Weekly Skews - Weekly Skews 1/10/23 – Reading is Woke Now

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Trae is back in the saddle tonight as we discuss, among other asinineries, the right wing's not-at-all-fascist crusade against one of their oldest nemeses: books. Also MTG vs Dre, Brazilian capital storming, and more. Support the show

Hey, everybody, welcome back. Happy Scus Day to you. It is January 10th, 2023. Where does the time go? I'm Trey Crowder. I'm thrilled to be back alongside. Mark Adi, what's up, Mark? What's up, Trey?

You and I have spoken in the year 2020. We did the Patreon, and we hung out and watched football Saturday night to your chagrin. but as far as the main show is for Stoney Talks in 20203 and welcome to the future, buddy. Yeah, glad to be here. It's not great, but, you know, still glad to be here, I guess. I had a bit for a while about how that was, like, I was so optimistic for the future, like, not just for me personally,

but for everything when I was a kid. Like, 2020 was like the future to me, and I thought we'd have all this cool shit and everything by then, you know, and just how much of a bummer things have turned out to be. We've got some cool shit, But, you know, not enough and not as cool as I don't. We got Rumbas and we got self-driving cars that spontaneously crashed. And, you know, they got a, uh, we did, my wife insisted we get, we were, we stayed at a friend's house and we're in Florida and they had Alexa and she thought it was cool.

So we got an Alexa. So I got one of those fucking cop devices in my house now recording everything I say. So there is, I mean, it's nice to be able to, hey, it's set a reminder. So I don't have to remember to walk my dog or whatever. A brief anecdote about Alexa. I hardly ever used mine, but I'll use it to play music. sometimes yesterday. I was making lunch and I felt like listening to the national because it's raining and I'm a white man, you know, so I love the national. But anyway, they got this

song, Corin at the liquor store. And I was like, Alexa, play Corin at the liquor store. Nothing. And I was like, Alexa, play Karen at the liquor store. And then she said, playing Karen at the liquor store. And I got as pissed off as if someone, a person had corrected me on something that I knew was correct about you know what I mean like somebody ever correct you when you know that you're not wrong I got that mad but at a robot I literally was like that's not right they say it in the song just so you as if she can hear me or cares or would respond but yeah anyway I had it yesterday I look forward doing the same robots or our doctors and they're like no I don't need I don't need this medicine I fucking I need a different you like yeah okay uh well I was speaking

to live in the future and some news hit and some news not I think this is good news Katie Porter announced today she's going to run against Diane Feinstein and the Senate is you don't know the Senate primary in 24 24 we don't know then Diane Feinstein is going to run uh surely not right dieinstein is well documented to have pretty bad dementia she should not be in the Senate currently much less in four years when she'll be 90 fucking years old but everyone got mad at her and this reminds me of like like the 2016 primary and people all thought that Bernie was like impertinent to run against Hillary right how do you feel which one's better Canada, whatever. My point is like, it's a democracy and everybody gets to run and you make

your case and we get the vote. Now, I think if, if a fine saying doesn't run, Adam Schiff's supposedly going to run, I imagine a Feinstein will endorse Schiff because she's but heard about Katie Porter doing this. But my thing is like, I have a California voter. I'll vote. It's fine. Whoever wants to run. Every lunatic runs in California elections. I can actually vote for a saying congressman. And Katie Porter, I know Matt was pointing out in the pre-show that there was a leaked text message recently about maybe Porter being a shit boss to her staff or whatever. He's like, he thinks it's a California Democratic machine trying to smack her down. But anyway, she hits for Matt because she's from rural Iowa and she wrote her senior thesis

on like, you know, corporatization being bad for farming or something like that. So she hits from Matt. So I look forward to the campaign. Yeah, I just, I think like, it's like you said, so it seems like you think it's a deal where like comparing it to the 2016 election, like Adam Schiff is. the Hillary, and I think Katie Porter's being the Bernie, like the establishment. It's like, no, it's supposed to be his turn. He's earned it.

You wait, your turn. It's not how things work around here. Also, you're too progressive for us or whatever. So that's why they're pissed. Because it cannot be that they're pissed about the Feinstein part. I wouldn't think, given that she's going to be 90 years old. But the shift part kind of makes sense to me. I think it's dumb, but

I mean, we've seen them do stuff like that before, as you pointed out. So I buy it. Who knows? You never figure out what these people are up to or how they think. But Anyway, if you can't win it, if you can't beat her in an election, then just eat shit. I don't know what it's day. Right. Make your case and we'll vote.

Some wild shit happened in Brazil, and this does connect to American politics because Steve Bannon and an American congressman are involved. But yeah, they had their own January 6th over the weekend. It was both bigger and worse and better planned and had a better chance of succeeding, except for the fact that the government is actually prepared to deal with this shit unlike ours. but I want to show this video if Matt has it he wouldn't get a vibe for how fucking

big this was yeah all right go ahead Matt yeah yeah I mean yeah you

you you know you just convert all that green and yellow to red, white, and blue, and it's a, you know, very, very familiar scene. I mean, it is anyway, but you know what I'm saying. But so wasn't it, was it on the eighth? Is that when they did it two, two days ago? Is that right?

Or was it the seventh one? Sounds right. It was over the weekend, Saturday or Sunday. I forget exactly what you were. But not, not the actual sixth, right? Right, right. But like, is there a reason for that? It seems like an odd choice to me to do it so close to the anniversary, but not like on the

Yeah. Also, Lula was sworn in a couple days before the new president, a new president slash former president. And like, Brazilian politics is crazy. Lula was literally in prison until like a year or two ago. He made sort of a trumped up thing called the car wash. It doesn't matter. Whatever. But he's like Lula's an actual left winger. Tucker has been a shitbag. He called the Brazilian election rig. So did Elon. An American congressman that I mentioned before. I can't think of anything off top of my head right now. But he's now chairman of a committee in the new house. He flew to Brazil in the last. last month or two to help them plan this. Steve Bannon helped plan it. This was a huge operation that they shut down freeways. And the funny part was they took over to Congress, Supreme Court, all that shit. And what they were trying to do, because they all, including Jayre Balsonaro, the last president, idealized the military dictatorship that ruled from the 60s through 1985. And what they were hoping to do was to instigate a military response. The military would take over the government. And then they would have their dictatorship back and

and they got built Jayaar Balls Naro back in charge. But the military rolled in, they all clapped, and then the military arrested them all. Yeah, funny how that works. Yeah. And South America governments are used to the only attempted to coup attempts. So, like, they arrested them all on the spot as opposed to our government, let everybody go home,

and then gradually started trying to round them up because they treated it wasn't a big deal. And I don't know if Jair is going to be extradited. He's here, apparently, on an A1 visa, which is for state leaders. He's had, he's in Orlando, Corey and I talked about it last week. He's staying at Orlando at the house of an MMA fighter. And in a bedroom,

it's decorated with all minions gear. Like, he ate at a KFC. He got caught in video walking around a Publix, a shout at Publix, great grocery store. And then he had to check into a hospital with the stomach ailment. I don't know if that's a KFC related or ongoing, but he's been in the hospital constantly

for the past few years because he had COVID at least three times that I know about all were serious cases. because he refused to get vaccinated. The minions thing, I don't know if it's purposeful or not because the media, the left wing media in Brazil started calling his supporter as Bulls of Minions because they wear, you know, for Outboys in America,

their gear is like black and yellow, spary gear. Like, that's their uniform. The uniform for balls and arrow supporters is basically a Brazilian soccer jersey. So they're dressed in all yellow with the green, like you pointed out before. and people call it a minions. But like, as they have a, I can't, I don't know if they've adopted it, like Trump

supporters did the plurals. Right. So I don't. It seems like it surely has to be something. I mean, unless that MMI fighter is just super into minions, I guess. What a like wild and unpredictable cultural trajectory the minions have had. You know what I mean? From those cute little kid movies.

And they got in America for a while, it was like everybody is. drunk aunt on Facebook was making memes with minions and stuff about drinking wine or whatever, but there's just a minion there for some reason. And now they're the face of the, you know, fascist right wing movement in Brazil, apparently. And it's just

like, but the creators didn't foresee any of that shit happened. Yeah. Anyway, my hope is that they ship Jair back to Brazil to let them have whatever they're saying justice. Because he came here to flee prosecution. And they, they, I

want to see at least one country, you know, punish leaders of a coup for a coup attempt. One last thing before we get to the show. So last week, Corey and I talked about there was a weird right-wing tampon company that's like saying they won't sell to trans people. And me and court were joking about it. I made the point that trans women, you know, they're born men that don't menstruate. And we were joking about it. And a viewer reached out, but I have a feralicious happens to be a trans man.

The dude said made a good point. He's like, well, it's actually us. They're saying they won't sell to, right? Right. So like, and he also made the point, which was interesting that I hadn't thought about. And he was very kind about it, by the way, and the way he was like, correct me is the wrong word, but he just raised this point. But like, that because the rights obsessed with trans women, because they're the ones they see as the threats, because, you know, they're the ones are concerned about it because they see him as men. And men are predators.

They're the ones who are worried about going into the bathrooms. They're the ones who, like, they think it's unfair to compete in, like, the swim meets or whatever. That trans men are sort of erased because they're not as the focal point of the hate term. Yeah. The hatred. And I was like, oh, shit, I feel a victim. I picture a trans person. I picture a trans woman because I have also become propagandized by the right-wing hate machine.

Anyway, I don't think it's points that I wish we were as focused on by the hate machine. But it is interesting how this shit manifests itself. Anyway, shout out of the Farrelicious. Thanks for, thanks for reaching out. Yeah, you know, like, because any kind of gay, queer, trans man, or it would be a trans woman, but you know what I'm saying, the point you were just making. They, like, they're the ones that, you know, they're all groomers and pedophiles and stuff. Like, they're the ones that they're worried about because, like you said, they're, it's wild that a lot of men are acknowledging. that men are dangerous, but not...

Yeah. But they're like, not the good kind, only the weird kind. That's why I was so worried about them, you know, the different kinds, they are dangerous. But when women talk about, you know, being afraid to walk to their car alone or whatever, they're like, ah, that's overblown. What are you doing outside anyway? But, all right, well, let's get into it. With us as always his producer, Matt.

This is Weekly Skews. Before we continue, I, of course, would like to remind you of a couple quick things. Number one, if you'd like to see me perform live, go to Trey Crowder.com. Get your tickets. I got a bunch of dates coming up to 2023, and I'm adding more all the time. I'll be here in L.A. on the 19th. And then after that, Atlanta and a big Florida run. So I'm getting deep in it at the end of this month.

I'm looking forward to it. And a lot more after that. So yeah, Treycrowder.com, get your tickets. Number two, if you enjoy this program, I would like to show your support, you can do so by signing up on Patreon. $5 a month. get you access to full-link bonus episodes like the one we just did last week on the many lies of George Santos. We're enjoying it.

We hope you'll consider going to weekly skews.com slash more or you can just go on Patreon and look me up. Either way works, sign up on there. Get some more skews in your life and support the show in the process. Now, as for the show tonight, we've all long known that conservatives hate reading like most of the things they hate. They find it difficult and upsetting. But now they're coming for the written word with a renewed focus as, more and more highly coordinated attempts to ban books and in some cases entire libraries

are gaining steam around this country. Happy New Year, y'all. We'll talk about that a little later, but first, as always, we begin with the Daily Dumbass. Matt, graphic, please. Tonight's DD Eminem's for being fat and gay, apparently, at least according to Tucker Carlson, I guess. It's it, man. woke M&Ms have returned. The green M&M got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian maybe, and there's also a plus-sized, obese, purple M&M.

So we're going to cover that, of course, because that's what we do. Yes, it is what you do. So that's a peanut M&M. Right. Well, it's also like all M&Ms are round. Like, that's the shape that they have. How are you supposed to tell when there's a fat M&M?

like they're just they're rotund or oblong or whatever some combination thereof but yeah like you said you got the regular m&Ms that's a peanut that does that m&M look any different than the yellow one that they've always had he's peanut right i i sometimes i can't figure out like like they literally had a screen grab like it was like m&Ms go woke was the title of the segment the mars candy company is not gone woke is also they're always they took about m&Ms like three times a week because they were mad before when they got rid of the green Eminem's sexy boots now they're excited the boots are back because she's sexy again but also she's a lesbian but they're mad about that but like it's one thing straight men have always agreed on is that lesbians are sexy so I don't really know what they're actually talking about but like they fuck they'd rather talk about anything with the actual news like Jesus Christ

just don't buy the candy if you don't want it but Eminem's hit so whatever it's also like I mean as we've talked about over and over again yeah you said they're rather talk about anything the actual news but it's also like They subsists on outrage and stuff, but they don't really have that many things to, like, genuinely be outraged about. So they're always having to come up with these new, you know, points of their wrath. And, you know, their grassman straws at this point with the woke candy. But it's not just the candy. No, Batman's Rogue Gallery is going woke as well. I guess we got that tweet mad about the joke. Or yeah, here we go.

This is Fox News headline. Grotesque new Batman story features the joke. Joker becoming pregnant and giving birth to a handsome baby. Yeah, they did hours on this yesterday. And it's the funny part about it is that the comic itself, the graphic novel or whatever you want to call it, sorry if I'm insulting comic, but graphic novel fans, I'm not one of you, but go with God. So the Joker apparently gets cursed by like a witch or a warlock or something, and

part of the curse is he becomes pregnant and then gives birth to it. So it has nothing to do with like, well, ideology or trans stuff. It's just like it's just a fucking comic book. And also, if there is any sort of takeaway from it, it's a curse that the Joker turns to do a woman. So it seems to the opposite thing they're mad about. But anyway, I don't think that's what the point they were trying to make. I don't think they're trying to make any point other than to make a cool comic book. But like, so the, if the Joker getting pregnant is woke, what was the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Jr.? Because he gets pregnant at that, right?

yeah call the governor woke why don't you but was it where a papaw's mad about that was that a thing no no also i mean i feel like you know i've brought it up a million times the like we had drag shows when i was in high school or whatever and also like it used to be the height of comedy uh for just for a dude to put a dress on you know what i mean because that's how uh simple and dumb we all were but yeah you know it's like that type of thing happened all the time and no one ever felt threatened by it. And it's like at some point they found out that like there are actual trans people who exist and that's weird to them or whatever. They're upset by that. And so now it's taken on this whole new flavor of hateful distaste. When I was home over the holidays, my aunt Kim,

she dug up a photo of my grandfather, Daddy Bucks, what we call him. And he was dressed in drag for a drag beauty pageant to raise money for the volunteer fire department and obviously won amazing legs all right and i posted the picture with a joke about it and somebody shut the fuck up about drag stuff because it's my grandfather doing it and some guy dickhead responding to me like oh did he identify as a woman when he did it though and i didn't i don't want to i don't like getting an internet fight so it didn't bother it but it's like well i don't know first of all but either way mind your own fucking business. Right.

Mind your fucking business. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's different types, you know, and I'm not going to get into breaking it all down because I would fuck something up too. But like, you know, there's different types of men who either identify or dress up as or some combination thereof or whatever of, you know, as a woman. You know what I'm saying?

It's not like they, it's not like these people like specify or get into the details when they see a dude in a dress. anymore. Do you know what I mean? It's just like, it's just bad now. Like, they don't stop to ask him like, what is the context in which you're doing this? And also, how do you identify personally? I need to know before I can decide whether or not to hate you. They just default right to hate and fear. Yeah. And it didn't used to be like that. I mean, it's not my community, but you know how like Eskimos are a thousand words for snow? Like, you would like, I don't know if anybody knows this, but like rednecks and hillbillies are not

the same thing and they kind of hate each other. Like Drew has a whole explanation of where like rednecks have money and they have big trucks. Rednecks were like descendants of people that like own people. Hibblays are poor and lived in the mountains and they're good at dancing and they hate the people with big trains. It's like if you're not in communities, this stuff seems imperceivable to you. But anyway, it's whatever. Just for the record, Drew grew up further in East Tennessee and I always told him we talked

about like I grew up not that far to the west. I was on the eastern part of Middle Tennessee, but in people in my hometown who were very poor and poverty-stricken, all identified as rednecks rather than hillbillies. And so, yeah, it like differs depending on, you know, town to town and state to state and shit what either of those words mean. And I'll use them interchangeably at this point for myself, I'm saying, and, you know, Drew and kissed my ass if you don't like it, Mark. How about that?

So I don't know why I'm getting mad at Drew now. It's okay. But let me ask you this, Trey. Can you clog, can you clog dance? No, I cannot. Okay, redneck. Okay. do you know how to clog

you're from Appalachia right you're from like two hours of foothills yeah we're pretty like yeah well then you're about as close to it as I am really because that's about how far I am too yeah all right moving on

a first honorable mention large brain Marge for thinking she could fuck with NWA that's right she's been copyright stricken for a video she posted of herself just feeling herself

and looking super cool and badass in her mind while walking through the halls of Congress and the background music she chose for that was still DRE by Dr. Drey, which is like, that's one of the hardest going beats of all time. I don't know who the fuck she thinks she is doing that. And then it went on from there.

Yeah, it was a couple things are funny about that. I wish we could show you the video, but we will get hit with a copy. Right, exactly, yeah. Ours will be automatic. Dr. Dre actually request to get taken down with her. But it was, like, it was funny because the captions she put on it was, you can't stop what's coming, meaning whatever, her investigation is the Biden-Kran

family or whatever. But under it, under you can't stop what's coming, was a blank thing saying it's been taken down, which is like, yeah, Dr. Dre stopped what's coming. He got stopped, yeah. Anyway, then her response was funny. She got through, he, Dr. Day put out a pretty, you know, forceful letter about how her, she's a divisive and hateful person she can't use his music

and she was like well I would never use your lyrics I just like the chord progression but because your lyrics are so anti-police and misogynistic it's like man these people spent the whole the whole decade of the 90s trying to make rap illegal

and how they want the coolness that comes from a fucking beat from 2001 right it's also like it's like just trying to I don't know with a straight face being like just so you know I fund mentally disagree with this awesome song that I just used for my, for, you know, my own promo video. Like, yeah, I used it.

But I just want you to know, I think it's disgusting. Yeah, yeah. But the beat goes, the core presentation, yeah, right. Yeah. That is undeniable for sure. But yeah, she's just, uh, she's something else, man. Yeah. Her journey is fascinating to me because like a year or two ago, it was like,

Why are you raising her profile? Why are you like, you know, why does it say to get so much airtime? Stop retweeting her. But she's pretty much made herself into the face of the party. And the right-wing propaganda machine has completely rehabilitated her. Like, here's her going on how he curts on Fox News to talk about how, anyway, I'll let it play out. You can see. Yeah.

Just to deal with one bit of history, the Democrats stripped you of your community assignments after you were elected. That was raw politics. But in fairness, didn't you also say around that period that you had been a follower of Q and non-conspiracy theories, and you had rethought this and you were no longer influenced by the group? Well, like a lot of people today, I had easily gotten sucked into some things I'd seen on the internet. But that was dealt with quickly early on. I never campaigned on those things. That was not something I believed in.

That's not what I ran for Congress on. So those are so far in the past. All right. You tweeted, I guess in, yeah. All right. So she's getting, because she took McCarthy's side, right, she's getting the morning show rehabilitation to her treatment while like Lauren Bolbert's getting roasted to death, right? They're actively making her the face of the party. And she's saying, I didn't run on QAnon to the degree that's true, which it isn't.

The way she raised her profile was harassing AOC and Parkland shooting survivors on Facebook videos. all right so the way she did make her name even by her own story is not good so anyway I mean not that I'm surprised by it but it's just it's wild to me that they seem to be like really hitching their wagon to the marge train you know what I mean like because she did the right thing politically from their perspective so now they're going to like prop her up like it just seems like that's something you might end up regretting considering every other thing about how she's always conducted herself but then on the other hand And I guess it's like, you know, that's sort of just their whole brand now, I guess. So why not?

Look, they're very well-coordinated and well-thought-out and very effective propaganda network. But I don't, like, they're basically grooming her to be the Trump's vice presidential nominee. And I don't, I think she's incredibly toxic to like 65% of Americans. So I don't think it's going to work, but more prior to you. But while we're talking about Drey, in other politics, hip-hop news, his headline killed me. Rap God Bernie Sanders appears on a new hip-hop album from Minnesota State Representative Maria Issa. The candidate's name is Maria Issa. State Rep's name is Maria Issa, Perez Vega.

Her rap name's Maria Issa. And so he appears in like, you know, the opening track to her album, which is a little skid or whatever. It's a cool, a recording of Bernie telling her, people respond to you a lot more than these 90-year-old guys. Don't be afraid, he says. If somebody says something to you, young lady, this is not good decorum. Tell them to go fuck themselves. Pretty gangster. Yeah.

A great gangster quote from old Bernie there. So I'd never heard of her music. I went and checked it out and she got some stuff on YouTube. But again, her rap name is Maria Yista. And we can't play it again for copyright reasons. But I will say, I did like her music. And the track I specifically recommend is called Coco. So check that out if you want to hear some decent Latin hip-hop.

It's certainly preferable to the 10-year-old conservative Christian rapper that I saw trending the other day. Yeah, I saw that good. His dad's apparently a Christian right-written MAGA rapper. And it's like, yeah, he was rapping QAnon nonsense. And like, okay, who's the groomer here? Who's indoctrinating people? Exactly. Yeah, we're going to be talking.

That's what we're going to be talking about a lot more later, indoctrination and the idea of that and everything. And yeah, that's a good example to keep in mind as we start talking about the shit they're flipping out about later. But first, quickly, one last honorable mention for Daily Dumbass, Hitler, for not realizing that really we're all Jewish on the inside or something like that. This is George Santos. You can skip like two thirds the way through this video, man. I forgot to give it to a timestamp, PSR. Yeah. Go down towards the end.

That's probably okay. Yeah. Over again, they converted to Catholicism, had their kids, raised them Catholic. And I'm Catholic, but that's pretty much little history of my family into Judaism, which I believe we're all Jewish at the end, because Jesus Christ is Jewish. And if you believe in Jesus, and we're all brothers in Christ, I mean, I don't want to get too religious here, but. All right. So, you get too religious. This is him from like a couple years ago up here in a public access.

So like this guy publicly said he was Catholic here, then went back in. said he was Jewish later and assumed no one would find this? This guy is fascinating to me. We did a whole episode on Santos and the Patreon so I don't want a good bit, but

a couple small updates. This headlines from yesterday. We were duped how George Santos raised money from wealthy GOP donors while lying about his resume. So the funny thing to me about this is the real victims here are GOP donors. But the mechanism for this,

This killed me. His staffer in his campaign impersonated Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff to get donations. It's so wild. Like you said, we did a whole Patreon episode about this guy. And the thing I kept coming back to is what you just said a minute ago, just that idea behind like he didn't think anybody would ever see or hear or find out about any of this. Like, that's the craziest part, dude, and a position of that much scrutiny and everything. Like, you're going to get caught when you're.

this outrageous with your lying, you know, I asked Herschel Walker about it. But he started with a lower profile than Herschel Walker. But of course, people are figuring it out now. And it's just, it's wild, man. It's brazen. Yeah. Wealthy donors received calls and emails for a man who said he was Dan Meyer, McCarthy's chief of staff during both. Santos ran in 2020. He just lost. But during both 20, so this, this ruse lasted two, two election cycles over two and a half years. But the guy's name was actually Sam Meal and he worked for Santos raising money. And so if he ends up in jail for defrauding Republican donors, that's going to be the funniest

way to do it. It reminds me like how like, um, pharma bro, uh, Martin Screlli, how raising a price of a children's cancer drug was not a crime, right? But killing kids wasn't, but what he ended up in prison for was defrauding investors on deals where he made them money because he invested in stuff that they wasn't to be supposed to that he lied to them about. So like this is, that would be probably the funniest way for this to go about. but another thing that killed me about this guy

so the House passed the new set of rules to govern the chamber and we talked about how they're going to like gut the ethics committee and defund it and cripple the the Office of Congressional Ethics ability to investigate members of Congress for potential wrongdoing

quote I think it's fantastic Republican rep George Santos of New York said that whole thing is another good example of just like again how brazen this shit is like it's just absolutely shameless to me you know just openly yeah first thing we got to do we got to gut the office of congressional ethics because you know otherwise how we're going to do all this unethical shit or really you know it's smart like

it's the obvious solution right it's going to be super unethical you can't have an office of ethics walking around so yeah we're going to blow that up and then get to work and it's like it's just all public like that's not like behind closed doors shit they're just like yeah that's what we're going to do we're talking about this before but they're also uh it passed the house passed legislation the Senate, of course, in order to rescind IRS funding for next year. But between the ethics, you know, congressional ethics office and IRS, they're continually defunding their cops, baby. They love it.

Yep. But that's not the only thing they're going after, as we referenced up top. Books, Mark, on the chopping block, or at least a good number of them are. This is like the new, and I'm not saying they're not still doing this, too, but like how they seem to rally around going to school. boards and fucking all that up you know for a while there yeah probably still doing it now it's the library library's next on their list evidently yeah i want to uh just to frame this um this is a one of our stories about everything's collapsing this is one of this is a story about

what a small motivated group of psychos can accomplish if other people don't get involved so this is more of like right hey check out what's going on your local library maybe go to a library board meeting and check out what's going on all right but this is a this is about I'm going to read this headline, The Horrifying World Libraries. So how do you feel about, I love libraries as a kid, man. My mom, like, when we went to town, my mom had errands to run her.

She had to go and, like, work on an off day. She would drop us off at the library to, like, read books and hang out. Right? It was like free daycare, which under librarians hate, but yeah. No, dude, the library was huge for me in my formative years. My first, like, job, it was a job, but it was super part-time, but I was a tutor in a program at the library. so every day after school I go to the library and tutor younger kids and also in my hometown like internet you know was not prevalent especially any kind of remotely high speed internet so like me we'd go and get on the computers at the library all the time and play you know runescape and shit like that but like we were always at the library I had to also one of my first sexual experiences at the library has too much information but yeah so the library was like that was my shit.

dude i love well it's it's funny you break up the sexual experience thing because it's true for me too except i was alone uh so because like the one of the things i like to do with the library they had women's magazines there and had sex tips and stuff and like in vice columns they ought to read those and i found them very interesting uh as part of my you know when i was like 11 12 13 years old as part of my you know sexual awakening as it were but like it's weird when you talk about all this grooming and moral panic about like pornography at the library it's Like, I mean, I turned out mostly fine, and I got boners of the libraries. I don't know if I was, like, worried about.

No, dude, between the computers and stuff, we used to all hang out to library all the time. Me and my buddies would even, and librarians were cool with this. Like, the sort of yard adjacent to the library, like, we'd play, like, pick up football games out there and stuff like that. Like, we hung out and kicked it at the library all the time when I was in high school. Yeah. I love the library. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a socialist enterprise. It's supported by, it's free education for all, supported by tax dollars.

It's a place where the community can gather and hang out, have events, mill around, kids can get educated for free. So the right wing fucking hates it. Because anything that binds society together is sort of bad, unless it's a church, right? Even then, especially if it even remotely involves the concept of like learning and expanding your horizons and discovering new things and shit like that, they're definitely going to come after it when you got those factors in play. Yeah. Yeah. So to get this off, so a new report came out recently about book banning efforts. The reports came from a couple different organizations, one called Penn America and another the American Library Association. But during last school year, 21, 22, more than 1,600 book titles were banned, according to a new report from Penn. And the American Library Association confirmed that number. Their number was a little bit higher.

these are like random psychos filing complaints right and when you get pushback from like hey maybe this book's fine you will get fucking death threats which we're going to get into one of the books they found those most often banned uh it was the bluest eye by tony morrison which i read in high school um and it's about i'm going to come off the top of my head from i think i read in high school but i didn't find it traumatic right but it's about a woman who's overcoming like sexual abuse and stuff who happens to be black and there's racism and but like if you can't read a book and still maintain your worldview then what fuck good is your worldview right like I mean unless your worldview like you know needs to be right question or brought to task a little bit which is again

one of the things that books are great for but it's like I know we're going to talk about a lot of this as we continue to go through this but yeah you say you didn't find it traumatic that's how they couch all this stuff is like these books are inappropriate for children because they'll find them discomforting. They don't want to cause discomfort to the kids for these books. But it's like, you know, for if you're a black kid or a queer kid or something, is there not anything inherently uncomfortable about being effectively erased, you know, or not allowed to exist, never seeing your experience represented?

In fact, having it be almost illegal for your experience to be represented, like, what kind of message does that send? You know, it's pretty obvious, but they only care about really one particular type of kids, you know. Yeah. And also, like, if you can't, like, if you can't, if you're, if your mind can't, again, if like, if your, if your mind can't stand reading a contraried idea, you know, like, if I, if I, if I read, if I read, I've never read mind confit, but I'm willing to bet reading it wouldn't turn me into a fucking Nazi. I have, I had to read this for a gig once. I had to read this Atlantic Bible. I did not convert, you know, you know. So, like, I don't understand what these people are so worried about, but let me read this right here. So while we think of book bands as the work of individual concerned citizens, our report demonstrates that today's wave of bans represent a coordinated campaign to banish books being waged by sophisticated, ideological, and well-resourced advocacy organizations. They said the group, Pan America, has identified at least 50 groups working at all levels advocating for book bans. One of them, which we've talked about for is Moms for Liberty, which was started in 2021.

So let's talk about what these coordinated effects look like. This is in Kansas. Kansas town threats to kick out library after refused to remove devices, divisive books. This is a small town library supported by county funds, and they've essentially canceled the lease, and they're going to have to move to a different small town in the same region. And this quote was heartbreaking to me. Here's from a St. Mary's resident, this is the town the library is in, Hannah Stockman, a stay-at-home mom looking after 13 kids.

It is not clear whether all 13 kids are hers and I wish she runs a little daycare. But she said the move would be devastating for her and others like her. At this point, it's the only space left we have for the public. The book they're worried about, it's called Melissa. They're showing the whole library over one book. It happens to be about a transgender child.

But the library director said that book, they put it on the shelves because it was up for an award in 2017, 2018. it's only been checked out four times since they've had it in the past four years. They defunded an entire town, the county's library, kicked out of its space because of a book of a book that got checked out four fucking times. Right. It's like the laws about like trans high school athletes and stuff like that. When in some of it like, I think it was Utah,

there's like literally one in the whole state. And I bet you some of the states that are enacting those laws don't even have any actually, you know, playing those sports or, you know, doing the thing that they're so worried about. This is very in keeping with that. But I will say this also was the theme in these stories we're talking about, but like props and respect to these various librarians and library staff, because the thing is, the reason this shit has happened is because they're saying, no, fuck that, we're not doing that.

Like, they get told to remove a book and they're like, yeah, we're not going to do that. And then they, you know, get threatened with having their lease pulled or their funding stricken or whatever. and they're, you know, they've been holding their ground. So I just want to give them a shout out because it's... Oh, it's not just to losing their jobs. Like, they're getting, like, death threats. I mean, I'm not surprised. One has been murdered.

There might have been a shooting I don't know about, but that I didn't see on the news or whatever. But this librarian in Louisiana stood up at a meeting, and they were, they were, Matt's pulling up. I'll get to that in a second. But before we get to this Michigan story, this Louisiana woman, librarians, they were talking about banning books, and she started making the point to, like, I think banning books is a wrong move. it's not a good sign for society. She apparently went viral of right-wing internet

and got nationwide death threats and now she's scared to leave her house and her hair started falling out from all the stress. This is what they're fucking dealing with. The story Matt pulled up from Michigan, a library in Patma, a town called Patmos, closed early over safety concerns. They didn't detail what the safety concerns were,

but they shut down the library. They were so concerned because of a collective of LBGT books books about those issues in the library. The library counted and said that only 90 of its 67,000 titles even were covered by what stuff people were trying to ban. So 0.13% of the library's book offering. So a book that got checked out four times,

got a library shut down in Kansas, and 0.13 of a library's book offerings got, you know, death and bomb threats towards this Michigan library got to shut down. Yeah, well, you know, they'll like, I mean, this is them sending a message loud and clear, they'll gladly just get rid of all the books as long as that means that, you know, basically get rid of the 0.13% of the books that they're actually worried about right now. I mean, isn't surprising, but it's very alarming.

And it's also, it's like, this is another one of those things where it's like I said, just how brazen and bald this stuff is, these moves they make, I bring it up all the time where it's like, I don't understand how you fail to realize that you're the bad guy with some of the up that they do, especially like book banning, you know, book burning and everything. It's like the rise of fascism 101 and everybody knows it, one of the most famous sci-fi, you know, allegory, an allegory, an accurate word, I guess, or maybe it is, I don't know, you know what I mean. Pieces of science fiction, social commentary ever made was about this exact thing, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

And it's like, it's chapter one of the shit. shit the, you know, chapter one of the book on alarming signs from a society, you know, like bad harbingers of the future for a society is when you start banning and burning books and shit. These people are so uptight. I wonder if we could trick them into burning the Bibles by convincing them that when Jesus washed the prostitute's feet, it was his kink. Well, you remember that guy?

There was that one teacher in Florida, which shout out to that guy, too, when they had their new law about divisive books or whatever he like submitted a complaint or however you go about it saying that the Bible should be included because it's very graphic in nature and very violent and all this stuff and he like had actual upsurts of which there were many that illustrated his point because I mean yeah you know why not they don't actually read the Bible which is we're going to come back to in a second but but I want to see everybody keep that thought in your head before we get to it so before we get to that over the Texas mild stompa grounds. There's a House committee investigating books in libraries, which is sad enough. But this story was really funny to me because there's a town called Granbury, I like that a really right-wing school board. And the superintendent called all the teachers and librarians together and tell them they better get on board.

And if you have a different political ideology, you better not voice it. So that's cool. And the school board formed a parents committee. a volunteer review committee after they removed 130 books which they thought were too gay or whatever

for review and the volunteer committee looked at the books these are conservative moms in Granbury, Texas, right? They probably go on the church committees and whatever.

And they looked at all the books. They said, they're fine. They let both of the books go back on the shelf to which a couple disgruntled members of the committee fought a police report

trying to get librarians arrested for giving pornography to kids. so what the fuck if your other church moms don't agree there's anything wrong with these books maybe shut the fuck up and consider whether you're wrong it's like it shows like what a very motivated small group of lunatics can accomplish depending on where their focus lies because it is it's the same thing as like with the school boards and stuff there's not as much scrutiny it's like an easier target for them seemingly like you said if people don't push back and yeah that's what they're doing with the libraries and the books now. Yeah. This library in Massachusetts, a debt of Massachusetts,

got threatened with defunding because some psycho noticed they hadn't put up a Christmas tree yet. They thought it was like intention to whatever. So then they put up a Christmas tree and they go, okay, well, you can have you're funny now.

That's fucking, they just, they just weren't going to put up a tree because they're closed on Christmas. Or hell, they don't even know they could have, like, they have no idea.

The librarian maybe had a lot of other shit to do that week or whatever. like they got busy it slipped their mind they just didn't get around to it who gives a shit but yeah and then it gets cast as being part of the war on christmas but it's wild to like just sort of not get around to putting up a christmas tree and then get like effectively get death threats or whatever for trying to cancel christmas like it's a it's a wild place we're all in there's like it's not just like random psychos too it's like governments like first example here um this town of a in McFarland, California, which is a small rural, like agricultural area. The police chief has decided to close the library so you can use the library for his new police station, which is like, I'm going to quote here from a piece where I read about it. It's such a startling, crushing metaphor for what our society values. You can't even look directly at it. Yeah, man.

Again, it's this little rural area. These are full of low-wage immigrants where, like, a lot of the reading materials and educational opportunities come from the library. And this local pastor, and we're talking about right-wing Christian psychos a lot here. So I do want to shout up this guy. He's a pastor and the kind of Christian I'd want to hang out with. He's the leader of the friends of McFarland Library. He told the New York Times, I view this as a battle for civilization. And absolutely, man.

What's the point of being like this? But it's not just small towns. last week there was a report that a couple weeks ago New York City's public libraries are up against the possible multi-billion dollar budget cut, a multi-billion dollar budget cut in New York while they're increasing police funding at an insane rate while New York remains an extremely safe city. Yeah, I mean, you said earlier, you know,

you call it it, it's like a socialist enterprise. Like, I'm honestly, part of me is kind of surprised they haven't come for libraries before now already just because, I mean, it's one of those things that like if libraries didn't exist and they got pitched today you know oh my god the outrage and pushback from the right wing would be incredible but i guess libraries have been served up until now by being one of those places that almost no one doesn't like or almost nobody hates at least but they're finding a way yeah so librarians do kick an amazing amount i ask we can talk about that more

in a second but they and so do teachers but it's sometimes the call is going from inside the house and I read this story of this Florida English teacher who is trying to ban books from the library and it's not even really the worst thing about her because she's also horrifically racist she's posted Confederate flags to her Facebook page she said that quote everyone my clan fought in Civil War

and she's not ashamed of that which you know I'm sure some of my ancestors did and I am ashamed of it so we can just so you put that out there she has openly told her students that she's against interracial marriage She asked all of her, she apparently asked every one of her black students if they can swim. And her anti-interracial marriage views, going back to the thing about they don't actually read the Bible, when somebody asked why she was against the interracial marriage, she said that in the Bible somewhere, in the Bible somewhere, Trey,

it says that it's a sin for racists to mix together, somewhere. She doesn't know where it is. She sort of heard about it. She hasn't read the fucking thing, right? they also had a quote from this lady where it was a book she took issue with that featured like a gay kid or no it was it was it was it was two male penguins it's a kid's book with two male penguins who adopt a little penguin chick penguin baby you know and raise it as a happy little family and she said it was like you know using penguins to push the gay agenda or whatever but she goes on to say something like i don't remember verbatim but it was something like you know a young child could read it that and then know that there's, you know, people like that out there or something to that effect, you know, and it's like, yeah, that's, but like it's literally, it's just saying the quiet part out loud, you know what I mean? It's like they just don't want them to know. It's like

they'll be made uncomfortable just by learning that these other types of people exist or that shitty types of people, i.e. racist, have also existed. And it's like, how long is that supposed to go on for? Do you know what I mean? Like as a parent, we're talking about kids. It's like, are they ever going to be all right with them knowing that things exist in the world? Is there a certain cutoff where it's okay to be aware of other things existing or are they just, you know, go on further? Because they try to ignore that that shit exists all throughout their adulthood. So, you know, I guess there isn't. Yeah.

Ray Wriggers, all of the world hate libraries. We'll get to Ukraine in a second because it's an important part of this about librarians being badasses. But the good news here, again, we're talking about a small band of psychos because the good news here is the majority of people support libraries and oppose book bands. So the thing is just like, look up what's happening to your local library is my main takeaway. But let's talk about librarians being kick-ass people from a majority of them. So earlier this year, librarians in Ukraine, if you follow library news closely, which you probably don't because there's a lot of stuff going on that war. but they became global symbols of cultural preservation

the face of militarism, fascism, and genocide. Because, like, libraries are keepers of knowledge, but also, like, keepers of history and archives and stuff. That's sort of like, when a society, when a society decides to start writing down stuff so future generations can learn from it, that's a cultural statement of value about how learning is important, right?

Like, I know anthropologists trace the beginning civilizations to when they find people with healed broken bones because they meant people could care for each other, but also having written language and writing down stuff so people can learn is like that's that's an important part of like human development and dude i would argue it's like the most important part of human development or close to it you know what i mean the fucking written word that shit changed to everything yeah so one of the things russia did when they invaded ukraine a key part of its strategy was to destroy historic libraries uh because part of Putin's whole argument for the war is that ukraine isn't real and ukrain don't exist or just subset of Russians. So any book on Ukraine history is a direct, like, provocation to him, right? So they were bombing and smashing libraries. And libraries went into action. They knew that shit was going to happen. So they were running around trying to save as much of their archives and

books as they could. They also established mobile libraries where they were delivering books for people to read in bomb shelters. One of the things Putin was also trying to remove was books about, like, Soviet, you know, horrors. They're trying to erase fucking history. So they went to take a book about slavery or racism library. Right. Think of it in those terms here. Exactly. It's the exact same thing. Yeah, same thing Putin's doing it in Russia.

So this quote they destroyed a bunch of libraries. I'm trying to find the, they destroyed the State Archives and Chernihiv. I'm going to butcher these things. They ransack the archives in Bucca. They looted every cultural institution they conquered. They gutted the Archive Department in Evankiv.

this quote from a Ukrainian librarian who was delivered one of the people delivering books to people in shelters about it's about how libraries are in a place they're a spirit of knowledge and said the laboratories follow their readers everywhere in Karkiv which is very often bombed a lot of people live in the metro talking about it in the subway station the library isn't a building the library is a community so if you want to know why they want to destroy libraries you see the library is not a building it's a community there you go There it is. All right. Well, let's get into some questions and comments here, Matt. What do you think? How do you feel about that? I know you're not going to respond.

I don't know why I'm asking like I expect you to. Well, I'll know the producer, Matt, is the silent observer and facilitator. Yeah. A man of mystery. Well, Matt's looking for comments. I want to shout out of the Biden administration for something. They're trying to go to bat to destroy the compete clauses, which are horrific abuse. Have you ever been forced to sign, Wednesday?

Ray? Like with shows, like a geographical radius type of thing. Would that count for what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they don't hit. They're, to my mind, undercap, it should be illegal restraint trade because if you can sell your product anywhere, right, can I sell my product everywhere, which is my labor, right?

So I was reading anecdotes about horrific stories about nerds, get another job at a hospital, instead of drive two and a half hours outside of state work. Shit like that. I also have personal anecdotes. My wife, a company I've worked for, she has a teaching fitness classes as a sad job because she likes helping people. You don't get that feeling from a lot of showbiz stuff.

And she likes being able to work out for free and being paid to work out. And they try to hit it with a non-compete because they paid for her training, but she goes, no, I've paid for my own training. Fuck you. They're like, oh, well, still, please don't work anywhere else like nope sorry it's like but my my friend's wife she was also

trying to teach fitness classes in a small town and they tried to get her to sign a non-compete agreement for $25 an hour job right it's like who the fuck told you you could do this but no one can compete with you if I want to start my own dance studio right you can't compete I mean the spirit of competition is like the whole thing isn't it right right fundamental foundational principle upon which the whole system is built is the important competition I imagine or yeah hit the like and subscribe button

thank you Michelle sorry I know you're trying to get that out there and I keep interrupting you because I'm passionate about this shit Trey why can't workers play their fucking trade I imagine Supreme Court will strike it down because they're gearing up for a big legal fight but people should workers should be able to move I understand if a corporation

paying training okay then they have to pay you back for my training if I move to another job. But you don't get to own me as a worker because it's a word for that. Yeah. All right. Yes, thank you, Michelle. Hit the like button, everybody. Subscribe, share, rate, review.

All that good internet stuff would be helpful if you would. And let's say here for Shay Reeves says, I work in a high school library. The job gets harder every day, but I still love it. Yeah, that's good for you. My sons are avid readers, love the library. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Judy Kidder Browning says, can you compare and contrast Biden's, quote, secret documents with Voldemorrhanges, staffed at Mara, Mara Lago? I hadn't heard Voldemorins before. So, yeah, so the Biden's vice presidential library or whatever discovered they had a couple top secret documents and voluntarily gave them back and it was going to be an investigation into. how they got there or whatever, which is fine, whatever.

But yesterday, cable news, and CNN was worse than Fox for whatever reason, went all in on this, like, it's the biggest, they did this thing. Well, they don't actually report the news. They skip straight to, like, analysis pieces about how the politics are going to play. And it's like, can you just say what happened first before you skip straight to how this is awful news for Biden because of how it's going to play when you're the one doing the plane? Right. So, like, it, so having a couple of you accidentally took.

and voluntarily turning them back over is different from taking stuff on purpose and refusing to give it back even when it's been subpoenaed. Yeah. Like, it's not the having the documents, it's refusing to turn it over. The National Archives and the FBI

didn't raid Trump's compound until negotiating and try to get their shit back for fucking over a year, year and a half or whatever. The two things are not remotely the same. And, but we're hitting, this is Hillary's emails all over again. We're at no context or specificity.

and this isn't a defense of Hillary Clinton it's more of like that was the in the weeds thing about email protocols and how email was used in 2008 who Hillary's husband was what his job was while he had a private email server while she didn't want to carry around two cell phones yada yada yada yada it's all inane bullshit and it's everything they want to talk about instead of stuff that's actually happening that matters

I don't care that trump had the documents I don't care fuck yeah it's that yeah anytime the both sides argument gets probably up. That's often the way it goes, in my opinion. It's like, they don't seem entirely equitable to me. Sandy Trunks, guess they've been on the beach. I'm right? Says CNN is leaning way to the right to get more of Fox's viewers. Yeah, they got new corporate leadership essentially announced that we're going to do that. And it's probably a small business decision because the most cable news viewers are old as shit. And they're probably lean right wing. So if you want to try to grab them

to survive as a viable business enterprise, it's probably the right move. But it's really sad for a society that news is a profit-based business that's spun as entertainment. Well, yeah, the shift to it being entertainment, as you alluded to earlier with you, like you said, they don't even really report the news. They just skip straight to the take part, the fallout, the drama and all that. And that whole dynamic is the worst fucking thing that ever happened to the American media landscape. An enemy an enemy anemone.

Every week you can't say it. Every week you can't say it. Every week. Every week. I'll get around one of these weeks. says CNN now seems to think that it is a good business strategy to get worse than Fox, though that seems like a crowded field right now to try to break into. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, yeah, Aaron Doug. Chris, Chris Lick is the guy. Yeah. Something weird is happening with CNN since Chris Licked took over. Yeah. I'm just wondering why like, look, I used to work in news and I always thought it was

funny that like right wingers thought that like, like, I would get emails and he'd excuse me to be part of left wing media. and I'm like, I'm like a night cop's reporter in a, like, satellite bureau in Arlington, Texas. And like, there's no meeting. Like, no one told me what to write or what to do. Of course, there's editorial oversight, and they would direct, they would tell you, like, hey, I think this story is important. But like, the idea that like Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper are taking orders to spend their coverage, it's completely against my mind or the spirit of led people to get into journalism would be. I don't know how this shit works over there, but like, every journalist I ever work with it, be like, fuck you, I quit.

because you don't, you don't end up being a reporter. Of course, they're not reporters. They're high-level TV personalities. It's different. But you don't end up in journalism because you love authority. So I don't understand. Yeah, but like you said, their high-level personalities and stuff, there's a whole lot of money at play,

and that shit changes everything. You know what I mean? Yeah. You were fucking working the bait for a paper, you know? That's that real shit. Make it $24,000 a year was not enough money to lie about. Linda Zinn says, I'm old as shit, and so are my friend.

who are also oldest shit and we're left laners there you go mark hey you ought to know that was coming now we i'm not i'm not saying that all i'm not saying that all old people are bad that's not what i'm saying we're never saying that i'm saying some old people lives matter yeah all right well so listen uh as a reminder go to tray crowder dot com and check out my dates and my tickets and stuff Damn, Matt, once again, I've got to get you a new graphic. That's all right. We'll get it. Yeah, a lot of fun shit coming up, adding more shows all the time.

I hope y'all will come and see me in 2023. And also, if you like this program and you want to support us and get more of us in your life and who wouldn't, go to weekly skews.com slash more, or you can go on Patreon and look me up and $5 a month. You get full link bonus episodes. We have fun with it. And, yeah, like, subscribe. rate and review. I'm glad to be back. Thank you all for sticking with us through the little

tumultuous holiday season that we typically have every year. Should be back on track now and we'll see you each and every skews day. So yeah. Shout out to old left wingers. We love you. Old hippies rule. Old hippies rule. Bye.