Jimmy Dore Show - 20101218_The_Jimmy_Dore_Show_-_December_17_2010

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Dec. 18, 2010 - Jimmy Dore Show

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20101218_The_Jimmy_Dore_Show_-_December_17_2010

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	Hi, everybody.
	Welcome to the Jimmy Door podcast, the new feed.
	You found it.
	If you're listening to the show through this feed, you've got the new one.
	And I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
	Now enjoy today's show.
	Hello.
	This is Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent from Vermont.
	When I'm not busy filibustering a completely ludicrous proposal to give tax breaks to millionaires, I'm listening to the Jimmy Door show on KPFK.
	If laughs were income, Jimmy Dore would be in the top 2%.
	I want my country back!
	It's the Jimmy Door show.
	the show for gut-minded, lily-livered lefties.
	The kind of people that are It's the show that makes Anderson Cooper say.
	So sit back or sit up or keep driving.
	Because it's the Jimmy Door show.
	And now, here's a guy who sounds a lot like me.
	It's Jimmy Door.
	Hi, everybody.
	Welcome to the Jimmy Door Show.
	This week in Los Angeles, where this show originates from, we're in a mini fun drive.
	That's right, because we're in the middle of a recession and we have to have 14 fun drives a year.
	But if you enjoy the Jimmy Door show, this would be a great time to swing over to kpfk.org and make a contribution so you can let Pacifica Radio and KPFK, which as we all agree, there's nothing like it in Los Angeles or probably around the country.
	KPFK, the far left, lefty radio.
	I'm actually shocked that KPFK even exists with corporate America as they've gotten rid of all good things on the show.
	They really have.
	They really have.
	KPFK.
	So sitting here with me today, we have Robert Yasamura to my left from teamyasumura.com.
	We have Paul Gilmartin from TBS's Dinner in a Movie and askARepublican.com.
	Now, when you go to ask a Republican.com, I want you to remember he's not a Republican.
	He's pretending to be for comedic purposes.
	Try to go to, if you're going to go to ask a Republican.com, go to grainofsalt.com first.
	And that is Ben Zelovansky, writer, hilarious man extraordinaire from BenandAlex.tv.
	And what's coming up on today's show?
	Let's let people know.
	So as part of the Obama stimulus package, they were supposed to spend $810 million in the state of Wisconsin building a high-speed rail system from Milwaukee to Madison.
	Sounds like a good idea.
	Build an infrastructure public works project to spur the economy and create jobs immediately.
	Enter Scott Walker, who ran for governor and campaigned against the rail system and vowed to stop it.
	Well, guess what?
	Scott Walker won, and the Obama administration honored his request and withdrew the funding for the project.
	And will instead send that funding to other states whose governors favor rail extensions.
	So now they're out that money, and the people in Wisconsin are kind of upset with the governor-elect, but he was happy about it.
	Here's how he responded to the news of the Obama administration pulling the funding for the project.
	Because I was not going to go forward with a trade line between Milwaukee and Madison, and so I think that's a victory.
	Yeah, it's a victory.
	Like the last time you lost your wallet or when Brett Favre left your state.
	Okay, this is something that really is happening, and it's not only happening in Wisconsin, but it's also happening in Ohio.
	Governors turning down free money for jobs for their own citizens in their state.
	We're going to talk about that coming up.
	Plus, most economists say that unemployment benefits are one of the most stimulative things you can do to an economy in the middle of a recession.
	Well, that's what most economists say.
	What do the people over at Fox Business News say?
	It is the height of stupidity to extend unemployment benefits.
	Americans need to get back to work.
	Wow, you know, I never thought of that tactic to use with the unemployed.
	Just yell at them.
	Americans need to get back to work.
	You know, he says it like they're not unemployed, like they're on vacation.
	Yeah, it's a real vacation, except they didn't go anywhere and they don't do anything.
	And you spend most of the day worrying.
	But that's not even the worst thing we're going to talk about today.
	But the worst thing might be Tucker Carlson.
	That's right.
	He sent a college student undercover to use food stamps to see just what kind of gourmet treats this guy could buy at a Whole Foods with food stamps.
	And why did he do it?
	Well, because Tucker Carlson knows who to go after, who the real villains are in this economy, and it's the people on food stamps.
	Plus, he thought it would make him a lock for the douchebag of the year award.
	This is not a made-up story, and I'm going to fill you in on the details.
	And there's only a few days left until Christmas, and only a few more for the Democrats to have their majority in the House.
	So what are they going to try and get done between now and then?
	Not too much stuff.
	We must complete the tax bill.
	We're going to move as soon as we can to the START treaty.
	We have to fund the government.
	We've got to make sure that we complete work on the DREAM Act.
	If the House completes work on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, we'll have to work on that.
	We have the 9-11 situation in New York.
	We still haven't given up on that.
	We have a number of nominations we're working on.
	Ah, so little time, so many things to completely cave in on.
	We're going to talk about all that stuff.
	Plus, Jim Hightower stops by to bum us out in a folksy voice.
	And Moron calls in in our Tuesdays with Moron segment to wish us a Merry Christmas.
	That's coming up, plus a lot lot more.
	That's today on the Jimmy Door.
	First thing I wanted to get to was first I wanted to play, you know, Harry Reid.
	We just played that.
	There's a lot of stuff coming up he's trying to get done before the saloon keeper, Harry Reid.
	He looked like he just walked out from a saloon.
	It's more like a Western doctor, like a West doctor.
	Yeah, he always looks like he just woke up.
	Yeah.
	I see him dropping bullets into a tin with tweezers.
	Yeah.
	That's Harry Reid.
	Well, you guys are being funny right away, and I appreciate it because the show needs it.
	So, but I wanted to, so he's trying to get everything done, and John Kyle is upset because remember they said we're not going to do anything until you pass the tax cuts.
	You have to pass the tax cuts for millionaires, or we're not going to do anything else.
	But if you do that, then we'll work with you.
	Well, they did that, and now they don't want to do anything else.
	And here's the rationale that John Kyle is giving for not doing anything else.
	It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out without doing, frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves, but all of the staff.
	Wow.
	Okay.
	Was he waving a flag as you said that?
	No, I wasn't going to play that at the top of the show.
	That was going to be like a fun thing at the end.
	But as I was putting it in my computer, I realized that might be one of the things that makes Paul Goodmartin go, oh my God.
	Hoping.
	But I got a wow out of him, and that was good enough.
	You know, I've been getting a lot of requests through the email for a ringtone of Paul going, oh, my God.
	That's what I love to play a clip from the far right wing at the top of the show and see if I can get a reaction out of Paul.
	Okay, that was fun.
	And that's John Kyle's senator from Arizona, the junior senator.
	He's 80 and a junior senator from Arizona.
	That was his pretend rationale for not wanting to do the people's business because you know what?
	It's all about Jesus and God.
	It is.
	It really is.
	And Jesus wouldn't want you to pass the Start Treaty before his birthday.
	No.
	No.
	So right now, let's.
	I think I can hear Jesus now.
	What about my birthday?
	You guys.
	Come on.
	This is disrespectful.
	So now I want to move on from that because that was just kidding around.
	And we're going to talk about the thing that happened in Wisconsin.
	Do you know what happened in Wisconsin with the governor-elect Mark Walker?
	They were supposed to have a train built from Milwaukee to Madison.
	High-speed rail.
	High-speed rail.
	And he said no.
	And well, here's, let me just tell you about it.
	So as we all know, elections have consequences.
	And in the Midwest, in Wisconsin, the governor-elect there, Mark Walker, ran on a campaign promise that he was going to stop the infrastructure building inside of his state.
	That's right.
	Part of the federal stimulus program is to build a high-speed rail project from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Madison, Wisconsin.
	Scott Walker thought that was a waste of money, even though it was free money from the federal government.
	And he said so, and he said he was going to work to stop it.
	Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced just this week that they are pulling the $810 million slotted to go to Wisconsin to build that rail system.
	Recently, the governor was at a small business forum and he stopped to give a brief explanation of why he opposed the project.
	And to me, the jobs I want are jobs that are sustainable.
	That's why I'm talking here and to other groups representing small businesses because I don't just want jobs that are created short term based upon a government subsidy.
	Did you catch that?
	He's against this project because it doesn't provide Wisconsin with sustainable jobs.
	You know, I guess like all those old sustainable jobs they used to have that somehow just weren't sustained and went away.
	And he's saying this at a small business forum, a small business forum.
	He's saying he wants sustainable jobs.
	Are you aware that less than half of all small businesses survive beyond four years?
	I get it.
	I get it.
	This is a philosophical stand.
	You're a real fiscal Republican.
	You're totally speaking to your libertarian constituency.
	You're not some kind of pinko European socialist.
	Hey, bravo, governor-elect Walker.
	Why don't you just change your license plates to read, we're not a bunch of nanny state homos.
	Even though a huge swaths of your constituency in Wisconsin wouldn't be able to afford a car upon which to put those plates because, you know, Wisconsin just hit their 20-year high in unemployment.
	You know, I don't know if you assholes ever cracked a history book, like a real one, not the kind the Texas Board of Education recommends, but a real one.
	You know, where the American Indians got the shaft and slavery actually existed.
	One of those books.
	Well, if you had looked up the last depression, you might notice that the thing that ultimately got us out of that depression was World War II, which to my mind was the ultimate in government subsidies.
	And that only lasted four years.
	I'm just saying, I would think you guys would be all for anything that led to your favorite time in history, you know, the 1950s, which, by the way, was the period when Eisenhower built the modern infrastructure of this country.
	But there's no way that had anything to do with economic prosperity of that decade, right?
	You know, I honestly think guys like you romanticized the 50s so much because it was the time when Ronald Reagan named names to the House and an American Activities Committee.
	And civil rights hadn't passed yet.
	Sweet decade.
	Now, while we're on the subject of the Eisenhower years, let me just say this.
	When are you guys going to get it through your thick skulls that public works projects are not charity?
	Infrastructure projects are the most important long-term investments in our country that there are.
	Ever heard of a thing called the Tennessee Valley Authority?
	You know, roads, bridges, trains, energy, these are arteries by which modern countries function.
	And in case you guys didn't know, we haven't had a major infrastructure push since the 50s.
	And in 2001, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our national infrastructure a grade of D plus.
	Get it?
	Bridges and roads are falling apart.
	They do that, you know.
	They fall apart.
	And think about this, too.
	We're going to need to get off oil at some point.
	And it's likely going to happen during a crisis.
	Do you want to start building trains then?
	You guys want to wait till gas spikes to $8 a gallon to start a train project when it'll cost double or triple what it will cost now?
	And it'll take three years just to get going.
	Is that what you guys want?
	Oh, yeah.
	I forgot.
	You're modern-day Republicans.
	That's exactly what you guys want.
	No.
	Now, Paul, I want to go to you first on that because you weren't aware of that story.
	And so that the governor-elect Mark Walker of Wisconsin, he campaigned.
	In fact, he had a website called Stop the Train.
	And people vote, they voted him in.
	Stop.
	They made a movie about it.
	Is that Denzel, Washington?
	That's how?
	No.
	Is that a different thing?
	It's slightly different.
	Oh, I'm sorry.
	Just slightly.
	And also, Ohio turned down this money.
	So Ohio, their governor-elect John Kasich also said that he was against.
	He does not going to have any trains in his state, buddy.
	We're not going to bring our state into the 20th century.
	No trains connecting our city.
	And so Barack Obama and Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, he said, okay, well, you don't want that money, so we're taking it from you, and they're giving it to the other states.
	Now, California is getting $600 million extra to build our train line from San Diego to San Francisco, which we're building.
	Awesome.
	And they're going to have one also from Los Angeles to Sacramento.
	So from Sacramento, Los Angeles, and from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and then down to San Diego.
	Perfect.
	And, you know, that's high speed.
	It's, yeah.
	I don't know.
	You know, when they say high.
	Why is it not Amtrak?
	When they say high speed, I always think of when I was a kid, they would talk about when I say when I came, I don't know, in the 80s, I remember they were talking about how Japan has these high-speed trains.
	They go three bullet trains, right?
	But that's not what we're talking about.
	No, that's exactly what we're talking about.
	we're talking about 200 mile plus really speeds It's the next wave of infrastructure.
	See, that's what I thought they were building.
	But then I heard reports that it was only 55 miles an hour trains.
	That's not very high speed.
	That's not very high speed, right?
	That's right.
	That's It must be high speed relative to what we've got, which is what?
	Nothing.
	But if you've ever been to Madison, which is nothing, right?
	But if you've ever been to Madison, it is like in between Madison and Wisconsin, that freeway.
	They have like a six-lane freeway.
	It's like some gigantic to get, I don't even know if they need it.
	By the way, if you guys missed the 70s, ride Amtrak.
	Yeah.
	Have you read the seat covers alone?
	I read the Acela.
	I rode the Acela.
	I did the starlight.
	I did Boston or whatever, the Coast Starlight from LA to Seattle.
	Yeah.
	Oh, did you come back about a couple of years ago?
	Huggy Bear there?
	It was.
	Why did you do that?
	Not pleasant or clean.
	No, not clean.
	No.
	Guys, the Acela between Boston and New York is fantastic.
	It's really, really great.
	Well, Boston and New York, it takes you like two hours, right?
	Yeah, it's fast.
	How long did it take you to go to Seattle?
	Two days.
	Yeah, that's what I thought.
	From here?
	Yeah.
	But that's relaxing, right?
	You get to sleep every day.
	Beautiful, beautiful scenery, but the bathroom, we weren't able to get our own bathroom.
	Those were all sold out.
	And the whatever, the group bathroom.
	Not pleasant.
	Not pleasant.
	Food was bad.
	What made you do this, Paul?
	Wanted to spend time with the wife, see the countryside.
	And what do you do?
	You go to baddecisions.com.
	Yeah.
	All right.
	To me, this sounds like a win-win because now California is going to get some new high-speed rail, and people in Wisconsin didn't have to get the wrong kind of jobs.
	Don't you love that?
	He goes, we want sustainable jobs here.
	Yeah.
	And in the meantime, no jobs.
	I didn't realize Republicans can think that they have street cred.
	I mean, isn't that really what this is about?
	Is this guy trying to build his Republican street credit?
	This conservative.
	This is Barack Obama losing the argument.
	That's what this is.
	This is Barack Obama not doing what FDR did and making the case that, hey, guess what we need?
	We need infrastructure spending right now, and that's going to help us get out of this depression.
	Instead, what Barack Obama has done is let the Republicans frame the debate as usual, and it's all about the deficit.
	But I like that.
	Which is the worst thing that you can do right now.
	During the middle of a recession, you don't attack the deficit.
	And what he's doing is trying to make, so this is kind of a backdoor stimulus, is what they're saying, because it's $900 billion they're spending, but they're not spending it.
	It's just tax cuts.
	A lot of it is tax cuts, which aren't stimulative at all.
	Because if tax cuts were stimulative, we wouldn't need a stimulus right now because we already have tax cuts.
	Right.
	Right.
	Okay.
	So you're going to say, Ben?
	Yeah, I was just going to say that, you know, this guy from Wisconsin said he didn't want these kind of jobs because they weren't sustainable in his state.
	But aren't these the same Republicans that complain and don't want to extend unemployment benefits because they think that people are just waiting around and they'd rather why don't they just get a job at McDonald's?
	Like, well, maybe that's not the right job.
	Yes.
	Like you can't really have it both ways.
	Well, they realize, too, that the jobs that these people have, they will then go into a bar and spend money, which will keep that bar open.
	They will buy things at the mall, which will keep that.
	Yeah, it really has nothing to do with what kind of jobs they are.
	This guy's just trying to be a hero by turning down government money.
	Yeah, economists.
	He's hurting his constituents.
	This was all on the billboard, which I didn't, we didn't listen to yet.
	God, wouldn't it be great if his car broke down between Madison and Milwaukee?
	Wouldn't it be awesome?
	That would be great.
	That would be great.
	Let's listen to more of, well, I want to read to you.
	So I've been kind of obsessed with this story.
	And I was reading about it.
	I actually went to a website from the news station in an AM news station in Wisconsin, and I wrote a little bit on their comment section.
	But here, recently, what happened was, let me read this to you.
	Assembly Democrat Mark Pokin and Senate Democrat Mark Miller, both of Madison, Wisconsin, want to know how Governor-elect Scott Walker is planning to pay for the $101 million of related projects that was supposed to take place for this rail thing.
	So inside that $800 million they were giving to Wisconsin, there was $101 million set aside to help refurbish their old train tracks and build a new kind of some new facility to do that and stuff like that.
	So here it says they include a train maintenance facility and $30 million in track upgrades for freight trains.
	They would have been funded by the $810 million in federal stimulus that Walker rejected in his opposition to the high-speed train.
	Walker's office has not commented.
	Yeah.
	And but then this guy, Jack Dick, literally, that's his name.
	Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
	Or I don't know how you print it.
	It's spelled D-Y-C-K.
	I'm going to call it Dick.
	Either way, it's offensive.
	Dick or Duck.
	Dick or Dyke.
	Either way, it's offensive.
	So John Dick of Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
	Can we call him John Dicky Dyke?
	Yes.
	He says that legislators can deal with that funding gap by reducing or just cutting out the projects.
	Oh, okay.
	Okay.
	You leave everything broken.
	That stuff that we don't have the money.
	The stuff that we don't have the money for to fix, we just leave it broken.
	Yeah, there you go.
	I got to tell you, they really are some really economically fiscally minded mofos up in Wisconsin.
	It's easy to be to get cred as a fiscal conservative if you just say, I will never spend a dollar on anything ever.
	Right.
	And that's what they're saying.
	Yeah, but like, you know, people need things.
	His big opposition, so I dug even deeper into this.
	And what Mark Walker, governor-elected Wisconsin's big opposition to this rail project was, was that after it was built and it was supposed to take three years to build.
	So that's three years of construction jobs in Milwaukee.
	And it would have taken longer.
	And it would have taken.
	There's no way they did get it done through.
	And plus, there was a company from Spain, I guess, that makes the railway cars that had opened up shop in Milwaukee, and this week has now announced that they're closing shop in Milwaukee.
	Yeah, they right now have, they employ 55 people, and they were supposed to go up to, I don't know how many people they were supposed to go up to, probably, I'm going to guess and say a thousand.
	That could be totally wrong.
	But a major manufacturing concern.
	So you're okay, Jimmy, with Spaniards loitering around Milwaukee.
	That's what I'm reading.
	Well, now they're going to be loitering.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, before they had a job.
	So his big opposition to that.
	Making their fish stew, raising the sticks.
	Go ahead.
	They've got spacho.
	His big opposition to that was that after it's built, it's going to cost the state $7 million a year to run that train.
	Yeah.
	You know what they should do?
	Charge people to ride it.
	That might be a way to bring in.
	It was going to connect.
	It's going to go from Chicago to Milwaukee, Milwaukee to Madison, and eventually it was supposed to go from Madison to Minneapolis.
	That was the to connect all those cities through high-speed rail.
	That's pretty smart.
	And of course, if it's something smart to be done, it won't be done in the Midwest.
	Okay, so I went to that.
	Remember, I went to that, I told you I went to that AM news station that had this thing about this story, and I wrote a little in the comments section.
	And this lady wrote in the comment section right underneath me.
	And I'll just read a little bit of it.
	She writes, he's pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and anti-high-speed rail.
	He's vigilant in his opposition to high-speed rail line connecting me walking in Wisconsin, and he made it a primary campaign issue, calling it a boondoggle and promising to derail it if elected governor.
	Financing the annual operation costs of high-spiel rate is Walker's chief criticism.
	It's estimated to cost taxpayers $7 million a year, money that he said would be better spent on roads and bridges that need repair.
	Instead, I guess we can finance the $101 million in other repairs and have nothing to show for it.
	Plus, the road's already torn up.
	So we've lost business, jobs, and tax dollars.
	Walker gutted county government, including county transit and the mental health complex, because he worked for the county in Milwaukee before this, Milwaukee County.
	He was a big to-do on that board.
	So this is how he balances budgets.
	He cut mental health money, okay?
	And he has compromised their fiscal stability by making cuts in county employees' benefits, which he called an evil necessity.
	So I guess goes on, she goes on, she goes, he cut jobs, and poor job creation will lead to higher unemployment and more poverty.
	Milwaukee recently scored the second highest unemployment rate of all 50 cities, only topped by Detroit.
	And in 2009, the U.S. Census numbers show that the city of Milwaukee has clamored from 11th to the fourth highest level of poverty in the nation.
	One cannot claim to be a job creator while having a hostile business climate and the second highest unemployment rate and the fourth highest poverty rate in the nation.
	I just love that a mental health budget was cut by a guy who is delusional.
	Obviously delusional.
	So this kind of dovetails with the next thing I wanted to talk about.
	I put it in the billboard at the top of the show about how Fox News sees unemployment.
	It's kind of like the conservatives' view of how we should be approaching this economy right now.
	Hey, let's stop infrastructure spending and let's cut.
	Well, here's what they say what we should do with unemployment benefits.
	It is the height of stupidity to extend unemployment benefits.
	Americans need to get back to work.
	I don't want to sound harsh.
	I don't want to demean or offend those who've had to suffer through losing a job.
	But the problem with unemployment benefits is they encourage people not to take jobs and they take money from the productive sector and give it to the unproductive.
	As I've said again and again, if you subsidize something, you'll get more of it.
	Subsidizing unemployment leads to more unemployment.
	Yeah, like corn and our food being poisoned with corn syrup and everything.
	Yeah, sure, if you subsidize that.
	You know, I like, I never thought about that approach to the unemployed that he took at the top there, yelling at them.
	No, no, he said that.
	Americans need to get back to work.
	Yeah, that's what he said.
	So all of my friends that are having trouble paying their rent because they don't have any money and they've been looking for jobs, they just secretly don't want jobs, right?
	Yes, of course that's what they are.
	Thank you.
	It's not even a secret.
	So their tears are fake.
	Yeah, get back to work.
	Vacation's over.
	You hear me, Slacker?
	He does kind of have a good point, though.
	It gives money to the unproductive and takes it away from the productive, like cable news show hosts.
	People who really produce something of value.
	Hey, wait, I'm a cable host.
	You.
	Proves my point exactly, that kind of talk.
	Well, you know, they're actually cutting taxes at the same time, Robert made this point.
	So they're cutting taxes for the wealthy at the same time as he wants to cut unemployment spending, right?
	So if they're taking the unemployment benefits, but they're not taking it from the productive sector because they're not taxing them anymore.
	They're actually taking it from nowhere and they're giving it to the unproductive sector.
	Well, and also while you're employed and paying taxes, you're paying into your state so that if you become unemployed, you can get some of your own money back.
	Yes, it's not like these people have never paid a tax and now they're just freeloading.
	Right, exactly.
	Well, he does make it sound like they're on vacation.
	There's a difference between a layabout and a dilettante, Jimmy.
	Look it up.
	Whoa.
	Can you tell me the difference?
	A dilettante would be somebody resting on their laurels because they're independently wealthy.
	Oh, they inherited it.
	A dilettante takes a walk cooking class.
	That's the major.
	A walk cooking class?
	Okay.
	Well, I just want to say.
	And you know what a layabout is.
	You're looking at three of them.
	Well, I just wanted to say, I mean, Robert, what do you think about the fact that he kind of compares it to, to me, it makes it sound like, hey, you got to get back to work, like they're on vacation or something.
	And hungry.
	And hungry.
	Yeah.
	And hungry.
	Oh, speaking of hunger, we're going to get to that after we come back from the break.
	Tucker Carlson, which I mentioned also at the billboard, he sent an undercover college student to illegally obtain some food stamps, right?
	So he got on the food assistance program, and then he went to Whole Foods to show you all the gourmet stuff that these slackers on food stamps are buying.
	And you eat a bow tie.
	I wish he would try.
	By the way, whenever we mention one of these guys, can we say friend of the show?
	Friend of the show, Tucker College.
	Tucker Carlson, friend of the show.
	Tucker Carlson.
	And people say, why would he do this?
	Why would in the middle of this recession he would try to demonize people on food stamps?
	And it's because he's trying to make sure that no one ever names their kid Tucker.
	And we'll be right back after this.
	This is Jimmy Dore Show on Pacifica.
	This is Jimmy Dore Show.
	Okay, and welcome back to the Jimmy Door Show.
	We got a lot of stuff coming up for you on this second half of the show.
	But before we get to it, I want to remind everybody to stop by JimmyDoorComedy.com and sign the email list, and then I'll let you know when I'm coming to your town to tell jokes with the Jimmy Doer show.
	How about that?
	And I'm also on Facebook and I'm on Twitter at Jimmy Door Comedy.
	That's right.
	That's my Twitter account.
	And I Twitter every once in a while.
	So there you go.
	But coming up on the rest of the show, we got Jim Hightower.
	Moron is going to stop by to wish us all a very Merry Christmas.
	Plus, we're going to see, we're going to talk about Tucker Carlson and his attempt to secure the douchebag of the year award.
	And right now, let's hear from Jim Hightower.
	Question: What do biotech corporations, national milk processors, and the Ohio state government have in common?
	Answer, defeat.
	Such biotech powerhouses as Monsanto and Eli Lilly are the profiteers behind an artificial growth hormone that induces dairy cows to produce more milk.
	This stuff is not good for the cows, and it produces nutritionally inferior milk.
	It also horrifies consumers who tend to get a bit testy at the thought of having what actually is a sex hormone added to the milk their children drink.
	However, big milk marketers like the idea of squeezing out more milk per cow, for it fattens their bottom lines.
	The only problem is that little matter of consumer rejection.
	But the biotechers and marketers fixed that by getting federal regulators to declare that adulterated milk need not be labeled as such.
	In short, the industry, the government, and even the cows know about the sex hormones, but consumers are kept in the dark.
	Nonetheless, many organic and smaller dairy businesses have had the audacity to label their products as hormone-free, and consumers have rushed to them.
	This spurred the hormone hucksters into a cross-country lobbying frenzy, demanding that various state governments ban hormone-free labels.
	Ohio swallowed this corporate line, outlawing labels that tell consumers what's not in their milk.
	Now, however, in a case brought by the Organic Trade Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that such bans are not only ridiculous, but unconstitutional, violating the free speech rights of dairy producers who want to be straight with consumers.
	This is Jim Hightower saying this court decision is a major defeat for the 15-year effort by the corporate powers to hide their perfidy from milk buyers.
	To learn more, contact the Organic Trade Association at OTA.com.
	Right now, let's go ahead and talk about, I'm going to give you a few statistics before we get into the Tucker's Carlson chunk.
	More than 42 million Americans now use food stamps.
	17% more than just a year ago, up 58.5% since 2007.
	Wow.
	That's pretty good.
	Overall, 14% of the United States households are now reliant on food stamps.
	14%.
	According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and in some states like Mississippi and Tennessee, the figure is more like 20%.
	The average food, you know what the average food stamp recipient receives?
	Let's take a guess, Robert Guess.
	You mean in food stamps?
	Yes.
	Per month.
	Oh, maybe $80.
	Oh, good guess.
	Paul?
	I would say $175.
	Good guess.
	All right, now this is strategy, but I'm going to say $1.
	Okay, it's not that game.
	We're not playing that.
	You can't go over.
	Yeah, we're not going to give you.
	First of all, there's no prizes.
	I didn't win a vacation?
	No, you didn't.
	Anyway, the average food stamp recipient receives $133 in aid monthly.
	$133 a month.
	What's four into $133?
	I'm not a math surgeon, but I'm sure it's not much.
	Yeah, $30 odd bucks a month.
	A week.
	Over the week, yes.
	So then, so Tucker Carlson, during these economic times, had- So that means that even the people we've got are employed.
	About 5% of them are deeply underemployed.
	Working people can't afford to feed themselves.
	Working people can't afford to feed their families.
	But let's keep the minimum wage where it is because it's working out.
	Right.
	That's working out for people.
	Hey, you know, the best way to feed those people if you cut the taxes for millionaires and then that money will trickle down.
	Okay.
	So Tucker Carlson had a guy who's in college who works for his, who writes for his website.
	So they, he, here, here it is.
	He had him go undercover, obtain some illegal food stamps, and then go to Whole Foods.
	So I just want to read this to you and hear your outrage.
	Feel free to be outraged as I go along.
	What can you buy with food stamps?
	Pretty much anything sold in a grocery store other than tobacco, booze, and hot food.
	To find out what that really means, I took my November stipend to Whole Foods, a pricey organic food emporium that is much a yuppie metaphor as it is a supermarket.
	My first stop was the seafood counter, where I found the thickest swordfish steak I could find, which at $18.99 per pound also turned out to be the most expensive item in the department.
	Then I headed to the coffee section where I dropped $11.99 for a pound of fresh roasted beans.
	From there, the milk aisle where $8 bought a half gallon of pure organic goat milk.
	Nearby was the cheese section where I found a tiny wedge of fancy looking cheese from some European city I've never heard of and threw it in my cart.
	Last, I hit the produce section where I discovered a small but tasty looking container of Chanterelle mushrooms, price $13.99.
	At the checkout line, I whipped out my new shiny electric benefits transfer card and I watched the cashier ring up my order.
	The total came to $51.10.
	Not bad for a gourmet meal, especially since I wasn't paying for it.
	Does this person know that the amount of food stamps you get isn't unlimited?
	Yeah.
	All he's saying is I wouldn't survive on food stamps.
	I'd survive for a day.
	Good food stamps.
	The person that is spending their food stamps on that is going to starve and be out of the gene pool.
	Good.
	I'm glad.
	I'm glad that you can do that.
	But there's another point.
	Like there's also another point hidden in here, which is that, yeah, you don't need to go buy an $18 swordfish steak with your food stamps.
	But at the same time, we're making it so that you can only buy the worst, crappiest food.
	the people in this situation, they have to stretch it as far as they can so they can only buy garbage with it.
	It's not that they should be going and spending it on a gourmet, but we give them so little that they're- That's how he pays most of his bills.
	His father is bankrolling him.
	And so he didn't give that information when he applied for his food stamps.
	So he's kind of actually cheating the system.
	But we're going to get to all of that.
	Go ahead, Robert.
	There are two things that really bother me.
	First of all, the implication is just the subsumed implication is that all people on food stamps are these weird liberals who only shop at Whole Foods.
	That's like what Tucker Carlson is trying to make it sound like for one thing.
	And then the other thing is, is that if we put limits in terms of choice on food stamps, the Republicans would be the first ones to lose their minds.
	Of course.
	You know, like freedom of choice is the essence of consumerism.
	They would lose it.
	You know what this is really about, though?
	Even more than saying, well, it's all liberals on food stamps.
	This is the modern day version of the welfare mother driving the Cadillac.
	Oh, this is when one Ronald Reagan said that thing about they're taking their welfare payment and buying booze.
	The welfare queens buying this.
	Welfare queens.
	Welfare queens.
	Remember that?
	Yeah, she's a queen.
	Now, are there people that abuse the system?
	Yes, there's always going to be people that abuse this system.
	But is America really worse off because these people are abusing the system or because the military-industrial complex is abusing the system?
	Well, because big pharma is abusing the system, because big agriculture is abusing the system.
	The system is set up for them.
	You think that's the same.
	Yes, AIG, you think they're abusing the system?
	Right.
	AIG.
	City Corp, Goldman Sachs.
	The nine people that get together and make up the rules for derivatives that have got us in the shitter of an economy.
	Those people are abusing this system.
	Well, let me.
	But I'm sick of all this class warfare against the rich.
	Well, let's go on.
	He says he has more stuff to say.
	He says, ironically, my food stamps didn't cover the five-cent DC tax on grocery bags.
	So I paid that in cash.
	It was the only money I spent that didn't come from the government.
	This guy doesn't know what irony means.
	When December 1st hit, a few days later, I checked the balance of my card online and was surprised but pleased to see that the leftover balance from November had carried over.
	Flush with more government cash to blow, I went across the street from the Daily Caller office.
	That's the website he works at, the Daily Caller.
	I went across the street to the CVS to sample the opposite end of the food spectrum.
	Within minutes, I'd picked up $99 worth of Halloween-sized candy, including nine bags of Reese's peanut butter cups, 12 bags of Snickers.
	The loot filled two shopping bags, but the cashier didn't flinch.
	He seemed like he'd seen it before.
	Maybe he had.
	The government has repeatedly refused to set strict guidelines on which foods may be purchased with food stamps.
	In the words of a 2007 USDA report, there are no widely accepted standards to judge the healthfulness of individual foods.
	In practice, that means that people like me, non-poor college students who are gaming the system, can legally use food stamps to buy, as the USADA puts it on its website, soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream.
	In other words, junk food.
	So this is what, so you can tell a lot about a person.
	I've always said, you can tell a lot about a person by the battles they choose to fight.
	Are there probably some young college students gaming the food stamps racket?
	Yes, there probably are.
	And what does that mean?
	So I guess he's implying here, because he can game the system and get food stamps, even though his dad is bankrolling him in college, that we should get rid of that system, I guess, because there's a way to defraud the system.
	I don't know what the point of his thing is.
	It really makes no difference.
	It pisses me off.
	Okay.
	Well, and also his implication is with the candy thing of like, well, poor people are stupid and don't know how to feed themselves.
	Yeah, well, as if, but no, as if that's what they're doing.
	As if that's what poor people, as if this is the typical thing that people on food stamps do.
	They go and buy $20 seafood steaks, and then the next day, they go and buy $100 in candy.
	That's what they're doing with their food stamps.
	You guys are missing the point.
	That cashier looked like he'd seen it before.
	That's right.
	He looked like.
	He looked like a bad guy.
	This is making my liver hurt.
	By the way, this kid must be a blast at college parties.
	Can I just read to you how he talks about how he did another post about how easy it is to get food stamps?
	And here it is.
	He says, I'm on food stamps.
	Last month, despite the fact that I'm a middle class and I have a job, the District of Columbia enrolled me in a federal supplemental nutritional assistance program.
	And for the next year, I'll be getting $105 a month in assistance, no strings attached.
	You wouldn't think I'd qualify.
	As a master's student at American University and a part-time reporter for the Daily Caller, I don't meet the traditional definition of a poor person.
	And in fact, I'm not poor.
	But that didn't matter to the district's Department of Human Services.
	They approved me anyway.
	That's because you committed fraud.
	Right.
	He goes, I make $600 a month writing for the DC and another $400 as a teaching assistant at AU.
	My rent is $1,300 a month.
	The arrangement works because most of my rent and other expenses are covered under my student loans or paid for by my parents.
	But because my official income is less than my rent, I qualify for a monthly handout.
	Yori did qualify for a monthly handout from your parents.
	You're already getting it.
	And there's something also called guaranteed student loans that if you had your way, you wouldn't have.
	Right.
	Those are things that are brought to you by the Democrats.
	By the government.
	I'm sure that on principle, he went with private student loans.
	Oh, I'm principally.
	He wouldn't dare get one of the interest-free loans from the government.
	A few weeks ago, after learning that several colleges and universities encouraged their students to apply for food stamps, I decided to try myself.
	A single Google search keyword, how do I apply for food stamps, brought me the Social Security Administration website, which offered step-by-steps instructions complete with an online benefit calculator.
	The process is simple.
	You don't need to pass a test, display virtue, or demonstrate poverty.
	How dare they not make this impossible for poor people to get?
	Yeah, why don't they make you have to display virtue?
	All you need is some free time and a stomach for bureaucracy.
	One Friday afternoon, I headed to the DC Hunger Solutions on Connecticut Avenue in Washington.
	Passing a group of hostile-looking men in red AmeriCorps jackets out front, I entered, took a number, and waited while a man went into the back room and got me an application.
	It's like Moscow.
	With the form in hand, I went next to the H Street Income Maintenance Administration Service Center, one of seven such outlets in D.C. I signed in, sat down, and waited.
	The waiting area was filled with people who, like me, had come to apply for food stamps.
	Some of them were talking on their cell phones.
	This surprised me until I learned that cell phones are considered a necessary expense by the district government and don't count against eligibility for assistance.
	Wait, you got to stop there for a minute.
	This is another big right-wing canard that all these poor people, how do they have cell phones?
	Oh, they're setting aside the fact that they're not really that expensive.
	Like a lot of people have, like people that get kicked out of their apartments all the time because they can't afford rent.
	Like the only way they're going to get a job is by having a steady phone number.
	Yes, you have to do that.
	This is not a thing.
	Like it's a, they treat a cell phone like it's a hot tub.
	To me, the, yes.
	This is not a luxury.
	Like some people need this to live.
	To me, it's the equivalent of saying, hey, well, what are all these poor people doing on the bus?
	How can they afford the bus?
	Yeah, that's what it is.
	Walking around with their fancy way of being contacted in the event they're offered a job.
	Or what I've seen, which is poor people trying to get into a shelter and they have to call around to find somebody who is a free person.
	Yes.
	So, but this is these are the sweet.
	These are the people who he needs to take down.
	The last sentence of that paragraph goes, a few of the people in the waiting room seem to be doing phone interviews for government jobs.
	Meanwhile, the bureaucrats in charge of getting us food stamps stood behind the counter laughing, joking, and socializing with each other.
	After two and a half hours, my number finally got called.
	I followed the caseworker to her cubicle in the back of the building.
	After looking over my paper, she told me to come back Monday.
	Apparently, I had brought only one pay stub instead of the two required.
	Wait, I said, the requirement isn't listed anywhere, and then I've been waiting for more than two hours.
	She was unmoved.
	It was the end of her workday, she said, and she was going home.
	I asked if I had everything else I needed for the application.
	She shuffled through my paperwork quickly without even looking at it and said that I did.
	Now, to me, it sounds like he's trying to show you how tough it is for poor people when they have to get food stamps.
	But what he's trying to show is what a jerk everybody involved with food stamps are.
	From the people who get it to the people who administer it to the people who take it at the grocery store, everybody who has anything to do with food stamps is a jerk.
	And is the reason we're giving this person attention because this is how we think most of the right views these people?
	Or is this person getting a lot of web traffic?
	Because this guy, it's pissing me off that we're even paying attention to this person.
	No, this is no, because this symbolizes a mentality.
	That's this.
	I mean, those people, they right now, Paul, within a few years, I'm gonna say I'm gonna say 2018.
	You're gonna see them start to say, hey, we're gonna make cuts in Social Security.
	Because that's the year that it goes, it starts this taking less money than it that it pays out.
	That's the year, and that's when they're gonna say, hey, we're gonna so they wanted to do this.
	These people want to get rid of food stamps.
	These people want to get, and the way they do it is by demonizing the people who use those programs as being lazy, evil, or non-virtuous.
	It's the demonization of the poor.
	It's like you're not poor because of circumstances created at the top of this economic chain.
	You're poor because there's something you choose to be poor.
	It's a moral failing on your part, right?
	And not because your governor turned down a federal train contract.
	So you can't even go work at a job because it's not there.
	I would criticize this also on methodological terms because this is the same as the acorn sabotage.
	Yes, so this is this is what this is.
	It's not even journalism.
	What it is, is it looks like investigative journalism, undercover journalism.
	And because it looks like it, it gets the credence of it, even though it's completely skewed.
	It's not true.
	Everything that's coming out of it is nonsense.
	And Brian Williams will never debunk it.
	No.
	And that's the thing: the mainstream media will never debunk it.
	Can we at least agree that whoever's paying this kid $600 a month to do reporting, that that's money very well spent?
	Oh, how I wish that William for your buck.
	I got how I wish that William Hurts' character in broadcast news was Brian Williams.
	Wouldn't that be just gorgeous?
	Then I would at least feel like, all right, the universe gets it.
	We're all going someplace good.
	This is this is like to happen, but he well, he is.
	I mean, that's basically it.
	He basically is William Hurt.
	Have you seen him sitting on the end of his coat?
	Good stuff.
	Good stuff.
	Hey, it's Jimmy.
	Who's this?
	Hey, Jimmy.
	How are you doing?
	It's Moron.
	Hey, Moron.
	How's it going, buddy?
	Merry Christmas, Jim.
	Oh, well, thank you, Moron.
	Merry Christmas.
	That's right.
	You heard it, right?
	Merry Christmas, right, right there.
	Yeah, I heard you say Merry Christmas, Moron.
	Damn right, Merry Christmas.
	Okay, you don't have to say that.
	Hey, Jimmy, what's the problem you liberals always got with Christmas, anyway?
	What are you talking about?
	You're always running down Christmas, getting mad at people just for saying Merry Christmas.
	Nobody gets angry.
	It's really annoying to people like me who are religious.
	You're not religious.
	You don't even go to church.
	Terese, you don't.
	Nature is my church.
	You just didn't watch football Sunday.
	Terese, this is my private time with Jimmy.
	Moron, it's okay.
	It's okay, buddy.
	Seriously, Jim.
	What's your problem with Christmas?
	Why do you say I have a problem with you?
	Well, you can't even say Merry Christmas anymore.
	What are you talking about?
	You can say Merry Christmas.
	What do you mean?
	You just said Merry Christmas.
	Oh, you mean like in my private life?
	Sure, I can say it then.
	Well, when do you want to say it, Moron?
	Well, like when I go to Target.
	Well, you could still say it at Target.
	But the lady doesn't say it to me when I walk in.
	Why do you need a stranger to say Merry Christmas to you?
	Because it's freaking Christmas, Jim.
	Why do you think?
	Well, they're just trying to be nice to everybody.
	Like, you know what they say.
	Do you know what they say instead?
	Right.
	Yeah.
	Happy holidays.
	Right, yeah.
	And that bothers you, Moron.
	Oh, that gets under my skin, Jim.
	Really?
	I don't know.
	It's like they're sticking it right in your face.
	Happy holidays.
	Oh, I'd like to stick it to you.
	Sounds like.
	You know it's for Christmas.
	Nobody's getting together buying stuff because of Happy Hanukkah or because of Kwanzaa or whatever kind of ridiculous thing you want to throw at me.
	I got to tell you, I really can't believe the made-up stuff that people like you get angry about, Moron.
	It really perplexes me.
	Made up?
	Are you saying that there ain't no war on Christmas, Jim?
	No, I don't think there is a war on Christmas.
	Oh, how can you say that after just hearing my tale of woe from Target?
	Well, if there is a war on Christmas, I'm pretty sure Christmas is winning.
	We can only hope.
	Hey, Jimmy, I wanted to ask you anyways, how many days a year does a Congress guy have to work?
	Roughly about 130 days a year.
	Congress is in session, if that's what you're asking.
	And then they take two weeks for Christmas.
	Wow, two weeks.
	That's pretty good.
	Yeah, Congress people have it pretty sweet.
	They work about 130 days a year, which is about two and a half days a week, and they get lots of nice vacations.
	When was the last time you took a vacation, Boron?
	Well, we took like a little mini one last weekend.
	Oh, really?
	Where'd you go?
	Costco.
	Where'd you go?
	Costco.
	Have you been?
	For vacation?
	Mini vacation, Jim.
	Mini.
	Oh, I got it.
	mini fake I like the snow coat hey Jim you ever think about running for congress I think you'd be good, Congressperson.
	Oh, that's nice of you to say.
	You helped straighten me out.
	You know what you're talking about?
	Well, that's very.
	I just think.
	Moron.
	Maybe someday you could even be Speaker of the House.
	Moron.
	Are you crying?
	More.
	No.
	What?
	Sounds.
	It sounds like you're crying.
	No, I'm not.
	No, it sounds like you're crying.
	Why would you be.
	You started chopping onions.
	Oh, chopping onions.
	Wow.
	For a minute there, it sounded like you were chopping onions on the toilet.
	Yeah, I like onion on my burger now.
	Yeah, I like him now ever since we got these special Black Angus burgers.
	Oh, you're getting the specialty burger.
	Where'd you get it, buddy?
	We got him at Costco on vacation.
	Okay.
	Hey, speaking of crying, did you see the new speaker of the house, John Boehner, crying his head off again?
	I knew you were going to bring that stuff up.
	What do you mean?
	Of course I'm going to.
	Yeah, I thought that you liberals should love that guy.
	He's a big crybaby, can't stop with the crying.
	Isn't that right up your alley?
	What is that?
	What do you mean?
	He's all sensitive.
	Yeah.
	He has feelings.
	I thought that's what you guys liked.
	You know, I think he's got an emotional disorder.
	Yeah, it's called being a bad liar.
	Oh, so you think he's conning people when he's...
	Not unless I got it checked out.
	So I can also see Trudo's crocodile tears, Jim.
	So, Moron, are you done any of your Christmas shopping yet?
	I got some done.
	I got, you know what I got, Terese?
	I have no idea.
	Well, as a stocking stucker.
	You say stucker?
	I got a some scoped Astico.
	What?
	It's scope, but I got it from the dollar store.
	Nice stocking stuff.
	Is it like an inside joke or something with you guys?
	Why would you get her for her breath?
	Sounds really romantic.
	Well, it's not the big, it's not the big gift.
	Whoa, what's the big gift?
	The big gift is what?
	The magic-lighted doormat.
	I gotta.
	It's a doormat that lights up.
	It lights up when you walk up.
	Yeah, it lights up the doorway, and I'd like it because it provides security.
	What about safety?
	Oh, good.
	And a warm welcome for you and your guest.
	Well, how does it light up?
	I mean, is it ten bright LED lights?
	They illuminate the mat and they welcome you.
	Oh, wow.
	I like to set it on the motion sensor.
	You can either have a motion sensor motion activated or just like a constant welcome.
	What do you like?
	I like it the other way.
	Makes it more like magic.
	You know, I don't know.
	It sounds like those lights would be pretty easy to just squash, right?
	Nah, Jim.
	The LED lights are recessed in the mat, making them virtually crush-proof.
	Yeah, well, then I mean, something that's crush-proof is it really gonna be functional?
	Oh, Jim, the extra trick one-inch natural core fibers, they provide durability and function.
	Wow.
	It's really an elegant piece, Jim.
	You'd like it.
	Elegant, you'd say?
	It's really an elegant premium doormat, Jim.
	You would like it.
	Okay, moron.
	I don't want to show them after Christmas.
	Oh, Therese, you're not supposed to be listening.
	It's private, and it's going to be nice.
	I was passing through the hallway.
	I gotta go, Jimmy.
	I gotta go.
	I gotta go.
	Teresa.
	I gotta go, Jim.
	Teresa.
	I gotta go.
	I gotta go.
	I'm sorry, Jim.
	Well, Merry Christmas, three.
	Merry Christmas.
	Oh, good.
	Well, you don't have to use it.
	And you don't have to use it.
	And you're not getting nothing.
	Wow.
	Okay, well, Moron, they're not the Christmas cheer is not flying around.
	I mean, I would love to have one of those Milcom match.
	Yeah, it sounds good.
	They sound fantastic.
	They do.
	They sound fantastic.
	Okay, I want to remind everybody that coming up on the 28th of December is the Jimmy Doer show.
	We're going over to the UCB Theater for Poppin' Politics.
	That's right, Poppin' Politics.
	Tuesday night, December 28th, at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles.
	And if you want to make reservations for that show, you can go to UCBTheater.com or you can go to JimmyDoorComedy.com and we'll take care of you there.
	We'll see their special guest this month is Bill Burr is going to be on our show.
	The great Bill Burr.
	Sure.
	He always mixes it up, stirs things up.
	People get riled up.
	People yell at us.
	People walk out.
	People laugh.
	That's the important thing.
	People are laughers.
	As they're walking out or as they're walking out laughing.
	Sometimes yelling.
	But it's a great show.
	Poppin' politics Tuesday, December 28th, 8 p.m. at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles over there on Franklin and Dower.
	Right?
	Or Brian?
	Right next to Birds.
	Right next to Birds.
	Okay.
	Yes, I don't go to Birds.
	I go down the street to La Pupo, which means the garbage.
	Oh, okay, right.
	I'm pretty sure that's French for the garbage.
	And that's a big trick they're playing on us.
	I know.
	I know.
	Well, I want to take a moment to thank everybody.
	I want to thank you.
	You got the right podcast.
	Good for you guys.
	And I also want to thank everybody who helped to make this show possible.
	Ben Zelovansky, Robert Yasamura, Steph Zamarano, my guest, Paul Gilmartin.
	I want to thank Ali Lexa, the producer, my producer, for getting it done today.
	Thanks for helping out.
	And I want to thank you for listening, most importantly, right?

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