Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Left of
Old North. I'm your host, Adrian. And I'm your
other host, CJ. And today, I feel like I say
this every single week, but we've got so much
to talk about and so little time. CJ has a lot
of stuff that he brought to me today. He scribbled
it out and put it up on a pin board with little
pieces of string attached to it and said, we've
got to talk about this. We've got to talk about
this. Okay, no, he didn't actually do that. But
he did say, Adrian, we have so much to talk about
today. Like, I don't even know if we're going
to be able to fit it all into one episode. We're
going to try, at least. We're going to try. Yeah,
no, I came in here looking like it's just the
meme from Always Sunny. Yeah. So, I guess we'll
just kind of get right into it. The first thing's
first. Just get right in. Just jump right in.
But first. Yeah. But first. make sure to smash
that like button. No, seriously though. We, we
have had a lot of people tell us that we need
to start telling people to subscribe and look
at our other episodes. If you're interested,
make sure to follow us on blue sky, Twitter,
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Twitter. But you can find our podcast anywhere.
And with that, CJ, sorry pardon the interruption
uh so we'll just dive right on in so it is as
we are recording this it is currently April 7th
all right so we are now what six months and two
days uh removed from the November 2024 election
and here in the good old north state We are home
to many things, you know, first flight, you know,
kind of like one of the main places where stuff
like NASCAR was born. And we are also home to
the only still unresolved race from last year.
Right. Coke versus Pepsi, which is better? The
obvious choice to me is. Pepsi because i have
to say that because Pepsi's from originally from
north carolina but wait that's the race you were
talking about right totally totally i'm also
a pepsi guy anyway so um can i keep my north
carolina credentials up right now so uh no it
is the allison riggs versus jefferson griffin
no that that can't be right that that can't be
right it's it's been like six months there's
no way that that race is still going on right
now Believe it or not, it is the race that just
will not die, will not end. So, essentially,
in case you've been living under a rock for the
past six months, one, I envy you. Two, tell me
where so I can also go do that. Essentially,
for the North Carolina State Supreme Court, there's
a race between Justice Allison Riggs, who is
already on the State Supreme Court, and Jefferson
Griffin, who is... Is he Court of Appeals or
Circuit Judge? I don't remember. He is, yeah,
he's on the Court of Appeals. That's right, yeah,
so Court of Appeals. And Griffin was trying to
get Riggs' seat, and he lost. Now, it was very
close there at the beginning, and then they started
going to recounts and recounts and recounts and
about, you know. 100 ,000 more different recounts.
And Griffin has dragged this through basically
every single court you can, except the Supreme
Court so far. Give it time, I wouldn't be surprised.
Yeah, seriously. And that takes us to where we're
at right now. So this past Friday, the North
Carolina Court of Appeals sided with Jefferson
Griffin. Two to one. party line kind of vote
sort of thing and um saying that the state board
of elections was wrong and that um essentially
jefferson griffin has every right to challenge
these 66 000 votes and everything and that you
know the voters should be forced to comply with
requirements that didn't really exists at the
time of the election right and it's a big deal
because there have been two recounts up to this
point that have confirmed that race has beat
griffin by over 700 votes now you can't ask recounts
in races yes very rarely do they change the outcome
you might pick up like maybe half dozen votes
if you're lucky sort of thing you're not gonna
pick up 700 and they know that and that's why
they're trying to get 66 000 votes thrown out
but that's beside the point right now Today,
April 7th, the North Carolina State Supreme Court
put a pause on this, put a stay on the Court
of Appeals decision. And so that's good. That
kind of gives everyone time to figure out what's
going on. And so obviously in the past few days
between Friday and today, there's been a lot
of confusion. There's been a lot of panic, a
lot of good dims from across the country really
have been trying to chime in as this story is
being picked up. now by major news networks it's
being picked up by you know tiktokers like under
the desk news and aaron partners and all that
it's finally getting the traction that it should
have had a long time ago in my opinion yeah well
a lot of people you know as soon as that uh thing
with the court of appeals came down on friday
they're like oh we need to be you know getting
out there and curing ballots and figuring out
what's going on all that stuff they were ready
to jump into action and i think that's awesome
i mean even here you know on our tiktok i shared
a link saying hey here's a link on how you can
get involved there's something going on yet but
You can at least sign up. And, you know, I still
encourage y 'all, go put your name down if you
want to help out, whatever future efforts there
are. But tonight, again, April 7th, there was
a giant meeting, you know, with the NC Democratic
Party. You know, Anderson Clayton was on there,
the chair. Kat Lawson is the voter protection
director. And, of course, Justice Allison Ricks.
And there are almost 2 ,000 people on this call,
y 'all. Not just from North Carolina. I know
I saw Massachusetts. I saw Florida. I saw California.
I saw Indiana at one point. Indiana, yeah. So
people from all across the country, all corners
of the country, are invested, are interested
in this race. And Alison Riggs, you know, she
got on there. And when I tell you she's like
the nicest person like you will ever meet, you
can tell she genuinely cares about her job and
genuinely cares about the people in North Carolina.
And that is refreshing to see, especially in
North Carolina politics. You don't see that as
much as you should. But, you know, Friday afternoon,
like I said, the Court of Appeals give credence
to Jefferson Griffin's arguments. And they try
to say, hey, you have like 15 days to cure all
these ballots. started causing all the confusion
all panic and whatnot and of course you know
her team has been working hard and they already
have like data for a lot of those ballots and
so they are also working with the state board
of elections to put out the best information
on what people need to know about ballot curing
and just all this stuff right one thing that
should be really clear is she is in this for
the long haul right um if You know, there is
the need to do chase and cure. It will do chase
and cure and everyone will have their chance
to, you know, kind of pitch in and help out.
They're just not doing it right now. It's not
like, you know, trying to cure a provisional
ballot or anything like that. We need all the
info. And if we can't connect like a person with
a ballot or trying to cure, then that can just
create more problems. Right. Right. And I mean,
something like this, like she said, doing this
right is more important than doing it quickly.
Yeah, and as it turns out, I mean, it's great
that there was such a rapid response, but I mean,
this was kind of an issue of jumping the gun
a little bit. Not too much, but I mean, there
was a little bit, a sense of urgency that was...
how do I put this? Not misplaced, but it needed,
it definitely, we needed to have this briefing
for sure, because there were so many people who
are ready to get on the phones to write until
like handwrite letters to call up every single
member of the court of appeals and the Supreme
court and pretty much any lawyer that could get
their number from like, it is so good to see
so many people wanting to like. to in a certain
way get up in arms about this uh but like you
said we need to direct that energy towards like
being strategic and actually curing these ballots
the way that they need to be if they even need
to be because as i'm sure you're about to say
that there's more on the other side of this that
needs to happen before that actually before we
actually do anything about the ballots yeah And
so, I mean, where that kind of takes us right
now is this is one of those things where, you
know, trust the process, trust the rigs team.
They got, you know, incredible people over there.
And this is one of those things where we just
kind of have to kind of hurry up and wait. You
know, like, reason being is this is something
that is unprecedented. Like, this is one of those
things that it just does not happen. I've never
heard of anything like this. And, you know, we've
said this before, I believe, on the podcast.
It's still true. This type of thing that Jefferson
Griffin is doing is a test case, right? They
are seeing, you know, if the people will push
back or accept, you know, Republicans just trying
to steal a legend, trying to sue their way to
victory. I mean, we saw in 2000, but... Right.
No, and at the risk of making them sound too
cool, I mean... this is a velociraptor like yes
to use your i think it was from either our fourth
third or fourth episode to use an analogy that
you were using that you told me and i think we
are going to repeat many times throughout this
podcast because it seems like it just happens
all the time um the velociraptors are testing
the gate and this is definitely this is a really
good example of that um i Kat Lawson, the voter
protection, she's the director. Yeah, yeah. Kat
Lawson, the NCDP voter protection director, was
briefing everybody about how this is the kind
of thing that becomes precedence if it's allowed
to go far enough. And what they're trying to
do is make sure that they can build up a case
that. if they can get in front of a friendly
court will then become precedent for the ability
for the basically just the republicans because
like when's the last time you heard of the democratic
party doing something like this um exactly but
this is a test case for them to be able to push
the boundary of what is truly deserving of a
recount and where they can just throw out ballots
i mean really that's what they're trying to do
this isn't about a recount anymore because the
recounts have already happened at this point
this is about throwing out votes and testing
voter efficacy and in a way testing voter response
because if no one notifies these people who may
or may not get counted this throws a wrench in
every other election that you can possibly think
of like and if you think that it's only going
to be a one percent or 0 .1 % difference going
forward for some of these elections. Keep in
mind, 734 votes, I think was the exact number
that was the difference between that Riggs beat
Griffin by. They are trying to get rid of 65
plus thousand ballots. It's not like they're
trying to challenge a thousand. It's way, way
more than they actually need because they are
pushing to try and get to the point where, oh,
They threw out 65 ,000 ballots before. So if
a race is only, if they're only down by, let's
say, 10 ,000 votes, 20 ,000, 50 ,000 votes, who's
to say that all of these votes are actually real?
Who's to say that these people actually voted?
We need to do a real in -depth dive, and you
could bet your ass that if the situation is flipped,
Republicans would fight that tooth and nail,
and Democrats, in some cases, would not challenge
it. So, we need to have some teeth on this, and
I'm glad that the Riggs team is continuing to
attack this, because if the shoe was on the other
foot, they likely wouldn't have challenged this
at all. And I think that's kind of something
that Justice Riggs said tonight. She said, we're
not going to fight in a way that disenfranchises
voters. Us, like Democrats, we, at least for
the most part, seem to have integrity, seem to
actually care about the rule of law and processes
and democracy as a whole. I think it's obvious
at this point that the Republican Party doesn't
really care about that. What they care about
is getting power and staying in power, right?
And I think at the risk of sounding just biased,
the point is that you need to really ask yourself,
and I know I've already pressed this, but if
the shoe was on the other foot and Riggs had
lost by 734 votes, do you think that Jefferson
Griffin's team would have pressed forward to
make sure that 65 ,000 ballots? We're taken out
of the equation. Do you really think that that's
what would have happened? Because if the answer
is anything other than yes, or excuse me, if
the answer is anything other than no, you might
need to look at what Republicans have done in
the past, like you said, with Bush v. Gore back
in 2000. And that's just the most modern, like
most high profile version of that. We need to
remember that. Donald Trump's team back in 2020
challenged so many states. And luckily, each
one of those fell flat on its face because it
was found that there was no voter fraud, at least
not at such a scale that it would have actually
tipped the election in Donald Trump's favor.
Not even close. But this is a smaller scale version
of that. This is a Supreme Court race. This isn't
even... Yes, state Supreme. Good, good point.
This is a state Supreme Court case like this.
And for context, we just we just saw a state
Supreme Court case that went into the multi millions
in funding up in Wisconsin. Huge race, huge turnout
and a huge upset for Republicans. So much so
that they're not even trying it. They're not
even trying. to throw out ballots. But down here,
sorry. I was going to say, that night up there
in Wisconsin, the Republican conceded that night.
What was her name? I cannot remember. Susan something?
Crawford. Crawford, thank you. Yeah, Susan Crawford
showed up to her victory rally and said, hey,
I just got off the phone with a guy. He has conceded
the race. And that was that. And you know what?
That is exactly how it is supposed to work. That
is an example of a healthy democracy, a healthy
sense of, you know, it's a healthy respect for
democracy, for the rule of law, for voting, and
for, you know, having that respect of people
exercising their right, using their voice. You
know, I think we should probably move on here
in just a second, since we do have a lot to cover.
But before we do, one thing I do want to talk
about is towards the end of the call this evening,
Kat Lawson did give a few action steps, right?
So first of all, thegriffinlist .com, right?
This is the website that the NCDP, the state
party, has put together. And it has all 68 ,000
names on it. Even if you're not on it, if you
know anyone in North Carolina, like if you're
listening to this from outside North Carolina,
one, thank you. Two, share it. You know, share
it far and wide. Because everyone needs to know
who all is on this list. or doesn't know, but
one of their relatives does, or one of their
friends does, right? So share the griffinlist
.com. Share it far and wide. Two, go to ncdp
.org slash protect dash the dash vote. This is,
like I said on our TikTok the other day, this
is how you sign up to volunteer. That way, if
you do need to mobilize really quickly, you've
got it right there. You've got it going. And
then finally, the third step, the third thing.
is share on social media. Share and amplify.
ncdp .org slash signs has graphics that you can
share. Post and tag the Riggs campaign. Post
and tag the state party. And also use what the
party and what Riggs has used themselves. That
way we can keep on amplifying each other's messages.
Keep on amplifying the hashtags, the posts, all
that stuff. Keep on doing that. Exactly. I mean,
the social media way of trying to spread this
message is really what they were emphasizing.
Like half of the reason that they keep pushing
this stuff so hard on social media is because
it's working, because people are becoming aware
both statewide and nationally. But there is going
to be a lot of groundwork. There is going to
be a lot of phone work, I guess, if that's a
word. Just just a couple months ago, like I was
telling you before, we had to actually go door
to door to some of these folks and tell them,
hey, your vote is at risk of being thrown out
in this race. And they had absolutely no idea
because one thing that I do want to point out
is that they mentioned that. one possible route
that they could take is pressuring the Board
of Elections to actually have a hand in making
sure that all these voters that are being contested
be notified by law, essentially. Like, that a
judge would say, you are compelled to make sure
that all of these people are notified that their
vote is being contested. Which is a very small
win, but it is a step forward. Because the Griffin
team was kind of relying on the fact that people
would not know that their votes were being contested
i think that this is a big step in the right
direction is it is it the end all be all and
should we rest back and make sure like and and
just wait for things to happen no absolutely
not we have to be extremely vigilant right now
because at any point in time the countdown for
15 days will start and it could be here Within
the next few days, it could be next week, it
could be next month. We don't know for sure.
But we will keep y 'all updated no matter what.
Absolutely. When it is time to mobilize, we will
let y 'all know. We will amplify the message
as loud as we can, as wide as we can. And, you
know, again, those action steps I mentioned a
minute ago, you know. share the Griffin list,
share the graphics, you know, all that stuff.
Because like Adrian just said, the Griffin folks
were counting on this being kind of lost in the
ether. We do not want that to be lost in ether.
We do not want that to be covered up, you know,
in the media by other stories. Right now, the
main story that you're going to see out there
is the stock market. How's that for a segue?
So that's very good. So moving on to the stock
market, Adrian, Just the red wave that Republicans
love to brag about. Oh, I like that. That's,
that's good. Did you come up with that on your
own? Um, I think me and like two dozen other
people on Twitter and blue scale. Okay. All right.
I think, I think you can all, I think you can
all take a shared credit for that. No, I don't
think that this is the red wave that they were
expecting. And they are finding they're twisting
themselves in knots trying to figure out a way
to make sure that people know that you losing
money in the thousands of dollars per day is
actually a good thing. Your 401k being virtually
worth half of what it was two weeks ago. That's
actually good because President Trump is saving
you. He's helping you. He's going to bring back
jobs and he's going to bring back American corporations
that left. When's he going to do it? I don't
know exactly. When's he going to open up new
car manufacturing plants? Well, those can take
anywhere from five to 15 years to open, so who
knows? And by the time they actually start doing
that, you will have forgotten all about it, median
voter, which is exactly what they're hoping.
Sorry, I'm going on a little bit of a rant here,
but this is such a small, not a catalyst, this
is such a small symptom of a bigger problem where...
We now have people who are actively losing thousands
and thousands of thousands of dollars every day.
And I'm not talking about rich people. I'm talking
about the average stock purchaser, the guy who
has like $135 in this and $1 ,500 in that. Your
money is getting depleted every single day. I
took my money out of the stock market three weeks
ago, the moment that he announced these tariffs.
And I told everybody that I knew that they should
do the exact same thing. And not everybody listened
to me. And here we are. Like, I'm not some kind
of guru. I'm not some kind of like crypto bro
that can read the charts, the ups and downs.
I know the splits and all that. No, this is just,
he said he's going to tariff our most involved
trading partners. And added to that, pretty much
the rest of the world. and expected somehow for
the market to just maintain its trust in him.
Be okay with it. He, I mean, over the weekend,
while everyone was worrying about the futures
and, you know, whether or not Happy Feet was
going to get tariffed to death and whatnot, he
was down in Florida golfing. Yeah. That's it.
Now, I'm not saying the president cannot go and
have a little bit of recreation. Presidents should
go have some recreation. They should be able
to relax. No, they should work themselves. They
should work themselves to the bone. They should
nearly die while in office. Every four years,
they should have blood tested to make sure that
they are actually weaker than they were four
years before. That's my hot take for the day.
you know you earn that rest you earn that recreation
donald trump has not earned shit at all no right
and he does not deserve shit at all this guy
has talked about you know trust the process or
i'm not going back down this this guy is not
going to budge he does not all right if you're
listening to this i want and yeah i'm not listening
to any other episodes i want to say this as bluntly
and clearly as i can donald trump Donald J. Trump
does not give one single solitary fuck about
you. He does not care that you will not be able
to retire. He does not care that your parents
who want to retire or are close to retirement
age or are at retirement age are about to be
completely fucked over. He does not care. What
he cares about is him and all his rich buddies
being able to crash the stock market, being able
to get all the prices super fucking low on property
or whatever, scoop bin buy it up and then sell
it to you at like five times the cost it's that
is you can even afford that right it's it's the
it's a pump and dump in a sense yes um what i
find most infuriating i think isn't is not the
fact that this is all clearly some kind of scheme
to make sure that the market crashes and just
to alienate us as much as possible from our trading
partners so that we are wholly divested from
any kind of outside trading partner. I think
their grand plan is to make sure that you are
forced to buy American or anything else for a
much, much, much higher price. It doesn't seem
to me because people all over Twitter and all
over all these other places will tell, you know,
it's actually better because now we'll start
making stuff in America again. And while that
sounds good on its face, while that sounds, hey,
I'm going to give somebody some credit here.
While that does sound good on its face, I'm not
trying to make it sound like, you know, buying
American is bad. It's not. But the way that they're
going about it is like me telling you. It's like
an abusive boyfriend. You can't break up with
me. I will make sure to... This is not a good
analogy. But essentially, you can't go buy from
other places except at a much, much higher markup.
I'm going to make sure that you trade within
ourselves at whatever prices we essentially set.
I had an argument with somebody over the weekend
about... prices coming down they said prices
are going to come down because they will always
come down in this in when tariffs happen i'm
like yeah but that's not always for a good reason
and here's why i laid out the reasons and they
said they said something that kind of infuriated
me which is that but if tariffs don't work then
we then why do they exist in the first place
oh dear so so without getting into a big history
lesson Tariffs exist for the sole benefit of
American companies. That's it. It does not help
the consumer. It doesn't help your outside trading
partner. And you may think, well, the companies
are the ones paying the price. No, here's why.
Because they want to make sure that they can
mark up product. And then once the tariffs are
gone, the market or the price stays exactly where
it was. It does not come down. And if you don't
believe me. They have already play tested this
and realized that they can make it work again
when they marked up prices during the pandemic.
And there were many, many companies that were
found that actually had basically defrauded Americans
by marking up the price of goods to insanely
high numbers because of supply chain issues,
because of whatever. Right. So they marked up
the price. And then logically. You would think
that once the pandemic is over, or at least the
symptoms of the pandemic upon the market have
subsided, that the prices would then come down.
But they didn't. They never came down. The price
of goods and services remained the same as they
were in 2021 and 2022, when we had largely abandoned
the pandemic response. Right. Yes. I mean, the
only reason some of them even started to come
down, it wasn't until like last year, whenever
Target and Walmart and whatnot were being called
out and were forced to say, okay, we will lower
our prices. This whole thing with the tariffs
has me agreeing with Milton Friedman, and I cannot
tell you how much that pisses me off. There's
a quote from him that says, we call a tariff
a protective measure. It does protect. It protects
the consumer very well against one thing. It
protects the consumer against low prices. You
know how fucked up things have to be for me to
agree with Milton Friedman? Well, and he's right.
That's exactly what I was talking about before.
The only benefit that anybody actually gets from
this is somebody who has billions of dollars
in stocks. Somebody who has billions of dollars
in... Companies and corporations in the ability
to mark up prices however they see fit because
tariffs. Because that's all they have to say
is, oh, well, we have to adjust the price because
of tariffs. And I'm not trying to just say that
all business owners are, you know, lying to you
or whatever. But think about any corporation
that sells you things at a markup, at a discount.
Why would they do either one of these things?
To make money. Regardless of what it is, it's
to make money. It's either to cover a loss or
it's to gain on what they've already paid for
the product, right? There is no company out there
that is going to keep their prices so low that
they will go bankrupt for you, the consumer.
That is not going to happen. No, and I'll tell
you one thing that annoys me so much. Yeah, on
TikTok, that's my first mistake. I saw one person,
they were, like, they were stitching a video
of a guy going through a car lot, talking about
how they were, like, lowering all the prices
on the cars. And the person who stitched it,
she's like, hey, look, terrorists haven't even
started yet, and already prices are coming down.
Oh, Jesus. And said, do you know what that is?
And they, like, posted, like, a picture of, like,
a store that said, going out of business on it,
everything must go. That's what this shit is.
Yeah. You're seeing low prices on... Things like
cars or you might see some lower prices on, I
don't know, like expensive electronics or whatever.
You might see some lower prices right now. And
the reason why is because they have to get rid
of their fucking inventory. It's that simple.
And it's so funny. Well, it's funny and it's
frustrating. And it just shows the lack of understanding
of how our financial systems work. This person,
she saw all the evidence that shows... terrorists
are not working she saw everything plain as day
the only thing they did not hold up was a sign
saying this is bad right and she still walked
away with the wrong takeaway and kind of going
back to what you said a few minutes ago kind
of at the start of this session it annoys me
so much when people are like oh well you know
this is going to encourage job manufacturing
no jobs and manufacturing here in america no
it's not you think do you really think that the
you know, CEO of whatever car company is going
to be like, well, of course I'm going to, you
know, bring things into America and, you know,
start manufacturing things here because you know
what? I'm a good American. I'm, you know, I don't
care about capitalism. I don't care about making
a buck. No, no. They're going to keep on importing
the steel or whatever it is that they need to
at a higher cost and pass the cost on to you.
Right. It's that simple. Like you said, starting
up like a or trying to bring back like some manufacturing
plant. That is a long ass process. We in America
do not have the infrastructure we had 100 years
ago for manufacturing. This is no longer the
industrial age. No, yeah. We are firmly at the
point now where we do outsource a lot of the
work that creates the goods and products that
we have that come into this country. Granted,
but that is globalism in a nutshell. You are
not going to get low prices for your t -shirts
if everything's made right there because you
simply don't have the labor for it. Stuff was
still expensive even when it was made in America.
I mean, leather boots that are made in America
by Americans with American made product, like
right where it's like American leather. It's
still expensive. It's the only reason that the
boots that you buy that were made in China or
Indonesia or like somewhere else are not is because
of cheap labor. It's because of cheap product.
It's because of extremely cheap shipping, which
you can't get without the, I mean. And this is
this is such a hypocritical take, to be honest.
But like without the low, low wage that we pay
people everywhere else. And it's abhorrent because.
No, it's not OK. But like without the without
that understanding, without that baseline understanding,
people will look at price changes. as if it's
a direct correlation to what Donald Trump is
doing. But what is actually happening, and like
what you've been saying, is that people look
at the futures, people look at the things that
are being affected by the tariffs, right? We're
talking about steel, we're talking about aluminum,
we're talking about a lot of different products
that come from overseas, directly from overseas,
things that are required. to come from overseas
because we simply don't make that here. And if
people say, well, again, this comes right back
around to, well, they're going to make these
factories and they're going to have these jobs
and they're going to do all these things. Where
are you going to find the workers within the
next five years that are going to have the skills
and are willing to work at a lower price to be
able to create these products at an end price,
a sticker price that you are willing to pay for?
Where are you going to find those workers? And,
you know, even if a company did decide, hey,
we do want to make stuff here in America now,
will it even be cost effective for them to make
and build those manufacturing plants with the
increased cost of steel and supplies and all
that shit? No, it won't. It won't. Because you
have to find, I mean, holy crap, right near where
I live, they're about to start building a billion
dollar plant, which will provide thousands of
jobs. And, like, this is from a company that
is based overseas, okay? Globalism, in a nutshell,
provides jobs for people there and here. We have
a system that is symbiotic, in a way. But then
you have people like Donald Trump. You have people
that are these nativists that feel like everything
has to come back home. We move past that. a long
time ago because it wasn't cost efficient. You
talk about laissez -faire capitalism. This is
it. This is it at work. If you voted for Donald
Trump because you were a laissez -faire capitalist,
because you were some kind of anarcho -capitalist
that wanted to make sure we had the freest market
possible, he is doing the exact opposite of that.
So tell your friends that. Tell your buddy that
you knew in college that's like, yeah, I'm an
ANCAP now. Like, how could you vote for this
dude? He's completely messing up your free market.
He's completely taking away the ability for these
corporations to decide for themselves where they
can actually do business. And not just American
companies, European companies, Chinese companies.
Europe is actively trying to make sure they have
stronger ties now with China because they are
worried that America's economy is going to crash.
This is just one of the many examples, many examples
of how in the past three months since Trump's
been inaugurated, he has actively and quickly
taken our standing on the world stage down several
pegs. We are actively, by not doing anything,
by making these policy changes, we are actively
encouraging, whether we realize it or not, those
stronger ties with China, with India with, you
know, these other countries that we might not
necessarily have a great relationship with politically.
We're actively encouraging that. Canada, one
of our closest allies, literally and figuratively,
has said, you know what? Canada is no longer
a friend of the U .S. You know how insane that
is? It's absolute bullshit. It's incredible in
the absolute worst way. Yeah. Speaking of incredible
in the absolute worst way, unless, Yeah, something
you want to add really quick. All I was going
to say was that Mexico and Canada, you know,
these are two closest trading partners and we
have different relationships with both of them,
but both of them have basically just said, what
are you doing? These retaliatory tariffs, try
saying that five times fast, are a way for him
to posture and say, I'm a big dog. If you don't
like it, come talk to me. We'll work out a deal.
And then we're seeing the results of the art
of this deal. Everything's in the red right now.
Because that is how Donald Trump has always operated,
man. We tried telling y 'all that this man bankrupted
a casino, that he's been bankrupt six times,
that this dude can barely even pay a prenup.
Are you seriously telling me? That this is the
guy you wanted to run the country. Because here
it is. He's just doing it. And that's the worst
part. That's what I was really going to bring
up. Here's the worst part about all of it. None
of this has been approved by Congress. Our directly
elected representatives have had zero say. Except,
oh wait, that's right. They did have a say when
they decided to vote in that continuing resolution
that took away the powers of the Senate to be
able to challenge the president's tariffs. That's
right. Who allowed that to happen? Go back and
listen to our episode about that to get a little
more context. But we went way into that and I
don't want to rehash it. So this is another plug
to make sure you check out our. one of our previous
episodes so cj you were saying speaking of dj
so he said i swear you said dj no i said so cj
speaking of incredible yeah speaking of incredible
in the worst way um let's talk about really quick
house bill 804 this it was introduced today uh
it's again as i said at the beginning of this
april 7th it was introduced today it's called
the human life protection act of 2025 it was
filed the primary sponsor was keith kidwell republican
surprise surprise you're gonna hear that name
a lot in terms of shitty bills yes so he is near
like the coast like hyde derrick county uh that
area and essentially what this does is makes
it a class b felony to perform induce or attempt
an abortion right now in north carolina class
b2 felony carries a standard punishment of 10
to 26 years in prison with a maximum of 40 years
examples including uh trafficking of minors uh
child abuse causing seriously uh serious bodily
harm and death by unlawful drug distribution
right they are considered serious offenses voluntary
manslaughter, and statutory rape, right? That's
the level of stuff we're talking about here,
right? Makes it that kind of felony to perform
or receive an abortion. Now, Keith Kidwell is
absolutely batshit insane. I'm not even joking.
I'm not just saying that because he's a Republican.
No, legitimately insane. Under the Desk News
did a little bit on him. earlier this evening
and talked about how two years ago he had to
resign a chairmanship because he accused then
house rep diamond standard williams of being
a satan worshiper after she shared her very emotional
very vulnerable story of abortion on the house
floor he's also the guy who has put himself in
charge of uh the north carolina version of doge
yeah what was the name for it bulldozer yeah
yeah it sucks so you know but that's that's a
that's a common thread with north carolina republicans
yeah like this is you know just the absolute
worst kind of thing like you know who knows how
far this will go This could be a bill that they
have had drafted, they have sent through the
whole process and filed to make a point or to
start a conversation. It could be just that.
This could be just they wanted to see what the
feedback would be. It could just be that. Or
it could be a serious attempt, a serious desire
to get this made into law. And even if it's that
first one, there's always the possibility that...
maybe it's a test bill or a test case, but it's
a test case that has potential to get wildly
out of control and actually become something,
you know, like, well, cause it's kind of, I don't
know. Sorry. I was going to say, I don't know.
It does for a living. Let's see what the website
says. Well, while you're looking that up, I think
that whatever that means, he's a what enrolled
agent. Oh, he's probably like a real estate agent,
baby. But like, Oh, oh, he's a tax advisor. Yeah.
Oh. Tax advisor. Okay. Okay. So, at least according
to the IRS, this dude has no right to relegate
women's bodies. And he sure as hell has no right
to say that they deserve, you know, like half
of a life sentence for something that they might
not have any control over. Right. And I say that,
like, there are people out there who, you know.
They get pregnant, and they have an ectopic pregnancy,
or there is something severely wrong, or they
have a miscarriage of some kind. And some of
them, you can pass at home and whatnot. And other
things like ectopic pregnancy, it's obviously
a little more invasive. And it's a complicated
issue. It's not a one -size -fits -all thing.
No, it's not. And the situation where they had
to go in and help, you know, kind of... clear
everything out, so to say, after a miscarriage.
That's a type of abortion. Right. It's one of
those things where, like, if you don't get that,
then things turn necrotic, they rot, it leads
to infection, and it can lead to death. These
are people who either, Keith Kidwell and the
like, either don't know what all is involved
in this and what the repercussions are, or even
worse, they don't care what the repercussions
are. I think it's... more than likely the latter.
I'm sure that at some point, you know, somebody
has informed them or written to them or tried
to make their case about the, I guess, the ins
and outs of what abortion is and how it's performed
and all these other things. The problem here
is that we, I mean, you can see the direct through
line. When a woman tells him about her very personal,
experience with abortion. His immediate response
is that she's a Satan worshiper. And so then
that, I mean, the only conclusion that you can
draw from that is that he's creating this policy,
trying to create a law based purely on Christianity,
purely on his religious stance. What we have
here is a lack of ability. To moderate your position
based on everyone. And instead, you are making
a position based on you. Your own belief. Your
own belief system. Not to mention, right, that
our own governor is Jewish. Why do I bring this
up? Because Jews do not have... I mean, some
sects of Jews do, I think. But the Jewish faith
does not... actually demonize abortions at all.
We have a large population of Jews in North Carolina.
We have a large population of Muslims in North
Carolina. Their views on abortion are very different
from how Christians view it. You are trying,
and this isn't purely from religion, but it is
a form of control based on religious premise.
Is this meme railing against religion? No. We
can do a whole different episode about that at
some other point. My whole rant here, my whole
point is that when you try to make a legal argument
from the standpoint of religion that is only
geared towards one sect of that religion, because
keep in mind, not all Christians think that abortion
is wrong either. We have a problem where now
we are trying to establish religious doctrine
in... the state, or not the state constitution,
excuse me, in the state's laws. This is a huge
issue. And we've seen this before multiple times.
But this is one where I am hoping, and I expressed
this to CJ when we were talking about this before
the show, I am hoping that more moderate Republicans
in the North Carolina House, which there are
some, there are few and far between, but they
are there. They exist. They know that when you
create a law that does not allow for any exceptions,
except under a very, very, very, very, very thin
stipulation, you're going to cause some problems.
You're going to have a full -on uprising on your
hands, especially from women. Rightfully so.
It's like, good luck passing this and winning
the midterms, because abortion will be right
back on your doorstep again. Yep, it will. I
just want to talk about how, like, you know,
a lot of people who talk about this sort of thing
are, you know, obviously consider themselves
very pro -life. And what I'm about to say is
nothing that has not been said before on, you
know, every other Democrat podcast or every other,
like, Democrat. anything any other democrat has
said pro -life with republicans does not mean
what it at least should so say me they're not
pro -life they're pro -birth you know um i think
uh george carlin said uh best when he said if
you're pre -born you're fine if you're uh preschool
you're fucked right and uh but um and he was
he's right to a certain extent for sure And so
you're telling me, not you, but Republicans,
you're telling me you would rather see someone
who is pregnant, you know, be forced to carry,
you know, a miscarriage, be forced to go, one,
through that mental trauma, also the physical
trauma, get to the point where they are so sick
they are on death's door. And past a certain
point, there's no bringing them back, right?
And they die. You're telling me that's pro -life?
No. That's bullshit, is what that is. Because
they will always come back from a position of
saying, well, that's in a very slim minority
of cases. We're not talking about those cases.
We're talking about elective abortions. We're
talking about women who are doing this as a form
of birth control. And when you ignore the minority
of cases, you can see why women get so pissed
and up in arms. When these kinds of bills are
passed. When these kinds of restrictions are
passed. Because it could be you. It could be
your mom. It could be your sister. It could be
your wife, girlfriend. It could be anyone. With
a uterus that can birth children. Yes. And if
you want to show me that you're pro -life. Stop
destroying the social safety nets. Give me universal
pre -K. Show me free school lunches. Show me.
affordable child care show me all these things
actually set people up for success in life but
you're not going to because again you are not
pro -life you're pro -force birth you're pro
you know capitalist society you're pro stripping
away every single protection that we as a society
that claims to care about people should have
and when we say capitalist society i mean This
isn't just like, oh, we should all be socialists.
We should not have any capitalism. What we're
trying to say is that living in a capitalist
society means that everything is a claw game.
that you have to make sure that you are constantly
working, that you are constantly healthy, that
you are constantly saving money. You don't have
the luxury of being able to rely on the rest
of society or even rely on your own community
to provide you with the basic necessities that
you may need when you are older, when you are
disabled, when you are a child and you can't
provide for yourself. We don't have people. Excuse
me, we have people in our legislature right now
that would prefer to let everybody fend for themselves,
bar none. Like, you don't have any kind of social
safety net. And when I say social safety net,
I don't mean like welfare nanny state. I mean
like literally people rely on this because otherwise
they can't live. And the emphasis on they can't
live. Which is why people start making so many
allusions to Nazism when Republicans try and
get rid of the social safety net. Because the
end result, the wildest extreme end result, is
you're just getting rid of these people. It's
like a mass wave of, oh, well. Guess they died.
I don't know. Too bad. They weren't good for
society anyway. They didn't actually help anybody.
You see where I'm going with this? You see how
it starts to really... And I mean, I know CJ
understands this. I'm saying to everybody out
there, you see, if you just pull the thread,
if you just keep pulling the thread, you see
how the Nazis got to the point where they were
like, oh, you know, actually, these people who
have disabilities, they're not contributing anything
to society. So maybe we should just find a way
to not have people in society that are disabled.
And then it turns into, oh, look at these people
who are LGBT. They can't reproduce. They can't
add to society. Let's take them out. And then
it goes on and on and on and on and grows. Yeah.
It's a never -ending thread. And it ends in devastation
and murder. We are at the point now where there
are people actively calling for LGBTQ plus people
to lose their jobs. based on the fact that they
are trans, gay, bisexual. We have people that
are actively calling for women who want to get
elective abortions to be put in prison. I mean,
we have people, not to mention that at the federal
level, we are seeing multiple reports of people
just disappearing. American citizens who are
just being extradited out to El Salvador. which
is known for the fabulous way that they treat
their prisoners. And I think we really are at
a turning point in history, and kind of like
we talked about in one of our previous episodes,
where people are starting to flee the country,
we are at a turning point in history where it's
like, okay, how much longer are we going to pull
the thread? Because it's not that long until
you get to the end of it. Right. So, with that,
I mean... I'm not going to wear it. No, and I'm
sorry, like... This is the kind of thing where
if you're going to say that we need to fight
against fascism, you have to connect the dots
for people. Because it's not, if I'm coming out
here and saying Donald Trump's a Nazi, well,
I've kind of already lost the plot for a lot
of people. They don't understand how I'm making
that connection. So you, listener, the person
who has gotten to the end of the episode, and
thank you. for sticking around and listening
to it um you have to be able to connect the dots
you have to be able to pull the thread for people
because some people will not understand until
it's too late they won't get it they will only
it's it's the old poem that everybody loves to
quote where it's first they came for the socialists
and i did not speak out for i was not a socialist
it's the same thing just with different people
and you have to remember that this guy does not
give a fuck about you He doesn't give a fuck.
He really doesn't. He would watch you die before
he dirtied his hands to help you. Which is why
they had to generate images of him wading through
hurricane waters, because you would never catch
him doing that in real life. No, but they will
go out to Western North Carolina, set up a little
wall of bricks, and then do a little press op.
And then leave. He'll do that. He'll help that
way while wearing his stupid ass red hat. Anyway,
I am way too hot at the end of this episode.
We need to cut it off. I know we still probably
have a lot to talk about. I had two more things.
Two more things. We can end on a good note with
one of those. How about that? Make it really
quick. Yeah. So this past weekend. This past
weekend, again, unless you're living under a
rock, it was a joint effort between 50-50-1. That's
a fairly new organization. I think indivisible,
and I think it kind of varied from community
to community, town to town. But I know here in
North Carolina, I think it was like the Poor
People's Project was involved. But there was
this huge, massive wave of peaceful protesting.
All throughout the country. Like here in Raleigh,
I had heard 45 ,000 at one point from a cop.
It's more like 4 ,500. I don't think he knew
math. It's more like 3 ,500. But, you know, like
4 ,500 people here in Raleigh. And I was at that
rally. I went there. Now that everything was
peaceful, I don't feel paranoid about saying
that. I was at that rally. And when I tell you
it was incredible. it was downtown Raleigh between
the science and history museums on one end of
this area you have the state capitol building
on the other end you have the general assembly
building right and every single inch of that
place was just filled with people signs with
righteous anger and with in a way hope right
we This is something that you saw in, like I
said, every other major city, and even small
cities. Here in North Carolina, I heard about
things in Marion, Brevard, Boone. Small towns
have these protests. And like I said, it's filled.
it's people who are like i said filled with that
righteous anger it's filled with hope and this
idea manifested that we are not alone in our
anger that we are not alone in our frustration
and that we are not alone in our desire to see
things get better this The way this administration
works and the way regimes similar to it have
worked in the past, part of this, part of what
they want is almost a sense of isolation, a sense
of disconnect so that you do not feel supported,
so that you give up. Right. That's what they
want. And to see this just wave, this crowd of
humanity all throughout the country come together
for a common cause. a common cause people can
barely agree on what day of the week it is let
alone an issue yeah um to see everyone come together
like that is heartening heartening in the best
way possible absolutely it was beautiful to watch
and see the stories i heard were heartbreaking
and inspiring and just a great example of what
showed some of the worst of what the community
has to offer, but contrasted with the best of
what we have to offer. The best of what we as
Americans, as a country, as people who are patriotic
and care about our neighbors and our friends
and our family, showed the best of what we have
to offer. It was amazing to see. It's a great
place to end it off. I think in all in all let's
remain hopeful. And I hope that as we continue
to keep faith in whatever way you keep it, you'll
stick with us over here on the left of old North
that you will follow us so that if you want to
get updates about the things that we talked about
here today, um, you will see them. We will definitely
tweet slash blue sky. What is it? Is it, are
they calling them skeets now? Cause I've seen
that. I'd rather not call. It's not good. But
you'll see us post about it everywhere that we
have a public platform. You'll see us make videos
about it. We'll definitely talk about it in future
episodes. So make sure to follow us. Look us
up on our RSS feed or you can find our podcast
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And we hope you'll stay with us on the Left of
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