Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
Censorship, Cancel Culture, and the Dismantling of American Freedoms
The constitutional foundations of America are trembling, and the assault on free speech is happening with breathtaking speed. What begins with a comedian being pulled off the air for mild jokes about a politician could end with the complete dismantling of our First Amendment protections.
When Jimmy Kimmel made some relatively benign jokes about Donald Trump, the response was swift and chilling. The FCC chair suggested Disney should "buckle down" on Kimmel, advertisers got nervous, and local stations threatened to drop the show. Within days, Kimmel was temporarily off the air. This wasn't about offensive content - it was about power and intimidation.
The hypocrisy is stunning. For years, many on the right have decried "cancel culture" as a leftist tactic to silence opposition. Now we're seeing politicians and media figures explicitly calling for citizens to report their neighbors for social media posts, contact employers about workers' political opinions, and threaten to withhold funding from schools because of teachers' comments. What's remarkable is that even conservative voices like Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro recognize the danger, warning that weaponizing government agencies against free speech sets a dangerous precedent regardless of which party employs such tactics.
Meanwhile, corporations continue to demonstrate that their values extend only as far as their profit margins. Disney, Target, Facebook - all shift positions based on which way the political winds blow. As one host noted, "They don't care about you. They just want to sell you crap to keep you coming back."
If these assaults on free expression concern you, join us for the October 18th protest as part of the national No Kings 2.0 movement. The Bill of Rights isn't a menu where those in power get to pick and choose which freedoms to respect. Stand with us before it's too late.
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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Left Face. I am your co-host, dick Wilkinson, and I'm joined with Adam Gillard. This is the Pipe Peak Region area podcast, where we talk about political topics through a veteran's point of view and we are catching up on the week's events. Adam and I had a couple of ideas for the show today, but first we're going to start with some announcements. So, adam, how are you doing today and what's coming up in the local area?
Speaker 2:I'm doing pretty good, man. Some of the big things that we're looking at coming up are the El Paso County Democrats County Party, where they have a big gala.
Speaker 1:It's at the Doubletree this year and they'll actually have Senator Bennett and Attorney General Phil Weiser speaking there, and they're both candidates for governor, so it'll be interesting to have both candidates like primary candidates for governor talking in the same room and being able to hear something yeah, it's not a debate, but I mean, of course they're aware that they're going to be in the same room kind of it's like a head-to-head, you know, sort of cook-off without it being a debate.
Speaker 2:But I mean, of course they're aware that they're going to be in the same room, kind of it's like a head to head, you know, sort of cook off, without it being a debate. Right, I'm excited, right, yeah, and I'm really curious on how they're deciding who's speaking when. And first and last, because Phil Weiser is a good public speaker. He can get a crowd going, right, bennett is knowledgeable, but he's not like a energetic speaker, so, like him, following phil weiser could be a tough, tough all for him, but I think he would.
Speaker 1:I think that's how it would go, you know yeah, I agree, I think uh sort of a seniority type order right yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:the next, uh, kind of big things. We're still really focusing on that. That October 18th protest. It's going to be another one of the national days of protests no Kings 2.0. So we're still working with the city to get a location because we're expecting, you know, a few thousand folks there, okay there. So we're trying to make sure everybody gets to a place, that everyone can stay safe and still use their First Amendment rights that we currently have, dwindling by the second.
Speaker 1:Yeah, by then they may be gone. That's a few weeks away. Since we're going to talk about it on the show today, of course we'll cover why that's under threat. We'll see. That's a few weeks away, man, things are. Things are in jeopardy right now yeah, yeah, they change very quickly.
Speaker 2:Uh, I just read uh a little bit on um how the philippines dismantled their democracy and put uh duarte yeah into the dictatorship. Yeah, it's eerie, uh, like how they use social media and influence, like that, the cambra analytical stuff. Yeah it's, it's amazing how they use that stuff and it's like they're blueprinting it and they're. It's the same thing that's going on with our democracy. You know the way they're dismantling it. Yeah, it's really crazy how, um they're using these platforms to just create extremism.
Speaker 1:Well, the good news is that Duterte is at the Hague and under arrest and going to go on trial for crimes against humanity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the US tries to interject in that the way that we're trying to protect Venezuela's dictator there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't. I mean I yes, we, yes, we could, but the hay kind of doesn't care, right like they don't, they're not going to hold into any us influence. So yeah, but we also don't see it as a very legitimate process from the us perspective either. Right, like most americans are like, okay, that's interesting. Whatever, like we, we don't feel like any of our any americans would ever sit for trial there.
Speaker 2:Right like basically we would ignore the court. You know and like absolutely 100, that's 100 the, the mentality and 100 the problem. You know like when people act with impunity, like they abuse power, that just is what happens I mean.
Speaker 1:But america, brother, you know, like that's it, there's not.
Speaker 2:We don't have to say much more than that we did good for 60 years or so, but uh, yeah, yeah, I'm just saying I think we're good without the hague, I'm I'm in that camp.
Speaker 1:You know, if the hague exists in the world, that's fine, but america being on the out of bounds with the hague, I'm okay with.
Speaker 2:That is what I'm saying you know, so you know what.
Speaker 1:What happens when our leaders do commit war crimes well, I don't think that the hague would have anything to do with. It is what I'm saying, so I just some. Something else would happen. I don't know. We'd have another civil war or we'd have some other situation would happen. I don't think they'd end up being going to court. There is what I'm saying. There could be a consequence, but it wouldn't be exacted by that international world criminal court. Yeah, see what I'm saying. Yeah, well, I know who won't be getting upset with us anytime soon, and that's England, because they just had Trump over there. So let's start on the. We always like to. We go lighthearted to dark and scary right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, they had trump in, like every billionaire in the world over there oh, yeah, okay, uh, they had a summit, a big money summit.
Speaker 1:Oh, I did see that dinner that they had, where they had a lot of royalty there, yeah, um. So the thing that I enjoyed most about trump's trip to england was that they uh there were people that don't like donald trump in england uh, and they, every time he comes visit, they make sure and make some kind of public spectacle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had that giant baby. I think they were the ones that came with that giant baby first.
Speaker 1:And so this time around they went a little bit. They took a deeper cut castle and projected like a 35 foot tall uh image of him and jeffrey epstein and like rotating images of like the the page out of the birthday book and like different pictures of them together. Uh, and it was just on the castle like for a while, you know, and um, I just it. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:I love the. Was it guerrilla protesting? You know the chalk art, the things like that projecting on buildings because nobody's getting hurt and you're just spreading information, you know. If you take offense to it, well why? Why are you taking offense to Donald Trump's arm around Jeffrey Epstein? Yeah, why does that make you mad? What reason does it make you mad for? Not the?
Speaker 1:right reason? Yeah, why does that make you mad? What reason does it make you mad? For Right? Not the right reason? Yeah, for sure. Yes, very true.
Speaker 2:Everybody might feel something about it, but there's nothing good about it Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. We need people to wake up and you know, care about these things. For so long we've taught people to be apathetic to the political process and everything. Yeah, so long we've taught people to be apathetic to the political process and everything, yeah, and we allow these things to happen, like this is the results of not caring or not wanting to talk politics, or you know, just wake up, man, like you just gave, gave america away hey, uh, woke is dead, adam, you can't say wake up anymore.
Speaker 2:All right, and you find some kind of sno, kind of new button or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the thing that I thought was most interesting about the visit over there was Donald Trump stood up and he was talking about America and he said America is the hottest country in the world and there's no doubt about it, and there's no country in the world that's even close. And he says this as he's standing next to King Charles, the leader of the country that he is currently being hosted in as a guest, as a guest of honor, and he said my country is better than yours. I'm the coolest guy in the world and thanks for having me over at your dinner party.
Speaker 2:You know that opens up the dance. Right, and thanks for having me over at your dinner party. You know the look on his face, yeah, the look on his face was just like this mother yeah, that was, that was a good moment too, uh the first lady not taking her hat off in the castle there, so she just walked around like carmen san diego the whole time, like that was pretty cool too. Yeah, yeah, they uh just blow up any kind of like uh decorum yeah, the yeah popster dance thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just completely shatter all that just to make a scene yeah but, other than that, not much uh news from the trip.
Speaker 1:I mean the. The idea was that it was supposed to smooth over some ties and like do something about the tariffs and all this other stuff, right, but I it really. It was just a fun little tour. If anything, right, I don't feel like there was much political benefit to it, right.
Speaker 2:No, and I mean the tariff stuff. I mean we were getting hit so hard on that and with it being ruled illegal right now, uh, by the courts, the government is going to have to pay trillions of dollars back to these businesses not, but not back to, like, consumers or anything like that who have had our prices jacked up, but back to the businesses. So it's really just another money transfer back to the, to private corporations it could be, yeah, it could backfire that way I mean, if we look at history here, with donald trump into it, you know he's always giving money to his friends.
Speaker 1:Well, he said america is going to be rich. And so I mean, if those people are technically americans, you know, technically it is the little promises kept you, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all of it, the entire administration and that entire side. Really, their ability to play like word judo and mental gymnastics over all these things, to like get what they want and make it seem okay with them, is just Applaudable at this point. Like man, you guys did great taking over America. Like you destroyed us Great job. At this point. Like man, you guys did great taking over america. Like you, you destroyed us. Great job. Like that. Like you treated the bill of rights and our amendments as like a checklist of shit to destroy and you're just knocking them off so I heard a funny joke.
Speaker 1:We'll use that to transition into the first amendment. You know being um questionable as far as how valuable it is in the current culture.
Speaker 2:Let's say that.
Speaker 1:And the joke that was funny because it was on the Daily Show and she said we know you all love the Second Amendment, but you have to read the first one first, you know, because right there you got, you can't you know, don't skip it If you're only going to read the first one and the second one.
Speaker 2:That's the problem with having a society with ADHD. Now we can't just read it straight through, we've got to skip around. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So the issue at hand that's happened since last episode that we recorded was Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel man, if you saw, did you watch the video clip of his monologue and what he said? It was so benign.
Speaker 2:But it was kind of targeted at Trump. It was kind of targeted at Trump.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was as far as outcry goes. It was just very, it wasn't that offensive or harsh, he wasn't. He didn't. You know what I'm saying? It was very light touch joke, right absolutely.
Speaker 2:and a few days before that, or when it initially happened, uh, he wrote a tweet or an extra, whatever platform I was on, where he said like, hey, this is unacceptable. Uh, my our thoughts and go out to his family and his kids, this is unacceptable. And he condemned it immediately and said how horrific it was. And then that pain joke on Monday, which again was more targeted at Trump um is what set off this, uh, this absolute destruction of the first amendment?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and and so the the series of events that that took place was he made, made the jokes. The next day, the chair of the FCC is on a podcast and he says you know, disney really should buckle down and figure out what's going on over there, Cause they're, they're being offensive and they, they have to operate with the best interest of the public. And Jimmy Kimmel is, is is not representative of that. And so that was just this empty or not empty, but this like threat. You know that wasn't no official um vehicle was used, it was this dude making an off-the-cuff statement and then immediately, they were about that.
Speaker 2:Are you sure that that was the only communication?
Speaker 1:as far as I know, yeah, um, they they didn't send them official correspondence to say like you're in trouble. The other thing that happened was the local stations that carry ABC. That was the part that also put pressure on Disney. It went from both FCC said that advertisers started to get a little shaky, and then local carriers said we cannot carry any show we want, right, and so we're just, you know, not going to carry it. And that was like 200 something. Stations said we just won't show it. And so Disney said okay, we're going to figure out something else for the time slot, for the time being, right, so he's not fired and the show's not off the air yet. Right, they're going to pay the staff throughout next week, even while they're still figuring stuff out. But they took it off the air because of all this pressure, right, but there was no official correspondence or threat to suspend their license other than his comments, as far as I know. Right, but they took him off the air and since then the I don't even call it backlash it's been an explosion of conversation really.
Speaker 1:It's been both directions right About. Is this appropriate? The resounding thing that I hear is it's a threat to the, to free speech. It's a threat to the First Amendment. It was not hate speech, it was just a comedian doing his job, you know, and it wasn't even that outrageous, right, and so it seems like it's a very heavy handed use of authority that doesn't is not commensurate with what happened, right? That's what I've heard.
Speaker 2:Have you heard?
Speaker 1:anything else?
Speaker 2:Well, and the rule right on the heel step of that, it came out through the, I think the press secretary's office or department of, or Pete Heggs office I can't remember which which secretary's office or department of or phx itself I can't remember which which secretary's office but that all the only government allowed media, there's an approved process for uh, releasing media. So, like the white house press conferences and things like that, like they're only going to allow certain messages to be released, so you're not going to get the story, you're going to get what they tell you to release. Yeah, so that coupled with you know, uh kimmel, uh the first, uh knucklehead there, uh, colbert um you know it's been.
Speaker 2:It's been clear he's targeted them. He said their names and said, like this person. Yeah, then this person.
Speaker 1:Weeks ago yeah right, when colbert went off the air he said jimmy kimmel is next right and and now even his everyday interactions with reporters.
Speaker 2:Like a reporter from a news outlet that he doesn't agree with tries to ask a simple, straightforward question and he immediately attacks them, immediately degrades them, uh, will not answer their question, just just attack them. And it's happened multiple times where he's told them to you know, be quiet, and you know you're, you're nasty, and yeah, that's what he says. That was a nasty question.
Speaker 1:I can't believe you would say something like that and then that's it, and then somebody will ask him a very pandering question and he's like see, that's the kind of question I like yeah right, they're always like so how red is your tie today, mr president? He's like I've never worn. My best friend, come on back tomorrow and I'll ask you another question, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what I loved about Jon Stewart's response. He did the whole deer leader you know tried to. You know bow down to him.
Speaker 1:And every time the audience would do something that was like really upsetting. You know he'd be like shut up, shut up. You know you don't get it like you're doing it wrong yeah, that was it was really funny yeah, oh, yeah, that would kill me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but, but yeah and then, uh, you know, the president, in one of his media sessions, you know, made the comment that maybe it's not free speech anymore, because he said when% of the articles about you are bad, he feels it's just targeted. Yeah, the best metaphor I saw on Reddit about that like 97% of the articles are bad. It's like whenever you ever read a good article about Jeffrey Dahmer, like, if you don't want bad articles about yourself, stop doing bad stuff.
Speaker 1:That's true. Yeah, if you don't want people to say bad things about you, maybe stop doing bad stuff, yeah yeah reflect. So let's, let's dig a little deeper though. Other than just the topic of Kimmel. What, what else you know? Is there other evidence that we see where not just controlling speech but, like that, free speech or the First Amendment is seems to be up for grabs right now? You know what I'm saying. Like what other, I see it in other places, but where else do you see it, you know?
Speaker 2:So well, before we go right there, I also want to point out that it's not just the left side bitching about this right.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's true. Let's not say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I just saw Ben Shapiro on his podcast saying that you know the SEC threatening licenses and things like that is not American. So this isn't just a left-wing cry. And Shapiro ends it on the shoes going to be on the other foot eventually. You don't do these things because we wrote these Absolutely Right before we started.
Speaker 1:Ted Cruz, senator Ted Cruz, you know today said that exactly that same thing, that the FCC threatening licenses was mob tactics, that was his language Right and that it's dangerous to the First Amendment. So I am very grateful to see people from kind of deep in the MAGA, you know bold, saying no, no, no, no, no, like this kind of stuff is not OK.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting. You mentioned the mob tactics. That's something that Trump has been saying a lot about. Trying to, you know, go after Antifa and Democrats and things like that is try and charge them with RICO charges. Oh, that's true, and like, if I've learned one thing about these administrations is that when they say something, they're doing it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, we've talked about that a lot, that they telegraph their movements pretty seriously. Yeah, that's true, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so all this coercion and extortion that that they have going on, and you know, money's getting funneled to a lot of places here and it's not back to the, the American people.
Speaker 1:That's true. There was the thing before we. You know, we talk about other examples cancel culture. Let's shift over to that. Let's talk about cancel culture. How, for the last eight years or so, that has been a cry from the right that cancel culture is rampant, that it's out of control, that it's all driven by the left, that it's intolerance from the left. The left screams about tolerance and then shuts people down and they're not wrong, right well, it's not a solely left initiative right like people, but also remember it leans into cancel culture.
Speaker 2:Now right, the. The people that were getting canceled from the left were people who were raping people or being racist and just like everybody's okay with it. You know like if you're coming from a place of hate, like, like, I don't have room for that I, yeah, I I'm not.
Speaker 1:Regardless of what they did, that was reprehensible, the response being to cancel. It was always put on the left. As that's your guys. One trick pony, that's what you do, yeah you know what I'm saying as soon as somebody says something that you don't like, which really is just code for you, don't they're?
Speaker 2:not on your wavelength. You know one's inhale and you guys are all uppity about it yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what did we see over the last week? But politicians, talking heads, news anchors calling for people to report people that go on social media and say mean things about charlie kirk or say nice things about the killer or say anything out of pocket. They say call your boss. They say, if you're in the military and you see somebody saying something like that, contact your commander. Right, like it was crazy that they straight up said cancel your neighbor for saying something on social media right and I take it.
Speaker 2:I don't even think that's canceling, that's straight up retaliation, but like, yeah, you're trying to create real you know consequences to the average citizen.
Speaker 1:That just you know. Again, free speech right like yeah, we can say you know upsetting things and it's not against the law and there shouldn't be repercussions for that.
Speaker 2:Well, the politicians who threatened districts, their own districts, to withhold funds for schools because one of their teachers said, hey, this guy isn't somebody to be glorified. It's really something as simple as that. Hey, this guy isn't somebody to be glorified. It's really something as simple as that. And they have politicians saying, oh, we're going to withhold your funds until this lady is fired.
Speaker 1:Yes, and there's been a lot of educators that have had their jobs threatened because of that stuff, like in the last week, right. I mean just people from all kinds of industries, right. So I'm just saying the fallout is happening, right, and it'll be very curious to see some of that stuff's gonna end up in court. Of course, you know, and some of those you know how's that gonna go down, like people are gonna get fired, wrongfully fired or whatever, and, uh, they're gonna go to court over that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and even if things end up going their way, they get reinstated back pay, whatever the chaos that it creates. Like you don't get that back, like you take years off somebody's life for over things like this, you know just the stress levels it's like you said, coordinated retaliation, really, and the way that lunatics are right now. If they take it as a threat or an insult to them, they could easily retaliate physically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:A woman like that is a public servant in a neighborhood. People know where this woman lives. For people to come out in force like this, to come down on somebody, is just ridiculous. Witch out somebody, yeah, that's what it is. I've had situations where somebody would post something that it just was bad timing, Like we don't need the infighting and stuff like that. So I'd reach out to those folks and be like, hey, I'm going to post this, we don't really need this out there right now. Like like like you know, and do it like internally, yeah, but but yeah, you don't need to like docs people and like threaten them over social media with ledges Like we're not going to feed a hundred million children If you don't fire this lady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So the council culture has swung in the opposite direction and it's pretty amazing to see how swift and violent that swing in the opposite direction was right. And it's earmuffs from the people when it's being pointed out right now, not just in the media but I think, even in personal conversations, where people are saying like, hey, don't you think that's cancel culture, don't you think that's the stuff that everybody on your side of the political spectrum hates? Um, don't you feel like you're participating in that? And they just go la, la, la, la la la yeah you know, like they can't hear it, no, yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 2:yeah, all the the second amendment folks that you know when they talk about uh trying to take guns away from trans people, all the second amendment folks were quiet. The NRA actually did come out and supported them, though, which Wow, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:I shouldn't say, wow, you don't want to. You want to sell guns and you don't want to limit the amount of people that can buy guns. Right, like you got to remember.
Speaker 2:This is what I always complain about. People with this too is that it always comes down to consumerism and you know where you spend your dollars. Uh, because right now people are boycotting disney and, like disney, stocks went down like three billion dollars overnight. Yeah, um one, it doesn't matter, that's not real money. They're going to release another product and they'll make that back and, yeah, that's a bump in the road for them.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody cares, yet Moana 3 is coming out, or something, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's not going to have a huge effect. But you know companies like Disney, you know, for so long they were championed as being, you know, a great progressive company for champion LGBT and issues like that, and I was like that's because they can market to them and sell something. They don't give two shits about them and as soon as it changes, they're going to go the other way. And this is exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:As soon as they changed it, target's getting raked over the coals because they used to have, you know, a big pride clothing section, you know, for a month every year, and then this year they didn't do that and people lost their mind.
Speaker 2:You're out there like hey, you turned your back on these people and it's like no no, they just realized it was out of vogue to sell to that people though that group of people, that's all, yeah, and they've never cared about you.
Speaker 1:Like that's what people need to realize they don't care about you yeah, it was like it was a little bit of false, so you sell you crap.
Speaker 2:Yes, to keep you coming back. That's it Exactly. Hey, you want to buy a shirt?
Speaker 1:with a rainbow on it. We have some of those.
Speaker 2:Right Unicorn.
Speaker 1:Hell, yeah, come on. Yeah, that's it. That's all it was, you know, because it's a corporation that sells stuff.
Speaker 2:Don't use a tides turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm always annoyed by corporate virtue signaling. I can't stand it, right, I cannot stand it. From big companies to small companies that want to make some kind of big public outcry to try and virtue signal, I'm like no, it's failure product, and keep your head down. Like you know, for the most part that stuff's not useful, right. It's just usually disingenuous, right. And even if they really are genuine, it still often comes through as pandering or just icky. You know Right, you know yeah. So I guess I'm not mad at them because, again, this is America. Go for it. If it sells more stuff, go for it. If it makes people feel better, go for it. But I see it for what it is, and maybe I'm a pessimist, but the proof's in the pudding and we're seeing it right now. You and maybe I'm a pessimist, but I don't. You know the proof's in the pudding and we're seeing it right now.
Speaker 2:You know exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, corporations are going to sell you stuff and they're going to flop around however they need to. I mean, facebook did the same thing. They went from, you know, just dogging the right to kissing the ring. You know, like the, you know all those companies have done that. Know, like the, you know all all those companies have done that.
Speaker 2:So, uh, tech, tech news tiktok is going to be an american company soon.
Speaker 1:I did not hear that. Yeah, it finally happened. They're gonna have like nine board seats and eight of them will be americans. The biggest thing was the algorithm. Right, you know, china has their super secret and that was one of the hardest parts to fork out of the deal. But it sounds like that got put to where it's going to be owned by an American company and the Chinese algorithm is going to not be in the American app.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So they got a few big companies involved too, like Oracle is going to be running the data services and stuff.
Speaker 2:So we'll see how?
Speaker 1:what happens? I mean, if it just stays basically the same, then it'll be uh, invisible to most people yeah, to most people, uh, but, but the industry itself should get some jobs here, uh.
Speaker 2:But that brings me up to a question on the h1b. Uh, I won't say vaccines uh visas.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, they're raising the price to a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, so so it used to be ten thousand to a hundred thousand dollars. Like hospitals aren't going to pay for people and like 75 of interns or attendees right now are foreign students. Yeah, you know in our hospitals that hospitals pay for them to come here on these h1bs to get medical training. I didn't think about medical people. You know in our hospitals that that hospitals pay for them to come here on these H1Bs to get medical training.
Speaker 1:I didn't think about medical people, you know. I was just thinking about the tech industry, cause that's what I work in, right, right, and so I hadn't thought about you know. Of course it affects other industries. I just, I only saw the news this morning. So my first you know process. On, it was like oh well, you know, tech people will. Tech companies will not be paying that extra chunk for people, they'd rather just hire an American, you know like there are plenty of Americans to do those jobs.
Speaker 1:So you know for on the tech side anyway. But you're right, there are other industries that maybe would are going to have some lag or some shortages because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it just creates that, that elite. You know more elite class. You know the folks that are going to be using those H1B visas in to whatever industry they're not going to be like most qualified in that in from their area, like a South African with a hundred thousand dollars, just is not going to be as qualified as you know, or possibly not as qualified as a South African with $10,000. You is not going to be as qualified as you know, or possibly not as qualified as a South African with $10,000.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. So, like you're, you're, you're, you're sitting in your, you're sitting in your crop of exclusionary yeah, it's exclusionary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause like 2% of the world's population and you can break down to other demographics are geniuses that need to have access to other resources and be able to come in there, but they can't. That's not even a logical dream for them at that point.
Speaker 1:Employers are often paying those fees. So if the employer wants that genius, then maybe they're going to fork that money out for a genius. You know what I'm saying? It'll change the scope of what jobs are even eligible to have that kind of yeah, opportunity is really what it comes down to. Um, you know, a job that makes under a hundred thousand dollars a year is not gonna and they're not gonna bring anybody over on that. You know what I'm saying. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:So yeah, oh, and here's another thing with uh, the visas and the immigration issues, the uh, the hyundai plant that was raided and they took out a bunch of Koreans. The Koreans were here on a special visa that made it so like they come here, they don't get paid, they get like room and board and then they get paid when they get home, but while they're here for their three to six months, whatever it is they train the factory workers, the American factory workers, on how to work the equipment and do everything, yeah, and we took all those, the equipment and do everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh. And we took all those people and sent them home, yeah, yeah, and humiliated them on the way to. You know, like ice isn't like a four-star resort. Like ice detention is way worse than what a Giselle Maxwell is getting right now you know.
Speaker 2:So so the Korean government is saying we're not sending folks there anymore. Yeah, you know, to do these trainings and things like that. So now our factories are gonna have, instead of having 8 000 more jobs of trains, highly trained, skilled workers, they're gonna they're gonna suffer. You know, I doubt they're gonna shut down. Their price is gonna put out a shittier product because that factory is not union.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'll point that out sunk investment is not going to just sit there and collect dust. They're going to turn the machine on and somebody's going to figure it out. You know they'll do video training. Honestly they will. They'll have people in korea that are on just doing what we're doing right now, talking to the engineers going, okay, do this, do that, turn this on, turn that on. Like that's gonna be the way it'll have to go right. They'll just do some virtual training from across the world.
Speaker 2:It's sad that that's where we're at, though well, yeah, and that initial story that we're here legally. They were here legally on a status, yeah, and we just rounded them up like cattle and humiliated them and sent them out. Did you.
Speaker 1:You hear about the person that reported them. She's running for some office, right, and so it was basically wanting to cozy up to the administration to get a little recognition right To get attention and get money and get an endorsement, right. And so she was like I'm going to call these people in, right? It looks like there's some kind of work camp over there, which I mean it was, but it was legal process like you said. No, wouldn't, wouldn't the investigation, because they were like this was a months-long investigation. Yeah, no where was the paperwork?
Speaker 2:they heard investigate. Yeah, they were like, oh, they're not white, they're not white, we'll be right there.
Speaker 1:And they showed up that's all I had to hear. Had the paperwork? Does ice talk to the state department or not?
Speaker 2:you know like I doubt they know what the paperwork even looks like. Yeah, yeah there's. It's just incredible the impunity that ice is rolling with. Um governor newsom today did put out a one of his cryptic tweets about Kristi Noem's going to have a bad day today, so I don't know what kind of law they're going to set in California.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard about that, and then there was some scurry about his media department and like was that an authorized message or what happened? I don't know, I didn't hear.
Speaker 2:Was there Because some attorney general said like oh, we take this as a threat and blah, blah, blah. Okay yeah, but uh yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:I hope it's a, I hope it's legislation that says that you can't like law enforcement, can't wear masks like that. You know, take your mask off, have identification on you. Um, yeah, that you know. Take your mask off, have identification on you. Um, yeah, because that's really the biggest issue right now is not the biggest issue, like the biggest issue is stealing people off the streets, but, but you know, one of the things with that is that when you just walk like all their gear that they're wearing is easily attainable and anybody can roll up in a dark suv and grab people you know like like very true.
Speaker 2:You can go down to the surplus store.
Speaker 1:There's five of them here in Colorado Springs. You can buy that full outfit for $200.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying? Yeah, take it to Murnau's, get some patches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sheriff's patch, dude, you can order a Sheriff's patch on the internet right now. It'll be here tomorrow. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, order a terrorist patch on the internet right now. It'll be here tomorrow. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, so having proper identification, demasking these folks, because you know there's been a lot of studies that show, when people are know they're being recorded, they act differently, yeah, yeah, they behave very differently, yeah, uh. So, yeah, it's, uh, it's something that needs to be looked into, so it'll be interesting to see what he comes up with, hopefully, yeah, soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more to follow on that, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess around the horn. Last thing is there anything else going on, or is that? I think that's about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's been a busy few days or since we last talked, but yeah, I think that's.
