August 7, 2025 • 37 mins
The battleground for American democracy is shifting from the ballot box to the map room as Texas Governor Greg Abbott's brazen redistricting gambit ignites what could become a nationwide gerrymandering war. What started as a power grab to flip five Democratic seats has triggered an unprecedented response—Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state to prevent a quorum, governors receiving civil arrest warrants, and bomb threats elevating the stakes from political theater to potential danger.
The most fascinating development? Democratic governors are preparing to fight fire with fire. California's Gavin Newsom has essentially declared: "You think you can flip five seats? We'll flip ten." This strategic counterpunch could transform a local power play into a national reckoning with our broken redistricting system. As one host provocatively suggests, "If we all abuse the system, we might fix the system."
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues dismantling institutional guardrails, firing the chief statistician for simply reporting job numbers that contradicted the president's preferred narrative. This troubling development coincides with the increasingly transactional nature of policy-making, exemplified by Tim Cook's gold-adorned gift to Trump amid promises to bring Apple manufacturing stateside—a move that sounds patriotic until you consider the $2,000 iPhones and regulatory rollbacks it would require.
The conversation weaves through environmental consequences of corporate decisions, the human costs of overseas manufacturing, and the uncomfortable truth that many "Made in America" promises rely on environmental and labor concessions that undermine their purported benefits. Throughout these interconnected issues runs a central question: What happens when both sides decide to play hardball with the same rulebook?
Whether you're concerned about the integrity of our democratic systems, the economic realities behind political promises, or the strategic chess match unfolding between parties, this episode delivers critical insights into the high-stakes power games reshaping American politics. Subscribe now to join our community of politically engaged listeners who refuse to accept surface-level explanations in an increasingly complex political landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
Left Face.
My name is Adam Gillard.
I'm your co-host here alongwith Dick Wilkinson.
How are you doing, dick?
Good morning, adam.
Doing well Good.
We're back here in the studio.
This week had a couple weeksoff, but this is your Pikes Peak
political podcast from aveteran's point of view.
We're kind of going to go alongwith a quick update on some
(00:22):
protests here locally.
This will make me have to getthis posted quickly, but
tomorrow, friday, august 8th,from three to five, outside Jeff
Crank's office there's a a metoo rally protest that you know
we're going to have people thatare, you know, have experienced
sexual assaults out therespeaking and kind of really kind
(00:43):
of putting it out there on whatwe're not getting answers for.
You know, a lot of folks arestill really riled up about the
Epstein files rightfully so andthey just keep getting buried
more and more.
But good news is is that afterGiselle, max Giselle.
Yeah whatever her name is.
Once she got transferred tothat minimum security prison,
(01:04):
she said that Donald Trumpdidn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So we should rest easy.
Now, the truth is out there.
Yeah, the truth is out there.
Now we can comb through thereal stuff, right?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, so we're going to have another protest out
there August 8th 3 to 5, andthey'll keep coming, and people
are taking these things downfrom social media too, which is
kind of concerning.
So whenever you hear aboutthese things, make sure you're
spreading the word Um so that's,yeah, repeat the.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
you know, reshare and repeat, because if they send in
the original post, you knowthat's what it sounds like to me
.
We just had somebody in theoffice here talking about that
and I was getting my little techhat on.
Um, I think, you know it getsposted and then somebody
basically just clicks on thatposting on whatever Reddit or
Facebook and says hate speech,you know, and then that gets
them to pull it down and reviewit.
And you know, and, and if it'sclose to the event, then just a
(01:49):
24 hour review is enough tosilence the movement.
You know, and it's too easy tojust click the button and say
this is hate speech, right, orthis is inciting, you know,
whatever illegal activity youknow, yeah, didn't even think
about how easy it would be toreport things on social media.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You really need a platform that's a little more
protected.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Most of them will default to suspend the message,
the posting and take it downuntil they've looked into it.
Right, and sometimes that's afew minutes, sometimes that's a
few hours, you know.
But it's very easy to justclick it and report it, like
there's an intern over atsomebody's office and that's
their job is to just run thesesearches every morning and go,
(02:29):
oh, that one click, click, click, take them down.
That one click, click, click,take them down.
That's somebody's job.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
It's funny because people get they're pretty proud
about being thrown in Facebookjail now.
Yeah, they try to post stuffjust to get kicked off and then
they post about that when theycome back.
They brag on the way back.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I could see you guys, but you couldn't see me.
I can look out the window, butyou don't know, I'm in jail.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, we talked about the Epstein topic over the last
few weeks and this protest isspecifically to.
I made a statement a few weeksback of like I don't really care
about the original story, Iabsolutely care about victims.
I care about the fact thatthere was almost certainly a
very uh elaborately conductedoperation to harm young women.
(03:13):
That that's terrible, right?
So my statement about notcaring about epstein was more
about the conspiracy and did hekill himself and was there a
cover-up and all this otherstuff like that once he got
arrested and died.
I didn't care about the rest ofthe story.
You know the crimes, the sextrafficking ring, the potential
that there are people that arecurrently, you know, ceos, uh,
(03:36):
secretaries, cabinet member type, people like you know governor
level type people that areimplicated in criminal activity.
Yeah, that's what this protestis about.
Is that the truth, not justabout the Epstein situation, but
about the fact that there isabsolutely a system that
supports people doing thisheinous stuff?
Right, and kind of just looksthe other way.
(03:57):
I say kind of looks the otherway.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Implicitly looks the other way.
I think people record it andthen they use it to get what
they want.
They're not so much looking theother way, they're like I can
still use it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Mexican standoff, you know black male city out there,
where they're just like if youshoot first.
I'll shoot first, and thenwe'll both go down.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That Dimitri Medvedev from Russia.
Well, what he said the otherday he's like Donald Trump.
Shouldn't think that his videoarchives are only owned by
Mossad.
Yeah, nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And Medvedev's like the king of Russian propaganda.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's how he made his name.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He's probably the guy clicking on these things
getting them taken off Facebook.
No kidding, it's a very busyman.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
There are Russian connections to the Pueblo plant
down south.
Oh, yeah, you don't know that.
Yeah, to the Pueblo plant downsouth.
You don't know that.
Yeah, there's a steel factoryor something.
Oh, yeah, well, no.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, there's a Russian oligarch that owns the
Pueblo Steel Factory.
The name of the steel factoryis his last name and he's a
sanctioned Russian oligarch, buthe owns the economy of Pueblo
Colorado.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, yeah, so they're not that far away.
Where are we going next?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Okay, so that was the .
That's the protest for tomorrow.
That's the heads up.
Um, unfortunately, by the timewe if we get this posted today,
maybe then they'll hear it Right.
But that's, that's up to you,Adam, how quickly you can turn
it around All right.
Now onto a national story thathas local implications for sure.
Eventually, right and um,because it it this thing is
about to unravel is what itlooks like.
Right, it seems like a can ofworms has been opened and dumped
out, and what we're talkingabout is what's going on in
(05:26):
Texas.
The story there isgerrymandering, an overt desire
by the governor of Texas to calla special session of their
state legislature to redistrictthe state, which just happened
four years ago, right, threeyears ago, when it really got
certified, right.
And so he said, yeah, yeah,that's great, and all that that
(05:48):
was rigged, it's always beenrigged.
So we're just going to rig itagain, you know, and just re rig
it the way that I want to.
Right, and this is like theearliest that probably that he
could call for, that, I'mguessing.
And so there you go, that's it.
You know, years or whateversince it's been certified, and
so he's like, all right, we'regoing to do this.
The governor's intention andit's overt is to flip five seats
(06:08):
in Texas, from blue seats tored seats, where they're going
to shift the lines around andcarve up the little bit of
Democratic party footholds thatthere are in Texas.
They're going to go slice thoseout into more red districts,
right?
And so they're going to takeSan Antonio and Austin and
Dallas and just fracture themRight and turn that into new
districts, right?
And then that way you've got abig lump of red with a little
(06:31):
tweak of blue instead of a biglump of blue with just a little
tweak of red.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Which is very kind of similar to how Colorado Springs
is set up when you get moreinternal to the city.
But just our last redistrictinggot rid of Teller County.
But you know, when you get intointo El Paso County it's very
red when you get around the city.
So if you want to make us morered you would just either add
Teller County back in or cut offa little bit of old Colorado
(06:57):
City, those western sides.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, gerrymandering is easy to do, and for the
politician nerds that are outthere that study this kind of
stuff like it's, they've alwaysgot a sort of like oh well, if
you want to do this, you justsplit this up, and if you want
to do that, you split this up.
They got like fantasy footballfor gerrymandering, right.
And so somebody showed that toGovernor Greg Abbott and he was
like, yeah, do that.
One Right Pushed us into.
You know where's the story now?
Democratic lawmakers in Texas,which are the minority in the
state legislature for sure,vacated the legislature.
(07:32):
They left Right, and so thepurpose there is kind of like an
ultimate filibuster.
The special session cannot calla quorum and cannot pass a vote
without them being present inthe building, right.
Even if they refuse to vote andwhatever else, like they have
to be there and observe theproceedings To get that quorum.
Yeah.
And so they said well, we'rejust not going to show up and
(07:54):
then there will be no quorum.
And that was on Monday was thefirst day where they I think
maybe over the weekend there wasa session where they didn't
show up and then Monday is wherethe governor said be here by
three o'clock when we convene 3pm in Texas on Monday at the
Capitol, or we're going to issuecivil arrest warrants for you.
You're basically derelict inyour duties, right?
(08:15):
Apparently there's legalprecedent for that, right, as
far as actually it's not acriminal charge, it's more of
just like a warrant in itspurest form of like we're
looking for this person and I'mthe governor, so go find them.
Right, you know like that wasit.
You know it's just a decree.
Basically it's a decree, it's acivil decree that says these
(08:36):
people are not doing what thegovernor told them to do and
they need to get back to work.
Right.
A lot of them fled the statespecifically so that the highway
patrol would not be compelled,or the state marshals, the Texas
Rangers, would not be compelledto come and pick them up
because absolutely, they're thegovernor's private police force,
right, that's what they'rethere for, right, and so if they
(08:59):
stayed in Texas then they wouldhave gotten arrested, right.
So a lot of them left noteverybody, but a lot of them did
and that's kind of where we'reat right now is a standoff Right
.
But a lot of them did, andthat's kind of where we're at
right now is a standoff right.
And Adam had an interestingdetail that I didn't know about
A group of them fled to Chicagoas a Blue Haven, right.
And what's happened since theywent to Chicago?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So the governor there .
He's one of the heirs to theHyatt, so they throw them up in
these Hyatts and they got theirroom and board things taken care
of.
So they're sitting pretty goodin there.
So they're not struggling rightnow.
They got their press booth setup.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Because one thing that always bugs me is the drama
and the circus kind of aroundthese things.
Oh sure, but last night a bombthreat was called into the hotel
and everybody had to evacuate.
Now, once you take away thatsense of security, things change
for everybody, because I meanwe live in a day and age where
every bomb threat literallycould be it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So now you know it's no longer a theatrical thing,
this is a real threat on theirlives.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It's not just a you know, a powerless warrant where
you just you know come, getyelled at by the governor and
get slapped on the wrist Likepeople are taking this Choices
have consequences.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, and what we said in prep for the episode has
been very much a ratcheting uptit for tat kind of exchange of
like, well you do this, no, I'mgoing to do this.
Well, then you do this.
And that's been happening allweek.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Wasn't there a similar situation out in like
Idaho or Oregon, where the thelegislatures left Texas did this
two years ago for basically thesame thing.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Okay, yeah, um, exact same situation happened, where
they disappeared and wouldn't,wouldn't come back until there
was some, you know, basicallylike a strike.
You know like we're going toagree to these concessions
before we come back, right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, the things that they're trying to fight, like
the gerrymandering, they'realready written into law, like
when to redistrict and when todo all these things.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, so here you go.
Thanks for bringing that up,because I've got my let's.
All I understand the nationalsentiment is, if there's no way
for Democrats to push back infederal Congress or the Senate
and the president can justexecute his will everywhere,
then maybe at different levelsof government, that's where the
rubber meets the road Right, andso everybody is very I say
(11:16):
everybody liberals, left-leaningDemocratic folks are like, yeah
, they're clapping for theDemocrats because they're taking
a stand Right, but the?
I'm more of a pragmatic personand the call for the special
session was legal.
The super majority that Iassume the Republicans enjoy in
Texas is legal.
(11:37):
Gerrymandering is an ugly wordthat sounds weird and nobody
understands it, and and it'slegal.
And so leaving work because youdon't like all the legal stuff
that's going on around youserves no purpose.
If you ask me, this thing willget done whether you're there or
not, right, and so he, thegovernor, is now trying to
(11:58):
pursue and he may succeed inbasically firing these people,
and then you can have a quorumbecause you, their seats are
vacated, right, and it comesdown to a majority of seated
members, right, and so he couldcook the books like that, or the
clock.
This special session can onlyrun legally.
(12:19):
It has like a 30-day limit,right.
And so they're trying to runout the clock and then it comes
around to will the governor callanother?
He can just call them back toback.
He can keep calling them 30days at a time, right.
And so they're saying, if werun out the clock, will the
governor call another one.
And we're right back to wherewe were on day 29, right.
When day 30 rolls around and wedon't show up, does he just
start to clock over, right?
(12:40):
And so, to not play that game,the governor asked the FBI to
find these people and arrestthem and bring them back.
And the FBI, this morning, thedirector uh, I don't know, and
bring them back.
And the FBI this morning, thedirector uh, I don't know deputy
director, I think, maybe saidyeah, yeah, we're up for it,
we're going to go get them andbring them back to Texas.
And so that the game you know,remember what side you're on
(13:00):
right, the, the, the Democratsare putting up a stink, but
authoritarianism and fascism,like, doesn't play with your.
You know, tomfoolery and allthe stuff that they're doing is
legal.
So you, unfortunately, as thedemocratic lawmaker in this
situation, look like the littlekid that's not getting their way
and they're sitting in thecorner throwing their toys
around.
That's all this looks like, andif you end up getting arrested
(13:22):
and losing your job over it, Imean people will clap for you in
democratic circles for the restof your life.
You'll be a folk hero.
Can Johnny Appleseed, you know,but like, will it actually get
anything done?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
No, so what?
What should the Democrats bedoing then?
If this because I agree withyou, where, like, I think so
much of it's for show and liketrying to run out the clocks is
a stupid gamemanship, like, ifthey're doing something wrong,
like be there and fight them onthat.
Yeah, you know, don't, don'tplay these.
Run out the clock, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And um, and I mean basically that's it, Go there,
do your job, take notes and say,hey, there was a super majority
, the governor was part of thatsuper majority and we, we did.
We did what we were elected todo, which is show up and make
quorum Right, and then we allyou know, recused ourselves from
the vote and they all pushed itthrough and that was that Right
.
So I'm saying at eachindividual state level, maybe
(14:14):
because this stuff is legal andyou can't get that changed in a
one or two election cycles,that's a long term thing to try
and fix gerrymandering andreally nobody seems to want to
do it.
It's like the you know, it'sthe secret that, like you've got
brass knuckles in one of yourboxing gloves right, like you
know, we all do it, but nobodywants to admit it, yeah, and
everybody wants to overthrow itwhen they're not sitting in the
(14:34):
seat.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
But as soon as they're sitting there in the
seat, they're like well we gotother things to focus on.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Here's what I'm actually a fan of blowing things
up, which is uh and not, not inthe army sense of blowing
things up, right, I'm sayingwhat looks like is going to come
to pass is that Gavin knewsomeone.
Just as we said.
I don't like Gavin.
In his grandstanding he seesthe chance to jump up on stage
(15:00):
and he's like oh, you think yougot five seats, we got 10, you
know, we will out gerrymanderyou as long as you've got time.
We've got time.
Your legal gerrymandering isexactly the same as what we have
, and so we'll just.
We'll just flip the script onyou.
Man, you got five seats, we'llmake more.
And then all these other bluegovernors are starting to pop
out of the woodwork and go oh,if we're going to play this game
(15:21):
, we all have the exact samepower.
So if you want to put someweight on the scale, we can put
weight right back on the otherside of the scale and we'll take
away your seats and your littleweird corner districts that
don't exist in our state, thatsomehow got gerrymandered out
back in the day.
We'll un-gerrymander thembecause we're blue top to bottom
in these states, like that'swhat they think Right.
And so they're like hey, we'll,we'll swing a bat, just like
(15:41):
you swing a bat, and we'll seewhich one hurts worse.
Yeah, I'm down with that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm for it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I'm for it.
And here's why I'm for it One,it'll be ugly.
Two, it'll change the makeup ofthe house.
And three, it might endgerrymandering.
Right, if we all abuse thesystem, we might fix the system.
Right.
The uglier the abuse gets,maybe something would be done
about it.
And then that whole state-levelmap drawing and the ability to
(16:10):
do that in between, no specialsessions for that right, like
nationally, we all do it onetime every 10 years, right.
And then there's no such thingas a local change on that.
And if, if the populations moveand all the blue people move
from cincinnati to cleveland andthey all switch places, it
doesn't matter.
That's going to get corrected10 years from now, right,
democracy is a long process and,and you know, if it takes 10
years from now, right, democracyis a long process.
(16:31):
And and you know, if it takes10 years for each one of these
little incremental things tochange, that's okay.
That makes sense.
Some of this stuff should moveslow.
There should be some thingsthat move really fast and some
things that move really slow,right.
That's why we have the houseand the Senate right.
So I'm, I'm for it, right, like, let's get it ugly.
Let's read let's get the Houseand Senate set to where it
really should be right, and thenmaybe we kill gerrymandering in
(16:54):
the process.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Possibly.
I just like the overall tacticsof using successful tactics,
like if it works for the otherside, use it for your side.
It just makes sense.
On my drive last week Ilistened to John Lewis's
biography and he talked abouthow much structure there was in
the civil rights movement.
(17:15):
It wasn't just like agrassroots thing, people just
popping off, just pure passion.
Yeah, he says there was that,but there was like a legislative
branch, there was a law branchthat would tell them what they
could do and things like that.
They were extremely wellorganized and groups like the
Heritage Foundation took theirframework and made theirs in the
early 70s.
(17:36):
So, like everybody, just keepsusing successful tactics from
the previous folks or whoeverthey're going against, because
you know, the response to thecivil rights movement was the
Heritage Foundation.
Like they used them to setthemselves up.
They used them to setthemselves up and when we see
how MAGA took over with usingthe precinct organizers at the
(17:57):
base level, like yes, that'ssmart, let's do that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, yeah, I mean that's where Bernie Sanders was
the best at that right.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's why he was like.
All my donations are under $12.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So it was because of that, you know.
So, uh, cause the grassrootsmovement worked.
Right now, I agree, and youknow, here's the thing that, um,
I've talked about this on theshow before too.
This is where, as a, as a party, a person who's operating
within a political party,there's often a time where if
your team lost or somethinghappened, then everybody feels
(18:34):
like, oh well, they were dirty,and so let's fight fire with
fire.
Let's be dirty too, andsometimes that creeps over into
basically unethical Like let's,let's mudsling and say things
that, like, I don't know if it'strue, right, I have a problem
with that, yeah, you know, andthere's.
But the mentality is, well, theydid it, they're unethical.
So let's us be unethical too,because that's the way you went
(18:56):
in politics, right, and I'm likestop this gerrymandering thing,
while we'd like to say thatit's unethical because it the
whole process is up for grabs ina somebody's poor choice a long
time ago in an ethical way,right, I don't know how many
(19:20):
generations we have to go backfor to figure out who figured
out how to gerrymander, right,and then how that next,
basically next generation ofpeople didn't stop it, right,
yeah, yeah, that's where theunethical stuff was happening
was in that first, that littleearly seed of like, ooh, we can
rig the system right.
But since then it's beencodified as legal right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's become the system.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And so it's not unethical to use the system to
your advantage, right, andthat's the difference.
And so I'm all about using thebroken parts of the system to
cause, cause, make noise andprove a point, right, that's a
way to do some asymmetricalwarfare type work as well.
Like, you really get anexaggerated response when you
use the broken part of thesystem to do something, right?
(20:03):
If there wasn't, if one otherstate just quietly did a special
session, changed a couple ofdistricts, districts around,
districts around, and it wasn'tthis big overt, you know, show,
then nothing would have happened, right?
Like that it would have justslipped on through, right, but
it became a big political event,right.
(20:23):
And that's where I'm like okay,cool, make it a big political
event in your state too, youknow.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Have you seen any numbers on like what uh, you
know, colorado or californiacould bring if they did that
seats?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
flipped around.
Yeah, I've only seen californiatrying to do more than five and
that number.
I haven't really seen how much.
And then chicago or illinois istalking about maybe getting on
the bandwagon as well and, youknow, chopping up some of their
population areas to get moreblue seats on the table.
So you know, I think the goalwas basically Texas, you got
five right and and we will bandtogether and just totally outdo
(21:00):
you.
You know we'll bring 10, 15 tothe table.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
You know, I don't know how many more States that
would be successful forRepublicans, cause they're so
sparsely populated.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh, texas being like ultra red Right.
I mean there's a lot of placesdown South, but I don't know if
those districts aren't alreadygerrymandered as hard as they
can be.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, cause like you, look at Georgia like Atlanta is
already pretty, you know tightblue Like they're not going to
be able to come into Atlanta andcarve out some red spots.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
you know, oh, cause the population is so dense there
.
And, yeah, for every 400something thousand people you've
got a representative.
So you've got multipledistricts within the city.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,there's many population areas
that are like that around the.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
United States in general, I don't think outside
of Texas they have manyopportunities to get more seats.
To chop things up like that.
Yeah, maybe Florida.
Who like that?
Maybe Florida Like.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I'm telling, like we said earlier, though, there's
somebody with like their Pokemoncard deck of gerrymandering
districts and they're like oh,tennessee, chattanooga, that's
the kick, that's the key youknow, and they've got it all
worked out so and they get paidto show up with that stuff too.
Right, you know they'reconsultants.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, and they know numbers.
And to transition to the nexttopic of numbers, yeah, I
understand.
Numbers can say what you want.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Oh, statistics can lie.
Statistics can lie, you canmake them say whatever you want.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
But when you're a career statistician, making it
up to the highest levelspossible to get fired by the
president for saying that thejob numbers aren't good or the
economy is not good, just forlike telling your stats?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, just reporting the numbers, just reporting the
numbers.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Like.
That's where we're at now.
I'm talking about Donald Trumpfiring the chief statistician
because he didn't like thenumbers showing that his economy
is not booming.
Yeah, contrary to his truth,social.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, exactly yeah, the tariffs are working Right.
The one thing that I saw theinitial knee jerk reaction on
the firing was that the June jobnumber report was lower than
expected.
Like job growth happened, butit was a little bit lower than
expected, or maybe like a lotlower than expected, but it's
still.
Everybody was like like that'snot a fireable offense, that
(23:09):
can't be the only thing Right.
Everybody was like that's not afireable offense, that can't be
the only thing right.
And then I saw some moreanalysis about it and they said,
really, what upset Donald Trumpeven more was that the March,
April and May numbers gotdowngraded from their original
report and they said, oh, weoverestimated.
There weren't actually thatmany jobs created in that
quarter.
(23:32):
And that coincided with whereTrump was basically saying in
the first few months oh, this isBiden's economy and all these
things are his fault.
And like it's going to take ussome time to ride the ship.
Well, you're starting to getinto a timeline where he's
feeling a little moreresponsible for things.
And so if you're telling himthat since you've been in charge
, and even a few months afteryou've been in charge, this ship
is not moving in the directionyou want it to.
Oh, he's going to fire thecaptain and throw him overboard,
(23:53):
you know, with rocks tied tohis feet, Right, and that's what
happened.
This was a woman, but you knowthey he threw the captain
overboard and now he's like,basically, I've got a favor to
give, I've got a job up forgrabs.
Qualifications are secondary.
If you've ever had a job, youprobably understand labor and
statistics right.
So come on down and understandlabor and statistics right.
(24:13):
So come on down.
And I've just you know whowants to pitch a couple of coins
into the bucket, through a packsomewhere, and now you're
cabinet secretary.
Like, that door is open for anybillionaires out there that
want to be a cabinet secretary.
There's a seat for sale.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, and I mean Tim Cook was just in his office
giving him a gold bar, so I'msure it's going to be, and what?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
better way to back your own investment up of saying
I'm going to bring $600 billionworth of manufacturing back to
the United States, says Tim Cookand Apple.
If you install cronies at theBureau of Labor and Statistics,
that can rig the system for you,change laws, change regulations
and be like oh, 70-hour workweek, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
In the tech sector.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
we've got the you know president, gave us the the
you know waiver and you thosepeople can work as much as you
want them to work, right.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
No, no laws.
15 year olds can work for you.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, we're going to have a special economic zone
wherever that thing is at Rightand they're going to put it out
in South Dakota and all bets areoff, you know yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So it's crazy how just blatantly things are for
sale right now.
You know from you know theTesla for the White House oh, I
just bought one of these, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Everybody go buy a Tesla yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It's just disgusting what he's taken the presidency
to.
You know it's.
Yeah, it's disgraceful.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Well, the Tim Cook thing, you know, Apple's actual
investments aside, you hadmentioned he went and took him a
gold stand or statue orsomething like that it was a
gold base that was holding apiece of glass from the that
line of glass, because that'swhat they're bringing in.
They're bringing inmanufacturing glass for the
iPhones Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And so, yeah, it was just a piece of glass that was
holding for him.
But yeah, on a gold base yeahthan for.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
But yeah, on a gold, yeah, yeah, um, and all the tech
folks have been pretty um onboard with like just dropping
coins in the bucket and gettingyou know, getting face time with
the president, even if itdoesn't like 100 track for like
their business goals.
They're like tell him he'spretty and then you get to do
whatever you want.
If you ignore him, he's gonnacome seek you out and be like
hey, all the other cool guysshowed up and told me I was cool
.
Yeah, and last time I checkedyou have like 10 billion dollars
(26:17):
.
So where, where have you been?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
yeah, you know right, why haven't you told me I'm
pretty?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
and so that was as far as I know.
Tim cook was in that boat oflike man man he wasn't going to
the inauguration and do it likesome of the other, like bezos
and and yeah, I don't think hewent and did most of that stuff
Right, I think Apple was sort ofjust kind of standing on the
sidelines Like we have enoughmoney, that like, unless they
viciously come after us, they'renot going to.
(26:42):
Yeah, we're not going to go outof business.
You know, we don't have to playnice, we just have to sell
phones you know so well, andimmediately after he gave that
to trump trump tweeted out likean attack on the intel ceo.
So so again, yeah, where haveyou been, man, exactly?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
come on down and drop some coins in the bucket and
then we're gonna run you a niceheadline, right yeah yeah, and
you know some of the we talkedabout some of the long-term uh
ramifications from you knowhaving apple, you come back here
and build things which you know.
Obviously we want manufacturinghere, but people don't
understand that like it's goingto cost more money and it's
(27:22):
going to they're going torelease them or they're going to
get rid of a lot of the EPArules and stuff like that and
like it's going to hurt ourenvironment.
People aren't going to be ableto afford the product that
they're building in thefactories.
You know that's the economythat they're bringing back to us
.
It's not being able to affordthe stuff that you're building.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yes, that's true, and right now the price point on a
brand new iPhone is around $800to $1,000.
If you're going to go pay cashfor it, I think it easily goes
up to close to $2,000.
If the entire iPhone was madeand assembled in the United
States, they would more thandouble the price of that handset
.
Now what happens when you dothat?
You price it out of range formost Americans and you 10 times
(28:05):
price it out of range for therest of the world.
You cannot export a $2,000iPhone.
You just can't, Nobody wants itNobody wants that They'll make
their own in their own region,whatever Europeia they'll.
They already have their ownphone factories, right, so they
already have it right.
So all they have to do is stopplacing orders for iphones and
(28:25):
that's that's.
It is that easy, right, justlike?
Nah, we don't need any more ofthose.
Yeah, right, um, and we got toremember.
Yes, apple makes otherequipment, but really the iphone
is basically the only thingthey make right now.
Like, is their big revenuedriver?
Right?
And if, if that, if that thingfalters, all of apple is in
question, right?
you know, so, yeah, um, and, andthat's totally a possible
(28:48):
outcome it could take a while,right, it could take a few years
, and, of course, somebody thesepeople are smart They'll figure
out the, like you said, the wayto get the waivers to, to
squish the margin, to get, like,I think, special waivers for
extended labor hours or reducedbenefit coverage, like they're
going to say they're going to goto the you know if they can do
(29:10):
it within this presidentialcycle.
They go to them and say, look,man, you've been to these other
countries, you've seen some ofthese factories.
Right, it doesn't look likeanything you've ever seen in
America, does it?
You know we have to build thathere and there's a reason why it
doesn't exist here.
So what are you going to do tomake that happen?
Right, and, and we got to getsome government coverage to to
(29:30):
make this work Right.
So with when, when cabinetseats are for sale, then you can
install the right people to getthat stuff done right.
And and you got to do it fast.
I feel like there's thisunspoken pressure, for all this
financial rigging that's goingon is, like you know, there's
only three years left, right,like that's not that long to
(29:51):
install some of these uh rulechanges.
And you know, even justbuilding a $200 billion for the
factories takes more than threeyears, right?
So they got to get all thisstuff postured, positioned,
agreed to handshook,grandfathered in over the next
two, three years so that whenthey really execute on all this
(30:12):
stuff, the next, you know, thenext president doesn't show up
and be like who told you youcould do that, right, right, and
so that instability again.
They spend $200 billion tobring something onshore and then
the next people show up andthey're like we don't care where
you make this stuff, and thenthey just flip the lights back
on in China and then that's it.
You know, I mean, like thatyo-yo game can happen and they
(30:39):
have enough money to absorb that, right?
Yeah, so it's not good.
None of that is good for us,not the worker, not the
purchaser, not the economy atlarge, though part of that
equals success for an americanthe environment.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
You know it's going to get tanked and I don't like
making other countriesenvironments shit either.
Right, that's the flip side.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Well, we're just employing slave labor in China,
where they're dumping mercury ontheir babies right, and it's
like humanity still matters,right.
Yeah, yes, yes.
So then we all just need $2,000iPhones, right, is what that
means.
Or whoa, maybe we don't neediPhones.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, because, yeah, I was at Disney with my family
last week and they kept tryingto tell me that, oh, disney's
not that bad, they actually havea good carbon score and stuff
like that.
I'm like they buy carboncredits, like they buy stuff so
that they can ploop more, likemillions of dollars on fireworks
every day.
That's not good for theenvironment.
Like, yeah, they buy a lot ofcarbon credits and the amount.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I mean, I'm not even talking about the amount of
energy that it takes to run thatplace.
Let's, let's just and this isthe waste, just the actual, the
carbon footprint of the amountof waste that gets produced.
Yeah, how many tons of trashgets made at disneyland every
day?
Oh, tons, yeah, per day youknow what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
yeah, that, uh, it's insane.
Had a great time, though, so,yeah, that's cool, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, and I will, for the record, often state that
like the environment's cool andall.
It's not in my list of thingsthat I wake up and worry about
when it comes to politics onmost days, but every now and
then I see the amount of wastethat something makes and I just
think to myself it's more of anefficiency thing, not whether
the environment's dirty or not,but it's more of a like.
We could Not whether theenvironment's dirty or not, but
(32:16):
it's more of a like man.
There was a lot of material andwork that went into making that
one-time-use thing and it's ahundred-time-use thing.
That's the part that bothers meis more the process
inefficiency, and my analyticalbrain starts spinning where I'm
like why are we throwing awayall these materials?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
So when Qatar had the World Cup back in Two years ago
, yeah, they built like ninestadiums around the city.
They kept like two of them, butthe other two or three, however
many, but all the other onesthey were built out of like
shipping containers and thingslike that, yeah.
So after the World Cup theybroke them down, sent them to
(32:52):
Africa and rebuilt them overthere.
Wow, yeah, so they also killedlike 15,000 slaves while they
were built.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I was going to say, yeah, that was all made with
slave labor.
Yeah, horrific conditions andeverything.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
But you know that type of thing that you're
thinking sustainably, where youknow we can use this somewhere
else afterwards.
Yeah, because there's a lot ofthose Olympics, world stage
things that just fall apart.
They do.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, yeah, if you go to like a city that used to
host the Olympics, but it was along, long time ago, they have
all those venues and they stayedin use for like 10 years, 20
years afterwards maybe, but thenafter 20 years you're like this
city was never big enough tohave a venue like this, right,
and so, and there's three ofthem, you know- and so it's like
what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, they're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, they're all over the place.
That's kind of weird when youexperience that Edelweiss
Germany was a Winter Olympicslocation back in like Hitler
days or something like thatright.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That's when Jesse Owens went there Well that was
the Summer Olympics.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
This was a Winter Olympics location.
But it was weird because, like,the main auditorium is there
and it it's so unassuming, likeyou, I didn't know.
It looked like it was almostlike a high school old building
that was like meant for justsome local municipality thing.
But of course the Olympics inlike 1930, that's all you needed
was something that's basicallya high school stadium, now,
(34:09):
right and so at the winterOlympics even, and so you know,
uh, it was weird because we werewalking around and I like saw
the sign on the building andthat's how I knew it was an
Olympic venue, right, like therewasn't even tourist advertised
as that.
Really, you know, yeah, youjust kind of stumbled, yeah, I
was just like, oh hey, look atthat.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But the, as you'd mentioned, this is the one of
the things I'll we'll point thisout the slave labor aspect of
things.
People look at the Middle Eastand all the elaborate buildings
and all of the what looks likeopulence and wealth.
Right, and especially as Trumpwent through yeah, as Trump just
went through on the you know,golden horse tour, right, you
know those all of that stuff isbuilt with labor that is
(34:56):
basically kidnapped out of Indiaand Bangladesh and Pakistan and
they're men that are humantrafficked.
Instead of into house cleaningand sex work, they're human
trafficked into construction andthey get dropped onto the
construction site, put into bigold camps basically Just like
10,000 dude container camp ortent city out in the desert, and
(35:16):
they take desert right and theytake your passport and they say
you, you'll, when thebuilding's done, you'll get it
back.
Yeah, you know, you can go backto india in like three years
when we're done building thisthing, right, and don't ask
again.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You know, and they'll just work you till you die in
conditions that are just likescary the high-rise stuff that
they do and the cement work thatthey do, like some of the poor
it's just scary.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, with no OSHA, with no.
You know, they're like climbthe ladder and you're 400 feet
up in the air.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, sandals and yeah, it's crazy, yeah, the
things that we do.
And again back to the Applething.
You know it's coming back toour doorstep.
You know it's coming back toour doorstep.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
You know, this is what people think is going to
make america great again, andit's gonna.
People are going to have a lotof hard lessons that they're
going to be learning.
Yeah, I don't know, man, Idon't know the, the people who
cry the most for like americanmanufacturing as a, as a silver
bullet, right, like I'm notagainst it, but people that
believe it's like the silverbullet, like well then everybody
will have jobs and more peoplehave jobs and more people have
money and more economy, and blah, blah, blah.
That is the people who justflat out don't understand, right
(36:22):
, I'm not mad at them.
It's the ignorance of made inAmerica sticker makes you feel
good when you see it on theoutside of the package, but
there's no more thought beyondthat.
Right, and that those that'sthe base, right, and that's who
Trump wants to sell to.
Is that that group of people,right?
And so he's like, hey, the madein America sticker is great,
right, and they're like, yeah,it is.
(36:43):
And he's like it doesn't matterif it costs $2,000, don't
question it, or if it's childlabor whatever, it doesn't
matter.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, don't question it.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, on, on that note, I thinkthat's it.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Hey, we like to.
Yeah, we do like to do that.
We like to wrap things up yeah,sunshine, rainbows, yeah, all
right.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Well, thanks for tuning in this week.
This is another episode of LeftFace.
My name is Adam Giller withDick Wilkinson.
Catch us next week, thanks,
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
Left Face.
My name is Adam Gillard.
I'm your co-host here alongwith Dick Wilkinson.
How are you doing, dick?
Good morning, adam.
Doing well Good.
We're back here in the studio.
This week had a couple weeksoff, but this is your Pikes Peak
political podcast from aveteran's point of view.
We're kind of going to go alongwith a quick update on some
(00:22):
protests here locally.
This will make me have to getthis posted quickly, but
tomorrow, friday, august 8th,from three to five, outside Jeff
Crank's office there's a a metoo rally protest that you know
we're going to have people thatare, you know, have experienced
sexual assaults out therespeaking and kind of really kind
(00:43):
of putting it out there on whatwe're not getting answers for.
You know, a lot of folks arestill really riled up about the
Epstein files rightfully so andthey just keep getting buried
more and more.
But good news is is that afterGiselle, max Giselle.
Yeah whatever her name is.
Once she got transferred tothat minimum security prison,
(01:04):
she said that Donald Trumpdidn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So we should rest easy.
Now, the truth is out there.
Yeah, the truth is out there.
Now we can comb through thereal stuff, right?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, so we're going to have another protest out
there August 8th 3 to 5, andthey'll keep coming, and people
are taking these things downfrom social media too, which is
kind of concerning.
So whenever you hear aboutthese things, make sure you're
spreading the word Um so that's,yeah, repeat the.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
you know, reshare and repeat, because if they send in
the original post, you knowthat's what it sounds like to me
.
We just had somebody in theoffice here talking about that
and I was getting my little techhat on.
Um, I think, you know it getsposted and then somebody
basically just clicks on thatposting on whatever Reddit or
Facebook and says hate speech,you know, and then that gets
them to pull it down and reviewit.
And you know, and, and if it'sclose to the event, then just a
(01:49):
24 hour review is enough tosilence the movement.
You know, and it's too easy tojust click the button and say
this is hate speech, right, orthis is inciting, you know,
whatever illegal activity youknow, yeah, didn't even think
about how easy it would be toreport things on social media.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
You really need a platform that's a little more
protected.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Most of them will default to suspend the message,
the posting and take it downuntil they've looked into it.
Right, and sometimes that's afew minutes, sometimes that's a
few hours, you know.
But it's very easy to justclick it and report it, like
there's an intern over atsomebody's office and that's
their job is to just run thesesearches every morning and go,
(02:29):
oh, that one click, click, click, take them down.
That one click, click, click,take them down.
That's somebody's job.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
It's funny because people get they're pretty proud
about being thrown in Facebookjail now.
Yeah, they try to post stuffjust to get kicked off and then
they post about that when theycome back.
They brag on the way back.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I could see you guys, but you couldn't see me.
I can look out the window, butyou don't know, I'm in jail.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Well, we talked about the Epstein topic over the last
few weeks and this protest isspecifically to.
I made a statement a few weeksback of like I don't really care
about the original story, Iabsolutely care about victims.
I care about the fact thatthere was almost certainly a
very uh elaborately conductedoperation to harm young women.
(03:13):
That that's terrible, right?
So my statement about notcaring about epstein was more
about the conspiracy and did hekill himself and was there a
cover-up and all this otherstuff like that once he got
arrested and died.
I didn't care about the rest ofthe story.
You know the crimes, the sextrafficking ring, the potential
that there are people that arecurrently, you know, ceos, uh,
(03:36):
secretaries, cabinet member type, people like you know governor
level type people that areimplicated in criminal activity.
Yeah, that's what this protestis about.
Is that the truth, not justabout the Epstein situation, but
about the fact that there isabsolutely a system that
supports people doing thisheinous stuff?
Right, and kind of just looksthe other way.
(03:57):
I say kind of looks the otherway.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Implicitly looks the other way.
I think people record it andthen they use it to get what
they want.
They're not so much looking theother way, they're like I can
still use it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Mexican standoff, you know black male city out there,
where they're just like if youshoot first.
I'll shoot first, and thenwe'll both go down.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
That Dimitri Medvedev from Russia.
Well, what he said the otherday he's like Donald Trump.
Shouldn't think that his videoarchives are only owned by
Mossad.
Yeah, nice yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And Medvedev's like the king of Russian propaganda.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's how he made his name.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He's probably the guy clicking on these things
getting them taken off Facebook.
No kidding, it's a very busyman.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
There are Russian connections to the Pueblo plant
down south.
Oh, yeah, you don't know that.
Yeah, to the Pueblo plant downsouth.
You don't know that.
Yeah, there's a steel factoryor something.
Oh, yeah, well, no.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, there's a Russian oligarch that owns the
Pueblo Steel Factory.
The name of the steel factoryis his last name and he's a
sanctioned Russian oligarch, buthe owns the economy of Pueblo
Colorado.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, yeah, so they're not that far away.
Where are we going next?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Okay, so that was the .
That's the protest for tomorrow.
That's the heads up.
Um, unfortunately, by the timewe if we get this posted today,
maybe then they'll hear it Right.
But that's, that's up to you,Adam, how quickly you can turn
it around All right.
Now onto a national story thathas local implications for sure.
Eventually, right and um,because it it this thing is
about to unravel is what itlooks like.
Right, it seems like a can ofworms has been opened and dumped
out, and what we're talkingabout is what's going on in
(05:26):
Texas.
The story there isgerrymandering, an overt desire
by the governor of Texas to calla special session of their
state legislature to redistrictthe state, which just happened
four years ago, right, threeyears ago, when it really got
certified, right.
And so he said, yeah, yeah,that's great, and all that that
(05:48):
was rigged, it's always beenrigged.
So we're just going to rig itagain, you know, and just re rig
it the way that I want to.
Right, and this is like theearliest that probably that he
could call for, that, I'mguessing.
And so there you go, that's it.
You know, years or whateversince it's been certified, and
so he's like, all right, we'regoing to do this.
The governor's intention andit's overt is to flip five seats
(06:08):
in Texas, from blue seats tored seats, where they're going
to shift the lines around andcarve up the little bit of
Democratic party footholds thatthere are in Texas.
They're going to go slice thoseout into more red districts,
right?
And so they're going to takeSan Antonio and Austin and
Dallas and just fracture themRight and turn that into new
districts, right?
And then that way you've got abig lump of red with a little
(06:31):
tweak of blue instead of a biglump of blue with just a little
tweak of red.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Which is very kind of similar to how Colorado Springs
is set up when you get moreinternal to the city.
But just our last redistrictinggot rid of Teller County.
But you know, when you get intointo El Paso County it's very
red when you get around the city.
So if you want to make us morered you would just either add
Teller County back in or cut offa little bit of old Colorado
(06:57):
City, those western sides.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, gerrymandering is easy to do, and for the
politician nerds that are outthere that study this kind of
stuff like it's, they've alwaysgot a sort of like oh well, if
you want to do this, you justsplit this up, and if you want
to do that, you split this up.
They got like fantasy footballfor gerrymandering, right.
And so somebody showed that toGovernor Greg Abbott and he was
like, yeah, do that.
One Right Pushed us into.
You know where's the story now?
Democratic lawmakers in Texas,which are the minority in the
state legislature for sure,vacated the legislature.
(07:32):
They left Right, and so thepurpose there is kind of like an
ultimate filibuster.
The special session cannot calla quorum and cannot pass a vote
without them being present inthe building, right.
Even if they refuse to vote andwhatever else, like they have
to be there and observe theproceedings To get that quorum.
Yeah.
And so they said well, we'rejust not going to show up and
(07:54):
then there will be no quorum.
And that was on Monday was thefirst day where they I think
maybe over the weekend there wasa session where they didn't
show up and then Monday is wherethe governor said be here by
three o'clock when we convene 3pm in Texas on Monday at the
Capitol, or we're going to issuecivil arrest warrants for you.
You're basically derelict inyour duties, right?
(08:15):
Apparently there's legalprecedent for that, right, as
far as actually it's not acriminal charge, it's more of
just like a warrant in itspurest form of like we're
looking for this person and I'mthe governor, so go find them.
Right, you know like that wasit.
You know it's just a decree.
Basically it's a decree, it's acivil decree that says these
(08:36):
people are not doing what thegovernor told them to do and
they need to get back to work.
Right.
A lot of them fled the statespecifically so that the highway
patrol would not be compelled,or the state marshals, the Texas
Rangers, would not be compelledto come and pick them up
because absolutely, they're thegovernor's private police force,
right, that's what they'rethere for, right, and so if they
(08:59):
stayed in Texas then they wouldhave gotten arrested, right.
So a lot of them left noteverybody, but a lot of them did
and that's kind of where we'reat right now is a standoff Right
.
But a lot of them did, andthat's kind of where we're at
right now is a standoff right.
And Adam had an interestingdetail that I didn't know about
A group of them fled to Chicagoas a Blue Haven, right.
And what's happened since theywent to Chicago?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So the governor there .
He's one of the heirs to theHyatt, so they throw them up in
these Hyatts and they got theirroom and board things taken care
of.
So they're sitting pretty goodin there.
So they're not struggling rightnow.
They got their press booth setup.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Because one thing that always bugs me is the drama
and the circus kind of aroundthese things.
Oh sure, but last night a bombthreat was called into the hotel
and everybody had to evacuate.
Now, once you take away thatsense of security, things change
for everybody, because I meanwe live in a day and age where
every bomb threat literallycould be it.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So now you know it's no longer a theatrical thing,
this is a real threat on theirlives.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It's not just a you know, a powerless warrant where
you just you know come, getyelled at by the governor and
get slapped on the wrist Likepeople are taking this Choices
have consequences.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, and what we said in prep for the episode has
been very much a ratcheting uptit for tat kind of exchange of
like, well you do this, no, I'mgoing to do this.
Well, then you do this.
And that's been happening allweek.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Wasn't there a similar situation out in like
Idaho or Oregon, where the thelegislatures left Texas did this
two years ago for basically thesame thing.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Okay, yeah, um, exact same situation happened, where
they disappeared and wouldn't,wouldn't come back until there
was some, you know, basicallylike a strike.
You know like we're going toagree to these concessions
before we come back, right.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well, the things that they're trying to fight, like
the gerrymandering, they'realready written into law, like
when to redistrict and when todo all these things.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yes, so here you go.
Thanks for bringing that up,because I've got my let's.
All I understand the nationalsentiment is, if there's no way
for Democrats to push back infederal Congress or the Senate
and the president can justexecute his will everywhere,
then maybe at different levelsof government, that's where the
rubber meets the road Right, andso everybody is very I say
(11:16):
everybody liberals, left-leaningDemocratic folks are like, yeah
, they're clapping for theDemocrats because they're taking
a stand Right, but the?
I'm more of a pragmatic personand the call for the special
session was legal.
The super majority that Iassume the Republicans enjoy in
Texas is legal.
(11:37):
Gerrymandering is an ugly wordthat sounds weird and nobody
understands it, and and it'slegal.
And so leaving work because youdon't like all the legal stuff
that's going on around youserves no purpose.
If you ask me, this thing willget done whether you're there or
not, right, and so he, thegovernor, is now trying to
(11:58):
pursue and he may succeed inbasically firing these people,
and then you can have a quorumbecause you, their seats are
vacated, right, and it comesdown to a majority of seated
members, right, and so he couldcook the books like that, or the
clock.
This special session can onlyrun legally.
(12:19):
It has like a 30-day limit,right.
And so they're trying to runout the clock and then it comes
around to will the governor callanother?
He can just call them back toback.
He can keep calling them 30days at a time, right.
And so they're saying, if werun out the clock, will the
governor call another one.
And we're right back to wherewe were on day 29, right.
When day 30 rolls around and wedon't show up, does he just
start to clock over, right?
(12:40):
And so, to not play that game,the governor asked the FBI to
find these people and arrestthem and bring them back.
And the FBI, this morning, thedirector uh, I don't know, and
bring them back.
And the FBI this morning, thedirector uh, I don't know deputy
director, I think, maybe saidyeah, yeah, we're up for it,
we're going to go get them andbring them back to Texas.
And so that the game you know,remember what side you're on
(13:00):
right, the, the, the Democratsare putting up a stink, but
authoritarianism and fascism,like, doesn't play with your.
You know, tomfoolery and allthe stuff that they're doing is
legal.
So you, unfortunately, as thedemocratic lawmaker in this
situation, look like the littlekid that's not getting their way
and they're sitting in thecorner throwing their toys
around.
That's all this looks like, andif you end up getting arrested
(13:22):
and losing your job over it, Imean people will clap for you in
democratic circles for the restof your life.
You'll be a folk hero.
Can Johnny Appleseed, you know,but like, will it actually get
anything done?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
No, so what?
What should the Democrats bedoing then?
If this because I agree withyou, where, like, I think so
much of it's for show and liketrying to run out the clocks is
a stupid gamemanship, like, ifthey're doing something wrong,
like be there and fight them onthat.
Yeah, you know, don't, don'tplay these.
Run out the clock, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And um, and I mean basically that's it, Go there,
do your job, take notes and say,hey, there was a super majority
, the governor was part of thatsuper majority and we, we did.
We did what we were elected todo, which is show up and make
quorum Right, and then we allyou know, recused ourselves from
the vote and they all pushed itthrough and that was that Right
.
So I'm saying at eachindividual state level, maybe
(14:14):
because this stuff is legal andyou can't get that changed in a
one or two election cycles,that's a long term thing to try
and fix gerrymandering andreally nobody seems to want to
do it.
It's like the you know, it'sthe secret that, like you've got
brass knuckles in one of yourboxing gloves right, like you
know, we all do it, but nobodywants to admit it, yeah, and
everybody wants to overthrow itwhen they're not sitting in the
(14:34):
seat.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
But as soon as they're sitting there in the
seat, they're like well we gotother things to focus on.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Here's what I'm actually a fan of blowing things
up, which is uh and not, not inthe army sense of blowing
things up, right, I'm sayingwhat looks like is going to come
to pass is that Gavin knewsomeone.
Just as we said.
I don't like Gavin.
In his grandstanding he seesthe chance to jump up on stage
(15:00):
and he's like oh, you think yougot five seats, we got 10, you
know, we will out gerrymanderyou as long as you've got time.
We've got time.
Your legal gerrymandering isexactly the same as what we have
, and so we'll just.
We'll just flip the script onyou.
Man, you got five seats, we'llmake more.
And then all these other bluegovernors are starting to pop
out of the woodwork and go oh,if we're going to play this game
(15:21):
, we all have the exact samepower.
So if you want to put someweight on the scale, we can put
weight right back on the otherside of the scale and we'll take
away your seats and your littleweird corner districts that
don't exist in our state, thatsomehow got gerrymandered out
back in the day.
We'll un-gerrymander thembecause we're blue top to bottom
in these states, like that'swhat they think Right.
And so they're like hey, we'll,we'll swing a bat, just like
(15:41):
you swing a bat, and we'll seewhich one hurts worse.
Yeah, I'm down with that.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I'm for it.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I'm for it.
And here's why I'm for it One,it'll be ugly.
Two, it'll change the makeup ofthe house.
And three, it might endgerrymandering.
Right, if we all abuse thesystem, we might fix the system.
Right.
The uglier the abuse gets,maybe something would be done
about it.
And then that whole state-levelmap drawing and the ability to
(16:10):
do that in between, no specialsessions for that right, like
nationally, we all do it onetime every 10 years, right.
And then there's no such thingas a local change on that.
And if, if the populations moveand all the blue people move
from cincinnati to cleveland andthey all switch places, it
doesn't matter.
That's going to get corrected10 years from now, right,
democracy is a long process and,and you know, if it takes 10
years from now, right, democracyis a long process.
(16:31):
And and you know, if it takes10 years for each one of these
little incremental things tochange, that's okay.
That makes sense.
Some of this stuff should moveslow.
There should be some thingsthat move really fast and some
things that move really slow,right.
That's why we have the houseand the Senate right.
So I'm, I'm for it, right, like, let's get it ugly.
Let's read let's get the Houseand Senate set to where it
really should be right, and thenmaybe we kill gerrymandering in
(16:54):
the process.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Possibly.
I just like the overall tacticsof using successful tactics,
like if it works for the otherside, use it for your side.
It just makes sense.
On my drive last week Ilistened to John Lewis's
biography and he talked abouthow much structure there was in
the civil rights movement.
(17:15):
It wasn't just like agrassroots thing, people just
popping off, just pure passion.
Yeah, he says there was that,but there was like a legislative
branch, there was a law branchthat would tell them what they
could do and things like that.
They were extremely wellorganized and groups like the
Heritage Foundation took theirframework and made theirs in the
early 70s.
(17:36):
So, like everybody, just keepsusing successful tactics from
the previous folks or whoeverthey're going against, because
you know, the response to thecivil rights movement was the
Heritage Foundation.
Like they used them to setthemselves up.
They used them to setthemselves up and when we see
how MAGA took over with usingthe precinct organizers at the
(17:57):
base level, like yes, that'ssmart, let's do that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, yeah, I mean that's where Bernie Sanders was
the best at that right.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's why he was like.
All my donations are under $12.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So it was because of that, you know.
So, uh, cause the grassrootsmovement worked.
Right now, I agree, and youknow, here's the thing that, um,
I've talked about this on theshow before too.
This is where, as a, as a party, a person who's operating
within a political party,there's often a time where if
your team lost or somethinghappened, then everybody feels
(18:34):
like, oh well, they were dirty,and so let's fight fire with
fire.
Let's be dirty too, andsometimes that creeps over into
basically unethical Like let's,let's mudsling and say things
that, like, I don't know if it'strue, right, I have a problem
with that, yeah, you know, andthere's.
But the mentality is, well, theydid it, they're unethical.
So let's us be unethical too,because that's the way you went
(18:56):
in politics, right, and I'm likestop this gerrymandering thing,
while we'd like to say thatit's unethical because it the
whole process is up for grabs ina somebody's poor choice a long
time ago in an ethical way,right, I don't know how many
(19:20):
generations we have to go backfor to figure out who figured
out how to gerrymander, right,and then how that next,
basically next generation ofpeople didn't stop it, right,
yeah, yeah, that's where theunethical stuff was happening
was in that first, that littleearly seed of like, ooh, we can
rig the system right.
But since then it's beencodified as legal right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's become the system.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And so it's not unethical to use the system to
your advantage, right, andthat's the difference.
And so I'm all about using thebroken parts of the system to
cause, cause, make noise andprove a point, right, that's a
way to do some asymmetricalwarfare type work as well.
Like, you really get anexaggerated response when you
use the broken part of thesystem to do something, right?
(20:03):
If there wasn't, if one otherstate just quietly did a special
session, changed a couple ofdistricts, districts around,
districts around, and it wasn'tthis big overt, you know, show,
then nothing would have happened, right?
Like that it would have justslipped on through, right, but
it became a big political event,right.
(20:23):
And that's where I'm like okay,cool, make it a big political
event in your state too, youknow.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Have you seen any numbers on like what uh, you
know, colorado or californiacould bring if they did that
seats?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
flipped around.
Yeah, I've only seen californiatrying to do more than five and
that number.
I haven't really seen how much.
And then chicago or illinois istalking about maybe getting on
the bandwagon as well and, youknow, chopping up some of their
population areas to get moreblue seats on the table.
So you know, I think the goalwas basically Texas, you got
five right and and we will bandtogether and just totally outdo
(21:00):
you.
You know we'll bring 10, 15 tothe table.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
You know, I don't know how many more States that
would be successful forRepublicans, cause they're so
sparsely populated.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh, texas being like ultra red Right.
I mean there's a lot of placesdown South, but I don't know if
those districts aren't alreadygerrymandered as hard as they
can be.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, cause like you, look at Georgia like Atlanta is
already pretty, you know tightblue Like they're not going to
be able to come into Atlanta andcarve out some red spots.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
you know, oh, cause the population is so dense there
.
And, yeah, for every 400something thousand people you've
got a representative.
So you've got multipledistricts within the city.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,there's many population areas
that are like that around the.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
United States in general, I don't think outside
of Texas they have manyopportunities to get more seats.
To chop things up like that.
Yeah, maybe Florida.
Who like that?
Maybe Florida Like.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
I'm telling, like we said earlier, though, there's
somebody with like their Pokemoncard deck of gerrymandering
districts and they're like oh,tennessee, chattanooga, that's
the kick, that's the key youknow, and they've got it all
worked out so and they get paidto show up with that stuff too.
Right, you know they'reconsultants.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, and they know numbers.
And to transition to the nexttopic of numbers, yeah, I
understand.
Numbers can say what you want.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Oh, statistics can lie.
Statistics can lie, you canmake them say whatever you want.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
But when you're a career statistician, making it
up to the highest levelspossible to get fired by the
president for saying that thejob numbers aren't good or the
economy is not good, just forlike telling your stats?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, just reporting the numbers, just reporting the
numbers.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Like.
That's where we're at now.
I'm talking about Donald Trumpfiring the chief statistician
because he didn't like thenumbers showing that his economy
is not booming.
Yeah, contrary to his truth,social.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, exactly yeah, the tariffs are working Right.
The one thing that I saw theinitial knee jerk reaction on
the firing was that the June jobnumber report was lower than
expected.
Like job growth happened, butit was a little bit lower than
expected, or maybe like a lotlower than expected, but it's
still.
Everybody was like like that'snot a fireable offense, that
(23:09):
can't be the only thing Right.
Everybody was like that's not afireable offense, that can't be
the only thing right.
And then I saw some moreanalysis about it and they said,
really, what upset Donald Trumpeven more was that the March,
April and May numbers gotdowngraded from their original
report and they said, oh, weoverestimated.
There weren't actually thatmany jobs created in that
quarter.
(23:32):
And that coincided with whereTrump was basically saying in
the first few months oh, this isBiden's economy and all these
things are his fault.
And like it's going to take ussome time to ride the ship.
Well, you're starting to getinto a timeline where he's
feeling a little moreresponsible for things.
And so if you're telling himthat since you've been in charge
, and even a few months afteryou've been in charge, this ship
is not moving in the directionyou want it to.
Oh, he's going to fire thecaptain and throw him overboard,
(23:53):
you know, with rocks tied tohis feet, Right, and that's what
happened.
This was a woman, but you knowthey he threw the captain
overboard and now he's like,basically, I've got a favor to
give, I've got a job up forgrabs.
Qualifications are secondary.
If you've ever had a job, youprobably understand labor and
statistics right.
So come on down and understandlabor and statistics right.
(24:13):
So come on down.
And I've just you know whowants to pitch a couple of coins
into the bucket, through a packsomewhere, and now you're
cabinet secretary.
Like, that door is open for anybillionaires out there that
want to be a cabinet secretary.
There's a seat for sale.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, and I mean Tim Cook was just in his office
giving him a gold bar, so I'msure it's going to be, and what?
Speaker 2 (24:28):
better way to back your own investment up of saying
I'm going to bring $600 billionworth of manufacturing back to
the United States, says Tim Cookand Apple.
If you install cronies at theBureau of Labor and Statistics,
that can rig the system for you,change laws, change regulations
and be like oh, 70-hour workweek, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
In the tech sector.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
we've got the you know president, gave us the the
you know waiver and you thosepeople can work as much as you
want them to work, right.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
No, no laws.
15 year olds can work for you.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, we're going to have a special economic zone
wherever that thing is at Rightand they're going to put it out
in South Dakota and all bets areoff, you know yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So it's crazy how just blatantly things are for
sale right now.
You know from you know theTesla for the White House oh, I
just bought one of these, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Everybody go buy a Tesla yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
It's just disgusting what he's taken the presidency
to.
You know it's.
Yeah, it's disgraceful.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Well, the Tim Cook thing, you know, Apple's actual
investments aside, you hadmentioned he went and took him a
gold stand or statue orsomething like that it was a
gold base that was holding apiece of glass from the that
line of glass, because that'swhat they're bringing in.
They're bringing inmanufacturing glass for the
iPhones Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And so, yeah, it was just a piece of glass that was
holding for him.
But yeah, on a gold base yeahthan for.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
But yeah, on a gold, yeah, yeah, um, and all the tech
folks have been pretty um onboard with like just dropping
coins in the bucket and gettingyou know, getting face time with
the president, even if itdoesn't like 100 track for like
their business goals.
They're like tell him he'spretty and then you get to do
whatever you want.
If you ignore him, he's gonnacome seek you out and be like
hey, all the other cool guysshowed up and told me I was cool
.
Yeah, and last time I checkedyou have like 10 billion dollars
(26:17):
.
So where, where have you been?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
yeah, you know right, why haven't you told me I'm
pretty?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
and so that was as far as I know.
Tim cook was in that boat oflike man man he wasn't going to
the inauguration and do it likesome of the other, like bezos
and and yeah, I don't think hewent and did most of that stuff
Right, I think Apple was sort ofjust kind of standing on the
sidelines Like we have enoughmoney, that like, unless they
viciously come after us, they'renot going to.
(26:42):
Yeah, we're not going to go outof business.
You know, we don't have to playnice, we just have to sell
phones you know so well, andimmediately after he gave that
to trump trump tweeted out likean attack on the intel ceo.
So so again, yeah, where haveyou been, man, exactly?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
come on down and drop some coins in the bucket and
then we're gonna run you a niceheadline, right yeah yeah, and
you know some of the we talkedabout some of the long-term uh
ramifications from you knowhaving apple, you come back here
and build things which you know.
Obviously we want manufacturinghere, but people don't
understand that like it's goingto cost more money and it's
(27:22):
going to they're going torelease them or they're going to
get rid of a lot of the EPArules and stuff like that and
like it's going to hurt ourenvironment.
People aren't going to be ableto afford the product that
they're building in thefactories.
You know that's the economythat they're bringing back to us
.
It's not being able to affordthe stuff that you're building.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yes, that's true, and right now the price point on a
brand new iPhone is around $800to $1,000.
If you're going to go pay cashfor it, I think it easily goes
up to close to $2,000.
If the entire iPhone was madeand assembled in the United
States, they would more thandouble the price of that handset
.
Now what happens when you dothat?
You price it out of range formost Americans and you 10 times
(28:05):
price it out of range for therest of the world.
You cannot export a $2,000iPhone.
You just can't, Nobody wants itNobody wants that They'll make
their own in their own region,whatever Europeia they'll.
They already have their ownphone factories, right, so they
already have it right.
So all they have to do is stopplacing orders for iphones and
(28:25):
that's that's.
It is that easy, right, justlike?
Nah, we don't need any more ofthose.
Yeah, right, um, and we got toremember.
Yes, apple makes otherequipment, but really the iphone
is basically the only thingthey make right now.
Like, is their big revenuedriver?
Right?
And if, if that, if that thingfalters, all of apple is in
question, right?
you know, so, yeah, um, and, andthat's totally a possible
(28:48):
outcome it could take a while,right, it could take a few years
, and, of course, somebody thesepeople are smart They'll figure
out the, like you said, the wayto get the waivers to, to
squish the margin, to get, like,I think, special waivers for
extended labor hours or reducedbenefit coverage, like they're
going to say they're going to goto the you know if they can do
(29:10):
it within this presidentialcycle.
They go to them and say, look,man, you've been to these other
countries, you've seen some ofthese factories.
Right, it doesn't look likeanything you've ever seen in
America, does it?
You know we have to build thathere and there's a reason why it
doesn't exist here.
So what are you going to do tomake that happen?
Right, and, and we got to getsome government coverage to to
(29:30):
make this work Right.
So with when, when cabinetseats are for sale, then you can
install the right people to getthat stuff done right.
And and you got to do it fast.
I feel like there's thisunspoken pressure, for all this
financial rigging that's goingon is, like you know, there's
only three years left, right,like that's not that long to
(29:51):
install some of these uh rulechanges.
And you know, even justbuilding a $200 billion for the
factories takes more than threeyears, right?
So they got to get all thisstuff postured, positioned,
agreed to handshook,grandfathered in over the next
two, three years so that whenthey really execute on all this
(30:12):
stuff, the next, you know, thenext president doesn't show up
and be like who told you youcould do that, right, right, and
so that instability again.
They spend $200 billion tobring something onshore and then
the next people show up andthey're like we don't care where
you make this stuff, and thenthey just flip the lights back
on in China and then that's it.
You know, I mean, like thatyo-yo game can happen and they
(30:39):
have enough money to absorb that, right?
Yeah, so it's not good.
None of that is good for us,not the worker, not the
purchaser, not the economy atlarge, though part of that
equals success for an americanthe environment.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
You know it's going to get tanked and I don't like
making other countriesenvironments shit either.
Right, that's the flip side.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Well, we're just employing slave labor in China,
where they're dumping mercury ontheir babies right, and it's
like humanity still matters,right.
Yeah, yes, yes.
So then we all just need $2,000iPhones, right, is what that
means.
Or whoa, maybe we don't neediPhones.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, because, yeah, I was at Disney with my family
last week and they kept tryingto tell me that, oh, disney's
not that bad, they actually havea good carbon score and stuff
like that.
I'm like they buy carboncredits, like they buy stuff so
that they can ploop more, likemillions of dollars on fireworks
every day.
That's not good for theenvironment.
Like, yeah, they buy a lot ofcarbon credits and the amount.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I mean, I'm not even talking about the amount of
energy that it takes to run thatplace.
Let's, let's just and this isthe waste, just the actual, the
carbon footprint of the amountof waste that gets produced.
Yeah, how many tons of trashgets made at disneyland every
day?
Oh, tons, yeah, per day youknow what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
yeah, that, uh, it's insane.
Had a great time, though, so,yeah, that's cool, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, and I will, for the record, often state that
like the environment's cool andall.
It's not in my list of thingsthat I wake up and worry about
when it comes to politics onmost days, but every now and
then I see the amount of wastethat something makes and I just
think to myself it's more of anefficiency thing, not whether
the environment's dirty or not,but it's more of a like.
We could Not whether theenvironment's dirty or not, but
(32:16):
it's more of a like man.
There was a lot of material andwork that went into making that
one-time-use thing and it's ahundred-time-use thing.
That's the part that bothers meis more the process
inefficiency, and my analyticalbrain starts spinning where I'm
like why are we throwing awayall these materials?
Speaker 1 (32:31):
So when Qatar had the World Cup back in Two years ago
, yeah, they built like ninestadiums around the city.
They kept like two of them, butthe other two or three, however
many, but all the other onesthey were built out of like
shipping containers and thingslike that, yeah.
So after the World Cup theybroke them down, sent them to
(32:52):
Africa and rebuilt them overthere.
Wow, yeah, so they also killedlike 15,000 slaves while they
were built.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I was going to say, yeah, that was all made with
slave labor.
Yeah, horrific conditions andeverything.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
But you know that type of thing that you're
thinking sustainably, where youknow we can use this somewhere
else afterwards.
Yeah, because there's a lot ofthose Olympics, world stage
things that just fall apart.
They do.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, yeah, if you go to like a city that used to
host the Olympics, but it was along, long time ago, they have
all those venues and they stayedin use for like 10 years, 20
years afterwards maybe, but thenafter 20 years you're like this
city was never big enough tohave a venue like this, right,
and so, and there's three ofthem, you know- and so it's like
what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, they're all over the place.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, they're all over the place.
That's kind of weird when youexperience that Edelweiss
Germany was a Winter Olympicslocation back in like Hitler
days or something like thatright.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That's when Jesse Owens went there Well that was
the Summer Olympics.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
This was a Winter Olympics location.
But it was weird because, like,the main auditorium is there
and it it's so unassuming, likeyou, I didn't know.
It looked like it was almostlike a high school old building
that was like meant for justsome local municipality thing.
But of course the Olympics inlike 1930, that's all you needed
was something that's basicallya high school stadium, now,
(34:09):
right and so at the winterOlympics even, and so you know,
uh, it was weird because we werewalking around and I like saw
the sign on the building andthat's how I knew it was an
Olympic venue, right, like therewasn't even tourist advertised
as that.
Really, you know, yeah, youjust kind of stumbled, yeah, I
was just like, oh hey, look atthat.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
But the, as you'd mentioned, this is the one of
the things I'll we'll point thisout the slave labor aspect of
things.
People look at the Middle Eastand all the elaborate buildings
and all of the what looks likeopulence and wealth.
Right, and especially as Trumpwent through yeah, as Trump just
went through on the you know,golden horse tour, right, you
know those all of that stuff isbuilt with labor that is
(34:56):
basically kidnapped out of Indiaand Bangladesh and Pakistan and
they're men that are humantrafficked.
Instead of into house cleaningand sex work, they're human
trafficked into construction andthey get dropped onto the
construction site, put into bigold camps basically Just like
10,000 dude container camp ortent city out in the desert, and
(35:16):
they take desert right and theytake your passport and they say
you, you'll, when thebuilding's done, you'll get it
back.
Yeah, you know, you can go backto india in like three years
when we're done building thisthing, right, and don't ask
again.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
You know, and they'll just work you till you die in
conditions that are just likescary the high-rise stuff that
they do and the cement work thatthey do, like some of the poor
it's just scary.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, with no OSHA, with no.
You know, they're like climbthe ladder and you're 400 feet
up in the air.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, sandals and yeah, it's crazy, yeah, the
things that we do.
And again back to the Applething.
You know it's coming back toour doorstep.
You know it's coming back toour doorstep.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
You know, this is what people think is going to
make america great again, andit's gonna.
People are going to have a lotof hard lessons that they're
going to be learning.
Yeah, I don't know, man, Idon't know the, the people who
cry the most for like americanmanufacturing as a, as a silver
bullet, right, like I'm notagainst it, but people that
believe it's like the silverbullet, like well then everybody
will have jobs and more peoplehave jobs and more people have
money and more economy, and blah, blah, blah.
That is the people who justflat out don't understand, right
(36:22):
, I'm not mad at them.
It's the ignorance of made inAmerica sticker makes you feel
good when you see it on theoutside of the package, but
there's no more thought beyondthat.
Right, and that those that'sthe base, right, and that's who
Trump wants to sell to.
Is that that group of people,right?
And so he's like, hey, the madein America sticker is great,
right, and they're like, yeah,it is.
(36:43):
And he's like it doesn't matterif it costs $2,000, don't
question it, or if it's childlabor whatever, it doesn't
matter.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, don't question it.
Yeah, yeah, all right.
Well, on, on that note, I thinkthat's it.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Hey, we like to.
Yeah, we do like to do that.
We like to wrap things up yeah,sunshine, rainbows, yeah, all
right.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Well, thanks for tuning in this week.
This is another episode of LeftFace.
My name is Adam Giller withDick Wilkinson.
Catch us next week, thanks,
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