Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 171: Thank You, Kentucky

Episode Date: November 5, 2020

Trillbillies coverage of Election Day 2020 Also please welcome our newest Trillbilly member, Aaron Thorpe, who we couldn't bus up to Kentucky for this episode but who was on our most recent Patreon episode and will be on our upcoming episodes: @posadist_trapgd on Twitter if you'd like to say hello And please check out Tarence's article at Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4905-a-view-from-trump-country And finally you can support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

a virgin machine. It is a virgin machine. It has been barely used. Okay. Alright. Does anybody still look at porn on a desktop anymore? I had a Zoom with somebody today that was on a desktop. She said her desktop is a PC

and her laptop is a Mac and I said, how in God's name do you do that on a daily basis? That's crazy making. That's weird. This came for you to my house. Little postcard. Oh, nice. Cool.

You know what's a special form of chaos is people who tweet from their desktop. Oh, God. You know? Well, I mean, like, Facebook is specifically for desktops, I feel like. You know? Yeah. I've done some desktop tweeting. Oh, yeah. No, you feel a little more freed, a little more liberated.

Yeah, for sure. Oh, my God. I haven't really slept in three weeks, friends. Lord, God. I'm sure you can see the circles under my eyes. Yeah, all I do is cry. I'm wearing sunglasses. Y'all don't want to see this.

I'm having hot flashes right now. That's all I do is cry and try to cast spells, honey. I'm going through the chains, I feel like. I can take good. God damn, not a single one of us is doing good. God damn. Usually we strike at some kind of balance. Somebody's usually doing good.

At least one. No, not this time. Not today. Not today. Again, if you're doing good, fuck you. If you're having a great week, we're not the same.

There are some people having a great week, though. Yeah, that's true. For example, Mitchell McConnell. Exactly. Fuck him. Liberals are having a good week. They see light at the end of the tunnel. Well, before we get into it.

Do they think they're kicking out Melania and her husband? Melania and her husband, Donald John Trump. Is it sexist to refer to Melania as Trump's wife? I don't care. I have no interest. Well, you know, there's been all this speculation as to whether she's even real. Because there's been so many. Is she a deep fake?

Melania's a deep fake? BuzzFeed even went into an investigation about it. Really? To prove that there was. How long ago? Like two weeks ago. Because there's been all this speculation that there's Melania doubles. Let me tell you what today's episode is going to be.

It's going to be me saying, what? Because I have been so unplugged from the internet. You're like the guy that got lost in the field for three days on Hee Haw. Well, exactly. I decided what I wanted to pitch to you all is that I take on a new role on the podcast. And it's a version of that guy who's been out in the woods so long he only knows about cancel culture and not COVID-19 that's who I want to play and I know essentially I do know about COVID-19 because I'm wearing a mask but basically nothing else

all right you could play that role pretty well I mean I wish the audience could see you right now you're wearing a flowery dress sunglasses sunglasses, and a leopard skin mask. You look like you've been hiding from the fans. Well, I have. I am still. Okay. Hold on. Keep talking a second, Tanya.

I've got to get this level. These glasses are too big on me. They're going to keep falling off. Okay. If I have this mask on. Well, we should have known. All I've got to say about. Well, we should have known. We should have.

All I got to say about the election is we should have known Lil Wayne was a Republican when he made that rock album. You know what I mean? Very heavy road country vibes. When did we find that out? Last week,

he like took a photo with Donald Trump and said he was supporting him. Really? Up for taxes or something? I think it was, right? I don't know. Does Lil Wayne have tax trouble? Seems like he does for some reason. Yeah. Oh, shit. I left my

computer inside with all the data on it. Fuck. Not the data. The data. The data. The election breakdowns. I wanted to dig in to the election breakdowns. I am having an election breakdown. You on your route that's exactly

what this is yeah well i am too like i said i haven't really slept in three weeks and i feel very distant from everything but i just from your own reality yeah yeah look at me insomnia i don't know that there's a worse condition honestly honestly. It's terrible. I just went to a building that wasn't the Lexington Kroger for the first time in nine months. It was disorienting. And then I got stiffed at the window. They wouldn't let me.

Here's the thing about fee grabbing I hate. It's sometimes they fee grab and they still won't let you give your money. You know what I mean? You got a printer in here? Can you print out a thing you need? I don't have a printer. No, it doesn't matter.

I'll be closed by the time I head out. That's fine. That's okay. I do not have a printer. It'll just be another two years before you see any money from my truck. Go register it in Lexington. Show them. I did this in five minutes in the city. You can probably do it online in Lexington. Show them. I did this in five minutes in the city.

You can probably do it online in Lexington. Oh, Jesus. How is the Kroger? It's there, man. Still there. People keeping a good distance from each other in the Kroger. Oh, no. Nobody cares

about this anymore. One of the very first things I did when I moved to Whitesburg was I participated in this protest at the courthouse. Where it was with these people who lived out, I think, on like Millstone or something who didn't have clean water. Oh, I know. And our whole thing, like our whole protest gag or whatever it was, we went into the courthouse and filled up a bunch of gallon jugs of water with water out of the water fountain. You know what I mean? It's sort of like symbolic thing. It was a complete failure. I mean, nothing.

No one cares. Because honestly, people probably do it all the time. It's probably totally normal. Let me ask y'all a question. Can you recall an instance of direct action actually getting the goods that we've done? I'm sure. Okay, us. I'm sure there've done. I'm sure. Okay, us. I'm sure there are people.

I'm talking about us. Well, didn't we actually win that nationwide permit thing? Oh, yeah. Even though it felt like a slaughter in game time. I think you might be thinking of the stream protection.

Yeah, something like that. Something like that, yeah. Well, there's not a prison here. That's true. That is a historic victory, but there was no DA involved. Well, I will say that 2020 has been the year of right-wing DA. Have you guys noticed this? There's two forms of right-wing direct action that have arisen in the last couple months.

The first is the water caravan, have arisen in the last couple months. The first is the water caravan, right? Everybody knows the beautiful boaters. You know, they go out to waterways. Where they sunk and alike. A bunch of boats. But the second kind is kind of a left-wing tactic. Shutting down highways.

You know, like they'll do the large... So they're on land and sea. They've got caravans on land and sea. Yeah. That's all. They're only. It is kind of wild that they're so committed to climate change that all of their tactics involve wasting gasoline. Yeah.

Wow. It's pretty dope. I guess we did. I mean, there was the demonstration at Pikeville. That was some da but but like doing some da and then them immediately being like yeah we coalesce to your demands here you go here's health care uh-huh here's no prison well it never works like that really that's that's a fool's tale tom that a long game. That's not how things happen.

I mean, I'll tell you some DA that I saw this year that was terrific was banning landlords from the building where you file eviction notice. That was fun. That was good. That was one of my faves. That's good. Literally just blockade them sons of bitches and their clipboards. Get the fuck out of here. That was good. Sons of bitches and their clipboards.

Get the fuck out of here. That was good. One of the funniest DAs I ever saw was when someone dropped a Blue Lives Matter banner from the overpass in Whitesburg. Perhaps the earliest right-wing DA we've seen. Yeah, maybe. Well, I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but they now have a hub in downtown Whitesburg. It's the arcade. All the Trump people hang around there, and they have a Jeep that they get in, and it has a bullhorn on it. Oh, yeah.

And they ride around town. Big Trump. Big Trump. Big Trump. What are they saying now? Stop the count. Stop the count. I saw something that, like, there was two protests going on last night.

One of them was saying, stop the count, and one of them was saying uh resume the count or something like that we're here on two sides of the street but they were both trump protests they were both right-wing pro they were like in different cities i think one was like in detroit stop the count if you're in the midwest keep counting if you're in the southwest yeah wow counting if you're in the Southwest. Yeah. Wow. That's what Trump wants. I was just telling someone this week that the like loud and proud Trumpers in downtown Wattsburg

are greasy frat boys. They are. And I would honestly love to fight them. I could absolutely take them. I mean, I may not be able to go many rounds, but I'm a... Count on my back. Yeah, I may not be able to go many rounds, but I'm a man. I'm counting my back. I'm counting my bad back.

But with enough pills in me and 20 years worth of unresolved trauma, you catch about 20 years worth of what your son. Yeah. I don't want to be on the business end of that. Me neither. And I have been for 20 years. 20 years. 20 long ones. I had a huge laugh about

Johnny Ray Turner losing to somebody named Johnny L. Turner. Imagine. He took the L from Johnny L. Johnny L. Turner. Imagine if your dad was named Johnny W. Turner. Yeah, I know. Because mine is. I've seen all these signs and just like, I feel like my dad's just haunting me.

So bastard. A lot of Johnny Turners. I've seen all these signs and just like, I feel like my dad's just haunting me. So bastard. A lot of Johnny Turners in the halls of power. Yeah. Well, mine never was. No, you know, so the funny thing about living in Whitesburg, and I wrote this thing this week for Verso that kind of took this position, but the funny thing about living in Whitesburg is there's not a single election you could have voted in this year that was not already predetermined. Really? Not a single one. Oh, I got a question for you. have voted in this year that was not already predetermined

right not a single one oh i got a question well that's not true the the supreme court kentucky supreme court just that's the only one that oh did right win i don't know no he didn't run this year oh it was a different chris harris and connelly i think i don't even know who that other dude is i literally just saw his sign next to Mitch McConnell's sign everywhere. I went in town and just voted for the other guy. Did Harris win? I don't know. I thought Harris was kind of progressive.

Am I crazy? No, I think he's the... He's like the liberal. In Kentucky, yeah, we're basically... But look at it. Every city council member, with the exception of one, forgot to file for re-election. I was about to say, how'd city council shake out? God, I've asked a lot of them Wild West.

I got at least four or five right invoices. I know that. Incredible. Did we get a councilman Oakley Fugate, or? Oh, that would have been good. They've posted the results on the Mountain Eagle, but it's behind a paywall, so I don't know. These sons of bitches.

Didn't they kick you off your subscription? No, I have a print subscription. I don't have an online one. Have you started getting it again? I got the online. You want me to see who the... Yeah, bring her up. Talk amongst yourselves,

and I'll figure out who our counselor is. What is today? Didn't it come out yesterday? wait never mind never mind i do know because i saw this it's not been decided yet because they're still counting votes i know that's what i'm saying like 20 like 262 get you in my experience i saw i'm still on instagram but the only really there's the only thing on instagram is just election wise it's just like keep voting keep counting keep your head up i don't know but um i did see a meme that said i know we got a squirrel to interview here someone put up a meme that said this is fucking ridiculous

uh america's got talent or whatever it is. The voice. Which one is it? America's top voice. America's next top voice. I forget. Voice of America. I don't know. My mom loves this fucking show. The first one.

The first singing competition they did. America's Got Talent. American Idol. Yeah. American Idol. American Idol counts 130 million votes during a commercial. Commercial break. During a fucking commercial break.

But this all has took me back like i'm i've honestly reverted completely back to primary mind um because i couldn't fully process this general election so i've been living back in the primary fueled by hate and thinking about all those failed apps and shit that Just like all this ridiculous shit. And how there's probably a ton of that going on that we won't even hear about. Yeah. You're right for months. We keep saying this is a failed state, but the real issue here is this is many failed states.

Dozens of failed states all piled on top of each other. A big failed state. The big failed state. You're absolutely right. Large lumps of shit on top of a massive pile of shit. Failed states of America. It's funny. It's sort of a cliche, but it is kind of eerie how Kentucky politics has predicted what happens nationally.

Well, we don't know yet i mean it seems like it's shaking out that way what do you think's happening well i'm just saying like you know how like you have a uniquely repugnant figure like matt bevin gets like narrowly out jousted by a moderate democrat yeah and won't and will barely concede yeah right so you have that yeah and then we'll fight it you know what i I mean? Even though it's like, well, I don't know if it's clear yet, but it's looking like it's more and more clear. And then you just look at like,

we have a Supreme Court seat come open in Kentucky we had to fill. They had one we had to fill. That's another good example. Oh my God, help us. Well, we got plenty of examples of the National Democratic Party ruining our lives by force.

That was what just sent me over the edge. What the National Dems did this year to squash out a true grassroots candidate. And their best chance to survive, honestly. Truly, their best chance. The only hope that the Democrats

have to survive, honestly. Truly, their best chance. The only hope that the Democrats have to survive, they have worked harder. They worked harder this year to defeat Bernie and people like Charles Booker than they have to defeat Trump. That's all there is to it. They're absolute maniacal maniacs. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so that's the other election that you obviously won't be able to influence if you live in Kentucky is the McGrath-McConnell. It's the Kentucky Senate race. It's the Kentucky Senate race, which there's a lot to talk about there. So let's put our shovel in right here, and let's talk about the event we knew was going to shake out this way,

the event we knew was going to shake out this way, but somehow even managed to exceed my expectations. It's a landslide. I mean, it was a complete obliteration. I mean, she's probably filed battery charges. I love how she tweeted a photo of a fighter jet and her standing on a podium and it just said thank you kentucky yeah it's like for what we rejected you like firmly i really did think that at some point she would get the memo that her whole like flotter jet stuff is just a joke i I think she insisted.

She truly did. I had a little inside baseball in this. She fought the tide on some of that stuff. They wanted to make some aesthetic choices that kind of got away from the firefighter pilot shit a little bit. She wouldn't have. But she insisted. So much so that she sent her kids to school

in matching fighter pilots. Like custom fighter pilots. You are fucking with me. I swear to God. I mean, you know, we got a firm no kids policy on this, but I feel like that's more like psychotic mother than they're father. What the absolute fuck. Yeah.

I mean, like, if you look at it. The twisted mind. I mean, up until the bitter end, she was like, you already know I'm a fighter pilot. I'm a mother and a Marine. But I'm also a mother. I mean, and a daughter. You know. I'm a child.

I'm a mother. I'm a sinner. I'm a son. I mean, she, you know, obviously I'm not Karl Rove, but it's... That's not apparent. I've never seen you and Karl Rove in the same room together. When I think about it. We don't have enough data on it, honestly.

Yeah, but it's generally bad form to run your campaign on the concept that you're totally willing to gun down your fellow Americans. Well, I was thinking about this. i was thinking about this i was thinking about this too also our introduction to amy mcgrath contains real footage of her bombing someplace in afghanistan or iraq or somewhere wherever she was in the military and it's funny to think about somebody on this earth's last moments got recycled into a campaign ad that not only is... I'm not saying like, oh, it's justifiable if you got a good candidate. But I'm saying that like it was recycled to a campaign that lost by 21 points to like a almost universally reviled figure. Right. A corpse.

Yeah. An absolute rot A corpse. Yeah. An absolute rotting corpse. Yeah. That man is very little more than a skeleton. Yeah, no, I mean, he's literally dying in front of us. I love that his response was, nothing to report, nothing to be worried about. Well, even by the McConnell campaign's own admission, they legitimately thought they would, they thought,

they legitimately thought they would win by 8 to 12 points. Wow, so they undershot their own victory. They thought that it was going to be really close because they ended up having to put a little more money into it than they wanted to. Hmm. I'm not fully persuaded of that. You know, I was on the phone the night before the election.

What's wrong? There's just like a buzzing. I don't know what it is. It still probably sounds better than it does when we fucking Zoom. I really like the trash can sound of it. I think it's cool. I'm glad you do. The fans won't.

Send all of your complaints directly to Terrence. He's up all night checking our complaint box. Let's fix it real quick. I don't know what it is. I thought it was this cable. Did that help? Yeah, if you can, hold them right here.

Okay. Just hold the cord as firmly into the mic as you can. Like double pumping a big one. Yes. I ain't done that in a while. I'm out of practice. Well, so just looking at the results.

So the overall turnout was much, much higher. I know. Well, honestly, one of the bleakest things I have had to see is someone say that Biden's gotten more votes than any president in history. That's so, that's like, of course, because voter turnout was higher than any, of course he was going to. Honestly, that hurt my feelings as much as anything. I hate everything. Yeah, well, in the Kentucky Senate race, it was also a lot higher. So just by way of comparison, in 2014, there was about 1.3 million votes in the Kentucky Senate race. Is the Senate every six years?

It's every six years, yeah. Wow. And so Mitch McConnell was running at that time against Alison Lundergan Grimes, who was the, you know, failed daughter heiress to the Kentucky Democratic Party establishment. Lundy's. Guy who's gotten dotted recently. I actually used to work for them when I was a caterer, a bartender. I worked for Lundy's Catering.

I was on that tape for a minute. So, by your estimation, who was a more likable candidate, Allison Lundergan Grimes or Amy McGrath? I liked Allison, honestly. She came and talked in Harlan. I was like, hell, she didn't really say anything I hated, honestly. Weirdly enough, she had the support of the unions. You know what I mean?

Yeah, and she came in Harlan. I mean, obviously, I know this is ridiculous, but by my 2014 attitude, I was like, afterwards, I remember i remember saying well she said the word woman more than coal that's i'd say that's pretty high my book fuck yeah in harlan county um also though let's see so like i said voter turnout in 2014 was about 1.3 million votes in this senate race this year and granted 2014 was not a presidential election year, so turnout was going to be higher in this one. But this year it was about 2.1 million votes.

The margin, however, between the two, between Alison Lundgren, Grimes, and McConnell, only a 16-point margin. That sounds like a lot until you consider the uh what is this 21 point margin between mcgrath and mcconnell how do you and i and she probably spent four times as much money i was about to say yeah what's the what's the money count god it's sick it is so sick i saw somebody i think paul bless put it up he said that between the jamie harrison race in south carolina which jamie harrison lost to Harrison lost to Lindsey Graham by 16 points,

and Amy McGrath, who lost by 21 points to McConnell, they had spent $250 million to lose by a combined 37 points. How? Fucking A. And everybody thought those races were going to be on the ropes. You know, I was getting fucking solicitation emails two days out saying, McConnell's afraid. We've got him where we want him.

You know what I'm saying? Oh, my God. Well, I mean, just looking at this, once again, I think it's a fascinating thing to look at. Grimes took 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven, eight, nine, ten counties in Kentucky. Two of those were metro areas, Lexington and Louisville, and the other ones were all mostly rural. And then, you know, there's Elliott County, which is consistently Democratic. McGrath lost those counties.

All of them? All of them. Lost Elliott County? Lost Elliott County. Elliott County is the biggest Democratic stronghold in the fucking South. There's two Republicans in the country. There's two Republicans in Elliott County. She lost Elliott County.

The only county she won, and this is as of today, when I checked this yesterday, she hadn't won Franklin County, but I guess later votes came in. But she only won Jefferson,erson fayette and franklin county do you think this shook down even with democrats to the ghoul we know instead of the war criminal we can't fucking stand well here's what i think she also a lot of people don't realize this she has never held office nothing no the woman well this is what that's a good that's a very good point she's never won one motherfucking campaign. That's the thing.

The Democrats are the most epic losers in the fucking history of losing. She has the stench of loser on her and they fucking ran her. I don't understand. This is why, like, I kind of heard, you know, conspiracy theories or whatever you want to call them going into this. Like, the Democrats don't actually want to lose Kentucky. They don't want to lose to McConnell because they need McConnell in the Senate.

Absolutely. We've said it many times. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I was a little skeptical. But now, I don't know. If you look at it, there's nothing about her that was going to even remotely come close. I don't think Booker would have won, but he would have had a margin closer to Grimes,

if not even smaller. Like, he would not have been... I think Charles would have gotten... He would have won, but he would have had a margin closer to Grimes, if not even smaller. Like, it would not have been... I think Charles would have gotten, he would have gotten 10 points, within 10 points. He would have gotten within 10 points. And he had an unbelievable amount of volunteer work happening. If one person volunteered for Amy McGrath, I'll be in shock. If she had one fucking volunteer. I mean, a loss is a loss, but at the same time, like, if you're trying to build towards something bigger than, like, what the

fuck was the point of this? Also, if you're trying to curb that perception, that sort of conspiratorial conception we have that they just want to punt this one to keep the boogeyman in office, so they'll always have somebody to run against, somebody to raise money against. Right. Like, if that's not true, then how can

you not run somebody in 12 years that could come within 10 points? Tom, we have... Come within 15 points. I know. Tom, we have less than zero evidence that the Dems have any awareness or interest in their image. Well, did you see this thing somebody said?

I forget who it was. Somebody was calling for the Kentucky Democratic Party to disband some demonstration in Louisville today. Really? They said they were soulless and believing nothing, which is, where's the lie, you know? Oh, my God. But the thing about it is it's so fucked up. Although, let's say, though, for the Kentucky Dems, most of them backed Booker.

The Kentucky Dems backed Charles Booker. The state party did want Booker. And to their credit, I mean, if you can give anything to their credit. I mean, I really would like to do a whole episode with more people who know more about this, about all of the vile things that Chuck Schumer himself, just him, and then maybe Nancy next, did to personally derail Booker completely. Like they threatened so many political operatives like you cannot if you work for him you'll never work for anyone again right they threatened national planned parenthood they had like national planned parenthood had to threaten

kentucky planned parenthood i mean i have this you know i don't know maybe that's i have this fucked up who knows i tell all kinds of lies go for it but but like kentucky planned parenthood wanted to support booker endorsed booker and like the national dems shut it the fuck down via national planned parenthood so many examples of this yeah um they worked harder to squash out like popular candidates the the only future the democrats have you know what's so and you know they worked harder against the trump you know what's so goddamn crazy about all that is kentucky is the one state in the southeast that you could like the state house just flipped four years ago yeah last state house in in the South to flip to the Republicans.

Yeah. Okay. There's that. Okay. West Virginia just did, too, this election. Bill Clinton won Kentucky twice. Yeah. That has not been that long ago.

Yeah. And Bernie Sanders won the motherfucking primary. Well, he already got close. Right? No, he beat Hillary in the primary. No, he didn't. I think Hillary got him, but it was very close. In Eastern Kentucky, I think Hillary in the primary. No, he didn't. I think Hillary got him, but it was, like, very close. In eastern Kentucky, I think that's the case.

Oh, it was in eastern Kentucky. Statewide, I think. He won eastern Kentucky. But the margin was razor thin, though. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't by much. Well, if you're in the state Kentucky Democratic Party, you really should be asking, like,

what do we get out of this arrangement with the National Democratic Party? I mean, I don't really know what the future is, because at the same time, you don't want to create some feckless, absolutely uninfluential party like the Working Families Party in New York. So it's like, I don't know. Just duplicates the lines. I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

My friend in New York was telling me about that yesterday. About what? About Working Families Party. I really don't understand it. I didn't know that. My friend in New York was telling me about that yesterday. About what? About Working Families Party. I really don't understand that. Duplicate the line. I've got a good friend in Buffalo who works with them, and he's consistently like, why the fuck am I doing this? But they'll vote for Joe Biden on the Working Families Party line instead of the Democratic

Party line. Oh, what? Yeah, I've never heard of that. I mean, I know about the Working Class. They did this whole process and ended up backing Warren. I was like, what the hell? Well, you know, it was just an absolute routing in Kentucky for the Democrats. I think John King, so I've been watching TV news again.

Oh, good. I'm back to watching network cable TV news for my politics. We love to hear it. John King called it a shellacking. He said it three times. In Kentucky? He said shellacking. Yeah, I mean, McGrath got shellacked.

Yeah. And then he went on to say that, like, when they're doing the math, he was talking about, like, Biden shellacked Trump here. He just really liked that word shellacked. Isn't that a painting term? isn't that how you feel in i think spackling holes in the wall you're right no no well that's spackling but shellacked is like a shellac is like a floor is that is that when you uh grease a floor or something yeah but you're talking like c8 yeah i know what you're talking about now you're right Terrence needed to hit the albuterol after that one. Slack. Yeah, no, I mean, it was, so, you know, that's the Senate race.

I mean, is there anything else to really say? I mean, obviously, the Dems put their hand on the scale here, and they created this result. Once again, I'm not confident enough to say that Booker would have won, but I do know for a fact that his margin would not have been a 21-point loss. I'm highly comfortable saying that. Especially in Louisville. She didn't even win a lot in Louisville.

If you look at the map of the primary, he won more than just the metro areas. He won the Bowling Green area, the Paducah area. He won several of the smaller Kentucky cities as well. He had a broad cross-section of types of counties and types of people in those places. And he had hundreds of votes here. He had hundreds of votes in every eastern Kentucky county. He was a good campaigner.

I'll tell you this, though. If they're going to block a guy like Booker if we can't get like a real progressive at least give us a guy with multiple duis those guys are competitors i agree give me a great give me a greg stumble greg stumble run greg stumble against mitch mcconnell fuck it yeah or what about who ran for uh what's this what, the banjo picker they ran for? Rocky. Yeah, what about Rocky? Let's run Rocky.

Fuck. He's not the banjo picker. He had to rebrand himself as a banjo man to run for governor. We love to see it. He did. I support you, Rocky. Go off. No, and so, you know, that's the Senate race. Obviously, if you live in the 5th District, our congressional incumbent, Hal Rogers, this makes his 21st consecutive win.

40 years wrote in on the 1980 Reagan Revolution. What even has not left since? Been riding it ever since, man. One other election you could not have influenced at all. Who ran against him? I heard it was a gay preacher. Oh, really? I thought somebody had said that.

I don't even know. I just voted for the person that wasn't him, like I always do, and it amounted to nothing. It doesn't matter. What's the over-under on Mitch McConnell and how, for that matter, surviving this term? Health-wise. I mitch's chances are does mitch live another six years i don't see it yeah i don't know um man evil just it never really dies though you know what i mean yeah i think my fuckers will be i think that it doesn't really matter um because fresh blood for the same reason that i'm not sure that it doesn't really matter because... Get that fresh blood. For the same reason that I'm not sure that it matters in the presidential election, but this is a huge topic of debate, and so, I don't know, I guess we can get into it,

but let's talk about the big one, I guess. All right, finally, Kentucky District 3 coroner. We never saw it coming, folks. Never saw it coming. Marty Baker running for re-elected amazing oh yeah um no uh as of the uh current moment um biden is up but it is close still. And I think Biden only, and we're recording this at what, 4 p.m. on Thursday? Time is an illusion, Terrence. You're right. I'm sorry.

I don't like to be reminded of it if it's all the same to you. We're recording in a timeless, spaceless vacuum from the future. We're teleporting. That's why we sound like this. That's why we sound like this. That's why we sound like this. We're in a spaceship, a nice tunnel. Biden has 253 electoral votes

compared to Trump's 214. Now, there has been a lot of, as Tom Sexton likes to say, chicanery going on. You know it when you see it. It's like porn. That's right Been a lot of chicanery going on

And Including Whether Trump even has a wife or not Including whether Trump even has a wife or not There's been a lot of speculation I love when Todd gets ticked off There is no way to explain this to

someone in the future see it makes you wonder there's no timeline where this makes sense no it's we've entered the realm where everything is completely completely absurd. No, uh, and furthermore, all the results are completely incoherent. Take for example, take for example, Mississippi passed marijuana legalization, passed, um,

taking the confederate flag off of their state flag. What about a cute new flag? When's the last time a state got a new flag? That's one that needs a shot in the arm of anyone. Yeah, where's your dad on that? Yeah. How many flags?

Abolish all flags, honestly. They also voted to abolish the Electoral College, but the whole state went for Trump. And it's the same in Florida. Voted to raise the minimum wage to $15, but went for Trump. We want everything the guy we're voting for is against. I mean, it's really, it is really weird. Well, it tells you

it's cold of personality probably more than anything. Also, it's like, y'all really think about it. You can boil this whole thing down and if you interview anybody on the street, this is basically

what you're going to hear. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Is Trump saying, we're going to make America great again. Okay, that sounds good. And, uh, John, Joe, John Biden, John Biden saying, America great again. Okay, that sounds good. And Joe

John Biden John Biden All he says is Trump. The only word he says is Trump. We're going to beat Trump. We're going to kill Trump. We're going to get Trump. He says other things too, like calling his granddaughter his dead son's name.

Well, he did do that yesterday. He's just like corn popping. The only word he knows is Trump he knows is trump did you see that time he put his arm around his granddaughter natalie which it wasn't natalie it was finnigan but he he he thought he was okay let me back up here because i'm talking like joe now yeah explain he put his arm around his around his granddaughter and said you might remember my son, Bo, who ran for Senate in Delaware. Oh, my God. Wait, is that his dad's son?

The one that's past, yeah. And then he said, excuse me, this is my granddaughter, Natalie. And it wasn't Natalie. It was the other one. Oh, my God. Y'all, this happened yesterday?

In Scranton, his hometown. Two days ago. It might have been an election. His hometown. No way. Oh, here's a cute story.

I'm telling you. Kentucky Town and Lakes dog is mayor. He's all ears. Oh, my God. He's all ears. I love this. I love it. Every time you need a palate cleanser on the TL, somebody posts that.

Rabbit hash, Kentucky. Rabbit hash. I was going to say, it's rabbit hash every time. You love to say it. Oh, my God. Dude. What if someone assassinated The mayor of Of Rabid Hatch

They assassinated Assassinated by putting Antifreeze on a piece of bologna Glass in his dog bowl Oh my god Classic That's terrible Classic ways

Did y'all Did y'all ever have anybody Put antifreeze on a piece of bologna And fed it to your dog Oh my god No but my neighbor did Like this That shit is

That's the classic way to kill somebody's dog we need to put a content warning on this but this is not okay to talk about it's the worst way to watch a creature pass on to another realm it is so agonizing it doesn't happen quickly oh you're right no i yeah um we really we do have to reckon with that trump is more coherent than b Biden at this point. No, I thought you were suggesting maybe giving Trump a piece of bologna with some antifreeze on it. Oh, well, yeah, I do advise that. He might give him a little pep.

Give him a filet of fish sandwich with antifreeze. I mean, he's still running on COVID meds or whatever the hell they pumped him with. I mean, do we know if he had COVID yet or not? Is that still afloat? I mean, I don't know. I think he's outside the window of being a threat for dying. However, one of his spokespersons did tweet out today, the president is alive and well.

So if you have to say that. Nobody asked. Yeah, was there a reason to believe otherwise? But on that path you were going down, Tanya, all Biden says is Trump. And all everybody talks about is Trump. And furthermore, I thought this was a really good summation of it. This woman, Anna Eskamani, who is running in Florida, said this about, she ran as a Democrat. She, you know, just said this about the Florida Democratic Party. The Democratic Party continues to have no values.

And the fact that the $15 minimum wage amendment passed while so many of our candidates, including the self-appointed top Democrats, so many of our candidates, including the self-appointed top Democrats, don't even stand in strong solidarity of the initiative because they're influenced by corporate donors is another example of why we keep losing. It's like, yeah, you're right. That's like, that's all that really kind of needs to be said. You have a party that won't even support their most popular positions. Yep. Yep.

So, I mean, so it's honestly astonishing that Biden didn't lose more. And this is what blows my mind. Because if you log on to Facebook or Twitter or just talk to any of your friends, they'll be incredulous that Biden hasn't won by more. That the gap isn't bigger. That it's not a blowout. Yeah, that's what I've seen in the Instagram stories. It's like, are you fucking serious? Are you fucking people crazy? Why is he not winning?

Why is he not at 307 right now? It's just like, by everyone's's own admission he's a have you looked at your guy he's calling his dead son his granddaughter his dead son he called he told george lopez we didn't need four more years of george bush last night he tweeted out to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies we are not enemies that's the most cuck shit i've ever heard no i. What? Your enemies are the people putting people in concentration camps. Charlie Lutz, what am I about to say? I was like, okay, okay, well, who is over the cages in this country?

And at what point are they an enemy? Yeah, that's one. That's exactly. No, that's that old cucked bullshit. It's like, yeah, listen, if you're. I mean, he's ready to stack his fucking cabinet with Republicans. He is a Republican. So, I mean, why not vote for Trump?

I think my mom voted for Trump. My sisters all tore up about it. I was like, and for some reason, I cannot muster one fuck to give about it. Honestly, Tanya, I feel the same way because I see these people like bellyaching about West Virginia and the turnout. It's just like, what did you expect? Truly. It's fucking West Virginia. It's fucking Kentucky. It's the South. what did you expect it's fucking West Virginia it's fucking Kentucky it's the south what did you expect was gonna happen who is communicating

with us I mean like it's this is a hard line to walk because I feel like I have debt tried to look at this reasonably ever since we've started this show nothing is reasonable nothing is reasonable you have to grant that over that at the right at the gate but like if you're seriously invested in understanding why places vote the way that they vote if you're coming to a state or a region or or just call it rural america and you ask yourself why the fuck does it continue to vote for a guy like trump you have two paths you can you can go about it two ways you can say on the one hand they're intrinsically a certain way that is just who they are they are intrinsically racist racist or that like um yeah they are voting against their interests they don't understand anything

that they're doing or um you can take the other route which is look at what are the structures of power who has power in this i mean like because like if you think about it it's not a very materialist position to just say like those that's just the way people are right like people don't just vote the way that they do just because that's who they are you have to look at what are the structures of power who has the power in a community because we know that most of the people in these communities don't vote who's crafted an aesthetic that speaks to people more than anything else? I think that's underrated, you know what I mean,

that people vote based on aesthetics. Like a lot of people are liberals because they've got this Kennedy nostalgia. A lot of people are Republicans because they've got this Reagan nostalgia. You know what I mean? And sometimes it's as simple as that. No, sometimes it is mediated by culture. You're right. But what's weird about your thing is I've seen a lot of people that are ostensibly on the left abandon everything they've been saying for

the last couple years and just say oh it's racism it's like it's like it's like sure okay racism definitely 100 exists but that that like because somebody didn't vote for joe biden does not mean they're racist do you know what i'm saying i I'm not saying that there's not tacit racism if you're voting for Trump. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is if I didn't see anything in Joe Biden worth voting for, that does not make me an ipso facto racist. My issue here is that it's hardly even useful to discuss individual racism among people obviously it makes people's lives harder right like that sucks but how can you understand at least a tiny

bit of the power structures that are completely built on and supported by white supremacists like like it's just across the board 100 white supremacists, corporate militarized imperialists running literally everything. How can you know even like a sliver of that and then still on election day be like, you fucking losers. What the fuck's wrong with you people? It's just like...

Yeah, no, you're exactly... Who? Who? Who? Okay. But also, also, also, I don't understand how you could be like gung-ho for Bernie back in the summer, right? Or in the spring, right when the primaries were popping off. And it looks like we're going to, like Chuck LaRocca said, we're going to win 48 out of 50, probably, primaries.

Okay, I don't know how you can beat that drum then. And nothing changes. You know Joe Biden's going to get the nomination, right? After South Carolina. I mean, everything's, they've circled the wagons against Bernie. Biden's cussed into it. They had a top candidate drop out convinced him right to drop out and support him like it was a the guy that won the guy that won iowa just drops out of just ah well i'm out of this after two more races when he was very much still in it yeah he was a fucking front runner okay and then all of

a sudden that's what i'm saying i've been living in primary land like i'm not over it i don't know and you're right not to be but how how do you know like the score and then it shakes out the way it shakes out biden wins but it's not by the margin you thought it was going to be it's not this outright rebuke of trump and then now you're going to say well this was a moratorium on right this was like was like a referendum on racism. Except we also have the stat that Biden has more votes than any other president in history. Right, right. Or that he has the most

progressive platform than any other president in history. They keep saying that too. Really? Yes. I work for Sierra Club and with a straight face they said that Joe Biden, Joe I beat off to watching him fucking drill for gas. Truly, will not stop. It has the most progressive environmental platform of any presidential candidate in history.

It's just like, I don't know how you say that with a straight fucking face. I'm very much of the mind that this week was a victory for both parties. It was a major victory for the Republicans just as much as it was for the Democrats because if it is shaping up... It may be reflected in that 50-50 Senate split we made. Yeah, yeah, that might actually happen. We don't know yet. But if it is shaping up the way that it is,

it's starting to look like what's happening is that the Republican establishment is throwing Trump under the bus. This happened on Tuesday when early in the evening, Fox News called Arizona for Trump. I'm sorry, for Biden. With only like 30% reporting

or something like that. And apparently Trump called into Fox News, called Rupert Murdoch, just absolutely furious, and they were like, sorry, we called it for Biden. And they doubled down on it. Same thing. Mitch McConnell made a very short remark about Trump's challenge in Pennsylvania, something about the vote counting.

There was basically something to the effect of you've got to let all the votes count. And then Chris Christie came out and said that Trump was undercutting his credibility by coming out and declaring victory. So if that's the case, you have to look at it this way. And this is why the people who didn't... But you gave Chris Christie COVID, so he's got reason to be kind of pissed at himself. Oh, my God. The people that didn't vote, like Tanya here.

Thanks for that. I'm too mentally ill to vote. In Kentucky, fools can't vote. Sorry, guys. Yeah, they turned her away at the polls. Yeah, I was turned away but really though you would you do have a better grasp or a better sense of justice than the vast majority of people because um because what just happened this week if it is emerging that that's the case if they if the establishment threw trump under the bus it means that they got everything they wanted they

got their tax cuts they got all their supreme court justices means that they got everything they wanted. They got their tax cuts, they got all their Supreme Court justices, and the Democrats got everything they wanted. Trump has outlived his utility, honestly. They got their symbolic victory, they got fucking Mitch McConnell back in there, the fundraise on again in six more fucking years. And you know what else? If they play nice with Joe Biden, he's not going to pack the court.

Oh, no, not at all. If you honestly believe that, you're out of your fucking mind. I mean, honestly, I feel kind of bad because I listened to this episode. Do you all know who Naomi Klein is? Yeah. Yeah. I listened to this episode of that podcast that did with her yesterday. And she was like, why would you ever say that you can't influence a presidential election or a presidential candidate or a presidential administration?

Why would the left ever forfeit that power? And it's like in the in the in the evidence that she she used was obama well because we don't have money well and that's we're not even organized into a national like political force well we don't have money and we also don't have money because i've been waiting for the pause to bring up to help remind us of ourselves here. And Terrence has brought this up multiple times. We've discussed this about how all of the major donors running U.S. politics are the same people. There aren't Democratic donors and Republican donors.

It's all the same fucking owlhead maniacs. Go look at anybody that owns a sports team, and they've donated to everybody coming and going. Our local oil magnate, fucking Don Childersers look at who he donates to every year both republicans and democrats yeah you gotta imagine yeah and honestly speaking of me not voting my anarchist friends used to really hurt my feelings every election cycle telling me that my that voting was me just support propping up this failed state and bullshit system and while i kind of agreed with them i also was like you know what am i supposed to do just like don't vote and finally i'm here yeah that's exactly fucking right i'm at my wits

goddamn end and i literally could not bring myself to go in there and do any of it well but you've got to i mean like look you've got a lot going on right now and the vast majority of people do yeah i think that people have who have all this shit going on in the middle of a fucking pandemic with like that's already stressed people to the limits it's amazing that turnout was even as high as it was it truly is amazing and i'm sure it is a lot of the, so much early voting. Like Kentucky had Saturday voting for the first time. There's so many other ways to vote. Yeah, like, it's just. To me, it looks like from where I sit that both parties cleaned up in exactly the way they wanted to.

If I had been able to vote for any local races, I would have went and done it. But there weren't any, I had no local races to chime in about. Our rep was unopposed. There was nothing for me to... I had no one to vote for. Truly. Nothing to help me sleep at night. And the fear of getting COVID from poll workers who weren't wearing masks.

Weren't wearing masks. I was there. I was with them. I was telling y'all when I came up here, I went to the damn courthouse to get my truck tagged. And I was like, oh, people wearing masks. I got in there. And there was like, some of them were, some of them weren't. Some of the people in line were, some of them weren't.

It's just like, this doesn't work unless everybody buys in. You know what I mean? Right. My friend works in an office in Pikeville. Multiple COVID cases. They have not let them go home and work from home when all their work is virtual. Oh, shit.

They don't even take a day off and clean everything after someone gets it. They just clean their desk. I saw Pennsylvania last night. They had the governor and I think maybe the secretary of state if they're talking. And it's funny because they both went behind the podium and pulled their mask off when they were speaking. But then when they left, the other one came up and pulled their mask off, but they sanitized their hands.

And it's like... Oh, my God. It's the aerosol. It's the particles lingering up there that she would get sick from. Not like fucking touching the podium after she did. Yeah. That's the difference between this and SARS. SARS is can accumulate on surfaces.

COVID is airborne. It's the whatever. Anyways, you know, I hate to be really dark about this, but if that is the case and if both parties did get exactly what they wanted out of this and if Biden wins wins and um we're just you know the future is basically foreclosed i mean because like even if he wanted to pass progressive legislation he would have to get past a 6-3 court with seven catholics on it conservative catholic seven catholic that's the supreme court seven catholic for the first time in history the supreme court doesn't have a protestant on it not that that matters really um but it's but they're all like federalist

society like conservative catholics uh so uh you'd have to get past the 6-3 supreme court and they may not even have the senate they thought they literally thought going into this they were going to have a 53-47 Senate or something like that. I mean, I honestly am feeling like I've been in denial and I will probably continue to be. And most of us are in denial that voting. I mean, even after voting, we don't even talk about the fact that all this like vote counting like we have no idea there's no way for us to know that this is legitimate it's the crisis yeah it's like there's literally no way to know and i don't know i just i think the anarchists haven't well i think we've just been shitting dicking around.

Because when you say the Republicans and the Democrats both got what they want, it's really a step higher. Those like, well, let's say there's a hundred. Those hundred donors giving money to both of them, they got what they wanted. Like money is the only thing that matters in this country. Human misery is capital. Like that's it. That's where we're at. And it's just.

Human misery is capital Like that's it That's where we're at Well this is the thing like when people say Even well meaning progressives I'm sure I didn't say this This go around but Well I definitely didn't say it last go around either Don't take an advanced degree

As Tom would say to listen to Trillbillies for four seasons And realize that we contradict ourselves constantly And are learning just like everyone else And this is actually a good thing to model, okay? We are all wrong, and we need to fucking get over it and move ahead, okay? I agree. Please refer to that every time you want to scream at me in the DMs.

But really, though, I hear people say you have to vote for Biden even if you are on the left because it's closer to our own values and agendas and whatever I mean I guess I can get on that page most of the time I'm breathing I'm breezing through their arguments because I'm terribly underslept and can't hold all my thoughts together um but we all have to start from the premise that Biden, we know for a fact, is not committed to any larger sense of justice. And that nobody in his cabinet probably will unless they put Bernie in labor.

That would probably be one of the only appointments that actually would be committed to some modicum of justice for, you know, the worker, the working class. I'll go ahead and tell you, I think there's a better chance Bernie Madoff ends up being the Secretary of Labor. The point I'm trying to make is if that's the case, then the takeaway that I get from this election and from the past four years is a very, very bleak one. To me, this just means that something even more terrible and bleak is coming down the pike and that trump was just four years of teeing that up yes because the the hardest thing about being on the left is that we we cannot disconnect ourselves from the liberal cycle of complacency and panic. Complacency during a liberal president administration. And panic during a Republican one.

And that makes it hard for us to actually dig in. And understand what's going on around us. Well I have you know. I'm officially the Instagram correspondent. Because that's all I'm looking at. It's all your own anymore. But I have seen lots of people say we're right either way and that's the first it's the first like okay well uh all right i'll have that i did see some

of those fuck biden fuck trump signs out in the street that's yeah fuck them all fuck all this shit we have we have no reason to put up with this we are i mean we've talked about this how we're in like a fucking dna double helix right now of overlapping human rights crises in this country. Yeah. And there is no fucking reason. Like, I literally feel chill thinking about how and how much misery and pain and fear everyone is in right now. Like, I've multiple people I know have lost loved ones just in the past two weeks to COVID. Like, yeah.

My mom got shingles just because she's so fucking stressed out like people are pushed to the max i'm not doing well not you not one of us on this porch is doing we i say this all the time to my partner just like when like we get frustrated with something or like we're like trying to rush and do something all this like false urgency all the time yeah i was like we don't have to live like this we literally don't have to live like this and this is like we don't have to fucking live like this yeah yeah and i know that we don't have the power right now to move a general strike or whatever it is like i understand that like we we i mean this is a country of very unhealthy people mentally and physically and intricately connected those two are and they have every reason to keep it that way

yeah regardless of your station we're gonna have to keep our foot on biden's neck or whoever's neck that's in power you know i mean and it's an open question if even that'll work you know i mean i don't know i'm not persuaded but i'm saying that it's not either if if even that'll work. You know what I mean? I don't know. I'm not persuaded, but I'm saying that it's... I'm not either. If his stupid ass, if he gets elected and he don't immediately make a mask mandate and shut down the economy for six months... He absolutely won't do that. I know he won't, and that's the only thing that's going to...

He's been very vocal about the fact that he won't actually... He won't shut down. Yeah, that was the thing at the debate. You know, for like the first 15 minutes of the debate, there was no difference between either of them. Just more advanced stages of senility.

I mean, I am looking forward to, with bated breath, his fucking inauguration speech. The thing is is that if the left is serious about this, it's going to have, I mean, because like, saying that you can support Biden in the election to then hold his feet to the fire,

if you want that to actually work, you are going to have to, at a certain point, decouple yourself from the liberals. Because once they get in power, they're going to say, you can't. What are you upset about? What are you upset about? We've got to handle this in private. What was one of the pod Johns said?

We've got to handle this in private. Why aren't we getting this on Main Street about this? It was not a pod John. He was John Favreau, the director of Swingers. No, it was John Favreau, the Obama speech writer. Oh, really? My bad. it that? No, it was Jon Favreau, the Obama speech writer. Oh, okay. Really? My bad.

Yeah. I just assumed it was. Yeah, same name, though. Yeah. Well, but. I wish it was that. I don't know how we do it, but at a certain point, we're going to have to articulate our own political vision.

That's what, I mean, that's, whether that's in electoral politics or not i don't know but right now we're just playing catch-up we're just riding on coattails well all we can really do right now is this is how i feel it feels like the all we are able to do right now is create care networks because so many people are hurting so much we're in a fucking pandemic like i mean terrence used to say make it your number one priority to just not get and then give covid yeah that's the only thing that's a good start it's like um you know as as uh leftists or whatever you want i don't even know what whatever we want to call ourselves like i've long tried to figure out a balance of like abolition work and healing work and right now it just feels like there's i just feel like any abolition work i do it's so it's so painful right now because it's so crazy making dog they're a fucking inmate at Wallens Ridge. I just found this out

two days ago. An inmate at Wallens Ridge just 40 miles down the road was jumped by about four or five COs the other day and beat to a bloody pulp. This is what goes on inside. The fucking empire is still running at all times. You think prison wardens and stuff

care about who the fuck is in office? They don't give a shit. It's all about fucking keeping people down. Did I tell you all that I found out what happened to the woman who died in our jail? No. Remember, they never ran anything about it. Well, my neighbor was her friend. Oh, you did tell us. I tell you all.

It was literally suicide. They literally had her on watch and still. Let her kill herself. jesus in a jail with uh i mean it is over capacity but the place is the size of a fucking wendy's like yeah you know what i mean like they're watching everybody the whole fucking time this ain't like these are the these are the people that just get disappeared though i mean like no one talks about these people i mean like i have to go to fucking drug counseling or whatever and i fucking sit in the lobbies and are you an intern at drug court i'm an intern at drug court when are you gonna tell us career trash and um i gotta tell you folks it's good the people that sit there you you if you sit there

long enough people talk they just will talk to you about who's the most lenient judge who's the strictest judge around here um at any given moment you can go by the courthouse and see people begging judges for like their right to be re-entered into society like nobody talks about nobody fucking stands up for these people nobody fucking tries to uh actually you know deconstruct these systems that have you have forced them into this sort of feudal relationship with the courts and the drug system and rehabilitation centers. I mean, it's just like, I don't know,

it's enough to make you sick because you see that, and if you live in the disconnect between that and electoral politics for too long, it'll start to make you go insane. Yeah, for sure. And if you're dismissive of abolition stuff, and it's like, yeah, you might think that,

like, these things everybody talks about are maximalist demands or not realistic or whatever, but you have to, at least in principle, not, you know, turn your nose at that. No, I mean, yeah, I don't really have any patience for people who, I mean, like... But don't really have any patience for people who, I mean, like. But also, too,

like, you can talk shit about it all you want to. We've seen it work. I mean, not through efforts of our own, but we've gotten lucky. You know what I mean? I'm seeing, like,

sometimes things do work out. You know? Yeah, yeah. No, I, yeah. You know, I guess if there's, you know, just sort of wrapping things up here. If there's any sort of overarching themes here, it's that if you live in a place like ours, which I'm sure a lot of our listeners do, you still don't really have a whole lot of power. I don't say that in a bad way.

None to speak of at all, really. I don't mean that in a defeatist way i mean that it should be a challenge to you to honestly and soberly look at what power structures are around you and how they can be taken down how they can be defeated and it's not going to be just you you're going to have to get other people on board to do it as well and um you know and and i think that's really important because you can couple that with what tanya is saying with sort of you know mutual aid networks and stuff like that because you don't really have any other choice i mean if this is what the future of politics is gonna be they have literally started busting up harm reductionists like people who

are just out on the streets in West Virginia, in the cities, giving people fresh needles. They've literally started arresting them. In Knoxville, a couple weeks ago, they bulldozed Tent City. Literally bulldozed tents without checking to see if people were in them. Right.

You don't have much of any other choice because you think Biden's going to do anything about it? We need safe houses. We need so much healing. We just need so much care work. I mean, it really is so bleak to me that we're running fundraisers to buy people sleeping bags

and tents. Yeah. In this fucking country. There are more houses than people. Than people without a house, yeah. People have third, fourth fucking homes. Yep. This has to be the end of an empire. There's no way

that this can go on. No, I was listening. Do you know who Mike Davis is? No. The goat. The goat, yeah. My favorite Mike Davis anecdote is when he unleashed that bag of serpents and reptiles in his office of rare amphibians.

Oh, my God. Like the writer Mike Davis? I didn't know he did that. Yeah, no. I talked to Alex Press about it all the time. I was like, why did Mike do that? It's hilarious. Well, anyways, I was listening to this interview with him the other day, and he was talking about,

you know, you've got a substantial portion of people in this country who would just go, of course, you know, proto-fascist at any time. But you've also got the lumpen billionaires who quite literally want to consume as much as possible at, with, you know, with as much waste and destruction as possible. And a lot of these people these sort of lumpen billionaires are located in like more like the devos family you know they're located in more rural places you know what i mean rural michigan i think's where they're from right yeah i mean no those are your enemies you know um anyways so i don't know any final thoughts on um anyways, so I don't know.

Any final thoughts on Senate race, presidential race, local races? It's pretty funny that we had Johnny Turner versus Johnny Turner. I mean, do you think that

Johnny Ray Turner, when he saw that, was like, fuck, because it's entirely possible. Also, I think Johnny L. Turner is like,

man, I'll put my name on that balance if i can get lucky and he did yeah god damn i didn't think i didn't consider that me and topper joked the other day with matt like i guarantee you there's at least one senile like 90 year old dude who voted for biden thinking he was voting for bevin oh yeah yeah oh my god i was just about to say that i guarantee there are a substantial number of people who like this guy who drives this trump cheap down here jeep yeah the people who are riding around with in big trucks and jeeps with trump flags that didn't even bother going to vote this has nothing to do with voting they just want to ride around you're right these

are people who couldn't hack it in the military right they couldn't hack it in cop school or cop school they needed some way to be able to like but these guys volunteer fire department not because they want to voluntarily fight fires because they won't put lights and sirens on their overpriced trucks yeah these are just i mean you could one look at these little fuckers in town yeah oh you could push one of them and they'd all fall over. Absolutely. They're little scared ass bitches. You can tell by looking at them. They literally put gel in their hair.

Mm-hmm. Their hair's gelled. Their hair. That's all you got to say. I don't know what else to. A real man uses pomade. A gentleman uses putty. Sculpting clay.

A real man is losing his hair, and so he just puts a little water in it. Gentleman balls graceful. Oh, shit. I don't know. I obviously have nothing to say. Yeah. Well, I mean, by the time you listen to this,

who knows, Trump may have already lost, or they may have stolen the election. I will say, though, that it seems like if they were trying to steal the election, that they had no plan for it. Did you see that thing about how at the last minute, Jared Kushner was calling for some kind of James Baker type to help them organize? Yeah, please. And the best they could was Rudy Giuliani. A man that three weeks ago was arguably fondling himself for a woman he thought was 15. It seems very much like in classic Trump fashion, they ad hoc, like of the minute, were like, fuck.

They're like me. They waited until the last minute to steal the election. It's like, oh, shit. Damn it. I don't know, man. Who knows? I highly doubt they'll get away with actually doing something like that. Mostly because

I don't think the Republican establishment cares all that much. I will tell you this. It just occurred to me. No one's really looking forward to winter. If you live in a place where there's winter, I'm sure you're dreading it already. But it just occurred to me how unbelievably entertaining it's going to be if biden wins the time how trump is going to behave until inauguration oh yeah like lame duck oh it's

going to be absolutely prime time he is going to be acting fucking wild. Oh, for sure. Paul Blessed, our good buddy on Twitter, was like, if Trump loses, it's going to be absolutely biblical. But in an entertaining way, I'm sure. Well, I got some despatch. Peter's out for Bernie has some thoughts about it. Oh, good. Great.

Are those Peters out for Joe now, weren't they? No, they went back to Bernie. Disillusioned. We're all living back in the primary. That's right. So in between some excitement about the McRib coming back and calling Jody Webb a liberal. liberal yeah before you say before you dig into that tom i got a classic post-election email from someone in like some media outlet in kansas who wanted a like a trump voter to talk to can't you just pretend to be i was like why are you reaching out to me like i'm not even

plugged into that world anymore we love to hear it okay y'all ready for this um so i just floated the possibility i did what they usually do when i was playing devil's advocate uh i said uh they're all concerned they're gonna lose their jobs in the gas industry. And I was like, that's actually the most ridiculous fear that you could have. They didn't when the price of oil fell below $0? The needle has moved so little on that, that when Obama came in office in 2008, they were calling, what were they calling natural gas, Tom?

The bridge or the gateway fuel? Yeah, like a bridge to energy independence. They're still saying that 12 fucking years later. There's been no movement on it. So they're fine. Their jobs are fine. They're concerned that raising minimum wage in Florida is going to limit their

vacation potential. That was number one. But I said... They're pissed that the minimum wage was raised in florida yeah by a few dollars so they celebrated a little prematurely because you know how like trump did the whole thing where like they got it to where you got to do the like in-person voting results first and they didn't put two and two together that like the reason that trump's been taking all these sorters out of post offices and everything is to slow like million ballots and stuff like that. It's all about that.

Right. And then they shot back with, oh, yeah. Tell me how there's 11.7 million registered voters in Wisconsin or 10.2 million registered voters in Wisconsin with 11.7 million ballots. I said, that's interesting. And then they showed me their source there, and it was Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports. No way. I'll say the InfoWars.

Yeah, even worse. And then they said, L Press says Trump wins easy. It's over. Good night, everybody. Amazing. Oh, wow. That was on election night?

That was on election night. And I was like, damn. Because then, at that point, Vegas had Trump as the overwhelming favorite to win. Really? Minus 775. Because, I guess, whoever's making the odds

didn't take into consideration that it's going to look like Trump's in the lead early. This was a very underwhelming turnout for the Dems. I just saw this. It looks like this will be the least party-controlled changes on Election Day since at least 1944. That's with, like, all state legislatures and other races as well. Dems failed to flip a single state legislature. Really?

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. They're the kings of blowing it, man. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Hand jobs, blow jobs, rim jobs. I bet they would win on that. Last night, the chants were Count the votes

Outside an election center in Arizona's Maricopa County but then in Detroit They were chanting stop the count I love the Two incoherent messages but it's not Trump trying to steal the election Oh my god I actually

Said this and Peter's Out for Bernie, and then they quickly changed the subject. It's Tom Brady's tenure at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, my God. Fuck it all. Well, let's sign off here. Hopefully you enjoyed the show this week. We have an announcement, though, to make.

We have a fourth member to the show. I was about to say, you think we can get Aaron down here on the porch? Yeah, we're going to need to get him up here. We're going to fly Aaron in

next week. I would have had him on today, but couldn't figure out how to make it work. Now, we've got a fourth member. Our fourth T. The old trap god.

That's right. Somebody on one of our forums, I didn't even know we had one of those. Wait, we have forums? I think we have a Reddit forum. Really? I believe so.

A subreddit. Oh, my God. I'm terrified of that. Yeah. Luckily, Aaron's last name starts with a T. If anyone says anything bad about me on a forum and I don't get avenged, by God, y'all are out there letting them talk shit about me. I'll not forgive you.

That's right. No, we're very excited to have Aaron on board. You know, he's been on at least, what, three or four episodes at this point? Yeah, not by now. People love all of them. It's going to be great. And he'll be on the Patreon this weekend and probably in the episode next week. We'll see.

But, yeah, give him a hearty welcome. You can go follow him on Twitter. But he has way more followers. Yeah, go follow us. He's got enough. He's got all the followers. He's got way more followers than us. But he's at PosadasTrapGod.

That's Trap God, underscore Trap God with a GD. underscore trap god with a G-D. And then go support our Patreon at www.patreon.com slash Trillbilly Workers Party. And hit our lines, $5 a month. Get all the good content. And keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. We're on a knife's edge here.

We really need some help. We are not. Wow. Oh my gosh. We need sleep. We need healing. Send us care packages. I slept, I guess I was 14 years old.

Oh my gosh. See, I don't, I can't, I'm not like you. I can't do it. I miss, I get one night of bad sleep and I'm fucking. Done. I haven't felt this shitty since college, you know? Oh do it. I get one night of bad sleep and I'm fucking done. I haven't felt this shitty since college. Oh my gosh. When you were full of poison.

Full of booze and caffeine. Now you're literally full of vitamins now and carrots. And still can't hack. Still can't hack it. Oh damn. I think the shadow of the intoxicants looms large is the problem. I think you shadow of the intoxicants looms large is the problem. I think you're right. I think I, there's the great Marguerite de Ross has that line from Love where it says, it was already too late for me too early on or something like that.

I ain't as good as I once was. Oh my God. All right. Well, thanks for listening everybody. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other more importantly. And we'll see you next time. Bye.