The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal
"Fiercely and unapologetically progressive, and definitely NSFW. 'The Professional Left' features award-winning bloggers Driftglass and Blue Gal as they skewer right-wing absurdities and dismantle mainstream media mealy-mouths with razor-sharp wit and zero filter. From mercilessly mocking partisan hacks to elevating stories the media ignores, it's the profane, unflinching political commentary you didn't know you needed. More at http://ProLeftPod.com."
The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal
Ep 1021: The Coal Ash Of Politics
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Episode 1021 exposes a $6 million Republican ad campaign that manipulated grieving parents of murder victims into unknowingly slandering North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper with lies their own children's killers had nothing to do with. Driftglass and Blue Gal trace how this fits a decades-old pattern — Fox News and Hate Radio building a toxic "coal ash pond" of propaganda so complete that facts bounce off true believers, illustrated by journalist Barton Gellman's failed attempt to fact-check a January 6th supporter into reality. The episode contrasts that with Illinois' actual record — credit rating upgrades, record tourism, real economic gains — that MAGA voters refuse to acknowledge no matter how much evidence piles up. It's about what happens when lies become load-bearing walls in people's minds, and why no amount of truth can dislodge them once they're structural.
Links for this episode:
Question Everything Link: https://www.kcrw.com/shows/question-everything/stories/3-the-journalist-and-the-firefighter
Gellman Atlantic Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/
News and Observer Link: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article317086926.html
Capitol News Link: https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/sp-global-upgrades-illinois-credit-rating/
Links for this episode:
Stay in Touch!
Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.com
Website: proleftpod.com
Support via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpod
or Donate in the Venmo App @proleftpod
Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791
321.
SPEAKER_03You can listen to the professional left wherever you get your podcasts on Netroots Radio or at our website, ProLleftPod.com, or you can also contribute to this podcast. There's a PayPal button at our website, or you can mail us a letter andor contribution at P.O. Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois 62791.
SPEAKER_06This is the podcast for the week of September 11th, 2026. It's not safe for work.
SPEAKER_03Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance, where the radical left.
unknownYou're right.
SPEAKER_03It's the professional left with drift glass and blue gal.
SPEAKER_06Well, as you all know, the 25th anniversary of 9-11 is tomorrow. We're recording this on the 10th. And the worst person in America is the President of the United States. And because the worst person in America is the President of the United States, this is what the nation got to hear from its leader about that solemn occasion. Quote, I just thank my people. I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened, and they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me. We thought it was coming down on top of us. Two firemen lifted me up and started running with me. Unquote. Big, stupid lies by a degenerate madman in the most appalling stolen valor incident in modern American history. Thanks, Republicans.
SPEAKER_03Thanks, Republicans.
SPEAKER_06And by the way, the New York Fucking Times never disappoints. The hometown paper of the World Trade Center, folks, reported these big, stupid lies in its usual cowardly and craven way. Quote, at 9-11 tribute, Trump claims firefighters carried him to safety. President Trump has long sought to position himself close to the September 11th recovery effort and has made a series of questionable and provocative statements to burnish his political brand. At an event honoring those who died on September 11, 2001, President Trump on Tuesday claimed that two firefighters lifted him up and carried him away from a seemingly unstable building when he visited the area shortly after the terrorist attacks. This was the latest in Mr. Trump's evolving and often disputed account of his actions on September 11th and in its aftermath when he was working as a real estate developer in New York City. Unquote. Now it points off. Nowhere in this did they say controversial.
SPEAKER_03No, I was going to say I missed that word.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. We're going to have more about the New York fucking times, which again never disappoints.
SPEAKER_03Never disappoints. Later in the show. But right now we're going to look into what $6 million can buy you. Not Steve Austin. No, the inflation has has definitely crept into the picture. But what it can buy you if you have no conscience whatsoever. And then we'll see where that takes us. We're going to start with $456.90 paid to Oak Grove campaigns by the Senate Leadership Fund, which is a political hack shop run by Mr. Michael Luthy. These were recruitment and filming related travel expenses for a political attack ad that the Senate Leadership Fund was teeing up to run against Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for Senate in North Carolina. The ad was shot, edited down to 30 seconds, and released into the wild. The ad features Ronald Hayes, whose son Shamar was murdered in 2024. After telling this heartbreaking story for 12 seconds, Hayes ties his son's brutal murder to Roy Cooper. Quote, as the governor Mr. Cooper has allowed these criminals back on the streets, you're giving him a second chance to go out in the street and do the same thing over again. Is my son going to get a second chance? No, he's never coming back. Mr. Cooper has been in politics for 40 years and things are not changing, unquote. This is all overlaid with scary photos of police cars and empty prison cells with doors wide open. Roy Cooper looking dopey and the words Roy Cooper to release 3,500 state prison inmates. And then, quote, SLF Pack is responsible for the content of this advertising, unquote. It is a straight up Willie Horton ad.
SPEAKER_06Actually, you know what? It's even worse than the Willie Horton ad. For at least a couple of reasons. First, the man who murdered Mr. Hay's son had nothing whatsoever to do with Roy Cooper or his COVID-era lower-risk prisoner release program. Mr. Hayes' son was murdered by an 18-year-old kid with no prior adult prison record. Fact checkers and news reports have since confirmed that Smith was never in state prison and was never released by the Cooper administration. So it's just a lie. And the people making the commercial knew it was a lie. And the people who would go on to distribute it knew it was a lie. So why would a grieving father, and and genuinely, you know, our sympathies are with this man.
SPEAKER_03100%.
SPEAKER_06Why would he say such a thing?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, because he really didn't. Not really. And this is from the website Popular Information. Quote, in an interview with Popular Information, Hayes says that he was manipulated into appearing in the ad. According to Hayes, the SLF operatives who recorded the footage misrepresented the purpose of the interview, never revealed their political affiliation, and coached Hayes into providing the sound bites that appear in the ad. Hayes is a member of a group of about a dozen grieving parents whose children have been murdered. The SLF operatives reached out to everyone in the group and offered an opportunity to share our stories. Hayes was left the impression that we're doing an ad about gun violence and our deceased kids. Hayes said he was interested in talking about Shamar and what I feel about gun violence. He had also written a book about Shamar and he wanted people to know more about that. After he agreed to participate, Hayes began to communicate with Michael Luthy. Previously, Luthy worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the North Carolina Republican Party, and the Republican State Leadership Committee. Luthy currently runs a Republican consulting firm based in North Carolina called, we mentioned before, Oak Grove Campaigns. But Luthy never revealed that he was working with the SLF or his connection to Republican politics. Rather, Luthy represented to Hayes that he was independent. I'm an independent. Yep. Luthy invited Hayes to a luxury home in Charlotte and encouraged him to bring copies of his books. Hayes had never been on camera before. And Luthy did not respond to a text message seeking comment on this article.
SPEAKER_06The article continues, quote, at the outset, Hayes was given an opportunity to talk about his son and was asked about the book. Then Hayes said, all of a sudden, in the middle of the recording, it went from me talking about what happened to my son to Governor Cooper. Well, what do you think about North Carolina letting out 3,500 murderers, rapists, and killers? Hayes said he was asked. Of course, I am a victim. What am I going to say? Hayes said he initially responded without saying Cooper's name. He was then prompted by the SLF operatives to deliver the soundbite they wanted. Would you mind saying Roy Cooper? The operatives asked. Prior to arriving at the filming, Hayes said he never knew anything about the governor of North Carolina letting out 3,500 criminals due to COVID-19 back in 2019 and 2020. Hayes noted that he knows the policy was unrelated to his son's murder. The man who murdered Hayes' son in 2024 had no prior adult criminal record and therefore was not released from state prison. Hayes was distressed when he saw the ad, which makes it seem as if I'm saying that my son's murderer was one of the ones who Governor Cooper let out of prison. Why would I go on there and just flat out tell a blatant lie? Hayes asked. He called the ad deceitful, conniving, and sneaky. Hayes said that the SLF operatives filmed at least two other interviews with members of the grieving parents group, but those were not turned into ads. Unquote.
SPEAKER_03So they went trolling for devastated parents under false pretenses, looking for anyone whose grief could be sliced up and re-edited into the ugliest kind of slander. It was so despicable, it's easy to imagine Rick Wilson in his palatial home, paid for by ads like this, toasting the Senate leadership fund and weeping with envy. But of course, such ads go nowhere without someone to give them a push. So we're going to go back to popular information article once again. Quote, according to data from Ad Impact, the SLF has spent over $6 million airing Hayes' ad on television and digital platforms. Hayes said the ad has profoundly impacted his day-to-day life. You would not believe how many people now just walk up to me and ask me, Am I that guy that's in that commercial? Hayes says he's a Democrat and would not have knowingly participated in a GOP attack yet. Why would I do a commercial? I'm just an everyday man, Hayes said. They targeted me as the victim of gun violence and because of the death of my son, unquote. And we checked this morning, as of this morning, on YouTube alone, that ad has had uh 24 million views so far.
SPEAKER_06Once more from popular information, quote, the Hayes ad is part of a concerted campaign by Republicans to link Cooper to murders with no plausible connection to his policies. President Donald Trump blamed Cooper for the August 2025 murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zarutska, who was stabbed while riding the train in Charlotte, allegedly by De Carlos Brown Jr. The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer's knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refused to put bad people in jail, including former disgraced governor and wannabe Senator Roy Cooper, Trump said in a September 8th Truth Social Post. According to Trump, Brown was on the streets because he was released on cashless bail in January. In January 2025, Brown was charged with a nonviolent misdemeanor, misusing a 911 line. As is typical in such cases, he was released by a judge without bail. Even if he had been incarcerated by the judge pending trial, the maximum sentence for the charge would have been 120 days, meaning Brown's sentence would not have been completed before the August 22nd murder.
SPEAKER_03And just to bring you all up to date, Trump repeated this same blatant lie verbatim during his long rambling lie a thon last night in Dallas. Because you see, this isn't just an ad. It's not just a one-off. This is adding to a pre-existing narrative that has been built out of lies brick by brick over decades. So, of course, there's another ad paid for by the same scumbags. The grieving father in this ad is Stiffen Frederico, whose daughter Logan was murdered during a home invasion. And we want to be clear again, as parents, we do not for one second fault these men for their grief or their anger or their desire to see someone held responsible.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_03They need to put all of that somewhere on someone. And to quote fake President Jed Bartlett, the ones who should be horsewhipped with a horse whip are those trying to exploit their grief for political gain. That said, in his ad, Mr. Federico goes right up to the line of blaming Roy Cooper directly. As he talks on camera, words from news clippings appear on the screen. The man accused of killing her faced nearly 40 criminal charges, and Roy Cooper released 3,500 North Carolina prisoners. Stephen Frederico said his daughter was a casualty of an agenda. In interviews afterwards, he sticks to his belief that certain, quote, soft-on crime, unquote, politicians are to blame, and that Roy Cooper is one of those. But the simple fact of the matter is that the homicide took place in South Carolina, and the suspect has no connection to North Carolina's prison system whatsoever. This is from the North Carolina News and Observer, September 2nd of this year. Quote, obviously, if you watch it, you can definitely read into it as if it occurred in North Carolina, said Chris Gustafson, communication director for SLF. He's admitting to it. But Gustafsson defended the ad, connecting Cooper's actions and unrelated killing. Quote, at the end of the day, it's a North Carolina dad who's advocating for stopping these kind of policies, he said, unquote.
SPEAKER_06But as the news and observer observes, quote, in 2020, several activist groups appealed to Cooper, who served as governor, to release 18,000 prisoners due to the pandemic. That's around half the state's prison population. While President Donald Trump, Congress, governors in several other states and county officials around North Carolina did so. Cooper refused to do it. So he was not soft on crime.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_06The activists took the state to court, and a judge sided with them, saying that the pandemic caused conditions within the prison system that he would likely find to be unconstitutional. That led to the settlement to release 3,500 prisoners, the settlement with Roy Cooper and the state of North Carolina. After Roy fought these against these releases in court, North Carolina law enforcement officials and parole officers looked to similar criteria President Trump used a year prior when his administration released thousands of federal prisoners due to COVID-19. Jordan Monahan, a spokesman for Cooper, said, unquote, and the thing is the judge realized that some of these low-level prisoners were actually going to receive a death sentence if they stayed in a crowded prison and COVID struck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. That's why it's unconstitutional.
SPEAKER_06That's why it was unconstitutional. Right. So it's just lies. All lies. But since it is just one more Democrats are soft on crime ad, piled on top of thousands of other such ads and tens of thousands of hours of hate radio and Fox News droning on and on about soft on crime Democrats, decade after decade. As sure as we're sitting here, most Republican voters and a lot of so-called independent voters in North Carolina will swallow it whole. And worse than that, it will stick in the memory and they will remember it as true from now on because the groundwork for that lie has already been well prepared.
SPEAKER_03I had to repeat, Donald Trump repeated this lie just yesterday in front of a huge audience. And at this point, everyone involved knows it's a lie. Everyone involved knows it's a lie, but they don't care. For the record, things are looking pretty good for Mr. Cooper. He's leading in the polls. Voters in his state know him, and he has a record that doesn't scare them. They kind of like him. His opponent, Michael Watley, is whatever the opposite of compelling is. People barely know his name, and he's riding into battle with the stinking albatross of Donald Trump's record around his neck. So of course, and we did promise we'd get back to the New York Times, didn't we? Of course, the New York fucking Times had to dig really deep to find something to bitch about. This is from the New York fucking Times, September 7th. Quote, is this Democrat too good for his own good?
SPEAKER_06Wait, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_03He's too good for his own good. Yep.
SPEAKER_06He's too good a candidate?
SPEAKER_03Yep. And I skipped the first, I don't know, 300 paragraphs down to the part where it gets real good. Back to the article. In no way whatsoever is Watley some charismatic populist antonym to Cooper. And that's Cooper's problem. He and Watley seem so mismatched. I haven't even mentioned the terrible midterm environment Trump has created for Republican candidates, that it's dangerously possible that many Democratic donors and North Carolina voters take Cooper's victory for granted and don't do what they should, which is pony up generously and cast ballots enthusiastically, unquote.
SPEAKER_06So he's too good a candidate, and people might just think he's going to win, and therefore they won't give their all in an election.
SPEAKER_03Right. In this election.
SPEAKER_06Bitch about Democrats. Yeah. And this one's too successful.
SPEAKER_03He's too good. Maybe he's too good. Maybe he's too successful. Maybe he's too charismatic. Maybe he's got too many voters who think he's doing it.
SPEAKER_06Maybe there's too many voters that like him because he was a good public servant.
SPEAKER_03Maybe there's too many people. Maybe there's too many people in the New York Times who don't deserve a job with a pen and paper. Yeah. But now we're going to talk for a few seconds about coal ash. Let's let's just switch topics here. Hard pivot, uh, which is not, I repeat, not one of our fake sponsors.
SPEAKER_06No, technically it's a salad, is one of our fake sponsors. But uh, as far as we know, there's no coal ash in technically it's a salad.
SPEAKER_03As far as we know.
SPEAKER_06Um and we're specifically, we're gonna talk today about coal ash as metaphor and why the GOP is the coal ash pond of American culture.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And we are in coal country. I don't know if you knew that, blue gal. I mean, we we the local power station burned coal for 60 years. Yeah, was owned by the city, and there are lots of mines around here. So, in case you are out there in podcast and are unfamiliar, coal ash is the toxic waste product that's left over after you burn coal, duh. And millions of tons of the stuff are produced every year.
SPEAKER_06Historically, power companies and utilities disposed of coal ash by just digging huge holes and dumping in the coal ash. Sometimes the ash is mixed with nearby river water to make it easier for companies to transport it to a dump without it, you know, creating billows of ash everywhere. This creates coal ash ponds. Both of these types of dumps are often tens, if not hundreds, of acres. And no surprise that many of these sites are located in communities that are low-income and or primarily people of color.
SPEAKER_03Now, coal ash is toxic to humans and animals. Toxins from coal ash include cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium. When coal ash comes into contact with water, toxins can dissolve from the ash into the water, which then leaks into the environment.
SPEAKER_06And that metaphorically is what has happened to the entire Republican Party. It has become nothing but a toxic waste pit full of all the lingering poisons left behind by decades of hate radio, Fox News, and Willie Horton ads. And the base of the GOP has become this mob of mutant creatures which wallow in that poison and keep demanding more. And most alarmingly have become completely immune to facts and reason.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and while we were talking about what we're going to talk about this week, we almost said it was completely shameless of them, but that's not quite true. Since they live in a media ecosystem built entirely out of toxic sludge, they feel no shame about the monstrous things they believe because they simply refuse to accept that the things they believe are anything less than true and virtuous and patriotic.
SPEAKER_06Well, and every time they win an election based on one of these lies, it's confirms for them that what they did was the right thing.
SPEAKER_03That Jesus loves them.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and and they are what Driftglass calls the tribe that rubs shit in their hair and they live in a cave and only interact with other goofs who also rub shit in their hair. So they are immune to the stink and instead admire the complexity and intricacy of the hairduce each of them have sculpted out of shit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So now we're going to do another hard pivot, but bear with us, it'll all make sense in the end. We're telling a story here, and it has a certain flow. Uh, during his career as a journalist, Barton Gelman has won three Pulitzer Prizes, two George Polk Awards, two Emmys, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. And then he had an encounter with a fireman that ultimately led him to leave journalism and become an activist. Now he was interviewed about it on KCRW podcast Question Everything in an episode entitled The Journalist and the Firefighter how one of the most accomplished reporters of our time, Barton Gelman, lost his confidence in journalism. And the link for that will be in our show notes.
SPEAKER_06Gelman went to a MAGA rally in Washington, D.C. that was being held in support of. Of the January 6th insurrectionists. So you know it's going to be a crowd of very interesting people. He struck up a conversation with a fireman who was happy to talk with him. His name was Richard Patterson. Gelman profiled Mr. Patterson and his failure to communicate in the Atlantic's December 6th, 2021 cover article. Quote, Trump's next coup has already begun. Unquote.
SPEAKER_07What we've got here is failure to communicate.
SPEAKER_03Now I personally do not have any pull-s or prizes at present, and all of my books have been savaged by the critics. For the record, I have never written any books. But I must say that Mr. Gelman's experience here exactly matches my own, except mine were all pre-MAGA, you know, back in the 1990s and the early aughts when they were just plain old everyday crazy Uncle Liberty Republicans. So this is Mr. Gelman from his Atlantic article. He is six foot four, sixty-one years old, with chiseled good looks and an aura of command that is undimmed by retirement. Once, according to the silver bars on his collar, he held the rank of captain in the New York Fire Department. He is not supposed to wear the old uniform at political events, but he pays that rule no mind today. The uniform tells the world that he is a man of substance, a man who has saved lives and held authority. Richard C. Patterson needs every shred of that authority for this occasion. He has come to speak on behalf of an urgent cause. Pelosi's political prisoners, he tells me, have been unjustly jailed.
SPEAKER_06This was the beginning of a long and depressing journey with Mr. Patterson. Mr. Gelman brought all of his considerable repertorial expertise to bear. He brought forth studies and testimonies and witnesses, none of which moved Mr. Patterson in the slightest, who based his belief on something he'd heard somewhere but couldn't remember where. And then he just moved on to the next lie, unfazed. In another instance, Mr. Patterson's belief that Nancy Pelosi's laptop had been stolen by Antifa. Patterson could pinpoint exactly where he heard that. A retired Air Force general. Mr. Gelman then did the journalism thing. He tracked the general down and interviewed him. Turns out that general didn't actually see it, but he knew a guy who said he'd seen it, but whose name he couldn't reveal. And that guy said he'd seen a couple of people who looked like special forces mixed with Antifa walking away with bulges under their coats. My God, what more proof do you need?
SPEAKER_03It's ironclad, Blue Gal. It's ironclad. Boom, case closed.
SPEAKER_06One further wrinkle, the general son contacted Gelman and told him that his father was suffering from dementia and that the family was trying to keep him from saying crazy shit like this in public. Gelman vetted and triple checked everything and then laid all of this and a whole lot more at Patterson's feet. It all just bounced right off of him. He just moved on to the next lie.
SPEAKER_03And again, I've had experience with these people back when Obama was president, back when Bush was president, and they're all the same. And then they move on to the next lie again. They're irredeemable. So back to Mr. Geliman, quote, Patterson is admirably eager for a civil exchange of views. He portrays himself as a man who may be wrong, and if I am, I admit it. And he does indeed concede on small points. But a deep rage seems to fuel his convictions. I asked him the first time we met if we could talk, quote, about what's happening in the country and not the election itself, unquote. His smile faded, his voice rose. There ain't no fucking way we are letting go of 3 November 2020. He said, that is not going to fucking happen. That's not happening. This motherfucker was stolen. The world knows this bumbling CL career corrupt fuck squatting in our White House did not get 81 million votes, unquote. As I mentioned, this exactly parallels my own experience. Grown men with impressive careers and skills who nonetheless are fully invested in the stupidest, most hateful, and most easily debunked claptrap you have ever heard. See, this is not like high school debate, and which this is where I believe Mr. Gelman made his fundamental mistake. He thought it was like high school debate. Journalism was like high school debate. In high school debate, you all begin with the same clearly stated proposition. Each team spends weeks or months researching and developing a case based on some variation or interpretation of the proposition. And then you have a meeting, you have a meet of a contest where each team either gets to present their own case or argue against the other team's case. They argue back and forth in front of a single judge or a panel of judges, and whichever team makes the most persuasive case to the judges, based on evidence and logic and the skill of their presentation, wins the match. And I have been in matches when I was in high school with the opposition, had no idea what they were doing, because they'd just been grabbed by the shirt collar and thrown in at the last minute because they had to fill out the roster with no coaching, no prep, no nothing. And it was so brutally one-sided. The judge mercifully stopped the round, and we spent the rest of our time together teaching these poor kids the basics of high school debate. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So that's how debate is supposed to work on some level. Gelman believed that that's how journalism worked. You present the facts, you back up the facts, and show your work and vet everything, present it in a lucid and compelling way, and you can persuade people, especially people who have absolutely nothing to back up their ridiculous claims. Right.
SPEAKER_03It's so obvious.
SPEAKER_06Nope. And this is what you call in the storytelling business the inciting incident. Because there are tens of millions of others out there just like Patterson. People who no longer live in the world of facts and reason, who live in the toxic sludge pit of fascist propaganda. And will defend that toxic sludge pit to the death. And you can smack the lies they believe down one at a time or in battalions until the end of time, and it won't change a thing. Because whatever specific lie they swear by today is just the symptom. The disease itself is what's going on in their heads. And unlike high school debates or Mr. Gelman's dreams of what journalism should be about, in this arena, there is no new neutral arbiter deciding which side wins.
SPEAKER_05Exactly.
SPEAKER_06Or rather, in this arena, MAGA morons get to be both the enemy and the judge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And if you don't persuade them, that's your that's your fault. You know, you just didn't try hard enough. If if you didn't persuade me, then I can go on believing whatever the fuck I want to believe.
SPEAKER_06And I I think too, there's a difference about identity too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06That MAGA, you know, believing in Trump and believing what however whatever MAGA believes today about Democrats and the radical left and all that. It very much is tied up in their social lives, in their identity as a patriot and loving their country, uh, being a good person, being a good Christian, whatever it is. It's when you're in high school debate, you might be given the topic of defending cigarette smokers.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_06You know, that and that's not your identity. You aren't you aren't sitting there going, oh yeah, I love it when people smoke around me. And that's important to me.
SPEAKER_03Well, well let me just say, yeah, um, that is it you wouldn't defend cigarette smokers, but someone would come on and make the case to uh to abolish cigarettes.
SPEAKER_06Uh-huh. And you argue you have to argue against that.
SPEAKER_03Free will, freedom of choice, the marketplace. But those are reasoned arguments backed up by evidence.
SPEAKER_06Yes, and you have to back them up by evidence, but your identity as a person, as a good person, is not tied to the arguments that you are going to make. You have to find facts and articles and evidence and so forth that limiting someone's personal freedom is not a good idea.
SPEAKER_03I can I can take you to right where at Governor State University and at libraries in Chicago, the congressional record was held at the time. Because that's what we used to do. We used to take it very seriously that we had to prove our case and and disprove the opponent's case using evidence.
SPEAKER_06Using evidence. And but again, you'd leave that debate and it wouldn't be your identity. It wouldn't be, well, and now I'm a pro tobacco lobbyist for the rest of my life because I did this debate. Whereas MAGA, you know, Donald Trump is now Jesus for some people. And and certainly MAGA is one's entire, you know, the front row Joes and the people that travel with Trump and the people that have Trump signs in their yard, or hating Democrats as well is just part of who they are and who they see themselves as, yep, as being good people. I am a, you know, I'm against whatever the radical left is doing to America, you know, that all the lies that Laura Ingram tells. Yeah. Of course, if if you and and Obama said this, you know, if I believe what Fox was saying about me, yeah, you know, I would I would definitely fight all of that because it's bad.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that means that every lie Trump tells is wired directly into their identity.
SPEAKER_06Exactly.
SPEAKER_03And yeah, and you can't keep knocking them down without threatening who they are.
SPEAKER_06And this is this is programmed by Fox and Hate Radio. They have been programmed to identify, and I mean that quite literally, putting their identity on, believing everything Fox says makes me a good American, makes me patriotic.
SPEAKER_03Well, and and everything, and this is I don't want to stray too far away, but this is remarkably similar to racism and anti-Semitism.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Which is my identity is tied up in feeling superior to that black man. My identity is tied up in hating people who are Jewish.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And therefore, I cannot allow myself to believe that I'm wrong about that. Yeah. Because then my idea, my identity would be gone. I cannot allow myself to believe that the left was ever right about anything. I just need more lies to keep patching up the cracks in my identity, which keep forming because the lies keep falling apart.
SPEAKER_06And this is the thing that was brilliant is brilliant about Fox, which is they didn't go necessarily go after the Democratic Party. They created something called the radical left. Right. And that is absolutely straight out of Orwell. You know, it's straight out of uh just and and and it and it you you've talked about this many times. It is no longer permitted to hate N-words or to hate Jews or to hate, you know, to have those kind of absolutely uh bigoted racists in public and say them out loud. Right. You have to code it. You will lose your job. You will be, you will face consequences for doing that. So they've converted this to hate the radical left, which is conveniently, you know, the a core part of the power center of the Democratic Party is black women, right? Including the presidential nominee for the last race that was fought, you know.
SPEAKER_03And all and all of them, uh if Donald Trump runs a foul of any of them, they're all low IQ people. Yeah. They're all nasty low IQ people. And every one of his bigoted base members knows exactly what the fuck means. Yes, and that all goes back to Lee Atwater.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Saying you can't run around saying n-word, n word, n anymore. So you have to code this stuff. You have to say busing, you have to say welfare, but everybody knows what you're talking about. Everybody knows what it means. And everyone inside the tribe who rubbed shit in their hair cave knows what this all means. And they know the radical left is the devil.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And therefore, and uh and and the devil can never be right.
SPEAKER_06Right. You have to be, in order to be a good person, you have to fight the devil, right? And be a good American and all of those things.
SPEAKER_03Well, and and speaking of which, we're gonna move on to something shorter and pointier, but it's generally in the same genre. And we're gonna move on to an interview conducted at what we are pretty sure was the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Uh is from a short TikTok from The Good Liars, and it features a tall, genial grandfather type, fully decked out in all of his MAGA flair. He's got the buttons, he's got the mandatory Trump uh Trump 2024 hat, and he's wearing a lanyard that reads Missouri Delegate, so you know he's someone important. And there's a woman at his side who's also wearing all the identical uh flair and all the same lanyard. Now, as a wife, is his daughter, some other delegate or Missourian, who even knows? They're all traveling together. So let us proceed to the audio in which the genial grandfather type insists that the law in California is that you can kill a newborn baby for up to four weeks after birth. Period, full stop. And in the video, he's got this big gotcha smile on his face as he recounts this monstrous lie and pays special attention to his reaction when asked where exactly he heard this story.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's after they're born.
SPEAKER_10You can kill them. I'm sorry, I gotta take a moment here. You're saying that in California you can kill a newborn baby up to four weeks until after it's born?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely not. That's not true. That is true. That's not true. That is not true.
SPEAKER_10That's that's not true.
SPEAKER_02You need to go do your research.
SPEAKER_10100% not true. You need to do your research. Where did you where did you read that? Be honest. National news media. I no, impossible. You're saying a four-week old baby can be what what would that be called? They call it um post-birth abortion. Murder.
SPEAKER_02I call it murder.
SPEAKER_10Post-birth abortion. Can you tell me where you read it? It's been a while. I've read it so many places I can't name them all, no.
SPEAKER_03It's hard to name them all right now. Oh, so many places. All over the national media, blue gal. It was everywhere.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, we know exactly where he heard it, don't we, Driftglass?
SPEAKER_03Yes, we do.
SPEAKER_06When campaigning for the 2024 election, he heard it from presidential candidate Donald Trump on Meet the Press, where he insisted that Democrats kill babies after they're born. Kristen Welker tried to push back on that lie in real time, but Trump just bulldozed right over her because she is weak and because she put someone she knows to be a serial liar on television. We're 98% sure the stupid Missouri TikTok grandpa heard it from Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram, and Sean Hannity, too, which you just know is his idea of the national news.
SPEAKER_01That used to be called infanticide. It's full-on embrace of infanticide. That would be called infanticide. Not rhetorically, but literally infanticide.
SPEAKER_06And you'll never guess who else said this drift glass.
SPEAKER_00There's something in particular that I want to speak to this morning and that my colleague uh Congresswoman Wagner wants to speak to. Uh, and that's to make sure that every American understands what today's Democrat Party stands for with respect to babies and with respect to the murder of babies. Uh we have seen now in states across the country the introduction of legislation uh that would enable the killing of babies. This is not about abortion. This is about killing babies after they are born. And it is the face of pure evil.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I can guess, Blue Gow. Yes, that flak, affectless sociopath voice belongs to none other than Liz Cheney from back in 2019 when she was still a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and his administration, and could let fly with a grotesque blood libel like that against the Democrat Party without batting a fucking eye.
SPEAKER_06Because that's how Republicans play the game. Lies don't matter, slander doesn't matter. Whatever gets the base off their fat asses into the polls is all that matters. And over the decades, the lies and slanders that powered the right got uglier and more dangerous. And and remind me, Driftglass, she made that statement in a house leadership press conference.
SPEAKER_03Oh, if you want to go to the uh house leadership YouTube page, it's still up there. That's where I got it from. And she's repeated it on several in several different venues. This was not just an accident, this was a talking point that the fourth person in leadership of the Republican Party, Dick Cheney's spawn, said over and over and over again. And you know what?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03When Cheney broke with her party over, you know, all the trees and an insurrection and shit, our new Never Trump supervisors demanded that we all sit down and shut up about Cheney's many, many, many horrendous lies. Because, hey, she's an ally now. No questions asked. And it was just a disagreement over abortion policy, right? You know, that's all it really was. So everybody be quiet and go away and shut up. And since Trump, uh I'm since Never Trumpers had now colonized the media, never a word of objection was heard by anyone except for a handful of disgrunted liberals and whoever listens to those people anyway. And what was it, Mark Anthony says in Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene two? The evil that men do lives after them, and the good is oft interred with their bones.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it never mattered to Republican candidates or to Fox News and hate radio what kind of lies they had to tell to win votes and viewers. The immorality of their campaigns and business models never entered into it. Romney's gonna win in a landslide, Driftglass. It all that mattered was the next election or the next quarter and whatever was necessary to put your guy in office or meet the earnings projections. Nothing beyond that.
SPEAKER_03Yep. And with every appeal to the bigotry and homophobia and xenophobia and the fear of the Communist Democrat Party, lie by lie and slander by slander, they painted themselves into a corner where that was the only language the base understood anymore.
SPEAKER_06Don't forget the misogyny.
SPEAKER_03Oh, let's not forget the misogyny. That's and then the toxic propaganda sludge pit that they had made out of all these lies and slanders stood up on its hind legs and introduced itself, and its name was Donald Trump. Ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_06And once it became clear that Trump was a real contender and it wasn't gonna be Rubio, the punditocracy and establishment wing of the Republican Party began running around asking anyone but us liberals, how could this be happening? And they didn't ask us liberals because we would have told them that they themselves had built this monster lie by lie and slander by slander.
SPEAKER_03And that's why we can never ever be allowed into the circle of trust, Blue Gal. You want to know what the future could and should look like? Boys and girls, look to Illinois and consider these two stories, both from WCIA in Springfield, Illinois, reported just days apart. This one is from September 5th of this year. Quote, Diesel has reached a record high price in the United States, leading many to question the impact it might have on farmers during harvest. One farmer said most already have diesel stored for the first half of harvest, but also said the climbing prices might hurt their pocketbooks later in harvest as they have to refuel. He said this is happening at the same time as high fertilizer costs. It's definitely going to impact our harvest expense, said Lucas Roni of Roni Farms. We're pretty fortunate that we've had this rally in corn and soybean prices to make up for some of it, but some of our other inputs have increased also, so it might be offsetting some of that too. The nationwide price of diesel is a record $5.85. Here in Illinois, it's slightly lower than that at around $5.65. Unquote.
SPEAKER_06Is there anyone left who doesn't know exactly why diesel and fertilizer prices have skyrocketed or how Trump's insane tariff regime is hitting farmers as well? Then there's this story from WCIA two days later, on September 7th of this week. Quote, Governor Pritzer and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, DCEO, announced that 115 million people visited the state of Illinois last year, an increase from 2024. Visitor spending grew by 3.5% to $50.2 billion, surpassing the $50 billion mark for the first time in Illinois history. And the total economic Economic impact amounted to $88 billion. This produced $4.9 billion in direct state and local tax revenue. Illinois continues to attract visitors from across the country and around the world, delivering economic benefits that reach communities in every corner of our state, J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. By the way, he's the governor DriftClass.
SPEAKER_03He's our governor.
SPEAKER_06The growth of our tourism industry supports local businesses, creates jobs, and strengthens our economy while showcasing the incredible people, places, and experiences that make Illinois a world-class destination. Unquote. Come on to Illinois and visit us, everybody. Come visit.
SPEAKER_03It's awesome here.
SPEAKER_06JP Pritzker couldn't be prouder.
SPEAKER_03Couldn't be prouder.
SPEAKER_06He couldn't be prouder of the state of Illinois.
SPEAKER_03I hear he's up for re-election. I wonder how that's going, Blue Gal.
SPEAKER_06It's going okay.
SPEAKER_03It's going okay. Uh and we're going to throw in one more for good measure of local news. This is from Capital News, Illinois, September 2nd, 2026. Quote, SP Global Upgrades Illinois' credit rating. Increase is the second within a week.
SPEAKER_06A week.
SPEAKER_03A week and 12th of Pritzker's tenure, unquote.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. We have plenty of MAGA here in Illinois.
SPEAKER_03We sure do. We live in MAGA country. We really do.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, really, downstate Illinois. Uh plenty of genial grandpas who absolutely believe that, you know, the Democratic Party, the Democrat Party kills babies who after they're born. I read it somewhere. I saw it somewhere. Pillars of the community like Richard Patterson, Chamber of Commerce members, churchgoers, and they're all out of their fucking minds, Drift Glass. Yep. And you can find them out and about or on social media. You can find them all everywhere on social media. Oh, yeah. Bitching endlessly about what a disaster JB Prisker is for the state.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_06It's their full-time job.
SPEAKER_03It really is. And they're everywhere.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. How are you spending your retirement? Well, I'm on Nextdoor talking about how JB Prisker has taxed me out of existence. Uh their reaction to every new credit rating upgrade is a blizzard of Facebook and Nextdoor posts about but the pension debt's still big and fatty JB is too busy eating hamburgers to care. Their reaction to the massive spike in tourism and the billions it brought into the state. Well, it's all probably from people who fled Illinois visiting relatives because Illinois sucks and Pritzker's fat. And it's all those uh Feminazis coming here for abortions. Probably.
SPEAKER_03Probably.
SPEAKER_06You know, and and JB doesn't care. He just eats burgers all the time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And and it just never stops.
SPEAKER_03And every every story that comes out of Trump's mouth or the right's mouth about Roy Cooper and murder or whatever shows up immediately as justice for so-and-so.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because that's all they listen to. That's all they hear. And it never stops. And the bigger picture is this no matter how good the news is, if Democrats are running things, it's always bad news. Chicago is recognized all over the world as a world-class city. But here in Illinois, Republicans out in the sticks babble endlessly about what a crime-ridden hellhole it is.
SPEAKER_06Until they have to go Christmas shopping.
SPEAKER_03Until they have to go Christmas shopping. And then they'll go up there and risk going to Michigan Avenue and doing shopping and things. And how Chicago's stealing all their money. All the money's going to Chicago. And for a lot of them, the only solution is secession. Because they just want to be like a poorer, dumber Iowa for some reason.
SPEAKER_06Well, they want to keep the iDot, they want to keep the Illinois Department of Transportation money for their roads.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah. That's not going to happen.
SPEAKER_06That's only fair.
SPEAKER_03That's only fair. And maybe some military bases and so forth. Um, yeah, and they want it to be white. Let's be very clear. They want it to be white. These are the same people who look at what Trump has done to America and they're delighted with it. The same people who will hear Donald Trump desecrate the memory of 9-11 and they'll be thrilled with it. Who applauded Trump's garbage spew in Dallas last night. They despise the idea of America as a tolerant, diverse democracy, and anything Trump can do to wreck the place and reduce it to third-world white nationalist shithole status is a-okay with them.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So to conclude, the difference between the United States of America and the state of Illinois is that here in Illinois, we do have plenty of MAGA people. We just don't let them run things. We don't let the weeds get higher than the garden, folks.
SPEAKER_03Amen.
SPEAKER_06Can I get an amen from the people of the people of the it's gonna take, like you you have said many times, it's gonna take some of them dying off. And it's gonna take the younger generations realizing they have an obligation to stop this.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And I think they're starting to realize just how much what it feels like to have power and to want to make change and to and the and the best way to do it.
SPEAKER_03And and the young people I know, and there's three of them to be exact, are uh are hardcore, are leftier than me, hardercore than me, but they're also all three of them are very practical people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03They want the world to be a certain way, but they're not crazy. They're they're like, they're not they understand to get there, you have to go through certain things and you have to elect people that you might not agree with 100% of the time. You have to be practical about it. You don't give up your dreams or your vision of the future, but you make reasoned decisions based on available options that will yield the best results.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that's a great way to go through life, I suppose.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. That that congressional candidate in in Illinois, Kat Abergraza, I'm not gonna say her name right. Oh, but everyone called her Kat. She had a long time.
SPEAKER_03And she lost the primary, yeah.
SPEAKER_06She lost her primary. She did. And the conversations that were being had on social media by her supporters reminded me so much of Kennedy 80.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And young people who wanted Ted Kennedy to be president.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Losing. And having to go through certain stages of grief, but also being very upfront about okay, now we have to regroup and do certain things and work on certain issues, and you know, what is it, what are our priorities? And there was all these kind of conversations going on uh in the aftermath of that primary that made me feel so optimistic, really for the first time since Trump's re-election.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um and and Middlechild has said, you know, if the Democrats gain a lot of power uh in the next three years, they've really got to do something big.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Yes, they do.
SPEAKER_06So we're we're called upon uh by this younger generation to show up.
SPEAKER_03Well, and you know who else who else agrees with that is Stuart Stevens. Yeah, is that there on social media saying uh if Democrats win majorities, the first thing they need to do is cut off all money to the executive branch.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Then they need to abolish ice, and then they need to get even more aggressive. Yeah, yeah. Okay, man.
SPEAKER_06Right the middle of the road is for dead uh dead armadillos, right? Something like that, he said. Yeah. Um none of this, well, we'll work with our friends across the aisle.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06We want to work with the White House and meet with Jared Kushner.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we hear he's a good negotiator. That's that is not what the public, what Democratic voters are crying out for at all. No.
SPEAKER_06No, no. I do have a a suspicion about, by the way, Hakeem Jeffreys meeting with Jared. And and time will tell whether I'm right or not, and I'm not making excuses. I do not believe that that Hakeem Jeffries always ha has good political instincts. Uh but I think one of the re one what the deal is with that meeting, I I would guess, and I would put five bucks down on it, was Trump's health. Because Jared is the only Trump who is not making money hand over fist from Trump. He's making it from the Saudis.
SPEAKER_03Right. He's making it um adjacent to Trump.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, adjacent to Trump and and in the Middle East, and but but he doesn't need Trump anymore.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_06And so I think Hakeem Jeffries, if if there was if he was trying to reach out for someone Trump adjacent to say everybody knows this guy's brain's gone. He wasn't he's not gonna go to John Jr. and say that. Don Jr. needs the crypto to keep going, yeah, to have his felt fortune, whereas Jared doesn't. You you might I'm like I said, I'm not making excuses. I hockey made a huge mistake doing this.
SPEAKER_03You might well be right. He might be reaching out going, any chance of me not going to prison? Because you know, I'll sing just like my dad, I'll rat him out. I'll whatever you want, man. Just can I keep my money and maybe just you know put some people behind bars, but just the political stupidity of appearing with this, with you know, the beneficiary of you know, the bone saw. Yes, slender man, you know, just yeah, no. Come on, man.
SPEAKER_06Come on, you know, you don't you didn't need to do that. No, all right. So we've got to save some for next week, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I've got I've got so many tabs open of news stories, and I did watch um selected excerpts from Trump's spew. And I did write a little post today, if anybody's interested, which is don't even bother. It's just the same old lies told to the same old goggle-eyed homunculi who are just applauding like idiots, same old bullshit. We're gonna have great health care in two weeks, and everybody's gonna get a $5,000 check.
SPEAKER_06Why don't they post a semi-nude of Hassan Piker at the convention?
SPEAKER_03If the question begins, why did they, honey? The answer is, how the fuck would I know? I mean, scary, they want to scare people. Look at him, he's so scary. I don't know. I have no idea. I I just think that they're a bunch of I think uh somebody posted this on uh online and I'm repeating it. I don't know who said it, but um, John Fetterman is the only rat who who ran who runs up the rat line onto a sinking ship.
SPEAKER_06Onto a sinking ship, yeah. I re I reposted that too.
SPEAKER_03It was very smart. This has got that kind of uh I again in the post I wrote today. This has got that kind of Mussolini about two months before he tried to sneak away in disguise kind of speech, like everything's great and we're great, and we won all the victories, and the future is wonderful.
SPEAKER_06Wealthcare for everybody, and it'll be easy. Yes.
SPEAKER_03This is this is what it would sound like if you squinted that's what Mussolini at the end of his time, everybody knows it, uh, would be saying. And and Trump's got that kind of dumbass. I'll just go out here, I'll line up all my my you know, my steady Joes, the people who've been doing all my rallies in the front row, they'll clap at anything I say, and I'll go up here just just I'll play the hits. Yeah, Democrats are all communist, degenerate, radical lefties, and they kill babies, and everyone knows that blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_06Apparently, some of the Republicans who who you know spent their last aura point coming to this thing, yeah, got booed by the audience, the very small audience that showed up for this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the cameras uh drifted to the upper decks where there was nobody there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I forget who's it might have been Mark Twain who said hell is a half-empty auditorium. Yeah, yeah. And uh, and if there's one place that Donald Trump belongs above all others, it's hell.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. All right, drift class.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_06Each week we post to our Patreon page and website an internet kitty sent in by you, the listeners. However, this week's internet kitty is Ziggy. Yeah, Ziggy belongs, and I put that in quotation marks, to our youngest child and their roommate uh in an apartment in the area. Uh, Ziggy is a tween kitten who has three settings: sleep, run around the apartment super fast, and of course, eat freshly poured cat food, our fake sponsor. Whether you serve Pet Store Perfection or Dollar Store Dreck, your cat will stop their zoomies just long enough to demand that the food they eat is only freshly poured.
SPEAKER_07Oh my lord, it's freshly poured later they had dormant heart to store. Oh my lord, it's freshly poured. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_06And you can visit Ziggy. Ziggy is a torty and is almost not a kitten anymore. Uh she is up at our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash proleftpod. Or you can see Ziggy at our website, proleftpod.com. And I may have just misgendered Ziggy. I think Ziggy's a boy. Is Ziggy a boy? Do you remember?
SPEAKER_03You're asking me?
SPEAKER_06I we met Ziggy once, and Ziggy was running around a lot.
SPEAKER_03Ziggy's a kitten who runs around real fast.
SPEAKER_06Runs around a lot. Um, but but Ziggy's very cute. And um, young youngest child is very good at capturing Ziggy uh in photograph. And this is this is a lovely photograph of Ziggy. You really should check it out at our website, prolefpod.com. And you can send your internet kitty dog or other pet to us at our email address, prolefpodcast at gmail.com, where you can also write to both of us. Feel free to write us. We love hearing from you. Be aware that if you write to us at any of our addresses, we reserve the right to read your email or U.S. Postal Service Go Postal Unions letter on the air, unless you say otherwise.
SPEAKER_03And you know how we are about memory, blue gal and not forgetting things and recalling things from the past. So let us not forget our gourmet coffee guidelines this week. Because if you can afford an espresso-based beverage for yourself, buy one for us at patreon.com forward slash proleft pod. This isn't charity. This is in fact our job that we do every week with your help and support. And you can also help us by hooking up a friend of yours with this show. You can help us grow by introducing the professional podcast to a fellow traveler who is unaware that we are there. And we are still getting almost every day or every week, somebody or somebody's online who's never heard of us, has no idea who we are, because we are this little podcast in the middle of Middle America, who says, I heard about you from a friend or from Bob Sesco or Nicole or Brad or whoever, whoever. And wow, you guys speak my language.
SPEAKER_06So if you don't get a letter from somebody who loved us, Bob Seska and the Bill Show in Australia.
SPEAKER_03So you never know. You never knew. But uh believe me, uh our small but loyal audience is built organically, one at a time. And uh and we love y'all. And if you know anybody who could stand to listen to us, uh pass us along to them.
SPEAKER_06Hey Driftglass, how are the internet kitties doing this week?
SPEAKER_03Well, the internet kitties this week have a local political wish, Blue Gal. They wish they could filter the flood of Doris Turner for Senate ads down to at most one per minute.
SPEAKER_06She's got she's running for state senate re-election. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, re-election. She's she's gonna win.
SPEAKER_06She's gonna win, and and her ads in local YouTube every and and on local TV are every three seconds, I swear.
SPEAKER_03Uh it is, it is, and there's one very big negative ad about her opponent, and there's a whole bunch of you know, she did this, she did this, she supported this, etc., which are you know, and I just want to reach into the screen going, Doris, I'm gonna vote for you. Could you just leave me alone? You already have my vote. You don't need it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you won already in our book. You've won our hearts, but you know, but I I think she's got money to spend and she's spending it on making sure people vote for her. And and one of her big accomplishments that she toats, that she touts, excuse me. Um she got the bill through that uh when insurance companies were trying to limit the amount of anesthesia that you could consume during surgery.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. All right, that's it.
SPEAKER_06And and she's the one who went, uh no. No. And got that bill through the state house and on the governor's desk to protect Illinois patients from that kind of bullshit. So, yay, Doris Turner, for doing that.
SPEAKER_03And she shows up, she shows up everywhere. She's a hard worker, she shows up everywhere.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. I'm I'm proud to be her constituent, no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_03Same here.
SPEAKER_06Have a good weekend, everybody. See you next time.
SPEAKER_03See you next week. Love y'all.
SPEAKER_06Bye-bye.com.