Weekly Skews - Weekly Skews - 5/11/21 - “Labor Shortage” My Butt

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

This week, Trae flies solo as Smart Mark attempts to survive Florida long enough to return next week. Some great dumbasses are followed by a segment on the latest attempt to demonize the poor. Then, Justin Kanew of The Tennessee Holler will join Trae to discuss just exactly how crazy shit has gotten back home. Join us!Support the show

Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome back today's Tuesday, May 11th, 2021. I would like to begin with a little shout out to my baby sister, Paige Crowder, who yesterday celebrated a birthday, a birthday marking 32 years on this earth, 32 years spent upstaging me in the liberal redneck comedy and most other departments. I love you very much, Sissy, and happy birthday to you. I'm Trey Crowder, and that is an empty chair. That's right, as you may have already ascertained, no smart Mark tonight.

No, he is defying his nickname at present by vacationing in Florida with his in-laws. So, you know, pray for him, y'all. Fret not. As long as Mark manages to not have his face eaten by an alligator or a rabid Floridian, he will be back with us next week and things will be back to normal. But in the interim, you're looking at it. it that's right i'm going to be ranting into the void on my lonesome this evening but if you followed me for a while you know that ranting into the void is a favored pastime of mine so i think we'll be just

fine also i'm never truly alone on this show as i have you all and the venerable producer matt who is with me on the ones and two is doing his thing um in light of that as we go through the show matt is going to he's still got to do all his producer duties but he's going to attempt to put up some more comments and stuff earlier in the show so I can respond to those and you guys can have a conversation with me of shorts as we go of sorts as we go along so that's that's the plan so hey let's see how it goes this is weekly skews tonight the primary subject of my solo ire will be the supposed labor shortage that has job creators all around this country in a real tizzy is it really a labor shortage or is it just the latest in a ceaseless line of

of reasons for them to talk shit about poor people who actually do stuff in this country. Well, you could probably see where I'm laying, but we'll talk about it more later. Also, at the midway point, I will be mercifully rescued from the solo rantings by my guest tonight, Justin Canoe, who is the founder of the Tennessee Holler, a wonderful progressive blog aimed at documenting the ceaseless parade of lunacy emanating from my home. state of Tennessee. Me and Justin will talk about all the latest back-home bullshit, as well as his big virtual festival coming up this weekend, Hollerfest, which I will be a part of. All that and more on tonight's weekly skews, but first, as always, I begin with the Daily Dumbass.

Matt, graphic, please. Tonight's D.D., any conservative out there who thought that your livestock was safe from us liberals in our cancel culture crusade. In case you missed it, the Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, who is a horse, failed its post-race drug test, which led to a lot of controversy and some actual consequences from the horse world. But the horse's owner or trainer or both, the horseman, the horseman, Bob Bafferty, had a very pointed explanation for what really was behind. those consequences. Matt, play the clip, please.

Churchill Downs came out with that statement. That was pretty harsh. And I think they had to just, you know, it's, you know, with all the noise going out, you know, we live in a different world now. This America's different. And it was like a canceled culture kind of a thing. So they're reviewing it.

I haven't been told anything. We're prepared to run. I can't see them but under the rules does your team get to review the results or is that left with the horse officials?

No, there's a long process there'll be a split sample and then there'll be a hearing and this is going to take months this is going to this isn't done within a week and it's a long period

but you're here to say that Bob Baffert's team did not cheat to win the Kentucky Derby we did not cheat to win the Kentucky Derby. no no they didn't cheat they just you know they did what anybody would do and take illegal drugs in order to win the kentucky derby which isn't cheating it wouldn't even be a problem if we on the left weren't so obsessed with canceling everybody who you know takes illegal drugs to win the kentucky derby or whatever it is that they are apparently saying here um this is what this was always the

sort of natural end result the natural impact point for the cancel culture debate or whatever you want to call it is that they've now realized that they can latch on to any reason to forgive themselves for any transgressions or wrong doings. Like, oh, I'm just getting canceled. Like, yeah, sure. I shot that horse up with a whole bunch of adrenaline gasoline or however. I don't know by horses, but like that, you know, shot the horse up, the horse won. And it's like, well, you can't do that.

The horse should have lost. They're like, what? So now I'm just getting canceled, huh? I'm the latest season. Sorry, except it's a horse. That's where we ended up at, and it was always going to be this way, and this isn't the end of it either. But I do want to say that this is so stupid. This is such a moment of dumbassery that even some on Fox News aren't having it,

including Brian Kilmead, arguably the dumbest on Fox News. Matt, play this short clip here. cancel culture Bob Baffert you are no Dr. Seuss so what do we stand now the results so it's like

even this guy is saying yeah you know what pump the brakes buddy while also saying while also validating that Dr. Seuss got canceled which of course also didn't happen

he's canceling cancel culture out here it's just just an endless cycle of cancellations going back and until who will be left only the truly pure i don't know this shit is so ridiculous but it did lead to some funny moments some of which we've already showed you but also i appreciated this one also from fox news at which you know far better for me to give it up to them but i like this kairon that they had when covering the story matt you throw that uh the screen grab up there look at that bob baffert quote bob baffert is not stupid

I love this, because it's under that subgenre of, if you guys never saw that, that viral screenshot that said, quote for man stabbed, what are you going to do? Stab me? I love shit like this. So, yes, Bob Baffert, like, even amongst the cancel culture megosphere of Fox News, apparently, even they think he's a dumbass. And maybe because of that, he has actually kind of admitted a little bit of fault here, But don't worry, you still got an explanation.

Matt, if you've got the screen grab, throw it up there, and I'll tell you how he explains what happened. So he says all that happened was following a previous derby, the Santa Anita Derby, Medina Spirit, developed dermatitis on his hind ends, on his butt, on his horse butt. And the horseman's horse doctor told him that they needed to use this particular ointment called Odomax, or OtoMax, something like that. and it's antifungal ointment and according to the horseman the the bomb that he repeatedly rubbed

on the horses but it had in it the banned substance that led to the so again you can see how anybody could have done it any horseman could have done that and he really shouldn't be facing these consequences of his actions you know it's our fault with us in our cancel culture so there you go that's our lead dumbass tonight but let's go into some honorable mentions, the first daily dumbass honorable mention, anybody out there who thought the My Pillo guy's big election fraud party wouldn't slap or that Joe Piscopo don't still got it, baby, that's right. And I want to apologize in advance for this clip, but I had to see it, so you had to see it, too.

This is Joe Piscopo at the My Pillo guy's election fraud party. Play it, Matt. And then this, I don't mean to be racist, but how about the Japanese? Can I do this? Warm! I'm sorry if that's racist, I apologize. Touching warm! I apologize, I'm sorry. Reaching out! Okay, I'm sorry, I made a mistake and I apologize. Touching me! Touching you! It's creepy, ladies and gentlemen!

And if you're gonna do something for the Japanese players, you're gonna do something with their Latino players. What about the brothers? You gotta do something for the brothers in major league baseball yeah i mean really you know so again respectfully you should sound something like this i think you gotta just kind of go like this yeah the art version of sweet caroline kind of go like this whose music is this ain't no one i'm some jewish guy talking sweet caroline when i think a diamond i put it on my ear got nothing to do about what i want to want to hear i'm so proud to be part of m lb but caroline dang make a j z

Were you guys loving that as much as the audience in attendance was? How about that? Murdering, right? He was just killing it up there. Even those people weren't down with that, I guess. Producer Matt says, as the resident South Dakota, and I can say this might be the least racist thing ever to have been done at the corn palace, which first of all, I guess that's where that took place. The corn palace, I didn't, only because of producer Matt, am I aware that the corn palace is an actual place? I mean, I guess it checks out.

But I guess that's where all the big activities go down in that particular Dakota. I'm sorry, man. Was that South Dakota? I assume it was. Only because that's where producer Matt is from. But yes, there you have it. Killing in the Corn Palace. I don't even, if you don't understand what that Japanese stuff was up top, don't feel bad.

I don't understand it either. I have no idea what that was supposed to be. But I do know the last part was a racist attempt at wrapping a version of a sweet caroline because you know that's what plays to these people although i don't know like i feel like you got to do one or the other he was up there being hopelessly racist the whole time while also apologizing for it in between literally every line that he said um i guess that was done sarcastically i don't know but like i said before we played it i had to see it so y'all had to see it too uh you know that's how things work around here so our next honorable mention for daily

dumbass is whoever it was at Newsmax that book my man David Litt, former Obama speechwriter. And here's why they were dumb for doing that. Play the clip, Matt. David Litt, good morning. Welcome in to Wake Up America. Nice to see you. Thanks for having me. I did not watch Saturday Live. I watched the clips. The show's on too late. Quite frankly, I don't think it's that funny anymore. What did you think of Elon Musk's performance? This is the first time since 2015, we've had a non-athlet, non-entertainer on the show, the last person to do that and do well with great ratings, our former president Donald Trump. Well, Rob, it's a great question. I mean, what happened on SNL this weekend was that

people made stuff up and then set it on television like it's true. And that actually happens pretty frequently in American TV. For example, in 2020, Dominion voting system sued Newsmax over its false claims about election fraud. Newsmax was lying to its own viewers. And Newsmax had to settle that lawsuit. So actually, I just need to check in. Are you still telling that lie? Are you telling new lies? Wait, are we talking about, I'm sorry, David, are we talking about, do you want to talk about something completely nonrelated and try to catch me on a Monday morning totally off topic, or do you want to talk about Alon Musk? Well, I can see why you don't want to talk about Dominion voting systems, because if you do, Newsmax could get sued and lose

billions of dollars because these are lied. David, David, David, that's, listen, David, that's fine, David, I know. This is a very funny moment for you. I'm sure you didn't sleep last night as you prepared to sort of try and get the morning anchor on Newsmax. I'd be happy to talk with you about whatever you want to talk about. Obviously, it's not the topic that we have set up for right now. So if you'd like to talk about Saturday Night Live, I will do that with you. But obviously, I'm not going to talk about anything else right now. So you decide right now in this moment on live television. Go ahead. Did Dominion voting systems have any impact on the 2020 election? Oh, that's unfortunate because I was really excited about this interview. I didn't watch

SNL on Saturday night, but I thought Elon Musk did an okay job. And he also said that he's got Asperger. So I thought that was a fascinating component of the monologue. So David, we look forward to having him back on very soon again. That was a stellar interview. David Litt, thanks so much for joining us. We'll be right back. My man. So the way I saw that clip was it was shared by the wonderful committee in Mike Berbiglia, who said, and I agree with this, the only way to ever hold these particular people accountable is to do it live. You got to go on there and just call them out live and see how they handle it. And I feel like he didn't handle it particularly well. I did, I did like how

producer Matt said this. It's like he referred to him, the anchor referred to himself as the morning anchor on Newsmax. Just really thinking highly of himself. I feel like, listen, you thought you could come on where the morning anchor is and just do your silly stuff and be all funny and it would work, but you're not going to get me. But no, he did. It was totally effective i feel like and i just i appreciate david live for that so good job brother i hope more people do that exact type of thing in the future our final honorable mention and daily dumb ass tonight is uh any of you out there who think you might be able to guess what the worst slash silliest thing that a candidate for district attorney in philadelphia would have to explain might be so like

the silliest thing that someone running for district attorney in Philadelphia would have to explain a way. What do you think that is? You thinking of it? Let's see if you got it right. May I put up the screen grab, please. It's the girl in my bathtub. That's right. This is on the candidate's own website.

His name is Charles Peruto Jr. And on his own website, he has to dedicate an entire section to explaining, just so everyone understands how that dead girl got into his bathtub. And you might be thinking, oh, is this like a, like a East Coast mob lawyer? Yes, yes, he is. He's a mob lawyer. So the mob lawyer running for district attorney in Philadelphia had to dedicate an entire section in his website to explain into people how that girl who was dead in his bathtub

ended up being dead in his bathtub. You know, again, it could happen to anybody, right? who among us has never had a dead girl in their bathtub besides almost all of us. But he explains it, you know, very diplomatically, apparently, yes. So he says, you know, it's ridiculous that anyone should have to dedicate an entire section of their website to this. But since I know you're going to ask about it, here is the reason that it happened. and he basically says that she was very, very, very drunk, and there you go. That's it, pretty much.

She was very drunk. She had a 0.45 blood alcohol content, and thus she was dead in his bathtub. So please leave him alone about it, guys. Stop asking him. Come on, can we get on to the issues here? He's trying to run for district attorney of the city of Philadelphia. Do we have to stay on this dead girl in the bathtub thing? come on like it's unfair um so yeah there you go there are your dumbasses for this evening so let's talk

about our main story tonight the labor shortage they say that's what they being the job creators of this country you're calling it the big labor shortage here's what had happened what had happened was uh in april there was expected to be this major spike in jobs added to the economy to the tune of a million or more new jobs. That's what everybody was expecting. And then that didn't happen. The actual number was 266,000 jobs added to the economy in April. So that happened, and at the same time that those numbers came out, a slew of pictures went viral on the internet.

And Matt, you can start throwing them up whenever, yes, pictures from around the country, mostly at restaurants, chain restaurants, that have some version of the same sign. It's a sign posted on the window, and people took pictures and posted them. And the signs say some version of, we are short-staffed or we are not open because we have no staff, right? And then here's a Sonic and Albuquerque, and a lot of them have the same sentiment. These signs end with no one wants to work anymore, right? So that's why we have to be. That's why you can't get your 42-ounce ocean breeze, sugar water, or whatever the hell you're getting at Sonic for whatever reason.

And that's why it's because nobody wants to work him. These damn poor people have gotten even lazier than they were before somehow against all odds. But here we are. John Orbit Bainbridge says, why won't anyone take this shit job for bad money? And John is very, very much on top of it. It's a very astute observation because that's what, so that's what, so basically the right, the very pro business right are, making the argument already through the Chamber of Commerce, their biggest lobbying organization, that what's going on here is poor slash working people refuse to come back.

Here's a headline, labor shortage data shows added unemployment payments are crippling employer's ability to find workers. So first of all, you look at that headline and like, who's the protagonist of that headline? employers right something is happening to employers they are unable to find new workers why what's going on well it's these added unemployment benefits so the story there according to them is people after giving these additional unemployment benefits from the government they've realized i don't have to work anymore so they're just going to kick their feet up and just live on the dole for forever because that's the natural state of poor people is that they don't want to

work. And now they don't have to work since their government is actually taking care of them. So the Chamber of Commerce is lobbying states to stop giving people additional unemployment benefits because it makes them not want to work. And Razor Girl here with this comment says exactly what I was about to say. Maybe if they offered a decent wage, people would want to work there. And that's not just a like sort of talking head hot take, even though that's what I'm doing right now. It's actually backed up by the science of economics. And what I mean by that is when there are bona fide, yeah, here's a headline from The Insider, there's a simple solution for companies struggling to hire pay workers more. So in the field of economics, and I know this is, I know

this is like obvious, but I'm saying it's backed up by the actual science of the industry. When there are legitimate labor shortages when truly you're in a scenario where there is a legitimate shortage of labor. The way that that is addressed every time is by higher wages or higher benefits. You have to incentivize people to be able to hire them, right? And that's not happening right now. Imagine that. Weird, right? So far, it's just them. bitching about it as opposed to doing anything to try to address it. So actually, economists are saying this isn't a real labor shortage. It's a phantom labor shortage because if it was genuine, there would be a response in response to it that would raise wages. A headline from in these

times says, U.S. labor shortage, no, we have a crisis of low wages. So basically, there's a very obvious and tried and true tested response to a genuine labor shortage, you have to raise wages. And so far, they are unwilling to do that because they're sticking to their guns and saying, no, it's not that wages are too low. It's that poor people are too lazy or too dumb or whatever. So, first of all, and I know all of y'all listen to me probably feel the same way I do about this, but like a lot of this shit, you feel like it doesn't have to be said, but I guess it does have to be said. People are, poor people are not stupid or lazy. No, I promise you right now, having been poor for most of my life and coming from a family of poor working people,

no one is just banking on this extra $300 a week for the rest of their lives. No one has gotten this extra $300 a week and just leaned back and kick their feet up like, Oh, well, hell. Why ever do anything else? We've got it made now. That's not what's happening. No one is like that. Also, whenever you bring up the minimum wage, hang on, let me read this first.

Phoenix Fire from YouTube says, low wages, no oversight in restaurants and retail, no benefits, being punished for being a parent. Yes, you touched on a lot of things. I'm about to bring up, Phoenix. You're 100% right. The first thing I want to say, though, is that anytime we start talking about raising the minimum, wage, right? What do Republicans say? They always say some version of, well, you know, if you don't feel you're paid enough, then get a better job. Be upwardly mobile. Bootstraps, right? Bootstrap your ass up to a better job. And then you won't have to worry about it. Well, you know, maybe a lot of

these people have done that. Maybe that's what they've done is decided there are better ways for them to devote their lives in return for wages than to do it at fucking McDonald's or hearties or wherever maybe they've decided that there's a better way for them to go about it but also like phoenix was saying i'm somebody with young children uh i can do a lot of my shit from home like i'm doing right now but i know that you know the kids are mostly at home right now people have to take care of their children still during the day so a lot of people are having to do that also that's because of the pandemic also because of the pandemic um people are worried about going to work in a public facing position, especially in places where people

are going to come in, wearing no mask, yelling at you, fucking throwing spittle onto your face while berating you for wearing a mask while they refuse to and just put you at risk all day long. It's not worth it for $7 an hour or whatever. And a lot of people have realized this. Like, it's not worth it. That's what it comes down to for me. You want people to do this shit for you. You have to make it worth it. And right now, it's just not worth it.

Make it worth it. And people will come back. But there's always this, like, it's this weird thing that people have, I think, when they think about everyone else, when topics like this come up. And what I mean is, like, for example, right now it's come back up as part of this whole. ongoing situation. A lot of McDonald's workers are striking again or are going to strike again. I think on May 19th. I think that's right for for $15 an hour, right? Yeah, 15 cities, McDonald's workers are going to strive for $15 an hour. And anytime this type of thing comes up, a lot of other people, you'll hear this thing, this narrative of like,

so listen, I'm a, and I'm not picking on EMTs. I'm just picking a improperly paid position. But like, you're people saying, I'm an EMT and I make $11 an hour. So you're telling me you think that some teenager flipping burgers deserves to make $4 more an hour than I do. And of course, the answer is no, no, I don't think that. I think you're both getting fucked, man. Like, both of you deserve more. It isn't, it's not a binary thing. It's not an either or thing where they deserve more than you do.

It's not always about framing it as if someone else gets. it's more, you get less. We all should be getting more, you know. And the other element of that same dynamic, I think, is that people, by the same token, if you ask people, you know, if you were paid more money, let's say you were paid $300 more a month or whatever, what would you spend it on? Pretty much every single person is going to be like, oh, well, you know, I'd finally get my brake pads changed or I'd, you know, change that fan belt, or I'd fix that air conditioner, you know, or whatever. And a lot of the people in this country, unfortunately, if you ask them, okay, let's say hypothetically we gave your neighbor $300 more a month. What would they spend it

on? And it's always like, oh, well, you know, more beer, bear and cigarettes probably. They'd just be laid up like they are because they wouldn't have to work. You know, people don't apply the same logic to themselves as they do everybody else. And that leads to this narrative of poor people are lazy and sorry and just don't want to work, which of course is not true. And I, you know, I'm worried about this shit because it seems like, it seems to me like Joe Biden is maybe listening to it a little bit. Matt, if you have the Joe Biden clip, you can play it whenever you got it. We're going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job

must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits. There are a few COVID-19 related exceptions so that people aren't forced to choose between their basic safety and a paycheck. Okay, so I'm not thrilled about that response, but that's maybe like towing political lines or whatever, whatever you have to do, because somewhat reassuring was the response that Jen Saki his correspondence director had to a question related to the same subject.

Let's apply that, Matt. Then we'll get Justin out here. Economy, so employment only rose by about 266,000 jobs in April out of 7.4 million or so job openings. How does the White House know that people are just choosing not to apply for jobs because the extra unemployment benefits are so good? Well, first, let me say that we have looked at the day. data. And Secretary Yellen referred to this on Friday or talked about this on Friday. We don't see much evidence that the extra unemployment insurance is a major driver in people not rejoining the workforce. We actually see the data and our analysis shows that lack of vaccination, the lower rate,

which is why I referred to the data in the week that it was taken, it has an impact. Child care has an impact. Schools reopening has an impact. But there is also the need. need to pay a livable working wage. And that's one of the reasons the president will talk about that this afternoon. So, you know, there you go. Like I said, I mean, same administration, but you're getting kind of sort of differing messages there, I feel like. But I guess I'm choosing to appreciate the second one more than the first one. I don't know what to say. At least there's some appropriate messaging coming out from the administration on it, I guess. It's the bright side. to look on. So we'll circle back to this topic in the questions and comments later at the end

of the show. But before we do real quick, I want to say I think that this, I told you there was a slew of viral videos that people took at various fast food restaurants or whatever, that a lot of which had the same kind of narrative. People don't want to work, but they didn't all have that narrative. And this one, I think, is a little more illustrative, Matt, if you put that screen grab it. This is from a Wendy's here, says, we all quit, exclamation point, exclamation point, closed. Love Wendy's. So, yeah, that's what's happening. People are realizing that, like, you're worth more than what these people indicate you are. You don't have to be wage slaves anymore, and people are realizing that, and they're fighting back. That's what's happening. And they're going to have to, you know, adapt or die.

fuck them or figure them robots out they've been working on for so long i guess it's going to take everybody's jobs but we'll see what happens like i said we'll circle back to this topic towards the end but first i want to get out here my man who's here to rescue me from this uh solo ranting into the void i'm doing my guest tonight he's uh his buddy of mine's name's justin canoe he's the founder of the tennessee holler which many of you all may already be aware is a wonderful blog a progressive blog that's a and content aggregator that's aimed at kind of holding to account the lunatics in the South who are doing everything they can to keep us in the past, the regressive conservatives of the South, trying to put a different voice out there saying not all Southerners, not all

Tennesseans are like that. My man, Justin, is at the forefront of that effort. His name's Justin Canoe, and here he is, of the Tennessee holler. Bring him out of here, Matt. What's up, dog? What's up, my man? Really good to hear you solo trip, you've been doing great.

I'm agreeing with everything you're saying. Thanks, buddy. You think I'm doing all right? Yeah, you're doing great. You're making a lot of sense. So I guess let's start. Tell everybody about the holler up top, actually. Explain to people, do a better job than I did,

explain what the holler is and what you're about. Yeah, man, the holler is basically a group of people all throughout Tennessee. who are, we like to say, yelling the truth about what's going on here. The backstory is I ran for Congress in 2018 for the seat that Marsha Blackburn left behind, lost to a guy named Mark Green, who's just as bad as she was. But I felt like there wasn't enough truth yelling going on. There wasn't a real progressive messaging outlet here. And so we started it.

We've been up there bothering the right people up on the hill for about two years now. We've grown pretty fast. We have a really engaged, awesome audience. and I like to say everybody's the hauler. So most of the information that we get comes from regular folks who just want to see the truth get told all throughout the state, and that's what we've been trying to do as best we can. So it's been going really well.

We appreciate all the support you've given us, and obviously one thing I just want to plug is we have our holler fest, our first one on Saturday that you're going to be a part of. A lot of progressive people from all throughout the state are going to jump in and talk about the issues that we're facing here in Tennessee where we could use all the help we can get. Yeah, well, I mean, Since we're on the subject, let's just go ahead and do it.

Yeah, Saturday, Hollerfest, the first one. And this one's virtual, hoping to do more in the future, maybe not as virtual. But the upside is everybody's watching right now wherever they're at. They can check it out, right? So let's go ahead and do the specifics of Hollerfest so everybody know. And then we'll get into some fun stuff. Great. So Hollerfest is going to be Saturday, 2 p.m. Central time, live streaming on at the T.N.

Holler on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Trey, Stella Parton, Jim Cooper, Steve Cohen, both our congressmen, some state reps, some great activists, Justin Jones, Afton Bain, Odessa Kelly, who's running against Rep Coen, a rep Cooper, Tennessee Justice Center, Equality Project, all these great people, basically CPAC, but for good is what we're trying to do. You know, CPAC, they all came together and spouted their nonsense. We're going to try to spout some truth-telling. Absolutely. So yeah, I'll be there. Y'all check it out this Saturday. All right. So, okay, Justin, here's a, we've got a story that we actually would have covered on this episode either way. But since you're here, I wanted to ask you about it because I feel like this is right in the Holler's wheelhouse. This is obviously from back home. I'm sure you've seen it already. It's a Tennessee State Representative Justin Lafferty from Knoxville, who on the state Congress floor argued in favor of the 350. compromise, basically, or if not arguing favor for it, he tried to sort of rationalize the three-fifths compromise. And I guess, Matt, actually, let's just, let's play that. It's about a minute long. Let's play the clip. Then Manuel, talk about it.

The three-fifths compromise was a direct effort to ensure that southern states never got the population necessary to continue the practice of slavery everywhere else in the country. What does that mean? Appropriation based on population. That's how we pick. Everybody in here knows we've got nine, I hope I'm right, nine state representatives. By limiting the number of population in the count, they specifically limited the number of representatives that would be available in the slaveholding states and they did it for

the purpose of ending slavery. well before Abraham Lincoln, well before a civil war. Do we talk about that? I don't hear that anywhere in this conversation across the country. I don't know how we've gotten here. I don't know what we do about it, but talking about changing our history, changing is not the right word, talking about incorporating another view of history while ignoring the very writings that we have access to is no way to go about it. Okay. So for a little context first, and I want you to tell me what you think about it. This is like in response to another iteration of a bill in Tennessee that would ban critical race theory from state's public schools. And it's basically like curriculum that would, you know, say we were wrong. That civil war was about slavery and that slavery was bad. And that that, you know, we should probably not do that again. And just, you know, like factual elements of historical curriculum, a lot of southern states, and not just

southern states, actually, Idaho passed a very similar bill very recently, but a lot of red states have a problem with this type of curriculum, and they're trying to ban it right now. That's currently happening in Tennessee, which is what prompted this particular tirade. So, Justin, what do you think is up with this? Well, a couple things. First of all, Lafferty is a guy who twice, I'm up there on the hill a lot, bothering them, asking them questions they don't want to answer. Twice he's gone out of his way to try to bump into me.

So this guy is a little firecracker of a dude. He's shorter than I am, and I'm pretty short. And my favorite part of the video is actually before he starts talking there where he goes, you know, I've been praying on this. I've been thinking a lot about this. And then he adds, but I really didn't even look it up. Yeah. And then he goes on to get this completely wrong and say that, you know, the three-fifths compromise was intended to end slavery.

And like with most things that Republicans say along these lines, there's like a colonel of you kind of get what he's saying. Like, okay, he's trying to say that the three-fifths compromise kept lower representation in the slave states. So may have helped in the end. But that was not the point of the three-fifths compromise. And to lift up the three-fifths compromise as like, we should celebrate this more. is completely outrageous. It whitewashes history. And it is the perfect representation of why the bill that he is lobbying for is so devastating because we need people like him to understand what really happened. And what this bill does is it makes it. So the teachers are going to have to think twice

about telling the truth about our history. And that is a really damaging, devastating thing. It is certainly not small government, which is what these guys try to claim to be all the time. Yeah, it's like another version of this. I haven't grown up in Tennessee, the South my whole life. I know there's this narrative also of like, and I know this is disgusting, but I'm just telling you all, this sort of argument of like, when it comes to slavery, finding any way you can to sort of reconcile or justify it. And like another version of it is, you know, well, a lot of slaves were treated well or like, really, they were better off, you know, than they were in Africa. they were sold by other Africans that came here and they're better off for it. And a lot of them loved their plantation owners and that type of shit.

And it's just doing anything they can to kind of, I don't know, ease the shame of slavery, which is not the shame or we are feel the shame. We should have all the shame. You know what I mean? But it's like, do you think that all this really just comes from? Well, where do you think all this? really comes from just trying to find you can't you can't separate it from everything else that's going on in this state right which is you know i mean that man is giving that speech probably 30 yards

from a bust of nathan bedford forest the first grand wizard of the kKK which they refused to move they just in that legislature later that day passed a bill to legalize essentially running over protesters that are protesting they criminalize voter registration so you know they make fried chicken jokes. Like there is a long list of racist garbage going on while they stand up and essentially try to wipe their hands of everything. They are carrying on the tradition. So, you know, it's just you can't separate it from everything else that's going on in this state. These guys are walking, living, breathing examples of why we need to teach the truth about what's going on. And I have two kids who are going to go through public schools. I don't want their teachers to be

afraid to tell the truth. And that is the culture that's being created here by these extremists, that are in control of this state. And people should really understand Tennessee is in extremist hands. This last session was really extreme. It was attacking the most vulnerable. It was passing ugly legislation. It was failing to help people at every turn. And we really need people to wake up and understand not only what they're doing,

but what they're failing to do every single day here in Tennessee. This is an extremist group. And it's a real scary situation here. Yeah, I definitely wanted to get into that with you, because, like, I, um, at the time, it's like I said, I lived in Tennessee my whole life until I moved to California in 2017. And right around that time or in the few years preceding it, I actually was, and again, please keep in mind, people, relatively speaking, comparatively speaking, I was feeling pretty good about Tennessee, actually, because we had done the like the community college bill, making, you know, free community college for everybody in Tennessee and things like there have been. Actually, yeah, with Haslam. Yeah, there have been some actually okay things happening, again, comparatively speaking.

And just in the past four or five years or whatever, the downward spiral that has gone on with like the Marsha Blackburns of the world and Bill Lee and everybody, it is so disheartening, man, especially when like compared to, and I know that I know, especially when compared to like Georgia. turning blue and everything. And I know everybody else saw, after that happened, you see what else has gone on in Georgia with the voter restriction laws and all that. Those people are still there, still doing their bullshit. But still, that was prompted by this, like, move in a progressive direction for Georgia, right? And especially when you look at that as compared to what's gone on in Tennessee in recent years, it's just so discouraging and disheartening, like I said. And I'm just wondering, you're on the front lines of it. Like, what, I mean, what is going on with all that and how are you feeling about the sort of trajectory of it, you know?

I mean, it's certainly a steep climb. You know, the demographics are different in Tennessee compared to Georgia. We just, you know, are not as racially diverse. It's the highest percentage of evangelicals in the entire country. So that really sets it apart also. You know, I think the backslide really happened probably right around when. Obama got elected and then, you know, it slowly started to drift further and further right and nobody's put the brakes on. You know, and it's, what the sad part is, it's not going to stop

until actual other Republicans, if they're still out there, stand up and say something. And we haven't had our Liz Cheney moment here. We haven't had any of them fall out of line. They do a really good job of keeping everybody in line. And, you know, it's hard to, you asked about the trajectory. You know, it's hard to see the progress in the needs. future, I'm sort of hopeful that as we get more younger voters voting and as we have more transplants, which are coming in here all the time from, you know, all over the state or all over the country, there may be hope. I know there's a lot of people doing a lot of great work here, and that's part of why we wanted to do the Hollerfest on Saturday to sort of showcase some

of that work. But it's definitely a steep climb, Trey. There's no question about it. I don't want to give anybody false hope here. But, you know, the only way people are going to start to change their minds is if they understand the truth about what's happening. And that's really why we started the hauler. You know, they don't tell the full story. They don't talk about how we're number one in medical bankruptcies at the bottom in poverty, F in education funding, at the bottom in an infant maternal mortality. I could go on and on and on. They just get up there and say, hey, we're fiscally stable and, you know, pat ourselves on the back. They don't really care about people. And that's the shame of it all. Yeah. What do you think? I'm going to ask you a version of a question

that I've been asked countless times over the years. How do you, how would you advise that Democrat, people actually running for office on the left go about like talking to these people. Because what I've always been saying, but here's the thing. I was hoping you were going to throw me that, Trey. No, I know, I know, right? I know.

That's always my answer to it's like too. Because like what I've been saying, but I, you know, I don't know that it actually even, I don't know what works, but I'm always like, look, you don't have to lead with like abortion and gun control. You can lead with like, like I'm from Clay County. Our hospital has closed down two times in the last three years. It's closed right now. Like lead with that and talk about marijuana. We haven't had a factory in 20 years, you know, like lead with that jobs and health care and that type of thing. And I would like to believe that's true. But, you know, I mean, what do you think?

Like, will that be effective? And if not, what do you do? No, that's absolutely. Absolutely right. You know, there are things that we believe that you don't have to talk about everywhere you go. And when I ran for Congress in a very red district, that was the first thing that came up every time was the abortion issue and why they hand my card back to me and say they won't vote for a Democrat. You know, I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done to figure out how we talk about that issue. But certainly it's not what you should lead with. I see John Bainbridge saying marijuana, I agree with him. I think marijuana is a big issue that doesn't get talked about really enough. I think people are starting to get that. But I think the framing needs to be, Here are the things that would happen if the Democrats were in charge. Here would what you would have. You would have Medicaid expansion. You would have medical marijuana. You would have more hospitals. You would have higher wages.

I mean, 725 an hour in this state and the state government won't let cities raise it higher even if they want to, not small government again. You know, it's government overreach. So there needs to be some hard work done to figure out the messaging here about how to change it, how to keep it simple. and then that just needs to be hit over and over and over again. The problem is it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because as long as people think, oh, Tennessee is a lost cause, there won't be resources pumped in here, and it will be one. So people have to start to believe that change can happen. Then resources start to come to groups like the Equity Alliance,

groups like Tennessee Equality Project that are doing the work here, indivisible. And then more and more, you'll start to see a little bit of a change because those resources, what they're used for is telling the truth and telling people what's actually going on here. But until the resources come in to do that, they're going to get all their news from Fox News, each other, the radio, and, you know, you go out to talk to them and you get one conversation, you're not cutting through all that. It has to be a sustained drumbeat of, you know, truth bombs. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. So I got a question for you from our producer, producer Matt.

His question is, what is the role of a blue blog and a red state? Can you talk a little bit about how you're providing an alternative voice? And do you have any advice for other similar red state voices of dissent? That's a great question. You know, the thing that we try to really focus on at the holler is video because I think it's easy to dismiss something that you write down. You know, you say this is my opinion. and they dismiss it and say that's fake news. But we have basically our own C-SPAN here in Tennessee.

Every single committee meeting, every single floor session is on video, live stream. So what we do is we go into those four and a half hour videos and we pull out the one minute that you need to see. And we say, hey, here's Micah Van Huss saying that he can't find the evil in a raped 15-year-old girl being forced to carry her coach's baby to term. You know, here's a conversation that happened. And so our role, I believe, is just showing the video, making it shareable, making it land. And, you know, my advice to red state bloggers that you're asking is really focus on video, get up there and ask them the tough questions on the hill where they feel most comfortable. And in my experience, if you ask the right question, their answer doesn't matter because either they're going to run away from you, they're going to disagree with you, they're going to yell at you, they're going to ignore you. But if you ask the right questions, their answers don't matter.

So that's what we've really been trying to do in this session. I spent a lot of time up on the hill. I cornered some guys in an elevator a few times, so they made it so that now I can't get in that elevator with them. But you got to make them uncomfortable. You got to, you know, bird dog them, show up at town hall, show up at county commission meetings. Because those places are where those real conversations happen. And they put their foot in their mouth a lot. You just got to let them sort of tell on themselves.

Yeah. All right. Before you get out of here, Justin, also I would just appreciate it if you spent a little chunk of time talking about Marsha Blackburn. specifically and how because she you know people have followed me for a while know that I'm a huge anti-fan of Marsha Blackburn I mean could you could you just talk about her for a minute please I she's my reason for living you know uh honestly I would not be doing what I'm doing without her you know I ran for the seat that she was in I ran to challenge her because nobody was uh I just I felt like somebody had to do it she had been running unopposed by the end of it she had run for

Senate. She's now our senator. I like to say I scared her off. I mean, she's just terrible, man. You know, there's a documentary on HBO Max right now about the opioid crisis that talks about her and how she enabled the opioid crisis. She has blood on her hands there. She takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NRA, takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from big telecom, gets very few donations, small dollar donations from real people. She's bought and paid for every step of the way. She's infuriating to listen to because she knows how to talk and end the interview five minutes later and you're like, wait, I'd feel like I didn't even ask a question. You can just see the interviewer's eyes glaze over. Anyway, she's just the absolute worst of the

worst. And, you know, it's a shame that she and Bill Haggerty are our senators. So, but again, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without her. So in a way, I have to thank her. Before I leave, Trey, I just want to say you really said a lot of nice things that I agree with about the labor shortage myth. One thing that I do want to point out that doesn't get talked about enough in my opinion is the health care angle. If we had expanded Medicaid here in Tennessee, you could earn more money and not lose your insurance. Right now, it's a math problem. If you earn too much, you lose your health coverage. So because we don't expand Medicaid, if you take one of those $12 an hour jobs, you could lose your health coverage. It doesn't make any sense. Expanding Medicaid, subsidizing

daycare. These are all things that make that math equation, more sense. Instead, all they want to do is cut their unemployment benefits. And then, of course, the biggest thing of all is Medicare for all. If we had Medicare for all or universal health coverage, these employers wouldn't have to worry about covering their employees. They could pay them more directly. Employees wouldn't have to worry about leaving their job and losing their coverage. It's just a death spiral. So Republican solution is to cut unemployment benefits, but I think like you believe and like I believe, the real solution is pay people more, cover subsidize daycare for low income families and take care of people's health care and then

we'll have a much better equation that's cutting unemployment benefits is not the equation especially since the bill they just passed doesn't cut benefits until two years from now far after the federal subsidy is lapsed so they're attacking really vulnerable people in a time where they're really going to need that money yeah amen brother you said it all right so one more time tell everybody how to find the holler and follow it and tell them about holler fest one more time and how to check that out. TNholler.com at the TNHoller on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Hollerfest is Saturday, May 15th,

this Saturday at 2 p.m. Central Time. Come check out Trey, Stella Parton, Rep. Jim Cooper, Rep. Steve Cohen, a lot of great people. And follow the holler, as we like to say. We really appreciate what you're doing here with the skews. Keep up the great work. And thank you, everybody, for having us. Hell yeah, my man.

Thank you, Justin. I was a pleasure talking to you, and I'll talk to you soon, brother. Justin Canoe, everybody from the Tennessee Holler. um so yeah like you said holler fest this saturday i'll be on there with a bunch of much i'm sorry i know y'all don't know what this is about there's a goddamn flying here uh that keeps showing up so that's what i'm not just like it's not ghost i'm waving at but anyway i love justin and i love to holler and i think they're great and yeah if y'all don't already follow them you should

because he's really really on top of all their bullshit in the south at large but particularly in Tennessee. He really calls him to task, which I like. Rachel DeGroote asks, is it live? Yeah, I believe it. There might be like a slight tape delay or something like that, maybe, but I'm pretty sure it's live. I mean, it's mostly live. So, yeah. Which is not to say, though, that you can't watch it if you can't be there Saturday. Like, you'll be able to watch it after the fact, I hope, maybe. I don't know. I'm answering for Justin now. He's not here. But Justin just gave the thumbs up. Yes, it's, yeah, it's live. okay so um let's see so yeah like i said circling back to that uh the the whole labor shortest

thing and how they're just constantly coming after uh poor people slash working people what do y'all think about that uh that hasn't already been said or just reiterate shit if you want to christie fow says tell smart mark we missed him tonight okay christie i mean look i missed him too of course i missed him but you know hell i'm yeah i'll tell him i'll tell him look i know yeah we missed him i'll tell him christie in particular missed him tonight but no he'll be back i've very much missed him you know mark smart mark he's like the he's like the play by play and i'm like the color commentary sort of like you know he's the one that knows shit he's smart mark he knows stuff you know i just like didn't say what i think oh rich am coming from the other side saying

and Trey is doing a great job flying solo. I know you weren't saying the opposite, Christy, but I appreciate that, Rich. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, yeah, weird that I managed to just rant and rave on my own for a while, you know. I somehow found my way. Who would have thunk it?

But, yeah, I really appreciate y'all sticking with me through this and everything. You guys have been great for being here, and I'm not signing off yet. I'm just letting you know that I appreciate you. and and y'all are awesome but yeah the uh okay allan bail says here in new zealand we have universal child care and health care and we're not socialist or communist and our country hasn't fallen apart the situation in the u.s is just tragic yes alan i agree there's plenty there's plenty of other i mean new zealand is like a beacon uh over the past couple years because especially

i know how well y'all handled covid and how that went and I feel like I know I've been up here in the U.S. looking in New Zealand like god damn why can't we do more of that but there's more like y'all like a lot of the Nordic countries and stuff that just seem to have things figured out a little better that are like uh pejoratives to a lot of people in this country like you'll end up like them's like oh the horror Larissa Berg says my husband gives his compliments on your haircut track oh well you're going to give me the vapors Larissa's husband I appreciate that. T. Coleman says it was nice seeing you on the Young Turks as well. Thank you, Tee. I appreciate that. Yes, I had a good time on the Young Turks. They were emailing me earlier today. Hopefully we'll be back on there soon because a lot of y'all were watching were very positive about my parents and I really appreciate that too. So yeah, I love the Young Turks. I love what they're about and hopefully I'll show up back on there before too long. John Hampton says I could listen to

you rant for hours. Yeah, I'm still doing the fly. This fly will not leave me alone, y'all. Yeah, you think that, John, until I get into, like, why dinosaurs shouldn't have feathers or, you know, the latest Star Wars project or whatever, shit like that, or especially the Tennessee Volunteers Football Team. Like, there's plenty of, I could rant for hours about a lot of shit,

many of which those topics you wouldn't be particularly into, I'd imagine. Just ask my wife, buddy. Am I right? Okay. But I don't know how y'all are doing as far as all that goes. I hope you had a good Mother's Day, everybody, two days ago. That was a lesson I had to learn. And I'm not, look, I was wrong. I was wrong, you know. But what I'm saying is when my sons, I have two sons, eight and nine years old. When they were younger, like, well, like when they began to exist, the first couple of Mother's Days, I didn't really do. do anything for my wife because because like she would bring up she'd like you can give me anything for Mother's Day and I was like well yeah you're not you ain't my mama I don't you're my wife you ain't my mama why would I do that but I get now I understand it now I've learned the air of my ways and this Sunday me and my oldest baked her a shit load of cookies we got her some flowers

and a board game she wanted and all that stuff and I hope y'all celebrated motherdom appropriately out there. And I hope all the mama's watching had a good mother's day. You deserve it. Amanda Russell Brake says, did you watch SNL? No, I didn't. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I grew up loving SNL, and it's not like I don't, I just, it had nothing to do with

must being on there or nothing. I just, like, I've sort of gotten into this place where it started with touring all the time and being doing my own show on Saturday night and whatnot. I just have to watch it through clips and everything after the fact. and I haven't really checked it out. I do know that he apparently didn't send doge coin into the stratosphere like people thought he would or whatever. Now, I don't know shit about what Dogecoin is. And I guess he also mentioned having Asperger's that's pretty much all I know about it.

I don't know. He, I'll tell you all the truth. I used to like, I used to be pretty into Elon Musk, honestly. Like years ago, I thought he was like, I don't even want to say it because I don't even want to say it. Because I don't even, but, like, I thought he was, like, on some Tony Stark shit years ago. But, like, I've long since realized he's just another fucking plutocrat. You know, he treats his employees like shit. And it's, anyway, I'm not a huge fan.

He's a bit of an asshole. Yes, as Aaron Streeter just commented, Elon is overhyped. I agree completely. I mean, obviously, he's a smart and very competent dude. But, yeah, I'm not a big Elon fan anymore. He's just another one of the, you know. the haves fucking over the have-nots at the end of the day he showed his true colors during the pandemic in my opinion fucking losing his mind over not being able to continue cracking the whip over his employees and all that type of shit so yeah no fuck him and i guess i guess on that note i will close out this uh special solo edition of weekly skews and once again

and I very much appreciate y'all for sticking through it with me and Justin for bailing me out in the middle there and y'all are great and I love you like chicken and I'll be back next week and Smart Mark will be back with me. So we'll see y'all then. See you, love you, bye.