Speaker 1: Good morning, keeps in. Welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet Your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from our podcast
Speaker 1: studios here in Times Square. Folks, interesting news has been
Speaker 1: popping up once again out of the state of Texas
Speaker 1: because it seems that Governor Greg Abbott is on his
Speaker 1: campaign to be the worst fucking governor in America. So
Speaker 1: in a late in his latest right scheme, and let's
Speaker 1: just be clear that Abbott is facing not one, but
Speaker 1: two Republican challengers for the governorship, and so he feels
Speaker 1: the need to compete to be the worst person in
Speaker 1: this country. Not only has he banned abortions for women
Speaker 1: at six weeks, not only is he restricting schools from
Speaker 1: being able to keep children safe. But now in his
Speaker 1: latest move, he has decided to ban all vaccine mandates,
Speaker 1: not just for state and government, not just for government workers, state, local,
Speaker 1: and federal, but also for private businesses. The question that
Speaker 1: I have is that I thought that Republicans were for
Speaker 1: private business. I thought that they were for the privatization
Speaker 1: of every fucking thing. So it's shocking to me that
Speaker 1: now Abbott is coming in hot and heavy telling private
Speaker 1: businesses what they can and cannot fucking do. Interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: as he decides to sign this executive order that would
Speaker 1: essentially why doesn't he just go one step further and
Speaker 1: just ban vaccinations altogether? Right at the same time that
Speaker 1: Texas has now swooped in for the lead of COVID
Speaker 1: cases in the fucking country, this man himself has been
Speaker 1: vaccinated and then on top of the vaccination, also caught COVID. Right,
Speaker 1: so he understands, or should you think, understand the precarious
Speaker 1: nature that we are in. But he doesn't. He doesn't
Speaker 1: give a damn because the only thing that Greg Abbott
Speaker 1: gives a fuck about is holding onto power, which is evident.
Speaker 1: Right and right now, you have the people in Texas.
Speaker 1: You have women in Texas and people in general in
Speaker 1: Texas basically living in a developed nation. When you think
Speaker 1: about the state of Texas right now, you think about
Speaker 1: their voter suppression laws, Apparently democracy does not exist as
Speaker 1: it's there. You think about their Roe v wade, their
Speaker 1: attack on women's rights, apparently that doesn't exist there. So
Speaker 1: you think to yourself, what the fuck is going on
Speaker 1: in Texas? Because I'm waiting for the executive order when
Speaker 1: they just decide to succeed, and I not succeed, but succeed.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. I wouldn't miss Texas. I really wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck at this point. I would
Speaker 1: love it if Florida, Texas and whatever other fucking middle
Speaker 1: of hell type of place that is run by these inefficient,
Speaker 1: ineffective executioners decide to do I'm like, fucking leave. I
Speaker 1: don't understand at this stage in the game. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be honest with you, and I don't really give a
Speaker 1: damn because at this point I feel like I have
Speaker 1: moved past no fucks given what comes after zero fucks?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I believe that I am there
Speaker 1: because I no longer want to waste time convincing these
Speaker 1: motherfuckers to get vaccinated. You want to die, go for it,
Speaker 1: take yourself out. I don't care. I don't want to
Speaker 1: convince you. I don't want mobile vaccine units into your
Speaker 1: fucking neighborhoods. I don't want to help you. You don't
Speaker 1: want to help yourself. I don't want to fucking help you.
Speaker 1: You know. Here's the other thing too, When I think
Speaker 1: about what's going on, because everybody and you know, our
Speaker 1: friend doctor Jonathan Metzil will come on later and he
Speaker 1: will tell me, Oh, Danielle know it matters, and we
Speaker 1: should have empathy and we should care. But here's the
Speaker 1: thing I stopped caring. I think that I stopped caring
Speaker 1: about six months ago. You know, when the vaccines were
Speaker 1: available to all people, right when they were at every
Speaker 1: single fucking pharmacy. That there is not a community that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a vaccination site within five miles. Like I'm
Speaker 1: kind of fucking over it. I don't care anymore. Like
Speaker 1: I am vaccinated, and the only thing that I'm waiting
Speaker 1: on right now is a fucking booster, right because I
Speaker 1: would like for my vaccine not to weigh out while
Speaker 1: we try and get more of these people who are
Speaker 1: not going to get fucking vaccinated. Right, So I'm saying
Speaker 1: to them, dye in mass Let Darwinism take its fucking
Speaker 1: course at this point, right, Less of them means better
Speaker 1: for us, And I swear to God, I don't feel
Speaker 1: bad about saying that. Not at this stage in the game.
Speaker 1: We are, folks, nineteen months, nineteen god damn months into
Speaker 1: this global health pandemic, and what we know to be
Speaker 1: true is that pretty much COVID is going to be
Speaker 1: here to stay. So all of these people that are
Speaker 1: dying to go back to normal, I just want them
Speaker 1: to I right, because the only reason why at this
Speaker 1: point that we are never ever getting back to a
Speaker 1: place of normal where mass are now just a part
Speaker 1: of our everyday life is because of Donald Trump. Is
Speaker 1: because of Republican governors like Greg Abbott and death Santis.
Speaker 1: Is because of all of these motherfuckers that care nothing
Speaker 1: about nothing, not their constituents, not public health, not civility,
Speaker 1: not patriotism, not a fucking thing other than power. And
Speaker 1: I'm sick of it. I'm sick of everybody sitting on
Speaker 1: the fucking fence at this point. Right. So the other day,
Speaker 1: I'm on Long Island, right because I want to go
Speaker 1: hang out with my parents for the long weekend. And
Speaker 1: you know, there's a big difference if you are not
Speaker 1: from New York. Let me lay it out for you.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference between what happens in New York
Speaker 1: City and what the fuck is going on out on
Speaker 1: Long Island, right, So let me paint this picture for you.
Speaker 1: I'm in the suburbs and I decide I want to
Speaker 1: go to home, Goods, right, Like, I want to go,
Speaker 1: you know, shopping, because you know, those type of big
Speaker 1: box stores in the city don't have the beds selection.
Speaker 1: Why is that? Because we got a lot of fucking
Speaker 1: people and not a lot of inventory. So I love
Speaker 1: to go to big box stores when I'm out in
Speaker 1: the suburbs. So I roll up right mask on, because
Speaker 1: you know, I care about public health, and I go
Speaker 1: into home Goods. Not ne'er a fucking person in this
Speaker 1: store was wearing a mask except for the workers that
Speaker 1: were there. Everyone else walking around the store maskless. I'm saying, huh,
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. I go to the bagel store again.
Speaker 1: I walk in, I'm getting looked at by the way
Speaker 1: because I'm wearing a mask, and I'm looking at these motherfuckers,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Oh, is COVID done in Suffolk County?
Speaker 1: Are we Is it finished? Did I not get the memo? Like?
Speaker 1: I get that the rates in Suffolk County, which is
Speaker 1: where my family is from. Long Island is made up
Speaker 1: in two counties, Nassa and Suffolk, and my family is
Speaker 1: from out East, and I understand that the COVID rate
Speaker 1: has dropped, hovering around two percent, right which is fairly
Speaker 1: good when we look at where things are nationally, and
Speaker 1: when we look at places like Texas and Florida and
Speaker 1: what have you. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I also live in an area where Trump flags still
Speaker 1: fly high in the sky, right where motherfuckers have up
Speaker 1: Trump posters on their garage doors and like our hailing
Speaker 1: to their fucking you know, fake ass, criminal ass twice
Speaker 1: impeach misogynistic rapists, Islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic, piece of trash right.
Speaker 1: And when I look and I see my family's neighbors
Speaker 1: right with their Trump flags, to me, what it looks
Speaker 1: like is just why don't you just put up the
Speaker 1: Confederate flag here in New York? Why don't you just
Speaker 1: swing your hood from the KKK up in the air
Speaker 1: as well? Because I don't understand what you are trying
Speaker 1: to convey to your neighbors other than the fact that
Speaker 1: you agree with everything that Donald Trump says and does,
Speaker 1: that you agree with racism, that you agree with prejudice.
Speaker 1: So you know, I say all this to say that
Speaker 1: at this stage in the game, when I hear that,
Speaker 1: you know, the next conservative has gotten COVID and is
Speaker 1: being hospitalized, and they are taking up resources from other
Speaker 1: people that have done the right thing, or other people
Speaker 1: that don't even have COVID but can't get into the
Speaker 1: hospital because they're being told to sit in the fucking
Speaker 1: lobby because you know the hospital is overloaded. I'm like,
Speaker 1: turn these people away. You don't give a fuck about
Speaker 1: doctors and scientists until all of a sudden you're bedridden
Speaker 1: and getting ready to go on a ventilator, and now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you're like, Oh, do what you
Speaker 1: can to save me. Fuck you, Like literally, that's what
Speaker 1: I want nurses and doctors to say. Fuck you, Like
Speaker 1: I swore an oath to do no harm, but you
Speaker 1: are the one doing harm. And I'm working twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day, seven days a week to save you
Speaker 1: motherfucker's from yourself. And at some point in time, you
Speaker 1: just got to throw up your hands and be like,
Speaker 1: go with God. Do you know what I'm saying? Like
Speaker 1: I have reached a point where I know I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear the Biden administration talk about the different
Speaker 1: techniques and things that they are doing to roll out
Speaker 1: to help people get vaccinated. Fuck them. There are entire
Speaker 1: countries like Haiti, Jamaica, underdeveloped places in South America, on
Speaker 1: the continent of Africa that don't even have vaccines right now,
Speaker 1: and we are flush, right, and so I'm saying, take
Speaker 1: them away, give them to people that are in need.
Speaker 1: Let's conquer the global problem, right, because the wealthy nations,
Speaker 1: much in the same way that the wealthy in the
Speaker 1: United States don't give a fuck about the poor, right,
Speaker 1: the wealthiest nations in the world don't give a fuck
Speaker 1: about the underdeveloped ones. Meanwhile, it's a global health pandemic.
Speaker 1: It doesn't stay where the fuck it is. So for
Speaker 1: those countries that said, oh, I don't know, we would
Speaker 1: provide two hundred million vaccines or two hundred million doses here,
Speaker 1: there and everywhere, and come to find out they have
Speaker 1: done dick. Do you think that your borders are going
Speaker 1: to what turn COVID away at the entry like we
Speaker 1: do migrants and immigrants seeking asylum in this country. You
Speaker 1: think that you can say to COVID nineteen and the
Speaker 1: next iteration, the next fucking variation, oh no, thank you,
Speaker 1: go back to where you came from. Yeah, it doesn't
Speaker 1: work like that, But I gotta tell you that I'm done.
Speaker 1: I'm done with the conversations about the unvaccinated. I don't
Speaker 1: give a fuck, right like, I'm done with trying to
Speaker 1: convince people go with God. I will wear my man ask,
Speaker 1: I will wash my hands, I will continue to do
Speaker 1: what I have to do to keep myself safe. And
Speaker 1: as soon as the boosters are available, I'm getting another
Speaker 1: shot in the arm, maybe two, just for good measure.
Speaker 1: This week, the FDA is hearing from Maderna and Johnson
Speaker 1: and Johnson to talk about whether or not they are
Speaker 1: going to approve their booster shots, because right now, the
Speaker 1: only shot that is approved is Fiser, and it is
Speaker 1: only approved for those that are sixty five and older
Speaker 1: or those with pre existing conditions that are more susceptible
Speaker 1: to illness. But for those of us who did not
Speaker 1: get Fiser because I did not, I got Maderna because
Speaker 1: that was what was available. I don't want to mix
Speaker 1: these two fucking things in my body. So I'm waiting
Speaker 1: on the FDA to be able to approve Maderna so
Speaker 1: that we can move forward. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: fuck they are waiting for, but let's hope that at
Speaker 1: the end of this week we have some good news
Speaker 1: on that front. Let me turn now to Columbus Day
Speaker 1: for a moment, which folks earlier this week, I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, you know, I had half of my friends
Speaker 1: were off right for Columbus Day slash Indigenous Day. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. How are we doing both things at
Speaker 1: the same time. How are we deciding in this country
Speaker 1: to celebrate and provide days off for a rapist, murderer
Speaker 1: right who committed genocide and then also celebrating the people
Speaker 1: that he killed. How the fuck does that work? Right? Like,
Speaker 1: how does that even make sense? So I bring this
Speaker 1: up a couple of days later because I didn't recognize
Speaker 1: until I was watching the local news in New York
Speaker 1: that New York puts on one of the biggest fucking parades,
Speaker 1: an actual Columbus Day parade. I had no idea, but
Speaker 1: tens of thousand sins of people came out, and I
Speaker 1: heard this white lady on the news who said, we're
Speaker 1: not giving up Columbus. That's our Italian hero. Wait what
Speaker 1: Columbus who did not discover America, who did not discover anything,
Speaker 1: because you can't discover shit that where people already exist.
Speaker 1: He actually discovered, you know, Haiti slashed the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 1: And he didn't discover it. It he rolled up on
Speaker 1: their shores drunk, right, and this is your hero, this
Speaker 1: is your man. This is what I put up the
Speaker 1: other day on Twitter because you know, folks, I just
Speaker 1: I'm at a loss. I'm at a loss in these moments.
Speaker 1: But here's what I put up on Twitter and on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Only in America do we have holidays, highways, schools, and
Speaker 1: monuments named for rape murderers, racists, and traders, while also
Speaker 1: banning the perspectives of those raped and pillage by their
Speaker 1: white American heroes. This place is so fucked up. I
Speaker 1: you know, some days I gotta tell you that I
Speaker 1: am becoming completely and totally just fucking outdone. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: one of these days, I am going to walk out
Speaker 1: of my apartment, just go into the middle of the
Speaker 1: street and just scream, and do you know what, no
Speaker 1: one will probably even look at me twice. They'll probably say, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's about right. You know, here's another thing, guests, who's
Speaker 1: on vacation this week? Fucking Congress. You know, I want
Speaker 1: to work like Congress does. I want to go into
Speaker 1: my job. I want to do the bare fucking minimum
Speaker 1: and then I want to go on vacation for a week.
Speaker 1: Somebody tweeted at me when I posted that comment because
Speaker 1: I am just outdone how Congress is so fucking ineffective
Speaker 1: right now and it doesn't matter that Democrats are in control.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm fucking saying it because I'm not holding
Speaker 1: my tongue anymore, giving Democrats more room to just, you know,
Speaker 1: do nothing, to just create more and more disappointment. We
Speaker 1: have midterms coming up but a handful of months, and
Speaker 1: you tell me what it is that Democrats are offering
Speaker 1: to the American people that they have done. Tell me, right,
Speaker 1: because I don't feel any different. I don't feel any better,
Speaker 1: and I can't point to any fucking money that showed
Speaker 1: up in my bank account that I got a check
Speaker 1: from Uncle Sam to help me do a goddamn thing, right.
Speaker 1: The only thing that we continue to find out, and
Speaker 1: of course no one is being held responsible and nobody
Speaker 1: is being held accountable. But the only thing that we
Speaker 1: continue to find out is guess what The people that
Speaker 1: actually needed the PPP loans didn't fucking get them. New
Speaker 1: report came out that black businesses got their PPP from
Speaker 1: online bankers as opposed to small banks right, brick and
Speaker 1: mortar places, which are of course are racist. These are
Speaker 1: the same lenders that decided to be predatory and cause
Speaker 1: the fucking foreclosure crisis in America that was the largest
Speaker 1: decimation of black wealth since Oh, I don't know, the
Speaker 1: beginning of the nineteenth fucking century, folks, I gotta tell you,
Speaker 1: I you know, America is a shit whole country, right,
Speaker 1: Like America really is a shit whole country when you
Speaker 1: look around. I want to tell you about another report
Speaker 1: that I saw over the long holiday weekend. Oh oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that twenty five percent of America's infrastructure
Speaker 1: is basically going to be underwater given one more historic
Speaker 1: storm that the infrastructure Bill which is no longer an
Speaker 1: actual thing that would help us battle our climate crisis
Speaker 1: that we are currently in. Like it's not a future thing,
Speaker 1: it's actually happening right the fuck now. That yeah, in
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe next year, maybe a couple of months,
Speaker 1: maybe you know, one more historic, unprecedented hundred a year
Speaker 1: storm that the country will be twenty five percent of
Speaker 1: the country will be underwater. Six of those cities are
Speaker 1: in Louisiana right now, and largely in guess what black
Speaker 1: and brown communities, because you know, we don't give a
Speaker 1: fuck about them at all. Ever, every single place that
Speaker 1: you look, there's just more devastation, more disaster, more fuckery.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you this too. So while I
Speaker 1: was home on Long Island, right I My mother is
Speaker 1: a small business owner, as you guys know, and has
Speaker 1: just celebrated which no small feat just celebrated her fifteenth
Speaker 1: year of owning her yoga studio on Long Island. Now,
Speaker 1: I have said this before that where I grew up,
Speaker 1: I very rarely ever saw police, except if they were
Speaker 1: like just going to and from on the major throwaway
Speaker 1: or you know, posted up on the Long Island Expressway
Speaker 1: to ticket people at the beginning and at the end
Speaker 1: of the month when of course they need to make
Speaker 1: their quotas. Right, that was the only time. What I
Speaker 1: did have, however, were tree lined streets, sidewalks, gated communities,
Speaker 1: country clubs, you know, schools with big, expansive playgrounds and
Speaker 1: wide windows. You know, all of the symbols of middle
Speaker 1: class America. Something has happened, though, it to my community.
Speaker 1: Over the past oh, I don't know, fifteen years, I
Speaker 1: have watched as the community that I grew up in
Speaker 1: slowly goes on the decline where I see more and
Speaker 1: more for lease signs that are in front of stores.
Speaker 1: And this was pre pandemic. Right. We were one of
Speaker 1: the one of the hardest hit areas during the foreclosure
Speaker 1: crisis in the early auts, when you know, Wall Street
Speaker 1: bottomed down and millions of people across America lost their homes.
Speaker 1: And during that time, I remember seeing just for sale
Speaker 1: for sale, foreclosed, foreclosed, as I was driving from my
Speaker 1: parents house to the train station. It became more and
Speaker 1: more prominent. This weekend there was a news story, local
Speaker 1: news story that kept recycling through. Five businesses in my
Speaker 1: small town were hit by burglar. Right, white man broken
Speaker 1: mask on stealing cash registers. Now, the other thing that
Speaker 1: has happened in my neighborhood that I grew up in
Speaker 1: is the opioid crisis hit as well. And I only
Speaker 1: call it a crisis because I'm just mimicking what mainstream
Speaker 1: media says. I could give a fuck, and I'll be honest, right,
Speaker 1: And the reason why it is because whenever white people
Speaker 1: become addicted to substances, it is a crisis. Whenever black
Speaker 1: people are flooded their communities are flooded with drugs, right
Speaker 1: and they're being set up by police and set up
Speaker 1: by the federal government, then we need to have a
Speaker 1: war on drugs. This is why I say that I
Speaker 1: don't care. It's not because I don't know people that
Speaker 1: have been hurt by it. It's not because I don't
Speaker 1: know people that have lost loved ones because of it.
Speaker 1: It is because I am tired of the double fucking
Speaker 1: stamp and dirt in this country as it pertains to
Speaker 1: people that are in neat I digress Burglaries have been
Speaker 1: happening all around my small town, like literally on the
Speaker 1: street right where my mother's yoga studio is in the
Speaker 1: same development, there were two break ins. My mother says
Speaker 1: to me over the weekend, Danielle, I don't know what
Speaker 1: is happening, Like it's starting to get really scary. And
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, mom, it is starting to get really scary.
Speaker 1: And what I want to alert you to is that
Speaker 1: things are actually going to get worse. You see, because
Speaker 1: when people are popped up on drugs, right when people
Speaker 1: are economically disadvantaged, they're working forty fifty sixty hours a
Speaker 1: week and realizing that they still can't put food on
Speaker 1: the table, that they can barely pay their mortgage, that
Speaker 1: they're having to play three card monte right with their healthcare,
Speaker 1: their home bills, their utilities, all of these things, because
Speaker 1: they're just not making them enough to cover it. When
Speaker 1: Congress is inactive, right inact, not doing anything to support
Speaker 1: the actual economic disadvantaged people, right and just assuming that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to cut off unemployment because so many Americans
Speaker 1: are just sitting at home, because the assumption that our
Speaker 1: politicians have about us is that we are fucking lazy, right,
Speaker 1: that we are undeserving of our own tax dollars back
Speaker 1: to support us when we are most in need. Then
Speaker 1: instead they want to give that money to CEOs and
Speaker 1: shareholders in the forms of tax breaks that you and
Speaker 1: I will never get because we don't have the teams
Speaker 1: of lawyers and CPAs that are going to help us
Speaker 1: navigate these huge loopholes that are available only to the rich.
Speaker 1: And as this gap continues to widen, right, as we
Speaker 1: see the rich continue to get richer and do their
Speaker 1: little vacation jaunts to the edge of space. And then
Speaker 1: as we see on the other side, as people lose
Speaker 1: their businesses, lose their homes and they are just downward
Speaker 1: spiraling into economic peril. You are going to see more
Speaker 1: and more increased crime. That isn't because of what the
Speaker 1: media and fucking cops want to feed you, which is that, oh,
Speaker 1: we just need more cops because more cops keep us safe. No,
Speaker 1: we need economic fucking opportunity. And I am watching it
Speaker 1: happen and ravage my hometown because people are at a loss.
Speaker 1: They can't continue at the same pace that they've been
Speaker 1: going and are bringing home less fucking money. So the
Speaker 1: break ins are going to become the norm. And right
Speaker 1: now they are happening at night when nobody is in
Speaker 1: these small businesses. But as people become more and more desperate,
Speaker 1: what the fuck do you think is going to happen?
Speaker 1: We have an opportunity to pass major, major, robust legislation
Speaker 1: in the form of the New New Deal for the
Speaker 1: twenty first century, to deal with the economic devastation that
Speaker 1: we are in, and we have a Congress that is
Speaker 1: just phoning it the fuck inn I'm right now reading
Speaker 1: Fiona Hill's book and I told you guys about this
Speaker 1: last week. There's nothing for you. Here is the name
Speaker 1: of the book, and I got to tell you, I'm
Speaker 1: just a few pages in and it is riveting. And
Speaker 1: it is riveting because she talks about her own country's
Speaker 1: economic crisis and how she ended up in the United
Speaker 1: States and how we formed these rust belts, how we've
Speaker 1: created a new knowledge based economy but didn't actually think
Speaker 1: about the communities that were built up solely on industry,
Speaker 1: that were built up solely on manufacturing, and that we
Speaker 1: created public school systems and curriculums that were only meant
Speaker 1: to pipeline these people into those jobs that their parents
Speaker 1: had and their grandparents had that were not about preparing
Speaker 1: them for the future. We are doing the same shit now.
Speaker 1: We are preparing no one for anything other than a
Speaker 1: lifetime of indentured servitude and debt. And we have to
Speaker 1: ask ourselves why and who is benefiting from this, because
Speaker 1: those are the questions that are going to guide us
Speaker 1: into this next chapter. And I'm telling you, folks, this
Speaker 1: next chapter of America or America Ish is going to
Speaker 1: be a very very dark one. Coming up next, folks,
Speaker 1: is my conversation with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel,
Speaker 1: to unpack where we are with the latest COVID bands
Speaker 1: on vaccinations, and also the latest with gun laws that's
Speaker 1: coming to you next, folks. As always, I'm always so
Speaker 1: excited to be joined by our friend in house, doctor
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel, who is joining us alive from New
Speaker 1: York as opposed to on Vanderbilt's campus. Jonathan, First, how
Speaker 1: are you? How are you doing? I'm great. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful day in pre armageddon United States. Wonderful. Um.
Speaker 1: So we have so many different armageddons pending. Which one
Speaker 1: are you talking about today? Is it? Is it COVID?
Speaker 1: Is it guns? Is it climate change? Is it the
Speaker 1: civil war that's impending? You know what's on your mind? Well, first,
Speaker 1: just for our audience, I love puppies and I love
Speaker 1: fields of pretty flowers. I'm not all gloom and doom, um,
Speaker 1: you know, um, but I will say in what I study,
Speaker 1: in what you and I talk about, and the world
Speaker 1: and the country right now, it's just unavoidable. And the
Speaker 1: problem is the minute you relax about one issue, like
Speaker 1: oh we put that fire out, there's some other really
Speaker 1: crap thing coming down the pike, and this crowd thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna be done the pike is a case that
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court is going to hear on November third
Speaker 1: about basically on the docket our New York's gun laws.
Speaker 1: There's been a gun law on the book since nineteen
Speaker 1: thirteen in New York, and basically New York basically says, look,
Speaker 1: we're a crowded city. It's a New York state law,
Speaker 1: but we're a crowded city. We've got lots of people
Speaker 1: on the subway, in traffic, in bars and restaurants, So
Speaker 1: we just don't want everybody carrying a gun because we've
Speaker 1: seen how that worked out. And so since nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: there's been a i think a very reasonable law in
Speaker 1: the books, which basically says, if you want to carry
Speaker 1: a gun in New York, you've got to demonstrate an
Speaker 1: urgent need, not that you just kind of feel like
Speaker 1: you need a gun because somebody might carjack you or something,
Speaker 1: but you need to demonstrate that you need it for
Speaker 1: your job, that you're unsafe, that you're being stalked by
Speaker 1: a partner, that you're you know, in law enforcement or
Speaker 1: something like that. Then you can get a gun license.
Speaker 1: And so that's who since you know, for the last century,
Speaker 1: pretty much that's who's been able to carry New York,
Speaker 1: and the Supreme Court now is saying, well, maybe that's
Speaker 1: unconstitutional because anybody should be able to carry a gun
Speaker 1: who feels like they need it, because this is America,
Speaker 1: and the Second Amendment is that is as sacrosanc as
Speaker 1: the First Amendment. And so really what's on the docket
Speaker 1: right now is overturning the right of cities like New York,
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Boston, other places to limit to kind of
Speaker 1: regulate who gets to carry a gun, which is going
Speaker 1: to lead to many, many more guns in urban areas
Speaker 1: like this. And I've studied this for a long time.
Speaker 1: I've seen how this works out in other places. It
Speaker 1: ain't good. But I feel like also places like New
Speaker 1: York have a particular stake in this, just because the
Speaker 1: whole vibe of New York is like much people, different
Speaker 1: people moshing together on a subway car. That's the great
Speaker 1: thing about New York. And when you start adding in
Speaker 1: guns more guns to this mix, it just seems to
Speaker 1: me catastrophic for the version of New York that we
Speaker 1: all know. So basically, we are living in a Republican
Speaker 1: wet dream and the rest of America's nightmare where we
Speaker 1: have a virus that is still running rampant. We are
Speaker 1: rolling back women's ability to have autonomy over their own body.
Speaker 1: We have voters suppression laws that have been pushed out
Speaker 1: all over the country, and now we want everyone as
Speaker 1: well as who are economically unstable, to be able to
Speaker 1: carry a gun. What's the worst thing that can happen, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: I mean, what a shootout on Fifth Avenue? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like, what is what is the logic behind
Speaker 1: the desire you think of this Supreme Court to just
Speaker 1: make it so that America isn't as unsafe as possible,
Speaker 1: while at the same time gas lighting the hell out
Speaker 1: of us and telling us that they are not partisan
Speaker 1: while sitting next to Mitch McConnell's speaking at Mitch McConnell's
Speaker 1: you know very conference, which is what Amy Covid Barrett did, like,
Speaker 1: I just we're not headed anywhere good. So what are
Speaker 1: what are gun you know, gun um protection advocate? What
Speaker 1: are they saying right now about this impending case for
Speaker 1: November third and whatever happened to states rights and cities rights?
Speaker 1: I thought that that was one of the pillars of republicanism.
Speaker 1: Is that gone as well? Well? The pillar Republicanism is
Speaker 1: whatever it takes, um. You know, it's not consistent. It's
Speaker 1: just whatever we can do to own the libs basically,
Speaker 1: and so states rights, except we won't interfere with private
Speaker 1: businesses except for when we want to overturn a COVID policy,
Speaker 1: you know, stuff like that. So nothing is consistent. It's
Speaker 1: not like, oh, I mean Trump is a perfect symbol
Speaker 1: of this. It's not the no, the man has no ideal. Um.
Speaker 1: It's all like whatever it takes to to get a
Speaker 1: particular form of power. And so that's that's that's exactly
Speaker 1: what this is, right, Um. And the hard part is
Speaker 1: the data is just overwhelming that cities and states that
Speaker 1: within a country where you can control the flow of
Speaker 1: guns the way you can control the flow of coronavirus
Speaker 1: I you can't. Um. But even then, cities and states
Speaker 1: that are able to you know, have some common sense
Speaker 1: gun reform um, permit purchase, you know, purchase processes, background checks,
Speaker 1: la flagh laws. It works, right, Those places have less
Speaker 1: gun injury and death. And so what you're doing is
Speaker 1: you're you're taking the policies from the ship places and
Speaker 1: you're bringing them to the places that have reasonable places
Speaker 1: so it's not just atturning states rights, it's taking bad
Speaker 1: policies and and posing them on the places that I
Speaker 1: have good policies. Now your question is really important because
Speaker 1: there are two parts of it. On one hand, what
Speaker 1: is a gun law in New York matter to somebody
Speaker 1: in the South who most people have never been to
Speaker 1: New York? And I can say I've been doing interviews
Speaker 1: for the past six months with people about this. And
Speaker 1: on one hand, New York represents like this ideal, like
Speaker 1: the liberal idea of a place where I can't go
Speaker 1: and carry my guns. You know, it's like this blue
Speaker 1: state that is a restriction on my unfettered rights as
Speaker 1: a white man to be able to pack heat and
Speaker 1: something like that. So the idea of New York isn't
Speaker 1: affront you know, it's an affront to this idea that
Speaker 1: my gun rights should be, you know, as far as
Speaker 1: the I can see, you know, something like that. So
Speaker 1: there's part of that. And then also there's a kind
Speaker 1: of racial logic I found when I talk to people
Speaker 1: that it was kind of like, well, there's all these
Speaker 1: gang bangers and carjackers there, and of course I'd want
Speaker 1: my gun, like they imagine these kind of racialized scenarios
Speaker 1: and then they imagine that they need guns in those scenarios,
Speaker 1: and so there's this kind of racial logic. Now again,
Speaker 1: the irony, of course, is none of these people have
Speaker 1: been to New York. They you know, New York is
Speaker 1: actually by far more relaxed than walking around a place
Speaker 1: where there are a lot of guns, and so that's
Speaker 1: part of the issue. But New York is particularly symbolic.
Speaker 1: The fact that there's a there's a you know, a
Speaker 1: century old New York law on the books is particularly
Speaker 1: symbolic for this bigger war of kind of southern policies
Speaker 1: and coming to the North. So basically, right now we
Speaker 1: have a Supreme Court that is going to overturn everything right,
Speaker 1: that is going to overturn gun protection, that is going
Speaker 1: to overturn women's rights, that is going to um they
Speaker 1: are hearing a case on whether or not businesses are
Speaker 1: able to mandate vaccines. Where, Jonathan, what's the end game here? Like?
Speaker 1: What what what do you foresee as the end game
Speaker 1: when you're doing these interviews with these you know, right wingers, Like,
Speaker 1: what is what is their endgame? What is the goal
Speaker 1: that they that they have? Well, I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a it's not a mystery. The end game
Speaker 1: is already living in places like Texas and Tennessee. Um.
Speaker 1: Un you know, unquestioned white GOP power that's that's in
Speaker 1: place because of jerry mandering, um, which leads to incredible wealth,
Speaker 1: inequity of every kind of inequity, like when you have
Speaker 1: a lot of guns. It's not like everybody game shot.
Speaker 1: A lot of people go to gated communities and everybody
Speaker 1: else has kind of left to fend for themselves and
Speaker 1: so um and so look at Texas, look at look
Speaker 1: at Tennessee. There's no way that minoritized communities are going
Speaker 1: to ever get to say, there's no way that Democrats
Speaker 1: are ever going to win an election because of the
Speaker 1: because of the election cheating system that's in place. And
Speaker 1: so I think what we're seeing is trying to instill
Speaker 1: that over the entire country. M um. And you know,
Speaker 1: so again, like I think that to me, it seems
Speaker 1: kind of obvious. I'm not obvious, but clear and transparent.
Speaker 1: Like it's not like we're imagining some world. It's it's
Speaker 1: already existing. It just doesn't exist in blue states. And
Speaker 1: that's what's happening. What are your students say on your
Speaker 1: campus about about what is happening right now? Like, I
Speaker 1: just you know, I got to tell you that I
Speaker 1: feel really deeply for young people. I feel really deeply
Speaker 1: about what we are doing to this country, what we
Speaker 1: are going to be handing over to them, which, in
Speaker 1: my humble opinion, is a big pile of shit. Um,
Speaker 1: We're giving them a climate crisis, We're giving them unfettered
Speaker 1: gun laws. Where I mean unfettered you know, gun use, uh,
Speaker 1: racial unrest, economic instability. What are they saying in your
Speaker 1: classes as you're talking about you know, COVID in uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and the media as you're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: mental health and gun laws? What is the what is
Speaker 1: the persistent kind of conversation that you all are having.
Speaker 1: It's sad. I mean I asked my class thurday, how
Speaker 1: many people feel like we're living in the end of days?
Speaker 1: And like I've two twos in my class, Like half
Speaker 1: of them raised their hands. You know, I feel so sad.
Speaker 1: But it's not just about that, you know, because they're
Speaker 1: of course very attuned to the climate. Like if you
Speaker 1: were if you were nineteen years old right now and
Speaker 1: you're trying to imagine what climate's going to be like
Speaker 1: fifty years from now. Like it's it's pretty scary, right,
Speaker 1: and so they're trying to figure that out. The economy
Speaker 1: is weird, like all these supply chain issues and things
Speaker 1: like that. What does that mean? What's the future of
Speaker 1: jobs of public safety? So, I don't know, it's weird.
Speaker 1: There was this there was a study that came out
Speaker 1: like a year ago. They basically looked at what's called
Speaker 1: social capital. It said that society is that are going
Speaker 1: to whether this pandemic the best or the ones where
Speaker 1: more people feel like they're working to help other people,
Speaker 1: that there's the most social cohesion, that there's like structures
Speaker 1: in place where everybody can see, oh yeah, we're we're
Speaker 1: part of a national health service or we are part
Speaker 1: of a you know, social safety net something like that.
Speaker 1: So those places, I think it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: their psychology. Now. Certainly have they have better health comes
Speaker 1: from COVID, but I bet they have better psychological outcomes too.
Speaker 1: Of kind of we're in a good place because we're
Speaker 1: all working together. I mean it's kind of an ideal,
Speaker 1: but it's you know, it's it's a lot different than
Speaker 1: what we're seeing in the US right now. So I think,
Speaker 1: you know, there's this all this literature social it's called
Speaker 1: social capital, and we don't have a lot of it
Speaker 1: to spend right now. Is there a difference between how
Speaker 1: folks that you are interviewing in these conservative areas are
Speaker 1: speaking about the current state of our country versus the
Speaker 1: conversations that you were having on your campus right like,
Speaker 1: because we are so, we are so in our corners
Speaker 1: and in our tribes right now, are you seeing a
Speaker 1: through line in the anxiety and frustration and what does
Speaker 1: that look like? Well, I'm doing a big project right
Speaker 1: now that does kind of focus groups with different groups
Speaker 1: of voters across the South that I'm interviewing liberals and
Speaker 1: Democrats and people from pretty much every demographic group in
Speaker 1: separate groups. And I can't say, on one hand, there's
Speaker 1: a ton of just suffering right now. People are suffering
Speaker 1: from COVID, from financial insecurity, really, from a kind of tribalism.
Speaker 1: Tribalism is not that fun. You're living in a heightened
Speaker 1: state of anxiety all the time, and so in that regard,
Speaker 1: In that regard, I do think there's a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of just anome, you know, to think of Durkheim, this
Speaker 1: sense of despair across our country right now. But I
Speaker 1: will say that, just imagine if you were in a
Speaker 1: group who your main things were you all you care
Speaker 1: about is making abortion completely illegal, expanding Second Amendment, having
Speaker 1: your political party to take power. So it's a pretty
Speaker 1: heady time for people who are in the demographic that
Speaker 1: is being benefited by all of these policies, by the
Speaker 1: gerrymandering and stuff like that. So on their hand, especially
Speaker 1: if you don't really believe in COVID, you feel like
Speaker 1: you're on the on the winning team, and so it
Speaker 1: certainly is um you know, not everybody's experiencing this, this
Speaker 1: dystopia in the same way. You know, Jonathan, do you
Speaker 1: feel like there is a path forward? And I asked
Speaker 1: that not because you're a politician, you know, or anything,
Speaker 1: but because you're a person that genuinely cares about understanding
Speaker 1: the other side, about figuring out you know, what may
Speaker 1: takes them tick, right like why you know, why they
Speaker 1: are willing to die of whiteness, why they're willing to
Speaker 1: take down the country with them, Like we can't have
Speaker 1: this lopsided democracy like it is It's just like, there's
Speaker 1: only one way that I see this going. But I'm
Speaker 1: curious as to what you think. Yeah, I think that too,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, yeah, I think we're in trouble now,
Speaker 1: and I think that. You know, it's it's hard because
Speaker 1: the frustration is so it's just so everywhere right now, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm frustrated. Maybe the deck was stacked against
Speaker 1: Biden from the first day, because it's hard to run
Speaker 1: a presidency when you're governing a very razor thin, already
Speaker 1: fractured coalition and the party before you is refusing to
Speaker 1: even do anything. So it's certainly hard. I'm frustrated with
Speaker 1: the Democrats for for not coming together to figure out
Speaker 1: some way to get some stuff done. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's gonna really they have some very serious consequences, and
Speaker 1: then the issues themselves are very are very serious. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I don't know. I just I miss how
Speaker 1: I felt in June, which is like the pandemic year
Speaker 1: exactly like this past Yune. It was like you know, eha, um,
Speaker 1: but but I I don't, um, I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's um, it's a TVD right now. You know.
Speaker 1: The last question that I want to ask you, Um,
Speaker 1: is about the pandemic um and is about the pandemic
Speaker 1: becoming endemic? Right? And at what when do when? When
Speaker 1: does that become an actual thing? Right? Like people keep
Speaker 1: saying it like this pandemic is just going to be around,
Speaker 1: It is going to the COVID nineteen is going to
Speaker 1: be endemic. It's going to be you know, a part
Speaker 1: of our lives and our existence. At what threshold is
Speaker 1: that the case threshold? Okay, yeah, we're there. I mean
Speaker 1: we thought before we could defeat There's some great there's
Speaker 1: some great stuff on the horizon here. I mean, there
Speaker 1: are treatments for more. I mean the one I'm most
Speaker 1: excited about. We can talk about it next week is
Speaker 1: as stuff happening in at Vanderbilt UM, which is a
Speaker 1: kind of treatment that will give you sustained levels of antibodies.
Speaker 1: And so I think there are good things on the
Speaker 1: horizon that will continue to make this. I mean, we're obviously,
Speaker 1: in the pandemic sense, better off now than we were
Speaker 1: a year ago. UM, But I don't know, Um, you know, well,
Speaker 1: let's to see but but it is not going away.
Speaker 1: But but but I also think again and imagine how
Speaker 1: you felt before vaccines, before we had access to better masks,
Speaker 1: before we knew more about the transmission patterns and stuff.
Speaker 1: So this is just always it's always going to be changing.
Speaker 1: But I do feel like their treatments on the horizon
Speaker 1: that are going to continue to make this less of
Speaker 1: an urgent threat than it is now. And if these
Speaker 1: any of these long term antibody treatments end up working
Speaker 1: that they really, to me at least, could be as
Speaker 1: big of game changers as the vaccine. All right, well,
Speaker 1: then we will leave it there on that hopeful the
Speaker 1: one hopeful note that we had this entire interview. As always, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: we appreciate your time, your analysis, and your insight so
Speaker 1: very much. Take care everybody, and you know, just to
Speaker 1: quote Monty Python, always look on the bright side of life.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is, but we will try. Okay,
Speaker 1: appreciate you. That's it for today's Woke AF Daily. To
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Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power, get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck,