Cuomo, Minimum Wage, and Syria

Today we talk about the topics mentioned in the title, and go off on a brief Neera Tangent.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything. So don't do what's up my Cuomo

(00:22):
sexual opening you've done and you've opened many shows screaming it. Yeah,
I felt. I felt the pain come over the zoom
line from all of you, and it's fueling me right now.
It was a collective cringe, that's for sure. The is

(00:46):
a synonym for a sex past right, sex p Yes,
somebody who commits The last thing I saw on Twitter
before we got on this call with somebody pointing out
that about this time last year, I get it's more
like ma a of last year. There was a whole
line of products branded Cuomo Sexual where it would be
like Cuomo done up in like the Hope image because

(01:08):
everyone's like, it's so hot that he's competent, who knows
how to manage, you know, speaking complete sentences and he
can manage a yeah. And then it turned out he
was lying and hiding well, pushing to reopen during a
pandemic himself about all of this at length, Yeah, that's

(01:29):
why this way appreciate that that's good. Mine was Cuomo
tale vu, which is how play on how are you doing?
In French? What's good? Chris was better, yours was better? Cuomo? Yeah?
Is that? Would you like to see my naked Cuomo

(01:53):
speak French? Yeah, that's fine. You've got the gist here.
Really really wild year for Andrew, hasn't it, Guys, As
you've touched on Democratic Party people, you know, resistance heroes,
spend all of the spring, you know, lauding his his

(02:15):
nightly addresses, you know, watching him real against Trump, people
calling themselves cuomosexuals. He had magazine covers. Everybody just gobbled
it up. We sat there, you know, watching him on
his brother's news show. They got many times, and I
don't think the single serious person has argued with that, Sophie.

(02:39):
Yeah they have, but you're right, you said serious. You're right. Sorry,
I'm no point taken the hotter Cuomo. But both of
them were up there like jackasses, joking about which is
the better son. Meanwhile, his administration is actively covering things
up and you know, talking and razing his response to

(03:01):
the pandemic, you know, setting himself up as a foil
to Donald Trump, when the truth is is that at
the beginning of the fucking pandemic, he was not doing anything.
He was delaying social distancing measures. He was downplaying the
threat of the virus all of it. Yeah, but I
mean he learned. He published his book in November, American

(03:22):
Crisis Leadership Lessons in before the pandemic was over. Is
the book just once page that says cover up the
deaths of old people? Because if so? Probably good book. Yeah,
that's a good lesson. It's just like fifty words on
how to hide the nursing homes are getting people killed
in your sitting, here's how to cover it up. Tabulating

(03:44):
the charts. The first forty pages are just about picking
the right shovel. Jesus, Katie, Katie, you were saying, No,
I mean all of this is great, great, great stuff. Um.
The other thing that was Reese revealed before we get
to this week's big Andrew news. Uh, yeah, it was

(04:06):
revealed that over the summer actively covering up the death
tolls in New York state nursing homes, reducing the number
by almost half. Uh and concealed you know, the way
things were tabulated. And it also has come to light
that he personally called and threatened a New York Assemblyman,
Ron Kim, saying that he would ruin his career if

(04:27):
he didn't help him cover up the nursing home scandal.
And all of that is just a precursor to the
conversation we're going to have, which, as of today, three women,
three women have come forward with extremely credible stories of
sexual harassment. Two of these women's experienced, Uh this while

(04:48):
working with Andrew Cuomo in his administration. Uh it's not
just these These stories don't just paint a picture of
sexual harassment, but of an office culture that was completely
aware of his behaviors. Help excuse them? Um, I mean
three people. I started prepping this and it was two people,

(05:08):
and then before we recorded it was it was three people. Um.
And I'm gonna get into some of these stories. I
will say that there are almost certainly more stories to come.
A couple of these women reference conversations with other women
that had similar accounts that have not we have not
heard from yet. How convenient? Why now? Though? Why now?

(05:30):
What you think? Save that joke? Save that joke for
when we talk about but very funny right there with you?
I have that, John, But I want to describe people
are garbage glad on board. I want to describe some
of these women's experiences. Um. The first woman who came forward,

(05:52):
Lindsay Boylan, this story is is really awful. Uh. It
brought up a lot of stuff for me personally. I
think that it probably did for a lot of women
who are used to this kind of experience and work environments. Um,
all of their stories did. UM. But this all just
paints a picture of a man that repeatedly sexualizes and

(06:13):
teases you in a work environment. Uh. Makes you dread
coming to work with him, a person you're just desperate
to not be alone with. UM. And the worst part,
like I imagined that the how many female colleagues have
gone out of their way to accommodate that. Maybe that's
not the worst part, but it is, UM an awful
part of this story. Um. This is from Lindsay's own account.

(06:36):
I've got a couple of excerpts here. Governor Cuomo has
created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and
bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned
but expected. His inappropriate behavior toward women was an affirmation
that he liked you, that you must be doing something right.
He used intimidation to silence his critics, and if you
dared to speak up, you would face consequences. She goes

(06:58):
on to talk about the time almost suggested that they
play strip poker while they were on a private jet,
how he'd had her own supervisor tell her that he
had a crush on her, uh, and that she was
a prettier version of zex girlfriend and like, go ahead
and look up pictures. Oh god, women hearing that, right, women,

(07:19):
women are like, how do I compare to your ex?
And like, my do how much do I remind you
of a previous d Yeah. She describes how he would
touch her inappropriately on her lower back and on her legs,
how his staff started keeping tabs on her whereabouts, you know,
like trying to arrange moments where they could be alone together.

(07:40):
And she has to like rig a lout of situations
for my god, and she turned. She turned on a
promotion because she did not want to be working closer
with him. Um. Here's another quote from it. The governor's
pervasive harassment extended beyond just me. He made unflattering comments
about the way to female colleagues. He ridiculed them about

(08:01):
their romantic relationships and significant others. He said the reasons
that men get women were money and power. I tried
to excuse his behavior. I told myself it's only words,
but that changed after a one on one briefing with
the governor to update him on economic and infrastructure projects.
We were in his New York City office on Third Avenue.
As I got up to leave and walk toward an
open door, he stepped in front of me and kissed
me on the lips. Um. Uh, yeah, everything about this

(08:28):
it's not, of course, of course, it's his own behavior.
It's it's not even towing a line, but it is
that type of line where you know, it's almost gas lighting,
where you're like, I don't want to be I get
nervous about throwing it around in case I'm wrong and
how I'm using them. But it's proof that if it

(08:49):
weren't for the binary and heavily politic sized nature of
current American politics, he and download Trump would have gotten
along great. Well, that's what it is. He is Donald Trump.
They they chose slightly different grifts, but they're the same person. Yeah. Um,
I want to talk about some of these other accounts too,

(09:11):
because it all informs this conversation. Um. The second woman
coming from forward was a former aide. Uh. Five year
old Charlotte Bennett. Charlotte worked with him at the beginning
of the pandemic. She started working there in twenty nineteen
and then kind of increased duties. UM, And so she
was working closely with him at the beginning of the pandemic,
and at first had felt like he treated her like

(09:32):
a mentor. But UM a month or two into the
pandemic and everything, his treatment of her shifted and she
started getting incredibly uncomfortable. UM from New York Times and
spent five said the most and suddenly episode occurred on
June five, when she was alone with Mr Cuomo. There
they are alone again in his state capital office, and
a series of interviews this week, she said the governor
had asked her numerous questions about her personal life, including

(09:55):
whether she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships,
and had said that he was open to relationships with
women in their twenties. Yeah, apparently, apparently he told her
that he was fine dating anyone over a two that's
an appropriate thing for you. And also I don't have

(10:19):
this quote written down, but she's a survivor of um,
you know, sexual assault, and he kept bringing it up,
bringing it up, and during that time, during the pandemic.
He kept telling her that he was lonely and he
just wanted to hug someone. I wanna this. I said

(10:43):
that some of the stuff reminded me of stories of
my own life. And I don't need to get too personal.
We're talking about her stories. But I remember one time
I had an internship with a writer and I was
really honored and I felt very, very proud that I
was chosen. And then he started being a little weird,

(11:05):
and one day he dismissed everybody else and it was
just me and him there, and he started talking about
how lonely is and how much he wanted to hug.
And this is the thing. This is a thing that
men empower, do you know. They try to tow it in,
they try to appeal to you. They start to like
kind of lay the footwork. I I remember in that situation,
I could not get out of the place quick enough.

(11:25):
And then to make that person be the goddamn governor
and you're come on, yeah, I remember that story. And
it's what I kept thinking about and hearing about these
This is just and I have other stories that I mean,
this is the one that, like, all of this reminds
me of several different workplace environments, not ones that you

(11:46):
guys were involved in. But it's like I can say,
it's it's I like, just within my own life. I'm
at the point where I am shocked when I get
to know a woman well and she has no history
of sexual harassment sexualists. Fortunately that I like, I can't
think of anyone who's I am close to that that
fits that bill that has not had that done to them.

(12:08):
Um did, Yeah, I'll share one more. Yes, And I
mean we might as well talk about some of the
reaction online because this is appropriate here. I do have
one more story. I want to share it. But immediately
I see people saying, like it sounds credible, But I
don't know why didn't they come forward with this sooner?
Why didn't they go to the cops? Are you kidding?

(12:30):
Because he's the fucking governor and one of the richest
people in the country and the scion of an incredibly
influential and wealthy political dynasty. He can destroy you. Brother,
is the CNN anchor like, are you kidding me with
that question? If you are asking that question, you do
not care what the answer is. I know who have

(12:51):
not wanted to report a sexual harassment because it was
a colleague slightly in advance of them at the company,
and they were worried it would crater their career for
good reason because it might have created their career. And
he's the governor. And also, what is your We have
a hard enough time, uh, proving a rape case. You

(13:12):
know that's a that's enough of an uphill battle you're
going to You mean that someone's actually going to stop
and care. I mean both of these women who worked
with him have talked about how they needed to leave,
or at least them at least Miss Bennett definitely did.
She she alerted his assistant and she's like, I'm so
sorry about this. Let's get you a different position. These women,

(13:36):
lindsay turning down a promotion like it's uh, it's the
Weinstein Ship to everyone around him knows it's going on.
It's a mix of people who enable it in people who,
without rocking the boat, try to help folks get to
positions where they're in less risk. Right, those are kind
of your two people because nobody's willing. For the same reason,

(13:57):
people don't want to report being a victim of it.
It's scary to go up against a guy like Cuomo.
He's powerful. Even if even if he wasn't the governor. Uh,
this would be a terrible situation if he were. Yeah,
if he were like an executive vice president at a
Fortune five company, it would be scary. But he's the

(14:18):
like assistant manager or your assistant manager, or a cop
yeah yeah, or like or like um, just a male
coworker slash colleague. It doesn't matter who he is. It's
hard to come forward. It's hard. Can't tell you how
embarrassed I was after my interaction that I just described

(14:42):
um uh, a friend of ours from Cracked, a good
friend of ours back then, um had warned me, he'd said,
don't be alone with him. Sorry. I just got a
little emotional talking about it, and I didn't want to
tell him. I didn't want to tell anybody. Then they say, like,
are you still doing the internship? And I want to
tell him that, Oh wait, I'm not good at this.

(15:02):
I'm not good at writing. There's a reason I was there,
and it wasn't because I'm talented. That's what That's what
I took away from that. Thankfully, I don't actually believe
that in my heart, but that's what a women, women
face like we said every day all the time, that's
this is the normal herb. And I think that everybody
has a barrier to entry into their industries. I think

(15:23):
at a certain point, no matter how much studying you do,
there's a there's an imposter syndrome feeling. I mean, I
shouldn't speak for the whole world, but a lot of
people struggle with that, and you just kind of have
to keep going and muddling through and and and adding
this pressure on top of that. This it's makes it
very difficult for a woman to find her footing in
a work environment. UM. I wanna also include this new

(15:47):
story that broke today. UM. The third woman's name is
Anne rusch Uh. She came for. Her story is about
a wedding that she attended in September. She was at
the reception when she was in reduced the Cuomo for
the very first time, and she commented on the speech
he made, and then he put his hands on her

(16:08):
bare low back of her dress, and then she picked
up her hands and removed it. She's like, don't you know,
don't touch me. Take his hands off. Then he called
her aggressive and grabbed her face and asked if he
could kiss her, and it was a very embarrassing forward
um interaction. And and I know that a lot of
women having an experience like this something that you're like,

(16:28):
I'm going to laugh this off. He's being he's trying
to be funny and flirty. But no, it's a man
putting his hands on you when you didn't ask for it.
And and and anybody justifying that, like just because you've
seen it in your life or maybe you've done it
at a point in time when we didn't talk about
boundaries in the same way, it doesn't make it okay.

(16:51):
This is the same fucking thing as Donald Trump saying
that he can grab a woman that they let him
do whatever they want. Andrew Cuomo has that same attitude
very very clearly. Yeah, dem Trump, all these people, I
mean all these people, like most of these it's some
of them, some of them, Like there's there's the same ghouls.
There's a split, like some of them recognize that climate

(17:14):
change is a problem, but not out of the goodness
of their hearts, because they're right. It's yeah, expedient, like
it's just power. It's the power club, um, and they
pick their team, uh, but they don't actually believe any
of the ship. They say, there's that what there's that
one Quomo quote from a couple of years ago as
a New Yorker, I'm a Muslim, I'm a Jew, i

(17:35):
am black, i am gay, I'm a woman seeking to
control her body. We are one New York. It's all
this bullshit. It says whatever he wants. Um, there's a
photo of the thing you described of him grabbing her face.
There's a fucking photograph of it. It looks so uncomfortable.
She looks so uncomfortable. Why would do that to a person? Um?

(17:55):
And like it's yeah, the King of New York. And
the reaction to this stuff, yeah, like you see, um,
even if you allude to uh, this is like Trump stuff.
Even like how he deals with journalists is Trump stuff. Um.
But like the reaction of like, well is it when
why didn't they come forward? And these are all just

(18:17):
like standard democratic people. Um. And a fun little trick
is just like, look look at what they were saying
about Kavanaugh, uh and Blasi forward. Look at what they're
saying about anyone that isn't doesn't have a D by
their name. In this case, it's the exact opposite. And
they're all then they're making the arguments against their current

(18:38):
like position, like we all know this, everything, everything and
everything that happens. It's happened millions of times. We talk
about it ad nauseum until there's a new thing and
we talked about that at assium and the cycle continues.
All the conversation and discourse about this kind of behavior
has been had, everything about like why didn't they come forward?
Why this, why this, why this? It's all been talked

(18:59):
about before. We don't need to keep having it, but
we always do when it's whoever's team has the person. Yeah,
I see today people were talking about all of this
in conject Al Franken's name was trending again, you know,
and using that as an example of Democrats always just

(19:20):
cannibalize ourselves and put ourselves, you know, and like we
don't Republicans don't do this. And also lots of people
pointing to like, well, Donald Trump's way worse. Fuck you,
doesn't matter if he's worse, this is still bad. And look,
Donald Trump's not the president anymore, he's not the president
talking about And I just wanted to make a quick
point on Al Franken, And I don't know if you

(19:41):
guys agree with me on this, but I I did
appreciate and I still do appreciate that he did that because, look,
he did a gross thing repeatedly. It was a behavior,
he learned from it, he was called out. Did he
need to did he need to immediately resign? Could there
have been some sort of disciplinary committee action thing that happened,
Sure like. But at the end of the day, Al

(20:04):
franken resigning didn't change anything for us. You know, the
person that I can't I don't have her name off
the top of my head who replaced him is a Democrat.
They voted the same, They did the same. Al Franken's
being the one leading the interviews might have been entertaining,
but it wouldn't you know, and depositions and all that
wouldn't have changed anything. But what it did do was

(20:25):
say like, hey, look, I'm listening to you. I see
that my my behavior was bad and he did did
a decent thing. Whether or not people continue to do that,
that's different. But I don't look back on that with regret. Um.
I look back at that as something like, well, you
know what, I respect him for making that choice. That's
my two cents. And and and I understand that people

(20:47):
might have a different perspective, but also, I mean, you know,
if the vote feels like a defense against doing anything, absolutely,
you know, it's it's this factor of there are not
that it makes it okay, but some of an a
fairly small fraction of the men who get accused of
this stuff, you get the feeling actually recognize that what
they did was wrong and attempt to make some sort

(21:09):
of amends. And because that's so rare when you see it,
you're almost unreasonably positive towards them. Yeah, like because everyone
else does nothing right. So it's like, oh, al Franken,
I think might actually regret, like, not just because it
had consequences to him, might recognize that what he did
was wrong, And that's so rare that it's just like

(21:31):
it's the Dan Harmon thing where it's like, oh, I
think you actually feel bad and you made what seemed
like a real apology that took the person's feelings into account.
That shouldn't count for much, but I guess it does. Well.
It does though, I mean, like, I mean something to
me because I know that this is the time of
of change and that a lot of these behaviors have

(21:55):
been condoned by our society for so long, and that
a lot of people are waking up to things. And
so I understand that there's a ship that's happening, and
that a lot of people, people that I respect, most
likely have done stuff that doesn't hold up, you know,
and if you can if if, if that comes up

(22:16):
and you have to address it, that's that's makes or
breaks a person to me, like, how have you learned
from this experience? And how can you? And it's not
a one size fit all answer, because some people are irredeemable, right,
some of it is beyond Yeah. Well, and there's also
this problem of when the behavior is as universal across

(22:38):
political lines as it is, it makes it okay in
a way, like because it would it would be one
thing if you had I don't know, a Democrat who
was a rapist and a Republican who was morally upright
in that section of their life, right, and they still
believed in all the horrible things Republicans do, but they
were perfectly respectful to women. Um, then maybe the Democrat

(23:00):
would face consequences for it, um and vice versa. But
they're they're all doing it, so nobody faces consequences because
what are you gonna do overthrow the government? Yes, but
this is the other as adge against the side. Yeah, exactly,
exactly in the case of in the case of Cuomo

(23:21):
and Trump, like they're both spoiled milk. One just happens
to be low fat and then happens to be whole milk.
But they're both spoiled milk in a rocky day. But yeah,
if you're if it were a situation where you had
it a Democrat who was a sexual harasser but was
actually like fully advocating and meaningfully approaching something like a

(23:43):
Green New Deal, and a Republican who was not a
sexual harasser but wanted to destroy all life on earth,
that's a harder choice. We're not talking about that with Cuomo.
He's the governor of New York and he's bad at it.
Get him out there, like the survival of the human
race is not wrapped up and this get rid of
the son of a bitch. Wait, how many terms can

(24:04):
he serve? He's been governor for ten years. It does
feel like he's been governors like way too long. It
feels way too long. This is not a morally complex thing, right, No, no, No,
it's not and uh yeah, and like just yeah, just
get rid of him. Um, even in cases like yeah,

(24:28):
the Al Franken thing where it's like the vote, the
votes the same, what do you mean? And and the
thing is about al Franken, It's not like he's not canceled.
He's not canceled because he saved his reputation, like like
Al Franken will be able to go on and do
some things, you know. Um, anyway, we gotta take a break. Yeah,

(24:49):
we got a temporary Yeah, Cody beat me to it
together everything. Hello there, this is Cody from the future

(25:10):
of the podcast you're listening to, but still the past
of you the podcast listener. Literally five minutes after recording
this episode, it was reported that the White House was
pulling the nomination of near A Tandon for omb director.
Given the context of the following conversation, I can only
assume that Joseph Robin at Biden Jr. Has bugged one
or all of us and was listening in not for

(25:32):
any nefarious purpose, but simply because he's a fan. So
thanks Joe for listening. If you really thought healthcare was
a human right, to be pushing for some kind of
single payer healthcare system. Anyway, Okay, back to the show,
uncanceled take that libs culture. I'm excited for the cancel
culture hearings. I am excited for us to have a

(25:53):
new ruin's hundreds of thousands of lives based around fighting
cancel culture. That's gonna be fun and waste so much
fucking time. And oh my god, I fully expect a
bill restricting, like punishing people criminally for cancel culture before
we get any meaningful action of climate change. And that's

(26:17):
very much on track for that. They aren't even talking
about the real issue with it. They're talking about fucking
Mr potato Head, so embarrassing. It's not like a worker's
rights issue or anything like that. It's about Mr fucking
potato Head. The House Judiciary Committee's GOP Twitter account fucking
posted a clip from Toy Story of Mr potato Head

(26:40):
saying that's Mr. Potato Head pronouns he him. That's what
the fucking House Judiciary Committee is up to these days,
tweeting clips from toy Story out of context, by the way,
because they just called him, called him potato Head in
the fucking movie, and he's like, it's Mr. It was
a sign of respect. It wasn't about his fucking gender.
It's so stupid. And they're now they're doing the doctor

(27:02):
soyce thing. I can't even. I'm so, I'm so tired
of it. And they're gonna do a hearing about don't
you don't sound tired, He's sound very red. I'm so,
I'm so awaken to lert that I pronounced it correctly,
did you? Yeah? Dr so right. I thought that I
missed something. I thought that they were doing a dog

(27:25):
like a plan his name somehow. No, but you met
it is. I promise you. I promise you. I am.
I am canceling that pronunciation and you force Wow. See
you in Congress, see you in the fucking house. Judiciary,
have been right? That's right? Oh god, anyway, Jim Jordan,

(27:45):
of all fucking people is calling to do that. Jim Jordan,
the guy with the molesting of the kids and the rest,
that's the one. Watch him. I'm sorry, do you need
to draw more attention to yourself and your crimes? There's
no crimes anymore, and you're like a poor person who

(28:07):
has marijuana or something that that's still a crime. We'll
move on, we'll move on. But I can't but like, okay,
so earlier today, even in the fucking uh Ted Cruise
asked Mark Garland what he thought of cancel culture today

(28:27):
a cruise. What was his answer? His answer was amazing.
He's like, I don't really know the definition of that
or what like you mean by that term in the
context of this, so I can't answer it. Uh. He
basically called Ted weird little online free who needs to
log off, really knows how to waste a motherfucker's time.

(28:50):
Congress is doing great, uh speaking of uh. Well, so
the COVID relief bill is uh on its way um
allegedly um in addition to enough vaccines for million Americans. Yes, um,

(29:12):
they're they're working on it. Um. And uh. I just
wanted to talk about this briefly because that's clarification because
people think once something that's a lot of huge misconception.
People think that checks are in the mail when it
passes through one thing, and it's like, no, right, that's
not how it works. It goes back and forth. It's
a whole thing. They're negotiating with people's lives. Yeah. Um. Well,

(29:37):
so one thing that was attempted to be in this
bill was an increase to the federal minimum wage. UM.
It has not been raised in I want to say
ten years, possibly one or one year more or less.
And the rays wasn't supposed to be wouldn't go into
effect for several more years. Oh, yeah, it was. It

(30:01):
was a slow a slow role. UM. Much like in
UM in a red state Florida, UH, they raised their
minimum wage. UH. It already went to effects ten dollars
now and it will reach fifteen dollars by UM. So
maybe people like Joe Manchin don't actually have to worry
about their constituents considering that Florida voted to do it.

(30:22):
But whatever, UM, different states, different strokes. Who knows UM
it was gonna be included. I don't exactly UM as
part of this reconciliation bill budget reconciliation, and the UH
Senate parliamentarian ruled, UH, basically it's an assessment of like

(30:42):
the rules UH and the process UM and UH she
ruled that you can't do that on budget reconciliation. You
can do a lot of other stuff. You can, like
like tax breaks to companies and like give it to
UH private insurance company and so on, but you can't
UM made a federal minium wage increase, and so the

(31:05):
ruling was that you can't do that. The ruling isn't
quite the right word because the role of the parliamentarian
is to advise. UM. The actual who has like the
power in this situation is actually the Vice President UM
of of the United States. UM, the can overrule whatever

(31:28):
advisory the parliamentarian gives in UM two thou three. Uh,
they Republicans fire the parliamentarian because they said they couldn't
do their tax cuts. UM. They were just like, nope, fired,
They just do this kind of stuff. UM. Unfortunately, earlier

(31:49):
today on a phone call with Senate Dems, Biden told them, Uh,
you know they need to understand budget reconciliation has its limits. UM.
It does not. UM. So I don't know. It's Uh,
there are arguments that can be made that like, you know,
they'll they'll try it again. They'll keep going. They're not

(32:09):
going to they're not fighting. They can fight, but they're
not fighting. They can and they're not. UM. Bernie Sanders
has tried a couple of different routes in forcing this.
But again, the person who could actually overrule this is
uh the Vice President UM, who I believe just as
recently as I don't know. Seven months ago, I was
talking about how we desperately need to raise them in

(32:32):
a wage to fifteen an hour, and uh, I, it
is just very frustrating to see quite a lot of
the discourse around this um because ultimately, um, it's just
it's just a mess. Like it's it's another reminder that
the Republicans, not all of them, but the ones who

(32:52):
actually steer the party run for office and get office
because they want power to do things with They have
things they want to do when those things are terrible,
but they have things that they want to do. The
Democrats who steer the party, the Kamala Harris's and the
Joe Biden's, want this on their resume. Wanted for bragging rights.

(33:13):
I want to be able to die is saying they
were the president to the vice president right, Like it's
just enough. Because a lot of those same donors that
put Republicans in office are the same donors and the
same corporate people that put Democrats in office, and Democrats

(33:35):
are still beholden and they want to make the appearance
of making overtures to progress without ruffling feathers, are rocking
the boat, you know, Yeah, they're not beholden to people
who vote for them, and they know that. UM, and
they'll continue to go down this route because they know
they can get away with it. Right. Uh, if you

(33:56):
don't vote for the Bowl, then the worst people will
be in charge. Surely you want the not the worst
people to be in charge. It's so frustrating. UM. I
keep thinking about all the campaigning I did, that a
lot of people did, and I thought about this was
it last week we were talking about the detention centers. UM.

(34:19):
I definitely thought about it then and and this week
with this and just all the conversations I had with
people saying like who said, how do you know it
will be any different? Like what what? What? It's not
going to change and thing's going to change one guy
versus another. This guy's less obviously offensive, but at the
end of the day, it won't change my life. And

(34:40):
me making assurances and I shouldn't have not assurances but
saying like, yeah, you know what, I really genuinely do
think that Biden will do the right thing with immigration
and like come up with different ideas and you know
you won't be opening new camps for kids. You know,
I don't know, but but yeah, I bought people's money

(35:02):
in a day to day life and saying like we
gotta try, we gotta try, And it's a month in
and I'm already is so disappointed. Yeah, I can't count
the number of people I've seen just being like I
knocked on doors for us off in Warnock and I
told people to their face about these two thousand dollar checks, um,
and just like the just the utter disappointment in that.

(35:23):
And I've you know, I've never I've I've been pretty
much like, yeah, it'll be similar, it'll be better. It's
but it's good to donaldrwpers and the president, but oh
for sure, but like it is, you know, it's all
this is very expected, um, and it is very frustrating.
And if you look at uh, you know, people talking
about the parliamentary and how uh they still don't seem

(35:44):
to acknowledge that, like it doesn't matter what the parliamentarian
really says. But like the reaction of like, well, don't
blame them. Here's somebody's like we need to stop focusing
on her, as she's essentially a bureaucrat just interpreting arcane rules. Uh,
direct your anger towards Joe may mention and people like
that he's the reason and so what it's just a uh,

(36:05):
just a merry go round of excuses. Um. I remember
talking about everywhere, everywhere, wherever you wanted to. You know what,
I'll blame Joel Mansion. I'll also blame a lot of
other people. There are lots of different reasons and people
standing in the way of making Yeah. And like I
remember leading up to the runoff in Georgia and being like,

(36:26):
if you if we elect us off and warnock, that
is uh, one less excuse for the Democrats, uh in
in their lack of progress. One less not that they
won't won't have any, they'll find some and like here
we are and uh, it's just a very like you.
You you point out like actually they don't have to
uh listen to the parliamentarian. They don't have to. It's bullshit. Uh,

(36:48):
replicans fired them. You can do whatever you want, there
are no rules. Uh, And you point that out and
they're like okay, But even if they did that, they
wouldn't have the votes, because the Mansion's like, okay, then
why did they include it in the first place. If
they didn't the votes, why do they include it? Does
that think maybe they didn't want to do it. Joe
Mansion has things he wants, you can you can do

(37:09):
the thing. We need to do the politics to find
out what Joe Mansion wants so we can nominate and
confirm near A fucking Tandon as the MB director. That's
the fight that matters. That's why people care like that.
It seems like people are realizing that the mainstream of
the the the the power brokers in the Democratic Party

(37:30):
are fighting harder for near A Tandon than they are
to make life livable. Yeah, and like to be clear,
that is that is exactly what's going on, um their
deals being made, Like ron Klain has said, like yeah,
we're fighting our guts out for near A Tandon of all,
Like why but like that is why completely replaceable with
any one of a hundred people. Just why if like

(37:52):
why are you spending so much time and energy on this?
Why are you like you know, I don't I'm not
saying that he'll definitely make this deal, but there's talks
of like well if for Nearer, you know, some of
for Murkowski, like some of Biden's energy policies in Alaskar
are not so great, So like they're gonna like allowed
drilling so that near fucking Tannon can be director, Like, Like,

(38:13):
what is the point speaking speaking of like fucking drilling
for oil near a Tandon who suggested we take half
of Libya's oil as payment. It's just it's because she's
their buddy and this is good for her career. I know,
and I hated. It's so frustrating, um to see this happen,
because this is and it's not even like even if

(38:34):
you think like it's not possible, what are the optics
of this of like doing these deals and talking to
centers making calls. No one's called Joe Mansion about the
minimum wage. Uh, they've they're talking about this near a
Tandon confirmation. What does that look like to anybody who
pay who's paying attention? Does it look like something that matters? Yeah,

(38:56):
it's just very frustrating. There's more about the minimum wage.
We can talk, we can talk day about it. It's
just um challenge accepted. Yeah, it's just very very maddening
and frustrating to see um co. Do you mentioned a
little bit about vaccine stuff too and your start Do
you want to talk about that? I did? I mean
that's uh, Joseph Robin and Biden Jr. The President of

(39:19):
the United States of America, UM vine um has said
that there will be uh enough vaccines for three million
Americans by May, which is a couple of months before
originally projected. Um, so that's that's good. Um. He seems
to be the kind of guys like, let's just spend

(39:42):
some money on the vaccin, let's get all the vaccines.
That's good. Um. It does seem like, broadly speaking, that's
the thing that they've been more competent on than the
last one was. Yeah, they're just like basic, basic ship
like that, like, Okay, that's good. That's not good. Not
gonna go further than that because um yeah, I'm I'm

(40:02):
not saying that this, uh, this minimum wage fight won't
continue or that uh, it's not something they do not
care about. UM. Some people obviously very much do. UM.
So I would hope that they actually take this fight
later on. It's just the steps they've taken so far
make it pretty clear that they do not care. Uh,

(40:23):
and they're putting their energy, uh, they're fighting energy um elsewhere,
which seems I don't know, silly to me. Maybe we
shouldn't pay get Libya to pay us uh, in half
their oil. Like Donald Trump also suggested finally unity between
left and right in fucking over a country that has
been nothing but fucked over by the West. We love it.

(40:47):
We had to take a quick break. Yeah, I think
perhaps if you want, if you want to, Katie, what
do you think? So? Yeah, yeah, yeah, together, everything back.

(41:11):
Oh we're back back. Everything. It's great. Yeah. I like
it because it's good. No, I like it because it's good.
You're right, you like it because it's good. Robert, I
think you're up. Oh, did we want to talk about
the thing that we just got news on right? So,
by the way, yeah, and including the sorry walking down

(41:31):
the streets of Coppell, Texas after a run and uh
got the news that the governor has declared the entire
state is opened back up. This comes the same day
as news that all of the strains, all of the
recognized strains of the coronavirus are now present in Houston.
I was thinking about this, and I'm sorry. I feel

(41:55):
so bad for everybody living in states like this. I mean,
not that things are great in California, but at very
least I I take comfort in the fact that people
are have to wear a mask inside, and people weren't
a lot Like I went to a restaurant to sit
outside when there was no one else outside and eat

(42:17):
uh and everyone inside was mask off drinking. So you know,
it's not like Texans have been abiding by the rules anyway. Um,
I I understand. Um, there's a part of me that's
just kind of proud of Governor Greg Abbott because between

(42:39):
the ice storm, in which his mismanagement in Texas is
general shitty attitude towards taking care of each other, got
a bunch of people killed, he went a whole week
without getting more people killed before opening the state back
up and getting a bunch at Breather Robert Our proud boy.
It's like that time John Wayne Gacy went a whole

(43:00):
six months between murdering a boy and storing his corpse
in the floorboards of his house. You know, we were
all proud of John Wayne for that. What's John Wayning?
Mike Gazzes, So, um, you sent me this article that
it makes me want to light the world on fire
and kill absolutely everyone inside it uh from Crooked Media

(43:25):
near a Tan dinner bust. That's the headline. That is
the article. I title of your sex. Yeah, I or bust.
Oh it was right there to Brooklyn nine nine did

(43:46):
it first? Oh? Man, this on the Texas News together
makes me just want to cancel everything, cancel the world
with some sort of robot that eats everything. You know, Katie,
why book and you're not No, you're not canceled. You're
re green lit, double double green lit, Robert as you were.

(44:09):
I'm just trying to wrap my head around the argument
in this, which seems to be that because the Republicans
aren't recognizing that Biden one and they're unfairly fighting him
getting to put the people in the administration, than the
Democrats have to fight, uh, like crazy for near a
tandon because otherwise you're you're yielding to the unreasonable Republicans,

(44:29):
which is taking what's fascinating about the argument that this
terrible article is making. They're taking a very valid point,
which is that what the Republicans have been doing for
years now was anti democratic. Um, it's dangerous and it
needs to be strenuously opposed because they need to face
serious consequences in electoral destruction for doing the things that

(44:51):
they're doing. But they're taking that very reasonable argument and
instead of being like, yeah, so we have to fight
like like hell to get people their checks and to
get the aid that they need into election change, election reform,
climate change legislation, things that lives are at stake. That
civilis that we have to fight like hell for that
because they don't get to say no to that ship.

(45:12):
Instead they're saying they're making that argument, but instead of
improving life for the human race, that they're saying, we
need to make near A Tandon have a job. It's lunacy.
It's wild, it's it's an absolute madness. Is the hill
you want to die on? It's like the hill, it's
like a little it's like a mound of it's a

(45:37):
it's so ridiculous on its face, it's like this weird
like posters rights bullshit, because it's amazing. I don't even
hate near A Tand and I don't like her. I
just don't. I don't. I don't. I've never thought about
her until this moment. So it's just shocking to me
that they're like, this is where our administration will live
or die. Somebody. The most most voter don't know who

(46:00):
the fuck that is. Most voters could tell you what
the minimum wages though it's check from you yea a
catchphrase from even more News and say I agree with
you completely completely. Um, did you want to talk about Syria? Yeah, yeah,

(46:27):
we've got There's always time to talk about Syria, Cody.
It feels it feels like address this. Historically there's almost
never any time to talk about Syria. This has been
some of the most frustrated I've been in a while. Um,
And I guess my feelings on this are complex. Um.
It is good that a lot more Americans than I'm
used to seeing are angry when the government carries out

(46:52):
a missile strike on a Middle Eastern nation that the
president decides on unilaterally, in a place where we are
not in a cleared war. Um, because people should be
more critical about that sort of thing. The discourse I've
seen surrounding the serious strike as dumb as hell. And
I will go through a list of the things that
I think are dumb as hell. Number one calling it

(47:13):
a war crime. It is an arguably, and I think
this is the argument I would make illegal based on
the letter of like the Constitution prior to the way
things change after nine eleven, for the fucking president to
just be able to carry out military force anywhere he
wants without an Act of Congress, like declaring a war.
That part I agree if if I mean, I'm not

(47:36):
a law knower, I think it should be illegal to
do that, right, I mean it sounds like a specific
the well, it's a rule that every president has been
breaking since nine eleven. UM and I don't like that,
and that's bad. But the actual attack itself was not
a war crime. It was not strike. It was not
what we were doing. It was not what I watched
with my own eyes happen in Mosel. It was a

(47:56):
series of infrastructure attacks on a militia itself is backed
by a foreign government that is an imperialist power in
the region. It's a ship fight between two imperialist powers,
and Biden chose to strike some of their infrastructure. UM
And I have not seen any evidence at this moment
that suggests there were even civilian casualties. Um. The strike

(48:19):
was on a group called kasbah Um, which is a
Shiite militia. These are some of the same guys that
we were funding back in two thousand seventeen, right, the PMF. Well,
that's always the case, right, we fund, we fund them
until we bomb them. It's it's a little more. I mean, yes,
that is the thing that happens repeatedly in US history,
the the basic So do you remember hearing about a

(48:41):
thing called a place called Solder City and Baghdad during
the height of the Iraq War. You remember that that
that buzz buzz i. Remember I don't have any information
to speaking muctodd All Sodder is a Shia cleric UM
who's got strong ties to the Iranian government and is
a dude um who is influential in in Baghdad in particular,

(49:02):
and is a very very smart dude. Like he's a
he's a fundamentally terrible person um, but he's kind of
a genius UH insurgent organizer UM. And he and his
forces were a big part of the insurgency against the
United States. And the fact that he he was like
this we talk like tis in five six He was
a major part of the insurgency against the U. S.

(49:25):
And he is still alive and one of the most
influential men in Iraq um, which is hard. Right, He's
a smart dude UM. And this is because the Iranian
government has a significant vested interest in Iraqi politics, right
Iraq and and and Iran fought a massive, horrific war
throughout the nineteen eighties that killed like a combined million people. Um,

(49:47):
the Iranian government wants to have a significant amount of
influence in Iraq, which is not an inherently unreasonable thing
their neighbors, but also the Iranian government is a bad
government and also does terrible things. And a big part
of why Mosal fell to Isis is because the the
Shia dominated and thus Iranian dominated government UM that took

(50:08):
over and was running Iraq for a sizeable chunk of
the mid auts UM was responsible for a lot of
horrific crimes against the the the um UM the Sunnies
which and Mosul is a Sunni dominated city and so
like the police and the military forces that were kind
of were that were doing ship like abducting people in
the night, torturing them, murdering them um who were who

(50:28):
were Sunny. And so when Isis, which is a Sunni organization,
came in and took over the city, they saw a
lot of initial support from the population of Mosul. And
I talked to a bunch of people in Mosul who
were like, well, I never liked Isis particularly, but I
fucking hated the cops right, and so like this this
this history goes back awhile when the Iraqi government, with

(50:49):
you know, the Kurds up in the north and with
US backing, was taking back Mosel from isis Um. These
different Shia militias that had been organized and prominent for
a long time were part of the effort to take
back Mosele. They were called the PMF, the Popular Mobilization Forces,
and we both aided, like funded them to an extent

(51:10):
and also allowed other groups that were opposed to them
in Iraq to like use US to carry out air
strikes against them. It was a very messy situation, like
like when I was in Mosel. They were the folks
who were almost as worried about as as Isis because
they're they're not, you know, they're sketchy people. Although also
the Iraqi military itself can carry out a shipload of
war crimes as of the U S military, nobody's fucking

(51:30):
hands are clean. Period. In recent couple of last couple
of years, as Iranian influence has grown over the Iraqi government,
these different militias have been abducting and murdering a lot
of people, including a guy I used to know who
who's like thing was throwing parties, right because like there
would be alcohol at the parties, there would be a
lot of foreigners. Like they abducted and killed this guy,

(51:53):
probably killed this guy. They we know he's he's gone,
you know. Um, this sort of thing happened all over
the place, and it the the These militias were a
big part of both, like that siege of a U
or attack on a US embassy that happened last year
that kind of like incided the killing of Solomoni. But
also if you remember in twenty nineteen when there were

(52:13):
all those protests in Iraq and like protesters who were
getting their heads grenaded to death and ship they were
heavily involved in that, and so is Iran. These are
bad people who carry out horrible terrorist attacks that have
killed a lot of Iraqis because they are fundamentally not
fighting for the rights of Iraqi people or for for
any sort of political liberty as much as they're fighting

(52:34):
on behalf of another foreign power. Now, the United States
in striking these facilities is not improving the situation. I
don't believe you'll read some arguments. I found an article
arguing that this was a good call in New Lines magazine.
I don't buy that. I think it was a useless,
uh expansion of or a useless use of force that
at most is going to continue this cycle of violence.

(52:56):
Right now we've done an attack, they're going to do
another if it's the attack that inspired the attack, our attack, right, Like,
I'm not in favor of what the Biden administration does.
But also if you're going to critique it, understand what
it fucking is, you know that. I'm just always frustrated
about all this ship. I mean, what, what is the
actual justification here for it? They call it a proportional response,

(53:20):
but is that you know, like, and was this necessary?
Right now? What's was it? Was it necessary? No? Because
and I don't think it's necessary because I don't think
it will help. Was it proportional? I guess that depends.
There was a horrific attack on a facility outside of
her bill that killed a m that killed a contractor

(53:40):
US contractor, and wounded a bunch of people. Um, I
don't know exactly. We don't have an exact death count
for this air strike. I don't know when we will
because one of the things, I mean, for one, thing.
The Trump administration removed a rule that mandated reporting on
the number of people killed in US air strikes, and
the Biden administration has no desire to put that back
Russian back to they're not we're that thing. I don't know, maybe,

(54:06):
but I don't. I don't think the question of is
it proportional matters as much as like, is there any
chance that it will improve life for people in the region?
And no, I don't. Never, that's never, that's never going
to be the case. And like how many like it's like,
this is like a proportional response, but there's attack here
and here, get out leieve how many how many? How

(54:28):
many American military bases are not here? Um, just leave
and you don't have to worry about that. Um, you
want to worry about what's the proportional response to an
attack on on a place that shouldn't be there. We
shouldn't be there. And yeah, it's just some of the
some of the discourse around it is very frustrating too,

(54:50):
because it's just like, uh, it's not just saying that like, uh,
it's more complex. It's also saying it's it's good and
this is the kind of thing that he should be
doing um and I trust him to do whatever. Basically, yeah, no, no,
I And it's just you know, you know, like yeah,

(55:12):
bombing series good now, I guess it's so let's it's like,
it's just you know, I I am not and this
is the place in which I get into fights with
a lot of folks on the left. I am not
comprehensively anti intervention. Part of that not intervention, but anti
US forces being used in certain situations, generally where we

(55:33):
have fucked something up and we have promises to people
that need to be kept. And to that extent, if
the bulk of Iraq, which is about you know it's
the Shia, are the largest single chunk of Iraq, if
the people of Iraq want to be more closely tied
to Iran and want to you know, want to live
in the kind of country that the members of these

(55:55):
militias seem to want them to live in the country,
and I don't know that that's the case, but if
that's if that's the way things go for the rest
of Iraq, I don't think US force, as a US
foreign policy has any role in stopping that. Now, if
those forces attempt to, I don't know, force their will
on the Kurdish north of the country. I think we
owe those people something, And I don't think it needs
to be bombing anything, but I think it needs to

(56:16):
be saying like, hey, let like maybe it's time for
them to get their own fucking country, right, um, as
they voted to have last year or not last year,
like three years ago. And the United States has been
consistently a dick about even though like, come on, what
the what the funck? Well? Yeah, and at what point
is it is it just like what is our place?

(56:37):
What is it like? How is that? How is any
of this our place? I think there's a degree to
which we have made promises to specific groups of people
who held up their end of the bargain, and we
should we owe them something. That does not mean we
owe being in Iraq forever. It doesn't mean we owe
air strikes in against Iranian backed lishes in Syria, doesn't

(57:01):
mean that. It means that there is some level of
support we owe specific groups of people who have done things,
I mean, because otherwise they'll get murdered. Me we've contributed
to you have a moral obligation to take care of
a certain certain people, you know, And and yes, but yeah,

(57:22):
it's more often than not the the right. That's that's what.
That's what you say when you want to stay there,
when you want to uh, well, well in order to
like pay these people back or to help these people,
were going to bomb these people. It's never um and
I don't anything other than that. I don't see that
the bombing ever, well, you know, my example of what

(57:45):
I think this can look like in a way that
is not horrifically toxic is we we were keeping we
were helping to keep a sizeable chunk of northeast Syria
from getting bombed by having like a couple of dozen
Special Forces guy is intense because then the Turks wouldn't
start fucking ship up. And since we pulled those guys

(58:05):
out and have them just protecting oil fields, a quarter
of a million people have been forced out of their
homes and thousands have been killed in the The oil
fields are fine, and and and in terms of what
am I broadly speaking not going to complain about my
tax schollars dollars going to well, keeping some guys in
a tent so that bombs aren't falling, that's fine. I
am in a bitch about my tax scholars going to

(58:27):
bombing another militia somewhere in the desert. That will just
spark a series of Like it's I think when you
talk about what do we owe people that we've made
promises too, and and and what does that extend to?
I think some of it extend. I think some of
it relies on whether or not they have succeeded in

(58:47):
doing anything that can be supported. So in I I
don't support keeping any US forces in Afghanistan because the
government like there, there's there's nothing to support there. The
Taliban has won. All we're doing is extending pointless bloodshed
by staying there, and we're not going to help anything.
Northern Iraq is a broadly more so than is more
functional than the than the rest of the country, than

(59:09):
the government in Baghdad, and I think we owe them
at least enough support to say, hey, don't funk with
these people there are like like, I don't think it.
You don't have to bomb anybody over this. You just
have to say no, you can't do that. Government in Baghdad, Um,
we do have to bomb. That's the thing talk about.
But where's Yeah, I like, that's just that's just what

(59:33):
it always leads to um, it's it's not the like
we we have stepped in between the government and Baghdad
and the government and their bill in a couple of
situations in the past. And I don't know. I mean,
I'm also dumb as shit. I think there's an option.
I think there's an option between just saying like, well,

(59:55):
we fucked everything up and we're not going to keep
sucking things up. Um, so let's is to band and everyone,
and an option of like, well, the only way to
continue having an impact here is to bomb people. I
don't think those are our only two options, um, because
we have we have poll in terms of trade, we
have poll in terms of UM economic aid dollars, funding dollars,

(01:00:17):
we have that we we were not bombing Turkey to
stop them from coming into northeast Syria. Right. Turkey is
reliant upon us in a lot of ways, and so
while we were keeping troops there, they weren't going to
start ship. We didn't have to bomb them over that. UM.
I don't know. I think there's I don't think like
I don't like any of these options. But I do

(01:00:38):
also think there are specific people, namely the Kurds, that
we owe something right, um, because they did the thing
that we asked. Uh, and I I just have an
issue with abandoning them entirely. Um. But I don't know.
Whatever happens is going to be dumb in a effective

(01:01:00):
So I guess I will I will. I will continue
to oppose it because it's dumb and ineffective. Um. I'm
not saying I'm in any way supportive of what Biden
just did in Syria, or will be supportive of any
of his foreign policy in Syria or a rat because
I doubt that I will to the machine is not
going to stop, and so I will continue to oppose
the machine. I just think there's a way in which

(01:01:23):
we could not abandon people who have broadly speaking, done
us a solid and also maintained a decent place for
people in that region to live comparatively to people in
other parts. I think there's called the American way, Robert,
all Right, we get the thing we want and then
we say no, thank you for whatever else you need.

(01:01:44):
I know, I'm just called friendship. It's called bad friendship. Yeah,
we're I don't know, you know that toxic friend you
can't shake. That's America. Yeah, it's this. It's this thing
that is always frustrating to I just don't I'm not
willing to go to the I'm not willing to say

(01:02:05):
there's no way in which I've met too many people
who have been like, well, my family all got murdered.
I sure wish someone had helped us out. Uh. And
I don't want to say, well, yeah, there's nothing anyone
could have done to save your family's life. UM, because
I do think that things could be done, because things
have been done at specific points in the past that

(01:02:27):
have mitigated historic tragedies. UM. Which doesn't mean that I
think it's likely that the right thing will be done,
or that Joe Biden knows how to do it, or
that a military industrial complex that's geared entirely towards profit
is ever going to make the right decision based on
people's lives. UM. I just get frustrated with the idea
that like, well, people's lives are not actually the thing

(01:02:50):
that Joe Biden or the American government are worried about.
Over there, Boy, we've we've really covered a why range
of topics. Real Hodge Budge, I think we can all
run on a journey near a tandon or bust. Yeah,
we went on a real near a tangent there. Oh

(01:03:12):
that was good to it home days for that. I
wrote it down months ago. I got a tattooed on
your inner arms. Now I gotta get it removed. But
it's fine worth it. Put some sharp on it. Yeah. Alright, guys,

(01:03:32):
you can check us out online at Worst Year Pod
on social media's and you know how to find us individually.
I'm not going to state all of our handles. I'm
just not going to do it. Don't do it. But
I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. I like your faces.
I don't know most of them, but I like them.
Your ears are good, I appreciate. I appreciate motherfuck episode.

(01:04:05):
Everything so dull, Everything so dull, And it's got again.
I tried Daniel. Worst Year Ever is a production of
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.