Robert's News Briefing

Katy and Cody catch Robert up on this week's news.

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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 don't do why? Hello there,

(00:21):
and welcome back to Yes, you guessed it, the Worst
Year Ever. My name is Katie Stole. That's wild that
you are that person's name. Um doing what I'm doing? Well,
I'm gonna start this again. I'm gonna respond to Katie
a different way. Oh God, should we start the whole

(00:41):
thing again? No? No, no, we never restart anything. Do
not listen to Robert nobody only we agreed on when
we don't trust this fucking haircut. I don't trust. We
start introducing an episode, we never go back. Sorry for
there's no podcasting relentless, but there's no editing in podcasting.

(01:02):
There's no editing in podcasting. We just have to keep
moving forward, like the Marines on Omaha Beach or whatever
guys were on Omaha Beach, whoever was the po Yeah,
what Katie was trying to do was to get Cody,
who is a co host, and Robert who's a co host,
to say their names. But you know it didn't happen. Here.

(01:23):
We are real early and apparently we're not resetting. Daniel,
do with this what you will um do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the podcasting editor's job. Daniel,
I'm joined here today with my co hosts Cody Johnston
and Robert Evans, and our producer Sophie. I pronounced that riot, Yes, yes,

(01:45):
you did, you got it. I just realized that's something
that I always read, and it's actually Katie, get it,
get it right. Come on, we'll come back and not
this is Katie and Rob. It is here on Sophie
is here as well, and we're just gonna talk so
much about so many things today that it was it

(02:06):
was it was hard for us to even to even
come together with a consensus on how we were going
to start talking to you, the listeners. For example, I
completely disagree with how this has gone. Look, but you know,
in the middle of an unprecedented surge of authoritarianism worldwide,
the best thing this podcast can do is be a

(02:27):
shining example of the powers of democracy. And in this case,
it means several minutes of introduction before even saying the
name of the show, that this is no no clear
leader emerges, not like um a solid direction the listeners
disaster hits. Then then Katie takes over with an iron

(02:49):
fist and sends in federal troops to set up sniper's
nests on the roof of buildings overlooking protest camps. So
you saw my notes, huh, Yeah I did. I did.
But for but for now, there's democrat seeing equality on
this podcast where we're all equal partners, is what. But
you can see the lights starting to go out, see it.
It is the worst driver. This is the podcast, Katie.

(03:10):
You want to talk about stuff and not do another intro? Yeah,
so I do, I do. Um, guys, a little transparency
up top. The world is chaos. It's not doing great,
it's awful, and it's so hard. I think we're mailing

(03:30):
this metaphor. Yeah. The President just declared basically a war
on the city I live in. So that's a fun development.
It's for law and order's sake, Robert, like, we get
we get over this and over this. He wants to
take take law and order to where you are. Okay, Um,
I know not. And before his law and order, there
were no snipers nests on the roof of the federal courthouse,

(03:53):
and now there's snipers on the roof of the courthouse.
So that's exactly. But it's your tone makes me think
maybe you think that's bad. Whenever we feelings about snipers, Oh,
we'll get into that. Whenever we um sit down to
decide what we want to talk about each week, it

(04:14):
gets increasingly difficult because you're like, there are so many
things that we could talk about, and and I'll just
say personally for Cody and I, we also have even
more news. So at the beginning with this show, of course,
we had a specific purview, which was to be talking
about election related things, and obviously that has changed about

(04:37):
the election, I mean, I care about it, but you know,
so it's always like an interesting negotiation of like what
are we going to cover in each episode? But our
dear friend Robert has covered, you guys, no been covering
the protests in Portland really intensely. It's been traumatic and
dramatic and doesn't look like it's going to stop being

(05:00):
way as um. So today Cody actually came up with
this idea, is that we are going to kind of
go through a lot of news headlines and kind of
fill Robert in on stuff that he's missed or might
have been aware of peripherally, and and you know, we're

(05:21):
gonna keep it kind of fun and loose, because nothing's
fun or loose right now? Does that sounds fun? I
think I've emerged as the leader here. I don't know. Yeah,
you have. You've you've violently taken power uh and sent
in your shock troops to enforce order. And your shock
troops in this case are Cody. And if you didn't
and if you didn't smile like, I don't know what's

(05:44):
wrong with you? Also, you you probably you're you're listening
to this, so you couldn't have seen how not fun
and not loose I was as I said it, But
I felt my whole body tightened as I said fun
and loose. Cool, Your hair stood on and it's wild,
but that's normal. That's part for the course for me
these days. UM. We should probably start by by just, uh,

(06:08):
you know, mentioning that coronavirus is still a thing very
much so it's a problem. I'd go so far as
to say, um, yeah, get out of here, coronavirus, go on.
It's frustrating. We've got over a hundred and thirty thousand
deaths at seven thousand deaths, but that's just the low

(06:28):
bow ballpark number. We don't actually know. Um, and America's
failing miserably. We're embarrassing compared to other countries. Um. The
unfortunate reality is that this is what it looks like
when a civilization dies. That's what we're seeing in the
United States and worldwide. And there will be some areas

(06:51):
that weather this for a while, but most most of us,
most of us won't. Are you suggesting that we're an
empire in decline, No, I am suggesting that we are
a global civilization on the edge of a cliff. Um,
So people should learn how to garden. Yeah, Robert's growing

(07:12):
some practical advice. Wash pick up. Yeah, my squash is
doing amazing this counterpoint Robert squash counterpoint delicious. Hamilton's on
Disney Plus. Do that instead of the gardening the survival
stuff that you were talking about, how learning to learning
to live in a new world. Just watch Hamilton. It's

(07:35):
two It's two hours and forty minutes long. You can
just like two and out. It's great. That does sound nice.
You know what I'm changing my advice. Watch some Hamilton's.
I do recommend doing it. It's pretty catchy. Um, But
let's talk a little bit about the responses we're seeing
this week with coronavirus. For example, Monday, Trump retweeted uh,

(07:59):
conservative Can Beersey theorists and former game show host Chuck Woolry,
did I love the things we get to say these days, um,
with a tweet that reads, the most outrageous lies are
the ones about COVID nineteen. Everyone is lying, the CDC, media, democrats,
our doctors, not all, but most that we are told

(08:19):
to trust. I think it's all about the election and
keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election.
I'm sick of it. I'm also sick of it. I'm
sick of that bullshit. Um. So it's important to know
that this is just after Trump has started very openly
disneying himself from Anthony Fauci. Apparently he hasn't even met
with Fauci since June. UM and then last week on

(08:42):
Fox News, Yeah, on see, why would he need to
meet with the nation's head doctor during an epidemic? Why
would that? Why would that to do? Was go golfing
a bunch and said federal troops into Portland, Oregan. Yeah,
but again only if law Well, somebody, somebody, somebody slightly

(09:04):
burnt some plywood on the side of a building, so
we need sniper's nests, Newt. Sorry, my head is in
a specific point now, that's why we're that's where we're
telling you about other terrible stuff. It's okay. This is
part of the therapeutic process. You are allowed to vent
about the stuff that's happening. We're we're here to help
guide you through this. I don't know. I'm not a therapist. Um.

(09:28):
I was just trying to say that Trump Um flat
out said that he disagrees with Anthony Faucci. When Faucci
had said the country is not doing well. He said,
I disagree with him. Um. And another interesting little fun
tidbit this week that Sophie also brought up before we
started recording, Um, Ted Cruz, our buddy Ted uh was

(09:50):
photographed at the airport, like in the terminal and also
on an airplane, an American Airlines flight without a mask.
Ted Cruiz, who's been quarantined twice for his amazing I mean,
it's wild, it's wild. Um. You know. So American Airlines

(10:12):
is now looking into it, reviewing the details of this
matter because their policy is opposite of what Ted Cruz did.
Um spoke. This person said he just removed the mask
while eating or drinking. But that's not what we see
in the pictures. No, he's not eating or drinking anything
in the pictures, nor is there a mask visible exactly.

(10:35):
So also, like I don't trust Ted Cruise to do
literally anything, so you can cause some Twitter beefs. Oh yeah,
Ted Cruiz is um the worst I've gotta Well, let's
talk about Ted Cruz for a little bit, for a moment.
We can get back to the seer, the real serious news.
But one of the things I think that we have

(10:57):
we've lost a bit in this show The worst year
ever is all the stuff that was happening before these
wild crises emerged. Because you know the original show, that's
the worst year ever. It's gonna be bad for Trump's
gonna hate it, his opponent's gonna hate it. We're gonna
hate it. Republicans are gonna hate it. It's gonna be
bad for everybody. The culture war stuff, everything is so stupid,

(11:21):
it's gonna get dumber, and it did. But also there's
this pandemic going on. Um so, but that stuff is
still going on, That stuff is still happening. Ted Cruz
spent like two days tweeting about Goya beans. Robert, have
you heard about Goya beans lately? I sure have, uh
it and it it. Yeah, I don't know. I was
just if I make another comment, it's just going to

(11:42):
be about that sniper's nest. So I'm just gonna yes,
I heard about the beans. So I mean this is
kind of the point though, right, Like, uh, the CEO
of Goya was like Trump's good, and then all these
libs are like, oh, We're gonna not buy Goya beans anymore.
And then all the conservatives came out like, well, we're

(12:02):
gonna only eat beans now, We're gonna by Coya and
I'm eating I'm eating beans right now. I'm brushing my
teeth with beans. And then like, meanwhile, all of the
systems that make our lives possible are like slowly being
eroded and in some cases, and everyone's ignoring, like, yeah,

(12:23):
there's news that the San Andreas fault is is much
likelier to go off soon than people think. We're like
on the cusp of wildfires the likes of which the
planet has never seen. Um, but yeah, the fucking beans.
Let's all talk about beans. I mean wildfires where we
don't I mean, we grotesquely use prison labor to fight

(12:43):
fire wildfires, but there have been some there's less prisoner
work for the whole thing's fun, the whole thing. We're
not going to send a bunch of like prisoners with
COVID to fight the fires, are we, because that's where
they're getting it. We are going to do that. But
they're at We're absolutely but stupid because they act like

(13:04):
this is like a liberal thing to like cancel a
brand when they did the same thing with Ted Cruze
has done it repeatedly. Yeah, they did the same thing
when they were destroying their fucking curing machines a year ago, right, Yeah,
burning their nikes. Yeah. So Ted Cruz is obsessed with
beans because he's a United States senator and there's nothing

(13:25):
else going on in the country, let alone his state
that he's a senator of. UM, so he's uh, he's
really just like leaning into the culture where stuff this
tweet is really it's like fascinating to me. James Woods
of all people speaking of chuck woolery and like old
cranks who like have no grip on reality, James Woods
tweeted about the Goya thing and then Ted Cruz is

(13:45):
like Goya is a staple of Cuban food. My grandparents
ate Goya black beans twice a day for nearly ninety years,
and now the left is trying to cancel Hispanic culture
and silence free speech by Goya. So like a few
things out this, Goya wasn't like a hasn't been like
around for as long as uh ted is intimating. Um,

(14:06):
nor was it available to his grandparents in Cuba during
that time. Um. The whole thing, it's just a mess.
It's just a mess of like weird lies and like
half truths about like oh they ate beans twice a day,
they fuck on beans, um, And like it's just fascinating
because also like the claim that um, the left by

(14:28):
boycotting Goya, which we can like discuss how silly that
is and how it's not like whatever, boycott Goya if
you want, who cares, like, donate Goya the people who
need it whatever. Um. But Uh, this is like cancel culture.
Boycotting is cancel culture um, and boycotting is silencing free speech. Um.

(14:49):
Despite again, like you're saying, like literally calling for boycotts
in the NFL, calling for boycotts against so many things
throughout his career, and it doesn't matter matter, and it's
so frustrating of like, I guess this is the part
of the worst year where we just like call out hypocrites,
uh into the void again still and nothing matters, and

(15:11):
it doesn't change anything. And he's still gonna do this,
he's still gonna go on the plane, and he's still
gonna not have a mask on. And someone's going to
point out how he's a hypocrite because of that, But
it doesn't matter, because this year is just the worst.
And I'm just I'm just fascinated by the by the
bean stuff because it doesn't matter. It's pointless, it's silly,
it's stupid, and it's like all the all the culture

(15:32):
worst stuff has been bubbling over and getting dumber and dumber.
Has continued to get dumber and dumber. But um, you
know the pandemic, Yeah, speaking of the planned emmic, the conspiracy.
No no, no, no, no no no. Apparently Florida reported

(15:53):
more than fifteen thousand new cases on Sunday. Florida number one,
to believe, which is number one. And then I like,
I like how America likes America is the Florida of
the world. But Florida is still the Florida of America
seems like America the NBA returned back to write seems

(16:17):
like a good fu. We we need to demandate everyone
in Florida immediately go on a massless vacation to another
random state and then just pay for that with I
don't know the education budget of this this nation. Speaking
speaking of that around, let's talk about the education budget

(16:43):
because Trump last week we mentioned Triefully on even More News. Yes,
Donald Trump, but the president of Florida, these states of
the United States of Florida, UM, he threatened to take
away school funding if states a lot of shows to
reopen in the president threatening schools. So but like we

(17:04):
can use that money to fund Robert's idea, is my point.
There's a lot to unpack here with the school conversation,
because it's not an easy one to have. But one
thing we know is that not every place can return
to school in the fall. Just not. It's just not realistic, feasible.
Maybe maybe it could have been if we'd had a

(17:25):
different response from his administration. UM, but we are not
in a place where we can safely have students or
teachers or administrators UM back now all communities UM, and
this affects everybody, but you know, people with means we'll

(17:46):
have the luxury of doing homeschooling. You know, this definitely
impacts low income communities more. There is the same question
that we had at the end of last school year.
It's you know, how comparents work if their kids are
at home? How do you work and balance your child's education?
You know, there's the impact on them developed mentally. Um,

(18:08):
but I don't think that there's enough of a conversation
about the teachers. You know, how forcing them back to
school will impact them. They're being paid not a living
wage already to come in and risk their lives, and
and like, what about the psychological impact on students if
say their teacher gets sick, sick and died, how do

(18:30):
you educate that classroom of students You're going to get
a substitute to come in when coronavirus might be spreading around,
and also be like, hey, kids, the teachers dead because
of you being here, because we're all here, Like how
do you move forward from that? How do you move
forward from that? And I get it, it's hard. I mean,

(18:52):
I mean teachers are also literally getting it while discussing
during did you how to do this. Yeah, there's a
fucking Reddit post. It was some twenty four year old
and I think I think it was Indiana talking about
how like there they're going to be opening the schools
again and like we've been told that we can't even
require the kids to wear masks, Like all you can

(19:12):
do is strongly suggested, um, and so like the whole
post was him asking for advice. I'm like, how do
I set up a will because I want to make
sure that my house goes to my spouse. Uh if
I die from this, because I think there's a good
chance i'll die from this because I get sick every
year when the school starts again, and like I know
that's going to happen with COVID, and I don't know
that I'll make it. And it's like that's a fucking teacher,

(19:35):
Like they shouldn't be teacher. Yeah, it's it's my My
sister in law's a teacher, and I need to get
on the phone and have a bigger conversation with her
about it. But we were just texting today. She's scared
and part of the problem is it's also going county
by county in different areas, so like but for example,
here in l A, we just got the announcement that

(19:57):
you know, we would be still be doing remote schooling
starting in the fall. Orange County, however, does not want that.
In northern California, where my sister in law teaches, her
county does not look at this point that they are
pushing for remote learning, but counties around her are. And
it's a strange it's a strange dynamic for them within teachers.

(20:19):
And you know, like because it's not that much different
from one county to the other, it's wild the way
that they're making these decisions. But she's also saying, you know,
when she shared an article, a lot of teachers are
choosing to retire rather than return to teaching in the
fall um and so what does that impact on our
education system? And if they refuse to teach on their

(20:40):
several states where they'll lose their pensions. But I mean, yeah,
that's like the whole like willing, they're willing to give
those things up because of the situation they're being forced
to go into. Like my my mom works at a
with elementary school kids. Uh, A lot of people that
work at these schools are like in that at risk range,

(21:01):
age range like you have all these kids they're uh.
Like Robert, you're saying like, yeah, it's not mandatory, you
have you like can politely request that they wear masks.
But they're also kids, and so you have to you're
worrying about not only like all these kids interacting with
every single adult at the school, but then going home

(21:21):
and interacting with their parents. You don't know what their
parents are doing. Um, it's just such a it's such
a a messed up situation where like it's the same,
it's the same, it's the same thought process for like
like we got like obviously like schools are more important
than being able to go to David Busters, but like
you have, it's the same thing. Like you're putting all
these people at risk that work there, like all these

(21:43):
like people in the service industry and like every everyone
that that has to work right now they put at risk.
And we're just like trying to pile on uh in
this I don't know, it's I mean, you know you're
hitting that's the whole point. You're right, And what's frustrating
and not surprising but demoralizing is that we don't seem

(22:06):
to learn at all throughout this Well, no American never
does well because we can't go to school, Katie, Yeah, no,
but I mean we've had so Like I just said,
in spring, a lot of parents were just trying to
make it to the summer. They were just trying to
make it to the summer and get through this. And

(22:27):
we all saw that we were resoundingly failed at the
home schooling experiment. There's a lot of reasons why. There's
a lot of things that have to be worked out,
and we understand that. But you know, the hope was like, Okay,
we get a grip on the virus. Over the summer. Also,
we start to develop contingency plans, we start to work

(22:48):
out how to approach this differently. Now we're just gonna
culture war about it. That's no, We're just going to
culture war. I mean culture warring about stuff. We're so
good at culture wars. No other country culture wars like US.
America first number one American number one culture war. Although
I did see an article today about a French bus
driver that was beat to death. Um after asking that

(23:13):
people in the bus war masks so well, you know,
don't have every now and then another country is going
to try to compete for the two slot, but I
feel pretty comfortable. Oh yeah, America first, America number one. Forever,
we we rule the culture war. We're going to die
the most, thank you very much here in Florida. Yeah,

(23:33):
we have to. We have to leave room for like
Dan Crenshaw to accuse Tammy Duckworth, a veteran of trying
to destroy who lost her legs and come back and
she wants to destroy America. That's the line. I there's
a tweet I saw recently, um that was just starting

(23:56):
to think forming an entire society around legal and semantic
loopholes might have been a bad idea. And that's really
like the thing that that comes to mind most in
this because it's this like like that that's the thing
that the mass stuff turned into is like people cutting
holes in masks, people like like making purposefully shitty masks,
like just because they didn't like this, this this reckless

(24:18):
disregard for the fact that there are some things that
you should just do because it's it's the right thing
to do. And like, no, fuck you, this is America.
And if someone if I'm supposed to do something, the
right thing to do is an American is find a
way to not do that thing without getting in trouble.
Like that's the whole, that's the entirety of our society. Yeah,

(24:40):
it's all. It's like, it's just like the debate nerd
troll stuff, just like heightened to a level that is
literally a matter of life and death appose to pointless
online bullshit. Yeah, we should purge our society of debate nerds.
Speaking of that, it's time for an add break. Oh okay,

(25:01):
that's fine, that's fine, too cool. Here's that ad together
everything and we are back from that ad. Very cool,

(25:22):
very cool by the products or boycott them. I don't
know whichever side you're on. Who cares. Um, So we
were sorry. We were just talking about, you know, school
stuff and that complicated conversation. UM, let's talk about this

(25:46):
new UH rule. This this Trump administration announcement last week
that international students can't stay in the US of schools
are not operating in person classes, basically making them a
pawn in his push to reopen the Universe cities in
the fall. Unbelievable. UM. Seventeen states have filed a lawsuit

(26:06):
against the Trump administration against this rule. UM, and I really,
fifty universities, including IVY League schools have joined in. Um, God,
but it's wild. This is just I guess it's not
another one of those things that's not surprising, but it's
just kind of a gut punch because also, we're having
historic numbers of international students. I'm sorry, cut that in reset.

(26:28):
Also we're having historically low numbers of international students here
even without this development. This is according to the Washington
Post quote, the desire to study is study in the
United States has flagged since the start of the Trump administration.
Before the presidential election, the number of Indian students was
growing annually by double digit percentages, but the growth rate
fell sharply in the eighteen and nineteen academic years. Um,

(26:54):
this is just sending so many people reeling. Also, you're
trying to make people travel internationally during a pandemic. It's
just it's gotta get we gotta get him out or whatever, whatever,
you know, whatever whatever reason is, like do whatever. I
think that there's going to be a lot of effort

(27:14):
from schools. Obviously this this lawsuit has been passed, and
you're seeing you know, people at different institutions scrambling and
you know, maybe making one technically in person class that
maybe people don't have to show up to you know what,
I mean, to try to start navigate the rules. But
it's justo loopholes to help people, loopholes instead of loopholes

(27:37):
to cough on people. Yeah, that's an appropriate reaction, Robert.
I'm so tired all the time. I know, I know, Um, Sylphie,
you you wanted to rant about Betsy Devas a little bit.
She's a monster. She doesn't know how to answer a question.
She's encompetent, she's an evil, evil, evil, evil person and

(27:58):
should not have the job she has. And she's causing
so much harm to her education system. Every second she's
employed as the secretary of education. Bad things happened. Evil woman. Yeah,
almost for hiring her. She's so not qualified and its
damaging our children. Yeah, it's it's remarkable the amount of

(28:19):
harm that she and her brother have done to the world.
Truly a case for I'm just going to say it,
tremendous random violence. Uh, would be would be useful? Um,
I won't be more specific than that. I'm very angry. Yes,
very well, you said it. You said random, So that

(28:40):
could be anything, Yeah, yeah, you know, random source. It
could be like an ear flick, you know, yeah, an
random violence. Yeah that's not Yeah, that's a good way
to not be legally inciting anything. To go and give
her hair a good yank evil what anarchists used to
do and dearly solid hair yank. Yeah, a lot of

(29:04):
hair yanks. That's William McKinley. President McKinley got his hair
real yanks. Yeah, he was real, real, real childish at flirting.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand got some fucking hair yanks pretty pretty hard.
William guy got a lot of three Stooges stuff going

(29:25):
on there. Um, Cody, I know you gathered some some
news items you wanted to go through as well, just
a couple of things. You know, there's there's news and
then there's uh again, I'm like there's a lot of
there's so many things that's like, this is the news, right,
and then there's so many things like this is the

(29:46):
dumb stuff we were talking about, This is the stuff
that was going to make this year so bad, and
like we don't even need to talk about Roger Stone
that much. It's the thing that happened, Robert, you don't
care about it, and this this episode is for you
and informing you. Um, but I'm already seeing prominent people,
one of them including Hillary Clinton, literally using this Roger
Stone commutation to warn us about Russia interfering with our election. Excellent. Uh,

(30:11):
this commutation of his sentence is tells us that Putin
is in charge, and it's just a wild, wild thing
to say. Um not that like Russia isn't that isn't
a thing and around, but my gosh, um. Uh, Tucker
Carlson's racist, racist head writer was fired. Did you hear
about that, Robert? I did hear about that. Uh. I'm

(30:35):
surprised that he got fired because it would seem like
his entire job was to do the thing that he
got fired for, just to a massive audience. Right. You'd
think like his his actual application for the job would
have like boxes like are you like secretly racist? Check
the box and okay good? Yeah, I mean getting hired

(30:56):
by Tucker Carlson. Like the job interview is can you
reach orgasm while lying on your back on the grave
of a Bothan S S man? That was my assertion, Yeah, yeah,
do you say the fourteen words when you come? Okay? Perfect,
You're hired? Great? Um? So yeah, just like stuff like
that it's like that, it's still going on. We're also

(31:18):
in a pandemic. Um. But but this is also originally
an election show. You know, there is an election going on.
I don't know if anybody remembers this, um, but we
we can, we can possibly have a different precedent in
a little bit. Um. And that man's name is Kanye West.
Not just kidding, it's Joe. I don't want to engage.

(31:40):
We will not We will not be engaging. I will
say this. Um. We talked about it last week on
even More News briefly just the right amount of time
with our guest Joel Leon, who's amazing, and I think
that he handled that conversation the best when saying, um,
did we all forget that he Kanye is bipolar, that

(32:04):
struggles from you know a lot of you know, instability.
He's on breakdowns and apparently he is been going through
a bipolar episode and his family and friends are worried
about him. So let's you have stopped giving weight to
that conversation or even jokes about it, you know, because
this has had enough steam. Also, he's not on the

(32:25):
balance Well yeah, it's not running for presidents. Why are
we been talking about it. But yeah, that's just something
I I just I repeat that again because I think
not all of our we've got some overlap. But you know,
if you if you're at this show but not the
other one. I think that that's a really important point
in something to keep in mind when you're seeing that
dialogue online. He is he is someone who is a
narcissist and also has other mental health issues, um, and

(32:49):
is not insert like I don't. I don't think he's
even capable of really understanding why it's a bad idea
to do what he's doing. Um, I don't. Yeah, Yeah,
there's a lot of exacerbating behaviors and things, um that Yeah,

(33:09):
that conversation talking about this conversation of the election, you know,
and I've seen people online being like, well, we don't
like Joe Biden, you know, so let's so let's let's
try Kanye, you know, and especially using the argument of like,
well Joe Biden has clearly deteriorating mentally, and you know,

(33:35):
it's tricky, it's a tricky conversation to have online to
that one because I understand where they're coming from. I
also I'm not a doctor to diagnose. Also, they're like
that is going to I mean, speaking of the worst
year ever. Uh, this is all stuff that was going
to happen anyway, but it's happening more. More and more
people are saying it. Um, the cognitive stuff that's gonna

(33:56):
be a thing. You know, Like last year we did
that some More News episode about how Joe Biden, if
he wanted to like save the soul of the country,
could like run as a Republican and sort of save
the Republican Party from itself and move them a little
towards more towards the center and recalibrate in that talking
about how like it's just gonna be constantly debating, like
your mind is going, No, your mind is going you

(34:18):
touch women inappropriately? No, you do. And that's sort of
back and forth. Um, and we are seeing that they're
both commenting on each other's cognitive abilities. Now they're doing
it's it's awful, which which which of the clearly sick
old men is the least clearly sick. It's so it's

(34:38):
let's give him control of a nuclear arsenal unreal, And
like they're just doing they're just like they're both just
like leaning into it. Like I took a cognitive test.
I think Joe should take a cognitive test, and Joe's like, actually,
I'm I'll take a test against him any day, and
it's just already so I will save this. I obviously
am not a Joe bi fan, and I think he's

(35:05):
got angry issues, temperamental problems. Uh, he might be in
some sort of cognitive decline. I think it's a dangerous
thing for us to talk about, especially for the thing
that you guys are saying right here. I'm not somebody
that's up here saying we can't hold him to task. Um.
I think that stigmatizing people immediately is having dementia or

(35:28):
something like that, and there's not We don't have things
that are now. What we should stigmatize is allowing people
for whom who are part of a category of the population,
for whom that is a real concern, we should stigmatize
them running for the highest office. In the nature of
the issue, isn't Joe Biden or Donald Trump's individual health.

(35:50):
It's it's the fact that it's the norm for people
who are fucking eighty two be the present. It's the
fact that this is even a conversation, and not only
that we not only that we like people have in
the discourse, but that both of the candidates are engaging
in it's going to get worse and worse, and they're
gonna keep talking about it and to age cap shit

(36:12):
at like six for the president of the things. No,
I mean, I'm agreeing with you. And I think that's
why I say this, because especially as we start to
see these conversations more and more, like we already are like, no,
you're the one that's like losing their mind. No, you're

(36:32):
the one. You know, it's like grounding it in something
a bit more productive at least long term. Well, yeah,
all these conversations that we've had about like Joe Biden
and Donald Trump and all like all the discourse around
it um and how it's getting worse and like there's
a responsive way to talk about and so on and
so forth. It is like just like the problem that

(36:56):
people often point out that is like kind of lost
and like you're helping Trump or you're helping and you're
like whatever it is, it's that we're in the situation
at all. That's the real problem that we are in
this situation. And then it's like become a normal thing
that we just are like, well, that's just how it is.
This is this is our this is our nation, you know,

(37:16):
Cody Hearing all that makes me think of the lines
of a wonderful Lee Greenwood song, because I am proud
to be an American, or at least I know I
am free to spread a plague to strangers because I
don't want to be mildly uncomfortable, So I'm not. I

(37:37):
feel like there's a more poetic way to say that,
And I won't more the men who set up a
sniper's nest on the roof of to defend my right
to not have plywood singed, and I will proudly fire
riot control rounds into the skulls of fucking twenty year
olds with boom boxes next to you and defend her. Okay,

(37:58):
I'm done with I've done with the Lee green with it. No,
it's great. I love I love listening that whenever they
played at ball games that used to exist. Cool. That
seems like a really good spot to take our next
ad break. I need a break for as I had
that bumper sticker. I break for ads together everything, So

(38:26):
don't don't done. We're back again from that ad break. Cool,
Well rested, and ready for whatever Cody is about to
throw at us. Now, Cody, I am furious. That's Starburst candy.
Oh something we need to Let's buy starburst and flush

(38:51):
it down the toilet. Um. No, So we're gonna talk
about Biden a little bit. Um. I didn't even intend
to talk about the other stuff we just talked about. Um,
it organically came up because of I guess the Kanye
of it all. But uh, it's like a little election
update right there. Obviously aren't really a lot of rallies
going on. Um, there's not a lot of like there's

(39:14):
no real like outwardly facing like it's a it's an
election year. The election is kind of in the background.
It's always this sort of like white noise, just humming
like it's coming. There's the there's the election problems. What
things are happening a little bit. I guess Biden still
has not chosen a running mate. I hope it's you too.
I think it might be. I think I'm interested in

(39:35):
your random violence platform. Oh, very pro We're gonna have that.
My only promise as vice president is a sniper on
the roof of every public building in this country, just
shooting at random. Yeah, exactly exactly, Um, America first at
sniper's everywhere, random American America's America first targets. I don't know,

(39:59):
please get to there's there's work to be done on
the messaging, but good to know that you're you're not
wavering on that America first in randomly placed snipers exactly.
Colon law and order, colon Uh. If things are fine, um,
and we'll continue to be even better. So we have

(40:19):
talked on the show a briefly. A little we mentioned
when it was going on there was that the task
force to bring uh, the Bernie wing of the party
and the Biden wing of the party together um in
perfect harmony to take on the guy, you know, and
that task force has released uh many page document with
their recommendations that they've come up with. And so there's

(40:42):
a little bit. Uh. I don't go into too many
details because I think that people are gonna be uh
ultimately disappointed, and also like other people are gonna be like,
that's not so bad. They're pushing them left a little bit.
There is no Medicare for all, there's no green new
deal kind of stuff like that. It focused a lot
on like granularly stuff and like you know, defending the

(41:04):
a c A, raising minimum wage, things like that, and
one thing I think it's important to note about it too.
Um Like a lot of people, a lot of people
in the Bernie wing we're kind of disappointed. Um even
in articles about people on the task force saying like,
you know, it didn't have everything that we wanted, didn't
everything Biden wanted. But as Bernie points out, there's no

(41:27):
question that on some of the major issues facing this country,
if that agenda is implemented, life will improve for tens
and tens of millions of working people. Um. So it
is you know, trying to frame it as it's pushing
it left. But also, um, it is recommendations. It's not
I'm not saying it's nothing, but the campaign hasn't like

(41:50):
committed to doing anything on it. Uh, they have committed
to reviewing the recommendations, right, So it's not actually like
we're look at the platform they're gonna do all this stuff.
It was Biden and Bernie people getting together and putting
together things that they hope Biden does. But again, it
doesn't include banning fracking, doesn't include like you know, a

(42:12):
lot of like Biden is very against legalizing marijuana. Still,
things like that. UM. One thing I did kind of
want to point out in there though, UH, But again
this isn't the platform. This is taking things into consideration. UM.
But one of the things they talk about is, uh
what they think Democrats need to do with the FCC,

(42:33):
UM very clear language about net neutrality and reversing all
of the things that Trump has done in regards to
net neutrality. UM. But also Democrats will take action to
prevent states from blocking municipalities and rural co ops from
building publicly owned broadband networks and increased federal support for

(42:54):
municipal broadband. UM. Basically, like everybody should have the internet. UM.
We were like even talking earlier when we're talking about
the the problem with schooling. One of the problems that
a lot of kids have with doing like do school
from home. Not everybody has great internet access or internet
access at all, or access to this kind of uh
kind of service and what should be a public utility. Right.

(43:18):
So I don't know that's something to to be like, Hey,
if they do that, that's good, but again it's not
um necessarily things that they're going to uh to implement. UM.
A quote from UH one of the folks on the
task force is we did not have any impressions that
we were going to turn Joe Biden into Branie Sanders.
That was not going to happen. That did not happen.

(43:38):
We don't expect Biden to be uh uh Bernie Sanders,
although he has recently released a an ad um with
uh the message and phrasing that it's not about him,
It's about us, which I find interesting. Um, he continues
to talk about how health care is a human right

(44:00):
while uh not proposing policies that would make it a
human right. Um, Like if if not everybody had the
right to vote, I wouldn't say, like, well, I think
voting is a right. So I think here's a way
that you can pay your for your vote. Um, that's
not what rights are. Um. So there is it's still
a disconnect there. Um. It's it feels in the background

(44:22):
because we are in a pandemic. Um. But I think
pushing on things like Medicare for all are still really
important to do. Um. Even though I think this headline
that I'm seeing right now times five point for million
Americans lost health insurance during the pandemic. Yeah, yeah, well's

(44:43):
there that's the like the really frustrating one of the
more frustrating things in talking about this kind of stuff
where it's like, Okay, yeah, they're moving on this and
they think this and they're recommending this. But if you're
not just saying like we're gonna do we're doing this.
We're doing this Medicare for All plan. Everyone should have
health care, every on, every single person in America should
be able to go to the doctor. End of story,

(45:05):
because health care is a human right. If we're not
doing that, especially now, what are we doing. Um, we're
tying healthcare to employment. Still, we're protecting private insurance still. Um,
we're even more like merging like personal life with um
work life. Like that's that's an interesting thing that we're

(45:26):
going to see more of as this pandemic continues. Like
we as a society put so much uh importance on
our jobs, Like we like we are our job in
a lot of in a lot of ways. Um, and
now we're all working from home. A lot of people
are working from home, and uh that is going to
be a continuing thing. Like that's just policy for a

(45:47):
lot of companies now in general. And so you're you're
forcing work into your home space permanently now. So we
are we're slowly moving towards that relationship between like, well,
you are your job, and your job is how you
get healthcare and all these things. We're pushing more, even

(46:08):
more towards that, UM in a way that I don't
think we're necessarily ready for. I don't know, I just
don't like the idea of like, oh, yeah, we're all
we're all working from home. Now, we wake up in
your home, but you're also work. It's always in your mind. Now.
I don't think that's necessarily a healthy thing to do.
But anyway, it's not about him, it's about us and
so on. Yeah, I mean it's a bit demoralizing. It's

(46:34):
hard at the end of the day. I mean, I've
I've waffled on this but a bit on this show
and our shows because it's it's a bitter pill to swallow.
But I'm going to vote for Biden. I guess, I mean,
I guess I don't know how many to you here
in California. But it's tough. I keep coming back to

(46:55):
hoping to continue having these conversations. Yes, we need to
be calling out this bullshit it UM and pointing out
the things like health care is a human right. Okay,
then we need to give it to people. Look at
all these lost their health insurance. Let's do that. But
I I'm I don't know what to do. I don't
know what to say. I am not gonna go for

(47:16):
Donald Trump. I'm going to do my best to keep
him out of the out of office another four years
because it would ruin us. Yeah, and just I mean,
just keep pushing and don't like let I don't know,
like there's it's easy to let the aesthetics of like
moving left or like we're progressive or more progressive than
fdr um. But politics don't happen in a vacuum. Um.
Aesthetics aren't policy. Aesthetics aren't what people actually believe. And

(47:42):
a lot of what Biden seems to be doing is
aesthetics because he's also reaching out to, you know, like Republicans.
That's part of his whole thing is like we've got
to get the modern Republicans on our side too. So
if you're trying to please everybody, what are you, like,
what's your actual plan? Um? But the other hand, like
there is also this thing I wanted to there's something

(48:03):
about Biden. It's it's the transition from just being very
frustrated with this and um to like the reality of
like we're in an election, is Trump or this fucking
guy um The reflective like defensive Biden when Republicans criticize him,
uh in a way of like, no, you don't get

(48:23):
to do this, you don't get to play um. Sorry.
Like the other day, I mean, like Sean Hannity uh
tweeted like some video like you know, I think like
Joe has misspoken quite a bit, and there's sometimes I'm
like Joe, just like what are you doing, bud um?
But he shared some videos like Joe Biden said woked

(48:44):
like people were woked. He said the word wrong, and
it was like a huge thing, uh for like half
a day and it was just like shut up, leave
leave Joe Biden alone, and just like that sort of
reflective like coming to his defense because what you're criticizing
him for him for his nonsense as opposed to this
other stuff that I think is substantial and worth continuing

(49:06):
to hope and both of those things can coexist and
be like, well, that's not a reason to criticize him.
Have you seen the president speak, however the important things
that we should be talking about, just like anyone him talk.
It's like, look at your president, shut up, go away,

(49:26):
you can like you can hold you can only criticize
Joe Biden for the reasons like that if you also
think Donald Trump is of moron, shouldn't be the president. Yes,
that gets to a lot of my issues with I
don't know, it's just like it's incredibly frustrating when people
bring up valid critiques of Joe Biden as a reason
not to vote for him. That like, but also the
person who would win who's not Joe Biden is guilty

(49:49):
of all of those same things but much worse. Exactly. Yeah,
and that is that is It's the same thing with
Hillary Clinton, where it's like she she suffered more for
vote for the Iraq War than George W. Bush or
any Republican ever will, Which doesn't mean that it was
okay that she voted for the Iraq war, but it's
fucking wild, like, of all of the people in American

(50:11):
politics to actually pay a concert like a price for it,
it was Hillary Clinton and not like any Yeah great, yeah,
the w at the ball game with Ellen but always canceled. Yeah,
yeah fucking incredible. Um, yeah, yeah, that perspelt like it's
just important to maintain that perspective and like be aware

(50:32):
and like I am so because the discourse is gonna
change too, because during the primary, you're trying to choose
the best person who represents the things that you want. Um.
And so those criticisms from the left or during a
Democratic primary, I think are valid and worth discussing, but
in the context of against Donald Trump maybe less. So.

(50:55):
Before we end this Hodgepodge episode, Robert, why don't you
us um a couple of updates from Portland's outside of
the sniper situation. Yeah, Portland's the you know, the good
so Portland has is you know, we had this uprising

(51:16):
that started six weeks or so ago and kind of
everywhere was involved and now a lot of peles still
have regular marches, but Portland's really the only city that's
like has continuously been in a state of uprising. Like
most nights since this started, Uh, there's been like a
riot or a civil disturbance. There's been tears, like and

(51:37):
now the Feds have gotten involved and they've they've they
they have been On Saturday, they rioted in just an
unbelievably brutal way. Uh. They like at one point, like
a homeless man two different actually people started seizuring because
of the tear gas. There's like video of of U
S Marshals like kneeling on this guy and holding his
body down as he sees is, which is the thing

(51:58):
you don't do when someone has a siege. Um. And
they know that because they all have basic life saving
medical training, Like they knew what they were doing. Um.
There was another point at which like a kid was
standing in the park playing music on the boom box
and they shot him from thirty feet away in the
head with a rubber bullet and shattered his skull and
permanently changed his life. He's in the hospital now. He

(52:19):
very nearly died. They shot him right in the fucking head.
There's video of it. He was holding a boom box.
They shot him in the fucking head from thirty ft away. Um.
Because these people aren't cops. These are the kind of yeah,
like the whole like guiding the like literally the entire
guiding um motive force of my career in life since

(52:42):
I was in mosel Um was like because when I
when I went to a rack and watched them level
that city. Watch the same kind of men who shot
that kid from thirty feet away, Like that's those are
the that those are the people who burnt Mosell to
the fucking ground to drive Isis out. Ever since then, UM,
it has been my overwriting goal to try to stop
that from happening to to other cities, particularly to cities

(53:05):
in America, because that's where I know how to affect things. Uh.
And like the the that's that's the situation that we're
in right now is the President has basically said, like,
these are the guys I'm sending in. I'm gonna let
them beat the ship out of people, um for a
night or two, and if you all want to continue
what you're doing, UM, you know I can. I will

(53:25):
let them off the fucking leash. Like that's the promise
that's being made here. UM said yeah take over. Yeah, yeah,
you're fucking city government. Your state government doesn't matter. And
I don't think people I think people on the ground
are starting to get that, UM, to understand stand that
at the very least, we should maybe not be prodding

(53:45):
them constantly at their courthouse where they have a defensible
position set up that they're they're using the building as
a weapon. Last night was weird. I was out last
night and they fucking stayed inside the whole time like that.
I spent a huge drink of the night watching like
like yeah, teen age boys like karate kicking a courthouse
and like throwing like just to try to like to
try to force the federal marshals out to shoot at them.

(54:08):
It was. It was very strange, um. And it was
like at the same time as this was all happening, UM,
at least for an example of something wonderful that started
to happening for about the last week, there's been a
guy who set up a rib restaurant in the park
outside of the Federal Courthouse. It's called Riot Ribs, and
it's amazing. And he's like he's like a black dude

(54:29):
in his forties and he'll he'll just be out there
all night and all day in a bulletproof est cooking
ribs for people. Um, and all the ribs are free.
Everything's free. Like it's a mutual aid sort of situation.
People donate to keep it going. Uh. Donovan Farley, who's
another local journalist journalist and one of the nights when
like we were all running from the cops and they
charged out. Was like like defended the rib shack with

(54:51):
his body and his press pass Like you won't, you won't,
Like no, don't take our ribs. Yeah. Uh, Riot Ribbs
is fucking incredible. Uh there, it was, well take our
ribs and so on. Yeah. At one point last night,
the protesters who were out in between the Federal Courthouse
and the Justice Center were lighting random fires and we

(55:12):
all started to be afraid that like the cops were
going to come in. And it was just like I
was standing in line for ribs and like this one
of the one protesters kind of like walked up to
Riot Ribbs and was like, hey, guys, uh, people are
starting random fires, so we might wind up having cops
real soon, just like as a head's up. Uh. So

(55:33):
Riot Ribbs is good. Um yeah. That's one of the
things that's given me some hope in all this is that,
like them in in the face of something that's really
fucking terrifying, it hasn't made anyone in Portland give up.
Um so I I think, and I think they're gonna
have to shoot a bunch of people dead in the
street to have a chance of stopping the nightly protests

(55:56):
in Portland. And I think they'll do that. Um yeah,
I think they will do that at eventually. Um yeah.
And the people do We're gonna do that, don't have
any qualms about doing that. No, And the the the
unit that has been sent to Portland. One of the
units is the Packed Force, which is like a multi
agency but like run by Homeland Security. Um, it's like
protecting America's um cities and whatever. It's a it's a

(56:21):
federal law enforcement unit made up of sociopathic Special Forces
veterans um whose entire job and life purpose is breaking
human bodies. Um that they're sending the streets to deal
with seventeen year old kids who charged some plywood. Um,
it's it's it's the thing that I've been trying that

(56:41):
I was trying to warn people about, and it could
happen here. It's like the thing that has been like
screaming in the back of my head for three years
and change now like that it's it's here. Uh, it's here,
and it's a nationwide problem. Um. And I don't know
how to stop it at this point. Um. Getting Trump

(57:02):
out of office will help, But most of what it
will do is by us a year or two to
figure out how to actually stop this country from falling
off of completely falling. Yeah yeah, but that is where
the stakes are. This is an annihilation question. It's yeah,

(57:22):
some of the footage is just unbelievable and they're all
like the sorry, just it's interesting still to me, the
Home Department Plant of Security doing all these things. Um,
they turn eighteen this year. Uh huh, Yeah, they're finally
an adult. I'm excited from when they get a drink. Yeah,
I know they have a few more years left. Um,

(57:47):
it's wild. I mean, you have been talking about this.
This is the culmination, not the culmination of your work.
But like it's a nightmare come true. It's one of
those things where you're like, you do not have any
satisfaction in seeing yourself being right. I would imagine no, no, no,
I did. I really didn't want to be right. I

(58:08):
really really fucking didn't want to be right because I've
watched the city die and I don't want to watch
another city die. Call that it could happen here, but
it shouldn't, but it, but but I would like it. Um,
I don't know about tonight. I might kind of depends

(58:29):
on the Portland Press corps Um, who again has responded
magnificently to this. Uh, whatever the funk you want to
call it. Um. We we we We've got a pretty
good job of setting up shifts. Um. I did have.
I was out with friends, just like trying to have
a night of sanity on on Saturday when the Feds rioted,
and you know, one of the one of the great

(58:50):
local journalists, Garrison, Um was like, hey we could, we
could use some more people on the ground, and thankfully
other people volunteered. UM. And I had this moment of
being like, well, I'm gonna let Garrison and the others
handle it. And and Garrison's seventeen. Um, So I guess
I got to finally have that wonderful human experience of
being like, yeah, I'll let the teenager get go get

(59:12):
shot at for me. I'm old tonight, I'm gonna let
a seventeen year old take the fucking And he got
shot with a grenade that night, thankfully in the backpacks,
and it didn't quite ignite his backpack, but it would
have if other people hadn't stopped it. UM. Shout out
to Garrison hungry bow tie on Twitter. He's fucking amazing.

(59:34):
Really really took a turn immediately with that grenade. Well, yeah,
I guess that does it for us today. On that
uplifting note, Um, make sure to brush your teeth with beans. Yeah,
brush brush everything with beans. However many beans there are
in your house, there's not enough beans. Wipe everything with beans. Look,

(59:58):
if you're using beans for everything, then soon all barriers
between beans and the rest of the world will become
so blurred that you exist in nothing but a continuum
of beans that is everlasting and unchanging. And isn't that
what this country is about? Yeah? You really do make
it seem like beans are the magical fruit. M Yeah,

(01:00:19):
A lot of people are saying that, Katie, A lot
of people are saying that. Um, you guys can check
us out online at Worst Year Pod on Twitter and Instagram.
Thanks for sitting through this hodge Podge episode. Hopefully you
learned something. Hopefully you had a laugh for two and um,

(01:00:42):
that's what I got to say. You can follow Katie
and at Katie Still on Instagram and Twitter. You can
follow Cody at Dr Mr Cody on Instagram and Twitter.
You can follow Robert on Twitter, not Instagram and I
write okay, um, and so is why Sophie why? Al Right, guys,
we'll see you next week. Not really, you'll hear hear

(01:01:03):
each other. Yeah, yeah, I mean some of you. Like theoretically,
there's got to be one or two people with synesthesia
who'll listen to us, so you will see us next Yeah.
This is the color blue, signing up everything everything, So again.

(01:01:26):
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