Weekly Skews - Weekly Skews - 1/02/24 – Happy Skew Year!

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Well it’s 2024, Skewers, and things are as dumb as ever. Tonight, Travis Irvine fills in for Smart Mark as we break down some of the dumber things happening in America at present, including but not limited to: Trump’s butt smell, NYC’s lunatic mayor, Green Day’s commie agenda, an insane St. Louis cop story, and more. Join us. Support the show

What's up, everybody, welcome back and happy skew year to you. That's right, is January 2nd, the year of our fake lord 2024. I'm Trey Crowder. That is not, as you probably already ascertained, smart mark. He's having some issues with the big move to his new apartment he's doing. He was running behind so he couldn't make it. So we called in at the last minute and he was nice enough to join us. friend of the show.

Y'all know him. You loving Mr. Travis Irvine. How you doing, T. Rav? Hello, happy skew year to you.

Yeah, I'm allowed to be in the Christmas spirit for like one more week. So I'm wearing this hat until Valentine's Day if I can. Oh, yeah? You're a big Christmas guy. You like to stretch.

You like to stretch the Christmas spirit out as long as you can. As long as I can. And we were talking before the show, obviously number one new comedy in America, Killer Raccoons, too, Dark Christmas in the Dark. One of the only movies I've made,

one of two movies I made that has Trey as a guest role in it. But we had a great holiday season. Killer Raccoons 2 was on Tubi this year and we were knocking it out of the park. Gen Z loves Killer Raccoons too. So I'm going to stay in the holiday spirit until next year. Got those TikTok kids on board. That's important. It's important.

Good for you. Yeah. So for all you skewers out there, Mark, he wants everybody to know that when he does make it back, he was hoping to debut it tonight. But him and his wife were moving to a new apartment. which means he's going to have new wallpaper, Travis, you don't know this, but Mark's wallpaper is very popular here in the skewer's love Mark's wallpaper, and it is no more because he's leaving that apartment, but he's going to a new one, and he's got a new

wallpaper for what his wife picked out, a new wallpaper for y'all, that I've seen, and I think you will enjoy it, but you're going to have to wait with bated breath until next week when he comes back to see what he's got in store for you. So you've got that to look forward to. But, Travis, I wanted to ask you just to, you know, be in the spirit of the season a little bit. I wanted to ask you about just New Year's in general. I know, obviously, you love Christmas, but, like, where are you at on New Year's? You big New Year's guy, where does New Year's fall in the Pantheon of holidays for you personally?

You into it? Well, it drops off pretty hard for me after Christmas. Yeah, New Year's is one where I think the more you build up expectations for it, the worse it's going to be. So my mantra for New Year's for pretty much since senior year of high school, when I was going to tell my then high school girlfriend that I loved her and then she ran off with some other guy that night. I don't prepare that hard for New Year's anymore.

I just enjoy where I am and the people I'm with and then I get a good night's sleep. Yeah, it's kind of, it's sort of like your birthday sort of where it's like, you know, do you feel any different? You know what I mean? You're a year older and you're like, I feel the same way I felt yesterday. It's sort of the same way, but with a new year, though.

Are you a resolution guy? You got any resolutions for us? I mean, I gave up on that, too. I do have like annual goals. I also gave up on that years ago. But I believe in like having goals for the year. You know, you make kind of a wish list, a visionary board, if you will, of sorts. So I believe in, you know, new beginnings.

Actually, that was something cool about this particular. New Year's only happens every hundred years. But the number sequence there on December 31st, 2023, it was one, two, three, one, two, three. And all the numerologists say it's got a lot of good energy behind it. I don't know what that means, but I believe it. The numerologist have weighed in everybody. So that means it's got good energy. So that means the prognosis for the forthcoming year is good, according to numerologists,

because this is like a pivotal year, you know, like I feel like that's the thing lately. It's like it feels like every year, you know, like in 2023, a lot of crazy shit happen whenever, and it's like you can, oh, you can wash it away, put that behind you and look forward to 2024, but then you think about what 2024 has in store. and the existential dread comes right back. You know what I mean? It's like, I don't know how I feel about all that. It's like you said, like you're saying,

you haven't really gotten down that way ever since that happened with the girl in high school or whatever. I felt like to me on a larger scale, ever since 2020, like you can go back at Twitter on New Year's Eve 2019, right? And find out of these people being like, 2020's our year, everybody, 2020. Yeah, people say that every year.

But you look at it for 2020, knowing what 2020 ended up being, and it should take the wind out of everybody's sales where New Year's is concerned, I feel like. But on that note, I wanted that. That got me thinking about, like I said, it seems like every year it's like, oh, things could get worse, you know, I guess we'll see.

Like, it's a very not great feeling time we're living in, and it got me thinking about, like, where it actually ranks in American history in terms of bad times or bad times. times to be alive and present in this country. And I know you're a history buff, you're particularly a presidency buff, but I just wondered what you thought about that.

Like the current era we're living in, how do you feel it ranks amongst the rest of them in American history in terms of badness? In terms of badness, oh boy, well, luckily we have a full hour, I guess. In 2016 and 2020, I think you're right. Between 2016, 2020, I think that kind of leveled everyone's expectations for our modern times. And you're absolutely right. I got a lot of progressive friends I was hanging out with these last few weeks over the holidays.

And they are in dread of whatever 2024. No one is very hopeful. I'm over here still thinking Biden's going to win a landslide. But everyone keeps saying I'm going to be very wrong about that. So I think we'll see. But in terms of a historical context, you know, let's look back 100 years. Warren G. Harding, Ohio's last president, had just. just died while he was in office, and the man named Calvin Coolidge was now our president in

1924, and I can't tell you, there's not a single president you're going to find in history who wanted to be president less than Calvin Coolidge. So I think, honestly, those folks in 1924 had no idea was about to hit them either. I mean, it was in the middle of the roaring 20s. They had no idea about the coming Great Depression, the stock market crash, the Herbert Hoover years, World War II, I mean, sure, it could always get. get a lot worse, but it can always get a lot better, too. So, thinking about the fact that that was right around the corner, I looked into this question about, like, where we rank in terms of badness in times to be alive as an American.

And I found a bunch of articles and a bunch of sources and stuff from historians talk or weighing in on what they thought. And you were like 1924, they didn't know what was to come. But I found a lot of historians saying that 1917 to 1921, might be the worst period in American history. I saw people saying because they had the Spanish flu pandemic, right? So like we had our pandemic, but they had a larger, worseer pandemic, right, going on.

Also, the Great War was happening during that time frame. This was a period of a lot of labor unrest. You know what I mean? Like a lot of stories about fucking robber barons, just having laborers murdered and stuff for, asking for time off and that type of thing. This is a period when a lot of that was happening. A first precursor to the Red Scare was breaking out during this time.

Race relations were horrific, like as bad as they are now or in the 60s or whatever. I mean, in this period, the late 19 teams, pretty horrific race relations. This era encompasses the Tulsa Race Massacre, the big Chicago race riots, among other things. these things happened during that time. And also, all this is going on and you couldn't even get drunk because prohibition, prohibition came into being at this time as well. So I found it to be a pretty compelling argument. You know what I mean? And in my head, I try to frame it as like, well, you know, you look at that and things could be worse. Guys, let's try to enjoy ourselves as much as we can. It could always get. But again, like you said, it could get much worse for us too. Like, even

those people, they were coming out of that, and they're like, who, thank God, that's over. And right around the corner was the Great Depression, WW2, all that shit. So you just never know. The runner up was probably, a lot of people said that a lot of historians said the single worst year, single year in American history was 1862. Because it was during the civil, that's apparently the consensus is that was the worst year of the American Civil War, which is obviously we talk about how divided we are. a country now. It's hard to be more divided than a literal civil war, and that was the worst year of the civil war. So a lot of people think 1862 was the worst year in American history. A lot of the list I saw put 2020, somewhere between like five and eight on the list of

worst years in American history. So if that comforts anyone, then there you go. Yeah, right. Well, yeah, I don't know if thinking about the Battle of Antietam of 1862 or the Union heads. Tons of soldiers slaughtered makes me feel any better about anything. But you are right. The late 19 teens, I forgot there was all the, I mean, I remember the Spanish flu. I mean, I don't remember it, but I know it happened, obviously, and the end of the Great War, aka World War I, which I was like to think they just called it World War I the whole time back now. Right. Even before World War II. They knew what was coming. There's no way. This is the last one. This is the beginning of a trilogy. Yeah, right. And the third one's going to stop. Yeah, right. The third one's the climax. We're going to put that one off.

But I forgot about the Russian Revolution. I mean, you're absolutely right. That's actually why Warren G. Harding won in 1920, because everyone was just so sick of the bullshit. They were just like, let's just vote for this loser from Ohio. So little did they know. It only made it worse. Because you're a president guy. I'm not.

You said Calvin Coolidge. You'll be hard pressed to find any president who wanted to be a president less than Calvin Coolidge. yeah why why did you say that elaborate please for those of us who may not know not me obviously i know all of it but for anybody else out there might not know you elaborate a little bit yeah calvin coolidge i mean some people i think he's the coke brother's favorite president which should tell you all you know yeah right it's all you need to know yeah um he didn't want to be president back then the vice president was still just a ceremonial role i mean they didn't even have a job or they didn't send him down to the border you know there was really just

you're the fall guy in case the president dies. So Calvin Coolidge was a Vermont Republican back then. And after Warren G. Harding died, Calvin Coolidge, he did run for reelection in 1924. He did win, but he pretty much put his Department of the Interior Secretary, a young man named Herbert Hoover, in charge of the entire country. Calvin Coolidge would vacation for the entire summer back up in Vermont and spend no time in D.C. That's how much he despised the whole job. and the whole idea of being president.

And he did it so much so that he put Herbert Hoover in charge. And then obviously Herbert Hoover was the successor. But they, again, there were no regulations. No, there were these really hands-off laissez-faire economic Republicans. And you saw what that led to in 1929 stock market crash. So that is a brief little history on Mr. Calvin Coolidge. Again, just a guy that I, you look through history. Some of them just kind of want to be president, but not this guy.

I think just because you brought it up, like what I've seen people speculate about Trump saying that like, oh, he didn't even think he was going to win. It was like a PR name or whatever. I mean, do you buy into that? You think Trump didn't want to be president? And then how do you, if so, how do you explain what he's doing now? He seems pretty into the idea since he's trying for it again. Yeah, that's a very good point. I do think there was an element of the 2016 Trump campaign.

I've heard that too. It was all a media stunt to eventually launch Trump TV. And he was going to have Roger Ailes and Alex Jones and Steve Bannon and all these media guys run it while Hillary was president. And they were just going to lob grenades from the TV. I think they're on prepared for their success in 2016, going in 2017. You could even see it on Trump's face in election night 2016 when he's finally settling in that he might actually win. But now I think now they've got a taste. You know, not everybody is Calvin Coolidge.

You know, he got a taste and he wants more. That last part, that makes sense to me. Like he said, he got a taste and now he's in. He wants more. But the first part, I don't know. It kind of makes sense to me except knowing what we know about Donald Trump. Like, he just doesn't feel like the kind of guy who goes into anything thinking he's not going to emerge victorious because he's such a raging narcissist. You know what I mean?

It's hard for me to believe that Donald. Trump launched a presidential campaign knowing fully or thinking fully in his head, like, well, obviously, I'm not going to win this, but it'll mean more money. It'll be good for the bottom line. Like, he just doesn't seem like that guy to me. You know what I mean? Like he feels like he should come out on top of everything all the time. Oh, sure. And oftentimes he does come out unscathed at least, Teflon Dynam. I mean, you see it now with more and more charges. It's just the more and more he's in the news. The more money he raises, the more his base loves them. But it is interesting because they have pointed to similarities of their strategy in 2020 when they did lose that a lot of what they were saying going into that election, they were already saying back in the election of 2016 if they were going to lose. You know, the whole, will you accept the results of the election? Well, yes, if I win. Right. So, I mean, even Roger Stone was gearing up a stop-the-steel back in 2016. There's a lot of the writing on the wall in terms of if they had lost in 2016, it's eventually what they did in 2020.

And Lord knows, and I see it all there in the chats and the comments, they're definitely planning something even bigger for 2024 in the event that they do not win the election. You know what? I want to, producer Matt, hear me out right here. I want to circle back to that in a little bit. I want to do some of these daily dumbasses, but then I want to have a larger conversation with Travis about that because it feels appropriate to me because it's a New Year's episode. We're going to talk about 2024. We're going to prognosticate a little bit.

But we'll get to that later. So first producer Matt is with us. Me and Travers are here. This is weekly skews. Before we continue, I want to remind you all of a couple of orders of business. Number one, if you'd like to see me perform stand-up live and you should go to Tray Crowder.com and check out my upcoming tour dates. Got some 2024 dates for you, adding more all the time.

I believe next up is Charlottesville, Virginia, then got a Florida run. It's going to be fun. So, yeah, I got to Traycrouter.com and come and see me also on Traycrowder. You can find a link to me and Corey's travel log round here and over yonder. It's a funny romp through these 50 American states and also across the pond to England and Scotland. It's a good time. So check it out. Lastly, if you enjoy this program and we'd like to show your support, you can do so by signing up on Patreon.

You can go to weekly skews.com slash more $5 a month, get you access to full-length bonus episodes. We just wrapped up another skew and a with you lovely viewers out there. and we cover things that don't come up in the main show or that happen in between or just stuff we want to talk about. It's a good time. You get some extra skews in your life and support the show in the process. So think about it. Go to weekly skews.com slash more or go on Patreon and search for my name either way works.

Now, as for the show tonight, I've just called an audible. We're going to be talking more later about our prognosis for 2024 and the plans they have in store and how we think that's all going to go. We're going to get to that a little bit later. But first, let's go through. some Daily Dumbasses, beginning with the number one, D-D, Matt. Tonight's Daily Dumbass is anyone who invested in Trump's

custom-scented cologne. Given the recent information we heard, starting with Adam Kinsinger, check this out. I'm genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven't talked about the odor. It's truly something to behold, wear a mask, if you can, Then Donald Trump responded to that, and he had his team go after you and say, no, Kinsinger is the one who's smelly.

And as Hillary Clinton said, if you could be baited by a tweet, how are you supposed to be expected to handle Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian's? And Donald Trump clearly got baited by your tweet and your post. But let's just start with your post, the odor, the stench, the stink, the stink, how bad is. it what do you know about that yeah i mean it's not good i mean think about the best way to describe it i've tried to like so take like armpits catch up uh like a butt and kind of put it in a blender and makeup and put that all in a blender and that's and you bottle that as a clone that's kind of that um but it's amazing like i have it yeah armpits catch up a butt and makeup Travis, that's the alchemy of Trump's specific odor, according to Adam Kinsinger.

How do you, where are you out on it? How you feel about it? Because I've noticed this become a thing, and I'm glad it's a thing. It's funny to me. But I've seen on the internet people have picked up the like, hashtag Trump smells. I've seen people making a lot of jokes recently about how Trump is stank. And I didn't know where it came from, but I guess it came from this. But also Michael Cohen, he claimed that whenever Trump, like, screams.

at a rally when he really gets fired up or makes an act out or something, it's to cover up him like kind of shitting himself a little bit or something like that. There's always been wearing depends and stuff. And he's just pooping everywhere, I guess. But, I mean, what do you think about this about Trump's stank? I mean, the visuals. I mean, I don't know if I, when people describe smells, I also get the visuals. So when he says armpits and then also ketchup and then a butt,

I mean, it's just the, but that is Trump, right? And then he said makeup as well, just on top of the entire thing and put it in a blender. I mean, that's honestly, that's a candle. That's a maga candle right there. That's a scented candle you want to get for your MAGA uncle next Christmas. I think this actually, somebody should take what Kinzinger said and actually make that a scented candle. I won't buy it. That's a good point.

Yeah, no, it would be a good novelty gift. yeah yeah um trump scented candles but make sure when you get like ass extract you know what i mean like you think about you make it like fragrances you got to have extract you know what i mean like apparently like vanilla smell or no one of those smells comes from like the anal glands of beavers or something like that like so you get which is funny because you think that would be where you source the ass smell but obviously it's not but i'm saying you got to you got to source these smells right you got to get concentrated ass from somewhere to add to your Trump candle. It's got to be old ass.

I'm thinking you go to a retirement home. Yeah, right. Yeah. And you just, you wheel around collecting everyone's diapers and say this is a new thing we're doing. You don't have to throw them away yourself. And then you collect them. And that's,

I think, that's an underpaid job right there. I don't care of. Well, you're going to make money on these MAGA candles. Yeah, right. You got to believe in your product.

Yes, absolutely. So I'm not going to lie. If you had asked me what I expected Trump to smell like before all this came out, I would have said like he wears way too much weird cologne or something. Yeah, like rich person cologne. Rich person, yeah, but like way too much of it. So it's strong. It's like it is offensive, but in a different way.

It's in your face. It's overpowering and it's not pleasant. It's not pleasant, but not like pits and butt and makeup and shit. And ketchup. And ketchup. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have gone there.

People have liked this. It makes sense, though, because you people, sometimes you, when you sweat, you sweat of what you, you eat,

right? Like if you drink a lot before you sweat and you smell like booze. And we know Trump loves ketchup. He puts it on everything, right? Right. He puts it on Melania before they go to town.

Yeah, there were, yeah, there were stories about him like getting mad and hurling plates and the walls at Mar-a-Lago. So there's like ketchup stains everywhere in shit. On January 6. Yeah,

yeah. Yeah, it's his steak with ketchup on it. So, yeah, like the Lincoln Project, they've got a new, everybody's latching on to this. The Lincoln Project's got a new ad about how much he stank and all this stuff. And it's like, it's on the one hand kind of upsetting and embarrassing that this is like where our political discourse is when it comes to a presidential candidate. You know what I mean? We're just talking about how stanky is. But on the other hand, on the other hand, like, it does feel like it will work because of,

how Trump is. Do you know what I mean? Like, he's already responded to this shit. And I think if it becomes more of a thing that Trump is stank, I feel like that's the type of thing that would drive him fucking crazy. You know, so I get how it could be effective, you know? I focus on that instead of policies. I understand.

Right. It's not a commercial meant for MAGA voters or independent moderate swing voters. It's a commercial meant to piss off Trump because there's no more. more thin-skinned snowflake in the country than Donald Trump. So it's a good idea. Speaking of that, of him being the most thin-skinned snowflake in the country, I don't know if you saw this, but something came out recently that, you know, Trump had a cameo in Home Alone too, right?

Everybody knows that. And something came out that he had, like, bullied his way into that cameo. There are always reports about how, like, he owned the plaza there in Manhattan and a lot of places wanted to film in the plaza. And apparently his caveat for allowing them to film there was like, okay, but you got to put me in the movie, right? And that was like, that was contractually obligated. And people would agree to it.

And what most productions did was they would film some bullshit scene with Trump in it. And then they would just leave it on the cutting room floor, right? Like Matt Damon told a story about the movie scent of a woman, which Matt Damon was in. that happened on that movie. They wanted to film some scenes in the plaza and Trump said, I'll only let you do it if you put me in the movie. So Damon says, we had to waste fucking, you know, a couple hours of the shooting day,

getting a shot of Donald Trump coming out of a limo and Al Pacino being like, Mr. Trump, how are you doing? And he walks inside and we did that, but then we just cut it out of the movies. That's what people used to do. But in Home Alone, too, they kept it in, right? That was the report that came out and Trump lost his fucking mind over it.

And of course was like, no, they begged me to be in that movie. I made that movie. That is remembered and celebrated to this day. Without me, that movie would have been nothing. And to this day, they're glad that they somehow got my agreement to be in that movie. So that was his response to it. So yeah, pretty thin-skinned. Yeah, I mean, also, I just can't see a scenario.

area where you're begging Donald Trump to do anything. I mean, especially if he's in scent of a woman, he's going to mess up the whole scent of the movie on that one apparently. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Scent of a catchup butt. Yeah, it was turned in too. He was on there.

Yeah, right. Yeah, that's a good point. What were you at on, in talking about, like, effective strategies against Trump, where are you at on this thing with the, with the states removing him from the primary ballots and stuff? What do you think about all that? Well, we'll see if it holds up with the U.S. Supreme Court. I think, you know, that's a bold 50-state strategy, but that's it. It's a 50-state strategy, right? So I honestly think the Democrats should keep running on the things that just won them all these elections in 2023 and 2022, and that's reproductive rights, women's rights. You know, that's what elections are, right? controlling the narrative. And I think the Democrats need to keep running on what's been working in the last two years, because otherwise, you know, they're going to call him Sleepy Joe and they're going to put out commercials with him tripping over sandbags and falling off his bike. And, you know, I just, the discourse is going to be bad. In terms of what to attend to 2024, I do think this is going to want already, look how bad it is. We're not even, we haven't hit the fall stretch yet. I just, the thing that worries me about it is like setting the precedent that you, because like, look, we all know that he did it, that he, you.

you know, was a treasonous insurrectionist or whatever. He did it in front of the whole world. We all saw it. Yeah. But he hasn't been, like, convicted in the court of law of it so far, and they're still using that. And I know the Constitution doesn't explicitly state that you need to be. But I'm from a dumb-ass red state, Tennessee, and, like, I just, I just don't want to see states like mine start trying to do this to Joe Biden. You know what I mean?

And it becomes this, like, mud flinging thing back and forth. And you can be like, well, Joe Biden doesn't. Joe Biden hasn't been treasonous. They can't even make that argument. It's like if you've seen the arguments they've been making, of course they can make that argument. Like bullshit, but like they can do it. They will do it.

They make all kinds of crazy arguments about him. You know what I mean? They can figure out a way to try to do it. And then it just becomes a total shit show. That's what kind of worries me about it a little bit. So I don't know. I know that like in Maine, in Colorado, it's like, oh, it's a blue state. It's going for Biden anyway.

So it doesn't really matter. Maine where it also happened they split their electoral votes so there it could matter like it could make a difference in that state particularly so like Biden could end up winning by like one electoral vote or something because Trump wasn't even on the ballot in Maine and so he lost that that electoral vote or whatnot so you know who knows but it's it's all pretty wild yeah well and just in terms of historical context because you mentioned the 1862 the last time we had an election where they weren't allowing presidential candidates on the balance was 1860. And it was the southern states not allowing Abraham Lincoln on some of their ballot.

So I agree with you. Anything that can be done to one side can then be arguably done to the other side in the same reasoning. So again, I told all my progressive friends who are feeling bad about 2024, I still think Joe Biden's going to manage to win in a landslide. I think your independence, your moderates, your suburb moms are sick. of the Trump show. I think they will be even more so by November. But again, who the hell knows? Not me. Right. Well, do you think they're going to vote for Joe Biden considering the campaign of horror he's launched on this country as evidenced by this clip from Donald Trump,

Jr. Matt, uh, hit it. This is now mainstay language within the Democrat party. If you vote for Democrats in 2024, you are literally voting to send your friends. Maybe you're concerned. You're conservative uncle to the re-education camps in time. This is no main language. The re-education camps, in my head, I was like, you know, I'm like liberal re-education camps. Does he mean libraries? Is that what he's talking about?

Like places where there are books? Because like, I'm not going to lie. You know, this is a crazy thing to say. But speaking as a liberal, I'm like, these people could do with some re-education, frankly. They could do with a little deprogramming, but we're not fucking putting people into camps. You know, I mean, that's the whole thing. Like, I mean, I'm worried about if Trump takes over again. I'm worried about it ended up in a goddamn gulag or something.

You know what I mean? Like, we're not the ones that's going to herd people into camps, but projection is one of their premier pursuits. So it's not surprising. Well, and fear, again, is one of the biggest motivators when it comes to campaigning, especially for Republicans, especially the Trump campaign. They're going to try to scare you. And they're trying to, they got to keep their base together. And they got to scare their base into voting for a Trump.

And what's scarier than books and education to a Republican? Yeah. I mean, apparently not much lately, dude. They're real upset about it. All right. Our first honorable mention for Daily Dumbass is New York's Tourism Board for not putting 9-11 in the brochure. This is New York Mayor Eric Adams, listen to this shit. Oh, boy.

When you look at the totality of the year, if you had to describe it and it's tough to do in one word, what would that word be and tell me why? New York. This is a place where every day you wake up, you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our trade center to a person who's celebrating a new business that's open. This is a very, very complicated city, and that's why it's the greatest city on the globe. Yep. There you go. 9-11. One of the reasons New York is the greatest city on the globe.

This dude, I don't know how familiar you are with Eric Adams, but he's wild. It seems like New York somehow exclusively ends up with wild-ass weirdo mayors or something. Yeah. Because this dude is on one. Oh, Lord. No, I know all about it. And, you know, I lived there for about nine years. I moved there in Bloomberg with still mayor.

And then we have Bill de Blasio. And now Eric Adams is just, is a different kind of beast running this thing. I mean, to go on there and say, hey, the city, it's crazy. Anything can happen here. A plane can fly into your business. Or you can open a new business. I don't know. Anything can happen.

You know, all my New Yorker friends say that New York's really gone downhill, especially after the pandemic. It's so expensive to live there now. I mean, you know, our buddy Drew Morgan, he and I both live there around the same time. It used to be a lot more chill. You know, you could still find an apartment down in Bushwick for like $600 a month. Those days are over.

And Eric Adams, in particular, when he first took office, I think he was already caught, like, parking his car on the side. sidewalk in front of his apartment, but then his apartment was actually in New Jersey and he didn't even live in the city. There's so many different things that this guy has done already that has made a lot of people not like him. Yeah, and those people that don't like them, like him, when they say they don't like him, his response is that those people are racist, right? That's his response. Yes. People that don't like him, he claims that's just racism or whatever, which is obviously

a bullshit response, but also another thing he's done recently is like, I don't know if you saw this. They really, really upped the NYPD presence in the subways last year, which led to a major increase in overtime pay. So the overtime pay for New York cops last year went from $4 million to $155 million because they were putting more cops in the subways to try to combat the crime problem, whatever else. And Travis, the result of that, if you don't know, is a two, percent drop in major crimes in the subway so 155 million dollars for a two percent drop but the plus side of it Travis is that they had a 250 percent increase in uh arrest of fare evaders so they really yeah people people that were trying to skirt paying the fair to get on the subway they really cracked

down on that but seemed to have basically let the rapes and murder slide by to the tune so a little more few more numbers for you. They said last year they caught 1900 feravators in the subway last year right. Founds all right 1900. If each of those rides would have cost $2.75

that means they saved $5,225 for the city of New York as compared to $155 million in overtime for also a negligible change in the actual amount of major crime in the subway.

That's how that's going. This is painful. I love New York. Like, I love living there. I could never do it again. It's a young person's game to live there. But that's insane, Trey. I actually got stuff for me and my French girlfriend.

We tried to go in at the same time. And there's a cop right there and they got us. So, you know, it's a crime-ridden city. And I'm glad they're putting a stop to it to the tune of $150 million. That's insane. Eric Adams, by the way, former cops. So I think a lot of people did see this coming. You know, he's a former Republican and a former cop.

So a lot of Democrats have questions about him. He also tried to, he tried to like trade political favors with city council members in exchange for them voting to vote down a police transparency bill. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, right. They're trying to have more transparency to the policing in New York City. And he tried to trade all these political favors and stuff for city council members in order to get that. voted down, but it passed in a 35 to 9 vote, which is a veto-proof majority. So they did ultimately pass it, but he tried his damnedest to keep that from happening. And you're talking

about how much he sucks, right? A lot of people have said that this is his response to the people who talk about how much he sucks. Let's see this clip here, Matt. This is how he feels about it. Highland, folks. And you are all passengers. Stop praying for me. Hang on. to crash the plane. Pray for me to land the plane. Because there's no parachutes on this plane. We're all going down together.

They said, I'm a pilot. I'm a pilot. Stop praying for me to crash the plane. Yeah. It's like, you know, support me regardless because I'm in charge, right? So he seems to have an obsession with planes and all of his talking points. New Yorker, I guess it kind of makes up. I'm the plane.

And we all know, planes crash into buildings here in New York. It's crazy town. anything can happen. All right. Our next honorable mention is anyone who failed to realize American Idiot was a conservative anthem before this New Year's Eve. Did you see this? Travis Green Day was on New Year's Rock and Eve.

They played the song American Idiot. Again, famous conservative anthem. But they changed one of the lyrics in it to say, I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda, right? They did this live on the air. And the original lyric is I'm not a part of a redneck agenda, right? which I find a little offensive. I'm just kidding. But anyway,

they changed it. I'm not a part of a MAGA agenda, live on the air on New Year's Rock and Eve, and conservatives lost their minds about this. They started doing the whole shut up and dribble thing, but for musicians, you know, like just play the songs,

don't be political or whatever. And it's like, it's kind of like when they come after rage against the machine for this shit. You know what I mean? They're like, like Tom Morello says some liberal stuff, and they're like,

why don't you just go back to raging against the machine? Okay. And it's like, what do they think the machine was? the fucking dishwasher. Like, what did they think the message of

American Idiot was before this? What do they think that Green Day stood for before this? The most mainstream popular punk band of all time,

maybe. And, you know, and they thought, they thought they were on their side before they did this one thing. Like, it,

I just don't understand people whose brains work like this. Like, you're genuinely surprised by this. It blows me away. Right. Yeah.

No, MAGA, I mean, look, they don't have, have a sense of humor. They don't have self-awareness either. I think it's almost like what we got to do is we've got to take that Green Day song, hope you have the time of your life and put it over January 6th footage, and then maybe they'll finally come around on how great Green Day is.

Yeah, that's a good idea. All right, our next honorable mention is anybody who, any teenager who steps to Clarice Schillinger expecting not to get dealt with. So Clarice Schillinger was a former GOP candidate for lieutenant governor of the state of Pennsylvania, and she's also a prominent member of multiple school board packs in Pennsylvania trying to, you know, the whole critical race theory, stop the indoctrination shit in school. She's real big into that in the state of Pennsylvania. That lady hosted a party during the holidays for her 17-year-old daughter and her friends, Travis, so a bunch of teenagers. She hosted a party for a bunch of teenagers. She bought those teenagers a shitload of liquor and then proceeded to punch them in the face apparently.

According to their foresight, she, her mother, and her boyfriend are all reported to have punched multiple teenagers in the face at this drunk kid party they had over the holiday break. So that's how things are going in the Pennsylvania J.O.B. Oh, man. family values you know they really are about family values and helping the kids that's it's like the amy polar character from mean girls except completely opposite right she brings in the booths for everyone right she starts the fight as well pennsylvania's got some kooky crazies over there

i mean from dr ross uh that that Doug mackintosh or whatever that fellow Mastriano Doug Mastriano yeah and that lady is your lieutenant governor candidate no no no she she she didn't win lieutenant governor she ran for lieutenant governor but she's not the lieutenant governor yeah right she tried yeah well and look if you're a democrat in a normal state a swing state like pennsylvania those are the kind of republicans you want running you know what i mean right i mean the commercials right themselves uh just take her uh just take the the police video did the where the charges filed yes no the police did come the police came and uh the some of these kids apparently tried to leave when she started going down and

she wouldn't let them leave. She forced them to stay there. And then the cops showed up. And it's, you know, normal like drunk teenager party, cops show up. All the teenagers get fucking arrested or putting handcuffs or stuff like that. But in this case, it went the other way. The adults who put the party on end up getting arrested because they've been beating the shit out of all these kids.

So, you know, you'll have that. But yeah, no, the cops came because she was charged with her. Her mom and her boyfriend were all charged with assault or whatever. for this but uh but yeah like you said if you're a democrat in pennsylvania this is the type of gop people you want running so you have you're a you're a proponent of that strategy that the democrat seemed to embrace in 2020 and 2022 in the midterms and stuff where it's like they were they were backing the crazier candidates because they had a better shot of but like mastriano was one of them like the democrats like spent money getting

Mastriano through the primary because they were like, we got a better chance of beating this guy. And then, I mean, they did. So, and I feel, they did that in a bunch of states. And I think it may have backfired once or twice, but it seems to have mostly worked. So you, uh, you on board with that? Yeah. I mean, again, I think it only works in your swing states, right?

Because you had Carrie Lake in Arizona. Right. She was too kooky for Arizona. I forget the, the, the gal in Michigan, they ran for governor against Gretchen Whitmer, but she was a formal newscast. and just, you know, for, that's what I'm saying. I think, again, the Democrats, they want to win in 2024. It is kind of a, you know, let's learn from 2022 and 2023 on what works.

If you do run a kooky person in a normal state, they will be too kooky for your normal, moderate, independent swing voters. Now, again, if you try that in a more red state, like Tennessee or Florida, well, they'll be running the entire show by January. So it's a bold strategy, but it only can work in certain. areas. All right. So another piece of dumb assery for you all for we start talking about looking forward to

the year ahead has to do with a story out of St. Louis and their police department, which I didn't realize, you know, because they don't make the head. They don't make the splashy headlines that LAPD or NYPD makes, but apparently St. Louis PD is pretty renowned for dumbassery. It turns out, and they've got a more recent entry into that, that long legacy of dip shittery that they have.

So Travis asked you before we started, you said you hadn't heard. Over the holiday season, a police SUV driven by St. Louis cops swerved hard and crashed into a gay bar in St. Louis. Like they drove their SUV through the front wall of the gay bar. When this happened, since you haven't heard this story, I just want to ask you, what do you think then transpired after they, drove through the front wall of the gay bar. How do you think that went down afterwards? I'm going to think the coolest orgy, those cops had ever seen.

So what happened is, they drove through the wall. The owners of the gay bar came out and were like, what the fuck, dude? Holy shit! You drove through our goddamn wall? What the hell is wrong with you? And in response to that, the cops

beat and arrested those guys for assaulting police officers or whatever. They drove through the wall of their gay bar. When the dudes who owned the gay bar got mad about them destroying their property, they responded by taking them downtown after tuning them up with nightclubs a little bit to begin with. So, yeah. And there's been, there's, St. Louis has not and is not going to.

Well, they can't now. But they didn't do any kind of sobriety test for these cops or anything either. Like they didn't do any kind of blood work or anything like that to see if they might have been fucked up. Both these cops were on probation already. So you got two cops on probation. on the beat together in the same car that seems fucked up to me and then they just crash into a building and also Matt do you have the the video of the this is like security camera footage so it's like there's no sound and it's not it's not great but you can still see what happens and it's like

I mean dude it's weird like it's they didn't swerve to avoid a dog or something is what I'm saying you know what I mean like it's not like oh it could have happened to anybody they just out of nowhere just swerve hard and drive straight in the bit so watch this watching like the background here near that green light there so he's going to come up on the left side past the green light boom oh my gosh right into it oh my gosh i don't know that looks purposeful that's what i don't know what the explanation for this is supposed to be even but they didn't Didn't drug test them and like, you know, dude, if you, like, if you drive a forklift in a warehouse and you crash it or something, like you're going to get drug tested, right? Immediately. Yeah, and probably fired eventually. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. But like, cops can do this shit. Then assault and harass the people who were victimized by it and nothing fucking happens. But again, apparently I didn't know this, but apparently in St. Louis, this isn't all that uncommon. I didn't know these stories. Mark put these stories in the doctor.

earlier before he knew he wasn't going to make the show. He put some other stories of St. Louis police fuckery. So apparently, in one story, a St. Louis cop shot a grieving mother whose son was just killed while, so

a woman's son was killed, she was grieving, the dog was freaking out, the family dog. The cop tried to shoot the dog to death and shot the mother instead. That same cop had also previously shot a different cop while trying to shoot a different dog.

So this dude just walks around like trying to kill dogs and instead shooting other people. Yeah, right, yeah. Oh, my God. Apparently, there's another story where a St. Louis cop died because a group of St. Louis cops were super fucked up and they played Russian roulette. And at least that's the story.

That's the story. It seems to me like maybe they killed this cop for some reason. I mean, I don't know. I'm, you know, like, I'm speculating here. Don't come out to me, St. Louis, P.D. But that's a weird story. That a group of cops are playing Russian roulette, and one of them died, but that's the story. And then also, um, one of the only cops in this country who's ever suffered any consequences for beating up a protestor at a protest that happened in St. Louis,

because the protester he beat up was a different undercover St. Louis cop. So he beat the shit out of a fellow St. Louis, you know, Est. T-LPD guy and got into some shit for it. Well, out of all the dumb rastery, these last ones are the only one that made me feel really sad. Or maybe I should just

go become a cop in St. Louis. Yeah, right. Okay, so we're saying earlier, you were talking about 2024 and your outlook for it. You think Joe Biden's going to win in a landslide, but you also mentioned, like, the things they have in store for if they do win or what, not can you elaborate on some of that?

You're talking about Project 2025 and that type of stuff? What are you talking about? Oh, sure. Well, they have things planned if they don't win. I think you're going to see January 6 again, 2.0. I think they're, you know, they've tried to install after 2020 more yes people in roles like Secretary of State, boards of elections. I mean, even here in Ohio, they started to finally pass laws that give election workers protections that usually they save for first responders, although obviously the St. Louis cops, in mind right now. I would love to know all of their addresses. I think that should all be public, but elections officials, people who, you know, just enjoy the job of counting the votes and

allowing people to enjoy their civic duty, a lot of that is under threat. So I am more worried about the things that Donald Trump is going to do if he loses because I don't think he's going to win. But yes, Project 2025, everything like that that people have spelled out, if in the event Trump does win, then all my progressive friends are right. it could very well be the end of democracy as we know it. So we have to put our uncles in the re-education camps. I'm sorry. Yeah, like that's not hyperbole, right?

I mean, like, based on, like, the plans that they've, that they have, which are now public, like, if they get into power again, like, that might be it. There might not be any going back after that, like, genuine. I mean, that's kind of, that's what they have in mind. I mean, they've been chiseling away at it for the past few years at least anyway, but it's like, we're there, I don't know, this feels like the, I felt the same way in 2016 and 2020, but this biggest election of our lifetime. But yes, but having said that, this one feels like this is the one, like this one has to go the right way. I feel like, if it doesn't, Jesus, man, I don't know.

It's going to be bad. They're saying the quiet part out loud. And in 2016, there was still this naivete, even amongst the independence and the suburb moms We're just like, well, you know, there's there's guardrails. There's only so much a president can do. But, you know, I mean, even having Mike Johnson in the Speaker of the House role, you know, he's going to be counting the votes, the electoral votes on January 6, 2025, right? So a year from now. And if you have a lackey like Michael Johnson right there, I mean, yeah, you're absolutely right.

Does that finally make their plan that they wanted to do in 2020? can that actually happen this time. So like some sometimes you think like looking back on 2020 and all went down like something you look at and you're like no see like it worked out right like it didn't go that ultimately you know sanity prevailed or whatever but then through the January 6th commission everything all the stuff come out where you realize that like there really was like a handful of people who needed to maintain their principles and their sanity during this and thankfully they did. this time, but like, if those people had not done that, then who the fuck knows what would have happened? And part of Project 2025 is making sure that that, no, like, during January 6th commission, they talked to all this stuff about how there was team, team sane and team crazy or whatever. Yes, yeah.

Against each other. Well, part of Project 2025 is making sure that team sane don't exist anymore. You know, right? Not how they frame it, but like that handful of people who, you know, the fucking Georgia's Secretary of State, Mike Pence. some of these other people that, like, kept it from going off the rails, they're dedicated to making sure that those people are not there next time. Right.

Because they learn from these mistakes, you know, they dry run. They learn from it. And now they know what to attempt to do instead. So it's like, it's not a conclusion or guarantee that democracy can prevail, you know, in America. Like, it can go south. Yeah. No, yeah. And not the fun south.

We all like to go party in down there with you when I come down and visit Tennessee. I agree with you. I think it's absolutely paramount. We cannot let these jackals win. And that's why, again, I really hope the next 11 months, everyone is working to save the quiet part out loud because that's what Trump and their team is doing. They're saying the quiet part out loud. And I do think that overwhelmingly, and we just saw it here in Ohio too. You know, we had reproductive rights and legal weed on the ballot.

and even Republican counties came out and supported women's right to choose and people's right to, you know, grow their own pot. I mean, honestly, I think we are approaching a point where the independent, the moderates, it's almost like the country that that center left is got to hold firm, right? Because the progressives are obviously very upset about a bunch of things right now. But the center right has been taken over by the Trump crazy. So it's really up to that center left, those independents, those moderates, that's who we got to convince. Those are going to be the new people, right? Because you're just saying they replaced all the old team sane of 2020. Now we need to have new team sayings and make sure that more and more people see the light and see the truth of what's got to be the greatest democracy on earth.

Because if not, I don't know, man. At least we can all get hammered, though. It's not like 1920. Right, yeah. And in 24 of our states, we can get legally high too and zone out. Yeah, at least there's that. Matt, if you can start finding us some questions and comments and stuff and putting them up there. We'll do some of that before we get out of here.

But yeah, but you said earlier you think you, uh, C.L. Har says St. Louis is a cool place. Yeah, well, I don't want the St. Louis PD to reflect upon the city of St. Louis. I go to St. Louis pretty much every year and I always have a good time. So yeah, I agree with you. The city itself is actually really great, but the cops have issues, says glass ribbon. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, I feel the same way about about L.A. LAPD is fucking nightmarish. But L.A. is, you know, it's a cool town.

I like it here. Yeah, good barbecue, right? Yeah, St. Louis. Hell yeah. Glass ribbon continues. Holy shit. The Guardian says both officers were rookies who weren't done with probation. Why were they driving around without an actual officer?

Yeah, that's what I was. I said they were on probation which may sound like they fucked up. But this is the case. Either way, they weren't done with their probationary period. And yes, two, you would think they would never, why would you ever, why would you ever do that. You put one veteran cop with, you know, with a cop on probation or whatever, but I don't know. Carla Barrick says, I'm just going in the November 2024 election with deep breaths and alcohol. Yeah, like Travis is saying, you can do that. You can do that. 1920, not the case,

but luckily, we can get hammered now. Allison Haygood says, I'm so tired of living through a major historical event. Tell me about it. There's a, there's a Chinese, like an ancient Chinese, proverb or ancient Chinese curse or something that translates to may you live in interesting times because it don't hit to live an interesting time. You'd rather live in

boring-ass times because interesting times are shit like this. Like you know what I mean? Like if we make it out of this generation from now in the history books and they read back on this stuff like they're just going to be like damn that shit was crazy. That's oh yes. You know what I mean? It's like this was a good chapter. That shit's nuts. Can you

believe that happened, but living through it is a whole different story. Well, every generation's got to step up and do what they can to defend our Democratic Republic American experiment. So good news, everybody. Our chance is here. Yep, this is it. A mountain bike fan says, here's some good news. The Washington, D.C. judge overseeing the wrongful death lawsuit against Trump filed by Sicknick's longtime partner over the January 6th attack rejected presidential immunity claims. So there you go.

Yeah. Yeah, some of these judges are coming through, you know. That's the thing with judges, it's like, the amount of power that, like, judges have, you know, and how much depends on them. And it's like sometimes you get a good judge, sometimes you don't. And then you think about that on a micro scale, how that's true for everyone who's ever accused of any crime. Do you know what I mean?

Like, it depends on the judge you get. like some of them are good they're doing but some of them are fucking maniacal and that can that can determine the rest of your entire life it's crazy to think about but it's kind of where we're at as a country right now on a macro scale you know well and you're you're mentioning team saying and those different people who you know held strong and didn't give in to trump in 2020 judges are a huge part of that they've also done that they've concentrated on on courts from county courts all the way, obviously, the U.S. Supreme Court, but all these different federal and appellate judges, I mean, it's, it's again, like you said, we need to make sure

that the good people keep holding these important positions. Yeah. Melissa Beanfelder says we all need to volunteer to do everything we can to make sure Biden wins. I mean, you know, I'll be preaching it. I can tell you that. Stephen Wright says, big fan, Stephen Ryan, thank you for watching the show. It means a lot to me. It depresses me that West Virginia went from a blue pro-labor state to the most Trump-friendly state in the country. Yeah. Yeah. I have some insight into that.

I mean, because you're absolutely right. West Virginia, for a long time, I had two Democratic senators, the legendary Robert Bird and Jay Rockefeller. And then it was really the, well, you know, to put it in their terms, Obama's War on Coal, that's what flipped that whole region. It also flipped eastern Ohio and parts of western Pennsylvania. Pretty much that whole Ohio River Valley region lives and literally breathed coal. And that was the economic driver of that region. And that's what drove that whole area to be deep red. So that is what happened to West Virginia.

Robert Bird rested peace. One of the funniest Senate sightings I've ever had was seeing Robert Bird walking through a crowd of people with two canes. And then he put the canes up and said, make way for liberty. And the crowd clearly cleared out completely. They let the nice man throw. Nice. Alan Speed says, I will vote for Biden. I only wish he would speak out more of fight back.

He's too quiet, parentheses, like politicians of yesteryear. I mean, yeah, that's kind of been the problem with Democrats for, I don't know, 15, 20. I mean, probably always, but in my consciousness, you know, 15, 20 years been the problem. It's like the whole, like, take that, they don't play by the same rules as the other side does. You know what I mean? They don't play dirty. They don't like all that shit. And it's just like, you got to.

You know, you got to do what it takes to win. I mean, yeah, like fucking put this shit on blast and just speak the goddamn truth, you know, fucking take the gloves off, man. Oh, yeah. Well, and Biden's had a good record for a president who inherited a complete economic disaster. I mean, in his first two years. And then even the four years after, I mean, where they had Republican leadership and the house he's actually been a very productive president so it's it's weird he's so unpopular but

i know i know i know dude do you think it's just because he is so old like he's old well look like like obviously the maga world they would call him the antichrist no matter what but you're right he's like so unpopular apparently and i don't get it i've been saying it for a while it's like dude i don't i just don't think joe biden is that bad because i've got progressive friends and stuff who can't stand Joe Biden and I'm sitting over here like I am I taking crazy pills I really don't think he's that bad like I think like he's he's gotten a lot of shit done he doesn't get any credit for like I'm not saying he's perfect but like right I'm not displeased with him and I've got leftist buddies that make me feel like a shill or a dip shit or something because I don't

this guy and it's like right why I don't get it I'm going to going into 2024 thinking of this clip I saw of Joe Biden. He's given a speech to a crowd and then a noise happens where someone I think like slipped and fell and the whole crowd like looks over and then Joe Biden says the microphone, I just want the members of the press to know that that wasn't me.

Yeah. It's like if he can bring that Joe Biden throughout the next year, I still think he wins in a Lance light. He's self-aware and funny about that shit. They also posted a picture of him blowing out his candles on his birthday cake and it was a raging inferno and shit. Like he's, you know. I didn't know if that was photoshopped or not, but I was

I was worried for him in that moment. He's self-aware, but I mean, I think it might have been Photoshop, but still like they did it as a joke. Right, right. Anyway. A candle for each year. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see what happened.

Jen Carter, Jim Carter Simprey says, Happy Skew Year. Just bought our VIP tickets for your show in Richmond. Woo-hoo. Everybody like and subscribe. Thank you, Jen, for buying the tickets. And also for reminding me to tell everybody, please like and subscribe, smash that subscribe,

gut button, bros, all that stuff. the internet shit it's important um you said VIP tickets i've got a know people need to know i've got an ongoing thing with VIP tickets i'm not really if they if the club sells VIP tickets for premier seating that's fine if it's for a meet and greet i'm not supposed to have that anymore because i just i would prefer to just walk out and meet everybody so Travis is with me in ohio this happened there the whole time i'm about to get pissed at my agent over it but anyway y'all don't have to hear all that because like i don't get what's happening I want to meet you there, Jen.

That's not what I mean. I just would like to meet anybody who wants to meet me. I don't want to charge people for the privilege. But anyway, I didn't mean to get off on that tangent. Travis, tell everybody how they can find you and stuff, and then I'll close us out. Well, you can find me exclusively at Trey's VIP meet and greets. That's the only place I'll be hanging out. But you can find me all over the internet.

Travis Irvine USA, all social media platforms except TikTok. I still haven't figured that one out. But I'm getting a new phone, Trey. I'm giving up the iPhone negative six. I'm finally moving up in the world. Yeah, I don't understand how pivotal the moment this is for him. He's had the same goddamn iPhone, I think since I've known him, which has been for like 10 years. It's the one redneck thing about me.

I've had this phone since December, 2024. And you know what, Trey, it's done us good. It was the phone in my pocket when I met you back in Knoxville in 2015, but it served me well. Hold on. How long have you had that? phone? December 2014. You said 2024. Oh, I'm so sorry, 2020. Yeah, 2014. Yes, literally as long as I've known him. Yeah. It's about 10 years. Yeah. Yes, we're finally moving on. We're finally moving up in the world. I'm excited. So yeah, check Travis out. Go to American Mayormovie.com. Check out his movie. His guy's a documentary and a filmmaker and very talented guy. So check him out. As for me, go to traycrouter.com. Look at my coming dates. Come see me on the road. We're having a good time out there. check out the book around here and over yonder with Corey Forrester and support the show on Patreon get some bonus episodes in your life go to weekly skews.com slash more or go on Patreon and

look me up either way works either way thank you all very much for watching the main show as long as you keep coming back we'll keep doing them we'll see you next week happy skew year to you one more time see you love you bye