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 1027: Fair Weather Fiends
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Episode 1027 tracks the widening cracks in MAGA's coalition as elite Conservatives and Republican officeholders begin quietly distancing themselves from Trump while his approval craters to 31%, proving the mob was never really following him — he was following the mob, and now the mob is splitting. Driftglass and Blue Gal pull a bizarre, rambling Time Magazine interview in which Trump complains about unfair press coverage paragraph after paragraph, then compare it word-for-word to his identical meltdowns from a decade ago during the 2016 campaign.
The episode also digs into Democratic healthcare proposals, with Medicare for All framed as the gold standard Democrats should be unafraid to champion.
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SPEAKER_03This is the podcast for the week of October 2nd, 2026. It's not safe for work.
SPEAKER_06Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance, where we don't know if you've heard, but the midterm elections are just a month away, which means they're already putting up these swearing-in decorations at the big lots. It's the professional left with Driftglass and Bluegal.
SPEAKER_03Halloween's over, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's over.
SPEAKER_03Christmas decorations are up at Lowe's.
SPEAKER_06Halloween was over in August.
SPEAKER_03So I don't understand it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't understand it anymore.
SPEAKER_06Capitalism, honey. It's capitalism.
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, all the stuff at Michael's for Halloween went on 60% off sale before October 1st.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_03So and now they're getting Christmas stuff out. Yeah. Gotta get it out. Just crazy. Uh yeah. The midterms, however, are now close enough that we no longer need to measure them in weeks or days. Nope. Instead, we measure proximity to the midterms using the escalating Republican panic scale.
SPEAKER_06Very reliable scale, that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh you already know about Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt, who apparently never read the bit in the book of Proverbs about whoever digs a pit will fall into it. If someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them. But the reason this Schmidthead was even in a position to fall into his own bear pit was that Republicans thought, with their numbers cratering, it'd be a really great idea to dredge up events around the 2020 elections and the Trump-led insurrection again. Because that fills people with full of confidence. Because you know what? You know what? What else have they got?
SPEAKER_03Well, they also have this quote, we have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years. Why now? Oh yeah, there is an election coming, and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working. Unquote. Would you care to guess the source of that quote? What of course? That was Marjorie Taylor Green.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We don't like her.
SPEAKER_06No.
SPEAKER_03But she doesn't win anything by saying that.
SPEAKER_06No, but she understands the GOP.
SPEAKER_03She does. And uh just wait, there is more.
SPEAKER_06There is more. This is from Talking Points Memo just yesterday. Quote Republicans can't stop talking about banning trans athletes. Jesus Christ. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Central Florida in August, U.S. Representative Byron Donalds denounced his soon-to-be general election opponent for governor, Democrat just barely, David Jolly, as a Trojan horse for progressive politics in the reliably red state. David Jolly is somebody who thinks it's still okay for boys to be in girls' sports, said Donalds, purposefully misgendering transgender girls. Just pure insanity. A day later, he secured the Republican nomination, unquote.
SPEAKER_03Of course he did, because he's a pig.
SPEAKER_06He's a pig. They're all pigs.
SPEAKER_03And from the very, very right-wing Christian broadcasting network also yesterday, quote, catering to what is effectively Sharia law, California Governor Gavin Newsom enshrines Muslim state holidays, unquote. Gavin's not going to be president.
SPEAKER_06No, but what must he must he enshrine Sharia law in the Great South of California, blue gal?
SPEAKER_03The Christian broadcasting network is as close to Sharia law as any group of people in this entire country.
SPEAKER_06If they had their choice, there'd be Orthodoxy police beating people in the streets. Running around beating people. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yes, uh, they're trying to keep the bigots and imbeciles on side by playing the hits. Caravans, trans athletes, Sharia law. That's how panicked they are. Can we get a flag burning amendment up in here and maybe some new English language only federal regulations? Which apparently is the number one thing that a right wing person can mention to get dollars donated. English only.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is this has been going on well since since Gingrich.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06I mean, all this shit goes back that far. Or maybe they'll just go with the classics, Blue Gal.
SPEAKER_04You needed that job, and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is.
SPEAKER_06If you don't remember it, if you're too young to remember it, you've blocked it out. That was the infamous White Hands ad. It was run by now dead racist scumbag named uh Jesse Helms against his opponent Harvey Gant in the North Carolina Senate race 36 years ago in 1990. And you know what? It worked. He uh Helms was down on the polls and he ran this ad and he just went full racist and he won. You know, back when we are now led to believe that everyone was bipartisan and shit, and there wasn't even a breath of racism to be found anywhere in the party of Reagan. So who knows, maybe they'll use some more out and proud racism as the escalating Republican panic scale ticks higher and higher and higher.
SPEAKER_03And if you hadn't noticed, a number of elite conservative voices and Republican politicians are either breaking with Trump, good luck with that, or are slowly crab walking away from him, looking for a post-election 2027 slash 2028 survival strategy.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Marjorie Taylor Greene didn't say what she said because she's a decent, honest human being. No, no, she said it because she needs a lot of daylight between what's happening now and her future political ambitions. And there's a bunch of people just like that. Because as we're sure you've noticed, especially if you've listened to this podcast for, oh, I don't know, the past 15 years or so, thanks to the Republican Party making itself completely subordinate to Fox News and hate radio and MAGA podcasters and so forth, the Republican Party effectively has no leader other than the Vox Populi, the voice of the people.
SPEAKER_03Yep. And on the right, the populae are deranged.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Trump gained and held power over the party because he quote unquote led the base where it already wanted to go, into the sewer. He's saying what I'm thinking. No, he was saying what was in your head already. Well, because he was following you.
SPEAKER_06What Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Reilly and all the rest of them put there or elevated there long before Trump ever showed.
SPEAKER_03Long before Trump came down the escalator. Absolutely. Trump was nothing more or less than a lens through which the base's basist instincts were focused and validated.
SPEAKER_06Yep. And some of you may be familiar with this quote from Alexandre, Auguste Ledrux, Roland, who was a leader during the French Revolution. One of them, this one was the one in 1848. Quote, there go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them, unquote.
SPEAKER_03Very honest statement there. Yeah, absolutely. And this is exactly the dynamic here. When everything was going MAGA's way, it was easy and profitable for the entire Republican Party and every conservative media outlet and every MAGA podcaster to do what Trump was doing. Telling the MAGA mob whatever ridiculous, racist claptrap the MAGA mob wanted to hear.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's the key. But now things have changed. Things are different. The MAGA mob isn't a monolith anymore. Now don't kid yourself. They never cared about the freedom or democracy or fiscal prudence or any of the other bullshit that the weekly standard used to blab about, and that all of our never Trump friends brag, you know, Reagan and George Bush Sr. and so forth used to roll around in. The base never gave a shit about any of that stuff. They're still the same army of bigots and imbeciles, but in the last year, inflation got really personal and Iran got real and tariffs got real, and diesel is headed north with no end in sight. Local economies are getting crushed. And hey, what about those Epstein files? Anybody seen the Epstein files?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So why are some Republicans fleeing while others are doubling down? Why is conservative media fragmenting? And why can't Trump control the mob anymore?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, because, and this is important, the mob was never really following Trump. Trump was following the mob.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Right now, Trump's approval rating is polling at a jaw-dropping 31%. That's below the Sarah Palin floor.
SPEAKER_05I know.
SPEAKER_03And there's a cottage industry of MAGA mopes grabbing their phones and going on TikTok or Facebook or wherever to scream about how they was lied to. How they ain't near gonna vote for anybody ever again because Democrats are still commie Muslim baby killers. But Donald Trump has stabbed them in the back.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Donald, you were supposed to do blah, blah, blah. And you know, you just stick your finger anywhere on the internet and you'll find some guy with a with a cat hat and a beard bitching about diesel prices or farming prices or whatever. So since your red district electability, or perhaps alternately your mortgage and your groceries, and your tricked out 1000K Lexus GX and the pied de terre for your side piece all depend entirely on slaking the MAGA mob's thirst for flattering fairy tales. What's she gonna do when half the mob goes this way and half the mob goes the other way?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And there was a commentator on Blue Sky Today saying they've not only forgotten long ago how to write a bill.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_03They've and long ago forgotten how to govern. Now they've forgotten how to campaign.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. They just say they just scream trans athletes and Obama's a and they don't know how to meet with people.
SPEAKER_03No. Roger Marshall uh did not show up in Wichita today because the public found out about the event. That's a way to reach out to people. And so he went to Kansas City where his rally is $95 a ticket.
SPEAKER_06I guess I guess the Wichita lineman is not still on the line, you gal. Why might go full Glenn Campbell on you right here?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but but you know, they've forgotten that that you need to shake hands with people and they need to get to know you again and you go back to your district and do and no, I just wanted to be gerrymandered, so it's automatic for me to win. Right.
SPEAKER_06And and there's some, I think there's some like almost subconscious memory of when when Democrats were doing town hall meetings in like 2010, 29, and the and the the then Tea Party, which turned into MAGA, which are just fucking Republicans, let's face it, uh would show up at large numbers and scream at people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And they're like, yeah, then because they love it.
SPEAKER_03You're taking away my healthcare. You're trying to kill my grandmother, on and on and on. A lot of anxiety.
SPEAKER_06And that was that they loved it then. Man, they loved town meetings when they were shrieking their brains out at uh, I don't know, our inspector will be.
SPEAKER_03Now they're shrieking their brains out about diesel prices and gas. Right.
SPEAKER_06And that's why they don't want to have town hall because the shrieking mob has turned on them.
SPEAKER_03On them.
SPEAKER_06And they remember what it's like to be on that on that stage watching as they were watching people getting roasted. And now that the ones who are in danger of getting roasted.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_06So they run away.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. After all, these people live in a completely Manichean universe where nuance and subtlety just mean you're weak and woke. They want simple declarative sentences and will not settle for splung.
SPEAKER_07What do you think? Come on! Did he say splunge? What does splunge mean? It means it's a great idea, but possibly nothing. Great. What do you think? Uh splunge? Okay. Yeah, yeah, splunge for me too. Now we're getting somewhere.
SPEAKER_06And that's the problem. The Republican coalition is now demanding, demanding two incompatible fairy tales at the same time. Now, in politics, there's no more accurate weather vein of loser politics than desertions. Right now, the elite are starting to hedge their bets because they're not looking at a month from now. They're not going, oh my God, I wonder who's going to win in Kansas. They're looking at a year from now or two years from now, which is why you see Republican office holders hedging. Not all of them, not all of them. Mary Miller, Mary Nazi Miller, is fully embracing Trump because she's in an R plus a million district.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_06But we're hoping Jennifer Todd will crack that district open.
SPEAKER_05I hope so too.
SPEAKER_06Bring some sanity to her. She's a wonderful person and fully qualified. Not all of them, but enough of them are doing this. And you see a bunch of Republican campaigns, and I heard I heard this from people writing to us. Yeah, this happened in my area too. People in Missouri. Republican campaigns scrubbing their website of any reference to Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_03Although now Donald Trump's going to tour.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And they're even scrubbing references to their own political party. They're just running for office as something or other.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_06But, you know, I mean, even in Illinois, we talked a couple of episodes ago about Darren Bailey.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Who was just Donald Trump's, you know, pilot fish last time around. He couldn't get enough Trump. Now, there's no pictures of Trump on the website. And every time anyone asks another question, I'm not talking about Trump. I'm talking about Illinois and how what a bad job Jamie Pritzker is doing, which is why Darren Bailey is polling it around 38% now. And it's never going to get any higher. Also, corporate America is hedging and conservative media is hedging their bets. And Trump himself is continuing to collapse into an embarrassing slag heap of grievances about how unfair everyone is to him.
SPEAKER_03It's so unfair. Yeah. When he's not having trouble breathing, he's giving absurdly long interviews to Time magazine. And this was published today, October 1st, 2026. Quote, the interviewer asks, Why should Americans believe that you respect the free press when you're restricting access to the White House to some of our colleagues? And Trump said, Because I do respect the free press, but I don't respect the fake news. I'll give you an example, CNN and MSDNC, which is MS Now. They changed the name because it does so poorly. But I won the election. I won it handily by massive numbers. I won the popular vote. I won all seven swing stays. If they said you won three swing stays, I won all seven. I won the counties. It's very important. 86% popular vote, everything. And very conclusively. I haven't had a good story on CNN for years. They're incapable of being, they're fake news. Same thing on MS now. If I do the finest thing, if I found the cure to cancer, they would say, why didn't he move quicker? They are just horrible people and they're so bad. So I believe in a free press. I believe in an honest press, but I don't believe in fake news. And I know it's fake because I know the thing. I don't mind, you know, if I do something wrong, I don't mind having a bad story. He's written a couple times about something. I said, well, listen, he's not wrong. But with the press, if somebody's gonna call me, if every single story is, look, I've done a lot of good stuff, I'm in the Oval Office. I mean, the public is very smart. If I wasn't doing a good job, I wouldn't have won that election by a lot. By a lot.
SPEAKER_06And I want to emphasize what Blue Gal said. This article goes on forever, and we're not gonna take big chunks out of it. But some selected center cuts are just to tell you about his mindset now because the interview then asks, are you going to ignore the courts when they say that this denial is dot dot dot? Trump answers, well, the court actually said, if you look at the judge's decision, he's been a very anti-Trump judge, which is very interesting. But if you look at this decision, he he really said process. He talked about come back to us with process. And the interview notes, he's a Trump-appointed judge. He was appointed by you. And Trump says, Yeah, yeah, he was. He was. It's one of those things, whatever those things are. Interview asks, you don't think you're ignoring what the orders he ordered you to do? You don't think you're ignoring his order? Trump, no, I'm not. I'm not ignoring his order. I'm just saying that when I don't have to go out of my way, these people write only bad stories. When they say orders, what order? I'm not even aware.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm not aware of what the court told me to do.
SPEAKER_06And that sentence should just be, you know, stenciled.
SPEAKER_03It's impeachable right there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't know anything. I'm not even aware of anything. And this is Trump continuing because, and this is this is the part that I just went, oh, I have to bring this to you poor people. We read this whole thing, so you don't have to. This is Trump. Because I don't think anybody should be forced to bear fake news, constantly bad stories, because I've done great things. I mean, I've done Venezuela. I've done, I can name, I can name a hundred great things I've done. I never get good press. I never get fair press. Doesn't have to be good. All it has to be is fair. So at a certain point, you say, what's the purpose of like this crazy Caitlin Collins? She's a very average person. She's the most unhappy young person I've ever seen. No, you're uh, you're uh people who married your sons are the most unhappy young people you're ever gonna see. If I did something spectacular by any standard and they would write about it, they will only write badly. Sometimes I'm amazed at how, you know, yesterday I got tremendous applause from massive crowds that came to Duncan, unquote. And just FYI. He goes through a whole bunch of like Trump rallies where a bunch of Trump idiots applauded him. Like, why don't they write about people who are my fans applauding me all the time? Why? It's so unfair.
SPEAKER_03And the interview just went on and on like that for page after page.
SPEAKER_07Now that I recall, he uh might have said something about Met Boys, and then again he might not. I questioned so many men, and uh Harding was not the most reliable officer. I'm afraid the defense has no other recourse than to produce Enton' Harding. There's no need for that. I know exactly what he would tell you. Lying, he was no different from any other officer in the wardroom. They were all a little loyal. I tried to run the ship properly with the book, but they fought me at every turn. If the crew wanted to walk around with their shirt tails hanging out, that's all right. Let them take the toe line, defective equipment, no more, no less. But they encouraged the crew to go around and stuffing at me and spreading wild rumors about steaming in circles and then all yellow steam. I was to blame for Lieutenant Merrick's incompetence and poor seamanship. Lieutenant Merrick was the perfect officer, but not Captain Queen. But the strawberries, that's that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with geometric logic that a duplicate key to the water of ice box did exist. And I'd have produced that key if they hadn't pulled the cane out of action. Uh-huh. I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officer.
SPEAKER_03Yes, this is where we are. And this is where we've been for a long time because this has been Trump's state of mind, actually, before he was elected in 2016.
SPEAKER_06In fact, thank you for the segue, Blue Gal, this is what I wrote almost exactly a decade ago today, on October 11th, 2016, before Trump was elected. Quote, ah, but the birth certificate, that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt with geometric logic that Barack Obama was a Kenyan commie sleeper cell usurper, and they produced evidence if they hadn't all conspired against me. I I you know the liberal media was only trying to protect their traitorous rhino friends, unquote. That was me a long time ago. Go back and look at Trump's tweets from just that day, from October 11th. This is one of them. Quote, disloyal Republicans are far more difficult than crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides, unquote.
SPEAKER_03And another one, quote, the very foul-mouthed Senator John McCain begged for my support during his primary. I gave he won, then dropped me over locker room remarks, unquote, which was the grab him by the pussy part.
SPEAKER_06That was the Access Hollywood tape. Yeah. That was just that his people were not just a bunch of locker room talk. Everybody talks like that.
SPEAKER_03Um, and he was up against it because a lot of people on Fox were saying they weren't gonna vote for him. Right.
SPEAKER_06Drop out, run away, what are you doing? And but he but he understood his base. He understood that his base are misogynist, racist, bullshit, nonsense, lying, Fox News scumbag.
SPEAKER_03So figure that just means Donald Trump's a stud.
SPEAKER_06Right. He's great. This is the this is the last tweet we're gonna quote, quote, despite winning the second debate in a landslide, every poll, it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support, unquote. By the way, for the record, according to every reputable poll, Hillary Clinton absolutely wiped the floor with Trump during that debate, during every debate. That was the debate where I think Chuck Todd said, Yeah, Donald Trump didn't do very well, but maybe Hillary was overprepared.
SPEAKER_03Overprepared, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Fuck you, Chuck Todd.
SPEAKER_03There is one more tweet. Our very weak and ineffective leader Paul Ryan had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty. Unquote.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and that's all from October 11th, 2016. That's the day when the Republican Party's nominee for president declared open war on the leadership of the Republican Party for finally daring to timidly whisper about various glaringly obvious realities about Donald Trump. That was a goddamn decade ago. And you know he's gonna blame the Republican Party when he when he when the midterms crap out. You know who he's gonna blame? He's gonna blame the Republican Party, the fake news, Joe Biden, and Canada if Republicans do badly in the fall. You just know it.
SPEAKER_03It's everybody else's fault.
SPEAKER_06It's always everybody else's fault because they didn't appreciate him enough. And I can't again. Again, to underscore this time article is just a series of just keeps going baby grievances by this asshole, page after page after page.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna switch gears a little bit because I want to do some exciting policy talk about healthcare.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. We haven't had policy talk in a while here.
SPEAKER_03I know. And and I've just been thinking about it a lot because so many Democrats are campaigning about Medicare for all. And I find that uh a wonderful thing and also a fascinating thing because the insurance companies are milking our country dry, and Donald Trump's continuous effort to destroy Obamacare means people are without health care again.
SPEAKER_06No, no, I must disagree because we're all gonna get great healthcare in two weeks.
SPEAKER_03Two weeks, right, right. We're all gonna have a you know a fraction of the cost and so forth and so on. So you know, we're gonna allow people to buy insurance across state lines. It's the same thing. They took away subsidies, they're taking away Medicaid from people. Uh it is it is basically just destroying the health insurance of our country.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and the infrastructure of it too, a hospital.
SPEAKER_03And the infrastructure of it, exactly, exactly. And so this leaves an opening. People want simplicity and they want something straightforward that they can afford. Right. And the gold standard answer for the Democratic Party is Medicare for All. Uh there, and what I love about I printed out something. This is from this is actually from several years ago. It's from uh 2019, KFF, the Kaiser Family Foundation, put together a side-by-side comparison of several democratic plans for expanding healthcare in America. And I printed it out and read it over, and I really wanted to share some of it with our listeners and talk about it with you, Driftglass. Because uh, as you remember, and we talked about this, I think, last last Tuesday, just this week, um, when Hillary Clinton couldn't get her healthcare plan, single-payer healthcare plan through, uh, she said, okay, we're gonna cover kids.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_03I she was she recognized chips, we got chip through.
SPEAKER_06When she hit a wall, she backed up and did the best she could with what's behaving.
SPEAKER_03And so this these plans that we're talking about here, uh, starting with Medicare for all, all of these, and this is this is what I love about being a Democrat, all of these are actual bills that were proposed to the Congress in 2019.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They're written as legislation, they're paid for, they have, they're thought out, and Democrats know how to write bills, they know how to campaign. We have we have people that know how to govern. And they also know that they're not always going to get everything they want. So they have backup plans and backup plans and backup plans and backup plans. So, starting with Medicare for all, there are two bills in 2019, and these are the same bills that they're going to use next year and or hopefully put up for a vote to make Republicans own that they don't want anyone to have health insurance. Um, there's the Sanders bill in the Senate, right? And there's the J Appel bill in the House. And this is how you do things. You pass bills and then you'd go into conference and you and these bills are essentially the same. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Well, they are single. Uh just for the kids out there, yeah. This is how government used to work.
SPEAKER_03This is how and government still works.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03These two bills, uh Senate 1129 Medicare for All Act of 2019, which they've renewed, and you know, it's I'm just reading this because I this was an easy printout. Um, and HR 1384 Medicare for All Act of 2019, that's the House bill. Both of these are a single federal program with comprehensive benefits for all U.S. residents. It is tax finance. There are no premiums, it's limited cost sharing, replaces all private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and chip for covered benefits, takes everything out of the picture and provides everyone with this single coverage. Okay. That's the gold standard. If we could get everything we wanted, do it, just cover everyone who lives here and have a single payer program that's financed by taxes.
SPEAKER_06I have a question.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So you and I went and got our flu shots, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And we got our COVID shots just yesterday.
SPEAKER_03We got a COVID booster and a flu shot yesterday.
SPEAKER_06And at the grocery store, which blows my mind. Um the nice lady there came to me and asked me for my Medicare card.
SPEAKER_03Yes, she did. Your red, white, and blue Medicare card.
SPEAKER_06A red white and blue Medicare card. Took it away, did the thing, came back. My question is this how am I going to feel superior to everyone else if I can't just wave my card and say, I'm old and I deserve it all? Yeah. If everybody has the same benefits, are you taking stuff away from me, Blue Gal and giving it to my brother?
SPEAKER_03I think that there's going to be some resistance among seniors that somehow they won't get appointments. Well, they're not getting appointments now. Right. I'm sorry. This the you need to go back and look at pictures of hospital nurseries from 1946 to 1953 and see how crowded and overpopulated these uh baby nurseries were out in the hallway, overflowing the hospitals with babies because the baby boom happened.
SPEAKER_06Where'd all the babies go, Blue Gal?
SPEAKER_03Well, they're all now between 70 and 85. And or the 80. I guess Trump was born in 46. So 80 is the is the boomer, the beginning of the boomers. And then they're they're down to 70 and 65 and so forth. And you know, you were born in 60, I was born in 63. We are we consider ourselves Generation Jones, right? Uh, not real boomers. Our parents were not serving in World War II. Neither one of us had parents where our parents were too young.
SPEAKER_06No, my dad served in World War II.
SPEAKER_03Oh, he did.
SPEAKER_06Oh he was a he was a medic in Texas.
SPEAKER_03Oh my goodness. Okay.
SPEAKER_06My my uncle flew um B-29s in over Japan.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_06I believe he was a bomber bomber commander.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so you did have yeah, you have that boomer experience of having a dad that was a G uh a vet.
SPEAKER_06Who never talked about it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Ever. I mean, he as far as I knew See, my mom was born in 39 and my dad was born in 37. They were too young to serve in World War II.
SPEAKER_06So my dad, my dad was, as far as I knew, he was a science teacher, then he became a principal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06As far back into his past as when my brother and I and sister went out to uh Burlington uh, as you know, a few years ago to investigate our family history, and we found out all kinds of stuff that you know, like he was on the stage. He did public theater. Oh, yeah, he's like theater and about town. He was talking all about that. Like, who the hell's this?
SPEAKER_03I need to get back to Medicare for all.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, please no, go ahead. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03But but but that's the thing, is right now, um the one of the things that's changed in in healthcare is we have urgent cares everywhere. We call them my ex-husband used to call them dock in the box. Yeah, but urgent care is where you go if you hurt yourself or you get a cold, and that's where you're supposed to go. And we have a lot of resistance in the call center where I work at a medical center from people of a certain age who don't understand why they can't see their primary care doctor. Your primary care doctor is booked out until March of next year.
SPEAKER_06It's not Marcus Bobby.
SPEAKER_03Until November of 2027, unless you have skin cancer. Right. If you have active skin cancer, then they'll get you in with an oncologist. But the dermatology department is full for a year. And that is because senior citizens. And so uh, yeah, I think you know, what it's gonna take is if if we expand healthcare in any way, uh, understanding that right now we have a, and I mean this in the nicest way possible because a part of this generation, a glut of people who need a lot of health care.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_03And thank God they have Medicare. Yes. Right? Thank God they do.
SPEAKER_06And thank God they live in a time when you can get an MRI, you can get a CAF, you can be medicated for problems that would have killed you a generation ago.
SPEAKER_03And thank God for hospice. I mean, I will just say both of my parents and I believe your mom.
SPEAKER_06My mom and and my and her husband. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And her husband went through hospice. And angels on earth. Hospice workers are angels on earth.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Uh definitely uh improved their care and improved their quality of life at the end of their lives. Um, okay, so we got single payer, Medicare for all. There's two bills. The bills are there, the bills are written, they're ready to be put to the floor, ready to go through a committee, ready to do whatever, whatever needs to happen. It's a bill. It's written.
SPEAKER_06Out of question. Okay. Uh one more question. Yes. How will this lower my diesel prices?
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh. I know.
SPEAKER_06I know.
SPEAKER_03Well, getting rid of Trump will and and getting out of that war and lots of other things will lower diesel prices. I'm sorry, I sidetracked, so I apologize.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Maybe. Maybe having a president that doesn't uh isn't invested in oil companies up to his neck would be a good idea. Uh all right, then we have uh the other bills, and these other bills are contingencies. What if we don't get Medicare for all?
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_03What do we do? Do we do what Hillary Clinton does and pivot and go, okay, okay, we're gonna cover kids. We're gonna cover, we're gonna find some other way to cover lots and lots of people.
SPEAKER_06Uh we just give up, right? We'll just give up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we just no, we don't. Um there's a congresswoman named Jan Shikowski.
SPEAKER_06Former.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if you're ever former, yeah. She she stepped down, but uh, and uh Congresswoman DeLoro, who you might know from her purple hair. Uh, and they have HR 2452 from 2019, the Medicare for America Act of 2019. Okay. This is a federal public program with comprehensive benefits for all U.S. residents. That is just like Medicare for All. Right. Individuals can opt out for qualified employer-sponsored health plans and certain other coverage. So if this this makes a concession to the unions who fought for good health care for their members, um, there will be no premiums or cost sharing below 200% of the federal poverty level, which in 2026 is $31,920 a year for a single person and $66,000 a year for a family of four.
SPEAKER_06Okay, if you're below those thresholds, you pay nothing.
SPEAKER_03You pay nothing. It's yours.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_03Um there will be an income-related premium and cost sharing for a public program above 200% FPL, uh, but it will be limited. And this replaces marketplaces, individual health insurance, current Medicare, Medicaid, and chip. Employers can continue to offer qualified group plan coverage or pay 8% of payroll for employee coverage in Medicare for America. So they're allowing companies to buy this for their employees. So it's a public option for companies as well. Individuals eligible for qualified coverage can opt for Medicare for America. Public program also provides private Medicare Advantage for America plan option. So there's going to be some Medicare Advantage in there still, which sucks. But, you know, okay. Um the difference between also between the Medicare for All and the public program with opt-out, uh, Medicare for All is for all U.S. residents as defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Um the public program is all U.S. residents as defined by the Secretary, must include lawfully present immigrants and immigrants eligible for emergency services under Medicaid. So they they answered that question as well.
SPEAKER_06I don't know if you know this, but uh in Chicago at least, um, since uh uh Trump is doing a pocket rescission, I think, uh, doing a clawback of money, there are gonna be around 9,300 um uh immigrants, the various statutes that are gonna be kicked off of Medicaid.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh asylees, um, people who are here legally, uh green card seekers, people all of whom are gonna are just gonna lose their health insurance. And that's that's a story in the Chicago Tribune. I didn't include it on notes, but I I know sort of the details. Um it popped up on Facebook, and you know, it's like this is the story, this sucks, this is what they're doing to save money, which of course it won't save money because uninsured people are also known as disease vectors. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And they that's it's and they wind up in emergency rooms, which does not save money.
SPEAKER_06Right. At all. But the comments were like, well, if you don't, if they're all illegal, shouldn't and illegal shouldn't get insurance, giving stuff away for free. And like, we're never going to reach those people. But but the the and that was the big beautiful bill that did that to those people. Right. So all right.
SPEAKER_03Then we have some public plan options, and um these are all based on Obamacare adding a public option where you can buy Medicare, but you can also choose United Healthcare or Blue Cross or whatever. You can go and choose something in the marketplace if you're looking for insurance. You don't change employer-sponsored health care. It doesn't do any of that. It's just you can buy a federal program for your healthcare. So you can buy Medicare. Um and this is offered to individuals eligible to participate in the marketplace. The subsidies are unchanged. This is uh Ben Cardin's idea. Um retains current sources of private and public coverage. All individuals eligible to participate in the marketplace get to do that. And they're just gonna put a public option in there.
SPEAKER_06And the uh then I'm sorry, the the upside of the public option, one of the advantages, one of the purposes of the public option, as I recall, check me if I'm wrong, was the overhead for a public option is so low, it's so efficient. And Medicare and Medicaid and uh veterans care are run so efficiently that it would either force private insurance companies to be that efficient in lower the prices, yes. Lower the prices and quit paying their CEOs, you know, eight-figure salaries and six-figure bonuses, or go out of business. Yep. Go away. Or go to some sort of boutique side of healthcare that's right.
SPEAKER_03Where you're gonna provide, you know, Marcus Welby home visits for $2,500 a month to people who have to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_06That is literally using the power of the marketplace with an option that is reasonable and and can ensure lots of people to force companies who want to play in the marketplace to price themselves at a reasonable at a reasonable price, exactly.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Uh and then uh the Merkley Richmond bill is also uh federal public plan with an option. Uh there's a Bennett and Kane Delgado bill, uh, the Medicare X Choice Act of 2019. Uh, and then there's the Chikowski White House bill, same thing. The Choice Act, federal public plan option. All four of these have bills uh with different kinds of details. Um, and then you have a couple, um, you know, the so we have the gold standard. We have Medicare for All. Then we have a public program that is very similar. It has a public program with an opt-out for businesses who are providing uh private insurance to their employees. Okay. Uh, then we have public option within Obamacare. Uh, then uh let's say we we comp we have to compromise further. There is the Medicare buy-in for older adults, which uh Stabenow put out, Medicare at 50 Act as an option for individuals 50 and over to buy into Medicare. Marketplace subsidies remain unchanged, and comparable subsidies apply to Medicare. Buy-in enrollees can also buy Medicare Advantage plans if they want to. Uh, and everything, everyone 50 to 64 who are U.S. citizens or nationals residing in the U.S. or lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the U.S. and are not otherwise entitled to or eligible for benefits can buy Medicare. Uh a House member named Higgins did the same thing in the House, uh, 50 and over to buy Medicare. And uh it's the same thing, same bill. And this is also an a way to take the people who are not on Medicare now but are sicker and give them the opportunity to be in Medicare. To join the Putin. And you're taking all the sick people out of the out of the insurance pool.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Pretty much with that. So so so far you've detailed like 13 different bills and variations of them.
SPEAKER_03Two, three, six, nine dozens of six.
SPEAKER_06Nine bills so far.
SPEAKER_03All by Democrats. All Democrats.
SPEAKER_06I heard dozens and dozens of them. So does this qualify as Democrats in disarray? They just can't agree on anything. No, no? Okay.
SPEAKER_03Because there's a gold standard, and then there's what happens if we don't pass that, and how do we make this work? And let's find ideas and ways that we can make uh throw out ideas to expand coverage and make it work and lower prices for everyone because the idea is to build a pool of healthy people that then support everyone else.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_03You pay a low premium for your basic care, you don't use it a lot. It's not like, oh, well, I didn't use it, they didn't use your insurance for two years, kick them off.
SPEAKER_06Right. That's not how no. And those how it worked.
SPEAKER_03You want those people to continue to pay premiums.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. And as those people age into larger and larger health care.
SPEAKER_03Or have a car accident or whatever, right?
SPEAKER_06The system is now uh built and viable for them to do that. It will accommodate them as they grow.
SPEAKER_03And flush.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Then uh there is the Brian Schatz and uh Congressman Lujon, uh, two bills, a House bill and a Senate bill, the State Public Option Act, a state option to offer public plan option based on Medicaid, marketplace subsidies unchained, state flexibility to further reduce premiums and cost sharing for a Medicaid buy-in. People can buy Medicaid.
SPEAKER_06Great idea.
SPEAKER_03Uh individuals who are residents of states electing to establish the Medicaid buy-in option who are eligible to participate in the marketplace and who are not concurrently, you know, covered by something else. Okay. So these are the these are all ideas, you know. I don't love all of them, uh, but but we have a gold standard of what we want, which is coverage for everybody. Uh, and then uh Andy Kim, uh senator, uh also has a proposal that he put out, I believe this year, called Metakids, which is every child, every state, no matter where they are, from birth to age 26, covered by Medicaid.
SPEAKER_06Done.
SPEAKER_03No income limits, no submitting paperwork, automatic enrollment at birth, just like when you get your social security card in the hospital, you have coverage. It's that simple. Uh, we have promised seniors coverage through Medicare starting at 65. Now it's time to extend that guarantee to our youngest and most vulnerable, our children. It is a Senate bill called the Medikids Act. Under Medikids, every child is automatically enrolled at birth, maintains continuous eligibility until age 26, does not need to be a U.S. citizen, and if is if a young adult exempt from the work requirements under HR one. So if they're a young adult going to school, they're still eligible. Uh Medikids will cover 100% of the federal medical assistance percentage for this population, meaning states will bear no additional costs. Kids are covered. This also is going to be a tremendous change in the mindset of a lot of people in terms of government healthcare coverage.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_03Because every income is covered, their children are covered at every income.
SPEAKER_06And that's the terrible secret liberal agenda. Yeah. Get people used to having a service available to them at little or no cost since they were kids, and then daring Republicans to cut it off.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_03So uh this is built on Medicaid, but uh it includes early and periodic screening, diagnet, diagnostic, diagnostic, excuse me, and treatment benefit. Uh preventative health care. It's a sound investment in our children's futures. Medicaids can help address intergenerational issues like maternal mortality. And experts have recommended these policies. This is this is supported by ASME. It's supported by a ton of pediatricians. Um, you know, and and it's it's another idea. It's just another idea to get more coverage for people.
SPEAKER_06Now, on what page do they stash away the death panels?
SPEAKER_03Not death panels, no. One of the things that I I would like to people to talk about is this idea that was in the uh Shikowski bill of allowing companies to buy Medicare for their employees. That you have you have a tiered program where you know you have uh a public program with comprehensive benefits for all residents. People who have coverage through their employer can opt out if it covers you the way Obamacare requires you to be covered.
SPEAKER_06You set the standard, and you have to do it.
SPEAKER_03You set the standard, and then employers can continue to offer group plan coverage or pay eight percent of payroll for employee coverage in Medicare in America. So they can buy it for their employees. So it continues to be what insurance companies are going to want to buy Medicare for their employees? I find that fascinating.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh but I would also like to see, and I don't want I I understand why some Congresspeople might go, oh no, we don't. Don't want to complicate this more. But I think you can uh do something like people did back in the day with highway funds and speed limits. If you want highway funds, you're gonna make your highway speeds lower.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_03And uh that worked, you know, that and and we went for we eventually went from 55 to 70 on some highways, and that's I understand why we did that, but uh you know, 55 was a lot of a lot of states were you know 80 or 85 or whatever, you know, in the West. And because they wanted their highway funds, they lowered their speed limits. If these companies want to buy Medicare, what can we insist that they do in order to be eligible for that? And I think that's where you go after CEO pay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And you say excessive CEO pay, a lack of balance between what you pay the highest highest paid employee in your company versus the lowest paid employee on your company. And most people agree that a 1 to 20 ratio is about right. And yet what you have in this country right now, and I went and found exam examples of this. By the way, there's a bill, there's the curtailing executive overcompensation act or CEO Act.
SPEAKER_06Now, which which Republican is sponsoring this bill?
SPEAKER_03No, no.
SPEAKER_06Oh, no, okay.
SPEAKER_03No, uh, but uh this act applies an excise tax on publicly traded and private companies with over $100 million in gross receipts and $10 million in payroll. So these are big companies. Have at least a 50 to 1 CEO to median worker pay disparity. Yeah. And what they do is you if you have that disparity between the highest paid person and the lowest paid person, you have to pay a tax. And that tax rate is proportional to the size of the executive's compensation, including salary, bonuses, stock awards, and options.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. The whole thing include that. Count them all. You gotta count them.
SPEAKER_03And to the degree which the pay ratio exceeds 50 to 1. For example, and he they give three examples. Walmart CEO Doug McMillan's total compensation was over, this was uh in 2023, I believe. Um over $29 million for a year. 958 times the compensation of Walmart's median workers, not 20, 958 times.
SPEAKER_06Jesus.
SPEAKER_03Walmart would pay a tax of 251.7 million dollars for that year. Or or lower the compensation and increase the wages of the lower price people. Yeah, bring that ratio down.
SPEAKER_06Lots of stuff they could do.
SPEAKER_03There's lots of stuff they could do. You want to buy, but you want to buy Medicare for your employees and save money and compete with other companies that have Medicare for their employees.
SPEAKER_06Now I am worried about it. I am worried about one thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Selfishly. Um Bosco, our cat, uh is compensated at a rate 800 times more than you or I.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh, American Express CEO Steven Squarey's total compensation was over 46 million, eight hundred and fourteen times that of its median worker. American Express would pay a tax of $331.4 million. Apple CEO Tim Cook's total compensation was $73,294,811,000. 533 times that of its median worker. Apple would pay a tax of $324.9 million for the year. The tax would not exceed 1% of a company's gross receipts. So there is a cap on it. Uh but in 2024, the CEO Act would have raised an estimated $8 billion from the top 100 highest grossing U.S. companies.
SPEAKER_06You know what this reminds me of?
SPEAKER_03What?
SPEAKER_06The tax rate under people like Eisenhower.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06When there was you can get rich. People got rich in this country all the time. They got they got incredibly rich. They're very wealthy. But the theory was if you just let these companies just spend the money, you know, pigging out and overpaying their executives and doing stock buybacks and nothing else, they will never reinvest in their company, in their equipment, and their people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So you simply set the tax rate at an exorbitant rate, a very high rate, and say, but, but, but, but if you plow your profits, the majority of your profits, back into your company, open up another company, keep expanding the number of people you hire, keep, you know, buy new machines, get more efficient of what you're doing.
SPEAKER_03Updating your equipment. Exactly.
SPEAKER_06Then you that that that investment is not taxed at the same rate or at all. I don't recall exactly what it is.
SPEAKER_03I would love to see, we're gonna see more of this, and it's gonna be an exciting time to watch this country grow because there are plans, uh, not just this, but to expand our democracy, to bring ethics back to the Congress about you know stock purchasing, and and we're gonna get the selfish people out of there. Well, it is going to happen.
SPEAKER_06I I think buried under all of the policy stuff you just talked about is the fact that this is a moral argument.
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_06It is it as they as we've said before on this podcast, and uh we didn't invent it, budgets are are moral documents.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_06They tell you what your priorities are. And democratic priorities are ensure everybody as efficiently as possible, including Republicans.
SPEAKER_03Yes, right.
SPEAKER_06You know, if you're a poor white couple living in a double wide and that we frequently make fun of because all you do is watch Fox News and hate people like me, we still want you to have adequate medical care, access to doctors, access to pediatricians, and access to all the other things that we think everyone else should have access to.
SPEAKER_03Well, and this is why I want to get rid of the Electoral College, because there are registered Republicans in California whose vote for president never counts.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_03There are and have been for decades. We'll see what happens with Texas, but there have been Texans, Democratic Texans, whose vote for president never counts. And we have this system, primarily these days, I think, to make it easy for mainstream media to have a map up there and just show states turning red or blue.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Instead of individual voters counting for something, which is going to bring to heel, I believe, the Republican Party to have to moderate some of their stance and not play to the mob all the time. Well, people get upset with me for wanting to help the Republican Party. That's not what this is about. It's about helping our country discuss issues rather than talk about, well, Jack Smith was at the wrong basketball game.
SPEAKER_06Well, and and and the thing is, you're not going to get rid of the electoral college. I know that there's a workaround to that. Um, and that's great. We talked about this as well on this podcast, but it's it's more about the the system is frozen. It's locked into this horrible strategy of gerrymandering and electoral politics, and you never have to campaign where you don't need to campaign. You never have to talk to people you don't want to talk to. And busting that up and forcing people on the right to talk to Democrats and in their state because they'd like their vote. And and forcing, I you know, I reject about 80% of the premise that Democrats can't talk like normal people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Is that a myth that's been passed around like a dirty postcard by the puntocracy, but you listen to a lot of politicians that we're familiar with and they talk just just fine. They speak just fine. Jamie Prinzger knows how to talk like a common man.
SPEAKER_03We're finding that with Abdul.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03El Sayed, he's he is fantastic at communicating ideas.
SPEAKER_06He's quick, quick, quick. You know, when when asked about what do you say when Donald Trump said you're full of shit, he said, At least I don't cut it loose in the Oval Office.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_06Which is like that was fast. He's a fat, he's fast on his feet. So there are really good communicators, but there is no percentage in us talking to conservatives in districts that are R plus a thousand.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06So if you if you break that that ossified system up and let things flow, let people talk to each other and and and make persuasion great again. I am I'm completely I completely believe that persuasion is dead because Republicans killed it.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Because there's no point in trying to persuade people who believe I'm a baby killing commie.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_06But that they do care about diesel. It might be possible if you if you simply made it necessary, electorally necessary, to talk to people that you don't want to talk to. You can't hide from town hall meetings and still get elected. It might be possible for people to start realizing that we're not monsters.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And I don't think it's going to change people who are 40 and above. But I would certainly like to live in a country where our kids engage in the free and open exchange of ideas about how to run the country and not be, you know, not be uh not be shoved aside because they have a D after their name or they're liberals or they're DSAs. I like, I like, you know, you I've talked about this before. There was a time in our youth when we savored the idea of debating with people of goodwill who were different than we were. There was a glorious time. I I thoroughly enjoyed doing that. There were people on the right who are Republicans who would engage in honest debate. And those times were.
SPEAKER_03I did a video podcast about that, and you you left me all kinds of comments and linked it in your blog.
SPEAKER_06I did.
SPEAKER_03And I think that was the day you fell in love with me.
SPEAKER_06Oh, honey, I've always been in love with you.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, sure.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Anyway.
SPEAKER_03Driftglass, thanks. This was fun. I I I I would love to hear from our listeners about, you know, their ideas about healthcare or voting or rebuilding democracy, but we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_06Or just setting aside you know a chunk of time, half a podcast or two-thirds of a podcast or whatever. Talk about policy about something.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Policy talk with Driftglass and BlueGail.
SPEAKER_03Print out some stuff and talk about it. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, each week we post to our Patreon page and website and internet kitties sent in by you, the listeners. This week's internet kitties are Callie, a two-year-old calico girl, and her 14-year-old sister Hemi, who is a polydactyl girl. Many toes. Oh my goodness. And here they are, sharing the bed peacefully for a change. No one is allowed to make the human bed until they are done with their morning nap. That's just the rule. That's the rule in our house, too, by the way.
SPEAKER_06Forget it. Back off.
SPEAKER_03Can't move the cats. And of course, Callie and Hemi eat freshly poured cat food, our fake sponsor. Whether you serve Pet Store Perfection or Dollar Store Dreck, your cat will commandeer the human bed and demand that the food they eat is only freshly poured.
SPEAKER_00Oh my lord, it's freshly poured. Oh my lord, it's freshly poured. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03And you can visit Callie and Hemi at our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash prolef pod or our website, prolefpod.com, where there's lots of different ways you can support our show. You can buy us a coffee, you can give via PayPal, you can send us a check. There's all it's all there at 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 to 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. Again, I want to thank Bart DeBaer again. I dropped off a hundred stamps uh to a we did there was a postcard writing party Tuesday night at a wine mom's demand action. I I had to come home and podcast, but I took the the stamps over and they I said I can take some postcards home and work on them. And they said, we had so many people show up for the postcard party that we're done, but we haven't stamped them yet. I was like, well, here's the stamps. They were so excited. So uh thank you, Bart, for sending those to us. Those uh are going to um, I believe, Georgia. The postcards that night were going to Georgia to encourage Democratic voters to turn out. And uh, we're just very excited about uh being able to do that. And Moms Demand Action is a great root group. They're really interested in increasing uh voter turnout for people with who care about gun violence.
SPEAKER_06So uh and they are a technically nonpartisan organization. Not technically, they're a nonpartisan organization, but you know what? But you know what? Republicans never show up, they never show up.
SPEAKER_03Never show up. We invite them and they never come.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so more wine for us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_06Um and uh uh yes, we do love hearing from you. You can write to both of us, but you know what? The which Naomi Is It contest is now officially closed.
SPEAKER_05It's over.
SPEAKER_06So you can stop telling us that we screwed up and got the Naomi's wrong because we did and we're wrong and we feel bad.
SPEAKER_03Is going on a conservative cruise. Yes.
SPEAKER_06And if Naomi Kaline would like to come on this podcast, so I could personally apologize.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, too. I will personally apologize.
SPEAKER_06I would be delighted to put her on the air for all of you to listen to. And uh and I would be quiet and let my wife let. Ha ha! Like that happens. My wife and her would talk, I'd sit in the background and make little funny remarks because that's that's my talent. But here's what you shouldn't do. Don't forget our gourmet coffee guidelines. If you can afford an espresso based beverage for yourself, even if it's a pumpkin spice one.
SPEAKER_03Oh, really? Wow, you're being very generous here, Driftglass.
SPEAKER_06I let people drink what you want to drink. Live your life. It's not me for me to judge, but you know what you could do is you could buy one for us at patreon.com forward slash proleft pod. This is not cherry. This is a job that we do every week, and we do it with your help and support. You can also help us by turning a friend on to this amazing podcast of ours. We're very proud of the work we do here. We're very proud of our podcast. We are very different than almost any other liberal podcast you're ever going to hear. So next time we're running to Naomi Klein, uh, slip her our card, let her, let her know to listen. And and by the way, once again, big thanks to all the people who cross-reference us and invite us on their show. A big thank to Brad and and uh and uh Bob Seska and Nicole uh Sparks from time to time, yeah. Who who who really who direct traffic our way because you know we're we are in fact all in this together. So if you love this podcast, please let someone you know hear about it.
SPEAKER_03The Bill Show. Don't forget the Bill Show.
SPEAKER_06Don't forget the Bill Show. It's about time we have it back on the Bill Show. Anything?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we got to work that out for November. This month's too busy. But yeah, maybe a post-election bill show. Wouldn't that be fun?
SPEAKER_06And a little mini episode of Have You Been Paying Attention with the Bill Show.
SPEAKER_03That's we there's only two more episodes of that this season, Drift Glass.
SPEAKER_06Well, we'll do our we'll do it our own with with Bill and the Bill Show.
SPEAKER_03Oh, we could. Have you been paying attention show? Yeah. All right. Hey Driftglass, how are the Internet Kitties doing this week?
SPEAKER_06Well, Blue Gal, the Internet Kitties think this podcast should be quoting the French Revolution a lot more often.
SPEAKER_01Let's bang a bottle.