Don't Be Distracted by the Noise

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2:05This is the Tom Harbin Program. Gather up, whatever is glittering in the gutter, whatever is tumbled in the waves or fall in flames out of the sky. For it's not only our hearts that are broken, but the heart of the world as well, stitch it back together. Make a place where the day speaks to the night and the earth speaks to the sky. Whether we created God or God created us, it all comes down to this. In our imperfect world, we are meant to repair and stitch together. What beauty there is, stitch it with compassion and wire, see how everything we have made gathers the light inside itself and overflows. You're blessing.

3:07Thank you for being here. This is the Tom Harbin Program. I was Stuart Kassenbaum's poem, what do we need to stitch together? What do we need to celebrate? What is glittering? We will welcome calls that include asking you to be little journalists. What I mean by little journalists is to pay attention to the people who are doing work to make things better. So they occurred to me about the state of the media and how that is impacting and creating a doom loop in how we value things. Let me try to connect a couple of dots. As I've acknowledged before, not posting, hopefully not in shame, I have a sports fan. Senator Chris Murphy is also a sports fan. He joined a sports podcast to talk about gambling. And I enjoy this for Chris Murphy, smart guy.

4:10And he said, you know, we used to have an economy that valued profit, but it wasn't the only thing we valued. It wasn't the only thing the economy was for. In fact, we thought the reason for an economy was the reason for policy intersecting with an economy was to make people's lives better. And that profit is a metric of that, but it's not the whole deal. But if it's felt more and more over the last 20 years, last 40 years, then it's become sort of the whole deal. The example they use was youth sports. You got private equity firms owning youth sports leagues. And so parents aren't allowed to videotape and do live stream of the game. I shouldn't say videotape, that's old technology, but to sort of put up their phone and live stream the game so that their spouse can watch it, because they want you instead, they require to be illegal to do that, to be conscious of the contract with the private equity firm, because they have said, no, no, we want to sell you that streaming service.

5:15So not only are they making it sort of impossible to play sports just kind of recreationally for fun and have any chance of playing against other good players, because they recruit the best players. They convince parents to pay 5, 10 grand a season to participate in these sports leagues. By the way, it doesn't mean we're winning more gold medals. In the Winter Olympics, Northern European athletes were beating us who have far less competitive, far less brutal training practices as kids. The benefits for those training programs tend to be, not the kids, tend to be for the people who put on the training programs because they charge a bunch. And even in this place, like kids sports, which we thought maybe that's about developing kids, maybe that's about having fun, maybe it's about enjoying family, even in this place of kids sports, it is now, no, it is only to be evaluated by what profit can be extracted

6:17from it. And we're seeing it over and over. I see even now with betting markets, they call them, what, prediction markets, they're betting markets. I don't know how the stuff is all legal. With Kalshi and, let's say a little in polymarket, where you can bet on anything, including things that can be controlled or known by somebody who also could be betting. And combine that with cryptocurrency, so it's basically impossible to track and you have all user sports example, Yannitsan Sikompo, a player who I think is marvelous, is now a major shareholder in Kalshi. And one of the bets on that betting market is whether Yannitsan Sikompo will stay with him a walkie-bucks. There are people who can know that information.

7:18It's a small group of people, but there are people who can know that information. If you're betting on a game, that can create corruption too. Right? People say, well, I'll rig the game, but there's enough, you know, it's a little harder and at least nobody already knows the result unless they're really rigging the game. But Yannitsan Sikompo gets bet on that. He could bet on that, his agent could bet on that. And there's no clear regulation on how that should happen or how that shouldn't happen. And even if there were now with secret money, which somehow they were able to characterize as not money, it's called cryptocurrency, they're called Bitcoin, and yet they're able to win an argument in the modern crazy courts that it's not money, it's not currency. They call it money, they call it the Department of War, but they're saying it's excursion, I know, they meant incursion. It's crazy, it's crazy making.

8:22And that is one thing, what's making you crazy? That is one thing, and you have solutions for the making you crazy. I think there's bipartisan crazy. We can call it Trump derangement syndrome, either Trump's being deranged or Trump causing derangement to others, but it goes beyond that, he is a manifestation of the crazy as much I think as he is a cause of it. I think there's trans partisan crazy going on. So that's one theme for today is the crazy. What's driving us crazy? What's making you crazy? What's the solution of the crazy? But there's also one thing that's really, I know, one of the drivers. And I think we know this, which is now money is our God. We have questioned whether in the opening poem, do we create God or God create us? That's a lasting question.

9:23They're nonetheless, we yearn as humans to have focal points for moral and ethical agreement, focal points for shared understanding of the good, for our duty to one another. We yearn for that, we need it. We don't need it less if people think that the Bible or the Qur'an are not governing documents. We don't need it less. We arguably need it more because you don't have that crutch, you don't have that base book. If there's any doubt that money has become our God, look at what many of the leading preachers are talking about, they're talking about money. They're making tons of it. I don't mean the Pope, we've had two good, straight popes. I'm a recent Pope fan, doesn't mean I'm a rooter for all things Catholic, but I'm a recent Pope fan. But the televangelist, the internet evangelist, the religious influencer, when they're

10:32talking about the prosperity gospel, not about how it's easier for a camel to fit through an item needle than for a rich person to go to heaven. But in fact, that if you make more money, it is a sign that God loves you more or a sign that you love God more, that even the people who are supposed to be worshiping God, even there worshiping money, money's become our God. How do we, what should be values in addition to alongside, maybe even on top of money? How do we get some of those back? How do we make sure that's not only a partisan football? What's the government's role in morality beyond just making the dough? Did some of the questions I've got, it's crazy making. Maria from Philadelphia, how you doing Maria? Hi, I'm Jefferson, so I'm calling because I don't know if anyone thinks of it this way, but this whole voter suppression stuff that's actually probably been going on for decades.

11:33It's an insult and disrespectful to those of us citizens who pay taxes, do everything to help build this country, yet these people in these leadership roles, and really they're run by the extremely wealthy, right? They want to try to control everything when they're the one who don't pay taxes, they don't put anything they take, they don't put anything into this country, they just take from everyone here, and they're also the biggest wealth they're recipient. So basically what I'm saying is they want to use their money to do whatever the heck they want, but then they want to stop us from being able to say anything. That is like really, really insulting, demeaning, disrespectful, condescending, quite frankly, makes me extremely angry, apoplectic with rage, sometimes to a point where I was joking with someone saying it's stroke level, and in the meantime, you call up your representatives and there's some crappy ones here, like Warren, I'm in, and of course I'm talking about

12:34the repub party, which is really not any more in existence there, you know, Pasha's party, and they don't listen, it doesn't matter, because they do whatever, they do whatever they're orange, Stalin wants them to do. So, you know, I don't know people think about it that way, but when you think about it that way, it's like, how dare you, how do you try to stop people from voting who work hard and try to do everything to help this country? And then like what they're doing too, is like trying to stop mail-in voting, and if you think about people that the only way they can vote is through the mail, when an insult, someone who's elderly or sick, I mean, I can't, I'm really, I'm really fed up number one, number two, I'm also angry at the people that voted for this guy, I thought they weren't going to get anything out of it. They're ignorant. So, besides that, I did also wanted to add to you that I like when you talk to your father and makes me miss mine, your father's just, he's so cute. So, I don't know what your thoughts are on what I'm saying, but yeah, I mean, if you want to say something, please, Joe, sorry.

13:34All right, yeah, well, thank you so much for the call, here's, here's what I'll say. The first thing I heard you say, said a few things, the first thing I heard you say was that it is just respectful for people who are accumulating wealth and people who are running the current government as well as the media as well as the economy to then also try to make it harder for people to vote, exercise the franchise to actually rule the country as the people, to in fact, be we the people. Yeah, that's frustrating and it's more than disrespectful. There is the sort of apotheosis, maybe the most clear manifestation of this idea and it really is the thing that I think there needs to be a super majority of people in this country who resist this idea and it's the bad idea and the bad news is that some of the richest people that ever lived on earth are starting to share this idea and this is starting to be the fight. It was always the fight, but it's now more clearly the fight.

14:37Peter Tiel said, democracy is no longer, he's coming to the belief that democracy is no longer compatible with freedom, that's what he said, democracy is no longer compatible with freedom. After the music, I want to repeat that and I want to talk a little bit about it, it depends on one's definition of freedom and regardless almost of one's definition, what he said is terrifically scary. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news and highlights

15:39all in one place, download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. We are back, conversation during the break. Somebody said it is disrespectful for the people of great wealth, people who run the government, people who run the biggest corporations and employees is just respectful and maybe worse to suppress votes, to make it harder for people to exercise the franchise, to make it harder for democracy to function. I worry it's becoming more and more of the point and the most dangerous thing I saw and the most dangerous on many vectors was Peter Teele was quoted saying democracy is no longer compatible with freedom. And that idea, and I should let Peter Teele speak for himself if he wanted to expound

16:45upon that or maybe we don't want that, but that idea, first of all, depends on one's definition for freedom. There has been a conflation, a misunderstanding between freedom and power. It is free if I'm allowed to walk about freely. That is freedom. If I'm allowed to make an utterance, that is freedom. If I'm allowed to pray or not pray, that is freedom. I'm allowed to travel somewhere, that is freedom. Holding something, keeping people from using the thing that I am owning, imposing rules upon that ownership or imposing rules through that ownership so that I can wield more, possess more, that's not freedom, that's power. Now, allowing for people to wield power, that can also be a good thing.

17:47Power can be useful. I would say power is a neutral thing, I would say freedom is a good, power is a neutral. Power is a good when it's good power, when it's power doing good things. And we don't want to unnecessarily fatter power that's doing good things, but power also has probably merits reasonable limits. And if it's doing bad things, it should be cabined. Much of the modern right-wing movement, much of the modern capital fundamentalist movement, libertarian fundamentalist movement is when they get it wrong, it's when they're getting the difference wrong between freedom or power. And I don't think they're just making a mistake, right? They're wanting power, they're only protecting power, they're wanting to keep their power from being limited, and therefore they call it freedom, because freedom is a good, and

18:52we all want freedom. There's almost nothing better than being a freedom fighter, but if you're just a power fighter, if you're just trying to hold on to your own power, it's a very different thing. So that's something we got to be screaming for the rooftops. Every time somebody says, I said, no, no, you're talking about freedom. You're talking about being able to harness enough economic power, so you can do the things that you want to do, but that means buying stuff, using laws to keep people from infringing upon that power upon the thing that you have put a barrier around, where I wouldn't be allowed to talk on that thing, or I wouldn't be allowed to walk across that thing, or I wouldn't be allowed to use that thing. It's your ability to limit somebody else's freedom, unless they pay you a sum, and that can be useful power. That's the merits of an exchange system, but it's different than freedom. It's not the same as freedom. Another thing that came up was, what do we think about?

19:53Well, the Republicans, the current, the Magah movement doesn't really exist, will just do what the orange man says. That operationally is true, but I also want to say to my fellow pro-democracy advocates out there, don't just fixate on the Trump thing. It's critically important, I don't want to undermine it, but recognize network propaganda rules them all. When Trump has gone, things will change, when he's not in the White House, things will change, when he's gone further than that, things will change. It's important that that change is made. But the network propaganda had to be a high-banker from the book that came out of MIT and Harvard, that looked at the echo chamber that has become, he called it network propaganda rather than communications cult, because network propaganda sounds like more like the thing you'd come out of MIT and Harvard with. But if you called it communications cult, it would be just as accurate and maybe a little more understandable.

20:54Basically, if you say things in alignment with communications cult, with the network propaganda, then you are rewarded, you get to be part of the play the reindeer games, you get to be spread around, bounced around on Twitter, et cetera. If you don't, you don't, you're just dismissed, either attacked or dismissed. The cult picks the leader as much as the leader guides the cult. If somebody tried to step into the cult leader's shoes and say, hey, let's not exactly be a cult, let's do something else, that leader wouldn't be the leader anymore. So when we're here, and we're working for Pro-Democracy, it is not only working against a particular leader, although that's important, it's working against that network propaganda. It's trying to work towards a place of real freedom, and not just misnomer freedom, disguising power, including bad power. We back. I'm from News with my dad, I'm sure we talk about the news with my dad, and on the air, live.

22:00Playing the role of my dad is, in fact, my dad, Joe Smith, the paper towel king, Pop, do you have a shout out? I have two shout outs. Do I get music or do I just go for it? You know, if you want me to sing, but that's, I mean, you got to take the good with the bad man. I love it when you sing. Shout it, shout it, shout it out now. We used to see, we did this before, we did it on a music station, we paid all kinds of music, licensing, et cetera, and so we would have access to all these little songs, and we'd have these songs. Now, we have as me, and all of you get the benefit of the fees that you pay me to sing, which is to say, I think none of you pay any fees to hear me sing. And therefore, I think of it as an inflection, an excursion as much as I think of it as a benefit. But all right, Pop, who's your shout out to? Two shout outs. Number one, I'm shouting out for Sarah Malely, who yesterday on her,

23:06one day before her 64th birthday, she turned 64 today, was anointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman ever to hold that post, and also the first time a former head of a major public agency in Great Britain became the Archbishop of Canterbury, no small thing, and then the other one? I didn't even know that was allowed. I did not know that was allowed until just now. Yeah, and not really news, but 65 years ago today, I would like to shout out for the Tugalu 9, who were nine black college students who went into a library seeking books that were not available in the black only library, and were arrested for disturbing the peace, and were found guilty, and sentenced to a hundred dollar fine, which in 61

24:08was a pretty healthy fine, and given 30 days in jail, in my lifetime, I think that they were wonderful people to take that chance. Dad, do you have any flights scheduled? Are you planning on visiting the airport? Or do you just want to visit the airport for fun? So you can just like play music to the lines that are gathering, hoping someday they might be able to take their flight. Actually, it's important that apparently it's still not too bad, but no, I do not have any present plans, although I do have plans in July, and that the way things are going, things maybe did not only as bad but worse. Do we have information? I'm googling it real quick. We have information about where the worst airports are. It looks like Houston is experiencing the worst airport delays, up to 47% of TSA staff called out.

25:08Houston is the big one, and if I understand correctly, your spouse was lucky to get through Houston in less than two hours day before yesterday. Yeah, but she's quick and then fly. She's just crafty. In fact, did I say this on the, I think I did, when she said something, yes, I know I did. She said something out loud, you know, we had in fact even had a discussion last week about what are the best things to say out loud in airports as you're waiting in a line, right? Something like, wow, sure glad we voted for Republicans, wow, sure glad that Trump's president sounds like he's got a real good handle on air traffic controllers. That was before we'd had a chance to talk about the horrible air traffic controller crash. Is that LaGuardia where the airplane ran into the fire truck and there was only apparently one air traffic controller because they've been botching that. I'm just saying that. It's been a while now. This guy's had a couple of cracks Saturday. He was president for four years, starting in 2016 and four years then.

26:10And then the American people said not anymore and then he came back again. And that's we've now had two cracks. We had a real look at this guy. I'm not sure he's that good president. I mean, oh, you know, second chance is generally, I think, or a pretty good thing, but this guy's had his second chance and I think it doesn't seem like he's doing better in his second chance. Well, from his standpoint, he's doing better because he is accelerating the rush of the federal government to an authoritarian rather than a democratically elected former government. And I'd like to just mention lots of news about the corruption, the corruption of his administration. One beautiful example yesterday, which isn't getting a lot of news, but is in my mind, is just representative of how bad they are. Michael Flynn, who was convicted of federal crime because he pled guilty to it,

27:19then Trump pardoned him and then he sued the government alleging wrongful prosecution. Remember, this is to a crime he was charged with to which he pled guilty. He sued the federal government. If that got to a trial, it was going to be dismissed by a judge without any evidence. If the judge did let it go to a jury, the jury would have laughed at the idea that somebody who pled guilty to something could say that he was wrongfully prosecuted. Yesterday, the federal government through the Department of Justice, which now has become Donald private law firm, agreed to pay him off. Talk about corruption. Our tax dollars going to Michael

28:23Flynn. Another example of the corruption there, a very, very curious thing that a guy named that Mark Wayne Mullin, who just has been sworn into the cabinet of Donald Trump, just a few days before Trump sent the troops in to arrest Maduro in Venezuela, bought Chevron and conical Phillips stock. What's good timing? Here is thing about them. They happen to be the two big oil companies that have the biggest footprint in guess where. I mean, it couldn't be, it couldn't be that big. You couldn't be saying Venezuela. I'm afraid that's what I'm saying. What a coincidence.

29:25I mean, these are lucky, lucky people. Some people just born under lucky star and like good things happen to them because they pray. It's probably because they pray. It's probably because they donate to their prosperity, gospel preacher, a bunch. They plant those seeds and the seeds come back to coincidental gains in the stock market based on just lucky timing. Something like that, right? I think that's the point you're making. Let's not exact on court stuff. On court stuff, there might have been a little bit of adventure. Oh, you think they might have, they might have done the calcium, they might have done the polymarket, they might have done the other side of the copo, not saying the honest to do in that, they might have done the like that. Hey, we're going to, we're going to bet on this thing that we have some influence over or at least knowledge of. Yep. Now, I would like to pose a real challenge to our listeners to address. I think they're up to it. Well, there's a difficult

30:26issue of transgenders in women's sports. And the reason I say that. Hey, transgender people pop, I don't think you could have asked at the end. Today, the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, ruled that friends, gender, women cannot participate in women's events in the Olympics. And that women are going to have to be gender tested to show that they can compete. We're going to break. We're right back. It's the Tom Hartman program. It says Tom Hartman program, Susan, my dad will be right back with news in my dad after this. Finish your thought, pop. I actually still, I had another court question. I know the court

31:27stuff question I wanted to ask you about, but finish your, finish your point if you hadn't. Well, I'm just aware of how tough that is. And I continue to think that the solution is to have a transgender section for women's sports so that, so that transgenders are competing against each other. Transgender people pop. I don't think it's transgenders. That's right. You can say the whites because you are one. You can say, well, the whites are going to do a thing, but even that, but if you put anything else with an S at the end, you're probably, it's probably on tender, footed ground. Anything just with an S at the end is probably, you can say whites because it's kind of funny, right? Dave Chappelle says whites, but he also says he might say transgenders. Another issue that I would be really interested to hear the listeners chime in on is how do we address criticizing Israel, criticizing what Israel is doing in Iran and Lebanon and in Gaza and especially

32:36in the West Bank, without being accused of being anti-Semitic. That this isn't anything against people who identify as Jews. That is a real challenge, and I think the challenge is made greater because APAC, the lobbying of organization in the United States, does their best to equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism? I'll get an answer here. I'll say, I think here's one of the most important things, and people who know me well enough understand, this is my move in a lot of ways, in a lot of spheres, okay? It's Paul Wellstone's, I don't complain organized, that phrase could even be used here. One of the most important things needed to happen in Israel is the development and growth of pro-social, pro-democracy, pro-peace civil infrastructure within Israel,

33:36and that the organization that is needed, that I believe that there are lovers of Israel, lovers of the Jewish community in this country, in the same way we send the United States money to support Israel through APAC, we need an alternative to APAC, we need another organization that is supporting the Jewish community, supporting Israel, supporting not just Bebe Netanyahu, not supporting just Israeli efforts at military, military bellicacity, if that is not a redundancy, and that that rebirth of a more compassionate civil society within Israel, which absolutely exists in Israel, supporting that, an alternative to me, that has got to be the only move, so there's a way to direct one support for the Jewish community that isn't just supporting Netanyahu and waging of war, that to me is the best answer I got. There are people in Wall Street, there are people

34:37I know that care about that, and I have close, close Jewish friends who ask that, it's very same question you've got, and I'm sort of stealing from them, it's like I want it from their sense, I want it something that I can support that manifests my faith, manifest my culture, manifest love for my people, and also manifest love for people at large, I mean that's just critical, critical, critical. I wanted to ask you, if you saw, we can do it right after this music, but I wanted to see if you saw the jury verdict around Zuckerberg and Google on the social media, all right bring it up right after music, we'll be right back. News of my Dad, here on the Hartman Show, I'm Jeff Smith, your show Pop. Yes, $375 million in the New Mexico case, the jury decided that Zuckerberg at all ought to pay, but I think there was the same day, another potentially more important judgment on that,

35:46where a single young lady was awarded $3 million by a jury for dicting her to social media, and the reason I suggest that is really significant, because the $3 million dramatic is a drop in the bucket, but there are more than one person, but there's still, there's still is going to be a hearing on punitive damages and punitive damages could be significant, but the more significant thing is that this establishes a precedent that allows the issue to go to a jury, and there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of lawsuits standing in the wings wanting to make the same allegation, which over time could be much bigger than what happened in New Mexico. This is about as big as it gets, this is one of the most important stories, think about it like

36:49tobacco, but way bigger and arguably worse, where tobacco is killing people, killing people, and the courts at least, courts plus culture helped, but the court cases helped impact the culture, at least helped impact what was happening with statements and advertising, etc. It didn't just happen on its own. The tobacco companies knew that tobacco was causing cancer well before tobacco companies were willing to say so, in fact, well before they were willing not just to lie about it, the social media organizations have known that they are dicting people, they've known it for a long time, and instead of doing less of it, they've done more of it. Instead of saying that's a bug, they said that's a feature, that's the good stuff, that's engagement, okay. If there is the ability to do real tort lawsuits that are actually big enough and impactful enough to impact the behavior of social media companies, that's a big big deal, could save the American brain, could save American democracy, it's a big big deal. For people who have seen the social dilemma, you know what I'm

37:51talking about, it's a documentary, if you haven't, you should see social dilemma. It's among the biggest things going on, and the question and the things to watch are what will happen on appeal, what jurisdictions will allow it, what will happen in Congress or not to try to stop that, what might the Supreme Court do or not do. To me, this is not the very beginning, but pretty still close to the very beginning of this fight, and it's one of the things to watch, and I do think if there's another progressive movement in this country, I mean, I mean, one of the scale of 115 years ago that really transforms American politics a little bit, this will be one of the key issues. How will the big social media companies, how will the big tech giants be held to account for harms that they cause? If they're able to manipulate the current power structure to keep from accountability, then there needs to be a mass uprising in order to hold them accountable, to make sure that we have the power structures in place that can hold them accountable. And now that I've said

38:51that out loud, I'm probably screwed because they're probably watching and listening to everything. Go ahead, Pop. I once again propose that there be a regular feature of this program of DDT depravity. Donald, you're still trying to get the DDT thing to go. You only got a few more years where he's not allowed to be president anymore, but go ahead. What's the, what are your things that we've got to do? Is that he, of course, was very upset when Joe Kent resigned saying that he didn't have a legitimate reason for going attacking Iran and suggesting that the reason he did it was because he is being led around by the nose by BB Nanyahu, but he went after Joe Kent for remarrying after his first wife died by suicide. The guy, the guy has absolutely no shame.

39:55No, I want to, one of his superpowers is shamelessness. Dad, I want to spit one out and then you got to do your strong the wind. The thing that I am shouting to the universe to pay attention to is understanding what's happening in the White House right now, connecting the dots between Brexit, between crypto, between Trump, between the invasion of Iran, between the resistance to supporting Ukraine as a tax on America. And the thing I was talking about before, thinking about inversion, thinking about the Charlie Munger, the Warren Buffett's partners theory of the way is practice, and figuring out how to understand what you want to do is figure out the ways that you destroy something and then not do those things. If you wanted to destroy America, if you wanted to hurt America, if you wanted to undermine America, you wanted to weaken America's power, if you're an enemy to America, one of the most important things, maybe the most important thing you could do is eliminate the dollar as the global reserve currency. Okay, and I've said this over and over again and people have got to understand it, it's critically important to connect so many of these dots.

40:56And sure enough, in Morningstar right now, which is by the way no lefty, no lefty communication, there is a headline how the Iranian war may lead to the last days of the petrodollar explaining that one of the primary reasons that the dollar is the global reserve currency is the main method of transacting business in the world is because it is the preferred money for shipping energy, for shipping oil. The invasion of Iran could change that, they're working on changing that right now that could be the biggest move. But why would we do this? What's the motivation? I'm telling you, one of the main motivations for us doing this is to undermine America generally, also to undermine the dollar as the global reserve currency. It's one of the big attacks on America and people got to understand that's what's going on. If you are all a patriot, if you disagree with me, I don't want to be right to choose. If you disagree with me on the role of middle class, if you think climate change is a hoax, you got to at least, I hope that some of that, you preserves within you or

41:59is still living within you, is love for America, dad, sorry, strong the wind quickly. Run the wind. Canada is recruiting healthcare professionals from the United States over 400 from our state Oregon are moving to Canada because they there can practice medicine without having to deal with the huge amount of paperwork demanded by healthcare state. That's a significant straw in the wind. Love you, pop. It's good to talk to you. Appreciate you. Love you too, lad. See you tonight. Just try Bob, Bob from Raisin, Texas. Hello, Bob. Howdy, Jess and smart listeners out there. The truck chickened out again with with the war and all that. But the crazy for the day for me is actually it's been pretty much since Trump got back in has been the range Trump syndrome. I don't

43:05say Trump the rangeman syndrome because it's not us. It's him. You want to flip the world. That's interesting. You're right. Yeah, flip it over. The range Trump syndrome and the only way to fight it is to turn him off, you know, and don't listen to any media that's putting him on there and to talk over things that are very important. You know, like gas prices. I have an update for local gas prices here in South Texas for y'all. Yep. And they're 346 for best price run, let it right now. And would like to remind everyone that whatever the price of gas is, it's much higher than it used to be before he started it. So I'm putting my stickers on still and recommend that everyone else feels out and get some crump. I did that stickers and put them on their gas pump. If your message lasts for at least the first few customers that see the gas pump after you. Oh, yeah. No, that's a good one. That's a good one, Bob. I like it. That's a good one. Mark from Valley

44:09Washington, you're up. Here's the thing with the when it comes to this Peter Keel and his freedom. The problem is is freedom to them is two different words, all right? Us to subhumans because they don't consider us on the same level as human beings as them. Freedom to them is the ability to subjugate, use, exploit, kill if necessary, us and the environment for them to gain power and profit. And that's the only thing that they mean by freedom. Yeah. No, and who is it? The Palantir guy said that the only the only people who have a meaningful role in the AI era, why am I forgetting to palantir Stephen Carp, so his name. So the only people who have a meaningful role in the AI era will be the people who who are sort of manual laborers and the neurodivergent. What he said, manual labor is the neurodivergent. There is a growing degree of neurodivergence

45:14within the upper echelons of wealth and setting aside questions of mental health. The computer class, the ownership class over the robots, how well does that map to compassion, how well does that map to our shared values of country, how well does that map to making sure that human needs are taken care of, how well does that map to the general population. These are questions that I've really got. But Mark, I appreciate the call. Last word for you. I'm just, I'm really fed up with the fact that these billionaires get to tell me how to live. Yeah, and they can tell you in lots and lots of ways, including ways you don't even notice, because they run the algorithms that are running our brains. Elon Musk loved Democrats when he was getting money and liked government when he was getting money building his wealth, and I just get in my building his wealth. That was the boring company. I was Tesla. That was their charging

46:19stations, building his wealth, building his historically large financial empire on government programs and tax credits. But as soon as there started being limitations, as soon as there started being places about that that really made him grumpy, and who knows what involvement of sort of Epstein-Files etc might have also been able to be held over on him to persuade him to go otherwise, or how much it was Peter Teal's influence, right? They both came out of the PayPal Mafia. We may never know, but then he went hard, and he went hard and put in a quarter billion dollars, put in more than anybody's ever put into an election to help Trump win. And yeah, anybody, I mean, here's a thing, like you break it, you buy it. One thing that I think we can all say to our public and friends and family members is, all right, y'all are in charge.

47:20And what's too far and what things should change, and you can't blame it on the left, that's not the problem at this point, right? The problem, they run the whole, they run the whole deal. I do want to say something about airports. The airports are crazy. The airports are crazy. There's been a clean TSA funding resolution that Democrats have put forth multiple times, that if the Republicans wanted to fund the TSA, they could do it in a second. They could do it in a second, but they want to hold that over and say, no, no, we don't want to fund TSA. We only want to do it if we can also get everything that we want for ice. And if we don't have any reforms, and for the people who want Chuck Schumer to stand strong, who were grumpy with him when he

48:20didn't maintain the shutdown last year, this is a time for you to be heard. Do you want Democrats to continue to stand strong and require reforms? They haven't moved to the ball. They've been very clear to say, they've got to be ice reforms. I get rid of ice, but they've got to be ice reforms. How about fewer masks, and how about some justification for use force, and how about using some due process of law? It's some basic reforms. Before, we just hand them, hand the new Christian home a bunch of money. And if you want, do you think that Chuck Schumer should stand strong? Does this movement have the fortitude to stand by a congressional negotiator, who is standing up for the things that the base of voters was communicating? That's a question I've got. It's so easy to be the money-mortem quarterback. The reason it's a money-mortem quarterback,

49:24not a Sunday afternoon quarterback, because you get sort of hindsight, right? It's easy afterwards, sort of criticize elected or unelected, well, let's say elected leadership. But what do we think should be happening now? I do want to bring up the airport thing, because it's just, there are people who haven't, seven hour waits. Seven hour waits. I mean, it's the longest waits in history. The longest waits in history. TSA agents have gone a month and a half without pay. And all the problems that have to do with funds are just say, sure, some fun TSA agents. They can do either of two things, either of two things. They get fun TSA agents, and that's that. And keep having the fight over Homeland Security and over ICE. Just keep having that fight, but get TSA agents funded. They can do that, or they can just, let's have some modest reforms. And I'm telling you, Democrats would probably go for pretty modest reforms, but they can't go home to their constituents and say, oh, yeah, we voted to fund ICE. That's going to be fine. Do whatever you want. They can't do that. They just can't do that. And they can't do that because it's immoral, and they can't do it because the politics won't let them do it. So what do you want it to do? But to be clear, the Republicans only have to do either one of those things, and it'll be there.

50:29Bill from Morgantown, Indiana, you're on the air. Yeah, Jefferson, thanks for taking my call. I wanted to ask you a question, and this is not a rhetorical question, but I know I was watching. I think with Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota last week, talking about, you know, this registration process. And there's two things I've noticed about this. Most people are talking about passports. I don't know, but so many people myself have them. Yeah, but she was talking about how difficult it was to get a birth certificate in Minnesota. So I went to my normal chat, G-D-T, and put it in. The only people who probably could not get a birth certificate in Minnesota easily would probably be like a Helen Keller type face. You need to get on the phone, you do it, mail, go in person. She was talking about a two-day thing, obviously, on the courthouse. Bill, what's the problem you're wanting to solve?

51:33Well, the problem I'm going to solve is this. I don't agree with the safety act, and totally, then why do the immigrants pick something like voter ID of the hilded aisle? Oh, I mean, I mean, it's, Democrats didn't pick this. Republicans picked it because they wanted fewer people to vote. Stay on the phone. We can talk about it. Our Republican caller went away. I wanted to talk to him about it. Hopefully, you're still listening. But to be very clear, Democrats not pick this hilded fight or die on. Republicans decided they wanted to make voter ID a thing, not because it was a problem. It has been reported over and over and over and over again. We do not have a problem in this country of too many people who shouldn't be voting voting. That's not the problem we have. We never have. I work in voter registration. The problem we have is making sure voting is easy enough that it fits within people's schedules enough so that people can exercise the franchise. That's the problem. That's the thing we should be working on. I would fight and die on that hill every day for the rest of my life, making it so

52:38that people can actually run this country so that people are actually in charge so that our republic can actually be a republic so our country can approach in sensible ways something akin to a little bit of a democracy. That, to me, is the tide for the most important fight there is. I hope Democrats fight and die on that. The primary blocks that I saw when we were working to make it easy, we were trying to do voting centers, same day registration, make it easier for people to be able to raise their families, do their jobs, and vote. Okay, all of those things. Take care of their personal life, take care of their family, take care of their professional life, and participate in democracy. We just make how we participate in democracy. The blocks we saw came from conservatives who didn't really want more people participating. The drive for voter ID was not a drive to try to make democracy better because it wasn't a relationship to a real problem.

53:42It wasn't a relationship to a bunch of people saying, I'm not supposed to, but I'm going to get in there and vote. That's not probably half. One of the reasons I don't have that is it's already a felony to do that. It's already a felony to do that. That has been plenty strong. The question why Republicans pick that hill to die on, but I think it's pretty obvious and I think it's pretty transparent. And I think that's even why, as you acknowledge you're not a big fan of the SAVE Act, even why a bunch of Republicans aren't that big a fan of it because they kind of see through it. It's not really the, it's not really transparent. It's not really about what it's supposed to be about. And what they did was they pulled tests. It's, oh, well, yeah, you should have to get a, you have to get an idea. It doesn't sound too bad. We shouldn't require that and necessarily other things in our life, but let's require here. Why is it different than other things? Because why is it driving? Because driving isn't a fundamental thing. Driving isn't

54:44a constitution. People being in charge, I think that's the point of the constitution. I think that's the point of the governance of this country. There's a people being in charge. So it's only put barriers in the way of them being able to do it. If it's necessary, if there's a justifiable reason and only justifiable reason is the bunch of hogwash, I think that's the fight anyway. Democrats didn't pick the hill that hill to fight and die on, but I hope that any political party that I'm willing to support, and I would hope that any political party y'all are willing to support, would fight and die on the idea that people are supposed to be in charge and let's remove rather than put barriers in place to allow them to do that. There are already so many, there are already so many barriers to participation. Information barriers, factual barriers, power barriers, the fingers crossed, people go to Washington, do you see and do things that are beneficial to the people and not just their donors, the state of the media, actually with

55:47a tenuticative view, I just want to get together and talk about things so many barriers. Let's fight and die on the hills and tear down barriers and put it more up. Heck yes. And we're back. Let's go straight to your calls, Alan, for the out of Washington, you are on the air. Hey, good morning Jefferson. Hey there. I like to go back to your power. There you go. And your account on me, the statements earlier. I'm a union member. I've been a union member since late 1970s. Thank you for that. You willing to go? Do you want to say what union? You don't have to align it to theatrical stage employees. Fantastic. Keep going. I have to, I don't have to, yeah. Oh yeah. The benefit of being a member of a union, first, you get to participate in democracy because you attend a union meeting and you have a vote. And that is the most basic form.

56:52And you get that tell, you know, you get to tell your union how to run things. And the only way that we can offset the capital of the owners is by organizing, by coming together because yeah, you know, I'm strongly independent. I'm going to work for myself. And yada yada yada. But what you get is you tell yourself the one employer and you go where he tells you to do what he tells you to do. And, you know, down, down the safety, down the, down the wages, down your benefits. I mean, the best way for anybody to go up against the entrenched oligarchs is to come together. What do you think? No kings is going to be about it. We're saying, no, we're getting together. And you can work better together to solve the problem. And, you know, and we know that the oligarchs and the billionaires are creating these problems.

57:56No, I appreciate it. And it's an important reminder. Thank you for your union participation. Thank you for this phone call. And that basic idea that spawn the union movement of getting people together in groups. So because that collective power can balance other kinds of power. And that's, you know, that it's a more than 100-year-old, more than 120-year-old, more than 150-year-old fight. I mean, that's kind of what we're doing. That's what democracy needs to be. Yeah. And whether we do it through collective bargaining or do it through shared ownership, we've got to, we've got to be convening. We've got to be convening in order to, in order to decide together. So somebody doesn't decide separately. Any, any last word, Alan? Yeah. Yeah. I really hate it that the tax code favors capital over labor. Yeah. I get charged an incredible amount of money, you know, for the, for my labor. But, you know, here's Kristen Cinnamon. Oh, no, no, those hedge fund operators. We can't charge them. You know,

58:57their take home pay is, you know, as a wage. We have to, we have to give them a big benefit of it out. So they're paying 15 percent maybe. And I'm paying 28 percent. And it's like, you know, you've got to vote. You've got to get out there and vote. If you don't want to, you know, have the tax system against you, vote. Someone put it in, you know, put in someone who's going to vote in your favor. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate the call. Ron, your last call to go ahead. Thanks, Jefferson. I think the Trump sign that that would be the best is Trump worships the golden calf. All right. Ron, I appreciate it. I don't want to thank you to everybody for listening. And I very much enjoyed being with you. And then Tom comes back, enjoyed it so much, being with you. I'll enjoy it again. Thank you for all the wisdom that was spent today. The work that you all are doing, that effort to build and find community, said this

59:58before I'll say it again. Aristotle said three kinds of friendship, friends of pleasure, friends of mutual benefit, friends of the good, the highest form of friendship or friends of the good. That's why we're doing this. We need more friends of the good, democracy's only chance. Certainly it's best chance. You are the coalition of an evidently irrational, the good people do good things for no good reason. And with you, democracy is possible and you're priceless. Definitely priceless with a lot, not for sale. Thanks the team here. Thanks to you. Thanks, everybody who supports this show. Be well, everybody. You've been listening to Tom Hartman for audio and video archives. Visit Tom Hartman.com. Before you begin your road trip, ask yourself, do you really need five full suitcases?

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