Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, that should be enough there.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Have a good sniffle.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: I don't know that I can get that out.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Oh, lovely.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I know it's annoying.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Sorry. I don't like sounding like I'm a coke addict.
Allergies, Coke addiction.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: It's ragweed season.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: No shit. And that is the single worst.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: And catching COVID And catching COVID right at. Right at the beginning of the worst of ragweed season was the worst thing that could have happened to me.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Hi everyone and welcome to Spill the Tea, the podcast that just wants you to hear us out. We bring awareness about topics in pop culture, history, literature, music and life, the universe and everything. As far as we're concerned, we research different topics and share with our listeners what we discover. I'm Brigitte.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I'm Laura.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: And today's topic is the review of.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: The Democratic Party platform focused on the Harris Wells campaign portion of it.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Exactly.
We promised in the Republican Party platform reviews. We promised. We are still doing our level best to be as non partisan as possible.
It's really hard for me because I actually agree with this one a whole lot more.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: It's really hard, folks. The other factor, the reason I say limited to Harris Walls. The PDF is available online for free just about anywhere. It is so reading dense. It is difficult because it's solid, packed with policy statements that sound like, I don't know, someone who actually understands how to write policy statements wrote it.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Exactly. We'll get into that in a minute though, so stick around for the information. Coupled with a healthy dose of snarkasm, our lovely combination of snark and sarcasm and just here us out. Yeah, I made this comment. I'm pretty sure I made this comment more than once on Instagram. I interact so much more on Instagram than I do on Facebook anymore. So I made a comment more than once. I'm sure that the difference between the GOP party platform and the Democratic platform was the Democratic platform looks like it was written by somebody with a political science degree and the Republican Party platform looks like it was written by middle schooler. Well, I was going to say an advanced level sophomore in high school.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Wow, that's generous. I would say really, really generous here. I would say a middle schooler, but seriously, it having taught English writing, I would say a middle schooler.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Fair.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: I do know what I'm talking about there.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: That's fair. That's totally fair. But yeah, so today we're going to start covering.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: That's the realism, folks. This is a lot of material, but it's Kind of.
We're dedicating time and research to this because this is important, number one, to try and help everybody come to a realization of what all is out there so that they can make an informed decision to get out the vote.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Yes. And we had three episodes on the Republican Party platform and we released those very quickly. We're going to do the same thing with the Democratic Party platform because this is very time sensitive information.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Well, it's only halfway through September. Are you kidding?
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Well, yeah, but. Yeah, but as of the day we're recording.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: I know.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: We're 50 days out from the election.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: I know.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Which means I got.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: It's only halfway through September. Come on, we have tons of time.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Which means I could get my ass on actually finishing editing the Republican Party platform. Might as well just lock myself in here in the office for like two days straight.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: And no, this is not because we have a preference for like ripping things apart with Republican Party platform that we're releasing. At first, it's. They had their convention first.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Period.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: It's strictly chronological.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Exactly. I have to admit while we were doing that, when I was chomping at the bit to see what the Democrats would come up with and I actually pretty pleased with a lot of what they came up with. I know you had some issues.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: One of my biggest issues was actually with the Harris Wells campaign.
So I went right after the Democratic National Convention to the website because I wanted to know what the Harris Wells policy statements were.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: And we were planning on doing, we.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Were planning on doing this. So I was starting the research and there was nothing. So I went and found the Democratic Party platform and that was fine because they, they ratified that and they put the PDF up. The problem there is they left everything as Biden, which was kind of funny, kind of wrong.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: When I was, when I was reading the party platform, I was like, they mentioned Biden's name an awful lot and he's not running anymore.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Then you pointed out that they probably had all of this written up ahead.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Of time and printouts and all of that. But at the same time, you would think before they finally ratified it, it is a PDF, you just go through a control search and replace. But it's not that hard.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Not even in a PDF. Have it in a Word document and do it that way.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: I know, right? But here's the thing. I checked it the week after the convention, no change. I checked it another half week later, no change. I checked it again last night and was happy to see they finally have an issues Tab up with the Harris Wells policy statements. Here's the thing though. What happened in the meantime? Because their network people got lazy.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: I'm calling you out about that. Folks, your web people need to be on top of this shit. It's the 21st century. They got lazy and did not even get a coming soon page up.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Okay, okay, I'll give you, I'll give you that. Because.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: All right, they didn't even. All that was there was donate. And I'm okay with that for a political campaign. But when you are dealing with people who want to know what's going on and who are going to search the web first for it, they're gonna find Trump's statements on what the Walls Harris campaign policy statement was.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: True.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Because that went out first because you dropped the ball.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Well, to be fair, I liked the fact though that immediately after the Republican National Convention, you didn't see Trump or Vance even really out there campaigning a whole lot.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: True.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Whereas Harrison Walls hit the ground running. To be fair. They really needed to focus on donation because.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Right. They had a crap ton of donations.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Come in so late into the running.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: But they, they, they had so much donations.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Oh my God, the record breaking donations.
Fantastic to watch.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: And it's, it was fantastic to watch and it's trickling back down. And I get it. They need the money. I get it because I've seen some of the commercials and some of the commercials are really awesome. I'm seeing them on streaming tv, which is great because that's what most people are watching anymore. Or a lot of people are watching.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: I should say anymore.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: I can't say most. But I haven't done the, I haven't done the research.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Unfortunately. That means the political ads are going to streaming tv and that's kind of why I wasn't watching regular television right now.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yep. Oh, I've been seeing Braun ads for a while. Mike Braun.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Oh, but you're on like Tubi or Pluto on something like that.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: No, on Hulu.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Oh. Oh. You know what I remember? During the midterm election or during. Yeah, during the midterm elections, I was seeing political ads on Hulu, so.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: And that's where I saw the Harris Walls app.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: That's part of why I stopped watching Hulu for a while.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: But the thing is, I get it. They did a really good. There are doing a really good job actively campaigning. Especially while she's still vice President of the United States.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Right, Exactly.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: My God, the woman's got a full time job and she's out doing this practically full time. Unlike somebody who likes to just go golfing. Oh, not naming names.
What, what's that face? I didn't name names. Did I name names? So, folks, here's the thing. I am still independent. Yes, I do a lot of Republican bashing because they make it too fucking easy. Okay? Anyway.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: And yes, folks, I'm still a socialist, so I am absolutely nonpartisan because neither of these parties is on the left as far as I'm concerned.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: A little bit. Our mascot's in here.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: Our mascot has returned to visiting and she might actually be smart enough not to chew on the plants this time.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: She's like, oh, there's water there.
She did. She sniffed at the water. It's like, oh, well, never mind.
But the time sensitive material which is talking about the Democrats and what specifically at the moment the Harris Wells campaign wants to have as their priorities. And we probably will expand out once I finish slogging through all of the Democrat I, I sound that way because it is slogging. You're what, what, 50 pages in?
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Halfway through, I think maybe.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Oh, not even. And it's dense. It's, it's, it's literally like reading some of the material I had to in grad school about politics in the Middle Ages and critics writing about politics in the Middle Ages. It's really dense. And yeah, it's a cure for insomnia. On Good at Good Times. So, you know, it's not that interesting.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: All political documents tend to be that way.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: I know.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: I've worked for more than one government agency.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: I know. Which is why, which is why the Republican platform was so weird. It didn't read like that.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: And I'd like to say it was written in plain language, but it was.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: It was written for middle schoolers. It really was. It was not written for adults, despite the fact that mostly adults are reading it.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Most government documents I know according to the plain language requirements in government, government documents are supposed to be at no higher than a ninth grade reading level. And apparently the Republicans decided to bury.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: That bar because that's something new for them. Really.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Because I would go with maybe sixth grade level with some of that language. It was just, it was simplified, but almost too simplified because burying the bar is the goal.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Don't you understand that? You can't control smart people. You can control stupid.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: That's, that's why Trump said he loves the uneducated.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Because burying the bar is the goal. We don't have to talk about him today.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: We don't have to talk about him today, and we're gonna stop talking about him today. So we're gonna go over the issues page, and that helps go over the platform.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Now, one of the things she said, I'm going to reference back to the debate because this whole opportunity economy. Okay, for me, that sounds very much like political jargon.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I kind of got that feeling too. I mean, I like the phrase. I like the phrase as a. As a word spinner.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: As a word spinner and a spin doctor. Because I do some marketing writing. So that's what that do.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: And that's what they do.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: That's what that do.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: That's what that do's.
They do to do's.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: I'm 100% going to blame some of this on Covid.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: But no, and here's my problem. I've had enough with marketing education that I have a very. Cat arches the back and hisses when I hear her marketing phraseology. And I immediately shut down and turn off because I don't want you selling me shit.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: But you know, that's a problem you're going to run into with most of generation X. We were super saturated with marketing as children, and so many of us are immune to it.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: And we don't want to hear this shit. No, we talk to us as people don't talk to us as jargon phrases. That simple.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Because I guess part of it is because our parents didn't talk to us much as people, so, you know, they.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Didn'T talk to us much, Period.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Exactly.
All right. So interestingly, they start this conversation about policies with talking about Harris's personal background, and I find that fascinating.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I really liked that.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: I do like that. Because most of us know next to nothing about Kamala Harris as a person.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: I kind of wish they would have put some of walls back.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:11:59] Speaker A: That's the one complaint.
[00:12:00] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: That's the one. That's the one complaint I actually have about this section is they don't really talk about. They do in this.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: They do have a separate link, though, to his campaign page.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Okay, that's true. He does have a separate campaign.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: He has a separate campaign page. So I.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: And I will probably continue to say this in episodes until after the election. Harris's husband may be the first gentleman. And I love the fact that that's the term they're coming up with.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Because quite frankly, first lord doesn't sound right.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: No.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: As opposed to first lady, But Harris's husband may be first gentleman, but let's.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Face it, walls is the dad I always wanted, Walls is going to be America's dad. Yep. He is.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: And he is absolutely the dad I always wished I had.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: And I'm here for it.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Because he's such a. The one thing more than anything I love about him is he is such a proponent and living example of healthy masculinity.
And that is a key thing that. And that is part of why we're seeing the very rabid divide between the political. On the political spectrum is because the toxic masculinity is lining up on one side.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. Yet another spoiler.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Yet another spoiler. Toxic masculinity is absolutely doubling down, tripling down and fortifying their stance on one side.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Yes. Because the people I keep hearing coming out in the masculine presenting that I see coming out in favor of Harris Walls. Absolutely. Are people who do not portray toxic masculinity. And a lot of the time have worked to remove that from their lives.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: I have to confess, and we need.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: That in a big public way, representation matters.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: I have to confess, if I have to choose, I would happily vote for four years. I'm gonna wait till you put the coffee cup down.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Why? I'm very quiet with it, but okay. Why you think I'm gonna spit take or have a spit take with it?
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Happily vote for four years.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: I would happily vote for four years of dad jokes.
I'm sorry. So, okay, so they've got a different. They've got a different website for Waltz. So. Okay. His background's probably on there.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: But yeah, I really like the fact that they, they made her sound like someone so many of us can relate to. And I'm careful to say that because the whole I feel like you could sit and have a beer with him thing that they did with Obama actually got lampooned in Hamilton and they were comparing that to Aaron Burr, which was. Woohoo.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Well, and the thing is, she grew up middle class in a middle class home as daughter of a working mom. Yes. Her mom worked. Her mom was in neuroscience. That's not a low paying industry.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: It's not a low paying, but it is a middle class industry.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: As a single mom with that income, we then pull to the upper echelons of middle class. She was living in California. She could afford to live in California with a home fair.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Depending on where in California. Wait, she was. She's from Oakland. Oakland. So yeah, Oakland. The. Not anymore. Much less much. I'm sorry, Cheaper area of San Francisco. I will say though, when Harris was Growing up in Oakland, though, Oakland was dicey.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: But my half sister has lived in Pittsburgh, which is one of the suburbs of San Francisco. No, not Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh. There is a Pittsburgh.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: There's a Pittsburgh, California.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: There's a Pittsburgh, California.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: There's more than one Pittsburgh in this country.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah. It doesn't have an H on the end. Anyway, I'm serious.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Anyway, it's a suburb of San Francisco because she's been Deputy State Attorney General in San Francisco for a long time. Okay, okay. And the thing is, those suburbs of San Francisco are very pricey.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: They're less pricey than San Francisco proper.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Of course, now I understand they're very pricey. When Harris was growing up there, though, that was the 80s.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: That was the 70s and 80s.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: The 70s and 80s. Because she's pretty close to our age. She's only a few years old.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: She's only a few years older than that.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: Yay. Gen Xers.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: They're finally. We finally have an opportunity to actually, you know, be in charge of something. What?
[00:16:11] Speaker A: It's about time. Let us be in charge before we age out.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: And yet we still need to have Generation Jones on board to help make sure we stay stable. Walls is right there on the border. He's. He's like my sister, Harrison Walls.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Both are. Because they're basically Both born in 64.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Which is right on the cusp. But, you know, I'm of the opinion that the year before can make you an honorary for the next generation.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Well, it's. It's kind of like. It's kind of like Zodiac cusps, you know? Yeah, it's kind of is.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: It is.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: You get a little bit of the benefits of both.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: It is. Yeah. I'm born on the cusp, so I'm kind of a little bit Jen Jones. Yeah. I'm kind of a little bit Gen X. I'm a little bit Gen X. I'm a little bit millennial. Yeah. Actually, to be fair. To be fair, one of my nibblings is pretty much right at the top end of Gen Z, so she's kind of like that. It's. It's a little bit millennial, a little bit Gen Z. So. Yeah, it's a thing.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Much like the Zodiac cusps. Yeah.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: There you go for random. For random association. Right?
[00:17:08] Speaker A: What an association.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Hey, I'm good at these things, you know. You want a random association, let me know. I will come up with one for you. And. Whoa, will it be weird. You should. You should hear some of my stream of consciousness. Talking to myself. It's, it's strange and interesting and well, okay, I think it's interesting, but I'm talking to myself. So I was gonna say why wouldn't I be?
[00:17:28] Speaker A: You also have a very intelligent and attentive audience. So.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: Way to slide that.
Way to slide the compliment in that I can't say.
I'm also famous for not being able.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: To take a compliment that is fair.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: But I appreciate that her focus is on the middle class because Trump claims, and yeah, I said we wouldn't say his name, but the Republicans claim that they're going to help everybody, including the middle class. We know that's bullshit.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: We know they won't because we know.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: They won't because they never do and they never have and they have continuously not been. This is a claim and a focus on building and, and making it clear that the focus is to rebuild the middle class because that is a reality of American policy. Politics and economics is the middle class is disappearing. The why the gap is getting wider and wider and wider.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. And truth be told, trickle down economics is a lot of what has killed the middle class.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Keynesian economics was a mistake from minute one.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Oh, huge mistake.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: Because somebody decided that the soc that the psychopath and yes, they rank high on the psychopathy scale mentioned this before, that the psychopaths in charge of a major corporation would actually voluntarily give money away to people working for them.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: So how are they going to help the middle class?
[00:18:55] Speaker B: I. They plan on cutting taxes for the middle class, which I think is awesome.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Fantastic. I'm going to read what's on the website because what's on the website is so much shorter than what's in the platform. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz believe that working families deserve a break. That's why under their plan, more than 100 million working and middle class Americans will get a tax cut. They will do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class and working. The Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Through these two programs, millions of Americans get to keep more of their hard earned income. They will also expand the Child Tax Credit to provide a $6,000 tax cut to families with newborn children.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Which kind of sucks for those of us who have children that are not newborn and have a lot of money going out for the not newborn.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: I have comments on the Child Tax Credit. They believe no child in America should live in poverty and these actions would have a historic impact.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: It also doesn't help anybody who doesn't have children.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Which is again A priorities issue.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Trying to seek assistance because of financial instability. It was kind of frustrating to see all of these programs that will help people with children but don't help people who don't have children because apparently people who don't have children don't have economic instability. I don't get it. So on one.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and that's like I said, that's the thing is they'll expand child care taxes, child tax credit, which is awesome. Are you going to expand credits to families that have kids they're trying to put through college?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that is a big one because.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: That'S a huge one. It's so fucking expensive.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Expensive.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: You can put a down payment on a house with how much it is for one year of college at a state run school.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Oh absolutely. You can do the same thing with rent here in Indiana, by the way.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: But they are going to look, they are looking into that one for the rent at least.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: That is true. That does come up. However, they are also going to increase the earned income credit. That does help everybody. And having that be cut really hurt.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah, that really gutted.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Unlike Donald Trump, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are committed to ensuring no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Timeout. Earning less than $400,000 a year needs to start paying less in taxes. I'm sorry to have half to two thirds of our income going to taxes to pay for things that we don't have any feedback on. So that I don't have a problem paying that much taxes as long as it's taxation with representation. Not without. Unfortunately our tax money has been going to pay for pet projects of very wealthy people and into very wealthy pockets. And I don't appreciate that at all.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Well now that does say though it says they're committed to ensuring that no one earning less than 400,000 will pay more. Will pay more.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: I want them, I want them to ensure that earning less than 400,000 start paying less.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Well, that's what that's actually saying.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: No, it says we're going to freeze the taxes and not make you pay any more than you're already paying.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, they should lower taxes for people making.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Really do want to lower some taxes on people making less than 400,000 because God damn it, we can't afford to keep funding everything.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: I have my opinions on things that.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: We shouldn't be funding. Yeah, well there's that.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: But yeah, they believe that we need to chart a new way Forward. By both making our tax system fairer and prioritizing investment and innovation, they will ensure the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations pay their fair share so we can take action to build up the middle class while reducing the deficit. This includes rolling back Trump's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, enacting a billionaire minimum tax, quadrupling the tax on stop buy backs, and other reforms to ensure the very wealthy are playing by the same rules as the middle class. Under her plan, the tax rate on long term capital gains for those earning a million dollars a year or more will be 28%. Because when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad based economic growth and creates jobs, which makes our economy stronger.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: And I guarantee you that is not the standard or position remotely as has been expressly, repeatedly stated by the Republican Party.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: I've seen in multiple cases where people jump in and they're, they're pro Trump, so they're like, well, enjoy paying those capital gains taxes under Harris. And it's like, do you make more than a million dollars?
[00:23:39] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:23:40] Speaker A: If you don't, you don't have to worry about it.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: If you don't sit down and shut the fuck up.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Hello? Yeah, this will have to be the explicit listing because of the swearing.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Well, I would say if I could remember the, the acronym for it, I would use the acronym, but you know, it's just easier to remember the words that's fair.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: But so that's their recommend, that's their tax cuts for the middle class families.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: And I honestly, what else has been the. I am so. Because the people, the wealthiest people in America have so many ways to dodge paying taxes and so many loopholes to get out of paying taxes. I am all for going after their taxes, especially since they don't even fucking pay them half the time.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Oh, I know.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: And the IRS can't really go after them because then they lawyer up and it's long, protracted and it costs money and yeah, it's like, damn.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Oh, I know.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: And it's just like, so not. It's very frustrating. Not, I don't want to be wealthy, I never did. But at the same time, it's very frustrating trying to be not anti anybody's achievement, but at the same time demanding that, damn it, you get to benefit from all this shit. Why are you not taking your fair share, paying for it?
[00:25:00] Speaker A: That has always been a frustrating thing for me.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Do you use the police? Do you use the fire department? Do you use the library? Do you use public anything? Do you use the fucking court system. Do you use any of this? Pay your share.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: And they don't.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: And a struggle I always experience when I'm talking to people who refer to taxes as theft. I think it was Roosevelt that said, taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: And when they're like, taxes, theft, it's like, what do you think the government runs on?
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Let's say, how exactly were all of these people getting paid? Oh, thoughts and prayers. That's right, angel.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Thoughts and unicorn farts.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: See, you say it nice and fun. I go straight for the jugular. What can I say? Thoughts and prayers.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: I mean, come on.
That's what the government runs on is tax revenue.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: They don't seem to quite get that. And it frustrates me.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Now, one of the things they point out in the actual Democrat Party platform is something we were talking about earlier with the microchips Biden has worked really hard to bring to restore America's role. Producing tiny microchips. That is straight from the party platform for the American president, from the American presidency project. As a different article I was reading was pointing out. It's. It is a multinational activity to do this. It is not something that can just be. One nation does it all.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Because not one nation has everything you need.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: And we talked about that in the Republican Party platform as well.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: But what they've done is made it so that they work with Taiwan. They have to. For the. For the semiconductor production.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Precisely.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Taiwan has a semiconductor productivity capability for the entire world. For the entire world. Which is why the vested interest in keeping China's hands off of Taiwan.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: And why things are so dicey over there right now is because China really wants Taiwan. Because they want that bad.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: They want that revenue.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: And this is. But this is why part of what the Biden administration has done is put that embargo on sending any microchip, anything to China, which is hurting them quite a bit, apparently. And trying to keep working with Taiwan, the Netherlands, and I forget the other agency, the other group that was in on that one. But there were four main players, the U.S. taiwan, Netherlands, and I don't remember the fourth, that all go together to be able to work on the microchip successfulness. And that has to happen. It can't happen any other way. Most of that is with Europe. Most of what we're doing is working with Europe for that. But Biden wants to bring more of that semiconductor concept back into America so that we don't have the danger of dealing with China in any way. Shape or form because China's getting really pissy in the Taiwan Sea.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Do we have the capability, is my question.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: If we build up the infrastructure, yes, Silicon Valley has the ability, has the technical capability.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: I can see that.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: But we need the base infrastructure put in place with the appropriate. I don't want to say factories, but we're talking the actual processing plants in Silicon Valley in addition to the brain trusts that are in Silicon Valley. So that is something that they've been working on to really take control over producing our own microchips as much as we possibly. As much as we possibly can. And working with Europe, which is where the raw supplies are. There's a lot of the raw supplies in Europe that makes sense. And so working with Europe for some of the. For a lot of the raw supplies that we need. So that is something that they have been currently working on and it's something that I know Harris is not explicitly saying, but is big. Despite the fact that Silicon Valley has decided to rally because they're a bunch of billionaires. Decide to rally with the billionaire boy boys club. They are, they're, they're small toddlers. They're a bunch of frickin toddlers with a hole with way too much money and way too much power. The billionaire boys club are solidifying around the toxic masculinity anyway. So that means, you know, not around Harris. I know you're not shocked face.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: My not shocked face. Yeah.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: But what that means is Harris is going to run into a diplomatic activity, action she needs to take, provided she's elected president. I will leave that proviso out there because I am not going to assume, I am not going to do what we did with Clinton. Not even fucking remotely. No, never again. I learned. But provided Harris wins the presidency and provided the 14% of Republicans out there that say they will take action should not, should Trump not win, are dealt with, provided all of this goes peacefully, that she will have a major diplomatic activity on her hands to get that actually moving again. Because it's moving sort of under Biden. We're just not hearing a lot about it.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: We're not hearing a lot about it. And I know some of that is because so much of the election noise.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Is happening as it always does during a presidential election year. I find it mildly amusing that people are. That people were complaining about Biden losing it before he dropped out of the.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Race and they're not making a peep about the current twit.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Not just that, but they're not saying anything more. They're also really not talking about how good of a job Biden is actually doing right now as president. And I think part of the reason why he's doing so well right now as president, like is he getting to do this job in this time period right now, not previous, but right now in September of 2024, is because he is now focusing on one thing, his job, being president. He is not trying to split his focus between being president and running for reelection. And it was the combination of the two that was, that wore him down.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: As he is right now. He's able to do his job just.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Like the other one's able to always golf.
That's his job, isn't it? What he did when he was president. That's his job. Right. Just go golf.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I always found it amusing that they whined and complained about how much Obama golfed and Trump did like what, two to three times in his first year. What a lot of people don't realize about business people or politicians going to play golf?
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it's, that's where a meeting.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Occurs because you're doing an activity while discussing business. And that has been traditionally the way it works for God only knows how long.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Unfortunately, that's also a means of doing business without cameras, without microphones, without recording materials. And I kind of have a little bit of a problem with that.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: I do too.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: I kind of have a little lot of a problem with that.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: I do too. The bonus is people now have cell phones and that's leaked some interesting things. It's leaked a couple of interesting tirades.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: So apparently under President Biden, more than a dozen states have seen the largest private sector factory investments in their history.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Good.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: There are now designated more than 30 tech hubs in communities from Reno, Nevada to Charlotte, North Carolina to north central Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania and lower income, way lower income counties see a larger share of the investment of the 877 billion in private funding. It's under the Chips act stuff.
[00:32:28] Speaker A: Oh, is it?
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah. America has become one of the world's only major countries to pull back on R D investments in recent years. And Biden has turned and tried to change that. He launched the Advanced Research Projects agency for health, ARPA H in 2022 for medical. Continue supporting NASA.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Trying to get to Mars is cold.
Spoiler alert. It's cold.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Wrong.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: It's cold. But biotech, quantum computing, and unlike the, quote, good jobs by the Republicans, there's no racial distinction to a good job.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I gotta go there.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: The number of jokes I'VE seen about the presidency and the vice presidency being a quote unquote black job have been phenomenal.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm there for them because it's literally.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Just taking it, throwing it right back in Republicans faces. And yeah, I'm here for it.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. The, the current. Currently they've created 880,000 more jobs in construction, building roads, factories, etc. More Americans are employed in these fields and clean energy today than ever were prior to this. And any federally financed infrastructure job must include wage and labor protections.
So they're also working to strengthen Buy American.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: I'm of two minds with that because here is a struggle people don't understand with the whole Buy American thing. Do you realize that 85% of our clothing is not made in the United States?
[00:34:05] Speaker B: It's not. It is made in China and Taiwan.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: And it's made largely, basically Southeast Asia.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Anywhere where they can do essentially slave labor.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Exactly. And that is why our clothing is.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: So cheap and falls part easily.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: You others that is so cheap.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Is because that's why the cost is lower. Because they're not paying the types of wages that they would have to pay here in the States. And if they had to switch everything to American made, nobody would be able to afford to buy the clothing.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: We wouldn't be able to. We would not be able to afford to live in our own country.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: It's the same issue you run into with people not understanding the concept of.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Handmade objects or the concept of. I know some GMs an American made car. I hate to tell you this folks. I hate to tell you this. Just because the parts were assembled in America doesn't make it American made. The parts are not American.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Yeah. The parts are not coming from the United States.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: The parts are coming from all over the world and being put together in America.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: As a matter of fact, I think the own. We're almost to the point. Not quite. Because Chrysler still has transmission plants. I know they're still up in Kokomo. A lot of what they do here is basically just assembly.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: I know.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: Yeah. They don't create the actual parts anymore. They just assemble. Yep. And I don't know if that's what happens with the Chrysler plan in Kokomo or not.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Now that'll work there. I will say for the heavy construction stuff that's American made.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Having a husband in the business, I know how this works and I know where they get their materials from. And it's. It's all American made. But for the average run of the mill Person. No. Everything that you are driving, wearing, sleeping on, eating off of, eating with, occasionally even eating, period. Is not American made or American grown.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Because it's too damned expensive and because we've gotten too much to be a consumer culture.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Exactly. And people do not realize how much it costs to put into something. I had someone who wanted, who wasn't someone, wanted me to make them a costume.
And I start, I'm looking at the pattern and I'm looking at how much material is necessary and I'm adding up the cost of the materials alone.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Yeah, not your time.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: And it was like 85 or $90 just for the materials. That does not include any of the time for mocking up a muslin pattern, fitting it to the person, creating the actual garment and making adjustments made, sizing. It didn't include any of that time, any of those steps. And it was already at like 90 bucks.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's realistic. And no, there's no sarcasm there, folks.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: That's realistic.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: I've done this before.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: It really is. So when you start adding in all of that labor time, you're easily talking between 2 and $300 for this costume.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Yep. You'll like this. From the Democratic platform. Switching yours back. You'll like this because we've had this conversation before. You shouldn't have to go to a four year college to live a good middle class life.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: I don't disagree with that at all. However, I am concerned. The focus throughout all of this is supporting industry, is supporting corporate, is supporting 9 to 5 regular work. There isn't a lot of support for the creative.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: I'm not seeing that either.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: And I am not seeing support for the creatives. I consider that a problem.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: And that's a place where I'm really.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Struggling with this because the creatives really need the help.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: This is where they're dropping the ball. So we told you we would actually be critical of them as well.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yeah, we were not. We were not saying happily with everything everybody says anywhere.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: This is absolutely where they're dropping the ball.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Because the creatives have needed the help for a very long time. A very long time. I don't know the last time that creatives actually got.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: I do the Renaissance.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: The Works study. No, the Works project. Federal Works project.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: The creatives got a lot of support in the Federal Works project.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: That's right. The WPA did.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: The WPA did a whole lot of support for creatives. Did it support all the creatives? No, because it didn't support Fine Arts. It didn't support Visual Arts. It supported writing, but that's okay. It was something.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: Now we have the national. We have the National Endowment.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: But there's only so much.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: There's only so much money. And yes, seriously, the arts need support.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: In a huge way.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: I am running up against this, and I'm pretty sure some of this is really only in my own head of trying to help people understand that the creative ventures I'm working on add up to a full time job.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: More than a full time job, for as much time as you spend with that computer. More than a full time job.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: You're not wrong.
You're not wrong. I sat yesterday. I sat yesterday reading through a novella that I'd written by hand. We're not going to discuss how far long ago.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: I'm still older than you are, so I'm not worried about it.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: I wrote it like nine years ago, I think.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Oh, is that all?
[00:39:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, right?
[00:39:19] Speaker B: Thanks, Pipes.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Oh, well, yeah, but no, I wrote it. Yeah, I wrote it about eight or nine years ago. No, nine or ten. Anyway, I wrote it after I wrote. I wrote it after I wrote the novel that I working on publishing. And I sat down yesterday to read through it and find chapter breaks because I wrote it as a solid manuscript. When I got done, I added up the word count and I went. I didn't write a force, I didn't write a short story. I think I wrote a novella. Oops. So now I've got a portion it out and of course I've got to fill in some gaps and things like that. But I sat and worked on that and I mapped out a short story and that was six hours of my day.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: And it's. In a lot of ways the lack of recognition for the amount of work for a creative is the same as the lack of recognition for the amount of work for a homemaker.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: And the static assumption that this is not work.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: I mean, I spend more time in the car running kid around than I do anything else.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Because the kid has so much he's doing right now precisely because he's in high school, because he started high school and he wants to do everything. So okay, we make this work somehow.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: But I was kind of that kid too, so. I understand.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: But I have to schedule my life around his and that leaves me only narrow windows to be able to work. Which means I can't do six hours on much of anything.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: If I did, I'd be.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Uh huh.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: To be blunt.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: But I get, I get kind of taken for granted in the home. It's a reality. I'm there, I do it, it gets done. Okay, cool. No thanks, mom. No, thanks, honey. I appreciate it. No, that's okay. I've learned to accept that. Do I think it's the way it should be? No. Do I think I should stand up and say, I really would appreciate a little bit of recognition every once in a while? Yeah. Am I going to? Probably not. Because I was raised in. Because I was raised in that particular mindset. Mindset at home.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, our parents very much had that mindset.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: They were. They were force fed that mindset.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Yep. And my mom worked away from home and so I was. I had to take care of everything at home anyways. And my dad was one of those. We've talked about my dad. My dad was one of those women taken for granted. Yeah. Isn't that what their natural state is?
[00:41:38] Speaker A: And in other news, water is wet and today's day ends in a Y.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much.
So I've been conditioned from very early on to just say, okay, this is the way it is and I live with it.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: And yeah, that's very much a struggle that I've got. I love the fact that they are focusing on creating new jobs.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: They're focusing on job training with high school, community colleges, unions, employers, they're moving.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Away from the concept. Everybody has to have a four year.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Degree, registered apprenticeships, you know, these are great things. Now can we please expand it to actually include the people who work from home now? Because a lot of us do. Because. Oh my goodness, Covid taught us that we can.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Can we please expand it to, I don't know, remembering that creatives need to make a living to keep a roof over their heads too.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: So I appreciate very much what they're doing in that sense. I notice it as a major flawless that there's a large segment of the population, especially the segment that has to pay their own insurance, that has to pay their own everything.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: They have to pay self employment tax.
[00:42:48] Speaker B: Self employment tax. They have to pay everything out of their own pocket and they're not going to get a break from this.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: I would also like to see them help out contractors.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Not just W2 contractors, but 1099 contractors as well. Help them out.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Because it ain't easy working a 1099 contract job.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: I can't imagine it is.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: I have one I'm currently working on more because that's kind of how the crowdfunding works. But I would like to see them help Us out as well.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Absolutely. And there is one of the things that Harris has talked about with grow small business and invest in entrepreneurs. That's a little bit later.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: And that might be where it actually could help out.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Small business, neighborhood shops, high tech startups, small manufacturers. That is. That is after making rent more affordable and homeownership more attainable. I'm back on the Harris page. So.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: I skip back to the Harris page because the stuff about economy in the Democrat platform is dense. And there is a lot. There's so much of it. Because part of it is, like you pointed out, a lot of what Biden has done in his tenure hasn't been recognized. Sorry, folks. That's pipe noise from upstairs. They're flushing a toilet, washing something. I don't know.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, my neighbors are home.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: Yeah. A lot of what the Democratic platform is, too. And the reason it's so dense is to point out how much the Democrats have been doing that nobody has said anything about.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: And to point out that we're actually in a good place to build from that, because this is kind of like they didn't know about Harris. Well, we didn't know about all of this shit. So somebody's got to tell us somewhere, somehow. This is what it sounds like when somebody sets up the hose at my house outside.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: Oh, is it?
[00:44:33] Speaker B: Yes. You set up the outside. When Greg decides to wash the car in the driveway. This is.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: This is.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: The sound is.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Part of me almost wants to just go ahead and keep it in because it's funny. And this is the joy of living in an apartment.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Unfortunately, I haven't forgotten. I. This is part of why I got out of an apartment as fast as I could. I mean, I appreciate neighbors. I just don't like neighbors that close. If you're interested actually in seeing a better picture of where our economy actually is at, not just what mainstream media is reporting, go look at the Democratic Party platform because they are telling you all the things that have been done under the Biden administration that nobody's reported on. I think they're taking a shower, which means. I think it's gonna be noisy. I think you're right because the water's going, going, which means I think they're taking a shower or running a bath, one or the other, speculating on what the upstairs neighbors are doing because of the noise. It's kind of a fun game. Try it sometime, folks.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: It's kind of a fun game. We're gonna pause, though.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: We're live again because we both Know, I don't stop talking.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: We were talking. We were, we were. Yeah, I know. Well, we were looking at some of what we were talking about, some of what the Democrats have done that hasn't hit the news feeds that much. And one of the things they point out is they have been holding companies accountable and they will continue aggressively holding companies accountable for violating child labor laws. That is something that has appeared in our local news.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: Oh yeah, because they talked about lowering it to like what, third grade?
[00:45:55] Speaker B: There was one bill that was point. There was one point where they were talking about third grade. I don't know how serious that was and how much that was sarcasm. But they're definitely talking 13 at least. Yeah, they're definitely talking about at least bringing it down to 13.
[00:46:11] Speaker A: I don't want a 13 year old handling a fry basket at a restaurant. One, they might not be tall enough. And two, my sister is three and a half years older than me.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: So when she was in high school and I was still in middle school, we would, the band would take turns with some of the other clubs running the food service at like games. And of course it's not the band members who are doing it, it's the.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: Parents, it's the family members and because.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: It'S the band boosters.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: And I actually worked with my mom in, in that hut handling food that quite honestly handling a hot popcorn machine and had. And to be honest with you, it's.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Amazing you didn't end up with third degree burns. Got it.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: At 13 there were quite a few of my fellow grade students that would not have been safe there.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I was.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Because I already understood the concept of touch the hot thing and you will get burned. But I would not trust that to a kid who's 12, 13 years old.
[00:47:15] Speaker B: And honestly, fundamentally, I don't know too many 12 or 13 year olds that actually practice a lot of sanitary hands hand systems. So, you know, I mean, you're not wrong. I hate to say it, but they're not known for wanting to wash their hands all the time and kind of need to want to do that for food sources. But I think they're mostly talking about farm communities.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Because that's a brilliant idea. Really big farm machinery where it's literally more physically dangerous to work on a farm than it is to be a cop. Is a good point for a 13 year old.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: Gotcha. Oh, I remember back in the 80s you could work, you had, there was a stipulation, the time where you could work as young as like 14, you could actually help, like shuck corn and things like that. I can't remember. If you could get a voucher to work outside the home at 14, you could. At 15 you could. In Michigan, I think you could, but only for certain industries. And one of them was absolutely shucking corn. Because we live in Indiana and there's. There is more than corn in Indiana.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Yeah, there's soybeans now.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:48:21] Speaker B: And winter wheat that you got from Michigan. We had been. We'd been doing winter wheat for years. When. Back when I was a kid even. So.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah, we were.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: For an awfully long time.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: We were too. And I had friends in school, same grade as me, working out in those fields. You gonna stick a 12 year old out in those fields? Apparently they'll drop bed from heat exhaustion.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: Probably. But we're all about protecting the children. Oh, was that too. Too much sarcasm? Too soon.
The faces. This is one of those moments. Instagram would be better because the camera would so be on her. Because the faces I'm getting, they're wonderful.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: They don't care about children. They only care about fetuses.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: That's right. Because the fetuses can't talk back.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: I was seriously debating on whether or not to make that comment. That's what that face was. I'm like, do I say it? Do I say it? Fuck it. Gonna say it.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Fetuses can't talk back.
I do like the idea that they're going to try to preserve.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: They've increased funding for osha. I think that's fabulous.
And they want to work to protect worker and they want to work to support workplace whistleblowers, which I think is fabulous.
[00:49:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: Despite the fact that the Republican platform said they were going to do that. Exactly. How much evidence do we have of that? Of how often they've called out the whistleblowers for retribution? You know, let me. Okay. Multiple times. So who do I believe? I don't know. Anyway, I'm not saying who to believe. I'm just saying who I believe. They kept pensions solvent for 2 million people.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Good.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: They raised minimum wage to 1720 an hour. And they still want to see it get up to 15 an hour for all Americans.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: Wait, where did they actually do the.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: 17 an hour page? 11ish. 1112. Oh, we're not. I'm not on the Harris. I'm back in the Democratic Party.
But they want to keep pushing Congress to increase it to at least $15 an hour. And they want to make hourly workers eligible for overtime.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Which is absolutely fabulous.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: And can we please increase that $15 an hour for literally all Americans? And yes, that includes food service.
[00:50:26] Speaker B: How about can we please increase it to all Americans and oh, that includes those of us who actually have to take care of everything around the house for the rest of the people that live there.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: And I'm going to be honest with you, that's where universal basic income comes into play.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: I know, Believe me, I know where it comes from.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: That compensates people who are, I know, domestic workers essentially stuck being slaves in.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: The house and get almost nothing for it.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Because you're married.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Because it's my job. Oh, I am lucky, folks. I have a husband who helps a lot around the house.
[00:51:03] Speaker A: It was pretty phenomenal.
[00:51:04] Speaker B: I have got an amazing husband. He helps around the house when I can't. He does his share of everything. I cannot complain about my personal position, but I can complain in the sense that I know I am representative of a whole lot of women out there who don't have that, who are stuck with a full time job because somebody. Because you can't survive without a full time job anymore. Believe me, we're finding this out. And they also have a full time job at home taking care of everybody else and everybody else's life.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: So.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Exactly. I will say this though. I. I am liking the fact that they are. They're fighting to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize act.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: That's a good idea.
[00:51:47] Speaker A: To give everyone the right to organize for better pay, benefits and working conditions and to hold abusive bond accountable for violating workers rights. Yes. This is actually a step toward a national union.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: I don't know if I like that. I'm not anti union, but the bigger the union, the more corrupt it gets. The UAW is the poster child for what happens when a union gets too big.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: True.
[00:52:11] Speaker B: And a national union would be even bigger than the uaw.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: It would. There would have to be a lot of restrictions in place.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Here's my fundamental flaw with it. In America, America is so proudly capitalist to the detriment of everything else.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: It is. And that's what, that, that's what makes me want a national union. That's not what makes me lobby heavily for a national union. There's too much corruption.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Exactly. We are so wedded to capitalism above and beyond everything else and above and beyond any. All, any other economic concept that it's a bad plan fundamentally. And for here, for here, for here.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: It works great in other countries.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: It works great in all sorts of European countries that are not so wedded to capitalism that they can't take care of their constituents.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: And not so large.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: And not so large.
[00:53:08] Speaker A: Some of our biggest struggle in this.
[00:53:11] Speaker B: Country is were just too damn big.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: That was a vehicle.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: It was. And let's see if I can't get that out of the sound.
[00:53:17] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:53:17] Speaker A: That has been one of my biggest struggles.
[00:53:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: Joy of living in an apartment anyway.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: When I can recognize 40 years ago that we're just too damn big.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: And we've been just too damn big for ever since probably the Louisiana Purchase for this particular style of government with a capitalist focused economy.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: It goes back to. I'm not. Do I think slavery is right? Oh, hell no. Not by any stretch. Do I think the Civil War should have been decided differently. Yeah.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: How so?
[00:53:49] Speaker B: It would have made it so we weren't so damn big. It would have turned us into two countries.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: I can see that now.
[00:53:56] Speaker B: Like I said, slavery. Wrong. Bad, horrible need to stop it, Period.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: And had the Confederate States of America been based on anything other than slavery.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: It might have worked.
[00:54:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: But it's in their articles of. I know. They wanted to be a country where slavery was legal.
[00:54:16] Speaker B: Yep. I understand. No, I understand. Like I said, I understand. Had it decided differently and broken off into two separate countries, we would obviously be having a very different conversation. But in a lot of ways, I think would have done a better job helping us develop into something a little bit more like Europe. Yeah. I think the first big problem was Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and that mass expansion. Second big problem was I read a great article this weekend. Was Seward was the first Russian dupe. Russia convinced Seward to buy Alaska. It was a fascinating historical article. I know, right? A fascinating historical article I was reading.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: So you have to send me that link.
[00:54:58] Speaker B: I'll have to look the article back up because I don't remember where I went. But I will find. I will find it again and send you the link because it was a really interesting read. It was a fascinating read that be. We have Alaska because Russia duped Seward into thinking it was a good idea. And Russia wanted to dump off this Arctic property that was not part of Russia.
That was closer to Canada.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: That was closer to Canada.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And Canada wasn't interested in it because it's Arctic property that has the Inuits. Okay. Nifty. So, yeah, but that was an interest. That was an interesting, you know, me diversion. I. I got caught into a. Oh, this is interesting. I went and read it. It was a quick read, but it was really interesting anyway. Okay. But here's the thing. This Is. But those. Those are my reserv. That is my big reservation with the concept of a national union. Our own government is already too prone at too many levels to corruption. You get a national union in there and you quadruple the likelihood, I think at least of corruption.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Fair point. I do love seeing that they're talking about. They oppose state right to work laws. Yes, please.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: Which drive down wages and leave workers unsafe. And we support penalizing employers who engage in union busting.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: We'll work. To pass the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate act guaranteeing public sector bargaining rights and to codify a right to organize for domestic workers, farm workers and other unprotected laborers. Yes, please.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Yes, please. I'd like to actually see an enforcement that the white collar workers can organize too.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Oh, me too.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Because that's been the story of my life too, is I came from a family where the dad was white collar and he was.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Lois.
[00:56:46] Speaker B: Wrong white collar. But he was still a project engineer. And every time the uaw. Because auto union up in. We were up in. He was working up in Flint. But every time the UAW went on strike and got benefits, a. He had to cross the picket lines and they were nasty as shit to him. Oh, God, yes. Not because he could do anything about it. He would lose his job if he didn't go to work. Because he's not allowed white collar to unionize.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: Only blue collar can union. Unionize.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: That's something a lot of people don't realize.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: People just don't understand that salary can't unionize.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: Right. And salary, in my opinion, is corporate slavery.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: Oh, it absolutely is. Because they can't unionize. And because every time. And this is. This is part of where the conversation needs to be broadened too. Every time. I remember this very clearly. All the. All the while growing up in high school, every time anything. The union won a concession, legitimately earned a concession because they needed it and their workers needed it. Don't have argument with that. The upper echelons of management took it away from the lower level salary.
By the time I graduated high school, the assembly line workers had better dental vision and health plans than my white collar family did.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And the argument had always been, well, why don't salary people get to work overtime? Why don't they get to unionize? Why don't they get to do these things? And why do they Especially the why don't they get paid for overtime? The argument had always been, you get paid significantly more money. So.
[00:58:31] Speaker B: And no, not anymore. You don't we're already paying you.
[00:58:33] Speaker A: We're already compensating you for that overtime. And you're right. Over the years that has become less and less true to the point where it is almost absolutely false. But when a trade worker who can unionize is now making more money than an office worker who can't.
[00:58:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: That's when it's wrong.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: I have no qualms with the trade worker making that much money.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Good.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: Autumn, quite honestly, that's a really hard. Yeah, all of the trades are really hard fucking jobs. And I am impressed with anybody who can do them. Absolutely. However, we are now in a situation where it is a punishment to work a salary position.
[00:59:11] Speaker B: Yes, it is.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Because those wages have not risen on the same level that blue collar work has risen. And quite frankly, I would really like to get rid of the colored collars.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: The colored collars, I agree. But I don't have a better way of describing it.
[00:59:28] Speaker A: No, exactly. But the reason I want to get away with that, I guess you could.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Say salary versus hourly. But a lot of people, people don't understand that either.
[00:59:35] Speaker A: I want to get. I want to get rid of it because I don't want them to be hourly workers or us. And collar workers or salary workers or white collar workers. Want them to be workers. Yeah, just everyone is a worker. That's what we're all doing. It does not matter if you were sitting in an office. It does not matter if you were standing on a factory floor. Everyone is working.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: You know what I'd also like to see if we're going to talk about reformatting corporation structure. What I'd really love to see is a cap put on the number of manager CEO type positions per X number of workers. Because we have a way too big glut of business people that don't actually know how to do any of the shit they're overseeing. And okay, fine, you went to business school, Yay on you. But if you don't know how to do everything, you don't know how to do what you're overseeing. You're going to do a crap job overseeing it. And you don't belong getting the exploded salary you're getting for it.
[01:00:37] Speaker A: I would really like to see income caps on CEOs.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: You need both.
[01:00:42] Speaker A: You cannot make more than X amount times the lowest worker. The lowest paid worker.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: Yep. I don't disagree with that one. I've seen that in the news. I don't disagree with that one at all. Because quite honestly, this is bullshit. That all the money in the company ends up going to a bunch of fat cats at the top.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: Rather than actually people who are doing the job. But they are really digging in to the language of the American dream.
[01:01:07] Speaker A: They are.
[01:01:08] Speaker B: And really trying to refocus people on the reality that can be the American dream when we all pull together.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:01:18] Speaker B: So that I appreciate very much.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: I need to look at it that.
[01:01:23] Speaker B: Way and I love looking at it that way. I just accept that they have holes in who they expect this American dream for. And they're pretty damn big holes that are covering a lot more people in the US anymore.
[01:01:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: So those holes that are that big really do need to be addressed. And that might be something worth writing into the Harris Walls campaign and saying. Okay, so I appreciate everything you're saying here, but I'm also looking at what you're not saying.
[01:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And no one is going to get it 100% right. And that's okay.
[01:02:01] Speaker B: I appreciate that. They're working to make it harder for employers to misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying them full pay and benefits. I think that is fabulous.
[01:02:12] Speaker A: I agree.
[01:02:13] Speaker B: And they're banning most non complete agreement, non compete agreements. Freeing workers to move between jobs and negotiate. What a concept.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: Oh my God. Yes.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: Take the power back into the workers hands.
[01:02:25] Speaker A: Oh my God, yes. Because the non compete concept.
[01:02:28] Speaker B: Restricting man, restricting mandatory arbitration. So if you're. Fewer employers can silence wronged employees in a workplace dispute. They really want to expand the usps. And the first thing they need to do get rid of Dejoy. Because there's a thing that has happened that has not hit the news media in a big way. People. If you are mailing in your vote, I recommend mail it in as early as you can. Because the U.S. postal Service. This example is Kansas.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: Was.
[01:02:57] Speaker B: The article I was reading was this was Kansas. Kansas had ballots that they couldn't count because they didn't get canceled properly. So they couldn't count any of those ballots. They were still receiving ballots that had been mailed weeks before the deadline, weeks after the deadline had passed. So they could not count them. So the United States postal service under Mr. DeJoy, which. Oh yeah, he was the. He does own a huge amount of ups and he was over the USPS and he was appointed by a certain election fraudster that. Yeah, he was appointed then.
[01:03:38] Speaker A: He was appointed between 2016 and 2012.
[01:03:40] Speaker B: Yes, he was.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: Oh that's right.
[01:03:43] Speaker B: Yes, he was.
[01:03:44] Speaker A: What they really need to do and.
[01:03:46] Speaker B: They didn't get rid of him. He's been in office. He's been in that stop spot right now and he is still in a position where he can affect the upcoming election. He I think is the ace in the fucking hole.
[01:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah. They need to get rid of him.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: No shit.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: I would really like to see them take the US Postal Service and actually revamp it.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: Update it. Put it to the 21st century.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: Put it back under government control. So it's not privatized.
[01:04:11] Speaker B: That too.
[01:04:12] Speaker A: The US Postal Service is in our constitution. We have to have it. Yes, it is.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: Because I remember Ben Franklin put it forward. I just didn't remember that it gotten into the Constitution.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: I think it actually made it into the Constitution. Constitution.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: See, I have to double check that one.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: We have a postal service for a reason. Because that was one of the biggest problems we had with the British. We covered that in the declaration.
[01:04:33] Speaker B: USPS is part of the. There's a constitution's postal clause gives Congress the power to establish post offices and post roads. It's an Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7 of the Constitution.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: I was gonna say. I thought it was like in the. One of the first two articles.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: Huh.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: Because that was a problem that we had with the British.
[01:04:50] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:04:51] Speaker A: They were cutting off the mail.
[01:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah. It gives Congress. It gives the post office the power to designate mail routes, constructor designate post offices, regulate the mail, designate materials as non malleable or non mailable and pass laws to criminalize abuses of the postal system.
[01:05:09] Speaker A: And they have been chipping away at that because they want the postal system to fail.
[01:05:14] Speaker B: That's why. Okay. The Post Office act of 1792. That's why I didn't think it was part of the Constitution. Franklin.
So the. Franklin recommended it at the Second Continental Congress in 1775. But the Post Office act of 1792 made it a permanent part of the federal government.
[01:05:32] Speaker A: Right.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: But yeah, that's the thing is like they. They're. They're still trying to fight efforts to privatize it and they're working to ensure that it's financially sustainable. And they want to protect universal service service obligation and on time delivery. Which unfortunately as example show, the example I gave is not happening under a certain administration's appointee who's in charge of it that really needed to be replaced and wasn't. He was a conflict of interest appointee from minute one because he has so much that he runs with ups a direct competitor. They also support a board of governors and opposed a regulatory commission to champion a strong public public postal service. Yeah. I dejoy was a problem for me from minute one.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: I've had problems with the way they've been treating the postal service since they actually set the law that said it has to turn a profit.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: Yeah, well.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: Oh, that. I don't remember when that was. I just remember making me so angry.
[01:06:26] Speaker B: It was back in the 80s because I remember them saying it had to turn a profit.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: It made me so angry. And we were in high school when it happened.
[01:06:32] Speaker B: Yes. That's why I said it's in the 80s.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: I was barely starting to really become aware of stuff. And when they were like, it has to turn a profit, I was like that. And if it doesn't turn a profit, what happens?
[01:06:43] Speaker B: So our Constitution has to turn a profit. Gotcha again. Why a national union is a problem in America.
Back to that.
[01:06:51] Speaker A: Fair.
[01:06:51] Speaker B: Back to that. Went into capitalism economic mindset.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: Fair.
[01:06:56] Speaker B: The other nice thing back on track is. The other nice thing is it isn't just the workers.
[01:07:02] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. Because they're going to work with small businesses too.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: I remember they want to work with entrepreneurs and that's where hopefully somebody creatives can come in.
[01:07:10] Speaker A: Oh, yes, please.
[01:07:12] Speaker B: But they're still looking at small businesses, neighborhood shop, high tech startup, small manufacturer, and more. I appreciate the. And more fingers crossed.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: Well, technically, although, you know, we're kind of talking about this because of the creative thing, but I do ultimately want to move everything under a production company.
[01:07:29] Speaker B: Right.
[01:07:32] Speaker A: Becomes a true small tech business.
So. Well, it becomes a media production. It becomes a media business.
[01:07:38] Speaker B: Right. Well, the bonus is. And again, this is where we get to see a window into Harris again.
She's apparently led the administration's efforts to increase access to capital for small businesses and bring venture capital to parts of middle America that have been overlooked for a long time. 19 million new business applications. I did fact check that and yeah, it was hard to dig through and find, but it comes out to about that.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:08:03] Speaker B: The problem is it's, it's, it's wobbly for the business applications and what's made public and things like that. But.
[01:08:10] Speaker A: Right.
[01:08:11] Speaker B: It has been a massive amount of new business applications and they've tripled the Small Business Administration lending to black owned businesses.
[01:08:18] Speaker A: Yay.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: And doubled small dollar lending to Latino and women owned businesses. Super. Yay.
[01:08:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:08:24] Speaker B: And she's been championing federal. Expanding federal contracts for minority owned small businesses, which is awesome.
[01:08:31] Speaker A: I really need to get a hold of sba Small Business Administration. I'm wondering what they'll do with helping queer owned businesses. It would be nice to see some compensation for that as well.
[01:08:44] Speaker B: I would Accept.
I would expect that there would be something there, especially given that Walls is, believe it or not, slightly more progressive than Harris.
[01:08:54] Speaker A: I. I found that to be very. When they first chose him as the VP pick, I went and did a little. Went and did a little digging.
[01:09:02] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:09:02] Speaker A: Because I had no idea who he was.
[01:09:04] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: And yeah, he's actually more progressive.
[01:09:09] Speaker B: I know.
[01:09:10] Speaker A: Not only than Harris, but quite frankly more progressive than we've seen in a presidential candidate. Quite honestly, in my life.
[01:09:20] Speaker B: I know Bernie was pretty damn progressive.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: No. Who actually was running in a Democratic ticket.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I'm like, Bernie Sanders was pretty damn progressive.
[01:09:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:29] Speaker B: In a lot of ways.
[01:09:30] Speaker A: And yes. And he's an independent.
[01:09:32] Speaker B: I know.
[01:09:33] Speaker A: I know he was running under the Democratic ticket because there's no fucking way else you can do this.
[01:09:38] Speaker B: And because.
[01:09:39] Speaker A: Except being in one of.
[01:09:40] Speaker B: The Constitution has been written to have no more than three parties available at any given time.
Gotta love the constitutional limits.
[01:09:48] Speaker A: I really, really, really want ranked choice. Choice voting. But anyway, that's probably a whole other episode. But going and finding out that in the 1990s he provided a safe haven for queer students in his school by starting what was what one of the.
[01:10:07] Speaker B: One of the first.
[01:10:08] Speaker A: One of the first straight Gay alliance club.
[01:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:10:11] Speaker A: Organizations inside his high school.
[01:10:13] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:10:14] Speaker A: And in the 90s.
[01:10:15] Speaker B: I know that's why I'm in love with the man. Are you kidding? I. That was one of the first things I knew.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: And not even the late 90s. In like the early to mid-90s. No.
[01:10:23] Speaker B: When everybody was like, oh my God, you can. It's like cooties. You can get AIDS by just hanging out with them.
[01:10:29] Speaker A: When we were at the tail end, when we were still embroiled in the AIDS issue.
[01:10:33] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. If they have a cut and get in the swimming pool, you can catch aids. And we were all that bullshit.
[01:10:38] Speaker A: And we were slowly but surely accepting queerness within the media. We were slowly getting there.
[01:10:46] Speaker B: Getting there is a. Is a generous way of putting it.
[01:10:49] Speaker A: It was starting to come into the conversation.
[01:10:51] Speaker B: I remembered it was at least not being brushed under the rug and ignored.
[01:10:55] Speaker A: I remember there was a bisexual character in my so called life which did not last for very long.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: I didn't watch it, so it was.
[01:11:01] Speaker A: Appealing to a younger generation.
[01:11:02] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[01:11:03] Speaker A: We were in college.
[01:11:04] Speaker B: Oh, that would. I watched cartoons. So they're. Appealing to a younger generation does not apply. I watch cartoons. And no, I don't mean just anime. I mean cartoons. I watch Scooby Doo. Okay.
[01:11:14] Speaker A: By saying appealing to a younger generation, it Was Gen X. It was Gen X age.
Okay.
Remember, we're not at the tail end of our generation.
We're smack dab in the middle. And then you started seeing more of it in. In the later 90s with things like Will and Grace, but in which I.
[01:11:34] Speaker B: Have just started watching.
[01:11:36] Speaker A: But in the early 90s, we were just starting to have the conversations in a manner of. Maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: Oh, maybe these are people like the people we've always had around us anyways. Duh.
[01:11:50] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:11:51] Speaker B: And you can't see I'm rolling my eyes.
[01:11:54] Speaker A: That was absolutely a reaction to what happened with aids. So to see a high school teacher. I know in the early 90s.
[01:12:03] Speaker B: I know. I was absolutely in love with it from that minute.
[01:12:06] Speaker A: Gay Straight Alliance.
[01:12:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:12:09] Speaker A: In what is essentially a Midwestern slash prairie state. Yelp was amazing.
[01:12:15] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[01:12:16] Speaker A: I grew up in Indiana. I know what the mindset was in the Midwest.
[01:12:20] Speaker B: I grew up in Michigan. Neighbor state to right where he was. I know exactly what that is exactly.
[01:12:25] Speaker A: To see that had happened in that.
[01:12:29] Speaker B: Part of the country and at that time instrumental. And he and his talking about it is very much all I did was let them do it.
[01:12:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:12:40] Speaker B: It wasn't that he set it up and he made it available for him and him, him, him. It was. They wanted it and I helped just be there for them to make it happen.
[01:12:49] Speaker A: I decided to sponsor them so that they could do it.
[01:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It was their thing. I love it. That's part of what made me fall in love with walls.
[01:12:58] Speaker A: I was gonna have to admit. That was actually me too. I was like, oh, this was a. Oh, this was a really good choice. Then I start hearing about the things he's done as governor, the school lunches for kids and what else is the other thing he did that was fantastic?
[01:13:13] Speaker B: He vetoed a bunch of bills that would have been anti lgbtq. I know that.
[01:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah. That's true. He.
[01:13:17] Speaker B: He absolutely vetoed a crap ton of stuff that. That his state legislature has been putting forward. That's.
[01:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah. He absolutely championed his. His queer constituents and the whole. Because they tried making food available to us. The whole making food available to schoolchildren was pretty much what made me go and sold.
[01:13:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:37] Speaker A: Because if you're going to help our children out, I'm going to be more on your side.
[01:13:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:42] Speaker A: And I mean, really help them with what they actually need right now.
[01:13:45] Speaker B: Like, I don't know, their one meal a day that they probably get. Oh, wait, let's not bring that into It.
[01:13:51] Speaker A: He bumped it up to two.
[01:13:52] Speaker B: No, I know, I understand.
[01:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:13:54] Speaker B: But I'm pointing out Indiana and their take on it.
[01:13:57] Speaker A: So. Yeah, I. He is probably the most progressive I've seen.
[01:14:01] Speaker B: The bonus. The bonus for small businesses is she wants to see 25 million new business applications by the end of her first term, which would be almost. That would be almost double what happened during the Orange Clowns administration.
And to do that, she's going to expand expense tax deductions from 5,000 to 50,000 for new businesses.
[01:14:25] Speaker A: I remember her saying something like that.
[01:14:27] Speaker B: And try and cut some of the red tape.
[01:14:30] Speaker A: That would be fantastic.
[01:14:31] Speaker B: No kidding.
[01:14:32] Speaker A: Because starting up a business is so hard, especially if you don't have capital you can invest.
[01:14:41] Speaker B: No shit.
[01:14:41] Speaker A: So it's the woman who's running right into that problem right now.
[01:14:45] Speaker B: Well, and the other factor here is everybody's like, oh, well, the rural's all red, blah, blah, blah. Guess what? She is pushing venture capital into rural areas already. And she wants to continue. Continue that.
[01:14:56] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[01:14:56] Speaker B: To get the federal contract dollars going to small businesses in rural areas to try and help the rural economies because.
[01:15:05] Speaker A: They desperately need it.
[01:15:07] Speaker B: Will it matter? Probably not. But I appreciate that she's willing to do it.
[01:15:12] Speaker A: I mean, I.
[01:15:13] Speaker B: Again, we're back to that whole concept of I'm rarely disappointed. I'd like to be disappointed in this, but I'm rarely disappointed.
[01:15:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I've driven through some of the small towns just around where I grew up, which is technically not a small town. It's a little too big to be a small town.
[01:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:15:32] Speaker A: It technically qualifies as a big town. Small city.
[01:15:34] Speaker B: It's a very small city.
[01:15:36] Speaker A: Depending on the census data. Because it kind of depends.
[01:15:39] Speaker B: Depending on the syntax.
[01:15:41] Speaker A: It kind of rides that line.
[01:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I grew up, you know, going.
[01:15:46] Speaker A: Around even in the evening, even in the smaller town surrounding Kokomo, you see whole areas where whole plazas are shut down because there's no business.
[01:15:55] Speaker B: Are you kidding? Just driving over to your place, there's Big Lots is going out of business.
[01:15:59] Speaker A: Oh, I know. The Big Lots over by me is going.
[01:16:00] Speaker B: Room plus is gone.
[01:16:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:16:02] Speaker B: You know, even the cheap big box stores are going away, are going under because. Oh, and by the way, Tupperware saw this hit my news feed this morning. Tupperware is filing chapter 11.
[01:16:15] Speaker A: I'm not surprised.
[01:16:16] Speaker B: Tupperware is filing bankruptcy.
[01:16:18] Speaker A: People cannot afford their stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if you see a lot more of the MLMs starting to do that because people cannot afford the products.
[01:16:28] Speaker B: Nope.
[01:16:28] Speaker A: I Could see Pampered Chef.
[01:16:30] Speaker B: It's probably gonna go under.
[01:16:31] Speaker A: Going under. I could see party light going under. They haven't already?
[01:16:35] Speaker B: Well, no. Usborne Books is out of Europe, so I. It's out of books.
[01:16:39] Speaker A: May or may not have the uk.
[01:16:40] Speaker B: It may or may not. But in America, Mary Kay, Avon.
[01:16:43] Speaker A: I could see those going on Avon. Maybe not so much because their stuff's still pretty cheap, but the higher end priced, multi level marketing products, I can see a lot of those businesses going under, like Tupperware, because people cannot afford it.
[01:16:57] Speaker B: Nope. They were luxury products that we could afford back in the 90s and the early 2000s. And since 2008, we haven't had anything that could afford it. And all that's happened is it's gotten worse and worse.
[01:17:09] Speaker A: Mm. Exactly.
[01:17:11] Speaker B: And we have two mindsets. We can either say, let's find a way to make it together, make it better together, or we can just keep giving money to the rich and everybody else just keeps getting poorer, which is.
[01:17:22] Speaker A: Where we're at right now.
[01:17:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:17:24] Speaker A: And where France was in the late 1700s.
[01:17:27] Speaker B: How about that? Amazing coincidence, huh?
[01:17:28] Speaker A: Mm. I've been making that point a long time.
[01:17:32] Speaker B: Did I mention I'm a fan of Madame de la Guillotine?
[01:17:34] Speaker A: Okay, so have we made it through all of the business?
[01:17:38] Speaker B: Yes, we have made it through all the business. The big economic crunches, all of that.
[01:17:43] Speaker A: I think this is a good place to leave off.
[01:17:45] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:17:46] Speaker A: And part two, we can move into whatever we move into next. We'll figure that out.
[01:17:51] Speaker B: Education, homes, the fun things. More fun stuff.
[01:17:55] Speaker A: I, yeah. Cannot tell you how happy I am about this. Well, that's what we have for today. We hope you enjoyed our episode. We will be back again in the next episode, continuing with the. With the Democratic Party platform, specifically focused.
[01:18:08] Speaker B: With the Harris Wells.
[01:18:10] Speaker A: Exactly. We would love to hear what you think. So go ahead and drop us a line at spilltheteepodcast224gmail.com you can follow us at Spill the Teapodcast on Facebook, Spill the Tea Podcast 224 on Tumblr and Pinterest and @spilltheteepodcast224 on Instagram. Subscribe to us wherever you listen to our podcasts. And remember to leave those five star reviews. If you leave one on Spotify, though we cannot access it. So if you do, shoot us an email at the Gmail account and let us know what you think.
[01:18:41] Speaker B: Please just shoot us an email. I'm lonely. Okay. So as much as I'm. I would say as much as I'm really bad for the social media, I know I'm behind. I'm very horrible. I'm an anti social online person.
[01:18:52] Speaker A: So I put you on social media.
[01:18:53] Speaker B: So I'm doing social media anyway, but I'm going to be catching that up, number one. Number two, nobody's emailed me yet, so.
[01:19:00] Speaker A: Please reach out to us and let us know what you think.
[01:19:03] Speaker B: Say hi.
[01:19:04] Speaker A: If you want to enjoy episode outtakes, early access and the opportunity to recommend show ideas, sign up for a monthly membership@ either patreon.com Spill the Tea podcast 224 or@buymeac coffee.com Spill the Tea and.
[01:19:19] Speaker B: I promise they're not exorbitant rates.
[01:19:21] Speaker A: Oh sorry. Spill the Tea podcast and no, they're not exorbitant rates. I think our lowest one is what, $3? Something like that?
[01:19:28] Speaker B: I don't know. I didn't set that. That was yours. That was your responsibility.
[01:19:31] Speaker A: I have to go back and look. But yeah, it's pretty low. And you're going to start seeing actually probably some of our pre show conversations because we do a lot of talking before we start recording.
[01:19:43] Speaker B: We've learned to hit the record button at the beginning now, so most of the time.
[01:19:47] Speaker A: So that is all for everybody and we will catch you the next time.
[01:19:51] Speaker B: Have fun.
[01:19:52] Speaker A: Bye now.
