WEBVTT - Part One: The RFK Jr. Episodes 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:09.280 Also media. Ah, welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:15.160 podcast that's not about the election. But this week I'm 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.000 bringing back a special buddy, my good friend from the 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.759 twenty twenty election, who I have ripped through a hole 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.440 in time and pulled into the future, Cody Javn. 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.840 Hi. Hello everybody. Hey, thank you so much for the 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.760 comment of production, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:38.239 Tody. Hello, Yeah, yeah, welcome to the I don't know 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.199 if it's I wouldn't say it's the worst year ever 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.960 yet because really, as much as everybody's unhappy, I don't know, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.680 twenty twenty was pretty bad. I keep going back before 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.480 the more people died still in twenty twenty. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.840 Yeah, I was. I've actually been working on an update 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.080 to that song, and I'm like going back and forth, like, well, 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.480 the worst year ever will get maybe it'll be a 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.840 bit better than last time, but then it wouldn't be 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.080 the worst you're ever? Yeah yeah, yeah, but uh, you 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.119 know there's still time. It might not be pandemic bad, 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:15.240 but you know, if Donald Trump becomes the president again, that. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.360 That's that could be worse. That could be worse. You know, 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.959 that could be worse. Yeah, I mean it's it's I 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:21.760 have mixed feelings, you know, as we go through this 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.920 horse race, Cody, because it feels like, you know, the 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.160 upside of if Donald Trump gets a second term is 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.880 you will finally be punished for all of your many crimes. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.160 But the downside is that I might be punished for 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:34.399 all of my many crimes. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:34.760 You know. 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:35.800 That's that's tough. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.440 I know justice is a little wonky, it's a little unbalanced. 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:42.640 You know, we can't always get full pure justice that 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:44.960 we want. Sometimes we have to make our own sacrifices. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.320 So you're gonna have to sacrifice your self order to 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:49.680 see me. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.560 Yeah. So yeah, that's more or less what I learned 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.640 from one of the Batman movies. Cody, what do you 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:02.120 think of will in fight it to get other? Because 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:08.000 all we do is in fight as. 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:08.880 Well, just not al We're just not going to get 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:09.519 along together. 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:15.040 It's just it's just too accurate. Everyone will be unhappy together. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.520 Before the You want everybody to get pumped before the chorus. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:23.040 But if everyone's but then we go or not or not? 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.240 I think everyone knows that's a lie. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.560 I think I was wearing this shirt when we recorded 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.680 that song. Oh that's fun. It's the time capsule. 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:34.480 It's a time capsule. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.679 Remember when it was worse in a lot of ways. 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:39.920 Yeah, when I was, when I was huddled in my 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.520 tiny efficiency with all of my beans and ammunition. And 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.800 now I'm I'm huddled in my house with all of 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:51.960 my beans and Ammunitionally, life has really changed for me now, Cody, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.480 when it comes to the election, you know, we can 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.240 sit here, you and I and jawbone about old Joe R. 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.160 Biden or old Donald, old Jay Trump, whatever his middle 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:03.520 name is. 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:04.160 I forget John. 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.680 I believe John. Okay, cool, great, great great. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.240 I need that Donald John president, I believe is the name. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.839 I don't think there's very much either of us can 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.000 say that that will matter here, right, even though people 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.960 on the internet keep coming into like any comment you 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.320 make about the election going, oh so you want Trump 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:25.280 to win or whatever, Like nobody who listens to us 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.600 like matter. The entire election is going to come down 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:29.480 to like one hundred thousand people in five to seven 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:33.360 swing states. Right, Yeah, so let's talk about a guy 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:38.440 who actually could influence the election. The most popular third 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.640 party candidate in like a generation, assuming that is roughly 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:47.440 twenty five years something like that. Yeah, Bobby F. Kennedy Junior, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:54.120 RS Junior. Yes, currently polling it n percent a lot 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.600 of places. It depends on where you go, But like 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.640 I think nationally that's broadly accurate. I also think that 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.720 there's a lot of flex in those numbers. You know, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.400 you're talking pulling nine or ten percent in like three 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:08.200 plus plus or minus three four percent, you know, error rates. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:12.400 So could he very well could wind up not being 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.719 influential at all, but he could siphon away enough votes 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.200 to cost Biden the election or cost Trump the elections. 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:21.599 Kind of a toss I don't really know. 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:23.920 Yeah, it's kind of a toss up. I think most 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:25.560 of what I've seen has led me to expect he's 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.839 probably takes more votes away from Trump. But I also 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.799 think so that's yeah, nothing conclusive. 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.599 It's really hard to say that, right any Yeah, Yeah, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:36.760 but that's what it's. That's what it seems like for sure. 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.720 Either way, he definitely could be the decider of the election. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.200 It's not impossible. Given again how kind of narrow things 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.040 are probably going to come down in a handful of 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.480 swing states, it's not impossible that he winds up having 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.200 a pretty sizable impact. So I figured we should talk 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.680 about the guy, especially because, in kind of a remarkable 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.840 turn of events, a bunch of articles I think Vanity 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.919 Fair published the first one, have come out in the 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:05.599 last week accusing him or publishing allegations that he's sexually 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:10.640 assaulted women, and he has had kind of a unique 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:14.640 response in which he's basically said, yeah, maybe he might 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.360 hear more about this, yeah, because he apologizes, like how 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.040 can I make this right? When he was reached out 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.640 to directly by one of the women, and his public 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.279 statements have been like, yeah, you'll probably hear more about this. 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.440 I mean, he said even when he's he'll mentioned that 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.080 even when he started running, he's like, yeah, I got 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:34.200 a lot of skeletons in my closet. 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.320 Yeah, Yeah, he's done a lot of bad stuff. He 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.440 was essentially like, I didn't need that dog, But I 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.919 didn't need that yeah what she did. What I have 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.599 read now every piece of writing I can find on 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.000 our FK Junior, I've gone through a biography of the 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.400 Kennedy family. I have gone through a biography of the 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.000 Kennedy family, specifically after the assassinations of JFK and RFK. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.560 I have gone through a biography of Bobby Kennedy and 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.440 as many articles as I could find on the matter. 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:03.320 And I will tell you two things. Number one, he 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.680 definitely ate that dog. And number two, I'm actually not 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.280 surprised that he both is perfectly willing to admit that 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.960 he sexually assaulted people genuinely thinks that he feels bad 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.760 about it. Now I'm not saying he actually does, because 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.960 I think the act of being a Kennedy might be 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.159 fundamentally deranging. And primarily what we'll be talking about in 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.599 these episodes, this is not a list. Well, we're gonna 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.680 talk about some fucked up shit that Bobby Kennedy did, 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.599 but mostly what we're talking about is the creation of 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.360 the Kennedys as a concept is maybe the most profoundly 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.160 abusive thing that's ever happened to a group of children. Yeah, like, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.159 that's that's really the story. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.200 Yeah, you're creating a royal family from scratch basically. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.000 And yeah, yeah, and with none of the royal families. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.440 I don't think I don't get these these sins from 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:54.560 looking at the current members of the House of windsor 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.359 that it's good for you to be a member of 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.039 the House of windsor it seems bad, but there's a 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.800 support and work outside of the family set up. The 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.920 whole country is kind of a supporting right for the 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.800 royal family, and so usually there's limits on how far 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.840 out they spiral. That didn't exist for the Kennedys, and 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.600 that's part of anyway, it's an interesting story. So we're 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:17.480 gonna we're gonna talk about that this week, Cody. But 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:19.480 first I wanted to ask, how do you feel about 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:21.280 Bobby Kennedy? You know, how do you feel about the 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.720 Actually I scratched that, how do you feel about the Kennedys. 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.560 I have no strong opinions in that, Like I'm not 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:33.640 a huge Kennedy fan, and I you know, mixed. I 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.200 think I would say probably depending on the Kennedy we're 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:43.040 talking about. I don't like political like dynasties and like 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.840 that aspect of it. I'm just like very much against 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.480 and about him specifically. It seems like he's got a 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.480 lot of problems and a lot of stances that I 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:59.520 disagree with heavily. So I would say I'm generally anti, 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.760 but not in a way that I can articulate for. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.040 Yeah, you land kind of about where Bernie Sanders is 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:12.600 did with one one, one giant exception. Anyway, let's move 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.560 on to ending the cold open and moving on to 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:23.240 the hot open, and we're back. That was a Bernie 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.560 Sanders shot the president joke. I don't actually know. 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.520 I was like, I was like, wait what you oh right. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.920 Yeah, yeah, it's been a long enough time the last 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.520 one of those, you know, that's that's the bit on 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.920 this show. Anyway, let's talk about the Kennedy So I'm 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.000 going to start this the first kind of half of 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.240 this episode maybe is actually going to be an overview 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.800 of like how the Kennedys became the Kennedys, because and 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.120 this is not you know, there are there's there are 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.760 so many people who are like Kennedy historians and Kennedy 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.680 fan experts. I'm not going to pretend that this is 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.920 a comprehensive history of the family. And I'm actually not 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.120 going to talk much about the bad shit that Joe 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.640 Kennedy or JFK or the original RFK did. We'll cover 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.240 some of that, because like there's kind of a lot 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:10.360 in the story of how they became a thing, and 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.120 we're focusing mostly on RFK this week. So this story 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.160 is important for how it sets up the way in 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.880 which he and his siblings and cousins, his peers in 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:23.959 like coageous members of the Kennedy family, how they were raised. Right, 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:26.800 So don't come to this being like, wow, Robert didn't 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.840 really mention, you know, what Joe Kennedy did to Rosemary Kennedy, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.480 the lombotomy. He didn't talk about RFK. Why you're tapping 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.520 Martin Luther King junior. And it's not because those aren't important. 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.680 It's because like that doesn't factor in as much to 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:43.199 like what RFK Junior experienced as a kid, right, And 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.200 so that's kind of the focus with which we're covering 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.840 the background here, right. Like many Irish families, the Kennedys 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.920 first entered the United States during a rough period for 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.760 Ireland the late eighteen forties. Unlike most of the refugees 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.280 who fled there in that time, twenty six year old 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:03.640 Patrick Kennedy was not fleeing starvation and death and depression. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.840 He was the son of a pretty comfortable man financially, 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.480 a big farmer in County Wexford with eighty acres, So 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.160 like a guy who's doing pretty well. So Patrick comes 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.920 because he's not going to inherit this land. That's not 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.080 the way shit works at the time, and he wants 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.720 to strike it rich, right, So his goal is specifically 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.319 not this is my only chance at survival. It's America. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.120 Is my chance to make a name for myself, right, 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:32.440 because I'm not going to inherit anything. Yeah, the American dream. 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.080 He never returns to the old Country or sees his 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.280 family again, but he does meet a hot lady on 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.120 the boat over, and that's not half bad. They get 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.760 married in Boston shortly after arriving. This generation does not 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:46.839 make it out of Boston, you know, like a lot 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:48.880 of Irish people in that period, they are kind of 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.240 trapped there. Patrick gets a job as a cooper. In 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.840 his free time, he gets his wife pregnant. They have 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.800 four kids, the last of whom is finally a son, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:03.040 Patrick Joseph Patrick, the first, the original Patrick, having been 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.240 put on this earth just to make Patrick. Joseph dies 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.840 immediately after his son is born of colera, just instating 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.520 all right, got it done, got it done, made sure 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.400 that baby made it out of the birth canal, and 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:21.240 then drop the fuck dead. Yeah, yeah, dedicated, he knew, Yeah, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.520 exactly exactly. He's like one of those mosquito. He's like 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:30.680 a salmon returning to yeah. Yeah, yeah, Samon returning to 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.960 Boston to spawn. Yeah. So, in total, the first Kennedy 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.400 family patriarch only lived nine years and died never having 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.600 made any kind of fortune or real impact himself. He 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.560 is going to be the last Kennedy patriarch to kind 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.800 of have a quiet, unimportant death right within the kind 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.400 of the context of how the nation sees it, since 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.439 Patrick Joseph the baby is because he's less than a 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.040 year old. I think when his dad dies was the 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.800 only male left in the family. The job of making 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.400 a fortune fell entirely on his shoulders, and his earliest 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.320 memories were basically that, like, everyone is expecting me to 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.320 figure out how to make something of this family, right. 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.400 All of his sisters and his mom are obsessively focused 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:14.959 on just his health and well being. 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.280 It's a lot of pressure. Google Gaga, I'm just a 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.680 y fucking baby. What do you want me to do? Yeah? 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.280 Yeah, right, it's a lot of pressure, and it's like, yeah, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:25.640 I can see how this is going to make a 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.320 man who is narcissistically focused. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.520 On like being the one guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, God, 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:32.400 what a complex. 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.120 Yeah, that's not great right out of the gate. The 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.640 thing that the Kennedys have been doing since before they 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.720 had any money is putting such a so much pressure 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:46.520 on their young men that the kind of only way 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.840 for them to grow up is completely deranged. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:49.120 Yeah. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.400 That sometimes makes a guy who's really good at making 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.360 money or being the present. 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:55.480 But it can Yeah, can help that a lot. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:56.120 Yeah. 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.280 Yeah, like, yeah, putting immense pressure and then dying, Yeah, 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:01.319 and then dying immediately. 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.920 They're so good at that, Yeah, dying tragically young and 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.679 putting a lot of pressure on their young men. So 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.880 Patrick Joseph goes to a Catholic school. He helps his 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.960 their mother work in the small shop that the family owned. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.840 He takes on odd jobs as a teenager, working hard 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.640 for his family, but never quite able to get ahead. 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.360 This changed when he was twenty two and he sees 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:26.080 a damaged old saloon building for sale on Haymarket Street. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.400 He gets loans from his sisters and his mom, and 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.680 soon he has got he's got a business. He's got 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.560 an actual bar going, and he is very good at 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.240 running a bar. He is a competent business owner. And 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.719 he is because when you're the way politics works in 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.360 this time, Right, the city is largely run by Democrats 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.680 who are not Irish and who do not want Irish 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.400 people anywhere near power, but who are kind of reliant 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.320 upon them for votes. Right, So Irish folks are restricted 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.600 in what jobs they can hold in the local power 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.640 structure there, as you're probably aware of by stereotypes. They're 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.040 welcome to become police officers. There's a few local elected 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.160 offices that they're able to take, but for most of 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.600 the mid eighteen hundreds, higher elected offices are pretty closed 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.160 to Irish immigrants. And you know, once Patrick Joseph buis 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.000 his bar, the status quo is starting to change. And 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.120 because he's now a business owner, and because bars are 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.200 you know, a social center in his society, he kind 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.280 of immediately gets shunted into a part of the kind 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.120 of power structure, right, because like that that's where a 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.200 lot of dealing happens. That's social business. 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:31.800 Right. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.920 Socially you're paying bribes right as a business owner, right 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.120 to like, to the police, to everything. Like you just 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.520 kind of wind up involved. Right. The actual government at 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.880 the time is hideously corrupt and incompetent and provides basically 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.480 no security or like meaningful services to people in the city, 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:52.600 and as a result, in this period of time, it's 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.480 best to look at the Democratic Party as kind of 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.120 a mafia. But it's not just a mafia that like 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.760 takes bribes from people and is hideously corrupted. Also is 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.680 where you get your social services. If you are in 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.960 the Democratic Party and you are providing them with your vote, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.520 they offer you primitive forms of welfare and a kind 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.560 of social stability. The Democratic Party is a shadow state 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.840 in Boston, right, this is the only plate part of 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:18.960 the country that has something like this, but that you 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:20.680 can't think of the party as like what it is 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.680 now right, where it's like this is you know how 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:26.200 we get and change policy. It's the party is almost 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.560 like a social club that guarantees me some kind of 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.240 stability in exchange for my vote, right, and in exchange 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.120 for some all my money sometimes. Right. The Democratic Party 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.320 is generally described as a machine, and it is corrupt 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.280 as hell. It runs a lot of it runs on 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.600 bribes and strong arm violence. Right. There is a violent 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.000 mafia aspect to political parties in this period in Boston 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:52.160 in particular, but it's also kind of the best your best, 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.560 Like if you're coming from Ireland as an Irish refugee 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.240 in the mid eighteen hundreds. The way this system works, 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:00.760 you might say, is a lot better than the way 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:02.720 the last system you, yeah, worked, right. 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.720 He was beneficial. Let's bind this and yeah. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.760 I have some degree of agency here. Yeah. Patrick Joseph 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.359 proved an able assistant to some of the more established 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.920 local men, and his businesses flourished. Soon he had several bars, 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:17.680 and then he owned part of a hotel, and then 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.920 he owned a liquor importing company. In eighteen eighty four 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.280 he was elected to the Democratic Club of his ward, 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.160 and in eighteen eighty six he and a group of 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.240 allies took power in the ward and elected Patrick Joseph 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.840 to the State Senate. This is better than Irish people 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.560 who had been able to do in the generation previously, right, 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.000 But it's kind of going to be the top of 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:39.960 where he's able to reach to, Like, there's this isiing 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:44.480 to like yeah, yeah, the old democratic power structure still 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:46.320 is able to keep the Irish from getting too much 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.200 higher than that. Right now, Like a good Irish boy, 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.040 he marries a girl named Mary from a family that 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.560 happened to have more money than his family, and by 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.080 this point he's got a bit of money too. You know, 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:58.960 he's not rich the way there're going to be a 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.520 generation later. But the Kennedy's are very comfortable at this 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.840 point in time, and Patrick Joseph keeps sliding up the 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.000 greasy poll of Democratic Party politics state legislator is as 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.399 high as he's going to rise. But you know he 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.880 doesn't take this sitting down. A lot of his bills, 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:18.000 the things he tries to get through in the state 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.480 legislature gets stymied by this kind of ossified power structure 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.880 that doesn't like this upity Irish kid. But PJ succeeds 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.800 in building an army of loyal goons at the local level. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.600 In eighteen ninety eight, he launched an ambitious attempt to 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.040 oust his rival, Martin Lomasney for control of the city 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.320 democratic nominating process. And it doesn't quite work. But I 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.760 want to describe how that went by reading a quote 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.399 from a book called The Kennedys by Peter Collier and 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.680 David Horowitz. Quote, playing by the rules of the day, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.920 PJ had his troops put up blockades around the convention site. 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.760 They kept rivals out until the Mahatma that's the nickname 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.840 for his rival, disguised his delegates as a funeral procession 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.720 and smuggled them through Kennedy's lines in ahearse that's. 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:07.320 Wild, right, Yeah, the by gone days. Honestly, gotta try something. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:08.640 Doesn't seem than. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.440 How it shit's working now, you know, maybe we could 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:18.000 have a little bit more slapstick elements. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:18.600 Comedy of errors in their politics. 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.840 Yeah, it's worth it's worth a try, Cody. That's That's 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.160 where I'm gonna land now. This Collier in Horowitz book 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.480 is controversial among Kennedy nerds because it does make claims about, 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.320 for example, the next Joe Kennedy's involvement with organized crime 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.760 that are not really provable, and it generally it seems 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.320 to have done what a lot of Kennedy books do, 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:43.080 which is it there's often multiple stories about what happens 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.840 with the Kennedy's, and it usually believes the most salacious version. 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.680 Right that said, there's also it includes just a lot 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.879 of interviews with Kennedy's who were in and arout like 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.880 members of the family. And so you even with these 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.000 things that are when they're very when they're sources, people 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.239 will question our issues with you can't just discard them 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.480 because sometimes like, oh, this is where David Kennedy gave 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.200 his side of events, right, and like so we can't 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.760 just ignore entirely these books either. But a lot of 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:16.320 Kennedy history is tabloid gossip, right because they're the Kennedy 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:17.080 Yeah exactly. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.240 Yeah, yeah, you want the the you want the clicks. 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.600 Yeah exactly. Like that's what we're doing here, right, We're 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.879 all getting clicks from the Kennedy. It's the Kennedy industrial Complex. 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.800 Gobble up your salacious crumbs. Yeah yeah, Wow, what a 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.800 great Star Wars reference cody for you somewhere. George Lucas 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.040 just got like a little trigger of dopamine into the 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:43.320 bath for him, continued editing his cut of Redtails three, 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:53.200 which no one but him and his two friends. Yeah, 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.159 of course I'll watch. I would watch any of the 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.520 movies that that George Lucas is producing for no one 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:03.080 but him and his friends. It's crazy man branch. Yeah, 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.119 let's let's do. Let's do. Let's do a mission impossible 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:08.200 to break into the George Lucas ranch. 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.240 Yeah, watches terrible movies. 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.480 Yeah, well, this is just these are just unwatchable. One 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:16.919 of them was literally just Morbius, and I know he 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.120 hasn't seen the original Morbius. He just happened to make 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:21.440 the identical movies. 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:24.120 Some frame just like it. 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.640 He built his own AI and recreated Jared leto independently 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:35.800 generational terror. So Patrick Joseph's story mostly isn't interesting to 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.400 us other than that he wound up topping out kind 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.720 of the highest level of power available to an Irish 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.119 immigrant son at this stage. He probably probably fair to 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:50.120 say he pushes how high someone like like no can do. Yeah, yeah, 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.480 not the only person doing that, but certainly one of 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.439 them right, certainly on that edge. He kind of winds 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.080 up as a ward boss and a moderately wealthy small 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.200 business owner. And his son, Joseph P. Kennedy, was born 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.399 in eighteen eighty eight, kind of midway through his dad's 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.280 journey up the Democratic Party ladder. We can infer that 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.240 Patrick Joseph and his wife never quite got over the 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:16.280 frustration of being locked artificially out of advancing further. Mary 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.720