Trillbilly Worker's Party - MEMORIAL DAY BONUS: "TRILLBILLY SPORTS RADIO, VOL. 2 (w/ Special Guest: Matt Jones)

Episode Date: May 25, 2020

Matt Jones of Kentucky Sport Radio stops by to talk Kentucky politics, his new book, and sports/life in general in the era of coronavirus.

You want me to clap? Yeah, on the count of three here. One, two, three. There we go. Good enough. Welcome everybody to what will be when we release it, the Sunday edition of True Ability Workers Party.

I am your impromptu host, Tom Sexton, because Terrence is in podcasting purgatory right now waiting to get prayed in. Joining me is Miss Tanya Turner down there in Letcher County and from an undisclosed bunker somewhere maybe in the Bluegrass State, maybe not. Mr. Matt Jones, Kentucky Sports Radio. I'm in Bell County. I'm in the bluegrass.

I'm actually in the mountains. I'm visiting my parents here in Bell County. So we're all in the 606 right now. Nice. Nice. Well, I guess I should say I'm in the 859. I cheated. Don't tell anybody.

What's your favorite restaurant in Bell County, Matt? You know, it's a shame. They don't, unlike a lot of places in the mountains, we don't really do, we don't really have local restaurants. I mean, there's like one, there's a place called Shades, but that wasn't here when I was here. When I was growing up, my favorite place was Taco Casa in the mall because it had the best kind of tacos and sauce. You know, we didn't get a taco bell till I was a senior in high school and people thought that

was the biggest thing that had ever happened to the city. So we, you know, it's not like a lot of towns. It's got their little local place. We just didn't really have that. We were all chains everywhere. You're from Millsboro then? Yeah. Okay. Well, mine's Ingalls. We have a great drive-in in Pineville. The Ingalls drive-in. Oh, I know Ingalls. Okay. So you go there a lot? Oh, hell yeah.

Yeah. I just took my girlfriend for the first time. Oh, yeah. We had to go a little farther than we would go, but I know what you're talking about. And the FloCo in Pineville has that too. Yeah. FloCo's downtown. Yeah. They were closed for a while though and reopened.

And now they have a liquor license. I know all these places do. That's another crazy thing. Funny story about the FloCo. I walked in there one time and my mom said, you won't believe this. They have a record of every winner of the

Mountain Laurel festival queen ever here. Oh yeah. Like sure they do. Then one time I, you think I'm making this up. I brought this lawyer friend of mine from Louisville. We were down there doing a case and we went in there and ate.

And while he was sitting there, he was like, you know what? My mom was mountain Laurel festival queen. And I was like, well, what? So his name was Johnny boss.

So he looks at the woman that works there and says, my mom was mountain Laurel festival queen. And she said, what year? And he said it. And she said the woman's name from like the sixties, like just from bam, like to have that level of knowledge of festival Queens is unbelievable. The mountain Laurel festival, the, the, the Queens coronation, as they call it is the most like debutante thing that still happens maybe anywhere. I don't know.

It feels like it's still like Civil War time. Yeah. But just like, and you know, they all curtsy and do all that stuff. It's bizarre. And the weird thing is we get one person, one woman from every college in Kentucky to come. And sometimes I feel like they feel like they're in a death sentence. By the way, you're talking to someone who's on the Mount Laurel Festival board. Are you the criminal behind the new Mount Laurel Cove fucking festival they're trying to put on, their music festival.

No, I give them credit for that. They're trying. Again, I canceled it all. But the Mount Laurel Festival asked me to be on the committee. And so far, the only thing I can tell that being on the committee entails is sending a check for $400 every year. I haven't been to a meeting.

I haven't gotten any benefits. I just send a check. And then they're like, welcome to the festival board. I haven't even been to the festival in 20 years, and somehow I'm still on the board. Wow. All right. Sorry, Tom. Oh, no, you're fine. This is good.

For all your listeners in Brooklyn, this is what they want. They want local small town festivals. They want the local flavor. Well, here, come into when times allow. If there's ever another Mountain Laurel Festival, we don't know. Who knows? If there's ever another Mountain Laurel Festival, you can come to Pineville, Kentucky and eat at the FloCo and Ingles. And then for the parade, I suggest you go up to Chain Rock and sit on Chain Rock and listen to the parade. Watch the parade from Chain Rock.

It is incredible. If you don't know what Chain Rock is, it is a rock that legend says is hooked up to a chain so it won't fall down and crush the city of Pineville. Yeah, it is hooked up to a chain so it won't fall down and crush the city of pineville yeah it is really hooked to a chain that's true but is that legend that it's being held back from crushing the table is that the one that's like right there by the state park entrance yeah you can see it from the road and it's not even the funny thing is it's not even, the funny thing is, it's not even that big a rock. Like they act like, like it's not even that big a rock. I feel like if it fell, maybe it would hit one house. Maybe. But they felt the need to put a chain up and say, and it's now a tourist attraction. My co-host Ryan Lemon thinks it's the funniest thing in the world that there's a chain rock.

You also need to say every year they bring in a band and it's always like a country band from about 25 years ago. So it's like Confederate. Yeah, sometimes it's good. I saw Reba. We had Reba one year. We had Reba. Yeah. Sometimes they have the music.

If it's a really big act, they'll do it over at LMU they'll do it in Tennessee to get the big yeah but I saw a ball got through the tunnel to Farragut David Ball yeah David Ball what followed me home I thought I was alone yeah I saw him at the high school um but yeah it's's a great hike out to Chain Rock. And I promise you, we can get to Mitch, please the book, but I just had LMU, which is, you know,

the college across the mountain and LMU. I went to the grand opening of the LMU gym and they brought a heat. What at the time was a huge musical act. Does anybody know who played the grand opening of the LMU gym? Well, if you guess CNC music Factory, you are correct. And I went. They made me sweat till I bled.

Oh, my God. CNC Music Factory. And it was like at the height of their thing. Like things that make you go. Everybody dance now and all that. Like they were big. It's not like they did. This was like 95, 94 when they were still like a thing.

And CNC Music Factory with Finesse Williams and whoever they got lip syncing for the woman that was at LMU. Yeah, I saw my first concert at LMU. I was about eight years old and my mom and my aunt took me and my cousin to see Aaron Tippin open, for my namesake, Tanya Tucker. It was an incredible show. First of all, Tanya. I mean, don't we go with Tanya? Well, I'm Tanya, so I say Tanya. My mom thought she was Tanya Tucker and named me Tanya, T-A-N-Y-A, after her. Your mom just named you for Tanya Tucker?

Yes. That's great. I love it. My. This named you for Tanya Tucker? Yes. That's great. I love it. I thought her name was Tanya. My grandma, when I was a kid, did not like Tanya Tucker. She just kept saying she was a little floozy. And every time she came on the radio, my grandma would turn it off and say, we are not listening to that floozy.

Even though at the time, Tanya Tucker was like 45, she still didn't like it. She walked so that Britney Spears could run in a midriff. That's right. She invented the fucking midriff. She was like 16 years old doing songs about cheating on people's husbands. Like, I mean, like she was ballsy. Yeah, she was like 13 when she did Delta Dawn. people's husbands. Like, I mean, like, she was ballsy. Yeah, she was like 13 when she did Delta Dawn. That's wild.

Delta Dawn is like a song of a woman that's like been through. Yeah, like 90. She's 41, but her daddy still calls her baby. I lifted weights once with Aaron Tippin, by the way. What? It was like the only time I ever lifted weights in my life.

But he came to Middlesbrough. I think it was probably, well, it may have been for that concert. He came to Middlesbrough High School to use our gym. And they asked, and I ended up spotting him. And he was a big dude, like a big. But there's all your country music needs. We can move on to other things. Well, this is, in case you are wondering, this was not off the cuff.

This was a dramatic reading of the Bell County section of Matt's new book. You know what I love about Mitch, please? It was about two things, showing the damage Mitch McConnell's done and an enlightening view of 90s country music. That's exactly that's exactly perfect so let's let's let's start there then i i was going to kick it off with a couple of sports related things i wanted to talk to you about we'll circle back to that so you just put this book out mitch please that you said like as you just said that was to do two things uh one of them serious one of them in jest uh but basically

the last time we talked to you and um and uh who was it uh chris tomlin and and and and what's your intern's name again i forgot well his name is eli but i mean let's be real i was there when cnn was filming you all. Like you all acted like you were some little low budget podcast. Hey, Matt, will you come on the show? Sure. And then like two days before, you're like, is it OK if CNN films it? Like, hang on just a second.

You know, is it OK if CNN films it? So that was when I realized I was going on a show that actually had reach. Unlike a lot of the podcasts that I've been on. Well, well, you know, we've, we've kicked outside our,

our coverage, uh, with coverage. So, uh, you know, and, and thanks to,

uh, people like you want to come full with us. We've, uh, we've done, we've done okay, but, uh,

tell us a little bit about, uh, about, uh, uh well one minute please but in particular like um you know like like why why this book why now well were there any other working titles well okay that's a good story so simon so simon, the book company in June, I get this email from this dude and he's like, I'm the CEO of Simon & Schuster. And have you ever thought about writing a book? And how about we write a book about Mitch McConnell? And I was like, why are you writing?

Like, that's crazy just to get that email, you know, out of nowhere. I assumed it was like a Nigerian spam something, but I forwarded it to my sports agent. And like within five minutes, he's calling me and he's like, dude, that's Jonathan Karp. He's like the biggest dude in publishing. You got to go meet with him. So I went and met with him. And long story short, he wanted to do a book about Mitch McConnell. And he was like, look, we need somebody in Kentucky to put their name on it.

So we'll write it. You just put your name on it. You get it. And I was like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. I was like, I'm not, if I'm going to do a book, I'm going to do it. And I was like, the book you want to do is going to suck. So let me do the book I want to do. First of all, you want to know what he wanted to name the book. And again, I love Jonathan Karp. He's awesome. And I would have never gotten a chance to write it. So this is not a put down of him, but he wanted to name the book Senate mutant Ninja turtle. I was like,

I probably stick at one back in the oven for a little while. I was like, man, I am not putting my name on a book called Senate mutant Ninja turtle. And so he was like, well, you got to come up with something else. And I came and Chris actually came up with Mitch, please. And we went with it.

And the idea of it was, in my opinion, I mean, people all over the country hate Mitch McConnell. But the reason but when they want to defeat him like they do this fall, the reason people around the country hate him is, in my opinion, not the reason people in Kentucky hate him. And the problem is, as they try to make it to where he gets defeated, they use the reasons they dislike him to attack him. And it doesn't work on Kentuckians because Kentuckians dislike him for a different reason. Like Merrick Garland and all that stuff, that doesn't work on Kentuckians. They don't care about that, in my opinion. I think they don't like Mitch McConnell because they believe he's been in power for 36 years

and he hadn't done anything for people in Kentucky. So I wanted to tell that story, and I decided to do it county by county. And the theory of it was, I want to give a roadmap to the nation to understand how you get Mitch McConnell out of office. It's not what you think it is. You got to go and talk to these people in Kentucky. And you folks know this. I mean, you know, people in Eastern Kentucky in the mountains are big Trump supporters, but they don't like Mitch McConnell and why you need to understand if you want to beat him. And then I also thought it'd be a chance to be funny and do goofy stuff. And so the book is like,

it's a part, a takedown of McConnell. It's a part kind of a tour of the state. And then it's a part of me telling the story about me considering running for Senate and all the junk I went through dealing with Chuck Schumer, et cetera. Yeah. Yeah.

So we kind of got into that a little bit last time. Like one thing that I think is cool about what you did here, this project is like know when you're doing letcher county you stop by apple shop and all that kind of stuff what were a couple of counties that you visited that maybe you didn't know a whole lot about that like it was like okay this place is kind of cool well i didn't know much about the western part of the state really at all i mean i'd spent a lot of time in the mountains i knew most of those counties counties. I knew central Kentucky and Louisville, but like once you got from like Bowling Green West, I only knew like Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Paducah. And that was really it. And when you went to a lot of those places, I think the thing that I learned is Kentucky has basically four or five States in one state.

I mean, we got where we're from. Okay. That's Appalachia. That's its own thing. You got central Kentucky, which is its own thing. Northern Kentucky is basically the suburbs and then Louisville is a city. And then Western Kentucky is kind of like the Midwest. Like, I guess I always kind of thought it was like here, but it's not. It's sort of like Kansas or Nebraska. And so going to all those places, the common denominator of all those places, they've all kind of been screwed by Mitch McConnell, but for very different ways, for very different reasons. I mean, some of them for one thing, some of them the other. And I wanted to tell that story. And I also wanted to showcase, you know, in each county, And I also wanted to showcase, you know, in each county, like there's 120 counties.

We have too many counties. But in each county, there is a unique story. And I wanted to write it so that people in Kentucky felt like their voice was heard. You know, I've talked with you all about hillbilly elegy before and how many people have read that and think, OK, well, now I know about Kentucky. I don't need to know anything else about it. And I think that's incorrect. And I wanted to show, hey, here's what Kentucky is actually like. And so for people who want to know, this is how you learn. And the New York Times reviewed it and they were like, this book would have been awesome if it was a little shorter. Well, I can't make Kentucky have any fewer counties.

But I it was a great trip. And I hope I think when people read it, it's a good enough balance of politics and humor that I think people can really get something out of it if they if they if they started. Well, let me ask you this, Matt. can really get something out of it if they start it. Well, let me ask you this, Matt. What are some of like, we talked about, like obviously like you were saying, Kentucky's basically five different states in one.

And like, there's like, you know, subtle cultural, sometimes not so subtle cultural differences. But in terms of like, why people dislike Mitch McConnell, like is there, did you see like particular reasons why people in Barron County and Hardin County might dislike him versus people in Bell County or Letcher County? I think the most common denominator is he's never really been a representative of Kentucky. He's a representative of the wealthy. I mean, that's what Mitch McConnell is. Mitch McConnell, you know, there are senators out there that I disagree with vehemently, but they represent their state.

Mitch McConnell, he stands up for what billionaires think, period. That's all he cares about. And I think you could showcase that. So take the Western part of the state. That's tobacco country. And the tobacco farms basically went away in this state and got nothing from the end of tobacco production in America. And it was all because of Mitch McConnell, all because of Mitch McConnell. And I didn't know that really until I started researching it. I mean, the history of tobacco in Kentucky was basically a fight between Wendell Ford, who was pro tobacco farmers, and Mitch McConnell, who wasn't. And Mitch McConnell

lasted longer and won. And that's why tobacco farmers kind of got screwed. Similarly, coal miners in eastern Kentucky. I mean, I don't have to tell you, there are a million examples of how Mitch has screwed over coal miners in an infinite amount of ways. And then I think this is important too. Religious conservatives, which there are a lot of in this state, especially in the southern parts like Barron County, like you mentioned, they really haven't gotten anything from Mitch McConnell either. I mean, what's the most important issue to them?

Roe versus Wade. Guess what? Has it been overturned? No. Is it ever going to be overturned? I would argue no, because Mitch McConnell doesn't want it to be overturned. Well, they have to keep that football, right? Exactly.

Because the day it gets overturned, all of a sudden women in these swing states are going to say, you know what? I'm not a Republican. I'm not going to vote Republican. So Mitch knows that. He wants to use it as a rallying cry, but never overturn it. And I think he's been very successful at that. So I would argue whatever your reason for

electing Mitch McConnell is, you've never gotten what you wanted. So let me ask you this. So like, you know, a common refrain we always hear for particularly from people not from Kentucky is, so how does this guy keep winning? You know, how does like, how does he keep finding the votes, whatever, whatever. And what's, what would you say to that person? Because in some ways the Democrats are worse. And I don't mean worse as a, in terms of policy. I just mean worse at politics. Mitch is great at politics.

I mean, I give him credit for that. He is a political master, but Democrats are terrible at it in Kentucky. We nominate the worst candidates. See, when you and I had this conversation last time I was on, I think we too often focus on moderate versus progressive or whatever. I'm probably more moderate than you all. But I will say this, I think where we missed it is mainstream versus not mainstream. And we, America is in a moment where we don't like mainstream politicians. We just don't. And yet in Kentucky, we pick the most mainstream politicians we possibly can to run. And it makes no sense. The only thing a Kentucky voter likes less than a mainstream Republican

is a mainstream Democrat. So why don't we do outsider candidates? And so that I think is where we make the mistake. So a perfect example is this race. I'm of the belief that myself and Rocky Adkins would have had a shot to win. The National Party didn't really consider either one of us. Rocky's a lot more conservative than I am, but I think we're both seen as kind of outside the fray, even though he was a mainstream politician. Charles Booker and Mike Breuer, in my opinion, both of those men would have a better chance of beating Mitch McConnell than Amy McGrath. I don't think either of them would beat him, but I think they would have a better chance of beating Mitch McConnell than Amy McGrath. I don't think either of them would beat him, but I think they'd have a better shot.

And yet the party is not even going to consider them or give them a chance. I just think it shows how clueless national Democrats are when they talk about Kentucky. Yeah. Well, you told us a good anecdote the last time you were on the show about when you went to the training and everything, and their big takeaway was, like, raise as much money as you can, raise as much money as you can. And you talked a little bit about how you were kind of disillusioned by that. And I was just wondering if, like – I didn't mean to cut you off there,

but if, you know, the national party, like you were saying, overlooking you and Rocky, do you think that had to do with some sort of residual bad feeling with how you responded? I don't think they knew enough about me to know that. I think what happened is, well, first of all, have I been on with you since I went and saw Schumer? Did we talk about that? I don't think so. So this is all in the book. And I would say to people listening, if you care about the

process in which we pick candidates in this country, if that matters to you, then read this book. Because I think I talk in detail about the process that the Democratic Party uses to pick candidates more than anyone else that I've seen has done because I went through it. And I'm going to give you the very basic notion. I tried for a year and a half to get Chuck Schumer to meet with me because everybody said, unless Chuck Schumer's on your side, you can't get nominated. So I tried for a year and a half. I called his office. I had people call his office. He would never meet with me. In fact, at one point, his office called me and said, quit calling. We're not meeting with you. So yeah, that's what they did.

So I thought it was over. Then there's a group of very progressive sort of activists who took an interest in my candidacy, I think because they knew McGrath couldn't win. And they got me an interview with like 12 big time donors. So there's a group of 50 donors who meet every year that are Obama's biggest donors. And they basically, all the candidates have to do a parade in front of them. They call themselves like the captains club. I'm being serious. This event happens in DC. And the only people that are allowed to go are the Senate and House candidates that the D, the Democrat Party, National Democrat Party approves.

So you were a Mountain Laurel Festival queen for a day. That's well, but no, I wasn't approved. But what these people did, these activists, is they kind of got the 10 or 12 that they had an in on. And in the same building they were having the official one, they had me speak to them on the side. And long story short, I give this spiel to them about why I would be the right candidate. And when it was over, one of them looks at me and goes, Matt, Schumer knows we're here. And he told us we could only come if we talked you out of running. And then he said, but you know what?

Listening to you, you'd be better. So we're going to tell him we disagree. Now, I want you to think about this. For a year and a half, I tried to get a meeting with him. Couldn't get one. I walk out that meeting, I laugh and go, well, he's not going to meet with me. He hasn't. Ten minutes later, I get in the cab, check my email,

and I already have an email from Schumer asking me to come meet with him. What? I'm being serious. For a year and a half. You're so motivated by the big donors, these guys. Exactly. That was what it took. For a year and a half, I had political consultants.

I had people that know him. I had former senators reaching out to him saying, meet with this guy. The only thing he listened to were those 10 donors. reaching out to him saying, meet with this guy. The only thing he listened to were those 10 donors. So I go meet with him and this is all detailed in the book, but long story short, he gives me the two hour interview that he gives all potential Senator candidates. And it is just, you want to read it. It's like every Senator, Democratic nominee goes through this. And at the end of it, he said, all right, Matt, if you enter the race, I'll stay out of it. And I said, honestly, I don't care if you're in it or not, because people in Kentucky, it's better for me if you're not for me. I was like, but the key is you've got to allow me to hire staff because here's what they do.

But the key is you've got to allow me to hire staff because here's what they do. They make it to where if a consultant or a pollster works for a candidate that's not approved by them, Schumer blocks them from ever working for one of his candidates again. Oh, my God. Which would hamper somebody like Charles Booker or Mac. That's what Charles Booker's going through with. So there are nine Democratic pollsters in America, nine major ones. I went to all nine. None of them would work with me.

None of them. So after I met with Schumer, his sort of grant to me was, I'll stop blocking people from working for you. And when he did that, the next day, my email box was full of people who wanted to work for me. How does that happen that quick? What's wrong? These people are fucking disease. They are truly fucking disease. I don't know.

But literally you wonder, like I'm like you, I wondered how did these people even know? Because he, he said to me, he was like, Matt, I don't want you to tell anybody about this meeting. I was like, fine.

You wrote a book. We went in the immediate, but the next day it was in the Washington post that I'd been there. Nobody in Kentucky called onto that, but there was like a Matt Jones spotted in Washington. But I guess there's like some secret society of people. Cause then, I mean, literally the next day, my email was full of people who wanted to write, who wanted to work for me. Charles Booker's going through that because Charles didn't get the sign off because he didn't have the rich donors go meet with him.

So he can't, I mean, he has a hard time hiring staff. He can hire Kentucky staff, but hiring national help. He just, he can't do it. I cannot believe the weight they've put behind Amy.

She's just a fucking... Well, here's why they have her. I mean, it's not... They believe, and they're right about this, she can raise an obscene amount of money. So their view is, look, there's a 5% chance of beating Mitch McConnell at best. Let's say Matt Jones and Rocky Atkins have a 5% chance. Amy McGrath may have a 1% chance, but we know she can raise money and keep Mitch busy. We don't know if these dudes can.

And that's exactly why they pick her. What's funny about that is most of the emails we get about this race are from listeners that we have in places like Portland, Oregon, places like Los Angeles, California, different places in Texas, New York, wherever. And they screenshot the mailers that they get from Amy McGrath's campaign. She doesn't raise money in Kentucky. I mean, she raises money in those people. And I say this with all due respect because, look, don't get me wrong. I hope she wins.

She would be better than him. I mean, I hope Charles or Mike wins the primary. But if she's the nominee, I hope she wins. With that said, to those of you in Portland and L.A., you're throwing your money away with her. Go give your money to Jamie Harrison in South Carolina. Or go give your money to the woman or whoever's running against Joni Ernst in Iowa. You're throwing it away here. And you all know that's true.

They're throwing it away. Give your money to Trillbillies, people. Patreon. It's just the reality. So let me ask you this so then if if people are throwing their money away on amy which is not a point i disagree with then like what what are the lessons we should learn from this and the prescriptions that you would have personally i would be the last of all well let me say this the schumer people will go, we have a good chance of taking the Senate this year.

And if we do, I guess the way we do it is right. And that is in some ways hard for me to argue, except I would say the Senate is gerrymandered against Democrats. There are more conservative states than there are liberal ones. So if we want to compete in the Senate long term, we got to win states like Kentucky. We have to. My thing is, if you want to win in states like that, then let's, I'm going to sound like a conservative, let's have a free market competition. Let these people go at it and let's see who wins, right? Because then we'll see who's a good candidate and who's not. Amy is not a good candidate. And you know how I know that? We saw it last year when she ran against Andy Barr because she got up in Massachusetts and said, I'm more liberal than anyone in Kentucky.

Well, guess what? She lost that day. You need to have the competition. So the best person, I mean, look, had I run, maybe I would have screwed up and somebody would have been better than me. But it's not a free competition. They just select the winner. And that doesn't work in a place like Kentucky. Yeah, it's so amazing, really, for me to like to pull back the curtain and hear you say this stuff about like it's not only your race you have to win. It's also you have to it's also mediated through this sort of patronage and clientage to Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the National Party and all that kind of stuff. That's the first hurdle. I had someone tell me this and I think they're correct. The last time not now, the by the way, the National Democrat and Republican Party, they don't get involved in every Senate race. Now, by the way, the National Democrat and Republican Party, they don't get involved in every Senate race. Sometimes they say like, you know what, it's California.

We're going to win no matter what. So y'all have at it. Whoever wins, wins. But the last time they were involved with a candidate that didn't get the primary nomination, you want to know when it was? When was that? 2010, Rand Paul over Trey Grayson. 2010 Rand Paul over Trey Grayson. And that's a perfect example of Kentucky's the kind of state that doesn't want you to tell us who to pick. Now, I love Trey Grayson.

I think he's a really good man. But Rand Paul, that was a time that the Tea Party was going. That's how he won. And my point is we're in one of those moments now with the Democratic Party. You guys are an example of this. You guys are popular and successful. Of all the times not to allow the mainstream to pick it, it would be now. And yet we still do it. Yeah, it's like the Republicans at least read the tea leaves on what was happening at the time with Rand Paul and were successful. In 2018, in the Indiana Senate race, the Republican nominee, the Republican Party decided, let's just stay out of it.

There's five nominees we think will be the favorite no matter what. And Mike Braun won because Mike Braun was the biggest Trumper of all of them. Well, guess what? In that moment, that was what worked. But we don't do that. We just pick them and say, well, y'all have this candidate and like it. Well, Matt, you've laid out all the evidence we need and we already had enough. But so do you have any thoughts on how we abolish the Senate altogether? Well, I don't know how we do that. That's probably going to be a, there's a

constitutional problem there, unfortunately. Well, we're't know how we do that. That's probably going to be a there's a constitutional problem there, unfortunately. Well, we're living in a constitutional crisis times anyway, Matt. So let's put the lawyer cap on for a second. Here's what I think needs to happen in the short term. OK, we need to take the Senate because if we don't, the amount of judges that Trump will put on the court that second term is going to be staggering. And I just have a big belief that people don't realize how important the judiciary is. And I'll give you one example. There was a case in the 60s called Rodriguez v. Texas. And the question was constitutionally, do you have a constitutional right to a good education? Not just an education, but a good one.

And it said, should the government fund each school district equally so that poor school districts can get the same education rich ones do? The Supreme Court decided 5-4 no. What if they had decided 5-4 yes? What if every school district in Kentucky had to be funded per student the same as the ones in Oldham County? Think about how different this country would be, and it was 5-4. Could have gone the other way. Those decisions happen every day, and we don't realize it, and we cannot let the Supreme Court go 7-2. Or I don't care if you if you get somebody that's more progressive than Bernie, it won't matter. The Supreme Court will strike down everything they do.

Well, let me ask you this, Matt. Let me ask you this. So we know that, you know, in the era of Trump, that he and McConnell sort of padded out the judiciary, not just the Supreme Court, but also just some different things. Like, how do we start to undo some of the damage from that, in your opinion? Some of it are to undo. I mean, some of it, like those people are going to be in office forever. I mean, I think the only way you do it is I know this sounds bad. I know this sounds bad. You have to win these elections because there was a belief I think Democrats had that Susan Collins and a couple of these other people would serve as barriers from getting the crazy judges. Because during the Bush years, that kind of happened. There were some moderate Republicans that kept Bush from appointing wacky people. Well, guess what?

That doesn't exist anymore. That doesn't exist anymore. And some of these people Trump is appointing, not all of them, but some of them are crazy. And they're getting all, I mean, read about Judge Ho down on the Fifth Circuit down there where Texas is. He writes insane opinions? Craven maniac. Well, no, they had an en banc case the other day that was about something. And I can't remember what it was. And it was like 14 to 1. And the 1 was Judge Ho.

And he was basically like, yeah, I don't think the Civil Rights Amendment is correct. And you're like, excuse me. Like he was basically saying all the civil rights bills in the 1960s were all unconstitutional. Now imagine if you end up with one of those people. I mean, it used to be that Clarence Thomas was the only dude who would write stuff like that. Well, now, you know, now Alito starts to agree with him some and Gorsuch starts to agree with him some. And all of a sudden you went from one crazy person to three. Exactly. You went from one crazy person to three.

So it worries me. This is because I'm an attorney. I am genuinely worried about the courts. So, again, you've laid out an incredible abundance of evidence here. So next question, how do we abolish the judicial arm? I don't know. Again, I think you have a constitutional problem. Let me let me pivot to something else real quick, since, you know, we're in this, you know, we're not in the same room like we have been in the past and all that kind of stuff. like we have been in the past and all that kind of stuff. We've talked a little bit about like how sort of our character as a country has sort of been just rattled by all this coronavirus and everything else.

And it's like the few things that are like sort of central to the American identity, sports being chief among them for our purposes here. How are you dealing with your beat being disrupted a little bit, Matt? Well, it's good for me on the radio because I can talk about things I'm interested in rather than sports, you know, because I mean, after a while, what else can you say about sports? It's like balls going in a basket, you know? Right, right. But I do think, though, I think you hit on something that is really true, which is I think for people probably my age and younger, maybe even like 45, 50 and younger, there's an uneasiness that is in this country that has not been there in our lifetime. You know, I think people older than us had that during the civil rights movement and protests.

They wondered, is the country just falling apart? Obviously, people who were in World War II did that in Vietnam. But I think for our generation, the sort of uneasiness about what is this world going to look like next month? I don't really think we've felt that. And I think that's been weird to people. It's been weird to me. I genuinely don't know what August is going to look like. Are we going to be close to normal? Are we going to still be locked down? Are all schools going to be closed? And if we're closing schools for another semester, what happens? Like, it's just, it's such a, all of this is such a fundamental question as to who we are. And I think our generation and younger has never felt that uneasiness. We've always had a world where like, it all made sense on some level. And it doesn't. There's always this invisible hand that was going to ride everything.

Yeah, exactly. I felt this way a lot during the Trump era in general. It feels like I used to always say, well, it'll never get this bad. And then it has. And that sort of throws off your whole equilibrium when that happens. I used to say, and I think this coronavirus has just made me go, well, I don't know what tomorrow's going to be like. Which is by the way how humans live for thousands of years and we just live perpetually with that.

It's weird because I was thinking about this. It's like there are kids in high school there's kids in college and i mean for me like high school is kind of a trivial time but like for some people that's sort of a formative thing and like could you imagine just like saying oh yeah i went to high school essentially for like two and a half years like assuming this goes on you know what i mean like they're they're like high school or college career could just be cut that experience could just be cut short like in terms of actually physically showing up somewhere. It's kind of weird to think about. Well, you know, I think take the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

I mean, honestly, if you go back to our grandparents' age, like life was awful in terms of difficult. I don't mean like it was a terrible life, but it was difficult. It was hard to find work. The work you found could kill you. And that was an expected part of life, that life was, to quote the philosopher, nasty, brutish, and short. That was kind of how it was. And then sometime around the 70s or so, I mean, don't get me wrong, life's still hard, but there became an expectation that we were a lot

more like the rest of the world and that we had electricity and running water and all of that stuff. Well, now we're all kind of like, well, what happens if I can't get food? Like what happens if I can't go outside for long periods of time? And those are questions, honestly, that I think I never even thought about. And that, I think, is the thing that's disorienting to people, at least to me. Never. You just never had to confront. Well, to put a bow on it, man, here, we'll cut you loose since we kind of got off to

a late start anyway. But I wanted to ask you about, because I've been taking a little heat because I decided to dip my toe in your beef with the wake forest. Yeah. Whoever the wake forest dude was, Josh, whatever. This is something I said on Twitter and I love getting it basketball debates

because look, here's the thing. A lot of people don't know about me. I was a video coordinator at Moorhead we beat louisville in the ncaa tournament like i've watched more basketball than most people have by fact were you at that game like were you at that game that was in denver right yeah yeah yeah out in denver yeah it was three block the shot there yeah so uh so like you know i like to throw out these little hot takes every once in a while and i'm'm accused of being a UK Homer or whatever,

but so the guy had said the thing to you. Uh, so name two UK players better than Tim Duncan or Chris Paul, which is of course an apples and oranges thing, because all of Cal's guys that could be up, you know, get up in that conversation, their careers aren't over,

you know what I mean? So, and I said to them, I said, conversation their careers aren't over you know what i mean so and i said to them i said is it really inconceivable that we could talk about anthony davis or carl anthony towns the way we talk about tim duncan by the time it's all said none and i don't think that's like a hot take in the least and so everybody was bombarding me like bagging on carl towns like oh i see anthony davis because he's like this freakish rim protector guy once in a lifetime player, the way he's been

talked up. But I was like, look at Carl Towns' numbers. And granted, he didn't have the luxury of being drafted to David Robinson's team. And he's only 22 years old. I mean, Tim Duncan went four years of college and then he went to the press.

Carl Towns came right out of high school. Yeah, listen, I don't care what Wake Forest people say about basketball. What do they know? There's nothing that is more in my wheelhouse than taking on people who say bad things about Kentucky. It's more important to me than a conservative liberal. Many years ago in 2010, Kentucky played Cornell in the NCAA tournament. You all may have some listeners who went to Cornell.

I can't stand Cornell because in the lead up to that game, there was a big narrative nationwide. Cornell is how college basketball should be. Kentucky's a bunch of one and done thugs is basically what they would say. And at the core of that was Kentucky's black and Cornell's white. That was what was at the core of it. And I wrote a post that was read on radio shows all over the country where I was basically like, y'all are being racist. And don't act like you're not being racist because you're liberal.

And thus you take up for Cornell because they're an Ivy league school. And that's where you went. You're still being racist. DeMarcus cousins and Eric Bledsoe. That's the American dream. You know, what is that? Like,

you know, and, and I love DeMarcus, of course, gave that famous quote, this ain't no spelling bee, which I thought was an absolutely awesome quote. But the same thing with Wake Forest. I mean, what that coach said about why would you want a degree from Kentucky when you can have a degree from Wake Forest? I mean, Olivier Saar is from France.

When he goes back to France, they don't know anything about Wake Forest. Like they don't. You think people in France are impressed by Wake Forest? They don't even know what that is. Like, tell me the French university equivalent of Wake Forest. How many universities can you name in France? None. So yeah, I really like going up against liberal. I mean, you've heard me rant on conservatives for 45 minutes. So let me go against liberal. Liberal elitism drives me absolutely crazy. And that Josh Graham's sort of rant there was my latest chance to go up against liberal elitists. And there's a lot of that in that Mitch Please book, too.

There's a lot of, you know, liberal elitists think they're smarter than everybody. And that's one of the things I like about you all. You guys maintain true to what Eastern Kentucky is. And that is something that most progressives have a really hard time doing. And especially on the national scale. I mean, at the end of the day, the biggest problem Democrats have in Kentucky is most Kentuckians think that Democrats believe they're better than they are. They think that those national Democrats, oh, you're better than me. And you know what? They're right. The national Democrats do think they're better than they are. They do think we're a bunch of dumb hillbillies. I mean, they think I'm a dumb hillbilly and I finished second in my class at Duke, and that's fine. They think I'm an ignorant dude because I sound like this.

You know, I hate that. And that's why we struggle in this state. It's almost more cultural than it is political. Yeah. Yeah. I somehow went to liberal elitism, but I think there was a path. Oh, I mean, the funny thing about that is it's like, yeah, I understand Wake Forest is a good school, but like, I mean, it's not like, you know, Duke or Vanderbilt or, you know what I mean? Like in terms of reputation, it's good. I went to Transylvania and Transylvania is a good school,

but sometimes when people, when I was at Transylvania, they talked like we were at Yale. I was like, you know, stop it. It's still Transylvania. It's not like we all turn down full rides to Oxford and England to come here to Transylvania and walk across Broadway and not get hit by a car. I mean, I love Transylvania,

but come on. I kind of feel that way about Wake Forest as well. Right, right. Well, I won't drag us into it, but if we had time, I was going to ask you to explain to me what in the fuck's going on with Louisville. On everything, just in life.

Yeah, just in general. I'll get Tom to explain it to me later. Well, let me say, I hope your listeners will get Mitch, please. It was weird to release a book when bookstores are closed. It came out, the book literally came out right as America shut down, which is not ideal, but it's available from your local bookstore or whatever the hell you want to do. And hopefully when bookstores open again, they'll still have a copy.

We'll see. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Matt, thanks so much for a copy. We'll see. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Matt, thanks so much for stopping by. You want to tell folks where they can find you if they're not familiar with you? At KY Sports Radio, or I have two accounts. My political one is at Matt Jones Radio. If you want to know what the rest of the world thinks,

just wait until I do a political post and read the comments, and then you'll get to see. You get quite a cross section of uh kentucky hell yeah well matt thanks so much for stopping by man we always appreciate it and uh have fun with you good luck with everything and let me know when you're when uh you guys are ever up this way i'd love to do at some point i'm gonna have you on my podcast if If I ever started back, which I know, which would be a dream would be a dream. We appreciate you.

And stay safe. Okay. You got some angles on your way out of town. Listen, I will. I'm going to go make sure the rocks chained up. See ya.