Everything is Up For Grabs

them to destabilize America. I believe that both sets right, these two quote unquote democratic senators and the bullshit Republican insurrectionists have the same goal, recognize the same problem, and instead of addressing it head on, they're just in it to get there. So here's the problem. The problem is that America has a lot that is fucking wrong right.

Climate crisis is not impending. It is here, our voter suppression crisis, the crisis of our democracy is not something that is future thought to be happening in the future. It is happening now. The assault, the attack on uteruses is happening now, which you will hear from our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel. We are facing a aggressive Supreme Court who is hell bent on turning America into the wild wild West, while marauding as if they give a fuck

about actual Second Amendment rights. It really just as part of the grand scheme destabilize America because our problems are so big and so vast, and you know that Republicans have no fucking plans, right. I bring this up all the time that remember during the twenty twenty election, the RNC did not offer up what their platform was. You cannot go to the rnc's page right now and pull up their platform or agenda. They were like, oh, just rock with what we had in twenty sixteen, as if

nothing in the world has changed during that time. Oh mind you in my list of things that I said was wrong, global health pandemic, But that goes without saying. These days, what I recognize about these people who were elected to be representative voices for their constituents is that they're looking at all of these fires, both literal and figuratively, that are in the country right now, and they're saying

this take a lot of work. It would take a lot of thought and strategy and policy thinking and writing. And you know, at the end of the day, I don't really want all Americans to succeed. At the end of the day, I really want to make sure that I don't go to Hell in a handbasket along with the country. I want to make sure that I get mine.

Eleventh Films, who has been an extraordinary arm I think very much underutilized by the Democrats of the DNC, the d Triple C, the DSCC in terms of targeting their messaging. But Eleventh Films put out a two minute clip I retweeted it yesterday with regard to Joe Mansion and how much money Joe Mansion has made, how much money Joe Mansion's children have made, how much money Joe Mansion's wife has made, and then they put that in parallel in

comparison to how fucking poor West Virginia is. Did you know that Joe Mansion has been representing West Virginia in

some form or fashion for forty years. Do you also know that West Virginia is that the bottom in most things that you would equate to a successful industrialized country and state that West Virginia is I think forty seven or forty six in education, forty seven forty six in healthcare, in income, they are at the bottom of every fucking societal wrong, and yet Joe Mansion, right, I think I think that they were talking about in this film that the average income right of people in West Virginia is

somewhere around like twenty eight or thirty thousand dollars a year. Meanwhile, Joe Mansion is worth about eight million. And here's the thing is that his paycheck is not where Joe Mansion has made his money. So this is what we all have to understand here, is that Joe Mansion, as a senator, makes a salary which is open. If you go onto Open Secrets, you can see every member's salary. It's the

point of transparency. But what they don't tell you when they go to open secrets is that this is only a portion of what your member is bringing in that is covered under ethics. Joe Mansion makes one hundred and eighty four five hundred dollars a year as senator. But that's not where Joe Mansion gets a ball of his money. A bulk of his money comes from his son's energy company, the family energy company. I put that in air quotes, and I say it with disdain because what is their

energy company about. It's not about clean energy, it's not about wind energy or solar, it's not about anything that has to do with the future of preventing climate change. No, their energy comes from coal. Joe Mansion makes probably about I think in the film, and you guys check me in the comment section if I'm wrong, but close to half a million dollars a year that he's bringing in from his son's energy company. His wife is bringing in

a little over six hundred thousand. His daughter, who also has some type of role in that company, was also in pharmaceuticals where she upped the price of the EpiPen, which you know people need for life or death, by six hundred percent. You know, she was one of those people in the pharmaceutical world that were brought before Congress because how did you decide to increase the life saving

drug by six hundred percent in one year? Put that money in your pocket and your shareholders pockets, and think that nobody was going to notice or do anything about it. This kind, this family is so fucking shady and has their hands in so many of the wrong pockets, big

coal and big pharma. So is it anyone surprised then that Joe Mansion is systematically cherry picking out the measures in the infrastructure bill that would allude to anything that deals with climate change head on, that he would systematically work against giving companies strategic timelines for when they have to change over their businesses and to clean our practices, because not for anything other than the fact that it would hurt his bottom line, it would hurt his pocket.

So you see, when you start to follow the money, as I've been saying on this show, as I've been saying on any show that will have me on and on Twitter, when you start to follow the money, you become very aware of who Joe Mansion is actually representing

in the Senate, who Kursten Cinema is representing in the Senate. Now, you see, we already know what Republicans are doing, right, Like their mission is power and power for absolute power's sake, because once they get power, which they will most likely get back in the House and most likely get back in the Senate, they're going to blow up the rules. They're going to do whatever they can to make the

final years of Joe Biden's administration hell on Earth. And then when they put in their Manchurian candidate, who will either be Trump or Trump Light, they're going to finish the job. Right. You remember Mortal Kombat where they were, like, finish them. That's what the Republicans are doing to our democracy. Joe Mansion and Kursen Cinema know that to be true.

And instead of using their power to progress the nation and safeguard us against fascism, against authoritarianism, against an uneven and imbalanced capitalistic structure, instead of using their power and their leverage to add more elements into legislation to caretake for this country's well being for future generations, They're decided, Nah,

I'm gonna get mine now. The eleventh film lays out bare that Joe Mansion is not representing the people of West Virginia, and the people of West Virginia are too fucking underwater in debt, in under education, in joblessness, in health disparities that you think that they have the time and the wherewithal to be able to look and see that this motherfucker who has forty years of name recognition hasn't done dick for their state four decades, for fucking decades,

And what does West Virginia have to show for Joe Mansion's quote unquote leadership. So we look at these people and we say, oh, they have a d by their name. So that means that somehow they're Democrats, and at the end of the day, no the fuck they are not. They are shucking and jiving and pimping and holling themselves out to the highest fucking bidder. Things went wrong in politics when we allowed an exorbitant amount of money to

flow through. When you have things like open secret that will tell us about the salary that these members of Congress are taking from their constituents, from us the taxpayers, but we don't also follow the money to see who else they're taking money from. And when you see that their interests, their own personal interests outweigh that of their constituents because they're like, Oh, you don't pay me to care. What Joe Mansion is doing right now. Isn't about fucking

West Virginia. He could give a fuck. He's on a seven hundred thousan dollar yacht. Okay, literally, he don't care. Kirsten Cinema, you think she gives a fuck about the people of Arizona When that bitch is fundraising in Europe. Those aren't your constituents right in the middle of deals that would either better or destroy our country. That bitch got on a fucking flight to go to some fancy dinners and put more money in her pocket. And ain't nobody calling her out on it, you know, the saying

that it's sometimes it's your own people. Yeah, don't give me the bullshit line about Democrats having a big tent. And you know how Joe Biden entertained progressives at the White House the other day, as if progressives are the fucking problem. You can't even get Kirsten Cinema to fucking show up at the White House. You're sending staff to

her fucking office. What about the optics on that? I tell you Today, Jonathan and I are going to get into a very deep conversation where we actually don't agree. But what we do agree on is that this next slate of cases before the Supreme Court is putting the final nail in the coffin of America. That is not hyperbole. It is not me being very passionate for you know,

for shitsakes, no, no, it is the fucking truth. When you take away women's rights, when you take away the people's voice, when you then turn around and with the same disgruntled, angry, disengaged citizens then decide that you're going to arm every single one of them, because you're going to erode one hundred year old laws that are on the book that would protect places like New York, LA, Boston,

Miami from reckless, reckless, fucking gun laws. When you decide that, through the Trump administration, you appointed not one, not two, but three A rated NRA justices, When you have decided to put not one, not two hundred, but three hundred federal judges on the bench that also have A ratings with the NRA, A ratings with evangelical Christian groups, what the fuck do you think is going to happen? America is preparing for war. White America is fucking armed to

the gills. They literally have all of the power and they are about to wield it in some of the ways that we had only seen in history books. Jonathan says something that is still ringing around in my head in our interview. He said that when hundred year old laws are up for grabs, then everything is up for grabs.

That means Plusy versus Ferguson, Brown versus the Board of Education, That means every single right, That means marriage equality, that means every single thing that you thought was decided because the Supreme Court decided it, and so it is quote unquote the law of the land. Well, they are showing you right now that that shit is kind of temporary until you get the right justices and the right nefarious

fucking Republicans to do your bidding. That it doesn't matter if it took them thirty years to get back here. They are back and with a fucking vengeance. And the question that I have is what the fuck are we going to do about it? Because I'm telling you they're not going down without a fight, and neither should we. Coming up, dear friends, is my woke Wednesday conversation with

our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel. Folks. As always on Wednesdays, I am so happy to be joined by our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of Dying of Whiteness, to talk about. Usually over the past couple of months, it has been a mix of COVID, more COVID than guns. But there is a case that Jonathan has been referencing coming up to be heard at the Supreme Court on November third, and in his latest piece for the Boston Review, the Supreme Court is poised to put politics ahead of

gun violence. New York State rifle and Pistol versus Bruin may give the right and it's politics of racial resentment a major win, but at the cost of gun control laws known to prevent shootings. Jonathan, let's just dive in. Why is it's so important right now to bring attention to this case that is coming up in the you know, in the next few weeks. Why is it important that all eyes should be on this Bruin case. Well, New York's had a licensing law in place for since nineteen thirteen,

over one hundred years. And part of why that's important, excuse me, is that it's been largely effective. Right in other words, like in the city of New York particularly, not everyone who wants to get a gun can go get a gun. You have to show a special a special reason for getting a gun, like you have a risky job, or you're being stalked by an ex partner or something like that. So you go to the process

and you get a license. But the NRA and pro gun politicians have for quite a long time been eyeing New York. In other words, if they could open up the gun market in New York, everybody would be buy guns.

It would destable lies in New York all these factors, and so they've had an eye on this policy for quite some time, but they never had the Supreme Court to be able to overturn it because it's just total horseshit, to be honest, like, of course you want to be able to regulate guns in New York because even if people can carry guns, you know, for protection in reasons that they can prove, you don't want people carrying guns in the subway or drunk tourists carrying guns Time Square,

New Year's Eve and stuff like that. And so finally they have a Supreme Court that's going to side with them, I think, and say. Basically, their argument is the Second Amendment should be as protected as the First Amendment. Just like you can have free speech anywhere, even though you really can't, you s's to be able to carry guns anywhere.

And so this is a huge risk to New York, but not just New York, to other Blue cities like Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco that have historically regulated guns in public as a matter of public safety. So just along and the short of it, and I hope people get to read my piece. People really need to pay attention because this is one of those cases that can dramatically change the way we live and die, particularly in Blue America. You know, I am so scared and I

am wondering why everyone else isn't. And you know, what is it, Jonathan? I mean, you wrote this long form, explosive, historical, thoughtful piece, folks, and again I will tell you the title of it, and it's at the Boston Review. Is the Supreme Court is poised to put politics ahead of gun violence prevention. The implications of this are so far reaching.

Like just listening to you say, well, essentially, if a over one hundred year old law is up for grabs, then you need to understand that everything is up for grabs. Should that be the narrative that is coming out of this White House? Why do you feel like they are I feel like their heads are in the sand, Like I just don't understand why there is no alarms going off right now. I think there is alarm. I just

don't think they can be quite public about it. I mean the issue in part I mean, I do ask myself very up in what would Donald Trump have done he was handled this card? I mean, he would have overturned the filibuster in five seconds honestly and just done

his thing. But I can say that there we see like like in the case of guns, for example, Trump Biden tried to put in as the head of the ATF somebody who was a strong proponent of gun violence prevention, and he couldn't get the support within his own party. We're seeing now with the budget negotiations. So I think in a way, if you're just going the traditional route, Biden's hands are tied in a way because he doesn't have the votes to do any of the things he wants.

The problem is we're playing by the rules and the other side isn't. And so you know, if the Republicans were in our hands on our position, they would have gone nuclear by now, no doubt about it. And so part of the issue is we're trying to fix things within the system, and within the system, the Biden administration unfortunately doesn't have the votes, and it's it's about to get a bit more extreme with the twenty twenty two election. And so again the issue is you know who, I

don't know, I don't know. Everybody read my piece and

tell me what the answer is. I mean, the answer to me is unless this administration, which we know that they won't makes a concerted pivot and says, you know, sometimes times, as you know, to quote the late great John Lewis, you need to make good trouble and sometimes the laws that are in place are the wrong fucking laws, and you need to be able to understand that sometimes you need to operate outside of that and and know that justice is on your side, right, and that at

the end of the day, when and if history books are ever written, right that this is what they will say, is that like sometimes you have to go to war, right like this is this is this is that moment. It's like you're you're you hit the nail on the head. Democrats are operating and entire operating inside of a system that no longer exists. Republicans blew it up five years ago.

So if they are literally showing you their hand, women's rights are on the table, gun laws are on the table, climate change is on the table, voting rights is on the table, school desaggregation is on the table. If they're showing you their hand and you're still operating in quote unquote good faith, then who is the dummy here? I mean, of course I agree with you, and that's part of why I wrote this piece. But the issue is even the argument. The way my mind works is like there's

one side on the other side. It's probably a vestige of like some evolutionary screw up or something like that. But I think the way it look I mean, guns is such an interesting case, right because it wasn't just like, oh, we're gonna make you have guns, and there's pro gun side and anti gun side. What they did is they totally overturned the gun control side through a pretty intense

process of getting liberals to own guns. Like over the last year, liberal gun owners have gone up, blackgown owners have gone up, you know, fifty percent or something like that. I have all the data and the piece, and so what they've done is not just you know, the kind of top down narrative, but they've also figured out a way to like muddy up the waters in a certain kind of way so nobody knows quite what side they're on.

And guns is a perfect example of this. Now there are tons of black Americans because of this very targeted follow the links in my piece you'll see very targeted, very conscious effort to tell people, oh, you see what happened to George Floyd. Well, that means you have to be armed because the police aren't going to protect you. Like they're very good at, like you know, undermining even think. So then when Biden comes in and he's like, oh, we need gun control, the people are like, no, I

need a gun to protect myself from the police. So in a way, they're very good at marketing to our side. Also, it's not just marketing to their own people. And I've been saying since the election that that's in a less

nefarious way, that's what we need to be doing. Like when we were protecting the Affordable Care Act, we should have been putting Republicans on the defensive, like having their own targeting their own base and saying, hey, why isn't your person giving you healthcare something like that, But we never do that. It's all about virtue signal for our own side. And the reality is is that while yes, I agree with you in terms of the marketing that is done and that they are incredibly savvy, reality is

also a good marketer too. The fact is is that I was one of those people and I am one of those black people that are just like you know what, they're going to try and kill us right, like they are doing it every day and it is only through the grace of God that we don't see more headlines every day of another unarmed black person that was hunted, that was killed in a street like a fucking animal.

And frankly in saying, we know that the cops don't protect us, they never have, right, It was one of the reasons why the Black Panthers, along with creating food programs and literacy programs, were like, you need to exercise

your Second Amendment rights. This is not new because the fact is is that when we're talking about there being over close to four hundred million guns in the United States, a majority of them are not owned by people of color, right, And so when you start to look at the numbers realize that you're already being hunted, then it is then who are what are you going to You're gonna sit around and say, oh, no, we're going to march this out. No you're not, because at some point in time that's

not what is going to work, right. But I mean, it's funny, because this is the book I'm writing right now, is that on one hand, it's like, well, they have guns, and guns have been so constructed as a vestige of white authority that it's like, well, if you have a gun, I want a gun, and so that makes sense, right, that makes emotional sense, and I understand that position. But I also think it's a very dangerous slippery slope for

a couple of reasons. One is, trust me, American society is never going to let it's never going to be a fair fight. I'll say that white America is always going to be better armed in every way possible. The system is built that way, and so a bunch of any group of people running out and getting arms, it's not going to overturn the system. It's going to solve systemic oppression. That's That's kind of the point I get to. My piece is there's an emotional pull of doing that.

On one hand, it makes sense, right, you feel like the other side has guns, why don't we? But you're also playing right into the hands of the gun manufacturers

and the gun sellers. Um, you're also opening up the door for all these other unintended consequences, like in places like Tennessee where I am right now, opening up gun rights has also led to more aggressive policing, um incarceration for all these other kinds of crimes that are almost over overwhelmingly Black Americans, like you know, gun theft and gun whatever and stuff like that, Um, that that are getting charged. Um, And it's and it's in a way

m justifying. Um, you know, white flight, unequal tax faces, all these other unintended consequences of militarization. So I guess the hard, harder question is how do you resist that narrative? Right, it's not just like, oh, you have guns, I'm going to to get guns. You actually have to think what's another answer other than running out to get guns? Because I just really worry that if everybody's got guns, we're just going to have the same problems of structural racism.

It's just that the stakes are going to be a lot more lethal. And the funny thing is is that I never play Devil's Advocate, and not with you, and very rarely on the show. But the reality is is that for black people and people of color, the stakes have always been high, and our lives have always been on the line, and our blood has always been the one that has been spilled in the streets. And so we know that the system is rigged against us. We know that we are going to be outgunned and out

out maneuvered and outpowered. And at the end of the day, when we're marching steadily towards this apocalyptic present, it's like, do you want to go out on your feet or do you want to go out on your knees? And I'm telling you that there are many people that are moving in the direction of I'd rather go out on my feet. Don't because don't you start packing me. I'm just I'm just I'm just I'm just saying I am

just like the other side. I know we're at a time, but I would just ask people to read the piece because there's a long history of who gets to carry a gun in public and so um, there's there's a history of race here. That's just really really important to remember that the minute black people start carrying guns in public, that's what led to the clan night rides for example,

that led to all these other factors. And so I just I would urge people to look at places where there are equal open carry rights like here in Tennessee, um, and see that the effect is more inequity, more racism, not less, because it leads to all these other unattended consequences like um, white flight, unequal text, bases war, says all the other kind of things. And so in a way I understand that urge and and and just to be very clear, the article is about carrying guns in public.

It's not about guns. Gun ownership. That's what right right now. Yeah, um, so we'll have to see. But but I would just say, you know, if um, but if you get if you start, if you start carrying, I'll just hide behind you. So that is it for me today. Make sure to tune in at three thirty pm East Stern for Woke Wednesdays, where I'm going in on that motherfucker Joe Mansion. As always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.