December 6, 2020 • 44 mins
This episode talks about vaccines nowadays, how they came up with the COVID-19 vaccine so quickly, in my opinion, and people's fears and uncertainty regarding the vaccine and how they were able to come up with it so quickly.
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Episode Transcript
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Tony Randazzo (00:14):
It's hard to speak your mind these days.
voicing your opinion is toughand a climate where you're
either seen as an ultraconservative or a bleeding heart
liberal. But what about ourperspective? What about the Gen
X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony alatchkey kid from the 80s and
90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearingcargo shorts, collecting Star
Wars figures and reminiscingabout the days before my first
(00:36):
cell phone. The Gen Xperspective as for us caught
somewhere in between boomers andMillennials are we see things a
bit differently? I'm tired ofstaying silent. It's time to
rant, discuss a load and debate.
You're in Tony yet his guests asthey tackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
(00:58):
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
Unknown (01:11):
Hey, how's everybody doing? So it's getting to that
point where we're actuallystarting to get a lot of
followers followers, and a lotof people listening to the
podcast, when it first started,was mostly people that I knew.
So you know, there was kind ofthis level of just talking to my
friends and buddies andacquaintances that knew who I
was. So this thing is startingto get a little steam starting
(01:34):
to move forward, starting to getsome listeners that don't know
who the hell I am, but are, arelistening, which is super
awesome. And I really appreciateit.
So please, you know, you know,hit the share button, hit the
like button, you know, follow meon Facebook, Twitter,
go to the website, Gen Xperspective, Comm. And send me a
(01:57):
message through the website. Andif you like what you're hearing,
or if you don't you have some,some opinions or ideas on how I
can make it better. mightappreciate any feedback at this
point. And tell all your friendsand relatives and, you know,
maybe someday I'll be famous.
(02:17):
I'm already famous in my ownmind, but you know,
that's just, you know, that'sjust me talking. I think anybody
that puts a pair of headphoneson and puts a microphone in
front of their face and talks tothemselves for a half hour to
ripalready believes that they're
something special.
But uh, we'll get more into thatI'm sure it's another episode.
(02:40):
But uh, solately, it's been really hard
for me to come on and do anotherepisode. So I do apologize for
not being consistent.
Every week, like I should be,but with everything going on,
not only with the pandemic, ofcourse, living in New York
(03:01):
State,running a business, all the
drama, now we got the holidays.
It's been a crazy whirlwind. Notto mention, I was, I think I
mentioned maybe in my lastpodcast that, uh, dealing with
some health issues, whatever,blah, blah, blah, that's part of
being a Gen Xer and getting oldshit breaks. And you got to deal
with it. So I've been the mostconsistent and I apologize for
(03:26):
that kind of right off the batfor what it's worth. And we'll
do better at trying to be moreconsistent in my podcasts. Well,
and I've been spending a lot oftime thinking about the podcast,
what does it really mean? When Istarted it? Why did I start it?
What I want this thing to be?
entertainment?
(03:47):
My personal platform to rant?
Yes. On both accounts.
Was it going to be just aboutkind of pop culture and fun and
the Gen X perspective from afun, slash? Just kind of
nostalgic perspective? Yeah, Ithink that that's important. And
(04:07):
there's a lot to talk aboutthere.
And that can be woven into anyconversation, I suppose.
But I think it's also importantto be able to talk about things
that I think are important, youknow, if I'm going to sit here
for a half hour, I want it to bemeaningful on some level, you
know, and be insightful, maybeeducational, God forbid.
(04:31):
But I think it's important tokind of balance it. So I'm just
gonna, as usual, just kind ofkind of wing it.
There's no real format to theshow. I don't have a co host. I
haven't brought in anyany people to interview yet,
although I'm gonna do that whenI do that. And I'm always
looking for some ideas fromfolks. So if you know somebody
(04:53):
that you think would beinteresting for me to talk to,
I'd love to hear about it. SoAgain, let me know. But what I
do want to talk about issomething really interesting. So
the whole topic of the entireworld right now is vaccine.
Yeah. And there's a whole bigthing about
how many people are gettinginfected, yada, yada, yada, and
(05:13):
all that stuff. But the vaccineis really taking center stage
right now, because it's rightaround the corner, this new
vaccine. And I've been sittingthere kind of listening and
digesting the talking heads oncable news. And everywhere,
frankly, about everybody'sopinion on this whole thing. You
know, Dr. Fauci, Governor Cuomo,just a name to Joe Rogan. I
(05:42):
mean, I'm just kind of listeningto everybody and kind of
everybody's thoughts andopinions on this whole thing.
And I started thinking abouthow I felt about vaccines, I
asked my wife about how she feltabout it. And I'm just talking
to people in general, you know,what their belief and feeling is
on this whole thing. And, and atfirst, I found it really
striking that they were able tokind of bang this thing out so
(06:02):
quick, right? So we get thisCOVID-19. And then all of a
sudden, within a year, we havea vaccine, Well, shit, if they
can figure out how to do that soquick, and how come they can't
do that with everything elsethat ails us? You know, and I
know I'm painting with a broadstroke and a broad brush here,
(06:24):
you know, cancer?
ALS. Yeah, whatever, how comethey can't figure this shit out?
If they can solve a pandemic,and under a year, right? How do
they do that? How they come upwith it. So I started doing a
little bit of research, and oh,my God,
I'm probably totally wrong onthe information that I found.
(06:47):
But there is such a crap ton ofstuff out there. You know, the
days of going to the library andfinding a book,
or a newspaper article from someother somewhere, whatever, oh,
my God, you know,the amount of data and
information out there isoverwhelming and who and what do
you believe, right? And that'spart of the big problem right
(07:09):
now is who and what do youbelieve? So you have all these
people that say, Well, I don'twant Trump's vaccine.
You know, he's got to be behindit. And I don't want it. Because
it's Trump's vaccine. Forwhatever reason, they don't
trust him. They don't trust hisadministration. They think that,
you know, they're bribingwhatever, who, for whatever
(07:31):
reason, people grew up, there'sa huge segment of our population
that are kind of anti vaxxers oruntrusting of vaccines. That
seems baffling to me personally,for my own personal opinion,
because how I grew up now, kindof reminiscing about being a Gen
X or is the biggest deal.
(07:51):
At the end of summerwas my mom always pulling out my
backs vaccination record myvaccination card. And I always
remember it as a kid, andespecially elementary school is
a huge deal. She always keptthat in my social security card
together. And that was like,when she couldn't find it. It
(08:11):
was like the end of the world.
And I remember a couple timeswhere I don't know when she
misplaced it or moved it around.
And we were getting ready to goto my doctor's appointment.
pediatrician, Dr. posset, all ofa sudden, I remember his name
out of the blue. I'm sure he'slong since been retired.
If I remember, right, I thinkhis son took over his practice
(08:32):
in California, but I love thatguy, great. pediatric physician,
Doc, he was really cool.
He was really good to me, Iremember I always enjoyed going
to see him, you know, and kidsusually don't enjoy going to the
doctor, but I'm sure it had somebribery along with,
(08:52):
you know, lollipops and someother stuff to get me to go. But
it was always it seemed likeonce a year we would go in maybe
it wasn't that often, but itfelt like it and it might have
even been more, we would go andmom would bring that card. Make
sure all my job vaccinationswere up to date. And at some
point, I got that shot in yourarm that looks like the little
(09:13):
circle with 100 needles shovedin it that
you know, was kind of your badgeof honor or the proof of your
vaccines, so to speak, at leastthat you were on your arm and as
a kid, I remember that we usedto pretend that those were
tattoos or gunshots or, youknow, screwing around us kids we
who knows what we were thinkingabout, but it was always kind of
(09:33):
a big deal. And everybody'slooked a little bit differently
and it was always in your upperleft arm. I believe that was a
smallpox vaccination. I could bewrong, but I don't quite
remember.
But there was kind of yourstandard mom's mumps measles.
You know, I'm right at the edgethere with smallpox and polio. I
(09:55):
don't know if I got a poliovaccine or not. But it was
reallyThey're still giving them in the
late 70sor early 70s. If I did my
research correctly, and again, Icould be totally wrong, but it
was a big deal, you had to haveall your vaccines, your
vaccinations had to be allcurrent or you couldn't go to
(10:16):
school.
Soif I'm thinking that correctly,
so the majority of the kids thatI went to school with our
vaccinated now, maybe there wasa handful of kids that didn't
have vaccines for medicalreasons, I suppose. But I don't
know if it was very popular forreligious beliefs, or any of
(10:37):
that stuff at the time. I don'tknow if that
held water at the time with theschool systems, I don't
remember. But I would assumethat most of the kids all we
were all, you know, had a goodold dose of whatever flowing
through our bodies to keep usall healthy.
And,and that was just kind of the
(10:58):
norm. It was the norm in mybrain growing up didn't know any
better.
It seemed like commonplace,at least in the little bit of
research that I did that 94.7%of all kids in the year 2015
(11:21):
were vaccinated. Andonly in really odd, what they
were calling opt out clusters,certain neighborhoods,
areas, towns, where it wasgaining steam, were they finding
kind of these clusters back andwe're talking, you know, this is
only six years ago now.
(11:44):
Where they were kind of startingto see seeing clusters of anti
vaxxers. AndI experienced that myself,
thinking about it again andtalking to my wife a little bit.
So, you know, vaccinescommonplace, you just go get
your vaccines, whatever andnever thought much about it. So
(12:06):
the first time I got anypushback on a vaccine was with
my daughter. So as she wasgrowing up and kind of gotten to
that pre teen age, in the theHPV deal was really big. There
were commercials for it, it wason TV, it was out there, you
know, you had to go get theshot, yada, yada, yada. And I
thought, Well, yeah, okay, wellmake a doctor's appointment and
(12:28):
send her and her mom said, No,she wanted to do that. And
I thought that that was really,um, it was kind of my first
experience inthat, getting any pushback on a
vaccine, it just seemed normalto me that you would just go do
that. Sothat was my first kind of
(12:50):
experience in somebody sayingno, about it, which
kind of caught me off guard atthe time. It wasn't the end of
the world. And I don't know ifshe ever ended up getting it or
not, I can't remember. But it iswhat it is. So
there were and are people outthere that aren't big fans, for
(13:11):
whatever reason they research. Iknow, there was some weird stuff
going on that they were actuallycausing autism in kids was one
of thethings that were floating around
the internet, factual or not, Ihave no idea, nor would I ever
be able to comment on that withany sort of authority. But I
remember that that was kind ofone of the things that was being
(13:31):
disputed, and I think disprovedpretty clearly from if memory
serves me, right. But uh, yeah,elementary school, you wanted to
go you had to get your vaccinesand you had to get a shot. What
I'm finding out interesting nowcurrently about people, and this
whole vaccine thing iseven people of my own generation
(13:53):
that are kind of like yeah,vaccine sure ticket are like,
well, I don't know, man, thisthing was developed really
quickly. How could they do that?
Is it really safe, long termeffects? The stuff that they
just, they still can't answerthose questions right now. So I
started digging into it a littlebit because I got curious is
(14:15):
like, Okay, how did they come upwith this so quickly? I mean,
seriously, you know, takes yearsand years and years normally to
get vaccine approved, much lessfigure one out. How did they do
this? So in my layman'svery basic search, I found that
(14:40):
they had already had a vaccineand kind of had a head start
from SARS back in oh two. Soapparently it falls kind of
under the same camp or somethingalong that so I'm going to
describe thismore of an abstract way, because
(15:01):
I really don't want to screw thedata up and give you the wrong
information. But basically,because the novel coronavirus,
similar viruses have come upover the years, they had
basically a basic blueprintalready figured out, and we're
(15:24):
able to essentially take the DNAor the proteins of it or, you
know, kind of the genetic codeof COVID-19, and kind of plug it
into this virus that theyalready are vaccine that they
already had. And that's how theywere able to get a huge
jumpstart there, they alreadydone a bunch of research on kind
of the the basic version ofCOVID-19, or COVID.
(15:54):
And that's kind of a real basicunderstanding that I got out of
it was, they had basically,they've already seen versions of
this in different formats, andalready kind of got a head start
from there. And that's how theywere able to act so much
quicker, then,then normal, I guess, from
(16:14):
starting from scratch when theyhad nothing. So that is kind of
what I found out in mymy history. So with all of that.
(16:34):
It really got interestingtalking to people. So
I got all these people around methat say yes, I'm going to take
it in or no, I'm going to wait.
And then we have the entirepopulation in general. So the
talking heads getting back tothe talking heads on television,
which just infuriate me latelyis and they start talking about
(16:54):
all these percentages of peoplethat aren't going to take it and
they aren't going to take it andwhy the hell are we believing or
even listening to any of thembecause they're all on
television, getting ratings. Andif any of you out there thinking
that these guys on television orhave one original thought in
their head, it that's all BS.
(17:16):
It's all about ratings. It's allabout cable television. And, you
know, I'm nobody right now. So Ican stay say stuff like this and
probably not get myself in toomuch trouble. But really
seriously, I mean, I waslistening to one of the
broadcasters a few nights agoand literally his opening
monologue at seven o'clock atnight, or whatever it was six
(17:37):
o'clock at night, you would havethought the freakin world was
coming to an end, likegrandstanding over the top
bullshit that was coming out oftheir mouths about
everything that doesn't matter.
So by the time you get donelistening to that guy, if you
listen to him every night and noother news source, you would be
(17:59):
in big freakin trouble, you'd bean absolute train wreck. And I
think it's a damn shame thatpeople aren't reporting
news. They're reporting. And,you know, they're entertainers.
They're entertaining us,they're, you know,
they're playing on our fearsin our confusion, and we've seen
(18:23):
that in its mostunfortunate form since this
whole thing started. Nowgranted, it's been going on way
longer than that, but boy, it'sbeen front and center. Since you
know, May of this year my godevery single night now. I try to
do everybody little justice andtry to listen to both sides. And
(18:47):
I try to stay kind of in themiddle of on both sides. So that
I feel like I get, you know,slanted a little bit left
slanted a little bit right. Andyou know, I can kind of form a
decent, well rounded opinion,that's gonna land somewhere in
there somewhere. And even thatis getting harder and harder
anymore because thesethese reporters are painful to
(19:08):
listen to. And then of course,is there an air truth somewhere
mixed in shore? Is there a lotof stuff going on in our country
right now that gives them a lotof good ammunition and stuff to
talk about that can get us allriled up? Sure.
(19:28):
is are they a huge piece of theproblem making our country and
our divides even worse? Sure. Ibelieve they are and that's
really where my opinion startsto come in. So
these guys, they'regrandstanding. I'm thinking
they're getting paid to do it. Imean, you know, they're there.
(19:49):
It's their job. Right or wrong,you know?
You know, so you got LesterHolt. He's on television. You
got fox and friends on themornings on Fox News, you got
Joe Rogan running a podcasteverybody has,
you know, has a stake in theirown game, right or wrong. You
(20:10):
know, somebody might say, well,Joe Rogan's in full control of
his podcast and everything, hesays that he's not controlled by
anybody. He actually says that.
And that's a statement that he'smade multiple times. You can
choose to believe that or not.
He's very successful in what hedoes. He is a celebrity. He's
out there, people know who heis, people, you know, listen to
(20:34):
him. And his opinions, which heis the first one, by the way to
admit when he changes that, andhe often does, after challenging
and listening to people thathe's interviewing in his world.
But then you got people like,you know, I mean, just go down
the list. I keep thinking ofLester Holt, but
(20:54):
you got him. And then you gotthe fox commentary, guys. And
you got, I mean, seriously, itgets, you know, they're working
for big corporations, they'regetting paid.
They're not writing their ownscript. And if they are, they're
just, they're playing within aframework that they're allowed
to play in. Andthey're selling ratings
(21:16):
seriously.
You know, big time, EveningNews.
You know, it's interesting, Iwatched Sunday morning, on TV
this morning, Sunday morning.
And I always find that showreally fascinating, because
although they do tend to leanleft, their stories or our
stories, they're human interestpieces, they're about people.
(21:41):
They tend to less about news andmore about people and things.
And they do tend to focus ontopics of the day. So you know,
a lot ofethnic diversity recently,
because of you know, the BlackLives Matter movement, and some
of that stuff, the pandemicstuff, of course, they'll pick
(22:04):
up and talk about, but not kindof an hardline news source, but
more of an educator, almost likePBS almost like an information
kind of kind of way. So theymake it entertaining. So you sit
there for an hour, and you watchfour or five different
(22:24):
information pieces, and I'vealways gotten at least some good
nuggets out of that show everyweek of an interesting person
that makes me want to go do moreresearch about them or their
cause or what they're doing.
So I guess they're more or lessnews, more entertainment, I
guess.
But, you know, you watch some ofthese Fox commentary, guys that
(22:46):
are wicked crazy, right? Youknow,
trumpers, or, you know, Trumpforever guys, or this whole
election bullshit. And is itreal or rigged? It may very well
be, but we're never going tofind the truth out.
Because the, if there are peoplethat are doing it, they're doing
(23:09):
it to not get caught soseriously. I mean, Trump may
absolutely be right. But he, hedidn't even know that his
resources can't seem to be ableto prove it. So
let's get over it and kind ofmove on and
see what we can do to getthrough another four years. And
just like I've talked about inother podcasts, you know,
(23:33):
the day after the election,Biden,
presumptive next president inthe world didn't end and I'm
guessing that a next month afterthe first of the year after the
20th, we'll wake up in themorning.
And it'll just be another day.
And there'll be somebodydifferent in the White House and
(23:55):
there won't be as many tweets,at least from him. I have a
feeling we haven't seen the lastof Donald Trump yet but uh huh.
Maybe they won't give him asmuch time or attention or energy
but who knows the guy is gotquite a following like him or
hate him. Hethere are a lot of people out
(24:16):
there millions in fact thatreally like him and like what he
stands for, andI find myself more in the middle
there are certain things that Ido align with, but at the same
time, not all of it and and I'mthe first to say that, you know,
Wow, man, that guy's does saysome pretty crazy shit and goes
off the deep end there andsometimes can't get out of his
(24:40):
own way and that, you know,arguably could be his biggest
downfall but I'm not an advisor.
I'm a nobody. I'm sure hedoesn't care what a Tony
Randazzo or his Gen Xperspective have to say about
it. Not one little bit, but I doknow one thing that I can't
Imagine that he had enough,Paul, or enough
(25:07):
anything to controlor to influence this vaccine in
any way. I know, his dream ofall dreams was to have the
vaccine, you know, beingdistributed in in people's arms
before the election.
And that didn't happen, whichleads me to believe that the
manufacturers of thesevaccines, although there is
(25:29):
huge, huge money, billions ofdollars tied into them,
that they're not beinginfluenced, I don't believe, I
gotta believe that. I mean, ifthey are my God, I mean, really,
it's the world that bad, I can'tbelieve it is I gotta believe
that there is still enoughpeople out there that
(25:50):
have a moral compass that wouldpoint them in the right
direction, and that we don'thave any problems with that.
Now, the in they're the first totell you that they haven't had
this vaccine forever. And longterm effects, they say are
fairly unlikely, but they haveeven vocalized that, you know,
(26:10):
they don't know long term,510 20 years down the road, if
there's any adverse effects fromtaking it. On, they say that
it's very unlikely, of course,but um, you know, I think that
they've been pretty transparent.
Andthat, I'm pretty certain that
I'm not going to hesitate totake the vaccine, when it gets
tomy demographic, or however, they
(26:33):
figure out when the rest of usafter health care and elderly
and all the importantpeople with,
you know, that are working withthe public get taken care of
when it gets down to the commonfolk. I don't think I'm gonna
hesitate to take it, at least atthis point. But other people in
(26:56):
my family and my circle, andpeople I know, at least at this
point, have said, Yeah, no, Idon't think I'm going to take
it, you know, I'm unsure aboutthat. I'm uncomfortable with it.
I don't think that that'ssomething I want to do right
away, I'm gonna wait. And maybethose are the people that will
emerge asan affected and when the rest of
us turn into zombies from takingit. Who knows? I guess we'll
find out after they start givingit to folks, it is, you know, I
(27:20):
think we've all watched far toomany sci fi movies where
everybody goes and takes themedicine to make them healthy.
And it turns them into walkingzombies or the walking dead to
many shows, it all sits in theback of your head subconsciously
and makes you a bunch of freaksand believe crazy things. But
we'll see what happens.
(27:43):
Hopefully, that won't happen.
But you never know. So I'll letyou know. I'll be the first to
get on here before I totallyturn into a zombie to say, well,
you were right.
And it is what it is. So I don'tknow. But this whole one crazy
politics thing.
(28:03):
And in the media, and I do findit really fascinating that boy,
the media is pretty nasty, too.
And has been to Trump. And youknow what, he probably deserves
it because he's pretty nasty tothem, but to listen to them talk
to Joe Biden, why is it sodifferent? Like, there's not
even like a common ground, likethey haven't even challenged the
guy onyou know, his policy, and maybe
(28:28):
he doesn't have his feet underhim yet enough to do it. And I
hope that they do kind of swingback around and say, Hey, you
know, how do you actually feelabout x? And, you know, you
know, here's your record,because you've been in politics
for I don't know, like, amillion years. And now you're
saying why, and, and how comeyou know, and I would hope that
(28:49):
he would say, Well, you know,things change, and this is why
and be able to explain himself.
I know that usually if myopinion changes, there was a
reason for it, whatever it is,and that they would start to
challenge him on at least hishis presidency and what he's
going to be doing. I mean, youknow, he's supposed to be
(29:10):
representing all of us. And hesaid that he's going to be the
the people's president.
So we'll see, I guess, I'm goingto have faith that
we will continue on and thingswill be good, and it'll all be
okay. Like it has my entire lifewith every president. But, you
(29:33):
know, five minutes before Istarted this podcast, of course,
ran across an article popped upon my phone about our governor
in New York Governor Cuomo,talking about taxes going up if
he doesn't get federal aid forthe state. So all these stimulus
packages and he's been on thenews since day one talking about
(29:53):
how he needed some a ton ofmoney from the feds to kind of
write the ship in New YorkState.
His latest thing as is that he'sgoing to start raising taxes, he
did say on the wealthiest NewYorkers, but
don't kid yourself, like, taxesare going to go up. And he's
gonna, he's got to get the moneyfrom somewhere. So you start
(30:14):
giving money away for free forservices for people that are
suffering and hurting because ofthe pandemic, or for whatever
reason, they get their moneyback, they either get it back
and taxes are taxes at the endof the year, our tax bills,
sales tax, whatever tax, youknow, the smartest thing that
they can do in New York Stateis, you know, legalize marijuana
(30:37):
and tax the hell out of it, andyou want to smoke weed, pay the
tax. And maybe they can make upsome money that way. I don't
know why they don't do that atthis point. I know the
governor's talks about it yearafter year after year, and I'd
be one of the first ones toget in line and open a
dispensary and then go for it.
(30:58):
Right or wrong? I think it's,you know, decriminalize it, and
let's get all those pot smokersout of jail because they're such
a danger andkind of move forward. So figure
out ways to generate more taxinstead of just taxing us to
death. Already. People aremoving out of New York State
like crazy because of taxes.
(31:18):
And, you know, our Governor'sif you agree with them or not,
or like him or not during thispandemic, has he done a good
job? Hasn't he done a good job,but you know, it's really split
people either like him or theyhate him.
I think he's done probably thebest job he could do with the
tools that he had, you know,my liquor license is tied to him
(31:41):
and the state. And,you know, we've been able to run
our business and stay open forus. Fortunately, we're not
we're not in an industry that'sbeen pounded like, I don't know,
bars and restaurants, althoughwe haven't been affected because
of them, because we are tied tothem quite closely. But you
(32:03):
know, we're not a gym.
And,you know, not a yoga studio.
Yeah, yoga studios are basicallyclosed. For the most part with
they fall under gyms. From whatI understand. And the governor's
I mean, some businesses justdecimated, decimated, decimated
because of this thing. Andthat's where I kind of tie back
(32:24):
to if you're looking to generatemore money to help the state,
right, the ship, man, let's, youknow, ratchet it up, pull that
book out that says, marijuanalaw, and let's pass it and get
moving, dude, it's the easiestway to make some money quick.
Andyou know, maybe it'll come your
population in New York Statedown Cuomo, Mr. Governor, make
life a little bit easier. Idon't know, again, just my
(32:49):
opinion,I believe that our state is
going to legalize marijuana,there's pretty good indication
that it's actually going tohappen this year. And there
could be a lot of good taxbenefits for the state because
of it.
And that may take the burden offof
(33:09):
the citizens of the state thatreally can't afford to pay any
more anything because of thiswhole pandemic. And again,
getting back to the governorliking him or hating him
agreeing with him or not.
The decisions he's made, haveaffect everybody's lives in
different ways. So, you know,grocery stores, especially maybe
(33:29):
local grocery stores have donein theory really well. And maybe
that's because people arehoarding or maybe it's because
they're cooking more at home,because restaurants are not the
most popular to go to or evenopen based on whatever the
governor is doing or whatevercounty or zip code you're in.
And,but yet, hair salons, gyms, yoga
studios,dancing classes, anywhere where
(33:57):
people interact as humans,concerts, musicians, good lord
and go down the list of peoplethat their jobs literally
evaporated overnight, and havestayed that way now for you
know, whatever, we're going oneight, nine months now. And
and there's like, it's like,we're talking. They're talking
(34:20):
and you know, depending on whichtalking head on the news you
listen tothey say life isn't gonna get
back to normal till, you know,I've heard as early as
May March, as late as a fall ofnext year. So it's kind of all
over the board. For whateverreason, I guess it depends on
(34:43):
who you listen to and whatevermatrix or whatever
they're looking at is theprojections of people that are
getting the shots. You know,getting getting the vaccines and
moving on with their lives andhow you know, our neighboring
states etc, etc, and health.
returns back to normal. I don'tquite understand, you know, the
(35:05):
algorithm there how that works.
But I'm sure that that's why thenumbers are different depending
on who gets on the news andtalks about it. But I'm hopeful
that by next summer, that we'relooking at something that looks
a little more like 2019 insteadof 2020.
(35:27):
I'm hoping, no, I think we allare, we'd like to see things
kind of get back to what theyneed to swing and see businesses
open and people start gettingback to normal. And what we
don't understand and what whatkind of worries me more than
anything, really is, how long isit going to take to normalize?
So okay, so let's say tomorrow,they say, Okay, we have the
(35:50):
vaccine, everybody can open backup.
Life returns to normal. I mean,I'm when I say that, I mean, the
laws returned to normalbusinesses can run, you know,
they're not being told everyweek that they can not have
people in there can or whatever.
And we kind of return to prepandemic kind of levels of
normal.
(36:11):
How long as it can be beforethings return to normal on a
real level. So if the appearanceis that we don't have to wear
masks anymore, or let's say, andour bars and gyms can open up
and run normal hours, that'sgreat and fine. But
when we get to the other side ofthis, how many restaurants are
(36:33):
left? How many bars are left?
How many gyms are still open?
How many people have filed forbankruptcy or closed their
businesses? You know, how manypeople are wicked in debt?
Because they borrowed during thepandemic to stay open? And what
are the how did those piecesfactor into what is normal at
(36:55):
the other end of this? And thoseare the things that always kind
of worry, or that do worry meis? What does this thing
actually look like? On the otherside? You know,
that's what worries mepersonally, more than anything,
as you know, we're getting we'vespent a year of getting beat up
financially, emotionally,physically,
(37:19):
on all these levels, and, youknow, there can be some long
standing effects financially andemotionally because of that. And
what's the plans to really fixthat now, I don't believe
personally in the governmentjust handing out money. But if
the government is going to say,hey, you mister gym owner now
(37:41):
can't operate your gym, becauseI say so.
I'm the governor. And I'm nowsaying that you know, gyms are
closed, can't operate. I thinkthat there's the responsibility
of the government that's madethat decision to subsidize that
business until things return tonormal, it wasn't their fault
(38:01):
that they started a gym, theydidn't start a high risk
business where the likelihoodthat they would get closed was
any great didn't that didn'tthat risk didn't even exist. But
the government chose to closethat sector of,
of the economy or that business?
Well, I think that they shouldbe responsible for funding those
(38:22):
employees and that owner, andI'm not talking to make a
million dollars, and, you know,for them to hit a Grand Slam
home run, the government's gonnapay for everything. But
if the government says you can'topen your doors and generate any
revenue, they should at leastcover the bare minimums
(38:46):
including the payroll of youremployees that at a good faith
you hired, and we're working foryou until things return to
normal or they go find anotherjob somewhere else.
And, you know,it's just my opinion, you know,
again, government decides, youknow, they're gonna step in
overreach under reach, whateveryou want to call it, or not call
(39:09):
it and they want to have anopinion and they want to control
your business,prevent you from operating it,
then they need to subsidize youfor that inconvenience. Because
this was not your fault. Youdidn't cause the pandemic, this
was of no fault of your own.
(39:30):
Now, if you started a businessduring the pandemic, and knew
that you had a, there's a goodlikelihood that something may
happen. Well, maybe that's adifferent discussion, but I
mean, you're splitting hairs atthat point. So I really feel
horrible for my brothers andsisters out there that are
running businesses that reducedcapacity or closed.
(39:53):
It sets a hard deal. Um, youknow, we're in the wine business
and run a winery andWe have more than one location,
we were forced to close alocation that was in a mall.
Our other location was more of alounge. So it was more like a
bar, that store didn't make evenclose to what it normally would
(40:17):
in a summer. And then ourregular farm location where we
normally just do tastings and,and run our business, we were
able to keep our heads abovewater there now.
And I consider myself superfortunate that we were able to
do that,in the same breath, say that I
had to close the locationand walk away from it. And that
(40:43):
we didn't do half as muchbusiness
as we normally do at one of ourlocations, because we're set up
more like a bar. And we couldn'thave literally anybody in the
damn building because of thereduced
amount of people and six feetseparation and, you know, all
the rules and laws in New YorkState around
(41:05):
people and food and drinking.
And, you know, it was prettycomplex deal there. So we
weren't able to have a lot ofpeople in there at any given
time. And, you know, peopledidn't want to wait in line
outside or whatever they want tomove on with their lives. And
there wasn't as many customersaround and it was what it was.
So it didn't do very well.
(41:26):
But other places got just beatup on a level that
is just staggering. A lot of therestaurants and other businesses
that maybe didn't have bigoutdoor seating areas, or patios
or the ability to put peopleoutside. I mean,
so many restaurants, andbusinesses have gone under this
(41:48):
summer because of the pandemicand the rules that were put into
place. Or just because of thepandemic.
People aren't out eating inrestaurants as much, they're not
being social as much because ofthis whole thing going on too.
So, you know, okay, you can onlyhave a certain capacity in your
restaurant, but yeah, only acertain sector of the public is
(42:12):
even coming out to get anythingto eat. You're kind of screwed,
and it gets tough, even withtakeout. You know, we all try to
do our part and order takeoutfood and help those restaurants
and those people out but man,holy crap. It's not easy. It's
really tough. Andremember those folks this time
of year that uh, you know,they're struggling through so we
(42:34):
got to get to the other side ofthis and then we got to get to
the other side of that, which isreally getting things back to
normal. So it's good tobe back. If you like what you're
hearing please.
You know, follow me where youget your podcasts and check out
(42:56):
the website. Gen X perspectivecomm if you want to send me an
email, you can send it throughthe website or send me an email
directly at Tony at Gen Xperspective, comm
or leave me a message onFacebook or Twitter or wherever
you like. Thanks for listening.
You guys have awonderful week and I look
(43:16):
forward to talking to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective. But Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
(43:41):
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X
perspective.com. And reach outto Tony directly at Tony at Gen
X perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
It's hard to speak your mind these days.
voicing your opinion is toughand a climate where you're
either seen as an ultraconservative or a bleeding heart
liberal. But what about ourperspective? What about the Gen
X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony alatchkey kid from the 80s and
90s. Now I'm in my 40s wearingcargo shorts, collecting Star
Wars figures and reminiscingabout the days before my first
(00:36):
cell phone. The Gen Xperspective as for us caught
somewhere in between boomers andMillennials are we see things a
bit differently? I'm tired ofstaying silent. It's time to
rant, discuss a load and debate.
You're in Tony yet his guests asthey tackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
(00:58):
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
Unknown (01:11):
Hey, how's everybody doing? So it's getting to that
point where we're actuallystarting to get a lot of
followers followers, and a lotof people listening to the
podcast, when it first started,was mostly people that I knew.
So you know, there was kind ofthis level of just talking to my
friends and buddies andacquaintances that knew who I
was. So this thing is startingto get a little steam starting
(01:34):
to move forward, starting to getsome listeners that don't know
who the hell I am, but are, arelistening, which is super
awesome. And I really appreciateit.
So please, you know, you know,hit the share button, hit the
like button, you know, follow meon Facebook, Twitter,
go to the website, Gen Xperspective, Comm. And send me a
(01:57):
message through the website. Andif you like what you're hearing,
or if you don't you have some,some opinions or ideas on how I
can make it better. mightappreciate any feedback at this
point. And tell all your friendsand relatives and, you know,
maybe someday I'll be famous.
(02:17):
I'm already famous in my ownmind, but you know,
that's just, you know, that'sjust me talking. I think anybody
that puts a pair of headphoneson and puts a microphone in
front of their face and talks tothemselves for a half hour to
ripalready believes that they're
something special.
But uh, we'll get more into thatI'm sure it's another episode.
(02:40):
But uh, solately, it's been really hard
for me to come on and do anotherepisode. So I do apologize for
not being consistent.
Every week, like I should be,but with everything going on,
not only with the pandemic, ofcourse, living in New York
(03:01):
State,running a business, all the
drama, now we got the holidays.
It's been a crazy whirlwind. Notto mention, I was, I think I
mentioned maybe in my lastpodcast that, uh, dealing with
some health issues, whatever,blah, blah, blah, that's part of
being a Gen Xer and getting oldshit breaks. And you got to deal
with it. So I've been the mostconsistent and I apologize for
(03:26):
that kind of right off the batfor what it's worth. And we'll
do better at trying to be moreconsistent in my podcasts. Well,
and I've been spending a lot oftime thinking about the podcast,
what does it really mean? When Istarted it? Why did I start it?
What I want this thing to be?
entertainment?
(03:47):
My personal platform to rant?
Yes. On both accounts.
Was it going to be just aboutkind of pop culture and fun and
the Gen X perspective from afun, slash? Just kind of
nostalgic perspective? Yeah, Ithink that that's important. And
(04:07):
there's a lot to talk aboutthere.
And that can be woven into anyconversation, I suppose.
But I think it's also importantto be able to talk about things
that I think are important, youknow, if I'm going to sit here
for a half hour, I want it to bemeaningful on some level, you
know, and be insightful, maybeeducational, God forbid.
(04:31):
But I think it's important tokind of balance it. So I'm just
gonna, as usual, just kind ofkind of wing it.
There's no real format to theshow. I don't have a co host. I
haven't brought in anyany people to interview yet,
although I'm gonna do that whenI do that. And I'm always
looking for some ideas fromfolks. So if you know somebody
(04:53):
that you think would beinteresting for me to talk to,
I'd love to hear about it. SoAgain, let me know. But what I
do want to talk about issomething really interesting. So
the whole topic of the entireworld right now is vaccine.
Yeah. And there's a whole bigthing about
how many people are gettinginfected, yada, yada, yada, and
(05:13):
all that stuff. But the vaccineis really taking center stage
right now, because it's rightaround the corner, this new
vaccine. And I've been sittingthere kind of listening and
digesting the talking heads oncable news. And everywhere,
frankly, about everybody'sopinion on this whole thing. You
know, Dr. Fauci, Governor Cuomo,just a name to Joe Rogan. I
(05:42):
mean, I'm just kind of listeningto everybody and kind of
everybody's thoughts andopinions on this whole thing.
And I started thinking abouthow I felt about vaccines, I
asked my wife about how she feltabout it. And I'm just talking
to people in general, you know,what their belief and feeling is
on this whole thing. And, and atfirst, I found it really
striking that they were able tokind of bang this thing out so
(06:02):
quick, right? So we get thisCOVID-19. And then all of a
sudden, within a year, we havea vaccine, Well, shit, if they
can figure out how to do that soquick, and how come they can't
do that with everything elsethat ails us? You know, and I
know I'm painting with a broadstroke and a broad brush here,
(06:24):
you know, cancer?
ALS. Yeah, whatever, how comethey can't figure this shit out?
If they can solve a pandemic,and under a year, right? How do
they do that? How they come upwith it. So I started doing a
little bit of research, and oh,my God,
I'm probably totally wrong onthe information that I found.
(06:47):
But there is such a crap ton ofstuff out there. You know, the
days of going to the library andfinding a book,
or a newspaper article from someother somewhere, whatever, oh,
my God, you know,the amount of data and
information out there isoverwhelming and who and what do
you believe, right? And that'spart of the big problem right
(07:09):
now is who and what do youbelieve? So you have all these
people that say, Well, I don'twant Trump's vaccine.
You know, he's got to be behindit. And I don't want it. Because
it's Trump's vaccine. Forwhatever reason, they don't
trust him. They don't trust hisadministration. They think that,
you know, they're bribingwhatever, who, for whatever
(07:31):
reason, people grew up, there'sa huge segment of our population
that are kind of anti vaxxers oruntrusting of vaccines. That
seems baffling to me personally,for my own personal opinion,
because how I grew up now, kindof reminiscing about being a Gen
X or is the biggest deal.
(07:51):
At the end of summerwas my mom always pulling out my
backs vaccination record myvaccination card. And I always
remember it as a kid, andespecially elementary school is
a huge deal. She always keptthat in my social security card
together. And that was like,when she couldn't find it. It
(08:11):
was like the end of the world.
And I remember a couple timeswhere I don't know when she
misplaced it or moved it around.
And we were getting ready to goto my doctor's appointment.
pediatrician, Dr. posset, all ofa sudden, I remember his name
out of the blue. I'm sure he'slong since been retired.
If I remember, right, I thinkhis son took over his practice
(08:32):
in California, but I love thatguy, great. pediatric physician,
Doc, he was really cool.
He was really good to me, Iremember I always enjoyed going
to see him, you know, and kidsusually don't enjoy going to the
doctor, but I'm sure it had somebribery along with,
(08:52):
you know, lollipops and someother stuff to get me to go. But
it was always it seemed likeonce a year we would go in maybe
it wasn't that often, but itfelt like it and it might have
even been more, we would go andmom would bring that card. Make
sure all my job vaccinationswere up to date. And at some
point, I got that shot in yourarm that looks like the little
(09:13):
circle with 100 needles shovedin it that
you know, was kind of your badgeof honor or the proof of your
vaccines, so to speak, at leastthat you were on your arm and as
a kid, I remember that we usedto pretend that those were
tattoos or gunshots or, youknow, screwing around us kids we
who knows what we were thinkingabout, but it was always kind of
(09:33):
a big deal. And everybody'slooked a little bit differently
and it was always in your upperleft arm. I believe that was a
smallpox vaccination. I could bewrong, but I don't quite
remember.
But there was kind of yourstandard mom's mumps measles.
You know, I'm right at the edgethere with smallpox and polio. I
(09:55):
don't know if I got a poliovaccine or not. But it was
reallyThey're still giving them in the
late 70sor early 70s. If I did my
research correctly, and again, Icould be totally wrong, but it
was a big deal, you had to haveall your vaccines, your
vaccinations had to be allcurrent or you couldn't go to
(10:16):
school.
Soif I'm thinking that correctly,
so the majority of the kids thatI went to school with our
vaccinated now, maybe there wasa handful of kids that didn't
have vaccines for medicalreasons, I suppose. But I don't
know if it was very popular forreligious beliefs, or any of
(10:37):
that stuff at the time. I don'tknow if that
held water at the time with theschool systems, I don't
remember. But I would assumethat most of the kids all we
were all, you know, had a goodold dose of whatever flowing
through our bodies to keep usall healthy.
And,and that was just kind of the
(10:58):
norm. It was the norm in mybrain growing up didn't know any
better.
It seemed like commonplace,at least in the little bit of
research that I did that 94.7%of all kids in the year 2015
(11:21):
were vaccinated. Andonly in really odd, what they
were calling opt out clusters,certain neighborhoods,
areas, towns, where it wasgaining steam, were they finding
kind of these clusters back andwe're talking, you know, this is
only six years ago now.
(11:44):
Where they were kind of startingto see seeing clusters of anti
vaxxers. AndI experienced that myself,
thinking about it again andtalking to my wife a little bit.
So, you know, vaccinescommonplace, you just go get
your vaccines, whatever andnever thought much about it. So
(12:06):
the first time I got anypushback on a vaccine was with
my daughter. So as she wasgrowing up and kind of gotten to
that pre teen age, in the theHPV deal was really big. There
were commercials for it, it wason TV, it was out there, you
know, you had to go get theshot, yada, yada, yada. And I
thought, Well, yeah, okay, wellmake a doctor's appointment and
(12:28):
send her and her mom said, No,she wanted to do that. And
I thought that that was really,um, it was kind of my first
experience inthat, getting any pushback on a
vaccine, it just seemed normalto me that you would just go do
that. Sothat was my first kind of
(12:50):
experience in somebody sayingno, about it, which
kind of caught me off guard atthe time. It wasn't the end of
the world. And I don't know ifshe ever ended up getting it or
not, I can't remember. But it iswhat it is. So
there were and are people outthere that aren't big fans, for
(13:11):
whatever reason they research. Iknow, there was some weird stuff
going on that they were actuallycausing autism in kids was one
of thethings that were floating around
the internet, factual or not, Ihave no idea, nor would I ever
be able to comment on that withany sort of authority. But I
remember that that was kind ofone of the things that was being
(13:31):
disputed, and I think disprovedpretty clearly from if memory
serves me, right. But uh, yeah,elementary school, you wanted to
go you had to get your vaccinesand you had to get a shot. What
I'm finding out interesting nowcurrently about people, and this
whole vaccine thing iseven people of my own generation
(13:53):
that are kind of like yeah,vaccine sure ticket are like,
well, I don't know, man, thisthing was developed really
quickly. How could they do that?
Is it really safe, long termeffects? The stuff that they
just, they still can't answerthose questions right now. So I
started digging into it a littlebit because I got curious is
(14:15):
like, Okay, how did they come upwith this so quickly? I mean,
seriously, you know, takes yearsand years and years normally to
get vaccine approved, much lessfigure one out. How did they do
this? So in my layman'svery basic search, I found that
(14:40):
they had already had a vaccineand kind of had a head start
from SARS back in oh two. Soapparently it falls kind of
under the same camp or somethingalong that so I'm going to
describe thismore of an abstract way, because
(15:01):
I really don't want to screw thedata up and give you the wrong
information. But basically,because the novel coronavirus,
similar viruses have come upover the years, they had
basically a basic blueprintalready figured out, and we're
(15:24):
able to essentially take the DNAor the proteins of it or, you
know, kind of the genetic codeof COVID-19, and kind of plug it
into this virus that theyalready are vaccine that they
already had. And that's how theywere able to get a huge
jumpstart there, they alreadydone a bunch of research on kind
of the the basic version ofCOVID-19, or COVID.
(15:54):
And that's kind of a real basicunderstanding that I got out of
it was, they had basically,they've already seen versions of
this in different formats, andalready kind of got a head start
from there. And that's how theywere able to act so much
quicker, then,then normal, I guess, from
(16:14):
starting from scratch when theyhad nothing. So that is kind of
what I found out in mymy history. So with all of that.
(16:34):
It really got interestingtalking to people. So
I got all these people around methat say yes, I'm going to take
it in or no, I'm going to wait.
And then we have the entirepopulation in general. So the
talking heads getting back tothe talking heads on television,
which just infuriate me latelyis and they start talking about
(16:54):
all these percentages of peoplethat aren't going to take it and
they aren't going to take it andwhy the hell are we believing or
even listening to any of thembecause they're all on
television, getting ratings. Andif any of you out there thinking
that these guys on television orhave one original thought in
their head, it that's all BS.
(17:16):
It's all about ratings. It's allabout cable television. And, you
know, I'm nobody right now. So Ican stay say stuff like this and
probably not get myself in toomuch trouble. But really
seriously, I mean, I waslistening to one of the
broadcasters a few nights agoand literally his opening
monologue at seven o'clock atnight, or whatever it was six
(17:37):
o'clock at night, you would havethought the freakin world was
coming to an end, likegrandstanding over the top
bullshit that was coming out oftheir mouths about
everything that doesn't matter.
So by the time you get donelistening to that guy, if you
listen to him every night and noother news source, you would be
(17:59):
in big freakin trouble, you'd bean absolute train wreck. And I
think it's a damn shame thatpeople aren't reporting
news. They're reporting. And,you know, they're entertainers.
They're entertaining us,they're, you know,
they're playing on our fearsin our confusion, and we've seen
(18:23):
that in its mostunfortunate form since this
whole thing started. Nowgranted, it's been going on way
longer than that, but boy, it'sbeen front and center. Since you
know, May of this year my godevery single night now. I try to
do everybody little justice andtry to listen to both sides. And
(18:47):
I try to stay kind of in themiddle of on both sides. So that
I feel like I get, you know,slanted a little bit left
slanted a little bit right. Andyou know, I can kind of form a
decent, well rounded opinion,that's gonna land somewhere in
there somewhere. And even thatis getting harder and harder
anymore because thesethese reporters are painful to
(19:08):
listen to. And then of course,is there an air truth somewhere
mixed in shore? Is there a lotof stuff going on in our country
right now that gives them a lotof good ammunition and stuff to
talk about that can get us allriled up? Sure.
(19:28):
is are they a huge piece of theproblem making our country and
our divides even worse? Sure. Ibelieve they are and that's
really where my opinion startsto come in. So
these guys, they'regrandstanding. I'm thinking
they're getting paid to do it. Imean, you know, they're there.
(19:49):
It's their job. Right or wrong,you know?
You know, so you got LesterHolt. He's on television. You
got fox and friends on themornings on Fox News, you got
Joe Rogan running a podcasteverybody has,
you know, has a stake in theirown game, right or wrong. You
(20:10):
know, somebody might say, well,Joe Rogan's in full control of
his podcast and everything, hesays that he's not controlled by
anybody. He actually says that.
And that's a statement that he'smade multiple times. You can
choose to believe that or not.
He's very successful in what hedoes. He is a celebrity. He's
out there, people know who heis, people, you know, listen to
(20:34):
him. And his opinions, which heis the first one, by the way to
admit when he changes that, andhe often does, after challenging
and listening to people thathe's interviewing in his world.
But then you got people like,you know, I mean, just go down
the list. I keep thinking ofLester Holt, but
(20:54):
you got him. And then you gotthe fox commentary, guys. And
you got, I mean, seriously, itgets, you know, they're working
for big corporations, they'regetting paid.
They're not writing their ownscript. And if they are, they're
just, they're playing within aframework that they're allowed
to play in. Andthey're selling ratings
(21:16):
seriously.
You know, big time, EveningNews.
You know, it's interesting, Iwatched Sunday morning, on TV
this morning, Sunday morning.
And I always find that showreally fascinating, because
although they do tend to leanleft, their stories or our
stories, they're human interestpieces, they're about people.
(21:41):
They tend to less about news andmore about people and things.
And they do tend to focus ontopics of the day. So you know,
a lot ofethnic diversity recently,
because of you know, the BlackLives Matter movement, and some
of that stuff, the pandemicstuff, of course, they'll pick
(22:04):
up and talk about, but not kindof an hardline news source, but
more of an educator, almost likePBS almost like an information
kind of kind of way. So theymake it entertaining. So you sit
there for an hour, and you watchfour or five different
(22:24):
information pieces, and I'vealways gotten at least some good
nuggets out of that show everyweek of an interesting person
that makes me want to go do moreresearch about them or their
cause or what they're doing.
So I guess they're more or lessnews, more entertainment, I
guess.
But, you know, you watch some ofthese Fox commentary, guys that
(22:46):
are wicked crazy, right? Youknow,
trumpers, or, you know, Trumpforever guys, or this whole
election bullshit. And is itreal or rigged? It may very well
be, but we're never going tofind the truth out.
Because the, if there are peoplethat are doing it, they're doing
(23:09):
it to not get caught soseriously. I mean, Trump may
absolutely be right. But he, hedidn't even know that his
resources can't seem to be ableto prove it. So
let's get over it and kind ofmove on and
see what we can do to getthrough another four years. And
just like I've talked about inother podcasts, you know,
(23:33):
the day after the election,Biden,
presumptive next president inthe world didn't end and I'm
guessing that a next month afterthe first of the year after the
20th, we'll wake up in themorning.
And it'll just be another day.
And there'll be somebodydifferent in the White House and
(23:55):
there won't be as many tweets,at least from him. I have a
feeling we haven't seen the lastof Donald Trump yet but uh huh.
Maybe they won't give him asmuch time or attention or energy
but who knows the guy is gotquite a following like him or
hate him. Hethere are a lot of people out
(24:16):
there millions in fact thatreally like him and like what he
stands for, andI find myself more in the middle
there are certain things that Ido align with, but at the same
time, not all of it and and I'mthe first to say that, you know,
Wow, man, that guy's does saysome pretty crazy shit and goes
off the deep end there andsometimes can't get out of his
(24:40):
own way and that, you know,arguably could be his biggest
downfall but I'm not an advisor.
I'm a nobody. I'm sure hedoesn't care what a Tony
Randazzo or his Gen Xperspective have to say about
it. Not one little bit, but I doknow one thing that I can't
Imagine that he had enough,Paul, or enough
(25:07):
anything to controlor to influence this vaccine in
any way. I know, his dream ofall dreams was to have the
vaccine, you know, beingdistributed in in people's arms
before the election.
And that didn't happen, whichleads me to believe that the
manufacturers of thesevaccines, although there is
(25:29):
huge, huge money, billions ofdollars tied into them,
that they're not beinginfluenced, I don't believe, I
gotta believe that. I mean, ifthey are my God, I mean, really,
it's the world that bad, I can'tbelieve it is I gotta believe
that there is still enoughpeople out there that
(25:50):
have a moral compass that wouldpoint them in the right
direction, and that we don'thave any problems with that.
Now, the in they're the first totell you that they haven't had
this vaccine forever. And longterm effects, they say are
fairly unlikely, but they haveeven vocalized that, you know,
(26:10):
they don't know long term,510 20 years down the road, if
there's any adverse effects fromtaking it. On, they say that
it's very unlikely, of course,but um, you know, I think that
they've been pretty transparent.
Andthat, I'm pretty certain that
I'm not going to hesitate totake the vaccine, when it gets
tomy demographic, or however, they
(26:33):
figure out when the rest of usafter health care and elderly
and all the importantpeople with,
you know, that are working withthe public get taken care of
when it gets down to the commonfolk. I don't think I'm gonna
hesitate to take it, at least atthis point. But other people in
(26:56):
my family and my circle, andpeople I know, at least at this
point, have said, Yeah, no, Idon't think I'm going to take
it, you know, I'm unsure aboutthat. I'm uncomfortable with it.
I don't think that that'ssomething I want to do right
away, I'm gonna wait. And maybethose are the people that will
emerge asan affected and when the rest of
us turn into zombies from takingit. Who knows? I guess we'll
find out after they start givingit to folks, it is, you know, I
(27:20):
think we've all watched far toomany sci fi movies where
everybody goes and takes themedicine to make them healthy.
And it turns them into walkingzombies or the walking dead to
many shows, it all sits in theback of your head subconsciously
and makes you a bunch of freaksand believe crazy things. But
we'll see what happens.
(27:43):
Hopefully, that won't happen.
But you never know. So I'll letyou know. I'll be the first to
get on here before I totallyturn into a zombie to say, well,
you were right.
And it is what it is. So I don'tknow. But this whole one crazy
politics thing.
(28:03):
And in the media, and I do findit really fascinating that boy,
the media is pretty nasty, too.
And has been to Trump. And youknow what, he probably deserves
it because he's pretty nasty tothem, but to listen to them talk
to Joe Biden, why is it sodifferent? Like, there's not
even like a common ground, likethey haven't even challenged the
guy onyou know, his policy, and maybe
(28:28):
he doesn't have his feet underhim yet enough to do it. And I
hope that they do kind of swingback around and say, Hey, you
know, how do you actually feelabout x? And, you know, you
know, here's your record,because you've been in politics
for I don't know, like, amillion years. And now you're
saying why, and, and how comeyou know, and I would hope that
(28:49):
he would say, Well, you know,things change, and this is why
and be able to explain himself.
I know that usually if myopinion changes, there was a
reason for it, whatever it is,and that they would start to
challenge him on at least hishis presidency and what he's
going to be doing. I mean, youknow, he's supposed to be
(29:10):
representing all of us. And hesaid that he's going to be the
the people's president.
So we'll see, I guess, I'm goingto have faith that
we will continue on and thingswill be good, and it'll all be
okay. Like it has my entire lifewith every president. But, you
(29:33):
know, five minutes before Istarted this podcast, of course,
ran across an article popped upon my phone about our governor
in New York Governor Cuomo,talking about taxes going up if
he doesn't get federal aid forthe state. So all these stimulus
packages and he's been on thenews since day one talking about
(29:53):
how he needed some a ton ofmoney from the feds to kind of
write the ship in New YorkState.
His latest thing as is that he'sgoing to start raising taxes, he
did say on the wealthiest NewYorkers, but
don't kid yourself, like, taxesare going to go up. And he's
gonna, he's got to get the moneyfrom somewhere. So you start
(30:14):
giving money away for free forservices for people that are
suffering and hurting because ofthe pandemic, or for whatever
reason, they get their moneyback, they either get it back
and taxes are taxes at the endof the year, our tax bills,
sales tax, whatever tax, youknow, the smartest thing that
they can do in New York Stateis, you know, legalize marijuana
(30:37):
and tax the hell out of it, andyou want to smoke weed, pay the
tax. And maybe they can make upsome money that way. I don't
know why they don't do that atthis point. I know the
governor's talks about it yearafter year after year, and I'd
be one of the first ones toget in line and open a
dispensary and then go for it.
(30:58):
Right or wrong? I think it's,you know, decriminalize it, and
let's get all those pot smokersout of jail because they're such
a danger andkind of move forward. So figure
out ways to generate more taxinstead of just taxing us to
death. Already. People aremoving out of New York State
like crazy because of taxes.
(31:18):
And, you know, our Governor'sif you agree with them or not,
or like him or not during thispandemic, has he done a good
job? Hasn't he done a good job,but you know, it's really split
people either like him or theyhate him.
I think he's done probably thebest job he could do with the
tools that he had, you know,my liquor license is tied to him
(31:41):
and the state. And,you know, we've been able to run
our business and stay open forus. Fortunately, we're not
we're not in an industry that'sbeen pounded like, I don't know,
bars and restaurants, althoughwe haven't been affected because
of them, because we are tied tothem quite closely. But you
(32:03):
know, we're not a gym.
And,you know, not a yoga studio.
Yeah, yoga studios are basicallyclosed. For the most part with
they fall under gyms. From whatI understand. And the governor's
I mean, some businesses justdecimated, decimated, decimated
because of this thing. Andthat's where I kind of tie back
(32:24):
to if you're looking to generatemore money to help the state,
right, the ship, man, let's, youknow, ratchet it up, pull that
book out that says, marijuanalaw, and let's pass it and get
moving, dude, it's the easiestway to make some money quick.
Andyou know, maybe it'll come your
population in New York Statedown Cuomo, Mr. Governor, make
life a little bit easier. Idon't know, again, just my
(32:49):
opinion,I believe that our state is
going to legalize marijuana,there's pretty good indication
that it's actually going tohappen this year. And there
could be a lot of good taxbenefits for the state because
of it.
And that may take the burden offof
(33:09):
the citizens of the state thatreally can't afford to pay any
more anything because of thiswhole pandemic. And again,
getting back to the governorliking him or hating him
agreeing with him or not.
The decisions he's made, haveaffect everybody's lives in
different ways. So, you know,grocery stores, especially maybe
(33:29):
local grocery stores have donein theory really well. And maybe
that's because people arehoarding or maybe it's because
they're cooking more at home,because restaurants are not the
most popular to go to or evenopen based on whatever the
governor is doing or whatevercounty or zip code you're in.
And,but yet, hair salons, gyms, yoga
studios,dancing classes, anywhere where
(33:57):
people interact as humans,concerts, musicians, good lord
and go down the list of peoplethat their jobs literally
evaporated overnight, and havestayed that way now for you
know, whatever, we're going oneight, nine months now. And
and there's like, it's like,we're talking. They're talking
(34:20):
and you know, depending on whichtalking head on the news you
listen tothey say life isn't gonna get
back to normal till, you know,I've heard as early as
May March, as late as a fall ofnext year. So it's kind of all
over the board. For whateverreason, I guess it depends on
(34:43):
who you listen to and whatevermatrix or whatever
they're looking at is theprojections of people that are
getting the shots. You know,getting getting the vaccines and
moving on with their lives andhow you know, our neighboring
states etc, etc, and health.
returns back to normal. I don'tquite understand, you know, the
(35:05):
algorithm there how that works.
But I'm sure that that's why thenumbers are different depending
on who gets on the news andtalks about it. But I'm hopeful
that by next summer, that we'relooking at something that looks
a little more like 2019 insteadof 2020.
(35:27):
I'm hoping, no, I think we allare, we'd like to see things
kind of get back to what theyneed to swing and see businesses
open and people start gettingback to normal. And what we
don't understand and what whatkind of worries me more than
anything, really is, how long isit going to take to normalize?
So okay, so let's say tomorrow,they say, Okay, we have the
(35:50):
vaccine, everybody can open backup.
Life returns to normal. I mean,I'm when I say that, I mean, the
laws returned to normalbusinesses can run, you know,
they're not being told everyweek that they can not have
people in there can or whatever.
And we kind of return to prepandemic kind of levels of
normal.
(36:11):
How long as it can be beforethings return to normal on a
real level. So if the appearanceis that we don't have to wear
masks anymore, or let's say, andour bars and gyms can open up
and run normal hours, that'sgreat and fine. But
when we get to the other side ofthis, how many restaurants are
(36:33):
left? How many bars are left?
How many gyms are still open?
How many people have filed forbankruptcy or closed their
businesses? You know, how manypeople are wicked in debt?
Because they borrowed during thepandemic to stay open? And what
are the how did those piecesfactor into what is normal at
(36:55):
the other end of this? And thoseare the things that always kind
of worry, or that do worry meis? What does this thing
actually look like? On the otherside? You know,
that's what worries mepersonally, more than anything,
as you know, we're getting we'vespent a year of getting beat up
financially, emotionally,physically,
(37:19):
on all these levels, and, youknow, there can be some long
standing effects financially andemotionally because of that. And
what's the plans to really fixthat now, I don't believe
personally in the governmentjust handing out money. But if
the government is going to say,hey, you mister gym owner now
(37:41):
can't operate your gym, becauseI say so.
I'm the governor. And I'm nowsaying that you know, gyms are
closed, can't operate. I thinkthat there's the responsibility
of the government that's madethat decision to subsidize that
business until things return tonormal, it wasn't their fault
(38:01):
that they started a gym, theydidn't start a high risk
business where the likelihoodthat they would get closed was
any great didn't that didn'tthat risk didn't even exist. But
the government chose to closethat sector of,
of the economy or that business?
Well, I think that they shouldbe responsible for funding those
(38:22):
employees and that owner, andI'm not talking to make a
million dollars, and, you know,for them to hit a Grand Slam
home run, the government's gonnapay for everything. But
if the government says you can'topen your doors and generate any
revenue, they should at leastcover the bare minimums
(38:46):
including the payroll of youremployees that at a good faith
you hired, and we're working foryou until things return to
normal or they go find anotherjob somewhere else.
And, you know,it's just my opinion, you know,
again, government decides, youknow, they're gonna step in
overreach under reach, whateveryou want to call it, or not call
(39:09):
it and they want to have anopinion and they want to control
your business,prevent you from operating it,
then they need to subsidize youfor that inconvenience. Because
this was not your fault. Youdidn't cause the pandemic, this
was of no fault of your own.
(39:30):
Now, if you started a businessduring the pandemic, and knew
that you had a, there's a goodlikelihood that something may
happen. Well, maybe that's adifferent discussion, but I
mean, you're splitting hairs atthat point. So I really feel
horrible for my brothers andsisters out there that are
running businesses that reducedcapacity or closed.
(39:53):
It sets a hard deal. Um, youknow, we're in the wine business
and run a winery andWe have more than one location,
we were forced to close alocation that was in a mall.
Our other location was more of alounge. So it was more like a
bar, that store didn't make evenclose to what it normally would
(40:17):
in a summer. And then ourregular farm location where we
normally just do tastings and,and run our business, we were
able to keep our heads abovewater there now.
And I consider myself superfortunate that we were able to
do that,in the same breath, say that I
had to close the locationand walk away from it. And that
(40:43):
we didn't do half as muchbusiness
as we normally do at one of ourlocations, because we're set up
more like a bar. And we couldn'thave literally anybody in the
damn building because of thereduced
amount of people and six feetseparation and, you know, all
the rules and laws in New YorkState around
(41:05):
people and food and drinking.
And, you know, it was prettycomplex deal there. So we
weren't able to have a lot ofpeople in there at any given
time. And, you know, peopledidn't want to wait in line
outside or whatever they want tomove on with their lives. And
there wasn't as many customersaround and it was what it was.
So it didn't do very well.
(41:26):
But other places got just beatup on a level that
is just staggering. A lot of therestaurants and other businesses
that maybe didn't have bigoutdoor seating areas, or patios
or the ability to put peopleoutside. I mean,
so many restaurants, andbusinesses have gone under this
(41:48):
summer because of the pandemicand the rules that were put into
place. Or just because of thepandemic.
People aren't out eating inrestaurants as much, they're not
being social as much because ofthis whole thing going on too.
So, you know, okay, you can onlyhave a certain capacity in your
restaurant, but yeah, only acertain sector of the public is
(42:12):
even coming out to get anythingto eat. You're kind of screwed,
and it gets tough, even withtakeout. You know, we all try to
do our part and order takeoutfood and help those restaurants
and those people out but man,holy crap. It's not easy. It's
really tough. Andremember those folks this time
of year that uh, you know,they're struggling through so we
(42:34):
got to get to the other side ofthis and then we got to get to
the other side of that, which isreally getting things back to
normal. So it's good tobe back. If you like what you're
hearing please.
You know, follow me where youget your podcasts and check out
(42:56):
the website. Gen X perspectivecomm if you want to send me an
email, you can send it throughthe website or send me an email
directly at Tony at Gen Xperspective, comm
or leave me a message onFacebook or Twitter or wherever
you like. Thanks for listening.
You guys have awonderful week and I look
(43:16):
forward to talking to you soon.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective. But Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
(43:41):
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X
perspective.com. And reach outto Tony directly at Tony at Gen
X perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
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