Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 87: Tanya Soprano & the Trillbilly Outlaws

Episode Date: March 7, 2019

Tanya Soprano brings her NPR totebag to the Pricele$$ budget grocery store and confusion ensues. Also more commentary on how All Cops and Democrats Are Bastards, bikers love rules, and Ilhan Omar's the only real one out here. Go visit the Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

it's really funny to me when you are talking to somebody and you do what i just did like you give a like oh yeah i heard this and this and you when something that you know to be true gets back around to you through the rumor mill and you hear the way it's distorted in the way it's like it's gotten all these things attached to it. That was a pretty big difference. It's even better when you plan it and then when it gets back to you how it's distorted. A good old fashioned game of telephone.

Some nice degree chess? Dimensional chess? Oh my god. You intentionally plan something that you know will get out and you want to see how many different things it can get glommed onto it before it gets back to you.

I did that with my dick one time. I guess all men have done that. Glommed onto. By the time I got back to him, I said it looked like Toucan Sam's beak. Oh, my God. Like stripes. Ugly and multicolored.

Pointed. Bent. Banged up. I actually think the two words used to describe it were bent and ugly. Anyway, moving on. But you didn't do this intentionally. Or did you? Did you really want to know?

No. I don't know if I'd want to know. It's not easy to hear a rumor about your own dick that's not flat. No, I'd say not. But I'd rather be ugly than small. Well, are you ever talking to someone and they're dragging somebody else and you just start to think, God, what does this person say about me? You know? Oh, yeah. know oh yeah all the time if i'm with someone they're just dragging the fuck out of somebody i'm like

what do you say about me if this is how bad you've drugged this person because they're not that bad god damn oh yeah no i know what you mean Tom you got enough rope there Yeah I got enough rope We like to keep him on The essential truth of human nature Is we all love to talk shit about each other It's just in us Oh dude

I don't fault You know the people that I side eye Are the people that won't That won't chime in In a little shit talk with you People that always take the moral high road Yeah yeah When I used to drink,

it was like you were sort of suspicious about people that didn't drink. But I'm also that way about gossiping. Like if somebody doesn't gossip, I'm slightly suspicious. Now that I'm sober,

I'm not suspicious of those that don't drink. I understand. I understand. Yeah, I get it. So I guess maybe in this situation, I need to just stop gossiping

as well. And just, you know. Yeah. No, that's never going to happen. That's not going to happen. That's my only advice. Today a co-worker walked up to me and said, after learning something that they should have already known, come up to me and said, I guess I'm out of the loop of your gossip.

Well, God damn. I was offended. That's. I'm out of a loop of your gossip meal. How'd I miss that? Well, that's the incredibly socially awkward way of saying, like, please. Tell me more. Bring me more info.

Let me into your gossip circle. No, she's been put out of the inner circle for good, forever, and she's ate up about it. I like how recording this before and after it's immediately we go right into gossip yeah like as soon as i'm flipping a switch as soon as i walk well i open the door and terrence yells from the bathroom hey man i'm in the bathroom And I stood there for a second thinking

why do I give a fuck? And I was like with the door open? He said, yeah. Alright man, I'll be on the porch. But then as soon as I came in, we started gossiping immediately. Immediately. Well, I don't see you all other. This is our most intimate

moment. This is the most intimate moment. Yeah. This is the only time I get to tell y'all anything. Yeah. Or get any gossip from you. Please, Tanya. We marched down the street in uniform and costume yesterday. We're talking about we don't share anything. Yeah, how was your Tuesday?

Well, that's what I'm saying. We were dressed up with noisemakers. We beat a drum and handed out treats to the kids. Yeah, that was awesome. Yesterday ruled. I thought that was going to be awkward and weird, and I showed up anyway, and I had a great time. I always think it's going to be awkward and weird, but you're such a big personality. If you're involved, I can just kind of hide behind you.

You know what I mean? Well, I would dispute that, but I did show up in leopard print fur of two different shades two different patterns of leopard print it looks like Cruella de Vil with the kazoo I have a great photo of you from the apple shop Christmas ball in December oh really wearing that leopard fur yeah that was that jacket it was that one I kept calling you Tanya Soprano it's like I do look like a mom boss. It is. I do look like a mom boss. Like Tony Soprano, but Tony... I gotcha, I gotcha. I guarantee you, though, that Mardi Gras March Down Main Street was not even in the top five weirdest or funniest things to march down Main Street.

No, not at all. Like every Christmas, there's like a... They'll do like a paper mache tank on the back of an F-250 or something and have t-shirt guns that they'll just fire off. Have our 78-year-old mayor pop out in full face paint. Jesus Christ. No, usually it's whatever happens in downtown during those lowrider truck shows. Oh, yeah.

It's unspeakable things. I remember summer. Do y'all remember? One, it was like the Sunday morning or something after the big drag downtown they had done or whatever. And there was marks all over the room. Oh, God, there's marks all over. But laying on the sidewalk altogether

was a bag of Doritos, a dirty diaper, and a needle. Like a syringe. All together, like still life. Throw in a half-drink Mountain Dew. It's just a complete cliche. So I saw it, and I was like, oh, I'm getting a picture of this. And I took a picture, and this girl walking across the street, and she was like, won't you take a picture? And I was like, I did.

I did. That's what I just did. I just took a picture of the needle. If she had been on my side of the road, she'd have probably tried to fight me, but I like scurried along quickly because, you know. Had to get one for the grandma. Yeah, I was like, I took a picture and came by. Had to do an irony post.

I'm going to tell you something. We used to have this, those people are terrible, the lowrider people. Oh, they're terrifying. Horrible people. That's why I didn't want to fight her. You can't fight somebody who ain't got nothing to live for. No. I know better.

Nothing to live for but a fucking lowered S10 that just makes farts. That's two inches off the ground. It's like, oh, God. And I'm, listen, if that's your hobby, whatever, you know, I like tennis. You know. Everybody's got their thing. You know what I'm saying? I'm a soft boy.

But there's two things I want to abide okay that's fucking back night and the fucking low right there here's the thing is for a group of people that have that cosplay as quasi criminals fucking and like say that they just want to live their life you know without outside the know, just without the man giving them any scuff. They sure do just make everybody else's life suck really bad. This is what I've realized. They love rules. They do love rules. They love it because they would flip shit every time I would not move my truck.

Oh, yeah. And they would put, they would just, like, put these real passive-aggressive notes on them. Like, you're a biker game. Come fuck me up or something. Oh, yeah. I left my car down there one time, and I returned to a bunch of notes, and them looking at me so fucking mean.

And when I... It was during... I think it was seed time. One time that seed time was the same as bike night. It was real bad. And I walked down there drunk as a skunk to move my car. I just had to move it to free parking. And they were like, oh, that's your

car. Been down here all weekend. You know, we need that parking. We're having a race out here. Yeah, like I drive a goddamn Chevy Cruze. Fairly compact vehicle. Well, that's when I had my robe. It's like, if they were as badass as they come off as being,

why don't they try to kick my ass or something? Or put a brick through the window? Well, there's a reason for that, Terrence. You missed the part where I said cosplay is criminal. These guys are all, like, Sons of Anarchy painted a totally wrong picture of the biker gang scene. Like, I know, like, six guys under the age of 50 that are in biker gangs.

You know what I mean? Like they're all fucking like, you know, on statin therapy and fucking lisinopril for their blood pressure and everything else. And meanwhile, they used to work with this guy named Storm. We called him Storm and Norman. And you probably know this guy if you've seen him around. If I pointed him out to you probably seen him around but he would always he was like one of the earlier adopters of the

don't tread on me thing like where he was swarping down taxes were illegal and yeah like that yeah and then he would make these like really thinly veiled threats when we'd be on a job site together like not to anybody not to like the boss or anything. He would just be like, storms are coming, ain't nothing they can do about it. And he would just say stuff like that in passing all the time.

He'd just walk by. He'd be sitting over there, you and a couple buddies just, you know, eating your lunch or whatever, taking a break, and he'd say, he'd say shit like, when it happens, they'll know. That's serial killer shit.

We never could make heads or tails what he was talking about. Storms are coming. Then I asked him one day, I said, Norman, I said, so exactly what storm's coming? He goes, let me put it to you this way. He said, what would you do if you saw 60 of us riding these? And he looked over at his hog. A Honda. It was a Honda.

Looked over at his Honda. It was a Honda. He said, and we're all rolling in single file. He said, how do you think that makes them feel? Talking about the boss or who's them? Some abstract. No, he's talking about the masses, the people. Yeah.

Mainstream society. The royal them. Then I hold my hand to God. He had a leather jacket on. It's June. I love that. He pulled. He had a leather jacket on. It's June. I love that. He pulled his collar up a little bit. He said, just watch for it.

So, I mean, he would just talk about, like, this. You know, like, if you watch, like, the Tales from the Tour Bus with Johnny Paycheck, how, like, he always had these, had these fantasies of the Hells Angels bailing him out of these pickles. Yeah. Norman had these delusions of grandeur about just a mass movement of bikers coming in to take over Eastern Kentucky.

Just the floor. We're all sitting here in Whitesburg, minding our own business, podcasting, playing the banjo or whatever, and just in the distance you hear a rumbling. Then it gradually gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Oh no! The seventh sun! This is a sexy thing of all the stories we used to hear from Joe Bug. Remember when he'd disappear for six weeks or something, then when he come back he'd be like, all of them are out with Hells Angels. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. It's like, what? Hells Angels ain't even in Kentucky. He's been with the biker gang for too long. His stories were way more interesting and fascinating than actual Hells Angels stories. The actual bikers that come in for bike night. Those are the meanest.

They're so unfriendly. They're not even mean.'re like catty yeah it's like they almost we we were trying to like get them to cancel bike night because they don't even spend their money in the local businesses it's like don't not even like there's like just no generic benefit to them yeah like they like they've got their saddlebags full of fucking beasts, you know? They're not even... Fucking buy any sausages and potted meat. One time they did try to ban it, and that was like the most... I live in a Western days of my life,

because just a little... Out East. Yeah, yeah, out East. It was funny. They tried to ban them them downtown and then they came downtown anyways and we were and they walked around hell no i say don't tread on me well in that day me and tom i don't know if you remember this or not we were hanging out with ty so we were hanging out with the police we were hanging out with law these two are cops i've been meaning to break it that's how big of uh posers we are we've got we've got connections in the local law what he's referred to is that and i have a hard time with this but the guy that's like my brother that

literally my mom was his legal guardian for a number of years as the chief of police here well and so there i said it god damn it we could list uh ty's attributes as a cool guy he's a cop through and through he called me one day he said he said a cab-Cab. I said, yeah, A-Cab. He goes, what do you think about this all-cops-are-bastards stuff? And it just devolved into me just begging him to get out of policing. Like, just do any other fucking thing. Well, where I was going with that story is that the cyclists came down into town, and they were not supposed to.

The motorcyclists. Yeah, the motorcyclists. These are not cyclists. Although we have a thriving cyclist scene here, too. We do, right. And we were with Ty, and we had been drinking all day. This was on a Saturday, and we had many, many beers. And I just have this hilarious image of him in my mind putting on the

belt and walking down those stairs at the apartment to go meet the motorcyclist in the road and tell them that they had to get off and it was a showdown and everybody was like looking out their windows there was a wind blowing there was a wind gust going through town we just poked our head out the window

to see it Ennio Morricone cues up over the loudspeakers. Wow, wow, wow. And then I think Storm and Norman's wife who organized the bike night. Also, the first clue that these are not real outlaw bikers is they coordinate with the police. Exactly. In a real outlaw organization, organization that would get you killed they love rules they really would like they would they knew you're talking please they'd fucking kill you

coming from the man who just admitted right that's that's family that's a whole complicated issue also i'll tell you this too i mean i just while we're getting this out i you know i used to be the police commissioner in weinsperire when I was on the council. What the fuck does that even mean? Really? They just give you like a. He's never told us this. This is the first time.

They just give you. Tom's a cop. Well, the funniest thing about living in a small town is that like those layers that you have in society between you and all these other individuals and sectors of society, whatever, they're just so interwoven. And it's like you can't just stop being family with somebody the minute

they become a cop. But for the most part, I don't want that to be taken out of context. I mean, fuck all cops. But I guess what I'm saying is that we'll add this in time. This was also like 2014. It's like 2013.

So we weren't as woke. We were still liberals. But anyway, I'll tell you this. Well, I'll tell you this. That's a lot of good information. Well, I'll tell you this, though. I'll tell you this, though. Even when I was a liberal,

Ty raised hell when the mayor wanted to make me the police commissioner he said he's anti-police why he said why are we gonna have him and the only thing i did the only thing i did before they switched me off that detail was uh you know i made it to where you can't pull anybody over here you don't want to be a speed trap town you know what i mean right right i mean like fucking y'all don't go to be a speed trap town. You know what I mean? Right, right. I mean, like, fucking, don't go through Wattsboro. You're going to get slapped with a ticket if you...

Yeah. Man, I've been looking through, you know, I spend most of my days at the library looking through old microfilm, but there's, every week, there's an article, Jenkins speed trap, Whitesburg speed trap, Neon speed trap,

back in the days when people actually drove through Neon. Yeah, I'm like the speed limit in all of neon is 25 i'm just like locking people away for driving 38 miles an hour right but it's funny that they they wrote about that in the paper back then in the 70s like oh don't go through hazard that's a speed trip that's crazy avoid it all together right what i love is the the moments when uh back night ruined some type of uh wholesome non-profit activity like one time i had to help organize a kfdc annual uh or steering committee meeting here and i was like sending

out emails telling i'm like what are we doing i was like I got some bad news it's bike night so there's gonna be a lot of people downtown and they definitely thought it was bicycle night oh really oh that's awesome we have those in the city so the chair responds and she's like oh I'll just throw my bike in the back of the truck you should have been like yeah yeah go ahead and bring it out. Come on down, man. Come on down. She rolls up and she hears George Thorogood and the Destroyers playing over the loudspeakers. She's like, oh, that's great.

I would have thought Mossberg would have a bike, not. One of the weird mysteries about cops, before we get too far away from that, is how they try to emulate outlaws. And always have. You know what I mean? Even the Wild West days and shit. Yeah. They've adopted all the aesthetics and the tough guy bullshit about... Well, to them, against the world, man.

I mean, they've got that mentality. It's like this cop that just lives over here by me. Every time I walk by his house, every other person on that street is so nice and friendly to me. The guy who sells inflatable, wacky arm tube guys, whatever. Hey, Mick, I speak in which Mick is a seventh son. He's in the motorcycle gang.

Oh, really? Yeah. Well, he's a real nice guy to me. Everybody on that street is real nice to me. Except the cops. The cops that live there are such fucking assholes. And they don't talk to anybody. And they've got this really weird fascist

family dynamic where it's just like the sort of buzz cut younger son just plays around and his dad just stands around in the yard with his gun on his fucking holster. Yeah. What the fuck is this shit? It's like you have your... Their vision of America is... That is fucking weird. Dude, it's dark as shit.

He just stands there with his fucking gun. They want shit to pop off. They want shit to pop off. They want shit to pop off. They're cowboys. They're living out cowboy fantasy. But they really don't want shit to pop off. They know that it's a low likelihood shit's going to pop off, so they can stand there and grandstand with their guns. But if there was real motherfuckers out here doing shit,

they don't want any piece of that. No. They sure ain't going to chase no damn body, I'll tell you that. They don't want any piece of that. No. They sure ain't gonna chase no damn party, I'll tell you that. Ain't nobody breaking a sweat in here. No. No. Now, there are, like,

bona fide antisocial people, like, that, you know, do wild shit here. I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying they're not super organized. They've went crazy in Harlan County. They have, like, six checkpoints that they set up almost every day. It's a job.

To drive in checkpoints. Well, it's just like me and Terrence were talking. I guess it's probably about this time last year. When I would go over to Hazard to swim laps, they would do the POPs testing, which is like the police physical fitness test over there. Usually for a POP session session you might have like a handful of guys that like city agencies are going to send to the academy that place was chock full they had like almost 50 i think in there and it's really sinister when you consider how well known

the hazard police department is for beating the fuck out of people oh hazard is fucking terrible i mean they're letting people die in their jail yeah they just beat the fuck out of people. Alhazard is fucking terrible. I mean, they're letting people die in their jail. Yeah, they just beat the shit out of people over there. But, and the thing is, I think where we're going with that episode is that a lot of, you know, as these areas de-industrialize,

like, some of the sort of most stable jobs are cop positions. Because those jobs are cop positions. Because those jobs are always going to be there. I mean, well, in the society that we live in now. It's like you say, though. It's another one of those masculine type jobs. Exactly.

It has this sort of nobility attached to it. Valor. A low barrier to entry. Absolutely. Incredible amount of authority. Yeah. Like it is just like tailor made for like the most mediocre people to like get some standing in their community by doing that. Right.

Same thing with fucking military. Right. The kids I used to buy weed off of in high school are now the city cops where I'm from. Yeah. In Pineville. Totally. cops where i'm from yeah in pineville totally i couldn't believe it when i went when i like it was like maybe five years ago when i was in for like the county festival yeah i double took and i was like is that is that motherfucking and my sister's like yeah dude he's fucking caught now

yeah it's weird like oh yeah i literally bought my weed off that dumbass. Yeah. Yeah. And now he's the type of guy that if he caught somebody with a nug. Yeah. He'd be all over Facebook. Look what we confiscated. $6 in cash. A nug. Keeping the streets safe.

God. I love the flex of what they've drug out of some trailer, you know? And the funniest shit. they've drug out of some trailer, you know? And the funniest shit, the funniest shit is all of them are blissfully unaware of not only how much contempt we all have for them, but also how much we find them pathetic and hilarious. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like, just complete, like, comedic figures. What's crazy, you know, last week I went to, back to EKU, where I graduated from. It was like my 10-year anniversary of graduating college. And I have not been on that campus for any amount of time since then. And so I was back there, and they've built like six new buildings since then or something. And it's all because of their police academy.

It's all their police program. They've cut like all kinds of programs over there to build up their police academy holy like the not their criminal justice program yeah like they're like actual police like where they send people to get trained to be cops well also the criminal justice program yeah which there i guess there's ways you could do that without being like there are they have they i found i like i didn't know this but where they've like part of them building up this criminal justice department is they have a social justice degree or something now. Well, Judah, who's been on the show before. Yeah, Judah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Judah's part of that. Well, one of my favorite professors from college, we had lunch with him. He has moved. He taught criminology in the sociology department and social deviance and stuff. Really weird, cool guy. But he has now switched to the criminal justice department because it's actually growing while the sociology department is defunded and shrinking.

So he teaches like criminal theory over there. That's insane. That's crazy. Wild, wild. Speaking of Judah, him and friend of the show Jack Norton have an article out this week Speaking of Judah Him and friend of the show Jack Norton Have a article Out this week About Kentucky

Jails and about how Basically we pointed it out Before I think we retracted that But right like the current Incarceration rate in Kentucky Yeah In a hundred years every Man woman child and person Of any gender will be in prison

that's what jack told me the author of this this piece he said in a hundred years if if incarceration rates continue on at the rates that they're at now in kentucky in a hundred years every single person in kentucky will be in prison for kentucky for kentucky like just put a fence around the motherfucker as as now correct fence around the motherfuckers as a now correct me if I'm wrong but as a stand alone country doesn't Kentucky

have like the 7th or 8th highest incarceration rate in the world like if it were a stand alone country that's the stats that I've been repeating

for years now but yeah like we're like number 7 it's the 7th most incarcerated country the fucking

the greatest trick the conservatives have pulled, and they've pulled some real motherfuckers. Convincing us they don't exist. Yeah. They, it's like, well, it's convincing that their whole criminal justice reform thing is actually, that it actually does something or that it actually means something. You know, like Bevan and the Koch brothers and Rand Paul and all these people have been talking about how, you know,

you've got to decarcerate and all these things. And it's like, okay, you've been talking about this for years now, and, you know, the initiatives that you say are supposed to do this, I'm not really seeing any evidence of it. It just looks like you're building up the police state more and more, and it's sort of like cultural institutions

and educational institutions and stuff. That's insane to me. That is heartbreaking to see, though. more and it's sort of like cultural institutions and educational institutions and stuff that's insane to me it's just that is heartbreaking to see though and i mean in so many ways but just like we were talking about with ty like my relationship with him is never going to be the same right and it's hard to like square that you know more and more it's like you love somebody but your worldview just yeah a lot yeah it's not easy well and how do you mentally come back from being a cop the only way i my keyhole into this is friends becoming uh corrections officers in a fucking institution yeah they don't recover from it well yeah and and it verifies those it verifies that worldview if you're a cop.

If you spend all day just keeping drugs off the street and basically beating people up, chasing them down, throwing them in jail and stuff like that, it's going to verify this worldview that the world is just this cesspool that needs to be entirely policed. They have the same relationship with petty criminality that we do with content.

We're just, you know, constantly, you know, just trying to find the next hit. Right. I have a friend who is working She's a friend's sister. Working at a maximum security

prison in southeast Ohio and everything she tells me is so truly sick that I can't even fathom her reality. I'm like you understand that they're being held there captive and you are choosing

to show up there every day voluntarily. I know you're getting paid but you are choosing to show up there every day voluntarily. Like, I know you're getting paid, but you are going there to serve jail time with this, like, what's wrong with you? Anyway, the whole fucking setup

is so bizarre, but the place where she works, in 2017, 11 officers committed suicide. Yeah. In one year? in one year in one year this is why the this is why and i'm pointing this out speaking of jack this is why the best fucking tv show right now well it's finished but is that escape at danamore danamora tv show about that prison break and yeah the ben stiller thing yeah it's just the reason why is just because like it shows that like the towns the

surrounding communities that prisons are in are deeply interwoven into the lives and the inner the inner workings of a prison and in a lot of cases the whole point of prison is to turn out some sort of product uh commodity with basically slave labor And so you get these dynamics that start to get reproduced that you would see in a historical fiction movie or something from slavery, from the 19th century, from the 17th century. And it's just really crazy. We don't really think of it that way. We really literally still have slave plantations in the United States.

They still function exactly like that. And we have real slave plantations still. And we still actually have them. You're exactly right. I don't know. But I don't know. I think that if we elect

enough people like AOC, I think that'll... That's a good segue. That's a good segue. That's a good segue That's a good segue That's a good segue into what I want to talk about next Because of The Ileana Omar West Virginia Statehouse thing

Speak on it, sis I was just thinking, well first of all Did y'all see the AOC tweet that she came out Just a couple hours ago I saw you retweet it, yeah About her chatting the left for being uh you know we're finger waggers again yeah for our finger wagging and our inability to to work in less than perfect circumstances madam president

we've been working in imperfect circumstances for goddamn forever we came out the fucking memo you know what embryo into imperfect what i'm starting to think about this ilan um ilion omar stuff is i'm really starting to think about i'm really starting to think that it actually buckle up this smells like a terrence ray conspiracy oh yeah We tried to go down this President Omar situation a few, back at our Valentine's Day session. If you're actually trying to pour energy into

electoral strategies, electoral work, getting electoral wins, if that's what your priority is, I think it makes more sense to try to get politicians like Ilyan Omar what your priority is. I think it makes more sense to try to get, you know, politicians like Ilyan Omar or like a Paul Wellstone

or something like that, somebody who is incredibly critical of empire, more so than what Bernie and AOC are more known for. Kind of being, like, holding their line, but kind of being conciliatory in too many ways. Yeah, it feels to me that, like, whatever they do in Congress or whatever Bernie could do as a president,

it's just like, the American economy is necessary to maintaining the American empire. And you could get a situation where you have politicians like Bernie and AOC whose, their sort of thing is more economic populism. At some point, that reality

is going to run into the nature of empire this is why bernie is conservative on immigration you know right and so it's just like i think that if you're trying to get these people elected in these positions i think it serves it could serve a more towards a more useful end to try to get you know people that are elected they're more critical of empire that they're more critical of our foreign policy and stuff like that. I don't know. I, honest to God, need a

refresher on the strategy of electoral politics at this point. Like, I feel so jaded, mostly because of you two, and so alienated from the process. Again, mostly because of you two. And so alienated from the process. Again, mostly because of you two.

Mostly because of you two. There are like women I admire who are still running candidates that I need to have dinner with. To just like understand where they're coming from. I mean, the woman who ran uh stacy abrams campaign is like a leftist that i admire she's incredible and i don't understand like i i want to know more about what is in her head you know what i mean like what her where she's coming from at this point because i'm so far off that path at this point i don't know how to get back i'm gonna. I want to say something.

And when I say this, I'm not, this is not, this is going to sound because I'm piggybacking off what you said. It's like I'm making an accusation about this person you're talking about, and I'm really not. This is just a thought I have. But I think a lot of the time, why, and I may be way off base in this. This is just going off the top, baby. It must be pretty bad. I think a lot of times, I think a lot of times, I think this, there's an inherent racism almost

in running a more cavalier campaign with a guy like Bernie versus a conservative campaign of somebody like a Stacey Abrams or Barack Obama or somebody like that. Like when what we really should be doing is just going for broke with somebody with some fucking integrity like Ileana Omar if we insist in working in. I think that's kind of what I was getting at

a minute ago. Yeah. And I know there's a whole convoluted thing I have no business speaking on in terms of like candidates of color and the different kinds of shit they're going to run into. I mean, I understand Barack Obama was working under great constraints. Doesn't excuse having a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency. But I understand probably that instinct to pull back. Yeah. What do you think his biggest regrets are now? pull back. Yeah.

What do you think his biggest regrets are now? Obama's? Yeah. Banning clove cigarettes because he wants to smoke them now. Now he's not president

and he's like, fuck. He banned clove cigarettes. I wish I wouldn't have done that. Cash for clunkers. He goes to the gas station. I'd like a pack of clove. Oh, man. I have to remember his station.

Shouldn't have done that one. Sir, you're the one that banned him. You're right. I think that, I guess what I was, the point I was trying to make is that there's nothing you can do in Congress anyways. And it's kind of like what we were talking about last week. Like, you've got sort of principles and you've got the need to sort of, on one hand, and the need to be pragmatic and maybe compromising on the other hand.

It's like, you can't do shit anyways in office. It's like at least get some principled people in there. Exactly right. Who can at least chip away at this dynamic of, yeah, empire and those sort of identity of, you know, this country, what it's built on. And anybody that would say like, you you know say the quiet part out loud thinking oh well we couldn't run iliana omar because she's muslim because she's black because she's an immigrant uh have you seen when she's been people motherfuckers are throwing her money

she ain't running for nothing right so don't tell me she couldn't run for shit and win yeah well it's um well even the woman that i'm talking about who ran stacy's campaign tweeted like the other day that she was like this is just more proof that the party system is over and so like she she's like i just i just i i am too far removed to understand the leftist developed electoral strategy. Hey, we don't know either. There is one, and I don't. We pop off. I am not privy.

We just pop off. Yeah, I'm not privy. We just pop off, sis. Yeah, there's something, and I don't get it. We're just throwing paint trying to get a picture. I will say this, though. This is something that Terrence kind of talked about yesterday. At a certain point, there was some energy around the Bernie wing of the party,

the AOC types and whatever. Like, do they have enough clout? Do they have enough, you know, fundraising ability just to spin off and start their own viable third party? Like, to me, I mean, well, it's Bernie, like, raised a couple million dollars in a day like two to one over anybody else like the nearest competitor i think maybe three to one four to one i don't know just fucking dusting them do they even need the democratic party infrastructure at this point and how do they justify that yeah it's like if the if i i mean it seems to me if the democratic

infrastructure was useful we would have hill Hillary as a president right now. You know what I mean? Like the proof's in the motherfucking pudding at this point. But Terrence and I were talking about this before we started recording, before you got here, talking about different liberal slash leftist publications and how they brand themselves. It's like, well, they've been like historically liberal and they're trying to rebrand themselves as leftists. And it's like, why? Just keep saying you're the liberal whatever.

Keep on that train. But act better. Just move the politic. Why rebrand? What's the rebranding for? I mean, that's essentially what the Tea Party did. They just... They're like, we're conservatives now.

And now the entire Republican Party are Tea Parties. You know what I mean? It's like, why bother? Just start acting the way that all Democrats should act. Yeah. No, no, I'm with you there. It's like, like, like anytime I have a liberal friend, like, come at me with that whole sort of like, well, what's the difference between me and you and all this kind of stuff? whole sort of like well what's the difference between me and you and all this kind of stuff and it's just like i think you know what a socialist would say is that one is scared of

poor people and one is scared of rich people well i mean i'm not saying i'm not saying there aren't that's actually a perfect description of liberals are scared of poor people and i am scared of rich people well that's that's the other thing too is that like you know i think the leftist response would be something like well we're trying to make you live up to what you say you are you know what i'm saying for me it's um it's an entire upheaval of the social fabric of this country because we got slave plantations so you know what i mean it's like not even it's basically the difference is that i would like some sort of armed insurrection where we you know hold people at gunpoint it's the difference that's what i would like i might sit just because i'm drama

yeah high drama it's the difference in talking about what you want and and what you'll settle for well they don't believe what they don't believe in their ideals though like every limp dick like tweeting that fucking liberalism gave you this and liberalism gave you that and whatever you know like the 19 things it's like but like i see how you live your life i see how like you know what i mean like it's yeah yeah um earlier when i was saying that it's not like an either or thing like you can only have iliana omar type politicians or you can only have bernie type politicians we're gonna have no no no they can work together we could work we could have none of them. They can work together. We could have none of them. You're right.

But I guess what I'm concerned with going into the next year, and there's undertones of this in the sort of Ileana Mar stuff because Bernie hasn't been vocal about what's going on here. AOC has, and she's just making a total ass out of herself. Just fucking, just like, just relax for a minute. Just calm the fuck down. Yeah. Yeah, breathe. breathe at this point she doesn't have to say shit yeah she is like or she could just be like i support her i support what she says here's what aoc is scared to fucking death somebody's gonna call her an anti-semite if she comes to bat for a friend absolutely so she's just dancing around this idea and it's like you're being afraid of being called an anti-Semite? Actually kind of shows some tones

of anti-Semitism in yourself. Well, if you infantilize a group of people and walk on eggshells, like all that, that in itself is a form of racism. Again, it's what we said the last time. This should not be hard, though. It should not be hard

to counter the right wing's talking points. This isn't even about anti-Semitism. It has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. This is about empire. This is about the fact that we have a colony in the Middle East that just completely raises the ground on a day-to-day basis, just snipes people.

An apartheid ethnostate. An apartheid ethnostate. But it's doing exactly what they want literally today i saw an i support israel sticker on a car oh my god today and i was i stopped and looked at it was just like what the fuck like at the post office i've never seen anything like that you know this is the like i stand with israel and i was just like oh god this is the ironic thing about the sort of steve king stuff is that like Ilyana Marzenek is the left Steve King. It's like Steve King is an avowed pro-Confederate guy.

He gives interviews to Nazi magazines. And you can't find a modern state more analogous to the Confederacy than Israel. No. It's a fucking, they're both ethnostates. Right. It's just like, how could, I donates. Right. Just like, how could, I don't know, it's just,

how do you make that deduction? I don't know. I saw something the other day and I don't know if this was like old or fake or whatever. See that Netanyahu's gotten dotted? Is this,

is this a real thing? Yeah. I don't know if he's gonna be around much longer from what I hear. Gonna be around? Terrence says, I don't know if he's

gonna be around much longer. I don't know if he's gonna be around i'm like i'm like your friend norman i'm like a storm's gonna come a storm a storm's coming it's blowing in from the east from tel aviv oh my god no i i i haven't read the stories behind it but but yeah no i mean I think like I thought that the Democrats were going to do something like make some sort of pass some sort of resolution today and then they said they're going to move it back to tomorrow he was getting moved back

but why don't they just cancel it move the fuck on I know what are we what the fuck are we doing you may take the disgusting thing here's the disgusting thing I know. What are we doing? What the fuck are we doing? Well, you may take the disgusting thing. Here's the disgusting thing.

Here's why I think that strategy's working. I don't think it's working for a lot of the reasons that leftists like in Corey Robin people are pointing out. I think the reason the whole they're kind of getting softer on Ileana as the day goes is because they want to see if she's a viable source of fundraising. You're probably right. They don't want to throw her under the bus if they can raise money

because these fucking dipshits have been in the red since fucking Hillary 2016. They literally have. You're actually, that is a very smart and just completely... Christ almighty.

Yeah. Cynical way to look at it and you're absolutely right truly she is making money she is raising money and you know they love that yes queen bullshit so like if they think that like they can like polish her image into like it depends man it really depends because um in the calculation there i don't know i don't know i don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We're talking about a mainstay of American foreign policy for 60, 70 years now. This is the linchpin to our entire strategy on one part of the globe.

Yeah. It's like, I don't know. I would be more, I would be, I think they're getting ready to fucking hang around. Oh, that that's smart money is on the slaughter smart money's on that what i'm just saying is they like oh my god she's had a hundred million raised a hundred million dollars poured in for support oh we love ilia well so that that gets back to your original question they're like why don't they just start up their own party like bernie's making all this money ilian om's making. Like they're the only game in town that can raise any goddamn money.

It's like you, Tanya. Why do you continue to stay on this podcast when you can go solo and make so much more money? That's not true. I wish that were true. But I mean it's, I mean it's, now would be the time. And like the shit trying to bring bernie to heel with like making him sign like oh i'm i am a member of the democratic party and all that bullshit fuck all that shit they should just start they should start a new party like say they're starting

a new party but just call it the democratic party what are you do you think they like if you're so wet to the goddamn name just call it that be like be the one guado of the democrats no we're actually the democrats yeah i don't understand just just just dupe them at their own bullshit and just be like no this is how the party is like you know if you're a republican okay okay you can be a republican that's fine yeah this is make no mistake nancy pelosi chuck sherman all them are republican yes that's what I'm saying. And wasn't that California, what's her name? Feinstein?

Dianne Feinstein, yeah. Is she a Democrat? She's a Democrat, yeah. She is a California Democrat. A super wealthy 87-year-old California Democrat. It's like, what the fuck is going on here? Fuck them kids. This is what i'm saying it's like i used to make the joke

that um kentucky democrats were california republicans you know like when i had to work in the legislature to try to explain to people what we're dealing with that you had to take it there to get them okay uh not that anyone understands anything about california oh let's put a pin in that i was at uh one of our newer uh grocery stores recently using like my my reusable ebt car my reusable no my reusable uh fucking grocery bag you know my little cloth grocery bags hold on a second hold on a second you went you went to sell for less with reusable grocery bags price price yeah i fucking love that shit i fucking love that you're shopping at the fucking budget grocery store for use that is perfectly on brand i love that shit and so i take well this is what happens i take my reusable bags in there

and i set them up and the guy they're sitting right there and then he just starts putting stuff in the plastic bag and i'm and i'm like talking to the woman behind me before i realize and i look and he had folded up the the reusable bag and put it in my plastic bag and i pulled it out i was like no man this is for my groceries we're gonna put these in his bag and he was like what he'd never seen that he had never seen a reusable grocery bag and he told me so he started doing it then he said you know I didn't know we could do that and I said what do you mean could do what and he was like I didn't know he said I've never seen a bag like this I said what you've never seen a bag cloth bag I don't I don't know I don said, I've never seen a bag like this. I said, you've never seen a cloth bag?

I don't know. I'm not following you here. I mean, one of them says MCHC on it. You know, it's like some freebie I've got somewhere. He said, yeah, I've never seen that. I said, I just looked at him and said, do you know that plastic bags are illegal in California? And I swear, he stopped swapping. Tanya going,

let me speak to the manager. I couldn't believe it. Oh my God. I said, you know, plastic bags are illegal in California. And he said, what? Could not compute. I said, they are.

Next thing Tanya said was, I need you to know that Schumer and Pelosi get a kickback for every illegal that comes through here. And then he would have been like, I knew that shit. Anyway, I tried to save myself from sounding like such a dumbass by saying, yeah, my mom couldn't survive in Cali. The plastic lobby is a lot stronger than people think it is. No, it's...

Remember plastics make it possible? You remember when we were doing bat netting and that fucking lunatic woman that ran the project was like, yeah, all these liberals think they can live without plastic, but they don't understand what all was made out of plastic. It's petroleum. It's true. I mean, when I went into a grocery store in California, I was shocked. They were like, no.

What do they have? They really don't have plastic bags. Do they have paper bags? Yeah, well, you have to, in every grocery store, you have to bring reusable bags or you have to buy their bags. It's so funny, I've got a massive drawer in my kitchen just stuffed fucking full of plastic bags. Well, I use them to pick up dog shit with.

Yeah, I mean, I have, it's just, I don't need more because I have so many. I have so many plastic bags because I save them for shit. I throw away a lot of them. I put kitty litter in them. I double bag the kitty litter so I can't deal with the smell of kitty litter. I'm so fucking, oh, God. Wow. Anyway, sorry to diverge us into just my discount grocery store dilemmas.

I feel like he was trying to make me feel like an asshole. Good on you, buddy. The whole point here was about... You made him feel like an asshole for folding up the thing and putting it in there. It's so funny. When I go to Sierra Club stuff, I always get so embarrassed when

one of the waitresses brings out straws and they just act so indignant about it. And then I sit here getting ready to put my straws. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. I'm like chewing on three. Even when I go out with you two, you're all like, no ice.

Yeah, I never do that. That's esophagism. That's because we have heartburn problems. If you get it too cold, it's just as bad as just bad as eating in some ways some ways it's even worse oh my god yeah anyway we're talking about feinstein like how is it california democrat which i was raised to think was the furthest left you could get turns out california's pretty conservative not only will she not support the Green New Deal, but she's cussing children about it.

Get off my lawn about it. Yeah, it's bad enough not to support the legislation, but to rail children about it. Yeah, you listen to your little shits. I'll be dead in three years. Y'all be living on this rock. Why don't you run for something? You made a really good point on Twitter, though. living on this rock why don't you run for something you've made a really good point on twitter though about you you were like to the people that were like you know it's cynical to

use kids or something like that it's like well kids like kids don't consent to death people treat kids like shit if you i mean if you really start to pay attention to this people treat how someone treats not only their kids but other kids around them like don't acknowledge them do not say hello do not make eye contact speak to them in as few words as possible like just no and yes you know what i mean like it's crazy like it is wild because kids are humans and they learn based on other like we are all learning based on their it's also wild how that shit follows you into adulthood yes and the difference in how

we raise boys and girls oh it's fucked you all and it comes out in the wash always in these sex eds it always ends up like I mean I can't imagine the life of a therapist and it has to be a therapist must be working from a map and the map no matter what is going on she can or whoever the therapist can bring i prefer a female

therapist myself but whoever they are can map it all the way back to probably interactions with adults as a child yeah absolutely we are fucking them over big time. Like we treat kids like not like humans. Yeah. Like we treat animals better sometimes. Yeah. Like I've seen Pomeranians treated better in the same household as six year olds. Oh, no question about it. Absolutely.

No question about it. It is strange. And I mean, I do sometimes when I see, you know, when you see kids getting baptized real young, I do often be like, oh God, you know, the, what the fuck? But. You shouldn't be able to like introduce a kid to a religion until you're like, they're 18. Right.

Let them make their own choices. But this is a different thing. Like, this is, we're talking about something that like, we're talking about survival. We're talking about, yeah, we're talking about potential extinction. We're talking about survival. We're talking about potential extinction. We're talking about, like, their literal life. I mean, you were taught that this was about your next life. Religion is about saving your next life. You know what I mean?

No, that's very true. We're trying to be like, save the life you have right now, baby. That's what's up for grabs right now. The life you got right now, it ain't looking so motherfucking hot. It's not looking so great. Yeah. And so, but it's deranged. It's freaky how we treat kids.

And, you know, not even kids, teenagers who are firing on us with as, definitely firing with as many lights as us, you know, as teenagers. I've burned out so many sales and to teenagers are treated like garbage because they can't vote they can't work full-time they have nothing to offer humanity you're right according to the the fucking you know the business class the fucking whoever if they had their draithers i would say they'd put them to work at seven though yeah it's like that's true that is true it's fucked up yeah yeah um well so but yeah back to that question of uh i mean i guess that like i guess that people like bernie on the more sort of progressive wing like they sort of that's, I guess that has to be a sort of very, you know, well-studied calculation, like a very, you know, thoroughly researched calculation, like splitting off and getting a third party.

Like that would be, I don't know. You can't, I mean, we just keep saying the same shit over and over, it's like we're talking about two parties who haven't even figured out how to abolish the electoral college you know what i mean it's like the bare minimum of right it's just so archaic all of it's so archaic it's so artificial every aspect of it um yeah i don't know well i what i wanted to get to that what i wanted to talk about too for when we kind of got off on a different yarn was the iliana mar poster in the west virginia state house oh yeah i i didn't yeah i need you to catch me up on this let me just ask the. Was it that same fucking orc that proposed that?

That is the goddamn ugliest man alive. I don't think it was him. I mean, I'm sure he didn't hate it. What it was was a group that had set up there. I can't even remember the name of the group now. There was some sort of fair or something in the rotunda. And there was things set up.

Tables and booths set up. It's a job fair. It's a little book fair. That was the poster behind the Marines fucking table. That was the Marine recruiting table. Exactly. Honestly, that is... is i mean that's

basically what they believe in too it's basically what they're selling you just yeah flashy let me look it up real quick tom because it's a it's not it wasn't one i don't remember it being one of the politicians what happened i just remembered a split of that and then the orc it wasn't a legislator it was like some group whatever did it and this democrat um uh this is this you're getting the trailbilly version which means we're just recounting from our memory of the essay that we read very shoddy memory a democrat walked in and saw it and was like what the fuck is this like this is this is, you can't do this. Basically, you know, sort of made a fuss about it, which, good on him.

That's awesome. And then, like, some Republicans came out. There was this, I think there was, like, a physical altercation. There was, like, an actual scuffle or something. People shoving each other, something like that. But the discourse is so fucking depraved. It's so depraved that even, like, the ones that were sticking up for Omar were basically, like, they were basically, like, you know, I just remember them, I just remember thinking, like, they were sort of, they had a very liberal sort of approach to it.

Just, like, a very, like, Israel is an important ally, but Omar should be able to say whatever she wants to. It's just like, oh my god, man. It just makes you, I don't know, it just drives you crazy. One time for the people in the back, being critical of Israel is not anti-Semitic. No.

Not at all. And you, I don't even, it seems weird to even, redundant to even say that. What, didn't we determine she didn't even really say anything to begin with? She has said nothing wrong this whole fucking time. No, yeah, I can't even. No, she's definitely not saying anything wrong, but even with this. But even like, even like AOC just kind of like spikes those little

Israel's an important ally bromides in there. Not that explicitly. AOC's thing is that she keeps saying that you can't speak out on this unless you're of the Jewish identity, of the Jewish community. It's like, motherfucker, that's not the point. The point is empire.

The point is how we run this goddamn country on the fucking blood and pulp of other Arabs in the Middle East. Why we let the saudis the said the saudi government's the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and we let them slide but we fucking brutally oppress every other muslim exactly that's the issue yeah it hasn't got shit to do with that you know your individual role and communities in this country it has to do with the fact that the economy of this country is run on a just blood

machine just a gristmill yeah and not for nothing you're representative of that gristmill yeah and that's why what omar is doing is is incredible it's just that like you're actually calling it out for what it does for its function yeah that's fucking incredible yeah which is pretty sad that just naming facts here the bar is so low the bar is so fucking low there was like a congressman who who had a tweet that was like questioning the american israel relationship alliance that vargas dude texas is on you know this is not he said something it's unacceptable yeah and then he like his second tweet somebody said like buddy you said in the quiet part out loud with that one yeah you know it's because that he's

saying the truth you're not supposed to question that no and that's why and the good thing is is she's just resolute in it well and look look they're not censoring oh bernie for the things he's saying about the economy and they're not cens censoring AOC for the things that she's saying about the environment and Green New Deal. And it's because this country is run on empire. The one thing you cannot fuck with is the empire because that holds up the economy. That props up the economy. That's exactly right. If Bernie or AOC—

Yeah, you can have social democracy and a Green New Deal and an empire. But guess what? At a certain point, it's going to run up against the empire. Exactly. Don't come for the fucking crown. Exactly. That's the thing. You can have a social democracy, welfare state, and all this thing and still repress brutally

the entire rest of the world. In a pinch, they would fucking hate it, but in a pinch, they could live with Bernie. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. But what they couldn't live with is anti-imperialism look man like we'll pay you taxes okay but we gotta be on top yeah like the 1950s when we had like you know late 40s and 50s when we had like eisenhower and truman we were still toppling

governments yeah we toppled fucking iran and i think that's i think that's in the back of their head too it's like well fuck in pinch, it's going to be like harkening back to the Eisenhower administration or some shit. You know what I mean? But the economy's going to keep rolling because we still have our hegemony. Yeah.

And we still can plow these countries and take what we want from them and nothing they can fucking do about it. Exactly. No, it's fucking nuts it's it makes you feel a bit like a crazy person and this is why anybody who doesn't have at least a few hesitations about bernie should be very skeptical of because what he believed what he wants i agree with it of course of course i'll even vote for him but what he wants is not contradictory to the empire and

again this is why i said earlier this is why his stance on immigration is conservative. Yeah. Because he wants to preserve... He's been soft on BDS. There's a lot of different things that he's not really great on that include empire. Yeah.

It's just... I don't know. I don't know. But I think this conversation has elevated above my pay grade I gotta sit this out

mine too actually I agree with you but I don't know what the fuck you're talking about yeah you're right Eisenhower

Truman fuck him up! Fuck him up! Social democracy! Woo-hoo! It's got a key, though. Well, the takeaway here, Tanya, is we know just as little about the electoral strategy as you do.

Which is to say we all three know way more than the people running the shit. That's very true. That's very true. That is very true. Well, it's crazy. You hear people talk confidently and stuff about stuff like Bernie, and you're like, okay, maybe they know something I don't. Maybe Bernie's doing some backstage, like, I'm with you, Omar. I've got your back the whole way.

Maybe they see Bernie winking at them through the TV, and you know what I'm saying yeah but I feel like it can drive you crazy because if you're I guess if you're not in the know I mean you know I just don't know why we all have such a knee jerk reaction to defend

oh there's bad behavior and like make excuses or not even bad behavior but just like the absence of behavior it's like let people stand on their own two fucking feet. I agree, Tonya. So quit defending people. I don't even defend myself anymore. I'm indefensible.

Drag me for all I'm worth. I'm with you, man. I don't have enough human interactions in a week to have to even get myself in that sort of position. You're not draggable at this point. Untouchable. I'm the lowest of the low. I hang out in the library a lot, and I like it.

Bottom faders here. Yeah, no, I... You spend a lot of time in microfilm, don't you? I spend a lot of time in the microfilm. And I got talking to this guy there today, and he was like, what do you do? Is there a group of you guys that just meets there every night? Oh, yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of black longminers that hang out there. And Darren's just there going, Oh, hey, Jeff. What's up, Ronnie? Oh, is it my day to bring donuts? It really is like clocking in and out of a job. It's like all the ladies that hang out in the room there. They have a, what's it called? Genealogy?

No, the genealogy room. I hang out in the genealogy room. Oh, they love it. I hang out in there a lot. So many people hanging out in there. But I was talking to this guy. He was like, what do you do around here? I was like, oh,alogy room. I hang out in the genealogy room. Oh, they love it. I love it. I hang out in there a lot. So many people hanging out in there. But I was talking to this guy. He was like, what do you do around here? I was like, oh, I'm unemployed.

He goes, a lot of that around here. Like it was a time-honored East Kentucky tradition. You got valor for being unemployed. Now I've got valor. Fucking unemployed, but valor. They're just so proud of you. They're just so proud of you. Exactly.

Young buck. Good job, young blood. Yeah, way to go. But if you filed your paper, shit, you're getting your unemployment. Well, has your appointment come up yet, actually? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You went? You didn't?

No, it's the 16th. All right, well, stay on it, goddamn. I'm going to be very upset if you don't get unemployment. I like that point of view that there's no shame in unemployment versus the get a fucking job bullshit from somebody. It's like, motherfucker, I don't want to be a cop. My family. You made a choice. I'm not making that choice.

We've thrown many unemployment parties. You have a little dance. You pin dollars on the bride-to-be. It can kind of suck. You pin dollars on the bride-to-be. Really? Yeah. It can kind of start losing your mind a little bit. They don't call it fun employment for nothing, man. Lean into it.

I always thought fun employment was like when somebody says that, I'm thinking, that motherfucker's got a little nest egg back there. I've never been fun employed. I've been thinking, that motherfucker's got a little nest egg back there. I've never been fun-employed. I've been unemployed, man. I've never been fun-employed. I'm with you there. I guess I haven't really been either. I've never been unemployed.

Really? Since I was 17, yeah. Well, I have been. I guess we just lack initiative then, don't we? I've been unemployed a handful of times. Like all the self-hate I'm packing around. Yeah. This is nothing new, necessarily.

But, man, the thing is, I'm just, it seems like the last four years are just living over again. Like, I was unemployed this time four years ago, and I spent a lot of time in the library in the microfilm,

and Bernie had just announced he was running for president. Life is just moving in the exact same direction. It is weird. It is weird. That's crazy to think about. On the Facebook time hop thing like four or five years ago, there was something that was

so resonant that I said like in 2013, I was like and usually it's the exact opposite. Usually you're so embarrassed. But it was like, whatever it was it was like, usually it's the exact opposite you're so embarrassed but it's like whatever it was is like man that feels fresh you're right it feels very relatable society has hit the point to where it's just stagnant nothing's moving anymore and so like we can look back on those things like we were doing four years ago i'm doing this right now with you know the mountain eagle stuff the things i was writing four years ago. The piece you just wrote

for popular, you're talking about our baton heading? Exactly. Everything old is new again. Yeah. I feel like I'm on this but eight years ago.

You're reliving eight years ago, which was what, 2011? 12? Yeah, me like hitting a wall at KFDC just like. Oh, yeah. You wrote it out

for a while though. Five fucking years, wrote it out, a while though five fucking years wrote it out yeah wrote it out sass yeah you fucking wrote the piss out of it fucking bareback for a long fucking time yeah yeah that's the thing um that's kind of maddening though about the whole thing cycling over again it's just like you can't really write a reasoned critique of bernie or anyone anymore because it's already been written. I go back and read stuff, viewpoint stuff from 2016 it's like these are all

valid critiques and completely interchangeable from now and then. There is no difference between Bernie 16 and Bernie 18. Not yet but this is what makes me think that the people know something I don't. It's just that is he okay?

Is that part of the strategy? You know what I mean? He's just like, I'm the same. It's consistent. You know, nothing's changed. Like, you know, bands getting back together, get on board. Yeah. Or is he going to be like more sort of dynamic and adaptable?

I don't know, man. Well, listen. Is he going to come for the empire? It's the first quarter. Is he going to come for the Empire? Is he going to come for the Empire? That's what I want to know. It's the first quarter of year one. Let's walk it out a little bit and see what happens. You're right.

Spoken by a true Cats fan. Yeah. It gives you a... This is how we talk until the last minute of the game i ain't called to come back cats for nothing all right boys hey cows bring that one boy from chicago in next year god damn my god um oh one other thing you're talking about and then we can close but i saw the funniest thing today You were talking about earlier

You saw that Israeli sticker I saw a funny bumper sticker today It said Appalachian American And it was presumed to be Oh god I just Fucked up Tom just slung his mic down It fucking popped in my ear It hurt

Dude Silas House has had that t-shirt For a decade So it's like so do they are they not aware of how offensive that is all lives matter man all lives matter i want to die i want to die oh my god anyway well that'll do it for this week well now listen listen have you all well now i have a funny uh a funny yeah have you ever had to share an office with somebody oh yeah yeah what oh my god oh my god you're gonna have to say that into the mic yeah Your toilet is dated November 7th, 2016. Oh my God. Oh my God.

You're going to have to say that into the mic. Yeah, say that into the mic, man. I said the New Yorker that's conspicuously sitting on top of your toilet with like fucking pee germs on it. It's dated election day 2016. Just further confirming that. I cannot. That you're living four years ago.

It's reality just stopped for me. this is not normal i tell you here's what here's what i do on that too is um today i was listening to the little wayne no ceilings mixtape from like 2010 and i and like two months ago i was like man little wayne a lot of this shit didn't age well. And I popped that in, Dad. I was like, fucking Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. is the greatest fucking rapper that ever fucking lived, man. So we're just, we are at a place where we can't just objectively critique anything that happened in the last 15 years. where we can't just objectively critique anything that happened in the last 15 years. The funniest thing about that New Yorker election day

on the back of my toilet is that it's like radiocarbon dating or something. It's like you can see in the geologic layer where I stopped reading the New Yorker. When Trump was elected. When Trump was elected. That's hilarious. That's amazing.

Goes on the back of the toilet. These fuckers are... I ain't touched it since oh my god been pissing on it ever since in fact I quit reading the New Yorker period

when Donald Trump got elected wow yup except for the Borowitz report fucking Andy Borowitz well listen the best thing I heard today before this episode

of course was my office mate was my office mate on a video call and like she had just like hit the button and longed in and then some like a voice comes up talking really loud and they said well you know I quit smoking weed at the end of the year so I'm dreaming again that's not I dreamed Mel Gibson was carrying me around. I swear. That's not a dream. That's a nightmare.

That was so funny. Real weed heads know. When you stop smoking weed, those first few nights, they suck real bad. Well, actually, they're kind of fun. I don't know. It just depends on what that's your thing. I don't smoke weed every day, and I dream a lot. I have a lot of weird dreams. Do you think when I smoke, it impacts my dreaming the following days?

It does. That hadn't even occurred to me. I had had a bunch of weird-ass dreams. So when you stop smoking, what it does is it represses REM sleep. And so when you stop smoking, your brain kind of does a sort of overcorrection, and then you start really having REM sleep. And that's why the dreams are so vivid and experiential. You're so

involved. Oh wow. I didn't realize this. Holy fuck. The science of being a stoner from Terrence Ray. I had some wild... If I tell someone my dream, I'll remember it. But if I don't speak it out loud, I'll usually forget it. So the worst of the worst, I gotta keep to myself.

So I try to bury that sumbitch. So you just turned on the video conference when your coworkers were saying that? No, my coworker turned on the video conference. I think it was on a... And somebody was saying that? Yeah, I didn't know who she was video conferencing with. That's funny. I just heard it.

That's the first... It was like loud. The first thing that you heard. The first... As soon as she hit the button, it was like, you know, I quit smoking weed last year. All throughout the building. Yeah. It's just like really loud.

I was on a Sierra Club call today and I was the only one like I don't ever get on the video calls just because I'm weird about like people like nine people looking at me. So it's everyone's face and then a black. Yeah. So it's just me. Tom Six. And Abby and Rick Ross. Well, there's well, there's well, there's like this pause, right?

Like in the action. And I don't know what it was about my phone, but it queued up War Ready by Rick Ross. No. And it's like, you know, the intro to that song, just this real ominous drum pattern. And it's just like quiet. And then I'm just like, oh, fuck.

How do I get this off there? And then I hit pause and I hear somebody say, if you could just mute your line if you're not speaking, I'm hearing some musing. Oh, my God. And it had to be me because everybody else was right there. Damn. It's so anal.

The conference calls. The video conference calls. Too much I mean you're just staring At your double chin The whole time Just like It's a terrible angle

You know the laptop video For sure The laptop camera angle Come on For sure Yeah It's terrible Anytime I like FaceTime

Or do anything with anybody We were recording The other day And I was recording The other day And I couldn't enjoy The conversation Like I wanted to and I was recording the other day and I couldn't enjoy the conversation like I wanted to

because I was just thinking, do they think I'm fat? And I was like doing this thing where I was like hiding my double chin. Beneath it all we're all just

so vain. Well, let's see. Signing off. Bernie 2020. Yeah, Bernie 2020. Patreon,

go check out the Patreon, please. No, please. Please. Please. We are desperate. Off your donations, Telefriend. All you real ones out there tweeting that you've joined Patreon. Fucking kudos.

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have been meaning to sign up for Patreon no I think it just means we cuss and talk about titties yeah we do talk about titties yeah

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and then like the guy immediately said oh shit yeah well we've lifted that that was exactly what they needed to hear that's exactly yeah that's why exactly why i worded it that way sons of bitches they're the worst fucking company ever was oh they're pretty good ever was yeah ever was that's the worst that ever was talking like a 1920s gangster I got a million of them ha ha ha

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