Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 156: SS Promise Zones (w/ Special Guest: Bayley Amburgey)

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

We talk with organizer and teacher Bayley Amburgey about our home county's fiscal woes, as well as the situation in Louisville.

Welcome, everybody, to your weekly edition, the July 23rd, 2020 Year of Our Lord edition of the True Ability Workers Party. Today, I am one-third of the trio, joined by another third, the best third. Bailey. Miss Tanya. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Miss Bailey Amber. Miss Tanya. Yeah, yeah. Miss Bailey Anbergy. Maybe you've heard of Bailey before. But we do have, we're three for three on Letcher Countians this week.

We've got, as always, Miss Tanya B. Turner with us. And joining us remotely from Louisville, Kentucky Kentucky by way of Wattsburg, Kentucky. Bailey and Berkey. How you doing, Bailey? Hi, I'm doing well. I'm actually in Memphis right now. I just moved. I literally just moved like July 3rd, so very recently. Wow. Just the best city in the country. No big deal. I'm just like, I'm loving it.

I, everything, the food is like, I just, I have no complaints. I have no complaints so far. I was like, if I'm going to move anywhere,

I have to go further South. So, yeah, I know if Pittsburgh were further South, I'd be living there. Right. I know. It's too far North. I can't do it.

I know. There's a lot of northern cities I really like, like Philly and stuff, and I'm like, I don't know if I could live there, though. I need to go to the south where my people are. Yeah. Memphis is the best place for it. I kind of think Memphis is just one of those cradle of culture places. It's like the best music, the best food, the best art.

Yes. I've never been. 36 miles away. Okay, now okay now nobody can put me up yeah i have two air mattresses oh damn you ready to host past the lecture i'm gonna start running up an airbnb out of here you're gonna have a hard time running us out that's okay i'll keep you so what was it like moving in the middle of covid that sounds stressful it honestly it was weird because i had to pick out the apartment without seeing it so it was like i hope everything works out but everything worked out like perfectly i really couldn't have like planned it any better um my grandma being like you know the best person ever and then my mom and then

some of my friends they all helped me like move in and then my grandma came back last week and helped me put all my furniture together so yeah nice judging strictly on those fixtures i'd say you picked right yeah okay if i have a nice i was really just looking for an apartment that had a dishwasher and a washer and dryer because i was in old louisville and i had to like go take like my laundry to like the laundromat or i would have to go to like a different part of like my apartment's campus to like it was just a lot of work all the time and i had no dishwasher just hand washing everything but my family never really used the dishwasher but I like to use them because oh I love it yeah my I moved in January and my new house has a dishwasher and it saved my life

it saved my marriage I went in reverse I went from dishwasher to no dishwasher no we all don't want to see my sinks right now that's what I'm saying I never do my dishes from dishwasher to no dishwasher. No. We all don't want to see my sinks right now. That's what I'm saying. I never do my dishes if there's no dishwasher. But if there is one, I could just put the dish in there as soon as I finish eating it. And it's like. It's so handy. It's so handy.

Now, Bailey, when I introduced you there, I just introduced you as Electric County. But you're so much more than that. You want to tell the folks a little bit about yourself? My name is Bailey Ambergy. I'm an organizer. I just graduated from UofL in May, so I have a degree.

You know. That's right. I got a degree. It's in global politics, so that's my degree. You mean it's in depression? It's in global politics. So that's my. Oh, my God. You mean it's in depression? It's in depression and sadness. No, seriously, though. But it was an interesting experience. Definitely.

Especially like in my last semester, there was a class where one of my professors was like, you know, the U u.s isn't really known as like imperialist and stuff like that i was like what to who the united states famously non-imperialist country i was like okay girl bold statement so yeah there were a lot of papers i wrote where my professors were like this is really you know spicy ba, Bailey, what a spicy paper. I was like, yeah, because you made me mad. This don't make no sense. But yeah, so it was an interesting experience. But that's what my degree's in. And then I start teaching. I actually start my training for my school. I already did teach for American Training. And then I start my training for my school on Monday. So I love your heart. You're about to be teaching in the middle of COVID. Oh, my God.

It's going to be a lot. I'm not 100 percent sure if we'll be like right now. My school is offering the opportunity to go online or in person. Oh, my God. We're going to do a protection spell for you at the end of this. Please. I've been doing so many lately. I would love it. But yeah, I'm excited because I love kids. So, yeah, love them to stay alive. Not in the death.

Yeah. I've been reposting all these posts that people have been making that are like protect kids, protect teachers and like all the stuff. I'm like, yes, please. People are like protect kids protect teachers and like all the stuff i'm like yes please people please protect kids and teachers especially because like i don't know i just all the people i've been meeting and teachers i've been meeting and how much they love their kids i'm like i know these teachers would risk their lives for their children but like they shouldn't have to you know what i'm saying so or their families let me ask you this bailey as a as a burgeoning educator like are we really gonna go back to school in the fall that's like to me that's one of those things like we're just like pissing in the wind like thinking that's going to happen

but i just don't see unless they just are just cool with feeding kids and teachers and staff to the gristmill which history suggests they are oh yeah but but this seems particularly callous even by our uh our standards as a as a deranged nation as a notorious imperialist yeah it does definitely i don't know it worries me so much especially because i don't know like as a kid you know being in elementary school you want to interact with your friends you want to play on the playground it's important to like be able to see like it's it's one thing because we were in person we have to wear masks so they wouldn't be able to see my mouth and i'm literally teaching these kids like phonics and stuff so like that's really hard and then um on the other hand if we're

online they can't see the rest of my body like they just see right here up so it's like either way i'm at a disadvantage and i'm just worried about the quality of education that we're able to provide right now because there was no like training on how to do this like prior to it happening everybody just kind of figured it out as it went so yeah but I feel like um I don't know it's been interesting to see how people have adjusted like and I don't know. It's been interesting to see how people have adjusted. And I don't know, people are just doing their best. But at the end of the day, I'm worried that our best is not going to be good enough to help these kids. Does your school district have a teacher's union?

I know you're new on the blog. So I'm pretty sure SCS does. My school specifically, I'm about 90% sure has a union, but I have to talk to them about it. Black schools. So most of the teachers are Black. The school leader is really awesome, though. We all stan him. He's very self-aware. I admire your enthusiasm for a future, Maile. No. God, please, give us something to hang on to. Give us some of that. God, this podcast needs that real bad right now. My half is optimism.

Well, good luck in that TFA thing. That's a rough way to go. I mean, we don't have to drag your new employer at this very moment. Two years, come on, circle back to us. I'll just go ahead and tell you I've been kicked out of more than one TFA function. I was pretty critical going in and I already have some notes. Good luck. I've

dated not one, not two, but three TFA tickets. Oh my God. I think that's what happens in Electric County I've dated not one not two but three TNF pay tickers I know all about them oh my god I think that's why I'm in Eletcher County or like Harlan and they're new and you're like oh hey oh yeah Tom loves a fresh a fresh face that no one knows

gosh we're not a lot of faces where we're from so I completely yeah you get it I get it well speaking of where we're not a lot of different places where we're from. So I completely. Yeah, you get it. I get it. Well, speaking of where we're from, Bailey, are you of the famous Ambergees? I only say that because there's so many Ambergees in Letcher County. I'm sure there's six different sets and they don't claim each other.

I don't know. But what part of the county did you grow up in? So I grew up. Well, whenever I lived um whenever I first it's funny so I was born in Weisberg right and then I lived with my mom in Lexington until I was like 11 and then um because of like some weird family stuff with my mom I ended up moving with my grandma and my papa and they lived in Ison. And I remember, like, when I first got there, it was just so like, reverse culture shock. Just from Lexington.

you know i don't know flow there and i really enjoyed it and um yeah i i was from isom but i think my papa which is where i get my last name from i'm pretty sure his family from not county so not counting ambergees but yeah he had that house in isom for like 20 years his name's carl ambergy i'm sure a lot of people yeah yeah and then uh yeah he passed away in 2012 so then we moved across the mountain to um to Collier's Creek where my my great-grandma Ethel Frances Buchanan who a lot of people also know oh my god what a great name oh yeah yeah Ethel Frances what a powerhouse ohhouse. Oh, she was a powerhouse, like literally probably the spookiest woman other than my grandma, my nanny, her daughter that I know. They're both very interesting people. But I love my family so much. They're a mess, but I wouldn't have it any other way. And I feel like people got really annoyed with me when I was in Louisville because I was like I'm in Louisville but let me talk about Appalachia

all the time like every day I was like so I'm Appalachian and if you would be like okay Bailey we get it girl you're from Whitesburg congratulations oh no well there's so many people from Whitesburg when they move all they talk about is Whitesburg what else is well there's so many people from Whitesburg when they move all they Talk about is Whitesburg There's so many Stories you can bring to the table From Whitesburg even if you haven't been there like Your whole whole life you'll gain plenty

Of material in a short period of Time to bring back with you Well if you're from Awesome as you Know as the sign reads all roads Lead to Awesome. They sure do. I showed my friend, like, whenever I came back, because I came back, like, just, like, a month ago or so. And I was, like, showing my friend Davey, who's from Western Kentucky, like, way, way far western, like, past Paducah.

And I was, like, showing him, like, all these places. And I showed him, like, the R. like the rc cola sign like all this stuff and he was like and one grouch it was so funny but yeah i was like i gotta show you all the like fun you know whiteboard stuff i need like a i know that um some of those like shops like back there like make like t-shirts with that on there. I really need one. Oh, yeah. We wanted to make one with the RC sign, but it was really expensive to get all those colors on there. Yeah, it is a lot of colors.

They really went all out with that sign. Yeah, we edited it to say three grouches. Three grouches! Well, speaking of Letcher County, before we get too far down the road, we like to do a little, we like to chime in on the local goings-on. We got a particularly spicy note this week, if we can interject, about the county's financial picture. The headline reads from the Mountain Eagle this week,

county's financial picture is growing bleak. Court is told. That's basically been a headline for the last decade. I was about to say, when's that not been the headline? Yeah. Well, here's the subheader. County is short on funds. Jail's meal

deal is off. Are they not feeding people in jail? What's going on? What the fuck? Does that even mean? Let's find out here. Letcher County Fiscal Court was warned of hard financial times to come at the July meeting. Bad news from the county jail and county fire departments didn't help brighten that picture. I love the tone.

I love the tone. This is written. There's nothing like a good Mountain Eagle article. God bless. County Treasurer D.J. Frazier delivered the annual financial statement to the court this week, said that the county began the fiscal year with $158,876.60 less than its carryover from the last year in the road department, and that it did not get the expected state funding. did not get the expected state funding. The year-ending cash balance of $379,000 will have to account for $207,437.85 in current bills. So they're basically, they owe almost all of their money they got coming in in debts. Fraser added that she has no idea when they get the county road aid funding from the state or even how much

it'll be. Here's my question. Do they think that all this is totally separate from the very obvious incompetencies of Terry Adams? The man can't string a sentence together. And we think he can run a

fiscally responsible county government? I want him to spell fiscally. P-H Oh my God. I'm sorry Tom. Carry on.

Also, although the Letcher County Recreation Center has reopened, which is just like three to five years since. What? They opened the rec center? I'm astounded. They're like, okay, we're getting ready to go under here. Fuck it. Let's risk it for the biscuit.

Let's let these kids crawl over each other. Risk it for the biscuit. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Even also, although the Letcher County Recreation Center has reopened, Judge Executive Terry Adams said that usage is way down. You think, Terry? Hey, hey.

Probably because of the COVID-19 virus. Nah. Just probably. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. He said the facility is as sanitary as it can be made to be. Oh, my God. I'm worried to see what that looks like.

I'm horrified by all this. Well, what's so funny is we elect these guys that, like, have no concept of how aerosol transmission, you shouldn't be in a building with people that could potentially spread this. You know what I'm saying? You could clean till the cows come home, but if the shit's in the air,

it's in the air. You really don't know much you can do about it. Yep. He said the facility is as sanitary as it can be made to be, but other than in the early afternoon and later, early, but other than in the early morning and later in the afternoon, there aren't many customers, and it doesn't make sense to run it at times when no one is present. Adam said he's talking to the director, Jeremiah Johnston,

and others to determine the best times to open the center and when the doors can be closed to save on utilities. So let me just paint a picture of what we live under, children. Our one place where we go to do the low-hanging fruit in terms of improving our health and, like, our recreation. And honestly, for the last six, seven years, however long it's been open, like, socialize. six, seven years, however long it's been open, like socialize. We're having to triage and decide when it's like right to open

and right to not. Only because the county's in such bad financial shape that it's hard to keep the lights on. Yeah, they're worried about the light bill. And they think that it's going to be an income. It's never paid for itself, has it? Yeah, but I guess... It's always had us in debt? Yeah, but I guess...

Yeah, but I guess this was Wayne Fleming's grandstand. This is what Wayne Fleming went out of office on. I don't know if you know Wayne Fleming Bailey, but he was a Jenkins magistrate for years and he's a hero

of the Trill Billy's podcast. The man's a visionary. And honestly, honestly, say what you want about his style and his rhetorical gifts or whatever you want to call those. He's been proven right on a few things. Oh, yeah.

He said from the get-go, he said this rec center will bankrupt this county. We will never pay for it. It will never pay for itself. No lies detected. Where's the lie? Where's the lie? I guarantee every Wednesday when Wayne picks up his paper,

he sits back and makes a note of everything he predicted to come to fruition. Tanya, tell me about that time. What did he say that time about him not being mentally stable? No, Woody. No, my favorite way to flip it is when the county was, again, so bankrupt that the state had threatened to take over. that the state had threatened to take over and they had come in for a fiscal court meeting to say like you know if the county you know all of these people on this court have taken an oath to keep this county afloat and if it continues to be in the red in this way because we were like two million in in uh two million in the red in the in the black or something i don't know

fan answers what's the color anyway we were five we were two million in the hall or something. I don't know. What's the color? Anyway, we were $2 million in the hole. This was five, six years ago. There's these state men in suits at the courthouse during this public meeting, during the regular scheduled meeting. They're trying to figure out which taxes they're going to enact and all this shit. They're going to have to pass some new taxes. It comes around to Wayne. I'm going to piss myself. Well, I'll tell you right now, I don't take well to threats.

And I'll tell you another thing. Because they had said that like the last, they will help the county do this, this, and And I'll tell you another thing. Because they had said that like the last, they will help the county do this, this, this, this. And the last line is like, they go to jail. They took an oath for this. They could be put in jail for this. He said, I'll tell you another thing.

I'm high maintenance. You don't want to take care of me in jail. That's my wife. I have never personally related to a quote so much. I know. Ask my wife how hard it is to keep me alive. I'm not easily kept alive. I don't even feel like, sir, can I get a sparkling water? Mannies and petties

every Thursday. Wayne's like a good old boy, but you can tell he's kind of a fancy lad, too. There ain't nothing wrong. Ain't nothing wrong with being country and bougie at the same time. Thank you, Bailey. Thank you. I take that as a personal compliment.

Tanya, you remember when they had that big debate over opening that senior citizen center at Beck and Bates and Wayne brought his own lawyer to the fiscal department? Hired his own lawyer. They couldn't convince him that the county's attorney was his attorney. Yeah, I know. He wanted his own representation just to feel good about it. He just wanted a fair shot. Well, that's a good segue, because here we go.

County Attorney Jamie Hatton reminded the court that the loan agreement with the Kentucky Association of Counties to fund the construction of the center contains a clause to the effect that if the court is unable to service the debt, the county will have to initiate... I'm sorry, sometimes there's like articles, like, you know, like stuff misses. I have to piece it together. I feel ya. To initiate a special tax to address it. The same clause is in most of the loan agreements the county has for infrastructure because infrastructure cannot be repossessed

and the tax will guarantee the repayment of the loan. Sounds foolproof to me. Volunteer fire departments are also feeling a financial pinch. Bill Meade, chief of the Kings Creek Fire Department. Now let me tell y'all about Bill Meade of the Kings Creek Fire Department. I used to go to king's creek fire department

they have a basketball courts in the inside the firehouse there i can count one maybe two times and this is no this is not an exaggeration either this is like this is not me embellishing i can count two maybe three times i've been there in 15 years of playing pickup basketball there where there wasn't some fight that broke out and usually caused by a Brock or a Sandlin. A Brock or a Sandlin. Well, I'll also tell you, Bill Meade's about 60 and he has about a 20-year-old wife. Cute. That I'd hate to know.

I hate to see that know the background of. He just got married recently. God help us. He also told me that needle exchanges help people get high. Just increase revenue. I forgot he is one of those guys.

We love him. I love him. Tony Fugit, chief of the making volunteer fire department told the court that the covid 19 shutdowns have prevented fire departments from conducting their regular fun resting activities bingo bingo and other group activities just bingo yes well my local fire department does a haunted house, too. They turn the fire department into a nasty haunted house. Okay. That is

one thing I'm going to miss this year. It's Halloween. Oh, please don't remind me. Halloween's like my favorite. We all just have to decorate our own houses. Buck up. Yeah, I'll be dressing up anyway. Yeah, I'll dress it up. In my house. Yeah, I'm so fucking bummed about it.

The regular fundraising activities like bingo and other group activities, but added that these fundraising methods are, quote, uncertain at best. Right. Meade told the court that a regular source of revenue would probably be the only way to ensure enough funding for the county's volunteer fire departments to stay open. He said the $6,000 payment that will be made to all the county departments this week will barely pay insurance costs and for some of it will not be sufficient for even that. Another scheduled payment of $5,000 is dependent on mineral tax receipts. Here we go.

And although Frazier said that the money will probably be there. Probably? This has been their drum beat for a decade. Oh, we'll probably get it. You know, the coal companies are good for it. How many times you gotta be fucked over?

By the companies that aren't here. No, they're gone. It's probably gonna to be there. What old companies? Really, where? From where? What I love is their budget. This is what happens when you don't actually have real budgets. When I was on the city

council in White Springs, you didn't really have a real budget. You just had an arbitrary budget. You knew if you had a shortfall, you could just go run to the state and get some infrastructure money. What do you call it? Kentucky Infrastructure Association, KIA money, or whatever pot, and just funnel it to whatever you wanted to do with it. Yeah. It's one of those budgets where there's no actual line.

You don't see what the actual spending was. No. No, no, no, no, no. It's like we've had a $2 million budget since 1992. Shit has went up. You know what I mean? I don't know if you've paid attention. Are we still paying people what we paid in 1992?

I don't doubt it. Probably some people. I'm not glad. I'm not like Louisville with like a budget that has no lines. And then the city council just saying, yeah, we'll probably find it somewhere the money one of the one of the darkest things i'd ever say is this guy and he was you know he was struggling with addiction and everything he came into the mayor's office and was trying to get a job like cutting grass for the summer because they bring on like all these seasonal people and the mayor

was told him like he's like i like i we can't hire anybody right now we don't really have the money and the guy was bargaining with him saying he would work for like four dollars an hour oh no like shit like that the mayor's like no i mean i can't legally pay you that you know like he was telling you that but like it was so sad that, like, he was willing to do all this shit for basically 1982 wages. Yeah. That's, yeah, that is sad. That's still today. So, anyway.

Probably. It'll probably be there. Probably be there. Meade suggested two other possible sources of revenue for the fire departments to the court. One would be an add-on to monthly electric bills that would be earmarked for fire departments, and another would be a direct tax. Now, I just want to point out something, Tanya. They ran me out of office for suggesting such a thing once upon a time,

and now when the shit hits the fan, look what they're doing. Well, Tom, Tom's mistake was when you get a direct tax, you got to just fly under the radar. Tom was real fucking proud of it. And he wrote a whole article in the newspaper about it. That's what fucked him over. I was trying to explain to people what it could go to. He thought, yeah. It caught them on deaf ears.

He thought if he just. For better or for nothing. Yeah, he thought if he just explained it, everybody would be cool with it. Trust me, you can't explain anything. Especially taxes. You cannot explain taxes to people. It doesn't matter if it's going towards saving their very own grandmother. They're going to be like,

well, are you sure you need to take that much out of my taxes? I'm not really... Well, you can't blame people. The government ain't like who has any reason to believe the government there's no reason to trust them but yeah they're going towards they're like don't raise my taxes yeah you got to call it something else you can't call it taxes you got to fluff it up yeah i don't know i don't know how you would say it i'll never forget i when that text thing was

going on and i basically wasn't welcoming dairy queen for a few weeks when i finally when i finally went in there i'll never forget rc day god rest his soul he slammed his fist on that table he said i will not be assessed i don't know what you say to a man that just slams his fist on that table and he said, I will not be assessed. Dairy queen? I don't know what you say to a man that just slams his fist on the table to you and says he will not be assessed. Of a dairy queen. Haddon said

Haddon said he has experienced enough of the anguished people on fixed incomes who have What the fuck, man? I'm getting it. Okay. Haddon said he has experienced enough of the anguish people on fixed incomes have from high utility bills, and he would favor a slight addition to property taxes.

He said that while that may be unpopular, yeah, let me tell you, pal, it'd be a small amount and much less painful than higher utility bills for senior citizens. He said fire departments have been chronically underfunded, but... Chronically underfunded. Fire departments! Chronically. I mean, in comparison to, yeah, maybe like police, but like on balance. He said fire departments have been chronically underfunded but no court in

recent memory has been willing to adopt a fire tax or raise taxes to fund the departments mead said that whatever the remedy unless the fire departments have a source of revenue several are on the verge of closing okay so this is what i want to just say this here so all this malfeasance that the federal government has said is a full-time job for them. I think the FBI has their own task force devoted to fighting corruption in eastern Kentucky. Not that I'm caping for the Federal Bureau of Investigation here. Okay. But they do.

Just to illustrate the point of the level of corruption here. Right. But we've had all this so we've had like all of our public services like gutted and funneled into fucking police and not only at in places like minneapolis and louisville where you're just at bailey all those places where you're seeing uprisings and protests and everything, but also in places like Whitesburg, Kentucky. It's really grim and really bleak to think that the sum total of fucking having a boat that's called the SS fucking Promo Zones or whatever is now we're going to have a lot of people out in the highways and byways in eastern kentucky

extremely rural places that won't even have access to fire so like you're you're just if your house catches on fire yeah yep shakes out pretty much like if you need an ambulance or the internet or um most things right at service right yeah um let's see Meade said that whatever

okay hold on a second Meade said that whatever the remedy again unless the fire departments have a source of revenue several on the verge of closing

he emphasized that the volunteer nature of the departments will not change and that the money will not go to individual members, but to pay for insurance, utilities, maintenance, and equipment. Have y'all ever been to a fiscal court meeting where, uh, fire departments are feuding over territory? It's amazing. I have because do you remember like when

there was a big like if you live in Solomon which is a stone's throw from the Wattsburg fire department Wattsburg fire department cannot go into Solomon and attend to your fire they have to come all the way from, like, I think, Irvine or May King. Probably May King, yeah. And Neon, because Neon has been, you know, smuggling money for decades. They have a huge fire department. It's, like, the biggest one in the county. And Neon Fire Department answers calls all over the county just because people just call them. Yeah, you'll see them down at Wattsburg.

call them. Yeah, you'll see them down at Wattsburg. And they fight. They fight. In one of the meetings, the Neon Fire Department, this was what they had leveled against the Sand Lake Fire Department. They said there's an elderly woman lives right next door to the Sand Lake Fire Department. She needs help on a regular basis. And she calls them and they won't answer her phone call. So they call us and we have to drive all the way to the Sandlin Fire Department from Neon to help this elderly woman. It's amazing.

It is amazing how it's so weird. There's been like there's been pushes to like annex like Wicco and like, you know, that little stretch that's like goes like toward Dry Fork and Isom into Whitesburg. And then like people don't want to do it because they don't want to pay city tax. But like they also it's I mean, it's a complicated question. I get that. Like it's like sewer expansion at Millstone or something. We have this community for listeners that might not, you know, that this might be Greek, too. But we have this community that is routinely just by the legacy of like coal mining and also like straight pipe and it like frequently has the highest levels of fecal coliform in the

county like in the streams and stuff which is a problem right like especially for kids are gonna be going and playing and that shit or whatever and so they built this cluster system right and then what they don't account for is like they have this like brand new septic system ready to go ready to hook into but like a lot of people in that community are living in abject poverty literally can't afford the utility and they don't have plans to like you know like remedy any of that so it's like a lot of these things you could do you could build all these new shiny accoutrements and infrastructure and whatever but you got to address the root cause of poverty first and nobody wants to tackle

coal mining or you know just like corruption with powerful people and you know every other social ill we have yet Kentucky of which there are a many yeah yeah Wattsburg was happy to annex Irvine to give Walmart property and tax-free reign. That's why Irvine is annexed by Wattsburg, so that they could give Walmart whatever they wanted to come here. And they changed the damn name to Walton, don't they? Truly. Walburn. If you could use turnout gear as an example. I need to change the damn name to Walton, don't I? Truly. Walburn. You get used turnout gear as an example.

Turnout gear is the protective clothing firefighters use to protect them from fires and toxic elements in fires. This includes breathing apparatus. He said, oh, this includes breathing apparatus. That's a weird sentence. He said a new set costs about $3,000. The gear will last with good treatment, but putting out fires and cleaning up toxic spills and methamphetamine labs are hardly ideal conditions. And exposure to chemicals. I love how they slide in like that demonization of like drug use.

You know what I mean? It's like we're out here like doing these meth labs and all this stuff. Yeah. We have to talk about meth labs. Yeah. We have to talk about meth labs. Yeah. And exposure to chemicals used in methamphetamine production will damage it beyond repair. He said it's not right to ask firefighters to do dangerous work with substandard or worn-out equipment. Judge Adams told the men that he will discuss possibilities with Hatton and Frazier,

and the court will try to come up with a way to fund the departments to keep them open. In other business, Letcher County Jailer, here we go. Letcher County Jailer Bert Sloan told the court that Kane Kitchen of Wattsburg will not be able to fulfill its obligation because of scarcity of locally produced foodstuffs. Foodstuffs? Tanya, go in. Tanya, go in. I hate this because I don't want to be condescending or mock this stuff. Because I think the local foods thing is whatever.

But the thing that, and I'm not trying to be an i told you so type of guy with this but like who'd have thought that maybe you can't produce enough local food to even feed people locked up in your county jail and yet this was sold to us as sort of the antidote to all of our like economic problems right millions of dollars funneled into agriculture in places where most of the flat land is a flood zone yep yeah yeah it's like what's the what's the outfit we bag on all the time appalachia that we do harvest appalachian harvest yeah that's like this guy has somehow convinced like angel investors from all over the place. He's raised almost a billion fucking dollars for this.

To fund the growing of shitty hydroponic fucking tomatoes that he thinks somehow is going to get a return on investment. You couldn't, you couldn't fucking, you, it's so transparently a grift to me that it's so amazing to me that nobody else can see that yeah and that we continue to go out here and we don't address root causes of poverty we don't address root causes of of like like environmental uh degradation environmental racism all these different things that we deal with it not only here but other places and instead like we're always looking for that one pie in the sky thing that's going to like degradation, environmental racism, all these different things that we deal with, not only here, but other places. And instead, like, we're always looking for that one pie-in-the-sky thing that's going to, like, just remedy all of our problems. Right.

Lord Jesus. Yeah. I cannot believe they were expecting Letcher Countyans to grow enough food to supply the Letcher County Jail. Mind you, I'm sure this isn't in the article, is a 50-bed facility with over 90 people in it right now. During COVID, our numbers are skyrocketing in Kentucky. They have shut down the drive-thru.

Like, they won't test you in the drive-thru anymore if you're asymptomatic. So it's getting harder to even get tested. And our jail has had a confirmed covid case in a staff person oh great yeah like it is a ticking fucking time bomb and now they have totally botched and fucked meal plans so they literally are probably serving people bologna three times a day right now but back i guess this guy that's probably been a couple years ago whoever was running for jailer i don't think he won was had a booth at the mountain heritage festival and was handing out like i got their handouts like little key chains or

cat whatever they were handing out and he's he would say uh he'd take you aside he'd say but you wouldn't believe what goes on in there. So he said, they let him shit in the floor. He's not wrong. I know, I know. But you're talking about people sleeping in the floor and like not enough toilets, not enough basic necessities. People are living in concrete squalor in there shitting where they sleep and they just hose them off every day i can't even get into it it's too it's too

bleak in other okay i'll say okay kane was awarded the bid to feed inmates at the jail in last month's meeting after a long bidding process so last month they made a bid to feed the prisoners and couldn't even go in and meet the demand right off the top what changed in 30 days i really don't understand this at all what the fuck yeah we ain't even exploring the ethic ethical dimensions of like is it even okay to feed people grown in shit grown in the ground here like if we're going to start our garden like we know like essentially okay this was like close to a mining site we know those risks involved but like if you're in jail you don't have any like choice in that matter you know what i'm saying yeah like we're gonna sell them or not even sell them we're gonna give them like fruits and vegetables that we grew in dirt that

is just like dirty with like coal residue or like rivers that i still look like residue like i have friends here or like i have friends in friends in Louisville that did, like, their – it was someone in psychology who did her thesis on, like, children's behavior in areas like Ledger County where there's, like, so much, like, coal runoff, like, everywhere because apparently it affects, like, all types of shit in your brain and, like, behaviorally. It makes kids, like, struggle to learn. And God knows our education system out there is already a hot mess. So it's like, I don't know. That's worrisome. Yeah. I mean, they're already drinking Wattsburg City water, which no one drinks.

Yeah. By choice. No. Lord. I am just. I didn't know this. I'm just. This is. I didn't know this. I haven't seen the paper.

I cannot believe Cain flipped on the jail. I just about bet that Cain thought that if they were providing fresh, grown, locally food to the jail, that they could spin that into a blue fucking million grants. Exactly that. A blue fucking million. million oh look what this little humble outfit in eastern kentucky's doing not knowing that that whole outfit is ran by the same people that have been making decisions for us for decades and decades and decades you know and and then when it and didn't even fucking consider that they're actually gonna have to feed people and it didn't even take a that they're actually going to have to feed people and it didn't even take a month for them to realize

oh yeah, we can't do that. We're not doing that. A month. 30 days. And so it's like, okay, if you go in, you're placing the bid to feed human beings. This ain't to produce fucking feed for a goddamn chicken lot. You know what I mean?

That's what they're acting like, though. I mean, that's how we dehumanize people in jail. But it's astonishing to me that they took this bid. They had to know somehow, intuitively, that they couldn't meet that. I wonder what the calculus was in this. And it's just like a symptom of the NGO world jumping headlong into shit that's abstract and they have no concept of what it is. But then when it becomes real consequences

for human beings, it's easy to hide behind those abstractions for a long time. But it just makes me fucking sick. This is so wild. And now, they had a heated bidding process is that what it said like they had a heated bidding process and now they're gonna have to go back to the drawing board god people who are currently sitting there well i mean it's also possible

they were fed that it was a 50 bed facility and now they know that they actually have double the heads. I wonder if that could be a part of it. I wonder if they were told in the bidding process, this is a 50-bed facility, because that's all they have to say. Yeah. But it's got almost double that. Almost double the people. We're going to get into some of this. Nope.

We're going to get into some of this. Nope. After hearing that, the court voted unanimously to offer the contract to Kelwell, a Beattyville-based group that specializes in institutional feeding. Sloan said the jail has enough food on hand to provide meals to inmates for a week or so, and Judge Adams said the county has a stove from one of the senior citizen centers that may be usable to prepare meals at the jail. The court also voted unanimously to accept the jail policy and procedures for the year.

Sloan said the policy and procedures are unchanged from 2019. County Attorney Hatton told the court that during negotiations with King Kitchen, it became apparent that the amount of locally produced food was not going to be sufficient to provide the jail with the amount of food it needs. There were also problems with staffing and a contract had not been signed with Kane. It's almost like

they just went in there with this bid, winged it, and then realized after they had made all this fuss and wasted everybody's time that, oh, we can't do this. Yep. That's what they do a lot, though. One of the more attractive features of the Kane bid had been that Kane would cook the meals at its site in Wattsburg and deliver them to the jail.

This would keep the county from having to replace or repair several pieces of equipment in the jail kitchen. Aw, thank God they don't have to fix anything now. Oh, my God, dude. This is so dark. This is so dark. They can't fix a goddamn stove? Can't fix a goddamn refrigerator? Yeah. anything now. My God, dude. This is so dark. This is so dark. Can't fix a goddamn stove. Can't fix a goddamn refrigerator.

Yeah, they're trying to get out of having a functioning fucking refrigerator in a place where they have shoved humans. Also, I mean, this should anyone who's ever talking about a jail, it should just be common knowledge that most of the people in

county jails, in jails, not prisons, are are there because they are poor they can't post bail almost everyone over 90 percent of people in jails are there pre-trial they've not been they they've been uh booked they've not been convicted of shit because you can't stay you're not supposed to be staying in a county jail longer than a year. If you've been convicted of anything, you have to be sent to a prison. I know people been in there for a long damn time. I know, I know.

We have a, like, teacher fucking pedophile who was, like, you know, fucking dating, you know, who was abusing his students. He's been in there for years now. Yeah. But most people are there pre-trial.

And now, people who thought they were going to get a speedy trial this past five months, no, nothing's been happening. They haven't been having court until very recently. So now, that's another reason it has went in the past four months it's went from like 70 people in the 50 uh in the 50 bed jail to over 90s yeah because they're not moving people out and so now it is i mean it's like a fucking human rights uh fucking catastrophe in there right now. Yeah, it really is. There's not even that many people there.

And with the amount of money that they got from angel donors or whatever to try to feed these folks, they could have used as a plan to, I don't know, send them home during a pandemic. That was the first thought that ever

crossed their mind, though. They weren't like, oh, maybe we could just send them home during a pandemic like that was the first thought that ever crossed their mind though they weren't like oh maybe we could just send them home and maybe they could just be like we could like pay some like people to go like i don't know monitor them every once in a while or something like that they could be with their families we'll just give them an ankle bracelet you know because we're in a pandemic but you know they were too worried about how can we get them um the best gmi vegetables that yeah the thing is they don't even need an ankle bracelet these are people who if they had a credit card they could just swap it and go home right yeah yeah if they could post bail they would be home with their families so no big deal they'd be more worried about getting them home than feeding them.

But no, they're like, let's spend almost a billion dollars on figuring out how to grow them a cucumber and then let them sit there and catch the coronavirus and die. Yeah, next thing you know, they're going to have them on the roof because, you know, our jail is under the courthouse and they have this like little enclosure on the roof so they can get a little sunlight once a week or some bullshit. They're going to have them growing potatoes and tires up there before it's over. God damn. You're right.

Although feeding inmates is costly, it is not the only source of financial problems. Send them home, you sons of bitches! Send them the fuck home! There are two judges in Letcher County who make these decisions and all they have to do is say, all pretrial inmates can just be released.

Release all pretrials. That's it! That's all they have to do! They don't have to do it on an individual basis. Just send the pretrials home for fuck's sake! So simple. Such a simple solution. And free. Oh my god essentially free this is un-fucking-believable

this meeting happened on Monday and I had planned on going and didn't oh my god another thing we don't talk about and I would really be interested to hear what you have to say just organizing in Louisville especially through all this you know with the protests and everything

but I think it's interesting that, like, did nobody stop to think if we didn't give police, like, AR-15s and, like, all these military-grade shit and new cruisers every year and blah-da-da-da-da-da-da, whatever they want. They'd take out their F-150 and lights and harass people in unmarked cars and buy them the unmarked car that they can harass people in. Yeah, no, exactly. I mean, it's the same thing if you extrapolate it out to the military. It's like, you know, we could fund all these social services. We cut just a small amount of that budget. You know what I'm saying? But it's not because that gives the game up.

But I'd be interested, Bailey, to hear your take on that, at least at the city level, since you're kind of on both ends of this. Oh, yeah. I mean, Louisville, after all this has happened, is still trying to raise the police budget. So it's like it just goes to show that at the end of the day, it's not us that matters or, like, who has ever mattered to them. Like, they are just, at the end of the day

concerned with lining the pockets of the people who line theirs back and then you know supporting any sort of system that helps them to keep you know the scoundrels out of their hair because like at the end of the day like in my criminal justice classes we always talk about the fact that like jails and prisons the fact that the criminal justice system is so large and so many people are locked up right now it's just like an out of sight out of mind kind of thing people are like oh well they're not if poor people are not here we don't have to deal with them because they're locked up and then it's like now they're sitting here bickering and trying to make themselves look good because it's like you know from the average eye they're gonna see this newspaper article and be like wow that's so great they're trying to work

so hard to get fresh fruits and vegetables because at the end of the day they're like wow we are so great and then meanwhile people like us are clearly looking at this critically being like but why are they there in the first place like a lot of people don't have that level to go to that next step and be like oh wait maybe they just shouldn't even yeah and then in uh i mean the local correctional facility like you were saying about it being like overcrowded like it's same thing almost at double capacity at all times they're still like booking like hundreds of people at once, like after protests and stuff into like the jails. And so it's like continuing to overflow. It's always been overcrowded and it's always been extremely like racially targeted. Like almost all the people in jail in Louisville are black majority of the time.

And it's like Louisville is not even a majority black city, not even close to it. majority of the time and it's like Louisville's not even a majority black city not even close to it so it's very very frustrating and like watching people on uh like metro council and stuff be like oh we're here for you we passed Breonna's law no more no knock warrants in Louisville only so it's like okay yeah we didn't guys we got common showing up on the courthouse steps and that's what we got done. And Greg Fisher signs his name on one signature dotted line, and he's like, I'm so proud of the hard work that I did to get Breonna's law passed. I love how they're bird-dogging this motherfucker, though.

Every time he goes somewhere, he gives a talk. It's so fun. They are going to ride him out on a rail. That motherfucker, if any of these fucks should be scared, it is Greg fucking Fisher. I mean, the mayor, like, your job's not secure like that. Like, we can run you the hell out.

Anytime. Anytime. Oh my, bitch. Like, yeah, he's a joke. And it's funny because speaking of bird dogging, one time at UofL, I bird dogged Mick McConnell and then got in, like, trouble with my school. It reminded me of who were you talking about earlier? Which official that brought his own lawyer?

Okay, well, I relate to him so deeply because I literally got called to the dean's office and brought a lawyer from the National Lawyers Guild to the dean's office. brought a lawyer from the National Lawyers Guild to the deep office meeting. So, yeah. I've gotten in a lot of trouble for yelling at Greg Fisher in public, yelling at Mitch McConnell in public, yelling at any person I can get the chance

to. And yeah, there's been several times because I worked on the service board for SGA where Greg Fisher would come to our events and everybody would be like, go shake hands with the mayor. And I'm like, because I like worked on the service board for like SGA where like Greg Fisher would come to our events and everybody would be like, go shake hands with the mayor. And I'm like, no, I'm not. I don't care about him. I have like this really great graphic posted on my Instagram that says Greg

Fisher's a bootlicker. It's from my Instagram. It's so good. I, yeah, I hate him. We'll be sure to make sure people know how to find you Bailey you're a great great one to follow in these dark times oh thank you yeah my um my Instagram's uh two underscores and then Beyonce B-A-Y-O-N-C and then my Twitter's just Bailey Ambergy and they can add me on Facebook if they want. I don't really post on there because like I love Letcher County don't get me wrong but almost

Letcher County is and every time I post something they're like why are you talking about me from the police what are we going to do without the cops and I'm like listen I'm not I don't come on social media to argue so I'll be like comments underneath my post but people just angry and i'm like well they can

oh yeah speak your piece it's been pretty lit about the defund the cops the last month they're like i've heard a lot of crazy shit in my day, but I never heard of getting rid of the cops. Are you people crazy? Well, it's so funny because people think all this shit is immutable, right? They think that God just strolled down from, you know, on top of Mount Zion one day and just handed these laws out that make you immiserate poor people. But no, these are like calculated political decisions all laws in this country are and they're tilted in favor of the elites and they always have been it's kind of like playing against the house in vegas you know you know it's it's rigged slightly

against you but yeah you know you hang on anyway yeah exactly i mean this is a moot point but we've been defunding education health care you point, but we've been defunding education, health care, you know, transportation, housing. We've been defunding every vital service for humanity for decades. The fire department can't even keep the lights on. Well, that's what I was going to say. Millionaires with their 14 cars to put a bow on this like budget piece from the mountain eagle i was looking at like the money they have in all these funds and the forest fire fund has 229 dollars in it 200 that's gonna put out that forest bar

oh my god i don't think 200 would even pay the wage of one firefighter to show up to try to put out i don't know what do you do with that you just go buy a bunch of bottles of water get out there and start throwing it on you call the governor you you declare a state of emergency and the governor sends in the national guard they don't plan on fighting no forest fires. Are you high? They might as well move all $200 out of there. They're going to use the $200 to go to High Mountain Grill later. That's right. They cover the cost of a planning

luncheon. Exactly. With their salad bar. Oh my God. Bailey, what are some highlights from being in Louisville? What are some good things that have happened in Louisville the past few months?

It's been a... The world is watching us. Well, I mean, it definitely, like y'all have said, the bird dogging of Greg Fisher has been beautiful, beautiful to see for me. I the bird dogging of Greg Fisher has been beautiful, beautiful to see for me. I love bird dogging. Like that's my favorite part of organizing, just making people uncomfortable, like in public.

I love it because like people are just like, especially at the first event they went to, it was like an event for like some kind of building they're opening up, like some kind of facility that was like gonna gentrify it and they just show up with this huge sign that says, fire, fire, gentrify. Yeah, I saw that. It was incredible. They just, they just so chill, just creep up behind his ass like, not today. Yeah. And especially

like, I mean, they had that, that literal ribbon cutting for a new gentrification project days after the news dropped that Brianna's death was most likely directly connected to gentrification

efforts of the city. Like all these police teams that were like, what were they called? Place-based? Oh, we freaked the fuck out over this shit a few episodes ago i mean it's just oh yeah it's a place-based task force or whatever the hell yeah oh my god how fucking tone deaf can you be oh they the thing is like what gets me is you know people will see stuff like you know trump having a rally in tulsa on like the anniversary of

pulse like you know what i'm saying like yeah these people like bigotry is not ignorance like bigotry is well-informed hatred so they are like greg fisher knows and you can't tell me that he does not know exactly what the fuck that looked like when he did that he was he knew he knew the thing is he does not care and he wants to make it very you know white men especially they love to like be like this is my power and this is how i'm going to exert my power over you and show you that i can do the most fucked up shit probably ever and people are still gonna support me and i'm gonna get away with it like they love doing that shit so it was very like one of those like i'm just gonna smack you guys in the face because i can and i'm mad at you all like there's a video footage of like

whenever all this first started like a couple months ago um this like black woman on like the corner of the street in louisville yelling directly at Greg Fisher. And he just looks at her. He gets really frustrated. He's rolling his eyes. He's walking away. And I'm like, this black woman is literally screaming, help us. I mean,

if you think about it, if you sit here and think about it, it's Greg Fisher. He's got literal nothing but blood on his hands. I mean, Breonna Taylor died under his watch. Then Andy Beshear and him both are responsible for David Magassi dying. And then I'm pretty sure another protester got either really

injured or killed even after that. Well, yeah, there was a shooting at the square. Yes, yes. At that shooting. So it's like if these people are continuously dying and it's because you're putting cops in front of them, how are you not directly responsible for that death? You should be, I mean, I don't believe in jails and prisons necessarily, but if anyone should be locked

up in this country, it should be people like Greg Fisher. So it's like... No, it is a lot to hold as abolitionists. Yeah, we're demanding justice that cannot be served. Like there's, there's no, there's no justice under this system. Justice for Bree, justice for Amai, justice for George. There's no justice for our body. And like, they're dead. Like it's not possible.

Yeah. And yeah, it's, it's, this is a very difficult time to like level what we know has to happen and how difficult that feels, especially when there are so many people in the streets of Louisville and they are literally just the most simple, clear demand. Defund these police and they are increasing their budget. Yep. Yep. Literally literally they're doing the opposite and it's because they know exactly what we're asking for greg fisher put out a survey like a police survey he's like because you know obviously the chief got fired three days yeah retired yeah greg fisher that's another thing he patted himself on the back where he was like i

fired chief comrade first of all chief comrade has killed so many people has been in the hands of so many people's deaths and he's just now just now being held accountable even though he literally was going to be done with the job in like three but yeah so yeah there's just been so many instances like time after time of like black folks dying at the hands of police in louisville and all these people on metro council greg fisher comrade all the more consistently getting away with it until brianna taylor dying at the hands of police in Louisville and all these people on Metro Council Greg Fisher, Comrade, all of them were consistently getting away with it until Breonna Taylor happened and I don't know if it was because Breonna's a femme

or like because of the specific situation where she was like asleep in her house or what but people in Louisville were finally like oh shit because I mean DeJuan Tis Mitchell there's been like multiple multiple multiple people who have been killed by police in Louisville and so it's like why just now are people caring and why just now protesting because like blm and louisville's been trying to do stuff for forever not that i'm necessarily

co-signing them because we've all seen my instagram but you know what i'm saying like i just like they've been doing the work for so long and around so many people it i don't know it's almost frustrating but also inspiring to see at the same time. It's just weird when you've been organizing for years and begging people to come out to stuff and they wouldn't. And now they're like, we're having a rally in the streets.

I'm like, okay, at least something changed. Yeah. And you know, it is, I do think Breonna being killed in her sleep was a big motivator. And then, you know, some critical, the 911 tape from the night brianna was killed dropped the day like two days after george floyd died yeah which was murdered

and so i think that kind of created like a perfect storm and and that's what some of the things but i also think it's like as soon as shit like this happens it's like a there's just like it's almost like things stand still until and they're deciding how they're going to portray a dead person in the news like are we going to use their graduation photo of them in a suit or are we going to use this like picture off their instagram of them chugging a 40 you know whatever it is yeah and i feel like they've like you know validated validated Breonna's life as an EMT. She was a lifesaver, all this shit. It doesn't matter

what the fuck she did to make a living. It doesn't matter that she was an essential worker. No one deserves to be killed in their sleep. You know what I mean? She doesn't have the right to make that decision. I don't care if she murdered someone.

I don't care if she blew somebody's fucking head off. The state doesn't get to make executions. Yeah. Yeah, it's so weird because it's like it was the same thing with Philando Castile and the drug thing. Like a lot of liberals wanted to seize on the, well, he did it the right way and all this kind of stuff. Or Breonna was a pillar of her community and all this stuff.

I don't give a fuck if what they were doing or not doing. You know what I mean? I don't care if they were pillars of the community or, like, considered the worst of the worst. I don't give a shit. Yeah. Guilty people. Guilty people, apparently, are when it's perfect. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyway, we're at the hour here, but this was fun. Y'all. This was fun. Thank you. We,

we, we jumped the gun a little bit ago. You want to tell folks once again, where they can find you at on the social media? Oh, yes. Yes. So,

um, my Instagram is two underscores and then Beyonce. And then my Twitter is Bailey and Bergie. And then they can find me on Facebook too. I don't have a page, but you can add me as a friend. I'll probably take a while to respond to the request though. We'll tag you.

And as always if you like what you hear from us you can get another extra episode a week by logging on to Patreon.com slash Trill Billy Workers Party and for $5 a month you get to hear Tanya sing Conway Twitty. Yeah.

Or whatever you want to hear from her. And many more classics. Many more classics. More classics. Yeah. Thank you so much, Bailey. I know it's a lot of emotional labor to keep beating the same drum we've been beating for years over and over i was excited to do it i was like i will i would be happy to i love i love having conversations like i feel like it's emotionally taxing to like have to teach people but just

having conversations with people who get it is fun yeah i do like yeah it's this is a good field to get in if you love to talk my mom used to give me a dollar to shut the fuck up. Now people are paying me to talk. Hey, I need to get five to St. Conway Twins. Yeah. Well, make sure you let us know when you're in Letcher County again. I will. And y'all are welcome to come to Memphis whenever, like I said. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. We need to figure out how to safely travel in this uh new bleak world we're in but i would love to see memphis one day yeah they i mean it's crazy

because people still they keep it out and about like honey my mom and sister live and work in tennessee it's a goddamn shit show yeah tennessee's a rough road to hoe i wish sure it is yeah i definitely just went from one one rough situation to home. I wish it was. Yeah, I definitely just went from one rough situation to another, but it's always interesting. Absolutely. Well, Bailey, thank you so much again for stopping by and we'll catch

y'all out there next week or Sunday. Thank you, guys. Bye.