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Feb. 17, 2018 - Jimmy Dore Show
59:46
20180217_0216_TJDS_PODCAST
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Time Text
Get ready for an outstanding entertainment program.
The Jimmy Dore Show.
Hey, it's Chuck Schumer man calling from Democratic Can Cave.
Hello.
Good afternoon, Mr. Door.
No need for alarm.
I just wanted to reassure our good citizens that our shining city on a hill is in good hands with the resistance.
Really?
Of course.
And you can be certain of that because it was Verret Coding.
So what's the Verret code?
Let's see.
That would be the number one.
It was the very first story Peter Diao authenticated using the Verit coding machine.
You should really visit the Verit headquarters.
It's quite a sight.
Just four people staring at each other.
Standing around the Verit 5000.
And every once in a while, a little slip of paper comes out of the truth slot.
The truth slot?
Yes, that's where the truth comes out.
Can I ask you a question?
Oh, boy.
I don't know.
I mean, I wasn't prepped for this.
Do you want a real answer?
How serious are you about this question thing?
Why are you compromising with Donald Trump on immigration and his wall?
As I recently said at the distinguished speaker series at the Mitch McConnell Center in Louisville.
The Mitch McConnell, what?
What the hell were you doing there?
Literally getting shit on and loving it.
I mean, really laying there like while I got piled on with the excrement.
Writhing back and forth in the nude like a pregnant salamander.
Streams of it.
Just coming at me from all directions.
Left, right, up, down, sideways.
Whoa, life.
You gotta wake up every morning and grab a hold of it.
Why do you ask?
That's disgusting.
It's like Barack Obama said today Donald won.
We're all on the same team, Jimmy.
Well, you're supposed to be the resistance.
Oh, and boy, oh, boy, was I resisting at the McConnell Center?
I really let Mitch have it because by that time, we had a couple of mudslides.
I told Mitch, no one's compromising on this immigration thing, mister.
We're just going to accommodate a lot.
Let me tell you, right now, we're going to put our foot down.
I'll tell you, fella.
That's for sure, right?
That's not very inspiring, Chuck.
Thank you very much, Jimmy.
I'll tell you exactly what I told my honored friend Mitch.
I said, Mitch, it's not going to be easy.
That's a pretty tough stand.
I know.
Gosh, did I really say that?
Oh, I need to lay off the oatmeal.
That was electric.
I feel alive.
Come on, world.
Give me all you got.
I can take it.
Ready when you are, Jim.
Uh-oh, I got a potential donor on the other line.
Must change identities to mild-mannered Chuck Schumer.
Never give up the fight unless you're told to because of money.
It's the Jimmy Door Show.
The show for the Lefty.
The kind of people that are.
Commence maybe on tearing down our nation.
It's the show that makes Anderson Cooper save.
It's hard to talk to you guys.
And now, here's a guy who sounds a lot like me.
It's Jimmy Dore.
Hey, everybody, welcome to this week's Jimmy Door show.
Hey, we got a lot of live shows coming up.
Sold out in Austin, Texas.
We're sold out in Burbank, California.
We're going to be in San Diego on the 24th.
That's just a few tickets left of February.
And guess what?
March 30th, new show in Burbank, California.
So get your tickets.
March 30th, Burbank, California.
That's the next live Jimmy Dore show that has tickets available for it here in the LA area.
Let's get to the jokes before we get to the jokes, shall we?
You know, if everybody just paid as much attention to politics as they do sports, this would still be a really effed up country.
Look, I don't want to take away your guns.
I just want to repeatedly ram them up your ass.
I can't believe it's February 2018 and I'm still writing 427 mass shootings on my checks.
You know, you kids today have it so easy.
Back in my day, you'd have to walk seven miles in the snow uphill to get murdered by the NRA.
Too soon.
Hey, you know, it's a revealing moment when the left, you know, quote unquote, the left, embraces the FBI and now the Dow as the nation's arbiters of ethics and stability.
I mean, seriously, the only thing that can save this country now is sarcasm.
You know, Hillary, I don't know if you know Hillary had a faith advisor.
Trump has an evangelical advisor.
See the difference?
Me neither.
Hey, I don't want to say their food is bad, but at the national prayer breakfast, you pray after you eat.
Come on, this is true.
Hey, did you hear Corey Booker's not taking any corporate money now?
Did you hear that?
Man, it's weird how all the potential 2020 presidential nominees are emulating the guy we were told could never win.
You know, Corey Booker not taking corporate money anymore.
It's kind of like how somebody that just had two toppings on their extra large isn't eating any more pizza.
You know, in the response to accusations that he hasn't properly addressed the Rob Porter scandal, President Trump said, hey, I'm the least spousal abusing person there is, believe me.
I mean, it's hard to believe that the hit of a reality TV show would end up being such a jerk.
Am I right?
You know, Bill Clinton killed welfare in 1996, and now Donald Trump wants to bury its remains in a cardboard box brought to you by Blue Apron.
Boy, things are so terrible right now.
If only we had incrementalism.
Said nobody.
Oh, what's coming up on today?
Let's look.
We got a regular person who drove to their state capitol to protest corruption in government.
She got shut down, and she's here to talk about it.
Her case went viral.
We got her on the show today.
Lyssa Lucas is with us today.
Plus, we have an interview with the Iron Stash himself, Randy Bryce, who's running to unseat Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House.
He's a Democrat, and he's got some bold promises that he makes to progressives in this interview.
Iron Stash is on the show today.
Plus, we're going to take a look at Democrats finally stand up to corporate power in Virginia.
Plus, we got phone calls today from Liam Neeson, Chris Christie, B.B. Netanyahu, and Chucky the Shoe, Chuck Schumer, calls in.
Plus, a lot lot more.
That's today on the Jimmy Dore Show.
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to the Jimmy Door Show.
Alyssa Lucas, she's a candidate for West Virginia House of Delegates District 7.
But guess what?
She went to her state capital to, well, she traveled 100 miles from her home in Cairo, West Virginia to the state capitol in Charleston on Friday to testify against an oil and gas industry sponsored bill that would allow companies to drill on minority mineral owners' land without their consent.
And she thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on it to let everybody know that the people who are going to be deciding this issue, how much money they actually took from the company that they're supposed to be regulating.
And here's how that went.
I'd also like to point out that the people who are going to be speaking in favor of this bill are all going to be paid by the industry.
And the people who are going to be voting on this bill are also often paid by the industry.
For example, and I have to keep it short simply because the public only gets a minute 45, while lobbyists can throw a gala at the Marriott with whiskey and wine and talk for hours to the delegates.
So to keep it short, on the Judiciary Committee, Charlotte Lane, about $10,000 from gas and oil interest, including AEP, Marathon, First Energy, Dominion, EQT, and I could go on.
Next, let's talk about John Schott from Mercer.
First Energy, $2,000.
Appalachian Power, $2,000.
Step 2 and Johnson, that's a gas and oil law firm, $2,000.
Consul Energy, $1,000.
EQT, $1,000.
And I could go on.
Now let's talk about Jason Harshbarger.
Ms. Lucas, we ask no personal comments be made.
If you want to talk about it.
This is not personal comments.
It is a personal comment, and I'm going to call you out of order if you're talking about individuals on the committee.
So if you would just address the bill.
If not, I'll ask you to please step down.
Jason Hartz-Farcker took $3,500, about 40% of his money.
...
So that's what happened.
And now that video went viral.
And so what they were trying to suppress, it actually backfired on them.
And guess who we have with us today to come talk to us?
It's Lysa Lucas.
She's here, that young lady right there, who just got manhandled on her way out the door trying to do a public service and expose corruption inside of her state government.
Lysa, can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you.
Why?
Well, first of all, thanks for doing that.
I appreciate you doing that.
And let me see.
Let's see if I can get your picture up.
There we go.
And now, tell me, what was it?
Tell people what the bill is about and why you cared about it and why you drove 100 miles to go testify like that.
Well, this bill is essentially a version of a bill that the industry has been trying to push through for five or six years.
The public doesn't want it, and yet they keep getting closer and closer to getting it passed.
And so two years ago, it died in a tie, and last year it did not get introduced because a lot of cannabis activists sort of took over the legislature and we got medical cannabis passed last year.
But this year they decided this was the year they're really going to push it.
And what the bill does is it allows a gas company to force mineral owners to sign a lease, even if they don't want to, or even if it's a bad lease.
Even if they might want to sign a lease, but they want to hold out for a better price or they want to hold out for better conditions, get a better royalty, or a better down payment, they're not allowed to do that.
They're locked into a bill that would force them to give up their property rights to corporations.
And so you were trying to expose that the people who are going to be deciding this.
By the way, this is unpopular with the people.
Correct?
People don't want this bill?
People don't want this bill.
They've done a poll, but in the poll, they didn't explain how the bill works.
But the people who actually know about mineral rights, actual mineral owners who live out here in my district, don't want it.
The West Virginia Mineral Owners Coalition is against it.
And as a matter of fact, there was a whole group this summer that got together of surface owners and mineral owners and different interests to try to come up with bills that would help the people who actually live out here in rural West Virginia.
And when the industry tried to push forced pooling through some of those channels, we all said no way.
And so they stopped talking to the people who objected to that.
And when it got reported in the papers, they kept saying that everyone was on board with this bill, which was just a lie.
So what is forced pooling?
Forced pooling was an earlier version of the bill.
It's such a poisonous term that they're trying to rebrand it now.
They've changed the size of a pool from multiple tracts to a single tract.
So this has to do with mineral extractions.
And oftentimes on a piece of property, there'll be several different mineral owners, right?
Because it gets passed down from generation to generation.
That's kind of the story.
That's kind of the story.
So if you have, say, 25% ownership on a piece of land and 75% of the other owners go along with saying selling their mineral rights to this corporation, they now don't have to deal with you, the other 25%.
They can just roll you over.
Right.
And what that does, too, is it kills local jobs where gas and oilmen go and they try to negotiate with landowners because they don't have to negotiate with 25% of the landowners now.
They can just force them to sign.
It doesn't matter.
And then it's just, you know, it's, and even aside from that, it's just stealing.
Yeah.
It's just stealing.
Stealing is wrong.
And so they're legalizing stealing.
And it's because you think that the money that they've taken in campaign donations.
I love that you see pointed out that, you know, the public's only given a minute 45 seconds, yet lobbyists can buy them whiskey and champagne all night for hours and talk to them for hours, right, at their fundraisers and at their all that.
So that's at the Marriott is what you said.
So that was really interesting.
I think people go ahead.
There's a whiskey and wine fundraiser that they had at the Marriott that week.
But I mean, it's bad in West Virginia.
For example, our crazy governor, Jim Justice, now has a citizen volunteer who is essentially a lobbyist who works for EQT Corporation, one of the pipeline companies.
And so he's a volunteer.
He gets to come and go as he pleases.
He's not subject to ethics rules that lobbyists are subject to.
He's a volunteer.
That's the thing.
He's a volunteer.
He's just a volunteer.
And so now.
And coincidentally a lobbyist.
So that guy's name who threw you out.
That's name is John Schott.
Is that who that was?
Yes.
And so now you're running for the West Virginia House of Delegates.
That's where you were speaking, correct?
Right.
So are you running for any of their jobs right there?
Yeah, the last guy who I called out, Jason Harshbarker, will be my opponent.
I'm running as a Democrat.
He's running as a Republican.
Neither of us has a primary opponent.
Okay, so now it seemed to me like they, why did they let you do that to us?
When you got to his name, is when they shut you down.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
I think he was just trying to think of what he could call me out of order for because I wasn't, you know, I wasn't making any personal insults.
I was just reading off the money that passed the pan.
Yeah, that's just public information.
That's not right.
That wasn't like some kind of slur you were throwing at me.
That's all documented.
We can all find out how much they took.
You know what I was surprised at is just how little money it took to bribe those guys.
Well, this is the side job.
You know, the money they get comes from when you work for Dominion.
Maybe, I don't know, maybe you get some months off to work in the legislature.
I don't know.
Maybe that's how it works.
I have no idea.
Okay.
You get to move into lucrative lobbying positions after you're done in the legislature.
You get, like the last delegate we had here, and he was pushing for forced pooling.
This is the delegate we had before, Jason Harshbarker.
He was pushing for forced pooling, coincidentally got a great royalty deal where he got something like 18% royalties, and yet the bill he was pushing would only provide 12% royalties forced on people.
Oh, isn't that interesting?
It's crazy how that works.
It's kind of, yeah, it's kind of crazy.
So what's the what's does it look good for you in your race?
How does it feel?
How's it look?
I mean, you're a Democrat in West Virginia.
How does that go?
Well, this state was blue not too awful long ago, but that said, my particular district has always been pretty Republican.
But that being said, I think property rights is an issue that appeals to everyone.
And, you know, everyone I've talked to is also wanting to get the money out of politics.
So I just feel like if we, I mean, this would improve every party.
So instead of this constant, vicious division, we could actually talk about issues again.
I mean, we're going to disagree on methods where how we can help people maybe, but at least our representatives would be trying to help people.
They're not trying to do that right now.
They're trying to work for themselves and figure out how they can get more money and figure out how they can get elected.
And I don't, that's not what I want my representative to be distracted by.
Well, I agree with you.
So that's fantastic.
Well, it kind of really backfired on them because people are passing that video of you around.
How does that feel?
It's a little surreal.
I keep thinking like it's going to be over soon.
Like people are going to get tired of it.
But I keep getting calls and people are just very kind, sending me well wishes.
And I apologize to people who have tweeted or messaged me or emailed me.
I'm trying to find help so that I can respond to everyone.
So that's really my concern.
It's encouraging to know how much people care about this.
Yeah, it is.
I mean, well, I think people are done with having a bought government.
I think they're stealing right out in the open, and just like what you just showed.
And then when you want to talk about it, that's impolite.
We've got to shut you up.
And it's just nice to see that, again, when you try to suppress the truth, it backfires on them.
And it created more attention to this issue than you could have ever dreamed could be drawn to this issue.
If they would have just let you speak, it would have went away and nobody would have been the wiser.
But they had to try to shut you up.
And it's just such a sweet irony and such a sweet victory, isn't it, Alyssa?
Yeah, it's well, I try not to keep focused on the issue that I want to change.
So I'm looking forward to trying to figure out how to get this out there even more.
So has this been picked up in the West Virginia press at all?
Yeah, the Gazette has written about it.
I got called again by the Gazette today, and I don't know where that's happened.
It was on at least one TV station.
Our paper out here is just weekly, so I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it made the paper.
And to be honest, it's possible that a lot of the press here has tried to contact me, and I've just not been able to find it because I literally have hundreds and hundreds of messages, and I'm doing my best to try to go through them.
Okay.
Well, so do you think when do they vote on this, on the bill?
Well, this was in front of the committee, so it went through the energy committee first, and they passed it.
And I testified in front of the Judiciary Committee, and directly after that testimony period, that public hearing, they passed it.
And interestingly, the committee had substituted a version that would have been better for mineral owners and surface owners.
But when they passed it, they passed the original version.
And when the Democrats, because luckily, at least in the House, the Democrats were going to stand up for property owners, when the Democrats asked, well, how did this happen?
It turns out that those negotiations were secret.
And, you know, one wonders if they were with a citizen volunteer.
So after that, it goes to the Senate.
And if the Senate passes it, Governor Justice will sign it.
So that was in front of a committee.
That was the Judiciary Committee?
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
So that was just at a committee hearing.
That's fantastic.
All right.
So do you, well, do you think it had it?
This all this attention is having an effect.
Are they a little afraid that they're being exposed, or is it just business as usual?
I don't know.
I think they're probably more worried about the money than anything.
Like, I don't think that they feel at all obligated to voters.
I just, I think they're concerned about the money.
Yeah, I don't even think, like, I don't even think that John Schott has thought, gee, maybe I shouldn't have done that.
I think he's thinking, you know, how can I deflect this issue?
Yeah, I'm sure of it.
So, okay, well, we'll check back in with you.
What's your feeling on the bill?
You think it's going to pass?
I hope not.
In the full house, there are Republican Liberty caucus, kind of libertarian leaners that are opposed.
And I don't know, I don't know how many there are.
And I hope that there are enough of them who are going to stand up for their constituents so that it doesn't pass.
I mean, that would be a beautiful ending.
I mean, the really tragic thing to me is that they're spending all this time and effort on this bill in order to take our rights away.
And there are people in this district who don't have clean running water in their home.
Like, this is what they're spending time on, and this is why we have to get the money out.
The industry wants this bill.
Meanwhile, there are people who are boiling water on their stove to try to shower in.
Wow.
It's infuriating.
Yes, it is.
People are upset.
That's why I think people voted for Bernie Sanders.
People are ready for a revolution.
People are ready to take their government back.
You know, right now, Joe Manchin, he's your senator, correct?
Unfortunately.
So, yeah.
Now, what's the talk about with Paula Jean Swearingen?
Now, she's running against him.
I love Paula Jean.
I love her to death.
I will, because the Republicans, honestly, they're running just awful, awful people.
Don Blankenship is who is running.
I mean, he's the coal baron who killed 29 minors and was thrown in prison.
So if Joe Manchin wins the primary, I'm going to have to swallow my bile and vote for him.
But I will also say this: you know, who has tweeted and done a live video and talked about getting the money out of politics and is only taking small donations?
That's Paula Jean Swearingen.
You know who is conspicuously silent?
Well, that would be Joe Manchin.
Yes, of course.
Everybody knows that.
Yeah.
He's one of the, you know, it's just, and it's not just Joe Manchin.
It's pretty much the look of the people you had to go.
You just talked to.
Look at those people.
It's the problem of our government, right?
It's why we live in an oligarchy and we don't really live in a democracy.
And we need people.
And when, you know, good people like you stand up, they try to take your microphone away or they cheat Bernie out of a primary.
And what do we get left with?
Another corporatist warmonger.
So I appreciate you standing up and fighting back, Lyssa.
And hopefully it will do some good.
And good luck in your campaign.
And if you ever want to talk to us again, let me know.
Thanks so much.
It was really a pleasure to talk to you.
Okay, right back at you.
Thanks again for your work.
Looks like we got Honorable Chris Christie of New Jersey on the line.
Yellow.
Hey, Monkey Muck.
Go shove a Twinkie up your ass.
And that'd be Valentine's Day.
Hey, thanks.
Don't worry about it.
It'll definitely happen again.
Hey, what's with you?
You just call out of the blue.
You immediately started with the insults.
Yeah, you're always pissing me off, spread rumors about me and such.
And you know what?
I don't like that.
I got people who don't like that.
I heard things about people not liking that.
I heard myself not liking that.
In short, I am not liking that.
End of scene.
It won't happen again, I assure you.
When you were sure, you make an ass out of you and you were.
What?
That's not how it goes?
No.
No.
So much negativity coming out of your little podcasting with all your little skits and your sketches from you and your little sex troop going from town to town like some gypsy vagabonds.
You ain't got a care in sight, do you?
For instance, where are you playing next?
We're doing a live show in San Diego next.
I see.
Take an easy way out in some leftist wasteland.
It's San Diego.
You insult me again.
We don't insult people on my podcast.
We just try to make fun of things.
You're the one who called up and told me to ram a Twinkie up my ass.
Shove.
I told you to shove it up, your ass, not ram.
There's a subtle difference.
But what about you, Cupcake?
For instance, all the mean shit you've been saying about Donald Trump's new food stamp plan.
All you've been doing is casting inspersions and so forth.
Donald Trump wants what's best for people who can't afford to buy food.
So he suggests dumping a brown box full of worthless shit on the doorstep.
If they have a doorstep, fucking animals.
You want real food?
Buy it like the rest of us.
That's really abusive.
Oh, boo-hoo.
Wake up and smell the coffee of the corn nuts, loser.
We're all abusive.
You think some White House staff who beats his wife gives a shit about whether or not you kick its fresh vegetables?
Don't be a sucker.
Fuck you, stupid kid.
He gets a box full of expired kid shit from Walmart, and he should shut the fuck up about it.
Kids love boxes.
They're like cats.
Comprende?
Yeah, I think I get it.
Please notice how I did not say capise so as to not perpiscuitate ethical stereotypes.
Did you just conflate the words perpiscuity and perpetuate?
Oh, boy, you got a real buck of mouth on you, hot shot.
Do you conflate your mother with her mouth?
I guess so.
Let me learn you something, Linus Pauling.
I went to the grocery store yesterday because they had a sale on fried claims and some old broad parks are SUV right next to mine.
See, I don't even have enough room to open a fucking door.
And I look at her and I say, hey, I shot.
You called an old lady hot shot?
Just because she's an old broad don't mean I gotta get taken on those sleigh ride, get me?
Not really.
I'm saying I don't give a crap she's old.
The weaker the better.
No one's taking this man's nachos again.
You understand, Champ?
When did anybody take your nachos?
People always try to take my fucking nachos because they're jealous.
It's my life's journey.
Respect my journey, or I swear to God, I'll mush your face in an onion dip again.
You never mush my face in the onion dip.
I would remember that.
There's always a first time.
Now you've hurt me, and my eyes are brimming over with these foolish tears.
Damn, this dopamine deficiency.
Everybody, this is the part of the show where I usually tell you to go to our Amazon.com link.
You know, we don't encourage anybody to shop at Amazon.
But if you do, we say have some of that money go to a progressive show like the Jimmy Door show.
Doesn't change the way you shop at Amazon.
Doesn't cost you anything, but it's a big help to the show.
So the next time you want to buy something from Amazon, go to JimmyDoorComedy.com.
Our Amazon box is right on the front page.
Click it.
It takes you to Amazon.
And then when you buy something, they send us money.
It's just that easy.
But we have a new thing, a new way if you could help support us.
Well, you can become a premium member.
You already know about that, and I'll tell you about it at the end of the show.
But we started a Patreon, right?
So because a lot of people feel more comfortable using Patreon than using PayPal or Amazon.
So that's another way you can help support the show.
We have a Patreon link.
You just go to patreon.com/slash jimmydore, patreon.com/slash jimmydore.
Go there.
You can become a patron of the Jimmy Door show.
And you know what matters more now than ever because our show has really blown up and gotten way more popular since we've been going on YouTube.
But we've gotten over a quarter million subscribers.
And so things are really happening.
And except YouTube pulled our funding out from underneath us, right?
So they don't want independent news anymore.
And YouTube's offering establishment news.
They're actually offering for a fee.
So they're funding independent news people like us.
So that's why we're offering Patreon.
That's why we're offering a premium.
That's why we offer the Amazon all these different ways.
And plus, we have the t-shirts.
We have all these different ways where you can help support the Jimmy Dore show.
So thanks for doing that.
And if you're more comfortable with Patreon, use our Patreon link.
If you're more comfortable using our PayPal, become a premium member.
So there's lots of different ways to support the show.
Thank you for doing that.
Now let's get on to the second half.
*music*
Uh-oh, it's the apartheid phone.
Whoever could this be?
Hey, baby, Uncle Bibi here.
BB Netanyahu?
In the poor sign flesh, Jimmy.
Your pal, your friend, your fellow lover of the end times.
This is a very bad relationship, Bibi.
You only call when you need something.
Who said I needed anything?
Stop jumping to conclusions, you wet blanket.
I just wanted to touch bases again with an old friend.
Anything wrong with that?
Okay, well, in that case, how's things?
Oh, everything's great.
Going along according to plan.
Oh, by the way, I may go to jail soon.
For stealing land and killing Palestinians?
No, no.
Something about bribery, fraud, and taking bribes.
That kind of stuff.
Don't worry about it.
Hey, can I ask you a favor?
Since we're great allies and all that, can I sleep in your garage for a while?
Why?
Something about bribery, fraud, and taking bribes, that kind of stuff.
Don't worry about it.
I don't know.
Wouldn't I be harboring a fugitive?
Oh, look at you with the big legal terms.
Don't worry about the thing.
And hey, I got your back in the Middle East.
Anytime you need, you can come stay in one of my many houses on the Golong Heights.
It's a very tight-knit gated community.
You'll love it.
Thanks for the offer.
Until then, I need a safe house.
I do have my requirements, however.
Requirements?
For instance, I have a very strict regimen.
Every morning at 7 a.m., I take a huge piss.
Then I wake up a half hour later.
BB, come on.
That's an old joke.
What?
I don't follow you.
What do you mean that's an old joke?
Fill me in.
What am I missing here?
Nothing.
Doesn't matter.
Okay.
After that happens, my bodyguards accompany me to my bathroom, I mean your bathroom, where I shall bathe and sing very loudly.
This month I'm working on the sound of music.
Now, how about pets?
What about pets?
I have a big husky named Kaya, but you probably saw that when I was on Conan.
Team Coco.
Kaya likes to bite people, and my son refuses to pick up his poop.
Is that the problem?
We have a little Chihuahua named Brownie.
He's very sweet.
He'll have to go.
I also need access to your kitchen.
How's your supply of landmines and barbed wire?
I think we're out of those.
Don't worry about it.
I get free office supplies from the Pentagon.
Now, back to our daily schedule.
After a tense breakfast in which I make you regret ever befriending me, you will drive me to your local city council meeting where I'll give a speech diametrically opposed to your interests.
Agreed?
I don't think I want to participate in any of this.
That's very unfortunate because I just annexed the Glendale Galleria.
Just a friendly heads up.
Pasadena is next.
What do you want with Pasadena?
What do I want with Pasadena?
It's the gateway to West Covina.
And according to Henry Kissinger's diplomacy for dummies, you need to occupy West Covina before you can take East Covina.
And then it's only a matter of time before you're sitting pretty on the fruited plains of Cucumonga.
Well, I don't want you staying at my house.
I'm sorry, but we already booked it with Airbnb.
B-B.
a week.
We have a special guest with us on the phone.
He is an Army veteran, cancer survivor, and a union iron worker.
And now he's running for Congress in Wisconsin's first district against none other than, you guessed it, Paul Ryan.
It's Randy Bryce is here, the Iron Stash.
Hey, Randy, thanks for being here.
Hey, Jimmy, how are you doing?
Thanks for the invitation.
Oh, I'm doing okay.
I'm doing as best you can under living under a blanket of neoliberalism.
But listen, now you and I come from the same kind of background.
I'm a blue-collar guy.
My dad was a cop.
My grandpa was a cop.
I was a bricklayer.
Nice.
And so you're a unit.
Yeah, so you, so we know what it's like, right, to worry about having enough to eat and having a roof over our heads.
And absolutely.
So I ask everybody here at the Jimmy Door show.
We talk about Donald Trump being a symptom of a bigger problem.
Donald Trump is a problem, but he's a symptom of a bigger one.
Do you share that sentiment?
I do.
And the thing is, is like, look who people like him are helping out.
They're not, I mean, they're helping continue this corporate-based economy that we have and totally ignoring the worker-based economy that we need for everybody to be successful.
I mean, and as tradespeople, we understand that when work is plentiful, we, you know, we have a lot of money in our pockets and we go out and we can spend that money and create a demand for more products.
So you sound like a, so you sound like an FDR New Deal Democrat, a demand economy.
You put pony in the pockets of workers.
They spend it.
They create a demand in the economy, unlike Republicans who want to give all the money to rich people, and then hopefully it will trickle down, sir.
Some of it will trickle.
So that kind of sounds like where you're coming from, right?
No, absolutely.
And I mean, we've seen, you know, when Reagan first tried this trickle-down experiment, we saw that it hasn't done anything for us.
The income inequality has just blown up.
People like us have less and less, and we're working twice as hard just to keep what we have.
So what would you say is the bigger problem that gave us Trump?
You know, is it corporatism or what would you say gave us Trump?
I would say overall, overall corporatism.
And we let our message get away.
We need to hold people that are elected who want to hold the title of representative on our behalf.
We have to hold them, hold their feet closer to the fire.
And when things start going away from us and things are more difficult for us just to make it, it's time to make a change.
And it seemed almost like a perfect storm was what brought Donald Trump into the White House.
It was a lack of enthusiasm during the last election.
And I think many people thought that there's no way that more people are going to vote for somebody like him, you know, that's going to allow him to get into the White House.
And then to see Congress and the Senate just completely enable whatever he's doing.
I think that's another thing that just totally blows my mind.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Now, the problem is, now, it seems to me, I've read about you.
I've seen you do interviews.
And it seems to me you have your head on straight and you know what the country needs.
And that's why I think that's, I think that's why you backed Bernie in the primary, correct?
Right, I did.
And that was one of those situations where the Iron Workers Union as an international decided to endorse Hillary.
And I remember, I'll never forget, I was working on a job site.
It was a high-rise in downtown Milwaukee, and it was my lunch break.
And I was eating my lunch talking with the crew, and I got a phone call.
I didn't recognize the number, answered it, and it was somebody from the Bernie Sanders campaign asking me if I'd be interested in speaking at his rally.
And here I'm thinking, you know, my first thought is what kind of presidential candidate calls a working stiff up on a job site and invites him to come speak at their rally.
And then I told him, I said, I can do it.
I just can't mention that I'm a union iron worker because I was the political coordinator at the time.
So I agreed to do it.
And then they further went on and asked about, they're like, are there any job actions, any picket lines going on in the area?
Because Senator Sanders would, he was interested in blocking that.
And I'm thinking, you know, that just further confirmed that I was picking the guy that is going to stand up for people like me.
So I happily went and spoke at his rally.
I got called into the principal's office to our unions hall after the fact.
But still, it's a decision that I made that it was easy to go to sleep at night.
And now that he endorsed our campaign, it's great to see him.
And now I get to tell him the rest of the story.
And it kind of puts a little bit of a smile on his face, but I'm very appreciative of the fact that here, you know, a presidential candidate that wants to walk a picket line, if one exists.
So now, how is it?
Now, we heard that from other Democratic presidents, right?
So this is what I really wanted to ask you about because you're a union guy and the Democrats have let the unions down over and over.
In fact, the labor, AFL-CIO tweeted this out.
Labor movement helped give Democrats full control of federal government three times in the last four decades.
All three times Democrats failed to pass labor law reforms.
So when Barack Obama says he's going to put on a comfortable shoe and help those union workers, and then when the Wisconsin teachers are actually in crisis, he turns his back on them.
How do you reconcile that with the Democrats who want you wanted to get them to vote for you, knowing that the Democratic Party hasn't done anything for unions in four decades?
Well, I don't think any state has been hit as hard as Wisconsin have when it comes to union density.
And since Scott Walker and these banana Republicans took over, they just proceeded to carve up the state, gerrymander it, make it more difficult for people to vote.
When I go to bed, and I remember, I remember hearing stuff about the comfortable, you know, wearing comfortable shoes.
And I remember being very enthusiastic the first time President Obama ran.
You know, he wanted to put forth that Employee Free Choice Act.
And I was like, this is a great, this is something that I can really support.
I was disappointed when it didn't happen.
And the Fed, I think just the fact now that you're seeing a lot of candidates step up that are representative, good representatives of the working class and people that have, you know, struggled to make ends meet on a monthly basis.
And I just know from my own perspective where I come from and where I've stood and how hard that my friends and neighbors have gone to Madison and, you know, as we call it, done laps around the Capitol and go to testify on behalf of all this garbage legislation, this anti-worker legislation that are nothing more than blatant political attacks on us.
It's just knowing where I come from, my mindset, that this is the only way of life that I know is struggling for people and standing up for what's right.
And when I win, I plan on making sure that our message is taken to D.C. So when you say our message, you mean you're going to take it to the corporatists and both parties?
Because that seems like you're in a tough position right now because the Democratic Party is backing you because they really want to get rid of Paul Ryan, as everyone does.
And you seem like a good candidate.
So how do you negotiate that?
You know, where Barack Obama said exactly what you're saying, I'm going to put on a comfortable shoe.
I'll be there for you.
And then he wasn't there for them.
How do you get those people back to the Democratic Party, even though the Democratic Party are the one who passed NAFTA, gutted welfare, repealed the last degree, expanded the surveillance state, made the Bush tax cuts permanent.
So it seems like to me, those are the things that led us to Trump.
And you're going to have to fight your own part.
If you get elected, you're going to have to fight your own party to get rid of neoliberalism inside the Democratic Party.
Are you prepared to do that?
Yeah, I am.
I very much am.
Because it's not right that anybody, especially somebody that busts their rear end day in and day out, feels like they're not cared about, that people aren't listening to them.
So yeah, I am.
I am very willing to take it to people regardless of party to make sure that we're looked after.
Because right now, people see them, the Democrats caving left and right, especially on DACA.
And what so these promises that the Democrats, so that's what I keep saying, these promises the Democrats make.
It's the Democrats that seem to be letting workers down, letting their own constituents down.
They won't stand for everybody.
And that's because they really stand for their donors, right?
Now, you're not taking corporate money, correct?
Correct.
And we stated very early on that we're not accepting any money from the fossil fuel industry, and we're not taking any money from Wall Street.
There was just a report that came out today.
74% of all of our contributions were under $200.
We were the top campaign, Republican or Democrat, with the highest percentage of small donor dollars.
And that's what we're counting on.
Okay, so what?
So it really hurt, like you, I was enthusiastic, voted for Barack Obama.
And the whole Wisconsin teacher thing was really like an arrow in my heart.
It was a gut punch.
And it was hard for me to kind of, so that's, and then after they, they cheated Bernie, I just couldn't bring myself to support Democrats in general like I used to anymore.
You know, and I started to try to, I tried it, started to look towards third parties.
Now, what made you decide to stay with the Democrats instead of trying to go third party?
Is it strictly pragmatic?
No, the reason I did that was I saw Hillary as our best chance to keep Donald Trump out of getting into the White House.
And, you know, Bernie was my first choice.
And again, for the reasons that I mentioned, you can't turn down somebody that's going to come walk on a picket line.
But I was disappointed that Hillary never made one trip to Wisconsin before the general election.
So it was kind of a disappointment.
And I get your message that Democrats have a lot of work to do to gain people's trust back.
And I'm fully prepared to do that.
And that's just based on my experience of the past 20 years of working in a district and struggling and going through winters where, I mean, and you can appreciate that, what it's like to work in a wintertime.
Yes.
If you don't, based on weather, where you don't get the 40 hours a week.
And sometimes you're lucky for getting a week's worth of two-hour show up time.
Yeah.
The only thing worse than not working in the only thing worse than working in the winter is not working in the winter.
Right, exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So let me ask you some questions about, y'all, you're a veteran.
And when you came back, you got a job helping other homeless veterans, correct?
Right.
And so tell me.
So now, how did that inform you?
Like, here you are fighting for your country.
You come back to your country and your country's not taking care of the people who they give lip service to and send to fight these wars.
And how did that make you feel?
Right.
I mean, you see how somebody goes from hero to zero within a snap of fingers.
And it broke my heart.
At the time, it was 60% of the homeless population was made up of veterans.
And there's no way that homeless and veterans should ever be in the same sentence again.
But it was our job to go identify them.
And we pulled them off the streets and plugged them into places that had veterans resources.
We have a really good VA in Milwaukee.
And so after we did that, then it freed up resources for the rest of the homeless population.
But I'll never forget working with one guy, and he pulled up the back of his shirt, and it looked like somebody poured acid on it.
And I was like, what happened to you?
And he said, I'm an atomic warrior.
And it took everything.
And finally lost track of the man.
Couldn't keep, you know, he just dropped off the face of the earth.
But our mission was to prove that that happened as a result of an atomic, an atomic test.
And I had no idea how to go about doing that.
But here's a man that served his country honorably and was, you know, turned away.
He's living in a homeless shelter, living under bridges.
And it just, it broke my heart.
And it's knowing, too, that not only that, but if I didn't have that job, there was a possibility that I could be in their position, too.
That here I am getting out of the service.
And if I didn't have, you know, a means to make a couple of dollars, I could be living underneath that same bridge.
So it really hit me hard.
And it's been something that I've been very dedicated to ever since to make sure that somebody's willing to assign the best years of their life away to volunteer in service of the country that they're not forgotten about when they come back.
Listen, Randy, I really appreciate it.
Again, thanks for taking time.
I know you're busy.
A lot of people want your time.
Good luck in your campaign.
Thanks for being a strong progressive.
Thanks for standing up for workers and not their owners.
Okay.
I really appreciate you doing that.
Thank you.
And thanks for all you do as well.
Okay.
Bye, Randy.
This is what's happening.
You remember when this happened last November?
Democrats sweep Virginia.
Remember, and Lee Carter won.
Yep.
He was the progressive that the establishment said, hey, you're too progressive.
He ran on that platform anyway and won.
And won.
Socialist.
Yeah, they look like you're too progressive.
You're never going to win.
We're not going to help you.
He won.
And so lots of people, the people who are the furthest to the left won that night.
So a lot of left.
So that has consequences.
Guess what happened in Virginia?
Elections still matter.
This is from Dave Dayon at the intercept.
Virginia Democrats stun state energy monopoly and late night rejection.
So there's Dominion Energy.
They're the monopoly.
They're the energy monopoly in Virginia, and they run the state pretty much.
So the people who work in government work for them.
They give you the semblance of a government that you have elections and things, but they don't actually work for the people.
And they are very used to getting their way.
Yeah.
Yes, very much so.
And some tides are shifting.
Dominion Energy, the utility model, suffered a rare loss on the floor of the state house and delegates late Monday night when their ability to double charge, double charge ratepayers for infrastructure improvements.
This is the shit.
The fact that it was ever in the bill.
Yeah, it could double charge people.
Yeah, fuck them.
The bill was sailed through the Senate and is expected to pass the House of Delegates on Tuesday.
Would let Dominion and other utilities in the state use excess profits to pay for the upgrades like modernization of their energy grid or renewable generation.
Because Dominion could also use those upgrades as a rationale to increase its power base rates, critics charged that utilities could get ratepayers to pay twice for the same infrastructure.
Virginia State Corporate Corporation Commission and the State Office of Attorney General agreed.
So it's basically like, hey, these upgrades that we paid for using your money, things are better now.
So we're going to have to charge you more for those upgrades that we got with your money.
Yes.
That's how they're double dipping.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Senate populists tried to put a restriction on the double dipping in their version of the bill, but they lost.
But the House of Delta, but the House of Delegates with all 49 Democrats joining six Republicans were successful in passing such an amendment in the 100-member chamber.
Now, so that's the, so that's what we're talking.
This is a big deal.
So that has immediate consequences.
And why do you think those six Republicans went along with it?
Maybe they're in maybe they're in districts.
They're like, people aren't complete assholes in my district.
I better maybe not screw them over publicly.
Yep.
The move is a major, major victory for the Virginia's large freshman class of Democratic legislators, many of whom campaigned against Dominion and their races in their races and refused to take campaign contributions from them.
So this is big news.
This is what happens when you get someone not taking corporate cash.
They all of a sudden, well, my God, now the corporation can't fuck over our people.
Just like that.
Isn't that weird?
Well, yeah.
And it's the tale of the bot versus the not bot.
The bot.
Yeah, charge them twice.
Fuck them.
Yeah.
The not bot.
You're not going to charge us twice.
Fuck you.
Right?
It's an act of defiance against the state's most powerful corporate donor, as well as the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, who endorsed it.
So that Democrat who just got elected endorsed the stupid bill.
Do you see what?
Do you see?
Do you see that the problem is?
While the legislation still has problems, delegate Lee Carter called it a steaming pile of garbage.
Dominion losing a vote of any kind in the Virginia legislature, even an amendment vote, is a political earthquake.
So that's the guy, right, Lee Carter?
He knocked off the number three Republican in the state.
The Democrats didn't help him.
they said he was too progressive.
Yeah, so I mean, the moral of all this is like, yeah, there's still a long way to go.
Like, we're not out of the woods yet.
Oh, right.
But this is evidence of a tide shifting.
Yeah, look at it and what could be.
They're calling it a political earthquake.
Calling it a so there you go.
That's what can happen.
That's what everybody wants to have happen.
And then we also need outside organizations pushing everybody to do better.
It would be amazing if we could stop the war machine.
It's not going to happen.
It's going to bankrupt our country and we're going to fail as an empire.
It's just a matter of when right now.
That's yeah.
I wish I had a dose of optimism to push back against that, but sadly, I feel like I would just be making a failed prediction.
Like, no, we're going to stop it.
Wait till Thursday.
Yeah.
So there you go.
I like that he called it a steaming pile of garbage because it is.
Wow, look at that.
So look, good things can happen if you don't vote out of fear.
And just like Lee Carter did vote, didn't knuckle under to the Driple C or whatever the F it was, the Democratic Party and the state.
Because he's a state senator, right?
And when you call somebody a purist for wanting to vote for people that don't take corporate money, when you say that's an unfair litmus, well, here's why people have that litmus.
Right here.
Here's a prime example.
Notice how the people that are bought what they did and the people that aren't bought.
Notice what they did.
Notice what they did.
So we made a good change, and that's things can change.
That's good.
That's positive.
Oh, hey, look, it's Liam Neeson on the phone.
Hey, Liam.
Hello, James.
I need to ask you a question.
Are you alone?
Yes, I am.
Well, find a companion for the afternoon by St. Brendan.
Don't you know that life's one true joy is the presence of another human being?
What's new with you, Liam?
Well, I am calling you, Jimmy.
I fully admit, as part of a brazen self-promotion, I'm plugging something.
What's that?
Well, I just put the finishing touches on a narration project.
I've led my dulcet tones to the new CNN series Pope, or the Popes.
I'm not sure.
Really?
Yes, Jimmy.
If you've noticed by their recent programming, CNN is looking to make itself part History Channel, or what AE was circa 2002, alongside their regularly scheduled perpetual program entitled, Can You Believe What Donald Trump Said Today?
Live with Outraged Man.
This Pope's show is going to be a wingding.
Jimmy, are you an Irish Roman Catholic like myself?
I was raised that, but not anymore.
Ah, an apostate.
I too wandered from the faith in my youth, but I think a viewing of this program, with me narrating, might just return you to the fold.
Really?
Learning about popes?
I don't think so, Liam.
Oh, why not?
They're really quite fascinating.
When you're doing voiceover, you don't necessarily process all the information you're reading because you're focused on phrasing and performance.
But I picked up a few things.
The popes are just more than silly hats and cool staffs.
We don't know much about this mysterious group of people.
Very few records survive.
But this handful of men and women over the years ended up being the most powerful people on the planet.
And some theologians believe, other planets as well.
Well, you seem well versed on the subject.
Who were some of your favorite popes?
Well, of course, you have the heavy hitters like Leo I, who left the gates of Rome personally to persuade Attila the Hun to spare the ancient city.
Or Alexander VI, who held orgies in the Vatican, where there were contests with prizes for the men who ejaculated furthest or the most times.
Classic.
But then there were lesser-known popes as well, such as Dentifrus the Magnificent.
In the 12th century, he oversaw a new compilation of people and curial law and personally absolved Boris Wald VIII for his massacre of the innocents during the Wendish Crusade.
Then he oversaw the invention and construction of the first Circus Saxionis, a giant sort of Ferris wheel with a baptismal font at the bottom, a device that allowed the mass-force conversion of a defeated army to be achieved in record time.
For this, he is canonized shortly after his death.
Interesting.
Then, of course, there was Sixtus VII, who oversaw a massive, expensive expansion of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and assiduously prevented the advancement of learning throughout Europe.
His estimated 47 illegitimate children formed the renowned youth choir that performed at the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolphus the Indolent.
After which, they were sent to work in the silver mines of Peru, where they were never heard from again.
Wow, these popes sound like great men.
Oh, they were, believe you me, and principled.
Hey, we don't have time to get the rest of that phone call in today's radio show.
How do you hear the whole phone call?
You got to get a podcast at today's Jimmy Door show, and you can get a podcast at the Jimmy Door show for free at iTunes Stitcher or at JimmyDoorComedy.com.
Hey, special thanks to our guest, Lyssa Lucas and the Iron Stash himself, Randy Bryce.
Today's show was written.
That's right, it was written by Jim Earl, Frank Conniff, Ron Placone, Mike McRae, and Steph Zamarano.
All the voices today performed by the one and the only, the inimitable Mike McRae, who can be found at MikeMcRae.com.
Today's show produced by Brian Granillo.
That's it for this week.
Until next week, this is Jimmy Dorsey, and you be the best you can be.
I'll see you February 16th in Burbank, California.
I'm not, do not, do not, do not freak out.
Do not freak out.
I'm not getting it.
Don't, don't, don't, don't freak out.
Do not freak, do not freak out.
Don't freak out.
Don't freak out.
Don't, don't, don't freak out.
Don't freak out.
Don't come up with the don't freak out.
Don't freak out.
I'm not in it.
Don't you don't bring it up.
Don't don't do not move around.
Do not freak out.
Don't freak out.
Do not do not freak out.
Do not freak out.
I'm not in it.
do Don't freak out.
Don't go bring out.
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