I remember what happened. What happened to you being so excited about pot when we first texted each other? Then when it right when it happened, you're like, No, this is good news is good news. It's not
good. It's good. There's 60 people for whom it's very good news.
It's harmful, that this is actually the opposite of good news. Do you take it when you take a tiny step and don't do the whole thing? You're
looking at me because everybody else I talked to about going around going does not gonna do as you praise but wait, it's Dave Anthony. I gotta like find some way to, because it's bad. Just annoying. But I want to talk about that. Have you ever experienced that David Anthony is just annoying.
I actually haven't I find Dave's presence to be so comforting. Because,
you know, I'm the one who edits these
know, you're in a completely different way. So I'll start with complimenting you, Josh. You're warm, you're peaceful, you're down to joke around whatever, about whatever is happening, no matter how bad it is. With Dave. It just like I walk around like my entire life just feeling like I'm always the most worked up person about the horrors that our government and corporations are enacting. And Dave never makes me feel like I have to calm down never.
Yeah, no, that's that's a thing. It's it's I don't know if it's good or bad. I just long standing thing. It's having a policy just sort of worked out where I have a lot of people in my life who seem to exist to make me feel like I'm normal. Like I used to, I don't as much now. Like I used to see too many, you know, I just did nonstop go to movies, and I go 7000 blu rays and DVDs and be like, that's worked. And then my friend Dan waters, great screenwriter goes to, you know, 10 times as many movies as I do. And I'm like, Okay, I'm normal. And then, you know,
you can't compare anybody with Dan No, but
you're like the Dan waters, political rage.
I have a lot of political rage. And it's hard.
I agree. I don't have to but it's like literally dance. Like if there's a movie. Or if the incident if there's a movie in a theater dance, I see it. And Dave's like if there's a something going on politically, they have to be angry about, he's angry about it.
It's just because what I'm one thing I think I'm not conscious enough of as often as I need to be is like, I do think that like, you know, I mean, it's kind of like that old like a slogan like, you know, attraction, not promotion, like it is I think off putting for people like to want to get involved with the movement where everyone seems really upset and mad. And I think I seem upset and mad a lot of the time about things that are really legitimate and things that I think most people would be upset by if they had the information, you know, that is not printed on the front page of The New York Times or whatever, like you kind of have to be, you know, branch out in terms of your news sources. I don't mean like conspiracy theories. I just mean, like, you know,
no, Blaze, though. You should be reading the blaze. Yes, exactly.
Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson. But, you know, it's like, I think, to people who don't have the information about, you know, for example, like, let's say that Nancy Pelosi campaigns for an anti abortion Democrat, it just seems completely fucking nuts. If Republicans, you know, ban abortion, and then you're like, mad at Nancy Pelosi. They're like, what do you want? And it's like, No, dude, come on. Like, you'd be upset about this, too, if you understood,
but you know, it's just much easier not to know, by the way, this is, it's gonna start sending like we plan this, of course, you should be reading the lever. Goddamnit. Yeah. It really is. I mean, I think and I realized the other day, like, we're five episodes into this thing. And I've yet to actually say it's, but it's an amazing man. And we probably said it in the pre recorded they were like, I mean, the leverage. Great. I think Dave, you said this the other day, we were talking to Serota our old show, but it's like every time you find some great investigative journalists that you really respect and follow on Twitter, he ends up or she ends up getting hired by Lennar. Yeah, they're doing incredible work out there. They don't get the respect that they deserve. And I'm talking about an organization that gets you know that the New York Times you know, steals from regularly and the Joe Biden recently called out for a good piece of reporting I'm saying they don't get the respect they deserve. They deserve way more. They're great and that's a good place to start if you want to get but of course telling people who are listening to us on delivery network about delivers probably redundant. I would think
I love the stuff that they're doing. Dave is such a so much integrity. I don't know him personally, like you guys do, but I mean, he's talking about a guy who's not afraid to make people mad.
Yeah, but Dave, you want to do our due or just just say
you're listening to the audit with Josh Olson and Dave Anthony and our study, buddy Kate,
I'm a study buddy. Yeah, buddy, buddy. study buddy, though mostly cheating off your memories of Bush administration because that was very small. Right? It happened right? Yeah,
I was 44 I was 45 Five when I started as 45
You know you're I am 73 years Yeah, I'm
67
spiritually spiritually.
I'm laughing because it's so funny what a 65 year old guy pretends he's older than he is
you seen our schools as a bag, upgrade or if they fail pass you got your Trapper Keeper round this ain't the jam should David this is a yacht.
This podcast is brought to you by the lever, a reader supported investigative news outlet, you can go to lever news.com to find all of their reporting.
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As an added bonus, every audit supporter will also get access to the levers premium content, including their exclusive newsletters, private podcast feed ebooks, and live events. If you'd like to make a one time contribution, you can also find the audits Tip Jar at lever news.com/audit. And leave us a tip. I want to before we get into anything, there's a thing that happened and it's just starting to be a pattern. And it actually happened a little while ago, but it's wagging the shit out of me and they get me sometimes. But it seems like a pattern, especially for this current administration. And I think it's fair because we're gonna spend the rest of this show talking about how awful Republican president was. But Joe Biden basically came out and said they're going to pardon people on federal marijuana charges. And they're going to look into the scheduling cannabis. And, you know, that's a big announcement. That is a very big announcement. They resist the urge, just acknowledge that that is a big announcement. No, it's a big announcement. And
well, as an announcement as
you'll get to me, I told you sorry, point admitted, so shut up.
It started saying that he's saying things out loud. He's well, yes.
And my point is, they keep doing this they did this with you know, and it was slightly different because the student debt relief thing was way late. But they keep doing these things. And the immediate blurt is Holy shit. Big deal. Student Debt Relief, pot legalization. Biggest climate change bill in the history of the world. And invariably invariably, what happens when you take a breath and you look at the details and then we find out everything that's gone into them is at best there not that much.
What What's the details on this weed
one? I don't know. Well, the weed one first of all, just before David to the really awful stuff, you know, great there's there's a real problem and Biden even talked about this on the campaign trail. There are way too many people in jail on pot related charges. You know how Yeah, because Thank you. Do you know how many people are in federal prison for marijuana possession?
How many Exactly?
your exact number is 00. So
this is nothing.
So people are being you being pardoned for you know, it's like you got a slap on the wrist you paid a fine and now it's on your record, it's going to be taken off your record
which x so he's part is actually part of this
600 People know what is it 670 People,
it helps out 660 500 people but not completely like they're like they're expunged, but they're not like, it's like this weird, they're getting off clean, but they're not like it's halfway strange. Pardon. And it just means they can probably get a job somewhere else. But that's not really what it means. Because if they've now spent their life, you know, one of the biggest indicators of crime is losing your job or not being able to get an education. And so if these people have their lives interrupted, you, you don't get to like all of a sudden flip a switch and then go now your records clean. Well, now they spent 10 years not being able to get a job or whatever the fuck happened to them, because they had this pot charge. So their lives are already fucked up. Like you didn't just magically fix it. What needs to be done is everybody who has any pot charge of any kind needs to be released from prison, any kind whatsoever. And and, you know, all those records gone, that everyone released, but those are all state level charges and and you know, he needs to do he needs to completely decriminalized pot, which is not what he said in his announcement, he made it sound like that's what he's gonna do. We're gonna, we're gonna start we're gonna start the review process to look at the schedule, the scheduling of the job, but it's just a way to say I'm making a committee to look into
I'm gonna get the number wrong and someone's gonna listen to this and go ask me or lie. Am I get it up? I don't know. I don't call it three signatures or five signatures. But he could decriminalize it this afternoon. Yeah, the process is needed. It is 2022 We have been aware of the impact and the dangers and lack thereof of marijuana for debut of the History podcast when it was marijuana invented that vote, we've known that loss zero, and 000. So we've known for 2022 years.
It's, I mean, to me, this one is so wild, because there is broad consensus, even among Republicans that go to jail for weed. I mean, like that's, in addition to, you know, say what you will about, like, you know, the Koch brothers and their whole apparatus. I mean, it's, you know, 99.9999999% horrible, but, you know, like, even that very libertarian side of the Republican Party, which is like, I think a lot of people at this point, they don't want people to be in jail for weed because it costs money to
Yeah, and also, by the way, it's them because this one cuts across all, every single
doesn't know, it's, it's much more, it's the rest are much more in the black community.
Correct. But use use, there are still people it's hard to remember, but you go to most of the country, and people are still scared of lighting up a joint, you know, because they might get arrested, even though and even I mean, even these things ever happened in my white life.
These moms like these, like, you know, the alleged, like, moderate voter that these democrats always say that they're promoting or whatever, like they also smoke weed. I mean, it's like, me and my friends, six year old mom in Georgia has, I can't remember what are illnesses with something like Ms. You know, she just got charged with a felony for having weight on her sit like a six year old woman. So I mean, yeah, it's obviously there's, you know, it's hugely, disproportionately affecting, like lower income people, people of color, but like, even the suburban voter that they're allegedly pursuing, like, can't be affected by this. It's just something that almost everyone agrees upon. And
it's also it's not something you know, you can say, We're gonna outlaw masturbation, a whole lot of people will go out and affect me. Yeah, fine. But it's like nobody, nobody can pretend that they vote because very few people secretly smoke pot alone. Yeah, you know, it's all across the culture. People do it in front of other people. You can't be you know, you your response has to be like, yeah, it should be fucking legal. Yeah. Well, I
think a lot of people do secretly smoke pot along though.
We have 24% of the, of the world's prison population, and we're 5% of the population. And that's what it is. It's jobs. It's bank accounts. And that's all it is. That's all that's all it's for. We are harvesting human beings for capital. That's all it is. We're destroying lives every fucking day. So people can make money. They already the states where they have the states in which you know, everyone's supposed to be looking at it. Right, they're all getting there, especially the red states they're dumping money in the prison industrial complex is not dumping money into campaigns to stop this, but new pot cannot be legal. It's it's a fucking business.
Yeah, actually, easily. This is from a private prison companies financial filings. Last couple days the demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, the expansion alternatives to incarceration and detention leniency and conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws. Any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted and sentenced? This is thereby potentially reducing demand for correction, correctional or detention facilities to house them. If we stop arresting people for bullshit that could affect our ability to make money off of them. That's so
fucked up. And it's just I don't know. I mean, the private prisons, obviously, their own brand of horrible but, you know, even like, publicly run prisons are, I mean, there's been all kinds of things with them, too, you know,
Oh, yeah. No, the whole big thing that gets into the whole bail thing, and like, you know, here in LA, the LA county jails, like there's just stories of people being brought into the prison. They're supposed to be whatever put through the process, but they get handcuffed to a bench. And this bench is in a room that just smells like shit and piss because people have been locked up so long. They're they're not allowed to use the bathrooms and they're sitting on the floor. And these are just people that had just couldn't have gotten arrested for anything. Yeah, it's just a disgusting, horrific thing we've created it's dehumanizing. It's monstrous. And, and also, like, even if it's even if it's a public prison, it's still jobs, it's jobs for cops. It's jobs for guards. It's jobs. Like all those unions are, are fighting against the legalization of pot because they want jobs. It's a fucking shit show. It's a total disaster. And I also say, This isn't new for the buyer for the Biden administration, because they learned this from Obama. This is the exact same thing that we went through with health care, a shitty version of something that everyone knows what is very obvious that should be done. And, and he this is what Obama did with climate change with the Paris Accords. This is, this is what you did you make this big announcement, we've done this awesome thing. And then it turns out, you didn't really didn't do anything that good.
Yeah. And in at day two, you're gonna
walk it back further, and then people get mad at you. And they're like, What the fuck you doing? And there's a guy over there and he goes, Hey, I hate them. And I want to kill them. And that person goes, Oh, that guy seems interesting. And the fucking goes over their butts Republican. What the fuck do you think's gonna happen? You're not giving anybody anything? And then there's a guy over there in the corner going I fucking hate that person that fuck you over. And they go vote for him.
Yeah, and unfortunately, I think, you know, it also, like, just kind of take the student loan example. I mean, really diffuses like, all of the energy for, like, actual, like, bigger reform. And that's yeah. And then it also like, I mean, it's, you know, it's complicated, because, like anyone getting, you know, $10,000 they didn't have like, that's who but, you know, it's like, I think, yeah,
but you know, that's not happening. Right. Like they've they've walked it all back. And now the rules have changed now. Yeah. Anybody's getting $10,000 flies away less people now. Yeah.
The President never stop it. Yeah, I mean, that's your child poverty. Poverty got your
Pete like the the this like rhetoric of like, you know, okay, like, what do you want, you know, you're waiting for utopia, or whatever it makes it seem like, part of the function of it is to make leftist seemingly completely unreasonable people are not willing to compromise at all. And it's like, no, we live in a world of compromise. Nobody thinks that we're getting communist utopia tomorrow, but like the very basics of like, everyone should have, like, access to or, you know, a roof over their head food. Yeah. I mean, this is
the people who are defending their political approach, which is to start from a deeply compromised position. Yeah, right. A compromise further, what they don't understand is you have to start from a strong position for a pure opposition and, and then proceed to whittle it down to the place where it's livable. Yeah. And they don't I mean, it's why Obamacare starts as their watered down version. No fucking Republican plan, and then they go, let's talk to the Republicans now.
Yeah, no, it's really terrible. I mean, it's like, you know, it's deeply cynical, I think, you know, it is like this sort of, you know, this this thing where it's the negotiate the negotiation process you're describing, it's, it should be obvious to everyone who is a it has ever negotiated a salary, for example, which is if you want to, you know, make $60,000 a year,
you don't start 1000 Yeah, you
don't go like okay, yeah, you know, so I've, I've looked at this, and, you know, I think it would be easy for you to give me $40,000 A year, if at some point down the line you want to give me 60? You know, we could discuss that in 30 years, you're not ending up with even $45,000. And
let's be clear, the person you're talking about is already making 50. Yeah, that's that's the thing. No, I have a bill. I keep doing I should run for president. I have one bill. And I know how to do it. And it's it is a matter it is like you won't compromise. Here's compromise. Here's my bill. Thanks for this theory. This is the kill Jeff Bezos bill. My bill is a kill Jeff Bezos and take all this money and give it to people in need. Now, let's start compromising. Because, you know, hopefully we end up somewhere in the middle. We'd like okay, we don't kill Jeff Bezos, and we leave him with $5 million. Yeah. And now he's going. I could have been worse. Yeah. And we're like, look, we compromise. We showed you how to do it. And everybody's happy. Everybody's happy with that. Right? Is there anyone who's not happy with it? Dave
Bezos. Worse For Him.
It's so stupid and weird. Like the fact that like, people don't understand that even get something like a public option, you have to push for free universal health care. You know, there's I, man, this, it makes me so mad. And I think that like, you know, you see, like liberals like, I've been thinking about this so much, because it just becomes harder and harder and harder to tell what the difference is between a liberal and a conservative and obviously liberals a wide range. Like there's some people who call themselves liberal that are actually, you know, basically aligned 100% You know, but there's just like, Oh, I understand that we're not gonna get utopia, but like with all of these like, right, leaning people, like, what's the difference between somebody who says, you know, Oh, I'd love to have Medicare for all or a public option, but it's never gonna happen. So shut the fuck up. And somebody who just says, you know, fuck you. You don't deserve health care? Like, is there really any difference? You know, there's not, there's Yeah.
Yeah, and you don't get there by making reasonable demands? No, no, you just don't? Yeah. Well, you guys ready to talk about our favorite ex president? Alright, but we're gonna take a quick break, and then we'll be back with the George W. Bush master class.
Life requires prioritization. Whether you're president, or whether you're the CEO of a company, or whether you run in some organization, it's essential to have priorities.
I love how we can't think of another example of somebody who might be priorities. If you're president or CEO, or you're running something, like, just like some schmuck trying to get through the day. Oh, Lord, yeah. At the very least, you'll learn how to prioritize breakfast over lunch in terms of I mean, he just doesn't even get that he can't think I've had these moments. I probably shouldn't admit this, like I'm writing a script. And some character you go with a character who needs to have a job. And they're not they're not an essential character. It's not like you're ready to carry you know movie about them. We have to think about it. They just have to walk on have a job. And I have a timer. I'm sitting there going. What's the job people have? You get disconnected for though this guy can't even imagine a human being who doesn't run things.
Yeah, he can't. That's not what he knows. It's amazing.
It's just the most. It's like, he's, I don't know, man. We all know the meritocracy is bullshit. But this is such a flagrantly insulting example of how it's bullshit because he truly sucks. And He's
genuinely like one of the worst examples of that. Yeah, for sure. But maybe he can teach us this guy. Because the obvious question, when someone tells you the priorities are important, well, he's gonna ask it, and he's gonna answer it for us.
Yeah. Maybe he's left his hero in a very meta way because he just proves that there is no meritocracy at all.
So here is asking the important question and then answering it for us.
How do you set priorities you figure out what's important to you?
Anybody knows that you just said the exact same thing using different words?
Yes. Yeah. I thought I thought you're playing the same clip for a second.
How do you figure out what's important to you just look at your priorities. How do you figure out your priorities, just figure out what's important.
bag or Boris?
Ah, that needs to be a podcast or a band. But anyway, so this, this, this whole chunk, and this really is the last chunk with any kind of substance in it. Well, we'll get to the last one, we'll probably take care of it about 35 seconds and think, unless one of you guys have something surprising to say about painting. But he gets into like, we know how to prioritize what's important to you. And let's let's let's go talk about ego.
I think you gotta have a pretty big ego to run for president. I mean, only Miyata 350 million of you. But the key thing is to keep your life in balance. I happen to believe religion helps keeping a sense of humility in your heart. I also know that power can corrupt.
How does he know power can corrupt? Yeah.
I'm actually Yeah, I actually you think you're being funny, but how does it because he clearly doesn't think that he knows that from personal firsthand experience.
Maybe he is claiming he saw it.
I've been in rooms.
Yeah. With Democrats.
That's right. But Democrats.
He just knows he knows. He knows how it feels in his Jesus belly.
Yeah, he's had both Devils on both the devil in the angel on his shoulder or is that just cozy till every time but it was hard.
Was that over in?
Love might have been? Well, I want he is he does have a vice president His name is Cheney. So talking about power corrupts. Like the ultimate example.
You just sat there and was taken just
although his dad I think he sat there and watched Dick a lot. Yes. But his dad his dad was also a great example of power corrupts. Fantastic same with Iran Contra scandal, but that was
everything he didn't start at that place. The George Bush Senior started out a good man and slowly became
known. Well, I think that as they get into it, they become worse and worse.
Right. But I'm saying from I'm trying to get very specific try to bear down on George W. Bush's perspective. I'm trying to figure out if he accidentally told us something about himself or if he genuinely doesn't know. And you know, he does who was he talking about in his mind? If he if he knows the power can corrupt if not himself? He
he absolutely does not know that. He's not absolutely not saying that about himself. Absolutely not. Right.
Okay, well, I can deal with him being evil because oh my god.
I don't know if for him. It is power corrupts. i He has such a disturbingly weird morality. It's like it's um, it is very Trump ish. And its way of just like, well, I'm, I believe in God. So whatever, whatever I do goes, like that's really what because his actions are. I mean, just take just take California and the energy crisis. If he just take everything else out, right, Katrina, everything else, you just take the California energy crisis. He allows these energy companies to just run riot, do whatever the fuck they want. They're in the White House. They're coming up with plans about how they can dominate. Using deregulation, laws, they, they they get California's place where it's like kind of deregulated but not deregulated Perfect. Now we can attack them. We're buying energy at rates that are so astounding, it takes us years to pay them off. And he's fucking cold with all that. Yeah, like that. So that's okay. So that's one of the things where people go, he's better than Trump. I'm like, Well, how many people did that actually, like genuinely harm? Because now you're talking about energy things people need to survive heat. Like how many people that it really fucking harm and he doesn't care? Because he's a Christian. Right? And it's fine.
No, because he's at the end of the day of his Christianity allows him to do right
now. I'm saying his version of it is, yeah, yeah.
That's the thing. I mean, the more it's like these people who who's a president who you think walked in one thing and walked out another walk out of the office going Jesus Christ power power does corrupt Look at me.
I think Obama on some level,
you think do you think
on some level on some level, not? I mean, he was always a centrist. But I definitely think that on some level, Obama understands the game and understands that he I hurt people.
I wonder because i mean i It's funny man, I have a good friend who was a big, big, big muckety muck in Hillary Clinton's oh eight campaign did not choose to come back in 16. And let's let that sit there while people think about it. And he and I remember, he's a good friend. He's somebody that you could argue politics with all night, and it never got personal, never got angry, because he always came from a position no matter who, how many these people he sat in a room with and knew personally was like, I can be wrong. And I remember we're going to these situations where he would just go off on Obama in a way back when we were all sort of, you know, Butch was were like working for him and everything. And he was like, he's a phony. He's an actor. He doesn't believe in anything. He's just, you know, it's just aspiring. He just wants to get in with, you know, the club, we want to get into the club and getting with rich kids. And we don't be like, Yeah. And, you know, I may sit here now and 2022. And you look back and you're like, Ah, ha. You know, like, literally, what's the first thing Obama does after Donald Trump becomes president and the nation is going to be burned to the ground, we're told is he's talking skyjet skydiving with the billionaires. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I don't know. I can't I wonder if Jimmy Carter is that guy, because there was some bad stuff that happened. People sort of forget that a great president. He's a great ex president, and there's clearly a soul at work. And he's clearly trying to do very good things, you know, with his post presidency.
I mean, to me, it's like, I think if I had to guess without being inside their head, like the difference between, like somebody like, Obama and Bush, like, I think that Bush's like, understanding of himself morally, seems to be a little bit more like, well, you know, I'm a person of God, and I am a person of money. And both of those things are inherently good. And, therefore, I am good. And whatever I do is good. And whereas like, Obama is more like somebody that I think, what is it for me? It's like, it's a bit more like Obama thinks that doing these, you know, really sociopathic things are sort of fundamental to the process of politics. And like that anybody who does not think it has to be that way. It's juvenile. And, you know, it's just like, it's how the sausage is made. You know, like, it's unfortunate that all of these people are, you know, dying and drone strikes. It's unfortunate that all these people are being shot by the police. It really is genuinely bad. But like, it's childish to think that you could you know,
yeah, yeah. Dish, practical idealism. That phrase day. But every now and then I want to be fair to this guy. He actually this next little bit that he talks about actually made me really, really like him. Sort of, it gets a little weird at the end. But I have a thing. It's really tough. And and it is, I paid for my sins by being married to somebody who is one of the worst offenders of this. My wife is late to everything all the time, has many good qualities. I'm told I have one or two bad ones that make up for hers. But that makes me like, I don't like to be late. I don't like people. It makes me fucking insane. And here's where I fell in love with George W. Bush.
I'm a stickler for being on time. I think it is rude for politicians to make people wait. And then you're basically saying, I'm taking you for granted. And it doesn't matter whether you were inconvenienced when I said the meeting was started eight. It meant eight, not 810, in a early moment happened when Karl Rove saunters into the Oval Office, five minutes after the meeting was called. So people are sitting around the oval office waiting for the media meeting to begin and realize we're all not present and wait for the final person to arrive. It has to be Karl said, if you're late again, I'm going to fire you. And it sent a chilling signal to people who said, wow, if he fires him for being five minutes late, he'll definitely fire me. And so therefore nobody was late. And it shows that the organization is not slovenly, or sloppy as to how they address an issue that the minds are point on. And that the analysis is sharp.
He is correct. No, he's not. He's 100% Correct. Note that we started exactly on time today and our analysis is on point. I gave this
kind of jobs. Yeah, I absolutely hated those kinds of jobs. What the work you do is what should matter if you run All in 1015 minutes, it doesn't fucking matter. Exactly. The He's the worst. He's the absolute worst type of boss. And also Hey, buddy, you were a fucking alcoholic druggie for fucking 30 years you think you weren't late to shit all the fucking time? And fuck you people have fucking problems something happen with a dog somehow with the kid, there's fucking a car accident, there's million reasons you can be fucking that people are laying all the time on Get the fuck over it.
Okay when you put it in that context, it's like I'm not just talking about this. I'm talking about life. I don't care about the job. Oh, here's a great thing. Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock used to start every production. He would do this. He fired somebody on the first day. And it was all a plant with that guy. But it just like it put the fear of God in the group, which I know sounds hilarious. And I'm wondering, because apparently the story about Rove is true. I'm wondering if it was staged? Interesting,
maybe when it's not that hard to be 10 minutes late or five minutes late? Like that's the thing that easily happens.
Yeah, not really. It really isn't. But tell yourself that to feel good about yourself. Believe me, Kate, I know the symptoms.
To me, it's just be you know, being on time. It's, it's considerate and important. I was finally back when I'm late, but at the same time,
don't say, Well, I was just I think you'll actually Oh, racism was terrible. But
I mean, George Bush is a person who obviously has a ton of moral flexibility on everything else. And it's weird for him to be completely fine. Yeah. Like, the hell I'll die on not the Iraq War.
But he posted it. But apparently speaking of Rove, apparently there was a lot of mutual admiration between them, but they were not actually friends, which I think is interesting.
I thought they were
no, I mean, they, you know, they get along fine. But Bush Bush hated it. In fact, when people refer to Karl Rove, as Bush's brain, remember that phrase? Yeah. And apparently, if you're around Wu, and you praised Rove's skills, and thinking sort of electoral insights too much. You fell out of favor with who really know.
Yeah, I feel like this being referred to as you know, Bush's brain it really makes me hope that people refer to W as someone's bush. Carlos bush.
Oh, my God, that's great. No, anyway, there was a time when everyone remember when your wife said. No, he's what he's gonna think about this. He's wife, one said I think she was drunk, but I'm the smartest person she knows. And Dave just has glared at me a certain way ever since.
We know it's not true. He could call it Tony Lawson
calling his wife a liar. On national podcast
100%. You want?
Oh, I was just gonna say I'm fans of like categories. Like I feel like smartest person I know, is a category that can include up to 20 people best friend 15 people in there, you know?
Yeah, turd blossom. How about that? Cherry blossoms I love him. Was it wasn't that he's official. Was that like a secret service name? Or is it?
I don't think so. That just, that's just what Bush call them? Yeah. Which is such a great example of how should he have a boss he is like he he's that bully boss. He's not a he's talking about Gradius. And then he's like, call him like his. The guy. He really needs to help him like turret blossom because he's at heart. He's a total dick. Yeah.
Yeah. Although two years, it's like it's a flower that grows in a pile of cow dung. So Oh, yeah. You might actually have been complimenting it But enough of that, I feel bad that we're doing this in the afternoon and not you know, we should all be drinking doing this because he does. He picks up next and he starts talking about his drinking, which I thought was kind of interesting. I didn't think he'd go here. Yeah. Legendary drunken maniac back in the day big big cookie caffeine to allegedly allegedly not that we would know.
Yeah, I enjoyed the we enjoyed the blow.
I like to drink. And it was you know, something I did a fair amount when I was in college. I did a fair amount when I was at pilot training. Nothing better than flying a training jet and then sitting around the bar with Your buddies drinking. And over time, it became habitual. I was too disciplined to be what you would call a raging alcoholic. As a father, I began to realize that alcohol was competing for my affections, with my girls. And this is an instantaneous revelation, it took a while for me to realize that I was can easily shirk my duty as good husband and good father by spending time drinking.
So I don't know I generally don't but wouldn't isn't. If your drinking is getting in the way of your relationship with your children. Doesn't that make you do my wrong?
Thing? Golic. Yeah.
Well, he's saying he's a controlled alcoholic, because that was the thing. A mild alcoholic, he thinks is not alcoholic at all. That's you're an alcoholic, like, usually people are alcoholics for a long time. Say they're not alcoholics. That's what he's that's
what he's doing. By the way. The one thing I would like to point out is sort of people aren't alcoholics. It's one of the things.
But you know what I mean? I mean, yes. Yeah. He's, he clearly had a problem. And he and he then, you know, figured out a way to stop drinking but sure does sound like he had
describing the symptoms of adult most again, my experience with them is I've had some but it's limited enough. I don't, people who are alcoholics, don't some of them come to the decision that I'm an alcoholic, and they decide they need to do something about it. Is it that yes, that's usually what they don't all.
So I have some insight into this. Okay, how? You know, I think that there's, there's some truth here, because it's like, I mean, who knows if he's telling the truth, but like, the kind of old understanding of alcoholism was very like a base of either you're an alcoholic, or you're not. And I think the way it's moving is very much like in terms of like a spectrum of either like mild substance use disorder, moderate, or severe. And for a lot of people
just equate alcoholism with sexual preference.
Like the Kinsey scale for alcoholism, yeah. I am bisexual with a mild substance use disorder. As a member of this
will in some news here, thanks for that homosexuality is a disease.
Yeah, exactly. Why I voted for George W. Bush twice. But, you know, I think there are a lot of people who like, can, like, you know, maybe if they are towards the, like, sort of mild end of things, like it's potentially possible for them to, especially with some kind of support or like, you know, set limits and be like, Okay, I'm only drinking. Oh, sure. Twice a week, two drinks, but it sounds you know, it's totally what I guess what I'm saying is what he's saying is possible that it wasn't.
I agree, I agree. 100%. It's, like, I'm not I was never an alcoholic. No, but you, you are not one of those alcoholics who required an intervention. That's yeah,
yeah, it's very, it's very common for alcoholics functioning alcoholics to say they're not alcoholics, because they're functioning like they, they're going to work. They're doing the stuff, but they say stuff like is getting in the way of my family. Well, then now that's kind of problem. I thought
that was sort of the definition of control. Let's just fuck it up most of my life, but,
you know, I think it's important to acknowledge that you can also be sober and not functioning. That is an example of where I am on this.
Have never even said the word alcohol and still have terrible relationship with your kids. But this I love there's a little slip here, though. It's kind of interesting. Or maybe it's not a slip.
I got drunk on my 40th birthday with my best friends at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs, woke up the next morning and started running, felt like hail and said, That's it. And I went and told Laura said I'm, I'm quitting drinking, just kind of rolled her eyes. You know, she had heard that line before. And, but I'm in at this time. And I did. What was really interesting about the running treadmill and alcohol is when you quit drinking alcohol, your body craves sugar. And so I started eating chocolate. And so I was back on the treadmill, but for different reasons. And I never would be sitting here speaking to the masterclass. Had I not quit drinking? I would not have been president had I not quit drinking. When I drank I said foolish things. And when I drank I did foolish things. And I'm glad I quit. Yeah, it was hard. It was hard. But I'm a disciplined person. And this was the first real case of being disciplined.
So first, I made it this time, which is,
yeah, he said it a bunch of times. Yeah, to quit drinking, I'm gonna quit drinking. I've gotta quit drinking. I don't have a problem specify,
but he's clearly like a fully grown man at this point. He's got a 40th birthday, right? And this kind of kinda reminds me of the 911 thing. He goes, I need discipline person. This is the first case of me being disciplined. Sort of like eating be prepared for crises. We decided that after 911.
So if you're not if you're not a alcoholic, you don't have a problem with drinking, but you never would have been President. If you had kept drinking. Does that seem like maybe there was a problem with the drinking? So he's basically saying I had a big problem with drinking, but I was not an alcoholic. That's what he say. Right? You said
he's not a raging alcoholic. Did he say he's not an alcoholic at all?
Yeah, but he did earlier.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then of course,
there's this you guys remember this? Because we thought about this a lot at the time, but he's talking right now. And I, when this happened, we thought about him being potentially you know, possibly an alcoholic, allegedly an alcoholic at the time. And then as I'm listening to him talk about that. It reminded me of this event,
a health scare for the president after he chokes and falls unconscious. What happened? How serious was it? Where was the Secret Service?
was to save you from pretzels?
Yeah, they're supposed to jump in between you and a pretzel. Yeah, he choked on a pretzel filled out. He didn't even like a black eye the next day or something?
Just imagining the Secret Service being like, Sir, stop. That's a big bite. You can to that. Knocking.
Yeah. Yeah, there were a couple times there was another time where there's a video of him at like a wedding or something. Like walking around giving people shit. And I was like, Oh, I know that guy that gets drunk. Yeah. I mean, he could, you know, he's probably still battling whatever it is. And every once in a while, it takes a little tip. But the black guy pretzel thing was definitely
normal. Yeah. That was weirdness.
But he want he wants he wants us to believe. And the whole reason for this is that, that Christ helped him stop drinking. That's what this is. Yeah. The thing. That's the whole point.
Correct. And, and that's, that's what takes us to, in fact, Billy Graham,
at one point in time, I had met Billy Graham. He didn't lecture me on anything, but I guess he could send something was off. And he seeks me out the next day. I don't remember what was said. But I do know he sent me a copy of a Bible that was in our like, Bible 101 easy to understand. Bible and I started reading it for some reason.
I'm not a Christian. I mean, I've read, you know, chunks of the Bible. I thought, are there easy to read editions of the Bible?
Billy Graham had one made just for George W. Bush was like, This guy can handle the real verses. We have we need. We need the one with pictures.
I mean, like he's just like, a kid's version of the Bible with a gable.
Yeah, that's really weird. I didn't pick that up the first time. Really weird.
I mean, like, yeah, there's like books that are like, it's not the Bible. But there are books that like, you know, describe what happens in the Bible.
So the Bible for dummies? Yeah.
Yeah, the Bible for children Bible for teens are like the the propaganda literature of like, you know,
you didn't get a real Bible. You
didn't get a real Bible, you got a Bible for dummies? Wouldn't it be a little offensive?
I mean, the actual Bible, which I have read is, in all fairness, like, it's not that fun to write compelling read most parts. There are some parts that are very compelling or it's like, compelling in a train wreck way where there's this part where like these two ladies like decide to get their father drunk and bang him and it's like, what the fuck is going on here? Why why
are you thinking Aparna? Yeah.
This is the story of the lock daughters. It's in the Old Testament. And yeah, you know, I mean, there's all kinds of shit there's like I mean, there's there's just a lot of weird weird weird weird sex stuff in the Bible. But, you know,
to try there's good stuff too. But yeah, I would think I'm president United States. And I mean Billy Graham and Billy Graham gives me a Bible what Billy Graham does but grant gives me an easy to read Bible. I'm never gonna get over that. Yeah, pop up Bible
was this little like buttons that you press to like get it to make animals?
It my kids got those. Anyway, the, you know, that brings us to this Whopper. And this is where my favorite will close up to this this segment. But this could this could take a little while because I feel like this is a loaded topic. Do you guys actually remember George W. Bush's presidency? Yeah, the whole thing because he's got something interesting to say about how he conducted himself in office.
It's very important. If you're leading an organization not to try to impose your religion, on people you're leading. It's a free choice. And if someone does not believe what you believe, that should not preclude you from caring about them or listening to them. Oftentimes, politics and religion gets commingled and that's not healthy for either and my judgment and I hope it said that George W. Bush adhere to principles that he gained through his religion. They are heart open enough for a lot of people based upon his religion, but never tried to impose religion on on the people he was leading,
stunning. I can't believe he said that out loud. Isn't that amazing? I mean, you know, he he he did all this stuff for tax breaks for churches so that they could not tax breaks but funding for churches so trying to move sort of the social programs away from secular systems and into allowing churches to be like the forefront in communities for charity and stuff. He he pushed all this all this kind of crap where it just completely blurred the line. Well, even
his own probably the ones like one arguably maybe the only good thing he did the PEPFAR the work with AIDS in Africa, where it was like, Yeah, we're gonna do everything we can to stop AIDS in Africa. Except no, no. It's all abstinence training.
Yeah, I mean, you know, I was your religion. I was in a relationship like, this is like towards the later half of his years, but I was in a relationship with a woman, we weren't domestic partners. And, you know, I remember like, he was talking about a constitutional amendment against same sex marriage. I mean, it was like the level of a legal homophobia that feels I think, actually pretty distant, even not that many years later. But I mean, this was, you know, the, like, family values, quote, unquote, thing was, was a very big deal for him.
And are we going to pretend that he never called the war in Iraq a crusade?
Well, hold on. Let me let me read something. This is a this is from Harper's Magazine. writer Jeff Charlotte. It's, it's titled Jesus killed Mohammed. It's about a I think it's in Bosnia. The rest of that Easter was spent under siege. In searches held off Bravo Company, which was called in to rescue the man in the compound ammunition ran low. Helicopter tried to drop more but missed As dusk fell, the men prepared for Bradley Fighting Vehicles for a running gun to draw a fire away from the compound. Humphrey headed down to the roof to get the briefing. He found his lieutenant with a couple of sergeants they were snickering like school boys. They had commissioned the Special Forces interpreter on Iraqi from Texas, to paint a legend across their Bradley's armor in giant read Arabic script. What's it mean? Asked, I'm free. Jesus killed Mohammed. One of them, told him the soldiers give FOD then they got in there. They're Bradley vehicles and they drove through. I believe it's basura the Humphrey heard the keen of the call to prayer and then the crackle of the bullhorn with the interpreter answering in Arabic than in English for the troops, insulting the Prophet. Humphries men loved it. They were young guys, you know, said Humphrey. They were scared. The Special Forces officer said stood next to the interpreter a big tall blond grinning type. Jesus killed Mohammed gente the interpreter Jesus killed Muhammad. And they drove through the city doing that and they did this shit all the time. Hmm, because it was a crusade. And because George Bush had started the war and said it was a crusade, Christians, nationalist Christians, Americans signed up to go there to fight a religious fucking war. And this is the kind of shit they were doing. And this is compassionate conservatism or whatever Christianity or whatever the fuck it is. Like, this is barbaric.
Yeah. Yeah. Did not impose his religion on it.
No, not at all. No Bibles all over Iraq. None of that happened.
And I guess I mean, it was funny thing is with these master classes, I mean, I almost wonder if we're doing more harm than good by by doing these kinds of deep dives in them because then you never read about him. You just hear like boop so and so is doing a master class. And that's the end of it. You know, Hillary Clinton's didn't make any news, Bill Clinton's didn't make any news, etc. And Bush's certainly didn't. But it seems to me that George W. Bush is out there in public saying, I never impose my religion on anyone that that is something that in a rational world, the New York Times might pick up on, you know,
yeah. Yes. Like, I mean, legitimately a legitimate news source should cover this and go here's the crazy shit that's happening on masterclass. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. It's like a bunch of fucking clowns.
Yeah, everything that's happened. I mean, I don't you know, I don't have you probably remember better than I do. But there was a lot of movement in the anti abortion movement during George W. Bush's time in office, all of those conservative judge you know, clinic closures. I think federal funding for Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood was just constantly up for debate. I mean, it was definitely like, you know, it's things have gotten a bit more theocratic at this time. But I mean, that was definitely like the, I can't remember. He might have been the like, most imposing of religion guy in recent memory, maybe not maybe Ronald Reagan. I mean, I know Ronald Reagan, Reagan, with the Moral Majority or whatever, but you know,
well, I think the difference is between Reagan and Bush as Reagan didn't care and just did whatever his little kitchen cabinet told him was, like Bush literally said, I was chosen by God to lead the country like that. He said that out loud to other people. So that's a completely different arrangement.
Yeah, I'm just imagining God. He's like, right, and God is just like the biggest like asshole frat, bro ever. Just like some guy who does keg stands, and it's awful to women.
We're just being punished. It's
well, there's definitely something that watching this and reading and you know, I did a little dive into the Christianity stuff. And he definitely his takeaway from 911 was the God put him here to take care of those heathens like that. That's, that's why 911 went away. It did.
Right. You'd think there would be a section on that, like what to do when God calls you to leadership or something? You know, although I suppose really, that's, you know, that if God does that, he'd probably tell you what he wants done, too. And you don't really have to.
It was weird, because so I grew up in like Evangelical Church, and you learn pretty early that you can like, get your way a lot of the time by just saying, like, God has called you to do something like I really wanted to go on this trip. And I was like, Yeah, you know, God has called me to go on this trip. And I was allowed to go, you know, like, my heart
was so great.
God calling me I can't even get a regular guy to call me Hey.
Yeah, so much. I feel like it's a little bit worse to go to war, though.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. God told me to bomb you. Sorry.
Yeah. Well, there's only one more chapter and then there's a study guide. Do I want to talk about for a minute before he had done and then the last chapter? I mean, did you guys watch I was hilarious. It's 18 minutes. It's titled, The painters, and it's literally just George, with a little visit of Laura, talking about the painting he's gotten into since he left office. Here's here's Laura Bush in the subject.
Recently, George was looking through a book of paintings and he pointed out a painting by Thomas Moran, saying how much he liked liked it. And I said we had a painting by Thomas Moran. Hanging just outside the Treaty Room at the White House. I used to look at this painting almost every day, George passed it to nearly every night when he went into the Treaty Room to continue working after dinner. But he'd never noticed it. In the White House, I had the chance to look at every piece of art. But the issues for my husband were so great that he didn't have time to notice the beautiful paintings that hung on the walls. His attention was elsewhere. I'm grateful that it last, George has a chance to develop his artistic eye.
What does that have to do with leadership? It's an 18 minute chat, literally. I mean, it's like I the most I have learned I will say I didn't. How many we've watched. We've watched many hours of George W. Bush teaching us shit. And literally think the only thing I genuinely learned is about cold wax painting, which I did not
either. Yeah, the the wax thing was interesting.
Like the melted wax, he does these paintings. And then he makes see like slabs and stuff on the painting. And he slaps on another canvas and then you have a version of it. At the end, you got like two versions of the painting that are opposite each other. And like that's just the kind of stuff that would have turned me on about fifth grade. You know?
Isn't it amazing though, that he he has these like three important art people helping him like it's just so it's also fucking gross. Like, he's not a guy just learning how to paint. He's like got these like
experts, world class experts like helping Yeah, yeah,
it's just insane to the whole thing was really, the fact that it was 80 minutes long, I could not believe what was happening.
I talked to several artists, friends, and they all they all just thought who would just be mean to come on and talk about his art.
Really. He deserves a chance his art.
And the thing that he does Wow. The one that he does while he is filming, and then he like presses. It's terrible. Yeah, it's terrible. And then he makes it worse. He keeps putting black around it and makes it worse. You're like, what are you doing? Yeah,
it's just funny because it's like, you know, you think about like parents with their I mean, you both have kids, but you know, it's like when you're with your, when you're with a child, no matter what they do, you're like, Oh, that's so good. You know, and he's getting that treatment. Like he's just a little tiny baby.
You know, and honestly, it's but it is one of those things, you know, imagine? Imagine if people had been more encouraging of Adolf Hitler's painting in his early life or George W had discovered painting when he was 25 instead of 70.
That would have been funny too. He could have been like the frat bro that loves painting you know? Just
yeah, he could fail presidential candidate Jeb Bush's interesting artistic brother.
Yeah. Hunter Biden
who's painting sell for a lot more I believe I don't I don't know that w is selling has been
such it's such a transparent attempt to make him likable and nice and so pathetic, but it wouldn't be so awesome if they went to show his paintings and it was just like blown up kids and I rack it he was like the Abu Ghraib like prison. Nightmares.
Guantanamo Bay? Yeah.
Do we could do a show it could be called My conscience. That would just be horrible, horrible to haunt him in his sleep?
I mean, you can't really I would imagine that it's just like, Is there even a way that human beings are psychologically capable of reckoning with the level of harm he's done? Because I remember, like, 10 years ago, maybe a little bit less. I was asked to give a speech at my friend's wedding, and I accidentally ran over time. And I still feel bad about it. Like, it's still like trying to get rid of the guilt. And I'm just like, damn if if that kind of shit that ultimately in the long run just doesn't really matter can stick with you then like, how does your brain even get your head around? Like the Iraq War? Yeah, yeah.
Well, you you have to disconnect. It's actually it's funny because there's we're gonna we're gonna talk at the end about about that disconnect that these people have to do. They just it's all politics just doesn't impact people in their mind somehow. Because there's a study guide to this thing, which I read, so you don't have to. It's mostly just sort of going through all the various chapters we've seen and tried to fill in a few things and it's pretty boring. shorts and a little brief biography of Bush written by whoever wrote this thing. There's one fun thing there's plugs for other master classes built into it. There's a section called landmark presidential personnel decisions. And he writes in a modern day echo President Lincoln's Team of Rivals, President Obama appointed his most formidable competition for the Democratic presidential nomination, master class instructor Hillary Clinton to serve as his first Secretary of State.
Master Class Instructor
Yeah. Which is funny though, because every time he talks about Bill Clinton, he never refers to him as a masterclass instructor even. Let's see. And then there's the chapter on terrorism, just fun. It's called it's called how the Bush Doctrine deployed preventative measures to stop further terrorist attacks. And it's just worth noting that they don't get into this at all that let's say 2017 report by the US Government Accountability Office found that 85 Deadly extremist incidents of those which had occurred between September 11 2001 and 2017. White supremacist extremist groups are responsible for 73% While radical Islamist extremists were responsible for only 27. And 2012, studies show that from 2001 to 2012, only about nine American Muslims per year have taken part in terrorist plots in the US, in total 20 incidents resulting in about 50 deaths, right wing extremists responsible for about 340 attacks per year in the same amount of time, killing more than five times the number of people killed by Muslims in the United States.
You know, what this is making me think about was like, the, like, theocratic lack of separation between church and state, this like Christian agenda, a lot of the big pushback on it was from these like atheists guys, and they were also deeply Islamophobic. So it was like, really the people that were Yeah. Yeah, even the people that were calling him out, were also like, but we can all agree.
Yeah, yeah. Richard,
I'm hearing that. Yeah, the number of we did a dollop on this recently, the Fort Dix five, but they, the number of, of Muslim people who have been completely framed and put in prison by the FBI is astounding. And the one I always think of was this guy, when he had mental health issues, intelligence problems, and when they arrested him, he asked when he could see his mom. And then when he got sentenced to life in prison, he got it and he said, Can I play Pokeyman? And this was a mastermind behind a terrorist attack. Yeah.
There's a it's interesting, if you go on HBO, Max, if you have the app, one of the few things, I'm sure there are others, but I it's the only thing I've ever looked for on there that HBO has done that I could not find. And it is a documentary, which if you look around the internet, you can find called the Newburgh sting, and it's absolutely amazing, cannot recommend it. Highly, highly enough. And it is all existing surveillance footage from one of those operations in which the FBI targets a guy coming out of prison, poor black eye on some, some charge or other who ends up doing a kind of jailhouse conversion to Islam who gets targeted and roped into this cell. And it's an amazing thing to watch because he brings couple of friends with his in who are also jailhouse buddies. And the guy the operative. He's just constantly talking about the money he's gonna get in from, you know, his brothers in Iraq, and they're gonna use it to blow up synagogues. And you see these other guys that they're trying to frame and they're all like, oh, yeah, what's that money getting here? And it's so clear that every see it's comical that they're just gonna pop this guy in the head and take his money. Yeah, and I mean, there's like, literally, oh, yeah, so guys, yeah, we hate us for sure. Yeah, well, sorry, when somebody's coming, and it's gonna be in what consecutive bills. And it's insane. And it ends with James Comey on CNN declaring that we've captured another dangerous terrorist cell. Yeah, it happens all the
all the time. It's the same thing with the Fort Dix five. Chris Christie made his career off that yeah, and those guys had absolutely nothing to do with anything. Nothing. That like completed the guy, the guy the narc who did all of it. Who tried to, you know, frame them he made like $250,000 Yeah, by being a narc like it's just you know, it's money.
It's crazy. But the thing that that I enjoyed the most and I thought we can kind of maybe go out on this It actually has nothing to do with Bush. But there is a section because there's a bit in one of the earlier episodes we didn't talk about too much, because it wasn't very interesting about how you got to have humility and so forth. And it was about how Wu brought his father and Bill Clinton together to work together on a project eating stage after the tsunami hit and how they became great friends. And there's a whole section in the study guide called famous bipartisan odd couples, as though it's unusual for people from different parties to be friends throughout politics. He talks about a little bit in this about his father and Clinton. I love this minutes just a little bit. They became so close to President George HW Bush once said that he'd become a father figure to President Clinton, whose own father had died before he was born. Brian and I both spent a lot of time trying to find out if that Bill Clinton had ever said that because I don't think that he did. But what a weird thing. Yeah. Well, so it's like, that's how he feels about me. You want to know, which is weird, cuz I'm practically the same age but
you know, I hated my father right?
In a timeout, that's what like, you know, if you're his dad, and that guy is still running around, you're not doing your job as father but you're
also the you know, as he got older. Senior Bush kept like grabbing women's asses and like a matcher. So maybe he was a father figure.
Just some father and son bonding time,
but but the one that hits on that really just like this one bugs me It bugs me so much. He talks about the deep friendship between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. The late Justice Scalia and Ginsburg had very different judicial philosophies and frequently dissented from each other's opinions. But they left those disagreements in the courtroom united by a shared love of opera and travel, they became close personal friends off the bench, inspiring not only their colleagues on the court, but also an opera, Scalia, Ginsburg, which celebrates their unlikely friendship. And these people are in the Supreme Court. We just want to talk about this for a minute. But just keep in mind that like, you know, you can have friends, no one's here saying you shouldn't have friends with people who you have wild political disagreements with, I would say provided provided that those, neither of us are in a position to enact policies that can actually impact millions of lives. Yeah, yeah. But that'd be fair. And route that are good Ginsburg, as I found her eulogy for Scalia, and wonderfully, just a tiny clip. For you
once asked how we could be friends, given our disagreement on lots of things. Justice Scalia answered, I attack ideas. I don't attack people. Some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can't separate the two, you got to get another day job.
And I would argue the problem is when you're on the Supreme Court, your ideas actually really, really, really do a lot of harm to actual people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, think about Scalia, like all the work he did, to stop gay rights to stop women's reproductive rights to let's say, Where's the Lawrence versus Kansas was a decision overturning a Texas law that criminalized gay sex at Scalia said this was a massive disruption of the current social order argued against voting rights for African Americans and other minorities. And there's also a guy who felt that like black students might do better at slower track schools. I mean, the decisions that this guy made hurt people I went off in arguably sometimes killing them. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a weird thing. Because it's like, you know, I've seen I'm not trying to, it's definitely not a one for one comparison. But I've seen like, the way that people who really compromise their morals in comedy, like get ahead, and I would imagine that it's like to get to the Supreme Court level, like, you can't be like a super super principled person, because a lot of the things it takes to get there are morally compromising. So, you know, you're probably already sort of a go along to get along type. And then, you know, they're they're in a room together every day because it was before COVID. And, you know, it's like, it benefits you to be nice to your colleagues. But yeah, like you really have to kind of completely detach yourself from the horror I think that Lawrence v Texas case, the one that the sodomy one, I think they actually, like busted into those guys like bedrooms, I'm pretty sure, yeah,
you, they have to act like the institution is amazing and wonderful. And the only way to do that is to is to act like these other monsters with them, you know, sort of my er is, has been talking about how great of a dad cabina is and like what a great guy he is like, they have to act as if the only way you delegitimize yourself, right, if you act like this person is a crazy religious nut, then now, the whole institution is sort of undermined, so they can't have that in their brains. Because essentially, it is just an institution that is just for white supremacy and stockholders, you know, to prosper. That's all that fucking thing is, is a terrible institution. It should not be it should not exist.
Yeah, I do not disagree. And it's just, you know, and the problem with everything makes no centralized is that all these people hang out in this tiny little town, they all get to know each other, and they all party and they sort of lose sight of what it is they're doing. You know, it is, it is, there is literally I mean, we live in a small town and small business town, one might say, here in Hollywood, in Los Angeles. And you will, you might be surprised to find that there are people who work on Marvel movies, who have friends who work over at Warner Brothers and they make DC movies. But there's nothing wrong with that. There's no downside to that. There's no but you know, this is different. And it's it also bleeds over because the RBG thing just remind me of something that just recently happened, where NPR is Nina Totenberg has now published a book she people knew they had this friendship. I don't think anybody knew quite the degree. She was very, very good friends with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She's read a book called dinners with Ruth, about their decades long friendship, like to the extent that during the quarantine, the total protest was the only place that RBG went outside of her own home. That's how close they were. And she talks about like she knew about her health problems. And she knew how severe they were before anybody else did. And she's a journalist. And that is information that could have helped people a great deal, because this is this is a person who went she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2008. And it was decided to continue on the Supreme Court. And, and we're all still paying the price for that. And it's just, it's just horrifying. And it's like there is actually a little bit of kickback coming back towards the Totenberg but not enough. You know, and, and I would argue that it's good that Chris Cuomo lost his job at CNN for, you know, helping his brother cover cover up massive crimes. But that's such a big story. It's sort of you lose sight of the fact that that isn't just the crimes. That's the issue. The issue is a reporter colluding with a government official to hide important information from citizens. And that what he did is as bad even though RBG didn't commit any specific crime, you know,
yeah, I guess if I was going to be the defender would be like, everyone knew that RPG self problems were bad. You know, like,
one of the cheats, you knew how much worse they were than the general public?
Oh, yeah. No, for sure. Earlier when she was diagnosed with cancer, like the fact that there wasn't anybody that wasn't saying stepped down, it's really wow.
Yeah, it's insane that she didn't. And I still I still don't get the contortions you have to perform, to tell yourself that it's wrong to criticize her for making that decision, which we've talked about this before. But it's literally the argument is that she was what holding out because she wanted a woman president to appoint her successor. Is that the story when I think so, historically speaking, the likelihood of Obama to have been followed by another Democrat, let alone a woman was statistically zero. Like the last the last two times a Democrat followed a democratic and office it was because the first one had been assassinated or died.
These people go home on their own supply.
Yeah, and it's just torsade is George W. Bush ain't the only one. He's just one of the worst. I think, yeah.
He's still he still should be crossed. you'd ever work rooms like that, for sure not gone away. And that should be a thing that should be happening.
Yeah. But I would say at the end of all this. What does forget what we think? What does George W think we're going to learn from taking his class? What is the lesson? What is the big summing up?
Not everybody is going to be a leader, but everybody can end up being a better person. Well,
okay. Yeah, I, I guess I'm a better person for having watched this.
I mean, the fact that he's positioning himself as the example of a good person, it's
just kind of the implication is, you don't necessarily have to achieve what I've achieved, but you can still like me be a better person.
Yeah. I can teach you how to be a better kid, I
could teach you how to
be a better person. Yeah.
Well, this would be like, if you're a sponsor wasn't like a practicing drug dealer. It's not gonna work.
There's a problem here. What's amazing about this whole thing, we come out the other end, it's like, for me, it's, it's, it seems like so often. The all it comes back to with everything is that it's always just about appearance. You know, he never talks about actual leadership, he never talks about, like getting into a situation studying the problem, you know, working with others to come to solutions, never talks about what to do when somebody else who's already a leader is is challenging you how to work with somebody else's, like in that in the same position? You are that is, you know, it's just and and also, what do you do? Is there I missing anything? I don't remember a single moment when he talks about what to do when you find out you were wrong about something when one of your decisions was incorrect. And seriously. So, you know, there's just they don't even give lip service to actually teaching you. About leader. Yeah, it's,
it's really wild. how little I mean, it was the same thing with the Hillary Clinton one, Dan's ears, you're just like, I watched someone talk for a while. But ya know what else I saw?
I mean, hers. Tell me I'm wrong. Hers was about resilience, which I'm not sure if I think anybody goes to school to study. You know, it's like, you're taking a class on resilience, you should take what you get. And of course, it's ridiculous. But like, this guy is teaching leadership, and he was theoretically a leader. He ought to have some tips. I really don't want to do it, because I bet it's boring. And I know it's three times as long as this but like, you know, Bill Clinton does one on leadership, too, I believe. And I bet he offers you a few things that you could learn from.
I bet he does. Yeah, I bet he actually does say stuff. That's like, okay, that's the thing.
Yeah, that's probably useful. Oh, you probably have insight into this, that I don't and are capable of sharing it with me. Even though you know, it's a terrible things to
wait for him to cover. The leadership part of sticking a cigar and in terms of a giant.
I want to be talks about that. I bet he doesn't. I
really doubt it.
I don't mean explicitly. Ever After having watched this painting thing, you know, it's like, my final chapter, I'd like to talk about how to digitally lady with a cigar. I think there's a lot of tech. Yeah.
I'm not that sex positive. I'm sorry. I think some king shaming is okay.
Oh, no. Well, let's be honest. Anybody have any? Did you guys learn anything? Kate, Kate, your study, buddy? Here you're
I mean, I would say I'm just really like, my main takeaway from this is I'm very struck by how far off your perception can be of yourself and who you are. And, like, you know, just like the way that you've, you're your own moral and intellectual assessment of like, who you are and what your impact is. I mean, he Bush is obviously so far off, right. But now I have this like paranoia of like, well, I think I'm a good person. And I think I'm right. I mean, on the one hand, I'm like, Well, I am you know, but but it's just saying that it's possible to be this delusional because
the difference is that you have doubts. I have always said there's literally only one difference between John Lennon and say, Milli Vanilli and and that is John Lennon probably wasn't positive. He was brilliant. Yeah, you know. And, yeah, the fact your doubts, I mean, it's Hendricks is my immediate response. You start talking with, like, oh, no, he doesn't believe him. He's he knows he's lying. But it's like, no, you're right. Because as much as he does know, he's lying about some of this stuff. It is so clear that he is absorbed. The perception of itself that he's presenting is the real thing.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know I don't really get the vibe that he knows that he's lying or On time, you know, like, there's no way to know you know, if you wanted to be inside that guy as hard as you would have to be our personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No one else is in there, but I don't know. Yeah.
I don't think you should be allowed to do these without saying who the PR writer was. Yeah. I mean, this is so clearly written by a PR sort of inside the machine kind of person to read do images like, yeah,
it's David from
Yeah, it's fascinating. And I don't want to talk masterclass, they do. They do have good classes. And you can understand why from their point of view, this might be they might perceive this as a good way to lure people in, you know, almost a loss leader because who really is going to take it, but it's a big it's a big gap. It is a big get. George W. Bush is a bigger get than anybody we've ever had any of our podcasts. No offense. He's never going to be our study, buddy. And we'd except we would take them on I would do. I would do five podcasts.
You would have a good time with him. That's what's so infuriating is he seems fun, you know?
Yeah, I bet there'd be a ball with our you say the wrong thing. And his screen goes black and five minutes later, there's a knock on your door. And that's it.
I mean, look, I met Newt Gingrich. Once when I was in college, and it was like, probably it was like 2004 or something. So you know, if he did the most horrible things that he did, or in recent memory, but I was he to me, like if you watch him on screen, he's one of the most on appealing, odious. Looks like a toad basically unattractive, like, personally repellent kind of people. And when I met this guy in person, it was like, This dude has like a level of charisma I've never seen, like, he was so compelling. And I feel like with someone like George W Bush, like however charismatic, he seems to us, he's probably like, 10,000 times more charismatic in real life.
Yeah, yeah. That's not something you'd be taught in a master class at least no. But anything, any any last words there, David?
No, it's just all disappointing. And they're gonna keep making these and he's gonna die. And everyone will say how great he was, like his dad. His dad was an absolute monster. When he died, I was like, wow, he was pretty good. I mean, he didn't. It's like, he's a monster. He was a monster like CIA had over saw Operation Condor, like, just war crimes up the wazoo like a terrible Iran Contra, like a terrible human being an example of everything that's wrong. Politics in the office.
And it's important to remember that it's important to remember that because because maintaining that understanding of people, I would think keeps you a little more on the defense when the new one comes along, because if we just whitewash every awful person who comes through the door, we're not learning anything, you know? And look, it's possible it is possible when somebody like this dies when George Bush Senior dies to go hey, look, you know, I don't know. Don't share with anybody dies. I think it's terrible. I feel for the man's family and they're all in pain. And that's a sad thing. And we can all relate to that. But I'm glad he's fucking dead and he's gonna burn in hell forever. And that's about the only good thing I can take out of this. Yeah. Or something. So disgusting. It's like, but yeah, stuff like this just helps. Helps with that mentality that he's just, there's members of the you know, the other the other high school football team that you know, from the other school that you don't go to. Now that he's now that he's off the field, we should all just celebrate his accomplishments in eat healthy, no.
to both. Yes.
Kate, thank you so much for coming on this journey with us.
It was great talking with you guys. I'm learning a lot about George W. Bush. Stuff I don't remember. But yeah, horrible guy. Yeah. Leadership.
Do you know how to be a leader? Yeah,
I'm gonna be like the see the Girlboss CEO of something in a few months. You guys are gonna be like we've created a fucking monster. Oh
my god. tastic Dave, how are you you feel good about this. You will look forward to doing more of these we're not just gonna do master classes we have all kinds of things lined up for you.
This might be our last one ls what that was it worked on our last masterclass and now just the podcast
podcast ever Yeah. Okay shutdown the dollar up to
I mean No that's fine I mean we ended with we don't have with war criminals painting on the dollop
Well thank you all for joining us on this we're gonna take a little break and then we're gonna be back in a couple of weeks with another one in spite of what Dave says and this one this one will be even more inspirational and more educational we absolutely promise we'll go ahead and that
sounds about right back Gray's fan all passed here but it was good while you guys came around on air this agent jam champagne it is a yacht
want to thank our incredible support team. Brian siano, our free floating agent of chaos aka research guy
and also con McCoy who does all of our music. You can also find him he out there and music world He is known as diesel boots.
