Lovett or Leave It - Mitch’s Brew

Episode Date: October 20, 2018

Mitch McConnell makes it clearer than ever that Republican’s are full of shit. We share some advice about what to do when you experience or see voter discrimination and we get a much-needed pep talk about that terrifying climate report. Guy shares his experience canvassing for the first time, the royal family just got bigger, and white women need to take a seat. Max Silvestri, Saru Jayaraman and Tre’vell Anderson join for Guy’s last week guest-hosting!

Oh hello, welcome to Love It or Leave It. I am Guy Moranum because John Love It left it and is off making the fine and impressive Pod Save America HBO show, so he left his personal podcast in my meaty hands. This is my last week guest hosting the show, so thanks so much to everybody for letting me do it. Next week, Erin Gloria Ryan of the Hysteria podcast is going to be swooping in and handling things. Let's hope she can sail over the bar that I have set. Let's welcome our guests, you guys. First up, she's the president of the Restaurant Opportunity Center's United and director of

the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley. Please welcome Ms. Saru Jayaraman. Saru Jayaraman. Yep. I'm sorry to problematize your name. I am part of the problem in this country, and I understand and accept that. You got it. You got it. Next up, he's a film reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering diversity in Hollywood and so many other things. But most importantly, one of the key voices in our world these days.

Please welcome Mr. Travell Anderson. Hello. Hello, Travell. How are you? Travell, have you seen The Wife? No. Oh, what the fuck are you doing Travelle? listen you're a film thinker I was like have you seen have you seen Chris Hemsworth's torso

in Bad Times at the El Royale? I have it's glorious it's a lot I don't even like him it's the greatest achievement in film this year I don't know if I would go that far

but it's significant maybe to somebody it's noteworthy it's significant to me and finally he's a writer, actor and stand-up comedian whose Netflix special is now out on the comedy lineup. Please welcome my dear friend, Mr. Max Sylvester.

Thank you very much, Guy. I didn't get key voice right now, but I'll take that intro. Key voice is quite a- Try making a difference, Max. Yeah, I should try harder. We have four copies of The Wife at my house right now. There was a screener mess up this year. We're a two guild household and we have four copies of The Wife.

It's the only screener we have. I mean, way to complain about being like immersed in riches. I'm not complaining. This is how I celebrate with this tone. That's fair. Let's do it. You guys, what a week.

This week, Mitch McConnell announced that the GOP's real agenda for the next two years is to cut healthcare benefits and social security for tens of millions of Americans

to pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts that will mostly go to big corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Mitch McConnell's brand is strong. In an interview

with Bloomberg one day after the budget deficit hit $779 billion in Trump's first fiscal year, McConnell proposed reducing the deficit with entitlement changes. In Republican speak, that means big cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act subsidies, and Social Security. So let's put this deficit in context. President Obama handed Donald Trump and the GOP Congress a healthy growing economy

with low sustainable budget deficits. Republicans have increased spending somewhat, but what they also really spent large on was the Trump tax cut, which is expected to add $1.5 trillion to deficits over the coming decade. Remember, Republicans had promised it would shrink the deficit. Shockingly, the tax cut did not pay for itself. So now McConnell wants America's most vulnerable citizens to pay for it. Equally shocking, Mitch McConnell has proposed to repeal the Affordable Care Act should he win enough seats in the Senate this election. He, Trump, and 20 GOP-led states are standing behind a lawsuit that they filed to get the entirety of Obamacare overturned, including coverage for pre-existing conditions. A tough

hill to die on when poll after poll shows just how popular Obamacare, and specifically coverage for pre-existing conditions, is among voters. But of course, that has not stopped Republican candidates from releasing a wave of ads promising they will preserve protections for Americans with pre-existing health conditions. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is running against Senator Claire McCaskill. In his new ad, he describes how one of his two perfect little boys has a rare disease that would be considered a pre-existing condition. We know what it's like, he said, before saying he supports forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing illnesses. Fun fact about Josh Hawley, he's one of the Republicans

from the 20 states that have signed on to the lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act. This is exactly how Republicans have been going about policies for the past decades, cutting taxes, jeopardizing health care, and then telling you it's all fine, whatever, don't worry about it. Now it's more clear than ever that this is exactly what will continue to happen if Republicans stay in the majority. So Saru, I turn to you and I ask, do you think Republicans historically have run on lies? Is there other evidence of this? Also, what color is the sky? I mean, yes. I mean, this has been a historical trend.

But I think what is so noteworthy, amazing, should be outrageous to us is the ways in which at this moment, compared to other moments in history, they are just deciding to be so completely blatant, completely obvious and blatant about their scandalous, outrageous behavior. I mean, the fact that he is willing to say, I am proposing to take money away from the poor and give it to the rich in exactly almost those words, to me says in this moment, they feel so entitled, so powerful with zero consequences for these kinds of actions. And I want to give an example on the ground that we're experiencing of this kind of blatant behavior. So my organization, we collected 400,000 signatures to put on the ballot this November in Michigan, a raise to the minimum wage from three dollars to twelve dollars an hour for restaurant workers and from nine dollars to twelve dollars an hour for everybody else four hundred thousand people signed petitions to put that on

the ballot in november and out of terror that the working people who would want a raise would go to the polls and vote themselves a raise this november the tea party republicans who control the michigan state legislature made it law. They tripled wages for waitresses in Michigan. They raised the wage for everybody to $12 an hour, blatantly and openly saying we're doing this to take it off the polls

so that nobody will go to vote who might vote Democratic, and we promise to gut it after the election. Oh, that's insane. It's insane. What's most insane about it, though, is this might have been shenanigans Republicans might have pulled in the past, but this year they're willing to announce it from the rooftops. We are going to screw you. We don't want you to vote. We don't want working people to vote. And we're going to screw you after the election. And we don't care if you know about it because there are no consequences. The way that they are capable of

convincing middle class people who do not have health care, that trying to create a system where everybody has health care is stealing from them to give to like the nefarious underclasses. Really impressive. Max, do you think it's a form of hypnotism? I mean, it's magical and feels self hypnotist, like in the sense that like, I also am confused how Republicans and Congress can be wanting to end protection for pre-existing conditions because, you know, like all rich older white men, they look just like they're probably like riddled with sores and gout and they have so much disgusting medical history. Congress members have the best health insurance of anybody in the country.

Yeah, but like age and corruption and like bad intention just rots you from the inside in a way that I feel like becomes like sort of tumorous. Like if they were to open their robes in like a Renaissance movie, there would just be like strange things hanging down because of all the evil they've done all over their life. So I don't understand how they're protected if these sorts of laws pass. Well, it's always hard for me to tell what do they really want and what's a wedge issue. Like I always assumed that them hating gay people was just leverage so that they could get tax cuts. And I think naively as a white person, I assumed that much of the stigmatization and villainization of black and brown people was just trying to get tax cuts. But also they got the tax cuts and they're still trying to criminalize people for being brown. And so what's the meat

and potatoes of what they actually want? Anyone that doesn't like couldn't hang with them at a dinner party gives them the deep icks. And whether that is like ill people, whether that is brown people, whether that is people in California that like live in a city rather than a suburb. They're just like gross. How you live your life is gross. I think it still is about getting what they want. I think they want more. The tax cuts weren't enough. They want complete control of our quote unquote democracy. They want complete control of everybody's finances. In the fall of last last year they attempted to pass a law making tips the property of owners rather than workers so it's not enough to keep wages low it's not enough to take all the tax money in the world and keep it for themselves they want it all and and they do that by continuing to

divide no sorrow you're wrong what they want is small government that barely does anything for all choices in America to be made by private citizens who hopefully look as much like them as possible. They want to starve the beast, which is also what The Rock calls what he does two weeks before he has a shirtless scene in a movie. Travelle, do you think the double standard exists for how Democrats versus Republicans run their campaigns? I mean, I think what the Republican Party has perfected is their messaging in a way that the Democratic Party hasn't. Right. And so the Republican Party has perfected where they're able to point out the because they're all telling lies, to be clear,

all of the politicians, they don't care. And but the Republicans have perfected an ability to point out the lies that the Democrats are telling and have their base believe it and get activated over it. The Democratic Party hasn't been able to do that for the conservative voters. I'm always stunned by the fact that a Democratic congressman's ad is always, guys, I'm almost a Republican.

Who loves businesses? This guy. I do archery. I hunt deer. And like every Republican is standing there with a gun talking about how they once ate an undocumented immigrant.

And I don't understand why there's never a backlash there. Well, it's a belief, right? That Democrats have to go to the center in order to pull some of those, you know, moderate Republicans. Whereas the Republicans are like, listen, I'm Tea Party, I'm racist,

give me my Confederate flag and I'm good. But also the exaggerated version of liberalism, like whatever I ate an undocumented immigrant is, it is not weird, cool action movie or villainous in a way that I think the extreme right-wing version is. There is no cool left-wing where it's just like, look, I'm the most left version, I'm badass. I have to step in here. It's not completely true. There has been a backlash. On the one hand, there's been Trump. That's part of the backlash.

But the other backlash is there are amazing, amazing progressive women of color who are winning races around the country. Do you have to be constructive, Saru? Yes, I do. Yeah, I mean, let's look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, who got Joe Crowley out. And let's look at Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts. Let's look at Stacey Abrams, who's running the most amazing campaign in Georgia. Stacey Abrams, of anyone, is going out there and not saying, look at me, I'm almost a Republican. Because it wouldn't work for a black woman. Exactly.

She's going out and saying, hey, if everybody who can vote shows up to vote, this lady's winning. Exactly. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan. I mean, there are amazing women of color who are bucking the I'm really a Republican in Democrats. And they're winning. And the point is they're winning because they're authentic and they're giving people what they actually want, which is delivering on bread and butter issues. Well, the issue of authenticity is fascinating to me because for such a long time, for the past 30 years, I would say every politician thought it was their job

to just be on script at all times. And I feel like Democrats are largely doing that, where Republicans have realized that we now all love housewife shows and we want to see some wine with ice cubes get thrown in the political sphere as well. And it is really interesting hearing people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez come out and like talk like a person. She was a bartender. Yes.

The fact that she's able to like show photos of being a service worker like two years ago and say, hey, I'm going to go to Washington and actually represent you. That resonates in a way that like nice, responsible Democrats who are telling us about 2% of 5% doesn't necessarily work. It also resonates with the masses of people who have felt completely disaffected and disengaged with both parties. I represent a population of 13 million restaurant workers who mostly don't vote. And both candidates have sold them out and left them at two bucks an hour. And so both parties. And so they feel like nobody really represents me. What is the point in voting? And so when you have an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who says, I was a restaurant worker, I will make sure your wages go up. So frequently, nice, middle class, liberal white people can be like, why don't

more of these people vote in their own interest? And the answer is, when you're barely making money, you ain't got time to think about it that much. And frankly, neither party is producing in their own interest. I mean, neither party is actually raising their wages or fighting corporate control of their lives or actually pushing back on climate change. You know, neither party is actually doing it because they're all pretending to be Republicans.

So you've got to deliver if you want people to vote. But also you have to admit, Saru, people look cool in suits, right? Not really. Who looks cool in a suit? My point earlier was only that ads about stomping on people with golf cleats are just funnier than the other version of the ads. I mean, I agree that there are authentic, like further left politicians, but I'm just saying they're not talking about caving in anyone's face with the rock that they

found. It's talking more about their experience and what they'll do for voters, which is a wonderful sentiment. And one I support, but just not as funny as a guy wearing like body armor, screaming about how he's going to kill his opponent. I mean, that's just better content. I ask you, do you think that Trump has made this problem worse of the Republicans really speaking fire from the base and Democrats being sort of like milk mouthed? I do. Always been this way. In the sense that like any energy that used to feel of like, well, lies were kind of called on either side. And there was a bit of tit for tat and you'd lose a news cycle or you'd be you kind of have to like duck your head a little bit because you just got called out on a fake campaign promise or an ad that lies. It used to feel like there was some sort of consequence to that.

And I feel like Trump has proven again and again that like I just ignore or lie to people's faces when they call me on that hypocrisy. And suddenly a lot of people who deep down would have loved to be doing that for a long time are suddenly looking around and looking at each other and being like, we can just do what we want to do. And no one is going to like, click their pen at us and get us in trouble. Let's do that. Let's make a run on the house before like all this explodes or whatever. I think some people who have spent their entire career being beaten down for being honest in any way are now looking at that and not understanding it because the past 30 years turned them into a person who can't be honest anymore. And that person's name is Hillary. But the thing that is amazing to me, like I think one of the things that has really changed is us not understanding what affects people and what affects voters.

Because so many of these behaviors, which would have destroyed somebody's career 10 years ago, and everybody is still behaving as though it would destroy his career, doesn't matter with Trump. And the media is constantly saying, look what he did, look what he did. No one fucking cares. What do people care about? What is going to impact them or motivate people on the left? Raising their wages. I mean, come on, look at this. I'm telling you, we were about to triple workers' wages in Michigan,

and the Republicans knew it would drive people to the polls, and so they made it law. Do you know what an anathema it is to Republicans to triple waitresses' wages? It's like them eating collard greens. It's just like the worst possible thing they could do to themselves. But they're still like laid off Harley Davidson employees that are like, yeah, it's a bummer that these tariffs have cost me my job. But I'm still going to vote for Trump over everybody. I think there is still in a small part of the, a cult of personality and a kind of like,

I'd rather be on the side that's winning the way I like. Absolutely, but what I'm saying is there's masses, literally millions of people who aren't voting, who have been ignored by the Democrats, so that's what I'm saying, who are actually a threat to Republicans, so much a threat that they're willing to raise wages to keep them from going to the polls.

The thing that I am ready to push back with is the one thing that Obama got done, the Affordable Care Act. But people didn't show up in 2016 to protect the Affordable Care Act. Do you think that's because it was too much of a milk mouthed attempt to satiate the Republicans and not enough of a big, bold vision of what Democrats can be doing. It wasn't enough of a big, bold vision. And besides that, there was no real evidence that Democrats had actually delivered for working people, for women, for people of color. There was very little evidence. I mean, during those years, wages remained stagnant.

Wages didn't go up. You know, jobs continued to grow, yes, but income inequality in our country has reached a greater level than it was at the Gilded Age. One in three working Americans working full time and living in poverty by 2021. We're going to be at one in two. Half of all working Americans working full time or more than full time and living in poverty. And so half of the country can't even afford to consume or feed their families in three years. How do you expect them to turn out for a half-assed health care bill? Sorry, it's very, very difficult because by law in this country to be a legislator,

you have to be a lawyer who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year or married to a tech billionaire. So it's very hard for the people who are making our laws to understand, you know, what the needs of working class people are. And that's why we lost. Hillary didn't even go to understand, you know, what the needs of working class people are. And that's why we lost. Hillary didn't even go to Michigan, right? Yeah. That's why we lose, because we don't actually, we don't listen, we don't deliver for people on the ground. I have a question. Max has raised the very interesting idea that the reason Republicans' ads go down better

is because they echo action films. Republicans' ads go down better is because they echo action films. And you made the point that Democrats cannot use the tropes of action films to excite people to liberal activism. What genre of film do you think we should look to to create Democratic campaign ads? I've got you. Okay. I've got you. This is where I come in.

I'm going to go with the black comedy. Like the black family comedy. Okay. Right? Tyler Perry. Okay. Dress somebody. Some man up in a wig. I see Claire McCaskill with a chainsaw

like cutting through the defense budgets. Do you think so? I'm with it. Boo. Madea's Halloween. Someone like me brought to a holiday dinner and being given the business

by the family. Yeah. By Loretta Devine who played the grandmother or the auntie or whatever. Listen, we can make this happen.

Tyler Perry would make this movie. Like we just need to get Sanaa Lathan to enough like marginal districts to make this movie. Like, we just need to get Sanaa Lathan to enough, like, marginal districts to make this possible. Now, when we come back, OK Stop.

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Welcome back to Love It or Leave It. I continue to not be a John Love It. I am Guy Branum because John is on assignment in Austin this week. I've seen a lot of Instagramming of barbecue and so I assumed Austin. Making the HBO show. Please be sure to watch it.

Now it's time for a game called OK Stop. We'll roll a clip and the panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment. This week's clip is Tucker Carlson having an expert on to talk about the issue on everyone's mind right now, the attack on college whites. The free speech crisis is bad enough, but it is a result of something that is even more poisonous, which is the spreading of victim ideology. Okay, stop. I love when conservatives whine about victim ideology immediately before they go into a long monologue about how they are victims on college campuses.

I mean, I think the great coup of modern conservatism is their ability to hold both having all the cards in one hand and being the victim in the other. And it's tremendous to watch just how like controlling all elements of government right now, judiciary, everything, and still to just be on TV persecuted. It's like really impressive. This is the most popular news network. Max, when you've had all of the cards, having slightly less than all of the cards

is oppression. Okay? Anything less than the whole deck and everyone else's decks will not do are telling their own students that they are at risk of lethal racism and sexism simply by virtue of being on a college campus that is an outright lie there is no more tolerant place if you're not a conservative than a college campus today, they have to defend. Oh, come on. Let's talk about who it's really not safe for on college campuses. Let's. Yes, and women.

Let's talk about the level of sexual assault on college campuses, the fact that, what is it, like one in two women have experienced some form of assault or harassment on college campuses when they are young and people of color. mean as people of color there's constant harassment and assault I teach at UC Berkeley I mean I can't tell you the number of women and people of color who are constantly coming to me with these kinds of very very scary incidents even at UC Berkeley yeah but you must admit sorrow as we learned in the Kavanaugh hearings, while there is a great amount of

sexual assault that goes on, we can't be certain who does it. No one in particular. It's more of an idea, right? Yeah, women are doing it to themselves. I'm willing to allow the abstract idea that it happened, but I'm not willing to allow that anyone did it. It may just have, like,

the conception of Jesus. It was a bit of an immaculate sexual assault. But as someone who teaches at a university, don't you think it's important that some students learn in an environment where they're being constantly told that they're less important and that their intellectual traditions don't matter? I mean, that just seems like, you know, pick yourself up, man. Try harder.

Exactly. And yet, somehow, up, man, try harder. Exactly. And yet somehow these white people are the victims. And in fact, recent studies have shown that actually a majority of white people in America believe that they are the most oppressed group in the United States. Of course they do. And so we have some real education and culture change to do to help people understand what actual harassment threat looks like. Because when men feel like they're under attack for, you know, meat for him too, they don't

actually clearly understand what every woman goes through. Travelle, I'm always fascinated by the way that like our past 30 years of civil rights movies convinced all white people like they would have been one of the good ones and i think that's part of the reason that like like discrimination is invisible to them because they're not doing something from like terrible from like the wall long walk home or a better more mainstream example they didn't they didn't turn a hose on little black kids that were just marching for their rights, right? And they think that, oh, my God, I'm so good because I donated to this campaign. And, like, I gave a couple dollars to Black Lives Matter.

But, like, you're not really willing to put your life on the line. You're not really willing to, like, give up some privileges that you have in pursuit of lifting up people of color, women, LGBTQ folks, trans folks to be specific. Like, you're not really willing to do the work to kind of earn your liberal badge that all these white people like to wear. And plus when so many of these folks, these same folks, feel so entitled to call the police on a woman sleeping in her dorm room or to call the police on a nine-year-old boy brushing you with his backpack.

Oh, we're gonna get there. You know, I mean, there's an entitlement that not only are we the most oppressed, but we're able to call our vigilantes on all of the rest of you all. That's an extraordinary feeling of entitlement. I do think, though, we should acknowledge that there is a danger now on college campuses for white conservatives, frat pledges who stay up all night butt-chugging vodka and quoting the film Eurotrip, that they could fall out of their bunk bed and break their arm. I mean, this stuff is real. It's like they're stuck enjoying the wrong Chappelle show sketches for weeks on end in their room. Something might happen when they boof. Yeah.

You know? You never know. It's a Western civilization that is their extraordinary privilege to pass on to the next generation of students. Okay, stop. I mean, the notion that people are being damaged by having to read some Zora Neale Hurston, The notion that people are being damaged by having to read some Zora Neale Hurston, the notion that having to step back and say things were also being written that weren't the Odyssey, and it's dangerous to treat white supremacists as a frivolity. It's dangerous to laugh at them too much. I hate that. But, like, this obsession with, like, the Western tradition and the real important things that we were learning in college in 1964 are not being taught anymore.

Calm down. Science moves along. We can talk about Frida Kahlo a little bit and nobody gets hurt. But can we also point out that, like, you know, as the person here who is probably closer to being a student a few years ago, they are still— Oh, stop bragging. We get it. I'm just saying, they're still teaching that same stuff they were teaching in 1964.

They're not teaching Toni Morrison and shit like that. There's enough uptake. They're not doing it. Willing to do that, if they're willing to capitulate to these preposterous charges that to read Homer or to read Aeschylus or to read escalated to reach shakespeare is to be subject to life threatening racism they should simply resign i mean who's really talking to the escalated

all agree that the central argument about college campuses is everyone agreeing that they can't be taught escalatedus. When we come back, a game. Will it be about Escalus? Probably not. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Welcome back to Love It or Leave It. I continue to be Guy Branum.

John Lovett is not here. Are you disappointed? Yes, absolutely. Will I be here next week? No, I will not. Will John be Guy Branum. John Lovett is not here. Are you disappointed? Yes, absolutely. Will I be here next week? No, I will not. Will John be back? No. Aaron Gloria Ryan will be here.

Disappointing you guys will be Aaron's job next week, and I will be back to doing whatever my normal job is. Oh, why don't I use this as an opportunity to say what my job next week is? I will be performing at the Laughing Skull Comedy Club in Atlanta next weekend, October let's go with 25th to 28th. Why don't you guys come and

watch me there instead of listening to this podcast next week. But you should because Aaron Gloria Ryan is pretty great. Alright, thanks to the cynicism and avarice of a handful of rich old white men. Get your shit together sorry. She's dumping stuff all over the place. So as I was saying,

I'm a woman of color. If you had read more Aeschylus, you would know how to keep the cap on your water, okay? Thanks to the cynicism and avarice of a handful of rich old white men, Jim Crow-style voter suppression is back from the dead,

just like your favorite sitcoms of the 90s. Since 2016, five states have introduced new voter ID requirements, and across the country, millions of registered voters have been purged from the rolls. Voting is one of our most basic rights, and Republicans are trying to take it away from our country's most vulnerable citizens. The silver lining is that they wouldn't bother if voting didn't pose a real threat to their power. That's why we need to do everything we can to vote, no matter what kind of shit they try to pull at the polls. In that spirit, we are going to play a game called

Murder, She Votes. I'm going to read you a... Oh, we need a participant. Do we have a competitor from the audience? Does one of the interns want to do it like they did last week? Hi. Oh my God. Competitor number one, what is your name?

EJ. EJ or DJ? EJ. EJ, it's lovely to meet you. Where are you from, EJ? Originally Rochester, New York. Oh, that's exciting. I don't know anything about Rochester, New York. I was born in Rochester, New York. Oh, that's exciting. I don't know anything about Rochester, New York. I was born in Rochester, New York. No way!

Strong Memorial House place. It's a great place. Same! What a small world! I drink 45 cans of Genesee cream every single day, so I'm a big fan of the brewery in Rochester. That's beautiful. All right, EJ, I'm going to read you a description

of an obstacle you might run into on election day, and you have to pick the answer with the best advice for how to get around it. Are you ready, EJ, I'm going to read you a description of an obstacle you might run into on election day. And you have to pick the answer with the best advice for how to get around it. Are you ready, EJ? Yes. Okay. EJ, let me set the stage for you. You arrive at your polling place on election day only to discover you're not registered to vote. Maybe it's an honest mistake or maybe your name was purged from the rolls.

Whatever the reason, you're not on the list and you're holding up the line. What do you do? You've got three options. Saru, let's throw her the first one. You're not on the list? Don't they know who the hell you are? This is an outrage. You demand to see the manager and then tell them about how many bottles you're going to buy

once you get up in the club. Do they know who your stepfather is? All right, option two. Option two, Travelle. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia will let you register at your polling place on election day. If your state doesn't let you register on the spot,

request a provisional ballot and be sure to ask for instructions on how to follow up. Provisional ballots usually require you to prove your identity within a few days. If you need to fill out a provisional ballot, call the National Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE

to make sure your vote is counted. But the best thing you can do is come prepared to register to vote or check your registration status. Go to votesaveamerica.com. All right. And option C, Max Silvestri. You call up your pal Vlad, a 14-year-old Russian computer whiz, and he quickly hacks you back into the system. Phew. Finally, all those hours of playing Call of Duty with strangers has paid off.

EJ, what's your answer? The correct answer is B. Okay. Let me just be clear. I get to say what the correct answer is, okay? You get to hazard your guess. EJ, can I ask, did you not choose option A because you questioned that your stepfather has the clout to get you into the voting booth? Yes.

Okay. Option B is correct. That is right, EJ. You were lucky. All right. Question two. Question two. Let me set the stage.

You arrive at your polling place and a poll worker asks to see some photo ID. Uh-oh. You live in one of those bullshit states that recently passed a voter ID law. Or one of the bullshit states that already had one. Or maybe the poll worker is a crazed election fraud vigilante. In any case, you do not have your ID on you. What are you going to do, EJ? What are you going to do?

Option one, Sarah. If your state has a voter ID law on the books, it's a sucky state. If your state has a voter ID law on the books, it's a sucky state, but ask for your provisional ballot and be sure to follow up to prove your identity before the deadline. Even the worst ID laws have allowances for people without government issued photo ID. If you think a poll worker is demanding more than the law requires, check to see if your polling place has a volunteer attorney and ask for help. Either way, you should call the election protection hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. And once again, it's best to come prepared. Go to 866-OUR-VOTE.org forward slash state before you vote to find detailed ID requirements for any state. Doesn't sound legitimate.

Travelle, have you got something? I gotcha. You pull out your trusty, battered fake ID that you've had since high school. Sure, they can stop you from voting, but they can't stop Carmen Mondongo Beansprout Jr., the 47-year-old organ donor from Utah. Fuck no, that bitch is wild. All right, and option C, option C, Max Silvestri. Tell them that you left your real ID in your car,

then try to make your way through the back entrance. If they catch, just say that you thought that the other door was your car and that you'll go to your car now. Then just keep trying this over and over again with every other entrance until they just get annoyed with you and let you in. That sounds really good to me.

EJ, do you think it's A, B, or C? Those are all really good options. I would have made my plan on Vote Save America to know that I need my ID, but I'm going to go with A. That is correct. That is correct. All right.

That was great work, but this one, it's really going to catch you, okay? Again, let me set the stage. You're waiting in line at your polling place, and that same idiot poll worker from before isn't letting a stranger vote for some idiot reason. Maybe the poor sap used a passport for her photo ID, and the poll worker doesn't trust passports because they look like tiny books that are not the Bible. What do you do?

Option A, Saru. You don't do anything at the time because you're mortally afraid of conflict, but you do feel super guilty about it for the next few months, so that counts for something, right? Yeah, yeah. Liberal guilt, it's done so much for us. Travelle? That's right to say.

Look at this stranger with your arms towards them and start singing Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up. Everyone will think it's a romantic gesture and have their guard down, then gently hold the stranger's hand and walk right into the voting booth. People will think this is a beautiful moment in your life and not bother you. I love that. Max, what's options say? If you see someone who is having the right to vote challenged on Election Day, help them.

Look for a volunteer attorney. If that doesn't work, tell them to ask for a provisional ballot. Get follow-up instructions and call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. If you think the polling place is engaging in voter suppression, call the hotline yourself and report it. While you're at it, report it to your local election official and the Secretary of State's office. Just make sure you leave politics out of it when you try to help strangers on election day. It's illegal to advocate for a candidate within 100 feet of a polling location. All right, EJ.

We got a lot of really good options here. Which one are you going to take? Option C was very compelling. I'm going to go with that one. That's correct. That's correct, EJ. EJ, congratulations. You got all three correct.

Elisa, tell her what she's won. A Vote Save America shirt. Elisa said a Vote Save America shirt. I question that the shirt will ever get to her. I mean, previously we were playing with interns, and now EJ. EJ, are you an intern? Are you going to an accredited college? No, I am an employee.

This is bullshit. We are violating quiz show laws as we speak. But congratulations, EJ. You know a lot about voting. When we come back, we'll feel inspired by climate change. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Welcome back to Love It or Leave It.

I'm Guy Branum, your host. John Lovett is not here. We have no idea where he is. With me in the studio, not the improv, the studio are... Saru J. Araman. Beyonce. Maximilian Silvestri. And so this week I went in Canvas for the first time.

In previous elections I had like phone banked and stuff, but this year I really felt like I needed to do something more because in 2016 we all did smugly sit around and be convinced that we were going to win, and there's been so much talk about the blue wave that I was scared and also kind of wanted to be part of the blue wave if it does happen. And I didn't know exactly what to do, but I got a text from a NARAL organizer who was like, hey, come on up on Saturday morning and canvass.

And so I went to the office of an assembly candidate named Christy Smith, who really wants to do a lot of great things for education in California, and I canvassed for her, and Katie Hill, who is running for Congress. And it was weird. Like, it's weird on a Saturday morning, like, just walking through some neighborhood that's

not your own, knocking on doors. Like, a dude yelled at me through some sort of surveillance camera to make sure that no one ever knocks on their door. And the one thing I do have to say is that Republican or Democrat, the people of Santa Clarita, California, are throwing down with their October holiday decorations on their front porches. There were spooky spiders. There were ghosts. And it was like, it was lovely on a lot of levels. But one of the things that was coolest was I talked to some people who were planning on voting for Katie Hill but didn't really know about Christy Smith and being able to tell them a little bit more about her and give them information was great.

But also, I think looking in the eye, people who were like, no, I think Donald Trump needs more support in Washington so that he can get done what he needs to get done was really good for me because it is so easy to turn those people into a cliche. And I definitely don't agree with them. And it was also not the internet where you can just get into a fight with them and run away. It was an actual human being on their goddamn front porch. And I was- They have gravestones in their front yard.

These are people that buried their family, presumably, with an epitaph-less gravestone that just says RIP with no name. And you're mean, these are people that buried their family, presumably, with an epitaph-less gravestone that just says RIP with no name. And you're like, these are horrible people. Well, also, I'm representing some nice lady running for assembly. And so I can't start a fight because I'm there as the representative of this lady

I learned about from a 20-minute briefing in the morning. But Saru, I'm sure it is adorable that I am so proud of myself for my delicate little entree to the work of organizing. No, congratulations. It's what everybody should be doing. It's what we used to do in America,

which is called talking to each other and listening to each other. And for a long time, that's what organizers have done for a really long time. But it's a dying art. And unfortunately, the right has picked it up. I don't know if you know, but the Koch brothers and the KKK have been doing canvassing, a lot of it, over the last couple of years.

Which is why they actually have been picking up so much steam. Do they have shorter sheets so that they can move around better when they're canvassing? I'm sure they have to take off the hood. Something like half length. Exactly. But they've been going door to door, listening, offering stuff. And when people feel heard and listened to, they tend to actually want to do something with you. So a lot of people don't feel heard because our side of the table has not actually done what you did this Saturday.

because our side of the table has not actually done what you did this Saturday. Yeah. So- If we're losing steam to the KKK's ground game, I feel like there's something wrong with liberalism in this country. So there are still a couple of weekends left. Like, please, if you've got the time,

go get out there, go to- And it's also really interesting being in a district where everybody doesn't agree on everything. Like, I live in fucking West Hollywood. The only disagreements about politics really center on dancing with the stars. And like, going to a place where realizing these people live next

to each other and have very different views of the world, but managed to figure it out. It was pretty fucking beautiful. So go out there, call your local congressional candidates, your state legislative candidates, because that fucking matters. Like we talked about last week,

state legislatures fucking matter. Show up on Saturday or Sunday and get out there and canvass. I'm sorry I was so self-congratulatory, but I'm a white liberal. It's what we do. All right, does everyone want to play a fun game? Sure.

Your enthusiasm is deafening. Alright, last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report and it is the most unsettling 1100 pages since Stephen King kicked his snorting cocaine and writing about children habits. According to the report, we have just over a decade

to cut emissions to about half of what they were in 2010 in order to prevent the worst effects of climate change. The changes that we need to make are, in the IPCC's words, rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented. To some, that sounds like the end of the world. But do you know what else was rapid,

far-reaching, and unprecedented? The race to the goddamn moon. And within 10 years of JFK's moon speech, we conquered it. Who controls the tides now, motherfucker? It is time for a pep talk. So, Max Silvestri, I turn to you. You're going to be playing the role of JFK.

Oh, boy. And you, I mean, you don't have to, like, do the voice and everything. But I ask you, I'm gonna give you 60 seconds. You have to give us an inspiring speech that will make all of us want to do the voice and everything. But I ask you, I'm gonna give you 60 seconds. You have to give us an inspiring speech that will make all of us want to do everything possible to create the technology to cut our emissions to a level that will stop this planet from killing us.

We have also provided you, within an envelope, one single actual fact. So you only have to give us one actual fact. The rest can be just inspirational bullshit. Max Silvestro, are you ready? When should I open the envelope? 30 seconds, I will tell you to open the envelope. Okay? Okay, great. All right. Are you ready to go? Sure. Let's begin.

Ladies and gentlemen of America, I want to tell you a story about my father. He was a simple and direct man. He was a child of immigrants. He served in the military. He grew up during the Depression, but he believed in a few simple things. You should spend as much money on olive oil as possible because it's important that young men shouldn't wear hats indoors. And that he did not want his children or his children's children to live inside of a water world. We now stand on the edge of a cliff. And if we look down, it's scary because that's so far. Open that fact! We could fall, but we also, what a view. If we look up and not down, that view's incredible,

and that's what we need to focus on. And it reminds me of something my father used to say when I would come home late from playing with my friends, which is at 1.5 degrees of warming, 90% of coral reefs will be at risk. And then he would say, son, at 2 degrees, it jumps to 98%.

The brink of extinction. Roughly half a billion people rely on coral reefs for food and income. So instead of looking down America at the- That's time! I have never been so inspired by a white man. So great. That was beautiful.

I could almost smell the Connecticut air and Sunday sauce cooking. But Travella, as a critic, do you have any notes for being more inspiring next time? Be less white. Work on it. My time to inspire is over and that's fine. So yeah, maybe we don't have the answer now.

Maybe we need new leadership in the left that is not coming from Max Silvestri. But you know, that was a good start, Max. And let's hope that our non-Al Gore-like politicians can maybe give us some hope for fixing this problem instead of just preparing ourselves for a Waterworld post-apocalyptic scenario. When we come back, it's the rant wheel.

Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Welcome back to Love It or Leave It. I'm Guy Branum. John Lovett is in Austin making the HBO show. But guys, it's time for the rant wheel. This year's topics are the new royal baby, crisp fall weather, doxing the Proud Boys, Ariana and Pete, corporate control of our democracy, people who sleep with no curtains,

Netflix food shows, and white women nonsense. It's like a free space. All right, let's give her a spit. Oh, what's that? It's corporate control of our democracy. It sure is corporate control of our democracy. All right, you know, here we go. We have huge trade lobbies that people don't even know about.

The biggest one that most people don't know about is called the National Restaurant Association. We call it the other NRA. It turns out it's been around since emancipation, demanding the right to hire people and not pay them anything. At the beginning, former slaves, now mostly women, 13 million of them, not pay them anything, let them live on tips. But the worst part about it is, and we were talking earlier about this, how blatant they are being now in completely controlling legislatures, bribing legislators, and making them actually do their bidding. So in Washington, D.C., we put this on the ballot June 19th. The people of D.C. So now legislators also working for tips. Yes, that's right. They've been doing that for a long

time. So in Washington, D.C., we've put this on the ballot. It passed on June 19th. The vast majority of voters put it on the ballot. The Restaurant Association bribed the Democrats on the D.C. Council, who just voted on Tuesday to overturn the will of the people and have those workers go back down from $15 an hour all the way back down to three in our nation's capital. And then in Michigan, I already mentioned they've got Republicans actually taking it off the ballot, saying they're going to change it. They have gone all over the country doing crazy things. But here's the craziest thing that they did. After the November 2016 election, they actually hired the Trump-Pence communications firm,

and they actually used them to create a fake AstroTurf worker organization called Restaurant Workers of America. What? A group of mostly white male bartenders and servers saying, we don't want a raise. We don't need a raise. And all y'all women who are saying there's sexual harassment and want a raise, you're lying. You're crazy. We don't need a raise. Nobody needs a raise. So can I just share with you my fear about this situation? I worry that in a world where service

workers are making a living wage and have health care, that the waitress who brings me my pancakes will no longer call me hun. Like, she won't have to. She'll just know confidently that she's getting $15 an hour. Do you think that that is a fair and reasonable concern? Do you live here in California? I do. And does anybody call you hun here? I mean, it's mostly gay guys who know that they're hotter than I am.

Do they still call you hun? Look at me askance. I mean, sometimes. So anybody who lives in California knows we actually pay our people a full wage. Right now it's $11. It's going up to $15 an hour. We have the fastest growing restaurant industry in the country. We have higher tipping averages and half the rate of sexual harassment. So maybe they don't call you hun because they don't want to call you hun, but they might call you hun because they're't want to call you hun, but they might call you hun

because they're actually happier here than they are in other states. Well, that's beautiful, and a thing a lot of people don't think about, so thank you very much. But also tell every restaurant owner in America and your legislators that they need to actually pay their workers

rather than having them rely entirely on our tips. Have you considered coming up with the argument that eliminating tips, less math for you when you're wine drunk? Because you like get to that point when you're wine drunk. But we're not advocating for eliminating tips. We're advocating for having people be paid and let tips be on top of that. So I'm sorry, but you're still going to have to do math.

And if corporations didn't control, for example, our education system, maybe you actually would be able to do that math. Damn, she's shady. And on that note, we are losing Saru J. Because she is dropping the mic and going to the airport. Ladies and gentlemen, Saru. Okay, Saru's gone. Finally, it's just dudes.

Like that new show before Watch What Happens Live where essentially, like, I forget who's on that show other than Dave Hall. The point is- Jerry O'Connell. Yes, you are the Jerry O'Connell, I imagine. Thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've always fancied myself

the Bravo's Jerry O'Connell of Pod Save America. This is Love It or Leave It, not Pod Save America. All right, let's go back to the right wheel, okay? Big money, big money. All right, we've got crisp fall weather. Now, here in Los Angeles, most of the time, what September and October are serving you is more of the endless springtime that we enjoy as a state.

It's usually like 90 degrees. You still have the air conditioner running. And the only way that you know it is autumn is because of the presence of pumpkin spice lattes on the Starbucks menu. It has been so exciting to have somewhat crisp fall weather here in California. It's beautiful. I am not someone who can layer clothing,

but I've been enjoying the sweaters that other people are wearing. Today I had just a cute lunch outside and I didn't have to worry about sweating too much. I just drank Sauvignon Blanc and enjoyed my salatini soise. I can rock a Henley and have it go from day to night and not just feel like it's somehow inappropriate

for a lunch walk. Max, may I say? Yeah. You're wearing that Henley. Thank you very much. Let's keep spinning. Ariana in Pete. Okay, may I personally say I sincerely hope that she left him because he breaks so much during sketches.

I am tired of it. He is not taking his profession seriously. She is Ariana motherfucking Grande. She takes her profession seriously. She should not be dating a dabbler. She's a craftsman first. Piano's a hell of a song. Also, I'm worried that Pete is going through more emotional turmoil because I just question the amount of surface space that is left on his body that does not have tattoos on it.

And I feel like if he's on an emotional roller coaster, he's going to need a couple of more words and maybe a cartoon mouse to truly express who he is i'm i don't know how any relationship could survive the um extremely rapid and uh public memification of like one person being given big dick energy i feel like that was such a like i'd never heard of it and then I'd heard everyone's opinions on it, and, like, it just felt like, wow, suddenly this person's so public. This wasn't even like, oh, Jon Hamm, there's a wisp of something in a picture. This was, like, everyone looking at each other and being like,

he has big dick energy. He has a big dick, and it makes him confident. And, like, whatever size his penis is, I don't know that you can just survive that. Back to the wheel. It has landed on Royal Baby. You guys, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are

expecting a baby. We're going to get a real, live, African British, like, he will not technically be a prince. I believe he will, no, he will be His Highness and a baby, we're going to get a real live African British, like, he will not technically be a prince. I believe he will, no, he will be his highness and a prince, because I care about these things too much, but not, oh, his royal highness. And, like, maybe, like, eighth in line to the throne. That's really exciting.

I love that Prince Harry, like, and Meghan Markle are being so circumspect in sort of like including people of color in the royal family and trying to make people feel represented. I think that that wedding was a beautiful moment to make people who had always felt excluded from the central part of British culture feel like they were finally a part of it. central part of British culture feel like they were finally a part of it. And I think that having a baby who is in line to the throne, who is not someone who would have been considered white or even British for most of history is fucking beautiful. And I'm very excited for it. And I look when when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married, I wanted the first one to be a fucking girl. So we'd get get another reigning queen

and that was exciting. But this time, we need a goddamn boy so he can inherit that dukedom and we, for the rest of history, have fucking black Dukes of Sussex representing for the people of Great Britain. Back to the wheel. All right. White women nonsense. That would be mine. So I'm going to start by telling you all just a little story. It might get a little serious. OK, so just over 60 years

ago, there was this little 14 year old boy and he was in a store. Right. And he was accused by this white woman of flirting with her and saying these, you know, derogatory things. And then a few days later, you know, her husband and friends went to the little black boy's house and abducted the black boy and they beat the shit out of the black boy and they mutilated him and they shot him in his head. Then they dropped him in the river and then three days later

they found the little boy, right? The little boy's name is Emmett Till, right? Okay. And then we found out decades later that the white woman lied about everything, right? Okay. So you have this white woman, they're calling her on the internet, Corner Store Caroline, who, we mentioned it earlier, who assumed that this little black boy, Jeremiah Harvey, was groping her. He's just walking by with his mother, you can see the tape, is groping her. And she decides, after getting in an argument with the mother, to call the police on this nine-year-old black boy for what she believes is groping her, right?

And then she, you know, days later, she watches the tape and she, you know, starts apologizing. And what we see right now is, right, the little boy did an interview and he was like, I don't forgive that white woman. And so the internet, right, because we've been bred to believe that black people have to be so forgiving of white people who fuck up our lives. The internet wants this little boy

to be forgiving of this white woman who could have ruined his entire life. And I have a problem with that, right? First of all, it's a little boy. This little boy is not thinking about your ass, woman, okay? One, you ain't got no ass. But two, he ain't thinking about your ass. And you thought it was so appropriate to call the police on a nine year old boy.

This is why we see so many. Tamir Rice, ring a bell to anybody? Little black boy playing in a park with a fake toy gun and is just killed within seconds of the police arriving on scene. Like these are real life issues. And there are so many white folks, white women in particular, who have been weaponizing the police, who have been calling the police on black people just trying to live their life. There was another white woman who wouldn't let a black man get into his own fucking apartment.

There was a permit paddy in Oakland who thought it was a problem for the black people who were trying to barbecue in a park. Like, I need white people, but particularly the white women, in these particular cases, to sit their asses down, stop weaponizing the police, and just let black folks live. We're just trying to live like everybody else. And so I need white women and their nonsense to just go sit down somewhere. Okay? Final follow-up question.

When it comes to white woman nonsense Avocado toast pro or con Con Fuck you The topic is People who sleep with no curtains That's mine It feels like a little low stakes. I mean, you don't think that you can follow

centuries of violence against African Americans? You know, I think it's important for voices like mine to pick the battles for which it is appropriate for them to step into. And I think the idea of this kind of like cocky Instagram morning light energy of like, I don't do curtains in my house,

in the bedrooms. Like we maybe have a wisp of lace. I'm someone that like travels a lot. I stay at friends places. I believe that all sleeping arrangements should have total blackout curtains and that you should never be able to know the hour of the day outside the room if you choose to not know. You always want to be in a Wynn hotel.

Yeah, exactly. And not like that kind of hotel where they have the curtains, but they're an inch away from meeting and there's no way to make them overlap. And you're like, well, I might as well be sleeping on the fucking roof of this place. And it's less about like, yeah, I would love for my my own comfort I take care of it in my own house I'm not worried I'll bring travel blackout curtains if I need to it's more the energy of people that are like oh curtains yeah I don't do that I just kind of wake up with the light but I can sleep through it like what sort of psychopath energy is that that you can just like a mummy like place

your hands on your shoulders and just like choose to wake up after seven and a half hours with the sun blaring in your face. Like I wake up with a tan. It's disgusting. Get a blackout. All right, you guys. That was the rant wheel. Before we go, why don't we end on a high note? Why don't we end on a high note?

We didn't touch on it in the show, and I'm sure that everyone here and everyone listening knows Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren have been unfortunately going back and forth about Native American heritage. It's a shitty story from every angle. So I wanted to talk about a Native American woman who I've mentioned before on this show a couple of times and will continue to talk about. And her name is Polly Jordan. Polly Jordan is running as a democrat she got the nomination uh for governor in idaho and look she's running as a democrat in idaho it is an uphill battle but this is a year where we are talking about there being a blue wave and if there is one and people do show up crazy things can happen and one of the things that i think would be coolest if is if one of those crazy things was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, like being responsible for one of our states, for being able to say that this country that was founded on genocide and theft and crime gave the full possibility of citizenship back to a member of one of those tribes. Let's remember, Native Americans could not vote in this country until the 1920s.

They have been systematically marginalized from our institutions of democracy and from property. And Paulette Jordan is a great candidate. I love many things about her, but the thing I love most is I saw a video of her at Moscow, Idaho Pride. And you have never seen retail politics until you have at Moscow, Idaho Pride. And you have never seen retail politics until you have seen Moscow, Idaho Pride. Like, first of all, it's Pride, so everyone's trying to fuck. But also, it was like 30 people there,

and shit was going on, and she was having to hold attention like somebody at a bad open mic. And she was doing the work and fighting hard. So I know everybody has asked you to give money to everybody. I know that you are getting emails from Claire McCaskill and Beto O'Rourke every 15 minutes. Fuck knows I am too. But if there's anything you can do to help Pollitt, Jordan, isn't that a much better answer to the situation of Native Americans in American politics than anything Elizabeth Warren or Donald Trump are saying or were saying?

Yes. That was beautiful. God, I really got up on a soapbox there. Okay, guys. Thank you so much to Saru J. Araman, who isn't here anymore, to receive that thanks. Travelle Anderson. Travelle, where can people learn more about what you do? At TravelleAndersonAtLATimes.com.

And Max Silvestri, what about you? At Max Silvestri on the platforms that matter. And by... Oh, it's been a goddamn pleasure to take over for John Lovett on Lovett or Leave It. Thanks so much to Elisa and Mukta and everyone else who has made it possible. But mostly, buy my fucking book,

My Life as a Goddess, available wherever books are sold. The Scrappy Pup Hose House.