Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to bok Up Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody. Recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: When I recorded Friday's show, the news had not yet
Speaker 1: broken about Trump's indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney on
Speaker 1: what we now to believe at least thirty different charges
Speaker 1: related to the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. And
Speaker 1: let me tell you, folks, lord, last week started out
Speaker 1: like trash, with the horrific shooting in Tennessee, with the
Speaker 1: horrific trans bills, with just you know, it was just
Speaker 1: a heavy fucking week. So I gotta say for those
Speaker 1: that were in the media that we're telling folks now
Speaker 1: is not the time to celebrate. This is a sober occasion.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah fuck that I hope that you all
Speaker 1: popped bottles all weekend long, because we have been waiting
Speaker 1: seven long years for this moment. Now we know, right
Speaker 1: this is not an episode of law and order, And sadly,
Speaker 1: the trial and diet all of this stuff will not
Speaker 1: be wrapped up by the end of the month or
Speaker 1: the end of this year. That this is going to
Speaker 1: be a much longer process. There will be opportunities for
Speaker 1: Trump stooges to be able to appeal, They'll be all
Speaker 1: these things. But what we do know is that tomorrow
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is scheduled to be arraigned, fingerprinted, and mug shotted,
Speaker 1: if that's actually a word in New York. Now, I
Speaker 1: have to tell you something that I think is beautiful
Speaker 1: about this moment, which is that this is as far
Speaker 1: as we've ever gotten with Donald Trump. I want folks
Speaker 1: to really like wrap their minds around this, which is
Speaker 1: that for years, for decades, Donald Trump has been operating
Speaker 1: a criminal enterprise in business. He has been sued multiple times,
Speaker 1: he has faced fines, he has had to shutter Trump University.
Speaker 1: But this is the first time that Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: being criminally indicted. Right, this is the first time that
Speaker 1: a former president is being criminally indicted. Because what did
Speaker 1: we learn through the Mulla report is that Robert Mueller
Speaker 1: found ten ways in which Donald Trump obstructed justice, ten
Speaker 1: ways right in which Donald Trump broke the law, but
Speaker 1: through the guidelines of the Department of Justice, they were
Speaker 1: not going to indict a sitting president. Now, I have
Speaker 1: said on this show and many others that that was
Speaker 1: all good and fine, if that's your fucking bullshit rule.
Speaker 1: But Merritt Garland, once Merritt Garland was sworn in as
Speaker 1: the Attorney General of the United States, had already had
Speaker 1: all of Muller's work on his desk and could have
Speaker 1: pursued those indictments on those charges that led to his
Speaker 1: second impeachment as soon as Donald Trump took off in
Speaker 1: that helicopter and left the south lawn of the White House.
Speaker 1: But he didn't. Had he done that, maybe we wouldn't
Speaker 1: have ended up where we are right now. But nonetheless,
Speaker 1: it is safe to say that I do not believe
Speaker 1: that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA would be bringing charges
Speaker 1: that did not carry any weight to go through what
Speaker 1: is going to be attempts upon his life, whether it
Speaker 1: is real or imagine via social media or like the
Speaker 1: letter that he received a couple of weeks ago after
Speaker 1: Donald Trump said that he was supposedly going to be
Speaker 1: arrested on that Tuesday. We know that the judge that
Speaker 1: we believe has been assigned to this case is also
Speaker 1: going to receive death threats. New York City is currently
Speaker 1: and has been since the weekend, bracing itself because in
Speaker 1: New York is like, so we're not going to fuck
Speaker 1: around and have a surprise quote unquote insurrection in the
Speaker 1: way that Washington, DC did. And I just want folks
Speaker 1: to let this sit with you for a minute. That
Speaker 1: the indictment of a former president of the United States
Speaker 1: who just did a rally in Waco, Texas on the
Speaker 1: thirtieth anniversary of Waco, right where it has become this
Speaker 1: signifying place for white supremacists and white nationalist and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump knew exactly what the fuck that he was doing
Speaker 1: to summon in the presence of this cult leader and
Speaker 1: at the site of a place where eighty people were
Speaker 1: killed right after following this cult leader who was a
Speaker 1: pedophile and molesting and abusing children. But this is where
Speaker 1: Donald Trump chose to have his rally, and there he
Speaker 1: had his hand over where I assume he believes his
Speaker 1: heart is having the January six choir, bunch of insurrectionists
Speaker 1: singing the national anthem, showing pictures of January six, because
Speaker 1: that is a moment that Donald Trump is proud of.
Speaker 1: Every analyst that has been on television said, I really
Speaker 1: hope that the Department of Justice is paying attention because
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants to say that he had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with January six and the outcome and the insurrection,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. All I did was give a speech.
Speaker 1: And yet he is using January six and the imageries
Speaker 1: of you know, his followers beating, abusing, and ultimately killing
Speaker 1: police officers. People died that day, and Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: using it as his rallying cry. Because of that, the
Speaker 1: New York City Police Department is on high alert and
Speaker 1: they are putting up barricades and all officers are on deck. Right,
Speaker 1: So what does that say to you? It says to
Speaker 1: me that Donald Trump is fucking dangerous, right, So I'm
Speaker 1: confused again why we even have people pontificating in the news.
Speaker 1: Is trying to fake connect the dots that are evident.
Speaker 1: If the police did not believe that Donald Trump could
Speaker 1: in fact incite a mob, that Marjorie Taylor Green, who
Speaker 1: is going to find her way to New York tomorrow,
Speaker 1: that these people are not capable of violence and inciting
Speaker 1: people to violence, right then there would be no need
Speaker 1: for the precautions that the New York Police Department is
Speaker 1: taking right now. And I want that to sit with people,
Speaker 1: because this is not normal, right, It is also not
Speaker 1: normal for us to have had a criminal as a
Speaker 1: president of the United States. But we have known long since.
Speaker 1: Those people who lived in New York knew who the
Speaker 1: fuck Donald Trump was, right, knew who he has always been.
Speaker 1: So you know, we are living inside of history right now.
Speaker 1: And like I said, this is not a law and
Speaker 1: order episode, and this is going to play out over
Speaker 1: the course parallel to the twenty twenty four presidential election,
Speaker 1: which is fucking wild because apparently we live in a
Speaker 1: developing nation. I don't fucking know. One of the most
Speaker 1: interesting things too, that came out of the announcement around
Speaker 1: the indictment is Ronda Santis's post that he did on
Speaker 1: Twitter which said that he would not cooperate with authorities
Speaker 1: and be a part of any extradition of Donald Trump
Speaker 1: from Mara Lago, which is in Florida with his current
Speaker 1: residence to New York. So Rohnda Santis is not interested
Speaker 1: in following the rule of law. Republicans in general are
Speaker 1: not interested in law and order and the fact that
Speaker 1: a sitting governor would defy court orders because they honestly
Speaker 1: believe that they are above the law. Right so, because
Speaker 1: they don't like the way that the law is being
Speaker 1: applied right now, they're like, oh no, we don't have
Speaker 1: to follow those rules. But when they were all chanting
Speaker 1: lock her up, lock her up, which came up with nothing,
Speaker 1: zero indictments, all of their investigation into Benghazi, all of
Speaker 1: these things come up with fucking goose eggs, they still
Speaker 1: chant lock her up, lock her up. Any normal political
Speaker 1: party right now would be you can champion Donald Trump
Speaker 1: and say we are going to see how this plays
Speaker 1: out because we know that the evidence is going to
Speaker 1: prove that Donald Trump is innocent. But that's not what
Speaker 1: these Republicans are doing, right. They're calling out the entire
Speaker 1: system and saying it's a far saying that Alvin Bragg
Speaker 1: is a political hack. There you using anti Semitic terminology
Speaker 1: and summoning George Soros right as their code word for
Speaker 1: anti Semitic Jewish backing money, which is what it is
Speaker 1: that they are implying when they keep using Soros's name.
Speaker 1: But they don't want the systems to work. They want
Speaker 1: the systems to break. They want democracy itself to break
Speaker 1: so that they can do what it is that they want,
Speaker 1: which is civil war two point zero insurrection two point zero, right,
Speaker 1: now the chatter on the far right wing sites is
Speaker 1: about acceleration, which I learned over the weekend on MSNBC
Speaker 1: that acceleration for them means that they need to accelerate
Speaker 1: the destruction and the breakdown of systems and the breakdown
Speaker 1: of governments at all levels. Right. They need to accelerate
Speaker 1: the destruction so that they can rebuild their white supremacist
Speaker 1: fantasy model. We are living in a wild, wild fucking time, folks.
Speaker 1: That is all I can say. And you know, I
Speaker 1: will continue to remind people that while you are taking
Speaker 1: this in and you may have been popping popcorn and
Speaker 1: drinking drinks and watching the news all week, and do
Speaker 1: understand that you do your body a disservice when you
Speaker 1: do not take breaks, when you do not get outside,
Speaker 1: when you do not connect with nature, walk, have movement, anything.
Speaker 1: Even this type of energy, even if it is celebratory,
Speaker 1: it really is showing where America is right now, and
Speaker 1: it is not in a good place. So truly be
Speaker 1: mindful of how you take in the news over the
Speaker 1: next couple of days, next couple of weeks, months, and
Speaker 1: the year ahead. Coming up next, my pre taped conversation
Speaker 1: with our good friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel,
Speaker 1: to discuss his feelings around the shooting in Tennessee, which
Speaker 1: the victims have said shooting were brought to his university's
Speaker 1: campus and so how that surreal situation landed on him
Speaker 1: and where he thinks we are in the gun debate.
Speaker 1: That conversation is coming up next, folks. You know that
Speaker 1: whenever I have the opportunity to be joined by our
Speaker 1: friend in house, our in house doctor at woke affidaily,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of the book Dying of Whiteness,
Speaker 1: I'm always pleased. But yet we never have a conversation
Speaker 1: about anything that is good. We never talk about puppies,
Speaker 1: we never talk about sprinkles or sparkles. Everything is always
Speaker 1: about death and destruction, and unfortunately this week is no different.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan, I will say this that when the shooting
Speaker 1: took place in Tennessee, you're one of the first people,
Speaker 1: obviously that I thought about, because that is where you
Speaker 1: spend half of your time, if not a majority of
Speaker 1: your time as a professor at Vanderbilt University. And I
Speaker 1: just want to get your reaction to the shooting that
Speaker 1: claimed the lives of three children and three adults, as
Speaker 1: well as the shooter, the unfolding of protests that have
Speaker 1: been happening in Tennessee. Just your feelings first and foremost
Speaker 1: about this another American travesty, another American school shooting. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's my feelings range from traumatized, too exhausted, too angry,
Speaker 1: to energized given what happened today over recording this on
Speaker 1: a day where there were huge numbers of students that
Speaker 1: protests at the Nashville State House. And so I can
Speaker 1: just tell you, I mean I was at work on Monday, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and in Nashville, we were no strangers to multiple victim
Speaker 1: gun violets. I mean, we've had lots of shootings, We've
Speaker 1: had lots of kids getting shot. This is a year
Speaker 1: where we've had a lot of kids shot. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, I just there was a moment on Monday
Speaker 1: where first we started hearing all the sirens, and then
Speaker 1: we heard all the helicopters. And at first the sirens
Speaker 1: were going away from us, and then really quickly the
Speaker 1: sirens were coming toward us. And what that meant was
Speaker 1: that the people at this shooting, two miles away from work,
Speaker 1: were being brought to the Vanderbilt Hospital, and so it
Speaker 1: just I've never seen our campus like this. Honestly, it
Speaker 1: just went quiet. It was like pale and blanched and
Speaker 1: in shock everywhere, and so people were just either didn't
Speaker 1: know what to say or they were checking their phones
Speaker 1: to make sure their kids were okay. And a lot
Speaker 1: of people have their kids in school there or nearby,
Speaker 1: so this was this really hit close to home, really
Speaker 1: close to home for a lot of people. And then
Speaker 1: I just think that there's something about kids in school
Speaker 1: getting shot that is just unfathomable, Like it just honestly
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you just can't process. First of all, who
Speaker 1: would do that? But second, like parents drop off their
Speaker 1: kids at school, assuming they're putting them into another safe space,
Speaker 1: and so just this trauma, this fear of not being
Speaker 1: safe there is just so so palpable. And even for
Speaker 1: me who's studied mass shootings for a long time, but
Speaker 1: watching this play out, I just I can just say
Speaker 1: that it was there was something about this shooting that
Speaker 1: really hit a nerve. Before then the entire shooting jumped
Speaker 1: right into the entire culture ward polarized politics, which is
Speaker 1: kind of how it's been playing out now, you know,
Speaker 1: Jonathan will One. You know, I'm just I don't is
Speaker 1: sorry is not even the word that you had to
Speaker 1: experience that and are going to still be experiencing the trauma, right,
Speaker 1: because that's what this is. Right. We are a nation
Speaker 1: that is traumatized consistently, Rinson repeat, from gun violence, from
Speaker 1: mass shootings, from school shootings. But I think that to
Speaker 1: know that those victims were coming to your campus to
Speaker 1: the hospital, and then to know later that they were
Speaker 1: all pronounced dead is just beyond you know. And I've
Speaker 1: been interviewing and talking to folks that are saying they
Speaker 1: are parents, and they're saying to me that the scariest
Speaker 1: time of day nowadays is dropping their kids off at
Speaker 1: the bus stop or dropping them off at school. And
Speaker 1: that's not like, this is not hyperbole, right, it is
Speaker 1: the fear of what it means to live in the
Speaker 1: United States that is uniquely you know, a part of
Speaker 1: our experience. And so I guess the question that I
Speaker 1: have for you right now is Tennessee is a gun state, right.
Speaker 1: It is a state where the governor you know, recently
Speaker 1: loosened you know, whatever what was left of gun laws
Speaker 1: in that state. And so when you see the protests
Speaker 1: that are unfolding, and you see the parent that went
Speaker 1: viral for jumping in front of the cameras and saying
Speaker 1: to reporters, aren't you sick of this? Aren't you sick
Speaker 1: of covering this? What's the energy of the people in
Speaker 1: Tennessee right now? I would say it's honestly divided. I
Speaker 1: mean very clearly, and you just see it so personally
Speaker 1: and again, like, my trauma is nothing compared to the
Speaker 1: trauma that happened two miles away, or the trauma of
Speaker 1: people who didn't know if their kids were going to
Speaker 1: come home or their you know, spouse was going to
Speaker 1: come home. But but first, I would just say that
Speaker 1: being in this experience, it makes you see how trauma
Speaker 1: ripples outward in a way like a blast radius, where
Speaker 1: everybody kind of feels some connection to this. And so
Speaker 1: I would just say first people were commonly and communally traumatized,
Speaker 1: and then that it was a woman mass shooter, or no,
Speaker 1: it was a mass shooter who would identified as transgender
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like it's just all these pieces came out
Speaker 1: that were so linked to already the divisive politics of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: where I can just tell you factually trans people are
Speaker 1: not going around attacking people, and yet and they are
Speaker 1: much more likely to be under attack and victims, and
Speaker 1: they're being victimized by the state apparatus now And so
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it just jumps so quickly into
Speaker 1: the can call it the culture wars or the divisive politics,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, you were on one
Speaker 1: side or another. And so even though, of course guns
Speaker 1: themselves are very polarizing issues, but this shooting also highlighted
Speaker 1: how mass shootings don't happen in a vacuum, and that
Speaker 1: gun politics link to politics of race and gender in America,
Speaker 1: and so all of a sudden, we were like on
Speaker 1: an on steroids version of the divisive politics that have
Speaker 1: been dividing Tennessee anyway. Now, I will say they're a
Speaker 1: fair number of people I know who were gun owners
Speaker 1: who feel always that a mass shooting makes them more
Speaker 1: pro gun like. They feel like their biggest fear is
Speaker 1: that something like this will happen and they won't have
Speaker 1: their gun available, or that only bad guys have guns,
Speaker 1: but good guys have guns regulated. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: we've we had thousands of students literally take over the
Speaker 1: Statehouse today demanding change, saying enough is enough, and I
Speaker 1: am really honestly torn. I'll just be really honest with you.
Speaker 1: I'm really torn because I want there to be changed,
Speaker 1: and I feel like we're facing an issue right now
Speaker 1: that then it's just as a big issue and the
Speaker 1: answer is that we have there's no answer. There's no
Speaker 1: easy answer right now, you know, even like let's say
Speaker 1: that the protesters get their way and we have red
Speaker 1: flag laws and we have background checks, I mean background
Speaker 1: checks as one example is a point of sale intervention,
Speaker 1: Like when you go to buy a gun, they do
Speaker 1: a background check, but we already have four hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million guns in this country, and so even a
Speaker 1: background check is not going to stop mass shootings. And
Speaker 1: so I just I feel like there's this there's just
Speaker 1: this divide. I mean, what we're calling for it just
Speaker 1: feels so basic. It's just almost like an acknowledgement of
Speaker 1: how hard this problem is. And I don't mean to
Speaker 1: sound defeated on I want there to be positive steps,
Speaker 1: but I would just say it's just like, you know, honestly,
Speaker 1: like fuck, how do we get here? You know? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really how it feels. Yep, you know, It's funny
Speaker 1: because the other day I interviewed Medi Hassan from MSNBC
Speaker 1: and he had an interesting point that he made, and
Speaker 1: I want to run it past you where he said,
Speaker 1: you know, the right is already on their grievance trip
Speaker 1: about you know, the left trying to take their guns
Speaker 1: and repeal the Second Amendment. And he's like, fuck it,
Speaker 1: Why don't we have more conversations about repealing the Second Amendment?
Speaker 1: Why don't we start to have policy conversations about the
Speaker 1: fact that, like the Second Amendment was never about having
Speaker 1: access to military grade weapons. Why don't we say that
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment, it is time for it to be reevaluated. Right?
Speaker 1: What do you think about that argument? Because to your point,
Speaker 1: background checks are about people who are going to purchase guns.
Speaker 1: It is not about the four hundred and fifty million
Speaker 1: that have already proliferated this nation. Right, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: you can do mental health checks and have red flag laws,
Speaker 1: but the reality is is that we need to take
Speaker 1: the guns. So, like that's the real shit, right, Like
Speaker 1: the AAR fifteens and the weapons of war, they need
Speaker 1: to be confiscated, they need to be taken, right, and
Speaker 1: there needs to be a ban on them, and there
Speaker 1: needs to be you know, high penalties for selling them,
Speaker 1: for owning them, and that just needs to be the call.
Speaker 1: And so this whole kind of playing around the edges,
Speaker 1: I think that we're past this. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on what medi you know posed. I mean,
Speaker 1: it sounds great, just like expending the Supreme Court sounds great,
Speaker 1: and many other things sound great. And I can also
Speaker 1: tell you living in Tennessee that it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: So I think it's great. I think it's great as
Speaker 1: a strategy. I would I don't. I don't. I just
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm all for pushing the envelope here, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm all for thinking radically. I think there's a common
Speaker 1: sense on the left that we're proposing Honestly, it's just
Speaker 1: not working, right, I mean right, I mean that was
Speaker 1: his point. It's it's it's we're we're coming to we're
Speaker 1: coming to a gun battle with facts and a policy paper,
Speaker 1: and they're coming literally with bazuokas. But the other thing
Speaker 1: is even the interventions we support, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: just feel like we have a really shitty tool kit,
Speaker 1: to be honest, if you're if you're arguing for background checks,
Speaker 1: for example, background checks king people, who are the histories
Speaker 1: of incarceration? Um, that's what that's what a background check.
Speaker 1: It's a federal database. Um that pings somebody with an incarceration.
Speaker 1: So who do you think gets pinged on a background check? Um?
Speaker 1: And if a red flag law, we're all out there
Speaker 1: arguing for red flag laws, but a red flag law
Speaker 1: is basically inviting the police to do a welfare check
Speaker 1: on your relative. It's inviting the cops into your home.
Speaker 1: So who's going to get wary? Who's going to be
Speaker 1: aware of that? So there are racial politics on all
Speaker 1: sides of what we're proposing. So I think there are
Speaker 1: many reasons why I think we should rethink public health
Speaker 1: based gun reform because I just don't think we've said
Speaker 1: so long it's common sense, it's not common sense and um,
Speaker 1: and so I'm all for rethinking this. Um. I just
Speaker 1: i'd rather I mean, and I'm happy to be bombastic
Speaker 1: and challenging, but I just can't see, at least where
Speaker 1: I live, I can't see that taking people's guns away
Speaker 1: is gonna light to a good outcome. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: but here's the thing, because I am trying desperately to
Speaker 1: find a hopeful place on this issue. Well, let me
Speaker 1: just say something though, because I mean, for me, the
Speaker 1: issue is you have to see guns in a bigger context. Right,
Speaker 1: Why are there so many guns? It's not just because
Speaker 1: of failed public health strategies, because the right had a
Speaker 1: as you and I've said a million times here, a
Speaker 1: fifty year strategy that like that meant seating the courts
Speaker 1: with judges and winning elections like it's it's the reason
Speaker 1: there are so many guns is because there are so
Speaker 1: many judges and candidates. It's like a fifty year strategy.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, you and I've talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot. We need a long game strategy. If we
Speaker 1: could turn the anger and frustration now into Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say something kind of weird. Good, But I study
Speaker 1: gun form. But when I hear the people say on TV,
Speaker 1: and I've probably said it too, oh like eight percent
Speaker 1: people support background checks, and I just want to scream
Speaker 1: when I honestly hear people say that, because it's probably true.
Speaker 1: I would be probably eighty percent of people do support
Speaker 1: background checks. But that doesn't mean that eighty percent of
Speaker 1: people are going to vote as single issue voters in
Speaker 1: an election based on background checks. It means that they
Speaker 1: support background checks, but that's not how they're voting, honestly,
Speaker 1: and so I think the issue is the right. If
Speaker 1: they do gun rights, people just vote based on gun rights,
Speaker 1: and that means that pro gun NIRA politicians, even before Jerremandering,
Speaker 1: were never afraid they were going to get voted out
Speaker 1: of office. Yep. I just think we need to broaden
Speaker 1: the frame because the minute you people start fearing they're
Speaker 1: going to get voted out of office for this position,
Speaker 1: that's when things will change. Honestly, that's when all of
Speaker 1: a sudden things are going to be on the table.
Speaker 1: But it's not the case. There's no threat that people
Speaker 1: are going to get voted out, at least where I live.
Speaker 1: And the NIRA has been really good at putting in
Speaker 1: candidates who are not going to I mean, you saw
Speaker 1: the whole world saw the Tennessee I mean, but it's
Speaker 1: natural selection. When I saw what the representatives of Tennessee
Speaker 1: sound like and what their ideology is like, I was
Speaker 1: just like, what the fuck is going on in this state?
Speaker 1: When you can have not even the bodies of those
Speaker 1: children have been transported yet into the ground. And you
Speaker 1: were talking about, well, we're not going to fix it.
Speaker 1: Crime is just going to happen. And that person say
Speaker 1: that so confidently, knowing that they're not going to be
Speaker 1: removed from office. But how did that person get into office?
Speaker 1: That's the point of trying to make It might not
Speaker 1: be obvious to people who are just seeing Tennessee for
Speaker 1: the first time. Twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, there
Speaker 1: were Republicans who also said we need background checks or
Speaker 1: something like that, any little thing, and those people all
Speaker 1: got nright, they all got kneecapped. Yea, And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the minute you did anything that was against
Speaker 1: the NRA, the NRA would go after you. They would
Speaker 1: put up billboards, they would rally people. It would remember
Speaker 1: all those crazy people that showed up at the CRT
Speaker 1: school boards. Those people were all trained during the gun
Speaker 1: debate to show up about somebody who was going to
Speaker 1: take away their Second Amendment rights. And so in a way,
Speaker 1: the people who are in those positions now are like
Speaker 1: the result of twenty years of just whacking out the moderates.
Speaker 1: And in a way, so I just I just want
Speaker 1: to highlight that people who are paying attention to this
Speaker 1: are rightly mortified, and they're also seeing this at the
Speaker 1: end of a progression that's been happening for several decades
Speaker 1: where they developed a playbook to put in the more
Speaker 1: extreme people. And it really, I mean, I've seen it
Speaker 1: firsthand in Tennessee that anytime people would say, like, we
Speaker 1: had a bill one time that was a four year
Speaker 1: old kid shot a five year old kid, and we
Speaker 1: proposed a bill that was going to be to make
Speaker 1: parents responsible for putting their guns in gun safes if
Speaker 1: they had kids under five years old in their house,
Speaker 1: and the Republican person said, I support that. I think
Speaker 1: there should be gun safety laws, so if you have
Speaker 1: a kid five and under, And that person lasted maybe
Speaker 1: three more months in politics after they came over to
Speaker 1: our side. So it's just been like this that's not
Speaker 1: even a fucking side. It's if you own a gun,
Speaker 1: lock it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, look look it up.
Speaker 1: It's called it was. The thing was called Micayley's Law,
Speaker 1: it was Newsweek wrote about it, a bunch of other places.
Speaker 1: But it's just like this stuff's been happening, and you know,
Speaker 1: while everything else has been happening. It's no critique, but
Speaker 1: this has been happening, and so all of a sudden
Speaker 1: people are seeing it now, but it's they're seeing it
Speaker 1: at the end of a of a really long progression
Speaker 1: of the NRA just very powerfully taking over state apparatuses
Speaker 1: and then really making anybody. I mean even in New York.
Speaker 1: Remember there was a there was that Buffalo shooting and
Speaker 1: a Republican politician said, I think it's time for us
Speaker 1: to come together for gun reform, and that guy got
Speaker 1: primary by the NRA. So even in New York that happened.
Speaker 1: And so they're so effective at making people tow the
Speaker 1: party line or lose their jobs. And so I guess
Speaker 1: my point is just I'm not I mean, great for
Speaker 1: Maddy if he wants to take all the guns, I'm
Speaker 1: all for it. But I would also say we need
Speaker 1: to maybe a bit more unified political strategy for countering
Speaker 1: what the NRA has done, which is, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: the minute people who support background checks all start voting
Speaker 1: only on background checks, that's going to change the debate, right,
Speaker 1: It's going to be if we can mobilize voter blocks
Speaker 1: that vote with consequences, that that's where things will change.
Speaker 1: But we're not there. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: research that shows that people support gun rights, but they
Speaker 1: don't vote based on gun rights, whereas gun owners all
Speaker 1: support all vote based on gun rights. Well, here's what
Speaker 1: I'm proposing, Jonathan. Yes, and I've been and I've been,
Speaker 1: you know, I have started it because like I am
Speaker 1: literally at my wits end, and I don't research this
Speaker 1: and haven't been in this in the way that you
Speaker 1: have for your career. But I'm calling for a national protest,
Speaker 1: like I'm calling for a national boycott. I want to
Speaker 1: shut the country down. This is ridiculous, Like we cannot
Speaker 1: call ourselves an industrialize you know country. We're so wealthy
Speaker 1: but yet so morally bankrupt and continue to just go
Speaker 1: rinse and repeat and go on like normal and children
Speaker 1: die in their classrooms. Why they're collering, Like, we have
Speaker 1: to shut this shit down because there's something radical needs
Speaker 1: to happen to shake this country out of its malaise. Well,
Speaker 1: there are two things. Number One, pay attention to what's
Speaker 1: going to happen in Tennessee. Students are doing a massive walkout,
Speaker 1: So pay attention to what's happening in Tennessee and see
Speaker 1: how sustainable that is. I hope it is. I hope
Speaker 1: it's sustainable. The March for Our Lives organization, like, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of student mobilization around this, and that'd be great.
Speaker 1: I really hope the next generation leads us. But I
Speaker 1: would also say that it's not just about attitudes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's really that the NRA controls the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: and they control the judiciary, and so it's I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just I want to push students, which I do,
Speaker 1: to say, if you're really going for this, it's not
Speaker 1: just about red flag laws or background checks like that.
Speaker 1: Is that is not going to make a difference. I
Speaker 1: mean it will maybe a little bit, but they're still
Speaker 1: going to have the same problem, which is this is
Speaker 1: a power issue, not just to help this sue yep, yep,
Speaker 1: Doctor Jonathan Metzel. As always, you know, I appreciate your insight,
Speaker 1: your analysis, and you know, again my heart goes out
Speaker 1: to you, your students, and the community that you live
Speaker 1: in in Tennessee of you know, what you've had to
Speaker 1: deal with and what you will be dealing with for
Speaker 1: you know, for weeks and months and years to come.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So much, and again, let's just keep mobilizing
Speaker 1: around this. And you know it's humans created this system,
Speaker 1: and humans can create a different system, so it's not inevitable.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jonathan. That isn't for me today. Dear friends
Speaker 1: on Woke a f as always, power to the people
Speaker 1: and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay
Speaker 1: woke as fuck.