Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
Freedom Under Fire: How Political Division Threatens Democracy
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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Left Face. This is the Pikes Peak Region political podcast through a veteran's point of view. I am your co-host, dick Wilkinson, and I'm joined this morning with Adam Gillard.
Speaker 2:I just love the alliterations, man. It just cracks me up. When you can get through it, it just flows.
Speaker 1:That one came out right, that one, yeah, no problems. How are you doing today? I'm doing good, and you know that's totally freestyle. Every time we do that, just so everybody knows. It's not like we don't have a script for that, and so sometimes it's consistent and a lot of times it's just whatever word salad comes out in the moment, and of course we also have a countdown. So it's, I'm a. I don't have a problem with public speaking at all, but I'm in control of the of the environment when I go on stage, right, but when the countdown timer starts it almost. Countdown timer starts it almost. It's almost like I don't know, like they're gonna throw you on stage or something, but whatever, it's just me and adam, so there's nothing to be worried about. But thanks everybody for putting up with our uh, you know extra peas that we throw in there sometimes. So shenanigans, yeah. So, uh, we want to start today.
Speaker 1:First, I want to recognize adam, uh, before he shares some information about an event he recently attended.
Speaker 1:Um, but, for our listeners, you may you're probably not aware, but there's a large national organization called the Veterans Action Committee and they're specifically or maybe the Veterans Action Council, I can't remember, but they're specifically focused on progressing cannabis rights throughout the United States and it's, you know, veterans and family members of veterans that want to move cannabis forward for everybody, not just for veterans. They actually have involvement even in international situations where cannabis is talked about at the UN and different things like that, so they have a really a big reach, been around and established for a long time. I was a slightly active member a few years back and I recently got an email that wanted to nominate people that had been veterans moving forward the cause of cannabis, and so I nominated Adam for his court case that he won here this year in Colorado Springs as a significant contribution to the movement, and he was accepted and added to the list. So congratulations, adam. You're now a nationally recognized contributor to the cannabis movement.
Speaker 2:I have somebody that will make me a pin for that. I'll wear that pin proudly.
Speaker 2:That is really cool man. Thank you so much for doing that. It's definitely something that both of us, since we've gotten out, we've kind of fought for because we see the benefits and how it can help people. We know some of the struggles that all of our vets are going through, and pushing alcohol on people is not the solution or, you know, it's their parachute right now. But you know, having access to cannabis helps a lot of us, untie a lot of our knots and it's a big deal for us to just be treated like adults and be able to have that option. Yeah, so thank you for doing that. I'm glad that we can keep kind of pushing it forward, because city council here is still probably going to try and fight us on this.
Speaker 1:Could be yeah. So yeah, you're quite welcome and thank you for what you did this year to help the folks out here in Colorado Springs.
Speaker 2:I really just mouthed off and got to put my name on a piece of paper. Yeah, so it worked.
Speaker 1:You know it's right place, right time. But really what it is, it's a culmination of all the other efforts, right? It's all the other time that you spent in conversation with the responsible rec team, with the different distributors around here that not just have a financial interest but had a genuine community interest as well. So that's how you got involved and that's the culmination of all that effort. So, yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, so Adam attended an event over this last weekend. It was a Democratic kind of satellite convention type event, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kind of a big thing. It was called Dem West over on the Western Slope right in Glenwood Springs, which I've never been to, but the drive was beautiful and I definitely need to get out there. But it's a way for the Democratic Party to say hey, folks on the Western Slope, we're still here, come on out, see your neighbors Talk, let's have a good conversation, have some good fun. So I was there with the Colorado Democratic Veterans Council. Yeah, whatever that acronym is, that sounds right. It's something new that me and Dick we talked about it on here. We stood up. Um, it's something new that me and Dick we talked about it on here, but we stood up and we actually just recently released our first press release condemning the Trump administration's attempts that not even allowing trans folks to get a partial retirement. You know folks that have served from 15 to 18 years that are just being kicked out on a whim. You know, just because, through no fault of their own yeah, through no fault of their own they're within regs they're serving.
Speaker 1:You know just because— Through no fault of their own, yeah, through no fault of their own they're within regs. They're serving, you know, honorably They've been honorably serving this whole time.
Speaker 2:Like everybody, still thanks them for their service and this administration is just going to kick them out and throw them to the curb with zero benefits and it's absolute garbage For a sweeping political movement that you know the military should be protected from.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and serving with folks. If anybody in the military thinks that they've never served with a trans person, that means that they probably just weren't comfortable coming up to you. For sure, you know what I mean. Everybody has served with a trans person and served honorably with. I can't think of anybody that I've served with that has been.
Speaker 2:You know that I didn't kick out for a reason Right, exactly, but just to say that it's absolutely ridiculous that we're putting this kind of discrimination on people who just want to serve their country. It's clear that they want people to serve a different country right now, Like this Trump administration.
Speaker 1:Yeah redefining culture and all different facets of American life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole, you know woke is broke thing that he still tweets about. Sure, woke is about like, paying attention to the government and making sure they're not coming for you. Yeah, that's what the woke movement is, and like the fact that all these folks fly their gats and flags and you know, don't tread on me. And now they're just bending over and licking boots and treading on other people.
Speaker 1:And treading on other people. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It just. Oh, it gets me going man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in the I guess I'll call it a centrist position around. I can take this topic and split it into two things for me mentally, two things for me. For me, mentally, it's a true statement for me that you know, the president or the secretary of defense can, you know, change the nature of what service looks like. They can change the type of forces that we have and how many people we have, and we do that in different situations. This one's clearly political and cultural, which is why it has that. It has an ugly stink to it. You know's there's. It is um, taking a specific kind of hammer against people who are just doing their job right now. Um, but at face value, those two individuals have the have the legal right to execute a policy like this. The part that's upsetting is the stripping of benefits, stripping of the honorable service, taking away just basically the fact that they've contributed and saying not even saying, thank you for your service, right? I mean, that's the part that for me, if I say I'm splitting it apart.
Speaker 2:I think there is a severance package, but not it's an immediate, just cash payout.
Speaker 1:It's not lifelong benefits, which is what they were working for, what was promised, and it's a discouragement of the promise. That's what I'm most upset about. Right, the policy can be legal, it can be upsetting to me and still be legal, right. And so there it is, but the discouragement of that promise that you gave to that service member, to that individual. They signed up that we're going to take care of you as you take care of us, for as long as you agree to do it. You can't just rip that away from somebody, take those lifelong earned benefits away.
Speaker 2:And once they do it with those folks, they're going to keep going. But, like I mean, Pete Hegseth has already promoted a pastor that wants women out of the military.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. So what's the next step?
Speaker 1:They're just going to kick women out of the military, because women are the problem now, and take away their benefits as well, because there's precedent for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a lot of what we're seeing in so many different areas.
Speaker 1:Is that little bit of I shouldn't say little bit Serious line stepping, if you will, but trying to redefine boundaries, not find the boundaries? They know where the boundaries are. They're stepping over them on purpose, not find the boundaries they know where the boundaries are.
Speaker 1:They're stepping over them on purpose. They're breaking those boundaries on purpose to try and redefine them, to set precedent. Right, I see that as a specific goal of so many different things the ICE campaigns, right. This military movement, right, there's so many different. Going after specific businesses, going after specific, you know, people within the judicial branch, right, like that kind of stuff. It not, was not the purview of the executive in the past, but they're pushing those boundaries to try and break those things now. And this is just again, just like taking um Kilmar and saying what can we do to extort this person and how far can we take it? That's going to define our precedent. Yeah, they're doing that with trans folks by kicking them out of the military and stripping them of their, you know, duly earned benefits.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and I just also want to point out that when we talk military culture, you know one in three women right now suffer some form of like military sexual trauma and the harassment attacks you know rapes One in three, and that's not, you know, and I think it's one in 50 men. Okay, Um, so that's not the trans community committing all those atrocities.
Speaker 1:No, you know what I?
Speaker 2:mean, Like the problem with you know, inside the military comes with that culture of just needing power. Yeah, and I mean one in three women suffer this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's outrageous, right, like if there was any other similar occupational hazard in some other job or some other career field. There'd be a huge you know investigation and like what do we need to do to stop this from happening? You know that would be an outrageous off the charts kind of level of risk or harm for in any other setting.
Speaker 2:And you know if they try to turn the argument into. You know well, that means women shouldn't be there. No, like I know Marines who got sent home because they smashed their arm in their Humvee, because they were getting raped by their platoon every night. Like it's a problem deeper than just, you know, women. The problem is with the men feeling that they can just take power over somebody like that. Yeah, you know what I mean and it's, it's a line, cause you got to train, train them to go do some nasty things too, you know. So like it's a it's a tough culture for anybody to be in but to to discriminate against folks that are not part of the victims are not.
Speaker 2:yeah, they're victims, they're not part of the problems in the military. You're just going to make it a cesspool man, ooh that's true, that is true.
Speaker 1:So man so back to Dem West.
Speaker 2:Yeah right. There's a there's a sidetrack for you, Dem West Well just quickly mentioned.
Speaker 1:what we didn't really wrap up there is that the group that we have recently has been established right. That was our first, basically official order of business was issuing a public press release saying that veterans within Colorado condemn the concept of taking those benefits and rights away from those service members, and that was picked up by a press outlet, at least one. And so you know, in politics that's what you do, right, you message, and so that's a message I'm proud of Right, yeah, and it was nice to have that one quickly under our belt.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know instead of just spinning our tires. See, you know where we can, you know, kind of put aim at yeah, you know we had something to focus on pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:Super squarely in the focus of what the group should be about, right, you know, I mean dead center, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so you know we went out there. We got to hear AG Weiser speak. If anybody's ever got to hear him, he's got a good energy, like the energy changes when he starts speaking in a room, which is pretty good to hear because we have other politicians that really drone on and kind of really put you down Like he has really good energy. So we got to hear him. A few other candidates, one of the candidates from here locally, john Mickus. He's running for state treasurer. That dude. He is so on point with putting in work and doing things. I really hope he gets the state treasurer ability.
Speaker 1:Is that a this year election, like an off year type thing? No, it's a 26 year, so he still has a primary.
Speaker 2:And there's a few other candidates out there too, but just knowing John, he puts in a lot of work. Yeah, he's been great for that. Yeah, so Dem West was out there as a second year in a row. He'll be back out there next year, hopefully with a bigger list of accomplishments. But it's good to see that people are coming out and supporting in these like red areas. You know we still had probably close to 100 folks or so there, yeah, but you know it's good to see folks on the Western Slope having a place to go and talk and be around friends. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Good, that's great. And yeah, in those rural and what's that word? It's always hard to say. In rural areas, um, I mean politics matters, right people get uh insulated. Uh, when you're in a rural I grew up in, you know two very small towns and in the country and uh, you get insulated into that bubble of whatever's going on right there and so you know anything outside of your county almost a lot of times feels like it's happening on another planet. Right, and so it's. It's definitely hard to have just day-to-day conversations with folks in those settings. They generally are less likely to want to engage on political topics a lot of times. That's kind of what I heard growing up, or you know. Also, the most common case is they're extremely polarized in one camp or another and they again don't want to have any kind of valid conversation because they're like meh, it's my guy in charge right now, so I can't bitch about USAID losing all their money and buying my crops.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or they're not buying my crops this year, so I'm not going to make any money. Or you know, everything flooded and nobody came to help. You know, like whatever, don't talk to me about politics. Yeah, exactly, that's one of my biggest complaints.
Speaker 2:You know, the last 40 years is that we've taught people to be afraid to talk religion and politics, even at your own table. Sure, like we don't talk about it. You know it's I say what I say and you believe me. Yeah, I'm locked in. Yeah, and it's just a great like disservice and it's led to this dumbing down of our culture.
Speaker 1:Dumbing down and division, and so that brings us to our next topic. I saw a divisive bumper sticker on the way to work today.
Speaker 2:Those are always fun.
Speaker 1:But who doesn't? You see them all the time and this isn't, I will admit. There are more of them in El Paso County, colorado, than there are in some other places. There really are In both camps. It's a bit politically charged around here compared to some other places.
Speaker 2:And it's kind of got an artsy vibe. So everybody likes a sticker, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lots of stickers. So the sticker that I saw and this is the basis of this conversation we're going to have, which leads into a broader political topic Regular standard bumper sticker. It was blue on the top and it said do you vote for a living? And then it was red on the bottom and it said or do you work for a living? And so that was a statement to say that Democrats and people that vote Democrat it basically expect free stuff from the government to to survive, and that Republicans or conservatives, um, want to, you know, put in a hard day's work to earn their living. And that those are just two facts. And there's the. You know, that's it. They're so factual that they're worth writing on a bumper sticker.
Speaker 2:It all boils down to that, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, um, it struck a chord with me because I've got a position on this topic Never would have guessed, who'd have figured.
Speaker 1:The Libertarian has a financial position right. But here's my take on that sticker I don't agree with the polarization. Let's just start with that. I want to denounce just these bold statements of, like everybody, I'm right, you're wrong. Those don't hold much value to me.
Speaker 1:But the Robin Hood politics is a term if anybody could please trademark that for me that Dick Wilkinson said that. I've been saying it for years. And Bernie Sanders is the poster child for Robin Hood politics. He says there shouldn't be billionaires and tax the rich out of existence so that there are no poor people either. Right, so he is a polar extreme. We're talking about polarized topic here. He's one edge of the boundary of you know, and he's a declared socialist right Independent and caucuses with blue people when he needs votes, right, yeah, but he, he says that he's a democratic socialist. So his policy on on message, um, and that is what that bumper sticker was really talking about was was bernie, sandra and bernie and the ilk thereof, or just the idea that, um, any democratic politician may say I'm going to give you more free stuff, more, and that means that comes in the terms of social programs. Right, that's really. But someone that puts that bumper sticker on there is not going to use that terminology.
Speaker 2:They hear free stuff, yeah, free stuff. Welfare that I don't get.
Speaker 1:Right and welfare. Is this catchphrase for social programs at all? It's a dozen real, actual focus programs towards specific needs, but this blanket term of welfare gets trotted out to cover all of those as handouts, right, you know? Like just straight up handouts, right. And I don't like the political position that politicians take of making promises about free stuff, however they decide to pay for it or wherever that may come from. Right, Like Mom Donnie talking about free child care. How's Mom Donnie going to execute free child care in New York city? That's just outrageous, you know what I'm saying? Like all the money they had wouldn't wouldn't pay for it If they've just spent their 100% of their budget free, free subways and free buses and stuff like that's insane, Right. But that's what he's doing is free, free, free, free, free, free stuff. Right, he's also a socialist, Unfortunately. I'm using those as examples, but he's got the spotlight right now, right.
Speaker 2:But he's hoping to bring in money through taxing.
Speaker 1:Taxing rich people.
Speaker 2:I guess, yeah, rich people, sure Okay, so he's got a pipeline for the funds, right, he closes that gap Right.
Speaker 1:But he's also. I mean, he is espousing black and white that he wants to tax the rich and give stuff to the poor. Right, he's a socialist Robin Hood in my book right, and that's fine If people want to vote for him. We're in a democracy and if that's what the people of New York City decide they want to do, go for it. Go for it, right, see how it works out, run your experiment and then, if New York doesn't fall into the ocean, maybe we do it everywhere. I don't know, I don't want that to happen, but maybe we do.
Speaker 1:But the thing that I kind of have a problem with is that there is what I call the high school class president, where they get on stage and you see it in movies it's a trope in all the teenage movies. They get on stage and they're like more free stuff. Basically, we're going to have longer lunch times, we're going to have less homework and this student has no way to impact any of that stuff. Well, that's often the case with politicians. They you know a state level politician says they want to tax billionaires. You're not going to be able to do that, right, but that's how they win elections, you know.
Speaker 1:And so it's disingenuous right At face value and it feeds the narrative that prints that bumper sticker. So it's a loss across the board for blue as far as I'm concerned if it creates division and it's really really hard to make good on those promises because they're almost unrealistic. Like the high school kid trying to say that that's where I see that position taken up a lot of times. So that's been times if I've ever been. Basically the days that it's hardest for me to be a Democrat are the days when I hear people talk about we're going to just take away stuff from other people and give it to poor people and it's just or totally broken concepts of economics like $25 minimum wage and prices won't go up.
Speaker 2:No, that's not how that works. You know what I'm saying. You would have to cap profit levels for the corporations, sure.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying there's not levers to pull. They're almost impossible to pull right.
Speaker 2:With the current system.
Speaker 1:With what we've got right and I understand. Again back to democracy. If you yell the message loud enough, maybe you get 60% of the people to agree and then you start pulling levers. That's okay, right, like, if democracy does its job and that's what happens, then that's fine with me. Yeah, but the sticker is upsetting because, um, it's, it's just, it's, it's a little bit of truth. Um, now it there's. The lie is work for a living meaning. It's exclusive.
Speaker 2:Right, Exactly that part's the there's that point Also disingenuous, right Is that only conservatives work.
Speaker 1:I saw a good website. You ever heard of the labor union?
Speaker 2:right, yeah, I saw a good website that showed, like, how many subsidies farmers got over the years and things like that, and it's pretty easy to see the people that get subsidies that aren't considered welfare Right, right, you know. Yeah, so folks definitely have the skewed vision. Yeah, so folks definitely have the skewed vision. Where I get upset with that bumper sticker is that person in that car One a lot of the folks that get those social programs. They don't vote because they're kids and you're taking food away from children.
Speaker 1:Or even voting age. People aren't voting on that stuff Because they're working three jobs and they can't vote.
Speaker 2:Right, and elderly people that don't have the means to get to the polls or forget to vote or whatever. You're cutting their Medicaid and Medicaid and so to have such a simplistic view of that. It just stupefies me that we've gotten here and people can't even say they're a Democrat without getting like somebody enraged at them. Oh sure, you know what I mean. Like a friend of mine earlier, uh, yesterday or today, uh went someplace. She has like a report ice sticker on her car. Oh yeah, guy, I rate at her, screaming at her, and she's like a small woman, she's just being aggressive terrified in her car as he's like screaming through his window because she hurt ice, she has x exercised her right to my speech, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, and not even in a super offensive way. No, she like no words spoken to the because she hurt ISIS feelings.
Speaker 2:She has exercised her right to free speech, and not even in a super offensive way. No words spoken to the person, he just snapped and went after her. It's crazy out there just how people are so sold into this con man's grift For anyone who's not watching the current season of South Park.
Speaker 1:please, please, tune in. They're putting these episodes out within real time.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I don't know how they're animating them so fast, like I guess Chaz UPT is just drawing South Park now. But you know, like it's insane how fast they're cranking out this stuff and it's relevant, right. And that actually takes us to the last topic, which is the national guard in washington dc. So there's my plug for south park. We're in colorado so we should probably, you know, be be plugging them more maybe we should get.
Speaker 1:We should get them on the show they don't have anything going on, we'll go up to casa bonita and see if they're there right, and then you know, I didn't realize they had bought that and reopened it by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we went last year's for my first time going. I've never been.
Speaker 1:It was a experience, yeah I don't really care to go one way or the other, other than that south park is like built into it now my wife enjoys it, so I get, I get drunk, yeah, yeah it is a local, you know, classic, I guess it's a it's a memory and one of those kind of things, but, and that's why they loved it on the show, right? So anyways, uh, enough, enough plug for them.
Speaker 2:They have enough money, we don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 1:We should tax them. Tax them out of existence right.
Speaker 2:Get some of that South Park money.
Speaker 1:So the National Guard in DC was on an episode of South Park yesterday and they just got deployed there last week. So that's my. You know how did they do this? And they had. There was basically no people in town because there were soldiers everywhere, right, and that was like the way they depicted it. But this is funny that we're laughing about it on a TV show. But the point of it is it's a satire because it's really happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Right, did you see that press conference with JD Vance talking?
Speaker 1:And what he got? Booed and heckled real hard.
Speaker 2:But just surrounded by military folks. Well, there's obviously something going on outside, but all the military folks are surrounding him Like if there's a better like snapshot of authoritarianism like right there Like when he's saying like, yeah, it was bad last week, but everything's cool now.
Speaker 1:Surrounded by, you know, 50 troops. Come on. The thing that bothers me the most about it, I guess, is we're back into the original argument of you know, unfortunately, sometimes Donald Trump does crazy things that are actually legal.
Speaker 2:And this is one of those things.
Speaker 1:Well, no, you know, he has up to 30 days to be able to just militarize DC and without permission, right, right. So he's in that window right now. So he's doing lawful activity as it stands right now. But the thing that he lied to have a reason to deploy, right, right, and that's the part that's so, then it's unlawful. He can do it without a reason. Is my point right, like he can do it now that the supreme court said better at night, you know now that the supreme court gave him the right to do whatever the hell he wants.
Speaker 1:I think he probably could have done it without explaining it to anyone for up to 30 days, I think that's kind of the point is. I don't have to explain it until day 31 when I ask for permission, but between now and then it's up to me, you know I guess in today's.
Speaker 1:But you know, yeah, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, yeah, I'm not saying there weren't other guardrails in there right and like yeah, the president of south korea got you know ham boned for this, just like eight, nine months ago when he did the same thing.
Speaker 2:Totally forgot about that.
Speaker 1:No shit, he did the exact same thing and everybody, the whole country shut down.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so there is something we can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, the whole country shut down and stormed the Capitol and he resigned and became the interim for like a couple months until they got the next people, but their congress came together and voted him out within like 24 hours, right, right, their Congress came together and voted him out within like 24 hours, right? So, anyways, the guard is in DC and the reason for that that the president gave was that the crime rate is just astronomically high, but the truth of that is that the crime rate has gone down every year for the last like 15 years in DC.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so now the Justice Department is looking at all violent crime not just murder.
Speaker 1:Well, they're looking at which.
Speaker 2:DC official fudged those numbers.
Speaker 1:That's what they're looking at now.
Speaker 2:That's what the Justice Department is going after the backup to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics people right, whoever he just got fired down there, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the same guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got rid of him already.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, they're gone. Yeah, but they're gone. Yeah, but uh, it does. I mean like they're never gonna figure that out because they manufactured it and it doesn't matter, right, like trump makes up stuff on the spot all the time, so you know, he didn't even he didn't read it.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter, he just made it up, right but back to his sheeple they talk about don't tread on me and the, the gats and flag and you know all that shit all the time. And now that is blatantly having like. This is the stuff that alex jones was like I love. You should love alex jones when he first started out in like the late 90s 2000s, like I'd listen to him a lot, I'd get fired up with him, um, but you know he did what he did but uh this is the stuff that they were worried about big government coming in, stomping on people's rights, just destroying our constitution.
Speaker 2:and now that it's happening, it so they're like, oh, I guess we don't need that.
Speaker 1:I guess we don't need that Constitution do we? Yeah, right, right, exactly those rights are, you know, suspendable for you know other reasons and like even the website's taking rights off.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, like the US. I can't remember the Constitution's whatever, yeah, I mean. Yeah, it still exists.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you gotta go down the library of congress to read it. And it's funny because you know.
Speaker 2:That's another reason why people need to learn how to read cursive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what our finding. Yeah, that's true. That is know how to read that shit. Yeah, yeah, don't trust the translation, right? Because, yeah, when the archaeologist pulls it out and says, oh, the rules were actually this.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause.
Speaker 2:I mean the Smithsonian is also under review, right now, oh yeah, like all arts and things like that. They're all under. Like the Kennedy center, they're all under review to meet his view of America. Yeah, Cause even says like uh, they harp on a slavery being bad. If it was, we shouldn't have done that.
Speaker 1:A whole museum dedicated to how horrific it was makes sense.
Speaker 2:We have that for other atrocities right For a reason, so that we can remember not to do it again.
Speaker 1:And we want our children to know this was terrible.
Speaker 2:If you all get some idea that maybe you should start buying each other, don't.
Speaker 1:Don't do it.
Speaker 2:Somebody already tried that we crossed that line. We came back. It was terrible.
Speaker 1:So the National Guard, as Adam pointed out. He said I know that they're supposed to be deployed, they're coming from a few different states, but what are they doing? They're not police. So how do they augment the police or how do they control crime? And right now touchy subject they're cleaning out homeless encampments. Now they are an eyesore. As far as donald trump is concerned, right, like dc should be gold-plated and beautiful, like gardener riad or wherever he went, you know. But um, the the idea of just moving out these encampments, okay, whatever, like if they're legal or not legal, like the services need to be employed to get those people off the street anyway. Right, but those aren't violent criminals, right. And if you deployed the military to control violent crime, that's definitely not the source of just outright violent crime. Those people are generally are keeping to themselves right.
Speaker 1:Especially in a super crowded city like DC. They're not really having a lot of contact, even though they're there with thousands and millions of people. Yeah, they're in their own little lane and they're generally not the source of violent crime, unless they're having like a mental episode, but otherwise it's other.
Speaker 1:You know, it's people who are of their own wits and live inside that are doing this type of problem Right own wits and live inside that are doing this type of problem right, and so the fact that the national guard is just going up and moving out homeless encampments is completely misplaced for the problem that he represented of bringing them in so who knows what this is going to turn out to be. But you know, the la situation was in fact a blueprint, right. And what can I do? And how can we do it right?
Speaker 2:and then they're going to keep moving.
Speaker 1:You know they're going to go to the next can around over there, and then they said all right, let's do it in dc. Right, because there's basically no legal barrier to right. Try run this experiment again and see what happens yeah, he has a little more control over the dc police well, and that one thing that I saw last week um, the dc police had national guard troops with them and they set up a checkpoint in the street, not like a dui checkpoint like a person just a crosswalk jaywalking checkpoint just, uh, you know, like, hey, if you you need to be, everybody coming down the street needs to have some contact with the police or soldiers, because this is where we decided that needs to happen.
Speaker 1:And so the citizens and this was in. Like you know, there was cafes and bars and stuff along this one street, yeah, and they just showed up, set up cones, popped up some cop cars and was like hey, funnel through, right, and the people came out of those businesses this was at like 10 or 11 o'clock at night, right and they came out and just started screaming and yelling at the cops and everything. Like what are you doing? Yeah, and the cops were like this is normal procedure, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and everybody late at night too. It's antagonistic. Yes.
Speaker 1:Show of force, purely show of force, did you?
Speaker 2:see these animals come out and spit at us.
Speaker 1:Throw a sandwich at us, oh my goodness, let's stomp their necks, just pure show of force. Yeah, you're not sweeping up violent criminals off the random street.
Speaker 2:Again, let's point out the fact that I mean 7% of the nation-ish is veterans, so probably a higher percentage than that is homeless, like the homelessness is veterans, you know. So a good chunk of those veterans that they're pushing out are veterans who probably need they all need help.
Speaker 1:But I mean again who are we protecting here and who are we taking care of as a nation? Yep, and you know where does it end, right?
Speaker 2:Because he can do it for up to 30 days, as we mentioned earlier. But he's already talked about just rolling with another authorization. Well, I mean, did you see his little merch shop that he showed Zelensky with his Trump 2028 hats on it? No, yeah, so the White House has a corner with Trump merch? Yeah, just hats and gaudy gross stuff.
Speaker 1:Disgusting for the presidency to have in the office Exit through the gift shop. Exactly 100%. Get a token of remembrance for your time in the Oval Office. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:But one of his Trump.
Speaker 1:MAGA hats Put it in the parking lot fool.
Speaker 2:Trump 2028. Wow In the White House right now. That's insane. Yeah, trump 2028.
Speaker 1:Wow In the White House? Yeah, right now, that's insane. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, well, why would you try and push the gerrymandering issue in so many states? Right, it's because you've got to trick up your sleeve. Yeah, you've got to set the stage now so that in the midterms you can do some crazy stuff after the midterm.
Speaker 2:Because when you do an amendment to the Constitution, you need to have what? Three?
Speaker 1:sixty percent.
Speaker 2:I thought it was like 66 yeah, um, yeah, two-thirds, two-thirds yeah of states to agree to that. So if you don't have that, you can't do a constitutional amendment that quickly and then yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You have to have a very heavy majority to do this, and that's what they're trying to do right now you know. So, yeah, that, yeah, that's crazy. Now I got to go check that out. I didn't know about that Trump hat. Yeah, I've been trying to like.
Speaker 1:Available in red and white. I've been trying my hardest to. I'm in denial over the idea that he's trying to pull off a third term type situation. Now that that's in the same breath as I've said to other people, If he gets back into the white house he'll never leave Right, Like he does not intend to leave. He's going to figure out some way to never leave Right and I've I've trotted out my own conspiracy. I made these up ideas of how he might try to execute that Right Um, and I won't get into those right now.
Speaker 2:We'll save that for another episode. Yeah, we'll save it for another episode.
Speaker 1:But, um, I? But at the same time I was saying those things with this, with the breath of hope that, like, but the system works, yeah, it should stop it. It from happening, right, like I, I can't you know the things I'm saying out loud I can't believe they would come to pass, but they could come to pass, and so that's what freaks me out, is hearing something like that. Right, it's evidence of what I'm trying to be in denial about.
Speaker 2:So, ew, yeah, here we are, yeah there we are, yeah yeah. It's coming fast and you know, texas just passed their new maps. Yeah, so I think either New York or I think it was New York said game on California too. Yeah, California's already done that, but now New York's just kind of jumped on board too. So, like good, here it is Get dirty Like if you don't get dirty we're going to have a third Trump term.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get dirty. And I go further into the rabble rousing. This is defining the fracture, for it's not going to be the north and south in the next internal conflict. It's going to be the blue and red, the left and right. It's not. It's not going to be geographically defined and you know border boundaries like that.
Speaker 2:Right and so neighbors and neighbors.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a much uglier situation of fracturing Right, which, yeah, hmm, how you get out of that? Because you don't have geographic contingency to go. Everything here is this way and everything there is that way. You can't do that when it's fractured the way it's breaking apart right now, literally at like a 50 50. We're gonna go coastal and middle right. Yeah, like, what does that mean? You know?
Speaker 2:that was one of the things that that yarvin character that the, uh, the billionaires follow yeah, he believes that, uh, we should break off into like little kingdoms yes, yeah, you mentioned that east west middle, things like that and having a billionaire on top of each one. Yeah, you know, yeah, I want to live in mediville.
Speaker 1:Everybody gets free vr headsets, free meta goggles. I want alternative reality please yeah please, king zuckerberg, make my glasses rose tinted. Well, if donald trump figures out how to keep the national guard there all the way through you know the next election then, yeah, the you know what are you gonna do, right, what? What can you possibly do? Yeah?
Speaker 2:okay, we would need them to turn around and take them off the throne. Yeah, like, that's what we need yeah, like I mean, if he tries to sit on the throne, that's why our military is there.
Speaker 1:That doesn't fucking happen.
Speaker 2:Excuse my language, we'll see. We made it like 35, 40 minutes without an.
Speaker 1:F-bomb. Well, there you go, we'll finish on that. Then, right Is the F-bomb and the sad news that the future of America is doomed. Nah, that's why we do the podcast, because it's not doomed yet. No, if we ever go off the air forever, you'll know something bad happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's always things left to do and things to keep fighting for so yeah, don't fall into the doom and gloom and everything Still. Wake up, look at the blue sky and go forth and do good.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, thanks everybody. Appreciate you all listening to this episode and we'll catch you again next week on Left Face.
