The M3 Bearcast from Male Media Mind
The M3 Bearcast from Male Media Mind
Economic Theories and Political Ideologies w/ Greg
Embark on a journey through the entangled realm of economic theories and political ideologies with Malcolm Travers and co-host Greg. This week's episode peels back layers of complexity, revealing hidden connections between libertarian and progressive beliefs and their surprising influence over party lines. As we critique the impact of tax policies on the national debt and probe the murkiness of political allegiance, I unfold my own political metamorphosis, highlighting the importance of recognizing the fluid nature of public opinion towards public funding and institutions.
Strap in for a candid discourse on the shifting landscape of presidential approval ratings, and how factors like media representation have remolded voter perceptions in the post-Obama era. We challenge the libertarian view on property taxes and cast a critical eye on whether Republican tax strategies truly serve the common good. Meanwhile, we confront common misconceptions about debt and deficits, contrasting economic models and dissecting the lessons from the 2008 financial crisis to underscore the intricate balance of debt within our economy.
Our conversation takes a profound turn as we delve into the intersection of race, wealth, and privilege, especially within the black community. Unpacking the historical and ongoing challenges facing the pursuit of economic stability, we examine the residual effects of discriminatory lending practices and the crack epidemic on generational wealth. The dialogue evolves to encompass the implications of systemic stress on health and the government's response to housing and poverty across different racial groups. Tune in for a compelling exploration of these pressing issues, rooted in personal anecdotes and a resolute quest for understanding and transformative change.
Hello and welcome to the M3 Bearcast. My name is Malcolm Travers. Mail Media Mind is a grassroots organization dedicated to uplifting and unifying our community through dialogue, insight, creativity and knowledge, and every Monday I tried to drag Greg along to help record an episode of the M3 Bearcast. I published those on all of the podcasters, like Apple Podcasts, spotify, google, wherever those are.
Speaker 2:No, no, did you see? I have two new places that I streamed to.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, I did not know so no, I'll send you.
Speaker 2:I'll get swag to send you over to that Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so no everybody to hear your good stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, this is a thing we're always doing live streams. We're just talking about maybe changing up our schedule. I guess we'll let you know about that. But you know, I do a live stream every Wednesday at 7pm and this podcast actually sometimes serves as a testing ground for some of the topics, because on the live stream, it's much more about electing the opinions of other people or diverse backgrounds and experiences and the panel is great for that, as well as the audience. But this one is more about expressing our voice of view rather than collecting some, because this is one topic that I am continuing from.
Speaker 1:Last week we did one on politics and I talked about how I withdrew a lot after Trump won, mainly because of how it affected my relationships amongst people, and I got into a lot of conversations about politics and ideas and values that I just didn't know that people held. So I think on this episode, I actually want to talk a little bit about the economy and just talk about some of the values that surround economic theories and how they align with the left or the right or Democrats or Republicans, because I think there's a lot of weird overlap, because I would say, first of all, I think a lot of people just misunderstand libertarian versus progressive politics. That's typically the angle at which economic decisions divided, and so libertarians tend to be more Republican while progressives tend to be more Democratic. However, there are progressive Republicans and there are libertarian Democrats, which is so confusing. It is so confusing, so we're going to talk a little bit about that. We got Greg here. What's going on?
Speaker 2:I have a speech, it's just going to Greg, no, because that's interesting that you said that, because so, generally speaking, you can catch me on Saturdays on the same network, m3, from 12 to 130 for the moment. But, interesting enough, I like to super prepare for my shows if I'm sitting in for you, but when we do Mondays and record your podcast, I just want to get it the topic right before. And what was so? Because I want my idea about whatever I have to say to be fresh. But what was so interesting was I was already thinking about it. I had read articles and preparing. They say great minds thinking like so I'm preparing for my own podcast, the G-Spot, with him and Gregory, the Townsend Street, wherever you find your wonderful podcast streaming all over the place. So in preparing for that, we kind of cross section with this. And so what you said is very true.
Speaker 2:And the thing that I realized is that I am way more conservative than I care to admit. That's because of what I do for a living and just how I was raised and things like that. I became a little more democratic as I got older and I didn't want the world to suffer. But in the midst of my earlier working years I was like, yeah, let them eat cake. But what you were saying about, yeah, the intersection is generally taxes and taxation. And how are we? Because, regardless of who you are, nobody thinks tax cuts work, and it's interesting that one of the major parties still thinks that is a selling point. Nobody has ever felt economic gain from a tax cut and they don't realize that I'm sick of talking about this particular party. So they don't realize that this is going to be the abortion and this is going to be the hill they're going to die on, because America is starting to wake up to the fact that. And then, guys, if you did not know, tax cuts is the thing that raises the debt ceiling. It raises the debt.
Speaker 1:It raises the debt because you don't have enough money to pay for the programs that you've already committed to. And that's actually the point, and this is the merit-nating of the libertarian ideas versus the conservative ideas, which I would say. Libertarians can be democratic as well. They can be socially liberal and still want to cut taxes on that regard or to have minimized government. It's rare, but it happens.
Speaker 2:I was about to say give me one example.
Speaker 1:It's very rare. But what I would say on the conservative side, however, is that was where the marriage between these libertarian ideas and conservative ideology came together, mainly due to the fact that with more social, progressive things, women, people of color, had more advantages in society. They wanted to pay for it less, and this was one of the ideas that I think one of these liberal think tanks put out in a book called the Sum of Us. We were just saying, like, when you see the levels of investment in public utilities, public universities, public schools, once they became integrated, public support and funding dried the fuck up. And it wasn't necessarily like this concerted effort. It was on some people's parts where a lot of people is just public sentiment change. They're values change. People used to be very proud of public institutions like public universities that basically allow people to attend at cost, where you paid for your amenities and for the most part, people's tuition was subsidized three to four times what it is now.
Speaker 2:Correct. Remember when you weren't in undergrad, back in Jesus' day, you were the thing called the Pell Grant, and this was interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were just recently talking about. The Pell Grant was a way to try to get the federal government to invest more in public education. What happened, ironically, was that they just expanded tuition to meet the grants, Like it didn't actually cut down on the overall cost of college.
Speaker 2:This is my friend. This is Richard, so I was fortunate enough to go to a public black HBCU In 1991, when I started my undergraduate studies, I was a mere baby of 18. A semester at the great Norfolk State University was a whopping $785 a semester. Yeah, I've spent that on sneakers now, but yeah, I have a question.
Speaker 1:You know what the average is now, though.
Speaker 2:Average university $50,000 a semester, $50,000 a year? Yeah, now, the Jack's position of this is 2003 or 04, when I entered my graduate studies at a public PWI. Now, mind you, this was not even a decade, maybe a little over a decade. It went from $785 a semester at the public HBCU to $2,800 a semester at this semi public PWI, in the same state, in the same state. Michael, the question I have for you where is your intersection of conservative and that's a good question.
Speaker 1:See, for me, I'm actually much more on the liberal, progressive side of economic politics and much more socially liberal. I admire the way that capitalism has found a balance between democracy and public. The public use of goods, I think, is much better than I guess I'd say that reverse way. The private ownership of capital, is probably for the best. I definitely don't believe in communism. I do believe in the idea that public goods should be owned by the public, because if the government were Even if it were a democratic government the consolidation of economic power to the government is probably dangerous for the very idea that we can elect someone like Trump or someone worse.
Speaker 1:They take control of that to a degree that we would definitely be in trouble. At the same time, I also believe that private industries can be as much a vector of oppression as any government. I think we see this over and over again. We have to protect ourselves from any consolidation of power whatever means possible. I think that is where elections come in. That's why that's important. I think it's also important to be educated on how economics and capital works in general.
Speaker 1:When we talk about the economy changing and the numbers and how that influences politics, I think most people just don't even understand that. They just understand how it feels for themselves. Then they also compare themselves to the people around them. While the news does play a big role in that when we talked about how the news will play up about tragedy and trauma and bad news because it's just more entertaining also means that there's a certain expectation that they know their audience has. I think with social media you can see how, when people are both consumers and producers of media, that it's not centrally planned. It's just part of this feedback loop that we have with each other. For one of the things, I think on TikTok and most social media you can see these receipt posts where people are gobsmacked because they had to pay $50 for a burger. I had to pay $30 for eggs. People love those posts, even when they're like Wait an ace shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, a lot of times it's some. I saw this one. It was a father who was feeding his three children and they ordered four meals from Taco Bell and it cost him $50. I had to pay $50 for Taco Bell.
Speaker 2:Four meals from Taco Bell.
Speaker 1:That's the thing we found out later, when someone broke it down and hauled them out, was that he bought all the individual items. He said if you had just bought the box, oh, he didn't buy the family plan.
Speaker 2:He didn't buy the family plan. He didn't buy it because they had the $5 boxes.
Speaker 1:He could have bought four of those boxes for $20 and got himself something extra. You just paid twice as much for half the food. I don't know what you do. That just shows you're stupid. Of course things cost more.
Speaker 1:One of the things they mentioned in the article in the New York Times was that I think you mentioned how things are going to change toward the election when interest rates come down. We're expecting maybe two to three interest rates lowering before the election. All of those will have real-world consequences on people who are buying cars or houses. Housing will probably become more affordable before the end of the year, which is one of the biggest stressors right now. But does that get accrued to the president?
Speaker 1:And they were saying like because they've seen this decoupling of since Obama. They've seen a divergence from the presidential approval rating and the economic situation Like it used to be tied together. They used to be marinated in the days of Bush and Clinton. But something happened with Obama and I think it's something about let right-wing propaganda and a lot more tribalism, like the fact that we had a first black president literally made the white supremacists lose their minds. They didn't care that the economy was booming after Obama. They just didn't care. And the same could be said of Trump. Democrats gave shit, gave a shit. Fuck that the economy was great under Trump. Fuck it. They did not care. Fuck Trump.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the question I am, first of all, those of us who are running around with our hair on fire about the election. We're not as a? Okay, I am a news junkie, hence the black news Saturday 12 pm. You said that you like that, so I'm a news junkie. I think we consume weight because we basically we do this for living, so we consume way more stuff. But the average American, I'm telling you all right now, please put some bacon salt on your hair.
Speaker 1:The average.
Speaker 2:American will not tune into politics as we know it until something major happens, and or September. Let's talk to a friend of mine who is a well-known African-American pollster. Yes, and so I have, because I wake up with the same blah blahs as everybody else. I'm like what the fuck is happening here? So he was like and then he actually sent me the data. He was like check the data from 2020. And I said okay, he said they had.
Speaker 2:Trump was up by 17 points in February. He wasn't facing charges, he wasn't doing anything, it was just the Russia thing. It was Russia and he flubbed the response to COVID and all this other stuff. And so he was like and Joe basically came back and basically what is a modern day landslide? What it was. But I tell you this, I tell you this Malcolm, your host.
Speaker 2:This often scares me because I forget what I know. He was injecting little comments and I'm like no, but then I think about it and I get afraid, like most people. But we were having a conversation before we started the show that, interestingly enough, what happens is I think it's the media's fault. I think what they do, I honestly think they scare us into voting it's. Trump is a bookie man Trump sells a lot of, as a lot of media slots for them.
Speaker 2:Okay, and it's the thing that I too, and I should know better. But I too get scared. I too have a family. I too worry about taterships and I'm worried about, well, my nieces and my grandchildren have access to abortion, because I think so. Here's my other thing. We thought in the last election it don't matter. But yeah, you know what I mean. No, it matters. It matters because women are the plurality of our population and so, and as much as we don't want to admit it, we care about our democracy. The most of Americans believe that January, that white Juneteenth, happened. I love saying it, I love white Juneteenth. I think that's a well, I think that's a.
Speaker 1:One of the things I was thinking about is there is a libertarian argument to be made for even liberal minded people and cause. The thing is, I do value some of the core ideas of libertarianism, but I think it just goes too far when you take it with conservative, republican ideas. But I'll give you an example. I posted this video in the VIP group that's just very outraged by how taxation works in our country. Explain to me why I have to pay taxes on shit that I already paid taxes on. It sounds almost like a conservative argument against taxes, but the thing is that it's kind of true and the point that the video is making is that so you don't really own anything because if you don't pay the taxes on it, we're just gonna take it from you. You're borrowing this shit. We give you the illusion and every aspect.
Speaker 2:Every aspect, cause we're like, even though when you as a consumer, when we consume things you pay taxes on and you cannot take it out of the store until you pay taxes on it. Even with food, when you pull up the drive-through, you can't eat until you pay taxes on it. Food is and this is the thing with me, food is high because you pay taxes on it.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. There's that idea that the Republicans have co-opted about taxes being no. We're gonna cut taxes and of course they'll give middle-class tax cuts to a certain degree, but since rich people pay the most taxes, they're gonna cut theirs. Not only that, they actually believe that's gonna help. So it's never a progressive tax cut where, like most of the middle class and poor people have no taxes and rich people are paying most, if not all, of the bills.
Speaker 2:It's just the opposite. So the basic tenets of accounting is in order to be in the black, you have to take more money in until you pay out it is. I don't know what this kabuki-ass math is that they are using basic tenets and the basic thing it's actually.
Speaker 1:You have to. That's actually not true, and I actually put a video about this. No, I put a video about this in the group.
Speaker 2:They're all, I do not disagree with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I know you do, but the point is that there is a great argument about what you're saying and I think a lot of economists have found those arguments to just be invalid, especially because of the 2008 financial crisis. Like all, of their models did not predict the crisis, when other alternative ideas that have not been what they call the neoclassical model saw it coming from a model way especially when they started thinking about debt dynamics.
Speaker 1:Now here's the major thing Get what you're saying about debt and how simple it is for individuals that you should be in the black all the time. That isn't true of nations and of larger institutions. In fact, all of corporations and all of companies thrive on debt. They need to be in debt in a certain way and because it creates a certain amount of inherit dependence between nations. So okay, it's literally the foundation of liberal democracies that we are indebted to one another.
Speaker 2:So what you're describing is what we call in the county's brackets. You put it in brackets. There is a subset of profit to be made in buying and selling debt. There is and I agree with that, that is capitalism and its fires. That is, let's say, hold on a second. Let me give you, let me just give the world a prime example real quick, I won't be long.
Speaker 2:So let's say, you owe a cable bill, okay, and you just fuck it. I'm not going to pay these niggas, these nuts or whatever. You know, I'm keeping the cable box down. I need the modem. Oh, whatever it is, you know what I'm saying. But that modem now costs you $1,100. This is a real scenario because it happened to my sister. She was like I thought I bought the modem over such, a, such a time period. No, honey, that always belonged to the big cable company, okay, and so, and now they have me in collections, and so now they sold her debt for pennies on the dollar to Momo and Jojo over here. So now Momo and Jojo is going to try to get maximum dollar when you can actually go and negotiate with them.
Speaker 2:Now, how it works on a grander scale, I don't care what kind of kabuki ass, matthew use. If we don't take in more money as a nation Now, we do buy and sell debt. We trade debt with other nations and it depends on where you stand politically and how you feel about that. I, that's not what I'm getting into. I'm just saying the nuts and bolts of brackets and city ledgers and guest ledgers and minuses and pluses, that when one party just simply I would really like to cut these taxes, I would give these tax cuts to the people that were supposed to be paying the most taxes, but they're all at the same time they give them loopholes not to pay said taxes. So then you end up 20 and 30% short of your negative goal, and then the debt goes up and then we have to borrow money. So it's a vicious cycle. So in the but what we disagree with this? What?
Speaker 2:you said with the argument is yes, it's true on a level. Everything is true, everything has its place in a level. We can buy and sell debt. People become very rich. You know I was thinking about doing it at one point, but the debt costs different things. You know what I mean. And then I don't know. They can put the person. The last person on totem pole is going to get the shitty end of the stick. Okay, who you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because the debt's going to get in there.
Speaker 1:I think the major thing is is that there you write about this one thing debt and capital in general, especially the way that we do it, is just a estimation of the value by which it's done at a particular time, and it starts to get incredibly esoteric the more you buy and sell debt and how you determine ownership here and there, because I remember it's really weird to say that for instance, an international company. It's really funny how people really care about borders when people are crossing it. They don't. They don't care about borders when it's the money that should be taxed. Like you're literally scapegoating the country, you're literally conning the government from collecting the money that it's due and you're okay with that criminal act. But you're somehow enraged that people who could barely eat, who were running from oppressive governments, try to go to the richest country on earth, which is natural. The reason we have an immigration problem is because we're fucking. You created this super-juiced economy where the wealthy just continuously accumulate wealth. They want some of the little trimmings that are falling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just the juice from the burger. They don't even want the burger.
Speaker 1:They're just looking for the little trimmings. They want burger, they're falling off of your feasting off of capital.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we are so and it goes. So think of Malcolm. So and the people. I was like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da when Thwag and I were really laughing about this because I really want to play Station 5 so bad, and I still do. But I know me. Even my therapist is like Greg, you should get one, it's gonna relax you, and I'm just like so. But I really know what's gonna happen. I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna play it five or six times or two or three times, and no guarantee.
Speaker 2:And I'm gonna be like, yeah, yeah, it's gonna go in the heap of electronic shit that the most thing I use is in this room that I bought at my turn table. I love it, I love to speak, yeah, Okay. So we are a nation of consumers. We all have $1,000 phones in our pocket.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We have great computers. Look at you, you're shining because your computer's great, my computer's great. We have I have a laptop upstairs. I have flat screen TVs on the wall. I live in 4,000 square feet. Do you have any? Mexican families can live in 4,000 square feet. There will be eight families in the garage alone.
Speaker 2:And I said this to say and I'm traveling abroad we are the land of excess, we are the land of too much, and we spend our lives acquiring too much and then figuring how to pay for it. And we as a nation have adopted this principle. We need these things. We need 30,000 nuclear warheads. We just don't need 10. 10 is not a deterrent. We wanna blow up the whole world, and we're not thinking about continental drift and that the wind's gonna drift it back this way. We just want the motherfuckers to be gone. And so when we're not thinking about, we worry about our food. We want impossible meat. We wanna raise cows that we made in a laboratory. It's just excess. We wanna go on Amazon, and then I'm gonna make this point we wanna go on.
Speaker 2:Amazon, bro, and push a button, and if that shit and hearing an hour, I'm standing on the porch in my old man robe and my drawers, yelling at the Amazon. Lady bitch, you said two o'clock, it is now 2.20, where the fuck is my package? Every day is Christmas, you know what I'm saying. And then we're oh, what's the problem with immigration, bitch? Cause they living in the mud hut, they ain't got no food, they don't have a phone here you can go to the gas station and get a burner phone for $2 or 10 dollars, excuse me. You can get a burner phone and he's more visible. Love that phone. It's the.
Speaker 2:I have a friend of mine who is of Mexican descent. He has an Android phone that he had since the beginning of the time and I'm like Jorge, you wanna get rid? No, bro, bro, no, it's good, it's good for him. He asked me. He said you wanna sell your old iPhone 11? To me, it's a work phone, it's junk, it's nothing, but that is the problem. So shit. When we talking about economics of the matter, we need to start talking about changing the way we think about money. And so we have. We read the color of money, see how I mean that.
Speaker 2:Remember, we read the book the Color of Money, yes, and it went into the economic differences of how your grandparents paid. Well, this, at this point, it's your grandparents' parents, okay. So your grandparents' parents paid too much for this house. The landlord can go back. The owner can go back in, says you didn't pay me enough and take it. So then the next generation, we were able to go to the bank, still paying too much, still paying a rate higher than our white counterpart, but mom and pop paid for it. They paid it off in the 80s.
Speaker 2:The children got on crack, lost mama and daddy's house, and now we're consumption of rent, of rent to own rent properties, and we have nothing to pass on to us. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So us is, we're in the middle of trying to rebuild this black wealth, but we spend, black people spend a billion, $1.5 billion, on consuming stuff. Yeah, you name it, we buy it. We are the number one in everything food, sneakers, clothes, movies, alcohol. The number one dynamic. That graphic shows black folks.
Speaker 2:Now, so, but America's because and my brother, who the hell? I'm on a show, he does that kind of research and stuff for a living. But because we are, I think it's sincerely because we're not used to having it. We were denied it and we it's like how soul food began. Soul food began because of it was the scraps of what the slave owners allowed us to have. So we made pink feed, we made chitterlings. Greens are a weed. You know what I mean? It grew as a weed in the South. We learned how to make this shit taste good. We put a piece of the hog in it, we seasoned it, we put too much salt in all our food because we had to preserve it, and now we all have generational high blood pressure. I have had high blood hypertension.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I was a teenager and I was slim as a rail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's also the idea that there was somewhat of a sorting process from slavery itself, that our ancestors who survived the voyage were more likely to have high blood pressure because it helped you survive the jaundice in some of the illnesses that would have killed other people. Strangely enough, and yeah, so that was something like a third of us have high blood pressure just because of that. And then there's also this idea of weathering. Then, due to stress, discrimination, oppression and just the general threat of violence, we live in neighborhoods that have higher crime due to economic disparities that are built into the system. So, like we said, ownership of property where black people is going to be valued less is going to be more difficult to sell. You're going to have fewer opportunities when you go look for work, even though you may not feel it yourself. Almost guaranteed you'd have a better chance at buying a higher salary job if you were white. It's just every study that's ever been done about how much more difficult it is for us to get on par with our white counterparts.
Speaker 2:Well, like I was. So I'm going to tell you, bro, I'm going to be honest with you and I think you should just let me. We live with a little bit of white privilege.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:We have great education.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was. We never had to go on, we're right. That was one of the things I got from when I was going through that manic episode. You said you've been living like white people this whole time.
Speaker 2:Did I say that to you? You did.
Speaker 1:I was like I was so worried about the lights getting cut off.
Speaker 2:And I was really driving myself.
Speaker 1:I was literally driving myself crazy.
Speaker 2:Did you watch it? If I repeat some of that conversation, because you were at a conversation where stuff could use never in your life made a payment arrangement.
Speaker 1:I'd never done a payment.
Speaker 2:Oh, my brother calls me and says oh, my god. That's such a oh, did you call me to pay for a team? It's like what I fell out first. It was a serious man. Well, I had to laugh because I was like what nigga? I? Got money I want to keep my money.
Speaker 1:My impression was that payment arrangements didn't stop them from cutting it off.
Speaker 2:Oh, you give them that promissory note. He goes to the club. Oh no, sometimes I just make one and got the money. I'd be like I ain't home for like paying this right now. Let me get this in my account. If you all listen to my bill, because I'm just joking, but listen. So that is so funny to me because, yeah, even white people may pay with arrangements.
Speaker 1:They are there for white people to use.
Speaker 2:That's what we were originally told about these arrangements.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Shit, I just do it for the health of black. I don't feel like.
Speaker 1:I'm ahead of this. That's one of the major things I get. It's like when white people do it they understand the economic difficulties that people are in, but when they see black people doing it they blame it on some essential nature of being black, Even if they don't say it out loud, they may not even think it's genetic. They'll just say it's part of bad culture that permeates black people's life that they're less able to deal with money.
Speaker 2:So, brolin, can I say with you I worked for a major governmental entity that is a philanthropist end of the government. Let's just say that, yeah, and the most of time, white people were our largest audience, if you will. Because think, if you're the largest part of population, you are going to be the largest consumer of this free thing. I remember taking a business trip to Kansas and I saw the government has built basically, let's basically a subdivision, yeah, and it was nice homes and they were filled with our lovely white counterparts. Yeah, and all of their rents were subsidized by the government.
Speaker 2:And we, you would go in there and their neighbors in the next hall, which you didn't know. They knew in the neighborhood but they didn't know, and what you found out was, once you took that off the table, that they were poor, and then they use their access for their skin tone. They lived a pretty good fucking life. You know what I mean? Yeah, and then the government was involved in a suit and the suit was oh, you don't give us the lighter skinned people access to the same thing they lost, because then we pulled out the statistic of your liar. This is what it is, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:This is something also I would say I think it's tied into race and privilege in general that I remember it was a Starbucks or some restaurant kind of caters to a more higher scale clientele Not necessarily high scale, but middle income, upper middle income and one of the things they had at the restaurant were how they support Black Lives Matter, their pro LGBT rights. They ask about your pronouns we're. You know all the progressive things that a restaurant could have. We support all of these things, but they were like you can't use the restroom without a purchase. You have all these liberal ideas, but that doesn't extend to the poor. You don't actually believe that. You know someone who's down on their luck is there because of systemic inequality, you see it as oh, are we trying to be able to use the bathroom to.
Speaker 1:No, all I'm saying is that you claim to be this liberal bastion of progressivism, but you're not. It's a lie.
Speaker 2:Because of the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Because of the bathroom, because when it really comes down to it, something is the most basic thing that you're saying I care about human beings, I care about people. That's what all of these pro LGBT, pro Black, pro thing is. We're all humans, but not if you're poor. Don't come to me.
Speaker 2:Listen and y'all go go ahead and fucking send me letters. I don't care, listen, don't fuck up the bathroom. And they just have to take a fucking bathroom up. Yeah, they throw shit. Why are they going to throw shit and stuff on the wall, like why you gotta do all that? And then you gotta go in and take a bath with your dirty clothes and then when I really you know, when my $10 macchiato sends me to the room the bathroom is not available, so I don't know my fuck.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying it's. That is how corporations pretend to be liberal. I'm okay with you being a capitalist institution, like I'm okay. I made that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought I'd throw the bathroom.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just saying I've made my peace with that. I'm just saying all that other shit is performative, it is not real, it is a marketing strategy and I'm okay with that. I love marketing, marketing, market your heart's content. But what I'm telling other liberal people is do not believe that shit, do not believe that bullshit, because that's like a democratic party.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're all agree.
Speaker 1:It is all. It is all politics. You have to learn to love the devil, because or the devil who's on your side? They're all devils. We say that all the time. They're all corrupt, but there are certain corrupt people who are on your team.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, listen. But the only thing I want to tell you is that, with the bathroom situation, I don't want my brother. I go to Starbucks to use the bathroom because they're generally privately clean. I'm just calling me a snob. I don't want the homeless man.
Speaker 1:It's good for business. That's what we're saying. I get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't, don't. You gotta get that, don't forget that this is a business.
Speaker 1:This is the thing I'm telling the liberals who are on the progressive side. It's like y'all they're not on your side, they're on the bottom, At least they upset why?
Speaker 2:But isn't that everybody?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's what I'm trying to get through their head. It's everybody, that's all. That's. The only reason it's fair is because everybody's fucked.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if everybody's fucked, but everybody's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was more doing well, but most everybody's fucked.
Speaker 2:Yes, Because let me tell you something. What's that little thing you bought the other day? You know ledger, the little monster thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, it's over my shoulder. I think it's not over.
Speaker 1:Oh it is, it's right next to the lamp. Yeah, it is, oh God I think it's my name the vicious. Oh yikes.
Speaker 2:Tony, in America I'm going to give you a popular opinion. Listen, somebody might say to you. Somebody might say to you Malcolm, you just spent 29, and I think some people homeless down the block. You could have did something else. Do what you want to do with your mother fucking money. Ok, don't tell me what to do with my mother fucking money, because the opposite thing in this statement is it's my money you don't need.
Speaker 2:you don't have to have a ten dollar Marquillado. We just set up a business plan and now you're addicted to it. Ten dollar Marquillado and that. But you can go home and learn how to make this thing yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah we sell the most of the products in the grocery store If you don't want to come to this building to do this thing. So the overarching problem that I'm getting from America is that and we talk about this quite often If you don't believe what I believe, you're wrong yeah, and that is the overarching thing they give you. Don't believe what I believe you did as well? No, you are not, you have the right, and so this is the thing and this is what I. This is what I get when I go places, and especially black men start talking about the mega thing and we might need this and we might need that.
Speaker 2:Remember the day you said this? Ok, remember the day. Because of your race and because of who you are. Remember when you lose your freedom. White women didn't think it could happen to them. They never thought and this is God's honest truth they never thought they could lose access to something so precious and it doesn't fall down just to Roe v Wade in abortion. You, that means you're losing access to critical health care. Yeah, critical health care. Now we're not even going to talk about the disparities in health care with LGBTQ, people of color, disabled people. We can go down another rabbit hole for that one? Yeah, but so the problem with this is we're always looking through things Joe to old, but the other, nigger, 77. Yeah, they went to high school together, so what now? The problem with and bring this up in the overall scheme of the conversation that we're having is because I was telling my buddy this morning I was like listen, man, you are at a barbershow, Listen to people that don't vote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Because, this constituency that I'm talking about. You don't vote and essentially fuck what you. And until you show me your voter registration. Yeah, Because the numbers bear out saying that you don't vote. I think that is something.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's that I'm still holding on to. This is true. I don't believe that every person is required to be interested in politics, and one of the lines that I can't remember who said it, that it stuck with me and said you might not be interested in politics, but politics will always be interested in you. And that was to say that politics Will be interested in you, either voting for them or suppressing your vote, depending on whether or not they believe you have the power to affirm their position or oppose it. But, like right now, the Republicans, as they're currently constituted, see an advantage in suppressing the vote, you know, either through gerrymandering or voter ID laws. You know they even float the idea of raising the minimum voting age, even though that's not ever going to happen. They certainly opposed the reinstitution of voting rights after a felony conviction, which was a law expressly designed to disenfranchise people of color. During the Jim Crow era, like laws were created specifically to disenfranchise people of color. So they've been able to do that, and I think that's a good thing. Jim Crow era like laws were created specifically to disenfranchise people of color. So they've made this a clear objective of their policies to try to keep those structural inequalities in place Versus, I'm sure, a very corporately funded, interested in mostly the status quo.
Speaker 1:Now the Democrats at their core are not interested in changing, say, the criminal justice system or the economic system or even our medical system, because I think they're still kind of status quo-ish, like they're not trying to rock the boat. They want to stay in power, and I think making these big changes scares them. They think if they make some of these changes in it backfires in their face that they can lose power, and that is probably why they haven't done anything. The filibuster is just a gentleman's agreement, right? There's no reason they can't pass these things other than the fact that they're afraid of what the other people will pass when they get their turn, and so they're more interested in keeping things the way they are. So that's the thing I would say about the Democrats. Don't expect the Democrats to make these sweeping changes that are going to improve your life. They're not those people either. Their interest is really in keeping things from just getting worse. That's basically where they're at, getting us back to where we were with things like Roe. I do see the Democrats trying to probably reinstate some of those rights back, but they're not interested in sweeping change, not on a mass scale, because we would have done it.
Speaker 1:But, on this note, I think we're going to move over to Patreon real quick. If you join us on patreoncom, you'll get access to this podcast, or at least the end of it. We recorded most of it already but you'll also get access to our VIP room and our after dark channels on Telegram. We also have aftershows for most of our live shows, so become a patron and support me on me in mind and we're on Patreon. But yeah, I liked the breakdown they had from the political gav fest about the economy. One of the things they said in there was people don't think of inflation in terms of single year over year inflation. Right now, year over year inflation is low. We're still filling the inflation for three years ago. Having to pay for those things in the past is still impinging on us now.
Speaker 2:Right, and you think of it in terms of bread and milk and tans.
Speaker 1:The wages have not yet caught up with it. They are rising and that's what a lot of those strikes had to do last year. There was an unprecedented amount of labor activity in 2023. It was like it was the 60s again. It was crazy. We had something like 11% of industry, 11% of workers, had some level of strikes. One in 10 workers in the United States went on strike at some point in 2023. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's a lot. Now, that's the one smart thing Joe did. He does a lot of smart things. He is a masterful politician If he is able to control whatever the situation is. Being the president, he has gotten to his life's goal. First of all kudos to him, he's been wanting to be president since the beginning of creation.
Speaker 1:At least since 2004. I think he started back in, maybe even 2000.
Speaker 2:He started in the 90s. He started running in the 90s.
Speaker 1:He was in the 2000 primary too.
Speaker 2:When I went, my first election was Clinton. He was in the primary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's been running for president for 30 years. Now you have the experience and the know-how.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. Do you realize? We're bombing a foreign country and nobody's worried about it.
Speaker 1:Because oh man Joe.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you nobody's worried about this shit. They're like oh, he don't get it. He's not going to do anything rash.
Speaker 1:I think that's what's so funny? Not at all. What's so funny about this, though, is he has that air of stability. Just like you said, people have confidence in what he has said. There was a recent article in some paper I want to say the New York Times that just said Joe Biden versus a lot yes, he does a lot. Apparently, he's like get the fuck out of here.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you when I had a joy of meeting him a few times and that our whole conversation was fucking in A and what a fucking amazing.
Speaker 1:He throws f-bombs like it is nothing.
Speaker 2:That makes you a human to most of us. All Catholic Irish people cuss like a sailor.
Speaker 1:Make them all in the keep of the secret, but it's true, though they like it.
Speaker 2:I freeze and I laugh about that all the time Maybe the one thing that's going to get him over the 3%. So when the election is like, he curses like a goddamn sailor. It's great it's like the story of last week. Oh, what President Biden really thinks about Donald Trump. He's not a surprise. He's just a fucking idiot. He's like goddamn jerk off. And I was like Joe, I love you, bro.
Speaker 2:I know, I'm saying it's like a conversation you're having with the bros. It's like we're sitting around at the table, donald Trump's a fucking ass.
Speaker 1:So it's amazing, when you consider that his own personality is that abrasive that is another kudos to his political acumen that he can still be a good diplomat.
Speaker 2:Bro, he is not here. For the fuck's sake, bro, he knows how to shut his mouth. So let me tell you what he did. He waited till they took those people's bodies off of the plane. We saw those caskets the next morning. He bombed the shit and he has not stopped. And today they were like Joe, we're sorry.
Speaker 1:No, because he's having something bomb. They said 70 something strikes. I was like that's a big deal.
Speaker 2:I ate people. Yesterday. It's like he out there running around with Gio. He's thinking, oh man, joe, he's going to blow the Middle East off the goddamn map. That's what he said. He just shuffled that plane, he did the whole man's stuff. He said Joe needs to see a physical therapist. He's in good shape, he needs to stop shuffling. I was like, oh my God, you are so hilarious. Physical therapy me, don't worry about Joe.
Speaker 1:So I talked to him.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a friend of mine. It was an MD. She was like they don't understand what he's an octogenarian. They don't understand what incredible shape he's in. I'm sad to be 80 years old he is going to. He may outlive all of us. He would definitely be in Jimmy Carter's bracket he said he's definitely going to live another 20 years.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:She was like he doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, and she and we both had a conversation. We think he has minimal stress. Yeah, I think he's, because once you've been somewhere and you've done something you tend to, you know how it's going to turn out.
Speaker 1:That's the thing I think he has recovered from some really horrible things. First, his family half his family dying, his son dying of cancer all those kind of you bouncing back and actually building up better, like being able to respond. I think that's part of how, like I said, he is able to restrain his natural tendency toward anger and cursing when he has to be political.
Speaker 2:Like he's really mad. He started stuttering.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I forget about that. He actually is a stutterer, which I haven't like this yeah, he actually. I forget about that. He actually does have a speech impediment, but he's actually overcome that as well. That's pretty damn good, I'm putting.
Speaker 2:So he just lost his son four years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then current, and so he's not worried about them fucking with his son now, because you know what he said. He really didn't do anything. I ain't worried about anything. I got nothing to hide. I'm not going to stop my Justice Department go here. Yeah, it's my Justice Department. He could stop it, and so if that is not reason enough to say this candidate is better than that candidate, yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:One political prognostication before we go. Okay, how do you feel about this immigration deal? Do you think they're going to get it passed?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, let me tell you why. Today was the Republicans worst nightmare. We get to read it, we get to see it, we get to understand what the fuck is in it. Okay, yeah, and so now we're like hey, isn't this the thing that you?
Speaker 1:wanted. Yeah, okay, pretty much. They could have come out with some bullshit to explain why they turned this down, and they did not.
Speaker 2:So, and the thing is, what Joe did was put everything he did not want on the table. He was like sure, take it Because he knew exactly what the fuck they were going to do.
Speaker 1:And what's crazy is what's in this bill should have upset the liberals Like how'd he got them to sign on to this, how he got the Democrats? I don't understand, why did they?
Speaker 2:give it, I don't get it. Let me tell you something. That's like me. I'm like hey, bro, they ain't going to do nothing. Sign on to this. They not going to do a goddamn thing. Yeah, they going to trip over themselves. We ain't got to worry about it, it ain't going to never pass. We just need something to run on.
Speaker 1:They're doing well. I don't know how, because, honestly, it was amazing.
Speaker 2:It gave them everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:It'll never pass, bro, don't worry about it. It'll never pass, I know, he knew they were going to just fall and trip all over themselves. Just do nothing Just like those things that you know.
Speaker 1:It's what the ass man, and the only sad part about that is that it still benefits the Republicans, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:It does, though, only with their base, only with their base.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's with us as well, because I would go back and listen to the last episode from the daily Okay. They talked with black voters about the things that they have issues with. The number one thing they said they had issues with Biden about beyond his age, which was an issue, but, policy wise, had to do with the student loan forgiveness. In most people's experience, they got their student loans suspended for a while and then they had to pay. I know that 25,000 people, or close to 100,000 people, may have gotten some loan forgiveness, but that's not close to the 10 million, 20 million who we're supposed to. But you know what he said on the campaign trail, I know he will tell them why.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying that, at the end of the day, when someone is not interested in politics and they vote for someone because of a thing and the Republicans know that if they can work the Democratic efforts, just like with this immigration bill they can get our side to stay home- so I would normally agree with you, but I'm just going to tell you to take a look at the midterm.
Speaker 2:They tried it and it didn't work.
Speaker 1:This is true. I think it's different though.
Speaker 2:Nope, it's because in the midterms it was worse. It was worse because you had statistically speaking, you had history on your side. There is no way in the world they should have maintained.
Speaker 1:You're right.
Speaker 2:Nothing.
Speaker 1:I think that was specifically due to the abortion debate. I think there was a lot more abortion on the ballot in midterms than it was during this.
Speaker 2:It's still so okay. The thing with black people is, when he set foot in South Carolina, Joe was going to have a problem with black people in South Carolina. He did not. He went to the black church. He took my man with him. Clive Cliburn is my home. I got my job because of Senator Cliburn yeah.
Speaker 1:He is definitely the reason why he got South Carolina. Cliburn Got with the Congressional Black Caucus in Dorston.
Speaker 2:Next month. He's going to try out President Obama, he's going to try him and Michelle, and we're all going to forget what the problem is.
Speaker 1:Mark my words.
Speaker 2:Michelle is already out there. You know what Michelle said the other day. I think it's time we go low. I've been wrong about the go low. She ready to fight?
Speaker 1:I would love if she said that's time to go low. She said it already.
Speaker 2:I think that's the thing.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 2:She did it. I may have been wrong. I was dealing with a regular person. I'm not. My kids are grown now. I didn't have to prove. I choose violence.
Speaker 1:I get it. I appreciate you breaking down this.
Speaker 2:No, bro, I appreciate it so much. I get it. I am power, family love. I don't get it. We're in a very dangerous, very, very dangerous situation. I remind myself. That's crazy, only under four months, if we file a law. I hear he's going back to там and not going to come through this matter of choices.
Speaker 2:It's never that, but we will hold our nose and do the right thing. You can only fuck over this. What we do and people understand just like in the midterms and in 2020, they understand inherent and I know you understand this and I don't try to. I don't and I'm going to be honest. Most people are intelligent enough to understand this, but there is an internal thing that we know and currently, as a country, this is the American thing, when we know we're in danger, we know that our democracy is fragile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this motherfucker said the quiet part. Oh, I'll be addicted for a day. Nobody wants to hear that Republicans have problems with that. He has fucked himself and you know what they're doing. You know what the Democrats are doing. It's on loop. It's on loops. Every ad on the Internet. It's him and that saying my judges it's over, saying I'm proud of overturning Roe v Wade. Yeah, unless the only thing that will lose this election for Joe Biden is something happens to Trump and they pick another candidate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it is an external, that's my feel. I think, it's an external.
Speaker 2:I think the war is not going to, because the war is the thing with war is if it was anybody else but Trump that they would want to change. But then nobody's going to change. Cool hand loop for hotheaded her. No, it just won't go happen. So, unless something external happens because, honestly, a racist America is okay If y'all can reassure us that he'll live and the black girl won't be president that's all they want. I hate to say that in public out loud. Oh God, I think that's the thing she black and she a woman and she's lacking personality, according to they seen this video or her doing electric slide oh.
Speaker 2:God, they don't want none of that.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I can't.
Speaker 2:Girl why you do the electric slide You're supposed to have when you get inaugurated. President Obama going to let you slide. You did good. You got your white man. Yeah, she can't. She can't do like President Obama. He, she can't have black. She can't be married to Earl. Get a white man. Seriously, she had to make it seem. Okay, just in case all falsehoods, I can fall back on the white man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that is a reality of having an 82 year old president will be. She is more and more likely to be all to be president, even if not permanently. I could see Biden having to have some sort of procedure where she has. My thing is, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:So my here's my thing. I think you know when two years is going to resign and say fuck all y'all and then she's gonna prove herself and win reelection.
Speaker 1:That could be. I hope so. I hope that is the game plan, that is the game, because we really do need a. Who's next is?
Speaker 2:they. It's a test. It's gonna be a test run. You can be like the last year of his presidency. Jill Jill's not feeling well, I'm going to resign. Do his best for the country. Come President Harris for a year. She'll win reelection or not, but she's a horrible speaker.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry I haven't you just hate the way he says, but that is the way it's very nasally. I'm sorry, it's annoying.
Speaker 2:So would you prefer, dear leader Trump, to speak to you for him?
Speaker 1:I would like her to put some chest in that voice. I'm gonna say she's a.
Speaker 2:AK and speak from your chest. She's a AK. She wants to say ski we at any moment. Yeah, so let's, let's be glad, that's all good.
Speaker 1:I actually do like her, though she's actually. I like her personality. She doesn't come off as presidential, it's the only problem, but she seems like after, after we had a reality star. Right, she seems like a cool person. I think I would like to hang out with her.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that. The time that I've had we've had meetings on the hill, she was sitting there.
Speaker 1:So I think maybe more of a if it's a more casual environment. Yeah, maybe not work. I'm a little bit like after work homeless. Seems like she's fun.
Speaker 2:Again, I think the problem with this is all once we had a black president, everything else off the table. We can do now that the vice president to black female. Yeah, all better, yeah. But let me talk about this a little bit more. Yeah, we'll get back to thank you so much for listening to the entry there and we will catch you in the next episode. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.