I can't wait till Jared Kushner goes to prison, and instead of Russia, he starts providing backdoor openings for his cellmate. It's Tuesday, 3 a.m. June 6, 2017. I'm David Feldman. We have a lot of show, so let's get right to it. This is the David Feldman Radio Network. On today's show, comedy writer Laurie Kilmartin, she's appearing on Conan this week. Comedy writers Jim Earl and Andrew Goldstein, down with tyrannies Howie Klein. From the edge, Mark Thompson and film critic Michael Snyder, stay with me. Welcome to the broadcast. I'm David Feldman, DavidFeldmanshow.com. Please, friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, and go to DavidFeldmanshow.com, hit the contact button, send me articles, talk to me. I'm answering all my emails, please. I want to hear from you, so go to DavidFeldmanshow.com, hit the contact button. Let me know what you're thinking. Let me know how we can make this show even better than it already is. We have a great one today. Laurie Kilmartin, she's a world-class comedian, comedy writer. She's doing a new podcast with Jackie Cation. She's going to be on Conan this week. We are honored to have my friend from San Francisco, Laurie Kilmartin. Also, Jim Earl is back. You know him from my show, Mark Marin, Jimmy Dore, The Daily Show. He's a Peabody award-winning writer and Emmy award-winning writer, The Great Jim Earl. Andrew Goldstein is back. We love Andrew Goldstein, world-class comedy writer. He's back down with tyranny's Howie Klein is here to tell us just how angry we should be. We're going to talk about the rage emanating from the Republican Party and how dangerous the Republican Party is getting and the pact that they are making with borderline paramilitary groups. We're going to talk about Democratic politicians who are too frightened to run because of the threats. Mark Thompson, the voice of this show, Mark Thompson, is also a meteorologist in Los Angeles, one of the top meteorologists in this country. We're angry today and Mark is especially angry about climate change and Donald Trump contributing to it. Then film critic Michael Snyder talks about Wonder Woman. Before we get started, do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website. I know I talk about this a lot on the show and I kind of breeze by it. All you have to do is go to the David Feldman show website. You'll see Shop Amazon. You'll see banners that say Shop Amazon.   I don't know how they do it. I guess there's some kind of code built into the URL when you go there. We get a small percentage of everything you purchase if you really want to help the show and you shop a lot on Amazon.   It does not cost you more money. You're taking cash out of Amazon's pocket by doing that. It does not cost you more money. 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Copy and paste the link to this show, put it up on Facebook, put it up on Twitter, Reddit, stumble upon, dig, email, have a listening party and then tell me that you did it. I'm curious. I want to know what you're doing for the show so I can thank you. I want to know where you listen to me and how you listen to me. I'm genuinely interested. Anybody who has contacted me knows that I answer all your emails. There are many ways to be a part of this show. When we have time, we're actually going to interview our listeners again. Okay, let's get on with the show. Okay, coming up. Lori Kilmartin, Howie Klein, Jim Earl, Andrew Goldstein, Mark Thompson, Michael Snyder. Stay with me. Bill Maher had to apologize this week for using the N-word on his HBO show. Apparently, it's the second time he's used the N-word. I guess a few years ago, he said it on Larry King, look, I'm not African American. I don't get to say whether or not somebody can or can't say the N-word. The N-word belongs to African Americans. The white man took jazz. We took rock from the black man. Let the African Americans keep the N-word for themselves. To me, the N-word is like Holocaust jokes. The only people who get to make Holocaust jokes are Jews. We own Holocaust jokes along with all the banks. That's another joke only Jews can make. I worked for Bill Maher for many years. I know he's the farthest thing from a racist. In fact, what little I know of the man, he thinks he's black.  I think he thought he earned the right to say the N-word. For years, one of my sons thought he was black. All his friends were black. He dressed black. He talked black.  I mean, I really think he was somebody else's kid. No, he was not black. But my son thought he was black. Then one day his best friend, who really is black, one day his best friend was sitting in his car. The cops in LA wanted to know why my son's black friend was sitting in his car. He said, I'm just sitting here thinking. The LA cops responded as they would to any African-American sitting in their car who's just thinking. They told him to get out of the car, stop thinking. And without a warrant, they frisked him. They searched his car. They found medical marijuana in the glove compartment. He showed them the card. It was perfectly legal. But they arrested him anyway. My son's black friend spent a week in lock-up in Los Angeles because he couldn't afford bail. And after a week, the judge released him. Nobody apologized. The cops did their job because in Los Angeles it is the cops' responsibility to grab all young black men and put them in the system, handcuff them, fingerprint them, have them smile for a mugshot, create a file so that they can have a black man in their system. That's when my son realized that he's not black. In Los Angeles, you know if you're black or not. And if you accidentally forget you're black, the police will remind you. Another black friend of one of my sons was staying in our house. And this is true. The cops in LA tried to arrest my son's black friend who was living in our house. They tried to arrest him for opening the front door of the house. He was coming home and they tried to arrest him. They wanted to know what he was doing. He said, I'm trying to come home. And the cops in front of our house where my son's friend lived, the cops insisted that he show them ID. He showed it. He had a show ID to come home. Eventually, my son came down the stairs and asked the police why they were hassling his friend and the police could not have been more polite to my white son. They explained he was walking suspiciously. That's why they stopped him. And once again, as the police smiled at my white son as they continued to ask questions to his black friend who lived with us, my white son was reminded that he is not black. A similar thing happened to Professor Henry Louis Gates. He was the Harvard professor trying to come home late one night to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He'd been filming something for the PBS. This was about eight years ago and a white Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer saw Professor Henry Louis Gates, saw him opening the front door to his own home and the officer arrested him. A black professor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Henry Louis Gates was arrested by a white police officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A liberal bastion. It's where Harvard is. The white police officer arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates for the mere crime of coming home. Barack Obama was new in the White House and so he held a beer summit between Henry Louis Gates and the officer who arrested him. That was eight years ago. President Obama thought all we needed to do in America was share a beer and we could all get along. But then the iPhone began to have video cameras and suddenly white people discovered and maybe even Barack Obama discovered that the police do more than just arrest black men. If you're black, you're lucky if the police just arrest you. There's a good chance they might kill you. The iPhone has taught white people what black people have known for centuries. So what about the N-word? What about Bill Maher using the N-word? It's just a word, right? Well, not really. I don't say it. People say to me, you know, saying the N-word is worse than saying the actual word it represents and I disagree. I refuse to say the N-word. Unless of course I stub my toe. Unless of course I stub my toe, then I have no choice. I think it's really funny that a guy who's just politically correct all his life, but whenever he stubs his toe, he screams the N-word. I think that's the funniest thing in the world. Okay. I don't say the N-word because it's a very dangerous word and a dangerous world. And if you say it accidentally, it can get you into a lot of trouble. And because I'm around microphones and people of color, I would hate to accidentally say the N-word. Bill Maher said it. He said it accidentally. He didn't call someone the N-word. He was referring to himself. So here's how I look at it. As a white man, I don't think Bill Maher did anything wrong. But I'm not the judge. That's kind of up to African Americans to decide whether or not he said something wrong. That's the way it works in this country. Look, there are so many linguistic landmines out there. Make your life easy. Don't say the N-word. Don't say the C-word. Don't even say the F-word. I watch my language because I watch what I say. Words have meaning. When language breaks down, society breaks down. You can't have alternative facts without alternative words. In order for alternative facts to exist, you have to break down language. When respect for words disintegrates, then respect for facts follows. So when people tell you not to use the N-word, don't say it. Don't say the F-word. Don't say the C-word. And how about this? Try not to curse because not cursing shows restraint. It shows that you're measuring what you say. It reveals character. When you don't curse, it reveals character. It means you hold up under pressure. You have control. When you measure what you're saying, you're taking into account how the listener might feel. It's called manners. It's called being polite, being called sensitive. It's caring about others. If you're on a job interview, would you say the F-word, the N-word? Would you curse? No. Bill Maher made a mistake. But he should approach every conversation as though it's always a job interview. We have the N-word out there because it's the warning light. It's there to give us a slight indication as to whether or not the person who's saying it or not saying it may or may not be a racist. That's all the N-word is. I mean, that's partly what the N-word is. It's a warning light. It's good to have words like the C-word, the N-word. Words you shouldn't say because it helps others determine whether or not the person who is speaking those words could possibly be a danger to the community. These words are there for guidance. A lot of people use these words and they're not racists or rapists or homophobes. But these words must remain taboo in order to help us suss out any danger. We need these words to be a taboo so they can serve as the warning light that says, the person speaking may not be all there. People talk too much and they need to listen, especially to themselves. Go to a Starbucks. People think if they're talking they're saying something. Just because you're typing, it doesn't mean you're writing. Just because you're working, it doesn't mean you're getting anything done. And just because you're talking doesn't mean you're saying anything. People need to talk less and they need to pay attention to what they're saying because words matter. There are a lot of movies in which gangsters and low-lives seem to throw the N-word around. I've noticed this. Granted, the characters who throw the N-word around are always bad people and the writers and the directors and the producers use the N-word to denote evil. But it's still the N-word. And it seems to me there are other words out there that Hollywood writers can come up with besides the N-word to denote an evil character. I don't hear the C-word that much in movies. I hear the N-word a lot more. In movies, I don't hear the bad word for Jews, the bad words for Italians or Mexicans or gay people. I hear the N-word a lot. The N-word just doesn't seem to die. And in the movies in Hollywood, it's harmless because it's politically correct because the character is a bad guy and bad people say the N-word. Well, you know, they also say a lot of other bad things. It's interesting though that I keep hearing the N-word. Why? Probably for the same reason black people still have trouble voting in this country. Black people have it differently in America than other people do. I think the same goes for homosexuals. So Bill made the mistake of thinking he earned the right to say the N-word. What is that about earning the right to say the N-word? That if you work really hard at being a liberal, if you hang out with black people, they come to your house, you've earned the right to say the N-word as though that's the incentive to hanging out with black people. Well, if I vote for Obama and I call Martin Luther King Dr. King and I let my daughter date an African American, obviously I'm entitled to say the N-word because Lord knows I need to. How about you never say it? Again, I'm not calling for censorship. I'm calling for restraint, common sense, perhaps a little class. Certain things are just plain disgusting. And I don't want to see them or hear them.   I actually feel guilty saying the word fart. Growing up, I was not allowed to say the word fart. Apparently it evokes something in my mother. It brings, it stirs something up in my mother. Now she'll walk out of the room the minute the grandchildren, the boys, say the word fart.  She's not acting out. It's just a word that upsets her. Now, you can say she has no right to be upset by the word fart. You can accuse her of being old fashioned. You can accuse her of being arbitrary or silly. But the fact is she's not being a drama queen. I can assure you to the core of her being she hates the word fart. So if you have any respect for grandma, if you want her to stay in the room, you'll refrain from saying the word fart. That's empathy, that's sensitivity, that's class. You might think she should be OK with the word fart, but she's not, so don't say it. The same goes for the N word.  And I don't happen to believe there's no such thing as just words. Anyone who has ever been told, I no longer love you, knows that there is no such thing as just words. Words have meanings, and we should watch what we say to one another. That being said, did Bill Maher hurt anyone by saying the N word? I don't know. If you want my honest white opinion, I don't care. I don't think Bill is the black man's problem. As a matter of fact, I think he's one of their biggest allies. And I would hate to lose one of the bravest, most progressive voices out there, just because he made a joke that used the N word. The problem that Bill has is people are gunning for him on both sides of the political spectrum and in between. For more than 25 years, Bill has been a provocateur saying things that are pretty remarkable. And it's pretty remarkable how few times he's actually had to apologize for what he said. Bill watches what he says, all the while making jokes, which makes watching what you say doubly hard. It's hard to say provocative things and not have to apologize. And Bill has been very successful at not having to apologize. Bill Cosby, on the other hand, he never offended anyone. You could take your mother, your sister, your daughter to see Bill Cosby. You just couldn't take them backstage to meet him. So I'm not saying words we use reveal our true nature. Often we use words or don't use words to disguise who we really are. And I think Bill used the N word because he felt he had nothing to hide when it comes to black people. Bill was not a racist. He thought he was entitled to use the N word. Breitbart News just fired one of their reporters for her comments after the London terrorist attack this weekend. Her name is Katie McHugh. This is what Katie McHugh tweeted. Quote, there would be no deadly terror attacks in the UK if Muslims didn't live there. Another Breitbart writer named Ryan Savidra defended Katie McHugh. He tweeted, people think I'm kidding when I say this, but the crusades need to come back.  And Katie was fired. She is a right wing extremist who found a home at Breitbart. She's young and frightened, out of work. And then she tweeted, donate here. There was a link. Donate here so I can pay my medical bills. Wow. Katie McHugh from Breitbart is suddenly afraid of losing her medical insurance. Someone from Breitbart News is afraid of not being able to pay her medical bills. Katie, I don't think the Muslims are your biggest problem. I think you're more likely to die at the hands of a health insurance bureaucrat than a Muslim. And isn't that what all this is all about? Healthcare is complicated. Bill Maher is saying the N-word, or Kathy Griffin holding up the severed head of Donald Trump, or Katie McHugh getting fired from Breitbart because she's spouted Islamophobia. That is so much easier to discuss because it's the same old dance. Somebody says something inflammatory. Should they have said it? What about the First Amendment?  The problem for me is Katie got fired from Breitbart for saying things about Islam that were too much for Breitbart to handle. And yet Bill Maher has said things about Islam that are not too volatile for HBO to handle. See, the problem isn't that Bill said the N-word. It's what he says about Islam. He doesn't say it as viciously as Katie McHugh or Ryan Sevedra from Breitbart. Bill's words about Islam are measured and they are veiled. But if you ask practically anybody who is Muslim, they will tell you that Bill's comments don't pass the smell test. That's the problem with Bill. It's not his use of the N-word. It's what he actually says and what he actually means and what he actually believes about Islam is almost what got Katie McHugh fired from Breitbart. Breitbart isn't okay with it, but HBO is. What is this really about? The complaints about Bill using the N-word. Lisa Lampinelli uses the N-word in concert. I saw her do it. Every African-American in the audience fell off their chair. What is this really about? What is this really about? Why can Lisa Lampinelli say the N-word and nobody gets upset? It matters more who says something than what that person actually says. The reaction to Bill's use of the N-word was about something else. The alt-right took to their Twitter followers to call Bill a racist. Now usually I would say if anyone could spot a racist it would be the alt-right. But the problem with the alt-right calling Bill a racist is they don't mean it. They hate Bill Maher because they know he's not a racist and nothing would please them more than watching him hoisted on the very same PC-patard they themselves find themselves dangling from. So Bill isn't a racist when it comes to African-Americans. And on the other side of the alt-right are the African-Americans who also know that Bill isn't racist. And if they don't know that, they should. Bill Maher is not a racist. But just like the alt-right, they're mad about something else. So both the alt-right and on the other end of the spectrum African-Americans, specifically the leader of Black Lives Matters they all agree on something. Bill's use of the N-word should put him in hot water and some from both sides have suggested that he should be fired which is never going to happen. HBO is never firing Bill Maher. By the time he's back on the air next Friday this will already be forgotten. And I wonder if I should be talking about it because we talk a lot about free speech on this show and I find it tiresome, except when I'm talking to constitutional law professor Corey Brechneider, author of When the State Speaks. These conversations about Kathy Griffin and Bill Maher they often slide into the banal. It's a dance we're all familiar with. Somebody says something they should and then it's the same old third grade argument about whether or not somebody should be fired for what they said. Well, here's the simple constitutional answer to whether or not Bill can be fired. No. Unless HBO wants to fire him. In which case he can be fired and he would have no legal recourse. Bill Maher can be fired for saying the N-word on his show because it's not the government censoring him and you have no First Amendment protections unless it's the government trying to silence you. HBO could fire Bill tomorrow if they feel his use of the N-word doesn't reflect their brand. The same way CNN and I say wrongly fired Kathy Griffin for holding the severed head of Trump. HBO, like I said, could fire Bill but that's not going to happen. If African Americans threatened to cancel their subscriptions to HBO then maybe HBO would consider firing Bill. The same way Fox finally fired Bill O'Reilly because the sponsors abandoned Bill O'Reilly. So it's not an issue of free speech. It's an issue of the free market. It's an issue of outrage and how much of that outrage can translate into lost revenue for the corporation Bill or Kathy Griffin or Bill O'Reilly works for. The alt-right wanting Bill Maher fired is a badge of honor.  Again, I think African Americans, the Black Lives Matter people are genuinely angry that Bill used the N-word but I also think they're more angry about the lack of diversity in the corporate suites or on the writing staffs in Hollywood and I think Bill's use of the N-word stirs that up. I also think Bill would have a much easier time using the N-word if he didn't spend the last couple of years attacking Islam. He continues to call it a religion of violence a religion that is more violent than say the Judeo-Christian faith which as we all know has a storied career of butchering millions in the name of Jesus. If I had a conversation with Bill Maher about Islam, he would win the argument that Islam is a violent religion the same way I would lose the argument with Steve Bannon about the Jews. I'm sure anti-Semites like Steve Bannon or Chuck Woolery, yes Chuck Woolery the host of the Love Connection Chuck Woolery is guilty of making some anti-Semitic comments last week so if anybody in Hollywood is listening please hire Chuck Woolery so Andy Kinler and I can demand that he gets fired. But I'm sure that if Steve Bannon and Chuck Woolery sat me down they could whip out statistics anti-Semitic statistics that show Jews have a disproportionate number of jobs in banking, show business, medicine I'm not going to win that argument because it's not an argument I find worth studying for. So the big question is why do you bother with these stats? Why do you bother to research this information? What is the point other than hurting and frightening minorities? I know that if I had Charles Murray on the show he's the author of the bell curve he would win the argument that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior because he has spent his life pouring over his pseudo-science to prove that blacks and Latinos have nobody but themselves to blame for inequality. To me that's a waste of time. Science is bogus. Even if it weren't bogus, so what? What are you trying to achieve by proving this? It makes me wonder why Bill Maher has devoted so much of his energy to cherry picking verses from the Quran in order to prove that Islam is more violent than, say, Christianity or Judaism. What does it matter? It's more revealing that with all that is going on in the world all the problems that need to be addressed Charles Murray wants to prove that blacks and Latinos are genetically inferior. If I had the time, I know I could muster up the pseudo-science to prove white supremacists are genetically inferior to Latinos and blacks. If I had the time and I wanted to cherry pick Bill Maher's statements the same way he cherry picks the Quran I could prove that Bill Maher preaches just as much violence and intolerance as Muktader Sader or any other imam who has hijacked the Quran to incite violence. I would be lying about Bill the same way it's a lie to call Islam a violent religion but more importantly it's a waste of time. Pick your battles. Proving one religion more violent than another it's an empty pursuit. Proving one race genetically inferior to another accomplishes nothing. So the question remains why?  Why would you dedicate even a second to this? The answer can be found in the medical community. The medical diagnosis that has often been given for antisemitism is mental illness.  It's paranoia coupled with a psychosis that makes you see things that aren't there makes you see controlling forces that are not really controlling you because they don't exist. The same applies to Islamophobia. That's a mental illness.   But yesterday in Orlando John Robert Newman Jr. seems to have used a semi-automatic handgun to kill five of his fellow workers and then himself.  Should all gun owners be condemned? Should all people who believe in the Second Amendment be called radical, extremists? Hell bent on killing people in America? Personally? Yes, I think they should be.  All of these rabid beliefs this orthodoxy yes in the Second Amendment in the Quran, in the Bible stems from fear, hatred, paranoia and a psychosis that someone is trying to get them. The love of the gun, the love of the Bible the love of the Quran the obsession with those things it's a false belief in something more powerful than oneself. I think Bill should be forgiven for using the N word.  It pains me to say this because I love Bill but I think when it comes to Islamophobia I think Bill Maher is mentally ill. I don't think he's ill-informed I think he's mentally ill. This need to attack Muslims the religion is about something much deeper I don't know what it is maybe it's because his mother's Jewish Catholic, maybe it's mental illness coupled with business acumen maybe it's actually calculating maybe it's because right after 9-11 he got into trouble attacking the military after 9-11 and he got fired from ABC maybe now he's sucking up to his oppressors maybe this is very calculated his attacks on Islam maybe it's very calculating we all know that the far far right extremists in this country not only believe that the military can't be criticized the way Bill did politically incorrect and that got him fired the far far right also believes that our adventurism overseas fighting terrorism is a war between Christianity and Islam you will find that the deeper you dig into the far right wing these two things go hand in hand the military is beyond reproach and the war against terrorism is between good and evil or more precisely Christianity versus Islam Bill Maher is afraid of the far right I think maybe his way of inoculating himself from the unbridled wrath of the far far right is by not criticizing the military which he learned the hard way not to do and more importantly spending a little time on his show attacking Islam like I said sucking up to the military while attacking Islam is red meat or actually catnip for the dangerous violent Breitbart right it's catnip it calms them down so Bill's Islamophobia it's partly mental illness I also think it's a calculated way to shave off those right wing extremists who might come for him it's hard for the far right wing to loathe Bill Maher to call for his head if he hates Islam I want to put it past Bill Maher to attack Islam as a ploy as a way to gain license from the far right wing to attack everything else the right wing detests as long as Bill supports the military and hates Islam the right wing is going to be conflicted calling for his head and Bill knows that either way attacking Islam is mentally ill and cowardly once again I find myself talking about the wrong things yes Bill should be forgiven for saying the N word what I don't understand is why he gets a pass for attacking Islam Bill was right for apologizing for saying the N word what I don't understand is why he has not apologized to the Muslim community Sarah McHugh was fired from Breitbart for saying the things Donald Trump not only believes but is acting upon Steve Bannon the former boss of Breitbart is winning inside the White House right now Jared Kushner is up against the ropes they are not allies he went up against Steve Bannon who is older, smarter and has much sharper elbows Steve Bannon ran Breitbart he would not have fired Sarah McHugh for her comments about Muslims these conversations about Bill Maher using the N word or Kathy Griffin holding up the severed skull of Donald Trump these conversations are fun because like weather or baseball anybody can sit at Starbucks and have an opinion but it's the same conversation we've been having for decades and right now this is not the time for us to be discussing nonsense this is the time when we need to be focused on removing Donald Trump and standing up to the radical and violent Breitbart wing of the GOP they are tyrannical they are nationalists they are absolutists and they are fascists and they're winning we've just pulled out of a Paris climate accords the EPA is run by oil lobbyists the Department of Interior is run by ExxonMobil and the Department of Education is being run by a creationist who doesn't believe in public schools they are winning they're cutting food stamps cutting spending on the backs of poor people lowering taxes for the richest 1% inflaming the Arab world and waging war on the news media Bill Maher and Kathy Griffin are not the problem we need to get at our pens and send a postcard we need to make a sign and go march things are going to be getting a lot worse before they get better and we need to focus on the real enemy it's not Bill Maher it's not Kathy Griffin it's Donald Trump the Koch brothers Paul Ryan Mitch McConnell Breitbart and the right wing extremists who only believe in Jesus Christ and guns those are your enemies and divorce attorneys joining us is the founder and treasurer of the Blue America PAC which raises money for progressive candidates around the country he also writes the Down with Tyranny blog Howie Klein Howie Trump fatigue there's no time for Trump fatigue because these are the angriest people in the world they are violent they are not getting what they want because Trump is not keeping any promises they can't admit they are wrong for voting for Trump so they resort to violence they are going to lash out at the other side and we're seeing evidence of this already well, we saw evidence in the run up to Trump being installed tell me about Kim Weaver she dropped out of her campaign for Iowa's fourth congressional district she said that she had financials in security but there were other reasons why did she drop out? she dropped out basically because she was getting death threats so she's running against Steve King and I think some of the listeners know that Steve King is one of the most right wing racist members of Congress he's an over what they call white nationalist and normal people call it fascist and he represents the largest part of Iowa which is basically it's a rural area there are almost no real cities there it's just a lot of very small towns and miles and miles and miles and counties full of farms and it's a pretty backward area and it's the reddest part of the state and he's represented that forever Kim ran against him last time and she didn't get any support at all from the Democratic Party from the DCCC the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee but she decided to run again Blue America endorsed her we've been raising money for her she's raised a lot of money about a quarter of a million dollars and she was ready to go up against him and she's been getting death threats and that's what mostly the media knows but there's a little bit more to it than that I wrote a post about it last night and people can find it on my blog it's down with tyranny.com and what it says is that Republican officials have targeted the agency that she works for and she was told specifically they were doing that because she works there so they've cut the budget of the agency and she's freaked out because some of her fellow workers are going to be fired now so she's very very upset about that and she decided it's just not worth it between the death threats and it's not just an email in this case someone put something up on her lawn and she just felt it was getting a little bit too close for comfort Trump as you just were saying has encouraged violence among his supporters and they're taking it very literally and when he said if you get into trouble and he said this at one of his rallies I'll pay the legal bills and these kind of knit with half-wit opioid addicted imbeciles here this stuff and they take it very seriously and of course Trump isn't going to pay their legal bills at all or do anything to help them but they don't know that and they're resilient to violence so people might say well you know Steve King for example said this isn't true he said she's making it up she wasn't really threatened she's just afraid of him he says he wants her to run because she's a weak candidate and he said this stuff publicly and but interestingly enough just in the last couple of days so literally this all happened in the last let's say three days Kim Weaver drops out in Iowa then we have the mayor a guy who's running a liberal Democrat who's running for mayor of Binghamton, New York upstate New York and he started getting threats he went on the radio talked about his campaign and he has a Republican incumbent and he starts getting death threats and then they started coming to his wife and to his children as well they're getting emails of death threats and you know what's an email you know he was sort of it was Waterloo for ducks back he didn't care that much he was a little concerned about his wife getting them of course and his kids but you know that's how it goes then it's about eight o'clock at night and he went to pick up his three-year-old daughter at a babysitter and he's coming back in the house and there's a strange pickup truck parked across the street from his house and suddenly the guy starts screaming you know horrible words that we don't want to say on the radio although liberal and then excellent of deleted and throws a can at him a can which as it turned out was full of soda so a full can and that could do a lot of damage and he went to shield his daughter of course and then the can hit him and then he decided to drop out so he dropped out of his race as well and he's the only Democrat in that race which means the right-wing Republican who is the current mayor will become mayor again with no opposition so bad enough we have those two things and then down in Louisiana in a really really right-wing district in Louisiana where Hillary got 20-something percent only so you can imagine what that district is like they elected a down there they have the jungle primary just like we do in California where everybody runs in the primary together and although in California we tend to have two Democrats who win and then they face off in the general election in Louisiana it's the opposite they'll have two Republicans who win and they'll face off in the general election and in this guy's election there was a mainstream conservative Scott Angeli who's very well known statewide he's a famous Republican and he's not a moderate in any way but he's kind of a mainstream conservative he's a state-wide office he's very famous and who is he running against? he's running against a guy named Captain Clay Higgins Captain Clay Higgins who's a professional vigilante that's what this guy is he's not paid by law enforcement he's a vigilante and a nut and well known as a fascist so he's a mainstream conservative running against a fascist and the fascist wins so this guy, Clay Higgins is now a member of Congress so on Sunday he decides that he's going to take it on himself to write a Facebook post urging his followers to hunt down suspects he used the word suspects people they suspect of being Muslim terrorists and when you read it you might miss out on the terrorist part so if you suspect someone that might be a Muslim he says kill them he doesn't say go to the police report them he just killed them that's what he said that's a congressman so today I'm waiting to hear maybe another Republican congress saying that doesn't say anything about our party and that is that we disown him and we disavow what he's saying nothing nobody says a word maybe Paul Ryan should say something to him the whip of the Republican party is a guy named Steve Scalise who's supposed to be somewhat sane although I've never seen any anything to that is he from Louisiana? in Louisiana does he say anything? no, nothing none of them say a thing are they afraid of these people? I think that they are sympathetic with these people maybe they're afraid of some of them I don't know they certainly are cowardly that's for sure and you know when you called a little while ago I was on the phone with Alan Grayson and one of the things that we were talking about was Walter Jones Walter Jones is a Republican from North Carolina and Walter Jones just came out saying that Congress should not fund the war in Afghanistan and if Trump tries to put more troops in there they should flap him down and not let him do it and not give him the money to do it no more troops no more war in Afghanistan and the reason that Grayson and I were talking about that is because he is a truly courageous guy I mean the Republicans hate him they run candidates against him Ryan has made sure to pull this guy off his committee and not let him rise in the ranks he should be the chairman of the committee he's on now because it's based on seniority and they don't let him do that they don't let him even be the second in command and they do everything to target him they gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to some right-wing nut who was running against him in the Republican primary last time he beat the guy the guy only got 20% but that's what they do that's how they try to stifle independent thought so when you say are they afraid of these people these Republicans are afraid of their own shadows they have reason to be as well and they're generally a cowardly lot and they act together and they think that they're all safe if they stick together it's out of the Putin playbook he surrounds himself with paramilitary organizations bikers and Trump surrounds himself with bikers because they can't rely on the police to do their dirty work it's from you know who's playbook from 75 years ago the people who are violent let's call them the brown shirts who support Trump who are doing these violent things to this guy running for mayor did you say Binghamton? Binghamton, New York where Harper is New York there's no difference between the people who threaten these candidates like Kim Weaver and George Zimmerman if you want to understand the mind of a right wing Trump supporter who wants to clock a liberal think of George Zimmerman they don't believe in anything other than violence they believe that they were put on this world put on this earth to remove what they consider weak or nefarious is that a fair statement? there's no ideology behind these people right? well there is some ideology the violent people is true they get off on easily from left to right without a problem though what you're saying is absolutely true but while they're doing it they have some kind of ideologically underpinning the next day they could be converted to something else I'm sure they don't think they have strong ideological feelings they're just a bunch of violent thugs so there's a guy named David Woodward he's a political consultant he's helped people like Lindsay Graham Trey Gowdy who's going to I think Trey Gowdy becomes head of his chafe and Jeff Dunn and Woodward told McClatchy earlier this week the McClatchy News Service that they are literally going to fight the media that they're going to run against the media in the midterms they can no longer run against Washington DC now they're going to run against the mainstream media and you have people like Ben mainstream media and you have people in the media like Laura Ingram who praised Gianforte that the new congressman from Montana for beating up the reporter from The Guardian it's getting more violent and it's going to get a lot worse Gianforte was rewarded for his behavior by bringing in $100,000 that day from donations some of which were very specifically made by people saying congratulations for you know punching out that liberal jerk in much worse ways of saying it but yes the Trump kind of people that's their mentality they like that what was Limbao that he was viral or masculine Trumping right Donald Trump right now is so unpopular more Americans according to a new poll favor impeaching Trump over Trump himself there are more people who want to put him on trial than approve of him but below Trump is the media the media is even less popular than Donald Trump this is in a way it's a race to the bottom but he's winning no I don't think so I think that people see Trump as a real existential threat to our country now and I don't think some might think the media that way but I think that the everyone likes to use the media as a punching bag and there are times that I'm screaming at the TV or some angry racial matter but it's very different from how you might feel about about Trump there's a daily tracking poll that Gallup puts out and the one that came out today has him at the lowest number he has ever been at which was 36 points something I don't remember what the point was 36.4 I think and that is lower that's the distance rating that they that they found during Watergate during the Watergate hearings when he was about to be impeached Trump is already at that level and thinking I mean the momentum is all downward it's not like it goes up and down and up and down it's going down they're not going to get rid of him unless they lose the house presumably the democrats will shut Nancy Pelosi up and no more off the table bullshit from her sorry for my fringe they'll start the impeachment process now they won't be able to find him guilty because the senate is going to either be barely in the hands of the democrats I don't think it will be it will be a republican senate they need 60 votes in the senate to be able to find him guilty but he will be impeached will be impeached and then the democrats will you know in the house will impeach him and then the senate will find him not guilty on the local level in the state governments were finding hope for the democrats Montana and Kansas the democrats did not do well in special congressional elections well they know they did do well they didn't win but their numbers were way higher than they had been previously so yes they did well not well enough we're seeing however an increase in state and local elections for democrats in primarily red districts correct we are you know what we're seeing is across the board a rise in pro-democratic votes between 5 and 10 percent so if you need to make up 20 percent it's not going to do you any good like in Kansas and Montana if you only need to come up by 10 percent and the vote turns to the democrats by 10 percent you win and that's what happens that's what's been happening in New Hampshire for example a couple of weeks ago they won the democrat there and history gone to a democrat it's been a republican seat since it existed and it's now it was won by a democrat that was a seat of course the trump one there was a seat on Long Island where Peter King has a big chunk of the south shore of Long Island from Nassau County into Suffolk and the reddest part of his district was the assembly district so his district is a purple district but with this one part of the district is the reddest part by far without this part of his congressional district he's in a blue seat and he wouldn't have to stand a chance this particular part had an assembly race and the democrat won and it was shocked everyone no one expected it and it was a bernie delegate to Peter King that he's in trouble because if he can't win in that part of his district he might not even run again you're in a boat it's sinking you grab your life raft there's one life vest left you grab your life vest there's only one left Peter King and Steve King are in the boat with you you have to give the vest to one of them you're going to give it to Steve King over Peter King I would assume it depends if there's a shock in the water or not Steve King is worse than Peter King right? but not by a lot both terrible yeah Hillary Clinton is speaking and I don't think she's doing herself any favors I don't think she should be complaining about the Russians and the DNC I think it's a little I don't know David the private citizen she can do whatever the hell she wants I don't care what she does I don't care what she says and she has the right to speak and say and give her opinion I don't think that she represents in any way the democratic party or not happy that she's speaking out like this and saying silly things and or bringing attention to herself and I think they wish she'd show up and go away I don't really feel that way I'm not a big fan of hers but she has the right to speak okay let me ask you a question about her because the Hillary supporters say that Debbie Wasserman Schultz who was the chairman of the DNC the Bernie supporters say that Debbie Wasserman Schultz conspired with Hillary to make Bernie weak so that Hillary can get the nomination the defenders of Hillary say that the chairman of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has no power that the DNC is a shell organization it's just a container for somebody to seize power within and then take it over but it's really the individual politician who gets the nomination who runs the DNC so that if Bernie had won then he would be the DNC, Hillary won so she became the DNC that's the argument right so that argument is true except what about before there's a nominee that's where Debbie Wasserman Schultz was doing her damage to Bernie was before Hillary was the winner once Hillary won then there wasn't a problem anymore but before Hillary won or got the nomination that's when Debbie Wasserman Schultz was doing damage to Bernie in every way she could did Hillary undercut that argument the pro-Clinton argument by complaining about the computer software that the DNC had when she got the nomination she says I inherited this mess that the DNC was no she did not undercut the argument because she did inherit a mess the reason she inherited a mess was because Debbie Wasserman Schultz aside from being the most corrupt DNC chairman ever wasn't in it for anything except herself so you know all she was trying to do was build up a gigantic personal mailing list of donors so she didn't care about the DNC she wasn't doing a very good job at it she was just getting her own list together stealing from the DNC so but on the other hand she would be doing things like for example there are many many things she did to harm Bernie including you know bad scheduling of debates fewer debates than should have happened debates scheduled on odd times when people wouldn't be able to tune in for one reason or another and then at one point she shut down his access to his own lists which the DNC has the the capability of doing I was going to say the right they don't have the right to do it but they have the capability of doing it she did it she cut him off from his own list so he couldn't do any kind of fundraising from the people who are his supporters so she did a lot of things to harm him some small some big and always persistent she never did anything to help him she always did things to harm him that's Debbie Wasserman Schultz before we get to Dr. Keyanga Yama Nada Taylor she's an assistant professor of African American studies at Princeton she spoke at commencement address I didn't hear the speech but you write about it on Dan with tyranny I want to write about it and I have an embedded copy of the speech itself so you or anyone else who would like to listen to it can go to my blog and just and and there's a YouTube of it it's fantastic it is so inspirational and so powerful and this is an amazing woman I'm going to guess that since we were talking about threats that you're bringing this up because she was also threatened to the point where she has had to cancel of previously scheduled engagements she she speaks she's an inspiring speaker she was scheduled to give a speech in San Diego and she was scheduled to give a speech in Seattle and she's now canceled both of them she said it's too dangerous for her and her family and she's not going to do it and so why did that happen that's because of Fox News they took one very incendiary part of the speech played it on Fox News where she's saying some negative things about Trump basically he's a bigot and a misogynist she's not cursing him she's not saying cut his head off or anything like that she's just I mean does anyone think he's not a bigot or does anyone think he's not a misogynist I mean he certainly is and Fox played it and riled up their audience and she was deluged with death threats now she's an African American woman so you can well imagine what those threats were like she says that almost every single threat had either the N word or the C word or both of those words wow and this is an incredible incredible woman who was invited by the students at Hampshire college to come there and speak the students themselves get to pick who their commencement speaker is going to be and they picked her her speech is really incredible and very very much worth listening to and like I said I have it on my blog and or you can find her name you can find it on YouTube and she's just a pretty amazing woman people should go down with tyranny to read your blog because what you wrote about her will enhance the viewing pleasure you also embedded a YouTube video to see the speech a great speech was delivered last week by Mitch Landrow the mayor of New Orleans at a ceremony taking down three statues of confederate leaders did you happen by any chance to read that speech no that's a brilliant I didn't read the whole speech but I've heard a lot about it so I know it was a very very inspiring speech as well that it was just put him on a whole other plane of a hero of the resistance I think it's unfair to talk to you about it because you haven't read it but I think that speech will go down in history as one of the great speeches not alone a lot of people saying that now I need to get my hands on that and either watch it or read it is he a good guy he's part of a machine I don't know, I've never talked to him he's from like a political family his father was a big time Louisiana politician his sister was a horrible right wing democrat one of the worst of the worst she was the US senator Mary Landrow, bad as they come she's now a lobbyist and she's a real bad lobbyist so can you tar him with that I don't know but I know when I hear that name it gets me thinking be careful we're almost out of time Trump climate change it looks like global warming climate change might have succeeded in doing what the democrats can't do in terms of gerrymandering tell me about Carlos Kerbello, he's a republican from Florida and according to down with tyranny I don't know if it's up yet but I wrote a post about this and he, I think it is up it is up so Carlos Kerbello is in a Miami district that Hillary won by almost 20 points so this is not a close district this is a district where he's really in danger of losing and in Miami they've got pumps running 24-7 pumping water out of their streets I mean if they stop pumping water out of Miami streets bye bye Miami so Carlos Kerbello is very, very well aware he came right out and said Trump is incorrect and pulling out of the Paris climate court was a big mistake and he denounced him in no uncertain terms the only republicans that are doing that are republicans in districts like his that went heavily for Hillary and where they feel that they're jeopardized by association with Trump and certainly in the case of any kind of educated audience who is aware of the reality of climate change that's acerbated in a very, very big way so when you talk to some audience, some Trump supporters in some backward area where everyone in the county literally exists there are 25 counties that went heavily for Trump many of them in Appalachia so whether we're talking about Tennessee or Kentucky or West Virginia or parts of western Pennsylvania where the death rate is so high from opioid addiction that's the Trump heartland these counties it just sounds like I'm being an insane person but I've done the research on this and I've written about it if you just look at which of the counties that voted for Trump overwhelmingly I'm talking about 70% 80% these counties also have the worst opioid addiction in the country there's no way of the 50 counties that have the worst opioid addiction 49 of the 50 were Trump's super counties one of them wasn't and the one that wasn't was on an Indian reservation it's the only one that wasn't very quickly Joe Biden too old to run for president but he's created a super pack an exploration committee to run for president or it could be to support people who he likes Joe Biden now people think of him as Uncle Joe and he's Obama and people like him but Joe Biden had a very very very long senate career and that very very very long senate career was very very bad he was fine when it came to women's choice and gay rights these social issues he was fine well good decent democrat when it came to things that had to do with corporate finance and Wall Street and that kind of thing bad guy he was you know when you hear about these bad bankruptcy bills he was the one that would be writing them he was he's really you know not one of my favorite democrats let's put it like that you know there's good there's bad he's a lot of there's a lot of bad with him and I certainly he's gotten better in the last few years but I wouldn't trust him to be president I would much more like to support someone like Elizabeth Warren or even Bernie Sanders is 70 still the threshold it was the threshold when Ronald Reagan was elected president they said you can't go past 70 Bernie is what 74 Hillary's 70 74 I'm rounding these numbers off next week who turns 71 who turns 71 yeah next week who does Senor Trump pansy oh so could Hillary run again could Bernie run again already said she's not going to run again she's not going to run again I think if she the democrat I think the democratic party they're slow to learn but I think they've learned that she's the wrong candidate and last question before you go Walter Jones he's a republican I know I have a question I have a question before you go Carlos Kerbello republican why do they stay what prevents them from throwing their hands up and just walking to the other side of the aisle interesting question so Kerbello has one chance to keep his seat in my opinion well two chances the more likely chance actually is that the democrat the DCCC will screw up and they'll get you know they'll pick some terrible candidate which they may do in fact they are talking about picking someone who would be defeated in that district that district is about it's close to 70% Hispanic and they're thinking of running a guy named Patrick Murphy who was a congressman from another part of Florida no way near there so the thing about running him and he would lose so if the DCCC does something foolish like that which they usually do he could win other than that the only shot he would have to win would be to say okay I'm a democrat now and switch parties Walter Jones by the way before we go he was elected in 1994 in 1992 he ran for congress for the first time as a democrat he was a democrat his father was a congressman who was a democrat Howie Klein is the founder and treasurer of the Blue America pack which raises money for progressive candidates read them every day over it down with tyranny thank you sir thank you talk to you soon I hope you're enjoying today's show please remember to do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website go to davidfeldmanshow.com click on it and then shop away we get a small percentage of everything you purchase I promise you every penny we get goes towards keeping the show going and if you're doing your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website hit the contact button let me know so I can thank you joining us from the Brentwood Hills is Mark Thompson you are yeah go ahead I think it was necessary to mention that I'm in the Brentwood Hills people are probably familiar with the fact that Brentwood's a nicer area the hills is a nicer area within the nicer areas and now I sound like somebody that everybody's gonna hate and I don't think that's there I mean just it's almost like why would you put that in the intro unless you were trying to kind of build animus early on in the conversation for me okay I apologize I don't mean to be paranoid about it I'm having a rough day so maybe that was just me I don't think it's important to say where I live all right joining us from 1616 Red Chimney Lane in Brentwood, California his home phone number is 555 even Brentwood suggests a certain bourgeois quality but it's okay let it go are you pretending that you're not successful the audience knows who you are they know that you're the voice they're probably more that don't and I don't think that they need to know that look every dollar I've ever made is tied up in this house so it's fine they're not going to dislike you because of all the money you've made as the voice of American idol or your work as a weatherman in Los Angeles or hosting various programs for Fox they're going to hate you for your support of Donald Trump I can assure you they don't care about your success they care you know it's funny I was searching with a political divining rod for something to support in Donald Trump I thought maybe he would surprise me in some way but he has been a wrecking ball to environment he's been a wrecking ball to environmental concerns he's been a wrecking ball to science and I know you didn't call me here about Donald Trump but I was talking about that's why I called you actually but in relation to what we were going to talk about David indicated you want to talk about the state of the planet worse and dramatically under this president even think that he cares I think he'd rather just play golf go to photo ops whatever in other words I don't think he is on a mission to destroy the planet but this is how important a period this is by surrendering the agenda over to corporates people who really only care about the bottom line and don't care about the nature of the planet the fragility of habitats and all the rest I think by surrendering the agenda to them you effectively have cast a very dangerous course and that's why it makes me very sad I've never really been sadder you know about the environment and about the planet and about our prospects and you know we're not the only game in town the United States is just one very powerful nation but we are the great polluter and we are the great determinant in many ways of the future and obviously we've given up that position that is being a determinant of the future we can't be a leader any longer because clearly our country is regressing at least in terms of policy I should mention that besides being a world-class voice over artist, television host television creator you sold the bachelor to ABC and other shows we've discussed this before you are also a meteorologist you have made a name for yourself as one of the most respected meteorologists in Los Angeles I cannot tell you the number of times you said it was going to be sunny tomorrow and the next day damn it, it was sunny I cannot tell you the number of times a marine layer was going to burn off by 11 you would say that sometimes it would be 1105 but normally that marine layer was gone when Mark Thompson said the marine layer was going to be gone David if you're suggesting that the degree of pressure associated with meteorology in the Southern California region is less than that perhaps in other regions of the country I would make a difference some of the greatest entertainment projects in the world depend on the weather being just perfect lighting, cloudiness and it's done right here and who do you think they call? they call me and big sporting events we have the Los Angeles Dodgers they look like they're going to be contenders for the pennant series when they get into a dice situation should they call the game for rain shouldn't they who do you think they call? they call me so you may just want to back off mister your little comic sabers that you pull out and your little edgy thing that you do very proud of being a meteorologist in Southern California seems to me I know that you were offered a lot of money to come to a certain city where the weather is a little more important and we may or may not have said no because somebody wanted to stay in Los Angeles for personal David, people come here to Los Angeles and they get drunk on the weather let's be honest there's a reason people in LA commute two and a half hours to their office do they sit in traffic for literally hours and hours and hours because they love the weather and I was one of those and am one of those people I love it, I love Christmas morning you're in jeans and a t-shirt you go out and get the paper yes we still get the paper here and it's terrific I do love the weather and it's true I was offered a lot of money and a great situation to move to New York and be on the air there but as I say I've been the lotus flower of Los Angeles has kept me here before we get to climate change and I didn't know that I was interrupting my intro by the way when I went off on that big thing about Donald Trump and the environment so you can cut that out we were live to tape oh there's no I'll give you an idea how much I hate Donald Trump okay as you know I'm getting a divorce and I still hate Donald Trump I don't know what that purpose is in other words if you're going through a divorce the level of misogyny inside a man just bubbling out through my ears and even I hate Donald Trump let me ask you a question about global warming I know where three of my ex divorce attorneys live and they're all in Los Angeles and they live in and around Malibu suppose we just let it go up one degree and have a little coastal flooding so these three harpies can drown you know that's the funny thing about global warming and when I say funny I don't mean haha I mean eerie I think the way that we've digested it in the public consciousness is that there'll be some coastal areas flooded things are going to get more expensive but ultimately global warming won't affect me and my kids in a little way if I'm in a major city or in a pretty good lifestyle you know this is something that's going to affect some island in Micronesia it's going to affect some place along the coast I can see what those pictures of some of the US coastal cities on the east coast look like if such and such happens if the globe warms this much and I think the problem with that is that it really denies what's happening so quickly all around the globe you know I'm talking about glacier melt and I'm talking about the extinction of species and I'm talking about the loss of habitat it's all happening all over and it's happening at an unbelievable rate and because we packaged our lives so effectively we're just brilliant but the way we package our homes everything's climate control we get to watch the NBA finals we get to watch the NHL Stanley Cup everything comes right to us it's on our phone this is a great world we've built but what it's done is it's insulated us from being at all connected to this stuff our food looks nothing like the thing it came from it's packaged it's got to manipulate even the stuff in the food so it is pushing those buttons that are associated with the most savory tastes and because all of this is going on again in a way it builds a buffer between us and what's really happening on the planet and it's happening at an incredible rate extinction is happening at an incredible rate habitat loss is happening at an incredible rate an unprecedented rapidity of all these things an unprecedented quickness an unprecedented rapid destruction of this globe on a scale that has never happened at least in the measurable history and we can go back millions of years if people say well you know the globe it gets warmer and it gets cooler and these things happen and that's true absolutely true but the globe doesn't get warmer like this so quickly in the history of time and we've never seen extinctions on this scale ever in the history of time this is a scary period but again as I say it just represents a blip to us because I think ultimately we're somewhat cushioned from it all because of our lifestyle cushioned and or terrified about what's going to happen to us tomorrow are we going to lose health care am I going to lose my job I think you make a very good point I think you make a very good point I think that things that are this is like trying to campaign where I live in LA for building a sophisticated public transportation system as you sit in traffic you know that this town needs public transportation one of the great things you have in New York is you have such a sophisticated public transportation system I just want to mention did you know that our subways speak French, German and Latin that's how sophisticated they are yes go ahead actually that's sophisticated that way yeah it's very hard to raise money for something that's not going to happen you know for 30 years in other words you could raise my taxes today you're telling me I'm not going to be able to take that subway or I'm not going to be able to take the monorail or I'm not going to have that sophisticated system of trains and buses for another 20 years well no thanks let me hang out of my money and I'm going to use it more effectively in my life right now so I think what you're suggesting I think it's a really great insight that healthcare and other stuff that affects our life right away takes priority over this thing which you're telling me is slowly happening even though I know Mark you just did a big speech about how quickly everything's happening it was really great but it's still happening relative to the crap I have to worry about this coming week pretty slowly and if you're saying that David then I think you're absolutely right I just don't think people assign a priority to it trying to empathize with who's the head of the EPA he works for ExxonMobil and Donald Trump who also works for ExxonMobil when you get in their heads I think they view everything as a business opportunity Vladimir Putin is making plans to drill the Arctic because the ice sheets have melted he can now go in there and drill for the very same thing that is destroying the Arctic they see this all as an opportunity by land in the Yukon by land in Canada if America becomes uninhabitable we'll just move north to Canada where we'll be more temperate isn't that how they view it I don't know really how they view it I think they view it from a bottom line standpoint and prove it as you correctly suggested he's an Exxon guy and divine energy too and it's funny huge company and it's funny that when George Bush was president before Barack Obama he I remember was putting together an energy policy and you may remember there was a you and cry among environmentalists because there were no environmentalists in on that it was all energy sector essentially consulting at the table in other words everyone who was in on forging energy policy was part of the energy industry it seemed like a total disc like he was throwing shade to the environmentalists well you have a multiplier on that times I don't know some remarkably high number because you have nothing but energy and corporate lobbyists actually determining the policy of this country vis-a-vis energy and so to your point I don't really know what their position is I mean whether they view the whole thing is I don't think they care at all I think their bottom line and when I say that I mean their businessmen who don't care there are businessmen you know who have great conscience who want to be responsible about the environment as well but they're not these guys and so when he talks about and this is the guy who was David says the head of the EPA when he says publicly that he doesn't think that human activity is a primary contributor to global warming I mean it's ludicrous on its face but that's the guy you got running stuff I think he has other interests the thing that I find unforgivable about pulling out of the Paris Accords is that the man I hate the most Lloyd Blankfein who's the CEO of Goldman Sachs the most detestable homunculus who ever walked the planet the man personally responsible not only for the housing crisis and the great recession but for the cost of beer going up because he cornered the market in aluminum over at Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein the most horrible human being in the world tweeted out that Donald Trump is a mortal threat to the planet and he was wrong for pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords the fact that Trump could make me like Lloyd Blankfein is unforgivable you're saying someone who's displayed no conscience prior to this has somehow suggested that this policy is even too far for him apparently Lloyd wants our houses underwater when it comes to our mortgages but not actually underwater something like that didn't Goldman they shorted the market isn't that what that was all about they destroyed the market but they had shorted it ahead of time well at Goldman Sachs as I understand it they were shorting it and going along at the same time they have so many tentacles I see they were working at every direction well what do you think is going to happen with the Paris Climate Accords because we don't pull out until the next president comes in in 2020 it's funny you know a lot of what Donald Trump does is for show but I can't really tell what's for show and what's for real and one of the reasons I was so passionate maybe at the beginning of this conversation I was really angry because I do know that what he has been able to do by executive order I think 58 initial executive orders that affected the environment is really take a wrecking ball as I said before to so much habitat you know he's able to lift even the minimal restrictions on the dumping of poisonous chemicals into rivers and streams into the restrictions again they are on pollutants airborne pollutants in the air over the US and more and more and more and you talk about leasing public lands for exploitation by companies looking for minerals and petroleum and the like so you end up with a I think a substantive damage that's been done by those executive orders now having said that let me get to your question about the Paris Accords but I don't know that he hasn't done this in more of a photo op way he can't as a practical matter pull us out of the Paris Accords right away as you say it's going to take four years now by the way you can sit in the echo chamber of I hate Donald Trump and think there's no way this guy could win in four years but it possibly does win in four years or that a Trump-esque figure wins in four years in which case we pull out of the Paris Climate Accords that is to say we effectively do we don't just indicate that we are going to but from a substantive standpoint between now and then I don't think much happens I just don't think and from my standpoint the Paris Accords don't go far enough there isn't really as you know any way to enforce them there's already a suggestion that there's a lot of lying about what they're doing and what cuts they've made in coal production so I'm sure all nations or many nations including ours you know I used to think we were so great we were cutting edge in so many ways but now I've become a little discouraged even about how honest we are about things but in any case I think people look at the Paris Accords in a symbolic way and from that standpoint Donald Trump has pulled back and he's playing to his base the big F U but again I don't know what real damage is done at least in the short and medium term China is going to become the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases if they're not already they're pretty close if they refuse to cut back on greenhouse gases if a country like America was still in and committed to the Paris climate agreement and a country like China was the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases refused to obey the climate agreement it would be an act of war they would be considered a threat to our planet and we would have to go in there and take them over well good luck with that I mean the military if you look at Mattis who's head of defense he and the Pentagon their official position the Pentagon's official position is that climate change is real it's man made and it's going to be a cause of war over the next century because of mass migration because of people wanting to steal water and natural resources and land most certainly that's absolutely true and you're right it's identified as such I guess I was chuckling because obviously you can't mess with China they can pretty much do whatever they want their biggest problem may be internal because as you know their population is dying premature deaths because of severe smog and pollution I mean there is a choking of many cities in China as a result of these because of sort of the way the natural topography of things has laid out so these cities are poorly ventilated and beyond that they are still heavily dependent on these coal-fired power plants so you put that all together and it's one super toxic mess in China so they have a much bigger problem internally it would seem to me than they do even just in terms of playing with the other kids on the planet and yet they're moving into solar energy they're the biggest makers of solar panels and there is something inexorable besides the heating up of the planet and that is our economy moving from oil to solar to bioenergy to hydroelectric hydroelectric wind geothermal isn't that true more and more jobs are in energy are being created in fields other than oil fields oh yeah that's why this whole nod to the coal industry into the traditional ways we get energy by Donald Trump in this administration makes no sense from a job standpoint it's so funny to me to see various tweets from Donald Trump that end with jobs jobs jobs you know the fact is he doesn't represent jobs when he is throwing in so heavily with coal coal as you're aware is a largely automated business now the loss of jobs in the coal industry has to do with two things the economics of coal just isn't there anymore you cannot make money like you used to be able to make money in the coal business there are entire industries that were like the coal industry of the early 1900s that are associated with green energy that's where the jobs are and by the way by turning away from green energy you're costing more jobs more Americans jobs than you are getting American jobs by turning toward the coal industry absolutely green energy represents the future from a job standpoint from an economic standpoint it is definitely the future on every count well Trump is so if you're trying to recharge the economy you can't do it with old school energy you can't it's not there anymore Trump and Bannon have created some jobs for coal you know because of all the people of the White House walking around in blackface anything actually it's burnt cork I shouldn't have to tell you that I've been to your parties now we're writing not good not good this is why David is an Emmy winner he just keeps throwing them they're not going to like the first one you're not going to like the second one you're not going to like the third one you're not going to like the fourth one fifth one, sixth one, seventh and eighth one but the ninth is going to make the sketch tell me some good news how's your life before we wrap it up and we should do this in private by the way I enjoy talking to you and this is important news I'm sorry you're catching me on such a tough I guess I've just been reading a lot today and just get kind of a a bleak outlook honestly I'll tell you something to those people who really are you know it's kind of almost fun to deny climate change you know those people who just like to deny stuff because they like to be the person in the crowd who doesn't go along with it even though it's clearly the case there are those people and then there are people who just don't want any compromise in their lifestyle and there's probably a big overlap in the Venn Diagram of those two but having said that I'd love to ask those people what do you think happens to the hundreds millions of tons of pollution that we blow out into the air alright what do you think happens to that do you think that the planet just absorbs that all I mean it's pollution these are pollutants they're poisons they're being sent up into the atmosphere how do you think the planet digest that day after day do you literally think there's no effect that man can just do whatever we want there's no effect you don't think that there's any effect of all the stuff we dump in the ocean look at the ocean worldwide there are those 5 huge gyres of plastic plastic is everywhere in the ocean it's the sign that what we do affects the entire planet and habitats you can't catch any fish out of the ocean and not find sometimes I mean you need a microscope almost but some form of plastic because that plastic breaks down in that ocean to the point that you are now looking at very small pieces of plastic but it's even the fish we eat so I mention that because those people who deny climate change and sort of deny human effects on the climate well what do you think is happening with all of this stuff that we do as humans you think that there's no effect it's a very frustrating position to maintain and the single greatest thing we all can do to save the planet is once a week have a meatless meal probably is one of the great things that we could do that's absolutely right it's you know to have one like a quarter pounder I guess they call it it requires 600 gallons of water to get that quarter pounder of meat 600 gallons and a pound of beef takes almost 2000 gallons of water because that's the water needed for the animal the drinking the grains, the grasses the feed all of that so yeah let me tell you how much I believe in Meatless Mondays once a year Larry David's ex-wife Lori David Al Gore and I hop into Al Gore's private plane on a Monday and we fly to Belgium to have a vegetarian vegan meal and fly back that night that's how much we believe in Meatless Mondays well you may want to rethink what alienating Lori David by the way I was just talking about the water you make a really good point when you're flying all over the place you know when you talk about greenhouse gases that CO2, the methane, the nitrous oxide all of that that's skewed in the atmosphere by the animals so you're absolutely right good call to draw attention to that but that's a it's all bad Elon Musk quit the president's economic advisors committee or whatever you call it when he pulled out of the climate accords Elon Musk is building rockets to leave this mortal coil called the earth he benefits from the destruction of the planet people are going to need rockets to live someplace else who benefits the most from the destruction of the planet is mad at Trump it was even too much for him yeah he's an interesting guy his average day I was reading about a few weeks back it doesn't seem to be apart from the hours it gets up at 7 now that in itself isn't anything but he doesn't go to bed till 1am every day but apart from well that's a kind of a when you're up at 7 to stay up till 1 every day might be a little rough he kind of feels like a guy who just kind of does the stuff that we all do like he multitasks he goes through emails at lunch or remember reading about something who doesn't go through emails he has sex with Amber Heard stuff we all do am I going to get sued for that there's some woman who is a housewife in the Bronx tonight and she's working much harder tomorrow than Elon Musk is and she's not building a Tesla or an X prize machine anyway I I miss you buddy you were fantastic stay on the line for one second if you're enjoying today's show please share it on facebook twitter copy and paste the link to this show and share it with all your friends via email spread the laughs spread the knowledge spread the love joining us from Hollywood is our entertainment correspondent Jim Earl you have your finger on the pulse of show biz when in comedy writer how many Emmys have you won I've well won one prime time Emmy David mm-hmm for excellence in writing and the Peabody of course was for excellence in journalistic writing with a comedic tinge and you're the author of Morning Remembrances it's a collection of yes I miss you Morning Remembrance it is a collection of obituaries that you have written throughout the years very funny book if you think death is to be laughed at I think death should be greeted every morning with a big smile and a big frothy hot piss and you're also on Jimmy Dore's show which is very am I very popular it is it is over 200,000 subscribers I think on YouTube on YouTube yes I also write a lot of the calls some lents for him as well I do a lot of writing sometimes I'm on the show sometimes I'm not do you ever get recognized for my achievements well you're on YouTube or just for people seeing me in the street and yelling that's the man you've had a storied career you're a renaissance man I talked to Mark Hirshon last week and Mark does a lot of things very well you are a writer and you're also an amazing musician you were the original band leader for this podcast the clutter family is incredible how do people buy the clutter family music well a lot of people just said they can hear it but they don't really buy it they just don't understand why it's a band oh you mean how do they buy it well they could go on YouTube or they could go directly to cdbaby.com and look up the clutter family and get one of or both of their albums and the minute I heard you play are you still there I asked you to be the band leader for my fledgling podcast and you were the early years of this podcast we had a band I would put you up there with REM I think you were as original I thought your lyrics might have been a little more perverse political and then you wanted them to be more piffy I wanted the rapid eye movements to be as piffy as the clutter family the rapid eye movement well you know we didn't have much time to write songs and we were hopped up on X and cocaine most of the time now you're which I heartily you're hopped up on x-lacks now right because I'm old you're old in fact Michael Stipe is so old REM now stands for the rapid bow movements because right I heard that yeah hang on you have a body how many Emmys do you have how many do you have one Emmys or two Emmys prime time I don't know I just I think I have to return it they can have my p-body back so what do you say you have a p-body does that mean the award or you're just like your body is huh my body yes my body looks like a cartoon character from the early 1960s oh I was going to go for just your your body just has you're an invertebrate you have no spine and you're just fluid like yellow piss you have like a p-body you don't stand up for your rights you're yellow you're a coward that's that's what I thought hey hey you're half right how dare you so what do you talk about on Jimmy Dore's show oh you're talking about everything and anything and how much he hates me the way we never discuss you he hates me he won't return my calls well maybe you think it's your cold caller or something no I've invited him on the show Jimmy needs an enemy so I become his enemy well you're not how many subscribers do you have maybe that's the problem oh I'm not famous enough you don't have a big enough following maybe that's well I have a YouTube channel but it's all audio your thing is video right yeah yeah it's his channel's video it's pretty good and it's with the young church it's with the young church mm-hmm yeah it's connected to it yeah and when did it take off did people come together for him or was it gradual that's a good question about two years ago maybe I'm not really sure I think there was one one period when a really subscribers really peaked and started coming I think it was during the election the primaries in the election mm-hmm and are they left wing well yeah Bernie supporters you know are you I am a Bernie supporter I endorse you're not one of these yeah I supported Bernie but we can't talk about Hillary we can't say anything bad about Hillary there's a lot go ahead Democratic Party Democratic Party one of the things I've learned is women are very defensive when you bring up Hillary that as a well let me just say something here as a white as a white man I understood the value to electing Barack Obama an African-American I saw why that was significant I also saw that it was significant to elect a female I think a lot of men don't understand how powerful it would be for women to see a woman in the Oval Office and I will confess to having a blind spot why it was so important to see a woman in the Oval Office for women considering what they did to our African-American president the symbolism to me didn't feel as important as getting somebody in there to do what has to be done somebody like Bernie Sanders who is going to address income inequality but I feel that Bernie pushed Hillary so far to the left that she'd be one of the most progressive candidates since one of the most progressive presidents since Johnson I don't believe that for a second I think she was put on the appearances of taking on some of Sanders platform points out of necessity and she was I don't think she was sincere in it and I think she would have rolled it back immediately or just abandoned it immediately as president abandoned Margaret Thatcher was a woman remember fuck that I'd rather have somebody who's going to do what they say they're going to do and not be a neoliberal corporate mouthpiece regardless whether they're male or female hang on for one second there Jim and another thing hang on for one second Margaret Thatcher wasn't selling a false bill of goods she was what she was you picked her up off the street you reached down there and you didn't find a penis you know what I'm saying she was a conservative she was a Reagan conservative she didn't suddenly have a penis I don't know if that is tracking but the point I'm making is Thatcher was Reagan Hillary was you know kind of a liberal in many ways a neoliberal but she was a liberal I don't get how she was liberal at all I think she would have moved us towards free tuition and Medicare for all I don't think so I think she would have kept things going along fine I'm not fine but I think she would have kept things going along as they were I think the only way a Clinton I think the only way a Clinton does the right thing is if they're forced into doing it and that was true for Bill Clinton and for him mostly doing the right thing was enabling and sucking up to the Republican party in order to save his skin in the last few years of his tenure I don't see anything to benefit with having Clinton in the office Hillary other than the fact that she's not Donald Trump and that's why in my opinion that's why who said that one was I think it was Cornell West or was it Cornell Wilde Cornell West who said that that one was a shot in the head and one was now I'm screwing up but he had kind of a Ralph Nader summation of the two candidates which Ralph Nader said about the two parties one party is driving it us off the cliff at 60 miles an hour and the Democrats are driving us off the cliff at 40 miles an hour Yeah but I think had Hillary won she would have tapped into the populace rage from both Bernie and Trump there's something definitely going on in this country that she had to address and if she's a politician she would have read you know the leaves and said the season has changed and I better get on board you don't think she was capable of that I don't think she no I don't think it's in her DNA to do that I think she would have you know no Democratic party is in this to to keep making money the way they always have and that was more likely to happen with a Republican in office than a progressive like Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders threatened the Democratic party's lifestyle and livelihood that was one of his big negatives to the DNC right you know that's obvious the money and my fucking ex president getting $400,000 for what the fuck is he doing there's no optics to these people no shame you know the cliche about well I'm not gonna give me some you know I'm not gonna do anything with this money Wall Street is giving me how is that gonna influence me cut to them three weeks out or four months out of office getting a $400,000 speech from one of the one of their ex lobbyists give me a fucking break these people are worthless well I like Obama I think speaking is it Goldman Sachs no it's the 9-11 people that he's speaking it right 9-11 the people I thought it was speaking to some financial organization yeah it was the financial organization that got decimated after 9-11 yeah I forgot Cantor Fitzgerald is it Cantor Fitzgerald yeah I think it's Cantor Fitzgerald you know yeah he's a politician he was always a corporatist we always knew that about him when we elected him we knew he was he wasn't John Edwards he wasn't speaking about two Americas when he was running for president the way John Edwards was John Edwards would have been great had he not done some really stupid things but you know his I think he was a better candidate well you don't you don't think Obama did anything I mean Obama used his executive orders to reverse climate change he got us into that Paris climate accords he instructed the EPA to crack down coal emissions he issued orders about financial advisors having a fiduciary responsibility I think given that he had no support from the Republicans and very little support from Nancy Pelosi he did as good as you can do unless you're gonna say take you know it's my ball and I'm going home with it you know if you won't give me a public option no healthcare for anybody he was willing to compromise well he did more than compromise he never used to use a cliche but his bully pulpit to go around the country and raise up attention for the things that needed to be I think he did he gave away single-payer he didn't fucking say a damn thing about the Dakota pipeline that was that was disgraceful yes he did the army Corps of Engineers said no to that and he said no to the Keystone right, right he should have been out there he should have been out there supporting he should have been out in strike lines too he should have been out on a picket line like Bernie Sanders was and he gave Gulf of Mexico back to BP and BP has spent virtually nothing cleaning that up it's another Exxon, it's another huge disgrace and it's another blow job to the oil industry and Wall Street and that's what he is he is a corporatist and I think he's worthless I think he's a corporatist but of the positive stripe he's a smart constitutional lawyer and had Hillary won she would have taken from his playbook not bills and she would have extended the Obama presidency and moved it moved the country as far to the left as we possibly could given how stupid this country is and how anti-progressive it is there are more there are more solar jobs now than there are coal and oil in America and that's because of his stimulus plan he fundamentally changed this country given the resistance from the Koch brothers I think he did a pretty remarkable job I do you think for a second that if Hillary were president today that you or most of your people you know your friends would know who their city council members are and when the elections are and even care about them do you think that we would in California today be have just passed a single payer initiative or bill just about to go to the assembly do you think that would ever have gone this far the whole country is talking about single payer now do you think under Hillary that would have been in anybody's consciousness I don't think so at all I think congress I think we would have lost more of congress and then congress would even more of a roadblock to her than it was for Obama who didn't fight enough here's another damn thing Obama did he lost both houses of congress he gave up congress in 2010 did not fight for it did not use the resources that he had available during his election and you know even I knew during the 2010 election that this is really stupid why isn't he out there why isn't he using the same ground game that he did in 2008 to keep the house didn't he lose the house because of Obamacare wasn't there a concert he yes I'm sure that has something to do with it of course but he didn't go out he's a good speaker he should have done what Woodrow Wilson did for the League of Nations all around the country had a massive stroke no no Wilson stayed alive for most of his presidents no, Edith ran it Edith ran it yeah he Edith ran it but he came out for what Woodrow that's my Edith ah I'm doing my Edith Bunker go ahead you're wrong but go ahead you know what we're talking about women and women's rights and their health I don't think you should ever put a wasp nest a vagina because eventually somebody is going to get stung at a party well now apparently Goop Gwyneth Paltrow's website for all things female speaks of this vaginal rejuvenation where you put a wasp nest up your vagina right yes yes I mean isn't a vagina already a wasp nest I think you were the one who used to say that all the time and I would say Jim be nice to the people hey you know I grew up I grew up believing that wasp nest came from there but you know my girlfriend you know my girlfriend you put an eagle's nest in her vagina and now every morning Marlon Perkins has to climb up the ladder to check it Marlon Perkins from Mutual of Omaha yes Mutual of Omaha yeah Marlon Perkins yeah my mother mothers are important aren't they my mom always told me my mom always told me never put a wasp never put all your wasp eggs in one vagina you never know what will happen uh huh I just heard about this on the social media but they're saying that are they live wasps no you take one of those little wasp bulbs that grow on the side of oak trees have you seen that no I don't know you never went out when you were little no wasps have this special chemical that they inject into a tree and then the tree will grow a special bulb to protect the wasp eggs or some crap like that and what you're supposed to do is take one of those wasp bulbs and grind it up and then put it up your woohoo I didn't know you were pre-med well you know all the Latin you know all the you see Berkeley expressions isn't it true if I remember correctly you had a girlfriend and you put some wasps up or woohoo but it turned out the wasps had endometriosis right yes it's amazing what a coincidence that was horrible wasn't endometriosis Michael Dukakis' sister it's a good question perhaps you should get one of your researchers on that your interns didn't you uh once it Dave correct me if I'm wrong didn't you once contract uh throat cancer like Michael Jack Michael uh yes Michael Doug Michael Douglas did from uh going down on your girlfriend um I guess you know that's what you get for uh filling your girlfriend's vagina up with uranium 235 what were you thinking this is a powerful unstable element I know I'm never going to do that again it was it was a mistake yeah it's too late now I love discussing politics with you so where do you think things go from here Dave well they can only go I think I think it's really bad I really do I think that I get re-energized and I start fighting for my country but then I get tired because everyone around me is either stupid immoral or dishonest and I have a rule for people you have to you can suffer from one out of those three but if you have two of those three I can't have you in my life anymore so I'm spending a lot of time alone because most people have two of those things stupid stupid dishonesty immorality they all if you have two of those things so I would say you're okay I'll tell you why you're not stupid you're you're not dishonest you're honest to a fault but you are immoral so you're one out of those three so I'll keep you as a friend I think that's a fair statement that's a fair assessment you think I'm immoral? I think because you're so honest you lack empathy and you don't care if you hurt people's feelings I think you lack morality plus you've killed puppies no that's not true only for sex there's love in it it was sincere do you think you're guided by immoral conscience I know I am yes I believe I am but you don't believe in God that's one reason that's one reason I think I'm guided by immoral conscience I don't have faith in anything faith is an evil thing but without faith Jim Earl without a fear retribution from the Almighty how can you do good in this world how can I do good in the world how do you know right from wrong that's a good question that's a good question when did you discover you were an atheist you were an atheist when did you discover that you were an atheist probably when my father my father beat me when my father beat me your father beat me when you got the deny show your father beat you as a child no no I'm kidding both my parents were atheists and I think I only ask them about I ask my mom where we go when I die and she said well everybody goes and divides up your things no that's very late still but we go to the lawyers and divide up your things no no my mom my mom said I think she tried to say well your your soul goes up the sky and nothing happens did your mother go to college yes she went to Denver for school for women back then it was only a women's school it was only four women back in the 40s it was four women you mean there were four women or there were there were only four women and no University of Denver and as I remember at the University of Denver your mom started the mile high club yes she did I've always wanted to become part of the mile high club but I've never been able to get that far but I came very close to the other day when I ejaculated into an air sickness but you know really surprised the guy who was using it excuse me Reverend but that's my bag so your mother was college educated oh yes yes she was so was my grandmother she graduated from Bay City College in 18 98 or 1905 we're in San Francisco Bay City no Bay City Michigan Ann Arbor University of Ann Arbor I mean and did you know your grandmother oh put on a click yes love talking politics with you she was from Michigan she do you know what she studied when she went to college because it's very rare for a woman to have gone to college back then you know back there I also looked up my grandfather and my great-grandfather her father went to Yale and I looked up there their courses basically it was a lot of Latin and Greek and ancient history and a few languages so there was it was basically nothing having to do with everyday life and then my grandfather would after he graduated from college he became a lawyer in Bay City and he also owned a sawmill and he would ride the sawmill everyday on his bike and get taunted and beaten up by his polish employees that's that story well when you get beaten up by a polish employee what do they do they hit you over the head with a mug if that has the handle on the inside he had polish employees yeah a lot of sawmills had polish and yeah isn't it sure they went on didn't they go on strike to stop getting paid because they were they were polish they were polish right that's interesting but there were a lot of strikes back then people were very active back then there were all kinds of socialist candidates you know look going to the Chicago Daily Tribune digital archives that they have up now and you can go back in the 19th century and they're every every day of their paper I remember that famous headline that they got wrong Debs Beats Lafayette oh you don't get that yes I do I think Dewey Beats Truman yeah so I'm going for Debs Beats Lafayette but Lafayette they were from Wisconsin that was just bad bad bad joke Debs Beats Debs Beats Gompers name funny named Gompers Samuel L. Gompers what do you think the L stood for Larabee so what are you reading there Jim what are you reading before we wrap it up what are you reading these days I haven't read any fiction in years because I don't have the attention span for it anymore and I I've kind of been embittered you to life in general so I just read nonfiction and are you dating no are you meeting anybody am I meeting anybody yeah are you afraid of spending eternity alone without a god or a wife well these are all very personal questions and hard for me to answer at this moment because of the restraining order and the my anklet bracelet but things are fine I'm alright well they've been a lot better you know I had a family I don't want to get into specifics but one of the things I've learned and pretty much divorced is except for Muhammad Atta most of us die alone well at least he didn't die alone that's all I'm saying so what do you think of Russia you're not one of these dorks that's screaming trees and left and right are you I think anything you can do to slow this president down anything you can do to debilitate and just just flood him with subpoenas and depositions anything that just grinds him and ban into a complete standstill is a good thing yeah well I thought that's how we got to this position in the first place that kind of stuff well you certainly want to give this guy free reign do you mean you want to you want to be you just want to be anything he says is wrong whatever comes out of this guy's math I'm against it no no I don't I don't believe that at all because that's one of the reasons the democrats lost so fucking badly and they did lose badly are you saying to work with Trump no I'm saying I'm saying the democrats played an electoral college game and fucking lost and they lost because part of the reason was because Trump could say fucking bad things about the democrats and Hillary Clinton in particular and they were true we ran we should have run Elizabeth Warren yes well we should have run fucking Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that would have been a dream ticket can you not use the F word please because we have to bleep it for the radio oh I'm sorry yeah you're sorry it's your passing aggressive stuff it's what you do no I didn't know you were on like a real radio that had to be bleep well in case we run any of this you don't have to have somebody go I thought you were on some sort of like podcast thing you know or subscription service well this is a good Judeo Christian podcast and we don't curse are you still where do you work nowadays I'm in New York how is New York they still have those corner delis with the same fruit cup and beer and fruit salads and stuff egg salad sandwich New York asks about you all the time what do they ask I don't know I feel like Johnny Sack talking to Paulie about Carmine remember that episode you're not a Sopranos fan yeah remember when Paulie wanted to go work for Carmine in New York and Johnny Sack was playing him and said to Paulie he always asks about you Paulie believed him you don't remember that hey I don't remember that in particular will you come back let's do this more often should we do this more often if the connection is okay last time we did this the timing delay was all over the place made me sound horribly unfunny maybe that's just me anyway maybe there was something wrong with your earbuds maybe you just didn't hear it properly there could be there was a delay and I'm not a technical guy I'm still my edits and cylinders let's plug some gigs how do people follow you on Twitter I'm at Jim Merrill 666 hmm and on Facebook I just said Jim Merrill you'll recognize that it's this Jim Merrill not the four other Jim Merrill your music the clutter family can be downloaded on Amazon Jim Merrill is the man who can trace his DNA all the way back to the Mayflower, right aren't you no landed gentry when it comes to America no, no when was the Mayflower 1630 or 40 or something sorry something like that I heard I heard they came my earls came like in the 1690s I think that's very impressive a few years after you went on ancestry.com and traced your DNA and discovered that you were married to your aunt correct that's how it was a Morgan it was a Morgan Morganatic marriage what does that mean I'm going to try to do that with the Duke of Windsor King Edward what does Morganatic marriage mean it wouldn't be recognized by the church but you know yeah you don't have to be recognized by the church I don't think that's what the famous Yanlonite painting from the 15th century with the curved glass with the mirror yeah the wedding of something Arnold Feeney Arnold Feeney wedding that was a wedding document because it showed the people witnessing the wedding in the reflection of that con convex convex mirror would be a convex mirror right yeah and it had a signature on it so that was supposedly a wedding document that made it Morganatic yes I believe so I think there are various types of Morganatic weddings documents but very quickly Kathy Griffith yes I think I could kill that I think what she did was stupid and kind of dangerous hypocritical and it's a double standard both times people hung up at the G's and threatened Obama doing you know why was it dangerous I think it's well I think it's I think it could get for the same reason that inciting violence implicitly or directly by like Trump did or anybody beneath him did I think it can have the same effect and she should expect to have the Secret Service visitor just like anybody else for when they did the same thing to Barack Obama like Ted Nugent getting a visit from the CIA and what about Bill Marr I don't think she should lose her job right what about Bill Marr I don't I looked at that clip and I have no idea what the heck he was trying to do I think he just screwed up I think he was trying to make a statement that he wasn't a slave yet it was Nebraska they were talking about who knows what's going on in his mind it was a dumb stupid thing and he should have apologized and he did now you've been on the radio for 25 years live radio yeah give her right how many times have you said the N word said the N word yeah how many times have you you've done live comedy how many times has the N word slipped out of your mouth it used to be like well we used to have a bit with nothing but that in it remember and we've never done that before I know once it was a slip of the tongue speaking of slips of the tongue why don't you like to go down on women that's the word on the street that's what huggy is telling me alright it's a vicious rumor Jim Earl thank you buddy hey uh okay see you in court okay but some people like to listen to this show on YouTube so subscribe to our YouTube channel and do me a favor and give us a good review on iTunes you'd be amazed how much that helps giving us a good review on iTunes moves us up that's the way their algorithm works so when you give us a good review on iTunes you're really helping out joining us is our resident film critic Bill Snyder these are the movies he's going to be talking about today Wonder Women I Daniel Blake handsome devil band-aid and Churchill tell me about Wonder Women Wonder Woman is a pretty big deal it's a massive success after only a couple days of being open uh it is a you know just it is a true blockbuster and what's remarkable about it is the woman power involved here this is the first female directed movie to open this large 100 million dollars in the united states for weekend and uh you know kudos to Patty Jenkins the director who in fact has not directed a feature film since uh since the Oscar nominated movie uh monster in twenty oh three 2003 it's a very long time I lean war knows yes and this is a completely different essential female character in a movie and she's done some TV stuff for sure but this is her first feature film in that many years and it is fantastic it's just beautifully done and you know I was telling somebody the other day nothing shatters a glass ceiling like a 100 million dollar battering ram so this is already a big hit and internationally it's also a big hit and cheers to Gal Gadot who is the Israeli model turned actress uh as Wonder Woman her big screen expression of strength and compassion is absolutely inspiring she is definitely the right woman for the right role and this character has been around for a very long time DC comics as their big three Batman Superman and Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman was introduced after Batman and Superman in the early 40s by a man named William Moulton Marston and the character has this origin that's very heavy in Greek mythology and she lived on this secluded island called Themyscira or Paradise Island they also called it no men on the island just these tough and graceful Amazon women including her mom de facto mother Queen Hippolyta who was played in the movie by Connie Nielsen and the queen apparently longing to be a mother forms a child out of clay and Zeus breathes life into it and that's Diana Wonder Woman so we get a little bit of that origin in the movie but what we don't really get are all the lesbian and SNM undertones of the original comic book I'm not joking Wonder Woman was always being found in these comic book stories one way or another her catchphrase was suffering Sappho we all know the reference to Sappho and you know that said she eventually embraces I guess some sort of heterosexual dynamic by starting to hang out with Air Force pilot Steve Trevor who is her romantic interest and he is depicted in this World War One period piece that we're now seeing on our screens as the first human man to set foot on Paradise Island he comes through a wrist in the a tear in the fabric of the universe the dimension where this island is located and he's followed by angry German soldiers and sailors and this brings Wonder Woman into a contact with man's world and she decides to go well war by following Steve Trevor back through the wrist into I guess you know 1918-1919 whenever World War One was at its peak and fighting on the side of the Americans the British and I guess the French and you know you get all the little superhero stuff you get bullets and bracelets she has bracelets and she can deflect bullets with them she can sort of fly in a in a gentle poetic way she has a magic lasso of truth wraps it around you either you're going to boil from the heat of it or you're going to tell the truth I mean this is part of DC's current cinematic universe which is produces really heavy-handed man of steel about Superman Batman versus Superman which actually introduced Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and she was the best thing about that suicide squad terrible and I've enjoyed Wonder Woman more than any of these films in fact any DC superhero movie since the Dark Knight which was the Christopher Nolan Batman movie I mean Gadot has this special something that few actresses have other than say Audrey Hepburn she has the ability to truly and sweetly convey compassion I mean it's remarkable to see and it was exhilarating to watch her no matter what she did on the screen she was in some John was it John Hamm movie with Zach Galifianakis this half-ass action comedy Keeping Up with the Joneses she was the best thing about that and she and Chris Pine deliver throughout Wonder Woman and as a character it's funny you know she's a warrior but she espouses a message of peace down the war mongers all the messages are great here and all the personal character moments are lovely and yeah you know there are CGI action sequences like there are in all superhero movies but they're judiciously used in the service of the story even the requisite final battle between her and the main villain mostly the film is this engaging origin story and you get the period social commentary what's a woman doing in the man's business basically and there's these adorable numerous moments romance a lot of heart and there are a few unobtrusive links to the other DC movies because she's going to show up again in the modern Justice League movie with Superman Batman Aquaman The Flash and the rest that said I really love this thing also good supporting work in the movie from Robin Wright as her Amazon aunt Danny Houston as a villainess German soldier and officer David Tewes as a British a peaceful British government guy who's trying to broker peace with the Germans and support work from a really cool bunch of characters like Saeed Tamali from France Ewan Bremner from England and Elena Anaya who's the Spanish actress who was in a couple of really cool films at least one of our films she plays this kind of psychotic villainous poison loving German scientist look dude you may not like movies like this but I give this the big thumbs up from me I thought it was really worthwhile and a good lesson for young girls who want to go to an action movie and get inspired really is it violent there are moments of violence but there's no blood maybe that sends a bad message you know when you stab people they should bleed right mm-hmm I Daniel Blake well I Daniel Blake is a better movie than Wonder Woman and that's saying a lot it was the winner of the Palm Door at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and I think deservedly so a decent widowed middle aged working class guy in the British industrial town of Newcastle I guess what they make Newcastle Brown gets jacked around by the government assistance people when he's laid low by heart problems he's had a heart attack he's in his late 50s and he wants to get his modest life back on track I mean it's no surprise that the great populist lefty filmmaker Ken Loach is the guy behind this film he's taking on the horrors and crushingly soulless nightmare of modern bureaucracy this guy by the way Ken Loach 80 years old and still getting it done big time this is not quite Kafka's Daniel Blake tumbles down the rabbit hole of UK online forums and phone calls and case workers and that's kind of familiar to anyone who has tried to deal with the US unemployment compensation and the DMV and the IRS so by chance Blake meets a young unmarried mother of two kids at the and she's been hit by this hard luck with poverty and circumstance and Dan Blake is this kind hearted dedicated guy and he tries to help her and the kids who lack money for food and the heat in their apartment and they need emotional support so despite all the struggles he's there and the show plays out in somewhat unexpected ways heartbreaking ways and inspiring ways a guy named Dave John's he's a comic actor who's unfamiliar to me is absolutely great as Dan and Haley Spires who's a young actress who's only known to me from the British TV miniseries called the midwife and also another one called the south cliff she is wonderful as the unwed mother this is heartbreaking stuff it's genuine and it's a little scary and more than just a cautionary tale I mean it's a real 21st century tragedy playing out all around us and it looks like things are going to get worse here in the real world David I mean the desperation quiet and otherwise is palpable and devastating in I Daniel Blake a great and important film by a great and important director the guy just turned 80 and he's making films as potent and moving and true as ever and the wake of some really good ones like the wind that shakes the barley which was I think 2006 which was about the Irish War of Independence Angel's Sare like a mix of comedy road movie buddy picking ensemble heist movie about going to a distillery tour in Scotland and trying to get your hands on a precious blend of whiskey that was one of his most recent films he does a lot of different things and he does them all well and you know God bless if there is a God Ken Loach nicely done handsome devil handsome devil is a much more minor film it's a coming of gauge story it's a contemporary story about a boy named Connor and a boy named Ned and Connor is a star athlete and the new kid at the private school where Ned attends who's constantly being bullied he's a bit of an outsider and they are thrust together as roommates and it's a an odd couple to be sure Connor is going to be a part of the rugby team at the school reveres the rugby team and the rugby coach who has given all this leeway with the students but in fact Connor has a secret and the secret is that he likes boys and all this is going to blow up in everybody's space eventually you can't help but think so so it works handsome devil works because the actors are terrific they commit the writer director John Butler knows the material and does some fresh things with it and again the performances are really get on Fiona Shea as Ned and Nicholas Gallipcine as Connor are they're just pitch perfect and Andrew Scott who most people know from the Sherlock TV show as Moriarty is in this as a really well-liked and enthusiastic teacher of English and writing and he himself is involved in the eventual problems that break out between Ned, Connor and the rest of the people at the school this is your cup of tea I think it'll probably be good on streaming you don't necessarily have to see it in the movie theater it does have a sweetness to it and you know you kind of root for these kids and I never felt that it was Mawkish which says a lot about a movie like handsome devil let's talk about Band-Aid Band-Aid is an American indie which is basically directed by written by and co-starring Zoe Lister Jones a pretty talented young woman who is paired with Adam Polly who's been in a number of TV series usually playing kind of a doofus and they are a couple that are embroiled in constant bickering their relationship is kind of falling apart and the one way they think they can maybe come together and get past the angst and sadness of where their marriage has been going is to start a band because they both love music so they recruit one of their neighbors as a drummer the neighbor by the way played by Fred Armisen and they begin performing and they write songs that express the problems that they're having things don't easily go away in terms of their relationship difficulties and they start wrapping everybody in their world into what they're dealing with and it gets kind of ugly Hannah Simone from New Girl Lovely, Lovely Actress is in this in a supporting role and also there's a little bit of supporting work from Suzy Essman she's going to be on the show in two weeks she's so not the character of your enthusiasm in Band-Aid she's much sweeter and nicer and this is a very impressive debut by Zoe Lister Jones it's well modulated it's never dull, it's always funny and charming and sweet and there's a real patina of realness about this showing 20-somethings or 30-somethings involved in the rock and roll world a husband and wife who are trying to get by it's a nice touch with Band-Aid working on a lot of different levels is it a great film? No but you actually by Tally and Lister Jones as the couple it's surprisingly good let's put it that way, I didn't expect a lot it was surprisingly good and finally Churchill well Churchill was the most disappointing of all these films that we're talking about today the great Brian Cox is portraying British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and if you're under the impression that it's a movie biography no, it's not really it's a kind of a docu-drama about only a few days in Churchill's life with a few flashes forward and back so it's a, shall we call this a ticking clock thriller these are the 24 hours before D-Day primarily and Churchill basically doesn't believe it's going to work and wants to postpone D-Day and as I understand it those are historically accurate circumstances and it's a scattershot docu-drama and it has the pleasures of its two leads Cox as Winston and Miranda Richardson as his wife Clementine Churchill it has that and it has a muddled script which revolves around Churchill's apparently waning instincts and faltering leadership potential possibly undermining the allies D-Day landing in Normandy this is a story we don't necessarily know about so I was kind of fascinated to see it only it was not anywhere near as exciting and as engaging as it should have been despite the skill of the actors by the way John Slattery from Mad Men placed white the eyes in how we're in this film not bad, pretty nice pretty cool and uh you know let's be honest about this um Cox like I said sets a high bar everything I've ever seen him in he's been great and he's wonderful in this it's just the script and the idea of just focusing on these few days undermines what could have been a more powerful film he told a colleague of mine that he was inspired in his characterization by family guys on the phone to Reeves, Stewie Griffin I'm not kidding really as Churchill? yes that can't, I love that but sure why not he actually said he told my friend Tim a fellow reviewer Michael Snyder is the resident film critic here great job we'll talk to you next week sir alright buddy for as little as $5 a month you can gain access to all our premium content we accept all major credit cards please go to David Feldman show dot com hit the go premium button and sign up you can gain access to all our premium content Andrew Goldstein's here hello sir hi David how are you very good last time you were here yes sir I wouldn't let you leave and you have a dog I do dusty and you had to get back to dusty because he needed to go outside I was worried that he would do-do in the apartment which he is prone to do sometimes but to my pleasure he I got home and he had not but I held you here for as long as I possibly can because you're a mensch I am and we're waiting for the great Lori Kilmartin yeah I love Lori she did my podcast sorry I've been so busy also tell me about sorry I've been so busy we talked to very busy people about what they are telling busy we talked to very busy people about what they're busy with or not so very not so busy people about what they're lying about busy being busy with I just butchered that four times and who do you host the show with Matt Goldich who is a writer for late night with Seth Meyers we were camp counselors together we were NBC pages together we started out in comedy in New York together and now we are co-hosts of a podcast are you competitive not no do you measure your career against him no he's a fantastic Joe he's double the joker writer I'll ever be are you capable of jealousy yes who are you jealous of say me David Feldman thank you you know it creeps in when you see somebody you started you're like man that guy's not that funny and he you know that person grabs a pretty good good gig mm-hmm but you kind of know like it's all confidence is it those guys some of the some of those people that annoys me when it's like they're not really they're not working with jokes they're just confident I think I just struck a nerve with Alex struck a nerve isn't it so how do you how can you survive as a joke writer off confidence eventually you have to sell it in the room these people are selling it in the room their ideas their pitches but on paper confidence won't catch any not necessarily joke writing but like some comedians that have landed some things it's a lot less so now because now I'm more on the producer side so now it's more people who are like selling shows and that you're doing you're doing international work for MTV I am indeed every other country but this one is airing my TV show called video it's a it's basically human beavis and butthead it's pairs of comedians in different living room setups watching new semi-new and old classic music videos and cracking wise are you giving them jokes yes we we write questions are we write questions for our producers in the room and the producers we do one full run through of the video that the comedians watch down without stopping and it's a stream of conscious whatever comes out of their mouth and