Let's Talk TV (and Politics)
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Let's Talk TV (and Politics)
Kamala's Campaign Chronicles: Unity, Olympics, and Unexpected Twists
Is Kamala Harris's surge in the polls the sign of a new political era? Join Barbara Barnett and Jimmy Dailey on Let's Talk TV Live as we celebrate Kamala Harris officially becoming the vice presidential nominee alongside Tim Walz. We reflect on her dynamic campaign and the significant support she’s receiving from both people all over the political spectrum, showcasing a hopeful shift towards unity.
Additionally, we discuss JD Vance's limited influence, Olympic controversies, and Jimmy’s thoughts on the Arch of the Scythe trilogy, offering a rich blend of political and pop culture insights.
From Josh Shapiro's pivotal role in Pennsylvania to the fictional military coup in the new Sundance film "War Game," we explore the intricate dynamics of political strategy and alignment. Reflecting on Shapiro's oratory prowess reminiscent of Barack Obama, we delve into the strategic importance of his position as governor. The episode also revisits the impactful 80s movie "The Day After," drawing parallels with today's political climate. Kamala's confident handling of hecklers and the enthusiastic support from her diverse base paint a vivid picture of her campaign’s momentum.
Desperate Trump tweets, RFK Jr.’s bizarre antics, and the potential future of third-party politics round out a lively discussion. We highlight the backlash faced by an Olympic athlete, the merits of inspirational underdog movies, and the dystopian themes of the "Scythe" trilogy. As the Democratic Party faces electoral challenges and shifts towards moderation, we express optimism for upcoming anti-gerrymandering legislation. Excitement builds as we prepare for election day, planning yard signs and poll work, while sharing personal stories from past elections. Tune in for a compelling episode that intertwines the evolving political landscape with television and pop culture.
And welcome to let's Talk TV Live, tv through a political lens, where we chat about TV series, current and the best of the oldies, all through a 2024 electoral lens. My name is Barbara Barnett and I'll be your guide, along with my co-host this week, jimmy Daly. Hey, jimmy, hi, barbara, aka Jerome Wetzel. Tv Today. Oh my gosh, there's so much to talk about. So, of course, we have a new vice presidential nominee and Kamala is now the official nominee. She's no longer presumptive or de facto, she is the in fact nominee. Yay, yay. Presumptive or de facto, she is thought in fact nominee. Yeah, yeah. And she's been doing. She's been barnstorming the Midwest with her VP, jim Walls. Tim Walls film yes, we'll talk about him in a little bit. We'll talk about JD Vance and what's going on with him, which I haven't quite figured it out since I'm not a psychologist. We'll leave that to the shrinks. But there's so much to talk about. Jim, you want to talk about a trilogy called Scythe?
Speaker 2:Yes, the Ark of the Scythe trilogy. The first book is called Scythe.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we'll talk about that in a little bit. We'll talk about the Olympics, because that is television and the controversies. It's been a controversial Olympics.
Speaker 2:It has.
Speaker 1:But first a plug for Apothecary's Curse. Anne Rice meets Michael Crichton in the Bram Stoker nominated novel the Apothecary's Curse and its trusty sequel, alchemy of Glass, both published by Pyre Books and Simon Schuster. Amazon links are available below the player at the bottom of the description, but you can buy the books anywhere you like and if you have honored me by reading the book and you liked it, as always, please give it a thumbs up or review on Goodreads or on Amazon. So, jimmy, you want to talk about your, you want to do your plug, for it's All Been Done Before Radio Hour. Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's All Been Done. Radio Hour is the second Saturday of every month at 5 pm. We have a brand new show. So that means this weekend. This goes live by tomorrow usually. So yeah, you can live stream it from your house if you are not local to Columbus, although if you're in the area I definitely recommend coming in person. But IBD Presents as in it's all been done presentscom. Click tickets at the top. You can get that and you know you can also buy script books and t-shirts and all that other stuff that go with the show to support us been running for nine years and we've got a um. This weekend we have our take a take off of, uh, murder on the orient express called murder on the orion express. That's like a murder mystery thing in space. That, uh, I think will be fun. I did not write that one so I can really say it's funny and great without having to plug myself.
Speaker 1:I know it's, it's. It's a very weird thing, um, and you can find out more about my work by going to bar B, underscore Barnett. Also, that's where you will find me on Threads, although you know, threads is getting weirder to sign in and out of because it's tied to the Instagram account, which is tied to the Facebook account. It's like too confusing these days.
Speaker 1:It really is. I actually tried Mark Cuban's new venture and I can't remember what the name of it is, but I like it better than Threads. But I haven't quite figured it out yet.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So I'm trying out all the stuff because I do despise Elon Musk. Many of us do uh, many of us do, but it as of now, twitter, for all of its whatever you want to call it, is still really the best place to really get kind of a, and even people who had left twitter, I've noticed, have come back to it. Some of my, some of my favorite journalists have had abandoned it and now they've re-upped there, but not with a check mark. I do not have a blue check mark.
Speaker 2:Don't you have to pay for that these days?
Speaker 1:You do, and I do not have a professional account, which I think would get me the blue check mark, I think, but I'm not sure. I probably have enough followers. I have like 5,000 followers. Probably is enough to get a blue checkmark, hopefully. Anyway, it was on the old Twitter.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, but you're liberal, so probably not now. I think it's like 500 followers for a conservative account and 5 million for a liberal account to get the blue checkmark, I'm assuming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for all the posts that they delete.
Speaker 2:Sorry, Elon.
Speaker 1:Who, by the way, is interviewing their leader, donald Trump, monday. I heard and, by the way, we're taping this at 1 o'clock on Thursday afternoon. I'll post it later today. One o'clock on Thursday afternoon I'll post it later today. But at two o'clock Trump is giving an impromptu press conference at Mar-a-Lago. I can't wait to not watch that. You know I watch, so you don't have to. Oh, thank you. So the thing is that he's like he's in a panic. I mean, kamala has 1,000 people at her rallies and the media is just hyping it and they're lying about her numbers and me. We have 100,000 people at my rallies and the media is like, yeah, give me a break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she's cheating because she's inviting celebrities, because celebrities actually like her.
Speaker 1:She had celebrities yesterday or the day before, only the first day.
Speaker 2:I know. But she had that one big rally at the same place. He did and they got about the same crowd size, I think that rally and he was complaining that she had two famous rappers with her, so that's why she got the big crowd. He didn't have big famous people so he's better.
Speaker 1:But in Wisconsin she had like a huge crowd and in Michigan too.
Speaker 2:The Michigan crowd was crazy.
Speaker 1:And this is like all like ad hoc right. It's like you know, there was no time to like pre-plan the visit, right?
Speaker 2:No, they are all paid demonstrators, obviously professionally paid demonstrators.
Speaker 1:Other than that, other than that, yeah oh, did you notice the subtle change of the sign from um if we fight, we win, and now it's if we vote, we win? I did not see that Interesting, so I'm going to rely on Jimmy's expertise to discuss. We're going to talk about the Olympics, which have been controversial, if nothing else. And yay, simone Biles, she's amazing, team USA go. African athlete, the boxer. I want to talk about her and just Amin Khalif.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amin Khalif yeah.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to mispronounce her name.
Speaker 2:I may have mispronounced it. I do not promise it's correct. She's from Algeria, I believe.
Speaker 1:Is she from Algeria? Okay, when, by the way, I mean LGBTs?
Speaker 2:are illegal, Right right.
Speaker 1:And thank you, American Magas, for making life difficult for this poor woman.
Speaker 2:And they haven't let it go. Even after they were fact-checked and proven wrong, they're still insisting she's a man, and this is the liberal woke mob, and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:They don't let anything go. So I want to talk about the Trump campaign. First We'll talk about Kamala and the vice president. Like they're, so it's like another year has happened this week. I want to talk about the polls.
Speaker 2:I will say I think this week has not been as intense as the last few. I know we did have the vice president and that was a big thing, but I do think this week was a little bit more of a breather and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but a lot has happened. The polls are actually turning around, which is good happened. The polls are actually turning around, which is good. My husband is really, really. It's so funny because he's like super, um, super impatient. He's like but, but, but she's not winning yet. I'm like honey, she has like been the vice president for like two and a half weeks the most recent poll.
Speaker 2:She is slightly ahead. She is now as.
Speaker 1:Of today Cook, not Cook 538, nate Silver, real, clear Politics all have her ahead Like over 50% ahead. So, that's a good place to be for the national of likely voters.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And in the in the battleground states they have her either tied slightly ahead or slightly behind, but she stopped the bleeding like almost immediately. And now they get. They got to get the ground game, and that's going to lead me to talk a little bit about um. Let's talk about josh shapiro for a minute. Okay, did you hear his speech the other day? I did not on tuesday.
Speaker 2:It's only there's two days ago when I did, I heard just a couple of quotes, the you know, full support and all that.
Speaker 1:But so when kamala introduced her vice presidential nominee, tim walls, um shapiro gave the first speech, which makes sense since he's the governor of pennsylvania, and the rally was in philadelphia, which is contrary to what you all may believe. We live in pennsylvania. Also, we live in pitts, the other liberal bastion in the state of Pennsylvania, on the other side of the state, so it's hours away from us, but anyway, I would have gone otherwise. But Shapiro gave a barn burner of a speech. He has political chops and he is a great orator. He has political chops and he is a great orator bringing to mind Barack Obama.
Speaker 1:Really, I mean people kind of you know like tease about. He delivers just like Barack Obama and his reply to that was so that's an insult. He's probably the greatest orator of my generation, of my lifetime, and that's an insult. Keep him coming, um, it was an amazing speech, it was the best speech of the three um. But he's the gov, right, he's the governor of the state. But this is my feeling about josh shapiro and I think I said it on last week's pod that I thought that. I think I have to go back and listen to what I said, but I'm pretty sure I said that I thought Walls was going to be the vice presidential nominee. Yeah, I did, okay, good.
Speaker 2:As far as I remember, I'm pretty sure I know you said it wasn't going to be.
Speaker 1:Shapiro. No, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Shapiro. I know you said it wasn't going to be Shapiro. No, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Shapiro and I don't know if I said this, but I do now believe that Shapiro, as the governor of Pennsylvania, probably could do more good for the ticket in Pennsylvania by being in Pennsylvania than he could by traipsing all over the country as the vice presidential nominee. And I said that literally, said that Tuesday, as country, as the vice presidential nominee. And I said that literally, said that Tuesday as soon as the announcement was made.
Speaker 1:And people were still oh, there's a really beautiful Baltimore Oriole right there on my bush. And people were like, oh no, we're so upset because Shapiro is not and we're not good. My sister was like, well, if Shapiro had been in, I might have actually voted for them, but now I don't think I will. I'm like, no, you weren't going to vote for them. But A few people were saying, you know, yeah, I think he could probably be more effective in Pennsylvania as the governor and people in Pennsylvania are a little bit possessive of Josh. Yeah, and he's got a great future. He's like 50. You know, he's young and he's got a great future. Oh, there's a wasp, that's what happens when you sit outside A really pretty one.
Speaker 1:That's what happens when you sit outside A really pretty one, but he will be great in. God forbid, kamala loses God forbid In 28, if need be, or in 32, for sure.
Speaker 2:If she loses, we won't have elections those years, so it doesn't matter, or at least not free and fair elections this is true.
Speaker 1:Well, oh, I'm kind of tangenting here those years, so it doesn't matter, or at least not free and fair elections? This is true. Well, um, oh, I'm you know, I'm kind of tangenting here, but I just heard about a new movie that's in the theater. It's a sundance movie called war game and it is uh, it was, it was a game. It was a scenario that was played out, that and they were asked like the Department of Defense asked them to do this. They played out a scenario Should Trump lose In November, and the scenario was what if people in the military turned against the government?
Speaker 1:Hmm, if people in the military turned against the government.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't think they will, but it's an interesting thought experiment.
Speaker 1:But it starts in Florida, at a base in Florida. I've seen clips. I've seen the press clips I'm going to request because playing in movie theaters. I'm going to see if I can request a. I've got press credentials for them, for Sundance and for the press site that everyone uses and so I'm going to see if I can get a copy of it to watch on Vimeo and then we'll talk about it next week. But I remember when I was in college or high school during the Cold War during the 80s it was graduate school there was a similar thing done on Newsnight which was after the 10 o'clock news I think that was what it was called Newsnight on ABC and they played out a brink of disaster, nuclear war. This was like in the early 80s because that was really plausible. That was right around the time that the movie the day after came out and scared the bejesus out of everyone. That's still a real. I just watched it over the winter and that is really a hugely scary movie. Have you ever seen that movie? What the day after?
Speaker 2:Yes, Don't think Not the day after tomorrow.
Speaker 1:I have seen that one I don't think I've seen the day after. You should watch it. It have seen that one I don't think I've seen the day after you should watch it. It was made in 1983. It was run without commercials on I think it was ABC it was, and starred Henry Fonda, not.
Speaker 2:Henry.
Speaker 1:Fonda, jason Robards. Thank you, jason Robards, I always get those guys.
Speaker 2:Joe Beth Williams, steve Guttenberg, john Lithgow.
Speaker 1:Amy Madigan. John Lithgow played a professor at the University of Missouri, kansas City, and my gosh, I mean the cast was amazing. Steve Guttenberg played a college kid that's how long ago. That was Wow, I know, right, he's like my age, and so he played a college kid. That's how long ago. That was Wow, I know right, he was like he's like my age and so he played a college kid. And it was like Jo Beth Williams, what's his name? Who was in Shenandoah on Broadway. I mean it was like such an incredible cast and you should watch it.
Speaker 1:You can find it on YouTube like really readily. I mean it's really easy to find it, find the full one, and if you can find there's a director's cut with commentary, but anyway, so I digressed. I know I often do that, but it's TV, right, it was a TV movie. Yeah, absolutely. So I digressed, I know I often do that, but it's TV, right, it was a TV movie. Yeah, absolutely, and it was one of the few TV movies that's ever made that was run like literally with no commercials. The sponsors all threatened to pull their advertising, so ABC said let them.
Speaker 2:Wow, I can't imagine a network saying that today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know they did, and they ran it without no commercials. They ran a commercial before and after and then that night on Nightline that's the Nightline, not Newsnight Nightline they did a debrief of it with people like Henry Kissinger and a whole bunch of other people. They debriefed the movie. It's like it was a landmark film for TV. It was a landmark moment for television because nothing like that had ever been done before and I think it's still among the highest rated television movies in history of television. Like everyone watched this movie, it was incredibly terrifying. It's like there are other movies about nuclear holocaust around that time. Threads was one of them, testament is another one, but there's nothing. The, the tv series jericho, which came much later, which was scary in its own right, um, but that didn't come out for another like couple of decades oh nick, myers directed the day after.
Speaker 1:He did Wrath of Khan, yeah, yeah, oh, it was just a phenomenal movie. He fought with the network a lot about what he could and could not show and in the end he said, screw him, I'm just going to do what I want. And he did and it was amazing, but there's a cut of it that's longer.
Speaker 2:Okay. I mean I was seven months old, so I don't think I watched it.
Speaker 1:but you never know, I bet your parents did. They may have, I don't know. I bet they did. Everyone watched it, so it was great. You know, I didn't have any kids yet. I was in graduate school and newly married.
Speaker 2:So Phil and I glued.
Speaker 1:Anyway. So this war game thing is kind of so. I'm really looking forward to seeing it, and it was at Sundance. So let's go back to politics. Sure, so Walls. So what did that say on your bingo card?
Speaker 2:going to get him. So I was thrilled, and so were many of my peers and friends. We were all chatting and texting with excitement on Tuesday when the announcement came down. One of my friends called it her heart pick and I'm like, yeah, it's the pick that you want, right? He's the one that feels right, and I know Democrats have been accused of doing too much about what feels right. But this guy seems like he's the total package.
Speaker 1:He is, and I read an op-ed in the.
Speaker 2:New.
Speaker 1:York Times this morning from a woman who is in Nebraska or Kansas, maybe Ohio, I don't know somewhere in a flyover state, whose husband is a farmer, she's a farm wife and talked about her own parents and who he reminds them so much of. You know, sort of this flyover state rural Democrat, yeah, which the Democratic Party basically thumbed their nose at. My dad was one of those, my parents my dad was. He went to college. He went to not to college, but he went to electrical school. On the sorry, I had left a thing on my Facebook. If anyone wanted to join in and talk with us they could, and I thought that was one just somebody about. Can I buy your book? Where can I buy books?
Speaker 2:I think it's a bot. I was going to say have they heard of the internet and search engines and Amazon?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, so anyway. So my parents were that. My dad was a working class guy, grew up in rural Illinois, not on a farm. His dad was a junk dealer, an immigrant, and my mom's dad was an electrician construction electrician and union, union, union, union. It's all I heard my whole growing up. Union, union, union. My dad would go down to the union hall on election day and make sure his guy got in and he was very, they were very much, and my dad, if he were alive today, might have been a Trump voter.
Speaker 2:My parents are, so I can't say anything.
Speaker 1:My mom, you know she was an FDR Democrat. My parent, my dad, did what. My mom said yeah, but what I think? What do you think Wall think walls does for the ticket? And then I'll talk, because I've been talking a lot.
Speaker 2:you talk oh sure, I mean I think he's a very good campaigner for kamala. Uh, he's got a presence on the stage that's really relatable, um, really down to earth and grounded, which is nice, because sometimes us democrats get accused of being liberal elitist, but it's all genuine right, like it seems to be. He's military. He's school teacher, principal football coach that also led the gay rights organization in his high school.
Speaker 1:I read that what.
Speaker 2:And he was A-plus rating from the NRA until he turned sharply and became an F rating from the NRA and is proud of it, like still a gun owner, still likes having a gun but thinks about it's not worth the school shootings and we need to common sense regulation. So he really checks a lot of these boxes of. He's a guy that on paper almost looks conservative but he's made these choices that are liberal, which appeal, I think, is where most of us are, where we aren't one thing or the other legitimate like or should it be completely one way or another. And in this day and age I felt pressured to just be on the left because the right's gotten so horrible. But I don't like.
Speaker 2:I think we need to have two healthy parties where you can have a healthy debate about most issues. I think most of America is can agree on a lot of things that these parties have taken and extrapolated, but anyway, but Walt specifically, he seems really sharp on his feet. I mean coining, that whole weird thing. It seems so obvious in retrospect but it lands and it's giving temper tantrums, which I know. That's bad that it delights me so much, but it really does know. That's bad that it delights me so much, but it really does. So I don't know. He just seems like the uncle that you love to sit and talk with at family parties, that you seek out to spend a little time with because you appreciate him kamala and the coach yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's a perfect and he balances her so well. He brings a lot of things to the ticket that she doesn't have, being the liberal west coast elite elit is it isn't a bad thing in my opinion, but no, for those voters that are turned off by it's the balance helps.
Speaker 1:And had she gone with shapiro. He is an eastern elite, I mean, he's an east coast, he's not from pitt Right, he's from the other side of the state and you know he is an East Coast guy, which is fine. I mean, in my heart I'm probably, like you know, an Eastern liberal anyway, because I'm from Chicago and so you know. But I think Walls, in my opinion, is great, Um, but I I think Walls, in my opinion, is great, Everything that you said. I think he brings balance. I think he comes off as this sort of happy warrior and I was trying to put my finger on what it is that really makes me think this is different than it's been for many years.
Speaker 1:There's an optimism and hopefulness to this campaign now, and maybe because it was so doom-scrollingly horrific before and now there's hope, now there's joy, and now there's you, there's joy, and now there's you know we have a chance and both of them campaign, leaning into the joy and leaning into the enthusiasm.
Speaker 2:And biden was right when he talked about the threat to our country, but that does not pump people up, but they're still talking about the threats to our country. They are, but they're framing it differently and it's not their only message, and I think it's it's you don't want to ignore the threat, but you. The way it was being talked about was not helping them energize voters, and now it is.
Speaker 1:Well, I loved yesterday when there were you know she talked about she knows Trump's type and it's her stump speech which she's refining by the day. I've been listening to it day by day and I really like the way she's refining her message and she's become a much better, forceful speaker over the last week, two weeks. She's growing into this every day. But when she, you know, talked about you know 34 convictions, the audience was lock him up, lock him up and she stopped them. She stopped them. She said you know what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to leave that for the courts. We're going to leave that for the courts to decide. We have to. This is what we're for and that's not.
Speaker 1:And then she got interrupted by a bunch of hecklers in Michigan yesterday who were heckling her about Gaza. You know, vice president, genocide, that's what I think they were chanting. And she was like you know what? I hear you, but if you want to say you're voting for Trump, I'll hear you. If you're not, it's my turn to speak. And there was a roar of applause that came from that and it just like it just sucked all the air out of those hecklers. And no Democrat has actually done that before and I think that was awesome. Yeah, absolutely so. Um, the Republic, I want to talk about the Republicans.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. The good Republicans. Ok, All the ones that have come out and support Harris and Waltz, which is lots and lots and lots of them.
Speaker 1:I know tons of them.
Speaker 1:There's Republicans for for Harris and they had a gathering, I think they had one in Virginia. That was, you know, people like Denver, riggleman and Dent. Of course, we have all of the Lincoln Project people and the Bulwark people and the Republicans against Trump and one of the messages they've had in fact, this is what the guy said in, I think it was Denver Riggleman said you know what, just because you're going to vote for Kamala, just because you're a Republican, you can vote for Kamala doesn't mean you're and recreate the Republican Party.
Speaker 2:Because right now there isn't one.
Speaker 1:And he gave that and that makes sense for them. And there are all you know, maga is not the Republican Party and there are more and more and more Republicans who are coming out for Kamala. So, okay, what do we go on to next? We talked about the vice president. I really like him. I think he's going to be awesome. I can't wait until the Democratic National Convention.
Speaker 1:I am so upset that we're not living in Chicago anymore. I'm so sad, I'm really sad. Oh, I'm sorry, but oh, one more thing about Shapiro. So I'm on a Facebook group called Jewish Women for Kamala. Okay, and there are tons of us I mean, I think there's something like 20,000 of us on that Facebook group Nice, yeah, and almost uniformly, it was like Waltz is the best, walls is the best choice. And quite a number of us are going like we don't need to invite the anti-Semitism, even though it would have been great to have him in there. It would have been dicey, I would have been tense for the next several months, so, but I think that people are like oh, you know, Jews are really unhappy because Shapiro's not. No, they picked walls. Because Shapiro's not. No, they did, they picked, they pick walls. Because Shapiro's Jewish. No, no, no. What I, what I understood? And and Phil told me this, I don't know where I think he read it on Politico that actually in the end Shapiro wasn't 100 percent sure he wanted the job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean he did come out and say that. That as well, which I don't know. The cynical part of me was like is that just saving face?
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no. I don't think so. Um, because I think that what happens if you're vice president after that? Right, you know? I mean, this is an unusual case where you have a vice president who's actually but I think usually vice president goes nowhere and most of them run for president.
Speaker 2:They just don't always get in the office and if Kamala loses?
Speaker 1:hopefully not, but nobody remembers the vice presidential candidate. So I think he's thinking long term of his own ambition. Walls has no ambition past this, he says, although his coming out, you know, as a really viable candidate was more calculated than people think. I've been reading today. I think there's a story in the New York Times, either in the Times or the Washington Post, I think it was the Times. I saw it as well. Okay, where it was actually a you know sort of how do we, you know, how do I increase my profile here?
Speaker 1:So that was more, but he's a politician, so what do you want, you know? So JD Vance has been promoting a very interesting line of attack against walls. Have you seen that?
Speaker 2:Tell me cause.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure, probably, but so he's dissing walls is service record.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, which is crazy, cause walls is record is a lot longer than advances. But saying that he got out when he got out to avoid serving it's not true no, it's not, and it's easily debunked, but easily debunked.
Speaker 1:I mean, apparently he was having really bad hearing problems as well and they wanted to get rid of him before and he signed up for another tour and he had been talking about retirement months before his group was being deployed to iraq, so it's not like it was a sudden. Yeah and then they're saying oh, you know, stolen valor, he wasn't a command master sergeant, actually he was. He just didn't finish the training needed during that time to retire as one at that pension.
Speaker 2:So I mean really that approach is nothing new on the Trump ticket, though. Look at all the stuff he said about John McCain being a loser for being captured and dissing Gold Star families and all of that that's what they do.
Speaker 1:And, yes, you know, and JD Vance deployed, and you know. Thank you for your service. You know, mr Senator Vance, but I mean he spent six months as a public affairs guy in a nice, safe, secure office, yeah, Really, and he was a corporal and he left as a corporal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's dumb, but it did occur to me because you mentioned that you don't remember past vice presidents. I do happen to remember our vice presidential candidate in 2016 that lost. That was Hillary's running mate. That lost that was Hillary's running mate. And it occurred to me that we are once again putting up against Trump a female candidate for president who worked closely with a former president being in the White House, both trained, having a background in legal stuff, law law things and another white safe VP pick named Tim. So I think we're setting up to repeat 2016. I know, but you could draw those parallels very easily. It's almost like let's try it again, but black this time.
Speaker 1:So I think that Walls is far, far more talented a politician than Cain, all right.
Speaker 2:The comparisons are superficial. Yes, they are. I don't really believe it's, and I like Hillary and I like Kamala, so I'm not dissing either one in any actual way.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, I know. So let's talk. What do we do next? Oh my gosh, let's talk about the Olympics, Okay no. Before we talk about the Olympics, let's talk about the Olympics, Okay no before we talk about the Olympics, let's talk about where is. Trump. What do you mean? Where is he? Where is he? He's not on the campaign trail.
Speaker 2:I mean, he's campaigned this week. I don't know, though. You know he hasn't done as much, has he? No, he wasn't at the rally that JD Vance held for Kamala.
Speaker 1:No, I mean so. Jd's been going out on the stump gathering four people at every you know rally. He's doing the Twitter rants.
Speaker 2:Did you see? I don't follow him on Twitter because I'm not on Twitter anymore, but my brother is and sends me things from Twitter, and one of the things Trump posted this week was just mind-blowing to me, or at least it tells you how desperate he's getting. Let me see I can find it. There we go. He wrote on August 6th what are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the US?
Speaker 2:his presidency was unconfidentially stolen from him by comma. Blah Barack Hussein Obama, crazy Nancy Pelosi, shifty Adam Schiff crying, chuck Schumer and the others on the loon take left crashes. The Democratic National Convention tries to take back the nomination, beginning with challenging me to another debate. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the presidency, a coup to the people in the world he hates most and wants it back now.
Speaker 1:I mean I was emphasizing so that was Trump, not Vance.
Speaker 2:That was Trump.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's what they're campaigning.
Speaker 2:That was just. I feel like that's just showing you how desperate he's getting and how far he's melting down.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, my gosh. Yeah, he's like crying. You know it's. He's like the dog that caught the car. It's like now. What do I do with it?
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah, yeah or it right, yeah, um, yeah, or the, or the dog that caught the bear.
Speaker 1:Oh, did I make a reference to rfk jr? Did you the bear, not the bear the bear tv show, which we're still watching. I love the bear. I do too. Phil doesn't like it as much this year. Yeah, but we're about halfway through the season, so we're watching it a little bit at a time, not binging it.
Speaker 2:I'm just halfway through season two, so I haven't watched the season at all.
Speaker 1:Oh, season two, but we are actively watching season two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we just watched the Family Dinner last week.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was amazing.
Speaker 2:I think that episode may convince my wife to stop watching, but she was too stressed out by it. But I enjoyed it very much.
Speaker 1:It was really good. Season two was amazing. Season three is a little bit more navel-gazing, but I'm not writing TV criticism anymore, so I've got too much other stuff to do, way too much other stuff to do, so let's segue. I know this is kind of out of order, but RFK Jr and the bear.
Speaker 2:So RFK Jr's, his campaign is tanking big time do you read about the bear oh, but he dropped off in central park, yeah and the picture I saw him I saw the clip of him telling roseanne barr the story I know and even she was looking at him like he was insane. He is I think the worm in his head and he says he's not anti-vax, but he's super anti-vax the whole story.
Speaker 1:That's how the worm got in his head, because he ate the bear well, he didn't eat the bear he dropped off in central park.
Speaker 2:No, but he's probably in other bears he's got other wildlife in his. He said he has other wildlife in his refrigerator and his freezer that's where he was gonna put the bear, but then he had to go to a steakhouse, so he's like hannibal lecter for bears and wildlife he is negotiating with the trump team, apparently to be secretary of health and human services. Oh my god.
Speaker 2:So that's what we could look forward to with the trump presidency, oh my god well I would, would rather he go ahead and throw his support behind trump than continue running as a third party candidate. You know what?
Speaker 1:Right now he is a non-issue. He's right now taking more votes away from Trump than he is away from Kamala.
Speaker 2:He is, but it's not a non-issue right.
Speaker 1:But you know what On the poll trackers? He's not even registering anymore. Yeah, like 1%, 2%. So let him stay in. I don't think he's taking anything away from and and and Cornell West is like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unfortunately, I like Cornell West. But yeah, it's, if we want to make a third party actually make a difference in this country, and I think we could very much use a third party.
Speaker 1:And I think it'll happen actually if Trump loses.
Speaker 2:I hope so. Split the Republicans into sane people and maggots.
Speaker 1:Yes, wait, wait. Did you say split the sane Republicans and the maggots? Oh, the maggots, oh maggots, Same thing.
Speaker 2:But you know that's me. Some of them are. It's just if you want to make a third party build up power, you need to start at a local or state level. Try to get a key Senate seat in a certain state could really give you a lot of influence. Going for the presidency is just not going to happen. All you're going to do is disrupt the election, and I agree we shouldn't be stuck with two party system. That we're stuck with, but we are so stop.
Speaker 1:I mean there have been effective third party candidates from time to time. I actually voted for one, 1980,. I voted for John Anderson.
Speaker 2:Some of them come to raise the profile of an issue or something which is a worthy cause I did not like Ronald Reagan at all, and now I realize well, I mean Illinois.
Speaker 1:It didn't matter anyway.
Speaker 2:Did any of it matter. He won pretty big, did he? At least the second time he did he did, he did, he did, he did.
Speaker 1:And, to be honest, I mean John Anderson was better than Carter and he was better than Reagan, and I really liked him. He was also from Illinois, nice, so I mean there have been third party. And then what's his face with the ears?
Speaker 2:Ross Perot. Thank you, ross Perot perot. Yeah, my parents were so mad at him for tossing the election to clinton.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh well oh well, good for him. He's a non-entity now, anyway, but let's, okay, so let's. Let's go to the olymp, enough of RFK Jr, okay. By the way, speaking of that era, today is the 50th anniversary of what?
Speaker 2:Trivia question. That would be 1974. Helicopter. I don't know what was going on in 1974. What Nine years ago? I said I don't know what was going on in 1974. What Nine years?
Speaker 1:I said I don't know what was going on in 1974 right now, so August 1974, nixon made his resignation speech to the nation from the Oval, really, yeah, interesting yeah george, I don't think biden's gonna repeat, but he hasn't committed. No, no, you know biden's doing all right, but biden's actually let him serve out his term and he's doing really well.
Speaker 2:I mean, he's actually he's done some good things and you know let that prisoner swap, yeah oh my god, that prisoner swap yeah, I mean, I gives me even more respect for the man. He completed negotiations on that and then an hour later he drops out of the election and it's like you could from his mind. He's about to announce he did something really awesome and really complicated and worked really hard and he's going out of his way to give kamala credit on helping, and I I have no doubt she did. I have no doubt, but a lot of people would take the credit for themselves and he genuinely wants to help her win and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right. Well, that's. I think that's part of part of why. One of the reasons why it's not an effective presidential candidate this time around is he's too humble. Yeah, and you can't be too humble, not in this day and age. So let's talk about the Olympics. Okay, beginning to draw to a close. Yes, I believe so. I haven't watched much at all.
Speaker 2:No I haven't either.
Speaker 1:I've seen clips and cuts and stuff.
Speaker 1:I feel so bad and this had never been an issue before with this um algerian boxer yeah so there are conditions where a female has both x and y chromosomes, like the xxy right, right, um, and that actually leads me back to something that walls did as well, by the way. Okay, um, it remind me when we're done. Talking about the Olympics, um, I think the heat that she's taken and the Olympic committee has taken has been unconscionable and the Olympic Committee has taken has been unconscionable. This poor woman who comes from a country where LGBTQ anything is illegal and where I fear for her life when she goes back to her country and it's not coming from anywhere but this country- yeah.
Speaker 1:And it kind of solidifies my feeling of the Magas as being like a crowd of Yellow Jackets swarming in on their prey and just stinging relentlessly just without regard to person and individual, the lack of respect and the cruelty.
Speaker 2:The currency is the point on their side. Right, it's just it's. It's inhumane, it's unconscionable. It bothers me a lot that they have the olympic committee has to come out and say she is a woman, she was born a woman, she's always been a woman, because I believe that shouldn't matter. She's a woman because she's a woman, whether she was born that way or not.
Speaker 2:But of course I understand why they're defending it in this manner, because that is all true and that is the most direct response without having for them to wade into the politics of it. Right, right.
Speaker 1:Right, of course, to the MAGAs, it's all about the politics of it. To the MAGAs.
Speaker 2:It's all a conspiracy and they're lying anyway, and they'll never be satisfied with any denial or proof because they're still waiting for Obama's birth certificates.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that leads me to with Walls is you've heard the story of, you know he was a social studies teacher and a kid comes to him and back in those days being out, and especially being out in rural Minnesota, would have been horrific. Would have been horrific and said is there something that somebody can do? Because we'd like to start a gay-straight alliance in this school. And Walls took it upon himself. Why? Because he was military, he was the football coach and it had to be him. Because it would be authentic, right, and he believed it. It wasn't like he was being political. That's what he believed and he did it. And probably I cannot even imagine how many lives he saved Of kids who may have committed suicide.
Speaker 1:I really love the more I hear them, and if that had come from anybody else, like on the liberal, on liberal, progressive, democratic side, it would have seemed inauthentic, right. So I mean, I'm a big. I have a real soft spot for all those movies like Friday Night Lights and Stand by Me or Stand by Me, stand by Me. There was one with oh my gosh, the guy who played Adama in Edward James Olmos Thank you With him. And there was one that Morgan Freeman was the star of Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I can't remember. They filmed that one in Columbus, Did they really? At a high school that's now a science museum right on the river yeah.
Speaker 1:So my neighborhood was famous for filming Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off Nice, right across the street from where we were living in Highland Park, illinois, one of the wealthiest communities in the entire Midwest, if not the country, except maybe in California or New York, anyway, but cool. So I mean I'm such a sucker for those movies. I'll watch them over and over and over and over and over again. And the movie about the debate team with Denzel Washington, I mean that's another one.
Speaker 1:I'm such a softie for I love movies like that because they talk. It's like also I love Mr Smith Goes to Washington for the same reason. Right goes to Washington for the same reason. Right it's that underdog, that poor, dirt, poor people who rise above it to greatness, and I think that's Walls' story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think Mr Holland's opus is one of my favorites in that genre.
Speaker 1:It's good, that's good, but yes uh, as somebody loves music.
Speaker 2:But, yes, I, I agree with you. He's just, he's so relatable and inspiring and, yes, yeah, his values are in the right place for most americans, I think so what else about?
Speaker 2:oh, you have to talk about um scythe, the scythe trilogy, yeah so there's a quote that's been going around from the scythe trilogy um, I've seen posts on social a lot this week and that's what brought it to my mind, uh, and the quote reads there's a fine line between freedom and permission. The former is necessary, the latter is dangerous. A self-important dictator gives permission for his subjects to blame the world's ills on those least able to defend themselves. A haughty queen gives permission to slaughter in the name of god. An arrogant head of state gives permission to all nature of hate, as long as and what this trilogy is about is a world where we've defeated death, nobody dies of natural causes. You can reset your age anytime you feel like it. If you die in a car wreck or something, the drones will come and pick up your body and use nanobots and stuff to rebuild you and you'll just wake back up in the hospital in a few days. It's expensive, but you know that you do it. And because to control overpopulation, since nobody dies anymore, naturally they put an order of sites out and these people wear robes and they go around and they murder a certain number of people a year and they're supposed to keep the metrics the age, race, gender, all of that consistent with how it was before and society is actually run by an AI. So it's all super peace under this one powerful AI, but the sites are disconnected from the AI and AI does not control the sites and the sites can't access the AI. Where the rest of society is run by this AI and what you see in the order of the sites over the trilogy is corruption forming among a group that has power. But the AI has its plans and has its visions, and so it's a perspective. The perspective of the story is two young sites that joined the order, but it's a. It's a really cool, really interesting story. And I love Harry Potter, I love the hunger games.
Speaker 2:But if you read those books, each one kind of follows a pattern where they're almost the same story over again, just with raised stakes. These three books are completely different and in their telling and how they play out, and it's just, and all the sites are named after famous people. So there's Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curry and Scythe and I love that aspect of it as well Cool, but it's just a really neat trilogy. And then there's a fourth book that are short stories set in the universe, some written by the author, some not, that fill in backstories of sites. They're also look to the future of after the series and it's been way. I've been waiting for the movie adaptation. I know they've made deals and they've had people working on scripts and nothing's come of it, but it's so good and everybody should read it. It's built as young adult. It doesn't read like young adult, it's yeah, A lot of young adult books.
Speaker 1:Are you know for anyone for sure? For sure, yeah, so definitely check it out.
Speaker 2:It's got a lot to say about freedom and control of state and AI and all of those things that are super relevant right now. Cool.
Speaker 1:So the last thing I want to talk about, because we only have a few more minutes, is the congressional primaries. Yeah, jamal Bowman lost his recently Cori.
Speaker 2:Bush lost hers last Tuesday night.
Speaker 1:So we may differ on opinions on this. I am Not a huge fan of Cori Bush. I'm really happy to see her go. She's an ill-informed anti-Semite. Yeah, her feelings about Israel notwithstanding. Right, I'm opposed to what Israel is doing. I'm opposed to what Netanyahu is doing. I hate the fact that AIPAC puts its nose in political campaigns. She needed to go. She is a full-blown anti-Semite, not an anti-Zionist and anti-Semite.
Speaker 2:I actually don't know much about her other than that she's a member of the squad, so I can't speak in her defense or against her. But what I took out of that news story was is the Democratic Party shifting more moderate and I think a lot of people were trying to do takes on that, like, if the squad's losing their seats, is that equivalent to like far right people losing their seats? Is the Democratic Party tacking to the middle? Anti-semite does not belong in any office at all or any place with power and there's, there's more than enough in the Republican Party.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:God yes.
Speaker 1:We don't need an arm.
Speaker 2:Good on the Democrats for kicking out theirs.
Speaker 1:Exactly Tommy Tuberville. You know he's not going to lose his seat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mendez just got kicked out after being convicted of corruption stuff.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean we get rid of our guys that are bad even when they shouldn't be. Like Al Franken, he should never have been.
Speaker 2:No, that was, that was bull. He should come back. But yeah, we get rid of ours and they nominate theirs for president. That's the difference.
Speaker 1:That is the difference. That is the difference, and you know so.
Speaker 2:So, I guess, is it your opinion that Cori Bush is not out because she's liberal, but she's out because she's hateful and doesn't deserve to be in power. She's hateful.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think she's out because she's liberal. I think she's out because she's hateful. I wouldn't have voted for her and in our primary in Pennsylvania, in my congressional district, which is represented by Summer Lee, I voted for her opponent. She won handily and I didn't even like her opponent all that much. I just think she's closed-eared Again.
Speaker 1:She represents a large portion of her congressional district is the same neighborhood where the tree of life massacre happened and she's got her you know fingers in her ears about that and doesn't really care if what she says brings on vandalism and worse. Which is happening in the neighborhood about. We live just outside that area, but what's happening in that area is just the vandalism and threats are just horrible. Can we fly, but so? But people like AOC Isn't under threat. She's part of the left and she's not as far to the left as Bernie is, but she's pretty far to the left. But she's not an anti-Semite. She's got her opinions on Israel. Good, everybody should have their opinions on Israel. I don't agree with all of them and that's what I like about the Democratic Party. You don't have to be beholden to one point of view.
Speaker 2:But you can't be an anti-Semite.
Speaker 1:We're not a cult. We're not a cult. So I actually like AOC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do too. I know a lot more about her than any other member of the squad.
Speaker 1:And she's, you know, and she's come out against this anti-Semitic stuff that's been happening. And again, she represents a good portion of her district is Jewish, just like Summer Lee's, and so she, I like her, I like her a lot, I just don't like ignorance, yeah, and that's really what it is. And so I'm happy to see cory bush go, just as much as I was happy to see carrie lake go I.
Speaker 2:she definitely needed to. I I would love to see my congressional representative go because I, after my last move a couple years ago, I happen to live in j Jordan's district, unfortunately, I know it hurts me so much.
Speaker 1:Jim G-Y-M, jim Jordan G-Y-M.
Speaker 2:Oh God, I mean my wife works for OSU, so all kinds of connections.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:He likes working for OSU. But yeah, what they did with covering up for him.
Speaker 1:He's sleazy. I mean he's like car sales used car salesman sleazy.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm hoping we get this latest anti-gerrymandering law passed that we're going to vote for in November, because the district I live in is super gerrymandered and that's how we are roped into his district because, you know, divide up all the people that might vote liberal in the little pockets around the city. But we passed, we passed. We all showed up and voted to pass an anti-gerrymandering bill four years ago and the Republicans because we have a super majority, because they've gerrymandered the state said nah, we're good, we don't have to follow the law. And the Ohio Supreme Court tossed out their maps over and over again and they said, okay, fine, but now it's an election, so our maps stand. And then they forced the head of the Supreme Court to retire because we have age limits on our Supreme Court, and so she's been the one behind this campaign to and she's a Republican, but she's been the one behind this campaign to anti-gerrymander again because they've gone so far crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, this is going to happen to. What happened to Wisconsin is going to happen to them. And now Wisconsin has a liberal Supreme Court.
Speaker 2:Well, we, yeah, I mean, this is definitely a red state now.
Speaker 1:So Wisconsin had a very red Supreme Court and they said, yeah, we're not doing that anymore. And final word is the so the Cook Report has now made. I think it was three states Nevada, georgia, the Sun Belt, Huh, the Sun Belt, nevada, georgia, arizona, arizona have now all become toss-ups. Yes, I'm a lean Republican, so that is amazing.
Speaker 2:I think if we get all three of those, we don't have to count on Pennsylvania. We'll get Pennsylvania, hopefully, because everybody's talking about that is the state you have to get, but I think if we get all three of the Sunbelts, we don't need Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:We'll get Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:I mean, I want extra states. I don't want to just barely win.
Speaker 1:We'll get Pennsylvania. Josh will make sure of it.
Speaker 2:I hope so. I can't wait to get my yard signs. I don't have any up yet?
Speaker 1:No, I don't have any yet either.
Speaker 2:I've had yard signs plenty of times. I need to get some.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean you know Walls was just named right. But I have to have my Harris Casey, bob Casey Estowin sent him back to Congress, sent him back to the Senate. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting three months. I actually have already put in to take off election day from school.
Speaker 2:Nice. I have tended to take the day after election day off after 2016. And I went to work and it was so awful. I just preemptively take the day after off. I might take both days off.
Speaker 1:I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's nothing I can do on election day anyway. The returns don't come in until after work.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to work at the polls.
Speaker 2:There you go. Well, that's a good reason to take it off, then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I used to be an election judge in Illinois, so, all right, I'm going to stop our recording.
