Lovett or Leave It - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ignorance

Episode Date: June 13, 2020

Judd Apatow joins for the monologue. Melina Abdullah discusses the goals of the protest movement. Rosemary Ketchum stops by to talk about what it means to be the first trans person to win public office in West Virginia. And LGBTQ+ listeners join to rant about basically whatever. What a week.

Welcome to the 14th episode of Love It or Leave It, Back in the closet. Fish, fish, fish. Beach bag in the closet. Storage. Tommy and John, they want to come to Iphone Wet Humps. It is landed on millennials killing birds. Beach bag in the closet. Apology not accepted. Beach bag in the closet. Storage.

You'll never see me again. That song, which was great, was sent in by Stefano de Blasio. We assume no relation. We want to use a new one each week. If you want to make one, send it to us at hey at crooked.com, and maybe we'll use yours. You can also tweet it at us. Later in the show, we'll be joined by co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA, Dr. Malina Abdullah, the first trans candidate ever elected to public office in West Virginia, Rosemary Ketchum, and we'll hear from listeners to mark pride.

But first, he's the director of 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, This Is 40, Funny People, Trainwreck, and now The King of Staten Island, a very funny movie I just watched, in fact. Please welcome Judd Apatow. I'm here. I want to apologize to start. I was not aware there was a video component. This is my Alicia Keys, no makeup look. You're not going to get the coif. I think that you owe an apology to Alicia Keys. If this is what happens to Alicia Keys with no makeup, that is truly shocking. There's a beauty to this, too. There's a castaway Tom Hanks about two-thirds into the movie appeal.

I am spending a lot of time on some of my sports equipment as well. Yeah, you definitely look like you just did some home dentistry. We're all doing home dentistry. We're like, can we get haircuts? Can we fix our cavities? I think I could do this myself. I have not gotten a haircut since this began. I'm going to go.

I'm going to continue. I'm just going to see where this ends. But Judd, excited for you to be here. Thank you for doing this. Of course. For you to ridicule these jokes to talk about the ends. But Judd, excited for you to be here. Thank you for doing this. Of course. For you to ridicule these jokes to talk about the movie. So let's get into it. What a week.

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed his regret for participating in Trump's photo op in front of St. John's, reaffirming his commitment to an apolitical U.S. military. It was a good statement and important. We cannot allow Trump to undermine our institutions to the point where people might question the bipartisan nature of invading the Middle East. That's hardcore. That's like a wonky joke. That was a wonky joke. It's a wonky joke. It's a wonky joke. I do think part of it, it feels like it belongs

in an earlier era. You know, it's a throwback. We're not thinking about the Middle East right now, John. We're not. You went, you zagged when you should have zigged. Speaking of failed reconstruction efforts, even as an amendment offered by Senator Elizabeth Warren to rename military bases currently honoring Confederate traitors, divided Senate Republicans and passed the Armed Services Committee, Trump pledged to veto the bipartisan military spending bill over the issue. And if he's mad now, wait until he finds out that all the World War II generals we named shit after were Antifa.

That's it. That's the joke. I like that. I like it. Here's the thing. I think that is a good thought. I don't think it's necessarily like in perfect joke style. It's just accurate. That's just accuracy. I don't know if it's a solid like twist joke. You just told me a truth, a simple truth. What I had originally planned to tell you there was a long meandering sentence about Trump as being a history buff who dresses up in Confederate grays to reenact the movements because he doesn't want to honor Confederate generals for their politics. He just is a deep admirer of Civil War era military tactics. cameras. We're going to have an expert in the Civil War sit with you and you guys have to have a talk. And we want to know everything you know about the Civil War. We want to know every general,

every battle, you know. And here's the thing. He probably knows nothing except like Robert E. Lee's name. I guarantee you he knows as much about the Civil War as he knows about the Bible. I do believe that Trump's the worst questions ever asked of Trump are open ended questions. And I do think tell us everything you know about the civil war. Tell us everything you know about Jesus Christ. Just like what do you know about Jesus Christ? Tell me what are the facts? Anything you want to tell us? You tell us that right now. Well, there's there's great clips online that are just someone saying, what is your favorite Bible passage?

There's also great clips of just, what is the last book you read? Which has a stunning deer in headlights type of look. You know, I like all books. You know, I'm always reading books. Hard to know which one to talk about right now with the mass of books I read. There were these ominous reports about Trump having these Nazi Germany histories on his shelf. They implied that he had learned from what fascism had achieved in Germany. But it was always predicated on the idea that he ever opened one of these books.

Like there's no, he can't read a book. He doesn't have the attention. He thought Bloodsport was too boring. He had to fast forward through Bloodsport. Well, there was always that rumor, I don't know if it was true, it was in some article that he had some book, the speeches of Hitler in his room.

And I don't know if that's true or not, but clearly it just illustrates who his friends are. We know he didn't read it with a highlighter, and I'm sure there are people around him who probably know all that stuff very well. I mean, when you talk to people who talk about propaganda and the use of propaganda, there's clearly people who have studied World War II

assisting him. But I don't think he really understands it. I think he just understands flood the zone. You know, someone just said, like, just keep talking nonsense. Everyone's confused and we'll push some stuff through. Because Trump is so abhorrent, obviously, we don't reflect on his strengths. And he has that relentlessness. Yeah. That's been his great skill, the relentlessness.

Yeah. Well, he doesn't ever want to not be in a fight. Every day he needs someone to go at really hard. And he kind of feels good in it. I think he enjoys that space. And the reason why he doesn't console anyone is I think in a peaceful, quiet, let's even say loving moment, he's very deeply uncomfortable because I don't think that's ever been his experience with Fred. He doesn't need 10 years of therapy.

He needs the really good stuff you get in the first 10 sessions. Just the first 10 sessions about patterns and childhood. He never got any of that. Meanwhile, as protests continued across the country, a group of protesters in Seattle successfully

cordoned off a few blocks with barricades to create a police-free Capitol Hill autonomous zone. Seattle hasn't seen this much free love since Niles proposed to Daphne. Okay, you're going for a reference

that is very deep. It's Frazier. It's Frazier. You know, let me tell you something. I didn't put in a lot of hours watching Frasier I'll tell you why I was working for the Larry Sanders show For Gary Shandling when that show was on

And although you know The few episodes I've seen Very strong Those are the best people in the world The Cheers crew Kelsey Grammer David Hyde Pierce Bebe Neuwirth

I'm aware of it But they would beat the Larry Sanders show for the Emmy every single year. Five years in a row, we lost to the same people. And here's the funny part. Every single time they won, they never said, it's an honor to be nominated with all of you people. They always just said the same thing. We got the best writing staff on television.

I'm not going there with that reference i'm sorry i'm wounded i had no idea that there was this lingering resentment that you felt towards frazier i'm sorry to have brought it up you know you know my affinity for the larry sanders show and i loved your documentary about gary shandling had i known known a reference to the 1990s multicamp. You think this guy lets go? He doesn't let go. Also, I want you to know something. I'm skipping the

Frazier follow-ups. I'm sure there's many buttons that we're not going to get. Next week, maybe I'll just throw them in. I don't want to do it in front of Judd. It's not appropriate. Oh, man. The John Mahoney riff you're going to miss. Well, John Mahoney played a cop. Don't you understand?

There's a lot of things we could have done with it, but we'll never know. We'll never know. Also this week, Steve Mnookin said that the Trump administration won't disclose information about how the government spent $500 billion in bailout money through PPP. Mnookin said the information was proprietary and confidential, two words that have absolutely no meaning in this context. Mnuchin hasn't squandered this much money since he produced Suicide Squad, and just like Suicide Squad, no one was held accountable.

Okay. All right. I mean, I don't, you know, I didn't see Suicide Squad, so I don't have an opinion on its level of quality. It seems solid. That seems solid. Do you think that I could be better at that job being the producer of heavyweights? Sincerely, I believe the answer is yes. Not for anything having to do with your skills, but I think you'd be able to attract better people. I think so. I think you'd have a better team. I think you'd have a better team I think you'd have a better team

The country group Lady Antebellum Announced this week that they would be changing their name To Lady A and the A now stands for Antifa that's it Now I'm beginning to understand that in our comedy Team writing career Writing jokes for the former president You're about to say something so hurtful

I feel like you needed me I feel like you needed me a little bit For people listening. I did need you. I did need you. Also, fuck you, but I did need you. Just for people listening, when we worked on the White House Correspondents Dinner speeches

for President Obama, Judd and I would get on the phone and we would write jokes, but Judd was responsible for some of the funniest jokes that we ever wrote for President Obama, including a big hand in the jokes we wrote for the 2011 Correspondents Dinner when Trump attended and was destroyed forever and we never heard from him again. I don't know if we've discussed this publicly before. Have we?

Together? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't think so. Here's what I remember of that time. I was visiting the White House with my family, and as I was walking through, you came out of the Oval Office,

and you said hello, and you said, we're in there right now with the president writing jokes for the correspondence dinner, which I was in town to watch, and I thought that you would invite me in because I am in comedy, and that would make you look good that you pulled me in to help. And in my mind, even in that split second, I thought, I'm about to spend an hour with the president.

That's how far ahead my mind got. You sent me on my way, and I was quietly furious, and I felt like you were afraid to have that kind of power in the room that I might show off in some way and make everyone look bad due to my acumen. So then I bump into you later in the night. Now your speech was the biggest

laugh I'd ever heard in my entire life. Barack Obama is a master joke teller in a way that I don't know people can fully fathom. So then drunkenly, I yelled at you at the party and said, how dare you not let me in that room. And then the next year you remembered and sent me the speech and said, do you have anything to add to this? And I said, I think you're a little light on your Trump jokes. This was at the beginning of birtherism.

And I explained how much I disliked the man. And I said, I think you should go hard at him. Do you remember that? Yes, I do. I remember being on the phone. I remember our conversation. I remember where I was sitting. I also, like, you know, John Favreau was sitting.

You called right as we were going over the speech. And then you got on the phone. And that's when you started riffing about The Apprentice and that's when we started writing that section. And then, you know, make a flippant remark about how qualified Donald Trump was. And you and the staff came up with an amazing version that was about Omaha steaks and referenced all the different people. And you told me you didn't think that the president would go for it because it was kind of a conceptual bit. It wasn't a one liner. And you were thrilled when he decided to do it. And, of course, many people have said, is that why Donald Trump ran for president? And I don't believe that's the case at all.

I mean, he had been dancing around for a long time. And I think he's had plenty of days of humiliation and plenty of days of wanting power. I don't think that was the defining moment of his life. Although Bill Burr has a hysterical stand-up bit about Donald Trump sitting there that night and saying, now I'm going to take your job and pulling it off. Bill Burr, who's in our movie, King of Staten Island. And then I got a photograph from the president that you got for me.

And on it, he wrote to Judd thanks for the jokes you should get a job in comedy which I assume you wrote but still good still good to have although now in history I don't know if I should hang it up we don't talk about it that much we don't talk about it too much

I blame Seth Meyers I feel like his jokes were way meaner and then people kind of conflated that with our jokes which were a little tough but Seth Meyers. I feel like his jokes were way meaner. And then people kind of conflated that with our jokes, which were a little tough. But Seth Meyers annihilated him. They were rough jokes. Eviscerated. They were so hard. They were good.

They were great. In the moment, I all of a sudden had all of this social awkward anxiety because I felt like we should bring you in. But I also felt like it wasn't my job. I wasn't in charge of meeting. The idea of me changing the manifest for a meeting with the president suddenly filled me with such a sense of panic and dread that I just like waved at you

and wanted the whole thing to go away. But it ended up in a great pairing and a working relationship for years of writing those jokes. But let me tell you my other proud moment with you. I had one joke, the Mitch McConnell joke. Do you remember that joke? Because that's one of my favorite jokes of all time.

Is that you get a drink with Mitch McConnell? Is that the joke? Yes, yes. I didn't realize that. Yeah, yeah. That was my favorite thing from our conversations. People say I should spend more time with Republicans. They say, why do you drink a bit?

McConnell, you get a drink with Mitch McConnell. I remember that now. I like that, too, because it was there was it both that and the Trump joke. They're not jokes. They're just they're just they're just statements of fact. And it actually approaches the that joke approaches the Norm Macdonald platonic ideal of the setup and the punchline being the same. Yes. I, you get it. You get, you get a drink with Mitch McConnell. You get a drink with Mitch McConnell. That is, yes. I like, I love that.

I love that. They're so similar. All right. Director John Ridley criticized HBO Max for posting the four hour Southern epic gone with the Wind without any historical context, and HBO Max pulled the film temporarily, creating a controversy. Meanwhile, the only four-hour Southern epic I enjoy is the story of what Texas barbecue does to my body. I like that one. I thought you were going to make fun of my four-hour Gary Shandling HBO documentary. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't, but wait, but wait. If I want to watch a moving, charming epic about an antihero's journey from postponed adolescence to adulthood

through a process of grieving and revelation, I'll watch The King of Staten Island starring my generation's Vivian Lee, Pete Davidson. Plug hard. That's the plug that is going to get people renting. AMC announced they'll be reopening almost all of their U.S. theaters in July with strict social distancing protocol. That man in a trench coat watching Scooby-Doo alone at 10 a.m.,

that's not a creep. It's Anthony Fauci. I like that. That's the best one. You ended up the strong one. I'll do one more. I'll do one more. One more. Jacksonville, Florida, agreed to allow Trump to deliver his convention speech in front of a packed arena. And Trump is also resuming rallies while asking attendees to sign a COVID-19 waiver. This happened after a miscommunication in the Oval Office when one aide tried to stop the rallies by comparing them to human sacrifice. But hearing that, Trump got this weird, vaguely sexual, far-off look in his eye, and everybody slowly backed out of the room. I wanted to do that because it's fucking weird. But Judd, before you go, I do want to take a moment to talk about the movie. I watched it.

I really liked it. It's really funny. Pete Davidson as an actor is so interesting to watch. He's so surprising in how he does this sort of very kind of personal but funny movie. Is there anything you want people to know? Because it's coming out today. This is coming out on Saturday. So it's out now, right? It's out now. It's on your computer.

If you just scream at your computer, Siri, Alexa, play the King of Saturn. It's just going to come. It's literally in your computer now. And it's a very funny movie it's very uplifting but it is about what happens to pete davidson's character when you know after losing his father who was a firefighter his mom played by marissa tomei starts dating another firefighter played by bill burr and it is about how people grieve and how they heal it's also about first responders and firemen and nurses. And I think, you know, every once in a while, something very special happens when you

make a movie. And I think that the movie really does apply to a lot of what we're going through, because it is about trauma and grief and how it affects us and how it affects us long term. And I'm just very proud of it. I know we've all run out of stuff to watch. I am currently binging Remington Steel. So I'm happy to get something that I like to the people because we all need it. I will tell you that, I don't know, I hope this isn't igniting another grudge I wasn't aware of. Ronan and I are watching the Golden Girls from the very beginning. This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing.

I'm watching after MASH. I've already got through MASH. There's a scene involving a child and Pete Davidson's tattoo artistry that was truly such a funny

hard to watch but I paused it because I was uncomfortable and also just genuinely appreciating that as a comedy idea. I'd never seen anything like it before because it was so crazy. So I really recommend the movie. Judd, it's so good to see you. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you for taking the time. The movie is The King of Staten Island. Judd Apatow in a beard. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you for taking the time. The movie is The King of Staten Island. Judd Apatow in a beard. Thank you for being here. Thank you. And now that we're done, I will go put on my makeup. Thank you to Judd Apatow for joining us. When we come back, we'll be joined by Dr. Melina Abdullah. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of

Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. She is one of the original organizers of Black Lives Matter and a professor of Pan-African studies at Cal State LA. Please welcome back to the show, Dr. Malina Abdullah. Welcome back. Thank you. So great to be with you again. So you were last on this show two years ago, over two years ago at this point. You're speaking to our audience at the Improv, which you noted was mostly not black. And you said, you all need to be just as invested in black freedom as I am, because until black people are free, nobody is free. It's time to

be disruptive as hell. Black Lives Matter is about a radical imagining of what kind of world we could live in if we are willing to work for it. A lot of the conversation following the protests and demands from activists all over the country have argued for some pretty radical change. Do you think we're in the midst of that kind of reimagining? I do think we're in the midst of a radical reimagining, beginning with the radical reimagining of what community safety looks like. Of course, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin has kind of usher safety looks like. And of course, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin has kind of ushered this in. I think the way that he was murdered

just struck a chord with everyone and reminded folks that we're not being overly dramatic or radical by saying that American policing evolves from the system of slave catching. And it can't be reformed. It has to be abolished and we have to radically reimagine something new. And so I think that we have people now who are seeing that murder and saying, here's evidence of that. And what am I going to do? Am I going to sit around and just let it happen? Or am I going to rise up? And so I think this is a moment like one I've never

seen in my lifetime, where people are rising up and ready to put themselves on the line. And if you think about the fact that we're still in a pandemic, and last Sunday, we had 100,000 people marching in the streets in Hollywood, I think that it speaks volumes to people's willingness. And this is not just LA, this is every city in the country and many cities around the globe who are rising up. So I wanted to talk about what this protest movement has been pushing for. Obviously, one of the big changes has been defunding the police. That's been a rallying cry for these protests. And it seems like there are many different definitions of what that means, many different ways people are explaining it. What does it mean to you in a larger sense,

and also just in the actual concrete fights unfolding in cities like LA right now? Well, defunding the police is something that we've been advocating for for a very long time. You know, we began to look at the LAPD budget more than five years ago as Black Lives Matter. Someone just handed us a pie chart of the mayor's budget proposal. And we, like most people who've seen it, were just shocked and outraged that upwards of 50% of the city's general fund was going straight up to LAPD. going straight up to LAPD. So every year since then, we've been trying to defund the police, trying to roll back the amount of money that police get. And this is, again, not just in Los Angeles, but every major city in the country spends about 50% of its general fund on police. We know that that doesn't make communities safer. It doesn't even make sense, right? When you look around and you say, what creates safe and healthy communities?

We need things like housing. We need things like health care. We need parks. We need environmental protections. We need quality after school programs in the arts. And those are the things that create safe communities, mental health resources, right? Those are the things that create safe communities, mental health resources, right? This year was particularly striking because when we saw the mayor's budget, it was up to 54% of the city's general fund on police.

But this was in the midst of a health pandemic with an economic fallout that had a disproportionate impact on Black people. Now, we'd already outreached to the mayor, who's supposed to be a liberal. We talked to him about, you know, how COVID-19 and the pandemic is disproportionately impacting Black people and how we need resources directed to not just our immediate needs, but our long-term needs. He completely ignored those demands, which were issued not just by Black Lives Matter, but virtually every single Black-led organization in the county, and then does the exact opposite of what we said we needed. After his budget came out, we launched something called People's Budget LA. And we had asked people, well, where do you want to spend? And most people in Los Angeles had traditional approaches to public safety, which includes LAPD, as the lowest of their priorities.

life, but it's also part of what most people think. Most Angelenos do not think that we should be spending this kind of money on police. So we were chanting defund police for years and more intensely in recent weeks, even before George Floyd was killed. So one of the things that's been fascinating as this conversation about defund has played out is you see some politicians sort of reject the phrase while embracing some of the larger goals. And you even see some polling that shows people being really reticent around defunding the police as a phrase. But then when you dig into the policy about some kind of a new non-police force to handle mental illness crises, about addiction in cities, homelessness in cities, that is something that's popular. People recognize that more of our budget should go towards helping the community,

not just policing the community, to schools and to social services and parks and recreation and just city life. How do you tackle that entrenched fear born of just a very long period of time in which police was treated as the answer to so many of our problems. And the police departments themselves have so much entrenched power in the cities, even cities controlled by Democrats over city budgets. Empowering the people is the beginning of it, right? So the reason that we have the kinds of city budgets that we do is because politicians do the work of budgeting in the dark, which makes

them beholden to the groups that they think have power. You know, if we think about police associations that parade themselves as unions, they have undue influence over most elected officials. And so most elected officials do their bidding, including mayors, even in liberal cities like ours, right? And so they're not doing this budgeting process through what we call a participatory budgeting process, right? And so some cities do, though. There's a few cities that are more progressive that are beginning to engage in this way. You know, people might be slow to say defund the police. But what they do get when they participate in budgeting is that it's absolutely a zero sum game. If you put $3.15 billion in policing, you don't have that $3.15 billion for housing. And when you engage in a way that's democratic, people say, is my priority putting

police on every corner as the police chief of Los Angeles wants to do? Or is my priority saying there's 60,000 homeless people in Los Angeles? I see them every day. It makes me sick. When you drive down Skid Row, which continues to be an ever-expanding area, even in the midst of a pandemic, you feel sickened, not by the people, but by the fact that we live in a country and a city that allows its people to sleep on the streets with no restrooms, with no access to clean food, with no access to hygiene? How could we do that? How could we call ourselves, you know, a developed nation and you have 60,000 people living without homes, right? You know, people might not want to hashtag defund the police. But if you say, here's $3 billion, do you want to spend it on housing our people? Or do you want to spend it on LAPD? They're going to choose housing our people. When you say here's $3 billion, do you want to spend it on having quality after school programs for our children? Or do you want to spend it on police? They're going to say we want to spend it on having quality after school programs for our children? Or do you want to spend it on

police? They're going to say we want to spend it on our children. And that's what we see time and time again. And that's what the outcome was. We did the survey. Everybody jumped on board as we started talking about this. We got this UC Berkeley researcher to really craft our tool. And the lowest priority for Angelenos was traditional approaches to policing. Everybody said their first priority was meeting universal human needs like housing. That's how you push back is exposing people to what it means, to getting them to understand, you know, this is not something that's scary. This is something that's actually very healthy. And societies should constantly reimagine themselves.

In part stirred by this protest, there's been a larger debate in our culture around systemic racism. And I know that for me, I've said this before, but like you can know something and then you can really come to know it. And it can really influence and affect your worldview. All these problems have been around. You've been talking about these problems for a very long time. You've been trying to get people to wake up to these problems for a very long time. Right. And now all of a sudden, it does seem as though there has been this awakening for a lot of

people in part spurred by George Floyd's murder. Why do you think this is happening right now? Since the Black Lives Matter movement began, killings had increased. Things had actually gotten worse in many respects. And yet right now, something seems to have happened. What in your mind do you think spurred this moment of protest, this moment of people reimagining? Well, I want to just say one thing, that in cities with large Black Lives Matter chapters or active Black Lives Matter chapters, you actually have seen a continuous decline of police killings. So we're not good until there aren't any.

But I want to say that because I think that sometimes we as organizers and activists spend a lot of time offering critique and not enough time celebrating our wins. And so it's not the victory until police don't kill anybody. But it is something I think to be recognized that we have been effective in our work. I think this moment is really interesting. And for me, it gives me a lot of hope and faith that the kind of transformation that we're seeking is on the horizon. I think George Floyd's murder the people who were around him attempted to even physically intervene to try to get Chauvin off his neck, pled with him, prayed, right, and tried to get him to make another choice, and that for nine minutes,

he refused to do so. I think it demonstrates the history of policing is evolving from slave catching. And I think that people could feel that. Like if you looked at Chauvin's face, you know, it was that he had the authority to steal this life. He had the authority to do what it was he was doing. He almost got pleasure out of it, it seemed. And I think that resonated with people differently than even other murders that we saw caught on camera. So there's that piece of it. But I think there's also that in Los Angeles, 608 people now, because someone was killed last night, have been killed by police and no one is being held accountable. And I think that at a certain point, George Floyd becomes the last straw. Like there's 608 other straws in LA County. There's 1100 straws every year. And at a certain point, he becomes the last straw. And people say, you know what? We've been tinkering around the edges of this policing system for years and decades. I'm done. And then, you know, we also have been

hopefully confined in such a way that it's allowed us to engage in some soul searching, to engage in some good reading, some good conversation, and maybe some good spiritual work that says, you know what, it's time to get up. It's time to get up. What are you even here for if you just go sit at home on safer at home orders when people are literally still dying from police violence? One question on the politics of this. Some Democratic politicians are trying to strike a balance. They don't want to embrace the phrase. They want to embrace the goals.

They're trying to kind of find a way to embrace the aspects of the protest movement that they view as sort of politically either practical or possible or positive or what have you. What are you looking for from Democratic politicians to demonstrate that they've done the work, embraced the positions to earn your vote, to earn the vote of the people out there right now? Don't be weak. These proposals they're putting forward are weak, watered down proposals. I never understand Democrats, right? If you were going in to buy a car, you don't go in and make an offer based on what you think they'll sell it to you for. Defund the police is not that bold. You know, it doesn't have to be police abolition, although I believe in police abolition. Defund the police and police abolition are not the same thing. They're

just parts on a continuum recognizing that, you know, police are not the answer to every problem. I don't understand why they're not saying things like no municipality can spend more than blank percent of their unrestricted funds on police. Democrats should say police don't belong in schools point blank period. And it's not even that imaginative, right? Anybody who's over the age of 35 remembers that police weren't always in school. I had no idea just how pervasive having police in schools had become and how many schools had police officers and not nurses, police officers and not a guidance counselor, police officers and not a social welfare officer. I learned that from these protests.

Right. So why wouldn't the Democrats, why wouldn't policymakers say that's an easy one? Because most parents went to school when there were no cops in school. Yeah. And most parents went to school when you had a school nurse.

I remember my nose used to bleed all the time and I was always in the nurse's office, right? That's how I learned how to pinch the bridge right there. It was because there was always a school nurse who taught me that stuff, right? I would have lunch and then go in the nurse's office, right? That's how I learned how to pinch the bridge right there was because there was always a school nurse who taught me that stuff, right? I would have lunch and then go to the nurse with a stomach ache. And it took them too long to figure out I was a lactose intolerant Jewish person. It took them just a few. It just took them too long. Like I'm a child. Can some adult crack this fucking code? Like every day. You were drinking that school milk.

Chocolate milk and then I'm sick. Somebody put this together. It's not that hard. Every day. That chocolate milk was good, though. I think I also liked the nurse. She was nice to me. So I would love to see policymakers be more courageous, be willing to listen to the people, not just the lobbyists, not just the police associations. And, you know, be willing to say, you know, now is the time. I think right now, I really believe we could have anything we

want if we fight. You know, I think this is a moment where it's time to be bold and we can have everything and anything we want. Well, we'll leave it there. Dr. Melina Abdullah, thank you so much for being here. It's good to see you again. Thank you. Good to see you, too. And stay safe. When we come back, we'll be joined by LGBTQ plus listeners to talk about culture they love, culture they hate, the culture about which they feel both emotions to Mark Pratt. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It. There's more on the way. and we're back listeners I think it is time for all of us

to give Jay Inslee a much deserved apology you can build 10,000 affordable housing units on the land of one major theme park you have to destroy Harry Potter World Star Wars Galaxy's Edge or Pandora

the world of Avatar which one's gotta go? I am a politician of conviction. I voted against the Iraq War. I voted for the assault weapon bill. I voted against the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

And I think Harry Potter should be eliminated. Holy shit! You all booed Governor Inslee, and his campaign was forced to clarify his comments, but Jay Inslee got it right. He's good on climate. He's good on Harry Potter. There are two sentences that I always think about,

about two different and unrelated aspects of pop culture. One is about Harry Potter. One is about Quentin Tarantino, which is, again, completely unrelated. The one about Harry Potter, and I read this and I tried to find it. I couldn't find it, but it's someone who just said,

Harry Potter is about a popular boy who is good at sports. And that really stuck with me. And then the other thing about Quentin Tarantino, which is completely unrelated to this segment and Harry Potter, is that someone wrote that Quentin Tarantino makes movies about violence as someone that has not experienced violence. And I've seen Quentin Tarantino movies in a different light since I heard that. Again, unrelated. Now, J.K. Rowling, which of course stands for J. Karen Rowling, followed up a glib anti-trans tweet with a very long, quite confused anti-trans op-ed on

her website. So we want to hear from LGBTQ plus listeners, not just about J.K. Rowling's bullshit, but about culture that has let you down and about how LGBTQ people have told their stories and fought back. Originally, we were just going to talk about problematic faves, but when J.K. Rowling decided to add to her glib tweet with a genuine anti-trans screed that was very dark. We wanted to change this segment up a bit.

So we're going to go to the phone lines. And Alisa, let's call somebody. Hi, is this Elliot? Yes. Yeah, this is Elliot. You're on with John, as we say here, reluctantly. What's on your mind? Well, I had written about something that happened with my mom over Christmas.

She had bought me some general Harry Potter socks and stuff, and then that was when one of the rounds of the transphobia stuff was happening. So as soon as she heard what was going on with that, she returned the socks and apologized. But she didn't know what was going on with that, she offered to return the socks and apologize, but like she didn't know what was going on. So it was just a really like meaningful thing for her to do. So your mom, your mom wanted to make sure that she was loyal to you now that JK had taken this anti-trans position. Yeah, yeah. She wasn't aware of it beforehand. Like, she's been very supportive since I came out and transitioned. So she wanted to correct that and, like, made sure we weren't, like, supporting her monetarily.

It was just very, very on board right away, which really meant a lot to me. This J.K. Rowling shit is such a fucking bummer, huh? Yeah, it really sucks. And, like, I grew up on Harry Potter, and And like, it was a big part of my childhood and was something that was very important to me. And now it really sucks that something that was so important now is kind of hard to look back on and, and think of in a positive way. So well, it's nice that your mom decided to take a stand on your behalf. Yeah, yeah, that was that was really meaningful to me. Like, we had had some tough times when I first came out to her,

but that, like, really solidified her commitment to me and trans people in general. And, yeah, it was a really nice moment between us. And we still have Daniel Radcliffe. Yeah, very happy about that. Yeah, that's been really cool to see everyone kind of speak out against her. Well, Elliot, thank you so much for sharing. And it's good to talk to you.

Yeah, thank you so much. I'm a huge fan. It was great to talk to you. Hi, Carsey. Hi. Hi. You're on with John, as we say here. How are you doing?

Oh, my God. I'm doing well. I'm on with John Lovett. Yeah, I'm on with John Lovett. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm on with John Lovish. Hi. Hi, Carsey. Welcome to the show. So it's Pride.

Happy Pride to you. Thank you. And we are talking to LGBTQ plus listeners about the problematic faves because their heroes let them down, but also the culture they love. And so I just want to turn it to you. What do you want to rant about? Do you have a positive rant? Do you have a negative rant?

Can you give us both? What's on your mind? My problematic fave has to be Chick-fil-A. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I love them so much. The people are so nice. They're so nice. They have the good lemonade.

Oh, I won't touch the lemonade. I won't touch the lemonade, But they're such nice people. Yeah, they're so nice people. They ask you if you want, like, sauces. They ask if they want to take your plate. Their chicken is good. It's not like the end-all, be-all chicken, but it's a good chicken. I think it's really brave of you to tackle this issue.

I think what you're doing is shameful. I think that your behavior is absolutely appalling. I know. But hypothetically, if once in a while, people like you, people like me, human beings, flesh and blood, decide that we want the spicy chicken sandwich with waffle fries, with a side of the buffalo sauce, and maybe also with a couple of the chicken nuggets as well. I love the chicken nuggets. I mean, I've never had them. I never had them.

I'm speaking hypothetically. But if you were to get them, if you were to get them and dip them in that buffalo sauce, you know, it might be really good. It might be something you might really like. You know, that's sort of like my hypothetical. Hypothetically, if we were to, it's all right. It is. As a member of a minority. We deserve that. We've been through a lot. We deserve. I think I think you're pushing it. I think you're

pushing it. And you know it. You know it. Look, I know I'm doing it. I'm a political science major. I push things all the time that are probably not in the limit. I totally understand. I will say this, though. It is absolutely true that there have been moments where I've given in and had the Chick-fil-A. OK, and it is a sad statement about me that the problems we both know about, we don't need to get into it. We know what the problem is. Yeah. The problems we both know about, we don't need to get into it. We know what the problem is.

Politically about Chick-fil-A has not stopped us. But I will say, I think that there has been a real decline in quality. I think that the French fry texture has gotten worse. I mean, you know, from what I read. I've read that too. That it has gotten a little less crispy. It's gotten a little more floppy. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what people are starting to say in these in these books that we're reading. And that may be enough. That may be enough. So I it's a lesson for me that the combination of an anti-gay

history and a soggy fry is enough for me to take my business elsewhere. And I hope the same is for you. Everything else is disappointing me and I'm taking action. So you're right. This probably is the last stand. Something that happens to me is whenever I talk about how we shouldn't go to Chick-fil-A, it puts it in my mind. Is that a problem that you think you may have in, say, the next sort of like hour or two? Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Carsey, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for sharing. I think it was brave. I understand.

I'm with you. I understand the tension as a fast food loving LGBT person. Stay strong out there, all right? And we'll just do our best in other ways. We're just human beings. Yes. We're just human beings. We're just human beings. It's not our fault.

It's not. Whatever that means, I agree. It's not our fault. Thank you so much for calling. You don't know how much this made my day. Oh, well, thank you. It made my day talking to you too, Carsey. Stay safe out there, okay? It was good talking to you. Okay. Bye.

Hello? Hi, is this Aaron? you. Okay. Bye. Hello? Hi, is this Aaron? Yes. Hi, Aaron. You're on with John, as we say here. Hey, how's it going? How you doing? I'm doing well.

Thanks for calling. Yeah, so, you know, it is pride. Happy pride. Thanks. You too. Thank you. So, you know, because of pride and because I've seen some of these unfortunate comments from certain authors, we're talking to LGBTQ

listeners and we want to hear about the culture that dragged you down, the culture that made you happy. You can rant negatively, you can rant positively. What's going on, Aaron? I've got a positive and a negative. I would like both, but

I'd like to start negative and go positive. Okay. My negative one is the latest update to the American Red Cross. American Red Cross does great stuff. Sad that gay and bisexual guys still can't donate blood without a celibacy, period. I just think that's junky. It's not research-based. It's kind of discriminatory. So I'm kind of disappointed on that latest headline.

I agree. I agree. But from a public health perspective, there's a lot of at-risk groups, right? There's risky behaviors that you can engage in, and there's plenty of gay and bisexual people that don't engage in those risky behaviors, right? And we also know that

the blood donors are screened for those risky behaviors, and then the blood is tested for any pathogens including hiv it's a weird call out it's very dated it shouldn't be about who you are it should be about what you do that is obvious yeah and yet and yet and yet so i think that was a really good a really good point that's my negative problem yeah um my positive rant though is per your recommendation um listening to leather lita i started killing eve during quarantine oh yeah man oh man i've been down in the dumps i hate quarantine i hate social distancing and this has just been an absolute pleasure i love seeing lgbt characters

where their sexuality is not part of the main storyline i love it i love seeing a gay villain they're dynamic they're complicated and uh it's not, we don't have to have like our typical tropes of coming out of the closet or being rejected by family. I completely agree with you, Aaron. And it's such a good point. Killing Eve is so good. Now, we have to note that there was a little bit of a hubbub, a little bit of a squabble about whether or not it was a gay love story. But putting that aside,

and honestly, I did not keep up with it because I don't care. I completely agree. Yeah, me neither. The homoerotic tension wafting off of BBC America when that show was on is incredible. I'm here for it, yeah.

Sandra Oh is incredible. The actress whose name escapes me for one moment playing Villanelle is incredible. Jodie. Jodie, yes. Jodie Comer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Comer,ody yes jody great she's amazing well aaron that is such a great example i'm so thank you for sharing it thanks for the call it was really fun thanks for doing it it's uh it's a good topic hello hi is this steph yep you're on with john as we say here sometimes oh my god hey uh happy pride

to you thank you happy pride to you. Thank you. Happy pride to you too. I'm just curious what's on your mind. You know, what did you want to talk about? Drag race in general is just bothering me. Wait, what did RuPaul do? He won't let anyone compete who's not like a gay male. Basically, it's just drag kings deserve better.

And RuPaul also has a farm in Wyomingoming where he fracks but nobody wants to talk about that rupaul's fracking rupaul's fracking yep i didn't know about that i'm learning that from you nobody does it was like news for a second i can't believe that i can't believe that yeah that's i agree with you i think rupaul should be focusing on entertaining people i don't think he should be um producing fossil fuels. Oh, yeah. I totally agree. Well, Steph, thank you so much for sharing this rant with us.

You're welcome. Steph, thank you so much for joining us. Stay safe out there, and we appreciate you calling. Thanks. Bye. Holy shit. Hi. This is our old friend Colin, isn't it?

Yeah. Hi. Colin, welcome back to Love It or Leave It. All right. We haven't talked since we last spoke to you. You were working on a project about presidential history. Is that right? Yeah.

But today, because it's pride and happy pride to you, Colin. Yes, thank you. You too. You wrote in saying that you wanted to rant about, and I quote, my trans ass getting knowingly queer baited by the CW. Yeah. First of all, I'm not very comfortable with that language from you, Colin. All right.

Oh, you're a young person. All right. And I would like to see you keep the cussing to a minimum, frankly. Yeah, my parents would probably agree with that. But so tell us more. What do you want to say about the CW? But so tell us more. What do you want to say about the CW? So because I have nothing to do until I leave for college in August, I have decided to watch all of the Arrowverse shows.

So Arrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, The Flash and all that. And it's just so surface level for their gay relationships and it's sad. And I want more. I need content. Colin, you're, you, by the way, I just think this speaks to the progressivism of a young generation that your complaint is you find the queer relationships on the CW to not be substantive enough. They're too surface level for your taste. Is that what you're saying today? Yeah. I mean, I'm watching Arrow and there's a gay couple and they've been dating for like

three seasons and they have not shown a single kiss on screen. Now that I understand. That I understand. I just want you to know, Colin, alright, as an elder, alright, as your LGBTQ elder, alright, all right, as an elder, all right, as your LGBTQ elder, all right, let me tell you, you have no idea how little. No, I know. I know. How few characters there were. And to hear you demand not just queer characters, not just queer relationships, but you want more kissing on the CW, all right? Because that's what they would do

if they were straight i want you to know that i think it's inspiring all right yeah thanks i guess uh they're also very attractive over there on the cw huh please don't please don't do this right now i have a crush on all of them why are they all hot they're all hot because they're on television colin yes wait where are you going to college in the fall? Where are you going? American University. Are you excited? Yeah. I mean, I'm doing online orientation and that's fun. How do you feel about

JK Rowling? I don't know if you know about this, but Jackson Bird, who's a trans YouTuber, wrote a really good piece on that, which he worked for a non- nonprofit called the Harry Potter Alliance. And he basically talked about how Harry Potter like helped him come out as trans and stuff. And it was really neat. Yeah. It's disappointing,

but I'm not surprised and I'm kind of used to it. Well, Colin, I'm glad that even though the CW queer relationships, aren't having the level of romantic depth that you're looking for from your superhero dramas, that I'm glad that even in this dark time you have that hotness available to you, okay, as a young person, all right, researching American presidents

and getting ready to go to college, okay? I need friends. It's fine. Well, the good news is you're going to make lots of friends. You're going to go to American University, and you're going to be able to make lots of friends. Yeah, no. I mean, I'm excited. Well, Colin, it's good to talk to you. I think we just have to check in regularly, okay?

I think we just have to keep following up and seeing how you're doing. I would be totally OK with that. OK. I was checking all of the Twitter indirects like the morning after the last episode aired. Somebody had an idea of calling with Colin. I thought it was funny. OK. All right.

You know what, Colin? You know, let's let's slow down here. All right. I'm not ready to be eclipsed. I don't need to be paid. It's fine. I'll work for free. I can't get a job anyways. Colin. Hey, come on. All right. I'm not ready to be eclipsed. I don't need to be paid. It's fine. I'll work for free. I can't get a job anyways. Colin, hey, come on. All right. You got to you know, you have to know your own worth.

OK, you got to fight for you. All right. All right. Whatever. All right, Colin, it's been so great to catch up with you as always. I'm so glad to talk to you. All right. Say hi to your parents for me. All right. And, you know, we're going to have we're going to have to check alright say hi to your parents for me alright and uh you know we're gonna have we're gonna have to check in with you to hear about how college is going

okay we're gonna have to check in and see what's happening at American alright I would love that thanks for calling me back I was not expecting it

I was kind of expecting your show producer to be like oh this kid again but that's what they said but I told them they were wrong just so you know

they said no way but I said we gotta call Colin aww Goodbye, Colin. Get out of here. Well, thanks. Yeah. Bye. Thanks to Colin. Thanks to all the listeners who called in on a serious note. I did want to take a moment to talk about the activism we've seen to protest the deaths of black trans people, including Remy Fells, Ryan Milton, that have helped draw attention to these issues as Black Lives Matter protests have unfolded broadly across the country. There are organizations doing great work advocating for trans rights and trans people

right now, like the Trans Justice Funding Project at transjusticefundingproject.org and the OCRA Project at theocraproject.com, and you can support their work and help them protect trans lives and advocate for trans people. And when we come back, we'll be joined by Rosemary Ketchum, who just won a seat on the Wheeling City Council in West Virginia, and in that victory has become the first openly trans person to win public office in that state ever. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. She just won a seat on the Wheeling City Council and is the first openly transgender person ever elected to public office in the history of West Virginia. Please welcome Rosemary Ketchum. Thank you for being here. Hi, folks. Thanks for having me. So congratulations on your race.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you were campaigning for? Yeah, so I was a candidate for Wheeling City Council in Ward 3, which makes up four neighborhoods. And a few of our campaign issues included homelessness and vacant properties, potholes and stray cats, all of those fun local stuff. You also won this victory during Pride, first trans person elected in the history of your state. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like on the campaign trail? Did you meet people who were less familiar with LGBT candidates? How did it actually play out day to day? But I didn't hide it. I've been working in my community as a community organizer for almost a decade. So people know who I am. But yeah, I had a lot of interesting first encounters.

Some awkward, most very kind and wonderful. I walked into a bar, as one does on the campaign trail, trying to get directions to find a specific space. And I had never been in this place before. And it was dead quiet when I walked in, kind of like one of those saloon movies where you walk in and it's like that. Me and my campaign team walked in and they gave us directions very kind of quietly. And we walked out. And by the end of the night, we walked to get into our car, which we had parked in their parking lot without asking. And one of the folks who was in the bar ran outside yelling our name. And that's never a good sign.

And so we're kind of terrified and scared. And he walked up to our car and said, hey, you are the worst politician I've ever met. And, you know, I'm a new politician. And so it hurt a little bit he said you never introduced yourself first and foremost uh and apparently they had a big discussion of whether I was a man or a woman inside the bar after I left and he went on and on about that and said uh that the whole bar wanted my contact information to learn more and it was easily one of the most awkward experiences ever, but 100% kind and thoughtful. And I think the kind of definition of what local politics looks like.

That's a lot to bear. You know, you're trying to campaign on these issues, the small town problems you want to take on, you're building, you know, you say you're a new politician, and yet your victory in a city council race becomes national news. I think for a lot of people, trans visibility is new. You are sort of representing not just yourself, but the idea for people of being trans in a place like your town. What is that experience like? How does it change you as a candidate, I guess, is my question. I guess I'm a people person at heart, and that makes it super easy

because I'm an extrovert. I love talking to folks. I love helping folks understand what they might not understand. I work in mental health. So every day I'm trying to enlighten and inspire and do all those fun things. But running for office is very different. I've never had an experience like this. And I think running for local office is particularly unique because in this national landscape of convoluted politics we have now, and we've had, you know, in some way forever, but particularly now, it is incredibly frustrating. And there's so much apathy and indifference toward federal and national politics because people realize how glacial change is and how frustrating getting anything done can be. But I believe the more that we focus on our local

politics, the more we realize the kind of untapped power of our mayors and city council members to make change in our communities, in our cities, so that we can all have little pockets of progress our communities, in our cities, so that we can all have little pockets of progress throughout our state. So when I kind of framed it that way, it was so much easier to run because it's like we have our own little state here in Wheeling, and we can really make progress on our own terms. I've been in a fight with some Harry Potter stans all day. Bless your heart.

It's just a tweet. I don't know how much you've been following what uh jk rowling has gotten up to uh but she's put out obviously these abhorrent statements but putting just this one person aside yeah this idea about what a real woman is is something that people even some people that consider themselves progressives can seem to get behind even now what to your mind is the harm of that kind of an idea of the kind of arguments being put out there right now? I think it's really important to kind of separate what we know to be ignorant versus what we know to be bigoted. You know, and what I believe

ignorance is just the fact of just not knowing or not understanding, but trying to learn, maybe not getting it right. And bigotry is active hate and, you know, somebody who just does not care to learn or to be kind. So, you know, I speak at colleges and I've had, you know, this past summer, I got to speak at some of my first elementary and middle schools, which were the most intimidating, but the most fun experiences that I've had. You know, just the language is really hard to understand for folks. The difference between a female and the difference between a woman. There is a difference.

And the language we use is oftentimes mixed and convoluted. I have a story about going to the DMV for the first time and being refused an ID because the language on the forms didn't make sense. They weren't 21st century, you know, as a trans person who identifies as a woman but is not female, there's no box for me to check. So, you know, for folks who have never really had to consider the trans experience or what that means for a person who doesn't identify in that, you know, very rigid binary system, this language is really hard. It's like learning Mandarin for people. It's not easy to get right away. And so I try to be patient. But, you know, Ms. Rowling has a pretty large exposure. And so it's I think

that much more important for her to try, at least try to get it right. I do think, I mean, you look at sort of she wrote this incredibly long piece, It does seem as though she has moved from this ignorant place to someone who's now done enough work to be considered someone who has decided to disregard the science, disregard the experts, disregard trans experience. Yeah. I actually wanted to ask you about West Virginia too, because I do think that your story has become national news, in part because it's like, even in West Virginia, oh my gosh, even West Virginia, this place where they're rural, they're bumpkins, whatever the pejorative is. But there does seem to be some idea that the reason it's exciting that you won is because it's even in a place like West Virginia. And you talked about the glacial pace of national politics. Some of what you talked about addressing as a city council member

is about the failures of the federal government. What do you want people to know about some of the fights that are going on in West Virginia and the politics of West Virginia, given the kind of failures at the national level to tackle some of the economic challenges and societal challenges like drugs and what have you? In West Virginia, we're kind of microcosm of what's happening nationally, because we have a governor who is in so many ways the Donald Trump twin. He's kind of like the, you know, the doppelganger. And we have a statewide, you know, opioid epidemic that,

you know, exists across the country, but is, I think, really concentrated here in the state of West Virginia. At base, we have a complete distrust in the systems that govern us nationally, but in West Virginia, we are very much a rebel state. We are the first, you know, nation to secede from, you know, the Confederacy. And, you know, we're proud of it. However, what we're seeing across the country with the protection of Confederate monuments and flags and statues is frightening and not part of what we are here in the state of West Virginia. So that's all to say the stigma about West Virginia is often baseless because you know, because the folks here are incredibly

humble and compassionate. But the issues we have hit home for every single West Virginian. I don't think there is a West Virginian that doesn't know somebody impacted by the opioid crisis or isn't themselves impacted. I have family members in recovery myself. And so from a city council perspective, you could think of it as unfair to try to take on the responsibilities that our state or our federal government should be taking on. But I see it as an opportunity to build trust, which is perhaps the most valuable currency that a local government can have and to exchange with their community. And it's something that I've tried to build as a community organizer in my state. And hopefully now I can do the same, you know, as an elected official. Last question for you. There are trans kids right now. They are seeing things that J.K. Rowling is saying. They're also seeing your victory. They're seeing the progress. They're also seeing this

bigotry that's out there. What's your advice to them? What's your message to them? that's out there. What's your advice to them? What's your message to them? It's not as hard as you think. And fear is not the boss. Oftentimes, we are controlled by what we're afraid of. And that makes sense. The world is kind of scary. And it takes a certain amount of vulnerability to do something like this, because you will not know what the consequences are until they're, you know, right in front of you. I didn't know I was going to win. I didn't know that Time Magazine was going to pick the story up and that I was going to be talking to John Lovett that, you know, two days ago, I was, you know, excited about two retweets. So this is how fast it can happen. But I would tell a person or whomever's thinking about running for office that they should,

because it's more efficient to replace elected officials than to convince them. And it's more fun, actually. Rosemary Ketchum, thank you so much. Congratulations on your victory and good luck. Thanks, John. We come back. We'll end on a high note. Don't go anywhere.

This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Because we all need it this week, here it is, this week's high note submitted by our listeners. Hey, Love It. This is Emma from San Francisco. It's been an especially tough couple of weeks, but one thing that has been giving me hope is that my best friend from college and a few of her friends created a fundraiser to elect four black women to Congress.

Jackie Gordon, Desiree Timms, Cynthia Wallace, and Joyce Elliott, all of whom will be either the first black women elected to Congress in either their state or district. In just 24 hours, they have raised over $7,000. It's not only proven to me how much power we have as individuals to shape change, but it's also given me hope for the future. Hi, I just wanted to share something I'm hopeful for. My dear friend ran for state house in the state of Pennsylvania and won last week, and we're super excited that Boats of America and Paws of America is working with organizing and getting people to adopt the state.

And we're just super hopeful. And I'm so excited that she was vulnerable enough to run. And I'm just really happy from Central Pennsylvania. Thank you. Hey, Lovett. This is John from Milwaukee. And my high note this week is that I went to a drive-in movie. Went with my family to

see a double feature of E.T. and Jurassic Park. It was wonderful. Two childhood classics on the big screen, all from the safety of our car. Thanks. Bye. Hi, I love it. My name is Denise, and I'm from West Virginia, and I wanted to call in with a high note because we just had a major political victory in our state. We went on strike a couple years ago, and we had our own president of our Senate named Mitch Carmichael, who did everything he could to bring us down. And we decided to ditch Mitch's campaign. And last night, after all the fighting, he lost in a primary to a teacher in his county. This is really giving us hope, but it shows that the teachers in West Virginia, we fought hard and we ditched Mitch. We can ditch Mitch here, and I have hope for ditching Mitch in the Senate. Have a great day. in. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 424-341-4193. We've really appreciated the stories you've shared. It is 143 days until the

election. You can sign up for Vote Save America right now to defeat Donald Trump, keep the House, and win back the Senate. Thank you to Judd Apatow, Melina Abdullah, Rosemary Ketchum, and everyone who called in. Thank you to our doctors and nurses and everybody working to keep people safe as this pandemic continues, even though we got sick of it being on the news. 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, and our head writer, former Mike Bloomberg speechwriter, Travis Helwig. Jocelyn Kaufman, Alicia Carroll, and Peter Miller are the writers. Thank you. McLean and Jamie Skeel for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, Nar Melkonian and Yale Freed for filming and editing video each week so you can.