Left Face
Join Adam Gillard and Dick Wilkinson while they talk politics and community engagement in Pikes Peak region.
Left Face
Political Storms: Navigating Partisan Responses and Labor Challenges
Are political leaders truly serving their communities, or are they prioritizing personal agendas? Join us as we navigate the murky waters of partisanship and disaster response with a provocative question in mind. We dissect the complexities of the upcoming election season, the political maneuvering during hurricanes like Milton and Helene, and the challenges of emergency management amid shifting weather patterns. This episode isn't just about storms; it's about the political storms that follow, and the leaders who attempt to steer them.
Our discussion stretches from North Carolina veterans caught between rhetoric and reality to the broader implications of misinformation in political discourse. Why do emotional appeals often overpower facts, and how can individuals reconcile their personal beliefs with a duty to serve impartially?
Curious about the evolving landscape of the labor force and its political ramifications? We explore the diverse dynamics of today's workforce and the hurdles unions face in advocating for better conditions. From the cultural melting pot that globalization has created to legislative constraints like the Taft-Hartley Act, we reveal the political disconnect contributing to the struggle for labor rights. The conversation extends to the fear-mongering tactics surrounding cannabis in Colorado Springs, illustrating the power of biased media and emotional manipulation. This episode offers a comprehensive look at the intersection of politics, community, and labor, all while challenging conventional wisdom.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Left Face, the podcast, where we discuss military issues, veteran concerns and politics. I am joined again today with my co-host, adam Gillard. Good morning, adam. How are you?
Speaker 2:Hey Dick, how are you doing? I'm good today.
Speaker 1:I am doing well myself and I'm excited to talk about a sort of potpourri episode today where we're going to cover a few different topics. We've got national topics. The election, of course, is only a few weeks away, so we're going to touch on some key points around the progress of these campaigns. 25 days or something. Yeah, it's real close. I noticed the signage going up in the voting locations of hey, this is where you vote, so it's coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think ballots drop tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I figured. Those usually go up when the ballots go out in the mail, yeah, and then we've got a couple of local topics to cover as well. So this is going to be a good episode. I think we're going to dig into some really important things that are happening in this election cycle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of noise around a lot of this stuff and trying to weed through it gets difficult, so we'll try to talk about some of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll probably share a little bit of, I guess, frustration around partisanship and how that is just hurting people, I think right now. So let's jump straight in. This week and today even, we still have severe weather and we have Hurricane Milton has impacted Florida, crossed pretty much the entire peninsula last night, yeah, and we've got people underwater right now. This is the same as what happened 10 days prior to landfall was when Helene came through the same region of the ocean but hit a different part of the state and then moved up through six different states and had really a massive stretch of land that it impacted, with both hurricane force, winds and tons and tons of water they said trillions of tons of water was moved from the ocean to the mountains you know, and so the fallout's been terrible, yeah, and when that that water lands, it doesn't just roll down the hill, it collects all the way down and it becomes mud and it becomes those slides and that that wiped out entire communities, you know.
Speaker 2:And the glass. There's still a few of those communities that haven't been reached yet too. Yes, um, and that's, we're at two weeks since, right, you know, those, those, those people have kind of gone off, gone off the map yeah, yeah, and like that chunk of area over there is so mountainous and, you know, rugged and tough to get to and it's like the size of belgium, like it's not, it's not a small area that we're talking about, the appalachian mountains, yeah yeah, it's crazy how rugged that that area is um.
Speaker 2:so yeah, you know we're still we going to see a lot of devastation for a while, and you know there's still time in the season too, for more devastation. Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1:Not to get weather nerdy, but I read a story a couple weeks ago where the forecast for this season was very active, high number of hurricanes, but a change in weather over the West Africa region, where the hurricanes sort of start in the Atlantic, meant that that area was not going to produce the type of storm fronts that would cross the Atlantic and turn into those um out, you know, outer, out of the Gulf hurricanes. So both of these have been in the Gulf, right, if you've noticed, both of these started directly in the Gulf near Mexico. Okay, totally different pattern. They move north and east versus the ones from Africa that move across to the west and kind of stay stuck in the tropical zone, right? So, inner banks of the Gulf, warmer water, less hurricanes, but the two that we've had have started pretty much in the exact same location. So I was a little bit encouraged that the change in weather pattern meant that it rained in the Sahara and it didn't create hurricanes.
Speaker 1:So that's, I don't know if we're, you know, shaking a magic eight ball and asking for better weather I would call that better weather and then smack, smack, two giant hurricanes, record-setting wind speeds, record-setting pressure changes, I mean doubled in size, in less than 24 hours, outrageous progress of storms in a very non-traditional weather pattern. I guess Bottom line is we were less I don't want to say any regions unprepared. I think there's a lot. Always emergency management services ready, ready to deal with this. Yeah, I think the surprise as uh, if we get out of the weather nerd conversation and just move back to you, don't get as much time with a gulf storm as you do with an atlantic storm as far as preparation for the services that are gonna, you know, not just the people hey, it's time to evacuate, yeah, but the government as well.
Speaker 1:You get a week and you got a category four making landfall, yeah, when it's coming across the atlantic. You've got 10 days, plus, you know, sometimes longer than that where you know as soon as it comes off the coast, you know that thing's going to come across and get bigger. So you've got a couple of weeks to watch and prepare and even dial in, like where's landfall going to be, so that we can direct resources into one spot. Yeah, that's a really good point. That was not really an option this time you know it was, you know we yeah, two, two back to back and very, very powerful storms.
Speaker 1:So how does that relate back to the election at hand and politics, which you know it's as you said? I'd rather nerd out about why hurricanes are happening versus how it turned into a political problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, how did we get to a point where we have, like, politicians drawn on maps, like oh no. I think it's going to do this. Yeah, sit down. Come on, man. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't even. I'm happy to hear someone pontificate and share their opinion about storms, but you know, take it with if they're not a meteorologist.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah.
Speaker 1:But if you start breaking out congressional maps and talking about the weather, those two things don't go together. The geographic map, the satellite view, like let's talk about that. If you've got red and blue squares on the ground and you're talking about where the weather is going, we may be off into some foul territory, Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's a rumor that there's a village down in Mexico, Tropo something I can't remember what it is but the conspiracy is that there's an underwater facility that creates UAPs that directs hurricanes away from it. Okay, so that's out there, right? That's a crazy conspiracy that people would hear and say, like what the hell are you talking?
Speaker 1:about right.
Speaker 2:But we have a lot of people thinking that Democrats and the government is pointing hurricanes at. Florida right now, and that FEMA is intentionally withholding funds, not doing everything that they can.
Speaker 1:Staging resources but not delivering them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like putting on a show but not actually helping people right, and it's a wild theory that has no basis in reality and I can tell you that there's probably more that needs to be done, obviously, like we're in the middle of it still. So they're still moving resources, they're still coming to town, they're still, you know, staging, everything is still getting there. But everybody on the ground that is actually going through it is saying that, yeah, I've talked to somebody, they've given me stuff, they've helped me, but there's still a huge disinformation campaign that I've seen it start from the top, because President Trump, in one of his stumps, a few days ago mentioned that they get $750, and that's it, yes.
Speaker 2:President Trump, in one of his stumps a few days ago, mentioned that you know they get seven hundred fifty dollars, and that's it, yes.
Speaker 1:What, what a terrible lie and that spawned a couple of memes that just blew through the Internet Right to start to, I feel like, pile on and pile on with hearsay, pile on with.
Speaker 2:You know, it's always uh, it's a second or third party removed kind of story, like my neighbor's cousin yeah lives in north carolina.
Speaker 1:Well, you never talked to your neighbor and you don't know your neighbor's cousin, right? You never met that person right and now we're talking about how their you know, their shared grandmother is is dead, and then they can't get them off the mountain in North Carolina. It is totally none. Of those people existed at all.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. The in the real, like another like add on tragedy of all this is that the people who are in the midst of the tragedy right now, they don't have good communication services, Correct Right. They don't have good cell service. Internet's probably down. When they get information it's usually hearsay word of mouth talking yes and if and if. What we're spreading is complete BS and fear like how is that helping anybody?
Speaker 1:What a terrible situation If you are responsible for some people that are stuck back in the woods somewhere. Somebody drives by and tells you oh, fema's not helping anybody and that makes you decide not to go down the mountain, you decide. Well, if I go down to town, I may not be able to get back up here, and if FEMA's not down there handing out food and water or supplies I can't fill up these gas cans then I'm not going down.
Speaker 1:And now you're stuck up there making your own situation worse based off of hearsay. Yeah, I, that's not an imaginary situation. I guarantee you there are people in those communities that that's all they get is a person who has enough, you know, traction to drive by and spit out whatever this they think they heard from the last place. Right and it. You know. You know that, like you said, staging the resources versus getting them to the people, um, something that I was talking with a friend yesterday, um, talking about katrina versus now, katrina hit in one specific area, coming up the gulf coast and made basically a. It was wide coast and made a basically a. It was wide but it made a rectangle that that blasted inland and you could sort of make a perimeter around that damage, stage resources from three out of four sides and then bring it in Right.
Speaker 1:You can't do that in the mountains, you can't do that in this, in this terrain out East, where there's not one clear rectangle that you can kind of contain and make these stages and say, okay, everything that can travel on hardball roads, full-size 18 wheelers, get this far, and then after that we dismount that gear and get it into these other type of vehicles and then they can get this far right. You don't have those zones in this damaged area right now, no, and so how? Every place you go, someone has to scout it out, scope it out and decide we've got a pallet worth of stuff. How are we going to get it in to this thing? That's three, four miles back into the woods, right, that takes. That can take a couple of days just to make the decision on how you're going to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause I mean these rural communities out there.
Speaker 1:there's one way in and it's gone, it it's gone so like I've been seeing some, talking about helicopters, yeah, I've seen cool footage of uh chinooks yeah, chinooks doing some airdrops and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Um, so yeah, the, the government and, you know, the national guard, they're out there, man, they're doing everything that they can to get resources to these folks and assess the damage.
Speaker 1:I completely believe that and, for me, what confirms that and what flies in the face of this partisan rhetoric is when you have the republican governors of all the states that were affected by these storms, completely negating the lies and rhetoric that are coming out of this presidential campaign have, have we heard much from DeSantis?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, there's a little very short clip of DeSantis saying we have everything we need. But then there was also the story this week where the White House both the president and vice president reached out to him to just get an update on the status and talk about things before Milton. He refused to call him back. So a little bit of grandstanding. There was the story anyway. You know how, right, yeah, georgia, brian Kemp Now he has no love lost with Trump Somehow.
Speaker 1:I guess they buried the hatchet over the last couple of weeks because Trump campaigned in Georgia. But they, you know, he thinks that Trump interfered and Trump spread lies and that harmed Georgia, and he's the governor there, so he doesn't like him. He came out and said we're good to go. I mean, like the day after, you know, the sun came up and everything was fine. He's like FEMA is here, we have everything we need, and he's repeated that. So you know, all the way through the entire zone, governors are saying we're good to go. Yeah, but you could find, you can find a sheriff here or there that has decided they're going to be political and they're going to, you know, whip up people into some sort of situation.
Speaker 1:And and I don't know why. If it's because they perceive that they're not getting some kind of resource, like we say, into their rural area, I'm not sure. But you do find some more local community leaders that seem to be looking to get on partisan bandwagons. Now for the veteran topics. Here, something that bothered me I saw a video of a guy that was in North Carolina, his older gentleman, and he's a pilot, and he is a retired military pilot, okay, and he works with some nonprofit or some volunteer group where folks that have those credentials go out and help in emergencies civil air patrol type stuff, but some other group. Yeah, I mean, it's a great way to keep serving. You're going to get in there right along your National Guard buddies and you're going to be flying in formation right there with the people you know how to do the job.
Speaker 1:So we want you to come and help. Now, that's great, but when you're at the depot, if you will, where all the resources are getting staged up and everybody's getting organized and people are walking around with their partisan cameras and microphones looking for stories, when you, what I saw was a guy saying what I saw was a guy saying I'm a veteran and I'm here to help. The feds are nowhere and, um, only if you show up and help. That's the only way anything's going to get done is if you you know the person watching this video volunteer because the federal government's abandoned us and basically kind of just moved off into this like partisan rhetoric around. You know, red, the red region is being abused and ignored and all this stuff. But he was, at the same time, talking about how he's there because he's a military veteran and a pilot and all these other things.
Speaker 1:And I'm like why did you use that to like, plus up your story? Well, I mean, make you more credible. But then he should have just stopped.
Speaker 2:He should have said I'm a military veteran, I'm here to help, because that's what we all have to do, right?
Speaker 1:now yeah.
Speaker 2:And then stop, full stop, because that's actually why he's there, right, right.
Speaker 1:Now he also told us how he's going to vote in November. We didn't ask you that, but I mean the guy holding the camera did Right. But that's my point. Like when we're in uniform, as far as like when you're serving, it's not, it can't be partisan, right? Not just your service, I mean, the hands-on work that you're doing is not driven by partisan needs so if you're serving again out of uniform. It just really.
Speaker 2:I'm always discouraged when someone picks up that partisan banner and wants to divide versus, especially in a moment where you need to rebuild your community. Yeah, you know you're immediately going to turn off 50% of your, the folks that you're trying to reach out to help that you're trying to help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah. So yeah, it doesn't make sense that people take that kind of just. They add vitriol to things just to make noise. It's not helpful. More people watch the video.
Speaker 1:We'll say that right because of the way it was produced. And that's really the point of what we're talking about. Is that there's political gain in telling one side of the story and telling a one-sided story completely, yeah, and in lying to support that story. There's political gain in all of that, absolutely, and that's terrible, right, like that's everybody's job to try and combat that. But there's a base of political support that wants to believe the weather can be controlled, wants to believe that you might be abandoned by this terrible socialist regime. Right, like those are the boogeyman that they built in their mind. And so when someone with any kind of credibility or authority says I believe the same boogeyman that you believe in, it's a done deal, man, you know, I mean like they cannot break that mental cycle.
Speaker 2:And then we've got and what's what's tough for me is like it's also subjective and there's no real basis in reality. Um like, in fact and facts and like you know the you know the common saying oh you know facts that don't care about your feelings. But like I'm looking for your facts and I don't see them, I see a lot of your feelings, yeah, and I don't understand how they don't see their own hypocrisy.
Speaker 1:Suspension of disbelief. You know the the mental gymnastics that we have to do to get to a point where you are a college educated person that's willing to stand behind a podium and say that the government can control the weather. You had to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get there Right, and the more you buy into, you know incrementally buy into lunacy, then eventually that's the bag of stuff you carry around.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and there's a point where there's no turning back, like you have to commit, you have to be right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to be right Exactly, or otherwise you sound crazy, right, right, well, did you hear what?
Speaker 2:Elon Musk just said on that one yes, yes, william.
Speaker 1:And Tucker just said on that one, yes, and I was thinking that before you know, when he very kind of first through I guess it was the day after that trump got uh shot in the ear. Elon was on, I don't think he was ever on the fence, but he had no reason to really get too politically involved. Right, because you're gonna you're gonna be a billionaire longer than somebody's gonna be the president. So maybe be honorable to your money, not to the president.
Speaker 1:Especially you, Elon. That's what we expect from you. Just stick to that. He bought.
Speaker 2:Twitter for a free speech, nonpartisan platform and he's completely turned it into a right-wing conspiracy.
Speaker 1:I think he attracted right-wing conspiracy people. He doesn't police up left-wing stuff, it's just nobody's there, right, right like it became an echo chamber for right, because he got rid of all moderators and, like you know, so we could go there and me and you could go and create you know lefty crazy stuff and talk about whatever we wanted, and you know it'd be fine it'd fly, nobody would listen to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's just not the echo chamber, that it is anymore, right, yeah, but we can do, but there's still a lot of damage being done because, like with the FEMA response, yeah, because that's under Homeland Security, yeah, homeland Security. So there's a lot of anti-Semitic stuff going on on Twitter.
Speaker 2:Sure Based for this fema response because uh, my, oh yeah yeah, yeah, um, so, so there's a lot of things being pointed at them, saying like fema's coming in and if your land's not, if your house isn't repairable, they're going to take your house. Yes, and just all of these things from you know twitter and just not being moderated properly, you know.
Speaker 1:Man. That's a deep philosophical touch there, in that freedom of speech allows for freedom of stupid speech and lies too right.
Speaker 2:But once it starts harming other people like we said, like the people that are listening to this stuff, like the target audience that's listening to this stuff is being damaged by it, is being hurt by it.
Speaker 1:I think we as grownups have to consider the source. I put a lot of pressure on the individual to think clearly for yourself and we need to teach our kids that basically, if you read it on the internet, it's probably bullshit.
Speaker 2:I show my kids AI videos all the time Like this is stupid. You know this is stupid right, yeah. Like there's no dinosaurs picking up giraffes, yeah right.
Speaker 1:I saw speaking of AI. I saw a picture and it was Donald Trump wading through like muddy water in North Carolina with like a life vest on talking to some guy Right, and it was clearly fake In a suit.
Speaker 2:No, he had it.
Speaker 1:And that was the thing that was crazy about it is that he had jeans and like a brush popper Western T-shirt on. And I was like that would never put those clothes on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're an obsession with making him into Rambo. He wouldn't go anywhere near mud. No, not at all Like them. Trying to make him into Rambo is the funniest part of this whole.
Speaker 1:I saw the stupidest thing I've ever seen here in Colorado Springs a week ago and my best friend. He says that Donald Trump is a cipher is the word that he uses for anybody who wants him to be their hero. They'll decide what kind of qualities he has to be their hero.
Speaker 2:They'll turn that notch to like line up for their beliefs. Yeah, and so he might be.
Speaker 1:Jesus's best friend. One day he may be the smartest businessman in the world. He may walk through the river and take your grandma off of a roof one day who knows, Right Like he may save all of us. But that level of dissonance is just. But here's what I saw, that I just said man. Saw that I just said man, you've again you've committed to believing a lie and you've gone real far with it. It's the silhouette of donald trump's face and and like his hair and and it's not flattering, but it's.
Speaker 1:It's realistic and it's got a cowboy hat on okay and this was a sticker that was about the size of a shoe box or laptop screen. You know, in the, on the back of somebody's pickup truck window and he's wearing his cowboy hat, and on the back of a shoe box or a laptop screen. You know, in the on the back of somebody's pickup truck window and he's wearing his cowboy hat, and on the back of the cowboy hat and small little numbers, there it says two zero, two, four, right, so it's. Trump 2024, but Donald Trump would put the cowboy hat on backwards.
Speaker 2:Right, I said my.
Speaker 1:I told my friend.
Speaker 2:I said, look at this.
Speaker 1:I said, if you, gave him a carrot and said go feed it to that horse, he's just as likely to stick it in the wrong end, as he is the right end he has no idea what a horse is.
Speaker 2:I think there's a video of Elon putting on a hat wrong. Oh yeah, a cowboy hat, cowboy hat backwards yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and so the fact that you think that Trump is going to ride his horse through the Capitol, and that's what you want him to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you've drank the Kool-Aid and licked the bottom of the container. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we've just seen his actions only take care of himself and even the responses that he had to disasters in his timeframe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, california. This was the story that I heard this week about him withholding resources to California because Pelosi's from California. Exactly, he hates Pelosi.
Speaker 2:Puerto Rico's not even those aren't even American citizens to him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, correct.
Speaker 2:And then he's doing the shooting with the paper towels and stuff like that. Oh yeah, you look at the president, bush, obama, all the other when they go through their tragedies that every presidency has. They're compassionate, they care about the people. They're there not to make a big deal out of themselves.
Speaker 1:There's no chip on their shoulder. No, it's like. What do you need?
Speaker 2:Not like hey camera, check this out, you know what I mean. And for people to think that he cares about them when clearly he's in it for himself.
Speaker 1:Or he would stand there and flat out say I'm here to help the red counties and all you Democrats can just help yourself. Call your neighbors, go be socialists with all your socialists. I'm only going to bring in resources. That's how he treated California during the wildfires. He's like you you did this on your own because of poor management, and the reason you have poor management is because you're all Democrats, right? So don't ask the federal government for something because you can't do your job. Yeah, and it's like well, this is the forest, the forest caught on fire.
Speaker 2:Earth set itself on fire. Dude, that can happen anywhere, and it's wild how clear and he's honest when he says those things too. That's it. He's not shy about it.
Speaker 1:No no. You would think that people would know where he stands on these things At the least a politician would be coy about the fact that they're rubbing one people's face in the dirt and taking the other people and giving them all free stuff. They would be at least coy about it. I'm not so sure about that. Oh, is that how the policy played out? We're going to have to look into that. And then they don't but at least they give you a little waggle over like maybe that matters, he doesn't.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:He uses it to drive the message of lies and he'll take that opportunity to go oh you're really paying attention right now because there's a natural disaster. Let me hit it home. And so that's. The first topic was FEMA. Let's take that and try to pivot to what. The other things that we've got going on. I got you right there. The other things that we've got going on.
Speaker 2:I got you right there, you know, when we talk about you know him spreading those lies. There he tells us exactly what he feels about like unions and things like that the labor force in general. He said that he doesn't, you know, want overtime. He says he hated paying overtime and he wouldn't want to pay overtime. Right, he's been a union buster. You know on tape with again Elon. Yeah, elon, he's been a union buster, you know on tape with again Elon.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Elon, I'm talking about you, know you went in there and fired him at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and it's like you know how are we not supporting? You know the Harris-Walls campaign with the unions? Sure, you know we've seen two big unions not support anybody this time around, when the other side is saying I really don't care about you. Like you guys can work longer hours, you can be more productive and we'll pay you what we're paying you now and you'll be happy about it. Yeah, why are unions not getting on board with supporting people who support them in their legislative efforts?
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's a true statement in the labor base, like the population of the labor base is more diverse, and I don't just mean racially, but I mean literally from all over the world. Right, we have a total. I think we've seen a lot of change in the population of the base of labor, whether that's service workers, factory workers, truck drivers you know construction workers the folks you know these industries auto workers, port workers you know these people. It's changed a lot in the last 20, 30 years. Right Of of who those people are, it's there's a lot less um, homogenous populations where it's like, hey, all the people up in Pittsburgh, they're all the same. You know, it's a bunch of Middle Eastern or, excuse me, Midwestern, like American, white, white guys. But then you go to this other place you might say, hey, everybody over here, they're farm workers, are mostly hispanic people. We go here in this industry. Everybody that's here has been immigrated from this place and this is what they do, like we had sort of fracturing a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Stereotypes aside, whatever, but that's just what it was, you know right, that's not true anymore.
Speaker 1:We have a lot more blending globalization yeah, globalization and cultural blending inside the United States across those labor lines. So truck drivers, man, you know, truck drivers are literally from all over the world in the United States right now. Right, it's an accessible job, that you know, not a ton of language skills required If you come from another country. As long as you can read and write well. If you can't communicate, that great you. If you come from another country, as long as you can read and write well. If you can't communicate, that great you can still probably do great driving your truck, so it's accessible.
Speaker 2:This labor is accessible. I don't know if that's considered unskilled.
Speaker 1:No, truck driving is not because you got the commercial driver's license.
Speaker 2:You got a lot of requirements for CDL, so there's quite a bit of restrictions. I never liked that unskilled label anyways ways. But yeah, the, uh, the truck drivers, you know they've done really well for themselves because you know a lot of them had, you know, strong unions that backed them up and, like, got them set up and then they became independent contractors, yeah, and stopped sporting true, you know unions and stuff like that. They kind of like use the union to springboard and pull the ladder up, yeah, and I, and somehow they've been able to lobby that message to to still participate in union members that you know you don't need this you know.
Speaker 1:Um, there you go. The you don't need this piece is one uh, and I guess it comes down to uh. Wage compression has still continued to happen over the as the time. You know, one factor that we talk about here was the diversity, different group of people. It was easier to message to a group of union workers that were all homogenous, Right? So if you're a politician and you need to swing the teamsters and they are, all you know, back in the 1960s they were, it was 90 percent white dudes in their 30s, Right? Well, that's easy to message to that group. Now, it's not that right now it is a blended group of people that you cannot just easily message to.
Speaker 1:And then there's also the concern of, as we as unions have to continuously fight to increase wages, increase benefits and keep up with whatever as far as inflation things that the government has caused. We have to now retreat back into our trenches as a union and go to battle with our corporations, the government. Why isn't the government solving that problem in in the same movement that caused the inflation, or reduce the inflation? Why aren't they helping us out? And so where's the policy backstop that? That makes this a little bit easier for me, instead of me having to go to battle every five to 10 years and constantly fight and go on strike Like why isn't the government helping create conditions where we don't have to keep going on strike? I think that's where the union bosses maybe can't get behind any particular party or politician. This cycle is because they felt like they've had to carry the water themselves. They've probably turned to democratic elected officials over the past you know, 10 to 20 years and said I need more.
Speaker 1:And they didn't get it. And so they had to go fight over and over again. I think, that's part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unions are so handcuffed right now with like the current legislation that's out there. You know, I think I think Biden was, when I recently heard, mentioned the Taft-Hartley Act and things like that but there's the bacon and bacon something where people can't you can't pick it together, okay, like UAW can't pick it with Teamsters type things. There's other laws that really limit the strength of unions out there.
Speaker 1:And that's so. We don't have our entire economy go on strike all at once. Is that what that's for?
Speaker 2:That's the threat there. But I mean at this point, you know, if you want long-term legislation to you know there has to be some real effects of a strike and being able to even threaten, that would make things better or would give the worker a stronger standing in those negotiations, Sure, sure. So I think you know not only Taft-Hartley, but I keep wanting to think Thomas Bacon. But that's a philosopher, isn't it, thomas?
Speaker 1:Bacon.
Speaker 2:You're asking the wrong guy man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's something.
Speaker 2:Bacon. Yeah, but yeah, you know there's pieces of legislation that are already out there in place. But yeah, there's pieces of legislation that are already out there in place.
Speaker 1:They're just making it hard for unions to do what they want and keep the corruption out, and so I guess that's my point is, things have not gotten easier for the union to at least do their own job of protecting whatever block of workers that they have. So they turn to the traditional support and say, hey, democratic party, we've we've been hand in glove for a long, long, long time Like we need your help, and I think over the past 20 years that help has not shown up in the way that those union bosses had expected. And you know things like the bailout in 2008, 9, 10, you know that time frame, the economic bailouts that happened. How much did wages go up? How much did those workers really improve their lives versus these companies? That got billions of dollars to just kind of float through the worst crisis in 100 years, right, and yet a lot of people lost their jobs and never made it back into that labor market.
Speaker 1:So again, there's some fairly recent proof that they may have asked for help and didn't get it.
Speaker 2:Well, you know you talk about that, the uh. When the housing crisis happened, because my dad was a union carpenter, he was set to retire and when that housing? You know now that all their pensions and everything like that are tied up in the markets and things like that. So, yeah, when that happened, he had to work like another four or five years or something like that to get enough points to end up retiring. Yeah, so I mean you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1:Right there, there's a situation where that person may not have been motivated.
Speaker 2:But the banks were left, were given their trillion-dollar bailout, yeah, but the unions were left to work harder and longer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the unions were left to work harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, pick up the slack that trillion dollars came from somewhere.
Speaker 1:You know, half of it came from just the printing press and the other half came from the labor force, and so there's there's a bad taste in your mouth when things like that happen, right, um, and so I mean, I, I think I'm willing to believe that there's truly just been a degradation in support for labor over the past 20 years. I think that both parties have moved away from it and have kind of shifted to, I don't know, individual needs, which I'm okay. I'm the libertarian in me, I'm okay with it. But just the political messaging has changed down to the individual household has really been the big thing that you hear over the last few election cycles. It's down to suburban mom vote that people say they're trying to court, and the working dad vote isn't really a thing right now.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? The all these other blocks of votes are what are being courted, and I think a lot of the people that are in labor are probably categorized as either being and we know from running political campaigns you've got, you know, 40% is on your red side, 40% is on your blue side and there's 20% left in the middle. Labor is probably generally been selected into one side, either the 40% blue or 40% red based on where you're at, so that voter is already seen as maybe not reachable for other reasons. Right, and so courting that vote has become less valuable to politicians.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, there's one more topic that's local that we'd like to touch on. We talked about it in the past couple of episodes, but the recreational recreation cannabis, or adult rec adult use recreational cannabis. Uh, or adult rec, adult use recreational cannabis. It's a different word. Everywhere you go, different states legally call it different things. Uh, but it really what it means is being able to anyone over the age of 21, being able to purchase cannabis products here in Colorado Springs. Uh, I know that the vote coming up in just a few weeks means it's like big push time. We've seen an increase in messaging around some of this topic locally. I was driving around and I saw a billboard that was, uh, I'll say, a scare tactic, um, and I've seen some other news stories that are starting to pick up in coverage. Uh, what's your take on what's going on with the movement right now? What do you know from the industry?
Speaker 2:Uh, so, you know, first, with those billboards that we're seeing around town, uh, the, the folks putting them up, it's a C3 that we don't, we can't find like who they really is donating to that and like who it is, cause they don't need to say who their their donors are. Um, but they're spending a lot of money on that, you know. So. So, specifically with with these uh billboardsboards, to put a billboard up it costs like 13 grand a year or something like that, and if it's a short-term rental, it's probably even more for a short-term rental spread out.
Speaker 2:So they're spending a lot of money on this campaign and the good guys. We're spending money too, but we're not getting the recognition or the the free media that a lot of other folks.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's quieter. You know it's a pro right. It's quieter. Yes, not because people aren't saying it. It's not getting the mouth right, it's not getting amplified.
Speaker 2:You know our media here is so, uh, biased towards the right. Um, you, you, we tried to start the indie backup, or not me like we, but the community. Yeah, the community was really excited when the indie got picked up again. But you know, I've submitted some op-eds there. I've had other friends submit op-eds for other issues you know around town and they're not putting them out. For whatever their reasons are, they don't respond. But it's frustrating to have a new news source coming to town that was supposed to combat the big one-sided message Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying be like crazy left-wing or anything like that, but at least give us a platform to have our voices be heard, because with the Gazette, when we submit things to the Gazette, we already know that we're not going to get published in there. It's kind of just like it, kind of is what it is. You submit but you don't hear anything from them. Their editors are what they are. So we had hope, and the Indies just proven to not be as advertised.
Speaker 1:Well, that's unfortunate. I agree that you know the bias in town here in Colorado Springs is very heavy. I think that the messaging getting the mouthpiece that comes down to you know we understand city council and county commission. Both are pretty focused on this, probably more than they. I guess they're focused as much as they think they need to be. But it's such the topic and what it is, man, they're bulldogs on this.
Speaker 2:Right and you brought it up before you know. They're focused on it and I think everybody's focused on it and we had the ballot initiative on the ballot to solve it or to ask the question.
Speaker 2:Ask the question and now they're taking a direct obstruction method and confusion tactic to put an extra measure on. There waste a ton of taxpayer money. I mean it's going to be half a million dollars to put something else on the ballot like this. So that's just tax money. You know, gone when we already had the question being asked. They're spending tax money to prevent getting more tax money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And the will of the people. Like I don't even know how to argue against that Like cause you're exactly right there. They're arguing, yeah, they're spending my tax money to not get tax money. Like it hurts my head to even like, try to think of, like how does that not make sense to fiscal responsible republicans?
Speaker 1:right, right, yeah, like uh, the. You know we started with earlier in the conversation that people vote on emotions and people care about political messaging based on how it makes me feel, not based on if you told me I was going to have. If you tell me you're going to have 10,000 more dollars next year, I'm not going to sit there and do math and figure out what am I going to buy or what bill can I pay with that. I'm just going to feel happy because I know more money is good, and so I like hearing those words, and then later on I'll figure out what $10,000, the number means. Right, yeah, but I feel good when you say that out loud.
Speaker 1:So, I want to do whatever it is you tell me that is going to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's emotional movement in the political space, right? Cannabis, the topic is moving in the same way. If I scare you enough, it won't matter what we talk about after that, right? If we talk about taxes, if we talk about the way it's going to be safe, if we talk about regulations and why it makes sense, it doesn't matter, because I've whipped you into a frenzy and I've made you afraid.
Speaker 2:What's their scare tactic? What was the billboard that you saw? What was it?
Speaker 1:Cannabis extract products can cause psychosis. What was it? The cannabis extract products can cause psychosis. Now I looked further into the group that you mentioned that's a 501c3 and looked at their. They claim to be nonpartisan and I think they actually hold that standard pretty well for clearly being against something. They aren't bringing a partisan message and they are actually sharing information that is not complete. It's not completely false. This is not lies. This is not a fake AI picture. This is you know. There is probably one or two percent of people that may use a cannabis product and have severe mental health concern. Right, yeah, that's what the billboard says. Right, it just states the truth.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:But it says it in a way that doesn't say one percent of people who use cannabis may have a medical emergency. Right, it says if you smoke cannabis, you will get psychosis Right, and that's not true. Right, right and that's not true, right, right.
Speaker 2:So that's it's fear. It's fear, yeah, underlying medical conditions, with any drug interaction, exactly, especially when you're dealing anything with, you know, depression, things like that Mood related. Yeah, any mood altering drug, whether prescribed or natural. Yeah, there's risk. There's a risk.
Speaker 1:And it's unfortunate that the early days of the medical movement made it sound like there's no such thing as risk with cannabis. That was probably required in some ways early on to again to sway the pendulum in the other direction and get any kind of medical access established Right, but I don't know how many people truly believe that Right.
Speaker 2:And I think we're at a point now too, where being more honest is better than just being the other side of the spectrum. Political oh no, everything's hunky-dory. You spoke this and you solved your cancer.
Speaker 1:Your cancer will go away.
Speaker 2:Because everybody's like the Samson oil or Simpson oil, but there's people out there that take it for cancer and stuff go away, yeah, yeah, because everybody like the Samson oil or Simpson oil but, like there's people out there that you know take it for cancer and stuff like that, yeah, and they may receive benefits, but again, that's a small percentage. You know that is not a cure-all, yeah. So, yeah, we have to look at it as not being a miracle drug. Yes, it's a tool in a toolbox that people should have access to.
Speaker 1:Yes, toolbox that people should have access to. Yes, and the messaging when someone says the truth. Hey, a very small percentage of people that use this are going to have a problem. All right, I can't be mad at them, but it is clearly a still a biased message and it's money that is coming from outside sources.
Speaker 2:Was there kids on the billboard? No, it was just print.
Speaker 1:It was just text and there's probably. I know there are laws about, if you are creating a public message about cannabis, what is and isn't allowed to be on the billboard Interesting, just like if you're for sales. It doesn't matter if you're trying to sell cannabis in your store or if you're making a billboard that says this is bad. The laws that apply about what can be mentioned in advertisement apply no matter what. Yeah Right. So you can't put an image of a weed leaf on the billboard and say like, come get it here. You can't do that, it's not allowed. Uh, and it's again child, child, safe advertisement.
Speaker 1:So they are not enticing people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like the Joe camel thing you have to be grown up enough to read the billboard and understand. That's where I go to buy this product right, yeah versus just seeing a rainbow colored weed leaf on a billboard right wow, that's what I want to go buy oh yeah, it's like the joe, joe camel back in the day yes, you know cartoons.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a cool little camel.
Speaker 2:I like that guy right so same thing.
Speaker 1:So they have to comply by that same type of stuff. So they have rules about if it says the word cannabis on here, this, these are rules yeah, interesting but either way, the fear campaign is there, yeah, and I'll say I think more. I mean money is not my money, so I don't have anything to say, but more money is being spent on the anti-cannabis campaign right now than the pro-cannabis campaign. And then the mouthpiece piece just complicates it even more. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Trying to get our message out there. It's been tough. Yeah, I mean mean, hopefully people take the time, because another thing is like our ballot measure, like so we want yes on 300, no on 2d right, and 2d is like a yes or no question. It's like one sentence, very simple to read. We want to know on that right the the one we want yes on, though it's significant. Yeah, it's big, you know, because, like, the cannabis industry is being very deliberate and clear on what they're saying and what they're doing to try to eliminate some of the fear of confusion. Yeah, but but it's so long. Like are people gonna read it? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So, like because it does get a little technical yeah, so like it's such a fine line between trying to give people the information they need and getting them to like understand it. You know what I mean. Like that's the big thing for me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll see how it goes and of course we're. We're up against the. The difficulty of the presidential campaign is really what drives the turnout for this vote, and that's going to be heavily driven upon partisan lines as far as getting out the vote. So this initiative, just based on getting out the vote is is got an uphill battle in in this area. Right, we expect a bigger turnout on the red side. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Well, we man, we have made it around the block on the conversation side. So we'll see, we'll see how it goes. Well, we man, we have made it around the block on the conversation today.
Speaker 1:Uh, thanks, adam for getting into these really touchy subjects that I hope a lot of our listeners can kind of get behind and they'll definitely be nodding their head on some of these things because they've experienced them themselves. So everybody stays safe out there, stay sane just a few weeks until the election. So the news hype will come down and hopefully the temperature and everything comes down a bit. So let's, but let's get out and get out the vote. Let's get out and ask your neighbors, your coworkers, your mom and dad, your friends, your kids to get out and vote. So that's that's my parting message for today. What do you got, adam? That's my parting message for today.
Speaker 2:What do you got Adam? Yeah, same, we all get our mail-in ballots. Use those as much as possible. We all know it's a safe, secure system. There's no voter intimidation if you're mailing it in that way. So use that as much as possible. Just avoid the chaos that could be at the polling stations that day, because there's active people out there right now trying to make everything difficult for the polling. With the legal side they're pushing lawsuits, trying to slow down the process. So I'm going to take advantage of my mail-in ballot as soon as I get it Stamps going on, and advantage of my mail-in ballot as soon as I get it stamps going on and getting in the mail. So I just encourage everybody to try to use that. But, no matter what, get that ballot in by November 5th.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well. Thanks, Adam, and thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next time on Left Face.
Speaker 2:All right, take care, as always. Thank you for joining us here on Left Face. We are proudly sponsored by Native Roots Cannabis Company, colorado's leading locally grown and owned dispensary chain. Native Roots is a huge supporter of ours and a huge supporter of our local communities and businesses. They have 20 locations in Colorado and four here in Colorado Springs, and Native Roots is ready to educate and serve medicinal and recreational patients alike. Thank you for listening to the Left Face Podcast. Please check us out on the web at epccpvorg and sign up for our newsletter. Feel free to drop us a line at info at epccpvorg. Thanks for listening. Everyone. I hope you're having fun out there. Stay safe.
