Leave it to Cleveland

ain't afraid of know harm? What the fun they're gonna do? Shoot me while I'm an armed ship. I'm the knife Homi. I don't need a burner, but you better know him. Somebody like I'm need to turner and I hit you with that dope flow you ain't even heard of. You gotta wrapper stunt looking like they see the murder. Oh, let's put it all in perspective. All you'll enjoyment of pod. Y'all can mess with you know they don't even listen forever hating Mariah what we're doing. We're waiting the reparations?

Yeah yeah, ay, what is he? I'm dope lingu Frank We are waiting on reparations. I'm waiting on this cold to be over, because you know, I've been sticking ship for like seven days almost. It's been terrible, sounding like berry white and ship you feeling better, It's not like prip keeper this bitch. Now I'm feeling better. Today is the best day I've had yet. I mean, I'm still not a dent, but I was like out, I was down for the count that was like fully sick, like fever, fatigue,

sleeping like twelve hours a day. And then I got a COVID test zero COVID or supposedly the negative negative result. But I have never this profoundly while sick before lost my sense of taste and smell. I can't any anything. I mean, I mean, I don't know anything. I've never I don't haven't experienced the COVID lost the taste and smell. But I've gotten sick to the point where I lost like my sense of like taste before. So I've had

that like vaguely before. And I don't know if it's like psychological, where like I know that's like a symptom of of it, and so like it's freaking me out, and so I'm like perceiving it. I think that could be more than it is. But it's like it's it's really freaking me out, man, where I like, I'm it's like I'm not hungry, but I eat ravenously because I

like miss tasting stuff so bad. I'm just like so sad, like trying a little bit of this, trying a little bit of that, trying to live in this on my place. Something tastes like anything. I'm gonna knock on wood because I am not. Like everybody. Everybody in Savannah is sick right now, like literally everybody's got delta. It's just it's

sucking crazy, like everybody's sick like mad. Businesses are closed not because not because of any mandate, but just literally because like, oh, no one can come in to work today. It's that sort of ship going on. And I'm lucky because like I'm feeling tip top, you know what I mean. And I haven't been going out for like the last three weeks or so. I've just been living in the studio and working on the show and stuff like that. But you know, hopefully, hopefully this this thing can subside.

Go out and get vaccinated, a job, be safe, fascinated. Just go do it, you know, it's so easy. And you know here last week we passed a new mass mandate for here in Athens. I know Savannah has passed one a couple of weeks ago. It hasn't affected. I mean, it hasn't really affected. How you know, people have been I guess people don't give not for the most part, I guess not. I mean that show. By the time y'all hear this, I will probably be recovering from the

show with that Forroman on Wednesday. But that ship, no one has said anything to us about anything for that, you know what I mean. I know it's a it's a pretty big stage. So I'm not really gonna be like up on people and ship, and they're not really going to be you know what I mean. So there's that, But yeah, it hasn't Besides, for people are kind of just waiting until they get sick before they think it seriously. And that's unfortunately, it's what got us where we are now. Unfortunately,

we also on Tuesday mandated vaccines for all um County employees. Word, how how are the how are the Repubs taking that up there? Oh my god? Well, the thing is so that's at the commission meeting, the Republicans showed out to just like spew two hours of hatred about how much they hate the homeless, because we had something benefiting the homeless on our agenda as well. But we had two County employees come up and speak on the mic um talking about how they would quit their jobs if we

passed this vaccine mandate, which isn't even a minute. It's like, if you don't get vaccinated, you just have to get tested every week. It's not like you lose your job if you don't get like, if you're so adamant, I'm not gonna get the vaccine here, you gotta get a test every week. That's it. That's all we were voting on, all we approved for. These people came up and said, I'm quitting my job if you all approve it tonight.

And then the fucking Republicans and the audience, all fifty of them, were like plaiding and cheering, and it was so it was so obnoxious, and I was up there sick as hell, having a fucking fever, just like kill me please. That I'm wondering, right, is like is there opposition now? Just two vaccines in general, or are they do they not like the COVID vaccine in particular, because

it's like, y'all motherfucker's are all vaccinated for something? Yeah, you know what I mean absolutely, if you made in the public school system, yeah you have exactly like you if you traveled overseas, if you fucking if you're in the army. I mean, like you remember a couple of months ago when they were complaining because the army was

making them get COVID vaccines. It's like, yo, there's like a hundred other vaccines that you have to have to be in the military and ship, so like yeah, what so it was it was sorry, And I think that is an actually a very interesting question, maybe worth diving into more deeply in the future episode, because I do think it is raising skepticism about vaccines general. It's like it's opening this portal to the dark underworld of like

anti vaccine like culture. More oddly, people are like starting off just oh well, I don't like how it was approved so quickly, you know, and then like falling down the rabbit hole into like, oh all science general, Yeah, that general conspiracy contrarianship, you know what, you know, he knew who would be killing it right now. I don't even know if he's alive or dead or what. But

do you know who David Iike is? No, who's that he's He's like this British dude who was like sports anchor and then one day he just quit his job and was like, yeo, I got an epiphany that the world was run by lizard people and that all the he's the guy who invented the lizard people or like

popularized the lizard people. Yeah, but I would I'm just remember like back in two thousand and twelve, he was really big on the internet, and now I'm like, where the hell is he with all of those because you would imagine he would be killing it right now without the queueing. But we digress. Please get vaccinated. Do wear

a mask? It took me a little It took me a little bit to like transition back into like mask wearing and Kroger or whatever, but like it so and then it took me like two times three times in my house to get back used to it. And I don't mind. There's really way way worse things than than sucking masks. YEA, Let's let's be easy, like so you know, people have gone back to not wearing masks if they're

vaccinated and shipped myself included. And I mean that also kept so many people from getting regular sick this whole time. I haven't been regular sick this whole time, Like I don't know, I don't know anyone that's had like a regular cold because we've been socially sitting a mask. And if I do you think that, you think that's kind of it. Like it was like, yeah, I was in like a meeting with like some activists and a commissioner at a bar and we were all just hanging out indoors.

One of them had a cold, but was like, oh, you know, I'm feeling fine and I wasn't wearing a mask and boo. Now I'm saying so like literally like it's like, Okay, if I had, like I just been wearing a mask this whole time and not been laid up in bed with whatever the ship is for the last seven days, that I would accept that right off. Yeah,

I mean, it's it's not a big deal. It's doing Yeah, that's that's that's that's crazy because like when I think about it too, I mean there's been a couple of times, you know, like some of our recording schedule might have gotten hauled up. Sometimes it's been like, oh man, I don't really feel too good and I woke up this day. But I have not been full blown, multiple, multiple days sick since like twenty nineteen, you know, like it's always

the implications of it are broader than saving people from COVID. So, but we're kind of jumping all over the place today. What what are we talking about today? Today? We've been talking about about Georgia Savannah blah blah blah. But we're gonna take a trip up to Ohio's eleventh congressional districts today to unpack the results of the special Mary election

up there that just took place last Tuesday. Between it was like thirteen candidates running, but it was largely between Bernie Sanders campaign co chair from Turner um ko Yoga um County. Uh, let me start trying to look at kaya Hoga Kiahoga Kiahoga County council member Sean tal brown Um and in the facto fight between the left and

center of the Democratic Party. So we're gonna talk about what the election results mean for progressives, and it's well discussed the musical landscape of this congressional district, which contains Akron and Cleveland. It's got some familiar faces like kid Cutty and Busy Bones. Are We're gonna get into some of its musical geography as well as its political geography today. We'll be right back with that after the jump jump all right, So now you might be asking, if you

don't know already, where did this race take place. Well, this is Ohio's eleventh congressional district, and it encompasses portions of the Caihouga County and the Summit County in the northeast part of Ohio state. This is including the majority

black precincts in between Cleveland and Akrin. So if you jump all the way up to the top of Ohio right up there by like Lake Erie, you got like Cleveland, and then you've got like a skinny little L shape kind of like Tetris block shaped ass congressional district because jerry mandering. Um. But yeah, got Acron, got Cleveland in there. You know, Lake Erie caught on fire one time because of all the ship flown in it. Yeah, I remember when recently the Gulf of Mexico will caught five Nina Turner,

who we will be this discussing away today. Um, we're talking about how like the E p A and kind of came out of what happened up in like Erie, like in response to like water shouldn't catch fire, y'all, perhaps we should inter intervene and we could get into the whole. Yeah, like you cant do a whole another lot layer ship with all of that. But okay, so okay, we got Akron, we got Cleveland. But why does this matter? Because I don't really give a ship about Ohio and

no offense Ohio high listeners. Oh this lovely state my brother used to live in Cincinnati is great? But why since no? But like, why are we even talking about this? But this here's the thing. So they're running to replace Marcia Fudge, who was appointed to be the head of the Housing and Urban Development um depart the department whatever you know, for our buddy Biden. And so it left

open this open seat in a deep democratic district. Maybe it became a proxy fight between the left most ring the Democratic Party and the quote unquote democratic establishment, which is a term we're actually gonna break down a little bit later on. Because different people have different ideas of what established it means. So you got Nita Turner and she was the Cleveland City council member from two thousand six to two eight and the Ohio State Senator from

two thousand eighteen. The Turner was a Democratic nominee for Ohio Secretary of State in fourteen, and she supported Bernie Sanders in his twenty sixteen presidential campaign. Became the president of the Sanders affiliate group Our Revolution. In seventeen, she served as the national co chair of Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. And was it when when the I am somebody or hello, hello,

somebody that I don't know. I feel like she just been saying that, like, just been saying I don't know what's what's the Was there a moment where that I feel like out of the wound, like somebody like yeah, I don't know. I feel like I feel like all of a sudden, I started here and they're saying I was like, oh man, that's gonna stick. That's a good

one right there. Yeah. Yeah. And so she's known for being assassy, unapologetic, like truth teller, unapologetically um critical of the democratic establishment, you know, running on a platform and medicare for all in this congressional run student debt translation to Green New Deal, you know, very much following in the footsteps of Bernie Sanders foot regards to policy priorities, and as such, it was endorsed by a huge hall elected officials and faith leaders from within the debt district.

As those national names like Danny Glover. Actually saw her in Danny Glover. I've told the story on the show before. I saw her in Danny Glover in South Carolina during Bernie's campaign, in this tiny, little like church in the middle of nowhere in South Carolina. Like it was like an accidental date. That's I'm not going to pretty much this, but I will sure I will briefly summarize that me going to see Nina Turner and Danny Glover in this

tiny church in South Carolina ended a relationship I got. Yeah, being this girl broke up over going to see Nina Turner and Danny Glover in South Carota. Yeah, I think happened. Yeah all the but so Danny Glover, Maryann Williamson, Susan Surrandon, Andrew Yang, former Secretary of Labor under what was it? Yeah, Robert Right not to mention squad squad of Jason's Congress

folks like AOC Corey Bush and Marquis Jamal Bowman. And then you've got all these heavyweight progressive organizations lining up behind uh Senator Turner, like Sunrise Movement, our Revolution of course, our Black Party, Justice Democrats, unions like Communication Workers of America. You got sucking brand new Congress, Working Families Party. It's like that scene in the Invengers where they're like coming out of the sky. I do've never actually, I don't

even think I've seen that movie. I've seen that memes and that where it's like a symbol like the black panthers are he and like you're yeah, so she had that sort of like montage in the background, you know that she was pulling up on the scene. I've enjoyed the political memes of that scene more than I enjoyed that movie. I t rup sometimes I've never even seen the film. Yeah, no, for real, you're you're you're definitely

right there. I remember I remember the night when or the day when it was declared that Biden like officially one somebody made like a dough bass me where it was like Biden was iron Man and Bernie was like dr It was funny and ship but it was like in the moment, like sitting there in private watching it, I I welled up a little bit. Definitely, I'm not gonna but my allergies. I mean, the Senator was clear, he's a man of his word. He said it in, he said it again. So the Senator is doing what

he does, and he created a movement. He was a spark and the movement is the fight. And so the movement doesn't change the The notion that we need medicamp rawl does not change the notion that we need to legalize cannabis and taking off the schedule one because it has ruined so many lives, particularly African American lives with the war on drugs and this, and that doesn't change the need to have college for all. That doesn't change

environmental justice. See, none of those core fundamental issues changed because it was never about a personality. It was more about the mission. And so progressives are still on the mission, understanding very clearly that we got two dragons we gotta slay.

We gotta slay the dragon of neo fascism and slay the dragon of neo liberalism, and the progressive movement is here for So on the other side of this, you've got Chantel Brown and she represents the Caya Houga Counties ninth District on the County Council, which includes Bedford, Warrensville Heights, Shaker Heights, Orange and parts of Cleveland. And she chairs the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Now, several notable UH Democrats

endorsed Brown's candidacy. And this is including the former Secretary of State and the two thousand sixteen Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. That you know, so someone you might have heard of her, You know what I'm saying. She made a couple of hits back in the day. Um, you've got majority with Jim clyburn on their US Representative Joyce Betty Beatty Betty, and uh, the Congressional Black Caucus Pack

and Democratic Majority for Israel they've all supported Brown as well. Yeah, so I think, I mean, I think it's pretty ully interesting that the Congressional Black Caucus Pack would endorse interrace where there's two black female candidates. Do you think it's something bad on their part? I mean, I think it's speaks to the politics of the black the federal Black

miss leadership class. To my my opinion that like really progressive policies that I feel would uplift black people, given the disparities in access to healthcare things like medicare for all the things that, you know, the ways that the student debt crisis exacerbates the racial wealth gap. Student debt

cancelation was certainly benefit back people. But uh, the people that run the ship, you know, the Jim Clyburns and the folks who sacrifice so much and have had their like next stept on to such a degree over so

many decades to get where they are. They've hadn't been to the knee to capitalism, to just like white supremacy for so long in order to make it to where they are in Congress, into these position of leadership that they expect everyone following after them to be welcomed into their fold, to also sort of abandon whatever they need to abandon in order to just get the power. Unfortunately. I mean like that, I just it just makes me sad, But I feel like that's what that's kind of means.

I mean, they have to play devil's advocate. I mean, they could just generally just have a you know what I'm saying, like a different approach to to how they want to go about doing things, and it might not necessarily be like on some conscious, deep seated like, oh, we're trying to maintain power and we're going to forego all of our I know. I yeah, I genuinely think they think that they're doing the right thing. I don't. And I say this, I hope they don't hear this.

Here's a hot take. I think just because you know you brought it up with the two black women running against each other, I think from a strategic standpoint, it was probably a good move on the establishments side, because I think that if they had ran a white person against Nina Turner, I think she might have beat them. Like regardless of I don't no, no, no, no, no, no, that's a little bit no no, no. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. Yeah. Um, I mean, I

I do think you would a degree, um man. I mean, I want to agree with you that they do think that their strategy for wielding power and governance, like they genuinely believe it's the right way to do it. But they also want to bring people in the phone who will been the need to them. But I mean a lot of them are you know, I'm I'm like the advocate against AGESM on this show. But a lot of them are old, you know what I mean, Just keeping it real, A lot of these are on and that

and that's that. I don't even necessarily know if that's like indicative of their stances or their beliefs changing. More so that it's just our ships different, now, you know what I mean. I don't think Jim Clyburn is walking around thinking I'm a moderate, you know what I'm saying. I think Jim Clyburn he's left the ship he does. He's left. He's left like he's like nineteen sixties left, you know what I'm saying. And the new generation just

might might be a bit of some harder stuff. You might you might be using some harder stuff that the old folks can't can't keep up with, right right right. You fall out as you fall out of touch with new ideas as you but I think particularly like proximity to power will do that to you, which you get in um as a young person with like you know, radical ideas or whatever, and then twenty years in the system beats the ship out of you such that like, yeah,

you continue to identify. Is that because that was your formative identity, but like you don't actually you know, actually rock with actually like because you're like, wow, I got told for twenty years to sit down and calm down and this is the best way, and I've kind of abandoned all those ideas. And I've seen it. I mean, like I know, I've seen it happen to people. I remember when I first really got into leftist politics or

started like paying attention to leftist politics. It was like coming out of that sort of haze of like, oh, you know, I get my you know, I know what I know because CNN and MSNBC, you know, reported on it and ship. So I remember when I first started getting into left of stuff and it was like, wait a minute, you mean Nancy Pelosi is not like you. I mean, like, like Nancy Pelosi is not like left

like she's she's a moderate, really right. And so when you get clips of like Nina Turner saying stuff like we gotta fight fashion fascism and need liberalism at the same time, like you scare people who are like, wait, liberalism could be is it it's a bad thing? Well, they don't realize it's like this, like farther left things that are good for people that that's a messaging thing though, And I mean it seems stupid, but it is a messaging thing. Like we live. We live in a country

where people don't read articles. They read headlines, you know what I'm saying, And so when they're reading quotes and ship like that, that's like, oh a Bernie Sanders said, YadA, YadA, YadA, liberals. Nita Turner said, YadA, YadA, YadA, liberals. It. I mean, I know what that means, and you know what that means. And there's like a subsect, there's a subculture of people

who know what that's in reference to. But there's a great majority of people who have grown up their whole lives thinking, oh, but liberals are the good guys, you know what I mean. So it's like if if you have that and then you include the lies and the media manipulation and ship, and it's like, oh, Bernie Sanders is kind of he's kind of like Trump. Look, he hates liberals, right, And so I mean, when when we get into it a little bit like the reason why the race turned out the way it did, I think

thinking about the political literacy of the average voter. Um when we get into like nitpicking terminology in ways of talking about what the real fight is like that that that that thing that definitely plays a role, um for sure, I mean and speaking of uh sort of positions that the candidates took, I mean, like I followed both of them,

you know, try to do my research. And Brown like, like for real, like Brown's only policy position appeared to be like supporting Joe Biden and of her and all of her ads and all of her tweets and all of her messaging like send me to Washington to support Joe Biden's visions on her website. So for her list of priorities, it's got like, you know, bullet bullet points

and then blurbs underneath. I won't read the blurs, but the bullet points of her priorities were end of gun violence, bold recovery from COVID, lower healthcare costs and cover everyone with high quality care, expand opportunities, and in poverty, and then a justice agenda. So pretty much supporting Joe Biden. You know, it's like this is this is Joe Biden campaign right here. Yeah, I mean, it's like in gun violence, What does that mean? Like that doesn't pointed like how

like what's your specific policy? And great in the half like what do you Yeah, it's always like tell us something, you know. But then again, I mean we are people that are incredibly into politics, and so maybe like that level level of like of of media literacy of just like digging deeper into what people mean when they say ship.

It's not something, it's just it's like they might may be like, yeah, I'm down to in gun violence, like a green view that I don't know what that is, that's scary, but in in gun violence, I'm down with that. I don't care how you do it. But fucking cool, bro, Yeah, I mean, you know, like I don't know. I mean, you know, a lot of a lot of people are if it's not Trump, then all right, as long as it's not the Trump Trump Trumpy ship, then we're cool,

you know what I'm saying. So I unfortunately the Democrats are definitely going to use that to drift to the sentence further to the center, so so far to the center that they might as well be Republicans. That's that's definitely where it's gonna go. I think you're gonna have a bunch of these uh never Trump or Republicans, if they haven't already, they're going to absorb into the party and it's gonna, you know, pretty much be a Republican party, while the other party will full on be the fourth

Reich and Goose Stephen. Oh god. So both candidates have had their fair share of scandal and unforced error. Um. On turner side, as we were kind of getting into with critiquing liberalism, her adversaries have made liberal path use of a clip from Atlantic article and which Turner compared endorse into a biding to eating half a bowl of ships, which is comparing to eating, you know, to buddy for

Trump being a full ball of sh it. Still not something that you want to have displayed on a billboard all over Cleveland two weeks before your election, which is what they did when you're running in a Democratic primary, right, and Joe Biden like star So that's you know, It's like, the thing is, it's like, I do not agree with these criticisms. I understand them, though I would be lying if I acted like, good, what what the hell? What are people upset of? I get it, you know what

I mean? And I even I was reading some punditry from people you know, on the ground in in Ohio's levant who said that many voters agreed with her. They did not vote for Joe Biden and their primaries either, but they just didn't feel that that sort of language was becoming of a congressional candidate. Um So even people who were like, actually, yeah, totally, that's what's up, however,

and you're gonna be my congresswoman. Unfortunately, people at the end of the day, you know, this politics thing, it's like a popularity contest when people are going to vote with you know, like people care about the issues that they care about. But then after that, you know, it's it's do I like this person as you know, as

a person vibe with me? And then on Brown's side, the Internet have reported on some ethics concerns about Brown's getting back to seventeen, when Brown as a county council one and voted to award Cleveland contractor Perk was a series of contracts totally seventeen million dollars. Her partner, Mark Perkins, has close ties to the company. Perk, and her campaign received thirteen dollars in donations from both Perkins family and

the Sefani family who owns Perk. So the Ohio State Auditors Office reviewed the intersects findings and referred them to the States State Ethics Commission for investigation. So bitches, bitches, fucking maybe trade in contracts for some donations. That's all there was. Also, this was in the intercept, but there was a newly released campaign finance disclosures that showed that Brown and a major Democratic pack supporting her campaign have

been heavily funded by donors who usually support Republicans. Yeah, which, you know, I've heard some centrists um flip this on his head and say that, you know, like in primaries, like Bernie Sanders was courting, not courting, but like embracing the endorsement of people like Joe Rogan, that his crossover appeal with working class uh, you know, white people that might glean conservative but funk with him because he hates the millionaires. Like you know, like, oh, well, y'all, well,

except Republicans vote when it's for you. But it's not cool when it's a centrist that that goes. I mean, there's there's there's truth to that. But then also you know, there is kind of like a disingenuous nature to it, because like Bernie Sanders didn't seek Joe Rogan's endorsement, and Joe Rogan didn't endorse Bernie. Let me be the clear,

let me be seeding clear. Joe Rogan essentially said, a I like Bernie Sanders, and Bernie Sanders played the clip of Joe Rogan saying that it was you know what I mean, like this is like we're hunting the na uh but I got of that dig or something exactly. Yeah, anyways, a good point. So yeah, and I don't and and I think a different Courting the voters two different things than courting the money people with extreme wealth that they

can tip the scale in an election. So um, yeah, I mean I while I think I thought it was an interesting point, I don't think it was a valid floe. Um. But yeah, Turner was lead in the race according to internal polling, fifty over Brown. It's like, you know, like I said, at the top, a leven other candidates in the race, none of them broke over like five Turners crushing it. And yet two months later, last week August third, results came back and Turner lost to Brown too. Okay,

what happened let's let's let's tell you what would happen. Yeah, okay, So Turning supporters blamed dark money in the establishment. I'm using air quotes here, coming forward to crush the left wing candidate once again. Um you know, are you know? Admittedly? Uh? In the last month, centras groups like Third Way in Democratic Majority for Israel spent millions on a TV air um you know, TV adsum against Turner, mostly focusing on

their criticism Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders. Pro zero groups ultimately spent over two million dollars outside expenditures on behalf of Brown's campaign, And so they're like, oh, the big money came in and crushed us, which I was legitimately worried about in the weeks leading up to it. But still, all in all, Nina Turner out raised, out organized,

and outspent Chantel Brown. The candidates in the special election for Ohio's eleventh congressional districts have raised over six million dollars, making it currently the most expensive special House election. Brown reported over two million in donation. However, Brown came oh

that's the is that something? Oh yeah, so she in addition to getting money from the Pro Israel packs she got five hund dollars from Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots in a long time friend of Donald Trump, so some some of the Republican money we're talking about earlier. And then Nina held a consistent fundraisingly the entire time and until the end was over four

million dollars in the bank. Um. She received about a hundred thousand dollars from political action committees and spent nearly one point two million on TV ads between April and July. So like she had the most money, she spent the most money. Sure packs came in to support Brown at the end, shooting on Nina and the last couple of weeks with you know, two million dollars in outside money, but Nina had more money. I mean so, I mean at the end of the day, she just lost. So yeah,

I was wondering. So that's how I kind of feel about this. I was wondering how you kind of feel about this. And we were talking about this a second um because to me, having worked locally a him millions before, I know that it's also all about what you spend money on. Because my and my race store is very much smaller than this one, UM I was out fundraised. UM I spent less money than my opponent, but at one because it all matters what you spend your money.

I don't know what Nina spending her money on. I mean, she says here she spent one point two million on tv ads. But from my view and the granted is just my few from Twitter, but I saw Nina most of tweeting about the issue student debt, cancelation, climate change, living wages. But I saw Sean Tell posting about events in the community that she was at. So like she was at canvases, she was at churches, she was at sororities and fraternity issues, at cookash is at barbecue, she's

at fish fries. And so that's the thing. It doesn't matter what values you hold. And literally, I really, I truly believe this that in a lot of races, especially when UM the district is pretty heavily leaning in one partisan direction or another, like it's a highly Democratic district or Republican district, it literally doesn't matter what you believe in. It just matters that who shows up the most most often UM, and that the people who are showing up

to represent your campaign are of the community. As well, because a lot of people you know, flying in akin to like the Bernie Sanders like um uh campaign structure of like a lot of people taking like Bernie journeys to fly here or there because they're so passionate about it, they're gonna go knock on doors to their candidate. But like it's not the same thing as like people from the community out knocking on doors in the community, out being with people in the community. Not to say that,

I mean like I obviously wasn't there. I was in and uh enjoying the humidity and all that ship. Um you know, the ibcc P reports said that George is gonna be one of the best places to be when it all goes down with Guard's climate change. By the way, yeah, we're gonna be fine. The rest of the Southeast were actually gonna be very like serendipitous. I guess, I guess that's too positive of a thing. But the fact that we're doing the eco episode next week after that report

just came out, that's so more on that. But up in Ohio, whatever it's gonna happen to them, I mean, they're lake already caught fire at once, so I'm probably not that great. Um uh I wasn't there. I can't say. I can't say what happened, but um, it all depends

on what you spend your money on. And I do think it's really important ultimately coming back to your critical point to sometimes just be like you, we fucking lost fare and square man, like like it fucking happens, Like I don't think it does us any favors as the left to always to to come across out of like fucking Maga big lave actually babadass like insurrection, to be like, oh it was rigged every time we lose, because sometimes we just lose. Man. What we're trying to do is hard, Joe,

Like you really really hard. You know what I'm saying. You can admit you can't admit it's really difficult without saying it's impossible. Look well, I mean look I like it's up and around me, like, oh, it's so unfair,

Like I don't know. On the Republican end, right, like the candidates who were fucking fringe e and weird like Trump and like all these new Marjorie Taylor Green's and people like that that are coming out there would work now since Trump and ship those candidates have always been around. Those type of people have always tried to run for

office and ship like that. They did their ship. The Republicans rejected them for decades and decades, like no, we can't have these motherfucker's directics, we can't have these representatives. And they kept pressing and kept soldier into now they

run that entire ship. Now I'm not equating the left to that, but I'm just saying that same sort of strategy is kind of what you just you just gotta soldiered on man, Like they're They're not just gonna let you take the ship, you know what I'm saying, Like, like you're gonna you're gonna lose. You gotta gotta get up, lick your wounds, and try again, and they're gonna try

everything in their power to stop you. But not everything is like something city use plot, you know, sometimes it comes down to somebody got more votes than the other person. Somebody just got more more votes, bro. And so I was disappointed to see Bernie Sanders sweet. I've heard a lot from the pundit try as to why I need to turn her lost to race in Ohio. Well, maybe it had something to do with the drug companies, Wall Street, in the fossil fuel industry spending millions trying to defeat her.

Is that the kind of democratic party we want? I don't think so, which I was just like Bernie Homie bro Dog, just don't because it also I feel like it also breeds cynicism where people feel like it's not even worth trying because it's so rigged all the time that we can't win. We can win, and we just need to learn from learn from our failings, learn from what's not working, and try harder. You know. That's it.

I don't know. And then um, I was reading some some um punditry from home with homegrown ties to the district, and an interesting analysis emerged from some of some of these pieces that the reality of the Ohio primaries that Nina Turner, with their large coffers or higher name recognition, having been a prominent surrogate for Bertie Sanders, her celebrity endorsements from Danny Glover, Andrew Yang and the like, was

the true establishment candidate in this race. There's a view that Turner lost because local voters don't live their lives on Twitter, they don't read puff pieces in New York times, and they don't want fucking Andrew Yang and Marian Williamson carpet backing in from California, New York to tell people

at home in Ohio how to vote. And so this idea of there being like a progressive establishment but also tries to be play kingmaker and swoop in and overtake local politics based on what they wish were national trends is equally an issue as um what the establishment stasion with the centrist establishment does, um, just for a different ideological lean I mean I can definitely, I definitely see that, and I mean also too, it's got to be the messaging,

because it's you know, some of the messaging and you know, like we were talking about earlier, some of the messaging is not perfect and not necessarily ideal if you're trying to run in in democratic politics and ship like that, I think there needs to be kind of a rethinking of how it's approached, you know what I mean, because like you just said, most people don't live their life on Twitter, and I'm not necessarily sure that progressive Twitter is like what what should be used as the barometer

for what people whatsoever? You can kill me. So in a reaction piece by Matt Karp and Jackman last week. The highlights some instructive and hopeful things about the race, namely that it appears need to Turner one working class black voters, signaling the left wing candidates the color can went over the black working class. It's not like, oh, these millennial suburb like city dwelling, gentrifying tech bros want like the green New Deal is like nah, someone was

the messaging. I know you, we were talking a little bit about this a messaging work or not. But some of that no, non says attitude, These universal solutions, these like you know, not just accepting criminalism and going hard for what working people need, like does appeal to like black working class people. If you look at both Nina's race and Corey Bush down in St. Louis, they did perform best with um the core constituents of the larger

quote unquote standards coalition younger voters in large cities. But Turner won five of Cleveland's nine black majority wars and the ones she lost she lost four of them, but only by less than two points, and she won the city of Cleveland overall. She won the black majority city of Akron Overwall, which is a major game from the Sanders Tony twenty campagne, which lost all of these areas

by fifty points or more. When wealthy communities like pepper Pike eight four percent white with a median income of a hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year, Brown beat Turner by over fifty points. By far, the heaviest blow against Turner came in the richer bourbs and just six suburban towns pepper Pike, Beechwood, Orange Broadway, Broadview Heights, University Heights,

and Shaker Heights. Brown netted four thousand, three hundred and ninety votes over Turner, more than her total margin of victory. And I think in that final sentence comes the true problem and the true problem with politics generally in this country. Four hundred four thousand, three hundred and nine votes was more than the total margin of victory, less than I think it was, like, I think something like less than of eligible voters voted in the selection. And people talk

all the time about, Oh, do what the voters want? No, what do you want about the voters? We need to stop focusing on voters and focus on and start focusing on people. So many people did not vote in this elect You could probably find internet poll for some stupid ship that more people in Cleveland voted for. It's really

about spanning the electorate. If we want left wing candidates to win and be able to win transformative change at the federal level, we have to stop worrying about the people that already vote and start worrying about like generally worried about people. You think that that's the overall lesson

that we can take away from this. I mean, I think in general, like just it's embarrassing as a country like like that we consider ourselves all the greatest democracy in the world, or at least that's the propaganda you here on Fox News and SPC or whatever, when like, we have the lowest participations in elections in like the developed world, like or even you look at places like Brazilian only places like Peru, so many people turn out and vote, so people, that's democracy? And so like is

this even democracy? Do either of these candidates even represent what the people of Ohio eleven one if only of them turned out to vote? So, I mean, do you? But can we lay this all at the feet of the system and not the people not bear any any I don't even know if blame is the right word.

But don't people themselves have to have to like be engaged in these things and like take more priority and how these things affect a love For sure, I can't blame people for not giving a ship when nothing has ever change fundamentally changed for them, I mean ever through politics.

Why would they care? Why would they care? And so it takes a lot for a candidate to overcome that that cultural inertia to when when they come and say when they come when someone lightning the turner comes and says, yo, like what do we canceled students that made free on a higher education free? Like to believe that person when they come and tell you it's possible, like it's that

that's a huge mountain for a candidate. It is. But but again, like I'm saying with the people, it's like if if to me, it just doesn't it just doesn't seem to it doesn't seem to make sense for me to be like to realistically be like, oh, well, you know what, politicians in the past have said that they were going to try to do something and they weren't able to do it for whatever reason. So funk this ship.

I don't care. I mean, I you know, like at the end of the day, if people feel that way, it's like, I mean, I guess I understand, like logically, you know, the one plus one equals to like you know, the train of thought that they're using to get to that conclusion. But the end of the day, it's like that's not that's not a good thing, just because just because the system is fact up like waving your hands in the air and being like, oh I I give up,

or oh there's nothing that we can do. I mean again, I understand why people feel that way, but like that's not a good thing. Like we shouldn't feel that way,

you know what I'm saying. Like, and I could definitely I could go we could have a whole other episode about just like living in the imperial Core and like the throne of capitalism, like the the how we're so captured by so many forces that disincentivize civic participation, anything from just like luxury culture, which for very simple things like Netflix and social media, to the grinding culture of like how much we work every day and paying your bills.

Like there's so many reasons why I think people don't participates and ultimately I can't I can't blame people I feel on the show before. But it's like the thing with America as it's like they keep everybody for the most part obviously we know, but for the most part, they keep everybody just comfortable enough or just within the reach, just with enough within the reach of comfort that it kind of builds a general malaise to the whole thing, you know what I mean, like a general yeah, yeah,

I got you today. All right, So, um, we are going to take a little break, but when we come back, we're gonna check out some Cleveland hip hop by waves, some legendary heavyweights in the game and some you know, some popular people, some not so popular people. But we're just gonna check out what Cleveland has had to offer over the years and currently. So we'll be back with

that after the jump. Okay, So we are back, and we are going to be delving into some of the finest or dopest or just you know, most popular hip hop that we could find from artists hill and from from the Cleveland area. The finest okay fine, the dopest okay fine, the most popular Cleveland has a lot of I think we have some Yeah, Cleveland's got some good ship. There's a lot of people, a lot of cats are from Cleveland. Somehows that, you know, people might not be

familiar with. But for one that I guess the most popular rappers out of Cleveland would be pretty much all the guys in Bone Bone as as an act. You know, I'm I'm sitting here trying to think of even another musical act that's from Cleveland, and somebody's probably gonna put

me to shame with that in the comments. But you know, Bone has got to be probably like the ambassadors of Cleveland at this point, right, But she also got mc brains, we got bumps, I n F. You've got Ray Cash, Charles Hamilton's the rapper, Kid Cutty King, Chip, Machine Gun Kelly. Do we even call Machine Kelly a rapper anymore? I'm not saying that legitimately. Paul on this list two, and I'm feeling uncomfortable about it. Let's go Roscoe, Polly Rhyme.

I've never heard of Polly Rhyme before. He must be an indie guy. But um, let's let's go with Uh. Let's start with something popular first. So first track they're gonna check out is by said act Bone. Um, this is their track Cleveland Is the City, and this came out in two thousand and eight, I believe. Let me double check that for y'all. Yeah, this is a two thousand eight songs. So let's give a little listen to

Cleveland as a City by Bone. When I up just like my dad, but I was sticking out in Yeah, I dig the Cleveland Rocks call out the Cleveland Um.

You know what it's the song is kind of uh, it's pretty much them reminiscing about their younger days, growing up in the hood before they got famous, and you know, being in Cleveland and all the different I guess you could call it the hardships that they lived through, but like really it just it's it sounds more like they're just kind of like talking some street ship, you know

what I mean. It's it's like, I think it's a weird choice for such a pleasant you know, like like you just described beautiful piano beat and a song about like your home city. But the almost the entirety of the song, they're talking about how people are going to NonStop try to kill you the second that you touched touchdown in Cleveland. How like every day, every nick in the world is coming to kill you. Specifically. It's like I can't picture drinking like sitting on my Grandma's like

front porn. She's drinking this iced tea, like shelling peace with her listen to this beat, but also knowing about because she's death of ship. She's not gonna be hearing the lyrics and like think it's like it's mandatory to leave you niggas bleeding. And I'm like, yeah, like I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna save that trip till next year. Next year, I'm gonna go to Cleveland. Yeah, I got refund I can excuse me? Can I can? I? But it is it is a dope song. I have no

idea what that is on. I think that was. I'm not sure if that was on their first one or not. Wait a second, that was it was on dog World. Okay, alright, yeah World Up. Next, we are going to check out someone who's a little bit more unknown to me because the other two, the other two cats that we have on here pretty pretty popular too. But we've got this guy, Little Cray, little little Crazy. So he's an independent rapper

as far as I know. But let's check out his song locked in the Safe a squizzy, none of it Basica racing, It's going on a granite. Supposedly, according to the source and article back from January of this year, this track went viral. Um I'm not sure before. I mean it stands on. It sounds like your standard new trap fair Um yeah, no, no, no, no, no, Like it's like, yeah, it's catchy. I've put it in the rotation and just like for the ambiance. Yeah, you know,

it's bounty. It's it's it's bounty. It's fun. It's not this is this is just a song. It's not necessarily anything that's about Cleveland or anything like that, but just as you know as a trap BANGERO with this, I think it speaks some to like it's that somewhat of the trappy sound of the South, yet it is from the Midwest, and so I think it's interesting it speaks to like the influence I think of the South across like nationwide. Yeah, which I think says a little bit something.

We can glean a little bit of insight on, uh, what's happening in the in the Midwest as well as more specifically in the Akron Cleveland area. Have you heard some of that crossover. Have you heard that goes from New York rap in the last ten years? Yo? Like all of them fulf like they're from Mississippi and sound like from Mississippi. Like you have done to claim like, oh, I do it for my city, Like yo, you all, y'all do it for Atlanta. You just don't know that

you do. I mean, you know, the song a Little Craysong is dope. It's just you know, it's like it's hard for me to not say. I'm just at the point it's like, man, I wish people would just rap about different ship. Jesus, just rap about different ship. Just

rap about different ship. And I had that feeling when I was like in my early twenties, like having grown up around wrap but never but before I started making music, Like when I discovered that you could rap about different ship, like you were allowed to like it, blew my never clicked in my head. You're allowed to wrap, You're allowed to wrap about different exactly. Yeah, I know, I feel I feel you so hard to this day, to this day, I'm still like Nick's wrap just try, like, just try it.

It's fun. It's fun to wrap different There is there is no new thing that any of y'all are gonna say about money, girls, board hood ship. There's like I will say, I will say where where like people do succeed. It's not that they're saying anything new about money or weed or ladies say that the different That's what I'm saying, Like, what was it? What was it? I'm all four, Look, I'm not sitting here talking like when when fucking little Yati whoever said she blew my dick like a like

a child. Right, but look, but look he said something the same thing in a new way. I disagree. I think it comes and it doesn't come down to what the content of what they're saying. But it's the metaphors, it's the analogies, the punch lines. That is. That is why I continue to stream hip hop. What I'm saying, well, I'll see, that's just where we're different because of what I'm saying is I'm not talking about say different ship as in, don't rap about what you want to wrap

about or wrap about. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying, say different ship as in if okay, let's just say if I were going to switch my whole ship up and I was gonna be like, you know what, I'm gonna start rapping about money and hose and all this sort of ship. Do you know how dope that ship would sound because I would be thinking of like the coolest way possible to express those ideas. Because I've been listening to rap for twenty five years, I've heard everybody saying, oh,

she suck my dick. Like you know what I'm saying, like like, be a bit more clever with the ship, you know, flip it up, or say someth funny like two chains is good for it. So I'm not talking. This is not like me like hate, Like, it's not hating on the style or something to chains consistently. It's saying shit cleverly and funny, you know what I'm saying, and being witty with it and ship like that. So I'm not hating. I'm just saying, man like, just just

switch it up, y'all. Switch it up, y'all? Do you? But he's just hating a little bit. That's this is a little bit hate the sprinkle, right, Let's let's go to the next one. This song actually I really hitters. Let's go with a kid cutty all right, just kid Cutties track. Cleveland is the reason this is a ten song, and this one also, I think this was on a Kid Cutty mixtape of some sort. But let's check the

shut out y'all. Really hear it now hit him like kind of books, and Cleveland is the reason I'm cool. That's it. This whole song. He's just being cool as a motherfucker keep two phones. He just like I'm complex, like the magazine. I did not like that complex twice thing. I know. I was like separately, I'm like, oh, both those lines as bad as hell, but then he did it twice nidna, But I just yeah, I love the song just like Ultra slide, Like the beat is just moonwalking.

Yeah yeah. And the reason he's cool, Yeah I did it,

it's I wouldn't you know. It's hard to say. Uh, I can't really say it's like about the city of Cleveland, but it's more just like a fucking like Cleveland pride sort of thing, you know what I mean, Like, you know, the Cleveland is the city that we're from, but it's not necessarily talking be honest, like like the song is just like I'm cool and he's sitting there listening to you like, damn, I want to say, that's so cool, and he's like on the hook just like, oh, in

case you were wondering, Cleve and it's the reason of cool. And then he got he got that. At the beginning of he's like, I'm from Cleveland. Think that y'all can hear it? Now? Yeah? I did that. This song is fired. This song is fired. The next joint. I'm sorry what you're saying. Yes, that's continuous. Okay. So for the last song that we have, you know, I mean, I guess, I guess homies holding this homies holding it down for

Cleveland right now, I guess in other genres. So this would be Machine Gun Kelly, who has recently kind of turned his attention to the world of pop rock. But back before he was famous, Gun Kelly was a local Cleveland rapper that I do remember. I would see like his his freestyles and his uh you know, his vlogs and ship like that. Back in the two thousand ten, two thousand eleven days before did he came up and signed him. But this one, this track is from back then.

There's a two thousand ten song by Machine Gun Kelly back when he was going by Machine Gun Kelly and this is called Cleveland simply so let's check this out featuring Dubo. I'm going up in the high school. Yeah, man, this makes me sad. I wish he had stuck with this. I know. This is actually another Cleveland Pride song. Shouting out of city, shouting out where he video He's got lots of sights of the city because I'm still white

boy from Shaker, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is interestingly, uh, one of the districts that went for seance L. Brown. Where was you at because you because you shout out South from Nina. No, it's good. I mean, my biggest takeaway from it, it's not even anything to do with Cleveland or anything like that, But damn, where did that Where did that two thousand ten machine gun? Kelly go at? You know what I'm saying, Where the

machine gun? Where did that two ten sounds go? All music? We're at the where the bars and like the like the We talked about this a little little bit last week with Kanye. This was the same era as like graduation. If I'm not mistaken, well, the graduation was a little bit earlier than this. Perhaps this is like the this is the you can hear they were thinking about the

beautiful Fantasy era. Yeah, so you can hear them thinking about how this kind of music sound in the stadium, you know, like yeah, and you feel you feel do you do you think this? This might be a little controversial, but like do you think that? When did he signed him? He was like, Yo, man, all that good rapping that you're doing, you gotta stop that ship. You gotta knock that off right now, all that fast not so you need to slow that ship down. We're gonna get you

this rock gutar. I don't know what happened. I just pictured it in my head, like when you like, are you like forming a base on a little spinning thing with clay and like if you fucking poke it too hard and so you gotta be real gentle. We've gotta

be real gentle with it. And you just get niggas coming in like yeah do it to like yes manny anything they do, and it's just like stabs the clay right in the middle of the whole thing, spins off the ship because it come in the studio like yeah, man, I just do it, Like what do you think of my bars? When I said, like my nick is La like yeah, I love it, and then it just sucking throws the whole printed. Yes, that that was machine Gun Kelly's Cleveland. That was before eminem made him start doing

rock music. So I think I think we're done with this episode. I'm really excited about next week's episode. We're going to be talking about eco rap, and you know that's obviously going to tie into how our world is on a timeline of impending global environmental disaster, but we'll get into that another day. I think we gotta end this thing, don't we. I think we do. Hey, Joe Gee run us a bet ha ha ha uh So you win some, you lose something, you're tryum be beaten,

but when you come back again, baby's sweet. It doesn't have nobody saying they cheated it, that you got walla buff voices and people to peep. Cory Bush, for example, Joe Biden tried to six times and now he's to commend. So here's my aunts and feel free to tweet it second times, chimes co getting Nina go get an We'll come back up. They ask, is it's time around? I swear, hey, we are waiting on reparations, see all next week, waiting

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