Trump, Sex & Politics: What Else is New?

Show Transcript

Trump, Sex & Politics: What Else is New?

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Hey guys, welcome to the Lean to the Left podcast. Today we're talking politics and with me are Arthur Hill from North Carolina and Robert Thompson from Georgia. I'm a Marylander transplanted into South Carolina, so together we're the Dixie Dems. There's a lot to talk about today from the Republican candidates dropping like flies, leaving Nikki Haley the only Trump challenger remaining, and much more.

[00:00:27] There was a cross burning in South Carolina, raising the ugly specter of days gone by, and sex getting in the way in both Georgia and Florida. So stay with us. 

[00:00:40] Now, Arthur Hill is vice chair of the Brunswick County, North Carolina Democratic Party. And my buddy Robert Thompson is based in Atlanta, he founded Peach News Now and it's Opinion Podcast, Got damn liberals. That's G O T, damn liberals. Me, I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and spend my time hosting this podcast and producing the Lean to the Left blog site. Which you can find at leantotheleft. net. So welcome guys to the Dixie Dems on the Lean to the Left podcast. 

[00:01:15] First let's talk about Donald Trump's running roughshod over the remaining Republican presidential challengers with DeSantis and Chris Christie both dropping out, leaving only Nikki Haley as the remaining obstacle to his taking the GOP nomination. Now, he beat Haley in New Hampshire But not by as much as he had predicted, he had a margin of around 8 percent and he was bragging that he'd knock her off by about 30%.

[00:01:45] Anyway, could be her last shot will be the South Carolina GOP primary. She's planning a 4 million advertising buy in this state, but the most recent poll shows her trailing Trump by about 30 points in South Carolina. Do you guys think she's got a prayer?

[00:02:02] What do you think? 

[00:02:05] Robert Thompson: Bob, you're there local in South Carolina. What are you seeing? Like when you ride down the road, are you still seeing Trump signs and flags everywhere? 

[00:02:14] Bob Gatty: No, I'm not. I'm not seeing a huge demonstration of support, but I'm not seeing a demonstration of support for her either, or for anybody. There's right now, nobody's really thinking about this primary coming up. I'm sure it'll change when the ads start running and we get closer to the to the primary. Now, the Democrats have a primary earlier 

[00:02:37] there's only Biden and some lesser lights, so that's not going to generate that much. So anyway I

[00:02:46] Robert Thompson: can speak a little bit here for Georgia. I live in a bubble, honestly, here in metro Atlanta. The only time that I really ever see the Trump name is pretty much on someone's bumper sticker.

[00:02:59] Yeah. Or, maybe they've got it on the back, but again, I have to admit you have Metro Atlanta and you have the rest of Georgia. Once you get outside of Metro Atlanta. You will see these people that are living in their own bubble, and they've got those Trump signs up, and they just feel like they're under attack.

[00:03:20] From what, I don't know. And we'll get into some of this in a little bit, but those people, you can't change their minds. I think we all, it's going to be up to, and we watched some of the results from New Hampshire the other night, and, it's going to be up to the independents.

[00:03:38] I remember someone who was up in New Hampshire was talking to someone up there who voted for Nikki Haley. And they said that if Trump was the nominee, they were just gonna stay home. 

[00:03:52] Bob Gatty: Yeah, I saw some of that in the Washington Post this morning. There's some quotes from some people saying that if they were for Haley, and if Trump was the nominee, Actually, they were going to vote for Biden.

[00:04:05] There were a couple quotes like that in that story from the Post. 

[00:04:10] Arthur Hill: Yeah, but I don't think we can count on that too much. I don't think so either. There's probably a small percentage of folks who will do that, and there's probably an equally small percentage of folks who are Republicans who will stay home on election day, but you can't count on that, can't count on that to win.

[00:04:26] But, having said that I think it's still noteworthy that enough people who call themselves. Independent voted in the primary yesterday largely apparently for Nikki and against Trump. That's what I'm seeing so far. And I think that bodes well for Biden, at least in New Hampshire in the fall.

[00:04:48] and one can hope, only hope that the same sentiment will be true in a majority of the states in the country, because if it's not, then I think if we haven't been afraid of the consequences of Election Day 2024 now, we need to be afraid We need to start being afraid right now. I think in the longer term the prospect of Trump actually pulling this off is real.

[00:05:17] And it, it portends nothing but evil for us unless we go out and campaign our butts off for the rest of this year and and prevail in November. It's getting scary out there. 

[00:05:30] Robert Thompson: The other thing I want to point to, and we've seen it in the past here in Georgia with our governor, our gubernatorial election is some folks going into the ballot booth and they get further down beyond the presidential election, beyond the governor's election, and they start getting either just a V.

[00:05:52] D. or they just, or beyond the name recognition and they just stop voting. Or you have another type of voter that goes in the voter booth and they're diehard, maybe Trump Republican, and they just mark everybody that's Republican all the way down the ballot. You have a lot of different, I'll call them strategies, and different kinds of voters that, let's go back to that, this rabbit hole that we just started going down.

[00:06:19] If you have someone that's just going to stay home, that they're not going to vote, republican, if they're, as I say, a Bush Republican and they can't stand Trump, then that's a lot of Republican votes that have been lost there. If you have someone that is a diehard Trumpster, they're probably mad as hell.

[00:06:37] They go into the voting booth, they're going to vote Trump and, or maybe they just vote for him and just walk away, too. Because they think that all the rest of them are rhinos. You've got so many different strategies and you never know what these people are thinking. When they go in that voter booth and I'm not trying to overthink it, but this is, it's literally going to come down to again, a bunch of swing states.

[00:07:01] As it did the last time in the last several elections and every vote is going to end up counting and these independent voters and some and trying to get into some of these people's heads, it's every vote is going to 

[00:07:13] Bob Gatty: count. 

[00:07:15] Yeah, I agree with that 100%, but don't you think, there's the old saying, many a slip between a cup and a lip.

[00:07:24] And the many a slip that might be coming up are all these court cases against Trump. Now, this guy is, gets convicted of criminal, on, on criminal charges. I don't care that, that he is trying to frame that as being treated like shit for political reasons. I don't care. The fact of the matter is, he's going to be a convicted criminal.

[00:07:50] And I just don't believe that this country will elect a convicted criminal to be their frickin president. 

[00:07:59] Robert Thompson: Yeah. Let's look at history. The first time. He did not get elected on the popular vote. He got elected by the electoral college. The second time he lost when all that other crap came out.

[00:08:10] And this time around, there's even more crap that has come out. It doesn't look good for him.

[00:08:15] Arthur Hill: It is true that he has an incredible mountain to climb in terms of winning in November but just the thought of The Proud Boys goose stepping down Pennsylvania Avenue just scares the crap out of me and and I hope it scares enough people that that even if there is no criminal conviction in any of these cases that are coming up it's just and it's just a terrible thing to, to imagine and and it just, it's bothersome and scary and it needs to be addressed.

[00:08:45] Robert Thompson: Now, Nikki Haley, I can't stand Karen Nikki Haley. But kudos to her for being the Bush Republican here and being the the mom in the party. If you heard her the other day, she said, I'm the one I'm not quoting her exactly, but, she was saying I'm the sane one here.

[00:09:07] I'm not the one that's going to have to go up there and with all these felony. Trials, possibly convictions and all these other things, I'm literally the sane one here. And also she pointed out that Trump was on the ballot several other times and he lost horribly.

[00:09:27] Republicans lost the House and he had all these candidates that he went out for and it didn't work. So not only has he lost, but he also lost other races and other things for the Republicans. Yeah, but as we said, you cannot vote for all that because the polling looks horrible right now. Yeah, whatever that means. 

[00:09:50] Arthur Hill: I think she makes a lot of sense when she talks about ending the chaos and where she doesn't make as much sense to me, for me, is she talks about, she refers to the chaos as far as Trump's concerned and she keeps referring to Biden's inability to think past the 2020 election as well.

[00:10:08] And I don't get that argument at all. I don't understand that. Biden has done everything he can to propel himself past the 2020 election. And and he's got a lot of accomplishments that he's made. In doing that I don't completely buy her argument on why she's a viable alternative. Halfway buy it with Trump but I don't see, if for some reason Trump fails to become the nominee and she winds up being the nominee I think she has to hone her skills as, her debating skills against Biden because the claims she's making just don't stand up.

[00:10:39] Anyway, I think this is all about 2028, as far as she's concerned. I think she's done a great job of setting herself up for that, so far. 

[00:10:49] Bob Gatty: What'd you guys think about the, I don't know if you saw the photos from New Hampshire yesterday. Photos of Vivek. Whatever. I never could say his last name. Ramaswamy or 

[00:11:02] Arthur Hill: whatever it is. Ramaswamy. 

[00:11:04] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Him and Tim Scott standing behind Trump looking like a couple of servants. Yeah. Yeah. Cracked me up.. 

[00:11:16] Arthur Hill: And there was then there was the exchange between Scott and Trump on the podium during the victory speech.

[00:11:22] What was that? I didn't see that under Scott and said, man, Haley must really hate you. Oh, yeah. 

[00:11:28] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:11:30] Arthur Hill: And he said, don't you hate her? And he said, I love you! 

[00:11:35] Bob Gatty: Yeah, geez o flip. And speaking of Senator Tim Scott, he got down on his knees the other day on Kiawah Island and proposed to his girlfriend.

[00:11:50] Now, Scott said he was thrilled to have a fiancé who shares his devout Christian beliefs. Yeah. The cynics among us might suggest that this is part of his campaign to be Trump's VP selection. Yeah, 

[00:12:07] Robert Thompson: I was going to Google it, but I didn't want to feel nauseated. 

[00:12:11] Bob Gatty: Oh, for crying out loud. Then we got all this other sex stuff that's going on here.

[00:12:21] We got the Florida GOP chair, who. This cracks me up. He got kicked out of his job because he and his wife admitted to a three-way, , a three-way, sex encounter, and a, and then a, he got involved with a rape allegation. And then we've got Fannie Willis in Georgia hiring this outside attorney with whom she's apparently having an affair to help her in her case, against Trump.

[00:12:49] Now, Robert, you got the goods on that one?

[00:12:52] Robert Thompson: No, because I'm not Trump's fixer. So you might remember that this was Michael Cohen's job when he, worked for Trump years ago. And how many times did Trump just call Michael Cohen up? Let's say how much is this going to cost me? Let's remember Stormy Daniels, etc.

[00:13:10] Michael Cohen was tired of the bullshit. And now they're apparently, I don't remember the gentleman's name, it came up in the episode. And those of you here in Georgia that have access to it, and it's on YouTube, it's called the Georgia Gang Every Sunday Morning. And it's a really interesting show where they go down some of these rabbit holes.

[00:13:29] So from what I understand, the whole Trump's current fixer Is the one that drummed all this BS up and it's enough BS to where they got it in front of the right judge and apparently they're going to go back and pull some stuff out of a divorce decree or whatever, but literally it's the same old MO..

[00:13:50] You've got Trump just trying to find a fixer just to shed any sort of doubt on anything that's going on. Good luck. And again, this backdrop that I keep putting up on every one of our episodes, it becomes more and more relevant every time. You've got Ms. Willis back there, her RICO statute, and how many deals has she already made?

[00:14:14] She wouldn't be making those deals if these folks were not guilty. 

[00:14:18] Bob Gatty: I don't know. Do you feel like there's a chance she could get thrown out of the cases? 

[00:14:24] Arthur Hill: If she gets dismissed, she gets thrown out, then 

[00:14:26] Robert Thompson: somebody else is going to try. Yeah, that's right. It doesn't make a difference that the case is still valid.

[00:14:31] You already have plea deals that have already been signed off by a judge. In this whole RICO case. 

[00:14:36] Arthur Hill: I don't, that's that. So I don't understand this at all. If if Robert, if you're right, if you're correct and I have no reason to doubt your claim why would they do it in the end?

[00:14:45] All, they might have turned a few heads and they might have swayed some public opinion and so on. But justice still marches on here, doesn't it? It doesn't stop the case. 

[00:14:55] Robert Thompson: Let's say that, she's removed as the Fulton County District Attorney, they're just going to put someone else in there.

[00:15:00] It's not like they're just going to vacate the office for a year. And everything just comes to a screeching halt at the Fulton County D. A. It's obviously the busiest D. A. office in the whole state. 

[00:15:10] Bob Gatty: Conceivably though, this could delay this case for a long time, right? It 

[00:15:15] Arthur Hill: could. That's true. 

[00:15:17] Robert Thompson: Yeah, possibly.

[00:15:19] But, it still just adds the whole level of doubt that, and again, I'll just reiterate that there are already been several plea deals and this whole Rico case where people are just like, throwing their hands up. Yep. I'm guilty. What kind of deal can I make?

[00:15:34] Arthur Hill: And it has no bearing on the federal case which includes a lot of the same charges.

[00:15:39] Yeah. So 

[00:15:40] Robert Thompson: not 91 different charges. Trump, I think is up against. Can you imagine waking up every morning and have 91 different charges that are weighing on you? That's a lot on an old man. 

[00:15:54] Arthur Hill: I can't imagine going to sleep at night with 91 charges on me. I 

[00:15:58] Bob Gatty: couldn't either. I couldn't either. I remember one time when I was at a conference.

[00:16:04] And my cell phone, I got a message on my cell phone that the IRS was after me. And and I got scared. I was sitting right in the middle of this conference taking notes. I was working for my client and I'm going, what the fuck? And so I got up and went to the bathroom when I Called the person and who said that I had to send in 3, 000 that day or I was going to get arrested.

[00:16:33] And I mentioned it to one of my buddies and they said, Oh, that's a scam. It's a, it's just been going on. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. And, but it scared the living crap out of me. Now, that was just one thing that didn't, wasn't even true with the IRS. And I was scared shitless. Yeah.

[00:16:53] Trump's got 91 charges against him. And I, 

[00:16:56] Robert Thompson: federal, yeah. 

[00:16:58] Arthur Hill: One of the things I've learned in my ever increasing lifespan is That you don't mess with a U. S. attorney. You don't mess with a U. S. attorney. You don't mess with the Federal Justice Department. It's, you just don't do that.

[00:17:13] And Trump's done it 91 times. It's just, it's overwhelming, not that I'm sorry for him but it's it's just the thought of it is just overwhelming and the fees he's got to pay or actually his contributors are paying the legal fees are daunting as well. It's just. It's just chaos. 

[00:17:36] Robert Thompson: Speaking of that, I don't know if we're going to get to it, I can't remember who pointed it out, but someone in Florida has introduced a bill down there to help Trump pay for his legal fees because he lives down there now.

[00:17:52] So 

[00:17:52] Arthur Hill: they're going to use Florida taxpayer money to pay his legal fees? 

[00:17:57] Robert Thompson: If it passes? Allegedly. Allegedly. 

[00:18:01] Bob Gatty: Man. I can't imagine how that would pass, but It's Florida. So you never know another surprise to see DeSantis go down the toilet like he Didn't have been happier to a better man. I know that but were you surprised? Were you surprised? 

[00:18:18] Robert Thompson: No, he is the most Unlikeable person I've never seen him smile to listen to him talk. He's just not personable He just it's just a nasty man. I know He needs to go away. 

[00:18:34] Bob Gatty: He looks like he's going to.

[00:18:36] Arthur Hill: I was surprised because I thought so many people liked his nasty demeanor. And they just thought that here this guy is just Trump without the baggage.

[00:18:45] Yeah. But I tell you what, one, one thing that I saw that somebody wrote, which they said DeSantis' tragic mistake was not campaigning with his family. I don't know anything about his family. I don't, I've never heard his wife or if he has adult kids, I've never heard any of them speak, but but apparently apparently they're very charming.

[00:19:06] And and the thought was that if he'd used them more on the campaign trail, that he might've been able to overcome his stony demeanor. That wound up killing him. 

[00:19:16] Robert Thompson: Yeah. I probably don't like him either. 

[00:19:19] Arthur Hill: I think it was, yeah, I think it was all, I think it was all personal, it was all personality.

[00:19:23] People weren't arguing against his politics. These people who supported him weren't, they were just turned off by his personality. Plus he had this weird campaign structure. He had a super PAC basically running his campaign. I don't even know how that's legal.

[00:19:36] But they were calling the shots on the ad buys and and a lot of other stuff. And DeSantis was clearly out of money on his end. So he had to count on the super PAC, but I don't understand somebody needs to investigate that to see whether any laws were broken, because the super PACs are supposed to be totally independent of the campaign committee.

[00:19:56] Robert Thompson: There should not be any collusion there. 

[00:19:59] Bob Gatty: Exactly. No collusion. The other thing I wanted to ask you guys was there's a story in the Washington Post today column by dana Milbank. Yeah. And it talks about Trump's misstatements and indications of dementia.

[00:20:18] And it's a pretty good piece. And it cracks me up that. People are trying to say that Biden is the one that is too old and is, he can't handle the Pressure. I think the guy has demonstrated that he can indeed handle the pressure. I can't imagine how somebody, he's my age and I can't imagine doing everything that this guy is doing under the pressure that he's got and doing it as well as he's doing it.

[00:20:49] Just incredible to me. And he needs to get credit for that, in my opinion. I 

[00:20:54] Arthur Hill: think he will. And I think he'll also get credit for the fact that he takes care of himself that he's in good health. Yeah. And whereas Trump has a big, huge steak for dinner every night. And he doesn't drink, but but still he doesn't eat right.

[00:21:09] And and he's older than, and he's older than, I guess he's not older than Biden. No, he's younger by about four years. It's comparable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think people are starting to take a look at, you talked about Dana Milbank and his piece, but I think people are starting to take a look at Trump's physical fitness, not just his mental fitness or mental acuity.

[00:21:34] As 

[00:21:37] Bob Gatty: a matter of fact, I have a photo and I'm going to put it up with this video of it's a combo photo showing Biden on his bike, riding his bike and Trump with his big belly hanging out, sitting in a golf cart. And it's just quite a contrast. 

[00:21:53] Robert Thompson: Nikki Haley pointed this out too. Nikki Haley has been attacking Trump, and I think the best that Trump could respond with is he got her mixed up with Nancy Pelosi the other day. Yeah, 

[00:22:05] Bob Gatty: that was funny as hell,

[00:22:07] Nikki Haley refusing to call in the National Guard on January 6th. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:22:16] Arthur Hill: But if 

[00:22:17] Robert Thompson: you put this old female man in front of the, microphone and a camera and just let him ramble on for 90 or, two or three hours, he's bound to. 

[00:22:26] Bob Gatty: Yeah. His speech. What are you going to come up with?

[00:22:28] His speech in New Hampshire was a hundred minutes, and Dana Milbeck said that I listened carefully, which was quite a job, considering that he went on for a hundred minutes. And he kept repeating himself, saying the same stuff over and over again. Oh man, anyway. 

[00:22:50] Arthur Hill: Not exactly the Gettysburg Address. 

[00:22:52] Bob Gatty: Yeah, anyway.

[00:22:53] All right, so what else you guys got? 

[00:22:56] Robert Thompson: I want to know where all these people are so unhappy with Biden and our vice president. The stock market hit another all time high. Unemployment is low. Inflation has slowed down. We're getting 5 percent interest on our savings account to combat inflation to encourage people to save money.

[00:23:21] Why? So when Biden got elected, what were they wanting to happen beyond what has happened? That's the question that I wanted that, and it's cricket. All you hear about are these polls out there of these unhappy people and, buying this shit. And I don't know who our vice president is. Okay, then give me what do you expect to be happening?

[00:23:45] Yeah, and it's crickets. I'm sick and tired of 

[00:23:48] Bob Gatty: this Yeah, one of the things that really is, comment here 

[00:23:54] Robert Thompson: Please cuz tell me cuz I'm at a loss. I don't 

[00:23:58] Bob Gatty: understand Than 

[00:23:59] Robert Thompson: I've ever made in my lifetime, yeah, I'll admit that right now I'm gonna pay more in taxes because I'm making more right now than I've ever made in my lifetime Please tell me.

[00:24:12] What am I doing wrong? 

[00:24:14] I 

[00:24:15] Bob Gatty: don't understand. Please tell me. I don't know. Sounds like you're doing something right to me. Yeah, me too. Yeah, congratulations on that. 

[00:24:22] Robert Thompson: You two gentlemen are still retired. You're still, I assume, still able to live comfortably retired, right? I just, I Where are these people? And what kind of bubble are they living in or what circumstances are they living in?

[00:24:39] Obamacare is another, I am on Obamacare right now. My mother is on Obamacare. My former co worker, he unfortunately got laid off, he is on Obamacare right now. The Republicans gave up with trying to disassemble Obamacare because it's working right now. Again, please tell me. What do people expect beyond what is going on?

[00:25:01] And that's really a message, especially going into these next couple of months, that we really need to echo. 

[00:25:08] Bob Gatty: Headline today, Washington Post again, Obamacare enrollment hits record level as Trump vows repeal. Now, what the hell? Yeah, it was. 

[00:25:19] Robert Thompson: And replace it with what? With what? With death care?

[00:25:21] Bob Gatty: It's just it makes no frickin sense. At all. 

[00:25:26] Arthur Hill: He's never had a proposal for, there never was one. And then, and I just did a piece today about student loans. There was a piece that came across my desk that, that said that a lot of people with student loans who were expecting to get them forgiven are now refusing to pay since the the, Pause has been lifted, and they have to now pay.

[00:25:53] They're refusing, they're saying they're protesting, and they're trying to force the government into passing the Student Loan Forgiveness Act. The Supreme Court turned that down. And so after the Supreme Court turned it down, Biden's been working his butt off to find other ways to help these people and came out with another one just yesterday, I think it was where a certain group of people, mostly nurses and teachers and people like that can have their student loans forgiven under a certain set of circumstances.

[00:26:29] He's trying every way he can administratively. And yet, I keep reading that group of people people 45 and younger, And a lot of African Americans are upset with Biden because he hasn't been able to completely wipe out student loans. Come on, man! Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:26:52] Robert Thompson: Maybe we need to just do another civics class back from high school because, the man can only do so much. 

[00:26:59] Arthur Hill: What's encouraging is that is that every day that goes by more people are becoming aware of some of the things that, that he has done. Where I am right now, infrastructure is very much on the front burner. We've got a huge debate going on about a bridge that goes from Brunswick County where I am into the city of Wilmington, crossing the Cape Fear River.

[00:27:19] Which is about to fall down. It needs to be replaced. And so the question is how do we pay for it? And the the Department of Transportation for the state has said you got to pay a toll. That's how we're going to pay for it. And everybody here is saying, Wait a minute, we just got this infrastructure bill that just got passed.

[00:27:36] And it has billions of dollars specifically for construction of bridges or the replenishment of bridges and roads. And so we got that money. Why can't we use it? We can't use it because this so no, we can use it. And the state government has to change his mind. So that's a huge, as a matter of fact, there's going to be, there's going to be a protest this weekend.

[00:27:56] In Wilmington about the, a measure that they want to impose tolls. State wants to impose tolls on residents down here who cross the bridge every day. So infrastructure, the more you hear about debates like that, the more what Biden has done with infrastructure making billions of dollars available, if we choose to use them is going to become a better deal.

[00:28:15] And I think the the I. R. A. That act has just an incredible amount of benefits for everybody that nobody seems to be aware of yet. And the word needs to get out about that. Climate change. There needs to be more said about what's going on in climate change. I see John Kerry is now going to he's going to retire, as the ambassador for climate change.

[00:28:40] But that doesn't mean that the move toward clean energy isn't going to move forward. It's moving forward very rapidly, and there's jobs associated with that. And I think more and more people will, we've got a couple of battery plants that are being built in North Carolina right now.

[00:28:54] Things are going on, and every day that goes by I think is gonna is gonna help make a difference. In people's perceptions of what's been going on for the last three and a half years.

[00:29:06] I 

[00:29:06] Bob Gatty: Hope you're right. 

[00:29:08] Robert Thompson: Just to tag on to that climate stuff, Exxon this week is suing their own shareholders.

[00:29:16] Arthur Hill: Yeah, what's that about? 

[00:29:17] Robert Thompson: There's a group, and I'll, okay, I'll go ahead and admit it, I do own some Exxon stock. It's not sizable compared to what these other people are. But there's a group of investors at Exxon. That want Exxon to just do some things to help, with the climate thing and Exxon is saying it doesn't make financial sense.

[00:29:36] We're going to sue you. But these are owners of Exxon.

[00:29:41] Arthur Hill: And is it is a clean energy climate change stuff? Is that what these 

[00:29:45] Robert Thompson: would assume? Yeah. Yeah. Really, you're going to, big Exxon making all this money, Exxon has paid a dividend forever and they're not going to stop making money and, but yet they're going to go out and pay all these lawyers to sue their own shirt.

[00:30:04] Bob Gatty: Yeah. The other thing, speaking of climate change and all that of course, electric vehicles is a big part of what can be done to reduce greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change. And what did Trump say the other day? He said that electric vehicles couldn't go far and that they were useless and that Biden was wasting his time and money to spend billions of dollars on cars that, Just don't go far.

[00:30:35] And he made that statement several times in the same speech.

[00:30:38] Arthur Hill: Somebody oughta, somebody oughta tell him that Louis DeJoy, who was a Trump appointee as the head of the Postal Service, has just overseen the largest purchase of electric vehicles in the world. 

[00:30:51] Bob Gatty: You know what, that's really good news. I did a podcast interview the other day with a woman who is an executive for a company that is called MoveEV that advocates for electric vehicles and has come up with some ways where companies can actually pay their employees, reimburse their employees when they charge their company, the electric vehicles at home overnight, they can pay the employee with the system that they've set up. And I think that's really good. And she also pointed out that it improves health. Kids are suffering from asthma and respiratory diseases, not just kids, but kids are by the thousands in urban areas that have a lot of outdoor pollution caused by vehicles.

[00:31:46] And the more that and there have been demonstrations from Norway and California that show that when the use of electric vehicles is increased, it reduces the amount of hospital visits for people with respiratory illnesses. That's important. That's really important.

[00:32:07] And and the guy just, he doesn't, he does not understand the facts on that subject. That's just clear. Anyway. 

[00:32:17] Robert Thompson: And they're bringing two or three of those home here too. Just this week one, I think it was in Northwest Atlanta. There's a large now fleet of postal vehicles that are electric.

[00:32:27] They were just launched. And they, they had the the press conference over there. What I'm not going to like, though, about an electric postal vehicle is I'm not going to know when the postman has actually stopped by because it's going to be quiet. 

[00:32:40] Arthur Hill: You should be able to be able to hear him.

[00:32:44] Robert Thompson: I'll actually have to go out there a couple of times and know if the postman actually came by. 

[00:32:48] Bob Gatty: Oh, that would be a shame. I do that all the time anyway. 

[00:32:52] Robert Thompson: But a former employer, I will give you another example. It's a large airline based in Atlanta at their corporate headquarters. Pretty much every day, all of the electric vehicle chargers are full.

[00:33:06] And they have to charge for those chargers. Otherwise, there would be so much demand. They would not be able to keep up. Just a point to ponder there. 

[00:33:18] Bob Gatty: Yeah. All right. I wanted to talk about a few things going on down here in South Carolina, but before I do you guys have anything that you'd like to add that we haven't discussed?

[00:33:29] Robert Thompson: Just some calls to action we can either do now or later at the end. 

[00:33:33] Bob Gatty: Okay. Let me run through this stuff. That's, I think it's pretty important and then we'll get to that. But we had, I mentioned at the top, we had this situation in Conway, which is the county seat for Horry County, and Horry County is the coastal area where Myrtle Beach is.

[00:33:53] A white couple burned a cross facing their black neighbors in an effort to intimidate them. They've been doing this now for a while. And the NAACP held a news conference and complained that not much has changed since the days of slavery. And I think what's changed is that all of that hatred is still there, it's just under the surface and we're not seeing All of it being manifested the way a lot of people feel.

[00:34:25] That's still going on here in South Carolina. And I'm sure it's going on in North Carolina, Georgia, and other areas of the South as well. Now, they urged the family, the NAACP, and the black family, they've urged the state legislature to enact a hate crimes law. And that's something the LGBTQ plus community here also supports.

[00:34:49] South Carolina is one of the very few states that don't have a hate. hate crime law. I think there's only maybe three others. And that's just incredible to me. But we did. We had a cross burning. I can't believe we actually had a cross burning here. And I've been trying to get the head of the NAACP to come on my podcast, but so far no luck.

[00:35:11] We had Biden giving a campaign speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. That's where in 2015, nine black parishioners were murdered by a white stranger who they had invited to Bible, to their Bible study. I did not know that. I read that just the other day that the guy that murdered all those people.

[00:35:33] He had been invited to come to their Bible study by those people that he gunned down. Anyway, Biden said of that, the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not just by gunpowder, but by poison, a poison that has for too long haunted this nation. 

[00:35:54] Now, also in South Carolina, the state democratic party and the DNC have launched a statewide get out the vote effort to boost voter turnout ahead of its first in the nation presidential primary on February 3rd. . Seems a bit difficult though with Biden's only challenges coming from candidates nobody ever heard of, so I don't know how much traction that primary is going to get, but in the meantime, First Lady Jill Biden will headline an Educators for Biden Harris event, Friday, in South Carolina.

[00:36:29] Longtime educator, she once said, teaching isn't just what I do, it's who I am. That should attract some attention down here, and I'm hoping that it does. Earlier this month Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, campaigned in South Carolina, firing up voters at Old Grace AME Church and small businesses in, Beaufort County in Charleston.

[00:36:52] Imhoff is Jewish and he met with Jewish community leaders, discussed their experience in recent hate crime ordinances in the, what's called the Lowcountry. Then we had the 22 year old South Carolina Republican, this cracks me up, 22 year old political director for the state republicans, 22. Her name is Graylee Estep.

[00:37:18] She and her mother, Michelle Stalvey Estep, have been charged with third degree assault and battery for their alleged assault on another person. That assault took place at Stalvey's Watering Hole in Conway, which is owned by Graylee Estep's family.

[00:37:38] So as you can see, we have really classy Republicans here in South Carolina. 

[00:37:44] And then finally. This is just the coup de grace. Today, the state Senate is supposed to vote on a bill that would allow people to carry a gun, open or concealed, without a license. And if there are no amendments, that bill will go to Governor Henry McMaster for his signature.

[00:38:03] And that's exactly what we need in South Carolina, is people running around with a bunch of guns strapped to their hips. 

[00:38:09] Robert Thompson: Which I think we already have here in Georgia. 

[00:38:11] Bob Gatty: Yeah, we have it here too. We have it here too, but they just need a license, but if this passes, I won't even need a license. You can just go get a gun and carry it around and fire it off if you want to.

[00:38:25] Incredible. So anyway, that's my shtick. What do you guys got? Anything more? 

[00:38:31] Robert Thompson: So it's just two calls to action. We probably, I do have more ducks that we probably should pull out and Okay, getting up to the election season. So we'll, I'll pull those out and see what we can do. The other idea. I don't know.

[00:38:46] We've talked about before. Have you guys heard of move on dot org 

[00:38:50] Bob Gatty: and 

[00:38:53] Robert Thompson: they partnered with the Ben and Jerry guys a year or 2 ago. And sold a stamp, a rubber stamp that you can stamp money. Now, this particular one, it says stamp money out of politics, which I would agree is a good thing. But now that we're in election season we can do another message, on a rubber stamp.

[00:39:15] And every dollar bill that comes, in and out of your wallet is stamp those. It is legal. Some people think that this is illegal. But I've actually had attorneys make an opinion that this is legal for political purposes to mark money and it's very cheap and can be effective. It's something we want to organize out of here.

[00:39:38] If anybody is interested. And they need to that we're back in on a lot of important election season get back on the the action plan for that again this year. So those are my 2 call. Oh, and 1 more the rule organizing pack. They call them themselves rule roots. It's R. O. P.

[00:39:56] dot org. We're organizing projects a little bit late by the time this goes live. They have a call today, 7 PM Eastern, but they are doing some great work around the country on rural areas, organizing people in neighborhoods trying to find out where your area progressive neighbors are.

[00:40:12] Getting signs and those progressive neighbors yards, and I heard about them on a radio show a couple of months back, and they're really good group to follow, especially if you're in a rural area, not in this blue bubble, but I live here in Atlanta. Okay. All right. 

[00:40:30] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that's 

[00:40:31] Arthur Hill: that's actually the that group's actually got a little traction in North Carolina.

[00:40:35] Because our state chair is from a rural county. And she is known for being able to to organize rural areas. And she's been active and trying to get more activity going in rural counties on my county's got a lot of rural areas on it.

[00:40:54] So we apply. But but that organization is one that his name keeps coming up. And I think that I think they're doing a really good job, really effective job. And I think they'll rise as the year goes on. I think there's another organization, by the way, and I'll try to remember what it is the next time we do a show, because the name escapes me right now which is actually focused on electing progressive state legislators and and what they will do is they will give you money to hire staff.

[00:41:23] If you're a candidate that, that's another, that, that's something that, that hasn't happened before. That's a new organization that's coming up and on the progressive side, on the democratic side. Interesting stuff going on in the campaign. 

[00:41:34] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that's very interesting. For sure. All right. Listen, thanks so much for being with us on Dixie Dems and the Lean to Live podcast, you guys and I hope you enjoyed what we talked about and found it to be informative and entertaining and come back again next month.