Speaker 1: It's 7 o'clock.
Speaker 1: Do you know where your freedom is?
Speaker 1: And we're back, as if we haven't been on
Speaker 1: break?
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, as you can tell or probably
Speaker 1: know, this is a me and you episode, which
Speaker 1: are always shorter, but the break is over.
Speaker 1: Here we are Seven years going,
Speaker 1: congressional length breaks aside, seven
Speaker 1: years of psychosemantic yeah, I guess I
Speaker 1: just wanted to say you're still here since
Speaker 1: then.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and if you've shown up along the
Speaker 1: way, also thank you, and I hope you've had
Speaker 1: good fortune since we last spoke.
Speaker 1: If I don't edit them all out, you will hear
Speaker 1: the remnants of a cough.
Speaker 1: That was not COVID, that seemed to take
Speaker 1: forever to go away.
Speaker 1: But for the most part I have spent my time
Speaker 1: away just focusing on other parts of my
Speaker 1: life.
Speaker 1: I think I had already mentioned that I've
Speaker 1: been working at the Art Museum.
Speaker 1: I've been doing more of that, still keeping
Speaker 1: up with the world and hyperfixating on all
Speaker 1: the things that are going on.
Speaker 1: Now it is time to kick off the cobwebs and
Speaker 1: shake out the dust and scrape off the rust.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just because I've had I've been
Speaker 1: doing some working on myself, but I feel
Speaker 1: like not.
Speaker 1: The things aren't dark, but I kind of feel
Speaker 1: like one of the reasons why there was the
Speaker 1: little gap was because I feeling in a dark
Speaker 1: place.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's over, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's frustrating, but I had always
Speaker 1: planned on taking periodic breaks to
Speaker 1: recharge and stuff from the unhealthy
Speaker 1: amount of attention I pay to local and
Speaker 1: global politics, but I never really did for
Speaker 1: more than a few weeks at a time.
Speaker 1: As far as fact checkers, you know what to
Speaker 1: do, but in the time that my life had me
Speaker 1: busy in other places and other ways, I
Speaker 1: tried to shed some of that and so hopefully,
Speaker 1: if you were feeling that too, hopefully
Speaker 1: there's a noticed difference.
Speaker 1: I wanted to say that here we are in the
Speaker 1: January of the 2024 American election cycle.
Speaker 1: I was trying to look back.
Speaker 1: Seven years ago, the global gag rule was
Speaker 1: reinstated by the Trump administration that
Speaker 1: foreign organizations that receive USAID
Speaker 1: cannot have anything to do with abortion,
Speaker 1: including mentioning the word or providing
Speaker 1: women with information, even when the
Speaker 1: organization used their own non-US money to
Speaker 1: do so.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if we want to go down that
Speaker 1: way, but seven years ago they were still
Speaker 1: trying to decide whether or not fucking
Speaker 1: moron Betsy DeVos could be the education
Speaker 1: secretary.
Speaker 1: We saw how that went.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, maybe just to say seven years ago,
Speaker 1: shit was really fucked up and I feel like
Speaker 1: not necessarily people who are here and
Speaker 1: definitely I don't think anybody that is
Speaker 1: actually listening to this specific talk
Speaker 1: but a lot of other people were just
Speaker 1: starting to notice how drastically it seems
Speaker 1: funny to say, but like how drastically
Speaker 1: major world events could affect their lives.
Speaker 1: But that was something that seemed, at
Speaker 1: least in my online sphere and in some of my
Speaker 1: personal sphere, that seemed to be the case,
Speaker 1: and so I think there was a lot of focus
Speaker 1: here on suffering together and rallying to
Speaker 1: fight back the floods, and a lot of
Speaker 1: uncertainty and a lot of comforting and a
Speaker 1: lot of civic education and things like that,
Speaker 1: and that, of course, tapered out to its
Speaker 1: level that it is now, but I feel like it's
Speaker 1: always been the same show.
Speaker 1: Just that's the way I am, or that's the way
Speaker 1: I do things.
Speaker 1: Hyper focus on a handful of things, in no
Speaker 1: particular order, but, as per usual,
Speaker 1: there's most likely going to be a person
Speaker 1: talking with me, the movies being covered
Speaker 1: and other things like that.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 1: I've been given homework assignments by my
Speaker 1: little dude and when I started comparing
Speaker 1: the Avatar like James Cameron or the movie
Speaker 1: and video game Avatar, not Airbender stuff.
Speaker 1: When I started drawing all kinds of
Speaker 1: comparisons between Israel and Palestine, I
Speaker 1: kind of thought that it would be a time to,
Speaker 1: yeah, really make the time to start these
Speaker 1: conversations back up again, and there have
Speaker 1: been some talks already started about what
Speaker 1: the next movie covered on the show should
Speaker 1: be.
Speaker 1: I know that some of there's a lot of
Speaker 1: cross-platforming amongst shows, but for
Speaker 1: those who didn't hear my traditional my
Speaker 1: annual crime documentary series that I do
Speaker 1: over on podcasts under the stairs with
Speaker 1: Duncan and the people that are here also
Speaker 1: who were or are listeners to the VD Clinic
Speaker 1: pod with Vanessa, I had said that we had
Speaker 1: recently touched base and that she's doing
Speaker 1: well and but there's not any talk right now
Speaker 1: about that starting back anytime soon, not
Speaker 1: saying that it's over or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but it hasn't come up.
Speaker 1: We've just been talking as the friends that
Speaker 1: we are.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, just doing therapy and some
Speaker 1: decent political wins.
Speaker 1: Here in Ohio, we, the Years-long fight for
Speaker 1: reproductive and abortion rights.
Speaker 1: We voted in protections into the state
Speaker 1: constitution, which was drastically opposed
Speaker 1: by the people who claimed to want less
Speaker 1: government in people's lives and they
Speaker 1: suggested that it be not a constitutional
Speaker 1: amendment but more like a citizen's ballot
Speaker 1: initiative, like the legalized recreational
Speaker 1: marijuana that we also voted in.
Speaker 1: But the thing is they're still trying to
Speaker 1: fuck with the constitutional amendment,
Speaker 1: seeing if they can take the power away from
Speaker 1: the courts to enforce it, even though the
Speaker 1: amendment specifically says that the courts
Speaker 1: are the final arbiter of it, of the
Speaker 1: protection clauses, but they are trying to
Speaker 1: see what they can do with passing
Speaker 1: legislation that says that the courts don't
Speaker 1: get to decide, that the legislature gets to
Speaker 1: decide.
Speaker 1: And also they pointed towards why don't you
Speaker 1: do it like the marijuana bill?
Speaker 1: They are trying to change that in so many
Speaker 1: ways.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of backlash against both,
Speaker 1: but so that's been.
Speaker 1: I've been watching that, but as it is right
Speaker 1: now, when it becomes fully as of December
Speaker 1: 7th 2023, both went into effect, but
Speaker 1: they're still trying to get cases
Speaker 1: overturned that have to do with the
Speaker 1: abortion and contraception rights and it's,
Speaker 1: from what I can tell, it's sort of like
Speaker 1: when John Travolta is talking about
Speaker 1: Amsterdam at the beginning of Pulp Fiction.
Speaker 1: But it's legal to recreationally have weed
Speaker 1: in Ohio, but the only dispensaries that are
Speaker 1: open are the medicinal dispensaries and you
Speaker 1: can't get anything there without
Speaker 1: prescription, like so many of us are
Speaker 1: fortunate to have, and the clause that said
Speaker 1: that people over 21 are allowed to grow
Speaker 1: their own went into effect, but there's no
Speaker 1: legal way to have the seeds, since the
Speaker 1: medical dispensaries don't have the seeds
Speaker 1: and there are no.
Speaker 1: So it's a bit of a weird limbo.
Speaker 1: They are talking about that all being up
Speaker 1: and running by September of 2024.
Speaker 1: Time stamp that.
Speaker 1: We'll see how that fucking goes.
Speaker 1: To those who are listening.
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you want me to be talking
Speaker 1: about?
Speaker 1: What do you want me to focus on?
Speaker 1: Or what are we doing next, if you have
Speaker 1: suggestions or else you're just gonna have
Speaker 1: to deal with whatever my weird brain comes
Speaker 1: up with.
Speaker 1: I know the Iowa caucus already happened.
Speaker 1: New Hampshire is this week, today, maybe
Speaker 1: even this may be the most.
Speaker 1: This isn't gonna be very long, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of funny to look at it with an actual
Speaker 1: timer, but this might be the longest
Speaker 1: uninterrupted that I've spoken in a while.
Speaker 1: I've already had a bunch of Republicans
Speaker 1: drop out of their race, if they want to
Speaker 1: call it a race.
Speaker 1: I paid varied levels of attention and it
Speaker 1: kind of seemed like they were all arguing
Speaker 1: with each other about who kissed up to
Speaker 1: their other opponent the most, their other
Speaker 1: opponent who never showed up to any of the
Speaker 1: arguments about who was going to support
Speaker 1: him the most, as kind of already, except
Speaker 1: for Chris Christie who was running to be
Speaker 1: that person saying that their opponent
Speaker 1: sucks.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, I don't know what he's
Speaker 1: aiming for next, something on CNN or MSNBC,
Speaker 1: but everybody else kind of seemed like they
Speaker 1: were running for Vice President or Campaign
Speaker 1: Contributions.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard anything about any of the
Speaker 1: other parties besides the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: and I don't think I don't see it happening.
Speaker 1: But it would be cool if there was an actual
Speaker 1: primary challenge to Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: But I mean, there's all sorts of shit we
Speaker 1: can talk about.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of movies, cool shows.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we want to do some video
Speaker 1: game analysis, political video game shit.
Speaker 1: I'm down.
Speaker 1: This is a.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a growing thing, this is
Speaker 1: a living sort of thing, a fluid sort of
Speaker 1: thing.
Speaker 1: It was started out that way on purpose,
Speaker 1: because you want to leave room for change
Speaker 1: and adaptation.
Speaker 1: Guest suggestions topic suggestions.
Speaker 1: You know where to find me on Facebook,
Speaker 1: discord, instagram.
Speaker 1: It still says Twitter on my phone because I
Speaker 1: haven't updated the app, but I guess it
Speaker 1: would be X if I log in on my tablet, but
Speaker 1: anyway, I hope you're well.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling a little bit better and a lot
Speaker 1: of fucked up shit is still happening, so
Speaker 1: we've got a lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: So until then.