Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 83: Morelos By Morning

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

T&T talk about the biggest news of the week: the Green New Deal. Can a Just Transition occur without incurring the wrath of an armed chud rebellion? Find out on this week's episode of the Trillbillies. Also support the Patreon. www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty Thank',s

the language of legislative documents is so funny to me give me an example well I don't have to if I remember correctly you were the author of Weisberg's most unpopular tax

bill that's the reason I could never have a teaching career oh man people hated your ass Bill. That's the reason I could never have a teaching career. Oh, man. People hated your ass. I've got a controversial take about teachers. Oh, baby. Baby. Hit me with it, Tom.

This is going to get a couple of people that, you know, fucking loved all the teacher strikes. And I did too. I'm not saying anything about it. But teachers are also precisely the same kind of, not everywhere, but I will say this, in Kentucky and West Virginia, what I've noticed is that a lot of the same people that wanted everybody to show up for their 55 strong and 120 strong in Kentucky and all that stuff.

There's no way in fuck you get those people mobilized to go protest with fast food workers. No way in hell. Well, not yet anyways. Not yet anyway. Well, you know, it depends. One of the funniest, one of the most revisionist history things I saw last week. I'm talking about today.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not talking historical. No, I mean, this will be modern. I'm just saying a lot of reactionary elements in teaching. All I'm saying. As in all the working class. The point, the, look. You keep trying to save me from myself.

Look, man, I'm not going to let you walk out there by yourself. Appreciate it. You know, I'll go down with you. The funniest thing I saw last week, specifically, there was there was an article in Commune that the article, the substance of the article itself did not reflect the headline, but the headline was very obviously meant to get clicks. And it was like, following lead of West Virginia teachers model of union, communitarianism or community unionism or something like that, L.A. teachers go on strike or something like that and it's it's like um Jesus Christ man

I don't even know where to begin it's the same symbolic bullshit that leftists are so susceptible to it's like no absolutely zero reckoning with the actual material facts on the ground. For example, the fact that this strike

has been years in the making, and that the union raised their dues years ago just to deploy organizers into the community in Los Angeles so that they would have community buy-in for this moment. When it happened. When it happened. Something that a lot of people skipped that crucial step, and that's what we're going to be

talking about today. That's what we're going to be, thanks for setting me up, Tom. Thank you for setting me up. Carry on, I'm sorry to interrupt. Well, I just thought it was interesting. People want so, so bad for that fucking,

for the Red State Revolt teacher strikes to be the dawning of, they want it to be Russia 1905. They want it to be the beginning of the soviets and it's just not that no i appreciate it for what it is but it's just not the head well not without some serious rethinking and organizing and um you know base building it can be that but well another thing that happened with the West Virginia thing is it did not come together over several years.

No, no, it was... Maybe the conditions did. Right, right, right. Well, what it was is it was an eruption of genuine outrage over some really fucked up stuff. Right. And it was awesome, and I think a lot of leftists were sort of enthralled. Rightly, yeah. Enthralled by it because it was awesome, and I think a lot of leftists were sort of enthralled by it because it was illegal.

It was illegal, and it was a wildcat strike. And so I think that that was why it was so—I didn't really want to go down that road to begin with, but I just thought it was interesting. I walked you out there. I'm sorry. Thanks for walking me out. That's the classic dynamic of this. You'll just take a few steps on out there, and I'll just run to the end of it. You're a roadrunner. You're the coyote.

Yeah, if we're on a pirate ship, you'll start walking the plank, and I'll be like, I'll be right there with you, man, and then I get on it, and I go to the very end. Start pulling us both down. Oh, fuck. All right. Well, so the reason we're convened here today is... This is kind of a wildcat strike. This is, yeah.

This kind of just came together. Of the moment. Yeah. Of the moment. Well, I thought that this would be a good chance for us to talk about just transition. I thought this would be a perfect chance for us to talk about Just Transition. I thought this would be a perfect chance for us to talk about Just Transition. Sometimes you're just talking, and then you're like,

man, wow, these thoughts, I'd really like to get them recorded, and then you just have to go in the studio. That's what this is. That's what this is, right, right. Well, it's okay. So, yeah, to set this up, it was announced today that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey, is it Markley or Markey?

Senator from, or I'm sorry, Congressman from Massachusetts rolled out this resolution in support of the Green New Deal. So it's not a bill. It's not a piece of legislation or anything like that. It's just a resolution. And as I was telling you earlier, it's like, I was listening to NPR and old Moorhead

alumni, Steve Inskeep, was like harder on Ocasio-Cortez than I've even heard him be on fucking... Something is weird about this. I guess when I was a liberal, I would listen to NPR and I would hear... Before I really had a serious critique.

That's still evolving. But I would listen to NPR and I'm like, God, man. These, you know, sort of... I mean, they know what's going on, and I'm just like, I'm just so stupid, man, and I need to listen to this more. Now the more that I listen to Steve Inskeep, Steve Inskeep is,

I mean, they're dying to woo liberals. Totally. Of the worst kind, though. I'm not talking about good liberals. I'm talking about, like, they had this guy on that was like they just have like guys on that just like support the coup in venezuela and like lay out the liberal case for it and all that kind of stuff and act like you know this is just the cost of you know of doing business and like you know we have to get maduro out of there and blah blah today i heard the same

thing you heard and it's just like yeah patronizing of AOC. It really was. Yeah. He was totally just like, okay, so how are you going to pay for this? And she was like, well, you know, there are multiple ways to pay for this. She didn't mention a marginal tax rate or anything like that. What she mentioned was like public investments. She said there are more ways to finance public investments than just taxes. And he was like, well well even if it's uh deficit

spending you're still gonna have to pay through i mean like he was just grilling her kind of in a way that i've never heard first off i've never heard five fans keep i know he went to school into the same goddamn place i went to school let me tell you something that comms degree you got didn't credit it anymore no more than mine is motherfucker tom sexton and steven's keep on the same education same plane same education i keep on the same education same plane same education i mean exactly the same education exactly the same i think he actually ended up giving the keynote at the graduation i was supposed to be a part of but yeah didn't have enough credits to wall yeah yeah well it was uh so yeah that that that interview was pretty

interesting um and you know and you kind of got, though, you did kind of get to see, like, she sort of held to her talking points, and you kind of got to see the reason why they're doing this, right? Yeah. And so from what I can tell, the sort of main reason that they're doing it

is to sort of get this inserted into the conversation. They're doing it as a sort of litmus test for 2020 candidates, right? Kind of putting it out conversation. They're doing it as a sort of litmus test for 2020 candidates, right? Kind of putting it out there. They're trying to move the needle, as we like to say. Which I will say this for ALC, for all of our, you know,

sort of hectoring tone towards her and others, I will say she's good at incrementalism. Look. She's from the Terrence Ray School of Incrementalism. She's good at that. I'll say she's good at incrementalism. Look. She's from the Terrence Ray School of Incrementalism. She's good at that. I'll say that. Well, you know, so if it's not just to get this inserted into the conversation about climate change, you can also tell that it's ostensibly the purpose is to get it inserted into the conversation,

that government can be used to sort of, I don't know. Here's a weird thought. How about we mobilize power and resources to help people under this government that pay taxes to this government? Or don't pay taxes. Who cares? You live here.

Well, it's a really crazy thing because you hear it on NPR, you're like, wow, haven't heard anything like this on NPR in probably 50 years. Yeah. It's so bizarre. But did you hear

Dominic Moncaccio or whatever his name is come on afterward he was like well she just doesn't know how they're going to pay for this and it's like man you're like been like fucking Tucker Carlson about this like go away it's like you guys have comms degrees

you're not economists shut the fuck up well you kind of get to see like and this is, you know, look, my skepticism of AOC has nothing to do with her as an individual or as a personality, really. It has to do with the fact that, like, she is in way over her head. You've got a government that is ostensibly established, especially now in 2019,

to where we can't even envision an alternative to a government that exists for any other reason than austerity policies and the police state. Right. And she's- And that's what we mean by an overhead. We don't mean that in an infantilizing way. No, yeah, no. She's just not cut out for this.

What we mean is that the deck is stacked firmly against- Well, you saw a visual representation of it literally on tuesday night on at the uh state of the union right you know so it's like and not only that she does she's got people like pelosi you know she was deriding it today what'd she say she's like the green dream or whatever these people are calling it did you see that yeah and here's the thing aoc is way too conciliatory to nancy pel Yeah, for receiving nothing in return. I don't know why. For her fucking doing this gator chomp clap

and everybody losing their fucking shit over it, it's like, okay, A, they might have just caught a weird frame that looked like that. And even by Nancy Pelosi's own admission, that wasn't meant to be a sarcastic clap. Probably, right. People are just trying to gleam onto every symbol as some sort of clandestine liberal coup that they just know is coming any day. But guess what?

That's never coming, Krasensteins. Right, right, right. That's never coming, Pantsuit Nation. Right, exactly. If anything, they'll be together against people like us. Yeah, absolutely. right exactly if anything they will be together against people like us yeah absolutely and because you know i was thinking i was sitting in the shower this morning i was thinking to myself i was like my first reaction with the trump mentions of socialism my first take was not oh god we got them on the ropes baby we got them right where they want them my first thought was hey we're

about three steps away from being shot dead in the streets or thrown in jail. It wouldn't be surprising if it's illegal to become a communist during President Donald Trump's second term. It wouldn't surprise me either. Well, and so, you know, given that sort of reality, given the fact that the left is not large by any means, not dynamic not not even really yeah it's just it has no power which is which again is why i say that as a reasonable fear yeah i don't say that because i'm afraid i say that because we we don't have the numbers we don't have the base they would stomp us out like an ant as we're currently constituted and that gets at why this whole thing is so interesting. Because to be able to implement something like this, to be able to implement something like the Green New Deal, and I'm not saying this in bad faith.

I'm not saying to nitpick or anything. I'm not saying to throw people off or do a well actually. I just want people to realize the scope and scale of what is going, what we're talking about here when we're talking about a green new deal. If they, like they're talking about making the U.S. carbon neutral by 2030. Right.

That's 10 years. 10 years to make the U.S. carbon neutral. Yeah. To do that, you are going to have to excise out of the American economy, the entire fossil fuel industry. And what they're talking about, they're going to, to excise out of the american economy the entire fossil fuel industry and what they're talking about they're gonna you know sort of this what they're gonna offset that through public investments through the jobs and infrastructure they create through a green new

deal great i i support that you know i'll fight i'll die for that whatever i've died for a lot less i've died for a lot less exactly um but you you have to understand that if that's what you want to do you are going to you're going to be disrupting some fundamental aspects of american society namely the sort of cultural embedding of the fossil fuel industry in a lot of communities i'm thinking of ned bailey's speech in network right now you've unleashed forces exactly you have meddled with the forces of nature and you will anyways um so look what i'm concerned about, what I want to do, what we've had in front of us is like a sort of explosion on the national stage of a topic that me and you have talked about a lot and that anybody who lives in Appalachia has talked about. Yeah, this is where we shine, baby. This is where y'all are getting insights that y'all never got before anywhere else.

Proprietary right here. Exactly, because look what you're going to have to, I'm just telling you straight up what you're going to have to deal with. First, let me say this before you go on that yarn. Okay, go for it. I wanted to get this out here. You mentioned that part of the goal of the Green New Deal was to become carbon neutral in 10 years or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And create jobs in doing so. Yeah, when I was in a meeting with people that had reached out, that ALC's people had reached out to, they want this to be in law by 2030, according to the people I hear from. Mm-hmm.

Okay, so what I want to say is that you just can't pass a Green New Deal and then be carbon neutral the next day. You know what I mean? Well. Like, if we're waiting until 20, if we don't think this is going to get done till 2030 we're too late right essentially by the international

or i'm sorry intergovernmental 12 year old climate yes window is what i'm saying right right you know and to be fair the resolution itself acknowledges that right there's language in it that says look there's nothing in this proposal that even gets close to uh you know dealing with the issues or whatever dealing with the scope and scale of this that's not what i'm worried about i'm not at all worried about the climate aspects of this the environment aspects of it those things you know we already know what's at stake and we already know how to fix it we We all know how to swim. Exactly. What I'm worried about is fundamentally altering the question of private property in this country. I'm not sure that you can implement a just transition without fundamentally upending our notion of private property. And more than that, look, I have almost gotten in fights fights fistfights with motherfuckers who have tried

who have gotten pissed just over a proposal of a small gas well tax you know i've got i've gotten in fights with people to screaming matches with people who are pissed about a coal mining permit you like if we're talking about revamping America's entire energy landscape, entire energy grid, we're talking about a mass upheaval in this country. Probably blood in the streets. Like, look, I don't want that to happen. Here's another thing, too.

Here's another thing to your point. Yeah. No, go for it. I just have to say thanks for that. They leave me. Well, I'm not trying to scare people. I just, I'll thanks for that. They leave me. Well, I'm not trying to scare people. I'll explain further.

Go ahead. There is a reason why there is such a visceral connection. It's such a pressure point to talk about property. I've known people in Letchford County that have shot people for their chickens going on their property. That's no accident. In order for capital to work how it has to work, there has to be that sort of like blood and soil thing attached to private property. Right. Because that's what makes the whole thing go, baby.

If we upend notions of property, we're talking about communism now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So this is the big question. This is a watershed moment, potentially. Go for it. Well, this is why it's difficult. Because attaching it to the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal didn't

attempt, I'm sorry, the original New Deal didn't attempt to do any of this. The New Deal was to revitalize the economy and to prevent it from, to prevent capitalism from tanking. That was the whole point. Yeah, it was basically like what did Obama do when he came in? What was that?

This is not the surge. What did he call that? The surplus. The, what did they call it? The shot in the arm. Where they gave everybody like 300 bucks. You remember that? The reinvestment act or something. Yeah, that was the proper name,

but there was like a colloquial name for it. The New Deal was basically that, but they took everybody's gold. Yeah. They took everybody's gold. That is true. They did really literally. Yeah, they gave you more than 300 jobs anyway no what we're talking about is if we're talking about historical precedents this and i'm like i i know how this is going to come across but you just got to bear with me for a second if we're talking about historical and

political precedents it's more closely related to the American Civil War and the emancipation of slavery. And the reason why... Go on. The reason why is because so much capital and assets were tied up into the slave system. And the only way to actually abolish slavery was going to be through a large-scale mobilization

of the United States' entire resources, all of its infrastructure, its military apparatus, and everything. If we don't want that to happen today, because that's what will happen, trust me... You can set your watch back. I would really like to take some of these people to where I grew up. You start talking about carbon neutral in 10 years,

where I grew up, where the economy is fucking booming yeah you'll you'll you know you won't make it out alive look look i'm just saying that like to do that to actually do it without bloodshed in a civil war you're going to need a massive coalition of epic proportions a coalition the likes have never been seen in this country. Never been seen before in this country. Except for maybe the Civil War. And the New Deal. And the New Deal. Right, right, right.

It's not something that you just propose. People get on board with it. It's like, oh, this sounds great to me. Let's pass the motherfucker. It requires, it's going to require a coalition that can actually see it through to passage and can actually see the transformation, the revolutionary transformation of the American economy from one based on fossil fuels to one not based on fossil fuels. Yeah.

That's a very. That's a massive undertaking. Massive undertaking. Exactly. And so that's the thing. It's just like people talk about. And that's one of the sort of goals of this resolution. There's achieving net zero greenhouse emissions, creating jobs, providing for a just transition,

motherfucker, securing clean air. Is this part of that in there? Are they adopting the language of? I don't think. They didn't use literally the terms just transition, but they sort of signaled to it with like you know uh helping out the industrialized rural communities helping out displaced coal miners rebuilding the middle class that kind of stuff they building the middle class that's already a loser yeah yeah they both let's focus group what they're putting in there already right look

that that middle class and those displaced coal miners, they don't give a fuck. Please, if nobody ever takes anything from this show, abolish the words access and middle class. And middle class, exactly. If you have those two words in your stump speech, it's a loser, right? No, I agree. The thing is, again, part of the reason that they're doing this is to sort of i think shift the overton window right it's the it's the do the inclement incrementalism the right way

as we have proposed um and you know and i'm not necessarily cynical about that like that could work i mean you know maybe you get a critical mass of people in this country after 2020 who are like, oh, sounds good. You know, like fossil fuels are bad and stuff like that. But I just got back from, you know, Hobbs, New Mexico, where they discovered the largest oil and gas reserve in North America. And so that's why in President Trump's State of the Union on Tuesday night, he said, we are now the world's leading energy producer. We're now energy independence. That's what he was talking about. And that's just in one place.

That's in one place, the Permian Basin, where I grew up. It's almost like history's led us to this point. And I'm telling you, look, I am not scared of the implications of this. I've stared it down before. I've almost gotten in fights before. Whatever. Like I said earlier, I'd fucking die for it. I don't give a shit.

I'm just saying that the people who are actually, you know, trying to pass this through and make it a political reality. Need to know what the hell they're signing up for. They need to know what they're signing up for. Because once you start disturbing, like I said, the sort of, of like what we were saying earlier notions of private property and stuff but also the deeply embedded cultural identities and signifiers of fossil fuels and the you know sort of extracted communities it's like that's that's dangerous that's dangerous it's gonna get it's gonna get pretty hairy now so and the thing is here's the thing is like you might fare better in the coal communities now because like we don't have anything right equivalent in terms of a coal seam

of what you're talking about in the permian basin so maybe it would get more purchase in a place like this but there's still very visceral ties to you know people that have mined coal here for generations that like yeah would die for that shit. I mean, guys that can barely breathe, but they keep going in the mines every fucking day. Like I said, man, I have seen motherfuckers get fuming red, violent, angry over far, far less. Far less. So, again, I'm not saying this to be like, oh, this is, have you even thought about the implications of those? I'm saying I'm on board.

I want to help you do it. There's just some things that you need to understand. And that if you want to do it, it's going to require some deep, deep investment, like, of time, activists, you know, coalition building, and stuff like that. time activists you know coalition building and stuff like that because ultimately what we're talking about here is the expropriation of a massive chunk of the u.s economy yeah i mean you could even probably say it's maybe one of the most you know lucrative chunks of the u.s economy yeah because we're talking about not just the workers at the site of production, not just oil rig hands, coal miners, uranium miners, potash miners. We're talking about all of these sort of people attached to that. Suppliers, yard hands, just anybody even remotely – all the attendant parts of those economies.

And there's a deep cultural sort of identification of those economies. And there's a deep cultural, you know, sort of identification with those economies. I just want to tell people, because I don't think people really, most people don't have an approximation unless you've grown up in places like where we've grown up. But they teach not at all historical stuff about coal and probably oil.

Like, hell, your fucking school's fight song is oil derricks flaring at night. Hell yeah, baby. We have coal day in our schools. Where they just make up batshit crazy stuff about how coal will rain for a thousand years, and we don't have to worry. This is just a little bit of a downturn. It will be back.

Oh, bro. They had one of the most one of the best content minds in this motherfucker is uh cedar coal economic development or whatever it's the it's the educational program where they would go in schools and like um they had their mars program where they would like you know ask kids how they would theoretically mine coal. We found seams on Mars and stuff like that. You know what I mean? It is deeply tied in.

And the only reason I'm saying any of this is because these are our family members. Honestly, myself, I'm proud that I've followed on in the family. I'm a different kind of miner. But I am a miner just like my granddaddy and his daddy before him.

My product's content. Well, I guess what I'm trying to impart is that temper your expectations. And honestly, I feel kind of bad. Well, let's not be a wet blanket. Let's just think about this in a strategic way. Yes, yes. Let's calm down for a second. Exactly.

Let's not think we've got them on the ropes. Exactly. I mean, I see motherfuckers losing their mind because Trump gave them two sentences in the State of the Union. Exactly. Which is like, okay, yeah, maybe you could interpret that as they're scared, but also it could just have been like a thinly veiled threat to us too that like they might throw us in jail too.

The context was Venezuela. So in his mind, he probably sees no difference between Maduro and Bernie Sanders. Exactly. Or whoever, you know, AOC, whatever. Exactly, exactly. No, you're right. You know, temper your expectations. Be strategic about it.

Understand what it is you're fighting for and why you're fighting for it. And ask yourself, like, what is a just transition? Somebody posed that question to me the other day. What did you answer? It's really hard to answer. It is a lot harder to answer Than you'd think I've been asked this several times

What's a just transition? Job interviews Other things And it is a hard question to answer Mr. Sexton What is a just transition? Look I could tell you what I think it is And I could tell you what I think it is,

and I could tell you what, you know, I guess some of the material factors of it would be. We're going to have to do away with all resource extraction, probably. Not 97%. Yeah. Not 83%. Yeah. Probably all of it.

All of it. All of it. All of it. All of it. And even then, that would be an incredibly difficult proposition because even some of our forms of renewable energy like solar and wind require raw resources, raw materials that probably require some level of extraction. We could probably do it on a small scale and whatever. But the point is, is that a lot of the american economy is tied up in resource extraction so that's part of it no more extraction keep the shit in the earth second part we're gonna have to figure out a way again without inciting the unbridled maggot chud rage of people who just want to roll coal in your front yard because they're pissed off you drive a hybrid, of doing away with cars.

We're going to have to figure out a way of, and that, again, that gets at the private property issue. That gets at the personal choice issue. Can you imagine going to some oil guy's house in Hobbs and expropriating his dually? I would love nothing more. I know you would, but do you know what that would involve? Oh, I know. I'm very

I've thought long and hard about it. After the revolution, I would love nothing more to be the czar who goes around expropriating and fucking stamping out fossil fuel consumption and stuff like that.

Yeah. No, it would, trust me, these people are armed to the teeth, and they are sort of organized in the sense that they have a common identity. You know what I mean? I wouldn't call it class consciousness necessarily, but they do have a sort of perverse form of it. Yeah, it's a political consciousness of a kind. So, yeah, there's, yeah, no more fossil fuel extraction,

no more cars, no more fossil fuel burning, obviously. I mean, that's just a given. So, you know, right off the bat, you're talking about a just transition requiring a massive excision of an expropriation of... Just a restructuring of society. Of society. Revolution, honestly. There's really no other

word for it. We're talking about a transformation that is beyond. If you're not ready for revolution, you could pass a Green New Deal or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. But if it's not about ending fossil fuels, it's not going to A, it's not going to work

but B, it's got to be revolutionary. b it's got to be revolutionary if you're talking about that if you're talking to sirius about zero percent emissions of 10 years you're talking about revolution whether you want to acknowledge it or not that's the thing and this is the thing this is why i hope with this podcast we have actually pushed people to looking at things from a revolutionary point of view because there is not a single goddamn thing, an aspect of our society, that is changeable through sort of, you know, mealy-mouthed reforms. Yes, exactly, incremental reforms. Everything requires transformation on a revolutionary scale.

Whether it's climate change, healthcare, or the empire, or whatever. It's brought us to this. It's brought us to this. It's brought us to this. This is where we're at. We can incremental reform our way, but guess what? New Orleans and Miami ain't gonna exist. No. You can go ahead and kiss that goodbye.

Well, and plus, even doing that is probably going to incite the unbridled rage of the maggots. We will have a Vonday uprising of sorts. Jesus Christ. It's true, though. But that's the thing, man, and I don't want that to happen. And I think that, again, with a large-scale initiative or effort to build a sort of base a coalition i think that instead of trying

to put all of our eggs into the basket of taking over various you know political spaces and electoral places the only way that we're going to get to that sort of revolutionary point is by building a base that is independent of it that can support the things that they propose you know there's nothing that says they can't they'd have to vote on it it has to be democratic but that can support it and can actually see it through passage but that's the only thing that's gonna prevent me and you from fucking winding up in a ditch somewhere because we uh you know supported the protection role in 2015 and fucking bill bissett just walks up puts two in the back of our head

i've been wanting to do this since lexington 2015 and now i have the political will to do it exactly man no i'm being but like you know but i guess for that purpose this thing is good if we're if we're talking about what our horizon is and what the stakes are and the challenges and stuff then i i think that that's a good thing i honestly i worry about aoc sometimes especially listening to that in the review it's like man. It goes back to what we were saying earlier. I worry that she's in over her head sometimes. It's like, fuck. It's a pretty much impossible

task in a lot of ways. And if it hits the fan, we got a bunker for you, AOC. Just come to the mountains and we can hide you from these people. It might, man. It really might. I mean, you saw how they reacted

just to a modest proposition of carbon exchanges. Cap and trade. You know, like, it was carbon barbers. Joe Manchin stapled one to a tree and shot it

with a double barrel shotgun. Fuck, man. I like to tell the story of Harry Teague, who was a congressman from Hobbs, who ran in 2008. He was... This motherfucker grew up poor as shit, had to drop out of high school.

He was a literal sharecropper in Oklahoma, and his family moved to Hobbs. He didn't have a high school education, worked at an oil company, worked his way up to the very top. He was an oil executive. He owned an oil company. He ran for Congress in 2008. That's like one of the handful of people that actually— Yes, one of the handful of people that actually was a bootstraps guy.

Like one of the three people that ever exist. Weirdly enough, he was a bootstraps guy yeah like one of the three people that ever exist weirdly enough he was a democrat he supported cap and trade in 2009 and he got buried for it and he was an oil man and he yes he was the epitome of fucking hobbs like he was the epitome of the west texas permian basin and he got fucking buried for that shit. Wow. So it's just, you know, you're going up against some ingrained shit here. Some forces. But, yeah, no, there's some other stuff, though. I was reading this Vox article about it that sort of Dr. Vox did. Do you remember David Roberts?

David Roberts, yeah. He used to write for Grist. I remember, yeah. He was insufferable at Grist, remember david roberts he's roberts yeah he used to write for grist i remember yeah he he was insufferable at grist and then he blew up onto the national twitter scene when he started writing for vox and became dr vox but yeah he's he's writing uh now about the green new deal what does dr vox say about the green new deal uh well he noted he noted there are a few things that it doesn't address some of them are good some are bad you know it didn't address how to pay for it which you know that's uh that's

probably a good thing that they didn't actually get that far uh they didn't address carbon pricing they didn't address um they didn't address whether it would be sort of clean energy versus you know nuclear versus renewable solar uh they didn't say anything about that. Didn't say anything about, like, campaigns to, like, leave it in the ground or anything like that. So, I mean, like, I don't know. They're sort of hedging their bets. I think as an opening first move,

it's probably a good thing. Yeah. One of my concerns about this and just still being in this world is that they're, and just to tie it locally, I think they're consulting with a lot of the people who have led the Appalachian Just Transition thing into this sort of fucking, like,

I'm trying to think of how I would describe it. This just, like, black hole of like, you know, micro loans to poor people to start businesses. You know what I mean? It's like... Right, right. You know.

Well, that was the... Just totally irresponsible. Just like fucking, like a nicer vase on like just vampiric capitalism. Well, and again, it's kind of... And you said, didn't you mention that there was a lot of language in there about small business incubation? That kind of thing.

In this one? Well, I don't know. I mean, I didn't read all of it. I didn't see anything in there. Or maybe Katie was telling me that. I don't know. But, well, the thing that they want to do is they want to use public investment. I think they even wrote down a quote at some point.

Anyways, they're trying to not deal with private investment or anything like that. It seems to me like they're trying not to focus on that. Yeah, and they're trying to use public investments and stuff like that. Regardless, you're exactly right. They are taking a page out of the Appalachian transition. I mean, they're consulting with a lot of the same people that have sort of painted us into this weird

corner. Yes, exactly, because again, like with Appalachia, you know, it's sort of the litmus test, it's the test tube, or whatever, for all policies that eventually wind up happening in the U.S. And give it a dry run here first. It doesn't matter if it flops or flies.

It's ground zero for everything good and bad. Yeah, the apparatus of that, the institutional apparatus of the sort of dress, I wrote about it in the essay, it already existed here. And the thing is, is that once the just transition movement started running up against the realities of what it actually implies to transition away from that, namely abolition of private property, abolition of all forms of mining, period, you know, of all forms of resource extraction. They came to Bangkok, but they didn't want to bang, did they? Yes, in the words of Andre 3000. Actually, I don't think that's what he says.

I think he says don't pull that thing. Unless you came to bang. Don't pull the thing. Point still standing. Yeah, yeah. So once they ran up into those realities, the only thing left was to play on the coal industry's terms. And so what they had to do is they had to start tacking to the center.

And they had to start talking about job creation and the only way that job creation is possible in 2019 in the neoliberal hell world we live in. That's through markets. And so that's, you know, that's... Let's breed the next generation of entrepreneurs, baby. You know, that's, let's breed the next generation entrepreneurs, baby. And granted, you could say that, like, what AOC is doing is trying to expand the horizon, expand the left wing of the possible or whatever, to say, well, the government can actually step in and do that. But I'm just afraid that the forces of capital are so powerful, both literally and ideologically that it's impossible for us to see

any sort of alternative that doesn't result in some sort of rupture in social fabric. Yeah. Well, I'll say this, though. I'll say this. The things we have working for us, at least where this is concerned, if anybody can spearhead building that kind of a base,

I think AOC can in terms of mainstream politicians. Yeah. I mean, I think she's definitely got the juice where that's concerned, but this is a humdinger. Well, look, I'm just telling you that all the lessons for what you want out of this are here.

Yeah. Because the just transition thing is here, and the response, the Friends of Coal thing, is also here. Right. Everything you wanted to know about what an industry looks like once it implements a sort of fascist campaign to get its workers involved in the preservation of the industry

rather than the preservation of... And to weaponize them against the greater good. Yeah, it is bleak. And, you know, we bear the scars of that, like sort of literally and metaphorically you know i don't want to pat on the back that's not what i got that's not what i got into this for you know i don't want to you know if we actually succeeded maybe we yeah we lost everybody lost my friend unfortunately yeah we're having to move to uh you know

bolivia and start over so i just compared us to nine so horrible well here's the thing here's a hilarious thing i thought you might like let's see if i can find this bro in dr box's essay he he got it he had a tweet from that dipshit sean mckelvey uh You know who I'm talking about? Oh, the happy hour socialist guy. The happy hour socialist. There you go. Read what his quote was on this. This is the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard, man. And again, talk about another guy that's in over his head.

Yeah. Just totally outmatched compared to how smart he is. How smart he thinks he is. How smart he thinks he is. How smart he thinks he is. Yeah, he's a dipshit. If the left is going to succeed, we need to take people like this out and beat them with fucking tire irons and tell them to shut the fuck up. He said, the great new deal is what it means to be progressive. Clean air, clean water, decarbonizing green jobs, a just transition, and environmental justice are what it means to be progressive.

By definition, that means politicians who don are what it means to be progressive. By definition, that means politicians who don't support those goals aren't progressive. We need to hold that line. Get on the Green New Deal trainer choo-choo, motherfucker. We're going right past you. The tire iron's too good for this guy. The look on your face. A lead pipe.

No, no. We need something that's not even been invented yet to beat him with. That's the thing, man. These people, they're obsessed with symbols. They're obsessed with symbolic... Look, look. I'm just trying...

There's no way to shortcut a revolution. There's no way to... Man, Medicare for All didn't exist until I was tweeting about it. Yeah, he said he lives in Donald Trump's head. Nobody lives

in Donald Trump's head except for except for Trump as a little boy riding a pony and just this is what goes in his head all day

and just goes in a circle. It's like Mr. Burns on The Simpsons, you know, when he has those moments where he's just riding that little dinosaur. Absolutely. No, that's what I mean you know, when he has those moments where he's just riding that little dinosaur. Absolutely.

No, that's what I mean, yeah. No, if the left really wants to succeed, it's got to get opportunist motherfuckers like that out of it immediately. I don't care what methods you've got to use. If you hear this, that's just kind of a joke. I'll tell you this. I'll answer the call. I'll whoop Sean McHale's ass. I'll do you this i'll answer the call is that i'll whoop sean mcgill i'll do that you do that i'll read my contribution so i'll put that out there now anybody in new york who wants

to tell sean mcgill if he wants to go one-on-one with the great one oh my god i'll do that yeah um smack every tooth in his fucking head out Yeah no Let's see Yeah Green New Deal You know They've also got this Sort of provision in there

About the US leading The way Because we Consume so many Resources Yeah that's good I guess that gives you A way to

To attack the Very identity of the US Which I support Good that's a way to attack the very identity of the U.S., which I support. Good, that's a keeper. It's like they, just have them send us a draft and we'll tell them what plays it. Yeah, calls for the country to upgrade every residential and industrial building to be energy efficient. Yeah, I mean, I've also seen that uh go both ways i don't really puts all police on bicycles and gives them whistles instead of guns and then puts a sign on there that says i'm a

fucking pussy yeah i can get behind that that's that's good keep that in there well it does include other stuff in there like Medicare for All. I mean, you know, it advocates Medicare for All, Jobs Guarantee, Universal Basic Income, which I don't really feel like I have the energy about arguing about right now. But, you know, I just, though, just to belabor the point, you know, back earlier we were talking about what does a just transition mean? Just to belabor the point. Back earlier we were talking about what does a just transition mean? Just to belabor the point. I think for me

you've got all the surface features of it. Abolition of all these things we do. Destroy the environment and all this. But then there's the there's a sort of philosophical part of it too.

So I guess a just transition for me would be the evolution of private property. That's a huge issue of why we have resource extraction. Or that is a huge facilitator in how it's actually done and how it's consumed and everything else. You know, this notion that, like, we mine resources for profit, you know, for individual consumption. There's no sort of community aspect of it at all. So I guess a just transition would be, like, reintroducing, you know, community, you know, values of community and finding our identity through community. No.

Rather through sort of individual consumption and all these other things. I guess that would be a part of it too. No. I'll tell you what a just transition is not. kind of move away from a fossil fuel based economy that just perpetuates the same power dynamics, social dynamics,

hierarchies, and everything else that we already have in present society. Well, you know what we need, too, with this? This is just... I'm not saying the Soviet Union is where you want to... Is there any example of where you want to be as a society? I mean, as it was

constituted in the later years particularly but you need something a big program that people would kind of like almost die for you know what i mean that's so intertwined with who they are as a person yeah Yeah. You know what I'm saying? But not like a weird nationalism or some sort of weird ethnocentrism, like USA, USA bullshit. I'm just saying like a political sort of identity that people, the masses could. You know what I'm saying?

I don't know what I'm trying to say exactly. Well. I'm just imagining a lot of people in a giant stadium with the Internationale playing. You know? Well, the thing about it. That's what I want. That's all I want.

Well, look, I think that whatever we want is like, it's going to wind up happening anyways because we're talking about a thing of life or death. You know, we have ostensibly about 10 years to turn the dial back on, you know, the most hellish, when we're already seeing, look. And even then, even then, we're still going to be managing the symptoms for the rest of It's February 7th. I'm sitting here sweating my ass off. It's 75 degrees outside.

I've almost had a heat stroke today. Like, walking up those, I was like, God. Like, look, it's, it's, the stakes have never been higher. And this is across the board, you know, and I just want to encourage everybody to look at it from that perspective, from the perspective of, and maybe I'm sort of changing people, and maybe I'm, you know, doing this in bad faith, I'm really not, I mean, I know that people people are not i know that most leftists fully realize that what is in front of us requires a sort of revolutionary transformation of society i'm just trying to paint a sort of picture of the material aspect of what happens on the ground once you try to do these things because if anything that's the only thing i'm good at i'm not an academic i don't have fucking know, I'm not a learned person necessarily.

I just have some experience. We're just hicks with experience. That's all we are. Well, and furthermore, we grew up in cultures that were, I could see how some people, probably Sean McElligot or whatever, would be like,

that is batshit insane. I can't believe those people actually believe those things and their lives are centered around them. But unfortunately, our lives are kind of centered around the shit we pull out of the earth. It's defined our lives. My granddad died for that. Yeah, exactly.

You know what I mean? It's defined our lives. It's defined our identities. It's defined our identities. It's defined our futures. Exactly. I mean, there's a reason that my granddad wasn't paid in real money. Right. There's a reason that I grew up poor.

Exactly. You know what I mean? Like real poor. Exactly. And I understand that there are far more people in the city who are, you know, going to be impacted by climate change and just far more people in the cities in general. And that, you know, you don't have to take our feelings or whatever into account when you're doing these things. You don't. I'm not asking you to.

All I'm asking you to is take our experience into account. Yeah. Once you're when you're considering these things. And where you all are, you know, Madero. When it hits the fan and they're carting you off, the Morelos boys will be there to step in and save things. And then we'll just be real redneck-y in the capitals that we take,

just hanging out and not knowing what to do. So we'll just start breaking Van Goghs and shit and setting stuff on fire and bringing our horses in. Right into the Oval Office. Yeah. Buddy. Fucking Pancho V was my hero. Yeah, he was pretty awesome, him and Emiliano both.

I could punch if he was my hero. Yeah, he was pretty awesome. Him and Emiliano both. Yeah, so, you know, that's really probably all there is to say about that. I just thought that, like, I just think it's a fascinating thing, you know? It's like I said earlier. It's like a graft or a transferal,

an explosion of the things that we talk about daily here onto the sort of national scene, the national stage. No ill will towards AOC. I wish her the best. I do unfortunately think that she's in way over her head. But you know what?

I got it. You know what? One of those old dead Victorian poets said somebody's, well, they use gendered language, but said a man's expectations should far exceed his grasp. Well, you know, a person's expectations should far exceed their grasping. Right, right.

God damn it. Now you'll see. I heard a Victorian expression that said, it's good to be in over your head. You know how tall you are. I fucked it up because I fuck up every saying. You're not good at idioms. That's all right. But you get the general idea.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Right? I know what you mean. So we're going to see what we're made of here. Yeah, no. Look, we're all in it together. I disagree with AOC about a lot, but you have to draw some lines of demarcation somewhere.

And the line that I'm drawing of demarcation, even though I disagree with her a lot and probably her general philosophy and everything about life, the line of demarcation is at AOC. And anything to the right of that is an enemy. It's out. Those are your enemies.

I'm sorry. You know, and I'm not, I think that you can criticize her, and you know, wait, of course, I think that. Anybody can criticize anybody. Of course, I think that. Like, I don't even agree with the, you know, really the general premise behind electoralism

and all these other things. You don't have to keep shoring up your ultra-left credentials. You're on the record. Alright, thanks. We know you're a real one. Thanks, man. Thanks. I've always got to make sure everybody knows I've still got my edge. The minute I start losing my

edge. I love when we start talking about we start softening to some of this electoral stuff. We have to first lay out the qualifier that, well, just so you know, we're real communists. Well, look, we got our ads. As a result. We're not sellouts or anything. So, no.

This is exciting, but yeah, it's like we say, this is a massive, massive undertaking that will fundamentally alter the fabric of society. And that needs to be understood. Otherwise, if it's not going to be that, you're not going to get to zero emissions. You're not going to do anything else. No. Yes, you're not getting to zero emissions without fundamentally altering the fabric

of what this nation is. And again, I know everybody realizes that. I'm not saying anything new. So I just wanted to kind of take this local for a second just to kind of illustrate the point. Anything short of that sort of massive upheaval and completely changing the fabric like we're talking about is going to result in a situation here where you have...

So for folks that don't know, in Kentucky, there was this big initiative that became this sort of acronym shaping our Appalachian region, or SOAR. SOAR. Which was started by the former Democratic governor and our Republican congressman, Hal Rogers. Right. As a sort of bipartisan initiative to give the region a shot in the arm. Diversify it. Proud, gritty, faithful people deserve a shot in the arm.

Right, because they had absorbed the language. And not the kind we'd been taking for the last few years. Exactly. The language and ideas of just transition had reached them. So they were like, well, we're going to participate in that. Right. So the two of the bigger initiatives they've been pushing since this thing kicked off a couple years ago was uh promotion of this company interblue yeah which was like the battery

like a lithium battery battery factory that was going to provide all these jobs another one um was the berkeley energy solar farm yeah and it was going to go in Pike County. And then the latest one that sort of made news is App Harvest, which somehow thought they were going to give jobs to everybody in Appalachia picking tomatoes. Well, tell you where things have went with all that stuff. So all three of those projects are now not happening in the place it was going to happen at because of issues with the land. Right.

So basically, in eastern Kentucky, their whole future has been staked upon what we can do with these abandoned mine land sites. For the uninitiated, that is sites that have basically been leveled and flattened that were once mountains to get coal out and then use the flat land that's apparently so coveted by people that they had to do their duty in flattening the land so they could develop on it. Right, right.

Turns out these companies got all the coal and you can't really do anything with this land. In fact, in Martin County where they're having this huge water crisis that we've talked about a fair amount, they built a prison that's on one of these sites that's actually sinking. Right.

Little by little. Which would be a good thing if there were no prisoners inside. Right. So the nickname for it is Sink Sink. Sink Sink. Right. And so all these outfits we're going to do all these, you know, outfits were going to do these, you know,

redevelop these mine sites to do all these, you know, economic development initiatives and all this stuff. Here's the net result. Interblue ended up being a scam. Yeah. They had all, they used this to, like, get investments from all over the place, and then they just backed out of the project, and they're, you know, looking for someplace else to take it.

They're going to do the same place. They're never going to build this battery factory. They're going to go get all the tax incentives and investment and then just say, eh, we can't do it here and just keep moving. Go to the bluegrass or Alabama. Right. Ab Harvest is the subject of a lawsuit

with Pike County, Kentucky, who invested millions in it and then they just backed out. So it's, you know, 0 for 2. And then I don't really know what's going on with the Berkeley Energy thing, except I know that they were going to, you know, this huge energy company, I think they were in coal and maybe oil and natural gas too. Right.

We wanted to get it on the ground floor of solar, and they were going to build this huge solar farm on one of these AML sites. Turns out it's not good for that either. So they pulled the plug on that. So all this we've been sold about, you know, the flat land and how like all this mountaintop removal is actually going to be good for development because you can build on it. Turns out none of it's good for building anything on it. Well, and an important thing to remember here, and this is vitally important when you're talking about the Green New Deal, is that so – let me see if I can thread this needle.

So when you're talking about the Green New Deal, like you – what's going to wind up happening is as they try to bring this into sort of political reality, they're going to find out that they're going to have to start making some comprom even manage to pull off the impossible of eradicating fossil fuel consumption and extraction then they're good if if that is done in the capitalist system which let's hope to fucking god it's not because it's going to be bloody and messy but if it is done inside the capitalist system what's going to wind up happening is to make that political deal they're probably going to have to transfer a lot of capital into private contractors whether they say that's what they want or not out front just to make it work in a capitalist society to actually implement some sort of like large-scale uh you know whether it's solar farming and then you know using the solar farming to distribute energy, electricity, and everything, it's probably going to be done through capitalist channels. And so in some ways, the Green New Deal kind of puts the cart before the horse

because to actually make this work, you'd have to end capitalism and you'd have to end market, end the use of markets as the distribution of resources. If you want it to be what you say you want it to be. Exactly. You can compromise but again we're still going to be swimming with fishes. Right. This is why I've always wanted to do an episode

specifically about the energy grid. Just about how it's distributed. How it's cut up. What energy comes from where. How much capital is tied into it. Because that's ultimately what we're talking about here. And look, there are some powerful interests

who want to change the energy grid. It's not just leftists. There are powerful people like Bill Gates who are heavily invested in transitioning to some sort of fossil fuel economy. They're going to try to do it in a way that placates and bargains with the fossil fuel industry

and bargains with the forces of capital. What's going to wind up happening is you're going to get interblue or app harvest, things that don't do shit. They're scams. They're scams. Let's just be clear what they are. They're sc exactly exactly the aluminum factory that was another one oh yeah the yeah the aluminum factory didn't pan out and then i think they they were going to another aluminum factory and it

didn't pan out well the whole what we realized you know and it was really funny when they first introduced the idea of soar in the sapien or Appalachian region in like 2013 or something, 14. I remember a lot of progressives, people in the sort of NGO, non-profit left, were like, well, you know, we just gotta see what's gonna happen. Can't bash it immediately.

And it just was immediately obvious that it served no other purpose than to get a bunch of businessmen into a room to make deals. That's it. That's it. And all this stuff serves as a vehicle for essentially that. Right, right.

I mean, I've witnessed this. And you know, when we say something like AOC's in over their head or whoever's in over their head, we're not saying this as white men talking down to a woman. We're saying this as people that come from these communities where there's a lot at stake for something like this and we could get behind something like this, but just know what you're getting into. Well, the thing is, is it's just,

you know, Marxists, radicals, we pride ourselves on being able to look at the material reality, you know, and give an honest assessment of political economy and all that. You know, just really you got to really rely on that um because otherwise you'll you'll get taken for a ride i guess um so on that note though on sore i just wanted to read you something real quick and i fucking closed it man so now i'm gonna not be able to find it ever again. Stall for time, Tom. Stall for time.

Do we have any Rich People Are Deeply Diseased segments? We do. Oh, hell yeah. Okay, let's see who we got. This comes from... Man, we need some kind of keyboard player. Musician. Who can?

Okay. This comes from... Let me scan through here and make sure they don't care to be... Oh, man. Let me see. This is the best part of the show. Terrence and Tom fumble around to find shit. Now, here we go.

Here we go. Here we go. This comes from Jonathan Howard at JohnDean25. Woo! Twitter.com. I'm in a Snapchat group, which is largely for sharing memes and things. One of the members is a friend of a friend. He's this rich guy from Owensboro.

That's Owensboro, Kentucky. Oh, nice. His dad was an investment guy and owned business and things, and since he has died, his son is now a multimillionaire at the tender age of 22. He's already started businesses of his own and has most of his money tied up in investments and stocks, as you do when you become a multimillionaire at the tender age of 22. Right, right. He's already started businesses of his own and has most of his money tied up in investments and stocks, as you do when you become a multimillionaire at the tender age of 22.

Right, right. He flies around the country whenever he wants and basically holds his money in the face of the other people in our group that he is, quote, friends, end quote, with. So they kiss his ass and things. I can tell this guy's from Kentucky. It's a distinctly Kentucky thing. We punctuate everything within things. I do that every show.

The other day, about a week ago, in parentheses, free Bobby Shmurda. Yeah, hell yeah. Hell yeah. We got to discuss some politics and things, which happens often. Most of the time, I refrain from these conversations, or at least pretend to be more of a liberal, rather than reveal my true feelings about these matters, because it makes things easier on me in the long run. don't feel the pressure to do that jay bone let them

know where you stand yeah let your freak flag fly this time i did not i started talking about communism and organizing and society as such and what that would look like and how that would be beneficial well mr capital starts going on and on about how if we take away entrepreneurial ventures, how there would be no motivation to work or achieve new advancements in sciences or other fields. All that old gambit, huh? Yeah. As if the masses of people would just not want to live in absolute health unless you could make money off of it. Right.

He is fully convinced that people work in an effort to achieve these wild dreams of grandeur such as having ferraris and lamborghinis and being able to buy private islands swear to god he was serious that this was every worker's dream he couldn't fathom that 99.999 percent repeating of people would literally would have to literally fucking live and not die in a ditch and pit where oh i'm sorry 99.99 repeating of people work literally to fucking live and not die in a ditch. Oh, I'm sorry. 99.99% repeating of people work literally to fucking live and not die in a ditch somewhere destitute. He thinks that everyone believes they can reach the top and be in the 1%.

Then he goes on about how these hired... That's hilarious to me. Just as a mathematical proposition, it's like everybody can be in the 1%. Actually, no. By definition, only 1% of people can be in the one percent it's like actually no by definition only one percent of people can be in the one percent exactly then he goes on about how these higher taxes on the wealthy are going to make people with money like him not want to earn 10 million because they're just going to get taxed after that point anyway and that they don't want it

going to the government instead he would create businesses and become a ruler over workers in order to distribute his wealth, which he would be distributing very little of anyway in order to make more money. The mental block in this man's mind was astounding. At 22, he would never envision people working to survive. No, instead, people worked to buy islands and other meaningless shit. It's a good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. That wealthy people think poor people's motivation is to aspire to just buy these crazy things like islands and houses and whatever. Absolutely. That's what you should be working for. Yeah. Well, and not just that, but the social capital that comes along with it

and the sort of success. Yeah. You know? If you're rich, you can be stupid as all fuck but still get invited on MSNBC. Yeah, that's true. You ever notice that? Oh, yeah.

Just look at Chris Hayes, man. Or Starbucks dude, Schultz. Well, I will say that the dude, the dumb pro-entrepreneurial guy, he has made a fatal error. There's nothing wrong if you're a millionaire and you want to keep making money

and you don't want to pay the government taxes. Bro, what are you doing? Just start philanthropy. Just start some non-profits. Just fucking funnel all your money into philanthropy. The government can't take it then. They can't take it, baby. Wow.

I know how it works, man. What a fucking Dunsky, huh? Yeah, what a dumbass. Oh, okay. So this is what I wanted to show you. So SOAR, as we were just talking about, shaping our Appalachian region, who is ostensibly established

to diversify the Appalachian economy. As you know, I'm job searching right now, and they're hiring for a position. Check out the fucking title of this position. The title of this position is called A Business and Innovation Champion. That's the title. That's better than being an organizer or a director.

Yeah, I agree. A champion. Oh, yeah. Way better than being a organizer or a director. Yeah, I agree. A champion. Oh, yeah. Way better than being a field coordinator, an organizer. I'm going to ask my employer to change my title to Eastern Kentucky Champion. Business and Innovation Champion will work as the point of contact or champion to promote the services and resources of SOAR Innovation and its network of partners and resources to entrepreneurs, startups,

and existing small businesses. Once identified, business and innovation champions will work as case managers to move clients through the SOAR Innovation pipeline. Ah, so that's now the road. There it is. They always reveal what you're going to be really doing. You're going to be a social worker.

Exactly. Well, for small businesses. Yeah, you're going to be... Dude, that is... Isn't that... I know it's sort of a common refrain, but like, you know, it's like the Martin Luther King thing.

Oh, there's socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for everybody else. Right, right. That is so fucking true. It is. It's like for people that are terrified of socialism, they sure are reveling in it a lot. Oh, absolutely,

because they couldn't do it without each other. Well, that's not... Well, it's highly competitive for them as well, but they use the same sort of... That's only to make them feel alive. Right. They almost have their own sort of safety net, like their own sort of social welfare safety net in some ways.

Yeah. Your responsibilities work closely with stakeholders from across Appalachia, Kentucky to identify potential entrepreneurs, startups, and existing small businesses who desire to expand by leveraging innovation to export, import, or utilize the digital economy for growth. That's the thing, man. They're all about this digital economy. Here's what I want you to do, man. Silicon Holler, man. All I want you to do is, I want you to go to these phone interviews, record them, and just play them on the show.

That would be awesome. That'd be perfect. We should start just being the master trolls of all this grift. Oh, we totally could. Because they're such fucking dumbasses, you really could just lie about it. Manage relationships with clients through the SOAR innovation

ecosystem to maximize efficiency of process to desired outcomes. Provide meaningful communication and establish an effective working relationship with ecosystem partners. Man, this is so fucking bad. It is so bad. You must be a self-starter

who can work with little or no supervision. Oh, God. It is so bad. You must be a self-starter who can work with little or no supervision. Oh, God. It's gonna be tough. Promote the images, brand, and awareness of SOAR innovation in both sustaining and cultivating partnerships. Wow, Tom. Oh, anyways, you think I can make it as a

business innovation champion? I don't see why not. You're a successful small business owner that's true that's true uh podcast is kind of like you know it's like tending a shop but it is funny like you made that point the other night like how many people have we seen come through this place with like the big idea like they're gonna start a restaurant they're gonna start a goat show goat soap artisanal shop a boutique shop and they all fail and we are the only ones who have done something that's sustainable and all really just about of about and it's not about like relishing in somebody's failure or

whatever but it's just about pointing out the hypocrisies of that stuff yeah yes exactly exactly and you know but it is also relishing it is also relishing in their failure not the people's i'm just talking about you know well i'm relishing in their failure so dude i feel so sorry like when i see like somebody's got a dream of open up some kind of business or like whatever it's their life on dream they just dive into it and then they get like, you know, one of these low interest loans or something to start it. And then it just goes belly up in six months.

Oh my God, man. I want to hold them tightly and say, hey, come over here. It's a scam, bro. It's a scam. Also, the nonprofits can stay alive and relevant. Look, I can say that now. I'm not good fired again can't fire her twice

alright that about wraps up this episode support us on patreon.com please we would really appreciate your patronage

and keep this grift alive keep this grift alive for us. Don't let us become a statistic of the Appalachian transition movement. Exactly. Keep us in business and keep us in, you know. A little bit of walking around.

Right, right. Well, in my case, it's quite literally paying rent money. Albuterol money. Albuterol money because I'm unemployed. Rent money Albuterol money Albuterol money Because I'm unemployed But yeah

Go to Patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N Dot com Slash Trillbilly Workers Party No apostrophe In that URL

And Support us there I feel like there was Something else I was going to say Oh Oh Oh

I was also just going to say That There's something in it for YouTube because the content there is pretty good. You got some good content. If you ask me about the content on the Patreon, A+. A+++. A++ content.

People are raving about it, actually. I've seen people raving about it as well. So anyways, go check that out. Is that it for the week? I think that's it for the week. Uh, speak your pieces are on Patreon this week. So yeah,

there'll be on Patreon. We, me and Tom recorded an episode yesterday and, uh, it basically devolved into us exploring theories about James Brown's death. Uh, and we were going to make that the public one, but then we felt like it just didn't cut.

It just didn't make the... That's for the true believers. That's for the real heads. The true fans, exactly. That's the thing. We'll put that one up on Patreon for y'all. I will say it does feature my best keyboarding. I get my best keyboard playing, though,

of all the episodes. That didn't happen. I had to redo it. I had the wrong channel plugged in, so I had to go back and dub over it. So I spent about an hour this morning listening to me and you banter back and forth while I tried to put orchestral... That's not good.

And that's when I texted you, this is a bad one. Oh, God. It's really not bad, though. Please go listen to it. You'll like it. Anyways, thanks for joining us this week. We'll see you out there.

We'll see you out there.