Speaker 1: Good morning, Peezza, and welcome to okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording once again from the
Speaker 1: Home Bunker. Folks, It's been a while since I've been
Speaker 1: able to talk to you about recent current events, and
Speaker 1: so I really hope that you have all enjoyed the
Speaker 1: content that we have had coming through while I took
Speaker 1: a little break for my birthday, and thank you all
Speaker 1: so very much for your well wishes. They mean the
Speaker 1: world to me, so I really appreciate that, folks. So
Speaker 1: let's start off with a couple of things coming up
Speaker 1: in my conversation today. We're going to speak with our friend,
Speaker 1: the good doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. But before we get
Speaker 1: to that episode, I really want to reflect on where
Speaker 1: we stand right now with the midterm elections, and I
Speaker 1: want to lift up something because I think that too
Speaker 1: off and you guys know me very well. Too often
Speaker 1: we use our victories as speed bumps and kind of
Speaker 1: zip over them onto the next thing, and I really
Speaker 1: want us to be very reflective in this moment, this
Speaker 1: historical moment that we just went through with the largest
Speaker 1: turnout for a midterm election we have ever had in
Speaker 1: this country, with generation z the eighteen to thirty year
Speaker 1: old swath of the electorate turning out in numbers that
Speaker 1: no one predicted. I also want to talk about the
Speaker 1: fact that, much like I've been saying since the beginning
Speaker 1: of time, poles are bullshit. The only polls that matter
Speaker 1: are the ones that you walk inside of. And so
Speaker 1: case in point, the poles were telling us that we
Speaker 1: were going to expect a red wave, a red tsunami,
Speaker 1: Democrats were going to be decimated, and everything was going
Speaker 1: to go to shit and be horrible, and that voters
Speaker 1: didn't care about abortion, they only cared about the economy.
Speaker 1: And so why did Democrats spend all this time talking
Speaker 1: about democracy an abortion when clearly they should have just
Speaker 1: been talking about the economy. Well, we hear on wok
Speaker 1: af know that motherfuckers can walk and chew gum at
Speaker 1: the same time, but evidently they don't think that in
Speaker 1: mainstream media. So here's the reality. The reality is is
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden, the leader of the Democratic Party, the
Speaker 1: President of the United States, has been fucking delivering. I
Speaker 1: will be the first, second, third, and fifth person to
Speaker 1: say so, because I have no problem calling out this
Speaker 1: administration when they fall short so I certainly am going
Speaker 1: to raise my hands into a series of applause. Bravo, bitch,
Speaker 1: you did it. Here's the thing. Joe Biden on the
Speaker 1: campaign trail told us that he was going to relieve
Speaker 1: student loan debt. He did it. He told us that
Speaker 1: he was going to have the biggest role out of vaccinations.
Speaker 1: He did that. He told us that he was going
Speaker 1: to invest in infrastructure. He did that as well. He
Speaker 1: told us that he was going to reduce the cost
Speaker 1: of prescription drugs. He did that as well. He also
Speaker 1: told us that he was going to fight for the
Speaker 1: soul of this nation, and he's been doing it since
Speaker 1: he entered into office on the heels of an insurrection.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, regardless of his missteps and his misquotes, and
Speaker 1: the fact that people think that he should be running
Speaker 1: and skipping every time he steps in front of a podium,
Speaker 1: or the fact that they think that he should be
Speaker 1: thirty five years old and not eighty, Joe Biden has
Speaker 1: been doing the goddamn thing since he entered into the
Speaker 1: sewer that is the Washington DC, and since he took
Speaker 1: over from the corrupt, twice impeached criminal ass motherfucker Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: who probably by the time that you listen to this
Speaker 1: recording will have announced his third run at the presidency
Speaker 1: because he uses the presidency as his get out of
Speaker 1: jail free card and not because he actually gives a
Speaker 1: fuck about this country or how to advance it, because
Speaker 1: he did none of those things when he was in
Speaker 1: office the first fucking time, which is why the American people,
Speaker 1: unlike the Republican Party, gave him the fucking boot. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: I want us to recognize that the media has it
Speaker 1: out for Joe Biden, has it out for the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: Why do I say that because following the midterm elections,
Speaker 1: and following the results that we knew were coming in,
Speaker 1: you saw headlines like the New York Times saying that,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Republicans pick up critical states and critical
Speaker 1: seats and critical states. That was so at a step
Speaker 1: with the historic nature of the turnout right of this
Speaker 1: midterm election that they had to redo their the fucking
Speaker 1: headline because that's how many people call them out on
Speaker 1: their bullshit. You have people right now, some seven hundred
Speaker 1: days until the presidential election, talking about the fact that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is too old, or asking the question, is
Speaker 1: Joe Biden too old? Because here's the thing. It's not
Speaker 1: enough that Joe Biden is delivering more than previous presidents,
Speaker 1: frankly have delivered, but that they can't find anything good
Speaker 1: to write, because that's not what gets them their subscriptions,
Speaker 1: that's not what gets them their clicks, and because they
Speaker 1: have been browbeat by the far right, they want to
Speaker 1: make sure that their neutrality looks like either not covering
Speaker 1: the president when he's giving groundbreaking speeches or making sure
Speaker 1: that you remember how fucking old he is, because for
Speaker 1: some reason he's hiding it. He's not. Here's the thing, folks,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is the leader of our party. He is
Speaker 1: the leader of this country, and frankly, he is doing
Speaker 1: a real fucking bang up job with the shit sandwich
Speaker 1: that he was delivered following Donald Trump's presidency or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. And I am so tired
Speaker 1: of mainstream media, and frankly, I hope at some point
Speaker 1: in time there is some multibillionaire on our side that
Speaker 1: wants to create a social media platform or take over
Speaker 1: a radio outlet that actually gives voice to real people
Speaker 1: with real thoughts and opinions, as opposed to what we
Speaker 1: have been forced forced to ingest over the course of
Speaker 1: multiple election cycles that if the mainstream media had it
Speaker 1: their way, this country would be up in smoke, just
Speaker 1: so that they could sell more fucking papers. Like I'm
Speaker 1: just so sick to death of the bullshit right and
Speaker 1: if this past election, and the fact that I did
Speaker 1: not watch cable news at all, all I did was
Speaker 1: read what was happening, because to watch cable news would
Speaker 1: have been like me turning on ESPN, And why would
Speaker 1: I do that? Because I'm not a sports person, so
Speaker 1: why would I do that. All they did was cover
Speaker 1: this very consequential midterm election like it was any other
Speaker 1: election or a fucking horse race, neither of which were true.
Speaker 1: And so had it been up to them, we would
Speaker 1: be in a different place, having a whole different kind
Speaker 1: of conversation, probably from a real bunker in an undisclosed
Speaker 1: location in an undisclosed country. So I want us to
Speaker 1: take in this moment to pat ourselves on the back
Speaker 1: to big up young people who showed up in mass
Speaker 1: when folks said that, oh they don't care about voting,
Speaker 1: they absolutely fucking do. Because here's the thing that I
Speaker 1: want folks, to wrap their mind around when it comes
Speaker 1: to Generation Z. Generation Z has been doing active shooter
Speaker 1: drills since they were children, since they were placed into
Speaker 1: the K through twelfth school system. That's their reality. They
Speaker 1: haven't been dealing with the quote unquote impending climate crisis.
Speaker 1: They've been dealing with the climate crisis as a regular
Speaker 1: part of their day to day life. They don't harken
Speaker 1: back to the days where you know, November used to
Speaker 1: be cold, and the fact that you know, on my birthday,
Speaker 1: for instance, November tenth, it was seventy degrees in New York, seventy.
Speaker 1: For the last several birthdays that I've had it has
Speaker 1: been either in the high sixties or low seventies. That's
Speaker 1: not normal. Generation Z, however, doesn't know anything different than
Speaker 1: that because that's the world that they're inheriting. So if
Speaker 1: we think that they're just going to sit back and
Speaker 1: you know, allow what past generations have done, which is
Speaker 1: to ignore the needs of young people and think that
Speaker 1: their voices don't matter. Will this generation in this midterm
Speaker 1: election said go fuck yourselves, Republicans, and I, for one
Speaker 1: say bravo, young people, bravo. So there is that The
Speaker 1: other thing folks, is I want to bring attention to
Speaker 1: a deep, deep, deep travesty that I will give more
Speaker 1: attention to in the coming weeks, which is the fact
Speaker 1: that the Iranian authoritarian regime, following the courageous and amazing
Speaker 1: protests of women against the killing right of a young
Speaker 1: woman who was killed because of improper head covering and
Speaker 1: which sparked a revolution led by young women in this country, well,
Speaker 1: the Iranian regime has arrested over fifteen thousand young people, academics, professors,
Speaker 1: and what have you, and they're sentencing them all to death.
Speaker 1: And there is not a fucking blaz that I have
Speaker 1: heard from mainstream media in a call of outrage and
Speaker 1: humanitarian concern about the genocide that is getting ready to
Speaker 1: be committed at the hands of Iran. There has got
Speaker 1: to be some things that are more important than fucking
Speaker 1: oil in this country, and it should be the lives
Speaker 1: of fifteen thousand young people, young women, who risk their
Speaker 1: lives to give voice to freedom. And we cannot as
Speaker 1: a world right and as a world power, sit by
Speaker 1: and think that this is just acceptable, that silence is
Speaker 1: acceptable at this time. It is not. So. Whatever platform,
Speaker 1: dear friends, that you have whether it is Instagram or
Speaker 1: this gumster heap that is now Twitter, please use it
Speaker 1: to elevate what is happening in Iran, what is happening
Speaker 1: to these young people, so that the message can at
Speaker 1: least spread virally via social media. So maybe our mainstream
Speaker 1: media will open up their fucking eyes and use their
Speaker 1: platforms to exercise the power that they have in the
Speaker 1: way that they've done for the people of Ukraine. I
Speaker 1: would love to see it all right. Coming up next
Speaker 1: my conversation with our friend, the good, good doctor, doctor
Speaker 1: Jonathan Metzel. Folks, you know that whenever we have the
Speaker 1: opportunity to sit down with our in house doctor, doctor
Speaker 1: Jonathan Metzel, we are always thrilled. Jonathan. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: come back and chat with you as our doomsday predictions
Speaker 1: did not manifest And you know, I will say for
Speaker 1: myself that I had since stopped believing in the polls,
Speaker 1: and I told people who listened to WOKA have to
Speaker 1: stop believing in the polls and believe in what you see,
Speaker 1: so show up, show up in mass But I wanted
Speaker 1: to get your reflections first on New York. You know
Speaker 1: where you spend half your time time and where I am.
Speaker 1: And then in general, as we're still at the time
Speaker 1: of this recording waiting for some House seats to come in,
Speaker 1: but know that Democrats control the Senate and we still
Speaker 1: have the runoff for Warnock and Walker. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: certainly there is a pleasure of expecting the worse and
Speaker 1: then not having it be as bad as you thought
Speaker 1: it was going to be. And so in this sense,
Speaker 1: all the doomsday neurosis, I embrace it because imagine if
Speaker 1: we thought things would have been better and then they
Speaker 1: turned out to be worse. And so the psychology of
Speaker 1: doomsdays is I will gladly say that things are not
Speaker 1: as dire as we thought they were going to be.
Speaker 1: Last week when we talked where it was kind of
Speaker 1: like what other country will accept our passport kind of thing,
Speaker 1: And so first I will just say that part of
Speaker 1: the issue is that people showed up. Eighteen to thirty
Speaker 1: old showed up. People were afraid of what was the
Speaker 1: implications were, and they were undaunted and voted very bravely,
Speaker 1: I think. But I would say so I'm admitting that
Speaker 1: things are better than we thought they were going to be.
Speaker 1: But I would also say that all these talks of
Speaker 1: Trump's demise seemed awfully premature to me, honestly. So I'll
Speaker 1: talk about New York in a second. But I would
Speaker 1: also say, just having studied Trump and Trump supporters for
Speaker 1: so long, all these people that think because Rupert Murdoch
Speaker 1: is turning against Trump, but that means the end of Trump,
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, I would it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see. I think today, when we're filming this, he's
Speaker 1: going to announce his candidacy or something like that. Like
Speaker 1: this guy is a master of mobilizing his followers and
Speaker 1: turning what seems like defeat everybody for everybody else into victory.
Speaker 1: And I also think control of the Congress is a
Speaker 1: pretty big deal because Congress controls the budget, it controls
Speaker 1: it controls everything else. And so so I just think,
Speaker 1: I just think there's enough to be you know, we're
Speaker 1: in the middle of a struggle right now. But I
Speaker 1: would say that all these victory laps are great for him.
Speaker 1: Five minutes and let's get let's get back to work
Speaker 1: is part of the story. Now. Well, before you go,
Speaker 1: before you go into New York, I want to say
Speaker 1: one that I believe that Donald Trump is a fucking gremlin.
Speaker 1: So I don't necessarily think that there is anything that
Speaker 1: is going to have Donald Trump go away unless Merritt
Speaker 1: Garland decides that he's actually going to prosecute Donald Trump
Speaker 1: for the myriad of crimes that he has committed both
Speaker 1: before he was president, while he was president, and since
Speaker 1: being twice impeached and removed from office via the vote
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. So, to me, Donald Trump is going
Speaker 1: he is the whack a mole of Republican politics because
Speaker 1: he's going to keep returning if, in fact, he is
Speaker 1: not rooted out. The only way that that happens, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be by the Republican Party turning on him.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be by Rupert Murdichton turning on him.
Speaker 1: It's going to be that he's facing a trial and prison.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing to me that is going to
Speaker 1: have Donald Trump go away. That's one two. In terms
Speaker 1: of like the victory, I think that this is actually
Speaker 1: a much bigger victory and needs to act, needs to
Speaker 1: be used as fuel for us going into the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four presidential election cycle. Once again, the posters were wrong.
Speaker 1: Once again, we were wrong in terms of what we
Speaker 1: thought that Generation Z was going to do. This is
Speaker 1: a generation that has grown up with active shooter drills,
Speaker 1: that has grown up knowing that the climate crisis is
Speaker 1: literally breathing down their backs, has grown up with one
Speaker 1: trauma and tragedy after the next, and they are tired
Speaker 1: of it, right, and they and they voted and use
Speaker 1: their voice in a way that once again we as
Speaker 1: older people had said, Oh, they're not going to show up.
Speaker 1: Oh they don't vote, Oh they don't do this, and
Speaker 1: they're saying to us, watch us, right, And so I
Speaker 1: want to applaud one Generation Z, but also applaud Americans
Speaker 1: who turned out in historic numbers. This was a midterm election.
Speaker 1: We don't get these types of numbers in the United
Speaker 1: States from midterm elections. And so I don't want to
Speaker 1: just like speed bump over this as if it isn't
Speaker 1: something that is worthy of the historical moment that we're
Speaker 1: in because of what people have done to recognize that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: all of the things that the media outlets wanted to
Speaker 1: tell us that people didn't care about are actually the
Speaker 1: reasons why they went to the polls and went to
Speaker 1: the polls in mass So I don't want to just
Speaker 1: like say okay, great, good job, and now like everything
Speaker 1: is still dire. Obviously we know that, right, But I
Speaker 1: want to applaud Americans for their consciousness. I want to
Speaker 1: applaud them for waking up and turning out in a
Speaker 1: way that we don't see outside of a presidential election.
Speaker 1: And that's how consequential they found this midterm election to
Speaker 1: democracy and to their daily lives. A million percent agree,
Speaker 1: I mean the level of the level of engagement. And
Speaker 1: also it's funny because I teach college. That's where I
Speaker 1: am right now, and I told my college students in
Speaker 1: class yesterday two things. I said. First of all, thank
Speaker 1: you guys for saving democracy, because I think really college
Speaker 1: students and college age people and people in the kind
Speaker 1: of in that age demographic see the country being led
Speaker 1: the wrong way by grown ups, and they saved us.
Speaker 1: And they care about things that you know, octagenarians don't
Speaker 1: seem to care that much about, like climate change and
Speaker 1: gun violence and things like that. But I also told
Speaker 1: them disinformation is a pretty powerful tool, and get ready
Speaker 1: for it to be directed at you, because because the
Speaker 1: way that this tool works, it's like they don't try
Speaker 1: to convince you to vote for somebody else they try
Speaker 1: to convince you that your vote doesn't matter, or that
Speaker 1: you're so different from the person sitting next to you,
Speaker 1: And they kind of flew under the radar in this election,
Speaker 1: but I told them that ain't going to happen next time,
Speaker 1: because people are realizing the minute you realize your power,
Speaker 1: the disinformation machine realizes its power. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking in class today after you and I talk
Speaker 1: about what can eighteen to thirty year olds do to
Speaker 1: keep the momentum but also not fall prey to the
Speaker 1: same divisive crap that got that ensnared the grown ups.
Speaker 1: Basically no, and I think that that's fair. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I had the opportunity when you invited me to
Speaker 1: join your class, you know the questions that your students ask,
Speaker 1: and just there a thoughtfulness because you know, I will
Speaker 1: say that the beauty of when I was in college
Speaker 1: and when you and I were in college is the
Speaker 1: fact that, you know the world didn't seem to be
Speaker 1: going a shit, so we could really not pay attention
Speaker 1: and kind of you know, even though my major was
Speaker 1: in political science, it wasn't as if I felt like
Speaker 1: the world was crumbling around me. So I needed to
Speaker 1: be activated in some type of way. I was interested
Speaker 1: and wanted to understand politics, but not because it was
Speaker 1: my major, but not in the way that I think
Speaker 1: that these young people um are now moved and compelled
Speaker 1: because their lives depend on it. So Jonathan, just can
Speaker 1: you speak just a little bit more on you know,
Speaker 1: on what on what your students felt, you know, post
Speaker 1: what they have been feeling post the midterm elections, and
Speaker 1: you know what they are paying attention to as now
Speaker 1: we turned the cycle into into the presidential election. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this week will be the interest
Speaker 1: week for us, honestly, because what I'm saying is, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell them here's here's the disinformation and
Speaker 1: divisiveness that's been used on grown ups and hasn't really
Speaker 1: been targeted at you guys very much. What And we're
Speaker 1: going to have a conversation what will it mean to
Speaker 1: be targeted in this way? What can people in your
Speaker 1: generation do to make sure that it doesn't work on
Speaker 1: you as well as it worked on the grown ups?
Speaker 1: And so I'm curious to hear what they're going to say.
Speaker 1: The other thing we're doing in my class is we're
Speaker 1: bringing in friends of mine who are on the other side.
Speaker 1: You know, I interview a lot of Trump supporters, a
Speaker 1: lot of very serious gun owners, and I'm bringing them
Speaker 1: all into my class over the next two weeks just
Speaker 1: to say, Look, part of the issue is that part
Speaker 1: of what disinformation does is it makes you think that
Speaker 1: somebody who's different from you is so different that they're
Speaker 1: like an evil person, and so let they're a danger
Speaker 1: to you. Yeah, and so let's at least try to
Speaker 1: humanize people who we don't agree with, just so we
Speaker 1: can get a sense of what is going to get
Speaker 1: up ended. And so I'm curious to see what they're
Speaker 1: going to say. And then in my big class, the
Speaker 1: class you spoke at, we have probably twenty five football players,
Speaker 1: and so the thing that happened in Virginia is going
Speaker 1: to be very friend of mine, also about guns. And
Speaker 1: so it's TBD because we're really having our first major
Speaker 1: class today and then and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 1: Um so so well, we'll have to see, but I'm
Speaker 1: I am curious to get their their take on it.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of stuff we do in my
Speaker 1: class is very forward, you know, activism. How can you
Speaker 1: change the future that kind of stuff, which is how
Speaker 1: college students think. Um, and so we'll we'll have to see.
Speaker 1: But it was overall it's a good problem to have,
Speaker 1: which is that they were engaged and paying attention. I
Speaker 1: do want to not drop the New York question before, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: please yeah, So you know, I just don't. I hope
Speaker 1: this is a wake up call to people in New York. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean that's my greatest hope, um, because you and
Speaker 1: I have been talking about this for years now, right
Speaker 1: that ye work has been given the shankbone, you know,
Speaker 1: in multiple, multiple ways that are just shipped away at
Speaker 1: the base of the assumption of what it means. Particularly
Speaker 1: New York City, a kind of pluralistic, diverse city where
Speaker 1: people can take public transportation to work and has reasonably
Speaker 1: good gun laws like that's kind of what made New
Speaker 1: York in its current iteration New York. And there have
Speaker 1: been so many points along the way where you just
Speaker 1: want people to like, wake up. I mean, the twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen tax bill for me, was probably the biggest because
Speaker 1: that undermined the tax base of New York people, you know,
Speaker 1: corporations that were in New York because they could write
Speaker 1: off their drive through tax and other kinds of taxes
Speaker 1: all of a sudden couldn't do that. It became much
Speaker 1: more lucrative for businesses to move to a place like here, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: where there's no state income tax. So twenty seventeen, New
Speaker 1: York got hammered, hammered, hammered by the GOP tax bill
Speaker 1: that undercut funding for a bunch of important things in
Speaker 1: New York, including public education and universities and Quney and
Speaker 1: roads and parks, and so now you know, professors at
Speaker 1: Quney are on strike, for example, and grad students are
Speaker 1: going to go on strike, and certainly there's plenty of
Speaker 1: money to go around. But I would also say that
Speaker 1: that there was this tax bill that undercut New York
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Then there's all the stuff we've been
Speaker 1: talking about here with the gun laws and the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court overturning New York's gun laws. The pandemic was really hard,
Speaker 1: and so New York is on I just think far
Speaker 1: less stable footing than people realize. And that's why all
Speaker 1: of these idiotic, you know, crime things that Zelden was
Speaker 1: trying to do were more effective, is because the city
Speaker 1: just isn't as on a firm footing as it was.
Speaker 1: And then the last thing I'll say about New York
Speaker 1: is that the sense because so many people moved away
Speaker 1: during the pandemic and people were afraid to full out
Speaker 1: the census. So New York actually lost congressional representation because
Speaker 1: the census showed I think unfairly because Trump was gaming
Speaker 1: the census a demographic ship. So actually New York has
Speaker 1: less political clout in DC than it did. And all
Speaker 1: of which is to say that then losing political seats
Speaker 1: to Republicans in the Congress of New York these kind
Speaker 1: of states flip is going to have really big implications
Speaker 1: for the city going forward. And so I really hope
Speaker 1: this is a time where New York Democrats really mobilize.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I'm sorry for like going on a
Speaker 1: rant about this, but I just feel like it's been
Speaker 1: brewing for so long, and this is kind of the
Speaker 1: obvious implication of what's been happening. I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of what we have seen, all of the
Speaker 1: things that you've named are true. I think that in
Speaker 1: terms of Hoocal's race, you know, I had interviewed another
Speaker 1: another New Yorker last week or the week before. And
Speaker 1: you know, he also said something to the effect of
Speaker 1: maybe we also kind of let go of this idea
Speaker 1: that she needed to have a candidate that people actually
Speaker 1: liked or like new And the thing with Kathy Hokel
Speaker 1: is that like she does not move you right, Like,
Speaker 1: she is not a charismatic leader. She is not somebody
Speaker 1: that I can point to anything that she has said
Speaker 1: or done, whereas New York is very much used to
Speaker 1: these male, very ego driven showmen right in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways of their politics. And I think that that
Speaker 1: is also what got lost in the shuffle, right, Like
Speaker 1: Kathy Hokel took the reins at a time of you know,
Speaker 1: the Cuomo instability, and then you know, it was just like, well,
Speaker 1: let me hold the line. It wasn't like, let me
Speaker 1: introduce myself to New York, to New Yorkers and show
Speaker 1: like why I'm the best candidate. I didn't start to
Speaker 1: see commercials until at least three weeks before the election,
Speaker 1: which is which is normal. But also when you're seeing
Speaker 1: commercials of a Democrat and I live in Brooklyn, You're
Speaker 1: like wow. And when I talk to other people in
Speaker 1: New York and they're just like when Hopel started campaigning
Speaker 1: in the Bronx, we knew that we were in trouble
Speaker 1: because we have never seen they had never seen a
Speaker 1: gubernatorial candidate on anybody's campaign trail in any of the
Speaker 1: five boroughs in the way that then she was starting
Speaker 1: to get on the trail because Zeldon, or at least
Speaker 1: according to those polls, were on her heels. She still
Speaker 1: beat him by over you by double digits. But I
Speaker 1: think that to your point, if you had somebody who
Speaker 1: was a Republican who was actually not crazy and more compelling,
Speaker 1: that race would have been a lot closer. And so
Speaker 1: if Republicans are paying attention and they're not going to
Speaker 1: run these zealots, but they're going to run somebody who
Speaker 1: can get in and then turn their zealot on, then
Speaker 1: New York is going to be in trouble. It's not
Speaker 1: like we've never had a Republican governor before, right, or
Speaker 1: or a Republican mayor before like we have. But I
Speaker 1: think the important thing, and I was on k part
Speaker 1: last week and I was kicking myself for not making
Speaker 1: this point that I certainly think you know, when people
Speaker 1: thought about a guy like Zelden. Zelden was just a
Speaker 1: bit two bonkers for anybody. But I would say that
Speaker 1: people thought, oh, Juliani came and cleaned things up, and
Speaker 1: Taki came in and he cleaned up some other stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and so people thought Republicans they come in
Speaker 1: and they cleaned things up, and then they hand it
Speaker 1: back to Democrats. But I have to say that's really
Speaker 1: dangerous logic right now for a couple of reasons. One
Speaker 1: of course, is what I didn't add to the list
Speaker 1: I just gave you was the redistricting that many other states,
Speaker 1: including Tennessee where I am now, have been carved into
Speaker 1: these little pieces that mayly they're going to be red
Speaker 1: or blue for the next, you know, seventy five thousand years.
Speaker 1: But New York had very failed redistricting. It was rejected
Speaker 1: by a judge, and so the district alignment in New
Speaker 1: York is very unfavorable to Democrats. And then of course
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court being against New York with the gun laws,
Speaker 1: the tax code being against New York. So there are
Speaker 1: factors that are against New York right now. And I
Speaker 1: really did feel like if Zelden won that election, he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to come in and save New York or
Speaker 1: clean up New York. He was part of an ideology
Speaker 1: that benefited by destroying New York. That shows, you know,
Speaker 1: woke liberal cities with black people out of control. That's
Speaker 1: why we need more guns and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: so his ideology wasn't one to clean up Times Square.
Speaker 1: It was to you know, pull away resources and undermine
Speaker 1: New York. And so the danger I think was much
Speaker 1: greater than just people thinking, oh, it's another Giuliani, because
Speaker 1: as Giuliani for all of his before he went bonkers
Speaker 1: here and you know, was on his back counting ceiling
Speaker 1: tiles in the Borat movie before that, he was he sorry,
Speaker 1: couldn't help that, but you know, he was the police,
Speaker 1: you know, to a police in New York, and so
Speaker 1: he kind of knew New York. And Zelden is none
Speaker 1: of those things. He was a kind of an Ara
Speaker 1: funded guy who didn't really care about New York that
Speaker 1: much and was just playing on these crime stereotypes. So
Speaker 1: I really think on one hand, we dodged a bullet.
Speaker 1: But it's also important to note that Hockel's job is
Speaker 1: going to be a lot more difficult because of the
Speaker 1: Republican control of areas outside of New York City, and
Speaker 1: because we have congress people who are going to be
Speaker 1: advocating for their rural areas for resources in congressional budgets,
Speaker 1: and so New York is going to be underfunded compared
Speaker 1: to what it was before. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: factors still that I think because of the election, will
Speaker 1: make Hockel's jobs more important. And of course also the
Speaker 1: gun stuff, which is now really I think important to
Speaker 1: keep on the front earner because UM, again the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court case really opened the door for a lot of
Speaker 1: bad stuff. So switching gears UM. With a few minutes
Speaker 1: that we have left, I do want to talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, the major UM just traumatic event that happened
Speaker 1: at University of Virginia with the murder of UM, the
Speaker 1: mass shooting and the murder of three football players UM
Speaker 1: at the hands of apparently a former football player and
Speaker 1: student on that campus. UM. And the reason why I
Speaker 1: want to talk about it one because I believe that
Speaker 1: any mass shooting deserves coverage because it is just way
Speaker 1: too common, particularly on UM, you know, on college campuses,
Speaker 1: on high school campuses, on elementary school campuses. It's just
Speaker 1: too common um for our children to experience. But the thing, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: that is standing out for me is that on its face,
Speaker 1: UVA has its own police, UVA has its own like
Speaker 1: crisis task force. They have, you know, on its face,
Speaker 1: all of the right departments and procedures that are supposed
Speaker 1: to be in place to prevent something like this from happening.
Speaker 1: The suspect who is now in custody came up multiple
Speaker 1: times at least since twenty seventeen, I believe, on their
Speaker 1: radar with regard to the fact that they thought that
Speaker 1: he may own a gun that he had, you know,
Speaker 1: gotten mixed up in the law. Previous to this, where
Speaker 1: was the breakdown and that you see and you know,
Speaker 1: and what needs to happen on these campuses in order
Speaker 1: to strengthen these procedures that they put in place to avoid,
Speaker 1: you know, horrible incidents like this from happening. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: I'll just give you some numbers because I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about this for a long time and it's infuriating that
Speaker 1: before that, what's called the campus carry movement, this idea
Speaker 1: that college students eighteen and up have the same Second
Speaker 1: Amendment rights as did people in the Revolutionary war. Blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. The number of homicides on college campuses was
Speaker 1: ten per twenty million college students, ten gun homicides for
Speaker 1: every twenty million gun every twenty million students. And the
Speaker 1: reason that was was because campuses were safe spaces. They
Speaker 1: were gun free zones, because people thought, number one, why
Speaker 1: do you need a gun on a college campus? And
Speaker 1: number two, people are at that in that age group,
Speaker 1: they're much more volatile, and they often go to fraternity
Speaker 1: parties and get drunk, and they're fighting over something that
Speaker 1: probably a year from now they won't even care about.
Speaker 1: And it's just a very charge time and people are
Speaker 1: living in very close proximity. So throwing a bunch of
Speaker 1: guns into the college environment is not a great idea.
Speaker 1: But but what carried the day in a lot of
Speaker 1: places like here in Tennessee was this, you know, constitutional
Speaker 1: right of college age students to carry weapons on campus.
Speaker 1: And so there just are a lot more guns on
Speaker 1: college campuses. And I think there will be even more
Speaker 1: guns on college campuses because of the Supreme Court case
Speaker 1: last summer that basically throws up even the laws restricting
Speaker 1: guns on college campuses to constitutional debate, and so college
Speaker 1: campuses are much less safe. Now. I'm on Vanderbilt campus
Speaker 1: right now. We're private school and we can limit guns
Speaker 1: on our campus. But every other campus, and you know,
Speaker 1: University of Tennessee, blah blah blah uva, these state schools,
Speaker 1: because they're not private, they can't they can't limit they
Speaker 1: can't limit guns. And so the data is incredibly clear
Speaker 1: that there just are more of all kinds of shootings
Speaker 1: on college campuses that have more guns, because, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, more guns lead to more shootings. And so
Speaker 1: what to do to make it safe, Well, fewer guns
Speaker 1: on campus would certainly be a good start. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think any individual case, it happens so quickly, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure in this case also, you know you want
Speaker 1: there to be checks and balances. We never hear of
Speaker 1: the story of the places where these laws that you
Speaker 1: were mentioning worked and they did take away a gun
Speaker 1: from somebody who was going to You never hear that story,
Speaker 1: so you don't know how often they work. But when
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, it's kind of like, if you can't
Speaker 1: regulate the flow of guns, how do you know when
Speaker 1: you're just looking at people who shouldn't have a gun.
Speaker 1: And who should and then the shooting happens so quickly.
Speaker 1: So there is some story about this that I think
Speaker 1: will It just seems it seems so different from other
Speaker 1: shootings that we've heard about. There's there's going to be
Speaker 1: some story about this. We don't I don't know, we
Speaker 1: don't know what it is yet. But I would also
Speaker 1: say that we had very good campus safety laws in place,
Speaker 1: and as we've overturned these or rules or just let
Speaker 1: colleges set their own regulations, there'll be more shootings on campus. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: this is a story that we will continue to watch
Speaker 1: because it's one that is just utterly heartbreaking. And you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: there were two there was a shooting, and there were
Speaker 1: two campus shootings yesterday. So it's like it's it's so common,
Speaker 1: it's so common, and it's let's talk much. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got me on my soapbox today because these are
Speaker 1: issues I care about, and I apologize for going on
Speaker 1: for a while about it, but it's just, um, it's
Speaker 1: just like, these are these are issues we need to
Speaker 1: keep talking about. All these things. Absolutely, doctor Jonathan Mapsil.
Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate your analysis and the time that
Speaker 1: you make for us on woke af We'll talk to
Speaker 1: you again next week. Take everybody that is it for
Speaker 1: me today hear friends on Woke a F daily as always.
Speaker 1: Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.