Lovett or Leave It - Burn After Tweeting

Episode Date: May 30, 2020

D'Arcy Carden joins to match listeners with battleground states. Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead discuss their book about new ways conspiracies spread and how to respond. And we're joined live by listeners in Birmingham to break down the week's news and quiz the audience on how characters are described in books versus how those characters are cast on screen.

Welcome to the 12th episode of Love It or Leave It, Back in the Closet. How does it feel How does it feel To be on your own Just you and one Oh, I pity the fool, John Lovett You're back in the closet Yes, you are I'm running out of things to say Oh, no That Bob Dylan-inspired song was sent in by Vince Melamed.

We want to use a new one each week. If you want to make one, send it to us at hey at cricket.com, and maybe we'll use yours. Later in the show, we'll be joined by Darcy Carden, Professors Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead to discuss the nature of conspiracy theories that are currently being spread by Trump and in our politics. And we'll talk to you, our listeners.

But first, it is great to be here with our friends in Alabama, the great state of Senator Doug Jones and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who is roaming the Alabama countryside like a freelance racist samurai who has lost the favor of his master. So Sessions films this hostage video where he says Trump's doing a good job. Sessions basically put on a bib and seersucker suit and his special stars and bars pin he only wears on the inside of his lapel. And he said, I'm ready, Mr. President, to eat shit. Then Sessions ate shit. And then Trump endorsed his opponent anyway. And then what did Sessions do? He continued to praise Trump. Now, I can't deliver this in the Southern accent that for all of you is normal. Can does anybody here you can raise your hand? You can raise your hand in the chat. Does anyone here do a great Jeff Sessions? Can anyone here claim that they do a or even a modest or OK Jeff Sessions?

I see a hand. I see a hand. I see a hand. I'm well, who's tentative? There's a lot of tentative hand raising. Keep that hand up if you feel good about it. OK, OK, you win. You win.

I'm going to send you a message. Can you please do us a favor and read this? Can you please do us a favor and read this? This is now I will point out, everybody. This is what Sessions said after Trump endorsed his opponent. Even before he declared for the presidency, I fought for the principles that Donald Trump so effectively advocated in the campaign and as advanced as president. I believe in those principles, Ben, and I have always fought for them, and I will continue to do

so. That was great. It had a real Scarlett O'Hara vibe. I can't confirm how authentic it was because i don't you know it's it's my ears are not so sensitive uh but i'll trust that it was excellent jeff sessions we should all have that kind of unconditional love uh in our lives session can barely say weed is murder without thanking Trump first. And I think that is adorable.

But we have a lot to get through. So let's let's get into it. What a week. Great job. Great job, everybody. Obviously, obviously, the news this week has been especially heinous from grim milestones in the pandemic and the economic depression to racial violence and incitement by the president. And we'll talk about it. But it's no wonder that, according to new research,

a third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression. And that's with masks on. Also, millions of cicadas are expected to emerge this year. The CDC has warned of aggressive rats searching for food during the shutdown. A typical hurricane season has 12 named storms. But this year's season is expected to have between 13 and 19 coronavirus, cicadas, rats, hurricanes. Wow. The 5G this year is really strong. Meanwhile, two NASA astronauts are planning to depart for the International Space Station on Saturday, the first launch run by a private tech company, Elon Musk's SpaceX. But it won't really be the first space mission by a private tech company until the rocket is piloted by a part-time independent contractor with no health insurance.

The launch was originally planned for Wednesday, but the astronauts decided to postpone to avoid surge pricing. planned for Wednesday, but the astronauts decided to postpone to avoid surge pricing. Disney World announced that it will reopen two of its four parks in July at reduced capacity and with mandatory face masks for all visitors and employees. See, this is how you can keep the haunted mansion

stocked with fresh ghosts. It's like kind of a spirited away situation. You go to the park. According to the joke, you then, sadly, you do die of the virus, which is obviously very grim to joke about when you really kind of lay it out. But then you live forever in the haunted house, you know? And also this week, Trump lashed out at Twitter after they placed a fact check on his claim that mail-in ballots are a scam.

The Twitter link led to more accurate information. Somebody over at Twitter HQ better put on a big old pot of coffee because they're going to have to do a lot of linking. There's a lot of tweets. That's a tough job. That's a tough job. a tough job. That's a tough job. Now, critics say Twitter only acted after announced it would not remove Trump's tweet spreading a conspiracy theory that Joe Scarborough murdered a woman. Ridiculous. Everyone knows that the only time Joe Scarborough killed was when his band covered Cheeseburger in Paradise at a fundraiser for Mike Bloomberg. The crowd lost it. Steve Ratner was

rolling on Molly. Mike Barnacle tore his clothes off. And Mika blacked out and shouted free bird, which then caused Joe to whisper into the mic, annoyed. I told you, I can't do those chords yet. Trump also released an executive order that ostensibly made a bunch of legal arguments about why Twitter should be punished if it fails to let Trump lie and incite violence without mediation, which in reality was just about intimidating Twitter the way Trump and Republicans successfully bullied Mark Zuckerberg into valorizing right-wing propaganda on that platform. Of course, all of this is predicated on Twitter and Facebook tying themselves in knots to avoid applying their stated rules to Trump and

Trump's campaign. When confronted in the past by misinformation by Trump on Facebook that violated his rules, Facebook changed the rules. Twitter is now amending Trump's tweets, pointing to accurate information or noting that Trump is violating Twitter's terms of service by glorifying violence, but not actually taking down the inciting tweet, which for any other user would be removed. Ultimately, this to me isn't about Trump's capacity to reach people with his filth. Like he has many avenues. He could put a tweet out as a press release, and it would ricochet across Twitter. He threatens protesters and incites violence at rallies. He's cheered on white supremacists at press conferences. He's touted conspiracy theories and lies about

coronavirus again and again on the White House lawn. Kellyanne Conway this week went in front of the cameras to direct the outrage of Trump's base at a mid-level Twitter executive by name. She named him just to point a bunch of hatred and antagonism and anger at this one executive. And you know where else Trump spread the conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough, despite the pleas from the woman's family that he stopped, which is despicable. He did it in interviews. He doesn't need Twitter to do this, though he uses Twitter to do this. Twitter and Facebook are the private operators of a simulated public square and how we grapple with their rights and responsibilities legally, culturally, given their tremendous power in our

society now is a really hard challenge for our democracy. And that was true before the Trump emergency. And it will be true after. But right now, what we see is what happens when the president of the United States isn't held to the same standard as all of us, or even a higher standard, but a special lower standard just for him. And that, to me, is clearly wrong and dangerous.

That is why these companies have had to tie themselves in knots, not because they're holding him to a different standard, but because they refuse to hold him to the same one. But the reason I wanted to talk about this, you know, and look, we try to do this, you know, Love It or Leave It is a comedy show where we try to talk about what happened this week. And sometimes what happens is too horrible to joke about. And I always want to make sure we cover it. Maybe it can't be funny, but at least I can think through how I'm feeling about it. And maybe that's helpful. Maybe it's not. But what I was struck by is 100,000 people are dead.

40 million people are out of work. Cities are facing mass protests because of racist violence and incidents, including the murder of George Floyd. Trump can't lead. He can't manage. He can't console. He can't assuage. He can't grieve.

He can't unite. He can't temper. He can't inspire. He can't assuage. He can't grieve. He can't unite. He can't temper. He can't inspire. All the only tool he has, the only sort of arrows in his quiver is he can incite and he can distract. And what was striking to me is obviously it's despicable. Obviously it's dangerous. But he thinks it's good for him. He thinks it's useful for him to do this. And what does that tell us? And to me, the same callousness that leads Trump to believe that inciting violence is politically useful with his white base is the same callousness

that leads to a delay in arresting the white officer despite the murder being captured on tape, which is the same callousness that is required to inure so many privileged people, and I consider myself part of that group, to be a nerd to so much injustice. And it's that callousness that opens the door to someone like Trump in the first place. It is only possible for someone as wretched and racist as Donald Trump to become president in a country that has spent so long ignoring the pain and plight of millions of its citizens because of the color of their skin. That is the only way that it is possible. That callousness infects us. It infects us in how black citizens are treated. It infects us in what happens at the border when children are separated from our parents. It

affects us when we see people marching on state capitals just because they don't want to do their part and wear a mask to take care of the least of us. That callousness is what Trump is born of. It's what he makes worse and it's what we have to take on beyond this election. So I would point you to what Akilah Hughes said on What A Day earlier this week, which is an incredibly moving look at what these violent images represent and why they're shared and how they're shared. I was also glad I got to talk to Brittany on this show about what our obligations are, especially the obligations of white people and what their role should be in all of this. I want to elevate voices that are doing the work that are in this fight. But I also think it's incumbent upon us to do our

part, you know, to bring the same kind of zeal that we bring to fighting Trump to this larger struggle, because it's not enough just to win the election. We have to attack the callousness that put someone like Trump in office to begin with. And that is the source of so many of our problems, that callousness, which is often racist, which is especially racist given our history, but also in the disregard we show for poor people and the disregard we show for people that are different from us. So that is what I think our job ultimately is, as we see these images on the news. And, you know, how hard could that be? Literally, literally, I'm just sort of like, well, usually you end with a joke. It's been a really bad week of news, people. I don't know

what to tell you. When we come back, Darcy Carton joins to play a game about how we can win in November. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Earlier this week, Crooked launched a new election initiative called Adopt a State, where our listeners who don't live in a swing state, or even if they do, honestly, can adopt a state, and we will provide you with all the information you need to help flip that state blue, even from home, when we may not be able to campaign like we did before. We've already been hearing from a lot of people that they just can't decide what state

to pick, so we thought we'd help you decide with a sorting Hat Situation, which is a reference to a children's book that Travis read. And here to help is America's sweetheart from Broad City, Barry, The Good Place, Darcy Carden. Welcome back. Hi. What a reveal. My God, thank you for having me. Hi. It's so good to see your gorgeous face.

Yours as well. I was worried that our chemistry might not translate over Zoom, but these pheromones are powerful. They come through well. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. How are you doing? Good. I'm good. How are you? I'm okay. I'm okay. So are you ready to do this or to help people pick their state? I feel like I was born ready. It's something that I really understand the concept of. Between Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Florida, what state are you adopting? I think I'm going to adopt Florida.

Okay. Does that sound good? I mean, it's okay. That's what Travis picked. I picked Pennsylvania. So did David Plouffe, smart guy. I mean, if you think Travis, you go with Travis over, I'm going to go with David Plouffe. You can go with Travis. But just like putting it out there, I don't think this is a competition because I think like everything actually helps. Okay. Like whoever you pick, actually, it's like a good thing if we like kind of spread it out, right? Sure. It's not about winning. No, okay.

Yep, you're right. So here's how it's going to work. Darcy and I will each ask an audience member a series of questions. After each question, we'll discuss how their answer might lend themselves to adopting certain states. This will be an entirely objective process based on science. Darcy, are you ready? Yes. Alia. Hi, this is Alia. Yay, Alia. Hi. Oh my gosh, this is so exciting. For us too. It's so exciting. You're on with John and Darcy Carden. Oh man, I got the slogan too and everything. You did. It happened. It happened. So legit. So where are you from? I'm from Portland, Oregon, but I got the slogan, too, and everything. You did. It happened. So legit.

So where are you from? I'm from Portland, Oregon, but I live in Brooklyn, New York. Okay, great. So are you ready for us to help you decide your adopt-a-state? Oh, I already decided. I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's okay. But we're going to make sure you— Make sure I chose right. Make sure you chose correctly. Okay. Question number one. If someone at a party is being rude to someone you love, how do you react? Definitely approach the person I love, give them some eye contact,

see if they're like handling it. Okay. You know, if they want me to step in and if they look a little lost, step in, call the other person out. Wow. Wow. Okay. So, so Darcy, here's some places that don't make sense for somebody with that kind of tact and with restraint. We got to rule out Pennsylvania. We got to rule out Arizona. We got to rule out Pennsylvania. We got to rule out Arizona. We got to rule out Florida. I think that leaves. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. But we got it. That leaves Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina. Obviously, I signed up for Pennsylvania. So like I'm trying to be as fair as I can here. Darcy, what do you think for Alia? North Carolina. It feels right.

Yeah. Yeah. Zodiac signs that according to the quiz that you all have. OK. Alia, please don't interrupt the judges. You're being highly inappropriate. Stop trying to influence a very delicate and serious process. So you think North Carolina. Okay. Okay. Darcy, let's ask Alia question number two. It's 2022 and the pandemic is long over. What is your ideal vacation? I have been dying to go to South America and do some scuba diving. I got to do a lot of scuba diving around Asia last year. And this year,

I've been sort of like eyeing up pretty much everywhere in South America. Considering like a two month long jaunt around the whole place. Not like I actually could, but you know, it's fun to imagine. Okay, so I just have to say right off of that, South America, North Carolina. Do you know what I mean? And it really like lends itself to what I said before. Good point. About North Carolina. Sure.

Going in the correct direction. Sure. I will say though, there, there's something about the trip that has a real kind of, um, uh, Scottsdale, Arizona vibe. Like I could, you know, I mean, let's just be honest about what we just heard. has a real kind of Scottsdale, Arizona vibe. Like I could, you know, I mean, let's just be honest about what we just heard. Like I've been doing a lot of scuba diving in Asia. Like that just had such an Arizona, Florida. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

Well, we're not sure. We're not sure. So we're going to our bonus question. If you could only consume one of these, Alia, for the rest of your life, which would it be? Cheese curds, scrapple, vinegar-based barbecue sauce, spam, Faygo, or cocaine? Gotta go for cheese curds. Represent Culver's. Cheese curds. That's Wisconsin, man. And Culver's. So Darcy, we have a North Carolina vibe. We have

an Arizona vibe. We have a Wisconsin vibe. I will say the politeness of her first answer also lends itself to Wisconsin. Where's your head at? Actually, if you go back and think about all of her answers, Wisconsin does sort of add up. Okay, that's it. Alia, you've been assigned Wisconsin. You want to hear the wildcard fact though? Hell yeah. I went to college in Florida. My family lives there. My mother lives there. My sister lives

there. Felt like it was the right choice, but I've been overruled. So I think you can sign up for both. I think you can sign up for both emotion. I think that maybe sort of geographically, familially, you are Floridian, but temperament wise, you're giving off a strong Wisconsin vibe. Thank you so much for being here. Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. We love you. Oh, I love you both. Bye. Wow. What a nice person.

Hi, is this Connor? Hi. Connor. Connor, you're on with John and Darcy Cardon. You're on with John and Darcy Cardon. I don't know. Is that bad? No, it was great.

It was really good. It was really good. Connor, stop stalling. All right. It's time for us to assign. How are you, by the way? Where are you in the country right now? I am in Redlands, California.

So right outside of LA County, I'm in like the Inland Empire. So we're starting to open up a little bit more progressively per se, but it's still snippets here and there of where we're at. And do you have that headset because you're one of the greatest Fortnite players of all time or what? I've heard that so many times since we're in this. No, my fiance and I both work at home. So she commandeers the living room and I commandeer another part of our household

and I teach. So just to make sure there's no audio conflict back and forth. And my joke was hackneyed and cliched to you. It was a silly... Yeah, that's what I said. I just to make sure there's no audio conflict back and forth. And my joke was hackneyed and cliched to you. It was a silly... Yeah, that's what I said. I've heard that joke so many times.

It was just a terrible... It wasn't funny. It wasn't insightful. I could have done so much better is your point. It was truly a deep breath and wow, I've heard that a lot.

It's been a long two months. Connor. Connor. Connor, we're trying to put you on your heels. We're trying to shake you up because this is going to be tough. We're going to try to figure out what state you should adopt. Darcy,

kick us off. If you go to a cocktail bar, what do you order? Me as a beer drinker, I really don't order a cocktail, but if I had to, probably a vodka soda. Wow. Vodka soda. Okay. Okay. Which state is best suited to a order a cocktail but if i had to probably a vodka soda wow vodka soda okay okay okay um which state is best suited to a gay person in his 20s married to a woman okay i i think it's a good thing by the

way i mean i we here's the thing he did answer the question but we can't discount the beer thing the first yeah honestly like that might be more important am i right john i think so i think so and i want you to remember what his first name is it is connor that's right yeah his name is connor so what is what so what does that mean to you i mean beer connor i'm leaning there's two strong vibes one is very much florida and one is very much arizona wow wow sorry connor Wow. Wow. Sorry, Connor. All right. Here, next question. And by the way, for our listeners in Arizona and Florida, those are compliments.

For everybody else. Yes, that's absolutely. For everybody else. Absolutely a compliment. You know what's happening here. What is your favorite? Connor, what is your favorite fast food restaurant and what is your order? My favorite fast food restaurant, because it's local in California, In-N-Out, and my

go-to would be a double-double with grilled onions. Okay. Yum. What is your feeling on the, what do they call it there? I want to say, I know it's not, it's like, it's like, it's not grizzly sauce. It's not monster sauce. What is the sauce called? Animal. Animal sauce. Is it? I'm not an In-N-Out person and I've never claimed to be. I've never claimed to be. I don't actually get it. I don't love the fries. That's my position. That's my position. Darcy and Connor. So. Wait, real quick, John, what is, what is your favorite? Are you a McDonald's boy? I love McDonald's. I love McDonald's. I will say, not pandering, I love McDonald's.

I will say, not pandering, my Midwestern Culver's love is huge. I genuinely think it is one of my favorite. The cheese curds, Culver's fries, and a Butterburger, I really think it's hard to beat. But you said In-N-Out. Right, right, right. Back to it. I don't even know what Culver's is. But, okay, so In-N-Out. I know this is, certainly Arizona is the closest to California.

And I believe I believe they have they gotten that far west. Do they have in and out in Arizona? I believe they do. Yeah. OK. Feels like they might. All right. At least.

Connor, bonus question. Which of these actors do you prefer? Emma Stone, Kristen Bell, Chris Farley, Will Smith, Sarah Paulson, Zach Galifianakis. Oh my gosh. Think about it, Connor. Please think about it and take your time. Your vodka soda picks Sarah Paulson, but let's see what else is on here. I know, decisions.

I think my go-to was Chris Farley as soon as you said it. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So he likes in and out, a double-double. Yeah. Do you go animal style or not? I can't remember if you actually answered. I don't go animal style. I go with the burger animal style.

The fries, I do not. It's just too messy. Too messy. Too messy. Too messy. What are you, crazy? Eating fries with a fucking fork? What is this?

What is this, soup? John, that's a great point. What is this? What is this, soup? So wait, so he went with Chris Farley, a Wisconsin native he likes in and out. It's a it is a vaguely, you know, it's I would say it's the Midwestern fast food chain of the West. Yeah. But like, is there a world in which Chris Farley could have like, if he didn't go the comedy route, could you have seen him like going to school in Arizona? I think I could have. I was thinking that you meant if he had gone the drama route.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, if he's, if he was like not, if it wasn't the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, if he was just like a regular, you know,

college kid. There's a salt of the earth, Wisconsin energy that real, that's real. With Chris or with Chris Far Connor? With Chris Farley. No, not with Connor. Connor reeks of California. Yeah, he really does.

It's like unbelievable. That Redlands stink is on him. Oh my god. That Redlands stink. That Redlands stink. It's coming through the Zoom. I'm going to call it.

I'm going to call it. I'm going to put these things together. All right. You went with Chris Farley from Wisconsin. Your favorite drink is a vodka soda, which is not Wisconsin. It's your favorite cocktail. It's what you always get. That's what I remember.

So what happens when you average? You know what? When you average Wisconsin and California together, I think you get Arizona. Okay. Absolutely. That's the math of America. Arizona, you've been assigned. So are you going to sign up? 100% yes. I don't normally talk about my opinions being a teacher because I want students to learn authentically. being a teacher because I want students to learn authentically. But I've just been very,

I'll say disappointed the least in light of everything that's kind of been going on, seeing some of my students suffer during all this, seeing some close personal friends as well, just with COVID-19, let alone this administration. And I'm 100% signing up for Arizona going through and trying to flip that state, do everything that I can to make sure that, you know, we hit 270, let alone we try to flip the Senate as well. Hell yes, Connor. What a statement of principle. Connor, thank you so much. Connor from Redlands. I know.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Hello. Tiffany. I'm here. Tiffany. I told, now, for those listening at home, you should know that Tiffany was originally supposed to play Show Us Your Beans.

She was originally a contestant on Show Us Your Beans. Unfortunately, she had to remove herself from consideration in Show Us Your Beans because she was calling from her car. Yes. And there were no beans in the car. None. There were no beans in the car. None. There were no beans in the car. None.

But we're so glad to have you back. Now, Tiffany, we are going to help figure out what state you should adopt for our Adopt-A-State program to help defeat Donald Trump and get to 270 electoral votes. You're here with Darcy Carden. Hi, Tiffany. Star of stage and screen. Hello, Darcy.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And we're just going to figure out what state your vibe is. You know, we're going to find the vibe. Where are you from, Tiffany, by the way? I'm originally from right outside of Nashville, small town Columbia, Tennessee. Columbia, Tennessee. Yeah.

Okay, okay. So let's see. So, all right. So, I mean, look, it's a natural fit to just take a quick east drive to North Carolina, but we're going to see. We're going to see. Okay. First question. Okay. If you could have one dream job that is not in your current career path, what would it be? Yeah. I would be a background singer. That's my dream too. Is it? Yes. Yes. I would be a vocalist. Look, I don't want to get in the middle of what is a

budding lifelong friendship, but we do have, we have work to do here. We have work to do here. Sure. Sure. Okay. Background singer, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, Florida. I will say, I will say that has a Florida vibe.

It does. You know, a performative vibe. So, so far Florida comes out to an early lead. Don't early lead. Don't you think so, Darcy? Yep, I totally agree. Of all of these options, Florida, yeah, you got your theater, you got your film life, you got your mini Hollywood. You got your literal Hollywood.

Literal Hollywood. Literal. Yeah, literal. All right, Darcy, over to you for the next question. Okay. Tiffany, it's 55 degrees out and cloudy. We need to walk to a store that's 10 minutes away. How do you dress?

So it's 55 degrees and cloudy. Yes. We're going to put on some cute jeans, right? A little low top sneaker. Okay. A short sleeve shirt. Nice. And maybe like a little windbreaker situation.

A windbreaker. A windbreaker. A windbreaker. So she is putting on something that could technically be called a jacket. It is more jacket than it is a shirt. Once again, leading us towards a North Carolina, Arizona, Florida direction. Your Pennsylvania, your Wisconsin, your Michigan, there's maybe a sweater. There's maybe a sweatshirt, but I don't know about windbreaker. I don't know about windbreaker. Now. Okay. Wait. Now are we taking into account that windbreakers are pretty lightweight? They're going to keep the rain out and the wind, but also if it heats up, you can tie that sucker on your, your waist. You sure can. Think of how fluctuating the weather is in Florida. That's what I'm

thinking too, because you, Arizona, you don't need to worry about the rain. You don't have to worry about the rain. So we are once again drilling down on Florida, but just to be safe, we need to ask you one final question. Okay. Which state motto speaks to you the most? Are you ready, Tiffany? speaks to you the most. Are you ready, Tiffany? I am ready. Forward. In God we trust.

To be rather than to seem. That one's a heady one. That one's a thinker. That one's kind of deep. Yeah. If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you. Oh my God.

Virtue, liberty, and independence. And finally, God and riches. Which spoke to you, Tiffany? The one that really spoke to me was forward. Yes. Interesting, interesting. Forward spoke to me the most. Simple and to the point.

Yes. Simple and to the point. Yes. Well, I will tell you that that was Wisconsin's. To be rather than to seem is North Carolina. Florida's is just as simple in God we trust. Right. Though you chose Wisconsin's motto, I do believe, I mean, I don't know, Darcy, how you feel. I think the Florida energy was too powerful. And I'll tell you something that, you know, if we're talking

about science here, and I think we are. And we are. We are. Yes. Florida starts with F and forward starts with F. Yeah. Hard to argue with that. So I know forward was Wisconsin's, but in a way it's actually Florida's. Really smart point. Connections. Connections. Making connections. Thinking things through. Science.

Objectivity. Tiffany. Yes. Are you going to adopt the state of Florida to help win Florida in 2020? Can we count on you to do that? Now that we have gone through this exercise, I was between North Carolina and Florida. Uh-huh. Yeah.

And so now you guys have led me to officially adopt Florida. Woo-hoo! All right. I'm going to officially adopt Florida. I think they probably need a little, you know, a little extra us, a little help.

I think they need, honestly, I think they need, I think they need that voice. I think they need you on a microphone backing them up. That's what I think. Yes, back them up. Back up Florida.

Oh my gosh, John, that was really good. It was really good. You were a genius. We're freaking out. It was so good. The genius. Tiffany, I'm so glad we got to actually play a game this time. Same.

Show us your beans, Tiffany. You showed us your emotional beans, which is so much more valuable, ultimately. Yes. I was like, I could find some beans. No more beans? No. Okay. I was like, I could find some in the house.

Tiffany, thank you so much for playing. Stay safe and so glad we got to play today. Bye, Tiffany. Thank you. Bye. You guys be safe. You too. You too. Bye. Everybody's nice. Everybody's so nice. Well, listen, everybody listening. Here's the deal, alright? We had some fun today with Darcy, all right? We did some sorting.

We assigned some people to Florida, some to Michigan, some to Arizona. Here's what I would say to all of you. If you're listening to Love It or Leave It, you know that I have a competitive spirit that I wish I didn't have, honestly. I wish that wasn't part of my personality, Darcy. I wish that that wasn't who I was, but it is who I am. And I have chosen Pennsylvania, which puts me in a brutal competition

with Tommy Vitor, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, and a bunch of our friends at Crooked Media. Now, I have chosen Pennsylvania. I want you to adopt whatever state you think fits best with your democratic sensibilities. However, if you choose Pennsylvania, I would be so grateful. But together, Darcy, whatever state you pick, go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. Pick a state. There are so many thousands of people that have already signed up.

This can really help. These are the six states we have to win to get Trump the fuck out. We can do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it for real and get your friends to do it. Get your family to do it. Let's fucking do it. Oh my God. Think about waking up on the Wednesday after election day. Just think about that Wednesday. Don't even do this. Think about it. I'll cry. Think about it. All right. Yeah, actually, yeah, do think about it. And then remember this moment where Darcy encouraged you.

Yeah. All right? Remember this moment. Darcy Carden, thank you so much for doing this. This was so much fun. Love to see you, John.

All my Zoom love to you. And to you. And to you. When we come back, we're going to talk to two experts about conspiracy theories in the age of Trump.

Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Please welcome the authors of the book, A Lot of People Are Saying the New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead. Welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having us. I have to say, I actually don't even remember how I came across your book.

I believe it was a random tweet. And I, you know, I haven't done the forensic analysis. But once I did, I was so glad I read it. And I was so excited to have you both on the show because I found just in reading your explanation, helping me process the way information and misinformation is currently spreading and playing a role in our politics. And I found it incredibly useful. It just, even though I think you describe a pretty, I think, sad state of

affairs, ultimately, just the kind of theory of the case, I found really useful for just seeing the world. So I just want to start at 30,000 feet. What is the new conspiracism? And how does it differ from the misinformation and conspiracy theories that were spread in the past? The first difference is that the new conspiracism doesn't start with anything real in the world. It often just starts from a complete fabrication. Sort of more classic conspiracy starts with something in the world that is hard to understand. starts with something in the world that is hard to understand. It starts with, you know, development, maybe an invasion, maybe it's the attack on the World Trade Centers. People say, why did that happen? Why did they attack us? It's hard to understand that. Or how did 19 people, you know,

acting without very many resources from the sands of Afghanistan managed to pull off this world historical event and attack the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, the government must have been involved. So it starts with something real. Whereas take Pizzagate as an example of the new conspiracism, the proposition that Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman are managing a child sex trafficking ring from the basement of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. What does that start with? It doesn't start even with an event, with a fact, with something in the world. Put simply, a conspiracy theory is just that. It's a theory, and it operates the way we reason about most things in the world. There's an argument, and there's evidence, and you put

together the pieces, and you come out with a conclusion. And sometimes conspiracy theories are true, and sometimes they're false, and sometimes they're sort of perplexing mix. But we like to say that America began in a conspiracy theory, that the Declaration of Independence is a conspiracy theory, that all men are created equal is said to be self-evident, but that the British wanted to enslave America was not self-evident. And so if you read the Declaration, there are these 18 counts, all of these points, leading up to a pattern that proves that the British were out covertly to enslave the United States. And that's why there had to be a revolution and not a reconciliation. So a conspiracy theory is a theory. And what the new conspiracism is, is conspiracy without the theory. There's no argument. There's no evidence. It's either innuendo or a bare assertion. The election is rigged.

What substitutes for evidence or argument is something like repetition. If you can get enough people to say it, then it starts to seem true enough, even if there is no evidence. So the idea of something like Pizzagate is to get people to forward it, to like it, to share it, not so much to make an argument. So I want to talk a little bit about where this comes from. So you talk about this in the book. So conspiracy theories, and obviously there are real conspiracies that can be described by a theory and there are false ones. But in general, when we're using the term, we're talking about kind of fringe, false ways of connecting the dots to make sense of the world.

And what you talk about in the book is there's this desire to kind of make sense of things, to see complicated, unfortunate events as being driven by someone in control, that what's happening to us must have a simple explanation. And so you have people who are desperate to make sense of what they're seeing that makes them feel really nervous or uncertain. And they put these pieces together and they build this theory and it kind of bubbles up. And you kind of understand that bottom up motivation

of people. But what you describe here is something that's more top down, right? Trump tweets Obamagate or, you know, Pizzagate or whatever it may be is sort of starts without a theory, without any case, just sort of a supposition, an idea, a dangerous idea. Like, what is the political advantage in sort of seeding these conspiracies without the theory and letting ordinary people or followers or others kind of build the theory after the fact. What it points to is this almost eternal truth about politics that political people understood as people who want power, who want to get power and keep it, not people who care about the common good, but power seekers. Power seekers don't like facts. Facts get in the way of their seeking power. You know, maybe it's a sitting president doesn't want there to be a recession, but rather that the facts just weren't out there. We'd rather

that people were confused than that they understood, especially the bad facts. So they're always trying to erase bad facts and remake the world in a way that's more conducive to their desire for power. And what this, you know, conspiracism is a kind of tool. It's turned out to be a tool. And it's a tool that the current president uses very adroitly. Nancy, one follow up on that. You don't shy away from talking about how Trump exploits this. But one of the things that's so striking is, you know, you describe this as a trend that is more evident right now in the U.S. than it is around the world. And you point to fears of how this kind of new conspiracism could take hold elsewhere in the years to come. But it's

hard to sort of separate where the kind of general theory ends and Trump begins. Is he its best practitioner? Or do you see Trump as, in many ways, the source of this new form of conspiracism taking hold right now? Well, I think the two things came together to make this the moment for Americans' conspiracism. And one is that Trump himself has a conspiracist mindset. That is, he sees the world this way. Not everybody does. Some people just believe in this or that conspiracy, right?

He has a conspiracist mindset. He sees the world this way. He wants to own reality. That is his reality. And this is the first important point. As president of the United States, he has the capacity to impose this reality on the nation. That is extraordinary. And the reality that he's trying to impose on us doesn't stop, as I say, with one thing, that the election is rigged or that voting is fraud or that Hillary Clinton is running a child sex trafficking ring. It's everything. Everything. He sees through the lens of his needs and he sees in the conspiracy. So that's number one. And number two, what makes

this so incredible today is, of course, the internet and the social network. And people are right about this. And this conspiracy without the theory is tailor made for the internet and for Twitter and so on. You're not developing a difficult theory with evidence and arguments. You're tweeting four words. The National Park Service doctored the photographs of the inauguration. One word. Rigged. Rigged, right. And when people are sent to this, when they tweet it and they like it and they post it and so on and so forth, what they're doing is not necessarily saying that they believe it. That's another point. But what they're saying is that they're identifying with the kind of people who think that Hillary Clinton is so awful that she would run a child sex trafficking ring. So you have a president who can impose his sense of reality on the nation. And you have a form of media now

that invites a lot of people to say it. Yeah, I mean, that's one thing you say. I think it was very interesting, right, that there are some people who certainly have bought into whatever conspiracy is being spread, that the three million undocumented people rigged the election in California and therefore the popular vote or Pizzagate. But one thing you point out is there's just as much of a kind of performance of I'm sharing this because that's my job as a good member of this team. And you point out that one of the antidotes to that is people on that very team taking a stand against it. But that actually Republican politicians in particular, even when they don't embrace conspiracies,

what they do is say something like, we need to investigate all claims of electoral problems or, you know, we need a healthy democracy or some sort of way of alighting the actual conspiracy while avoiding endorsing it or rejecting it. So what do you see as the kind of culpability of those who are not currently spreading them, but also not fighting them within their own movements? Back at the very beginning of the Trump administration, we thought that all sorts of elected officials in the Republican Party would stand up to the more outrageous kind of conspiratorial concoctions that Trump repeated. And we fully expected that the Senate, Republicans in the Senate, Republican governors wouldn't go along with this. And we fully expected that the Senate, Republicans in the Senate, Republican

governors wouldn't go along with this. And I have to say, well, even two years in, I mean, we were really shocked by just how, you know, how much the Republican Party officials, you know, capitulated. I really do think that they're complicitous in making these notions respectable. And I guess the big question is whether this will recede back to the margins of American politics once there's not someone with a conspiratorial mindset in the White House, or whether this is a tool that future presidents and would-be presidents will also use, seeing how effective it is for the current president. And we don't know yet, but I'd like to think that it's very much just amplified by Trump

and that Trump's very, very unusual and that it won't be such a big thing in the future. But there's no reason to think that it's going to go away. I certainly don't think it will be as big as it is now for the reasons that there's nobody trying to impose their compromise sense of reality on the nation. On the other hand, you now have an apparatus of conspiracy entrepreneurs and of media networks that are fueled by this and that people,

you know, people do this not, subscribe to this not only because they want to be part of the tribe and it's required as part of the cult of Trump, but also because it's fun. I mean, it's invigorating, it gets up their anger. QAnon is like a puzzle game, a collective effort at making a puzzle and following clues. So just as the video games have been built up into our culture and they're not going to disappear, I would be very surprised if conspiracism does. But for us, what matters is its consequence for democracy. I mean, we're interested in this category because of its political effects. And once Trump is gone, with the exception of some Republicans who will still be in office who like this weapon, it will be diminished

as a cause of the diminishment of democratic institutions. And that's hopeful. That's hopeful. So you talk at length about sort of the negative consequences of this. And one of them is disorientation generally, right? And the consequence of that is it's not just that people will believe the lies, that those that are paying attention will be disoriented, and it will encourage people to stop paying attention. And one thing you say is the first step is recognizing that this is designed to

disorient you and unmoor you from a shared common set of facts. What's the next step? Okay, we recognize that. We see this effort to disorient people. And you say, you know, okay, we don't just need to spread the truth. We need to do it wisely. We need to figure out ways to kind of deal with this disorientation. What are the effective methods that you see to combat this kind of conspiracism? There are two levels to combat it. One is taking on particular conspiratorial fictions one by one. Early on in the kind of fact-checking industry, a certain kind of cynicism developed around it, saying that there was really no way to correct people's misinformation. It, however, has kind of turned out since then that fact checking often works.

And combating bad information with good information can have a real effect in the world. So you asked what the sort of downstream effect, besides just being disoriented, what is going on. And I would say that there are two. One is what's going on here is a very, very serious sort of epistemic divide in the country over really what it means to know something, what it means to know that the election is rigged or what it means to know that the coronavirus

is going to disappear on its own. And when you have this kind of divide, it's much deeper and more important for democracy than even the polarized political divide, because it means that really people, it can't be bridged. It can't be bridged. And then I would just add to what Russ says. I don't think, I think we don't think that you can do anything to dissuade conspiracists themselves and the subscribers to it. What we're talking about in combating conspiracism is the rest of the people, people on the sidelines or people like us. And to some extent, you could combat it. And to some extent, what you can do

is what the press and others are doing, which is to encourage the rest of people that their epistemic hold on reality is right, you know, that there are facts, that they're correct to say, right, but hey, but look at this piece of evidence, or look at that, or look at... What we're seeing, I mean, what we've seen technologically is an erosion of what you might call the editorial function. So it used to be that the cost of distributing any kind of information was so high that people stood at the door and said, well, is this thing that you've written good enough to publish in the newspaper? Every column inch is expensive. Is this thing that you have to say good enough to broadcast on the radio? We only have so much airtime or broadcast on television. Producers and editors stood at the doorway and

exercised an editorial judgment, deciding what was valuable enough to use this incredibly costly technology to disseminate. Now the cost of distribution is zero. And for the first time ever, the cost of distributing information is much less than the cost of producing it. Under those circumstances, the editorial function has been almost obliterated, certainly in digital technology on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. And what we're seeing is efforts just now, right now at Twitter, to recreate some kind of editorial function to produce something that says that looks like it's wrong alongside the erroneous tweet. And so I think there's a lot to be said for that. But the more I think about it, the more I think that the way to combat conspiracism isn't just

with a direct attack on it through corrective information, fact-checking, editorial judgment. I think in the end, the way to combat it is with a much, much more ambitious agenda that involves reforming, reforming democracy. I think we have to breathe life into democratic institutions so that people, especially young people, believe in them. And in an earlier generation, the generation that came of age between 1900 and 1920 reshaped democratic institutions in the United States, at any rate, in a wholesale manner from like the constitutional amendment that allowed for the income tax in 1901 to a constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote in 1920 for everything in between, political

primaries, direct election of senator, the progressives reshaped American politics and left it in a condition that made those institutions capable of dealing with the depression of World War II. And I think, you know, right now, my students don't really believe in the integrity of democratic institutions. And they have good reason not to. So I think it's not just about taking on conspiracism. We have to take on democracy.

I would take a more modest stance than institutional reform of democracy. Not that I think it wouldn't be a good thing. I'm a good progressive. But in this context, I would say something else. And that what we need and what I believe we're going to get with the next administration is just showing people that in certain areas of desperate need, we can make these institutions work, even if it's muddling through.

Because what conspiracism has done and what Trump has done is to delegitimize these institutions, to raise suspicions about the motives of the people who work within them. And he has unraveled their functions. We see this most dramatically and tragically with the coronavirus thing where he undid these institutions. And so I think that what we need most and what will, as an ancillary matter, weaken conspiracism is just some programs and institutions that work. Yeah, I totally resonate with that, Nancy. I like that. So the most modest level- Wow. I'm glad you're mostly on the same page. We should work together. We really should. We should collaborate. We should write a book.

Well, I mean, the most modest level is taking on the misinformation. The next level is what Nancy's saying, which is making the government work, showing that the government can work. I think that is absolutely, absolutely fundamental. You're so right about that. And I think in the largest, I think there's a kind of task for this generation, I think, anyway, is reshaping, reforming democracy and taking on an ambitious agenda from, you know, money and politics to new forms of participation. One final question, Nancy, I'll give you the last word on this. One thing you

say throughout the book is that what also is sort of striking about this new conspiracism is that it's aimed at hollowing out democracy, but not replacing it. And the absence of a positive agenda is part of what makes this all so disoriented. And so, you know, you have this kind of tear it down ethos that has taken hold of one of our two parties. You have a lot of people listening to this. They've just heard about this book. They've heard about this idea. They feel that disorientation. What do you say to them in the moment right now? So they feel the anxiety that comes with fighting a politics like this. They worry about this every single day. They're not sure what they should do. They want to vote. They

want to help the kind of politicians who don't do this. But what do we do as individuals to combat conspiracism in our own Facebook feeds, in our own social circles, in our own small world? People are doing a lot of what they can usefully do. That is, you post on Facebook some preposterous conspiracist claim, whether it's QAnon or the fact that Fauci is actually working against Trump. And you rebut it. I mean, you have people spread the antidote to it. I think that's what you can do. But I think that the two most important things that individuals can do, aside from acting collectively in certain ways, are one, to have confidence in their own sense of what's real and what works and in their logic and in

their reasoning and to have confidence in reasoning. And that's number one. And I guess the other is to vote. This will not be bad if we replace this political party. Nancy Rosenblum, Russell Muirhead, thank you so much for joining. I'm so glad we got to talk about it. The book is A Lot of People Are Saying

the New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. I found it really clarifying. Thank you both so much for joining and when we come back, we're going to play a game about the difference between how characters are described in books and then how the actors are actually cast. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. Would anybody out there like to play a game? Jen Burnett, you raised your hand. So you've won. I've chosen you. I'm pinning your video. game? Jen Burnett, you raised your hand. So you've won. I've chosen you. I'm pinning your video. Hi, Jen. How are you? I'm good. How are you?

And who's the gentleman sitting to your left? This is Brett. Jen, you're the primary, but Brett can help. He's there. But I'm playing with Jen. You're the player, okay? You're the phone-a-friend in a way. Here's how this works.

I pitched Travis a game to play that is based around me disliking a show that he likes. When I sat down to read the game description, he wrote for me, this is what it said. I'm going to read this unedited. Okay. It's time to play a dumb game with a flawed premise. Here's how it works. Over the weekend, I watched two episodes of a show called normal people which by all accounts is a fantastic show that i only dislike because i have bad taste

normal people is the story of two young people in ireland who struggle to communicate their desires and i dislike it because i only like to watch very easy to digest basic shows like i don't know schitt's creek and the politician or whatever trash I'm always talking about. But I have a bigger problem with normal people beyond, of course, my own inability to see the beauty in both the visual style and the subtlety of the acting. And the problem I have is that the main character, Marianne, is too hot. This is a problem for me because in this time of great sorrow, looking at a hot person brings too much pleasure to the world.

Sure, her sexual chemistry with Connell is maybe the best ever captured on camera. Sure, every critic on earth disagrees with me, but hey, this is the game I wanted to play and so we will play it despite it being a dumb idea and not at all based on reality. You know what? Here's the actual reason. Yes, Marianne the character is played by a very hot actor, but Normal People is based on a book. And in the book, here is how that character is described. And I am not denigrating the performances. I think everyone is doing a great... It's well-written.

It's beautifully shot. The acting is great. It's actually no criticism of the actors themselves. But here is how the character is described in the book. It's not like she's the world's best-looking person. Far from it. In certain photographs, she appears not only plain, but garishly

ugly, baring her crooked teeth for the camera like a piece of vermin. She's considered an object of disgust. She wears ugly, thick-soled flat shoes and doesn't put makeup on her face. People have said she doesn't shave her legs or anything. The entire premise of the show is that a hot jock falls in love with a person who doesn't

fit traditional standards of beauty, and he's embarrassed because of it. So if she's cast to be an incredibly beautiful, rich person, it doesn't make any sense. If you cast someone really hot and then don't change the story, it's the story of an incredibly beautiful girl that's an outcast for no obvious reason for whom this guy Connor is embarrassed to be seen with her and it doesn't make sense at all. And I think it's insulting because there's a really great story there.

And I, you know, so anyway, it bothers me. It bothers me. So here's how this game works. I will read the description of a character in a book and then you, Jen, will need to guess what actor plays them solely based on that book description. Question one. Jen, here we go. The guy was huge, not quite seven feet, but close, almost to the ceiling.

And he was wide. From shoulder to shoulder, he looked like four basketballs in a rack in a high school gym. He had fists like Thanksgiving turkeys, about 250 pounds, all of it pure hard muscle, like a condom crammed with walnuts. That is a description from a book of a character. Who played that character? I'd like to find a friend.

I was thinking maybe the guy from The Green Mile. The actor that plays this giant man is Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. He definitely looks like a sock full of walnuts. Next question. Poor, fat Rachel, all red and sweaty. She must have been attractive once once but now she's just run to fat fat sad rachel this is rachel we're talking about she wouldn't be able to haul her fat arse over all those fences fat rachel i'm going to say nicole kidman

honestly i don't know why, but close. It's Emily Blunt for her role as Rachel in The Girl on the Train. And again, you know, these are terrible descriptions, but it just means that they take these characters that are meant to look like all kinds of people and then cast them only as the most beautiful actors in Hollywood, which means these fully fledged characters are only only get to exist in one form. Next question. She had dark, thick eyebrows, green eyes, a slight, a slight, slightly off center nose and high cheekbones that spoke to her strong Asian heritage on one side of her family. Oh, Emma Stone? No, close. I know. No, this is not about aloha is a good place to go but this was actually asian actress natalie portman in the film annihilation okay next question which two actors were cast to play the characters that fit these two descriptions. For a small man, Jack carried some weight in the haunch

and his smile disclosed buck teeth. That's character one. Character two, Ennis, high arch nose and narrow face, was scruffy and a little cave chested, balanced a small torso on long caliper legs. It's Brokeback Mountain. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. You got it.

You got it. You got it. Take a confident sip of coffee. Way to go. Final bonus question, Jen and Brett. You've done so well. This one comes from a description in a script, but not a book. Latina, hair like a raven's wing, a native Spanish speaker.

I'm going to say Gwyneth Paltrow. You've been close. You just keep getting so close. Cary Mulligan, the blonde white woman in the film Drive. Obviously. Jen Brett with the assist. you've won the game. And thank you to everybody in Birmingham for joining for our Zoom monologue. I'm so glad you could be here. It was so nice to see all of your bright, shimmering faces.

I want to remind everybody that we are pushing all of our listeners to go to VoteSaveAmerica.com slash adopt. I have a question. I welcome a question. Perfect. So three of us that are on this call are going to adopt a state together. Great. We're just baby Hufflepuff children. Which state have the least people adopted so I can feel bad for it and adopt it?

Thank you for that question. The answer, as of my last look at the data, the raw data, is North Carolina. So you can sign up for North Carolina. I just fucked this whole thing up. I missed the whole thing. I'm so upset. I can't even see straight. I hope they can't hear me.

Did somebody just join? We can hear you. Who was that? I like that. Just coming in late to a meeting, talking. I love that. I'm here. I'm late.

And I want the floor. That's hilarious. Great to be here. I have no context. I have been, I am 30 minutes late. Can I please have the microphone? Does anybody have any other questions about adopt a state? I welcome them. Like I'm so fucking mad. I can't even see. Where is that person? I love this. I'm outside fucking mad. I can't even see. Where is that person? I love this. I'm outside of my hair salon.

Okay, now we are in the salon. Yes, you're in the salon now. So, okay, okay. We're back outside. Great. Got my hair cut and colored for this. Now we're getting a lot of details. So, you got your hair cut and colored for this. Now we're getting a lot of details. So you got your hair cut and colored for this.

Here's the thing. It was originally set for 11. What time was your appointment? I guess 2 p.m. Eastern. I've been refreshing my email since 11.26. None of what you're saying makes sense. makes sense. If you had planned the haircut

properly, it should have been done 30 minutes before this started, Lauren. It was done several hours before it started. Then why are you still at the salon? What are you talking about? Your story doesn't hang. I own the salon.

Oh. Okay. I know you can't see me but let me at least entertain you to tell i tell all of the the ronan and john stories to all my trump clients great i loved it when you got engaged oh i talk about it all the time i'm obsessed with y'all and i really wanted to tell you that so at least i got that out thank Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Lauren. I'm so glad that your actually genuinely shocking behavior has led to such a nice compliment. Can you not figure out how to turn the camera on on your phone? Are you on your phone right now? Yes. Do you see in the bottom left corner, there's a little button that says video is off?

Yes. would you mind look at those look at those delicate highlights wow look at that look at that no roots no roots oh my goodness i can't believe i even did practice zooms with my husband so I would be ready. Lauren, I have a feeling that you, I feel like there's maybe a reason you like this show is I don't think you hate being the center of attention, do you? Okay, real quick. When I first discovered you guys, I came to work and said, I found these guys just like me. Pod Save America. They're all gorgeous. They all work for Obama and they say fuck all the time. And then I went, oh wait, not gorgeous. And I didn't work for Obama and I'm not in my 30s,

but we do all say fuck. And I've been telling that story for a couple of years here at work. Lauren, this has been delightful. I'm so glad we were able to teach you how to Zoom today. This has been great. Look, obviously, I think we all have questions about your salon being open. We're not going to address them. We're just going to let you live your life. Hey, we've had fights over masks in the salon, but we're very strict at the salon. Okay, good.

We really are. I mean, we're very strict. We've had one major scene where a woman ran out crying because she wouldn't wear a mask. But we're trying our best. I mean, it was either open up or lose the business. But I'm glad you're pushing, good that you're making sure people wear masks. We are. We have everybody waiting in their cars.

We never have more than 10 people in the salon. We're doing everything we can. And believe me, we've had some resistance. But we've met it with a smile on our face. You're attacking this problem with the nuance and attention you applied to the very roots that we can all see are perfectly treated. Absolutely. Just did that very early this morning before my work day. All right.

We all should go back to our lives. I want to thank everybody for joining from Birmingham. Thank you so much. Please stay safe. Please sign up at Adopt-A-State. And I'm so sorry we had to cancel the show, but I'm hopeful we can come back in the future. And bye. Please.

Please. And I will try. Bye, everybody. Thank you so much. Bye. Thank you for doing this. When we come back, we'll share some high notes from listeners. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. For those of you who had a tough week, here it is, this week's High Note submitted by our listeners. I love it. This is Susan Lee of Nashville, Tennessee.

My High Note was being able to put my ordination as a priest in the Church of the Latter-day Dude to really good use by marrying two women who've been together for over 25 years. My decision to quote both Love in the Time of Cholera and A Hundred Years of Solitude, with which folks apparently weren't familiar, was a little on the nose, but I think it worked really well. Thanks for all you and your team do. Bye. Hi, Love It.

This is Katie in Washington, D.C., and my high note this week is that I sent in my absentee ballot. And the bonus highlight was that in the absentee ballot envelope, they sent me two I voted stickers. So as an elementary teacher who loves stickers, that warmed my heart that I still got to wear those, even though I was voting safely from my apartment. Thanks for everything you do. Stay safe. Hi, Levitt. This is Joel from Austin, Texas. My high note is that my oldest daughter graduated from kindergarten this week. Her school hosted a graduation parade where everyone could walk or drive by the school with teachers standing outside cheering them on.

My daughter was looking forward to it so much. She's been saying, I can't wait to see my teacher. Can you drive really slow so I can see her for a long time? Hi, love it. I'm Sophia from Irvine, California. And my high note this week was that last weekend was my birthday. And I listened to your show for the first part of my half marathon on my birthday that I ran to support the Actors Fund. We raised over $600 and it was my first ever half, and it went really well. So that's my high note for the week.

Thanks so much for all you do. Take it easy. Thanks to all the listeners who sent in those great high notes. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 424-341-4193. It is 157 days until the election. Sign up at votesaveamerica.com slash adopt right now to pick a state

and help defeat Trump, keep the House and win back the Senate. Thank you to everybody in Alabama who joined us. Thanks again to Darcy Carden, Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead and to our listeners who joined us today. Thank you to our grocery workers and truck drivers and delivery people.

Thank you to our doctors and nurses and thank you to our whole staff working to keep this show going out and Crooked going strong. Have a great weekend. Love It or Leave It is a product of Crooked Media. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg,

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