaining about how much I had to pay and how they wouldn't give me my pupillary distance. Cause it's a, it's a key stat you need in order

to, uh, get your glasses online. You need a pupillary distance. Well, a bunch of people said there's apps that you can go to Costco can do your, your thing and ask, you can ask for the pupillary distance. if you get an exam there. Bunch of other people send in a bunch of different messages. You know, you can go to, like I said, there's apps and other things. And also, I guess you could do it if you have a buddy, there's like ways you could do it with a friend. And so there's a whole bunch of ways to do it. It turns out when I went to go pick my glasses up though, Tom, another person was working the desk and I asked again and they gave it to me. So I tricked him.

I tricked him, Tom. I don't know how I did it. You got it. But I tricked him. You got one over on him. I tricked him somehow. I got one over on him. But you know, I was able to get my pupillary distance because I asked twice.

I asked when I got, I asked when I had my eye exam made and the lady who did it said, no, we don't give it out. And then when I came back to pick my glasses up, the receptionist, who I think doesn't care, was just, just told me. So it didn't matter to her, but it mattered.

It must've mattered to the eye doctor. So they, they didn't want to give it to me. So, but, but yeah, thank you everybody for sending those in. And yeah, I wish we could, we actually were approached a couple of times by either Zenni or Warbly Parker

or something and then they never bought space on our, ad space, but we were approached a couple of times, so. I would totally advertise

for Zenni. I genuinely like them. I'm wearing their glasses now. Send a message to Libsyn guys and tell them that we would be a great advertiser

for Zenni. Send a message, but Libsyn never picks us because tell them that we would be a great advertiser for Zenni. Send a message, but Libsyn never picks us because they just don't ever pick us. Because we're the glory hole show. That's why. That does sound bad. That's a fair, fair.

Tom, this message is from Garrett and Garrett wants to know how you can work with people that might have very, very different opposing political views from you. Yeah, I think there's two options and two ways to deal with it. And it really depends on what the power structure is. So if you're the boss, then you just put a rule in place that says,

we don't talk about politics at work. It's very simple. If you're in charge, if they're your subordinates, you just put a blanket policy in place that says, hey, we don't talk about religion. We don't talk about politics those things are off the table you know let's keep a civil workplace those things are divisive issues they have no space here it's harder when it comes from your superiors so if your superiors are the ones that initiate this conversation you're just gonna have to suck it up there isn't anything you can do about it I am in that situation from time to time

bosses boss and I have very different political leanings occasionally he'll say things that in other contexts I would object to vociferously but he keeps my lights on so I don't say shit

and that's a bite your tongue moment there's really not anything else you can do. So that is going to wrap it up for this week. Be sure to join us next week on our live stream. Remember we live stream every week and we're getting messages from people saying they're actually enjoying the live streams quite a bit. Lots of fun. So, so check them out. You can go to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and you can watch them. And you can also watch them after they're over. So the videos exist on those platforms after those shows go down.

So you can watch them after they're over. You can also subscribe to our Clip channel. Our Clip channel, we clip out all of our shows each week. So if you don't want to watch all the whole live stream, you could just watch a specific portion of it that gets your interest. If you wanted to watch the Rick Wiles portion this week, it'll be clipped out.

If you wanted to watch our Rush Limbaugh portion from last week, you could watch that portion because it's already clipped out on our clip channel. You can always find our clip channel. Hopefully, I'll have Ian try to link it somewhere. I'm going to have Ian try to link it in the notes, but then also have Ian just try to link it in general on our page somewhere.

So I'm going to have him put, you know, you can go to the clip channel or go to the regular YouTube. I'll general on our page somewhere. So I'm going to have him put, you know, you can go to the Clip Channel or go to the regular YouTube. I'll have him link that somewhere. I'll see if I can make him do that soon. And so you should be able to find it pretty easy. The Clip Channel is called the Money Shot Clips, but there should be a link to it in this week's show notes. I'll try to remind you.

But yeah, definitely subscribe and share those videos with people. So that's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to leave you like we always do with the Skeptic's Creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno-Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician, double bubble, toil and trouble, pseudo-quasi-alternative, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, water, downward spiral, brain dead, pan, sales pitch, late night info docutainment.

Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques, and synagogues, temples, dragons, giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, doublespeak, stigmata, nonsense. Expose your signs. Thrust your hands. Bloody. Evidential. Conclusive. Doubt even this. The opinions and information provided on this podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are solely that of Glory Hole Studios, LLC. Cognitive dissonance makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information and will not be liable for any errors, damages, or butthurt arising from consumption.

damages or butthurt arising from consumption. All information is provided on an as-is basis. No refunds. Produced in association with the local Dairy Council and viewers like you. you